Memories of Don Richard Riso (1946-2012)

[The Iron Giant]

Riso, who considered himself a 4w3, died of cancer on August 30th.

http://app.streamsend.com/ss/1/TauY/2302idaf8q

It is with great sadness that we write to let you know that Don passed away on August 30th at 2:07 AM in his home in Stone Ridge, New York. When the time was noted, Russ noticed that the numbers added up to nine—a tribute to Don’s life with the Enneagram.

My first memories of the man's work came from reading Personality Types in the early 1990s after a friend went to a conference that I believe featured Riso himself as a speaker, if not as THE speaker. My friend told me that Riso disliked sixes.

What are your first memories of him or his work?

 

[Totenkindly]

Riso was, like, "The man" to me when I first started reading about Enneagram. His stuff was pretty foundational to me, especially the cycles of integration and disintegration; it was a nice blend of the spiritual with the secular. There was a lot of what I would deem "crap" floating around about the enneagram before then; I think he seriously systemized the theory and put out the first very detailed, cohesive descriptions of how the types worked, along with wings and variants. I started taking it seriously because of his work.

He put out a number of enneagram texts; I know I own 2-3 of the major ones.

It's a shame he has passed on. he was younger than my father, who is still around.

From a distance, he actually held his age pretty well:

EDIT: As a complete side note, no one ever told me that Russ Hudson was cute.

 

[highlander]

Riso, who considered himself a 4w3, died of cancer on August 30th.

http://app.streamsend.com/ss/1/TauY/2302idaf8q

My first memories of the man's work came from reading Personality Types in the early 1990s after a friend went to a conference that I believe featured Riso himself as a speaker, if not as THE speaker. My friend told me that Riso disliked sixes.

What are your first memories of him or his work?

That's very sad.

 

[wolfy]

That's very sad.

That he dislikes sixes? I only recall his name from a few articles I have read.

 

[WALMART]

Does anyone particularly like sixes?


Enneagram is fascinating.

 

[wolfy]

It is, I actually learnt a lot about myself while I figured out my type.

 

[Viridian]

RIP.

 

[acronach]

 

[Such Irony]

That's really sad. He along with Russ Hudson wrote some seminal works on the enneagram. He will be greatly missed in the enneagram community.

Too bad he dislikes sixes. As a proponent of the enneagram, shouldn't he know better not to show bias towards certain types?

 

[Cloud of Thunder]

Too bad he dislikes sixes. As a proponent of the enneagram, shouldn't he know better not to show bias towards certain types?

Hey, he was only human.

 

[Cellmold]

That he dislikes sixes? I only recall his name from a few articles I have read.

To be fair I dont like 6's either.

Does anyone particularly like sixes?

Yah.

 

[Enneagrammar]

The comment about Riso and Sixes doesn't ring true for me. I used to know Don quite well and was a member of one of his early training programs. I clearly remember ~ as it was quite a surprise to me at the time ~ how he often described Sixes as being "attractive" and "loveable" people. I am also fairly certain that his partner was a Six.

 

[Mal12345]

My only memory of Don, besides reading his books, was receiving a letter from him.

 

[The Iron Giant]

The comment about Riso and Sixes doesn't ring true for me. I used to know Don quite well and was a member of one of his early training programs. I clearly remember ~ as it was quite a surprise to me at the time ~ how he often described Sixes as being "attractive" and "loveable" people. I am also fairly certain that his partner was a Six.

That's good to know. I remember when my friend told me this, I had already read through the six description in the book (because I had just tested as one) and was thinking, "that wasn't so bad... but OK." That was a first edition of the book, and the one I have now is much newer and has Russ Hudson's work in it too. I guessed that Russ had brought some balance in, but never had the texts to compare.

My only memory of Don, besides reading his books, was receiving a letter from him.

Was it a good one? Perhaps the letter H?

 

[Phoenix]

There is definitely dislike directed towards him with regards to the 6 description.

Objectively, a lot of people have found that his description was "wanting" in comparison to those of others. This may be true ... but ultimately it does boil down to personal interpretation and reactions, doesn't it - and ironically kinda dependent on one's type too in some ways.

In any case ... Cristicism aside, by making Enneagrams kinda pop-culturish - by making his website and a lot of his work free, he actually did the overall Enneagram community a huge service.

I wonder how many people would've made their way to Naranjo and Maitri if the EI site didn't have such comprehensive descriptions freely available.

 

[Mal12345]

That's good to know. I remember when my friend told me this, I had already read through the six description in the book (because I had just tested as one) and was thinking, "that wasn't so bad... but OK." That was a first edition of the book, and the one I have now is much newer and has Russ Hudson's work in it too. I guessed that Russ had brought some balance in, but never had the texts to compare.



Was it a good one? Perhaps the letter H?

There is 1 chance in 26 that you are correct.

 

[The Iron Giant]

There is 1 chance in 26 that you are correct.

Not really. I hear that he was biased not only against letters that look somewhat like sixes when written a certain way... but also against letters whose numeric analog contains a six or is a multiple of six. This narrows it down to only a few letters, the most popular of which is easily the letter H, for obvious reasons.

 

[The Iron Giant]

There is definitely dislike directed towards him with regards to the 6 description.

Objectively, a lot of people have found that his description was "wanting" in comparison to those of others. This may be true ... but ultimately it does boil down to personal interpretation and reactions, doesn't it - and ironically kinda dependent on one's type too in some ways.

In any case ... Cristicism aside, by making Enneagrams kinda pop-culturish - by making his website and a lot of his work free, he actually did the overall Enneagram community a huge service.

I wonder how many people would've made their way to Naranjo and Maitri if the EI site didn't have such comprehensive descriptions freely available.

Well said.

 

[skylights]

Too bad he dislikes sixes. As a proponent of the enneagram, shouldn't he know better not to show bias towards certain types?

Eh, I generally dislike 4s. Remind me to write some crap about them to balance things out.

Seriously though, it's unfortunate to hear that he has passed away. I have learned a lot from his writings. Good for him for leaving such a legacy.

 

[Kayness]

To be fair I dont like 6's either.

you're a six who doesn't like sixes? XD


I like good Sixes. I dislike bad Sixes.