When my wife came to me on Sunday and told me that Lou had lost his valiant battle with cancer, I felt a tremendous loss -� not only because he and I were friends but also because of the loss to the North Myrtle Beach community. There were, of course, the many volunteer activities and charities he and Betty supported and those will be missed by the community. Though those were tremendous gifts, I feel the loss goes way beyond those activities.

In contemplating what he was in the community, the first thing that came to my mind was that Lou was a character - and I mean that with all affection. But what did that mean in Lou's case? First off, he was among the most opinioned persons I ever met and, still, at the same time always enjoyed being around. He could say the most outrageous things, write the most caustic articles in the North Myrtle Beach Times, offend hundreds in the community, but somehow got away with it. If you and I said the same things, we might be ridden out of town on a rail.

But everyone knew that, not only could he dish it out, he could and was willing to take it as well and always with humor. At a recent party, he said something outrageous and I told him gas was escaping from both his ends and he shouldn't sit too close to the fireplace. He was endangering lives! Undeterred, Lou, laughing, continued opining and delighting the crowd around him, including me.

He got away with it because he was a character with "character." Nothing Lou ever said was personal, just observations he made about the world within which he lived. Those observations he would opine about through the lens of a value system formed from his upbringing, his immediate family and his military career.

Lou never hesitated to share his observations and people listened. Lou had something many would call "command presence." He would walk into a room and people would notice. This aura of "command presence" was most felt when he held court at parties or gatherings. Unique to Lou, he could convene court just walking along Main Street with Betty during a festival. People sought him out because he was informative, entertaining and intellectually challenging.

He got his points across always with a sharp but not biting wit. People might disagree with Lou, but they would come away laughing, chuckling, shaking their heads and more informed than when the conversation started. A conversation with Lou always challenged me. He and I disagreed on many political and social issues, but Lou forced me to rethink things and look deeper into how my own opinions were formed. In the community-at-large, some of the things he said and wrote about forced some segments of our community to really face up to the image their actions were creating. Way to go Lou!

Some people make a difference in your life and in the community within which they live. Lou was one of those. He is the type of person everyone wants in their life. He'll be missed. I will miss him. And I know the community will miss him and his many conventional and, sometimes, unorthodox contributions.