The Shadow
Editor’s Note: The writer occasionally served as a volunteer driver in recent years for Duling’s Sgt. Santa activities.
RICHMOND (AP) – A Virginia police detective who became Santa Claus to generations of poor children in Richmond’s toughest neighborhoods has died.
Ricky Duling, 84, died Saturday of complications of an unspecified viral infection he had battled in recent months.
He was known throughout central Virginia as Sgt. Santa.
In 1973, the Richmond police sergeant began dispensing toys, candy and other treats to children in the mean streets and housing projects where he worked many of his cases.
After retiring 22 years ago, the white-whiskered former undercover cop operated his one-man charity full time, donning a white-trimmed red costume with sergeant’s chevrons on its sleeve.
He amassed a warehouse of donated gifts he took to needy children on Christmas Eve, all of them given without him ever soliciting contributions.
Besides his holiday missions that served thousands of children in the Richmond region, Duling would visit the ill and elderly.
His giving was not limited to the holidays. He routinely showed up unexpectedly with boxes of basic aid supplies for families whose homes had burned or been flooded or who had suffered other profound setbacks such as illnesses.
As diminishing eyesight forced him to stop driving himself, dozens of volunteers became his personal chauffeurs.
Duling’s wife, Ruby, died in May. He had called her his chief elf.
A private funeral is planned. Details for a public memorial were not available Monday.
