Poignant Memories of Bill Lauerman From A Good Friend...............

Rick,

My name is Jack Kirnan and many of my best friends were from the RHS Class of 1973.  I went to Paramus Catholic (Class of 1973) and was best friends with Bill, Dan Bradley, Jeff Auger, Robbie Kiernan, and Brian Alcock. 

I had tried to post this attached note regarding Bill but I couldn't get it to work.  I was hoping you might be able to add it to your blog.  Bill was really special and I would imagine that many of the sentiments I express in the attached note would be shared by many of Bill's classmates.

Thanks for your consideration and have a most wonderful time at the Reunion.

Sincerely,

Jack Kirnan
Paramus Catholic Class of 1973

My Friend Bill

Bill Lauerman was one of the smartest people I ever met and also one of the funniest too. I knew instantly that we would become great friends and we became really close during our high school years, playing basketball together, lifting weights, studying on weeknights at the Ridgewood Public Library, and then going to the movies on weekends and stuffing ourselves silly at the Suburban Diner on the way home.  Bill used to drive his Dad's 1971 Buick Electra sedan, a real beauty in its day and probably another reason why I have had a lifetime love affair with cars.  That car also took on a life of its own after Bill unfortunately had backed it into a tree one night, an incident that my good friend Brian Alcock's penned into a famous poem entitled "The Buick Burger". 

What made our friendship so special is that Bill, like most of my good friends, went to Ridgewood High School while I went to nearby Paramus Catholic. Despite going to different schools, Bill always found the time for me and would even come to my basketball games at PC.  So I had the best of all worlds growing up in Ridgewood, with two great sets of friends in two different high schools.

During our college years, our friendship grew even stronger as it was clear that we both had bigger goals to fulfill.  I went off to Fordham University for my Ph.D in Economics and Bill went to Georgetown Medical School after excelling at Johns Hopkins as an undergraduate student.  Robbie Kiernan, a best friend since our days as neighbors in the Ridgewood Lawns, was already working in Washington DC and I would go down to see both Rob and Bill for long weekends.  Needless to say it was always a good time and you could tell even then that Bill was well on his way to fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a really successful orthopedic surgeon.  Jean and I can fondly remember Bill coming to our own wedding and then having to take a ferry to see Bill and Cindy get married a couple of years after us and oh what a beautiful ceremony it was.

After graduating from Georgetown Medical School in 1982, Bill fulfilled his service obligation with the US Air Force working at a military hospital in Texas, rising to the rank of Major before his discharge.  As the years went by, I would often run into Bill and his own family during the Thanksgiving Holiday when my Mom used to take our kids up and down East Ridgewood Avenue and of course that annual visit to Santa's house in Ridgewood Park.

Life had a way of moving all too fast for all of us during the 1990s and the 2000s but Bill and I would talk on the phone every now and then and we always exchanged Christmas cards and notes over the years.  Knowing that I worked for many years in the financial district around the WTC, I can distinctly remember how touched I was that Bill had gone out of his way to call me on 9/11 just to make sure I was ok, something that to this day always chokes me up when I think about it.  The last time I actually saw Bill was in 2010 at Mt Carmel Church in Ridgewood after a memorial service for his Mom.  By then, Bill was one of the most prominent spinal surgeons in Washington as well as a teaching fellow at the Georgetown Medical School where he also served as the Dean of Admissions.

Last April, Bill had called me after I emailed him and some other close friends informing them about Brian's prostate cancer and to ask for their prayers.  It was a great conversation as all of my conversations with Bill were over the years.  Bill was anxious to talk to Brian, having been a prostate cancer survivor himself some 10 years earlier and I know Brian really appreciated all of Bill's timely and helpful advice.  We then talked about our families and you could tell how proud Bill was of his kids Kevin and Katie.  We ended our conversation as we always did--telling each other to give our best to each other's families and expressing the hope that we could get together real soon perhaps later in the year.  I remember being so happy after that call, not realizing that it would be the last time I would hear Bill's comforting voice and his incredible sense of humor.

Needless to say, I was shocked and saddened when I heard of Bill's passing last month.  What made it even worse was that I found out without having the chance to say a final goodbye to Bill or the opportunity to express my condolences to Cindy, Katie, Kevin, and Bill's three siblings (Kathy, Coleen, and Steve).  No opportunity to tell him one more time how much his friendship had meant to me or the incredible memories I have of him --  of working together as sophomores in high school at the old Kentucky Fried Chicken/Genos Hamburgers on Rt. 17 and walking into work one day dressed up as greasers with slicked back hair; or of hitchhiking down to Avalon, NJ in August of 1972 to see Willie McKee and then getting picked up in a van full of hippies on the Garden State Parkway -- boy was that fun; or of going to see the Woody Allen classic "Annie Hall" so many times in 1977 that we could perfectly recite virtually every key line from that movie. 

A couple of weeks ago I was able to contact Bill's sister Kathy to express my condolences.  It was a most poignant conversation, one filled with lots of tears and much sadness.  Kathy had shared with me how unexpected and untimely Bill's passing had been for everyone in his family and to the many colleagues and students who just adored Bill and the incredible contributions he had made to so many people over the years.  I told Kathy how much all of us who had grown up with Bill had loved him so much and how we wish we could be there for her and Bill's family.  Kathy then mentioned that there will be a Memorial service celebrating Bill's life on Monday, October 28th at Georgetown University Hospital from 5-7pm in the Gorman Auditorium, an event that Jean and I look forward to attending. 

Bill's memory and spirit will surely be alive at your Reunion this weekend, something Bill had been planning to attend.  Bill was an incredible father and husband, a trusted and loyal friend and a gifted surgeon who had a lifetime passion to make his patients lives better in every way he could.  For me, Bill will always be a very special person to a bunch of young boys who grew up together a long, long time ago in a special place called Ridgewood.  They went to school together, they spent summers swimming and playing pickup basketball at Graydon Pool, they played dunk ball at the old Somerville courts, they enjoyed many nights carousing at the old Espositos Bar and Grill, and they loved grabbing a cheeseburger at the Fireplace or the old Barn in Wyckoff;  These guys always found a way to stay in touch all through college and graduate school; they took trips together, they celebrated weddings with loved ones; and they found the time to share in the joy and magic that children bring to all of our lives.  There is no doubt that each of our lives were so much better and so much richer because of Bill.

Nothing ever prepares you for the finality marked by a close friend's passing, that point in time when someone who is really special in your life leaves us so unexpectedly and where we don't get the chance to say just one more time how much we loved them and how lucky we were to have them in our life.  No one really knows whether our most recent time together is really our last time together or whether the most recent phone call or text message from a loved one is that final opportunity to connect.  In the days and months ahead, I hope Cindy, Katie, and Kevin can take comfort in knowing how really special Bill was to all of us and oh how much he was loved! RIP Bill--we will miss you and we will never forget you and the joy you gave to all of us along the way.

Warmest regards,

Jack Kirnan