Folks, I think most of the caving community is aware of Nick Arburn's untimely passing last Tuesday. Nick's obituary appeared in the San Antonio Express News this morning and online yesterday (June 15). You can view the online obituary at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sanantonio/obituary.aspx?n=nicolas-jospeh-arburn&pid=158044113&fhid=8909 In lieu of flowers, the Arburn family has asked that donations can be made to the Junior Speleological Society (JSS) of the National Speleological Society www.caves.org/donate<http://www.caves.org/donate>. For those that are attending the NSS Convention, I would also encourage you to visit the JSS and volunteer your time during the convention in honor of Nick. The JSS organizer had to withdraw from the JSS last week for personal reasons and the JSS/NSS convention staff are working hard to fill the void. Volunteers are always welcome and they have some excellent horizontal and vertical trips planned. I'm sure Nick would have been right in the middle of that. On a personal note, I always thought that Nick was a fine young man, I have fond memories of him running all over the Shriner Campus at the ICS in the golf cart. I called him the chief gopher and general roustabout for the convention. He made a lot of lives easier ferrying people and materials all over campus, fixing things, helping where he could. He performed the same role at many TCRs. You could assign Nick a task and knew it was taken care of. He was a get it done kind of guy. At a recent party, he came up to me and shook my hand (as he always did) and we had a very nice conversation. He was good man with a great heart. He will be greatly missed. Geary Schindel NSS AVP
