One year later, Rick Thurmond dearly missed

Mike, Rick Thurmond and Larry

Photo by Mark Stockwell / The Sun Chronicle
Rick Thurmond, center, is flanked by then-Sun Chronicle Editor Mike Kirby, left, and Larry Kessler on March 17, 2017, when all three retired from the newspaper.

A little more than a year ago, on March 6, 2023, I lost my very good friend Rick Thurmond, who died at 68 due to COPD and congestive heart failure.
A tribute column was posted to this blog last March, but I wanted to repost this photograph of Rick (in the middle), myself, on the right, and former longtime Sun Chronicle Editor Mike Kirby to remember Rick on the one-year anniversary of his passing.
The photo was taken seven years ago, on Friday, March 17, 2017, on the day that the three of us left the paper by accepting an early-retirement package.
At the time, Rick and I had worked together for 25 years, but after leaving the newspaper, our friendship deepened and we became quite close, getting together for frequent lunches, which evolved into picnic table lunches in Attleboro parks during the height of the pandemic.
Unfortunately, I hadn't seen him in almost a year after he moved from Attleboro to Acton in April of 2022, but we never lost touch.
One year later, I still miss Rick dearly and haven't been able to bring myself to delete his number from my phone contact list.
I hope Rick is regaling fellow Texans with stories from his new home.
In a fitting gesture, last weekend (March 2-3), The Sun Chronicle included a story he did on the polio epidemic in 1999 with the online version of that weekend's story on the current vaccine skepticism going around since the pandemic. Check it out to see for yourself what a superb journalist, writer and editor Rick was. He is missed more than ever.
To read his 1999 story, follow this link to the most recent vaccine story and Rick's 1999 story will be to the left of the main story.
The link: https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/vaccines-then-and-now-once-greeted-as-a-savior-during-the-years-of-polio-today/article_cf8806d1-d312-5362-b060-b9e6e7201da4.html

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