My Friend, George Ricci, 77

   It’s sad that you sometimes don’t appreciate the depth of a friendship, until it’s too late. Such was the case with my friend George Ricci (at left), who died on Jan. 18 in Pahrump, Nevada at age 77.

   This won’t be an obituary in the traditional sense, with carefully crafted names and dates. Rather, it’s a random collection of precious memories from a friendship spanning more than three decades…

   • First meeting: We first met in 1987, shortly after I debuted MARKETING  and George began advertising his fledgling CD/DVD/video-duplicating business in my new newspaper. Some years later, we discovered that we each had launched our businesses in October of 1986. George founded the company as Premier AVD Corporation in his native Chicago, before moving to Bellevue. He bought a controlling interest in the Paragon Group in 1999 and merged to form Paragon Media in 2002. In 2006, the company processed an amazing five million CDs and DVDs.

   • Fatherhood: George lived for his children and invested lots of both his time and money into their well-being. His middle son ran the Ricci duplicating company in Chicago, where George grew up. He financed his eldest son’s expensive motorcycle-racing hobby, which included outfitting him with a semi to transport his bikes to races around the country. His youngest son had medical problems that were a source of great concern—and expense—for George the entire time I knew him. I had little contact with his two daughters, but George always spoke proudly of them.

   • Ever the Entrepreneur: George was a serial entrepreneur. Besides being the local leader in the duplicating business, he also bought into a partnership with Rich Woltjer in Media, Inc., my erstwhile arch rival. He eventually ousted Woltjer from the deal in favor of Jim Baker, who has built the Media Index company into a mini publishing empire. Throughout his Media Inc. ownership, George continued to advertise with me, which is remarkable in itself.

   • The Peoria Trip: About two decades ago, George invited me to join him on a trip to Spring training in Peoria, Arizona, He had purchased a package that allowed his youngest son to participate in workouts with the Mariners and other fans. On a side trip up Route 80 to Sedona, George dialed in an Oldies station on the car radio. It was at that moment we discovered our mutual love of Doo-Wop, as teens in the ’50s.  Another memory of note from that trip was the fire in our hotel that rousted us in our skivvies in the middle of the night! [Ironically, the flyer promoting fan visits to Peoria for Spring training arrived in my edition of the Seattle TImes on Jan. 20—just two days after George died.]

   • Sharon: George gathered the whole family and a few close friends at a luncheon on Carillon Point in Kirkland more than a decade ago to celebrate the birthday of his beloved wife (ultimately of 58 years), Sharon, his childhood sweetheart from Chicago. As the climax to the party, George led everyone down to the garage, where he presented Sharon with a brand new Jaguar sedan.

   • Parties: I always was invited to holiday parties at George’s Bellevue home, above Lake Sammamish, that otherwise were reserved mostly for family and business partners. I especially remember one visit when he proudly showed me his new hot tub. He also showed me the garage, where Sharon forced him to go to enjoy an occasional evening cigar, as he read the newspaper on the hood of his car. And George also hosted one of my very first MARKETING-client parties at his then-new duplicating facilities in the Bemis Building, just east of the former Safeco Field.

   • Cards: After he an Sharon moved to Pahrump (native American for “water rock”) in 2013, I received a Christmas card, with his and Sharon’s picture, each year. My photo with this story was taken on the deck at George’s daughter’s home in Kirkland, at a party celebrating the move to Nevada. At that time he had been battling Parkinson’s Disease for more than a decade. Although the move south was supposed to signal his retirement, the entrepreneurial bent in George’s genes led him to launch a digital-printing shop, which has since closed.

   • The Offices: From Sixth Avenue in Seattle, George moved his duplicating business to Redmond and then to the Bemis Building. At each location, he took great delight in showing me the latest in his cutting-edge duplicating equipment. One of his proudest moments was an order from The Boeing Co. for a literal box-car-load of video cassettes, related to the promotion of a new jetliner.

   On Jan. 17, the phone at my office rang about 10am. A weak and raspy voice on the other end said: “Hi, this is George… George Ricci.”

   “George, great to hear from you, How are you doing?” I asked.

   “Well, not too good,” he replied.  “I had hip-replacement surgery and then I got an infection and it’s not healing well…”

   We chatted a bit more before I wished him well and urged him to stay in touch. The next morning, Jan. 18, I had a voicemail from Sharon. She gave me the news that I had hoped not to hear. George had died overnight.

   It was clear then that George really had called me to say “goodbye.” It also was clear that I was in special company, to have heard from him in his final hours. And it was only upon receiving the official obituary from Sharon that I learned we both were Geminis (he June 3 and me May 25)! Wish we had discovered that, too.

   Goodbye, George. I’m sorry I didn’t fully appreciate the depth of our friendship—until now.