Richard Bynum

Richard Cary Bynum was born on March 15, 1937 (the Ides of March as he liked to warn) at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, the first son of Judge Paul C. Bynum and Ethel Rutherford Bynum. Growing up in the idyllic neighborhood of Kirkwood in the early 40s he formed a posse of lifelong friends with whom he stayed close until the end of his life. As they went through Murphy High together, he was the jock, playing football every season and winning the Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight Championship of Georgia. At West Georgia College where he went to continue football, he was recruited by friends to play male leads for the campus theater and won the Best Actor trophy both years he was there. Drama stole his heart and he finished his college years at UGA immersed in acting and playwriting and paying little attention to what the Dawgs were doing then.

After a stint in the Army and acting on the local scene he was ready to head for New York City, when his heart was stolen a second time by a young lady he didn't know when he saw her in a play at the old Academy Theater. But that did not stop him from calling her on the phone the next day and asking her to marry him. She slightly demurred, but not for long and thus began a ten-year stay in New York which started with a production of his first full-length play "Hornblend" at the legendary Circle in the Square Theater in Greenwich Village and bohemian life in a tenement apartment in Alphabet City on the Lower East Side. Perfect - until the advent of their first son propelled him to go straight with a successful career in publishing on Madison Avenue and, when the second son arrived, a move back to Atlanta to have the boys grow up around family and trees. He was the Founding Director of the GSU Business Press which won numerous awards for its first-class list. During this time, he and his wife Brenda founded The Southern Poets Theatre which focused on developing plays based on the language and ethos of their beloved home ground and resulted in the production of "Cabbagetown:Three Women" which was performed all over Atlanta and the state for over 20 years with the original cast, filmed for television by PBS and nominated for an Emmy. He continued to write plays for production and published a volume of performed scripts, as well as 2 collections of short stories, all the while doing everything a father should do including coaching both soccer and basketball, directing a huge production of "Little Mary Sunshine" for his oldest son's 7th grade class at Fernbank and Executive Producing his youngest son's class performance of "Oklahoma". After getting them both through college he was able to retire from publishing at age 60 and finally found his true writing passion - poetry! The work in three published volumes (Night Streetcars, Sea Vigil, The Chinaberry Tree) attest to his unique vision of life in the urban south and the instinct for language that brings it alive.

Brenda retired in 2000 and for the next quarter century they had the best times of their lives as together they traveled from Moscow to Cairo and everywhere in between and loved crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary II. Then in 2005 the first grandson was born and before long he was right back on the sides of soccer fields all over Georgia. And, lo and behold, his second grandson turned out to be a lover of the stage and performance, as if their beloved PopPop had passed along his twin passions of sports and art to them in equal measure. Every day of those last 25 years he just wanted to wake up and seize the day with his Wing Woman at his side and she was happy to oblige. And long, lazy days in their rocking chairs on the screened back porch watching hummingbirds together may have been the best times of all.

Cary is survived by his wife, Brenda, his sons Brennon and Quin (and wife Katherine) and his grandsons extraordinaire Royce and Whit. Also by his brother David (and wife Sandra) along with nieces and nephews, great-nephews, and one great-great nephew.

All of Cary's professional papers are in the collection of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia and the family requests that you consider a donation to the Hargrett in lieu of flowers to honor the tradition of words on paper.