On July 7th of 1993, the world was blessed with Richie Steele. Born with beautiful blue eyes and a quirky little smile, Richie had the ability to melt the hearts of everyone that met him. Richie was a wonderful child who was always putting others ahead of himself. Throughout his life, Richie was a best friend, a role model, an inspiration and an amazing person to everyone that met him. He has alwa
ys been described as a very loving child with tender heart. As a young child Richie played baseball. His love of sports continued throughout his life. He loved watching or attending football games, especially with his friends and family. He had his favorite teams and enjoyed giving you a hard time if your team lost and his didn’t. He liked anyone that was playing against UGA and was a huge Georgia Tech fan for most of his life. One of Richie’s greatest loves was playing Yu-Gi-Oh cards with his friends. He would play for hours on end so that he could spend time with his friends. Richie usually would order pizzas for everyone with at least one pizza just for him. Whenever Richie had the opportunity he was either listening to or playing music. His love for learning to play the guitar sparked a connection with many people. He listened to songs of every genre to expand his knowledge. If you were ever able to watch him play, you knew that he would play continuously until he thought he had it right. Richie was a 2011 graduate of Jasper County High School. His friends and teachers know that he was a hard worker and strived for perfection. His determination carried over to his first job as an employee with Ingles. He could usually be heard telling someone that he was going to run Ingles one day. He devoted so much of his energy in to making the Monticello store one to be proud of. Richie was due to be moving in to management at the beginning of 2014. His hard work and determination had paid off for him. Richie Steele loved everyone. He was never hateful or rude to another person throughout his whole life. His giving and caring nature made an impact on thousands of lives. He always made sure that everyone was taken care of before him. He would always play with the smaller children in the family like he was their best friend and to them he truly was. Knowing Richie was a blessing that so many people had the opportunity to have. During his entire life, he wanted to work harder than he had to and help everyone he could. His giving nature made him give blood to the Red Cross at every opportunity and he wanted to be an organ donor. On December 30th, 2013, Richie was called home by the Lord. If you were to ask Richie why he left us so soon, he may give you an answer like “because I’m amazing, that’s why”. Richie was not the type to leave this world without a continuing legacy. As an organ donor, Richie was able to give other families something that they never expected they would have. That was the tremendous gift of a second chance at life. Though Richie may no longer be with us in body, he will never leave us in spirit. His love, generosity, concern, and care for others’ lives on. His drive to succeed, his love for his friends and family, his concern for the feelings and comfort of others, and his desire to leave this world better than he found it, is an inspiration to everyone. A loving son, a wonderful brother, a caring friend and an Amazing person are just a few ways to describe him. As we remember him, we should always remember how he looked at life. Anyone that knew Richie knows that he would tell us “I got this cause I’m going to Heaven like a Boss”.
