(Written by Cannon Quigley)
This summer, the Quigley family and friends will be honoring the memory of my father, Leonard V. Quigley, by participating in Swim Across America, a fundraising event for cancer research.
The choice of sport is somewhat ironic, as my father was a more of a floater than a swimmer. Losing his mother as a young boy on a dairy farm in Missouri, he simply never had the opportunity to learn to swim. He claimed that he faked his way through the Navy swim test by bouncing off the bottom of the pool when the instructors were looking away.
It was perhaps to make up for this shortcoming that he married my mother Lynn, an avid swimmer, and they encouraged (one might even say lovingly pressured) their four children to be competitive swimmers throughout their childhoods.
Despite his aquatic limitations, my father went on to become a brilliant lawyer, experienced amateur archaeologist, and enthusiastically mediocre tennis player. More importantly, he was an outstanding husband, father, brother, uncle, grandfather and friend. He shared with us his wisdom, intelligence, faith, curiosity and taste for horrible jokes. And nobody could quiet a baby (even a stranger’s baby) like LVQ.
My father succumbed to both prostate and liver cancer on November 15, 2005 at the age of seventy-two. On July 29th Lynn, his wife of forty-one years (just weeks short of her seventieth birthday), together with their four children, Matt, Cannon, Dan and Megan, and several friends, will dive into the Long Island Sound and swim a mile in his honor as a team ("Not So Fast, Quigs") named after his favorite joke (see below). And we know he will be floating somewhere nearby, chuckling and cheering us on.
Please consider supporting our swim by clicking on the link below to make an on-line donation, or by sending a check made out to Swim Across America to:
Cannon Quigley Campbell
2 Vine Place
Larchmont, NY 10538
The money we raise will go to the following beneficiaries: The Tommy Palazzo Fellowship for Pediatric Oncology Research at Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, The Swim Across America and DeMatteo Research Laboratories at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The Cancer Support Team of Mamaroneck, New York. Thank you so much for your help.
A commanding officer calls in his platoon sargeant to tell him that the father of one of his privates, young John Schultz, has passed away. The commanding officer asks him to gently inform his soldier of this sad event, demonstrating the sympathy and generous spirit of the entire squadron.
The next morning the sargeant lines up all his men and says:
"Everyone whose father is still alive, take one step forward. NOT SO FAST, SCHULTZ"
Click here to make an online donation.
It took some doing, but I finally managed to get all the information necessary to compute per-person prices. As I said before, I'd really appreciate it if you could mail me a check this week to avoid needing to worry about that during the reunion. The totals, which include the Friday afternoon cruise on Lake Champlain (snacks included), as well as the Saturday night banquet, are $70 per person for those of us older than twelve, $35 for ages six through twelve, and free for all kids five and under. The age breakdown was determined by the Inn, and I applied the same scheme to the cruise. 
