To say that Herb was a challenging relationship is clearly an understatement that we all understand.  The fact that so many of us hung with him all these decades is testament to the qualities that we appreciated in him, masked as they sometimes could be by the complications of his complex personality… 

He was stubborn, like a dog with a bone he could hold on to an argument for the whole of your friendship.  And like that dog you never knew when he would dig it up months or years later to bat it around the yard a bit again. 

He was fierce both in the strength of his beliefs and his willingness to do battle over them.

He was aggressive…and all of us who knew him long can tell stories of how he would dress you down, more than occasionally, in typical Herb fashion.

And the one thing that everyone always emphasizes about him is how he could cause his own problems and get in his own way, usually the result of needing to convince all that he was the smartest one in the room…at any cost.

He frequently was the smartest one in the room with a memory like a hard drive, always at the ready with a lecture on history or Marxism. 

He was studious about anything that interested him, diving in full bore to whatever subject he tackled.

He was daring, including pursuits in Mexico, the far east, the middle east and all over the country.

He approached the world with the logic of Spock, to the point that he rarely understood when he was being offensive…which was not infrequent.

He was tragic in example of how early mistreatment creates deep inner anger and turmoil that trumps potential.

Those of us who did hang in knew that ultimately he was a loyal and caring friend.  To a fault dedicated to his principles. 

RIP Pounder