Richard (Armidillo) Has died

[Foot2big]

I only wish I would have had the honor to skate with him. I thoroughly enjoyed his take on the world. While folks were ridiculing him, I stood by him. We developed a very good rapport down there in the off topic section.

This news literally has me in tears..... Full of fluoride they may be!

Damn chemtrails got him, and I won't hear any argument about that! <3 SIP Richard. Your voice will be missed here. If any of you attend the services or have communication with family members, please pass my words of condolences and prayers on. TIA.

To iharasim and those who knew him in person, my thoughts are with you guys today. I hope ya'll are okay.

[Distortion Petal]

So sad to hear this, I saw it on facebook too. I learned a lot over the years reading his posts and pm'ing with him. I will miss his knowledge and passion (aka skate geekery).

[lharasim]

The memorial service will be at 6:00 PM on the 21st at palatine Presbyterian church. Everyone will go skating at Orbit afterwards. Please post on Skatelog forum if you think anyone would like to come



I wish I could attend, I am not living in the Midwest

[pjmariner]

I haven't been on here much lately, too busy with so many other things like the rest of us. It is sad, I think all these online forums are dying in favor of the many short attention span social medias. Now this site just lost it most engaging member.

I would always read his threads and imagine what it would be like to live in a brain that though so much about so many things most of us consider insignificant. I doubt there is any aspect of his life he did not analyze to a point that most people cant possibly imagine. Truly an amazing if not exhausting mind. The thing is, without question all the truly great inventions/discoveries/etc. have come from people with that same tenacious brain. Love him or hate him, it was amazing to watch him go.

I have had him in my signature for many years now, and I will keep him there as long as I post here. I hope dillo is wherever he wants to be now. Roll on.

[airmandan10]

Dillo, part of the Golden era of Skate Log - you'll be missed sir.

[jehekim]

Hi Everyone:
I'm new member to this forum and a friend of Armadillo (Richard Ledford) and his family. I attended his memorial service this past Wednesday. It was organized by his three sons at the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL. After the memorial service, everyone headed over to Orbit Skate Center to skate and share memories. It was a touching service -- very tasteful and simple. Richard would have been thrilled that not a dime was paid out to any funeral industry people for it. Family and friends shared memories of Richard and his contributions to their lives over the years. Roller skating and the SkateLogForum absolutely made it into the memorial service.

There is no obituary. But last year a board member of the school where his children attended in Chicago wrote up a nice biography about Richard's life. Richard may not have talked about them very much, but he was probably proudest of his three sons, who are in their twenties and are compassionate, globally-conscious, responsible, open-minded young adults who have graduated from top universities.

Link to Richard's biography here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7DBXja_q9LQNDV2VTF0WUV5SU0/view?usp=sharing

Richard's eldest son created an artistic zine that visually captured his life using images. This is the cover (Richard was a championship cross country runner in his youth; this is from that period of his life).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7D...ew?usp=sharing

I know that the Skatelogforum was a huge part of his life since 2008. His family members enjoyed seeing the kind and very accurate words posted about him here by members. Have a wonderful holiday!

Jeanne

[QUADSK8ACE]

Merry Christmas SLF!!!!

Well, this is a little late, but fortunately for me holidays have a tendency to strip me of my never ending responsibilities allowing me the time to post things like this. The beauty of smart phones is that I can always check SLF, but the archaic word processing format results in my usually only posting when free time allows me to do so at my desktop.

I threw that out there so as to not disrespect Richard, as I was present for post one and am just now doing something proactive about it. I think part of me was really hoping Iharasim was throwing out an unacceptable prank (I have been a religious SLF lurker since the early days, and deep down new it had to be true as I have read enough posts/comments by Iharasim to generalize on his character and know he wouldn’t do something like that… unless his profile had been hacked), along with the other part of me really just not being well equipped enough to deal with death. Death is a touchy topic for me, and often I need some time to fully process and allow such incidents to sink in.

In my opinion, Richard was one of the key backbone members of SLF. Now I understand that there are key members of the SLF 1% club who subjectively refuse to consider that notion, but I believe this statement to be true. Even those who hated/despised him secretly couldn’t wait for his next post, or comment, whether to criticize him before even finishing reading past the second word, or to patiently wait for the wolf pack to attack.

