Richard Gabriel Rummonds passed away on August 23, 2024, age 93. Gabriel grew up in Sacramento, California, and attended UC Berkeley for a brief time, eventually moving in 1970 to Verona, Italy. While in Verona Gabriel hand-printed poetry books on an iron press. He was quite proud of being the first openly gay American to use this form of printing. He founded Plain Wrapper Press and Ex Ophidia Imprints while there. In 1984 he accepted a faculty position at the University of Alabama, where he was the founding director of the MFA in Book Arts. He is also the author of Fantasies and Hard Knocks: My Life As A Printer, an 800 page memoir and tell all of his life. A life long connoisseur and cook of good food, he appended a self-developed recipe at the end of each chapter. Gabriel moved to Port Townsend, WA in 1992. He will be missed by many people far and wide.
