ROCK SOLID

Tariq Malik

Larry Richey has rocks on the brain and veterans in his heart.

For the last three years, the Huntington Beach man has volunteered at

the Long Beach Veteran’s Hospital’s vocational rehabilitation program,

teaching and training war veterans in lapidary, the art of cutting or

polishing gems and stones and turning them into jewelry.

“These are the ones who made it,” Richey said of the veterans. “I just

wanted to find a way to contribute and help them.”

Himself a Vietnam War veteran, serving in the Army from 1966 to 1967,

Richey, 56, said he teaches both inpatient and outpatient veterans who

have been referred to the program by doctors for therapy and recreation.

“It’s a definite learning experience,” said Chuck Williams, 60, of

Cerritos, who served in the Vietnam War. “A lot of people who come here

are handicapped in some way, but we can all make a project ourselves.”

Richey got into rocks and lapidary work 25 years ago while reloading

ammunition casings for the Long Beach Police Department.

“It was really a fluke,” he said. “I used a rock tumbler to clean the

casings and then learned how to use it to polish rocks.”

Though the rocks took up to eight weeks to polish, the work quickly

turned into a hobby and Richey would collect samples on camping trips and

pass the finished stones out to neighborhood children.

After some self-teaching, he learned not only to identify 150

different minerals found in California, Arizona and Nevada, but also how

to turn them into polished stones -- his favorite gem is opal -- into

jewelry with the help of silversmithing, wirework and other skills.

He has since been inducted to the National Rockhound and Lapidary Hall

of Fame in Murdo, S.D., for his prowess at jewelry-making.

“He’s the main guy here,” said Tung Do, the hospital’s lapidary

volunteer supervisor. “The people like him and the way he presents

himself as a person, which is something that is extremely important for

new participants.”

When veterans make their first trip to the lapidary center at the

hospital, it can be easy for them to get lost because of the skills and

machinery used in the craft, hospital officials said.

Richey has a way of relating the technique needed, and fostering

understanding in those new to the class, Do added.

But Richey’s focus remains on helping his fellow veterans, and even

before he started volunteering, he would donate rock slabs as supplies

for the lapidary program.

“The majority of the public gets out to recognize veterans on the

Fourth of July or Memorial Day -- a couple days a year,” Richey said.

“But here, I can help them learn a skill, they help each other, it’s a

family.”