Let’s face it, not even considering the fact that Dillo really did “actually contribute” good information to our sport/hobby (or at minimum open up an interesting path of thought allowing others to be creative and contribute to the forum), he provided many of us with extremely good entertainment. He often timed some of his topics, at just the right moment, written with undertones directly challenging many elite status members of SLF. It was GREAT watching the reactions and Dillo’s responses (big LMFAO), in a way that virtually no one else could/would- classic nail biting skate porn. He would go into his eclectic circuitous rants and we would all be checking in every two minutes to see if the thread updated. I especially enjoyed the old days, when he would get under the Doc’s skin. He would peck-peck-peck like a wood pecker at, the man himself, Doc’s genius, coercing the Doc to finally speed bag in return. Spitting engineering caliber lyrics back and fourth, we all just watched while filling our mouths full of popcorn, often learning a little more in the process.

I would like to provide my favorite Dillo quote “Having worked three years in a thread gage shop engineering, grinding and honing plug and ring thread gages to within +/- .0001" tolerances, you should not spout of such nonsense to me.” http://www.skatelogforum.com/forums/...ad.php?t=19291

I mean come on everyone, if this isn’t classic Dillo 101 what is, lol? And he wasfilled with knowledge, lol, that is why he was rolling with the big wigs getting super technical on miniscule (but important) nitpicky details that often became to over the head for probably 99% of the members on this forum. I wish to point out though, many individuals have expressed that there is no talking with Dillo. If you comb through his threads, you will actually find that often Dillo did acknowledge possible shortcomings to his ideas, or at least that new information led him to further analyze some of his ideas… in a way that preserved his pride of course

That was Dillo, and I love(d) him for it. Over the years forum member posts have declined- but not Dillo’s. There are so many members who just don’t want to deal with the attacks associated with simply “asking a question.” Individuals who don’t know the answer dodge the question with an indirect response and often criticize a member for not using the search forum to find the needle in the haystack response (because everybody knows all the proper terminology along with the variants and slang well enough to perform proper and thorough Boolean searches right?). Dillo was tough as a rock, he could take anything that anyone dished out to him, it was as if he had a thick armadillo shell on his back… is that why the handle? I have always wondered…

Most of us will miss him in some form or fashion, whether it was for his intuitive OCD like thought process, his starting of posts that resulted in often REALLY great contributions from multiple individuals, simply to utilize him as a punching bag after a miserable day at a monotonous job, or to gain a few brownie points with the SLF status quo. His engineering like attention to detail coupled with his desire to produce “Richard type creations” such as his alternative skate boot builds or his 1975 eight foot scale correct precision reproduction of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Mahogany for the Worm Farm in San Gregorio, California.

Richard was different, and different is what usually fosters innovation. Most of the major scientific discoveries of the past were rejected by the innovator’s peers. I am sure some of the Snyder heads of the past would have frowned upon many of Doc’s innovations. Look at all the criticism Einstein received early on. Richard also provided otherwise noncreative people with one directional “book smarts” outlets to utilize such in limbo mental tools too actually “free think out of the box.” Life is a big domino effect, and Dillo was part of that puzzle.

Richard Ledford (Armidillo) was an asset to our precious little community. I really appreciated reading his perception on things. It is just outright SAD that we will never be graced by his verbal presence, for better or for worse- and we will never know the true ending of his last debate with Fierocious1. RIP Armadillo, if you want that is… I am sure you will debate a few angels along the path and possibly even the man above himself “Now listen here Sir Christ O’Mighty, you designed the clouds wrong, you did not compute the proper barometric pressure when mixing the atmospheric gasses to allow for the best possible jump. Now I have a theory, Sir, that…”

I was really upset to have missed the Memorial service. I arrived in the Chicago area the day after to observe the Christmas holiday with my immediate family while on leave. If in the rare event friends and family host another memorial type event at Orbit before New Years Day, please post the information.

[inkh0rn]

Wow. Haven't been on here in an age - have taken up triathlon this last year, so skating has taken a back seat.

