A Quick Tribute to Ty Richardson

Last night I learned of some sad news from back home. A friend of mine that I used to work with for a couple of years, Ty Richardson, died in a car crash on Sunday, July 5th. He was only 20 years old. Apparently he wasn't wearing his seat belt and was thrown from his car.

Ty was a great kid, and since we both worked at Gillette Stadium, a place where we often had hours upon hours of down time, we did a lot of talking, sunflower seed eating, Dunkin Donuts coffee sipping, and joking around. The first day I met him he had started with a group of friends. I was going around giving them all nicknames and took one look at him and said, "Bobcat." It stuck immediately, and though some people often reject a new nickname, Ty took to it and really enjoyed it. A while later someone had asked me if I'd seen Ty and I had no idea who they were talking about until they clarified with "Bobcat."

Ty was always there to make you smile, talk about hockey, or whatever other nonsense was going on. I remember he once showed up to work about 40 minutes late. As he stepped out of his car the supervisor asked him what happened. With his Dunkin Donuts coffee in his hand he took a sip, looked up and said, "Traffic was brutal." And he got away with it. He was one of those kids that could do that. You couldn't get mad at him.

And though I haven't talked to him in over a year and haven't worked at the stadium in as long, I still feel badly for his family and friends back in Massachusetts who now have to go on without him. The world's a colder place without him.

Rest in Peace, Ty.