[NFBWATLK] Mike Freeman

Fri Jan 6 15:15:07 UTC 2017

Hi Marci and All,

I finally got back to using a keyboard that I'm comfortable writing with. I started a message to responded to this thread yesterday, got called away, and somehow it wasn't saved. So, I'll start again.

Marci, I understand the difficulty in dealing with Mike's death. As I posted earlier, he was a very close friend to me from our early teenage years. I met him at an Oregon School for the Blind summer program in 1965, when I was 13, and he was about 15. We were roommates at that program for learning mobility, cane travel, and other "techniques of daily living". He and I immediately hit it off, and had a great 6 week program. We laughed a whole lot, and played jokes on both staff and our colleagues as students. He played the trumpet, and I played the bugle, and we volunteered to play reveille in the  morning, and I think we even played "taps" at night. That summer developed in to a lifelong friendship. 

Just a few notes I want to share. Mike was a tremendous musician as most people remember. He did learn to play the guitar a bit, but mostly was an excellent pianist. Playing at a whole bunch of NFB functions, both by request and on his own, he was a constant source of music for the folks that were in attendance. In fact, he played the piano during the early years of my auctioneering for the NFB of Washington  during the bidding competition, making that pretty exciting as well. But I think the most memorable experience for me with Mike's playing the piano was when I heard him play his own compositions of classical fugues that sounded almost as polished as the Bach fugues. And one concert I attended featured Mike playing as the guest pianist for the Oregon Pops Orchestra the George Gershwin composition "Rhapsody in Blue." He added some flare to the piece that made the concert totally outstanding.

There were so many other parts to his life as well. He graduated from Reed and New Mexico State University with degrees in physics. At Reed, he minored in math, and took a lot of classes in music and languages as well. But of course, when he joined the NFB, he took off working hard to help improve the lives of all blind people. His ascendance through the leadership ranks was surprising to some and expected by me, particularly since we'd had so many philosophy discussions about the movement in our younger college days. The impact of the legislation he worked to pass in Washington State had had and will continue to have positive effects for all of us, including for blind students, blind parents, parents of blind children, and others who are blind. 

I'll stop now, because I can imagine Mike complaining that I shouldn't prolong this subject. But in closing, I will say that I'm sure he would insist that we move forward and continue to grow and build the Federation.

RIP, Mike.

/s/

Bennett Prows

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBWATLK [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Marci Carpenter via NFBWATLK
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2017 5:30 PM
To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List' List
Cc: Marci Carpenter
Subject: [NFBWATLK] Mike Freeman

Hello friends,

I am having a really hard time this week. On Christmas Eve I lost a very good friend, Mike Freeman. I spent most of last week calling and emailing others to let them know of Mike's death and taking care of some details. Now it is hitting me hard. Mike led the way on most pieces of state legislation creating and preserving rights for blind children and adults in the last 30 years. He supported and taught me in many ways. He could be very gruff and sometimes disagreeable, but underneath he had such a big heart. I have met few people who truly believed in and cared about blind people as Mike did. He was always generous and supportive of me and others who were experiencing personal difficulties. It is going to be hard to be in Washington DC without him later this month. He attended every NFB Washington Seminar from the early eighties until last year when the snow kept him from going for the first time. I really need my Federation family right now. I really miss my friend.

Marci
_______________________________________________
NFBWATLK mailing list
NFBWATLK at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbwatlk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NFBWATLK:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbwatlk_nfbnet.org/bennett.prows%40hhs.gov