Another farewell-- THE ORCHIDIST OF THE YEAR AWARD RECIPIENT

We lost a great friend of the MAOC this year.  The Orchidist of the Year award was announced by Jan Yates in Milwaukee at the Fall MAOC.  Jim Newsome, M.D. was an accredited judge from Atlanta and a member of the Budget Committee for many years. Jan said in making this announcement, "for our committee meetings, we usually huddled close to the bar or in the hotel lobby right before the business meeting where he handled my tap dancing around the budget with aplomb.  He was a thoughtful man who coped with his declining health with great courage, and I respected him immensely."  Cheryl Erins says "hewas a hero in my book right up until the end."  He loved orchids and he loved people.  This was evidenced by the fact that he came to all the MAOC meetings, no matter where, even when his health had deteriorated.  He could hardly breathe, but he traveled to our EC meetings and listened intently, even though he had trouble talking. He was a trooper and we will miss him.  A big round of applause greated this year's ORCHIDIST OF THE YEAR!