Someone asked me once who the person that I most respected was. I didn't even have to think I simply answered Robert Staton. Of course the person asking the question immediately developed a quizzical look as the name Robert Staton doesn't suddenly bring to mind great tasks or accomplishments prompting me to explain.

When I was ten years old I moved to a small town in Illinois with my family. The first friend I made there was Robert. I spent much of the summer of 1970 playing with Robert. During this time I noticed that Robert was a kid like me, what I didn't know was that Robert was afflicted with Muscular Dystrophy. Shoot, at that age I couldn't tell you what MD was much less spell it, all I knew is that Robert needed help getting up and couldn't run. As the years passed the disease continued to weaken his body and by the end of fifth grade he pretty much was confined to a wheelchair.

The little group that I was a part of in the small town we lived in pretty much took it in stride and pushed Robert around in his wheelchair pretty much everywhere that we went so he wouldn't be left out. We didn't do for some noble reason we did it because he was our friend.

Robert is the person that I learned to play guitar and other musical instruments with. We even thought at one time that we might try to get a band together. Sadly though, the disease continued to further destroy Robert's muscles and by the end of highschool it was obvious that the band idea wasn't going to work. By this time we were 17 and 18 year olds and needed to start thinking about what we were going to do with our lives. Another thing that we "knew" was that the disease that Robert had was 100% fatal and that he would be lucky to live past his early twenties.

As I said it was time and past to grow up so I decided that I would join the military (US Navy) to try and learn a skill that might support me as an adult. Robert stayed home as there wasn't much that he could do. I spent twelve years in the Navy and through the years I saw Robert from time to time. The most amazing thing was that he has lived well past the original age that most thought he would. Robert is still alive to this day and is approaching his 50th birthday. To my knowledge he has beaten all the odds and managed to live the best life that he can. I still see him on occasion (not as often as I would like but that is more a factor of life than any other reason).

Now, back to the reason for Robert as the person I most respect, He has lived his life the way that he wanted to regardless of his situation. If I can look back at my life when I retire and see that I have done a tenth as well as Robert has then I will be happy. His spirit is indomitable and as long as I have known him he has never used his disease as an excuse other than the purely physical aspect of it.