Richard would be the first to admit that what attracted him to Alma St Baptist Church was a girl, Valerie Sweet.
Attending Church was a new venture and also attendance at a boys Bible class and a Prayer meeting was most scary of all as all the elderly church leaders monopolised the prayer time with each trying to out do the previous person…. And the words they used were unrecognizable for a normal Pill boy.
One blind preacher, Hedly Samuels preached a sermon that the Holy Spirit used to penetrate my armour. He was the pastor of the church for only 3 months before he died. He obviously came for a purpose because later Richard was baptised (along with 6 others from Wally Thomas’s bible class) and after moving to Nottingham and Exeter Universities to prepare for the teaching of Chemistry he returned to teach in Newport, eventually reaching the heights of deputy Headteacher in Queen’s Hill High School. One professor of Science Education reckoned that Richard’s teaching skills were outstanding and were used as examples of good practice for younger teachers.
His deeper understanding and Bible teaching started here under the ministries of John Bennett and particularly the 47 years of Graham Harrison.
Val was an outstanding example of a professional Occupational Therapist and her innovative ideas were so well-known that she received an MBE. All the time there was Karen and Simon to bring up and they did a marvellous job.
Richard was a Sunday school teacher the week after he was baptized in 1953, later a youth leader,deacon and treasurer.
All the time the house that Val and Richard built in Rhiwderin was a home for ‘christian fellowship and hospitality’. This continued all through Val’s difficult times of blindness, memory loss and cancer until she died in 2014. The hospitality continues.
Many young people (now much older) remember the ‘discussions’ in his Bible classes when they were in their youth.
Much could be said about Richard’s sporting expertise in Tennis (a Welsh international), Rugby (represented British Universities, UAU) and soccer (best forgotten as he lost his front teeth from somebody’s elbow). All these were never played on Sundays and people knew why…. Due to his Christian beliefs.