Passing on to his new life in heaven, our dearly loved Richard “Rikki” William Stevens, Jr., DDS, departed this life on Thursday, July 16, 2020 in his 65th year. Richard was the eldest son of the late Richard W. Stevens, Sr., and Ann M. (Andrade) Pinto and brother of the late David Stevens, who preceded him in death.
Richard was a graduate of Immaculate Conception School and Bishop Stang High School of Dartmouth, MA. While growing up in New Bedford, Richard enjoyed playing baseball with his brother David and childhood friend, Bruce Vasconcellos. At Bishop Stang High School, Richard was President of the Student Council, Captain of the Cross-country Team, and played basketball. His treasured friend and high school classmate, Rhonda Silvia, describes him as “owning” the high school, including the high school’s juke box.
Richard continued his education at Northeastern University in Boston, MA where he achieved a Bachelor of Science in Biology, graduating early as a Junior. During his undergraduate college years, Richard was an honored recipient of the Jujima Scholarship, a prestigious award which won him a place as a Summer Intern at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. Richard was also an honored recipient of a Martin Luther King Scholarship. From the age of eight-years-old, Richard’s dream was to become a Dentist. Entering the Howard University Dental School, he fulfilled his dream of becoming a Dentist, where he met many life-long friends. While at Howard University Dental School, Richard was especially proud to pledge the Theta Tau Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity in December 1977. The name of the line was Magnum Force and Richard was immensely proud to be called by his line name, “Dr. Freeze” or “Freeze” by his life-long fraternity brothers, especially Thaddeus "Sonny"’ Dillard and Warren "Randy"Brooks.
Richard practiced his lifelong profession as a General Dentist for more than 35 years with experience in both the public and private healthcare sectors in Massachusetts and the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Early in his profession, he was appointed to a Commonwealth of Massachusetts AIDS Task Force to address dental issues of patients who were immunocompromised with HIV. Richard focused his career on attending to the underserved populations, including patients in the community health system and correctional institution dentistry. Recently, he worked as an instructor at Tufts Dental School.
Richard was in constant telephone contact with his friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, often providing life advice and demonstrating great love and interest in the lives of others he loved. He was known for giving many family members and friends special nicknames, and no one’s birthday was complete without Richard calling and singing an acapella rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’. Richard especially loved reminiscing with his childhood friends and discussing his favorite sports team, the New England Patriots, with friends, family, and his daughter, Olivia. Many discussions focused on his membership to ‘Patriots Nation’ where they gave him the nickname, Dr. Boston.
Richard also cherished his Cape Verdean and Native American heritage. He is remembered fondly as Rick, Rik-Rik, Richard, Dr. Freeze, Ricco, and Dr. Boston, and will remain in our hearts and memories forever.
Richard leaves to cherish his memory, a daughter, Olivia Marie Stevens of Windsor, CT; two brothers, Marc Stevens of Dartmouth, MA and Craig Stevens of Miami, FL; his former spouse, Lori Harris-Stevens of Windsor, CT; his stepmother, Lydia Stevens of New Bedford; his sister-in-law, Diane (Jeffrey) Pontiff; his maternal aunts: Anita ‘Chapo’ Turner, and Ida ‘The Spider’ Tolentino, both of New Bedford, MA and Barbara Andrade of Sun City, FL; his paternal aunts: Virginia Stevens of Fairhaven, MA, Barbara Stevens of Provincetown, MA, Eppy Stevens of Framingham, MA, and Renee Stevens of New Bedford, MA; his niece Leslie (David) Alexander; two nephews, David (Ronelle) Stevens, Jr., and Matthew (Lauren) Stevens; and a host of other nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.
His Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday July 20th at 9 AM at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, 47 South Sixth St., New Bedford. Visiting hours will be on Sunday July 19th from 5-8 PM at the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals, 495 Park St., New Bedford. For directions and guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.