Sad News

[Riley Smith]

Norm Laskay has crossed the bar.

https://obits.legacy.com/legacy/norman-laskay

And they've said last rites for Jerry Wrenn's wife Myrt.

I thought some of you might know and remember.

[Doug SC]

That is sad indeed. I would have liked to have met him. Thank you for letting us know. Condolences to his family and friends.

[Captain Kidd]

Thanks for sharing this.

I've only met a handful of TSBB folks in person. Norm was one of those. I attended a conference in New Orleans back in '08 or '09 IIRC. Norm was gracious enough to meet me and give me a tour. Then he treated me to lunch. A memorable time.

Remind me who Jerry Wrenn is. Is that "uncle Jerry"?

[Riley Smith]

No, that's the Other Jerry Jerry Hardin. This Jerry lives in TX and had a Victoria 18 too. He had lots of information on the boat which helped when I acquired one. My condolences to all the families involved and a prayer for comfort. All us old cats are fading away as we speak. I'm trying to go out in style and have scheduled a morning run on the river. Maybe all of us can talk out there in the wind, and be glad we had one another on the journey.

[Frank B.]

Certainly it is sad.  I knew and worked with Norm off and on.  He was a third party inspector and consultant for a number of oil companies that were customers when I was with CE Natco building offshore oil and gas production equipment.  Wnen I notice active posters have become inactive on these forums, always concerned about status.  We have a number of them now.

[Charles Brennan]

Norm was definitely, a Cool Guy.
Here we are back in 2002, when he was inspecting an ocean-going tugboat in Fort Lauderdale and invited me along.
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Afterwards, we went to lunch at a local diner.

And for some REAL History, here is Norm, with Charlie Jones and Laura Griffin, also in 2002, at the Islamorada Fish Company in Fort Lauderdale.
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Norm had some GREAT Stories that night, and I was sorry when the wait staff began cleaning up and shutting down.
I would have been quite happy to listen, until sunup.

About the best thing I can say about Norm, is that he completely had my number, and seemed to like me anyway.
Charles Brennan

[Captain Kidd]

No, that's the Other Jerry Jerry Hardin. This Jerry lives in TX and had a Victoria 18 too. He had lots of information on the boat which helped when I acquired one. My condolences to all the families involved and a prayer for comfort. All us old cats are fading away as we speak. I'm trying to go out in style and have scheduled a morning run on the river. Maybe all of us can talk out there in the wind, and be glad we had one another on the journey.

This!

[Krusen]

Years ago, I posted the train adventure/disaster we had, first leg to New Orleans, a ride on the restored PT 305 (Which Norm had talked me into reserving), and on to LA, Seattle, and home.

Norm was an amazing host, picking us up at our hotel and driving us to the WW 2 Museum annex where the PT was located, then taking Shirley to a public flower garden.

The boat ride was amazing, worth all the related cost, and after the ride, Norm took us to the old historic, but still functioning airport.  The dining room there is a "Destination" one, famous for reasonable prices and authentic local food.

Next, a quick tour of the French Quarter, and dropped us off on the trolley line that passes through the most interesting historic home areas in the city. He needed to leave us, as his wife had been in the process of closing on their new to them house, and now needed his signature to finish up.  We were not aware that Leslie was going above and beyond reasonable to make our trip a memorable success!



The next day was spent at the WW 2 Museum, an absolute required visit, which included looking down at the memorial bricks, and seeing the name of a long time Church friend, who had also said the Museum was a must do item while there.  Lunch and supper were at other restaurants that Norm suggested, outstanding food, reasonable prices  Norm and Leslie both really liked good authentic food, and found it at neighborhood places at reasonable prices.

When in the Army, I had crossed the Atlantic on a large troop ship, and explored most of it, in conflict with the regulations.  All the way from the bow to the stern, and lowest bilge, where the drive shaft's went through the hull, to the drive motor room, where I spent about an hour talking about how they were controlled.  I was welcome, as I had been working at a power company in the power plants, and understood what we were talking about.  Everything on that ship was electric.  On Trailersailor, Norm and I often swapped stories of electric drive malfunctions and challenges.  He was an expert in widely divergent areas.

That trip was either an adventure, or disaster, according to how we approached disruptions, which we had many of, and Norm was one of the reasons we remember it as adventure.

[Riley Smith]

He'd call me sometimes when he was in my neighborhood and we'd meet for coffee. I'd met him with the BEER crew, itself now missing a few in that pic. He was traveling to Mobile on a regular for a while because of some insurance squabble, and asked if I'd be interested in an inspection/photographer job for documentation. One port was accusing the other of tearing up crap on a barge with the shovels or something to that effect and he was getting tired of making the NO-MOB run. They settled fairly quickly, so I din hafta run I-10, and that was fine with me, but I sure enjoyed the coffee and lunches. Yeah, Norm was really intelligent, and an all around nice guy.

[Captain Kidd]

I went back and dug up a couple pics I took with Norm - November 2009. IIRC, the Cafe Reconcile, which is where he took me to eat, was a ministry of some kind that was opened to help youth or something to that effect. Sounds like something Norm would have been interested in.

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