Goodbye, Bob Zorn

[John Coker]

As some of you know I no longer post on the NGDF...'nuff said. My friend Bob Zorn died a couple of days ago. Bob and his wife Sylvia owned Trackside Emporium in Chama. He sold hundreds of my art prints in his store, and helped me get a foothold as a railroad artist-one of several business people I could thank. More importantly, he had an oasis in that scruffy town for railrans to hang out.

Bob was one of the smartest and most perceptive people I ever knew. I learned a lot from him-almost like an older brother. Once, when I had to take a terrible job just to survive, he said, "John, there is never shame in earning a paycheck". These are wise words that can stick in your brains for a lifetime.
In hundreds of transactions with Bob I never had a cross word with that fine, principled man. Any time i was there we would talk for hours about business, economics, history, the benighted management and fortunes of the C&TS, or simply big picture stuff about the world. In a life with few real friends, he was one of them. God rest his soul.

[Solomani]

I can only hope that I can earn earn such a memory by a friend as good as you must be.

[John Coker]

Thanks for the kind word; not sure I deserve them.
There are a lot of things that suck about getting older, and the toughest is losing friends. A lot of friends smoked. In fact I bummed smokes off of Bob all the time. A warning to all that it is never too late to stop bad habits.

[Andrew Brandon]

John,

I was saddened to hear about Bob's passing, I'd been privileged to talk with him briefly on my trips out to Chama. On my first trip out I remember conversing with him for a few minutes while I purchased my copy if Ticket to Toltec. He was friendly, knowledgable and a pleasure to talk to. Did Bob ever post over at the Ashpit or Frads?

Quitting smoking was the best thing I felt I've done with my life in the past few years. It is a shame so many get hooked and concede defeat when they try to quit.

[John Coker]

Andrew, Bob was not a poster. He was too smart of a businessman to do that! Privately he had plenty to say. He was screwed several times by F.U.C.T. (Fools Undermining the Cumbres and Toltec) and they arrogantly told him he should be honored to get hosed by them! He also had plenty to say about their parade of managers that often tested the outer limits of ineptitude and corruption. Bob was brilliant, and really could see analytically into anything. In an entire region full of dunces, it was refreshing to hang out with some one who could conduct an intelligent conversation. An important trait of good people like Bob was he was humble. He was a businessman, but it was not all about him.

I have struggled for decades with nicotine. I finally decided this was the year.It was tough, as i quit hanging with friends who are smokers. I want to walk across the Grand Canyon, hike the Narrows of the Virgin, and walk across the west side of Zion. Can't do that if I am dying of cancer.