Richard Franklin Harper, 60, onetime Road Manager for pal Lowell George's band "Little Feat"
wazzzy
Richard Franklin Harper Died May 7th, 2007 of complications from a
brain hemorrhage. Rick was born November 18th, 1946, in El Paso Texas.
His father, cowboy singer/ evangelist Redd Harper "hit the sawdust
trail" and settled in Hollywood, building the family home on Curson
Ave. with wife Laura, an R.N. and freethinker. In that warm household,
with pals like Roy, Dale and Trigger, his childhood was idyllic in the
paradise of postwar L.A. Rick graduated Hollywood High with the class
of 1964, and the sawdust trail beckoned once more.
Rick began his career as Road Manager with high school pal Lowell
George's group The Factory. In the crazed decade that followed he
moved on with the likes of The Fraternity of Man, Steppenwolf, Canned
Heat, Ry Cooder, Seals & Crofts, Michael Franks, Captain Beefheart,
Nicolette, Gato Barbieri and Tower of Power. There were many more, but
Rick will be most fondly remembered as Road Manager for Lowell's
Little Feat, the band he considered his own.
In the early eighties Rick lost his daughter Rebecca, in a tragedy
that would overshadow the rest of his life. Moving back to the
homestead, taking care of aged Redd and Laura, he settled in as credit
manager for Studio Instrument Rentals where he worked for nearly
thirty years. With his unmistakable goodwill, Rick became "Uncle Rick"
to almost everybody. Giving directions to the lost, finding worth in
the unworthy, taking time for the confused - few proved immune to his
love and caring.
The house on Curson Ave. became a sort of home away from home for
Rick's incredibly wide circle of friends, who will celebrate his life
in a gathering June 9th at SIR's Sunset/Gower Studios. Rick is
survived by his cousin Tom Gattegno and his wife Linda.
Published in the Los Angeles Times on 6/3/2007.