Sadly, long time commenter and moderator Roy Hogue passed away this week.
People may not realize Roy spent countless hours moderating as “AZ”. Many thanks to him for his patience — and likewise to all the moderators who make it possible for the conversation to continue here.
After 12,535 comments he will be missed.
Roy’s first comment was in November 2009. As a “computer science type” who lectured at college level, Roy said:
At a lecture for students on AGW the best a pair of professors could come up with to support their alarmism was Al Gore’s movie and the usual statements that it’s a done deal, no more debate, etc., etc., ad nauseam.
Our students have no means of protecting themselves from this proof by authority.
Commiserations to his lovely wife Catharine and family. I know he was much loved.
A good man to the end.
Rest in Peace Roy, you’ve earned it.
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That’s sad news, indeed.
Farewell Roy.
My kindest regards and best wishes to his surviving family.
The moderation here has always been quick (and, ahem, appropriate 😀 ) so you have (and have had) a really good crew, Jo. He … umm … tweaked a few of mine.
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A good man, fair and true.
He chopped me often, probably for good reason 😉
All part of the job.
He was on the right side of life, reason, common sense and decency.
He will be missed.
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Jo, you have quite a few contributors to your comments section and I personally have benefited from their collective wisdom. It is not always possible to read and absorb them all and so it is often necessary to just scan them looking for certain names. Names I have come to know and trust.
Roy Hogue was one them, he will be sadly missed.
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Vale Roy.
Well put Pete.
Another I had a high regard for was Mosomoso. Is he still with us? I fear the worst.
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He’s still around as far as I know.
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Sadly no more of his good comments but one can be reused to describe today’s weather here.
“It was so dry yesterday that you needed SCUBA gear to go out in it.”
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Thank you Roy.
Some of Roy’s life and interests came through on the blog but Jo seems to have highlighted the main reason for his interest in this Australian blog with his first comment:
“Our students have no means of protecting themselves from this proof by authority.”
He obviously found the blog real and felt that it could provide the antidote to the messages from on high constantly being pumped out by the mainstream politico/media/education complex over there in the U.S.
A haven of sanity?
Many years ago I sent him a book as a “thank you” for his involvement in a common interest and after that we exchanged the occasional email and photographs.
All the best to Roy’s family, and to Roy: keep on flying Roy.
KK
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Rest in peace Roy. Thank you for your contribution.
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Sad news on Roy
Also this for Twitter users
“Massive Twitter Purge In Progress”
https://realclimatescience.com/2020/08/massive-twitter-purge-in-progress/
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I know of at least one well known Christian news service that had to build thier own video streaming platform as they were kicked off the Left infested social media platforms. No great loss though…the Left always eats its own…
These people tell it how it is, and the Left gate them for it.
http://www.trunews.com
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Funny you pointed to that site. I first looked at it yesterday. Expect more groups to use other means of communication. The left are so openly evil only the blind can’t see it. Yet we still have our government funding the ABC using our money. The left support the murder of babies now outside the womb. The proposed Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act bill establishes requirements for the degree of care a health care practitioner must exercise in the event a child is born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion. The Democrats keep blocking passaged of the bill. When are people going to realize the left are evil?
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My sincere condolences to Roy’s family, you don’t need us to tell you how good a man he was including the fact Joanne put enough faith in him to become one of the trusted gate keepers of her very important work.
I would like to thank him for taking the time to converse and persevere with me as his insights and willingness to share life’s experiences gave us all a different perspective that could be added to our knowledge base.
I would also like to give my humblest apologies to Roy if any of my comments gave him grief or caused offence as this is never my intention for our side and is strictly reserved for the other.
Even though we talk here as colleagues or acquaintances I believe that somehow, somewhere, one day we will all embrace as friends.
Prayer for a Pilot
by Cecil Edric Mornington Roberts
Lord of Sea and Earth and Air,
Listen to the Pilot’s prayer—
Send him wind that’s steady and strong,
Grant that his engine sings the song
Of flawless tone, by which he knows
It shall not fail him where he goes;
Landing, gliding, in curve, half-roll—
Grant him, O Lord, a full control,
That he may learn in heights of Heaven
The rapture altitude has given,
That he shall know the joy they feel
Who ride Thy realms on Birds of Steel.
