It is with great sadness that we announce the death of

Richard Blendon Wunder on March 1st, 2026, at his home in Jupiter, Florida. The cause was gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

He was born in Evanston, Illinois, to Gustave Frederick Wunder and Nancy Reavill.

When Richard was three years old and his brother William was two, the family moved overseas to Wimbledon, England, where two more brothers, Robert and Michael were born.

One day, at eleven years old, with the Wimbledon tennis tournament in full swing, he followed a well trodden path towards “Ye Olde Sweet Shoppe”. As he was closing in, with thoughts of Pear Drops and Aniseed Twist taking shape, he found himself, instead, committing his first heroic act. He accomplished this by lunging for a baby laden pram rolling down an incline and preventing it from entering a street of moving traffic. The momentarily distracted mother and her friends were ecstatic and full of high praise, although the imagined bags full of sweets were, ultimately, not forthcoming.

After fourteen years in England, the last two of which were often spent prowling along King’s Road and Carnaby street, the family moved back to the United States, near Boston.

Richard received a B.A. from Clark University, studying political science and psychology. It was there that he met the enchanting Haleh Pourafzal, and they were married the following year in Paris.

In the early 1980’s he started a boat chartering business in Fort Lauderdale, taking clients on sightseeing tours and fishing trips along the coast.

After moving to Charleston, S.C, he indulged his passion for cooking, and started his second business casting stone replicas of architectural garden furniture, ornamental sculpture and a variety of planters. For several years Richard exhibited his wares at the annual Philadelphia Flower Show, where he invariably won awards for exhibition design and presentation. It didn’t take long for him to distinguish between the buyers and the lookers. If they didn’t touch an object and feel its weight and texture, they were just looking. If someone picked up a particular object, he might exclaim: “Ahh, now that one was cast by a Scotsman!” This was no stretching of the truth, for in Charleston he had befriended and hired two young graduates on an extended visit from Glasgow.

Those that knew Richard in life will miss his incisive wit and sense of humor.

He was one that marched to the beat of his own drum, often accompanied by trumpets and other colorful instruments.

Richard is survived by his mother, brothers William and Robert, and his niece, Jennifer. He is preceded in death by his father, Gus, brother Michael, and former wife, Haleh.