In memorium

Over the past 2 days, I have had bad news delivered to me about close friends passing on.

Lee Hertzberg

I got to know Lee, or Pops, as we all fondly called him about 15 or so years back when I was a student in the US. He was my foster-dad's dad, so in essence my Grandpa when I was in the US.

He was an electrical engineer and was on the forefront of many things. He also belonged to what is termed at the "Greatest Generation". His contribution to the Great War (WWII) was his expertise in radar technology, which was in its infancy then.

He and his late wife, Viola or Lala told us how they had to study under armed guard because all the textbooks and reading material was then classified as top secret.

I also fondly recall that he told us the story about Christmas or Thanksgiving during the Korean War when he was deployed at a radar station. There was a storm, and there was supposed to be a delivery of turkey for the troops, except with the storm, the plane could not land. So the flight crew just chucked the turkey out of the planes, determined that the men on the ground would not have to spend the holidays without their traditional turkey. Except that one turkey crashed through the roof of the radar station, and luckily no one was injured.

After many years (and Lala's death) I finally got a chance to go to San Francisco about 2 years back and made a trip to see my foster Dad and mom, Lanny and Jane. Together we journeyed to see Pops, who was still fit as a fiddle at 91. Driving himself around town and to the air force base where he got his medical treatment.

2 days ago I received a sad email from Lanny saying that Pops had passed away from a major stroke. I was in shock, but upon reflection, I do know I have that last photo I took of us from 2 years back and the stories he told. 

Cheryl,

An ex-colleague from my workplace just passed away from Cancer. She was younger than me, lived life to the fullest and had so much potential still to be fulfilled.

Even though she was sick, she didn't kick up a fuss about it. She did her job and she did well, and more importantly, she took my jokes and character in her stride, which many of a good people couldn't.

I guess there's so much more to write, but we only worked together for a short while, and didn't get much more time to interact outside of the office.

To Lee and Cheryl, Rest in Peace!