If you can judge the impact a person had on the lives of others by the lengths they go to in order to attend a memorial service, then George Ramos had one hell of an impact.

Josie Tizcareno Pereira drove from Salt Lake City to attend. At the reception held at Legends following the memorial service, Josie explained that because of George she was able to attend her first NAHJ convention in 1997.

“So, how could I not come,” she said.

But she was not the only one who came from away. Wayne Shaw, the sports information officer during George’s time as a student at Cal Poly came from Medford. Ore. He made the journey because, as he put it while fighting back tears, it was something he had to do.

And of course there were many others who made the trip to Morro Bay to remember, honor and pay tribute to George.

There were some tears, but most of all there was laughter. 

Those of us who attended were in awe of the many things we never knew about George. Even his own brother, Dan told me he was amazed at the things he learned about George in the course of the past weeks.

I learned how George got the nickname “Mitch” but that’s a story that can best be told by Clare, the love of his life.

And we laughed when his student at Cal Poly, Leticia Rodriguez told the story of how George helped himself to her bag of Doritos. And on another occasion had her come to his “office” at Legends to review a story and then bought her a beer.

We gained a different perspective from his bartender, Les who works at Legends – which had become George’s unofficial office.

There were many facets to George, but the common thread all who attended the memorial had was that George impacted all our lives.

And as Fred Araiza said, George may be gone, but he remains forever in our hearts.