Robert Vergas
My friendship with Otto began nearly ten years ago when we met at the Cathedral of Christ the Light. Initially, our conversations took place after the noon mass on Tuesdays for which I served as the Cantor. After a while, Otto would drop by my place in either his Toyota or Honda wagon, whichever one was running better. I would sit with him and we would shoot the breeze, often for as long as two hours. He was a wonderful conversationalist. Being an avid reader of a wide variety of books, a world traveler, and having a love of music, especially jazz and classical, and a devotion to the Catholic Church, our long conversations would easily flow from one topic to another. There were never long silences in our “car talk” meetings. Sadly, in recent years, our conversations focused more on the health issues we were each faced with: I, with two bouts of cancer; he, with a foot problem that required surgery, from which he never fully recovered. During the past year, our conversations took place solely on our iPhones. His favorite was his granddaughter, born two years ago on Christmas Day. He loved her so much.
In closing, my condolences go to his beloved spouse, Nini, and his son, Christopher, for whom Otto was very proud.