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Richard Langstaff
In Memory of
Richard W.
Langstaff
1942 - 2018
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Obituary for Richard W. Langstaff

Richard W.  Langstaff
Rick Langstaff of Spring Lake died suddenly and, by all accounts, peacefully on October 10. Born in Paterson, NJ, Rick was raised in Fair Lawn and resided in Montclair for most of his adult life before moving to the Jersey shore in 2000.
Rick graduated from Hamilton College in 1964 with a degree in Classical Greek with emphasis on neuro-linguistics. His many achievements as President of his class included driving a successful lobbying effort to found Kirkland College for Women, a liberal arts college since absorbed by Hamilton. Rick later completed an advanced degree at Fordham University and then briefly taught English in Ardsley, New York, before joining the MacMillan Publishing Company as a science editor. In publishing, it’s rare that a good editor is also a good writer. Rick was both, and his work products reflected this rare combination of elegance and skill.
In 1991, while freelancing, he partnered with Janet Burke to found Clair Group LLC, a boutique IT/process design consultancy to the financial services and technology industries. Their projects are too numerous to list, but the couple served many prominent firms like AT&T, Bell Labs, Citigroup, Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC), General Accident and One Beacon Insurance Companies, KPMG, Merrill Lynch, NYU, among others. Clair Group usually competed with large, well-funded consultancies, but their track record for getting the job done on time and in budget earned them a laudable reputation.
The couple also had enormous fun working together, virtually every day since they’d met. They navigated their world so carefully that clients never knew they were married. In early 2004, while continuing to operate Clair Group, Rick helped Janet establish Lang Insurance Group, a Medicare insurance consultancy based in Spring Lake. As usual, Rick designed all the support systems while Janet sprinkled her “Janet Dust” (Rick’s moniker for her) to build the firm’s client base.
Rick and Janet finally extended their business partnership and married on December 1, 1995. The two shared a unique personal adventure, in great part because Rick was a man of many interests and talents—problem-solver par excellence, avid student of history, lover of fine wine and poetry, jazz aficionado, humorist—and lifelong Jets fan who spent the last weeks of his life anticipating another Super Bowl win with new quarterback Sam Darnold.
In his youth, Rick was an exceptional athlete, captaining his high school basketball and baseball teams to numerous state championships. Rick most famously (and regularly) defeated his high school nemesis, Bill Parcells, by baiting him into losing his temper and making field errors. Rick later played one year for the Philadelphia Phillies, but a serious arm injury short-circuited a professional baseball career. Undaunted, he took up long-distance bicycling and continued riding well into his sixties. He was addicted to watching the annual Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, often wishing he had enough money to sponsor a team. ‘Perhaps in another life.
Rick was predeceased by his parents, Richard W. and Claire Feeney Langstaff and his younger brother David Langstaff. Besides his wife Janet, he leaves behind Janet’s mother, Mary Burke; former wife Jeanette Sullivan of Montclair; and many extended family and amazing friends. Rick also will be vigorously missed by Noah, his beloved orange feline, who since the days of Rick’s passing has found comfort resting under the lamp on Rick’s desk.
Services for Rick Langstaff were held at the O’Brien Funeral Home by Father Seraphim Chemadokov of St. Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church and Deacon Edward Jennings of St. Catharine Church. Interment was at St. Anne Cemetery in Wall.
By all accounts, Rick Langstaff was a spectacular man with a generous spirit. He certainly matched Janet’s three non-negotiables for partner material: intelligence, honesty, and kindness. Janet and her family are ever grateful to everyone who extended condolences and friendship.
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