Susanne and I love Gary and we miss him. He was a wonderful friend, a great dad, and our favorite drummer to play music with. I met Gary fifty years ago through his lifelong friend and our mutual buddy John Renick. How lucky and wonderful it was to spend the years camping and playing music and just hanging out. During his military service Gary was a driver for a high-ranking Colonel and I was very happy to give Gary my car keys whenever he asked if I wanted him to drive us anywhere. It became our thing for as long as he was driving. This was actually why and how I met my wife Susanne. It was in mid-September 1997, in the evening around 9:00 pm, and Gary was over at my place and we had finished dinner. I got a phone call from my brother Tim, who was with John at his place in Anza for the weekend. “Where you at?” Tim asked, there are people coming out here for the weekend and we need the band!”

I looked at Gary, knowing I did not want to go. Gary said, “I’ll drive.” So we packed up equipment and left for Anza, arriving there by midnight. Susanne was one of the people who came there and she and I met and have never been apart from that day. All because Gary said he would drive. 

Gary was also a tremendous help to us when we would get away on a vacation which we couldn’t do very often because of our pets, He would come and stay at our home and take care of our pets and house and everything was always great and problem-free. We could not have asked for a better help than Gary.

We shared a lot of good times and I will always remember him.