Reading this is the worst way I could start today.
I, too, had wondered what happened to Christopher. I sold him many
parts and delivered them to him in West Palm Beach when I went there to
pick up a parts car. We had our share of chucks when we had various
'interesting' experiences. It would be great to finish
'Imperializing' a Town and Country that he had in his memory. I have
sold him all of the needed parts. His cars were nice, his Chryslers,
Imperial, and Pontiac. I sent him the ad I saw online for the Imperial
and he bought it for a very low price.
Christopher was a very big man, and overweight as well. He looked 10
years younger than his true age. His architectural specialty was
very, very high end home interiors. His was obviously brilliant
as he could talk about anything. I am sure his IQ was in the 150's
- 160's - genius level. I know this because of a conversation we had
about the 5 year recovery of my son from a brain injury and his 35
point IQ jump after recovery. He was a very humble person with the
excellent vision that a successful architect should have.
We should try to get in touch with his family and see what we can do to
help them dispose of his beautiful cars and be sure they go into the
right hands. That is something he would want. They also may not know
about his storage locker at a Store All.
If anyone gets family contact information, please let me know. I am
not interested in buying any of his cars or parts, but would like to
help in getting them into the right hands as Christopher would want.
I am sure we will be friends in Heaven.
Henry Blair
4365 Butternut Way NE
Roswell, GA 30075-5225
770-998-4897
Christopher H wrote:
To my friends in the New Yorker and Imperial
communities,
I am choking back tears as I write this. Many of you, especially on the
New Yorker side, probably remember frequent contributor Christopher
Rhinehart from West Palm Beach, Florida. He was the proud owner of the
Vintage Red Sunfire 1976 NYB St Regis that appeared in the recent
Collectible Automobile magazine article on NYBs, as well as a 1977 Town
& Country and an Inca Gold 1975 Imperial. He and I were both so
happy to get our cars into the magazine, since we both squeaked in at
the last minute with our respective east-coast and west-coast photo
shoots.
He sent me the build sheet for his Imperial to decode for him back in
April, and as is so typical of me, it took me a few months to set aside
an evening to make a project of it. I sent the results to him about a
month ago, pleased that I was able to translate nearly all of it for
him, hopeful that he would be happy to finally receive it, and relieved
to have made good on my promise. It seemed odd that he did not
acknowledge it right away, but I assumed he had taken a summer vacation
away from his email and that I would hear back from him eventually. He
had mentioned some summer plans during one of our offline email
conversations about work, architecture and the rest of the stuff that
makes up life.
Recently I began to worry. A true gentleman, Christopher would never
have let so much time go by without a cheerful acknowledgement, even of
such a belated effort. And since he had a BlackBerry, I thought it was
unlikely he would stay offline for so long, so I looked up the last
time he posted to either list (it was July 14th on the New Yorker
list). I began to search online for news, fearing what I would find.
This is what I found, from the Palm Beach Post, submitted by his family:
CHRISTOPHER J.
RHINEHART, a resident of West Palm Beach, died suddenly Monday, July
17, of natural causes. He was 45 years old. He was born on October 29,
1960, to Burdette A and Nancy Rhinehart in Jamestown, New York.
Christopher graduated from Jamestown High School in 1978 and from the
University of Buffalo with a degree in architecture in 1982. He worked
for the Philip Johnson architecture firm in New York City, and for 10
years in Atlanta, Georgia for various firms, most recently he was
employed at GAS architecture firm in Palm Beach. Christopher is
survived by his mother, Nancy Wise of Belleair Bluffs, FL; sister,
Martha Neff of Waterford, CT; nephew Zachary and niece Laura Neff.
I do not know what natural causes take a
45-year-old from us. I do know that we have lost a good friend, one of
those people whose good nature and generous spirit transcended the
online world and made you feel like you had met in person many times,
and a member of this special community who are New Yorker and Imperial
enthusiasts on the outside, but more often than not friends on the
inside.
I thought the lists should know that we have lost one of our own. I
would imagine the most meaningful tribute to Christopher would be to
enjoy our cars, continue to be generous to each other, and to be
thankful for every mile of life's journey that we are lucky enough to
spend with good friends by our side, whether in the passenger seat or
in our hearts.
Chris in LA
http://www.newyorkeronline.org/membercars/74-78/christopherrhinehart/1976NYB/index.htm
http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1976/Christopher/index.htm
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