If you had a question about Charleston's past - whether it be the old Charleston High School or how the Civil War impacted the Kanawha Valley - Richard Andre was the man to call.
The longtime Charleston historian - described in a 1998 Charleston Gazette article as "a walking, talking history book with bygone information on Charleston and the Kanawha Valley" - died on Monday morning. Andre, a lifelong resident of Charleston, was 74.
Andre's friend and colleague, Stan Cohen, said Andre had been in failing health for a year or so.
"I'd say he dedicated his whole life really to historic preservation," Cohen said. "Charleston and Kanawha County basically has lost a very important person that was deeply involved in city and county history with books and collecting artifacts."
Starting in the late 1980s, Cohen and Andre co-wrote five historical books on Charleston and West Virginia. Their first project, "Kanawha County Images, Volume 1" was an extensive pictorial history to celebrate Kanawha County's bicentennial celebration. The year of the book's release, 1987, Cohen estimated that the two broke the record in the amount of book sales at the Capital City Art and Craft Show in Charleston.
"One of the most gratifying things I've ever been involved with was doing 'Kanawha County Images.' Over 12,000 copies have been sold, and it's still going like a locomotive," Andre told the Gazette in 1998.
The two went on to publish "Kanawha County Images, Volume 2." They also worked extensively before Charleston High School was torn down to publish a history on the school, titled "Roar Lions Roar." Andre and Cohen also published a history of Civil War activity in the Kanawha Valley, "Bullets and Steel"; and a history of West Virginia's capitol buildings. All five books were published by Cohen's publishing company, Pictorial Histories Publishing Co.
In the 1998 interview, Andre credited his love for history to his father, B.E. Andre.
"My dad was born in 1886 in old-time Charleston. He was a teenager at the turn of the century, which is my specialty. I love the lore and aura of ragtime Charleston," Andre said.
His father's service in World War I also sprouted a passion in Andre for studying war history.
"He just knew a lot about everything," Cohen said.
Employed as a mortgage broker, Andre eventually made enough money from the sale of family property to allow him to dedicate himself to his passion.
Until his death, he was a board member on the Kanawha Valley Historical and Preservation Society and one of the original founders of the Spring Hill Cemetery Park Commission.
Andre's friend, Jerry Waters, said Andre made it a point to help preserve the history of the old Charleston cemetery. He helped to restore the historical property, and completed a number of improvements to the site, such as adding historical markers next to the graves of people and families that played an influential role in Charleston's history.
"It from being a forgotten cemetery to a place that came alive in so many ways," Waters said.
Andre will be buried there on Thursday.
For over a decade, Andre contributed a running pictorial feature - titled "The Way it Was" and "20th Century Images" - to the Charleston Gazette and Gazette-Mail. He'd find old photographs of Charleston, research their history and write about them for the paper.
Not only was Andre a wealth of historical knowledge, he also knew everyone in town, Cohen said. "He knows more people in town than anybody - well maybe not the mayor," Cohen said.
Charleston's mayor, Danny Jones, said he was sad to hear the news of Andre's death.
"He had as much affection for Charleston as anyone I've known in my life," Jones said.
Bartlett-Burdette-Cox Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. According to the funeral home, Andre's visitation will be held at the funeral home, at 513 Tennessee Ave. in Charleston, on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. His funeral will be held on Thursday at 1 p.m. His burial will follow at Spring Hill Cemetery.
Reach Anna Patrick
at anna.patrick@wvgazettemail.com or 304-348-4881.