To Rodger Cary in Memoriam

[Tamaroa]

A very sad thing happened today. My friend Rodger Cary, passed away from a long bout with cancer. He was like a brother to me. We fought the state of New York long and hard going after the politicians in Albany to pay attention to the states Civil War flags. We made trip after trip to Albany and got in their faces, we challenged them all the time with F.O.I. requests to see where their money was going. We hounded them until they got the flag committee to start meeting when they had sat on their butts for 4 years. Largely as a part of our efforts the collection is slowly being restored.

Rodger and I traveled all over the county and state and into New Jersey and Pennsylvania lecturing on things like the Confederate Flag, Flag preservation, grave stone restoration, recording Civil War cemetery plots for posterity. The list goes on and on.

I will miss him dearly. Sorry to post such a sad event like this, but Rodger, even though he was not a pre-eminent civil war scholar,he could blow most of them away; well, he should be recognized amongst his peers for his work and dedication.

Adios old buddy, til we meet again!!

Bill

[MORTARDUDE]

Bill :

May the Lord give you peace. May God Bless.

Larry

[David]

I am sorry to hear of your friends passing. God bless both of your families.

[Tamaroa]

Hi All,

Thanks for your thoughts. I went to the viewing today and was completely humbled by the experience. It is not often that it is made so clear how you impact the lives of others. Today was one of those days. Rodger's wife and children were very happy to see me there. Then they went on to describe the day of his death. his family said they wished that I had been there because he apparently went on and on about some of the crazed things we did together. One such thing was that we drove 150 miles round trip in a driving rain storm just to visit the grave of Rear Admiral John Worden who commanded the Monitor in her historic fight with the Virginia.

After that visit we decided to carry American flags in our cars at all times; now the next time we see Civil War graves without a flag we would be prepared.

We were inseparable on the weekends to the point where my wife once remarked that Rodger would be a correspondent in a divorce case if I weren't careful. We traipsed all over the county searching for Civil War era landmarks. We did almost anything we set our sights on. The one thing we did not get done was an attempt to create a museum for Rockland county honoring all of her veterans. Rodger was a Viet Nam vet as well as a Civil War buff. He was in Intelligence. Did not say much else about it.

I've already taken up to much time, but so many of you are like an extended family to me, I felt I could lean on you for a while.

Thanks,

Bill

[BLUEHAWK]

Blessings Bill, just blessings is all.

Keep up them FOI requests