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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Report from the Skip Leabo celebration

Photo: Ken Sury '86, Kirsten Voinis '87, Kathy Leabo, Andy Leabo Martinez, Karl Pallmeyer '86 and Frank Christlieb '83.


Many thanks to Kirsten Voinis for sending this description and photo from Sunday's Skip Leabo celebration:


All:

Thought you all might like to hear about Skip Leabo's "Celebration Service" in Austin on Sunday. I say "Celebration Service" because his family was clear that Skip would not want a traditional memorial, but would want everyone to celebrate his life.

Writing about a celebration of Skip makes me a little nervous. I can picture him slashing this to bits with his red pen and sending it back from the great beyond.

Anyway, here goes - about 45 family members, friends, colleagues and former students attended the informal gathering in Austin. As a slide show scrolled through pictures of Skip from birth to his later years, people toasted Skip and shared their memories.

During a short program conducted by Skip's son, Pete Leabo, some of those in attendance shared stories about Skip. Among those speaking were his former students Frank Christlieb '83 of Dallas and Ken Sury '86 of Waco. Both talked about how while Skip's red pen could be merciless, it also could dispense kind words that had the power to influence future careers.

All of Skip's family - wife Kathy, daughters Andy and Kris, son Pete and his grandchildren were present. On Saturday, they had scattered Skip's ashes at sea in the Aransas Pass area off the Texas coast.

In addition to Frank and Ken, Karl Pallmeyer '86 and I were the only former students present. See the attached photo - left to right, Ken, Kirsten, Kathy Leabo, Andy Leabo Martinez, Karl and Frank.

Bob and Pattie Rogers were supposed to attend, but Pattie got sick and Bob stayed home with her.

If you still want to share your remembrances of Skip, it's not too late - you can email them to Kathy at skip.leabo@gmail.com.

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