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Unless someone else had done it, I'll put on
my lawyer hat and call GAS Architects today in Palm Beach,
where Christopher worked, to let them know that the Club will help sell the
Mopars.
If anyone out there is interested in his cars,
don't feel morbid about letting me know. If they have to be sold, and they
usually do in situations like this, then we might have an opportunity to help
the family by easily getting them out of the estate.
Patrick Moore
Covington, LA
daytime email: pemoore@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 6:06
AM
Subject: Re: IML: The loss of a member
and friend
That's really very sad news, Chris. Thanks
for letting us know.
Will you try to contact his mother or his
sister?
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 3:42
PM
Subject: IML: The loss of a member and
friend
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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