We just got the news from Tom Dixon, as noted in the following text.
Our latest prayers were answered. Bob passed away at 12:30 AM this morning Atlanta time. (Sept 9, 1999). He was asleep and painfree, in the care of a local hospice facility. He is survived by his son Christopher, his sister Debbie and his mother Sylvia.
The memorial service will be Sunday, Sept 12, at 2:00 PM. The family is flying in from Texas, and has requested that no flowers be sent, and no plans for memorials etc., have been made. Tom Dixon suggested that we send cards, letters, etc, addressed to the Family of Bob Baron at his home address: 4957 Dana Drive, Kennesaw, GA, 30144. Tom will be handling things at Bob's house, and will forward any mail received to the family.
For those of you that didn't know, Bob finally lost his 20 year battle with "hairy cell anemia". He was diagnosed at a time before the medical practitioners had any effective weapons against it. We are fairly sure the conventional cancer treatments set his body up for the later failures of advanced treatments. During major episodes, he was near death, and it took long painful periods of recovery, diet and working out to get back into physical shape. Most of us only saw him during his good periods. Then he was really the best of the best. Anyone less mentally tough would probably have thrown in the towel much sooner than Bob did. My last message from Bob was on July 28, when he was going back to the hospital for a new treatment. It didn't work, and from there on, he was in so much pain, that he required knockout levels of pain killer. On Sept. 2, he elected to quit, and be left free to pass away peacefully. So be it.
On a practical note, Tom will be very busy for awhile taking care of those many details that follow this event. It would be nice to leave his phone clear for awhile. If anything significant occurs, we'll get to you. Thanks, folks.
At least now, Bob will have the strength and time to help other folks, just as he did while he was here among us. OF COURSE, we'll miss him!
Goran, One point of interest: Bob Baron was truly an international class flier, and was primarily interested in the FAI activities.
Several of us will be pooling our data on Bob's career.
Best Regards WildBill
[Bill Netzeband, e-mail: billnetz@dconn.com]