Birth date: Jun 21, 1968 Death date: May 10, 2014
Lafond, Richard, 45, of Lutz, passed away on Saturday, May 10, 2014. Family will receive friends from 1-2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14 with funeral service beginning at 2 p.m. at Trinity Memorial Gardens Funeral Home. Burial with mil Read Obituary
Good evening, I just found out about Rich tonight. I had lost touch with him after I left the 82d back in December of 1988. We had attended DLI-SF and Goodfellow AFB together. Initially I went to Key West then ended up at the 313th in the 82d. I have many fond memories of Rich, granted it was at a time in our lives when we did a lot of partying, but he was always an extremely reliable person and even though we lost touch, I still count him as a great friend!
I knew Rich for a brief time about 5 years ago and sadly we lost contact with each other. But I have a favorite story from him that I've re-told numerous times.
He was using his method of getting rid of a big fallen tree at his house in Lutz. It involved drilling holes in the tree, filling them with gas and lighting them. The idea was it would slowly burn and over time the tree would be gone. One of the fires in a hole went out so he decided to pour gas from a 5 gallon container into the hole. He watched as flame went up the gas pour and into the gas container. One of his daughters was standing next to him. He said he dropped the container, turned to his daughter and said (not yelled, which is the best part) "Run".
They did; everyone was fine. We showed up for a dinner at his house about an hour later and he told me the story as he showed me the 5 foot diameter burn mark in his lawn where the gas container burned to nothing left.
Christine and I will always remember him.
Rich and Christine Kavanaugh
To Rich’s wife & children,
My name is Matt MacMillan. I learned of Rich’s passing just recently out of the clear blue. He was one of my closest friends and barracks room mate during our time in the Army. We likely met in about 1987 in San Angelo, Texas at our Intel School at Goodfellow AFB. He was a class or two ahead of me and had attended DLI in San Francisco while I went to Monterey for Spanish. It was at Ft Bragg that we quickly became friends. We were in the Collection and Jamming Platoon, Bravo Company, 313th MI Battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division and served as Spanish interpreters. We spent just about every waking hour together from 1988 to1990 – over 25 years ago.
I count Rich among one of my best “lifetime friends”. Although we did not stay in contact, I always figured we could pick up wherever we left off. We were the same age and I imagine I would have looked him up after our retirement - maybe while traveling around the states. Our small crew of friends there at Ft Bragg really came of age together and it was a fantastic time in all of our lives. I am proud to have known Rich and am sorry he left us so early.
- Matt
To Rich’s wife & children,
My name is Matt MacMillan. I learned of Rich’s passing just recently out of the clear blue. He was one of my closest friends and barracks room mate during our time in the Army. We likely met in about 1987 in San Angelo, Texas at our Intel School at Goodfellow AFB. He was a class or two ahead of me and had attended DLI in San Francisco while I went to Monterey for Spanish. It was at Ft Bragg that we quickly became friends. We were in the Collection and Jamming Platoon, Bravo Company, 313th MI Battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division and served as Spanish interpreters. We spent just about every waking hour together from 1988 to1990 – over 25 years ago.
Rich was dependable, kind, honest, straightforward, polite, sincere, common-sense smart, hard-working, hard-drinking, with a great sense of humor. He was my roommate when I began practicing Buddhism and I would get up early and chant quietly in our room. He never complained or judged. He was careful with money and, for whatever reason, he managed to save more than I ever did in the Army. We had long talks about what our lives would be like when we got out of the Army. He wanted to go to school to become an Engineer and I wanted to get into law enforcement and he would go on to do what he set out for. We both made the difficult decision to pursue our new careers, away from the security and camaraderie that the Army offered.
After we parted ways in the summer of 1990, Rich was a groomsman at my wedding in June 1992. It meant a lot to me to have an Army buddy join me in California – a long way from where he was in Florida. We were both college students, not making much money at the time, and we picked up our friendship right where we left off. I can remember that, much to my bride’s dismay, I had carpet burns all over me on our wedding day because the groomsmen (all Army paratroopers and Marines) wound up wrestling each other at my bachelor party the night before. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
I count Rich among one of my best “lifetime friends”. Although we did not stay in contact, I always figured we could pick up wherever we left off. We were the same age and I imagine I would have looked him up after our retirement - maybe while traveling around the states. Our small crew of friends there at Ft Bragg really came of age together and it was a fantastic time in all of our lives. I am proud to have known Rich and am sorry he left us so early.
- Matt
I will shed many tears with Rich's passing - a good man who left us far too early.
But I will also celebrate his life and those he touched in his time on Earth.
To the family, friends, and co-workers who are now feeling the immense pain of his leaving us - do not dwell on the end, but savor the memories of your time spent with him.
Rest in peace my friend... and thank you for being part of my own journey through life.
-B
I was very fortunate to have worked with Rich for a few years at Leslie Controls. He was a great individual who I had befriended on Facebook. I very much enjoyed shaking his hand each time he visited the plant. It is so sad that he passed away at way too early of an age.
