Clinton resident Richard Enders remembered as lawyer, family man, 'Scrooge' for 28 years

Sharry Whitney always will remember Clinton resident Richard Enders in his lawyer dress shoes walking across muddy cow pastures while filming the TV program "Mohawk Valley Living."

Enders, 79, who died Thursday, hosted "Mohawk Valley Living," which Whitney and her husband, Lance, produced since 2005 as a weekly program on WKTV and more recently as a monthly program.

Enders also was well known in the area as a lawyer, the Oneida County district attorney from 1971 to 1981, and star of the Players of Utica's “Scrooge, The Musical” for 28 years.

As host of Mohawk Valley Living, Enders always wore khaki pants and a blue shirt, an “everyman” uniform suggested by Whitney's husband. But he didn’t need them, she said.

“I don’t think that was actually necessary,” she said, “because it was real. Everything he said was real. People got that. People told us that all the time.”

And that authenticity included his love of the Mohawk Valley, she said.

“He did not act,” Whitney said. “Even though he was an actor, his love of the area was real.”

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Enders was happiest, Whitney said, when filming took them to East Utica, Sharon Springs or anywhere that put him on a horse, in a racecar or on a farm tractor.

“He always said if he could do it over again,” she recalled, “he’d be a farmer and not a lawyer.”

'Most of all, he loved his family'

Peter Loftus, Enders’ director in "Scrooge" and a number of other plays, also spoke about Enders’ genuineness.

 “He loved life,” he said. “He and I, we traveled to England. We traveled to Ireland, where my grandmother was born . . . He was just a great person. Loved to laugh. Loved to enjoy life. And most of all, he loved his family. His family was the most important thing in his life, especially Eileen, his wife.”

Loftus was just in his 20s when Enders came in to audition for the first time, and Enders was really nervous, Loftus said. But he caught the bug.

“He just fell in love with it,” Loftus said. “You could tell the minute he did the first show.”

Enders eventually wrote and performed his own one-man shows around the area.

“He wrote one thing called ‘Sketches (by) Boz,’” Loftus said. “It was a one-person show about the life of Charles Dickens. He actually arranged to have that done in New York City. It was quite an exciting thing. We did it at the Irish Arts Theater, I think it was called.”

The play even appeared on the New York Times’ list of Off-Broadway theater performances, he said.

Lynne Mishalanie knew Enders through his acting and through his work with Utica Monday Nites, which Mishalanie founded and ran for 15 years. She described him as a “sweet guy” who was very intelligent, loved the area and was committed to the community.

“He was eager and easy ,” she said. “If you asked him to do a favor, he mostly was there.”

And that is how Enders ended up playing Charles Dickens for a Utica Monday Nite event at Union Station.

The Whitneys first met Enders when he was their lawyer for the closing on their Clinton home, Sharry Whitney said. After the closing was over, he handed them back $100 of their fee and told them to go celebrate, she recalled.

“He always made the joke that the only role where he wasn’t acting was the first half of Scrooge,” Whitney said, “which was funny because everybody knows that he’s a sweet person.”

'He put himself into the role totally'

So what made him such a successful Scrooge?

“He loved the character,” Loftus said. “It’s a big ensemble piece. It was a cast of about 200 people. And he interacted with the cast beautifully. He put himself into the role totally.

“It was wonderful. He was just a great friend and he loved it. You could tell, the minute he did it, he was in his glory.”

Now Loftus himself will be performing, singing at Enders’ funeral, a gift that will “rip his heart out,” he said, as he remembers his friend, a kind soul “who would always do something for somebody if he could.”

“And he will be greatly missed, that’s for sure,” he said.

He is survived by his wife, Eileen; son John of Clinton; daughter Susan Finkst of Little Falls; daughter Jennifer Walker of Clinton; daughter Kathleen Berg of Clinton; their spouses and fiancé; seven grandchildren and a great grandchild.

A funeral Mass will be held at Historic Old St. John’s Church in Utica at 4 p.m. Monday, April 19. Calling hours will follow from 5 to 7 p.m. Rules on mask wearing, social distancing and capacity limits will be observed.

A celebration of Enders’ life is planned for the future.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be sent to the Central Association for the Blind, 507 Kent St., Utica, NY 13501; or to Schepens Eye Research Institute Massachusetts Eye and Ear, 20 Staniford St., Boston, MA 02114.