March 8, 1993 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Smithtown Fire Department tonight will honor longtime firefighter William R. Richards, who died on Monday in the Nesconset Nursing Center after a long illness. He was 83.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a tribute to Mr. Richards\u2019 55 years of service, firefighters in full regalia will eulogize their former colleague during an 8 p.m. service at the Hawkins & Davis Funeral Home on Manor Road in Smithtown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA piece of {the department\u2019s} history died with him,\u201d said William Johnson, chief of the Smithtown Fire Department. \u201cHe was a grandfather to the younger guys and a pal to those his age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Richards spent 35 years at Grumman Aircraft in Bethpage, where he worked his way up from the assembly line to flight engineer. He retired in 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A member of the Masonic Lodge for four decades, he was well-known among family and friends as a consummate handyman, said his grandson, David Ure of Wichita Falls, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Richards, who was born in Brooklyn, moved to Smithtown with his family while he was still a toddler. He attended public school in Smithtown before going on to a private high school, The Stony Brook School for boys. He eventually enrolled at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., but did not graduate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other survivors include a daughter, Joyce Ure of St. James; a son, William Jr. of Smithtown; a half-brother, David Richards of Saint James; and three grandchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Visiting is scheduled for tomorrow from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. at the Hawkins & Davis Funeral Home. A religious service will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown at 11 a.m. Saturday. Cremation will be private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Word count: 270
(Copyright Newsday Inc., 1993)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
March 8, 1993 The Smithtown Fire Department tonight will honor longtime firefighter William R. Richards, who died on Monday in the Nesconset Nursing Center after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-smithtown-fd","category-smithtowntwp","category-smithtown-twp-historical","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4041,"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4040\/revisions\/4041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.suburbanfiremarshal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}