i had offices next to each other. more recently, we called our it was there that i had the privilege of getting to know bob strauss that not everyone saw. me torauss who once asked check up on the lawyer that he read up on the right act just to make sure the man was not permanently scarred. thoseg shot who supported who were closest to him. allensworth and tony nson were treated like his own family. the mutual respect and loyalty for one another new no boundaries -- knew no boundaries. butman who loved his tables

got up every morning to make breakfast for helen. the charmer of every woman he met who could not wait to get home every night to the wife he worshiped and the martini they shared. bob absolutely loved helen. wassix decades, strauss constantly insistently, urgently saying to her, helen, how do i love thee? that may count the ways. i love you to the death my soul can reach when feeling out of sight through the eyes of ideal grace. breath,hee with the smile, tears of all my life and if god chooses, i shall but love

thee better after death. that was not tehe strauss you saw on meet the press or on the pages of the post or on the smoke-filled rooms of the convention. the man from stanford had a big part -- heart. he helped a lot of people, not just in the ways that were public like the strauss's center for international security and or the endowed chairs at the medical center of the university of texas. there were count was asked -- acts of quiet generosity covering the difference when his medical premiums rose putting millions into the firm retirement fund in which he had excluded himself. employee'sa former way through business school.

return, all leave that one day the young man do the same for another. mixed in with all the luster and the glib remarks, there was a refreshing sentimentality to bob strauss. like in a corporate board meeting, when he leaned over to me and said, vernon, look around this room. intended that we should be here. a jew from texas and a black from the housing projects of atlanta. vernon, i wish my parents could see me here in this board room sitting next to you. conscious anded amused that the son of a dry

goods store owner had come all this way. bob strauss was the warmest, blowhard unt caring ever met -- blowhard you have ever met. thoughtful,honest, and unfailingly loyal. him.is how i remember mentor, aa partner, a match. when he left the dnc, strauss said dennis typically modest way, i would hate to be the guy who has to follow my act. [laughter] coulduth is nobody ever and nobody ever will.

ofshall not forget the life robert s. strauss again and we shall not see the likes of robert s. strauss again for he has fought the good fight. he has finished his course. he has kept the pace. astonishingly an productive years, robert strauss has closed his last deal. negotiated his last merger, served his last president, hired his last editor, flattered his last secretary, given his last interview, bet on his last horse, drunk his last martini, shared his last holiday dinner