For love and history
Richard DeCoux of Montgomery plans to donate the motorized, model steamboat he built to the Morristown Historical Society to share the history of riverboats that once powered through area waters. (Lisa Ingebrand Photo)
After wife’s passing, Montgomery man finds solace building model steamboats, sharing history
He spends his days in a small workshop, tinkering and listening to basketball games on the radio.
He prefers the old, familiar garage. His house is too quiet.
“I lost my wife, Nancy, to cancer last year… It’s such a change. It’s so quiet. Hard to get used to, you know?” stated retired widower Richard DeCoux. “I have to keep myself busy.”
Ironically, a conversation during dinner with his wife at St. Gertrude’s Health Center in 2017 sparked a new interest and spurred the Montgomery man to start building model steamboats in his garage, a hobby that helps him keep steaming along.
“I used to go over and spend time with her, have dinner with her and such, and one day we sat with a woman— another Nancy—Nancy Palmer and her husband, a real nice couple. We got to talking about Montgomery and the old days, and they swore up and down that riverboats operated in this area. She said her uncle used to play in a band on one of......
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