I was recently asked to write a 100 word memorial to be read at a memorial service to be held by the University of Cincinnati. The University has a very considerate tradition of having a memorial on the Tuesday after Memorial Day to honor all those in and associated with the University who have passed the previous year. A friend and colleague of mine died suddenly on Memorial Day weekend last year and the memorial service would coincidentally be on the one year anniversary of his death.

I’m honored and proud to have the opportunity to remember my friend in this way; but wow is it hard to put into a short paragraph what many of us felt when Bill died. I consider myself a writer and author and can type very quickly. The distinction between writer and author is a writer puts words down on paper or computer screen and an author publishes. I do both, so I thought this memorial might be a quick task. It was anything but quick and certainly not easy.

I needed to write for a general audience of people who knew and did not know Bill. It needed to be succinct at 100 words read aloud. But first and foremost it needed to pay an honest and heartfelt tribute to a departed friend. If the task was to do this in 1000 words, I would have no problem spewing out a verbal diarrhea of facts and anecdotes to cover all bases for everyone. But I needed to be focused. I started, stopped, deleted, cut, added and edited with feelings being expressed before sharing drafts with some colleagues. A few positive words of encouragement as well as edits and I believe, with help, I have come up with a fitting tribute.

“William L. Wurster came to us as a scientist and left as a friend. Bill had a rich and diverse personal history and a charitable side known to only a few select friends. His philanthropy was clever as only Bill could be and makes him missed throughout the world. As a regular at Sitwell’s in Clifton he was known as an eccentric artist creating paintings and sculptures. None of us knew the many facets of Bill’s life, which makes him all the more missed because we did not have the chance see his many sides. Nonetheless we are all richer for him having been in our lives. His absence leaves an unfillable void.”