Duke Lemur Center at NC Museum of Natural Science

Tropics Day at the NC Museum of Natural Science

By Charlie Welch

On Saturday, July 18 the Duke Lemur Center participated in the first “Tropics Day” celebration at the NC Museum of Natural Science. Exhibits included live animals and sustainable tropical crops such as chocolate (cacao). The theme of the DLC exhibit was of course Madagascar, and focused on the urgency of conservation efforts in that unique tropical island country. The DLC exhibit was visited by a steady crowd throughout the day, and the total attendance for Tropics Day was over 6,000 visitors to the museum! It was a great opportunity to raise awareness about lemurs, Madagascar, and the Duke Lemur Center.

Duke Lemur Center Director , Dr. Anne Yoder Speaks at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences

N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences
Downtown Raleigh
is pleased to announce The Charles Darwin Lecture Series in honor of the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth year.

Third Lecture in the Series
Thursday, July 9th, 6:30 p.m.
Anne Yoder: Madagascar's Magnificent Biodiversity: What Would Darwin Say?

Yoder is director of the Duke Lemur Center. Her research focuses on phylogeny and evolution of mammals, conservation genetics, and the historical biogeography and biodiversity of Madagascar, one of the most critical geographic priorities for conservation action worldwide. In addition to her role at the Lemur Center, Yoder is a professor of biology, biological anthropology and anatomy at Duke University. She is also associate editor for Evolution magazine and on the editorial board for the International Journal of Primatology and Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution.

Please RSVP to museum.reservations@ncmail.net or call 919-733-7450 ext. 307.
This lecture is free of charge and seating is on a first come, first served basis. Doors to the Museum and auditorium will open at 6:00 p.m.

The Museum, in collaboration with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and the W.M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at North Carolina State University, is presenting The Charles Darwin Lecture Series throughout 2009 to commemorate the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species." Upcoming lectures will feature Museum paleontologists Dr. Dale Russell on September 29th and Paul Brinkman on November 24th.

The Museum is located at the corner of Jones and Salisbury Streets in downtown Raleigh.
For more information, call 919.733.7450, toll free 1.877.4NATSCI, or visit www.naturalsciences.org


Post by--
Anne S. Lacey
Biology Graduate Program

Lazy Summer Days at Duke Lemur Center

by Nichol Barnett, Primate Technician
Here at the Lemur Center during the hot summer months the employees aren’t the only ones reaching for their Gatorade and taking a quick break in a shady spot! During a tour one may notice the lemurs are not quite as active as they are in the cooler months. With the hot temperatures comes less lemur activity. Being a technician (and a lemur) here at the DLC in the summer months can be a challenge. We are constantly watching over our furry friends to ensure that they are as comfortable as possible during the hot summer days. We provide them with shady areas, fans, and ice bottles to cool themselves down. While these months can be challenging, they can also lead to creativity and fun. We technicians are constantly coming up with new flavors and types of “lemur pops” and designing hammocks for lounging. We are glad to see that our efforts do not go unnoticed and seem greatly appreciated by our charges! If you get a chance to come by for a tour this summer look up to see if you can spot some lemurs lounging in their hammocks enjoying their icy treats!

Raising Dan Akroyd - at Duke Lemur Center

by Tech Laura
I returned from Rome to find that I would be taking care of Dan Akroyd. At least until he was well enough to go live with his father, who had moved next door to keep him company.

Perhaps I should start at the beginning. It all starts with Akroyd’s mother, Jody Foster. Last October, she got together with Akroyd’s father, Lawrence Olivier, and was lucky enough to conceive. Since she is a teenage mother, there is still hope that she and Olivier can have a large family. You see, blue eyed black lemurs are endangered and, being a delicate subspecies of lemur, appear to have some difficulties conceiving, and once they do, having the infants survive. Oh, have I confused you?

Let me clarify. Foster is a Eulemur macaco flavifrons, also known as a Blue-eyed black lemur, a subspecies of the common black lemur. Blue-eyed black lemurs have a striking appearance and are often domineering and high strung. These qualities, or maybe it’s just their eye color, are why the Lemur Center names them after starlets and movie stars. About the only thing our fiery red head Foster has in common with Jody Foster is that she is quite beautiful and has sparkling sky blue eyes. So, where does the “black lemur” part come in? Well, the males are all black, the females all reddish brown, and all of them have stunning blue or green eyes.

