If you're anything like me, you hear Pat True in every line of 'Rocky Mountain High'. But I'm not going to say anything else about this song, because I don't need to. Instead, I thought I'd just include the full text of the short speech I gave on 12.28.00.

About 20 years ago, my dad died. I really loved him, and I even cried some, though I'm sure I wasn't in full understanding of the circumstances. A short time later, Pat True came into my life.

I was of course reluctant to allow a replacement, as any of us would be, until one evening, when my mom and I were spending some time at his place. As I recall, they were talking on the couch while I was playing over by the stairs. There I was, playing, when all of a sudden I found myself tumbling down the stairs! I had some plans to cry at the time, but before I could do anything, I heard--and then saw--Pat running from the couch and down the stairs after me. He picked me up and held me and because I wasn't injured, crying just didn't seem appropriate anymore.

I understood immediately that he cared for me. But it wasn't necessarily me--Jay--that he cared for. His concern came from the fact that some child had just tumbled down a stairwell. He cared about everything: he was good ... and understanding that was infinitely more meaningful. It wasn't long after that I felt confident calling him 'dad', 'pops', or better yet, 'poppason'. He was a perfect deputy to my father, and I was very quick in making him my sheriff.

I have one other story. He and I were driving west down I-70, and I pointed to a mountain in front of us and inquired if it had a name, since it looked significant. "It does," he said to me, "that's Mt. Evans. And you mighta' heard of that one over there, too," (he pointed off to the south), "that's Pike's Peak." By then I was enthralled that someone might know these things, so I excitedly pointed up north to another notable. "That one's Long's Peak," he said. I went on to point to six or eight others. He knew all those, too!

That bit is indicative of a little game I played that I liked to call 'Stump Pat True'. There were different ways of playing it: sometimes I would make bets with him, other times I would just try to think up tough questions. Perhaps needless to say, I never won a bet against him, and I cannot remember him ever not answering one of my stumpers. So far as I can tell, he knew pretty much everything.

But if you knew him at all, I don't have to stand up here and convince you of his goodness or his knowledge. That being the case, I have just a few final words. They start with a quote I like from the late Isaac Asimov. He says, "...if I were not an atheist, I would believe in a god who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul." Keeping this in mind, it is my opinion that we need not worry for this man's soul, my dad's soul--if there is such a thing--because there is no benevolent god I that I can imagine that would not take perfect care of it.

Thank you.