My name is D.J. LaChapelle - I got to know your dad (via Conn) a bit over the last number of years thru email. Steve and I regularly emailed a couple of times a week, sometimes more, sometimes less, about a lot of funny, dumb, interesting, and ridiculous stuff. Much of the time we emailed about cars: new cars, old cars, car dealerships, prototype cars, Route 66 (I now live in Kansas), car industry bailouts. I bought a '64 AMC Rambler wagon a few years ago; Steve knew my car originally had drum brakes, was in fact the last AMC to have drum brakes, but that newer disc brakes from, say, a '75 Javelin, would fit on my car with no retro-fitting. I needed to get disc brakes, Steve said, because I have young kids - and he was right, of course.
Your dad was a really sweet and funny guy. He was also quite good at that thing guys like in their friends (or at least Conn and I do, anyways): the sarcastic ability to bust another guy's chops - good naturedly, sure, but right up to the edge - the closer, the better, the funnier.
We spoke on the phone a couple of times, emailed about how we looked forward to finally meeting in person - if for no other reason than to go over Nuge's Harvard career in day-to-day detail. I already quite miss those emails. I'm sorry I'll never get to meet him, but was glad to have shared the moments we did, and I extend my deepest condolences to you and your family.
Warm regards,
D.J.
Jacqueline -
I too had heard lots about you and your wonderful family. Conn was so happy to have seen you in NYC last week. I was smiling when I was writing Alicia about my car - Steve had written something like "nothing will end a nice day trip to the zoo faster than piling into the back of a fruit truck," to which I replied that I lived in Kansas and we didn't have a lot of fruit trucks to pile into, which devolved into cattle on the highway. Funny.
I remember speaking with him after The Nugent Experience stayed with you guys - we both laughed so hard.
Warmly,
D.J.
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