It was very sad to hear about Ike's passing and separation from us this week. I have great memories of Ike during the early years of my life. He had a wonderful sense of humor and enthusiasm for all of the kids who lived in the neighborhood. Ike provided my very first job, filling flower tubes with water and packing them away in the Schum florist. Ike was one of the great adults in my youth where I learned the work ethic. The florist meant a lot to me. It was a bit of country, while living in Rochester. In addition to learning the work ethic, Ike was how I got to drive my first motor vehicles, a Willey's jeep with snow plow and an antique John Deere tractor. This was very big stuff to me back in the day. I still remember how one started the tractor; by grabbing the iron flywheel and giving it a spin to start the monster, which usually caused it to wake with some astonishing power. What….a…..blast! Ike even took me on my first hunting trip for birds with his son, Albert and Bernice. I remember the gun he let me carry; it was a beautiful side by side in 12 gauge with exposed hammers and two triggers, real old school. We did not see anything, so Ike told to me to safely shoot the gun into some treetops with the explicit reminder to only pull ONE trigger. Of course, I pulled both triggers, and the recoil knocked me on my _ _ _! No harm done, and in addition to gun safety, I learned gained other lessons from Ike. Lessons like a love of the outdoors and hunting, all of which have stayed with me to this day. He was the go-to guy when we had ideas about further motivation with mini-bikes. Ike welded some key components that enabled us to build a few bikes and run them around the block. It was a very enjoyable time and I learned many basic mechanical skills and thought processes. Ike definitely had a lot of engineering talent. Ike was great to all the kids in that 60’s and 70’s period. He even taught my sister the basics of swimming in his family pool, that was often full of the neighborhood kids. His home was our home.