One of the most common sentiments I've heard from folks over the last few days
is "I can't believe he's gone." Even though I'd only known Leonard for a few
years, I have to admit that I share that feeling. I guess when someone's been
around for almost a century, part of you starts to think that they'll be around
forever. I'm just glad that I got the chance to know Leonard and, if I learned
just one thing from him, it would have to be that it’s never too late to go
chasing a dream.

I spoke with Melody Galen at the Missouri Archaeological Society (MAS)
yesterday. The MAS has established a fund in Leonard's memory and the funds will
be earmarked for archaeological biological analyses. If you would like to
contribute, please send your check to the "Leonard Blake Memorial Fund" at P.O.
Box 958, Columbia, MO 65205-0958. All donations are tax-deductible and you do
NOT need to be a member of the MAS to contribute.

Melody is also compiling a collection of pictures and memories of Leonard for
publication in an upcoming issue of the MAS Quarterly. If you have anything
you'd like to share, you can e-mail your stories and high-resolution scans of
pictures to her at galenm@... , or you can snail-mail them to her at
the above address. If you send pictures, please be sure to include a caption for
each one (basic info like who, what, when, where, and why) and give a return
address if you want your pictures.

Working on a parallel but separate train of thought, I've created an area on the
Washington University Friday Archaeology (WUFA) web page dedicated to pictures
and memories of Leonard. Gail Wagner has already sent in a few pictures of
Leonard in the field back in the late 70s and Carol Diaz-Granados has provided a
couple of more recent images of Leonard, including one from his 98th birthday. I
invite everyone to visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WUFA/files/lwb/ and, if
you have something you’d like to share, e-mail it to me at
bgpaulus@... and I’ll upload it just as soon as I can. There’s no
deadline on this, so don’t feel like you have to rush to get something to me and
you don’t have to be a WUFA subscriber or anything like that, either.

Finally, unless some major new development occurs, this will probably be the
last Leonard-related posting I’ll make to the WUFA, SLARK and MAS-MCAS sites. If
you have any specific questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to
e-mail them to me directly.

I’m looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow at the open house. For those
of you who are unable to make it, I know that you’ll be there in spirit which is
the most important thing.

Carpe diem, y’all,

Greg
Archaeology Information Hunter-Gatherer
bgpaulus@...