Rick A. McGhee, of Elizaville, died at home on September 7, 2022, after a five-year battle with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. He was 69. Born in Sharon, CT, on October 11, 1952, to parents Collins and Anita (Aroh) McGhee, Rick grew up in Pine Plains, and spent his senior year of high school at the newly built Stissing Mountain Jr.-Sr. High. Upon returning to Pine Plains from his time in the Air Force, he married his childhood girlfriend, Stephanie Badore, and they were together until his passing. They had a son and a daughter, Joseph and Sara; Rick also raised his youngest sister, Julann (McGhee) Peters.
As a child, Rick lived with his grandmother, Eda Aroh, in her house on West Church Street, while his parents were building the house they would move into. He recalled that, when he was six, he believed his grandmother’s house, diagonally across the street from St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, and closer to the main intersection in Pine Plains, was “on the outskirts of town.” Eda Aroh was at that time the co-editor, with her brother, Henry Grant, of the local newspaper, the Pine Plains Register Herald, and Rick spent time with her at the office. In a 2017 interview, he described his grandmother repeatedly picking up molten lead letters, as they hand set the type, “It was amazing, she must have had some really fierce calluses.”
Along with his wife, Rick is survived by his daughter, Sara and husband, Brian Simons; son, Joseph and wife, Sarah (Follin) McGhee; sister, Julann and husband, John Peters; brother, Lester McGhee and wife, Judy; brother, William McGhee and wife, Liane; sister, Colleen Avazian; brother, George McGhee and wife, Janice; brother, Michael McGhee and wife, Linda. Five adored, and adoring, grandchildren also survive him – Braeden and Reese Peters, Anderson and Benjamin Simons, and Finnegan McGhee. Rick was predeceased by two brothers, Kevin and Patrick.
In lieu of flowers, Rick asked that everyone please do an anonymous random act of kindness in his honor, and to support your local mental health organizations.
The family will hold a Celebration of Life on October 29, 2022, at 1pm at the Lion’s Club Pavilion in Pine Plains.