FEARLESS LEADER

to his family:

I expected to be talking to you, probably this weekend, but Brion’s email had your email addresses, so I don’t want to wait. It took me almost a week for this to really begin to sink in. Since then I’ve been flooded with images of William as the extraordinarily happy person he naturally was (and wanted everyone else to be as well), and with remembrances of how he exceeded every known limit when it came to gonzo style, outrageous never-before-existent humor, and, most of all, in his all-embracing love for people.

When I came to QH, I was 21: Wm. was 14. He was more man than 5 of me at the time. I eventually cut that by advancement (in my mind) to a 2 or a 1.5 maybe (maybe), but no one could ever exceed, resist, deny, or keep up with him. He always looked after me (with a sharp eye on my utility, of course, but still . . .) and I owe my one decade of solvency this lifetime directly to that nurturing.

William was so overwhelming he seemed dangerous. I often felt, I think, that it would be better to avoid him, so easy would it be to be swept away by the strength of his intention. But there was no avoiding him. And that’s been my good fortune; it’s added dimension, substance, and excitement to my own life just being around him. None of us will ever forget him.

Many of us, when we’ve gone, will, like William, leave the powerful and enduring legacy of our children, and their children’s children, for all time to come. Let us not forget that cardinal reality. But William, like LB, Irv and Barb, and yourselves, have also formed the core of a family (unlike any in all time) that took us in when we were uprooted, fed us, clothed us, opened our exceedingly provincial (if willing) minds, and grew right beside us--with us--as we multiplied, over a stretch of paradisiacal years we thought could never end.

Now, here we stand, roots severed once again, a full third perhaps of life remaining--or not. How quick the end can come. To any. And none can lay claim to breath by their own rights or abilities. We stand perhaps because we’ve not yet given full measure. William did. Every damn day. He was my friend, the leader this good soldier needed, and always a fount of a fun that charted the outrageous deep into the beyond.

Let us remember that it is given to some to assault the known world’s limits with an originality never seen before. This was such a man. And his energy, verve, and compassion will always inhabit our memories, vivid they be as our dreams. But this really happened. Here was our life lived, all outside the known. And here was our leader, our protector, our friend. Thank you all, for all the same, and for being his family. It does go on. And is not to be forgotten. Ever. Love you . . .


Rick