Richard Jules Marquantte

It is with a heavy heart that the family of Richard J. Marquantte announce his passing February 3, 2018, in his home in Aurora, CO. Richard was born December 3, 1941, in Danville IL and spent his childhood and adolescent years in Anderson Indiana. He has lived in Missouri, California, Colorado, United Kingdom and Guyana. He attended Anderson High School and, after returning from the Air Force, Anderson Junior College. The majority of his working life he spent in the human services field working with several non-profits on behalf of marginalized individuals on human rights issues, criminal justice for both adults and juveniles, homelessness, substance abusers, developmentally disabled, and mentally ill. The last ten years of his life, Richard concentrated his efforts on his short story writing which he always felt was his way of trying to showcase the lives of poor people smashed under the feet of so-called normal society. He had a small publishing company at one time which focused on criminal justice and African-American issues as well as publishing writings from incarcerated persons. Recently, when asked to explain the focus of his writing, he said, " it is my intention to delineate StreetLife - the lives of poor people..their worldview, joy and pain, mistakes and accomplishments, loves and heartbreaks, racism and bigotry. Sometimes my words may be vulgar, my scenes X-rated for various reasons, but so is life on the streets, something I'm afraid as much as regret, is common to poor people surviving day to day if not hour to hour. I have no answers to the plight of the poor; I'm not the great writer/revolutionary out to save the world from its own destruction. I'm just a common man, as the Rapper, Common, has said of himself, in this case, one who chooses to write short fiction." He may of thought of himself as "just a common man," but to those who knew him personally, he was a very special individual who showed love and genuine caring to all his family and to his "fellow life travelers", as he called them. "A man with the bark still on him" as one friend referred to him. To all of us that knew him, we will miss his love and understanding, his truth and honor and his friendship. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Teri (Bartels) Marquantte of Aurora, son Jhil Marquantte, daughter Dawn Marquantte of Aurora, and son Sean Marquantte of Denver, CO; grandchildren Breanna Marquantte of Denver, Makaylah Marquantte of Aurora, Rodney Morgan Jr, Craig Morgan and Aliyah Morgan of Aurora, Great-Grand Children Jaiden and Jahleah Anglin of Denver and Isaiah and Jariah Marquantte of Aurora; brother Tary Adams and sister-in-law Lucretia Adams of San Diego CA, and brother John Adams of Anderson IN plus numerous nieces, nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews and cousins. The family is holding a Celebration of Life Ceremony at Richard's home at 11:00 a.m., on Saturday February 17th, 2018.

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