Richard Douglas Pounds, a longtime Village resident and a conservator who designed the restoration of the Washington Square Arch and worked on projects including Grand Central Station, City Hall and the Appellate Courthouse on Madison Square Park, died June 3 of a heart attack at a work site a month before his 50th birthday.
About 200 friends, neighbors and colleagues, including the young members of the Astros, the Greenwich Village Little League baseball team than he coached, gathered with his family at the Greenwich Village Funeral Home on June 8 to celebrate his life.
Born in Montclair, N.J., to Donald and Therese Pounds, he went to Montclair public schools and then studied at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. He earned a bachelor’s degree in art history and a master’s from Columbia University.
A music lover, particularly of blues, he met his future wife, Bette Goldwert, at Lone Star Café in the Village while he was a student at Parsons. They were married in 1989.
As a conservator, he worked for various contractors specializing in historic preservation, including Arca Technologies, the subsidiary of Building Conservation Associates, which did the Washington Square Arch project.
In addition to his wife, his two sons, Jordan and Jason, his mother, two sisters, five brothers and 11 nieces and nephews survive. Greenwich Village Funeral Home, 199 Bleecker St., was in charge of arrangements.
