Rich Hafstead was my business partner for a quarter century and my friend for nearly thirty years. He died last week. His death is a tremendous loss for me personally, for his family, for our extended family of staff and friends, and for those who have supported our business ventures over the years.
Since opening our first store in 1985, Jim Hanley's Universe has been a labor of love for both of us. As Rich would say, it had to be, as it was sure never very profitable. We've tried, with our many dedicated staff members, to provide a friendly, comfortable place for our customers, many of whom became our friends, to shop for the comics and other great merchandise we love to sell.
Over the years, many have mistaken the store with my name on the sign for a product solely of my imagination. This has always been a false notion, but one Rich was comfortable with. He was also comfortable with me having to deal with the false celebrity that naming a business after oneself brings with it.
I'm not sure that I ever was able to convey to people, though, just how important Rich was to the enterprise. In essence, there could never have been a Jim Hanley's Universe without him. As my previous comics retailing business partnership failed, late in 1984, there was little likelihood that I would continue to sell comics. Rich stepped in, though, and committed to help me start a new store, on which we plastered my name.
(As that previous store was being set up, Rich had no patience for the epic debates between my then-partners and me over a store name. Rich just said, "I'd call it Jim's Comics and be done with it." A few years later, he got his wish, more or less.)
Over the years, the business (and our friendship) went through many ups and downs, but we always maintained a fundamental respect for one another and an absolute trust that each had the other's back.
I believe that Rich should be remembered as a good, honorable man, who would never deliberately hurt anyone. Even when we were confronted with dishonest and unethical treatment by others, Rich never bore a grudge. We laughed together through adversity and our friendship escaped relatively unscathed.
My first business partnership was with a dear childhood friend and that friendship suffered irreparable harm from the strains caused by being in business together. Rich and I managed to overcome many of these same strains, even though there were some emotional injuries sustained by each of us along the way.
Rich's natural mathematical bent was a tremendous help in our years as partners. When there was an issue of whether we should take a risk or try something new, Rich could be depended on to ask the tough questions and to do the math to test my dreams' chances of succeeding.
When we were confronted by fixture manufacturers, who couldn't deliver in a timely way, nor at an affordable price, Rich taught himself carpentry and rudimentary electrical wiring, so he could build what we needed.
He was tireless, working very long hours, often by himself, to build out our stores and keep them in business. In recent years, as his health deteriorated, he had to scale back on his marathon work days and his "do-it-all-myself" ways. He always wanted to be everywhere, all the time, but in the process of doing that, he sacrificed his own health too often.
In earlier years, Rich often quoted something he had read somewhere to the effect that every successful business needed a dreamer, a businessman, and a son of a bitch. Then, he'd pause before asking, with a wink, "Where the Hell are we going to find a businessman?"
Now, we're on our own. Ron Hill, who was my very first employee, and Nick Purpura, who was one of my first customers (both on our very first day at The Merchant of Venus, in 1983) continue to run things. With them, I hope that Jim Hanley's Universe can continue past our twenty-fifth anniversary, next May, to our thirtieth, fortieth and fiftieth anniversaries, serving our original customers into their old age and their children and grand-children into theirs. We have always said we want to sell you your comics for the rest of your lives. I hope we can continue to do that as well or better than we have done up until now.
And, as Rich would implore, "a bit more profitably, please."
Jim Hanley
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