Richard Evan Mackay passed away peacefully on November 1, 2025, in Huntsville, Alabama, at the age of 83. For the past 2-3 years, Richard was a resident of Rocket City Nursing and Rehab Center, where his dry wit, love of poetry, and thoughtful humor continued to brighten the days of those around him.

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Richard attended Wayne State University, earning a degree in English. Deeply committed to justice and equality, he was active throughout his life in promoting understanding and compassion among people of different backgrounds and beliefs.

Early in his career, Richard worked with the Ecumenical Institute, living and serving in communities across Japan, Indonesia, and the US. He dedicated himself to the Institute's mission of education and community building, generously donating much of his income to support their programs. While in Japan, he taught English to Japanese executives. His time with the Institute reflected his lifelong belief in the power of shared purpose and cooperative living.

Richard was part of the  Ecumenical community in Phoenix, and then moved to Albuquerque, where he continued to live and work in ways that reflected his commitment to being of service, working in a hospital psychiatric care unit, and later served as a caregiver for individuals with developmental disabilities in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In every role, he brought insight, empathy, and quiet dedication.

A creative spirit, Richard was both a poet and a musician. He published three collections of poetry inspired by his deep love for nature and the living world, and he found joy in playing guitar and writing songs that captured the same poetic sensitivity found in his writing. Before moving to the nursing home, he loved taking walks in a park in South Huntsville, where he felt most at peace surrounded by the rhythms of nature.

He was an active member of the Naturally Conscious Community (NCC) and studied under mentor Tigrilla Gardenia, whose guidance helped deepen his spiritual and creative connection to nature.

Richard will be remembered as a man of intelligence, integrity, and humor—someone who could see life's ironies clearly and still find wonder in the world around him. His poetry, music, and gentle wit will continue to resonate with those who knew and loved him.

Richard was preceded in death by his parents, James Evan MacKay and his mother, Harriet Ortenberger, and his brother Kenneth Alan MacKay.

Richard continued until the end of his life to nurture his hunger for depth and social transformation through his poetry and his music.

An example of his enduring message, written in 2022, follows:

EULOGY OF ECOLOGY TO THE HUMAN SPIRIT

Living in surely troubling times

with past systems

of sacredness, logic, meaning,

and allegiance falling away.

These times are a ripe opportunity

for the despots of power

to sow their seeds of

force on our human spirit

to force our compliance.

I believe though that

the Eye of Truth,

the Eye of human history,

the Eye of the Living Planet

will again shine a light

dissipating the shadows

of untruth and aggression,

so the Source and ecology

of the human spirit

will again flourish and flower.

—Richard Evan MacKay