I met Ann when she was hired to run the Travel and Tourism program at Delta College of Business in Eugene in late 1988. After a few months, we were both sent to Portland to train our counterparts at the new branch of the school there. We had an address, but this was before GPS, so when we got to the outskirts of Portland and had to choose a route for getting into the city, I realized I didn’t know how to get there so I asked Ann to look in the glove box to see if there was a map of Portland in there. I don’t remember if there was a map or how we found the school, but I remember what Ann said when she opened the glove box, “I never knew anybody who actually had gloves in the glove box.” To this day, every time I open a glove box, no matter how often I have done it, I think of Ann. And I still have the same pair of barely used Isotoner gloves in my glove box.

Over the years, we became close friends. We shared an interest in education and made a sport out of noticing people who had obviously not paid attention in school. I won’t cite any examples here, but if you knew Ann, you know what I am talking about.

She really knew a lot about the geography of the world and how to get to all parts of it. She loved to travel. Our travel had been limited to places in the United States – mostly ski resorts. Even though she was not a skier, she was a very good listener. She knew what we liked in accommodations, flight times, amenities, etc. and arranged several ski trips for us. She continued to help us with our travel arrangements, even when we lived on opposite sides of the country.

Probably the most challenging thing we asked her to do was help us find a flight to France for our first trip to Europe. I was nervous about jet lag interfering with our fun, so I asked her to plan a trip that involved flying to New York city and staying overnight before flying across the ocean the next day. She avoided the many over-priced options and put together a flight that landed at LaGuardia and departed from JFK the next day, reversing the process on the return flight.

It's not just that Ann was the best travel agent anyone could find (and everyone she worked with agreed), she was also a great friend. We remained friends through all of our and her moves. We attended her first marriage to Judy in Eugene when their marriage was not recognized by the state. Several years later, we were at her state sanctioned marriage in California. We went with her to spread her mother’s ashes in Ashland. When she and Judy moved to Happy Camp, we were there for several annual events and Scott helped make improvements to the house she inherited from her brother. When our daughter was very sick in a hospital in Portland, my phone rang. It was Ann. How did she know I was there? She had just called Scott in Phoenix and he told her. What made her call Scott on that day? We didn’t talk on the phone all that often, but that day she called. She and Larissa came to the hospital with snacks and juice and sat with me until Ali came out of surgery.

When Larissa wanted to move to Tucson to finish her residency in OB/Gyn, we previewed the apartment Larissa had chosen and spent some time with her and her family while she was in Tucson. (And we taught Larissa to play Pickleball.)

When Ann and Judy bought a house in Happy Camp, we went to see it and help them plan the renovations. Scott and his friend Felipe went back a few times to participate in the work. The last time we saw Ann was last June when we were on a road trip and stopped in Happy Camp for a couple days. We saw how close the fire had come to the house. We are very sorry that we can’t be there for her memorial service but we will be thinking about her and her family in their grief. Ann has been a part of our lives for 36 years. We miss her.