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Thanks for the poem Yonnie,
I’ve not seen that before.
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I’m sad to hear of Roy’s death. He was one of my favourite commenters (and moderator, as we learned recently). Rest in peace Roy and may we all one day meet merrily in Heaven.
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One of life’s true gentleman, I learnt so much from Roy and other commenters here about the CAGW con and yes I too had the odd comment removed deservedly so but his passion for the truth and to expose the ideological driven science was a standout .
Condolences to Catherine and family .
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Presumably this is weekend unthreaded, so I’m putting forward the argument that the collapse of civilisations is caused by droughty conditions.
“In a short period of time, the entire world of the Bronze Age crumbled,” says Israel Finkelstein, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, who was one of the lead scientists in the study.
“The Hittite Empire, Egypt of the pharaohs, the Mycenaean culture in Greece, the copper-producing kingdom located on the island of Cyprus, the great trade emporium of Ugarit on the Syrian coast, and the Canaanite city—states under Egyptian hegemony—all disappeared and only after a while were replaced by the territorial kingdoms of the Iron Age, including Israel and Judah.”
National Geographic
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Thank you Roy (and family), always enjoyed your remarks, a good man and we all knew it.
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Seconding all of the above. Sad news, Roy’s passing. He will be missed.
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Farewell AZ….thank you for all your valuable efforts in keeping the peace….
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Thank You Roy for your contributions over many years.
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1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) by Eric H. Cline (book and youtube)
He chose the invasion of Egypt by the sea peoples as the definitive date, although he had originally chosen a slightly earlier date, but with new opinion from Egyptologists settled on 1177 B.C. and he had to change the date all the way through his manuscript. As soon as the book was published Egyptologists decided that his original date was correct (there is always problems accurately dating events in ancient Egypt as they used the “in the XX year of the reign of Pharaoh YY” and tended not to remind people that there had been “a little difficulty” before that Pharaoh settled on the throne).
Yes, there is good evidence of dry weather across Greece and the Middle East. It has been suggested that Troy was abandoned at this time.
Another time of collapse was around 2200-2000B.C. when the Egyptian Old Kingdom collapsed, along with the Akkadian empire in Mesopotamia. The Harrapan civilization in the sub-continent also collapsed at this time, along with one of the early Chinese centres of civilisation, and the neolithic (stone users) in Orkney (and the rest of the UK and Ireland).
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supposedly a reply to e.g. number 11.
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In your opinion was it volcanic eruptions or a quiet sun which caused the cooler/droughty conditions?
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I think a weaker sun. The Bond events (periodic ice rafting in the north Atlantic) shows an increase about 2200-2300 B.C. and a double event around 1300 B.C. and 1,000 B.C. indicating cooler times.
But larger scale volcanic action would also cause cooling. Certainly there does seem to have been dryer times around 1300 in Anatolia. The eruption of Laki in Iceland in 1783 seems to have disrupted the asian monsoon and resulted in a lower Nile flood.
Also there seems to have been a major earthquake in India around 2200 B.C. which may have effected the Harrapan decline. The major city Mahenjo was between 2 rivers and one moved about 10 km. away. Also early reports spoke of ‘the land of 7 rivers’ but now Punjab means ‘land of 5 rivers’.
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Thanks, it was a Bond Event and brought increased aridity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.2_kiloyear_event
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Immanuel Velikovsky’s revision of Egyptian chronology in his book Ages in Chaos has not been repudiated. His is another example of the Ridd, Salby, Carter style anathematization of heterodox views which besets our Western academies. Roy Hogue’s rejection of “proof by authority” inevitably led him to Jo’s site which is something of a haven for those who won’t be told what to think.
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Since I’ve started O/T why not more?
“”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period”
Charles Dickens A Tale of 2 Cities
Farewell Roy H. for resisting this age of foolishness, this epoch of belief and of incredulity, and battled against the season of Darkness.
