Dear Friends,

This is Rich's wife. I wanted you to know how very much I have appreciated looking at your pictures and especially reading your remembrances. Please believe this: Rich loved working with all of you and held you in high regard. I am grateful for the blessing you were to him.

And on a different note, if anyone donated to the beagle rescue or to the park foundation and didn't list his name specifically, no acknowledgement will be sent to me. I hate that I can't thank people, but please understand how much he would have appreciated it--and so do I.

Best wishes to you all,

Linda

As others have mentioned, Rich’s sense of humor set him apart. In my first email exchange I kept calling him “Bill”. Despite my embarrassment, he cleverly turned it into a joke to make sure I wasn’t going to “bill” him too much for the work our team was doing. From then on, I knew he was going to be memorable to work with. 

He had such a zest for life and truly cared about people. I will never forget how much pride and joy he exuded as he shared his annual complex plan to surprise his wife for her birthday and bring her literary genius to the world. It was so clear that his adoration for Linda was truly special. He was genuinely interested in getting to know everyone on the team at a human level and he was so supportive when I took a non-traditional career path. That meant so much!

I want to believe he’s cheering us on in heaven and I will look for universe winks with his laughter and spirit!

Sending my best to his family- know that Rich truly made a difference and will be forever remembered as a truly special human! 

Rich was the best mentor and boss I have ever had. He was someone you loved working with and learning from every day. One of my favorite things about him was how everyone mattered. When he was in town, he would always spend several minutes with each of my staff before coming over to my office. Getting to know everyone in the office was important to him, and he was never too busy to stop and listen. He made sure that you had a voice and that your achievements were recognized. He was not only a great manager, he was also a great friend, and his leadership style made you push yourself to do your best work because you knew it would be a reflection of him.

Of course, no description of Rich would be complete without mentioning his "rich" sense of humor. He was the kind of person who was able to find humor in any situation, no matter how serious. I remember liking Rich from the very beginning when I first met him because he was immediately cracking jokes and being silly in a room full of strangers. He always appreciated a good pun, and sometimes he couldn't help himself. Eventually, I would notice that he'd pause before replying and make this face which meant he was having an internal debate over whether he should respond seriously or with the joke he’d just thought of (he almost always went with the latter). Being able to break the ice like that and make everyone feel more comfortable was one of his best qualities.

I will miss our calls and conversations. Whenever I worked from home and had a call with Rich, my wife would run into the room afterwards and ask me, "How's Rich?" She always knew when I was on the phone with him because she'd hear me laughing so much.

While I wish I could have known him for as long as many others here did, I am so grateful for the time I had. I feel so lucky to be able to call him my friend, and I will cherish all of the memories and experiences we had together. I am a much better person for having known him.

Rich, you will always be missed.

I’ve only known Rich for 1.5 years but the fact that I truly feel his loss speaks volumes to the person he was. On the professional side, he was a high-integrity leader that brought an intelligent voice to any discussion and who truly cared about people.  He welcomed all and mentored many (including me) - either directly or by example.

What I will miss most about Rich are the breakfasts we had before heading to the office and his sense of humor.  Breakfasts were a time for us to share fun and crazy experiences of life and he always had a story to tell.   And we all know Rich had a unique sense of humor that would always lighten the moment and bring a smile to everyone’s face. On one occasion, Rich was on a roll and I told him that he missed his true calling of being a comedian. I sent the following picture to him (see SNL picture). The picture reflects how I remember Rich…a contagious smile, surrounded by friends and loved ones, and a sense of joy surrounding him.

Rest in peace Rich.  And one day, we’ll have breakfast again and share our stories.

What I will always remember about Rich is that he loved storytelling and had an incredible knack for it, turning even the most mundane events into captivating stories. He was also deeply interested in the stories of others, and he had a way of making you feel seen and heard, a rare and precious gift.

He was a man who found joy in the little things, a trait that often got lost in the rush of our busy lives. When we drove to the April board meeting in Washington, D.C., Rich would beg from the backseat to take the scenic route and see the cherry blossoms. We didn’t detour, but I will always wish that we had indulged his whim.

His humor lightened our toughest days, and his wisdom guided us through many challenges. I was privileged to work alongside him and will miss him dearly. I feel like every time I hear a good story, I’ll think “Rich would have loved that story”.

Amazingly, I’ve come to realize that I’ve known Rich for more than 25 years. Our friendship began in 1999, when he was head of finance at Cogent Neuroscience, a small private biotech in Research Triangle Park (NC) and I was a venture capital investor with Pacific Rim Ventures (Tokyo). Almost everyone in Cogent was a scientist and Rich brought to them the sobering realities of financial discipline – a concept so painful to young startups of that era, and so important to VC investors. I was struck deeply and reassured by his financial capabilities, insight, honesty, and sense of humor. As we moved along in our careers, I next encountered Rich (still in my role as a VC) in 2003, where he was VP Finance and CFO at Tranzyme - and where his longtime colleague, Vipin Garg, was CEO. One of Rich’s proudest moments was when he was named 2011 CFO of the Year by the Research Triangle Business Journal. During Rich’s tenure, Tranzyme (then private) merged with Neokimia (Canadian public company) to emerge with a public listing on NASDAQ under the Tranzyme name. Rich played the leading role in the financing involved in this effort. He made friends easily and was enormously respected by both the U.S and Canadian teams in the newly formed company. Tranzyme was eventually acquired by another company and Rich moved on in his career. We next encountered one-another when he was named CFO of Altimmune (also a NASDAQ public company) in December 2021, during which time Vipin was CEO and I was board chairman. Again, he did a fantastic job as CFO of the company, shepherding the company’s financial resources and helping the board to keep up with the vicissitudes of stock option grants and exercise. I called upon his expertise many times in my role as compensation committee chair. I have fond memories of sharing many stories with Rich about dogs – his love of beagles, and my affinity for Great Pyrenees, of which my family ultimately had three. Rich was honest, hard-working, friendly, funny and was taken from us way too soon. Perhaps Linda and his family can take some comfort in knowing how highly he was regarded and respected by all of us in his Altimmune family.

David Drutz, Member, Altimmune Board of Directors