Richard James Scaia Jr. was born May 9, 1974, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He lived in Naperville, Illinois, before putting down roots in Dayton.
Rick was a member of the Class of 1992 at Alter High School and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in business from the University of Dayton in 1996. He completed his MBA at UD in 1998. As an avid Flyers fan, he could frequently be seen both enjoying and lamenting basketball games at UD Arena. Particularly difficult was the 2020 season, when the Flyers were one of the top-ranked teams in the country before COVID canceled the NCAA tournament. In Rick's honor, we are declaring them 2020 NCAA Champions. Who can prove they wouldn't have won the tournament?
Rick was also a much respected and proudly despised professional wrestling analyst. On a thread about his website, Online Onslaught, users described him as their "first wrestling news source" and stated, "Ask The Rick smartened me up to a lot of stuff."
Many knew Rick as a member of local bands Factotum, BlueKid, The National Drink, and Flight Risk. Rick excelled at cooking, baking, and informing people that the dishes he made were scientifically proven to be delicious, even tweeting about how proud he was of his invention, "Chicken Erroneous."
Richard James Scaia Jr. died Sunday, July 16, at the age of 49 in Dayton after a valiant fight with cancer. In keeping with Rick's wishes, he is being shot into space, like Spock at the end of Star Trek II. He is preceded in death by his dad, Richard, and is survived by his loving mom, Linda, and brothers, Stephen and Alan.
