How I wish I had "powers" to bring us all together so we could cry and hug and drink a toast to our dear Lou - in a circle at the Study site at Quarry Farm! This is a sad and lonesome night. I miss all of you and I especially miss Lou. Love to all, Gretchen
---- Mark Dawidziak <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
>      Tougher duty, I can't imagine, Tom.
>      At the last Elmira gathering, we watched Lou Budd present his dear 
> friend Tom Quirk with the John S. Tuckey Lifetime Achievement Award. If 
> memory serves, Lou said he was quite sure Mark Twain would have liked 
> Tom Quirk as much for his personality as for his literary insight. Those 
> wonderful words also apply to the fellow who spoke them in August 2009.
>      We'll all be struggling with words strong enough and proper enough 
> to capture what Lou meant as a friend, mentor, teacher, scholar and 
> author. Memorializing Lou by helping a library seems altogether fitting, 
> of course, but another kind of towering memorial will unquestionably be 
> built by Forum members sharing countless instances of Lou's wisdom, 
> generosity, leadership, thoughtfulness and passion.
>      Wiser and more insightful words are already being posted by wiser 
> and more insightful members of the extended Twain family, but I'll 
> certainly never forget Lou going out of his way to make a Conference 
> novice feel welcome and worthy. Although he easily could have assumed 
> the role of Twainian grand master, he always seemed as excited about 
> learning new things as he was about sharing his considerable learning. 
> Indeed, he seemed the epitome of the old line about taking the work 
> seriously but not yourself. To paraphrase another author, Dickens, tell 
> me higher praise and I'll use it.
> 
> On 1/1/2011 2:00 PM, Quirk, Thomas V. wrote:
> > I am sorry to report that Louis Budd died in his sleep on Monday, December
> > 20th. In accordance with Lou's wishes, there will be no memorial service.
> > As some of you may know, Lou lived the last several months next door to his
> > son and his family in Patagonia, Arizona.  According to his son," if you
> > communicate with folks who wish to memorialize in some concrete way, his
> > favorite cause had become the local library.  Any checks would be made
> > payable to Friends of the Library, at mailing address Patagonia Public
> > Library, PO Box 415, Patagonia, AZ, 85624.  They do have a website, which i=
> > s
> > www.patagoniapubliclibrary.org."
> >
> > Tom Quirk =20
> >