Very sadly on 6th January 2009, after a very brief illness, we lost our friend Ricky Arcari.
Our Club played a very important part of Ricky’s life. His flying models were always very well built and included a Klem and Spirit of St. Louis, both of which flew very well. He enjoyed experimenting with model design and produced a twin engine push / pull own design. He also built a model of the Vickers Vimmy again to a high standard, and was eventually persuaded to give a talk at the Club on the design and building of this difficult subject. The talk was very interesting and well received by his fellow Club members.
Ricky was one of four brothers and five sisters - sadly his elder brother died on December 2008 - the family are of Italian origin.
It took a long time to really get to know Ricky properly as he was a very quiet man who kept his own counsel until he knew you properly.
Ricky was responsible for the superb advertising leaflets for our Concours events. He only had to be requested to produce a leaflet and the following club night he would appear with several versions for approval. All of is work was quite meticulous in preparation and execution.
Ricky was a Graduate in Computer Science from Strathclyde University and also served in the RAF. He was employed by IBM at Spango Valley near Greenock and became a formidable Research Electronic Engineer.
It is not generally known that Ricky was responsible for the invention of the Cash Machine / Bank Card with Pin Number while at IBM. During the development of this system Ricky made several visits to the parent company of IBM in USA. He was also involved in the development of voice recognition for telephone systems.
Included in his many interests was his love of opera and classical music, good food and wine. In recent years, largely due to poor flying weather, Ricky developed an interest in Model Boats and joined the Richmond Park Model Boat Club. He built and sailed many different types of boats. Shortly before his death he was working on an American Stern Wheeler. Our Club played a very important part in his life as expressed by each of his delightful family.
Ricky was truly a quiet private person – a true gentleman who is sadly missed by us all.