On Saturday evening around 10:30 I received a short text from Laura Yaeger:
"No easy way to message this. Lynn died tonight. That’s all I’ve got for now."
My friend and mentor, Lynn Weis, a man who carried the torch for the Friends of Fourth Ward Holiday Home tour, who organized decorating the lamp posts in the Fourth Ward, who guided tours of the Elmwood/Pinewood Cemetery, who was an early supporter of bringing the Charlotte Knights to downtown Charlotte, a man who was always there to give me advice is now dead.
The photo above is from the inaugural running of the "Drop Dead 5K" race in 2021. Lynn, with his ever present suspenders and baseball cap organized and hosted the event. It was a huge success raising funds to support projects long delayed in the cemetery.
When Lynn was the President of the Friends of Fourth Ward I was fortunate enough to be his vice president. We did many things together to help mold the Friends of Fourth Ward into a viable organization, organized mailing lists, enlisting condo associations to cover membership in FOFW for their residents and even for a while had the Charlotte Observer print the FOFW Newsletter and have in distributed to all of zip 28202.
Lynn was a visionary.
Lynn was also a friend to all who lived in the Fourth Ward. Walking down the street with him was a time consuming task as he would stop to talk to almost everyone he passed, even some of the more notorious homeless residents.
I was introduced to Lynn by Dennis Rash in 1999. He said that while Charlotte's mayor was Pat McCrory, Lynn was "The Mayor of the Fourth Ward."
Indeed, there is no easy way to message this.