Memories of a Friend by Ed Staib   Where do I start? Bud & I first met, he as the CD of NJ-I and Jan & I as newbee A/CD’s of NJ-E. We worked well together at various events but then everyone seemed to work well with Bud. At our first District dinner we marveled at Bud’s ability to get everyone from NJ-I out and dressed to the 9’s. But during these early years, I never got to KNOW Bud as I was to soon find out. Some years later Mr. Goodman saw fit to recruit us as A/DD’s to be groomed to take over NJ a short year later. As memory serves, Jan & I were visiting with the Goodman’s after another Chapter gathering within our great state. We were discussing the new District Staff and I said I was sure I wanted Bud & Marilyn to stay on as our A/DD’s but wasn’t sure my warped sense of humor would blend with what I thought was a straight line of Bud. As the words left my lips, Linda started laughing. Somewhat confused, I asked what was so darn funny and was politely told I didn’t KNOW Bud yet. As it played out, truer words were never spoken. Now a little later in our relationship, we had a birthday party for my bride and Bud & Marilyn were in attendance. Bud had brought a can of mixed nuts with him and I still can’t figure what got us started but Bud was trying to offer “his nuts” to everyone (with Marilyn saying she’d had enough of “his nuts”). Then he couldn’t get his digital camera to work so he could photograph “his nuts”. Needless to say, this went into the toilet and I began to really KNOW Bud and his sense of humor.   As we attended events for GWRRA, both working and pleasure, I had the privilege of having Bud & Marilyn in my ‘back pocket’ so to speak and always had their support and friendship to help smooth the road. Bud always tried to make things right and enjoyable for the membership and I must say, succeeded more often then not.  And if we didn’t cross paths often enough, we would call each other and meet for lunch; two retired guys enjoying each other’s company. As I remember our times together, I will always smile and salute the heavens for we have all lost a dear caring friend. There are many stories proving Linda right as I didn’t KNOW Bud but I did get to that point and always appreciated him and his talents. Both Bud & Marilyn played devil’s advocate with us so we saw all sides of the situation to try to provide NJ with the best program we could. When the city of N. Wildwood would try and change the rules for the rally, Bud was on the horn saying “let’s meet and go see the mayor about this” and off we’d go in that bright red Cadillac.  He never hesitated to give freely of his time or talents so we could all have fun. Recently, I was typing an e-mail to members of NJ-E who may be attending the DE rally about getting together for dinner Friday night. When I finished, I turned to Jan & said “I think I have spent too much time with Bud, I just got done trying to set up a dinner for our Chapter just as I had seen him do so many times”.  So we all have an empty spot on our hearts and some sadness in our step, but Bud will always live in our memories and I am grateful for the time spent and the lessons learned from someone I can truly say was a FRIEND. God Bless.