Another Death in the Family
The CFO received word yesterday that her brother-in-law, Scott, had died earlier this week. He had been in declining health over the past several years, but .... well ... Scott was the first of our brothers or sisters or their spouses to die. The generation before your own — parents, aunt, uncles — you expect to die. But, somehow when a family member of your own generation dies, especially the first one, mortality gives you a hard slap in the face. Who's next?
Scott grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, outside Asheville in the little town of Bee Tree. It was there he developed a life-long passion for angling, especially for mountain trout. He received a full ride to Duke University that took him away from the mountains for a few years but he was soon back. A physicist by training, his first rule of employment, he once told me, was that he must be able to live where he could leave his home and have his first trout in hand within the hour. Accordingly, he spent the majority of his profession career at Oak Ridge National Laboratory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee in the field of health physics.
Scott was a man of many interests and talents, notably woodworking; quick, nimble cars; and road rallies. His vehicle of choice was the Rover P6 four-door saloon produced in England between 1963 and 1973. Before the manufacturer would sell you a car, you were obliged to attend their driving school. Only 322,302 were ever built and he once owned two of them at the same time.
The last time I saw him about two years ago he told me that he had finally learned to properly sharpen a wood chisel after thirty years of practice.
Scott's ashes will be floated down his favorite trout stream.
Scott grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, outside Asheville in the little town of Bee Tree. It was there he developed a life-long passion for angling, especially for mountain trout. He received a full ride to Duke University that took him away from the mountains for a few years but he was soon back. A physicist by training, his first rule of employment, he once told me, was that he must be able to live where he could leave his home and have his first trout in hand within the hour. Accordingly, he spent the majority of his profession career at Oak Ridge National Laboratory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee in the field of health physics.
Scott was a man of many interests and talents, notably woodworking; quick, nimble cars; and road rallies. His vehicle of choice was the Rover P6 four-door saloon produced in England between 1963 and 1973. Before the manufacturer would sell you a car, you were obliged to attend their driving school. Only 322,302 were ever built and he once owned two of them at the same time.
The last time I saw him about two years ago he told me that he had finally learned to properly sharpen a wood chisel after thirty years of practice.
Scott's ashes will be floated down his favorite trout stream.
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