When I met Sam all I knew about Virginia was that Thomas Jefferson and other U.S. presidents had been born there and that Richmond had been the capital of the Confederacy. I asked Sam where in Virgina was he from and how long was the train ride to Washington. D.C. and he replied: " I am from Radford and rail service was discontinued years ago. I came to Washington, D.C. by bus." The jovial,fresh and easy manner in which he responded is what struck me the most about Sam, traits about him which he carried till the end of his life. Sam was the ultimate philologist, his ease with words and sentence construction in the English language were amazing. When we talked ( and argued )about the way to pronounce a not-to-familiar word in the English language he would go to the American Heritage Dictionary, looked it up, and responded: Yes, Adalberto, but the prefered usage is ... " That's the Sam I remember, exact and thorough in everything he did. Brocky, a nickname our mutual friend Joe Rasco gave him, was the ultimate scholar both in love with God and his country which he served well. We will all miss him very much but the work he did for the Catholic Church and the United States of America is his legacy to all that knew and loved him. Sam knew very well that in spite of the world's disagreements with American foreign policy there is and will always be an emotional connection between our country and the rest of the family of nations. Sam used every opportunity to be an ambassador of good will for the American people as well as an apostle of his Catholic faith -and he did it all for the greater glory of God. His spirituality and his faith was a combination of the teachings and examples of Francis of Assisi and Ignatius of Loyola. That is why I have no doubts that when Sam saw the face of God for the first time, Our Lord must have said: " Welcome home, Sam, you fought the good fight and you won." And let it be known to all who knew and loved him that there is nothing to fear as a new star shines brigthly in the night sky watching over us. And that star has a new name: Samuel Brock. Adalberto ( AL ) Martinez Bedford, Texas