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| Ron Volpe's Speech from Rich's Funeral Saturday, January 17, 2004 Rich and I met in Ms. Carrera�s 3rd grade class in the fall of 1979 at Economy Elementary, and back then life and the reasons we became so close over the years were pretty simple. We had a lot of common interests: music like the Beatles, Hall & Oates and Stevie Wonder, sleeping over each other�s houses so we could stay up all night pretending to be DJs while eating pizza rolls and Lipton soup, watching John Hughes movies so many times that we essentially had the scripts memorized, walking around Bradford Park throwing the Frisbee as if this was our Olympic sport, taking the bus from Ambridge on the day after Christmas so we could blow all of our Christmas money on new records, begging my sister and her friend Michelle to take us places before we were old enough to drive, sitting in his bedroom with his cousin Danny writing and recording songs that were somehow overlooked by the recording industry even to this day. A few years in a row we entered the Billboard Magazine Songwriter�s Contest, and really couldn�t believe it when we didn�t win! |
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| Richard John Rust |
| March 9, 1971 - January 13, 2004 |
| My Best Friend and Cousin, I will Love and Remember you Forever. |
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| Rich's Main Page Stories about Rich Rich's Journal Page Rich's Obituary Ron Volpe's Speech Early Musical Resume Web Forum RichRust.com |
| Ron's Speech |
| Rich was lucky enough to play in some incredibly talented bands in Pittsburgh in the 90s and 00s, but it was fun to be around for his bands like Ise (yes, that�s ice with an �s�) in the 80s. I was always really proud of the fact that Rich had the guts to put himself out there on the stage and exceed at it, and he never had that �type A� overly-aggressive personality that many in the business have � he was always humble and easy-going in his participation in bands. And while those simple things were the things that defined a friendship growing up, what really defined our relationship to me as adults was the way that no matter how long it had been since we�d talked, the next time we saw each other we picked up where we left off, no questions asked, no pointing the finger as to who didn�t call or why were we so busy that it had been way too long between conversations. I was away from Pittsburgh from 1991 to 1994 finishing college and working, but when I returned in the summer of �94 and showed up at my first Nixon Clocks show, Rich hugged me and it was as if we hadn�t been apart for 3 years. And thank goodness for that, as while I became a huge fan of the band and was one of the many who followed them around, I was fortunate enough to meet Sharon, the woman who would become my wife, the mother of my child, and essentially the best thing to ever happen to me all because of Rich and the band. Every once in a while during a sound check, Rich would break into one of the songs we wrote as teenagers on the keyboard, as kind of an inside joke that only we would get. It happened again a few years later as around the time Rich & Deni were moving back from San Francisco, we were having a little picnic at Sharon�s house, and we weren�t even sure when Rich would be back, but we threw the invitation out there via e-mail that if he happened to be in town and have a moment, please stop by. Sure enough, I�m looking out the window and see Rich, Deni & Madi walking up our driveway in the best surprise you could ask for, just like they�d never been away. I wish I could explain how much it meant to me that Rich agreed to be one of my groomsmen at my wedding in 2002. To have my oldest friend up there with me meant more to me than I could explain. Rich had a lot of people he spent a lot more time with and got a lot closer with than me after high school, but the bond we had never changed. That his last update of his website included pictures of me and my baby, and that he took the time to send me a congratulatory e-mail and advice on parenting, especially knowing now how lousy he was feeling and what was going on inside his body at the time, really helps to keep me going now that he�s gone. It�s things like that which show his level of selflessness and how he would go out of his way for you. So now this week, I�ve come to recognize that it may be a long time until the next time I see Rich. But if our history proves anything, it�s that I can look forward to the fact that when we do see each other again, I know we�ll pick up right where we left off, no questions asked. |