The most impressionable memory I have of Al is what I actually thought of Al! From our first conversation, 18 years ago, to the last conversation we had together, one thought I always walked away with was…”What a Gentleman!” The following truly sums up what Al always was to me and what I will always remember Al as…
The True Gentleman
John Walter Wayland
The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will
and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all
emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty,
the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity;
who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who
does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions
or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and
sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings
of others rather than his own; and who appears well in company, a man with
whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.