What a sad loss. Armadillo was indeed the man to give absolutely the most minute, technical, comprehensive and detailed explanation of everything that factored into whatever your problem, query or comment involved.

Whether or not his views were appreciated, acted on or argued with (frequently), his passion for skating shone out.

A true loss to the eight-wheeled world. Roll on, Richard.

[diagetus]

Thank you for relaying this sad news lharasim. I never conversed with him directly, but I enjoyed reading Armadillo's edifying posts. I will miss his contributions to the skate community.

Please accept my sincere condolences.

[Entropy]

This is terrible news! I have not been here much lately but have previous chatted a few times with Richard over his cutdown Hawg wheels and I think bought my Velocity Race set from him a while back. I cannot add more than others have already on his passion for skating and the exactness of his craft, he was a source of enormous experience and expertise and already ready to share both (to the point of fervently bonking dissidents over their foolish heads with his knowledge if required!). Even to such a newcomer as myself his presence and status here was obvious as a mainstay of the forums.

Let us affix our black wheels and laces, and don our black helmets, his loss will touch us all.

[sonofarmadillo]

Thank you all for your wonderful stories and wishes. I am Tom, Richard's son. I wanted to let you know that two pairs of Armadillo's skates are for sale in the buy/sell forum. Please message me if you have any questions.

[lharasim]

Originally Posted by sonofarmadillo

Thank you all for your wonderful stories and wishes. I am Tom, Richard's son. I wanted to let you know that two pairs of Armadillo's skates are for sale in the buy/sell forum. Please message me if you have any questions.

Hey Tom, glad you finally got your skatelog handle and activated

I just wanted to say Richard my friend your missed terribly! not many people like him, to talk from conspiracies to machining so many more discussions that I can no longer have with most folks


Lawrence

[lharasim]

Its been a Year Since Richard has passed on, skatelog has not been the same and neither have I.

I just wanted to say to people who you care about let them know, NOW not later because later sometimes never comes



Hope everybody has a good christmas.



Lawrence

[fierocious1]

Armadillo is missed. No one to argue with, , but I think he would enjoy the new tools and would have had questions. He was beginning to get what I was trying to convey. He is missed, and him not being here has left the forum a bit quieter, not as lively. No new major builds to discuss. He left too soon for sure.

[quantoo]

I can tell you really miss armadillo lawence.He did amazing stuff over the years like winning in the skate marathon.But when it came to blowing koolaiders out of the water on conspiracy theorys,nodody coulld dragg up evidence like armadillo.I still dont know how he got those documents.
I remmember the off topics section going quiet when armadillo produced all those photos.
I think even the people that lived in denial were turned around by the evidence on that day {But they never admitted it}.
I wonder did armadillo have an over active mind? I wonder if he ever switched off.
His posts are still on here and i still read them.He was a person that could think for himself and most likely still is.

[lharasim]

Originally Posted by quantoo

I can tell you really miss armadillo lawence.He did amazing stuff over the years like winning in the skate marathon.But when it came to blowing koolaiders out of the water on conspiracy theorys,nodody coulld dragg up evidence like armadillo.I still dont know how he got those documents.
I remmember the off topics section going quiet when armadillo produced all those photos.
I think even the people that lived in denial were turned around by the evidence on that day {But they never admitted it}.
I wonder did armadillo have an over active mind? I wonder if he ever switched off.
His posts are still on here and i still read them.He was a person that could think for himself and most likely still is.

Yes I do, Richard was no dummy, unless you really knew him like i did, you might not have known he was a real genius in some ways, a self taught thinking kind of man.

Life has been not too kind these last few years, plus there is NO good skatin here in AZ, the only decent rink was rollero and the damn roof caved in

[Slinkydog]

Really sad to hear, I always liked his posts and technical info.
You're right that there is no good skating in AZ, (At least compared to the rest of the world) the floors aren't that bad but you can't skate backwards anywhere!

[lharasim]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BLACK-for-S...0AAOSw4shYAPOj

[Sunnyape]

Originally Posted by lharasim

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BLACK-for-S...0AAOSw4shYAPOj

Ha! Just finished putting Shoe Goo on the toes of my Bonts.