I got two sad pieces of news today in the space of less than 2 minutes. I was having lunch with a friend when I got a call from my good friend Bruce in Poughkeepsie. Our mutual close friend Jim Echkhardt was in a bad accident last night. He’s currently in a coma in intensive care in Poughkeepsie with a brain injury. News through the day has been hard to come y, but last I heard from Bruce, things were looking better for Jim.. I just heard a few minutes ago that he’s now breathing on his own and is moving his fingers and feet. Hes’ still unconscious though.

I can’t believe this is happening . ..  Jim was up here with Bruce just days after Sam died.. they brought me a good bottle of Tequila and hung out with me for several very hard days.. I’ll never forget that. He’s such a great, funny and .  strong guy..hes gonna pull through .I feel it.  Our thoughts are with Jim and his family tonight. I ask you all to send good thoughts his way as well..

Sadly. just as I was hearing this terrible news from Bruce, I got another call from our mutaul good freind Kevin. I thouhgt Kevin was calling to also tell me about Jim.. but .. it turns out he hadn’t heard .. Instead he was callign to tell me that another mutual freind of ours. Rcihard (Dick) Chu had died in a boating accident. Dick was 79 years old and retired as an IBM Fellow a year or so back. At one point he had more patents than anyone else in the company.. . he was a kind, quiet and caring guy.. He was a real mentor to me for several years. We will all miss him. Our thoughts also go out to Dick ‘s wife Theresa.. and their son Ben who’s also at IBM.

Again.. please keep both Jm and Dicks families in your thoughts tonight..

nite all, nite sam