Newsman: once a newspaper’s business editor, presently a devoted nurse from Hospital for Special Surgery Richard Albright, 69, is in now missing person’s list. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since Thursday, Oct. 14, when surveillance footage shows him leaving the couple’s building on Junction Boulevard at 11:18 a.m. He’s then seen making a left turn toward Northern Boulevard. He has worked at the Hospital for Special Surgery for 16 years. Richard Albright also served the “Amarillo Globe” newspaper in Texas more than 20 years ago as business editor there.
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Richard Albright helped care for COVID-19 patients at the hospital, which converted some of its units to deal with the overwhelming need for beds.
The wife of a missing nurse Cathy Albright said Richard “Max” Albright would always find a way to let her know he was okay, so she wouldn’t worry. But he hasn’t been seen or heard from since Thursday, Oct. 14. She said her husband loves being a nurse.
The worried wife said she was notified her husband’s phone received a text she sent at 1:30 p.m. last Thursday, but he never responded. His cell phone is still going to voice mail.
Richard Albright is an imposing six feet, three inches tall, he dealt with numerous health concerns in recent year. His wife said Albright left the medicine he takes every day at home.
“He would crawl through broken glass and swim through a river of hot lava to let me know where he was,” his life partner Cathy Albright told PIX11 News at their Jackson Heights home Thursday. “He’s a devoted husband.”
“He loves the hospital and everyone loves him,” she said. “His co-workers are beside themselves.” Richard has worked at the Hospital for Special Surgery for 16 years, ever since he and his wife moved to New York from Amarillo, Texas.
“We love New York, all the food,” Cathy Albright said. “We go all over.”
Cathy Albright said her husband was wearing slippers when he went for his walk last Thursday, because his regular shoes were hurting him. He seems to be limping slightly in the surveillance footage.
She said her husband requires blood thinners after undergoing three open heart surgeries, and also needs antibiotics every day to prevent infection after getting two knee replacements.
Richard Albright was just finishing up three weeks of vacation and was supposed to return to work in Manhattan on Saturday, Oct. 16.
The hospital’s Facebook page has a missing persons post for Albright, asking anyone with information to call the 115th Detective Squad at (718) 533-2002. The Hospital for Special Surgery has more than 100,000 followers on Facebook, so investigators were hoping the notice may reach a large amount of people.
Jennifer Rentas, senior vice president and chief of staff at the Hospital for Special Surgery, called Albright a “respected member of the HSS family.”
“Richard is beloved as a colleague and expert in a highly distinguished profession,” Rentas said. “He treats each patient with compassion and is an example for others in his positive bedside manner.”
Cathy Albright said her husband has had a rich life, after he was raised for much of his childhood in South Africa by Southern Baptist missionary parents.
Richard Albright attended college in Kentucky, getting a journalism degree followed by another one in nursing. He met his wife at the “Amarillo Globe” newspaper in Texas more than 20 years ago when he was serving as business editor there.
When the couple moved to New York, Cathy Albright said her husband resumed work in nursing because the benefits and pay were good.