Now, back to raising Dan Akroyd. He is only half the blues brothers. Have I confused you again? Let me explain, Akroyd is a twin. You see, not only were Foster and Olivier a good match, they conceived twins! Yes, twin boys. This is a first for the Lemur Center. And for two months Foster was an extremely protective mother. She chased off Olivier, who had to find other living arrangements. She chased off me, even though I brought the food! All was going well, and at one month of age, the boys were christened Akroyd and Belushi – the blues brothers. Little Akroyd had (yes had, I’ll get to that…) beautiful green eyes and his brother little Belushi has (yes still has…) beautiful blue eyes.

Here’s where Rome comes in. I had a great vacation! Yes, techs get vacations too- the Coliseum, lemonchello…. but, when I came home, I found little Akroyd had been rejected by his mother. He had also received a very un-motherly bite wound to the side of his head. As a result, Akroyd had one green eye, and one black eye – sort of like his namesake (How foretelling that he would be named after an actor with one green eye and one brown). It didn’t seem to phase Akroyd. He soon adapted to living next to Olivier and eating non-stop room service. It takes only one needful glance from this little fella to fall head over heals in love. Why he was rejected at two months old is a mystery, a mystery that repeated itself only one week later.

And so it was that I came to be raising Dan Akroyd and one week later, Belushi as well. Again, Foster rejected her then only remaining son by biting him on the head. Why, I don’t know. Maybe two growing infants were too much for her. Belushi, and his head wound, moved in with Akroyd, and Olivier moved out. Akroyd was aloof at first, but Belushi continuously made endearing envoys of brotherly affection and the two soon bonded- again.

It seems wrong to profit from tragedy, but I can’t deny that I have. Now my days are filled with charm and sparkle as the boys grow. Each morning they greet me with sounds normally reserved for family. Sounds much like little motor cycles, whoomf, whoomf, whoomf, as they jump off their teddy bear looking to be fed and groomed. I mash their food, cook their vegetables, and mix their powdered milk twice a day. Each time, they climb onto the plate, all four feet, and gobble as fast as they can. They look up at me with over stuffed mouths and beautiful eyes full of trust. While they eat, I groom each one with a little tooth brush, first the back, then the sweet spot under each ear and finally the long wisp of a tail. There’s no hugging and holding allowed. The brothers must grow up knowing they are lemurs with proper behaviors so they can be ready to get along with future lemur girlfriends. I can tell you for certain that their charisma makes this very hard indeed.

Already time is marching on. They are growing fast and soon will move outside and grow ever more independent. Their father Olivier moved back in with Foster to try again this fall. Hopefully, they will have another infant next spring. I am hoping for a girl- just one. And I will be an outside observer again. But, I will always have my memories of raising Dan Akroyd and his brother Belushi - the blues brothers. And they will always be a special pair of lemurs no matter where they go from here. Whoomf, whoomf….

Lemurs - Preparing for breeding

If Tolkien looks hopeful (and remarkably appealing,) it's because he and Medusa are preparing to be prospective mates at the Philadelphia Zoo. For endangered species, such as aye-aye, keeping the gene pool vital is critical. So the Duke Lemur Center collaborates with other approved institutions around the world to carefully and purposefully breed these precious biological treasures. The breeding programs for each species are managed by a Species Survival Plan (SSP), coordinated through the American Zoological Association, which assures that genetic lines are kept viable (And you thought getting your dates past your parents was rough!)



Before Medusa and Tolkien can travel to their "romantic" rendezvous, they are receiving complete physicals by our Veterinary Department. When they reach Philadelphia, they will be in quarantine for a month (typical for all zoo to zoo shipments) to assure that no undetected diseases slip from one institution to the next.

The Species Survival Plans work both ways for the Lemur Center. June Bug, a Pygmy slow loris, just came to the Lemur Center to breed. June Bug is huge! As Lemur Veterinarian, Bobby Schoppler said, "It's like we got two for the price of one!" June Bug weighs considerably more than the average Pygmy slow loris, so Duke Lemur Center will work with her to get that weight down a bit - for her health's sake.

