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I was a friend of WP, and he was a classic individual, through and through.

Always gregarious, always a gentleman, and he worked harder at his job than anyone I knew (he had a giant rugged hill built on his property that some neighbors complained about, but he would run up and down that thing an hour a day. We could watch him from our kitchen window). He could have bought me several times over, but never would you have gotten than impression. He was the most humble person you could imagine.

He had several very nice cars he had gotten from Kangaroos, Lamborghini’s in the 80’s (purple), but he never that I knew of drove them around. He kept them in the garage, maybe he had to keep them for contract reasons or something. He drove a camry if I remember right, or some such sort of car. His wife had a Rolls and a big black Benz.

I miss him dearly as a neighbor and a friend. He was one of a kind.

He would jog around our side of the neighborhood (behind his house, so a good 2 mile run around the area to get to us), and even before we were introduced to him (although we knew who HE was the day he moved in), he would stop and reset his watch or running thing on his wrist on our entry way to our home. After resetting his watch thing, he would toss our newspaper up the drive and over our gate a good 40 yards or so.

In this day in age, athletes are asses, and I bet you couldn’t get an autographed football or jersey from most without paying for it.. He sent all the kids on our block Kangaroos one year (I’m sure they were free, but it was the thought that counts) My oldest was 7 when he passed away. He will never know the greatness that was WP.

I have many stories of WP and his generosity from our community and the charities we have belonged to over the years. Many anonymous donations while he was alive and such PLUS the WP foundation after his passing. He was a great athlete and an even greater man.