ORRINGTON – Merrill ‘Richie’ Richardson died Tuesday at the age of 94.

Richardson worked 50 years at the Bangor Daily News, retiring in 1979. When he joined the paper it was located on Exchange Street, had 20 pages and sold for three cents.

He worked making lead plates and in 1974, when the paper changed its method of making plates, he moved to the pressroom.

Richardson lost an arm as the result of an accident at the NEWS. It didn’t hinder him a lot.

“He did as much with one arm as most do with two,” said Charlie Villard, a production operations supervisor at the paper and a trainee under Richardson in the ’70s.

“He was big-hearted and would do anything for you,” Villard said.

Jim Harris, who currently works on the press, remembers Richardson driving a small motorcycle with one arm.

Harris remembers him as a nice guy.

When he retired, Richardson told a NEWS reporter that he remembered working 12 hours a day during the Great Depression to put the paper out.

Longtime Orrington residents, Richardson and his wife, Eva, were active members at the First United Methodist Church of Orrington.

Alvah Mallory, another longtime member at the church, said Richardson “enjoyed the music and no matter what was going on, he would hum along with it.”

Richardson is survived by Eva and four of their six children. His funeral will be 1 p.m. Saturday at the First United Methodist Church in Orrington. He will be buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, also in Orrington.