28 replies to this topic

[PALM MOD]

It wouldn't hurt to take a moment and have a pleasant thought or two about the man and his accomplishments on his birthday.
I for one have a much greater appreciation for what Bob put together here.

[Jeff Searle]

It's a great loss to the plant "family" of ours. I cherish my book, An Encyclopedia of Cultivated PALMS with his signed autograph. It's especially difficult around the holidays.
Jeff

[Patrick]

Happy birthday, Robert.

[Neofolis]

I hope this anniversary doesn't spoil his family's Christmas too much, although this being the first without him will obviously be hard.  If I am lucky his book is waiting for me under the Christmas tree.  I wish I had more memories of him, but at least his legacy lives on and we all get the opportunity to share in at least one of his accomplishments on a daily basis.

[DoomsDave]

What can you say?

The guy rocked.  He was the mod for the site, not an easy job.

Rocked.  

Hear that, Robert?

dave

[tropicalb]

I never had the pleasure of meeting or chatting on the board with Mr. Riffle...but judging from all that has been said about him here on this forum, and given the fact that he set all this up in the first place (correct?), I say:

Happy Birthday and a Merry Christmas to you RLR...wherever you may be I am sure there are many happy people with perfect palms!

[Kris]

First of all thanks Dean for inisiating & for remembering
that nice person on this BirthDay.

Since iam a new member i was not that fortunate
enough to know him.but i realise that he loved nature
and has writen books on plants(Palms etc).he must be
a nice person to move with.

As i have pointed out that many people call themselves
that they are alive,but i have seen many dead long back.
But in my opnion i feel that person lived his life fully.
and iam shure that he was a perfect human person to
his family members.and we along with his family would
really miss him company.he will be always be cherished
by people who knew him close !

I personally fell that i missed the oppurtunity to interact
with a great plants lover !
Mind you all my friends in my life,happen to be my seniors
who are usually 15 to 25 years elder to me.they are people
with lot of experience about life.they are the perfect guides
and philosophers for life.
Since i too had my downs in my life,thankfully not financially
though.but i was able to come out unscathed by good advices
given to me my some of my senior most friends.

They say follow the leader,but who a leader is_
one who knows the way,shows the way & does not runaway !

And what is done is done,what is gone is gone.
but i pray god for his family members to come out of the pain
of missing a truely nice person.

Merry christmas & a happy new-year_2007 to his family.
May god be with you.

Kris(India).

[MattyB]

How appropriate that my first Christmas gift this year, opened on Christmas Eve/RLR's birthday is a beautiful edition of THE TROPICAL LOOK by Robert Lee Rifle.  I will think of Mr. Riffle as I read and learn through it.  It's fun to have a taste of his personality and humor so as I read his books I can imagine him laughing along with me. Thanks for everything Mr. Riffle. (he hated when I called him that   )

[iwan]

I have my Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms out again tonight and had to spend a bit of extra time enjoying it.

[Exotic Life]

Hi,

I don't know this person so good, but i'm realise that he was a good person for all the members of this board. So what ca i say ? One thing i think ... Happy birthday !

Robbin

[_Wal]

I felt blessed when Robert helped me with an article. I will never lose that feeling.

[Ray Tampa]

Happy Birthday my friend.  I know you're looking down, enjoying the posts as much now as ever.

[Scott]

I'm not fortunate to be able to say I knew him. But Thanks to him, he has given us a gift that goes on - this wonderful meeting place. And as much as we love the subject here, even better is the gift of friendhship that we have because of him. I wish I could say "Thank's Robert!"

So I'll say it to all of you...   "Thank you"

Happy Birthday Robert,

Scott

[ania]

I miss RLR.

Ania

[alex_7b]

I never met the man personally, having not lived in Houston or Ft. Pierce. Still, there were a couple of occasions that I contacted him via email with questions and - he answered. He was quite generous and humble to have done so, as he knew me not and owed me nothing.

Cheers, to a very good man :-)

[Zac in NC]

Well, I was gone most of yesterday and all of today, but I had intended to post a thread saying Happy Birthday to the man, wherever he may be. I miss him a whole lot, though i never got a chance to meet him in person, I did hear his voice a few times while Richard was on the cell with him. I know he was extremely excited when we all found the population of Sabal mauritiiformis in Tamaulipas. I miss you and your humor, Bob.

Zac

[Alicehunter2000]

Own both The Tropical Look and Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms, and refer to them often. Didn't know Robert, but appreciate all he has done for the Palm and Tropical Plant community. Happy Birthday, and Thank You for setting this site up.
David

[RainForestt Robert]

After his passing I went and photographed some M. flexuosa and collected a few seeds, since this was one of his favroite palms.  I only sowed one, which has germinated and is growing well.  That one is for you Robert!

[FlamingoFever]

Happy Birthday, sweetest of friends.

Staying 'Deep In A Dream' with Artie Shaw and Helen Forrest, my last birthday gift to you when you were two years younger.  Dreaming that you are still here to answer my silly palm questions. I will always miss you.

[Zac in NC]

Bob- I am joining the IPS within a day or two as I promised you I would just 10 or 11 days before you died. It was in the Livistona chocolatina thread I started. You sent a quip at me about it being in the Journal and I should join.

(Robert Lee Riffle @ Jul. 31 2006,00:09)

QUOTE

Zac--

Yet another reason for becoming an IPS member:   As can be seen in the KEW citation Livistona chocolatina was named and scientifically described in the December 2004 issue of the IPS journal, Palms.  The article has a very good silhouette photo of a mature tree, a closeup of the leaves and a drawing and a photograph of the large inflorescences.