Then sometime in the next year or two, we should be reporting about brand new aye-aye and Pygmy slow loris infants. Good things - worth waiting for!

Duke Lemur Center - changing lives

Kizzy is a Black & white ruffed lemur and a stellar mom. She gave birth to triplets recently, but life is hard and one infant was still born. One was fit and healthy. One was clearly a runt. In the wild, the runt would have been doomed - not because Kizzy didn't mother properly. She worked hard to care for her infants. She held and groomed both babies and encouraged them to nurse. The runt would have been doomed because it was so weak. Kizzy would groom the tiny infant and try to guide it (as much as a lemur mothers can) towards her nipple to suckle. But the infant seemed to be too small and weak to locate the nipple and latch on to nurse, and it would tumble to the floor of Kizzy's nestbox looking pitiful and lost.



That is where the staff at the Duke Lemur Center stepped in - changing the course of the little runt's life. Two of the world's premier lemur veterinarians, Drs. Cathy Williams and Bobby Schoppler, both work at the Lemur Center. They laid out a course of care for the tiny black & white ruffed lemur. Primate technicians supplemented Kizzy's attempts to feed the infant. The technicians fed the baby around the clock (every two to three hours), returning the infant to Kizzy's care after every feeding, and helped the vets monitor progress. Hour after hour, day after day, Kizzy and a team of humans worked to change the outcome for a little lemur - and it worked!

The runt gradually began to hold its own, then to gain both weight and strength. The DLC staff could cut back on supplemental feeding, and Kizzy could continue what came naturally to her - to care for her babies. The folks at Duke Lemur Center changed the course of history for one little lemur.

It works the other way around also. These endangered species, who are incredible biological treasures,and who also happen to be irresistably engaging change the lives of many who encounter them. That is what happened for Dr. Anne Yoder, Director of the Duke Lemur Center. Here is Dr. Yoder's story.

In Memory of Didi - who helped us understand Madagascar

by Charlie Welch, Duke Lemur Center's Conservation Coordinator

Recently, I received some very bad news from Madagascar. My friend and colleague Didi RAKOTONDRATSIMA passed away. At 34 years of age, and seemingly excellent health, Didi had his whole life before him. All of us who knew Didi are shocked and saddened beyond words.

Didi worked for Cortez Expeditions, based in Antananarivo. He accompanied tour groups acting as guide and all-around logistics technician. He was Cortez’s best, and most requested guide. His understanding of Malagasy history and culture was comprehensive, as was his knowledge of Madagascar’s natural history. He was expert at imparting information in a humble fashion, and would still become excited at sighting a bird or lemur species that he must have seen a hundred times before. Most notably, Didi was simply charming – I never knew a tour group member that did not absolutely love Didi by the end of their time with him.

I have worked other tours with Didi, but Andrea and I both first worked with him on the Duke Alumni Travel tour in 2007. At the end of the tour, we were so impressed with his all around abilities that we presented Didi with the challenge of leading an ecotourism workshop at Ivoloina. He of course jumped at the opportunity because he cared so much about tourism done properly, and about Madagascar. He even offered to do it on his own vacation time – that is the kind of guy Didi was (Cortez saw to it that he was on work time!). When the idea was presented to our tour participants, they were so enthusiastic about Didi that they all chipped in and completely funded the workshop. The workshop, led by Didi, took place at Ivoloina in 2008 and was a great success. MFG Program Manager at the time, Karen Freeman had this to say about Didi at the workshop “As you say, always so charming and he really cared about Madagascar and its people. I was so impressed with his training session on how to cherish the Malagasy culture and share little bits of it as a gift to the tourists. He really was one of the best ambassadors for Madagascar that I ever came across.”

So, to you Didi, on behalf of all the people who now have a better understanding of Madagascar and its people, thank you for sharing yourself. You have touched our lives immeasurably, and we will never forget you. You were the best possible ambassador.

Our deepest most heart felt condolences to Didi’s family.


Didi collapsed and died on 17 May, 2009 while snorkeling with a tourist group near Nosy Be, off the NW coast of Madagascar.

If you would like to honor Didi's memory, you can make a gift to Duke Lemur Center by going to the Lemur Center website.. When making your on-line gift, be sure to designate the gift for the Duke Lemur Center in memory of Didi. This site will also explain how and where to send a check, if you prefer.

