My memories of my older brother Bill are too numerous to mention. But some of the fondest are provided here. Bill was widely known at Holmes High School as "The Brain", but to me, his most amazing characteristic, aside from being a "Speed Reader" and possessing a "Photographic Memory" was his Encyclopedic Vocabulary. Bill and I were raised in a one bedroom house where we studied and slept in an unheated attic. When it was time to go to bed, Bill would study the Dictionary with only the illumination of his flashlight, so that he would not disturb me from falling asleep. Over a six year period of two years of Junior High School and four years of High School, brother Bill amassed a vocabulary that must have been the equal to that of Adlai Stevenson. Other fond memories of Bill involved his love of flying airplanes (of which he had a Private Pilot's License, an IFR rating, a Commercial Pilot's License, and even a Helicopter Pilot's License. The first (of three) of these most memorable flying adventures was when Bill took his wife Irene, my wife, and myself on a flight in a single-engine, low-wing, four-seat Mooney aircraft from Long Beach, CA to Santa Catalina Island, "26 Miles Across The Sea". The runway on that Island had been carved off the top of the highest mountain on that Island, and was extremely short. The landing and takeoff from Santa Catalina Island certainly had my wife and myself holding our breath, praying to God that Bill had the skill to manage it. The second adventurous flight, similar to the first with the same three passengers, was in the same Mooney aircraft, but to Las Vegas, NM. Here, the landing was "No Sweat", but the high altitude coupled with the high desert temperature, with a full load of three passengers and their luggage, required all the skill that Bill needed to muster up. He asked us to promise that our luggage did not exceed the weight that he said must be adhered to. Well, we survived the take-off, Thank GOD ! ! The third of his flying adventures was when he was going to visit me and my fiancé in New Haven, CT where I was living at the time. Bill took his wife in that same Mooney aircraft on a Cross-Country Flight from Torrance, CA to New Haven, encountering an unusual series of thunderstorms, fog, and even a tornado (which they had to use up almost all of their reserve gas to fly around it), but they made it. Bill and Irene both described the flight as "White Knuckles the Whole Darn Way". I am signing off of the Memorial Page in the same manner that I always signed-off in my E-mails to him:
. Lil' Bro" Jimbo
