Tragically, my longtime friend for 23 years passed away on October 19, 2005 from complications due to diabetes and kidney failure.  I believe he was my first friend to have passed, in fact.  Here is Richard's obituary that appeared in the Fresno Bee on October 21, 2005:

DeROSE, RICHARD M. — A rosary for Richard M. DeRose, 56, of Hanford will be recited at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Whitehurst-McNamara Chapel. Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Brigid Catholic Church. Mr. DeRose, a retail manager, died Wednesday. Visitation will be from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday at the chapel. Remembrances may be sent to Masses to the church of the donor's choice.

How Richard and I met was kind of interesting.  We met in about 1982.  I'd developed a computer program for an old Texas Instruments 99/4A personal computer that did numerological charts.  I sold those for $1.00 each at Greyhound Park Swap Meet in Phoenix, Arizona.  He was fascinated by the program, since I believe that at that time he was a also TI owner.  Neither of us had ever seen a program like that.  At one point, we fell out of touch with each other for a good long time.  I'd moved to California and he stayed in Phoenix.  I finally moved back to Phoenix in 1984 and we managed to meet each other at the state fair...how odd, but it's really a small world...and had pretty much stayed in touch until about 3 weeks before his passing.  The last time I actually laid eyes on him was in 1999, when I took the first photo below at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.  I had chatted with him on the phone, through webcams, and even voice over Yahoo Messenger, so I never forgot what he looked like.

Richard, I hope you're having a great time on that ol' Internet in the sky.

We still miss ya, buddy.

Gil - 9-22-2019