Bill Lenz
A soon-to-be-octogenarian contemporary told me recently that he'd never known a 40s-50s polio victim - so I looked up my forever friend Bill Nichols today and learned that he left us nearly eight years ago. Our moms were close friends; Bill attended my first birthday party after he'd been liberated from his iron lung; and for several years during elementary school we'd convene at his house for deep dives into Civil War lore, oddball inventions... and the Nichols & Lenz Detective Agency, whose motto was "We Grab 'Em and Stab 'Em." The photo brings it all back clearly. Godspeed, pardner.