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A good soul has returned to its source
May his afterlife be as good as on earth
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Very sweet Mal, Roy as I knew him, deserved every bit of your blessing. Thank you and thank him.
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Another good skeptic passess away – such circumstances make me wonder if skeptics are making a difference?
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=hottest+day+on+record&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
gets 362M hits
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=coldest+day+on+record&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
gets 15M hits
I do not think skeptics will shift the balance until the globe sees sustained cold weather. Global Warming has morphed to the Humpty Dumpty world of Climate Change and that can mean whatever the purveyors of non-science want it to mean. Every weather event beyond balmy days; just enough wind to keep the turbines spinning; just enough rain to keep the crops growing; plenty of sun to keep the solar panels pumping – anything outside “perfect” weather is the result of Climate Change. The new definition of Climate Change includes global cooling caused by rising levels of CO2; the BoM will then be forced to modify its homogenisation routine.
Your thoughts and words live on through Jo’s blog.
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How many people knew that Tasmania just had its coldest morning EVAH !!
Liawenee broke its previous cold value by a whole 2C, recording -14.2C
https://au.news.yahoo.com/weather-record-smashed-tasmania-liawenee-drops-14c-032814464.html
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And of course, snow in Launceston for the first line in 40 or so years.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/australian-city-covered-in-snow-for-first-time-in-40-years-054651819.html
And snow in SA Flinders ranges..
https://au.news.yahoo.com/snow-south-australia-stuns-residents-flinders-ranges-053526021.html
” since 1952 and it’s the first time they have seen snow in the valley.”
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“The last time we saw snow settle in Launceston was in the early 1970s,” Mr Thomas said.
Just before the Great Climate Shift of 1976, so it was probably from the lingering effects of the 1960s cool period.
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I don’t know how old Roy was when he passed away but he lived in one of the most interesting times of our Civilisation, or what’s left of it.
He lived through the greatest explosion of knowledge ever experienced by mankind, only to see the numerous evil people of the world actively work against that knowledge and lie about it and misrepresent it for the purpose of destroying the greatest civilisation ever, Western Civilisation.
(No, I don’t think “all civilisations are equal”).
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Would guess a minimum of 80.
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A real gentleman. Appreciated both his input as Roy and his moderation as AZ. Condolences to his family.
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God bless you Roy Hogue.
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Rest In Peace Roy
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RIP Roy. You will be sadly missed here.
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Thanks for letting us know Jo, and my condolences to Roy’s family and friends.
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[Duplicate]
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Yes I noticed AZ.
Lest we forget his wise words of the class
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[Duplicate]
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Yes I noticed AZ.
Lest we forget his wise observations of the lecture hall, as you mentioned.
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Sad news. Commiserations to his wife and family. Enjoyed his contributions.
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Why hasn’t Roy, Jo or anyone here, given so many years , been able to provide evidence overturning the accepted AGW position without resort to conspiracy theories?.
(Off topic, try the weekend post instead) CTS
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We have
Why don’t you read the site before you comment?
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why hasn’t the pro-AGW position been able to provide empirical scientific evidence that human CO2 causes the climate to change?
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It has, have you heard of the CSIRO or NASA ?
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Only empty comments from little Evidence-FREE.
Still searching vainly for some actual evidence, I see. !
Come on, show us that link to the empirical evidence at NASA and CSIRO…
THEY HAVE NONE.
So you have NONE.
EMPTY ! EVIDENCE-VOID….. VACUOUS.
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Why hasn’t ANYONE been able to provide empirical evidence of warming by atmospheric CO2..
….. ANYWHERE on the planet, EVER.?
Analysis of balloon data shows it is not possible.
But that is real science, so you won’t comprehend it.
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I have to say Evidence Please that I’ve given the math here that shows the maximum response to CO2 is under 0.5C per doubling a dozen times.
If you want me to cover it again then I can if you like. First though you must agree to accept the principle of Entropy and the Law of conservation of energy as a starting point.
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Very sad news; may his family know the peace that passes all understanding.
