Larry K. Richman died on November 17, 2023, a week short of his 89th
birthday, at the Miller McClure Respite House in Colchester, Vt.
Larry was born
in Philadelphia in 1934 and grew up on a small Bucks County chicken
farm north of the city. He attended local schools and then Colorado
College, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with
a BA in English in 1957. From Duke University, he received an MA in
1959 and a PhD in 1970.
While at Duke, Larry
met Ann Fiser Peterson and her daughter, Karen. Larry and Ann were
married in August 1964.
Larry went on to
teach English at the Beaufort and Florence Centers of the University
of South Carolina, Washington & Lee University, Agnes Scott
College, Virginia Intermont College, and Virginia Highlands Community
College, from which he retired as professor emeritus of English in
1998. He also served briefly as adjunct faculty for Vermont
College.
Larry was one
of the founding editors of a nationally distributed poetry quarterly,
The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review. He and Ann were
editor-publishers of the Sow’s Ear Press, which published 30
collections by poets from the upper South between 1994 and 2003. He
was also one of the founders and the associate editor and advertising
director of The Plow, an Appalachian alternative newsmagazine
published by the nonprofit Appalachian Information. The magazine ran
for four years in the late 1970s, producing a total of 72 issues.
Larry is survived by
his stepdaughter, Karen Maxon, her husband, Daniel Maxon, and Larry’s
grandsons, Colin and Nathan Fletcher, of Essex, Vt.; his sister,
Bonnie Richman, of Eugene, Ore., and her daughter, Laura Myers, of
Rockville, Md.; and by his dear friend Sandra Morningstar of North
Duxbury, Vt.
Plans for a
memorial service are incomplete. Contributions in lieu of flowers may
be sent to Vermont Foodbank, 33 Parker Rd., Barre, VT 05641.
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2023.