39 Year Doylestown Bar Manager Killed in Tragic Crash

DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH, Pa. —One of Doylestown’s longtime bar managers, known for his flamboyant personality and his quiet caring for others, died tragically early Friday morning in a crash on Saw Mill Road.

The tragedy has stunned the close knit Bucks County community, which has been Richard "Richie" Wylie’s lifelong home since his birth 60 years ago in 1961. And it has left the people closest to him heartbroken.

“Big Rich,” as they called him down at Finney’s Pub on South Main Street where he had worked as a bar manager for 39 years, is being remembered as a man who thoroughly enjoyed his job and who gave his heart out to everybody.

Wylie grew up in Doylestown and graduated from Central Bucks West High School. He began working at Finney’s when he was 21 and quickly became a town fixture.

For 39 years, he worked at the pub, typically putting in 60 hour work weeks tending bar. And he was good at his job, one year winning the title of third best bartender in the nation.

Outside the doors to the pub on Saturday where Richie spent much of his life, a makeshift memorial of flowers and mementos filled the sidewalk. And a sign on the door read simply, “closed.”

Wylie’s friends are planning a candlelight vigil on Monday evening along Main Street beginning at Finney's at 8:30 p.m. They are asking everyone to “create a pathway of light” down Main Street “to honor the light that Rich was in our lives.”

And Richie was indeed a light to many, said his brother, Tim, who owns Nat’s Pizza on West State Street.

“He did so much charity work, but never put his name to it,” said Tim. “He just gave, gave, gave, but with no recognition. He did not want it. He did not need it.”

“He gave his heart out to everyone,” adds his sister, Trish.

Tim said his brother’s legacy can be found in the countless lives he has touched through the years, including the hundreds of couples he has brought together.

“I just called the Waterwheel Inn. The manager said he had his first drink with Richie. I heard that not once, between yesterday and today, but at least 500 people have reached out to me and everybody is saying the same thing. I had my first drink with Richie. I had my first shot. I met
my husband. I met my wife through Richie at the bar. A lot of firsts that he did. He’s done a lot for a lot of people.”

Richie grew up with two brothers - Tim and Steve - and a sister, Trish, who shared a very special family bond.

“We were all so different, but so alike, but Richie was the flamboyant one,” said Tim. “He was very outspoken. You either loved Richie or you hated him.”

Those that hated him had usually been thrown out of the bar, said Tim. “Everyone else said he was a sweetheart or that he helped them out in some kind of way.”

Tim said his brother sometimes could be a real character, recalling one Halloween when Richie came to the bar dressed as a werewolf.

“He comes in and goes racing around. Everybody was saying, ‘Richie, Richie,’ but he wouldn’t talk. So he comes up to me and tells me to go outside. So I go outside and he says, ‘Put on the outfit.’ So I walk in the front of the bar and he walks in the back. Everybody saw Richie and
said, ‘We thought it was you.’ So I walked around for 10 minutes and then I go back out and he flipped again,” said Tim. “He’s a nut,” said his brother. “People couldn’t figure out who it was. He liked to stir it around like that. He was the center of attraction.”

And the bar, said Tim, was Richie’s stage. He always wore crazy shirts to match the holidays whether it was the Fourth of July, Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day. “It was his world. That’s where he was the star.”

But when he had to be serious, he was, added Tim. “He hopped the bar a couple of times that I saw. He was a big guy and he handled business, but he handled everything his way.

“I always said he was a better chef than a bartender," said Tim. "But he loved bartending because he got to see the people. As a cook, he was amazing. He had a knack for it. Bartending was his true love. Cooking was a hobby and fun.”

He also loved golfing and shooting pool, spending nearly every Sunday on the links.

“Sometimes he’d come out of the back room with a mop and shoot with a mop - and he’d
beat everybody,” said Tim. “He’s a character. Every day was an adventure with him. You never knew what was going to happen from one day to the next. He was one of a kind.”

A viewing will be held Wednesday night from 5 to 8 p.m. at Reed and Steinbach Funeral Home, 2335 Lower State Road, Doylestown.

Relatives and friends are invited to his memorial service at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 23 at the funeral home where the family will greet guests from 10 a.m. until the time of the service. Interment will follow in the Doylestown Cemetery.