To honor Didi's life and extraordinary excellence as an Eco-tour guide, the funds will be used to continue to develop eco-tourism in Madagascar.

Pyxis – An Insider’s View
By David Haring
Our absolutely amazing 14 year old red ruffed female, Pyxis, gave birth to triplets on April 29th, bringing to ten the number of infants she has delivered at the Lemur Center (8 surviving). Four lucky people who happened to be here late one evening were given the extraordinary privilege of witnessing all three births (which occurred at 5:35pm, 6pm and 6:10 pm ) from only a few feet away, due to Pyxis extremely calm demeanor. I had previously seen only two lemur births in my 25 years here, but none at such close range, so this was an awesome privilege! Pyxis had no problem delivering the infants, cleaning them up and handily disposing of any afterbirth. She is an excellent mother, and there have been no problems, the infants (two females and a male) are thriving and all had doubled their birth weight at two weeks of age.

Pyxis is one of the Lemur Center’s unsung lemur heroes. She was born 1995 in a natural habitat enclosure (NHE6) to a pair of wild caught ruffs, Galaxy and Comet. Despite the fact that she was born with several deformities (short tail, imperfect eye, a right arm that was little more than a stump), Pyxis thrived in the forest and lived there in the warm seasons until she was sent on loan to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago in the Fall of 1998 (shortly before Pyxis was shipped, her group had to be removed from the forest due to the fact that Galaxy kept escaping). I remember watching a young, two year old Pyxis travel through the forest struggling to keep up with her group as they effortlessly moved through the top of the canopy (50 or 60 feet in the air). Pyxis could jump between some of the trees the group was traveling between, but when the distance was too great to be bridged by the basically one armed lemur, she had to descend to the base of the tree, then run along the ground and climb up into the tree which the rest of her group had entered. Then do it all over again in a minute or two. The sequence might be repeated five or six times as the group traveled from one end of the enclosure to the next. A current Lemur Center locomotion project hypothesizes that “lemurs are significantly slower climbers than runners” I am not a researcher, nor do I hold a PhD, but I will go out on a limb here and predict that jumping between trees takes significantly less energy than the locomotion style that Pyxis had to adopt to move through the forest. Needless to say, this extra effort made Pyxis an extremely strong animal!


Breeding between Pyxis and her SSP arranged mate did not occur during her tenure in Chicago, and since she was one of the few offspring of a wild caught pair, and extremely valuable to the ruffed lemur breeding program, she was returned to the Center and paired with a new male, Hunter, in November, 2000. The pair was released to free range (again NHE6) in April 2001, and Pyxis sprang into the forest like she had never left, leaving Hunter (who had never been outside a traditional cage) cowering under a shelf in the barn. Pyxis only returned to him occasionally throughout the day to check on him. Finally after a week or so Hunter found the courage to venture out into the forest, and the pair settled in fine. In fact Pyxis gave birth to her first litter in May, 2001 in a nest she had constructed on the forest floor. Tragically, the infants did not survive the first night, and when the next year Pyxis again became pregnant, she was kept inside so that her infants would have a better chance of survival. And survive they did, she gave birth to Little Dipper in Spring of 2002, and in 2004 she gave birth to twins, Carina and Cassiopea. Last fall all three of these offspring were paired by the ruffed lemur SSP to make sure that Pyxis’ valuable genes get passed on.

Pyxis and her group returned to free range in July, 2005 (she had not become pregnant that breeding season), and as soon as the group was released to free range, Pyxis made a bee line across the entire length of NHE 6 to visit the nest site where she had given birth to her first infants four years earlier (still marked with flagging tape)! Once she arrived at the nest site, she sniffed the ground intently for five minutes, then lay down to rest until the rest of her group caught up with her. What exactly she was searching for we will never know, but no one here had ever seen anything like it. Later in that month for reasons unknown, Pyxis began to regularly escape from her enclosure and technicians arriving early in the morning would often find her in the parking lot. One morning someone witnessed one of her escapes: she had climbed to the top of a tall pine tree located close to the NHE 6 fenceline. Upon reaching the treetop, she ran full speed along a horizontal branch, launched herself into the air, and, crossing the fence far below, landed with a crash onto a branch 20 feet below where she launched, yet still 40 feet above the ground, somehow holding on with her one very strong hand and feet. After the offending tree was removed, Pyxis settled down and remained inside the enclosure with her group for the summers of 2005, 2006 and part of 2007 when she gave birth to another set of twins. Currently her free range home in NHE 6 is closed for construction, but she and her newly expanded family will most likely return in 2010!

