Rob Richardson (1961-2020)

Robert L. “Rob” Richardson passed away on the evening of July 26, 2020. He was (among so many other great things) a serious local history expert – especially when it came to the subjects of railroads and his beloved hometown of Santa Ana. He wrote the books Railroads and Depots of Orange County (2009) and Orange County's Pioneer Architect: Frederick Eley (2001). He served on the Santa Ana Historic Resources Commission, he spoke numerous times before the Orange County Historical Society, and he was a go-to source for information and photos relating to early Santa Ana.

Rob was a Santa Ana kid through-and-through. From being a helpful neighbor, to leading charitable groups, to serving as City Councilman, Rob did just about everything humanly possible to preserve what was best about his city and tried to make it even better.

Usually, prolonged exposure to the twin monsters of politics and bureaucracy either drives good people away from public service or turns them into monsters themselves. Rob was one of those rare exceptions; he remained authentic, humble, committed, gentlemanly, and an all-around good guy.

Rob Richardson as a Santa Ana High School senior, 1979.

New Santa Ana has posted a good obituary for Rob, in which they list some of his innumerable accomplishments and correctly observe that his passing “marks the end of an era.” The Register also published a good article about him. I won’t try to recreate or rehash those articles here, but please go read them.

Rob battled multiple sclerosis and other health problems in recent years and was an amazing fighter. Last year, he fell seriously ill while on vacation and his prognosis looked grim. Everyone was braced for the worst. But he bounced back to his old self in a surprisingly short amount of time.

Soon thereafter, in February 2020, Rob invited me to come along to a meeting of the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners as his guest. We carpooled up to Alhambra with Brett and Don Franklin. Rob knew I was still sort of reeling from the death of Phil Brigandi, and he thoughtfully invited me to be part of this storied historical group in which both he and Phil enjoyed participating. Rob was his old self that evening and we had far-ranging discussions. I officially joined Westerners as a direct result of his invitation.

With friends at the L.A. Corral of Westerners, Feb. 2019.

But later that month Rob was suddenly struck with another health crisis. Again, things looked grim and many feared the worst. But, fighter that he was, Rob again made an amazing comeback and in recent weeks was calling friends (at least the ones whose phone numbers he could remember) from his hospital bed and was making impressive progress in rehab. He’d hoped to be home again soon. Sadly, that was not to be.

I was given Rob’s phone number at the hospital on Friday evening. I fully intended to call him on Saturday, but did not do so. Honestly, I’m feeling really bad about that.  But I’m glad to have memories from better times: Helping a gleeful Rob load his car full of free history books; chatting after meetings; analyzing old Santa Ana maps and photos with him at the County Archives; solving the world’s problems over lunch at Norm’s (where the entire staff knew his name and order); or puzzling out endless little historical mysteries via email.

I know there will be many tributes to Rob Richardson in the coming weeks. I assume half of Orange County has good memories of him. These are a few of mine.