Rich Kelly 1949-2019
Rich Kelly passed away on 06 September after a two year battle with cancer. Rich was a self-taught master naturalist whose knowledge of birds, insects (especially butterflies and moths), plants, seashells, reptiles and amphibians never failed to completely blow away anyone who was lucky enough to spend any time with him in the field. Rich enjoyed collecting shells close to home and abroad. He enjoyed attending COA conventions and the Philadelphia Shell Show with his family and many shell friends. Rich was a longtime member of the Long Island Shell Club and was instrumental in helping to organize local shell shows , as well as in facilitating the club's support of the 1991 COA convention on Long Island. He also lent his support to the New York (City) Shell Club, where he gave several presentations over the years.
Rich was a skilled field collector, who also leveraged his shell collection through an extensive network of shell trading friends all around the globe. He also augmented his collection through mail order and shell show purchases and fondly recalled the 'old days' when you waited for pricelists to arrive in the mail and then would pounce via a telephone call to the dealer when a rare item caught your eye. I was always amazed at just how many of those 'no longer available classic rarities of the golden days of collecting' Rich keenly picked up during the often-brief window of time when they became available to collectors via trade or sale.
Rich was especially proud of his Columbellidae collection which is undoubtedly one of the most extensive in private hands.
Over the last ten years or so, I gave Rich a good-natured hard time about how his birding and botanizing, and butterfly viewing had really pushed his shelling to the back burner; the best way to confront that? If you can't beat them, join them, so other local shellers and I would go with him to look for birds, or butterflies. Rich was fond of his regular weekly walks with several local birding clubs, as much for the socializing as for the birds, and kept up with them as much as possible through August. In April 2018, despite his illness, Rich battled exhaustion and pulled out all the stops to collect shells for three days in a row with some European shell-trading friends who were visiting us from Belgium, that's how much he valued his friendships with other shellers.
In addition to his skills as a naturalist, Rich was also a devoted husband, father; and a veteran of the US Army. He spent his entire professional career at Verizon (and its corporate progenitors: New York Telephone, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic etc) where he worked as a Field Office Engineer in New York City and Long Island, retiring with full benefits at age 56 !
Rich will be terribly missed by many in the various fields of Natural History, including Conchology.
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