We begin with a funeral service for the Binghamton University Anthropology Professor tragically murdered on campus a week ago. It’s hard to imagine that Richard Antoun had an enemy. As NewsChannel 34’s Peter Quinn shares with us, that was the sentiment today at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
Rewind Dick Antoun’s life about 60 years and you’d find him knocking on a lot of doors.
Linda Miller is his younger sister.
Linda Miller says, “He would gather neighborhood kids, from ages 16 to six, my friends, his friends and we would all play baseball in the neighborhood field. He taught me how to hold a bat, how to catch a ball with a glove, the proper stance at home plate. When I could read I remember he would have me come into his room and I would go into his room. He had a huge collection of baseball cards and he would ask me to hold the cards, call out the name of the player and he would then give the stats about each player. I was then to tell him if he was right or wrong. I spent a lot of hours with him doing that.”
While Dick loved sports, especially baseball, he also had a passion for peace and understanding. He was a member of Peace Action. And, just about every Friday he was part of a group that met for lunch at the Park Diner. The Friday he was murdered was no exception. After lunch he went to Binghamton University where he was murdered at 1:40 in the afternoon in the Science One building.
George Haeseler says, “Whenever we met for lunch I always tried to sit across from him because I don’t hear that well and he was soft spoken. He would always lean towards me and raise his voice a little bit so I could hear. We talked politics this group. We are all very opinionated. But, Dick was not, he would just give the facts. It was always so flattering because any time I said something to him he would look me in the eye and I’d get the feeling he really cared about what I had to say.”
Stuart Naismith says, “I remember him as being so knowledgeable about the near east. If I had a few words to sum up the intense impression on all of us - he was knowledgeable, gentle, kind and when he expressed things he was not opinionated. He expressed his ideas clearly and backed them up with ideas and facts. I can’t imagine that he had an enemy in the world.”
