I received an e-mail this morning from Julie Horn, about Jon Horn's sudden death from a heart attack yesterday. It was a special shock, since we had just put up his bio and had had an e-mail from him the day before.

I've pasted in here Julie's email:

Hi George - this is Julie, John's wife, and I just wanted to let you know that John died 12/l5 at 12:47 p.m. He was really looking forward to March lst and playing golf. He died of an heart attack.
Thanks for everything. --Julie Horn

And my response to it:
Julie,
I was stunned and profoundly saddened by your e-mail about John passing so suddenly yesterday, the more so because of the wonderful way that this amazing class of which he was an integral part has been rediscovering itself  over an intervening gap of decades.

Please know that my words here, however poorly chosen in the face of this event, represent a sadness for John, overmastered by an affection for him that has never dimmed in memory, and that will be shared by the entire class of '56. In that, I am certain that I speak for every one of us. We all knew and remember him with fondness -- and he will be missed.

I will post a notice on the website so all will know, and if you wish to forward any other information such as a newspaper notice of arrangements for John, please be assured that I will post that promptly as well. Julie, while we have never met, you are a part of us now--we'll be here to hear from and to support you at any time. --George Downing

We had just completed putting John's bio up, and the following e-mail was the last
we received from John --making it doubly sad in that he passed away the next day:
At 10:44 AM 12/14/2002 -0600, you wrote:
Hi! Just got done reading all the items on the web site. It sure brings back a lot of memories. You guys are doing a great job. Looking forward to seeing a lot of you in Florida. It sure shows that I have missed a lot by not having contact with classmates over the years.
Thanks again. John