reflections on weighing lemurs

Tech Laura here. I wouldn't have thought that the simple task of weighing animals would get me thinking so much.....This week I weighed a baby sifaka. I've been working with her mother to trade the infant for a nut, so I can monitor the baby's health and growth. It probably doesn't do much for your self worth as a child to know that your mother will trade you for a nut, but I digress....sifaka are family oriented and other members often carry the infant for awhile or play with them so I guess I just fit in for her mother to do a little baby sitting. I was looking at this wonderful baby. So healthy and growing and I thought how special to hold in my hands the future of an endangered species. All lemurs are from Madagascar and all lemurs are in danger of disappearing forever. This little girl will have kids of her own and help us help them. Wow, how special that little moment was.

The next day I weighed the rest of her family. Her dad is fat. He is also the most cautious about climbing aboard the scale. But, nuts are magic sometimes and he did get on for quite a few nuts (dad's price for compliance was much higher than moms.....hummm). The little infant has a brother 1 year old, and a sister 2 years old, who will soon go off to the Sacramento zoo and meet her dream mate (we hope he is dreamy...). It is the picture of a vibrant young family. How nice.

Well, we also have old animals here, and they need to be weighed too. Now instead of the joy of the future, I dread the inevitable. None of us can live forever and lemurs are no exception. I went out to weigh the 19 year old bamboo lemur in my area. I am always full of trepidation. Will he be OK? He acts like life is still worth living and as I put down the scale for him, I hope his weight will show me that he is living it well. He climbs aboard before I can even turn it on. He does this often, and he wants his treat. Bamboo lemurs have well earned reputations for being feisty. Some people call it "big dog" syndrome because they are the smallest day active lemur. But not this old guy. He knows the drill and he knows I help him.

We are always afraid to anthropomorphize animals (make them like people) but he is a primate and he is a social animal who can read body language. I think he knows the drill. He got tired of waiting on the scale and jumped to my knee. I set the scale and pointed to it and he jumped back on it. WHEEHO, his weight is good. He is still keeping himself up (with a little help from me!). He is supposed to get a raisin for sitting on the scale. He looks at me. OH, I pull the bag out of my pocket and try to open the zip lock on it. I struggle. He jumps back to my knee and holds one side of the zip lock and together we manage to get it open. Funny, you would think he would just take his raisin but he didn't. He jumped back to the scale and looked at me like well, I helped you open it now give me my reward. He gets a few more raisins for that.

So, weighing brings me full circle from the young to the old, from the future of lemurs to the past of lemurs. It was a good week.

Taking care of lemurs

The risk of Swine Flu has brought extra precautions to the Duke Lemur Center. The lemurs do not pose any extra risk to people, and we want to assure that people don't pose any extra risk to the lemurs. So masks and gloves are the order of the day. When caring for an endangered species, it's always better safe than sorry!

Triplets at Duke Lemur Center

Just minutes old in this picture, three new Red-ruffed lemurs take in the sights at the Duke Lemur Center. Lemurs occur naturally only in Madagascar, which is an island off the coast of Africa. This island has been surrounded by deep ocean water for millions of years, making it a fantastic scientific lab for how life adapts to circumstance and change.

The folks at the Duke Lemur Center do three things: study these unique animals that came from Madagascar (and a number of other prosimian primates from Africa and Asia), teach others what they learn about lemurs and how to learn more about these fascinating animals and their habitat, and work with the Malagasy people and other interested groups to protect lemurs and their habitat. Part of this involves serving as a genetic safety net for the lemurs in Madagascar.

So if Pyxis, the Red-ruffed lemur above, looks proud, it's justified. She doesn't know it, but she is part of a well-planned breeding program designed to help secure the lemur's future. Her triplets help. And both mom and infants are doing well.

