"He was bigger than life," KAUS radio personality Mike Cotter said of his brother, retired attorney Richard Cotter, who tentatively has been identified as one of two victims of a house fire at his rural Austin residence on Thursday.

Friday, February 16, 2001

"He was bigger than life," KAUS radio personality Mike Cotter said of his brother, retired attorney Richard Cotter, who tentatively has been identified as one of two victims of a house fire at his rural Austin residence on Thursday.

The second victim tentatively has been identified by investigators as Mary Francis McIntyre, 68, who was visiting Cotter from Baltimore, Md. Mike Cotter said his brother had known McIntyre since he flew Strategic Air Command missions for the Air Force years ago.

"He was always sorta my hero," Mike Cotter said of his brother. "Eventually we become our own heroes, but it is good to have a hero."

Incredibly and ironically, Mike said the two of them had come through a fire together when he was 9 and Richard was 12. As their family home burned, the two boys crawled through to fight the fire and rescue family possessions.

"I know if he’d had a chance, he would have escaped," Mike said of the early morning fire on Thursday that claimed his brother’s life. He said he knows Richard had smoke alarms in his home. The fire remains under investigation by the Mower County Sheriff’s Department and the state fire marshal’s office.

Richard, 73, was three years older than Mike and the first of two sons born to parents who already had six daughters. Of life with so many sisters, Mike said with a laugh, "you realize all your flaws."

Richard was the "quiet and private" father of 10 children – five biological and five adopted. He separated from his wife a few years ago. One son, Patrick, is in his second year of law school in the Twin Cities, carrying on the legal tradition of his father, who practiced law. One daughter travels around the country, playing spiritual music, while another teaches at Boston University.

"He never quit being a parent to those kids," Mike said, acknowledging how hard Richard’s death has been on all of them.

Richard was an attorney in Austin since the late 1950s, bringing "legal justice to people who often don’t experience it," in the words of Mike. Mike said his brother believed that all people deserved legal justice and worked hard so the law would empower people who had never been empowered by it before.

Remembering a letter his brother wrote to him years ago, Mike said Richard was a running and line backer for the University of Notre Dame football team. In 1950, Notre Dame was undefeated in 39 games when Richard was playing for the team, but lost the 40th game to Purdue.

"He was not given to emotional moments," Cotter said, "but he said it had been so hard to take Notre Dame down in defeat. Though they were beat bad and many were injured, Richard said he believed if they had been able to keep on playing, they would have prevailed, because there was that spirit. That’s how Richard looked at life."

Though both men were independent, they lived two miles apart and took time to touch base regularly. Mike currently lives on the same site his family has farmed for 125 years, from where Mike and Richard’s father herded cattle into Hormel.

Of the nearness of their homes Mike said, "I always knew (Richard) was there. That’s the part that’s going to be hard."

Funeral services for Richard are pending with Mayer Funeral Home and officials expected to release additional information on the fire later today.