Obituary for Dick Feder
RICHARD ALAN “DICK” FEDER of Greenwich died peacefully at home on July 17, 2020, and boy was he pissed about it. (His intention had been to die while consuming the world’s largest order of chili cheese fries.)
Dick was born in Orange, New Jersey, on July 24, 1936, the only son of Lawrence Feder and Maxine Aron Feder. With his mother’s large family in NJ, he had the best of both worlds: numerous cousins made for constant playmates, yet when he went home, he retained his status as an only child.
Dick graduated from Yale where his freshman counselor told him he was incredibly naïve. He laughed and immediately went to ask his roommate what naïve meant. He graduated from Yale in 1958. Following Yale he joined the Marine Corps Reserve; until he injured his hand on his own bayonet and fainted at the sight of blood. In 1962 he received an MBA from Harvard, now slightly less naïve.
In 1968 he married Diane Sullivan at the First Congregational Church in Old Greenwich. That was pretty much the high point of his life. The couple met while working at Colgate-Palmolive. They later formed a consulting company, The Marketing Group, where they worked together for 40 years. During this time, he wrote articles for Ad Age, the Harvard Business review, and other journals. They were mostly dull and generated no new business.
He was predeceased by his wife Diane in 2013. He is survived by daughter Brooke and her never-legally-married-husband of 26 years, Jesse Stuart; and son Corey and his almost-newly-wed-wife (7/25/2020), Judith Klausner. He was fun to be around and had a wry, somewhat black sense of humor – as evidenced by this obituary, most of which he himself authored. He will be deeply missed by his family and friends… except for maybe any he offended during a moment of impatience or irreverent humor.
In addition to his wife and children, Dick loved some of the women he dated before marriage, cigars, martinis, three very-poorly-trained white fluffy miniature Shih Tzu dogs and his motorcycles. There were nine motorcycles in all. He fell off most of them before Diane made him quit.
He hated jogging but did it religiously 360+ days a year until his late 60’s, at which point he took up swimming with the identical combination of complete abhorrence and absolute adherence. The days he could not swim were brutal – both for him, and for those that had to endure his moodiness.
Dick was always brainstorming ideas on 3x5” index cards. He was often ahead of his time. It didn’t usually end well. In 2003, he embarked on a 2-year, (very expensive) venture to start a line of salon-distributed hair care products for men, focusing on getting perfect silver-gray hair. It would be another 15 years before the rest of the world acknowledged his lifelong belief that silver was the sexiest color for hair. Now his daughter dyes her dark hair grey.
Observances will be an urn full of ashes that he hopes will not be picked up. In lieu of flowers, please consider buying someone you love something wildly unique from Hammacher Schlemmer. Giving unusual gifts from them was a favorite pastime of his.
Dick was born in Orange, New Jersey, on July 24, 1936, the only son of Lawrence Feder and Maxine Aron Feder. With his mother’s large family in NJ, he had the best of both worlds: numerous cousins made for constant playmates, yet when he went home, he retained his status as an only child.
Dick graduated from Yale where his freshman counselor told him he was incredibly naïve. He laughed and immediately went to ask his roommate what naïve meant. He graduated from Yale in 1958. Following Yale he joined the Marine Corps Reserve; until he injured his hand on his own bayonet and fainted at the sight of blood. In 1962 he received an MBA from Harvard, now slightly less naïve.
In 1968 he married Diane Sullivan at the First Congregational Church in Old Greenwich. That was pretty much the high point of his life. The couple met while working at Colgate-Palmolive. They later formed a consulting company, The Marketing Group, where they worked together for 40 years. During this time, he wrote articles for Ad Age, the Harvard Business review, and other journals. They were mostly dull and generated no new business.
He was predeceased by his wife Diane in 2013. He is survived by daughter Brooke and her never-legally-married-husband of 26 years, Jesse Stuart; and son Corey and his almost-newly-wed-wife (7/25/2020), Judith Klausner. He was fun to be around and had a wry, somewhat black sense of humor – as evidenced by this obituary, most of which he himself authored. He will be deeply missed by his family and friends… except for maybe any he offended during a moment of impatience or irreverent humor.
In addition to his wife and children, Dick loved some of the women he dated before marriage, cigars, martinis, three very-poorly-trained white fluffy miniature Shih Tzu dogs and his motorcycles. There were nine motorcycles in all. He fell off most of them before Diane made him quit.
He hated jogging but did it religiously 360+ days a year until his late 60’s, at which point he took up swimming with the identical combination of complete abhorrence and absolute adherence. The days he could not swim were brutal – both for him, and for those that had to endure his moodiness.
Dick was always brainstorming ideas on 3x5” index cards. He was often ahead of his time. It didn’t usually end well. In 2003, he embarked on a 2-year, (very expensive) venture to start a line of salon-distributed hair care products for men, focusing on getting perfect silver-gray hair. It would be another 15 years before the rest of the world acknowledged his lifelong belief that silver was the sexiest color for hair. Now his daughter dyes her dark hair grey.
Observances will be an urn full of ashes that he hopes will not be picked up. In lieu of flowers, please consider buying someone you love something wildly unique from Hammacher Schlemmer. Giving unusual gifts from them was a favorite pastime of his.