EAST BERNE — A kind and loving man, Richard “Rick” Hagadone helped others see the world through his forgiving eyes. After battling Huntington’s disease, he died on Thursday, March 9, 2017. He was 64.

“He would just let things roll off his shoulders,” said his wife, Cheri Hagadone. “What I learned through him was to see life through his eyes.”

Mr. Hagadone was born on July 16, 1952, in Albany to the late Harold and Diane (née Dedes) Hagadone. His family moved to different towns, but stayed within the Capital Region. He graduated from Bethlehem Central High School in 1961, after which he met his future wife, Bonnie.

“Bonnie was the love of his life,” said Mrs. Hagadone. “They were married for 34 years.”

Settling in East Berne, Mr. Hagadone worked at different jobs to support his wife and children. He eventually found a lifelong job as a technician at the General Electric plant in Selkirk, now the Sabic plastics plant. He maintained equipment, and also built friendships with a group of coworkers.

“They all had fun, all the guys had fun with each other,” said Mrs. Hagadone, describing how each friend could be the target of a good-natured joke at some point or another. “They fueled off each other,” she added.

It was this group of friends, said Mrs. Hagadone, who helped her husband after the death of his first wife.

Mrs. Hagadone had been living next door to Mr. Hagadone’s daughter when she first met him, and it was the way he spoke of his late wife that drew her to him.

“It was when I heard him talk about his former wife with such love and compassion,” she said. She added that she told herself, “That’s a guy that I need to know.”

The two married on Jan. 1, 2011 — 1/1/11 — at 11 a.m.

“Rick had a horrible memory,” said his wife. “We specifically put that date down so he wouldn’t forget...and he never did.”

During their marriage, they made many wonderful memories. Mrs. Hagadone recalled a time when she was planning his 60th birthday party and convinced him to clean and mow the lawn by telling him they were having a family reunion. She recalled him saying, “I can’t believe you’re having me do all this for a family reunion...Somebody’s 60th birthday is coming up!”

Mr. Hagadone went through life making spur-of-the-moment decisions — and bringing the people he loved along with him. His wife described how he once decided on a whim to go to Hampton Beach in New Hampshire. They ended up spending a weekend there. Mrs. Hagadone also recalled her husband taking her for a ride on his motorcycle, having her drop any chore she was doing to go.

Besides riding his motorcycle, Mr. Hagadone also enjoyed riding dirt bikes and racing cars. When he was younger he went to motorsport events, and he was an avid National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) fan. His favorite drivers were Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Mr. Hagadone never missed watching a NASCAR race, and he always wore his “88” hat with Earnhardt’s car number; but just in case, he would tape the races in case he arrived late to watch them. When he and Mrs. Hagadone were first dating, she decided to surprise him by telling him where Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in the race.

“If he had ever got mad at me, that was the only time he ever showed it,” she said. “He said ‘You don’t ever, ever tell me where he is...He had to watch the race himself.”

Mr. Hagadone himself enjoyed driving fast in his 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner.

“That was probably the first love of his life,” quipped Mrs. Hagadone. Her husband had bought the car in 1970 and took great care of it, she said.

The first time Mr. Hagadone let her drive the car, Mrs. Hagadone recalls how nervous she was.

“The car likes to go,” she said. “I was grasping the steering wheel...it just wanted to take off.”

She would only let the car get up to 40 miles per hour, and another car was coming up behind the couple. The car eventually passed them. Mr. Hagadone was shocked and embarrassed.

“Good lord,” he said to his wife. “You just let a car pass my Roadrunner.”

When the couple married, Mrs. Hagadone’s son, Seth Garry, was 12 years old. Mr. Hagadone would take his stepson out to do “guy stuff” — they would go fishing and ride dirt bikes together.

The three would go camping together, either at a camp that Mr. Hagadone’s brother had Twin Oaks in Middleburgh, where the two brothers would talk and drink coffee by the fire; or at Tug Hill in the Adirondacks, where Mr. Hagadone and his stepson would ride dirt bikes, and Mrs. Hagadone — the “pack mule” — would carry supplies on an all-terrain vehicle.

“We stayed until we could no longer stay,” she said, describing the camping trips as some of her greatest memories of being with him.

Mr. Hagadone also had many beloved nieces and nephews.

“They cared deeply for him,” said his wife. “He adored all of his family.”

Mr. Hagadone suffered from Huntington’s, diagnosed in the later stages of the disease. His wife said she’d like to be an advocate for understanding the disease, because even the home-health aids who treated him hadn’t dealt with the Huntington’s before. Huntington’s is an inherited disorder that results in the death of brain cells, affecting both physical and mental capabilities.

“I think it should have as much recognition as possible,” she said of the disease.

She said her husband will be missed by many friends and family. Mrs. Hagadone also noted that he taught her how to see life from his perspective.

“He always looked at the best way,” she said.

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Richard “Rick” Hagadone is survived by his wife, Cheri Hagadone; his stepson, Seth Garry; his mother-in-law, Shirley Williams; his siblings, Joan Burnett and her husband, Ed Burnett, of Arizona; Butch Hagadone and his wife, Mary Hagadone, of Selkirk; Patricia Dankert and her husband, Bruce Dankert, of Georgia; Kathy Salmeri and her husband, Mike Salmeri, of Troy; James Hagadone and his wife, Dee Dee Hagadone, of Westerlo; George Hagadone of Florida; many nieces and nephews; several great nieces and great nephews; one great-great niece; his estranged daughters, Dawn Hagadone, and Wendy Hagadone.

His former wife, Bonnie Hagadone, died before him.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, March 23, at 3:30 p.m., with a fellowship to follow at the First Reformed Church of Berne at 1663 Helderberg Trail.

Memorial donations may be made to Huntington's Disease Society of America, Albany Chapter, 7 Woodland Dr., Castleton, NY 12033.

— H. Rose Schneider