LACONIA ---- Julian Henry Richards, 89, of Laconia, passed away on Friday, July 29, 2022, after a wonderful life and an 18-month battle with cancer.
Julie, as he liked to be called, was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, on November 13, 1932. He was the only child of Julian L. Richard and Marie L. “Alice” Richard (Bourgoin).
As a young child, Julie’s family moved to Nashua, NH, and then to Laconia, NH, where his father had been a longtime resident. He attended St. Joseph Elementary at Sacred Heart Parish, and then attended Laconia High School. However, in his senior year he attended Coburn Academy in Waterville, Maine. He always considered himself a Laconia Sachem, Class of 1950. Julie attended the University of New Hampshire as a freshman, and moved onto St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, for three years, graduating with a Business Degree in 1955.
Julie was an athlete from an early age. He played football, basketball and baseball in his school years and in 1944 added golf as a lifelong passion when he was a young caddie at Laconia Country Club. He was a particularly adept basketball player in High School and College. He was a team captain on St. Francis Xavier’s basketball team that won the Canadian Maritime Championships all three years that he played. He was also a great young amateur golfer, one of the youngest of his era to qualify in the NH Amateur, and competed in many individual and four-ball competitions throughout New England.
After college Julie moved to Manchester to start his finance career with MAC Finance. It was in Manchester in 1955 that he met Pauline Wilson, the love of his life. He and Paula were married in 1956, and celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary in May of this year. Julie moved back to the Lakes Region with MAC, and started a family. He moved his family to Brewer, Maine, in the mid-1960s and then to Lancaster, NH, to manage branch locations for MAC. In 1970 Julie joined many old friends when he was hired at Pike Industries, and moved the family to Tilton, NH. He loved his new career at Pike where he and his colleagues were more “family” than friends. In 1981, Julie and Paula took a chance on a long-considered dream, when they opened Tavern on the Green Restaurant and Par 3 Golf on Parade Road in Laconia. They were a fixture in Laconia at their restaurant, where you would see Julie behind the bar, sharing stories with the regulars that called themselves the TOGAs. In the early 2000’s he and Paula sold their restaurant and retired, but he wasn’t ready to stop. He immediately started working during the golf season at Laconia Country Club, more than 50 years after his first caddie job. Again, Jules, as the club members liked to call him, became a fixture as the starter for nearly 20 years. Julie was legendary for having a connection with everyone he ever met, and had a story about each one of them. He loved his friends, especially his Laconia High classmates and his friends from the Country Club.
It was his family though that he loved most of all. As an only child, it was his cousins that were some of his closest family connections. These special cousins, Ray and Paul Lebel, Bud Richard, Georgette MacDonald (Hebert) and Roger Gagne and Gloria Krukonis (Gagne) have all predeceased him.
Julie also married into the Wilson family from Newport, NH, of which he has scores of close brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews and nieces. Julie and Paula raised four children. His oldest, Julian William (Bill) predeceased him in 2021. Bill’s widow, Christine Richards (Lamb), resides in Northwood, NH. He also leaves his daughters Margaret (Peg) Leone and her husband Mark of Laconia, NH, and Diana Brown and her husband Carroll of Bristol, NH, and his son Robert (Bob) and his wife Kathy of Brentwood, NH. Papa, as he is known to the grandkids, was the best. He loved them all so much, Tom, Jon, Amanda, Jenn, Aidan, Blake, Griffin, Chris and Matt, along with his six great-grandkids.
A Celebration of Julie’s life will be held at the Laconia Country Club, 607 Elm St., on Sunday, August 7, 2022, between 4:00-6:00pm.
In lieu of flowers, please consider giving to the McDonough Golf Scholarship Foundation, 61 North Street, Manchester, NH 03104 or the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, One Medical Center Drive (HB 7070) Lebanon, NH 03756
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services and 603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia, NH, is assisting the family with arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial, please visit www.wilkinsonbeane.com.