Sorry To Report

[Grey Doffin]

Hi folks,

Richard George has passed on. Richard was a serious student of tsuba and he was able to take excellent photos of the same. A great guy also; he will be missed.

Grey

[Rivkin]

Very sorry to hear that. My condolences.

[Scogg]

This is terrible news… I had recently gotten to know Richard via email correspondence, talked about photography, and hoped to put face to name someday as we live really close by. He had said he was recovering from a procedure. 

 

His photos of tosogu are really stunning.  Condolences to his friends and family. 
 

https://www.rkgphotos.com/articles/ktk_photo_document_2019.pdf

 

https://m.youtube.com/@rkgatteleport/videos

[ROKUJURO]

Very sad to hear! I never met Richard, but I absolutely admired his photographic skills.

My condolences to his family and friends!

[Curran]

The last time we spoke, he was undergoing fairly complex invasive stem cell therapy.

   This had been the sci-fiction goal back in my university research days, and fast forwarding to Richard's situation- I was surprised by the high mortality rate.

 

A long time ago RKG and I were good friends. We would have a bit of a falling out in 2008.

Yet I mourn his passing. 

His photography became his passion, and he advanced tosogu photography significantly.

 

He shouldered a lot of responsibility for his family.

I hope his soul finally gets some rest.

 

[Brian]

That is very sad. He was a legend when it came to fittings photography and the KTK, and really knew how to capture the soul of tsuba in images.
I knew he was battling with his health. This is a sad loss. RIP and condolences to his friends and family.

[Gakusee]

May he rest in peace 

[Steve Waszak]

Very hard news.  More hard news on top of so many recent and major losses in the community.  I knew Richard, having seen him at San Francisco sword shows several times, and visiting him at his home in Portland, Oregon, where I saw the elaborateness of his photography set-up.  Good guy.  He will be greatly missed.  RIP, Richard. 

[uwe]

Kinda news nobody wants to hear. My condolences to his family and beloved!

[vajo]

Our Richard George? The man with the best knowledge about photographing tsuba? I chattet with him last. He sold me a a nice tsuba. Oh dear. I didn't think he was that old. In my mind he was in 50s. He often post on facebook too. 

That is very very sad.

 

My condolences.

[Curran]

This was RKG :  https://www.rkgphotos.com/about.htm

 

I believe he was in his late 50s.

Has there been an obit for him?

@Grey Doffin how did you hear this? I'd hoped he would get through his surgeries.

 

 

[Grey Doffin]

I heard from a mutual friend. Grey

[Scogg]

More of his photography can be found on his related Facebook page 
 

https://www.facebook.com/share/1DAqLdB2Cn/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[Bazza]

Very sad news indeed,  RIP Richard.

BaZZa.

[mecox]

Richard George: I used a number of his published tsuba photos, brilliant work, amazing clarity and detail even in difficult items such as Tempo tsuba. What a very sad and unfortunate loss. 

[Soshin]

Rest in peace, my old friend. Earlier this year, I wrote to Richard after my older brother Michael passed away from an aggressive form of liver cancer. They were close in age, and Richard’s kindness during that time meant a great deal to me. I first came to know him through his photography FAQ for the KTK, which I stumbled upon online. He generously helped me refine my photography skills, and thanks to his guidance I became a far better fine‑art photographer. I still use the techniques he taught me on my website today. Although I never had the chance to meet him in person, I did acquire several fine iron tsuba from him over the years. On the few occasions I attended the San Francisco show, he happened not to be there that year—something I regret even more now.
Richard’s influence on my hobby work and his kindness in our conversations will stay with me. He will be missed.

[b.hennick]

Sad news indeed. Yes he was an excellent photographer, but he was a fine gentleman. The KTK will need to search far and wide to get someone worth his skill set. He will be missed by those who knew him.

[Ed]

Wow! I hated to hear this. Known Richard for years and have been in fairly close contact for the last year or more as we were both dealing with health issues.  He told a little over a month ago that the new treatments for his myloma looked promising and that he was looking forward to start shooting fittings again. He was a phenomenal photographer. RIP my friend.

 

[AndrewA]

I first met Richard at the 2nd KTK convention in Tokyo in 2006 (as well as George Gaucys) and the three of us have been close friends ever since.   We have been in contact pretty much on a daily basis for the last 19 years so needless to say Richard's passing has hit us very hard and we miss him dearly.  We did a couple of trips in Japan and several road trips in the US after KTK conventions and we had a lot of laughs along the way.   As people have already mentioned, Richard was an excellent photographer who put everything he had to getting the perfect image.  He was a true scholar of nihonto and tosogu and a beacon in those fields.  Richard was an engineer and his memory for detail and his intellect always impressed me but what I will always remember him for is that he was a genuinely nice guy; a fine upstanding guy who always cared about other people over himself to a fault.  He was always happy to help someone out and give his advice and opinions which were worth hearing.

The last three years of his treatment for myeloma has been a rollercoaster and he has been through hell with good days and bad.  Richard is one person who absolutely did not deserve this but he maintained a stoic and strong attitude while not knowing how much longer he had until the very end.  We had a FaceTime call shortly before he passed and he seemed chipper and coherent but the cancer won and his passing came as a shock.  Richard was a few months younger than me at a young 66 years old.  My deepest condolences to his wife, daughter, family and anyone else who knew him well enough to be saddened by his untimely passing. 

 

Andrew Amble

Sydney, Australia

[Hector]

It's awful when you only find out about someone by news of their passing and then see how amazingly talented they were.

After following the link provided here, I've been looking through Richard's photography and it is so stunningly beautiful.  
Rest in peace, sir.

[Kotetsu1959]

     Enormously talented, and incredibly kind, Richard was one of those exceptional people whose integrity was beyond question. I knew him for more than two decades. He never failed to show respect for everyone, and interest in everything. His loss is a great loss for all of us who knew him, for our KTK group and for the larger community. 

     On one trip to Japan many years ago Richard took the time to help me call my mom back home via the internet, which I could not have done without his help. He didn't make me feel I was doing him a favor. He seemed happy to help me, his inept friend. There was a humility and decency to Richard that exceeded his great talent as an artist and engineer. 

     Richard will be greatly missed. He set a high standard in every aspect of his life, including especially his love for his family. His contribution to the field of nihonto study, and all his life's good works, will endure. God bless this good friend, and great human being.