Richard W. Jenkins, beloved husband, brother, son, uncle, friend, colleague, and steamship enthusiast without peer, passed away suddenly at his home in Lawrence, MA, on February 19, 2026. He was 53 years of age. When one thinks of how Richard had few equals, it is his kindness, humor, knowledge, infectious enthusiasm, and all-around good nature that first spring to mind.

Richard was born in Oxford, England in April 1972, the son of Anthony P Jenkins and the late Pamela D (Robinson) Jenkins of Sterling, VA . The family moved from England to White Bear Lake, Minnesota in 1976, and Richard graduated with lifelong friends from White Bear Lake Area High School in 1990. He loved steam trains and ships from a young age, even "publishing" his own steamship magazine for his club of family members and stuffed animals. He volunteered at the Minnesota Transportation Museum with his father. Once he discovered that steam powered freighters were still operating on the Great Lakes, documenting and preserving them became his lifelong passion.

Richard earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, Duluth in 1994. Between lectures, he worked as a tour guide on the William A. Irvin museum ship, befriended the crews of the many freighters in the harbor (and checked out their engine rooms, of course), and helped a local artist catalog an extensive photograph collection of Great Lakes ships. He drew and photographed many historically significant ships that have since been scrapped.

A compulsory unit on graphic design in his final semester awakened Richard to the world of computers, and he enrolled in further graphics classes at the St. Martin Art School in London. To pay for this he worked as a barman for a couple of years on the Tattershall Castle, a steamship-turned-bar moored on the Thames, working on restoring the engine room when not serving drinks.

Returning to the U.S., Richard moved to the Boston area to be near his sister Kate and launch his career. He first turned his artistic talents towards web design at Groove Networks and then designed web-based applications for non-profits at Isovera. In 2012 Richard joined Fidelity Investments, where he was lauded as a quiet leader, a mentor, a subject matter expert, and the steady heart of his teams. Richard worked at Fidelity until the time of his passing, most recently as Director of Architecture.

In 2008, Richard met Lisa Hollis, and there followed an 18-year relationship filled with love and adventure. And also procrastination and marriage, in that order. They built a life based on a shared love of travel, friends, and dorky pursuits including Dr. Who and Star Trek, and lest you think this somehow derogatory, the word "dork" appeared prominently in their self-written wedding vows.

Richard's enthusiasm, breadth of knowledge, and irrepressible friendliness made him a towering figure (and a world renowned expert) in steam preservation circles. He valiantly attempted to save the Great Lakes steam freighters the J. B. Ford and the S.T. Crapo through the Great Lakes Steamship Society, as well as the S.S. Henry Steinbrenner. Richard helped spearhead the successful effort to rehome the four "Lost Engines of Roanoke" steam trains. He was active in the New Hampshire Garden Railway society and built a large live steam garden railway in his rather small backyard. Not to be outdone, his driveway acquired a 1957 Chevy and an antique wooden boat "Maggie" which Richard planned to convert to steam power.

Richard also enjoyed sharing his musical talents. He loved to belt out '80s power ballads and other songs at karaoke with friends. He taught his two enthusiastic nieces, at ages perhaps 4 and 6, to sing the backup vocals to Bon Jovi's "Wanted" when he was babysitting and they didn't want to go to bed. He was a beloved member of the handbell and vocal choirs at Old South United Methodist Church in Reading, MA.

In recent years, Richard was also a cancer survivor. He underwent treatment for multiple myeloma that included a full bone marrow transplant, and fought through months of discomfort and weakness to come out victorious in the end. He remained hopeful and steadfast through it all. He had been nearly two full years in remission at the time of his passing.

Despite a lifetime of achievements and artistic creations that would make anyone proud, Richard will be most remembered by friends and family for his beautiful goofball spirit, a smile that instantly said you were in good company, and an ability to connect to anyone instantly with humor and sincerity. We will all miss him terribly but also be forever thankful for the time we had together.

In addition to his father Anthony, Richard is survived by his beloved wife Lisa D (Hollis) Jenkins; his sister Katharine M ("little Kate") Jenkins and her husband Dorian R Hart; his adoring nieces Elanor Hart and Kira Hart; his father's wife Constance W Jenkins and her daughter Ramona M Goff; and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends around the world.

A memorial service celebrating Richard's life will be held on Saturday, March 7, 2026, at the Old South United Methodist Church 6 Salem St. Reading, MA at 11:00am EST.  The service will be streamed via Facebook Live, showing up as a post on the church's Facebook page a few minutes before the service begins, and remaining available for a month afterwards: https://www.facebook.com/oldsouthumc

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Richard's memory to The Michigan Maritime Museum https://michiganmaritimemuseum.org/ or The Great Lakes Museum (The S.S. Keewatin) https://greatlakesmuseum.ca/ For directions and online guest book, see Richard's obituary page at www.johnbdouglassfuneralhome.com