![]() ![]() He met some good friends while at school and got a job hosting a weekly karaoke night at the Brass Taps Pub on campus. He was quick to move to Guelph after finishing high school, studying History at U of G with an interest in becoming a public-school teacher. He went on to complete the last few credits of his grade thirteen at Owen Sound Vocational Collegiate Institute, sharing an apartment with his sister and his cousin Mike Hammond, and making fast friends with fellow students in his musical theatre class. He gave the valedictorian speech at Chesley District High School, making his guidance counsellor cry and his art teacher laugh as he took a hard left turn into parody and absurd humour. As he navigated many other surgeries and health issues throughout his life, playing and listening to music was always an anchor for Richard, a rock. Some of the medications needed for this surgery caused intense bone deterioration, making hip replacement surgery a necessity eleven years later, at age 28. His brother initiated their high school band, Sharp Pointy Stick, which his cousin Dave Snider later played in, playing shows at local bars even though they were underage.Īs his Ulceric Colitis worsened, Richard almost died at 17, receiving a total colectomy that saved his life. ![]() He soon learned guitar, harmonica and banjo, and when they moved out to the farm, he got a drum kit and started fooling around, playing music with friends. On family visits to Port Colborne, they would join in the large and raucous Robinson family jams held in his grandmother’s living room.Īround the time that he first learned to play music, Richard started having serious health issues, developing Ulceric Colitis at the age of 12 and learning to play mandolin from his father. ![]() His family life was filled with music, with his parents singing and playing music together at home, his mother teaching line dancing, and his father performing locally with a country cover band. Richard was born in Port Colborne, ON, in 1982 and grew up in Tara, outside of Owen Sound, first living in a yellow brick house with bats in the attic, before moving to a nearby hobby farm in high school. Richard is survived by his partner Sophia, his father Darrell, his sister Christine (Todd), brother Matthew (Jessica), his siblings Oliver, Sullivan, Benjamin and Liefe, and a large and loving family of aunts and uncles and cousins, along with many, many dear friends and musical collaborators. Following the onset of Huntington’s Disease symptoms this past fall and their rapid worsening since May, Richard chose to receive MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) and he died peacefully on September 5, 2023. It is with unspeakable sadness that we share the news of Richard Laviolette’s passing. ![]()
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