Two good friends gone

Leaving town

Dick Roberts, Riverside, and Jerry Dumas, Greenwich, have died, each at 86.

Together, they represented what I, at least, always treasured about Greenwich: they were artists, Dick  a filmmaker and musician, Jerry a  famous cartoonist, modest and unpretentious, funny as hell, and truly kind people. With all respect to our investment banker crowd (and lawyer / real estate agents like myself), it was the quirky artist/writer types who added such character to an otherwise fairly whitebread town.

Generally, the quirky ones aren't rich; I like to think that's because they aren't as consumed with making money as some of us, and spend their time pursuing other things, and as the result, people like Dick and Jerry aren't being replaced, as our real estate values have soared. That's a good thing for property owners who want to sell out and move, but it's a loss for those of us left behind.