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A Fitting Tribute

Southwestern Honors ‘Capt. Rick’ With Bus Drive-By

Several buses are pictured Monday afternoon during a tribute to Rick Willman, a longtime bus driver for the Southwestern Central School District. Capt. Rick, as he was known, died Feb. 7 at UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa. Submitted photo

He was best known locally as Capt. Rick.

But for the Southwestern Central School District, Rick Willman was a two-decades-long employee who had an affinity for remembering students’ names and their accomplishments.

“He was always so personable and friendly,” said Southwestern Superintendent Maureen Donahue.

Though remembered widely as the longtime owner of the Summer Wind, the scenic cruiser of Chautauqua Lake that could be spotted often during summer evenings, Willman also served as a substitute teacher at Southwestern before he became a bus driver. In all, he spent about two decades with the school district.

Donahue said Capt. Rick — as he became to be known to most — was loved by students and other bus drivers. “He knew the students by name and recognized them when they did something,” she said.

Willman died Sunday, Feb. 7, at UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa. He was 71.

To honor Willman, several Southwestern buses drove past a relative’s home Monday afternoon.

“Everybody loved Capt. Rick,” Donahue said. “He drove our kids on sports runs and extra runs. He was one of the drivers who knew kids by name. All of our drivers do this; we have a great transportation department. One of the drivers wanted to do a drive-by of his house. It helps bring closure for our drivers.”

Willman spoke to The Post-Journal in October of last year after repairs to the Summer Wind had been finished. The cruiser was damaged in a June 2019 storm in which wind sheared off the upper deck.

Then a worldwide pandemic struck.

“It has been devastating for business,” Willman said of the Summer Wind being out of service for more than a year, due to the damage followed by COVID-19. “I’ve lost all my tourists. The COVID is not helping us, either.”

Willman expressed excitement of getting the boat back onto the lake for the 2021 season.

“They’ve done a good job restructuring it,” he said of the work done on the boat by Jamestown-based Williams Fabricating that included replacing the deck and constructing a support structure to hold a new canvas.

“We’ve redesigned it a little bit to make it a little more usable and better. … We’re going to go through the boat and revive everything and hope to be up and running in late May or early June after we get all of our testing and everything.”

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