I just returned from attending the funeral of one of my bets friends. I'm writing this to tell my friends in the chip collecting community about the best man I have ever known. He died Saturday at the age of 83. His daughter called me two weeks ago and said he asked to see me. I drove up there and we had a good talk before he fell asleep. He never complained. As a matter of fact, we became friends around 1974, and in all those years I never heard him complain about anything. I guess he certainly had a reason to complain, whine, or anything else he felt like doing, but he never did. His name was Dan Kilpatrick, he was born in Southern Illinois in 1933 to a very poor family. At 3 years old he contracted polio, a death sentence in those days, but he survived. When he was 5 years old his Father died. His Mother married an alcoholic who abused Dan till he left home at 17. He was on crutches till about 12 years ago when he could no longer function and was confined to a wheelchair. His step-son Doug was killed in a car accident around that time. A couple years later his Son-in -law Mike died in another car accident. Then his wife Shirley, developed alzheimers and died in 2013. They say God never gives you more than you can handle, I would have broke, Dan didn't, and he never complained or wanted sympathy from anyone. The story gets more unbelievable starting after he got his GED in 1953, and put himself business college earning an accounting degree. He worked hard in an auto dealership, doing taxes and accounting on the side till he got enough money to buy part of the dealership. He sold that and bought a Buick dealership around 1980. It was very successful and he was able to sell it and enjoy a comfortable retirement. He also bowled and pitched softball. All of this with crutches,bad shoulders, and one leg that was so badly deformed doctors wanted to amputate it but he would not let them. He never complained, he was my friend, and I'll miss him.