Final Flight – Ric Gaff, February 27, 1952-October 8, 2021

[GuyNoir]

Ric Gaff, NAR 22906, passed away yesterday morning after a long illness.

Per his wishes, his body will be donated to science. In 2-4 months, the cremated remains will be returned to his family for internment with his parents in Ft Wayne. There will be some sort of memorial at that time.

Gaffer was one of the first rocket people I became friends with when I moved permanently to Chicago. We had many rocketry adventures together. He served as NAR Midwest Contest Board chairman for many years, was a two-time LAC Newsletter Award winning editor of NIRA’s “The Leading Edge”, was in charge of range equipment and operation at NARAM-28 and NARAM-33, and helped design and build the NAR’s first NARAM launch system. He was one of my closest political advisors when I was NAR President. Mostly though, he was quick with a smile and a good joke, and just fun to be around.

Ric wanted his friends to fly some rockets in his memory

 

[Alan15578]

I am saddened to hear of Ric Gaff's passsing. I remember him most as the master of bad jokes, many of which graced the pages of the "Leading Edge" like U-Control Rocketry and the G Payloader. He was once critical of my Centuri UFO that I had adapted to fly with a 21 mm motor mount for FSI E5 motors, because he said it was too hard to peel D12 motors down to fit.

 

[jd2cylman]

Saddened to hear of his passing. He was a nice guy. Ric Gaff passed on some sage advice to me, and I quote: “it’s a crime against humanity to build a Fat Boy stock”.

 

[Johnly]

I missed this sad news until today. Rick had a kind aura and a keen mind.
I will miss that.

John Lyngdal