People stand in Pickering Square in downtown Bangor in April 2020. Robert Kearns helped run a free lunch in the square, where he met his friend Gary Rich, who died Friday in a crash in Bangor. Credit: Natalie Williams / BDN

Friends of a man killed while he was crossing a street in Bangor described him as someone who was always ready for a coffee and conversation.

Gary Rich, 74, was attempting to cross Broadway near York and Oak streets in Bangor when he was struck by a pickup truck Friday night. He was immediately transported to a local hospital, but ultimately died, Sgt. Wade Betters, Bangor police spokesperson, said Monday.

Bangor resident Robert Kearns said Rich was a “real nice man” and is “glad to have called him a friend.”

Kearns said he first met Rich when he dropped by for a free lunch that Kearns was helping to run in Pickering Square. Rich recognized Kearns as the guy who runs one of the local scanner pages on Facebook, he said.

Rich would generally just come to have a coffee and chat about what was going on in the city, Kearns said.  

“He was a great guy with a wonderful sense of humor and a true concern for those homeless, addicted and/or suffering mental illness,” he said.

On Facebook other people in the scanner group — to which Rich belonged — said he was a great guy and loved to chat.

Rich’s Facebook profile listed him as being from Lewiston but living in Bangor.

Bangor police are continuing to reconstruct the crash.

Avatar photo

Sawyer Loftus

Sawyer Loftus is an investigative reporter at the Bangor Daily News. A graduate of the University of Vermont, Sawyer grew up in Vermont where he worked for Vermont Public Radio, The Burlington Free Press...