Riders of bus route 27 watch as the windows strain to contain the booming voice of Richard League. Reeling back with his voluminous laugh, Richard grins as he calls out at every stop: "Have a great day everybody!"
Students listening to his stories smile and wish Richard a good day as they disembark.
"Richard is one of those characters in a University town," said Thad Holcombe, a campus pastor at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries.
Holcombe has known Richard for more than decade. They met through the ECM's University Forum, an open weekly gathering for issue discussion. Richard contributes ideas for topics and speakers, handles contact and does introductions.
"Richard has an incredible mind that puts things together. He's fascinated by events in the natural world," Holcombe said.
Each week Richard attends veggie lunch at the ECM, as he has done since its inception in 1999. Students gather at his table to listen to stories of his rich past.
Richard gazes down the bridge of his nose, through the think lenses of his old horn rim glasses, gazing at photographs of his past which he passes around the table. Each photograph comes with an extensive story which leads to another and eventually an explanation of a semi-related historical event.
A single piece of hair falls onto his brow as he looks around the room, visions of the past playing behind his eyes. He pushes the rogue hair into his slicked back silver mane.
"I was named after Richard the Lionhearted you know," he said.
The name is appropriate. Richard vivaciously pursues every endeavor he takes on and always has a vividly detailed tale to tell about it, easily moving from topic to topic without pause.
Richard grew up in Chicago, the son of an artist, Thomas Jefferson League. League painted two murals for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.
As a young man living in Chicago, Richard was active in the Drama Club at Senn High School. One of his fellow students was Harvey Korman of the Carol Burnett Show.
Midway through high school at the age of 14, Richard signed up for an aeronautics class. Saturdays he would work at Tony Lucetto's meat market. The day's wage would go to flight lessons on Sundays. By 15 he was licensed to fly.
He joined the Navy at 17 and stayed into his 20s. After, he attended Northwestern University, earning a degree in psychology and astronomy.
Richard held jobs all over the nation. He worked as a manuscript scout for Prentice Hall, covering the entire American southwest. He turned down offers to work for IBM and Merrill Lynch. He worked for a while at Marshall Fields Co. with a team of artists and designers, selling complete offices.
Richard continued his schooling, eventually getting a doctorate at the University of Florida in Psycholinguistics and Language Pathology then staying to be a post doctoral research fellow. There he developed a test to screen children for early identification of conditions like autism, deafness, normalcy, giftedness and genius. Soon he'll develop the fourth edition of the test.
Though Richard chose to follow a scientific path, he still actively paints and tends a burgeoning garden at his house. Richard helps teach a painting class at the Lawrence Arts Center on Tuesday nights with Jeff Ridgway, an instructor at the Arts Center.
"Richard paints as an intellectual pursuit as much as it is an homage to his dad I think," Ridgway said.
Ridgway met Richard seven years ago in a painting class and quickly became good friends. In class Richard helps with critiques and talks with the students, telling stories. Ridgway said the students take to the outgoing Richard quickly. "He has such a rich history behind him, he enriches the class so much," Ridgway said.
Richard came to Lawrence in 1990 to be in a play at the Lawrence Community Theatre. He became active in the community, joining the Lawrence Flower Club and eventually served as president. In 1999 he helped spearhead efforts to restore the fountain in South Park, dedicated to the city in 1910 by President Roosevelt himself.
On campus, Richard volunteers to help doctoral students with their dissertations. At the University of Florida he was in charge of dissertations.
Whether one runs into Richard at the ECM, at a lecture or at afternoon tea, he reaches out to everyone around him, attempting to better their day.
"It's fun to be friendly; you turn people on that way. You can help make a person's day by being friendly. It's reciprocal you know, we need it too," he said.
As his stop approaches, Richard gathers three plastic bookstore bags together, stuffed with odds and ends and a battered black umbrella. His large 6'5" frame shuffles to the door, a wooly Russian army cap perched on the back of his head. Turning around he smiles and calls to the back of the bus, "Bless your hearts! Have a great day!" Climbing down, he works his way across the road and through the forest of cherry trees in his front yard. Students can't help but smile.
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