Rick (Harry) Trotter was one of my oldest friends. We grew up on the same street (Oakhurst Drive) and were but 5-6 houses away. I loved Rick. He had a really, really different background from us. HIs father Duke was a huge man, a professional athlete, who loved Rick, his only son, deeply. Rick and I grew apart. We were in different classes and, for the age, different worlds by the time we hit high school. But when I think about him, I feel like he was one of my ideal brothers. He was one of the few that I knew who went to Southeast Asia and served. I was away at college when I got the news that he had died, and it felt like I was losing another brother. I think I heard that it was cancer and it was something like exposure to Agent Orange. I remember his heart, his goodness. His father knew he was dying, but couldn't face the pain. I miss Rick and wonder if there are others out there who knew him even better than I did and could fill in the gaps.
Harry and I shared many backpacking and camping trips. Following graduation, we took my 67 Toyota Landcruiser on a 33 day road/fishing trip to Idaho and Montana with 4 short backpacks included. It was a fabulous trip-even the nite we slept on the ground behind a truck stop in Lovelock Nevada, or when Harry waded into a still ice-filled alpine lake in the Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley, Idaho, to retrieve a stuck fishing lure! Harry was in the United States Coast Guard, stationed in the Philippines, I believe, where he was initially, and incorrectly, diagnosed with a blood clot. By the time it was determined that he had malignant melanoma, it was already too late. I was planning to fly up to Oakland to see him in the hospital when I got word he had died. I attended his funeral, which was small, and served as a pallbearer, along with Ben Bushman a couple of others. I was pretty absorbed with my studies in dental school, and I lost track of his folks. I often think about the good times we shared, and what could have been. RIP, my friend.
Gary Schoenberg
Rick (Harry) Trotter was one of my oldest friends. We grew up on the same street (Oakhurst Drive) and were but 5-6 houses away. I loved Rick. He had a really, really different background from us. HIs father Duke was a huge man, a professional athlete, who loved Rick, his only son, deeply. Rick and I grew apart. We were in different classes and, for the age, different worlds by the time we hit high school. But when I think about him, I feel like he was one of my ideal brothers. He was one of the few that I knew who went to Southeast Asia and served. I was away at college when I got the news that he had died, and it felt like I was losing another brother. I think I heard that it was cancer and it was something like exposure to Agent Orange. I remember his heart, his goodness. His father knew he was dying, but couldn't face the pain. I miss Rick and wonder if there are others out there who knew him even better than I did and could fill in the gaps.
Bruce Muff
Harry and I shared many backpacking and camping trips. Following graduation, we took my 67 Toyota Landcruiser on a 33 day road/fishing trip to Idaho and Montana with 4 short backpacks included. It was a fabulous trip-even the nite we slept on the ground behind a truck stop in Lovelock Nevada, or when Harry waded into a still ice-filled alpine lake in the Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley, Idaho, to retrieve a stuck fishing lure! Harry was in the United States Coast Guard, stationed in the Philippines, I believe, where he was initially, and incorrectly, diagnosed with a blood clot. By the time it was determined that he had malignant melanoma, it was already too late. I was planning to fly up to Oakland to see him in the hospital when I got word he had died. I attended his funeral, which was small, and served as a pallbearer, along with Ben Bushman a couple of others. I was pretty absorbed with my studies in dental school, and I lost track of his folks. I often think about the good times we shared, and what could have been. RIP, my friend.