- Date Of Birth: September 9, 1957
- Date Of Death: June 13, 2016
- State: Virginia
Rick was born in 1957 to Tom Hendrix and Joanna Bailey (deceased) in Kingsport, Tennessee, but was mostly raised with his two sisters, Becky and Susan, in Maryville, Tennessee, graduating in 1975 and then attending the University of Tennessee. Rick took off from UT during every election – politics ran deep in his blood – and he graduated Class of 1980 with a degree in Political Science. Rick was brought to Washington, D.C. by friend and mentor Morton Blackwell to work for the Conservative Leadership PAC. His training in direct mail came under the tutelage of Bruce Eberle. He then joined the Leadership Institute in 1993 and was instrumental in building the Institutes donor base more than ten-fold. Over the course of his career he formed his own company, Hendrix Direct, worked on Capitol Hill for a time, ran a couple of campaigns, and finally found his home when he and partner Dave Bufkin formed ClearWord Communications Group, a high-dollar direct mail marketing firm, in 2005. Rick was always active in conservative politics and served on the State Central Committee for several years, was parliamentarian of the Prince William Republican Party, and served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Elections of Prince William County. He was also past president of the Sons of the American Revolution. His other great love was his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which he joined in 1981. He married Taania Bradshaw in 1983 and they had three beautiful daughters, Emily, Laura, and Megan. He loved his girls very much and was so happy to see them all graduate college – the last one just a few weeks ago. Rick was diagnosed in 2014 with Interstitial Lung Disease, an auto-immune disorder, that became very suddenly life-threatening in January of 2015. He received the gift of a double-lung transplant January 27th, 2015, and much of the last year and a half has been spent in hospitals or rehabs because of continued complications and illnesses associated with the lungs. They finally gave out on June 13th, and he was surrounded by his family as he peacefully passed away to a better eternity.
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