Thanks, littlebigband, for that message from your father...significant words indeed. By the way, I've gotten a lot of mileage over the years from telling people that I went to the University of Massachusetts in 1965-66 with the son of Maynard Ferguson's dentist. And for those who may be wondering, here's a definition of yahrzeit:
http://judaism.about.com/...ndmourning/f/yahrzeit.htm