Long life has its penalties, one of which is too many trips to funeral parlors in memory of friends and co-workers of long standing.

I have already mentioned on these pages Frank Rodski, who worked at Social Security Administration and was, in addition, a dedicated operator in the Amateur Radio Service, call sign K3MTT.

More recently Dave Blanchard, a senior systems analyst at SSA and, like Frank, a radio amateur with the highest class of license, call sign N3II, passed on after a long illness. In his younger years Dave flew missions in a bomber over Vietnam.

Later, I worked with him on an important project at SSA. I remember him signing off from his radio transmissions as "Dave, N3II, in beautiful downtown Smallwood" -- the joke, of course, being that there is no downtown in Smallwood. My memories of him are wholly positive. May he rest in peace.

But the most recent loss and the one best known to readers of The Eagle is the Wolfman himself, Hobart David Wolf.

Literally and figuratively, Hoby put himself on the charts in Carroll County.

Wolf Airport is still on the map.

Hoby was a man of many parts and many enterprises.

Decades ago, I worked for him as a computer programming consultant for his phone answering service. It was good business for me, and our relationship had no bumps.

He told me stories of his earlier life, as a soldier guarding POWs in World War II, as a radio personality with his own show after the war -- he missed out on national syndication when TV became popular -- and of course as a columnist, first for the Carroll County Times and then for The Eagle and also for the Northern News in North Carroll.

My own column in The Eagle was established some years back as a political counterpoint to Hoby's.

I called him "El Lobo" and he called me "Liberal John."

It was great fun sparring with him over the political issues of the day. We battled over charter government, the option maps for five commissioners, airport expansion in Westminster and many other issues.

But we had our agreements as well as disagreements. He hated the roundabout on Monroe Avenue as did I. Some political figures earned his disrespect ... and mine as well.

Always the storyteller, he would call me up now and then with a tidbit that couldn't wait for the next edition.

He just had to share.

When I went to pay my last respects, the parlor at Haight Funeral Home was crowded to capacity with his friends and well-wishers.

The line of people waiting to console his widow was long. I saw a Carroll County Commissioner there and other notables.

My daughter Margaret, now grown with a grown child of her own, recalls the times when she was a little girl and her Bluebird troop had their campouts on Hoby's airport property.

That's the kind of person he was. Hoby touched a lot of people.

My column will continue, God willing, and I will soldier on championing my more moderate views.

Others will do verbal combat with me. But it won't be nearly as much fun as when Liberal John crossed verbal swords with El Lobo.

Hoby Wolf has no replacement.

He was an original, a player, my opponent and my friend.

He lived a full life to the end.

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