NORWELL − Randy Wright was kind, gentle and compassionate. He also sported a mischievous sense of humor.

He loved being "in with the shrubs" from age 2, when his parents, Donald and Dorothy Wright, opened Garden Craft at Assinippi Corner in Hanover. They sold homegrown fruits and vegetables.

Wright went off to earn a college degree in landscape architecture and returned to develop the business into one the largest nurseries in the area with a passion for trees and shrubs of top quality. Homes across the South Shore today show his influence.

"He would say the unexpected and he liked to tease people in a sly way that invited them to find an opportunity to reciprocate," his wife and business partner, Sandy, recalled. "He would say anything, was quick witted, and never mean. Just plain funny."

One summer, in the 1980s, he became very frustrated when his tomato plants wouldn't produce anything. His employees attached some artificial tomatoes to the fruitless plants and watched in anticipation as he drove up, looked over at the tomatoes and looked again, bewildered by the sudden crop.

"What a community institution," is how Rebecca Allen, a longtime neighbor and former employee, describes his legacy.

Wright died Jan. 25 at age 77 after a seven-year illness.

Garden Craft had closed for good in 2017. Wright, its owner and president, had run it since 1976.

The indoor crafts business, under his wife's direction, was the largest silk and dried flower store of its kind in New England. It had "a zillion" bows, showed customers what to do with them and offered floral design classes.

Until 2011, when the craft shop moved to Norwell and the nursery closed, Wright had sustained three greenhouses. He designed and had landscaping crews install gardens across the South Shore, and at Harvard and Northeastern universities.

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For home decorators, Garden Craft was the go-to place to find annuals and perennials, indoor plants, Christmas trees, door decorations, autumn accents, wreaths with distinctive bows and Easter floral arrangements.

"Randy made the store like his personality: easy to get along with," customer Laurie Galvin, of Norwell, said. "He was just a nice, giving man who was always there and always had an answer for your questions, and something fun and cute and lovely that you had to have. It made you feel good about your house, and made it easy to seasonalize."

A final resting spot in the silver coffee pot

Today, an 18-inch silver coffeepot that is 150 years old sits on the fireplace mantel in the Norwell home that Randy Wright designed, had built in 1970 and shared with Sandy for 55 years.

After her husband died, Sandy looked over at the empty coffeepot and thought, "He should be in there. And he should go to the church for his service."

And so he did. The coffeepot was on the altar at the First Parish Church of Norwell for his memorial service Feb. 3. Randy and Sandy were married at the church June 18, 1967. The family heirloom that passed down through four generations holds his ashes and will someday also hold hers.

Sandy Goodwin grew up in Norwell and met Randy Wright when she was 16, working at the snack bar at the Assinippi General Store in Hanover to help pay for her education at Thayer Academy in Braintree. Wright, a year older, worked across the street at his parents' Garden Craft. For two years, they dated in the summertime.

"He had this big crest of long blond hair and was very popular," Sandy recalled. "He dressed beautifully, his father had a convertible with the top down, he was president of his senior class at Hanover High School and there was always this flock of girls around."

She thought "Why does he like me?" but was drawn to his honesty, compassion and especially his "hilarious" sense of humor.

One weekend, his parents invited her to their New Hampshire vacation home on Squam Lake. Wright was an excellent water skier but told her he didn't know how to swim. His family, in on the joke, watched from the house as she earnestly tried to teach him swim strokes. He did an excellent imitation of a new swimmer.

In 1964, he graduated from Hanover High School and went off to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, chosen for its landscape architecture program. A year later, Sandy graduated from Thayer Academy.

After her sophomore year at Simmons College, they were married. Both were 20. Their son, Josh, was born in 1969; their daughter, Amy, in 1972.

An inside/outside team at the new Garden Craft

After Randy Wright graduated from UMass in 1968, he joined Garden Craft and Sandy realized this was his passion and "it was better to join it than fight it."

