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who submit articles to the magazine. rest of the convention, Rich and I played the role of
Richard's contributions to the WCA as a board WCA janitors.
member or committee chair were publicly known. I know about some of Richard's other behind the
What is not widely known is that Richard frequently scene contributions because he would sometimes re-
worked quietly behind the scenes without asking for
any acknowledgement. cruit me to assist him. I am sure that there were many
other things he did by himself which nobody knows
For example, by the time the 1995 Convention in about.
Southport England concluded, Richard had recruited
authors to cover the convention for Clowning Around Richard's role in the development of the WCA has
and assigned them topics. He was not in an official been recognized. He received the World Clown Asso-
position that required that, but he thought the mem- ciation Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. In 2013,
bership deserved to know what had occurred during he received the President's Humanitarian Award.
that great convention. The competitions are
always covered in our magazine. That I think that more than any award, Rich-
year there were articles about the ard treasured the friendships that
classes, performances, and other he developed through his par-
aspects of the convention. For ticipation in the World Clown
example, I had the privilege Association. When it was
of appearing in the Inter- announced on the Clown
national Gala Show with Camp Facebook page that
clowns from Russia, Den-
mark, Sweden, the United he had entered hospice
States, and England. Rich- care, over 100 people post-
ard asked me to write an ed tributes to him. Many
article about that experi- of them talked about his
ence and the international kindness and cheerfulness.
friendships that are formed I personally benefitted from
as a result of being a member his contributions to our orga-
of the WCA. I wrote that article nization, and from his personal
while flying home and had it submit-
ted to the magazine a week later. encouragement. What I consider most
important is that I was fortunate to be able to
Some of his contributions appeared to be minor, call him my friend.
but I appreciated them. He would notice that some-
thing needed to be done and take care of it. At one The Snowberg family has requested that memorial
convention, the meeting room was littered with pa- donations be made to the Milner Library Circus and
pers and empty water glasses at the end of the day. I Allied Arts Special Collection. Richard donated his
noticed Richard start cleaning up the room. I asked Clown Camp archives to the library, which is located
him what he was doing. He said that they had to cut on the ISU campus where he and Jan met as students.
expenses because there were not enough attendees to
pay for everything. So, the board had decided not to In addition, the Milner Library has a complete set of
pay for janitorial service. Richard decided on his own the print editions of Clowning Around which contain
that he would straighten everything up so it would many articles that Ricard wrote. Their set of maga-
look good when the convention resumed in the morn- zines have been bound with hard covers to protect
ing. I took time to help him out. Every night for the them.
34 M A GA ZI N E
34
MAGAZINE
