Frederick Koyle

Family,

I lost a dear friend today. It seems a rather odd thing to say given that I have not spoken to Rick in over 20 years.

Teenage years are never easy and they are made even more challenging when surrounded by alcoholism. Rick took me under his wing. He was more than 15 years my senior, but we constantly spent time together and he always treated me as an equal. I have many fond memories with Rick. Probably my favorite memory is the many evenings sitting in the living room in his Albany home talking about just about everything in both of our lives. I remember watching football on many Sundays and celebrating the 49ers championships. I remember attending A's games. I remember getting Rick to start running with me and quite a few runs under the BART tracks. I am not sure he ever completely bought into that one, but he acknowledged that it was probably good for him. I remember getting Rick to start bowling and our bowling team "We take spares". We actually did take the championship one season. We sat and listened to Queen play "We are the champions" on my stereo many times that evening.

Rick was a phenomenal writer, a talent that despite his greatest efforts, was never bestowed upon me. I still have the copy of E.B. White's "The Elements of Style" that he gave me so that I could get through AP English. We spent many hours in that same living room working out what was wrong with most of my papers. By the end of the year, I could write a passable essay and was actually asked to tutor underclassmen in writing. Rick was an incredible teacher.

I think that Rick and I fell out of touch partly due to geography, as he left the Bay Area, and partly because he needed to distance himself from everything in that time period as part of his journey to sobriety. I am thrilled that he appears to have found his path and was happy. Rick was a huge part of my life growing up and I continue to miss him and will think fondly of him often.

I know that many of you never even met Rick and I don't think that anyone spent as much time with him as I did. Somehow I just needed to get this out. Thanks for listening.

Love,

Peter L