She graduated from Simmons in 1969 and, instead of becoming a science teacher as planned, she became a key part of the business. She developed the crafts store, learned how to tie bows, studied floral design and gave workshops. She also did floral and Christmas designs for Talbots' 350 stores over 20 years.

"He let me do what I wanted inside and I let him do whatever he wanted outside," Sandy said.

Outdoors, Wright was expanding the nursery business. He designed landscapes for homes and businesses and hired crews to work across the South Shore. He became active in the Massachusetts Nursery and Landscape Association, served as its president, and founded New England Grows, one of the largest nursery trade shows in the U.S.

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He also was one of the founders and the chairman of the South Shore Natural Science Center in Norwell and donated the use of a large Kubota tractor every year for its Corn Festival hayrides.

"We could always count on Randy, and then Josh, to run the hay wagon, one of, if not the, most popular activities," Martha Twigg, former executive director of the science center, said. He also donated and planted native trees and shrubs.

"I wish Garden Craft was still around," Twigg said. "We never realize how good we have it until a business like theirs is gone."

Norma Springer, 83, of Weymouth, worked at Garden Craft for 30 years.

"It was the happiest place," she said. "It was better than going to the flower show because you could roam all over, outside and inside. Somebody always knew all about the flowers. This cat would sleep on the counter and everyone would pet him. It was especially a lot of fun in December, when all the trees were decorated with different themes."

Betty Rendler retired at age 72 after 29 years as a backup bookkeeper, manager and flower arranger.

"It was so nice to work at a place where everybody enjoyed being there," she said. "There was a lot of work, but we had fun too."

Speaking at her father's memorial service, Wright's daughter Amy recalled one of his "favorite habits."

"Every evening he would stand at the back counter in the garden center and said good night and thank you to everyone as they left for the day. He enjoyed seeing them and truly felt thankful," she said.

Josh Wright worked with his father at Garden Craft for several years before leaving to pursue a career in the health field. Father and son traveled New England together, choosing plant stock.

"His pride was that we were choosing or growing the best of the best to share with our community," he said at the service. Above all, he said, his father showed him "how to find patience and taught me to be humble and to serve my community. He saw his business as a resource to share with the community."

While Wright was very proud of Garden Craft, Sandy said, he was proudest of his son and daughter, both of whom graduated from Cornell University and were elected independently to the senior honor society, Quill and Dagger.

"It meant each had been found to be a very decent person and also exceptional in contributing to the community," Sandy said.

For his daughter, Randy was her coach in athletics, especially field hockey, and life.

"I loved how gentle, funny and present he was," she said. "He lived with a sense of joy and playfulness that were fundamental to his state of being."

At the service, Amy described the immensely important support she received from her father when she a teenager growing up gay.

"It always felt like he enjoyed me just as I was," she said. "How lucky I was to have such refuge on what often felt like a stormy journey."

Generous of spirit to the end

Seven years ago, when Wright was diagnosed with a progressive lung illness (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), he and Sandy vowed to travel and enjoy life. When he had to go on 24-hour oxygen, Sandy bought equipment to carry portable oxygen on their trips to Norway, France and Switzerland.

There were setbacks. Wright had a heart attack; he fell and broke his hip. Sandy was determined to handle his care, even when it became around-the-clock at home.

"We still had fun together," she said.

Randy Wright was happy with who he was. He was so fortunate to spend his whole life doing what he always wanted to do. He was able to share that gift with others. That may be because his parents "were just wonderful people," Sandy said.

Randy's car is still in the garage. The fireplace mantel is filled with condolence cards and shared anecdotes and gratitude. Outside, the bushes Wright planted will be budding.

Sandy is planning a trip to Norway, a country he especially loved, with his niece, Stephanie Dreene, and is looking for new ways that she can give back. For the past five decades, that is what she has done.

Across the street, Sandy's neighbor, Rebecca Allen, had a thoughtful coda.

"He was generous of spirit to the end," she said.

Reach Sue Scheible @sscheible@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Norwell Garden Craft owner Randy Wright lived joyfully, generously