Naomi Richard

Naomi Noble Richard died on March 16, 2022, just before dawn, at the age of 88 following a brief hospitalization. She was the only child of Shlomo and Nina Noble. Born in Kingston, PA, she thrived in the stimulating if unenviable role of brightest student in the class of which her father was teacher, in a school in which he was also principal. The family then moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City where Shlomo continued to teach, Nina opened a dress shop and both were active in their synagogue.

Naomi attended public school and then Hunter College High. From there she went on to the University of Chicago where she earned a MA degree and met her future husband, Joseph Richard, a medical student. From Chicago they returned to the Bronx where Joe did his medical internship and residency while Naomi began work in the publishing industry and their first son, Mark, was born. After two years in Valdosta, GA during Joe’s military service, they returned again to the Bronx where their second son, Jonathan, was born, shortly after which the family moved to Yorktown Heights, in Westchester, where they lived until their move to Denver in 2008 for their retirement.

Naomi was, to say the very least, a remarkable person in myriad ways. After graduating from University of Chicago she paused her nascent career in publishing (where among many projects she edited an edition of Emily Post's Etiquette) to raise a family. She returned to school, this time at Vassar, to strengthen her Chinese language skills and then forged a career as an independent editor of books, scholarly articles, museum catalogues and other projects on topics of Asian art, history, and culture. Her learning and practice, like the river Jordan, were both deep and wide, ranging for some 40 years over China, Japan, Korea, India, (and occasionally the West), over painting, printing, ceramics, bronzes, and textiles, over countries and continents, dynasties, languages and cultures.

She became something of a legend among the beneficiaries of her editorial tough love where her approach ranged from empathic-but-rigorous midwifery to a more break-the-body-to-save-the-soul Grand Inquisitor style, depending on her diagnosis of subject and object. Years of conversation, correspondence, and published tributes testify to her reputation for leaving a trail of clarity, cogency, accuracy, and organization wherever she went, while forging lasting bonds of mutual admiration and regard with her authors and scholarly colleagues. A few reminiscences from some of those who knew her long and well follow:

Prof. Michael Nylan (UC Berkeley): Naomi was, aside from my mother, the single most important woman in my life. In the spring of 2000, I asked twenty people inside the fields of East Asian Studies, Art History, and History, who was the best editor in the field.  Every single person said the same thing, "Naomi." They were right. She so excelled her supposed "peers" that once edited by Naomi, one refused editing by anyone else.Those of us who experienced Naomi's editing all say we've been "Naomized." For long decades, I have never written a single sentence without considering, "What would Naomi have to say about this sentence?"

Prof. Sherry Fowler (University of Kansas): Naomi is legendary as an editor who can rip writing to shreds, make writers laugh about it with clever comments, and then magically put the text back together to make it smarter. . . a former classmate sent me a scan of a page from a manuscript by our late professor Donald McCallum (UCLA) that Naomi corrected. Don used to wave it around as an example to show students how much they should appreciate hearty editing, saying, “This is a gift!” . . . Naomi’s legend lives on.

Prof. Andrew Watsky (Princeton University): By the time I met Naomi, in the late 1980s, she had famously worked with senior luminaries of East Asian art, and I (only a novice) was initially intimidated by her experience and expertise and by the voluminous editorial comments she offered. But I soon realized that she took me and my writing seriously, and in so doing, demanded that I do the same. . . Naomi insisted on clarity and conciseness, and her handwritten remarks on my drafts were direct and precise, illuminating, learned, exposed flaws of all types, and were often very funny. We spent endless hours side by side going over manuscripts. . . and she also spoiled my kids with home-cooked meals and made us feel part of her beloved family. She remained my treasured colleague, editor, and close friend for decades, and I will miss our phone calls of recent years.

If Naomi had any professional shortcomings, they would have been in the area of technology, where she was fully prepared to go down like John Henry, hissing, spitting, and battling the soulless mechanical horror of electronic editing on screen. Fortunately for all, she relented, reached a chilly detente with email, WordPerfect, and Word, and kept working until her late seventies.

And, all the while, she raised her two sons, cooked daily from scratch in a brilliant, hybrid Craig Claiborne-shtetl style, hosted innumerable dinner parties, adopted countless cats, fed numberless ferals, mentored younger colleagues, and provided a safe and welcoming sanctuary, even a temporary second home to friends of her children who, for varying reasons, needed respite from their first homes. She founded First Nighters of Yorktown, which continues decades later to provide parent support for high school theater and music programs with an enthusiasm and consistency most typically reserved only for athletics. And, even after retirement, and notwithstanding significant physical challenges of her own, she continued to produce gallons of soup, bales of baked goods, and often full meals for fellow residents of their senior condo community who needed a boost of extra deliciousness and loving encouragement.

Like her husband Joe, she enjoyed theater and music, relishing annual trips to the Shakespeare festival at Stratford, Ontario, old recordings of the folk music that was burgeoning in the 50s by the likes of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Odetta, and classical music—particularly the operas of Mozart and songs of Schubert. She treasured the memories of trips to Scandinavia and Asia, and in later years enjoyed travels to more easily accessible destinations such as Vancouver, BC, and Santa Fe, NM.

Naomi was briefly survived by her steadfast and loving husband of 65 years, Dr. Joseph Richard, who died on March 29, 2022. She is survived by her son Mark, daughter-in-law Kelly Nespor and grandson Benjamin, of Chicago; and son Jonathan and son-in-law Michael Filkoski of Denver. She deeply loved and was ever-grateful to her friends and constant helpers Leticia Barajas and Dayana Aldape, who did so much to help her maintain her independence, dignity and enjoyment of her home.  In her latter years, despite great medical challenges, she continued to delight in trips to local restaurants; visits from family, friends, and colleagues from around the country, lively correspondences, and regular gatherings of the local Filkoski-Richard-Giffin clan for special occasions, holidays, and ordinary weekend get-togethers.

Above all, she delighted in warm friendships and deep conversations. In addition to the above, she is mourned by treasured friends and relatives including (but certainly not limited to) the extended Filkoski-Macker-Giffin families; Elinor Pearlstein, Barb Braun, Deb Hitt, Kenita Gibbons, Mark Filak, Anna Filak, Bobbi Belle, Kate Flaharty, Florence Wolfson, Sondra Castile, Ernest and Sue Schefflein, Elsie Nespor, Alex and Maria, Lindsay Wolf and Val Cloos, Ken Wolf, Bob Kiley; and cousins Morris Frommer (Barbara) and Henry Frommer (Cheryl).

Memorial contributions may be directed to the Humane Society of Westchester County ( humanesocietyofwestchester.org )

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