Obituary: A.J. Rizzo

By Larry Pearson A.J. Rizzo died Saturday, February 26, 2005, at home in Metairie, La. at 66 years old. A.J. was a colleague of mine. He was a marine writer par excellence who valued the written word and used it to great advantage for his clients. I first met A.J. in 1986 when I came to New Orleans as editor of Workboat. In 1984, A.J. established Anderson & Rizzo, an advertising and public relations firm that had Halter Marine Services as a major client. Before establishing his own firm, A.J. was director of communications for Halter. He was sort of a walking encyclopedia of all things marine. He was there when the oil industry was booming and survived the mid-1980's downturn. His "reach" extended nationwide and even worldwide, as his major client Halter Marine, built thousands of boats for companies all over the world. He lived with heart problems for much of his last two decades. If you didn't know him well, you would not have known of his heath issues. Always of good spirit, A.J. kept email inboxes full of funny stories, both marine and otherwise. I could go on, but I kept this concise and to the point…A.J. would have liked it that way.