By DAVID BERTOLA
Business First

Richard McCormick has been retired for more than 20 years. But the co-founder of downtown accounting firm Lumsden & McCormick LLP, who just turned 86, still shows up to work every day.

"I don't do a whole hell of a lot," he deadpanned.

He doesn't have to.

He's practically done everything already.

McCormick is a New York City native who, from 1942 to 1944, was a merchant sailor on three different ships, delivering supplies to England and Russia during WWII.

He first served as a midshipman, then second mate and chief mate. He later was a division officer on a U.S. Navy vessel.

"We were targeted all the time, but were never hit," McCormick said of his military experience. "In the mid-Atlantic, we came close to getting bombed."

That was in October 1942. He was on one of 48 ships that comprised Convoy SC 104, which was sailing from New York to England. They were escorted by two British destroyers, and four Norwegian corvettes.

They battled German aircraft and subs, as well as gale-force winds and rough seas. The battle ended with the loss of eight merchant ships and the destruction of two U-boats.

In the late 1980s, McCormick manned a different kind of boat: a canoe.

He and his wife Stephanie traveled from their West Falls home through Buffalo, down the Erie Canal to the Hudson River. Twenty days later, they arrived in New York City, where they saw the Tall Ships display that re-opened the Statue of Liberty. But they didn't canoe back home.

"I had a son-in-law come pick us up with a truck," he said.

Logging trail miles

McCormick has also walked trails all over the world: the 260-mile Pennine Trail, which runs through Scotland and England, and the John Muir Trail and Pacific Coast Trails in California, each of which are hundreds of miles long.

Shortly after his retirement - for six months in 1987 - he walked more than 2,000 miles of the Appalachian Trail. What inspired such a challenge?

"I don't know," said the affable McCormick. "I just felt like it."

McCormick also once felt like learning how to play the bagpipes.

"While living in West Falls, I met some guys who were in the Caledonian Bagpipe Band, and took lessons from them," he said. "There were about 25 or 30 of us or so, but that might be on the high side."

McCormick played in the band for 40 years. The student is now the teacher. He recently began teaching one of his grandchildren, Andrew, how to play.

Marriage keeps him young

McCormick had six children with his late wife Stephanie, to whom he was married for 60 years. He married Lindy Korn, a Buffalo attorney, in 2006.

"It keeps me young," McCormick joked about getting married while in his mid-eighties.

When asked for a total number of grandchildren, McCormick thought about it. He paused, then offered only, "I've lost count."

When told the irony of a seasoned accountant not being able to simply tally the number of grandchildren he has, McCormick laughed out loud.

Frequent flier, free spirit

In addition to his hiking and canoeing expeditions, he's leveraged a military career to get flights to destinations all over the world.

If a military plane had vacant seats, he'd reserve one in his name. Using this tactic, he's been to Okinawa, Sicily, Turkey, England, Germany and France.

After the war, he returned to New York City, where he completed his accounting degree at Fordham University. He originally came to Buffalo in the 1950s to take an accounting job.

He didn't like it, so he left and founded his own company. In 1958, he merged it with Charles Lumsden's.

On the days he comes into his office, he mostly provides individual tax or financial help for some clients who he's personally known for years. He doesn't bill any of his time.

And aside from usually leaving for lunch at noon, he has no set schedule, and comes and goes as he sees necessary.

McCormick has earned the right to create his own flexible work schedule and come and go as he wants to.

But he downplays the notion. As if not wanting to take credit as co-founder of one of the area's largest accounting firms, he said, "I'm kind of a free spirit."