It was very sad to hear the news. I got word of Tobin's passing from Eti LeMoullec, and I am glad she called me to let me know.
As anyone who worked at the "R" back then can tell you...one absolutely hadto have a keen sense of humour to survive that place. I find it telling that to this day, you can ring someone up and talk about a situation that happened 20-30 years ago, and you laugh as hard now as you did back then. Tobin "got it" and to read in his obit that others picked up on his sense of humour made me feel good to see that he still "had it" and used it in his work.
I already posted it on this board, but one of my storngest memories of Tobin was when he gave me a ride home from WRKL one Saturday after a blizzard. I lived in New City at the time, and Tobin chose to drive DOWN that big ass hill on New Hempstead road. Why he went that way remains a mystery to me to this day. The road has all kinds of winter mush on it despite the efforts of the Clarkstown h'Way Dept., and we're sliding all over the place...I have his dashboard in a death grip, and Tobin has a poker face on which I didn't understand, seeing as we were about to end up under a truck or in someone's back yard in a twisted heap of metal and glass. We finally made it to the bottom of the hill without incident, and Tobin says.
" Oh yeah, I'm supposed to get snow tires put on today".
His tires had the same amount of tread as a party baloon.
I hadn't seen him in years, but I believe as an RKL alum, we, like many others, shared a bond that is unique.
As I mentioned, Tobin had that keen sense of humour... and I know he understood the WRKL language. So I know he'll be laughing wherever he is now when I say...