Monty

One of my passions for years has been the enjoyment of Bruce Springsteen's music and going to concerts. I've been to so many, I stopped counting after I made it to three digits. I couldn't guess the number of wonderful people and friends I've met over the last several years.

This past weekend our community lost a wonderful friend named Monty. Monty was one of the early posters I first read on the old Backstreets digest right after I discovered the internet. He had an extensive collection of live material and was the one who orchestrated a couple of the famous tape trees in day before bit torrent - ThunderTracks being the most famous collection.

I had only known Monty through email and digests from our shared passion for Springsteen's music. I never had the privilege to meet him personally as our show schedules never crossed, but I did occasionally trade tapes with him years ago (I still have the tapes and can easily identify them because of the well done tape covers he made for the cassette holder) and did have a couple of correspondences off digest that had nothing to do with Springsteen or mountain climbing.

He had unparalleled enthusiasm for Bruce's music that he shared with the group going back before I ever joined the now defunct Backstreets mailing list 17 years ago.

He was a world class mountain climber. I was inspired by his attempt to summit Mt. Everest. We would get occasional updates on new adventures including his role with rescuing stranded climbers in the Pacific Northwest.

He offered himself to many public causes. He served on the boards of the local library, credit union, and local parks. When folks were lost on local mountains (Mt Hood, Mt St. Helens), he was the "go to guy" to organize a rescue.

The internet is a wondrous tool for bringing someone like Monty into the lives of our group. Reading his thoughts and opinions over the years really gives one a feeling of having actually known him on some level.

Our group has been talking about him this week, sharing our thoughts and in the sadness of his death. Several of the folks had met him before and I wish I had had that opportunity.

We are an amazingly close community as Springsteen fans. As Dave commented so eloquently, it's an emptier world without him.

Description and phrases used in this blog entry were borrowed from Leo and Dave.