I hadn't realized John Murdock passed. A big loss. I talked to him many times when working as a reporter at the Observer, a now.... I hadn't realized John Murdock passed. A big loss.

I talked to him many times when working as a reporter at the Observer, a now defunct community newspaper. Later we became friends, even continuing that friendship through letters when I moved to the West Coast. Eventually we lost touch, but John's fighting spirit is not one that would easily just pass through a person.

I remember in one of our last conversations he compared years of communicating with the Vatican to save St. Nicolas Church with a group of Mennonites "who just went out and put a new roof on."

Pittsburgh hasn't seemed the same this year and now I realize why.

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