Richard Namey

WINTER PARK – Richard Ellis “Rick” Namey wasn’t a man defined by one title, one line of work, or one talent. He was many things, a successful concert promoter, an advertising genius, pitchman, stand up comic, author, screenwriter and political activist.

He had a nationally syndicated radio show with Hugh Rodham, the brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; served as interim manager for the Backstreet Boys and cut an album of Vietnam War protest songs. Friends and family say one thing is certain; he didn’t do anything half way. With every endeavor, he went all out. Mr. Namey died of a heart attack Monday, January 26 at Florida Hospital Altamonte. He was 66.

Mr. Namey was born in Baltimore Feb. 12, 1949, the oldest son Albert E. and Salam Namey. His father met his mother while traveling abroad in Beirut, Lebanon and brought her back with him to Baltimore. Albert Namey, an aerospace engineer, took a job with Martin Marietta when Mr. Namey was 10 and the family moved to Orlando.

Mr. Namey graduated from Winter Park High School and Sanford Naval Academy, but he didn’t let school get in the way of his ambition. At age 16, he won a teen disc jockey competition on WLOF-AM and began managing local bands like Mr. Banana and the Bunch and Marshmallow Steamshovel. He was a performer too.

His first business venture was a coffee shop called The Hobbit in Daytona Beach catering to the hippie crowd, followed by the Purple Door in Bithlo. His success booking national acts, like Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band and Big Brother and the Holding Company, at the then-Tangerine Bowl and the Daytona International Speedway, led him to start Cosmic Productions. He was part of the promotional team for Woodstock and appears in a documentary about the 1969 music festival. His successes were featured in a Sunday Orlando Sentinel article when he was just 23. Traveling for work, Mr. Namey was active in the civil rights movement, attending rallies and working on Democratic presidential campaigns including McGovern/Eagleton and Carter/Mondale. Old Polaroid photos show Mr. Namey and the Carter family at home watching the Kentucky Derby in the 1970s. Though Central Florida was always his home and he worked hard to promote it, he often rubbed elbows with the rich and famous. His photo album is full. The list of Mr. Namey’s accomplishments is long. He started Orlando’s first hippie rock radio station, WORJ, and first black pop radio station, WORL, and Kissimmee’s first tourist channel with brother Charles. They applied for FCC licenses in the 1980s. Through his company, Stuyvesant Corporation, he wrote hundreds of TV and radio ads including Mr. Stereo and Video, Mad Max, Cheese Wars and Sounds Unlimited. Many garnered him national Addy Awards for creative excellence. Mr. Namey was most proud of his screenwriting, which included Lake Woebegone Boys with Garrison Keiler and Matt Merlin, about a kid wizard. Universal Studios optioned it, well before Harry Potter took the world by storm.

He was also the author of several published non-fiction books including Fodor’s Disney Like A Pro, Orlando Like A Pro, Buy This Book and Make Me Rich (political satire) and his most recent, Casey’s Ghost, published in June 2014, about his brief stint as the ghost writer for Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of the 2008 murder of her daughter Caylee in a trial televised worldwide. Mr. Namey was a longtime member of MENSA. In recent years, he could be seen volunteering for local Democratic candidates and rallying for liberal causes. His ideas never stopped, his opinions grew stronger and his love for his family was unparalleled.

Mr. Namey is survived by three children Tamara, of Orlando, Tiffany and Ricky of Maitland; a grandchild Brian “J.B.” Mayfield of Salina, KS; mother Salam Namey; brothers, Charles and John and partner Shirley Joiner, all of Winter Park.

Visitation will be 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, February 6, and funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, February 7, at Baldwin-Fairchild Ivanhoe Chapel, 301 NE Ivanhoe Blvd. Burial will follow at Palm Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Epilepsy Association of Central Florida.