RIP Walt Staples

Dear Friends,

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Walt Staples, who was blogging with me, was going in for some medical tests and wouldn't be writing.  Apparently, things were worse than anyone thought.

Walt died Wednesday, March 14, sitting in a bus stop.  Whatever took him was quick, unexpected and apparently painless.

Walt and I met in the chat room of The Catholic Writers' Guild, and I roped him into running for Guild President, a position he held with charity and panache, just like everything he'd done.  When I started this blog, he kibitzed with me on it online, and again, I convinced him to help out.  His stories about growing up during the Space Race of the 60s were, for me, the highlight of week.  He did more than that, however; every day, I could be sure to find some news article about space that he'd found and thought to forward with me.  Sometimes, it was a point of honor to be able to say, "I saw that already!"

EB White said in Charlotte's Web:  “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.” Like Charlotte, Walt was both.  He's going to be greatly missed.

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I'm going to take all his articles and put them together on a separate page on this blog.

If anyone would like to send something to his family, e-mail me and I'll get you his address.  If you want to leave a comment about him here, I'm going to collect them and send them.