THANKSGIVING

Meusse-Argonne Cemetery in France

A significant part of the drive behind the work we do is my thankfulness for having a shot at life. And a human life at that…most life on earth has been, and is, one of the other myriad of life forms.  And then to be an American architect on top of that - so many of us have not had that opportunity.

I think of Gary Hahn, a first year architecture student at USC of great talent and promise.  I wondered what he would be like in second year when we moved from basic to architectural design.  He didn’t show up – it turned out that he was killed in a rock climbing accident over the summer.

I think of Lionel Dover, my mother’s oldest brother, who fought in World War I at the age of eighteen, but married before he left.  He was wounded and in a fox hole when his buddy went back for help, but when they returned he was gone, never to be seen again.  His name is immortalized on a wall of the missing soldiers at the Meusse-Argonne Cemetery in France.  Josephine never remarried for as a Mormon she held the belief that marriage was for all time and eternity.

I think of all the grave markers in the children’s section of our cemeteries – those who hardly got a taste of life at all.

So I work hard and try to make sure I carry my share of the load.  Helena has always bought into this mind set and together we are thankfully living the life we began for ourselves over four decades ago.