What's New

Tommy Cathcart was always a special man but I have an unusual memory that stick in my head.
I was always the patsy for guys (maybe girls too) who needed someone to mess with.. One of our less than savory Classmates was itching to give me a pounding and being the biggest of three boys I had been carefully parented to not harm anyone smaller. Anyway I was standing there wondering how to escape this situation with nobody nearby , when Up walks Tom Cathcart. He is very quick and he sizes up the situation // His fist curls UP and his arm muscle Flexes and my tormentor soon left the area. Thanks was all I could OFFER. And I waa always wondering why a quiet person like Tom could GET AWAY with the offer of Violence and I was more than a little wimpy. I am sure we all lived in a better place because of Tom Cathcart.

Rememberin   Loomis  skills at the Piano.  So talanted The music he created still viabrats out there in the Universe    somewhere..  R.T Damask

I was aware, thanks to Lorna Hopper Affleck's emails, that Holden was not well, but I was not expecting this sorrowful news. He was truly a fine man, with a great sense of humor, whom I knew for probably 75 years, ever since we were in nursery school or kindergarten at Menlo Park's Peninsula School. We then moved up through the grades at Peninsula, followed by Jordan Junior High (now Frank S. Green Jr. Middle School) and then Paly.

Holden's parents and my parents were friends, and on more than one occasion we visited the Brinks at their summer cabin in Meyers near Lake Tahoe, where we met once or twice since. A few years ago, Holden gave me and another friend a tour of the wetlands preserve that he managed south of Sacramento, then we went for lunch to Al the Wop’s restaurant/bar in Locke, that magnificent Chinese settlement near Elk Grove. His interest in wildlife reminded me of what he was like as a little boy at Peninsula School, catching insects in a mayonnaise jar. The last time I saw Holden was at our last Paly reunion, where he was the official photographer—a task he managed to do even though he was not well. Prior to that, I enjoyed our get-togethers that Lorna arranged in Menlo Park.

Holden, you were a great friend and classmate, and your life was marked by important contributions and strong bonds. I will miss you mightily.

Brian