Donation made in name of Angel Pa.

• Position: NEWS

Byline: Ellie Oleson

COLUMN: Telegram & Gazette Santa

Many years ago, former Worcester Realtor and real estate developer Richard D. "Dick" Longvall learned that a neighbor had lost his job and was in financial trouble. Mr. Longvall quietly dropped off a box of food for a lavish Thanksgiving dinner, and that Christmas anonymously delivered several toys for each child in the family.

"They never knew it was Dick who did it. He'd have been embarrassed if they had found out. That's the way he was," said his wife, Janet P. Longvall of Worcester, who operated the Play and Learn Day Care center in the couple's Indian Lake area home for 33 years, until her retirement.

She said Mr. Longvall always donated to the Telegram & Gazette Santa Fund and volunteered many hours to collect toys for the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program.

"Even when he was legally blind, he kept giving. I donate to the Gazette Santa every year in his memory. He'd have wanted that. He loved children," Mrs. Longvall said.

Mr. Longvall struggled with diabetes most of his life, eventually losing his sight to the disease, though he always kept his sense of humor and zest for life, his wife said. He died of a heart attack following open heart surgery in 1993.

He lived in Worcester all his life, graduating from North High School in 1962. Not too long after that, he went with a friend to Liggett Drug Store at the corner of Main and Front streets, where Burncoat High School senior Janet Pollier worked at the soda fountain.

"His friend asked me out first. I said `no.' Then his friend said Dick also wanted to go out with me, and I said `yes.' After our first date, he went home and told his mother he'd met the girl he wanted to marry," Mrs. Longvall said.

On Sept. 9, 1967, the couple married. "He was 23; I was 20. We were married 26 wonderful years," she said.

They had two children, Deborah A. Floyd of Holden and Tracy M. Rivera of Worcester, who both hold master's degrees and are social workers.

Both women are married mothers. Mrs. Floyd's husband, Daniel C. Floyd, is a juvenile probation officer in Framingham. Mrs. Rivera's husband, Manual J. Rivera, is a driver for the Department of Youth Services in Westboro.

Mrs. Longvall has four grandchildren: Asa R. Floyd, 8; Kiely M. Floyd, 6; Benjamin L. Floyd, 16 months; and Lola M. Rivera, 3.

"Unfortunately, Dick never met our sons-in-law or our grandchildren. He wanted grandchildren so badly, but he was only 49 when he died. He's missed...