It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of my father on October 16, 2005 due to complications from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He had battled Hodgkin’s Lymphoma during the summer and early fall of 2003 and made it through both chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Every three months since then he had passed his examinations. Then in May 2005 he detected enlarged lymph nodes. After two months of testing, the return of the cancer was confirmed. He began chemotherapy in early August 2005—a regimen he would not complete. By the middle of September 2005, the symptoms of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma became worse and required a week stay at Georgetown University Hospital. The doctors were unsuccessful in their attempts to provide relief. After returning home for a week in early October 2005, his condition necessitated another trip to the hospital—but to no avail. My mother, my brother and his wife, and I were with him at the end.
Because my father wished to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, there was a bit of a wait between his passing and the funeral. On November 17, 2005, services were held at my parents’ church and at Arlington National Cemetery. They were very moving and were attended by many, many people—his sister and his nephew and his family from Colorado—family friends, individuals from his home town in Wyoming, friends from school days, colleagues from the US Navy Dental Corps, students he taught at Georgetown University and New York University, neighbors from Rockville and Bethany Beach. I was never as proud of my father as when the Honor Guard saluted him upon arrival at the gravesite and then folded the flag that covered him.
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