From Roger Gallagher

We were lucky to coordinate schedules during our visit to the Olympics, to see Ricardo in Salt Lake. My two boys were then 10 and 5. He talked effusively about Caroline, her horses, the dogs. Over a few beers, he caught us up on backcountry skiing, his geologic triumphs and adventures, and I remember my kids’ wide-eyed admiration of this man who was part James Bond and part Indiana Jones. To this day, one of their most vivid memories of the 2002 Winter Olympics was meeting Ricardo. He came up often in conversation after that meeting, brief as it was, and my boys would invariably exclaim, “Oh, he is THE MAN.”

Both my wife, Martha, and I were at Middlebury with him, and we have many memories of parties there and adventures in the surrounding woods. We did a downhill race on the snowmobile tracks of Snake Mountain – on cross country skis. We funked so hard at Weybridge House that we collapsed the floor.

One of my best memories is a cold hike through the dark Vermont night up to Stark’s Nest, toting skis and brown death. It was so cold that the cider froze, so we just sucked the 151 out of it. We stayed up late, telling stories, playing cards and laughing ourselves to sleep. I had so much fun trudging up the damn mountain (accompanied by the usual chatter, of course) and freezing in the cabin overnight, I was stunned in the morning by the realization that we got to make fresh tracks in the sparkling powder on the way down - oh yeah - the FUN part!

Somewhat coincidentally, Martha recently handed me Forrest Church’s Love & Death and in it he writes, “Whether or not there is life after death, surely there is love after death. The one thing that can never be taken from us, even by death, is the love we give away before we die.” Ricardo leaves us with a mountain of love, and for that, I know my kids are right – he is THE MAN.