Well, it certainly feels like "the passing of an era." Earl and I became good boyhood friends when we played trumpet together in Wheatley Community Band (he was much better than I). Earl and I, along with Fred, Bill Whittal, Glen Hall and Ron Johnson formed the Melody Kings orchestra when most of us were still teenagers; Larry Foster joined us shortly after. Those were great days! I remember when he started to work for Canadian Filters and was taking some extension studies and asked me to help him with, of all things, Logaritms (does anybody even use those anymore!). Then we were ushers in each other's weddings. Anne had gone to Teachers College in London with my wife, Janice, and introduced us. We were engaged on December 17, 1959 – the same night Earl and Anne brought baby Jill home from the hospital. We haven't lived close together in the past good number of years, but the connections by heart and spirit and friendship remain. Janice and I are saddened to learn of Earl's death. He was a great guy and one we were honoured to know as a wonderful friend. Tom Watson
