Richard K. Anderson

Biography

(see pictures below)

Richard Anderson (who went by both “Dick” and “Richard” and will be arbitrarily referred to as both) will be remembered by the people who knew and loved him less for his “stats” and more for the force of his personality, his lofty principles, both personal and professional, and his zest for living life to the fullest.

The “stats” deserve mention, without embellishment:

ò Graduated high school 1959. President of his class and a lettered athlete

ò 1959-1962 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH

ò Fought forest fires in Alaska

ò Hitch-hiked his way cross-country to get home

ò Married Maryann Hussey in October 1963 and they had a son, John, and a daughter,

Sarah.

ò Worked his way up to VP and General Manager in 10 years at Hodgson Houses, a

prefab housing company

ò 1973, founder, owner and president of Plumb House, Inc., originally a carpentry sub-

contractor and then a self-performing general contractor specializing in multi-family

housing

ò 1985, co-founded RAM Contracting, Inc., a sitework company, in Lexington, MA

ò 1988, founder of Advance Concrete, an affiliate concrete company

ò 1992, owner of Hamden Development, a real estate development company

ò 1994, owner of Dalton Builders, Inc, an affiliate carpentry labor contractor

ò 2006, owner of Grafton Electric, Inc., an affiliate electrical contractor

ò 2009, owner of WW Construction, Inc., an affiliate sitework company

ò Member of various trade associations, including Associated Builders and Contractors (served as president of ABC in 1986); Builders Association of Greater Boston; Rental Housing Association; National Association of Home Builders; Merit Construction Alliance; American Concrete Institute; MA Assisted Living Association

ò Served as Chairman of the Fair Wage Committee in 1988; sat on the Fort Devens Redevelopment Board; was on the campaign finance committee for governors Weld and Cellucci; was appointed by Governor Swift to the Board of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority 2002-2005

ò Among the charities he supported were the Jimmy Fund Pan Mass Challenge for Dana Farber Cancer Institute; Toys for Tots; Metrowest Legal Services; Caritas Communities; B’nai B’rith; My Brother’s Keeper; Adopt-A-Student; Traveling Tradesmen; Heifers International, Lexington Lions Club; Emmaus Cycle for Shelter and Rodman Ride for Kids; the Treehouse Foundation; Jesuit Volunteer Corps East; Building Impact; Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester; AMVETS; Jewish Alliance for Law; Joan H. Brack Charitable Fund; Diamonds of Dorchester for St. Mary’s Center for Women & Children; The Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action; St. Francis House; various Police and Fire Departments, sports leagues and golf tournaments, and many others.

Dick’s construction business was a major part of his identity. He was proud of his product, proud of his people and passionate about the industry. Many of his professional contacts evolved into friends. He was thrilled beyond measure to have both his son John and his daughter Sarah working with him at the company. He treated everyone from the customer to the laborer on site with the same respect. Every meeting seemed to be punctuated with sounds of laughter. He enjoyed what he did, he did it well, and his enthusiasm was unlimited and contagious. He had such an innate optimism that he could have been confused with “Pollyanna”. Construction has typically fared better under Republican, rather than Democratic, leadership, and Dick worked tirelessly for Republican local and national candidates, organizing, and contributing to, countless political fundraisers through the years. He also worked to promote the merit shop philosophy, which pays and promotes employees on their effort, ambition and achievement. He was a proponent for retaining 40B, Massachusetts’ landmark affordable housing statute. Plumb House put an estimated 18,000 housing units on the market in the last 36 years. You’d be hard pressed to travel many miles without stubbing your toe on a Plumb House project.

The most important driving force of his life was his love of family. Richard was a single father to his two children for many years, and they managed to craft a system (which he jokingly called “benign neglect”) that fostered independence and worked satisfactorily for everyone. John attended Wentworth and Sarah attended Bentley, and they flourished at school as they had at home. John has been at Plumb House for 15 years and Sarah for 5, and between them they have the field and administrative aspects of the business covered. Much to Richard’s joy, grandchildren followed—Rachel, Jacob and Tess for Sarah and her husband Anthony, and Jordan for John and his wife Chris. He took great delight in babysitting his grandchildren so their parents could enjoy a “date night.” He would gladly take them fun places and probably increased their consumption of ice cream and popcorn by half. His Christmas present of choice to the kids was books, mostly because he enjoyed reading them to them so much. This year each child was bought an animal to contribute to a third-world country through Heifers International.

Richard played as enthusiastically as he worked, and everything that appealed to him, from recreation to books, he was moved to share with others. The last couple of years he put more than 5,000 miles a year on his bicycle, and rode multiple century charity rides, the favorite of which was the Pan Mass Challenge for the Jimmy Fund. He was captain of his team of 9 riders, and the company raised upwards of $40,000 each year for cancer research and treatment. Donations to the PMC on his behalf following his death are currently over $36,600. He was also an avid skier, and introduced his grandchildren to the sport he loved. For 25 years he enjoyed spending time on his 35’ sailboat, Misty, which was named after a beloved dog the family once had. He also sailed with friends on their boats. He was so fond of Misty, that he had a line-drawing of it painted on one of the walls of a guest bedroom in his house. The house, which last year underwent a gut-rehab, was also a source of great pleasure and comfort to him. The pool in the backyard often sported squealing children and their parents and friends. He was so attached to the house, that he had his daughter’s wedding there, and had a picture of it as the screensaver on his work computer. He had it lovingly landscaped, and took special pride in the heated shed at the end of his concrete driveway. The shed has a TV, but the house never did. He spent many a happy hour reading in front of the fireplace.

Dick was a natural born extrovert. It’s been said that he could make a friend in an elevator between the lobby and the fifth floor. He would engage everyone in conversation, because he was so genuinely interested in their lives. And he listened with a finely honed focus. Many a waiter or waitress has fielded questions about their life in the course of serving him dinner. Dick relished his long-standing friendships and would occasionally visit with people that he was not able to see on a regular basis for years, even decades.

After a long search, Dick had recently found a spiritual home at Chapel of the Cross in Westborough and became actively involved in his church, which rejuvenated his religion. He would have been pleased that his services were held there, and that so many people came to pay their respects. And he would have loved the slide show on the “Jumbotron.” The honorable John McCann, his neighbor on Flanders Road, and Bill Lane from repeat subcontractor Superior Plumbing, offered moving eulogies from two different and interesting perspectives. He will be missed by many, but most deeply of all by his family and his “Plumb House family”. We are better people for the privilege of having known him.