I met Peter around 35 years ago and began a life long friendship with the Gardow Family · I had fun with Peter in Boy Scouts and Band · Attended a high school math class with Polly and met Bill Rice at University of Hartford · Peter and I helped Eva move from Nashua to Stonington · We visited Kathryn & Dave in Framingham and Seattle Over the years I grew to know their Dad, Ernie, and have always been impressed with his incredible intellect, dry sense of humor and engineering prowess. First his sense of humor… on one occasion many years ago I drove Peter back to his house and there was Ernie standing next to the driveway of 8 Whitcomb Drive waiting for Peter. I vividly remember what Ernie said since it has made me laugh several times over the years. He pointed underneath Peter’s yellow Datsun and said “Peter, another important looking metal part has fallen off your car.” Ernie’s depth of knowledge and intellect were evident when I joined the Gardows a few times to play Trivial Pursuit in the 1980s. Ernie landed on Geography and pulled a card: “What Pacific trench is the world’s deepest, at 36,198 feet?” Ernie not only named the Marianas Trench, but also listed its latitude and longitude. Ernie’s engineering background and knowledge were evident to everyone who knew him. I never had the opportunity to take a class that Ernie taught, but I saw many examples of his Mechanical Engineering aptitude over the years. At Peter’s 40th Birthday Party I told the story of the time when Don Eaton and Paul Dlubac set all of the clocks in the Gardow’s house an extra hour back during a summer house party, as if it was double daylight time. One obstacle they faced in doing that was Ernie’s home brew thermostat. On top of the furnace in the basement Ernie had hooked up two analog clocks one to start and one to stop the furnace on a preprogrammed schedule. Ernie built the precursor to the digital thermostat using his own analog technology. I followed in Ernie’s footsteps in attending Union College and studying Engineering. Last Spring Ernie and Marge attended Ernie’s 55th ReUnion while my wife Laura, son Eric and I attended my 25th ReUnion. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Ernie, Marge, Peter, Cheryl and Julia this past June 9th. I brought my high school trombone over to Avon and Peter played it in Ernie’s room at River Ridge. We looked at old photos of the Gardow family and recent photos of Julia and Eric at StoryLand. My family and I were in Hawai’i when Peter called with the news of Ernie’s passing. I answered the phone with an upbeat “Aloha” and immediately realized when Peter did not say anything what had happened. Today Aloha is a greeting and can be used to say Hello or Goodbye. In the Ancient Hawaiian language Aloha meant affection, peace, compassion and mercy. Aloha Ernie