What a Life!

Ron Labinski, 86, was the founder of the architectural firm, HOK Sport. He died January 1, 2023.

Quotable Quotes: "Before Arrowhead, all the stadiums were built to compromise both football and baseball. Arrowhead was the first modern stadium built solely for football. What we did here in Kansas City revolutionized the way people think about stadiums and stadium design."

"It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that there was a market out there."

"The world's our future, I believe," he said.

"If there's one thing I really feel good about, it is the fact that this (stadiums he designed) is going to have a life beyond myself."

Adolfo Kaminsky, 97, was a French spy whose ability to forge documents saved thousands of lives during World War II. He died Monday January 9, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

Having "Jew" stamped on anything meant you were in danger."

"The neighbors thought we were painters. We had paintings on the walls and paintbrushes and all kinds of colors."

"The risk was the same if you did nothing. So at least working in the resistance, I could fight. I was fighting for humanity."

"If I couldn't have saved so many people, I wouldn't have survived myself. Most of my friends who were survivors ended up committing suicide. It's just really tough, so many people were treated like animals with no respect. It's just really hard to bear."

"I did what I had to when I had to and I was lucky to be able to do it."

Jack Hayford, 88, was the longtime pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif. He died Saturday January 7, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"The Bible is ... as necessary to spiritual life as breath is to natural life. There is nothing more essential to our lives than the Word of God."

"Breakthrough happened around me when breakup happened within me."

"The words that come out of our mouths are a direct indicator of what is in our hearts."

"Rule with the heart of a servant, and serve with the heart of a king. This is how Jesus used His authority."

Kenneth Hill Rowe, 90, was a North Korean Air Force pilot when he defected with his Soviet-made MIG to the United States in 1953. He died December 26, 2022.

Quotable Quotes:

"[In North Korea] You flew until you died. I almost lost my life many times." On the risk of defecting: "I figured I had a 20 percent chance of success. I thought that was good enough."

"Nobody seemed to know what to do. I shouted 'Motorcar, motorcar, motorcar,' which was about the only English I remembered from high school, hoping that someone would bring an automobile to drive me to headquarters."

Joyce Meskis, 80, was the former owner of the famed Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Colorado. She died December 22, 2022.

Quotable Quotes:

"I grew up in an ethnic neighborhood where you had your little grocery store and your bar on the corner. And you had your little book shop and local library down the block. Retail was different then. The first change we saw was the supermarket phenomenon, which forced many shops out of business."

"I'm a bookseller who still, 50 years after my first bookselling job, gets a thrill out of seeing a person's eyes light up with the joyful and thoughtful pleasure of reading a book."

"It seems to me the legacy of any bookstore is in the love of reading and the critical thinking fostered in the customers we've served. One hopes it carries forward, playing some small part in making a better world."

Walter Cunningham, 90, was a member of the first manned Apollo mission. He died January 3, 2022.

Quotable Quotes:

"We carried the nation's hope with us. Twenty-one months before, a fire on the very pad from which we launched had killed three of our teammates. One more setback now, and the prospects of landing a man on the moon before 1970 would be gone forever."

"The task wasn't only technical. We also had to address any psychological barriers that still remained."

"I consider it a spectacle I took part in. I came away thinking there wasn't anything I couldn't handle."

"About 20 years ago, a small group of scientists became concerned that temperatures around the Earth were unreasonably high and a threat to humanity. In their infinite wisdom, they decided: 1) that CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels were abnormally high, 2) that higher levels of CO2 were bad for humanity, 3) that warmer temperatures would be worse for the world, and 4) that we are capable of overriding natural forces to control the Earth's temperature. Not one of these presumptions (opinions) has proven to be valid."

James Merritt Ives was an American lithographer. He died on January 3, 1895.

Quotable Quotes:

When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence." – Ansel Adams

"Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is." – Unknown

"I don't trust words. I trust pictures."— Gilles Peress

"Every artist has a central story to tell, and the difficulty, the impossible task, is trying to present that story in pictures." — Gregory Crewdson

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee." – Proverbs 23:7

Pope Benedict XVI, 95, was head of the Catholic Church between April 19, 2005 and February 28, 2013. He died December 31, 2022.

Quotable Quotes:

"Truth is not determined by a majority vote."

"We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God."

"The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness." "The world needs people who discover the good, who rejoice in it and thereby derive the impetus and courage to do good."

The number of deaths in the United States in 2022 are expected to fall by 7%.

Quotable Quotes:

"Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time." – Jim Rohn

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity." – Henry Van Dyke

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of." – Benjamin Franklin

Pelé was an international soccer star sensation who transformed the game around the world. He died Thursday December 29, 2022.

Quotable Quotes:

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do."

"The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning."

"I don't believe there is such a thing as a 'born' soccer player. Perhaps you are born with certain skills and talents, but quite frankly, it seems impossible to me that one is actually born to be an ace soccer player."