How do you want to be remembered?

Like most would: long and well.

In trying to answer this one I made a list of virtues I hope I’ve exhibited. You know: to have been a good husband and father, and so on. I’m not discounting those things, they are important, but a list of virtues is a dry sandwich.

I love to learn; it’s been a sustaining force and lots of fun. I suppose travel fits into that basket—Marianne and I traveled a lot and for me, learning was the main thing. 

I like to engage, to be in the arena. But not as one of a group. Individuality and freedom of thought and action are important.

I’ve tried to make a difference, to leave things better than I found them. Marianne would say, “Can’t you just leave well enough alone?” No, I can’t. An example might be the columbaria that I helped build at Saint Michael. 

On a smaller scale, another episode comes to mind. When I was a first-year pathology resident (1965) we were expected to attend a monthly meeting of Dallas-Fort Worth pathologists. We met at Howard Johnson’s motel and restaurant on what is now I30 to Fort Worth. We lugged our microscopes and set them up on big tables to look at 6-8 cases. Multiply that by the number of pathologists and it comes out to a lot of work. We’d look at the slides and discuss what we saw, hoping to come to the correct diagnosis. It was educational and fun, but, geez, it was a logistical hassle. After a year of this, I suggested we switch to a Kodak carousel using microphotographic transparencies. It was approved. Now Howard Johnson’s is gone, the DFW Association of Pathologists is defunct, and everything is digital.