When I began writing this item, 42 years ago, I used my trusty old Smith-Corona electric typewriter, which had replaced an earlier Royal manual typewriter that I had used since childhood. I persisted with it electrically for years until my Good Wife pulled me into the computer age.
In those early days, I relied on Richard Pruett at Northern Neck Office Equipment Company on North Main Street in Kilmarnock to keep me in business. I could count on Richard whenever I called upon him, whether with respect to cleaning the machine, replacing parts, or even replacing the ribbon, in concert with an overall check-up.
The store, which was owned and managed by Bill Humphreys, was the place to be for any business support that one needed. The front room, capably managed by Bill’s deputy, Sadie Dameron, was the retail location that sold all sorts of paper supplies, staplers, pens and pencils, stickers, signage and much more. In the back room, Richard worked meticulously and methodically attending to typewriters, adding machines, calculators and any form of mechanical device that a business would use. Everyone knew him as the “typewriter doctor.”
Next to Richard worked Bill Young, who had two public personae, one as a technical guru in the store’s shop, and the other cutting a distinguished figure in white tie and tails as the conductor of the Northern Neck Orchestra. Bill would talk while working, eagerly telling customers about a forthcoming concert and how to get tickets to attend it. Always prepared, he usually had a few in his pocket.
Richard and his wife, Rosie, who spent her career as a nurse, lived with their son Richie and daughter Kim in an architecturally important house in the historic district of Lancaster Courthouse. Richie was a special needs child, and Rosie and Richard were stalwart supporters of the Special Olympics, traveling far and wide for Richie to be able to compete in the different sports and venues available. Along the way, they made lasting friendships with many other competitors and their families. In conversation, Richard would glow whenever he spoke of Richie’s accomplishments in the programs.
After his father’s death, Richard and Rosie sold the house in Lancaster Courthouse and moved to their family farm a few miles down Merry Point Road. There they enjoyed country living, raising a garden and tending to chickens, one of which preferred life on Rosie’s lap to being subjected to the indignity of spending her time in the barnyard with other less privileged fowl.
As the years passed and health concerns mounted, the Pruetts moved once more, this time leaving the Northern Neck to settle in Forest, in Bedford County, Virginia, in proximity to Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, placing them near Kim and her family.
As to the business, when Bill Humphreys had transitioned to become a park ranger at Belle Isle State Park, Richard had taken over the operation in town, but as computers were making business machines increasingly obsolete, he ultimately decided to retire and close the old stand on Main Street, after spending his career of half a century there serving those of us who are technically challenged and needy.
Throughout his life Richard suffered from a speech impediment, often making communication difficult for him, but it did not impede his enjoyment of living and interacting with those whom he encountered. He was an extraordinarily gifted and talented individual, who found pleasure each day in helping others, always happy, interested in everything and everybody, in the biblical sense, a good neighbor to all.
Richard Meredith Pruett Sr., September 18, 1944 – July 29, 2026. R.I.P.
