We buried Uncle Jim today. I hope you have a person like this in your life and I hope you have taken every possible opportunity to visit with them. He was 87 years old and we can safely say he lived a full life. To me he was larger than life. That had less to do with him being over six feet and more with him simply being one of the warmest, most gracious, most intelligent, most fun and most loving people I have ever known. He was an inspiration to me. He was certainly a role model. Because of him I thought I wanted to be an Engineer. My aptitude for calculus got in the way of that. In some ways he was like an extra father. Our families always took big vacations and we shared big holiday meals. Ahh, the good old days.

He was a lifelong New Yorker, graduating from Bayside High School in 1941, continued his education at New York University and Pratt Institute. He served in the US Army Air Corp During WWII and was a survivor along with 966 fellow GI’s of the sinking of the HMT Rohna on November 26, 1943, where 1015 US servicemen were lost when the Convoy was attacked by a German aircraft, which delivered a radio control guided rocket-bomb onto the HMT Rhona. He was a Purple Heart Recipient, a member of the Rohna Memorial Association, a 3rd Degree Knight of Columbus, member of the Building Congress of NYC, the Society of Professional Engineers, and lifelong fan of the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. I guess my time as the Leprechaun gave him more pleasure than I knew. Uncle Jim was a Professional Engineer with Purdy and Henderson Associates Inc. for 40 years, becoming President of the firm in 1980 until his retirement in 1990. He loved movies. AMC, TNT, TMC etc were made for him.

I started this off and asked if you have a person like this in your life. But you know me, I will not leave it there. Are they still alive? If so, have you seen them lately? I know how busy you are and I know air travel is pricey but don’t miss an opportunity. Two summers ago Uncle Jim and Aunt Millie celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. The event was outside Albany and would require air travel and a bit of a drive but I knew we must go. I took the family and am so glad I did. So, just consider this a friendly reminder to not miss the precious opportunities we have to connect. He is buried in Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island. The same place my Dad is buried. Now I have two people to visit.

It was wonderful to see so many family members who I don’t normally see. The next time we ALL get together like that….well, we will probably be missing one more person.

Memories are what the future is made of…make some good ones today.

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