Richard James Wallner

Richard James Wallner was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, on October 28, 1963. He was the third child and first son of Herman Wilhelm Wallner and Mary Lucille Wallner (née McFadden). From the beginning, Richard kept up with his sisters, with a feisty sense of humor and strong sense of independence. When he was not quite four years old he disappeared from his mother's side while she and his two older sisters were in a drug store. An hour or so later, he turned up at a fencing event close to a mile away where his father was competing; he had navigated there on his own, explaining that he had wanted to see the competition and was bored shopping.
By the time Richard started school, the family had moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where his third sister was born. Richard was a good student, and loved history and tales of adventure. His handwriting was quick but cramped and difficult to read - so, at an early age, he taught himself to type at a ferocious speed! He became known for his witty compositions, and in high school worked part-time as a sports writer for the local paper in Columbus, Georgia, where he had moved with his father after his parents divorced in 1971.
While living in Columbus, he spent many hours perfecting his basketball game in the backyard, and was an avid follower of baseball, basketball, football, and wrestling. He also became a big brother to his final sibling, another boy. Richard attended the University of Georgia, where his degree was in political science. He developed a passion for politics that led him to Washington, D.C., where he worked for many political causes and candidates, developing a strong liberal voice.
Richard loved to travel, visiting Costa Rica, Vietnam, and the Caribbean among other places. He had a wonderful and varied taste in music, loving classic rock 'n' roll, the blues, folk music, singer/songwriters, but also classical music - especially J.S. Bach and Italian opera, both of which Richard spent many hours listening to with his father. After Herman's death in 2002, Richard went on an extensive tour of Europe, focusing on spots in Germany and Italy that he believed held special meaning for his father, such as Bavaria and Bremen (where Herman's parents were born) and La Scala in Milan. He left some of his dad's ashes at many of these places.
In the early 2000s, Richard relocated to New York, where he continued his involvement in politics, both on and off the clock. He was ever the idealist, with a deep and abiding sense of what was fair and kind. Recently, he was an ardent supporter of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani. Richard became a loyal and enthusiastic fan of his local teams as well, including the Knicks and the Mets. Richard died of natural causes, at home in his beloved apartment near the Hudson River in Brooklyn, not long before his 62nd birthday.
Richard was a lover of dogs, good beer, old movies, big bonfires, and coffee. We will miss him. He is survived by his siblings, Susan, Caroline, Mercedes, and James Ian Wallner, and by his nieces and nephews, Cayman and August Johnson, Owen and Fiona Kobasz, Lucy Reback, Georgia and Josephine Marshall, and Graham and Quincy Wallner.

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