Sometimes we meet people when read their obits

Hopefully the people in their circles know them in person while they lived and role model their moderation, foresight and wisdom so their influence lives on.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/348752_joel25.html

snip

Darvill was an internal medicine specialist, best known in his profession for penning a lucid, easy-to-use pocket guide to mountaineering medicine.

He will be remembered, however, for his concern for the health of places as well as people, and for a bold gesture against one of the worst land-use atrocities ever proposed in these parts.

The physician-conservationist died recently at age 80. A gathering of his friends is set for 3 p.m. Sunday at the Hillcrest Park Lodge in Mount Vernon.

If you are outdoors at that hour, strolling bluffs at Ebey's Landing on Whidbey Island, rafting in the Skagit Eagle Sanctuary or cross-country skiing on the south slopes of Mount Baker, it might be appropriate to lift cups and say, "Thanks, Doc."

Darvill helped preserve all these places.

Unlike some conservation nabobs, he never wrote a self-celebrating book. [My bold type emphasis. Imagine that! No churning out an "I am wonderful guru book!"] He did write guides.

One book, "Stehekin: A Guide to the Enchanted Valley," has come apart from the time spent in my backpack.

The Doc's hour in the limelight came 40 years ago in New York at the stockholders' meeting of the Kennecott Copper Corp.