Richard Alan Threadgill, Jr. (Rick) was born on October 25, 1976 in Memphis, TN to his parents Richard and Cathy Threadgill.

At age 2, Rick and family moved to Tulsa, OK. He attended Catholic grade school, and was recognized with rewards for his paintings and short books. He was a cub scout, basketball player,  baseball player, and  team swimmer. He was loved by all, and several grade school friends remained friends his entire life. He named his first dog, a fawn boxer, Sparky. He enjoyed skiing with Mom and Dad during several trips to Colorado.

The family moved to New Orleans where Rick attended junior High. He continued playing baseball and basketball. He was captain of his baseball team and he was elected to the baseball all stars  team for his pitching ability. He participated in debate, and math competitions. In the eighth grade he was selected to participate in the Governor's Program in Louisiana for his academic and artwork. He also started teaching himself how to play the guitar, the beginning of his lifetime passion for music. He loved Mardi Gras and New Orleans cuisine.

Rick attended the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, starting as a Freshman in 1995.  He majored in Neuroscience.  Freshman year he was a founding member of the Crackhouse. A force for justice across the freshman quad.  Second semester Freshman year he became a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.  In the fraternity sports league, he won a 3v3 basketball championship and quarterbacked the football team to an important victory over their mortal enemy: the SAE fraternity.  Junior year he moved off-campus and took up playing bass again.  Rick also began his neuroscience research at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.  He graduated in 1999.

In 1997, he began playing bass and singing in the band, Tube.  It was Rick's junior year, and he and Tim were hanging out in Rick's room at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house.  They started jamming, and Tim saw something in Rick right away that could not be taught... soul!  Tim invited Rick to try out for Tube, and soon after, he formally joined the band.  Rick worked incredibly hard on developing his bass playing, and his composition skills, and became an integral member of the band.  

Tube released three albums, "Fall", "Winter" and "The Spring Pig" and Rick's compositions are highlighted on all three.  The band stayed together for years, well after graduating.  From 1998-2000, they had regular weekly gigs at PJs, Paloma's and the 13th Floor, in Baltimore.  Tube began informally touring in 2001 and played shows from Burlington on down to Tennessee.  A few memorable stars even made appearances at Tube shows, notably Joaquin Phoenix (from the movie "The Joker") and Terry O'Quinn (John Locke from "Lost").

Rick's composition "Going Before This", the first track on "The Spring Pig" won not one, but two awards from the MBSTIA Undiscovered Artists Awards in 2003.  The song won "Best Instrumental Songwriter" and "Best Musician".  This track is featured in the background music of this memorial.

Rick continued to play and tour with the band until 2004.  The guys all remained close and continued to play music together over the years, and reunited for a pair of Homecoming Reunion concerts in 2018.

Rick moved to the Boston area in November, 2004, and began working as a scientist at Cell Signal Technology, joining fellow Hopkins alum Ned Jastromb.  Rick came up for the weekend in October 2004 (CST job interview and apartment hunting) and watched the Red Sox win the World Series. Then ironically Rick, Adam Harper and crew ran into Tim and Ned on the Esplanade.

Rick lived in Beverly for 2+ years, then he bought at house and moved to Merrimac, MA in January 2007. Rick was constantly hosting in Merrimac.  One time in particular everyone got snowed in at his house for three straight days.  Adam, using his architect skills, designed a kick ass deck and a basement bar (complete with a hidden room).  Alas, both went unfinished.  

Rick was an integral and beloved part of the team at CST.  He pretty much single handedly developed Cell Signal's entire siRNA product line, and the same procedures he introduced for siRNA were then also applied to aid in the Ab validation process. In 2014, he won a CEO award for this at the annual meeting.

He was a part of the first Education in Science committee at CST that allocates funds to local science programs in the area. Annually, he also volunteered as a science fair judge at one of the local schools in Beverly.

Rick was also heavily involved in organizing the CST employee art shows in the Yi Tan room with Dave Comb - creating the schedule, helping employees hang their art, etc.

Over the last 10 years, Rick and Adam met regularly at the Longhorn Steakhouse in Natrick and then went to see a movie at the IMax right there.  Rick spoke of this frequently, as well as going to the Amesbury Fireman annual chili cookout.  Rick also looked forward to his annual trip to the Brodown on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for a vacation filled with music, delicious food, games and games with great friends.