Richard J Solomon

Richard Jay Solomon September 25, 1939 – September 10, 2025 Richard Jay Solomon, of Monson, MA, passed away on September 10, 2025, following several months of illness. He was 85 years old. Born in New York City to Alfred P. and Bessie Solomon, Richard was an only child and grew up in the Bronx. As a child, he traveled by train with his parents, making early memorable journeys behind steam locomotives into the Catskills on the now long-forgotten New York, Ontario & Western. These and other journeys encouraged his lifelong passion for railroads, travel, and photography which earned him countless friends with whom he shared his interests. His love of railroads was not just a hobby but a way of seeing the world — one frame, one journey at a time. He passed this love of travel and railroads to his sons, Brian and Sean. Richard was married to Maureen Daniel in April 1965 and his family moved to Monson, Mass., on July 13, 1973.

Richard had a long and unusually productive career working as a magazine editor, transportation planner, research associate, and scientist. He was a visionary inventor looking to innovate, and he developed advanced communication and information technologies. Mr. Solomon was the co-author of the book The Gordian Knot: Gridlock on the Information Highway (MIT Press 1997). Through the 1980s and early 1990s, he was a research associate at MIT’s Media Lab and served on various U.S delegations to the International Telecommunication Union to help establish HDTV standards, consulted for the U.S. State Department on telecommunications and HDTV, and was a consultant on information technologies to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris and the European Commission in Brussels. He held more than a dozen patents and patents-pending on high-density information storage, telecommunications, computer, Internet protocols and applications, and imaging devices. From the late 1990s, Richard was Senior Scientist at U-Penn studying the interfaces between super high-speed networking, electronic imaging, and the human perceptual system. Over the past decade, Richard had worked tirelessly as a partner in Creative Technology LLC in the development of high-density Write Once, Read Forever data storage. In 2019, this was tested by NASA on the International Space Station. In his spare time he and Maureen had been regular participants in the Monson Arts Council’s annual art shows, while his railroad photographs have appeared in dozens of magazine articles and books. He and Maureen loved to visit art museums and listen to concerts.

He will be remembered for his unusual intelligence, and countless hours spent sharing his knowledge of trains, photography, history and technology with friends, family, and fellow travelers, inventors and railroad enthusiasts.

Richard leaves his wife, K. Maureen (Daniel) Solomon and their sons, Brian D. Solomon and his wife Krista, Sean E. Solomon and his wife Isabelle M. Dijols; cousins, Ilene Pierz and her husband Michael Pierz, Elliot Lehman and his wife Christina Cioffero Lehman; in-laws, Penelope Ortolano and her husband Alexander, William R. Daniel and his wife Pam, Cornelia Daniel and her husband Jim Fay, Mark Daniel and his wife Cathy Smith, Kirby Anne Daniel and her husband Jim Alger.

Services have been entrusted to Lombard Funeral Home 3 Bridge St Monson, MA. A Gathering of Family and Friends will take place Sunday, October 19, 2025 from 1-2:30pm followed by a time of shared Reflections beginning at 2:30.

In lieu of flowers the family suggests donations be made in his memory to a railroad preservation society or museum of your choice.

For online condolences please visit www.lombardfuneralhome.com

Richard’s spirit will forever ride the trains he loved so much.