Remembering Rick Moody

The campus can be quiet at night, with little sound in the empty halls and darkened offices. Faculty and students are finishing their evening classes after nearly everyone has gone home. Phones are silent and the air is still from the lack of foot-traffic. Cuesta is a different (and many would say peaceful) environment after sundown.

This is a part of Cuesta that Rick Moody knew. Like other members of Custodial Services, Rick worked the night-shift on Cuesta’s San Luis Obispo Campus, efficiently preparing the 3100 Building – which houses the Library, Admissions and Records and Counseling – for another day of student service. He was working there when he suffered a brain aneurism and a stroke on October 6th. He passed away several days later at Sierra Vista Hospital with two of his sisters at his side.

Long time colleagues knew Rick as a very dependable, loyal man, an employee who could always be counted on to do his job and a wonderful friend.

Joyce Davenport, Rick’s co-worker and partner, had known Rick since high school. Joyce had this to say about her companion:

“It’s never easy to lose some one that you love. But the beginning of healthy healing is remembering.”

“Rick was a man of few words, but when he spoke, he spoke with wisdom and conviction. To those of us who had the privilege to know him, he was a man of character – he walked what he believed. I observed his life many times, and he was consistent in honesty and strength. His tenderness was like a ‘golden thread’ through his life and his dealing with others.”

“Rick will be greatly missed and all of our lives have been enriched by having known him.”

Rick started working at Cuesta College as an hourly employee in 1995 and was hired as a full-time custodian in February 1996. He was 56 years old.