[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 2 (Thursday, January 6, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E35]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING THE LIFE OF A.J. RICHARD

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. STEVE ISRAEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 6, 2005

  Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of A.J. 
Richard, a vital member of the New York community. Throughout his life 
as a successful businessman, dedicated family man, concerned citizen 
and creative innovator, A.J. Richard defied the odds in keeping his 
family business running and growing when other community competitors 
were closing their doors. Today his legacy lives on in the type of 
business he left behind: it is owned and operated by family; it is as 
much a part of the community as it is a service to the community; and 
it places customers ahead of profits. A.J.'s business is a reflection 
of a certain value system, a value system we rarely see in today's 
largely faceless corporate culture. That value system is about 
community, family, work ethic, optimism and integrity. While A.J. has 
passed, his business and that special value system live on. We are all 
thankful for this legacy he leaves with us.
  In his honor, I would like to share the following obituary of A.J. 
Richard as it appeared in the N.Y. Times on January 5, 2004:
  ``A.J. Richard, whose contagious enthusiasm for new gadgets 
transformed P.C. Richard & Son from a hardware store into a major 
retailer of consumer appliances and electronics, died on Dec. 28 in 
West Islip, N.Y. He was 95 and lived in Bay Shore and Port St. Lucie, 
Fla.
  The cause was pneumonia, said Alan Meschkow, the company's 
advertising director.
  Although Mr. Richard's father, Peter Christiaan, started the 
business, it was A.J. who in 1924, at the age of 15, insisted on 
selling newfangled electric irons alongside the store's kerosene lamps 
and plumbing supplies.
  ``It's beautiful, look--it's chrome, it's polished, it fits your 
hand,'' went Mr. Richard's sales pitch, Mr. Meschkow said. ``And look 
at the tip, the point--you can go right in between the buttons.'' He 
asked his first buyer to pay 50 cents a week toward the total cost of 
$4.9.5, and other customers soon followed.
  Over the next six decades, including several years he spent living 
above his store in Ozone Park, Mr. Richard sold New Yorkers all kinds 
of new electric devices, from toaster in the 1920's to the Walkman in 
the 1980's.
  His methods were often ingenious. In the early 1930's, when people 
seemed content to scrub clothes on washboards, he sent salesmen door to 
door offering families $5 to try out washing machines. In the 1950's, 
he let people watch Friday-night boxing matches on a television 
displayed in the store's window, and some inevitably bought their own 
10-inch black-and-white set, which cost nearly $400. In the 1980's, the 
company offered cooking classes to demonstrate microwave ovens.
  P.C. Richard & Son now reports annual sales of roughly $1 billion, 
making it the country's largest family-owned and operated seller of 
appliances and consumer electronics. Based in Farmingdale, N.Y., it has 
grown to 49 stores in New York and New Jersey, even as competing 
regional chains like Crazy Eddie and Newmark & Lewis have closed. Many 
people can whistle its five-note advertising jingle, ``At P.C. 
Richard.''
  Much of the advertising still carries pictures of A.J. and his two 
sons: Gary, son the company's chief executive, and Peter, who is 
executive vice president. A grandson, Gregg Richard, recently became 
president, and a granddaughter, Bonni Richard, is head of human 
resources.
  Alfred Joseph Richard was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 11, 1909, the same 
year his father, a handyman who emigrated from Amsterdam, opened the 
family's first store in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn.
  ``I waited on customers when I was 7,'' he told The New York Times in 
a 1995 interview. ``I was a 100 percent hardware man by the age of 9.''
  He was also a tinkerer, and he started the store's service department 
after learning to repair radios as a teenager. He took over the company 
in 1947.
  His wife, the former Vicky Himmelman, died in 1997. He is survived by 
his sons, Gary and Peter, both of Long Island; eight grandchildren; and 
18 great-grandchildren.''

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