Wow, what great stories! I too have known him for a long while
and what an impression he has had on my life. Surprisingly,
my story is not far from all the others. I don’t exactly remember
the day I met him but that big burly man held me as gently as
he held Deb’s daughter. I traveled thousands of miles with him
and saw many wonderful places like the Black River he saw with
Lee. I was immersed in the many Drake University happenings
about which so many of you have written, surfboards, Farley’s
(It Will Always Be) pouring bronze, aluminum and Duckalloy,
Ruby’s.
I moved to Philadelphia and he moved to Missouri where a whole
new group was allowed to participate in his experience, people
who I have only recently had the pleasure to meet. BAM, ABANA,
the whitewater community whose love, respect and admiration for
this man is unmistakable. That same connection is evident in the
community of friends who have given their time so completely to
support him during the course of his ALS, even when he did not
ask for the help.
The common thread appears to be that he was a teacher to us all
We learned practical lessons about wood, iron, cars, tools
(the right tool for the job). We learned life lessons, my personal
favorite is: “the right way to do something is rarely the easy way
to do something”. We learned moral lessons about how people
should be treated (all people). We learned to respect our
environment as evidenced by the “He once honked and waved
the car ahead of him to pull over then confronted the driver for
throwing trash out the window” story. These stories only
scratch the surface of the multitudes experiences we have
all shared with him. As a teacher he was beyond compare
and as a Father…. WOW, can you imagine trying to absorb
all he had to offer?
I love you Dad.
And before you go let’s not for get the engineer who spent
her life at the controls of this powerful locomotive, Bonnie.
The one who could harness the energy and put it to good use.
The one who always answered the call,”Hey Bon!” and
supplied us with as much Doug, Uncle Dougie, Dr. Iron
and Dad as we could handle.