Roy and I were planning to meet in person at some time; he became aware that I lived in Wyoming, and told the tale of a night he was listening to the radio, and heard that the temperature this station was reporting was minus four-zero, so he waited until he got the call letters. As it turns out, it was our local AM 1030 KTWO, which we all affectionately call ‘K-2′. At one point, I learned or figured out that he was in California, and not knowing he was a moderator, sent a message to the support address, asking if one of the moderators could pass my e-mail address along to Roy, so we could correspond privately, and not through our lovely hostess’ website.
He responded, and advised that he was a moderator, and we began to put together the framework of a visit. My older brother lives in Saratoga, near San Jose, so if I was able to get from Wyoming to the Greater Bay Area, skipping down the coast to Roy’s abode would have been simple.
He advised earlier this year that he had moved into a skilled nursing facility. Much as I wanted to, there was no way for me to make any treks across one-third of the country, so this news is very sad. I’m certain we’re all that much poorer for the loss of this gentleman, scholar, and ace moderator.
In addition to Yonniestone’s #8, I would also point all of us to John Gillespie Magee’s High Flight. If you do not know the story of Lt. Magee, he was a trainee in the RCAF, and wrote the poem a few weeks before he lost his life in a training accident; if memory serves, it was around 1940.
I had heard the poem as a very young lad, and in my senior year of high school (in US parlance, my 12th grade year, the last before one usually goes to college), I had the most worthless English teacher who ever existed. My desk sat next to a collection of books she had in her classroom, and one of them was a biography of Lt. Magee. Over the course of several months, when I could get away with it, I would pull the book from her shelf, and as she did her worthless non-lessons, I read the entire book. It was most engaging.
I am certain in the hope that Roy had now ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ and is soaring as few of us have, touching the face of God.
Prayers to his family,
Vlad
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Considering that this thread is a tribute to Roy and the undoubted contribution he made to the search for a “better world”, I find the comment at #30 to be inappropriate, off topic and offensive.
It’s a sign of the times, however when the comment is allowed to stand as some sort of misguided acknowledgement of the concept of Free Speech.
KK
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Frankly Keith, Roy wouldn’t have wanted an opportunity to respond to a challenge go “unrewarded” so I think it should stay, so Evidence Please can find the evidence he’s (not) looking for.
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That fair enough but the extra bit that made me comment was the refutation given in the link, “We have” where there’s a concession that “CO2 causes warming” but that it is limited to 1C° or something.
I have the greatest admiration for Anthony and Jo but the point is that human origin CO2 cannot influence the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Basic physics and gas laws show that there is No mechanism by which CO2 can alter the inevitable.
Additionally, if there are still people unconvinced, there’s Quantitative Analysis which shows that, if the heat trapping mechanism existed, then atmospheric CO2 is missing in action and the idea that human origin CO2 can do anything is an absolute joke because it is only a small fraction of atmospheric CO2.
Then, if we really want to agonise over CO2, there’s the ultimate source: The Oceans.
KK
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Indeed Keith, but I decided Roy would not mind the thread allowing one more chance to expose the unskeptical “scientists” who also read here. In the spirit of all the work he did to make that possible…
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Exactly what I meant above!
Thanks Jo
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My condolences to Catharine and family. I hope they take comfort from the comments by his many friends above. Even though we know that these cannot adequately describe Roy, let alone the context of his existence, his raison d’etre. We seem to spend a lifetime avoiding these questions, and even when we try to address them, the words fail us. I’m going to try anyway.
Part of being human is this relentless urge for fulfillment. No-one seems to know why this urge exists, or how to satisfy it, but it doesn’t stop people from trying. Typically, we seek power, wealth or recognition. None of them “work” in the longer term.
Power fails because it assumes that by controlling others, we can make ourselves free. Whereas the opposite is the case; when we use others, we debase the human dignity forming the foundations of our own self-worth.
Wealth is good to the extent that it provides our needs and comforts. However, obsession with money becomes an insatiable thirst in itself. In the end, we don’t own the money – it owns us! The common etymology of “miser” and “miserable” is instructive.
