Richard T. Whelan

A TRIBUTE TO OUR COUSIN, RICHARD

Richard T. Whelan - the first born of the Whelan and Williams families. From the moment of his first breath, he became a shining star to his entire family. His mother, Evelyn (Williams) Whelan, was the eldest of four children . . . Evelyn, Emily, John (Jack) and Ruth. My father, Richard Braunewell, was honored to be his namesake and my parents who were childless at the time, became his "second" parents spending many loving

A TRIBUTE TO OUR COUSIN, RICHARD

Richard T. Whelan - the first born of the Whelan and Williams families. From the moment of his first breath, he became a shining star to his entire family. His mother, Evelyn (Williams) Whelan, was the eldest of four children . . . Evelyn, Emily, John (Jack) and Ruth. My father, Richard Braunewell, was honored to be his namesake and my parents who were childless at the time, became his "second" parents spending many loving hours and days with his visits. To his “much later” younger sister, Sally, and his two cousins, Ruthie and me (Kathy), he not only was a shining star, but a family legend we adored. But at the same time Ruthie and I, with no siblings, thought of Richard as a brother.

To his Uncle Jack and Aunt Elsie, Richard was also the son they never had. Uncle Jack would write to Richard, still a young boy at the time, and send occasional mementoes from his various duty stations during World War II. Those letters, postcards and mementoes were Richard’s treasures which are still preserved to this day.

Importantly, we “three girls” were lovingly raised following in his footsteps, not necessarily in his shadow. First in the entire family to go to college, he set the way for us to realize education was important. His enthusiasm and expertise on the basketball court became a joyful obsession with his mother, father, aunts and uncles. Their son/nephew, became the celebrated basketball star of Providence College and the NBA as we three girls watched and realized we could never match the magic he created in our family, nor did we try.

Richard was our soft spoken, fun loving, humorous cousin, and it’s sad to realize how distance and time separated us and how we regret now we did not spend more time with him in our adult years.

We love you, Richard, and miss you dearly. May you be blessed in the loving hands of our Heavenly Father and warmly caressed by those of our family who were waiting for you there.

Kathy (Braunewell) Curtis - Kaneohe, Hawaii
and, Ruth (Williams) Slemmer - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I love and miss you Dad