Man dies in Florida fishing accident

Former Middleboro man dies in Florida boating accident

Apr 19, 2011

MIDDLEBORO — Richard Green had just pulled a trophy-sized Spanish mackerel from the Gulf of Mexico when the winds kicked up and the waves began building.

His boat’s engine cut out. The waves rolled over the transom. The boat capsized, sending Green, 55, formerly of Middleboro, and his three fishing buddies into the water off the coast of New Port Richey, in western Florida.

A fearless 15-year-old neighbor who was also on board struggled to save them. He could not.

“He’s a hero,” Green’s wife, Rose Green, said of the teen, Dustin Bush. “He tried to hold my husband up as long as he could.”

The men were not wearing life jackets.

Rose Green, formerly Rose Grande of Brockton, said her husband will be cremated April 30 at Gulf Harbors in New Port Richey. His ashes will be scattered at sea.

“That’s what he wanted,” she said.

Green was raised in Middleboro, went to high school in town. He tended bar at the 99 Restaurant in Easton for years and ran a carpentry business called Small Jobs.

“Rick bought the house across the street to fix up,” his brother-in-law, Stephen Grande, said, recalling how Green met the woman who he would later marry. “We invited him over for a cookout, he met my sister and they fell in love.”

“He always treated my sister with respect,” Grande said. “He was a good brother-in-law. I will miss him.”

The couple married on Lake Assawompset in 2003 and built a home on Route 28 in Middleboro.

They sold it and moved to Florida in 2005.

Rose Green said her husband loved hunting and fishing.

A Florida Fish and Wildlife spokesman said Green and his friends were on a 22-foot boat when four- to six-foot waves swept the entire crew into the water Saturday.

They had earlier tried to return to shore as conditions became choppier, but their motor failed.

“Rick was a great guy. He was a good family man,” Grande said. “It’s a tragedy.”.

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