Veterans lose a leader and a pal
By Joe Marusak
jmarusak@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Wednesday, May. 06, 2009
Richard Warren's (standing) Pat's Gourmet Coffee Shop in Mooresville was where some veterans found themselves March20, 2003, to discuss the start of the Iraq war. STAFF FILE PHOTO
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Honoring
Friends and fellow veterans will honor Richard Warren's life of service Thursday at Pat's Gourmet Coffee Shop, 166 N. Main St., Mooresville.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the nonprofit friends say was his dream come true: Welcome Home Veterans Inc., 13817 Tributary Court, Davidson, NC28036.
Funeral services will be noon Friday at Cavin-Cook Funeral Home Chapel, 494 E. Plaza Drive in Mooresville. Burial will follow at Salisbury National Cemetery. The family will receive friends 5-8 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.
Honoring Richard Warren
Friends and fellow veterans will honor Richard Warren's life of service Thursday at Pat's Gourmet Coffee Shop, 166 N. Main St., Mooresville.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the nonprofit friends say was his dream come true: Welcome Home Veterans Inc., 13817 Tributary Court, Davidson, NC28036.
Funeral services will be noon Friday at Cavin-Cook Funeral Home Chapel, 494 E. Plaza Drive in Mooresville. Burial will follow at Salisbury National Cemetery. The family will receive friends 5-8 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.
MOORESVILLE Richard Warren greeted every veteran the same way at his Pat's Gourmet Coffee Shop.
“Welcome home,” he'd say when they entered.
Richard Eugene Warren, 67, a Vietnam veteran whose shop became a haven for veterans of all wars since opening in 1995, died of an apparent heart attack at his Mooresville home Sunday, friends and family said.
Warren was an Army warrant officer and helicopter pilot in the 68th Attack Helicopter Company in Vietnam.
Scores of veterans have streamed into his shop to mourn the loss of a man they say never took credit for the help he gave his fellow vets, whether untangling VA red tape or serving up free coffee.
Uniforms, patches, photos, books and other mementos fill the shop's shelves and walls, donated by those who came to call Pat's Coffee a second home.
“I had no brothers,” said Rod MacFarquhar, 84, of Sherrills Ford, a World War II and Korean War Army veteran. “He'd be the man I'd be happy to call ‘brother.'”
“His personality was such that people just wanted to give him the shirt off their backs,” said Betty McConkey of Wesley Chapel, Fla., one of his five siblings. “He always felt they didn't get the credit they deserved. That was a reason for this shop, to welcome them home.”
Coffee shop regular Tommy Burchett of Mooresville remembers how Warren also welcomed occasional homeless visitors, saying they could pay him later, but never expecting a dime.
Orlando and Kissimmee had grown too crowded for Warren when he decided to pull up roots in Florida. He'd worked for an air conditioning company there, McConkey said. Driving from town to town, he came upon Mooresville and had a feeling it was the place for him, she said.
He was pursuing a lifelong love of cooking when he opened Pat's, his sister said. “When he was a kid, he'd make the biggest mess in the kitchen,” McConkey said with a smile of their days growing up in Urbana, Ill.
His shop in downtown Mooresville quickly became a veterans' hangout after two fellow Vietnam vets visited Warren one Thursday, with one pushing the other in a wheelchair.
The pair had so much fun they promised to return the next Thursday for more free coffee and conversation, said John Kirkman, who delivered mail to the shop and became a good friend of Warren. The pair of vets brought others, and word spread the coffee was free at Pat's each Thursday if you'd served your country.
About 5,000 veterans have since signed the coffee shop register, including such notables as former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas, when he stumped for his wife, Elizabeth, during her failed re-election bid for U.S. senator from North Carolina last year.
Warren and other veterans would talk for hours at the shop about their war experiences and the importance of defending the United States and supporting the troops. The shop, named after Warren's then-wife, became an education and resource center, too. Visiting groups loved to meet the men and women who'd served their country, and veterans received help obtaining benefits.
Between hugs, kisses and tears Tuesday, Cheryl Ann Leiner, Warren's longtime assistant at the shop, recalled how Warren helped veterans find services and employment.
She said she hopes Warren's legacy will continue through the nonprofit he recently formed called Welcome Home Veterans Inc., which links veterans with each other and various services. Friends said they'll keep the nonprofit running, whether at the shop or elsewhere.
Kirkman said one thing other is for sure:
“The good Lord is finally telling him, ‘Welcome Home.'”
Joe Marusak: 704-351-2037
Veterans lose a leader and a pal
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Thank you Joe for telling us of the passing of a GREAT veteran....his kind are few and far between
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Veterans lose a leader and a pal