For Lemurs, Spring means , "The Buffet is Open!"

At the Duke Lemur Center, our Primate Technicians work hard all winter to make life interesting, healthy, and enjoyable for the lemurs. The Techs do a great job! But nothing compares to the space and freedom of the Natural Habitat Enclosures (NHE) where many of the lemurs spend their spring, summer, and early autumn.

Watching the animals readjust to life in the forest is fascinating. The Techs take them out for short periods first and watch all the interactions to be sure disputes over food, rank, or territory are resolved without injury. There was a lot of scent marking among the Ringed-tails - especially along the fence line where two troops met. There was some "trash talk" between troops with members from each troop meeting toe to toe on the fence. But the lure of the leaves soon won out, and both groups ran off to pick their own dinner fresh from the trees.

Rank was clear when dominant females approached lower ranking females or males, who are lower ranking among many lemurs. Those of lower rank backed off of tender branches or yummy browse and turned eating rights over to those more dominant. Fortunately, Duke Forest provides plenty for all.



In the heat of the day, the lemurs slowed their activity, sought out shaded places, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy ice cubes made of diluted fruit juice that were provided by their ever vigilant Techs.

Healthy Infants hold hope for lemurs

Shown above are ring-tailed lemur, Dorieus and her twins, Hibernia and Limerick. Yes, the twins were born on St. Patrick's Day. The twins are thriving. They spend a lot of time now riding jockey-style on mom's back. Erin, their primary Primate Technician, reports that they like to ride mom's back one above the other. If you only see one infant on Dorieus's back, its probably Limerick. He's the male and has been somewhat larger from the very beginning. But don't worry, Hibernia is still there. She just likes to retreat to the safety of riding on mother's stomach at times.

The twins are fitting right in with the rest of the troop. Recently, their older sister was seen grooming them. They are fortunate. Their mother is the high ranking female in their group, and ring-tails are a species where females are dominate. While life is full of challenges - especially for an endangered species - having a high-ranking mom adds a measure of security.

Duke Lemur Center's Breeding Program is being highly successful. Duke takes part in Species Survival Plans in coordination with the American Zoological Association to see that global efforts to preserve endangered species are maximally effective.

Tiny lemurs hold clues to big mysteries

Dr. Anne Yoder, director of the Duke Lemur Center, likens Madagascar to a remarkable scientific library. She likens lemurs to irreplicable "volumes" filled with information of incredible value. According to the work of RJ Gifford and colleagues reported by Welkin E. Johnson of Harvard Medical School in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the tiny Gray mouse lemur may hold a thread that could help unravel the mystery of the evolution of the HIV and AIDS viruses.

History is written in the genetic material of this tiny lemur. According to Johnson, viruses are intracellular parasites, which cannot exist without their host. Once a virus becomes extinct, it vanishes without a trace. The one exception is the Retroviridae, and Gifford and colleagues have unearthed a retroviral fossil clearly related to modern AIDS viruses. The information lies in small sequence fragments resembling lentiviral sequences in the archives of Microcebus murinus (gray mouse lemurs.)

Don't worry. Lemurs can't give you AIDS, but within their genetic material they may hold a mirror that can help scientists figure out the events that led to the modern AIDS epidemic. One more reason to protect this small but critically important endangered species.

Duke Lemur Center remembers John Hope Franklin

Just months before his death at age 94, John Hope Franklin visited the Duke Lemur Center. News of his impending visit sent ripples of excitement through the staff. We knew that this was a man who not only read history, studied history, wrote history and taught it, but he had lived history and by the way he lived, he had changed it. John Hope Franklin was this country's premier chronicler of the African American story and a James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University.

For the Duke Lemur Center, our brush with Dr. Franklin was all too brief, but we were moved by his presence. Everyone who met him was impressed by his calm dignity, his warmth, and his genuine humility. Yet, it was easy to see why Henry Louis Gates, Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research referred to Dr. Franklin as "the Prince." At 94, John Hope retained his regal bearing.

Also evident, as John Hope Franklin toured the Lemur Center and fed an aye-aye a raisin, was the delight in learning that along with his intellectual rigor and engaged passion had fueled a long and prestigious career. It was an honor to have him visit. We join the many who remember an honorable man, who made a difference.