Posted by Ren Hart on May 20, 2002:

It is with heavy heart that I learn of the passing of my friend Bob. He and I go back more than half a century. In the fall of '51 we were thrown together in a W.W.II wooden barrack, in which a bay of about 30 of us called home at the USMA Prep School at Stewart AFB, NY. Bob had a certain devil may care and debonair attitude that was immediately attractive to everyone. He was a sensitive, caring and intelligent guy with a flare... a true free spirit. During our Prep School days, our third buddy, David James Gibson (who scored the highest math numbers on the entrance exam since MacArthur), and Bob and I, each came up with a hundred dollars to buy a car together. My recollection is that our pay was in the neighborhood of $78.00 a month, so a hundred each was quite a stretch. We had some great times in that wreck of a car ... I remember an unforgettable trip to CT to visit some of his old friends and an occasion in a the Woman's Dorm, hiding under the bed to avoid the house mothers inspection (we didn't). Later, at West Point, after our plebe year we teamed up for a trip to Germany and France to do the towns and visit my Grandmother in Nice. Enroute, we had a couple of nights in Paris and I've often wondered if Norm Schwartzkoph remembers a conversation we had with him on a street corner in Monte Martre one morning discussing what we had seen and done? In Nice we stayed with Grandmother at her "Chateau Bornala" where we would make many a foray into town. We would be heading out about the time Grandmother was going to bed and I can still hear her saying goodnight to us with the comment of "Have a good time, I hope you boys have many conquests". Those were our early days. I later was able to meet up with Bob in Texas in 1957 when I was in flight school and he was finishing a degree at Rice in Austin. By 1959 his chosen career was with Boeing in Seattle so we again linked up while I was at Ft. Lewis with a few more adventures, but of course of a more sedate nature. As the years passed, time and distance took its toll on our meetings and it has been since the late 70's that I have had the pleasure of his company. Of course I had always hoped we would come together again to relive those exciting, early days, but it was not to be. Rest well my friend, we will meet again. Ren

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