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Donald Leich's avatar

Hello John! You might remember me. Our respective parents were close friends. Glad to see you are still in the game. You’ve got a new subscriber.

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John Walcott's avatar

You have a great memory! What have you been doing for the last 58 years?

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Donald Leich's avatar

Well, you asked.

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Donald Leich's avatar

Hey John! I remember reading your articles in the Record. Many years later I saw you on with Bill Moyers along with your reporters that had the goods on Dick Cheney. There’s a lot to catch with in 58 years. I’ll try to add some more thoughts tomorrow.

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Donald Leich's avatar

Continuing my saga, I got divorced from my first wife and move to Montclair. Started a 4 piece band that played blues, old rock & roll, and New Orleans music. Just before the COVID shutdown I quit the band, figuring that I’m too old to stay up that late anymore. Decided to get married again and moved just outside of Hendersonville, NC where we bought a house. You may have heard something about a hurricane that came through here. The house is on high ground and suffered no damage. We had mild damage to some trees. Our neighbors did no fare as well. It looked like a logging camp here. There are still,houses with blue tarps on their roofs, and some gigantic stumps with their root balls next to the road waiting for the special equipment needed to cart them away. That should give you an idea.

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John Walcott's avatar

Have you seen Rob Teiner’s Shock and Awe?

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Donald Leich's avatar

Yes I have. I was both shocked AND awed! Were you happy with Rob Reiner’s portrayal?

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John Walcott's avatar

Yes. He worked very hard to make the movie accurate. In one case, he rewrote a scene while he was shooting it because Jon Landay (Woody Harrelson) remembered a little speech I gave the newsroom staff. Alec Baldwin had signed to play me but bailed at the last minute.

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Donald Leich's avatar

OK, the last 58 years. I was class of ‘71. I played guitar in 2 bands during HS. One had a 3 piece horn section and a harmonica player that sounded like Paul Butterfield. After HS I went to art school. First in Philadelphia, then in Syracuse. After exploring more traditional art I got interested in computer graphics and animation, ultimately co-founding the first computer animation company in NYC. We did animation for Disney’s Tron, NBC Nightly News (if you remember the globe with pictures on it), lots of flying logos. This was back in the day when we had to invent everything ourselves. When this company tanked, I got a job doing similar work in NJ. This transitioned into developing turn-key computer animation systems for sale, then into developing products for engineering and scientific visualization. My boss at the new company still played music with his college buddies, I got hooked up with them, and this turned into a blues band that played in NJ and NY venues for about 20 years. The Stanhope House sponsored our trip to the International Blues Competition in Memphis and Helena, AR. Somewhere in there I got married and moved to Wayne. I did some environmental activism with people who lived on “the plume” and regarding the Ford dumping in the old iron mines. The Records did a long series of articles on toxic NJ. I think this was after you had left. I joined a group that had a weekly street corner protest of the Iraq war, became a member of NJ Peace Action, and later became a board member.

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