The author  (namer) of the palm is Dr. John Dowe of QLD, Australia.  He will be appearing here in Florida (Fort Pierce) in less than a month to give a lecture on the entire Livistona genus, as well as shorter presentations on Ptychosperma macarthurii and adaptation of palms to hurricane conditions, as well as a Q&A session.

See the Calendar for more details.

--bob[/quote]

(Zac in NC @ Jul. 31 2006,19:45)

QUOTE

Ok you caught me. I haven't joined the IPS yet (yes, I mooch off this site). But it is because I have a lack of what most people call money to pay to become a member.  As soon as I have a little extra hanging around, I will join. Actually, I should just get enough to become a life Member as this would be the real way for me to go.

Zac[/quote]

(Robert Lee Riffle · Posted on Aug. 01 2006 @ 22:54)

QUOTE

>>> As soon as I have a little extra hanging around ...<<<

It hangs around?  Like off the walls?  On a tree?

Reach up and grab a dime of it each day;  that's all a membership costs, ya know. [/quote]

Just some banter that makes me feel all warm inside, as well as very sad. We all miss you terribly Bob.

Zac

Zac  

Living to get back to Mexico


International Palm Society member since 2007


http://community.web...m/user/zacspics - My Webshots Gallery

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[bgl]

Zac,
I'm glad to hear you're joining the IPS. Maybe even plan for the next Biennial in Costa Rica?
Bob was truly a one-of-a-kind individual, and I consider myself fortunate to have met him at the Montgomery Botanical Center in April 2005. When I became active on the IPS Forum, Bob sent me an e-mail welcoming me, and there were many times when he would make comments after I had posted something. Many of those comments were rather unique!
Bo-Göran

[Kathy]

Happy Birthday to you RLR, happy birthday to you!  

Here we'd love to give you a gift for your birthday, and it turns out you are still giving us your great gifts....

[Zac in NC]

Bo- I am a member as of today for the 2007 year. Whoo hoo!!!!!!!!!!

Zac

[bgl]

Zac,
Excellent! I'm happy to hear that! And RLR would have been as well!
Bo-Göran

[Zac in NC]

I know. I think I will make a post about it on the main forum saying I joined and for others to join as well.

Zac

[wrigphi]

Is it possible to grieve for someone you've never met?

You bet!

[Licuala]

Happy Birthday Roberto!

My cherished friend who brought humor to my day each and every time we spoke

and

Beloved co-author who made writing fun

Thank you for the time we spent together

pablo

[bahia]

I wish I had met Robert personally, as i have much enjoyed his first book, the Tropical Look, and he was always most gracious about responding to queries on various internet plant forums.  He is missed, and his legacy lives on.  Surely he was instrumental in pushing mainstream gardening to appreciate the allure of the tropics, and make it easier for many of us to expand our own horizons.

[Diane Kirkland]

It was so nice to find this thread!  

I have a little to add...

I used to get some very funny messages on my voicemail from RLR and I often saved them to hear them again.  On my way home from a class on Bainbridge Island a few days before he died, I called him from the car while waiting for the ferry.  He didn't answer, so I left a message teasing him about avoiding my call but forgot to tell him I was in the car.  After about 20 minutes, I checked the voicemail at home and had a message from him which said, "If I knew you were calling, not only would I have answered the phone, I would have baked a cake!"  

That was my last phone message, and I wanted to save it but didn't know how.  Someone reminded me of picture frames that would record the voice of the person framed, so I bought 2 (in case one failed) and recorded that message once for each frame just hours before Verizon would erase it.

For people who have this idea, I want to suggest that you do it AFTER you put the picture in the frame as the playback is motion-activated.  So every time I walked past the empty frames or moved them I heard Bob's voice.  It was pretty painful for awhile, and I put them in the hall closet on a shelf.  Sometimes I forget they're there and I can open the doors of the closet and nothing happens.  Other times that big voice booms out,  "If I knew you were calling........"  

I've gotten past the painful part of this and now get a kick out of the times it happens -- the timing is often sort of funny because I know what his other comments would be at the moment about what's going on in my life.

While Bob did little on his own to celebrate Christmas, I loved sending him presents to open.  He was fascinated by my preparations which involve decorating the house with some garland and lights, a wreath, a big tree in the living room with over a thousand lights and 300 ornaments collected over my life, cooking, having a big dinner party for my local friends and at least one holiday meal for my family.  Sometimes I'd call him frazzled and his only comment would be a dry, "As long as we're having fun."  

We always talked through his birthday on Christmas Eve and usually had a conversation on my cell phone Christmas day -- but brief.  He hated my cell phone because he had trouble hearing me on it.

This Christmas morning I was expecting the family for breakfast and I went down to the kitchen early.  I looked out the south window at the small but favorite (tropical) winter-empty garden.  All of a sudden dozens of birds flew into the bushes, onto the small picnic table, into the bare Japanese maple.  I had towhees and robins and flickers and bushtits, my two hummingbirds, finches, and below the winter-burned tree fern, a big squirrel.  On the ground below the squirrel was the bluest blue jay I've ever seen.  I'd never in my 23 years here seen so many birds in the garden at once.  I picked up my big Maine Coon cat, Flap, so he could see the scene.  The birds stayed for about 4 minutes and then all left at the same time.

I thought, "That looked just like a winter scene on a Christmas card."  I decided it was a Christmas card from my friend.

Thank you for remembering him along with me.

D.