Richard A. "Rick" Romanus, Sr.

Romanus, Sr., Richard A (Rick) – age 60 of Roanoke, VA passed away Sunday morning, August 28, 2011 at home after a long battle with cancer.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Raymond J. and Ellen (Acee) Romanus, Sr. of New Hartford, NY, his in-laws G.E. (Gene) and Helen (Patton) McKinney of Farragut, TN and brother, Raymond J. Romanus, Jr. of Clinton, NY.

Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Nancy (McKinney), son Richard A. Romanus, Jr., daughter-in-law Trisha (Rhodes) Romanus and granddaughter Adalynn Sophia of Lake Stevens, WA, sister and brother-in-law Joan (Romanus) and Ed Freeman, New Hartford, NY, brother Robert E. Romanus, New Hartford, NY, sisters-in-law Sarah (McKinney) McNabb, Louisville, KY, Wendy Higgins, Clinton, NY, Maryanne Romanus, Utica, NY and many beloved nieces and nephews. He also leaves his family at AuctionServices.com: Stuart Bain, Robert Morris, Tammy Moore, Clif McCormick, Brian Pait, Ted Metzger and Rodney Billingsley.

Rick was President / CEO of AuctionServices.com and President of Blue Ridge Digital. An entrepreneur and visionary, he had many successful businesses in his career and spent the last 20 years actively involved with the auction industry. Rick was an active member of the National Auctioneers Association (NAA) and the Virginia Auctioneers Association and his passion was working with and contributing to the auction industry to help it grow, prosper and stay on the cutting edge of technology. He was a valued national and state level seminar speaker for many years.

Rick was the first non-auctioneer recipient of the NAA Diamond Gavel Award in 2005 for his many hours of outstanding service and contributions to the association. He was the first recipient of the Outstanding Service Award in 2009 from the National Auctioneers Foundation for his continued support and contributions and was the first non-auctioneer to receive the Gavel Award in January 2011 from the Virginia Auctioneers Association for his many years of support and contributions to the VAA.

The family wishes to extend our thanks and gratitude to Dr. Vandara Karri, Dr. John Rogers, Dr. Kevin Kelleher, all of the angelic nurses and staff at the Lewis Gale Medical Center Infusion Center, the staff at the Blue Ridge Cancer Care Radiation department, with special thanks to Good Samaritan Hospice, in particular Lisa Myers, Sandy, Pat, Angie, Amy and Wendy.

The family will receive friends on Saturday, September 10th from 2:00 – 2:30 PM, followed by a celebration memorial service and reception at Oakey’s Funeral Service & Crematory, South Chapel, 4257 Brambleton Ave., Roanoke, VA 24018.

A memorial Catholic mass will be held on Friday, September 16th at 12:00 Noon at St. Patrick’s, St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, 3364 Oneida Street, Chadwicks, NY, with a reception to follow at The Phoenician Restaurant, New Hartford, NY.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Jude’s Hospital, the official charity of the National Auctioneers Association or Good Samaritan Hospice, 2408 Electric Road, Roanoke, VA 24018.

Cards may be sent to:
Nancy Romanus
7436 Bohon Farm Road
Roanoke, VA 24018

For out-of-town folks attending the Memorial Service in Roanoke, a block of rooms has been reserved at :

Cambria Suites Roanoke
301 Reserve Avenue, Roanoke, VA 24016
Phone: 540-400-6226 Fax: 540-400-6279

Call the hotel directly and ask for the Auctionservice rate. The rooms are all king size beds and non-smoking.

For any other questions, please call (540) 206-3311.

You guys do a lot to help the auction profession, and NAA. I personally appreciate the ongoing support with you being an anchor vendor and a huge supporter of NAA. I remember Rick buying the bid paddles, etc. for big bucks. Just the expense of setting up at the trade show is huge.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the job Auction Services did redesigning Tillett & Damewood, Auctioneers website. From the clean look and nice color scheme to the great layout, they hit home run.

What’s even better is we get compliments from our own customers about how much they love it.

Rick and Nancy,

I just wanted to drop you both a note to reiterate what a spectacular job your folks are doing in transitioning me, (your last hold out) to Ignite.

If all of your clients are getting the same level of response, confidence and quality as I have received from Stuart and Clif, you have good reason to be very, very proud.

Working with your guys is the next best thing…

Right now we have 5 photo galleries with hundreds of photos and uploading has been pretty easy, not as quick as an FTP upload but very quick for a web based application.

Just a note to let you guys know that the response from our recent ad was overwhelming. We had a 38 Acre Tract with a 1650 Sq. Ft. Brick Home that we advertised through Auction Services and the Turnout was Super. We registered Bidders from Pennsylvania and had calls from Florida, Ohio and Other Places. The Property Sold to a Couple from our home town buy the back up Bidders were from Pennsylvania, therefore by attracting this ONE Bidder helped Drive the Price up at least 20-30 K ….Very Satisfied Customer in Elkin, NC

When you go to AbalAuction.com, that’s all produced by Auction Services and the fine staff there. I’ve been with them from the get-go. I’ve had fantastic service, technical outreach has been phenomenal. I’ve worked with everyone from Brian, Stuart and now Tammy on our (marketing) packages. Our latest one was a machine shop auction – fantastic. Press releases, from the word go everything was phenomenal. Tammy was to work with, always available, and always willing to work with whatever I sent her.

If you’re in the auction business and you need services, web services, marketing packages at phenomenal pricing, you need the folks at Auction Services. I’m Dr. Jo and I’m “Abal” to sell anything you have and I’m able to do it because of Auction Services and the wonderful products they distribute.

We’ve been using Auction Services for several years now and they provide us with our web site and several marketing services. I want to tell you about a recent story we had. We had a large auction up in Denton, Texas where we sold out an entire subdivision and their press release resulting in us not only getting the expected results, but also getting full, front-page coverage, above the fold. We were on the evening news. We just reaped the benefits of having a lot of advertising coverage there and a very successful sale.

We sold all 69 lots for property that was on the market previously with two other brokers for four years. So, we’re very happy with the results!