For the past ten years, Richard had been the Risk Manager of Armored Transport in Burbank, California.  But, for this past most recent year, Richard had been ill and had been working just very part-time. 

Apparently, few people in the claims industry who knew Richard were aware that he had died.  Carole DeLisle, the owner of PrimeCare in Pasadena, had been trying to get in touch with him on his cell phone during these past several weeks.  When his cell phone came up with a recording stating that the number had been disconnected, Carole got suspicious and called his apartment building.  Someone there put Carole in touch with Richard’s sister, Gloria, who lives in Nogales, Arizona.  It was Gloria who told Carole that Richard had died on August 2nd.

Richard Zapata was already a Workers’ Compensation Claims Supervisor at ESIS by 1980 at 4050 Wilshire Blvd, in Los Angeles.   That was the famous office that was right across the street from the posh Perino’s restaurant.  That’s the office where Louise Mitchell started working as the examiner on the Firestone account in 1981.  Janine Kurz, today a senior claims examiner at ESIS in Chatworth, California, worked as an examiner in Richard’s unit in that same office in 1981. 

Richard also worked a little later in the ESIS Van Nuys office, and then he joined Home Insurance Company around 1984.   By 1986 he went to KM Administrative Services in Burbank where he was the Work Comp Claims Supervisor.

KM stood for K-Mart.   K-Mart was self-administered in those days, and they called their claims operation KM Administrative Services.  Tracy Sanford was the Claims Manager there during those days in the mid-1980s, and Richard was her right hand man as the Supervisor.  After Tracy left and eventually wound up living in the Temecula area, Richard became the Claims Manager.  He was, therefore, with KM Administrative Services for about 10 years before he landed the Risk Manager job with Armored Transport in Burbank in the late 1990s.

Richard’s parents are named Fred and Jean Zapata; their address is P.O. Box 1148, Dayard, New Mexico 88023.   They would love to hear from any colleagues who knew their son.  They lost their other son this year, as well, within two months of Richard’s untimely demise. 

Special thanks to Irene Hernandez for providing the photo of Richard Zapata, and to Carole DeLisle for emailing it to me. :-) :-) :-) Thanks!  Lonce

Readers may write to writer Lonce LaMon at lonce@adjustercom.com.