On Passing of a Friend

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Eric Wilson

Eric Wilson - photo by Jim McBrayer

Making Things Better

 By Rick Murphy

 Rugby lost a treasure this week with the passing of Eric Wilson on Thursday.  While much of the community was aware that Eric had very recently been diagnosed with untreatable cancer and might only have a short time, I think most of us were surprised that his death occurred less than a week after he received the final diagnosis. He will be greatly missed.

Folks in the community will each surely have their own different fond remembrances of Eric.  But I think one common feeling in a small community like Rugby is that when you lose one of your neighbors you realize how much you will miss the special part they played in our day-to-day lives.  And up until a few months ago, Eric was a very active part of our daily lives in Rugby – taking his daily walks or runs, volunteering with some building repair projects, visiting at the Commissary, helping to maintain trails …and so much more.

Eric cared a lot about the people of Rugby and worked to help make things here better.  Many of us remember how Eric and Vi became early “pioneers” in helping to revive the Rugby community.  They lovingly built “High Wray” in 1990, the first new house in what was to become Rugby’s Beacon Hill residential community.  It is a house that very much reflects Eric’s talent as a wood worker and which has served as a wonderful model for how a new house can successfully reflect the architecture of the period of Rugby’s early days. 

I would certainly not attempt to recite all the other things Eric has done for Rugby, but I will remind folks that he started this weekly e-newsletter a number of years ago. Since we took over the newsletter a few years ago Eric has been faithful about giving us helpful comments …and criticisms.  He would frequently tell us that he liked a certain edition.  And on occasion he would tell us what he didn’t like.  We always appreciated his directness, because we always knew he wanted to help us be better. 

In recent years I have had the pleasure of playing bridge with Eric once a week.  He was very patient in sharing his knowledge about various rules and conventions used in the game – which helped us understand what a good professor he must have been. And I don’t know if it had something to do with his being a math professor or just having a very disciplined mind, but Eric was extremely good at tracking the cards that had been played. This could be a bit intimidating.  When playing as his bridge partner, it was not uncommon for him to look up at you after a play and raise one eyebrow, as if to say… “did you really mean to play that card?” He was usually right!  And more than once he would remind the rest of us that we needed to stop talking so much and “Play Bridge.”  We didn’t mind too much because we always knew he just wanted to help us be better.   

When Eric got to the point a few months ago when he was in too much pain to sit at the card table or focus on playing bridge, the rest of us quickly realized how important Eric was to our little group.  As we played without him, we started to talk about what Eric would say at a certain point in the game.  More than once we have reminded each other that if Eric were here he would tell us that we should stop talking and “Play Bridge!”  

So while he will be sorely missed, in some ways he is still here …helping us be better.



Eric and Vi and friends

 

Message from Bob and Mara Trumbo:

 

I don’t have anything tangible of Eric’s to share except this story:

Eric sent out a request for any seamstress in the village that could tailor his torn jeans and make them into shorts. At the same time I was looking for someone to fix the side of the hollow tree trunk in front of the Cafe` to use as a planter. We traded services and we were both happy. Tomorrow I’ll buy a flowering plant to put in the tree trunk planter in his memory. May he rest in peace, free from all pain. Our love and sympathies for Vi.

Mara & Bob