Anniversaries

I haven't written on this for a long time. Last Friday (March 4) would have been Curt's 68th birthday. Next Friday (March 18) is the day he died last year. On his birthday I walked with friends, played tennis and went to Baker's in Lake Oswego. We all went out to eat and then back to their house for dessert with Steve and Lynda Sprecher. We played Progressive Rummy with them and thought of Curt. I also made some contributions in his name that day.
On the 18th I am flying to Southern California with the Bakers. The Bogners will meet us there. We will spend 3 nights in Anaheim, 4 nights in San Diego and 1 night in Long Beach. We are going to Disneyland, Universal Studios, SeaWorld (on March 23 -Aaron's 12th birthday), Legoland and possibly the San Diego Zoo, Old Town or Seaport Village.
I have been keeping busy with my other activities too. This June I will be a lay representative to our church conference in Salem. July is Eagle Crest and my 50th high school reunion in Moline, IL.
We are still working on the columbarium plans at church. A church member has drawn up some up some good plans and is trying to get cost estimates. We meet again this Tuesday (15th) and hope to be able to present these plans to our congregation and the city in the next month or two. My hope now is that it can be built by the end of the summer.

Scholarship and Columbarium

I received good news from the OSU Foundation that Curt's Scholarship is now fully endowed at $25,000. This will generate income for annual scholarships of at least $1,000. If the endowment grows, the scholarship can increase, or possibly generate two scholarships (unlikely). They have awarded the first scholarship to a student who will be a senior next year. According to their information - "He is a College of Engineering Dean's Scholar, and among the best and brightest in the program."
Also, the church is going to use some of Curt's church memorial money to hire a landscape architect to draw up plans for columbarium "garden" at our church. This is going to take awhile. It has to be approved by a couple committees in church, the city planners, and then by the congregation. We won't have the full plans until October. But things are moving.
I am keeping busy, but still miss Curt. I spent last week at Eagle Crest in Central Oregon with Angie's family. I am leaving for Beth's in Schaumburg, IL on Tuesday (July 13). Angie and the girls will join us the following week. Next weekend I will go with Beth, Aaron and Sam to the Wisconsin Dells, where Aaron is playing in a baseball tournament. On July 23 we will all drive to Aurelia, IA for a Stutz Family Reunion. Jef will join us there. I will return to Oregon with the Baker family from Omaha on July 26. I am looking forward to Meryl Simpson coming for a visit from England on September 2-16. On September 24 I am flying to Boston for a one week Trafalgar tour of the Fall Foliage with 2 other couples from church. I will stop at Beth's on the way home and return to Oregon on October 7. While I was at Eagle Crest, I had my living room painted and added crown molding. He also painted the hallway. I bought myself a Wii and the Bakers and Bogners gave me Wii Fit for my birthday (tomorrow). I also bought myself another TV in my bedroom.
I miss having Curt proof read this.

Update

I haven't had a chance to write here lately. There is a lot of paper work to do, and I have started back in my "old routine" (tennis, bridge, Folk Club, church, etc.).
I think I mentioned trying to attach Angie's slide show. I don't think I can upload a Power Point file. There are over 200 pictures in the slide show and I don't want to upload all of them. If you were able to download the video of the service, part of the slide show is in that.
I have Curt's ashes here at home and am waiting to see what happens at our church. That could take awhile.
Angie is coming tomorrow to start going through Curt's personal things. It is hard to look at them. The whole Baker family might return next weekend.
I want to maintain all Curt's work in our yard and have arranged for lawn care. I have some things that still need to be planted though (not included in the maintenance).
I still hope to get personal thanks yous written someday!

Memorial Service

It was wonderful to see all the people who came to celebrate Curt's life at his Memorial Service last Saturday (I think over 300). My house is slowly getting more quiet. Today Beth, Angie and I took Jason, Aaron, Sam and Andrea Simpson to the Portland airport. Andrea was on the same flight to Chicago where she was connecting with her flight to London. The other out-of-town relatives started to leave late Saturday afternoon. Beth and Angie will stay here until Friday. A former neighbor took pictures and video (about 1 hour) of the service. To view this you need to go to http://bit.ly/cfeF8E. I think the file is 1.5 gb. I didn't know he was going to do this, and it was a great surprise. Angie also made a slide show of old pictures that we showed before the service and at the reception/lunch in the Community Center afterwards. I might try to attach that on a later blog.

By the way we had a great time at the beach in Seaside. The weather was good and the house was big, very nice, and close to the ocean. We celebrated Aaron's birthday on March 23 by him feeding sea lions at the Aquarium, riding bumper cars and visiting Ft. Clapsop (Lewis & Clark). The next day we climbed the Astoria Column (164 steps) with spectacular views and exploring the batteries and grounds of Ft. Stevens.

Obituary

I have submitted an obituary for Curt to the Corvallis Gazette Times, Quad City Times, and (Moline) Dispatch. The Dispatch already has it online at www.qconline.com. I'm not sure when it will appear in our paper.

Plans

Everything is set for the service on Saturday, March 27, at 10 AM at the First United Methodist Church in Corvallis. There will be a light lunch afterwards in our Community Center. We hope you can all come.
Curt was cremated today. He has always said that is what he wanted. He even mentioned one time putting some ashes on the pitchers mound. I would like to make a contribution to our church for a Columbarium for his ashes and for other members in the future. This would be different way for you to contribute, besides the Curtis Cook Computer Science scholarship through the Oregon State University Foundation, Benton Hospice, or the Cancer Society.
I am still working on an obituary and keep getting distracted, etc.!
Thank you again for all your support!

Making Plans

We have decided we would like to have Curt's memorial service at 10 AM on Saturday, March 27. This needs to be confirmed by our church (First United Methodist in Corvallis), but our minister indicated that date should be free. We want to have a light lunch afterwards in our church's Community Center. If anyone would like to make contributions, a Curtis Cook scholarship for an OSU Computer Science student has been set up with the OSU Foundation. We would also like to support our church, Benton County Hospice and the Cancer Society.
Before all this happened we had planned to rent a house in Seaside from Monday, March 22, to Thursday, March 25. We have decided this would be good time to spend together as a family. Beth is now here with the Baker family. The rest of her family is going to arrive this Saturday and probably return after the weekend of the 27th.
I don't know how to thank everyone for all the support we have received. It has been a great comfort to me and our family (as well as it was to Curt).