Date: Fri 22-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Rich-Rauner-obit

Full Text:

Town Mourns The Death Of Rich Rauner

(with photo)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

"If I could have one wish, I would wish that everyone could feel as I do, full

of love and hope for all."

--Rich Rauner

A memorial service will be held at 11 am on Saturday, January 23, at Newtown

United Methodist Church for heart transplant recipient Richard W. Rauner, who

died last Saturday at his home in Sandy Hook.

The Rev Terry Pfeiffer, pastor, said more people are expected to attend the

service than can be accommodated in the church. Additional seating will be set

up in the Fellowship Hall, where the service will be shown on closed-circuit

video. A reception will follow.

Additional parking and a shuttle bus will be available at St Rose Church.

While Newtown residents assembled at the Methodist Church last Saturday to

hold a fund-raising pancake breakfast for Mr Rauner, his body was found in the

bathroom of his home by a friend who had come to check on him. An autopsy to

determine the cause of death was scheduled to be performed this week at

Danbury Hospital.

The 58-year-old former postal clerk spent more than seven months in Temple

University Hospital in Philadelphia before undergoing transplant surgery on

December 17. He was released from the hospital on December 31.

Life Is Worth Living

Mr Rauner's best friend, Barbara Nelson of Southbury, said that although

everyone is devastated by his death, "Richie would want his mourners to use

their energy to help others."

"He always made us feel that life is worth living and that you should do as

much as possible to help others," she said. "He was always helping other

people, visiting the homebound, helping out at fund-raisers. Every year he

dressed up as Santa Claus for the children and shut-ins in Shady Rest and he

was always packing up a picnic basket of food to take to someone."

"He had a lot of faith. He wasn't afraid to die," said Rev Pfeiffer, pastor of

the United Methodist Church. "Rich was very active in worship, in the choir --

he called the church his `family.'

"Everyone was shocked and distressed when they heard that he had died," Rev

Pfeiffer said. "I had talked to him the day before, and he said he was tired

but he felt fine."

John Dolan, a 69-year-old Fairfield resident who underwent a heart transplant

at Temple on December 28, said he and Rich Rauner had become very close while

patients together at the hospital. "He was always doing things to encourage

the other patients and lift their spirits," Mr Dolan said.

Most evenings Rich Rauner made popcorn and delivered it to the rooms of the

other patients, who affectionately called him "Mr Mayor" because he had been

at the hospital for so many months. The staff at the hospital asked that

Saturday's memorial service be videotaped so that it could be shown to the

patients there.

After he was released, Mr Rauner had made weekly trips back to the hospital

for biopsies to check on whether the heart was being rejected.

"All four of the biopsies done since my surgery have been perfect," he said

the week before he died. "There is absolutely no sign of rejection."

But he also had been taken by ambulance to Danbury Hospital on January 6 when

his new heart began to race. He was transported by ambulance from Danbury to

Philadelphia, where doctors at Temple adjusted his medications and performed

another biopsy before sending him home. He was taking approximately 60 pills a

day, standard procedure for a heart transplant patient.

Rich Rauner was born in Pecksville, Penn., a coal-mining town near Scranton,

on September 6, 1940. After graduating from high school, he joined the Marine

Corps and served in an intelligence unit from 1958 to 1961. He moved to

Newtown in 1962, served as a Fairfield County deputy sheriff, and joined a

Masonic order.

He returned to Pennsylvania for triple bypass heart surgery in 1983, then came

back to Newtown to take a position as a clerk in the post office. In 1993 he

underwent quadruple bypass surgery, but soon afterwards contracted pneumonia

when, ignoring the risk to his own health, he helped rescue four motorists

whose car had slid into a brook near his home on a cold, snowy winter day.

He was predeceased by Diedamia "Whit" Whitman of Sandy Hook, his close friend

and companion for more than 30 years, who died of Huntington's Disease in the

spring of 1997. Mr Rauner was honored by the state legislature last year for

his efforts as an advocate for research and help for HD patients and their

families.

He served on the state's Huntington's Disease Task Force which was responsible

for the legislation, signed by Gov John Rowland in August 1997, that provided

$600,000 to establish a HD clinic at the University of Connecticut Medical

Center in Farmington.

Although his own health continued to decline, he cared for his elderly mother,

Edna Rauner, in his home until her death early last year.

"God has been very kind to me even with all my tragedies," he said. "It's up

to me to give back."

Local Support

During the months he spent at Temple, his letters, telephone conversations and

taped messages were filled with appreciation for the "more than 1,000 cards,

pictures and thoughts that have been sent to me by the wonderful people of

Newtown" and for the two blood drives held in his name.

"How blessed can one man be?" he said recently. "There are so many people I

want to thank that there isn't space in the newspaper to name all of them."

"I hope to be able to devote my life to educating people about the need for

organ donations," he said. "But my life is in God's hands and I'm very

comfortable with that. Whatever happens in the end, I win.

"I would just tell everyone to have a great day, make it count, give that

smile away, reach out to someone who is lonely."

Mr Rauner is survived by a brother and sister-in-law, Jerry and Sue Rauner of

Midwest City, Okla., and by a godson, David Lewis of Sandy Hook.

Following the autopsy, his heart was to be returned to Temple University

Hospital for examination. His remains were to be cremated.

Contributions in memory of Richard W. Rauner may be made to the United

Methodist Church, 92 Church Hill Road, Sandy Hook, 06482.