Amazing!

I attended a nice memorial service in Raleigh today for Norwood "Red" Pope, the man I'd come to know as most responsible for our good North Carolina Zoological Park and NC Zoo Society, with the current Chair of that Zoo Society Board, Earl Johnson, Jr.

Red spent much of his career and later life in Hawaii and Scottsdale, AZ., yet Red and Earl were childhood friends and were in the same class of the same Raleigh school!

Working through the Raleigh Jaycees, Red led the effort to make North Carolina's the first state zoo. A recognized leader in (and teacher of) bank marketing, Red never met a stranger.

His obituary noted that Red "always had a yearning to run away with the circus".

I expect the joker and prankster Red had selected his recessional song today: "I'll Be Seeing You".