Although I would not be considered a "friend" of Art Rockwood, I am an "admirer". Art was a school mate of my younger brother, Roy, and I remember seeing him visit the house on Hawker Crescent in Gander on a number of occasions. My association with him began when Art was working for the CBC in St. John's. He had previously worked with the VOCM affiliate in Marystown, and probably in Grand Falls, before joining the CBC in Gander. He later moved to St. John's and eventually started a trivia show on Radio Noon one day a week on CBC. I was an avid listener.

When I was active in Scouting I asked Roy to contact Art to see if he would make a tape of sound effects to use in a Cub activity I was planning. Art came through and the event was more successful for his contribution. Several years later, I was digging in a locker at Scout Headquarters and found several reel-to-reel tapes from scouting shows. This time I contacted Art by e-mail and asked if he could put them on cassette tapes for me. He was more than willing and asked me to drop them off at CBC studios on Duckworth Street. This I did. A few weeks later I got an e-mail from him saying that the tapes were ready and that I could stop by his office to pick them up. I did just that, but Art was not available. He had left them with the receptionist at CBC.

I had one final encounter with Art in 1995. I received an e-mail telling me that he was planning his third book, "a book of lists" as he called it. He wondered if I would contribute something to it about the geology of Newfoundland. I agreed and, then, promptly forgot about it. Several months later another e-mail arrived saying that his deadline was approaching and wondered if the material was available. I got to work right away and spent the next day or two researching and preparing the information. Out of guilt, I decided to prepare three articles instead of the one he asked for, so he could decide which he wanted to include. I promptly sent them to him via e-mail.

I heard nothing more from him, or about the book for several months. Then one day, an e-mail showed up in my mailbox saying that the book had been published and that he had a copy waiting for me at the CBC reception desk at the radio building. I picked it up that day, and lo and behold, he had included all three of my articles. The title of his book was "Art Rockwood's Bathroom Book". It is still available from the Downhome Bookstore in St. John's, as are his other two books of Newfoundland trivia.

I include this note about Art to let people know how kind and friendly he was even to almost total strangers. I had met him years ago while he was still attending Gander Academy, but years later he was eager to help me when I needed his assistance. Although we lived in the same community and I had gotten to know his wife through our church and her part-time work at our local bank, I never got the opportunity to meet Art and chat with him. When he died in 2002, CBC, St. John's, staff did a tribute to him on the Radio Noon program. The show contained many stories about him most of them similar to this one. I downloaded the program from the CBC St. John's website

Jim Butler