Recognition, in the form of career, fame, reputation or achievement does not satisfy because we know, in our heart of hearts, that it recognises only a narrow (and selective) sliver of our real nature. Affirmation from others, in this case, is based on false pretenses. It cannot replace the common experiences and intimate relationships shared with close friends. In the lyrics from the stage play “Evita”: “…(I) thought that the more that loved me, the more loved I’d be – but such things cannot be multiplied…”
Power, wealth and fame, in the long run, don’t satisfy. Then what would? What can make us fulfilled? Perhaps the clue to finding fulfillment lies in its own elusive, even ethereal, nature. It seems that there is more to us than just fresh and blood and bone.
I know this website is frequented by scientists, but not so much, to coin a phrase, by “scientismists”. That is, we don’t worship science blindly, but use it as a tool for understanding the natural world. Nor do we use the term “science” as a sock puppet to put an end to free thinking. (e.g. “The science is settled.”) Instead, we recognise that science, like all tools, has its limitations. For example, science cannot probe conditions at the point of the singularity, the precursor to the big bang, which is the point at which the laws of physics, and time itself, came into being.
Closer to home, science cannot explain or measure love, but we know that love exists. Science cannot explain justice, or the moral sense of right or wrong. But can you imagine a world where these did not exist? And from where would such concepts originate? Karl Sagan once made the glib suggestion that God should write the ten commandments on the surface of the moon.
Whereas, it seems, they have already been written on our hearts…
I believe in the human soul. And that Roy has a good soul, destined be with his kindred. Happy travels, Roy.
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Well said Speedy.
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Jo, I’ve sent you a private message to pass on to my friend’s family if you would.
I don’t have the eloquence of some of you so I just want to say
Thank you Roy – just for being you.
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Sad news indeed. Condolences to Roy’s family and friends. A dark day when we lose a defender of science and reason.
Thanks Roy for all your effort in helping make this blog the unique place it is. May your words circulate in the electronic ether forever.
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Very sad news … a good guy trying to slow the decline … while others hide the decline.
If 2020 has taught me anything, it would be that every day of your life counts, and you won’t be getting any days back for a refund … because we are all headed to the same place.
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Thank you, Roy, and thanks to all Jo’s moderators who keep her, and all of us, out of trouble.
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Honesty, truth to data, truth to naychur, hand-shake-yr-bond is the highest human value. Prob’ly yr most difficult.
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From Roy’s wife, Catharine who has been very glad to read this thread.
Hi Jo,
Thank you, and all your contributors, so much for all the comments you forwarded to me. I put them in a Microsoft Word doc. so I could edit out the sidebar notes from the website.
I especially loved the comment referring to the Poem Flying High. I have a copy of that somewhere and it will be nice to incorporate into our Memorial Service. Roy’s son Paul gave him a nice framed piece of artwork with an airplane flying high over mountain tops.
We will probably create a nice PowerPoint presentation and your contributors’ comments gave me some great ideas.
Roy’s Memorial Service will be delayed due to COVID19.
Roy was a wonderful man and I was indeed very lucky to have been married to him for so many years.
Thanks again to everyone who wrote nice comments about Roy. Thank you all for being his friends!
Catharine Hogue
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I knew Roy was in my age group, so I can’t be surprised. But this is a big loss for me, because I depend very much on people like Roy and others here to confirm my views that I have acquired by observation rather than education. I see it has taken me ten days to respond.
In 1961 farming in Australia was a wonderful place for a young bloke to be, so farming I went, expecting that farming would give me enough above the cost of living to engage in other interests on the side. After ten years of relative success the farming started to fall short of objectives, and that is what I have been doing since. Had I gone to uni you would probably have found me today buried in the bowels of some physics department, Building a Better Bomb.
Roy’s departure leaves an awful gap in our little world, just as we face our biggest challenge since the last Great War. I see a lot of new names on this blog, and hopefully some of these may be scholars to fill the gap.
Right now we are on a knife edge, and whichever way we fall, we will be there for a very long time. I expect to know before year’s end if we have a wonderful victory for good sense or oppression forever.
Thank you Mrs Hogue and family for sharing your wonderful man with us. He will not be forgotten while we live.
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