[Ducati] I lost a friend today

[John Whiting]

My good friend, and roomate for my 'home away from home' Houston
business digs, died last night in the midst of celebrating the New Year.
Bear, a bear of a man, finally succumbed to an ongoing battle with
cardiopulmonary shortcomings from a life lived to the fullest.  A true
renaissance man, he had lived many lifetimes in his short 65 years, from
K model harley rider out of Oakland in the 60's to running with Ken
Kesey, Sonny Barger and Tim Leary during the Summer of Love, working
animation for Disney to designing and building exhibits for the
Exploratorium in SF, running cranes on offshore platforms in the middle
east to piloting choppers in Africa, burning up Hwy 1 in his 289 Cobra
or D-Type Jag to pulling Steve McQueen out of a wrecked sports car near
his house, recovering from a broken back that landed him on the streets
of Houston penniless to teaching me the art of living life Bear style
and keeping me grounded in the landscape of my succesful business
undertakings.  He was wordly in a life lived among many tribes of Africa
as well as the Inuit in Canada.  

He was a sculptor, world class taxidermist, inventor, designer, problem
solver, technician of all things plastics, welder extraudinaire,
marathon joke teller, practitioner of Kharmic balance, giver to those in
need, teacher, and: he made damn near the best cup of coffee on the
planet.

Godspeed Bear.  There was never a mold there to break.  You were always
a piece of work in progress.