Forty years...one of my longest friendships slipped away unnoticed at the end of 2005- Tony Depauw, the week day manager of Gryphon Books , and lately, Westsider Books, passed away in his apartment at the end of November or early December. We're not sure exactly because he lay undiscovered for several weeks. Tony was the bald guy with a black fringe of hair and a mustache who was a fixture at the front desk as you came into the book store. He was there everyday Monday through Friday and spent his days pointing customers in the right direction for research, chatting with people about their book needs and interests, ringing up sales and packing up mail order purchases. If you ever visited the Gryphon, (now Westsider Books), the used books store on Broadway next to Staples at 81st street, if it was during the week you have met Tony and had a conversation. I had many conversations with Tony, cause he lived in my household for almost twenty years. He took a European out from the Army in Heidelberg about 1965, and got a job in the map shop at headquarters US Army Europe, USAREUR, on Roemer Strasse. His job was located in the Adjutant General's office where Richard, my first husband worked on contingency plans. Richard invited Tony over when my son was an infant in1967, when we were still living over the "Snookeloch" ( the Student Prince bar of "drink drink drink" fame) on Haspelgasse in Heidelberg. We were already fast friends when Neal Armstrong walked on the moon, and watched it together on a grainy little German TV. I was performing in German Opera and Special Services Army productions and got Tony involved in back stage work at the US Road Side Theater shows. After our move into a bigger apartment he came home with Richard every day, ate dinner with us and basically moved in. We played Scrabble or MilleBorne almost every night for five years. When Richard rented a garden from the City out on the Rhineplain Tony became one of my loyal garden slaves, coming out to the garden on his bike every day after work to help pull the witches grass, plant, and pick strawberries and later, cherries. We all had bicycles, and in 1970 we took off on a train for France with our bikes for a trip through Normandy. Tony was our map man, and he brought big old army ordnance maps for the trip. They showed altitudes, so he made sure we avoided all the hills, except at Avranches, which is basically located on the top of a hill. Tony also know all the history of the battles, so we got a blow by blow description of what happened at every rest stop location. Staying at pensions or small hotels we found along the way, we ate picnic lunches with food from the local Charcutierie. At night we had the best food of our lives. The next year, in 1971, we got a summer place in Altneudorf in the Odenwald with a friend who was a TV News producer for Southern Germany TV. Tony came in for a share and we went up every weekend. We took hikes, had big BBQs every Sunday, and planted a big garden with seeds I ordered from Stoke's through the APO. I had squash if every description and, of course, American corn. Tony worked on his compost heap. It was the most scientific compost heap ever built, and no one was permitted to touch it. Finally, Tony got a government job in Maryland at the Social Securities Administration, so we said good bye at the Frankfort Airport in 1975. A year later I came back and got my place in New York . Tony was the first person I visited, and he started coming up every other weekend to go to theater in New York. He moved up here permanently in 1978, taking up residence in our maid's room. After looking for a government job in the City, he followed his dream and got a job as Technical Director at Shelter West Theater on VanDam street. I was doing a lot of theater then, Barry and I were together, and Tristan got into Bronx Science. When he wasn't working, Tony took a welding course (which he talked about constantly) and got really interested in "how to do it" books. He also collected odd things from the street for the theater, and by 1988 we started looking for a new apartment for him. It was just around that time that he left Shelter West during a financial crisis, and got the job at Gryphon Books, where he stayed until this past November