Thursday, March 23, 2023
Dear Carol,
I was deeply saddened to hear of Bill’s passing. We were the best of friends in college. We sometimes played cards, talked, and just had fun in the break room at Albany Pharmacy. In those days we often got together to play tennis on the courts in Troy. Inevitably after our game, we would stop for a chocolate milkshake at Crowley’s on the corner. Bill said they were the best milkshakes in the world, and I would have to agree. My family had a cabin on the lakeshore of Friends Lake in the Adirondacks, and Bill and I and my family shared some good times there. His family also had a cabin near a lake - I can’t remember where - and I was there one time. I remember swimming in the lake and that night at his cabin, I had a pounding headache, and wouldn’t you know, we had no medicine – two pharmacy students and not even an aspirin tablet. How ironic. We sometimes joked about that.
After we graduated we went our separate ways. He went on to Albany Law School, then on to Rochester with his law practice, and I put a stint in the military, on to the University of Kansas, to the National Institutes of Health in Washington DC, and finally to the Food and Drug Administration in St. Louis where I worked in a chemistry laboratory.
On our 45th Class of ‘65 reunion, a classmate called to encourage everyone to attend the reunion. Bill said he would go if I went, and I said I would go if he went. So there we were - you, Bill, me, and my wife Jennie - meeting in Albany after all those years. Bill told me that you and he played tennis and hinted that your game was a little stronger than his. We talked about our families, and it was apparent that he was proud of his children.
I see he was valedictorian of his class at Albany Law School. I did not know that, but it wouldn’t surprise me with all his intellect, and he would be too humble to talk about it.
I shall never forget his humor and his smile. My heart and prayers go out to you and your family at this time.
Sincerely,
John Reepmeyer
