Andy Lepak, who was an integral part of Auburn for most of his 85 years, passed away a few days ago. Like most of us, Andy was an ordinary person with extraordinary talents.

I met Andy about 20 years ago; we were members of the Syracuse Baseball Umpires Association. When working many high school baseball games together, I found that he was a fastidious umpire and always had to have a clean uniform with his pants sporting a crease and his shoes polished. He always said if you look like an umpire, everyone will respect you no matter what your calls were. If Andy blew a call, at the end of the inning he would apologize to the coach that he had blown a call. He was respected by all for his honesty.

Andy served his country during World War II. One day when I visited Andy at his home, he showed me a manila envelope which contained his journal while he was a soldier. I was amazed at the historical significance of these documents. Andy managed to write them during the lull in military action.

The papers in which Andy had recorded all of his war accounts now were almost 50 years old. I suggested to Andy that if he would allow me, I would retype all of the journal so that it could be recorded on 20-pound paper. It took me over two weeks to accomplish the task and I returned the old papers and the new one to him.

I completed these a short time before Veterans Day 2002, and the Syracuse Newspapers published them. Before they published the article, they reunited the three living brothers - Alex and Steve with Andy. They had not seen one another for 20 years.

May he rest in peace.

Mike Ricci

Auburn