Hello Raymond,           Thanks for your kind message of Oct 29th.   I was so happy to review the good  factors of your life, in contrast to the profound experience of your tumor and surgery.          I am reminded of our good days together at LSU in 1964-1966  when you won the    Alcoa aluminum award, in my fourth year design class   You and Louis Acosta, who won the Portland Cement scholarship to France, were certainly outstanding students and i am not surprised to learn of the fine professional accompolishments since then.       Your profound spiritual book,  "God Smiles For Me" has been a great read here, and is now circulating among friends.    If you come to California, as part of your book signing schedule, please plan on visiting us in San Diego.      Warrick's , in nearby La Jolla, is an excellent book store that hosts many book signing events,      Writing about one's life is a vital and educational experience, which I have been active in over the past five years.   This year I am organizing my professional archive as it is destined for the Historic New Orleans Collection.    One cannot seperate one's life and work and, in this final quadrant of life, it is a profound spiritual process.       I apologize for the shortness of this message.   I had actually composed a long and complete message for you that was lost last night in a malfunction of my MSN communication system.    I have ordered a new system and when it arrives I will re-compose that message for you.     I send to you, and your family, my very best wishes for this autumn season, and look forward to further communication with you.    I try to stay in touch with former students from LSU , Tulane and San Diego State.   Quite a few of our former students have gone on to excellent professional careers.   Sincerely, Gene Ray