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
>