In life there are a certain number of individuals who are close friends and seem to make life special. Gene was one of those people. He had a deep concern for people and their struggles and joys in Life. I cannot remember a time when we were together with a group when this was not part of the conversation. Gene met many of my students. As many of these students blossomed into professionals in the fields of preservation and decorative arts, he would love to talk to them about their philosophy. I often wished I had had Gene as one of my bosses. He seemed to know why we were in the field to begin with. Gene often talked to me about the influence I had on my students. These conversations - unknown to Gene - I think always made me work harder to be a good teacher because it was a responsibility. We will miss Gene and John Romano's verbal discourses at our salmon and wine gatherings. You know he thought all day about what topic he was going to confront us with at the "Greek" dinners. It was so obvious he valued friendship. Geno my friend - who is going to make sure now I have to sing the Rutgers fight song? Dick Pencek