Churchville – Richard Edward Buchin, born Arthur Edward Langdon in Rochester, Jan. 22, 1928, passed away April 28, 2018, at age 90 in his home in Churchville. He joined his beloved wife, Mary, born Michiko Wada, who died two years earlier on April 15, 2016, at the age of 91. They are survived by son Robert, daughter Mary (John) Hughes, grandson Richard, and numerous extended family in the U.S. and Japan.
Richard, lovingly adopted as the only son of Laurence and Bertha (Scripture) Buchin, graduated in 1945 as Valedictorian of Henrietta High School with a passion for music and sci-fi. Under the patriotic fervor of the day he enlisted in the Army and was posted to US Army Counter-intelligence at General Douglas MacArthur’s Headquarters in Tokyo, where Michiko worked as a translator. Michiko, born and raised in Tokyo, was a modern woman who wanted independence and a nontraditional life. These romantic souls appealed to each other beyond their radically different cultures. He renamed her Mary, she called him Dix. Their years together in Japan were some of their happiest.
Married by permission of Congress in 1951, they started a family in Tokyo but were not allowed to remain in Japan while Richard was in the service. The couple, with one child and one on the way, eventually settled in Rochester after Richard left the Army as a master sergeant. He returned to Eastman Kodak, where he had worked during the war, and retired in 1983. In 1958, he moved his family to the picturesque Village of Churchville, where he played piano at school recitals and baseball in his backyard with neighborhood kids. Mary’s English fluency opened the door to a career at the Lawyer’s Cooperative Publishing Co. In the 1980s they took a ballroom lesson on a whim and didn’t stop dancing for almost 30 years. In retirement, they were able to revisit Japan several times. Mary played her Baby Grand piano, studied French and fulfilled a lifelong dream to visit Paris and London.
Their warm network of friends, neighbors and long-time acquaintances in the village and Rochester area nurtured them and helped them to remain independent as long as possible. There are too many to name and sadly, many have also passed on, but they will always be sincerely appreciated by the family.
Richard and Mary made sacrifices to provide a hospitable environment of art, music, literature, and humor for family and friends, fostering an appreciation of history, travel, and current events. Summer vacations were road trips to places like Civil War battlefields and world fairs; all artistic and scientific impulses were supported. They lived simply while living simple values of duty, honor, kindness and generosity, and forever enriched the lives they touched.
For any inquiries, please contact Walker Brother’s Funeral Home, Spencerport, NY.
