I, too, am terribly saddened to hear of Bob's passing. I remember meeting Bob and Arleen at the Hockey-L dinner in Boston and enjoyed talking with them. My condolences, Arleen. My thoughts are with you. Sara SLU '77 -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: [log in to unmask] > Hello All, > > I know many of you know Bob and Arleen Stagat from the NCAA tournaments they > have been attending, and also just from the list discussions. For the past year, > Bob has been fighting a vicious form of brain cancer and I just got word from > Arleen that he lost his battle on August 10th at the young age of 63. Arleen > suggested you all might want to know, so here I am. > > Just a few comments if I could. > > Many of you may recall Bob's interesting commentaries on RPI hockey ... he was a > rabid fan of college hockey and RPI in particular, having gone to undergrad and > grad school there from 1960 to 1969. He was particularly proud of his tutoring > of the team in the late 60s, a very down time for RPI hockey, and then receiving > an autographed stick from the team several years later (in Florida) when they > finally beat Cornell. > > Bob received his PhD in elementary particle physics from RPI and for most of his > career has been at Mission Research in Santa Barbara, CA. We knew each other as > undergrad physics majors at RPI, I went to Illinois, he stayed and got to watch > 5 more years of RPI hockey! > > He was an avid biker as was Arleen. He used to ride to work every day, a > distance of about 10 miles and come up to our area (San Luis Obispo) to ride in > longer rides. He also was an avid skier. > > We had lost touch, and in 1994 when I joined Hockey-L, and made one of my first > posts I got an email from him saying "Is this the same Tony Buffa whom I went to > school with at RPI from 1960-64?" ... and we reconnected, turns out we had been > living only 90 miles apart for 20 years!! In the time since, we have gotten > together with he and Arleen many times and always had a great time. In > particular, my only NCAA tournament in Anaheim in 1999 was a real blast. > > Not much else to say, except I will miss him, his wit, humor and enjoyment of > life and hockey!! > > Cheers to all, > > Tony Buffa > RPI '64