Wayne Oates was a vital part of my maturing years at SBTS, a vital segment of the seminary as it was to me. I was 19 when I arrived at seminary, one year from college and a year as Arthur Rutledge's secretary in Texas. I was in one of Dr. Oates' first full year programs at Louisville General Hospital with Ann Thomas Neil teaching us the nursing aspect of care. I never planned to be a chaplain, pursued other graduate programs, became a college professor, chair, sometime dean but I used that pastoral care training often as my family gradually diminished to me. When I was with him occasionally, he always remembered me and later gave me more credit than I deserved for his honorary degree from Louisiana College! When I retired and became a volunteer chaplain at one of the local medical centers and on the IRB of the other one, I wrote him it was like getting back on a bicycle after years of not-riding -- you never forget it! I wrote him after his son's death and got a hand-written letter which I shall treasure. Another great one has left us but think of all the accolades the former sick are giving him in our next realm! Let's be eternally grateful we knew him.