John Sturino

How sad to read of his passing.  First met Lance at Lincoln where he was the quarterback on our football team.  Was always a cool guy, lost track after high school.  My cousin Bernie had told me he was in L.A. Never did get in touch with him.

James Szantor

I memory serves, Lance was drafted as a pitcher by the San Francisco Giants organization but not long after suffered a crippling arm injury.  If it was the elbow, he suffered the same fate as many others; that is, their injury predated by about a decade the sea-change procedure known as Tommy John surgery.  Had that surgery been available to Lance, he could have gone on to be a Hall of Famer--he certainly had the talent. 

In fact, Dick Bosman, considered to be the second best pitcher on the Red Devils team, led the American League in earned run average in 1969 and pitched a no-hitter for the Cleveland Indians in 1974 against the Oakland Athletics, then a powerhouse force in the American League.  One can easily imagine Lance experiencing similar success. I hope he overcame that unfortunate setback and had a great life in whatever endeavors he pursued.  R.I.P., Mr. Tobert.

Charles Limpert

Sorry to hear about Lance, A nice classmate and friend, A very good athlete, My sympathy.

James Roy

I first met Lance at Lincoln Jr. High. He was on the cross country team in high school.  He was very nice but kind of quiet.  Never new anything about him after high school.  Hope he had a great life.  May he have eternal peace in heaven.

Henry Hartnek

Sad to hear of another class mate's passing. My sincere condolences to his family.

Kenneth Unwin

I received five letters from Lance, about one per year, but recently they just plain stopped. Lance and I were forced to join the Bradford x-Country team  because in order  to try-out or play basketball for the Red Devils, one had to go-out for a Fall sport. 
That "rule" was very unforgiving, but we had to live with it. Lance always had a quiet presence, was a good student and better athlete. He pitched for the red-devils with Andy Smith as his coach. RIP my friend!

Thomas Sorensen

I first met Lance in the 7th grade when we briefly played on a city league basketball team, that was a very brief stay for Lance as he quickly moved up to a team which was more at his athletic skill. I had no business being on the same team as Lance as he was a gifted athlete at everything he tried. The next time we teamed up was on a bowling team at Guttormson's, again I was the least gifted athlete on that team but we had fun. Jack Crane was also on that bowling team in the 10th grade. Lance was a student of basketball, and when we were In Madison our sophmore year we attended quite a number of the Badger basketball games, I found myself hooting and hollering while Lance was studying the game and it's star player 6' ^'4" Ken Siebel, sort of a point forward. Lance studied his every move and admired the orchestration of the team dynamics by Siebel. I am convinced Lance could have competed in the basketball program at Madison if he chose. .Also on that team was Pat Richter who was a teammate of Lance's on the baseball team at UW..Also a teammate of his was Rick Reichardt, the biggest bonus baby signing for Major League baseball, that was before the draft era of 1965. I know Lance led the Big Ten in ERA  his senior year and subsequently signed a contract with a Major League team. We hung out a bit in Madison for a couple of years until Lance joined a "jock" fraternity on Langdon and I seldom saw him his senior year. Lance had some great success in the minors but circumtances did not permit hm to complete his dream. John Wooden said do not dream of success, but earn success. Lance eanred his  shot at the "big show", he was focussed, intelligent and talented. Sometimes the ball just does not bounce your way. The last baseball I recall him playing was in the army in Germany where he met up with his old battery mate catcher Bill Mayew, it was a fun reunion I am told. Lance coached high school baseball in southern california for many years.  Although having a generally quiet temperament he could speak powerful words of recognition and encouragement to select friends, which both he and Dick Bosman did to me. Something about those Bradford pitchers?

Mary Irving (Jurgaitis)

Thanks, Tom, for telling that story.

Henry Hartnek

Sorry to hear of another classmate's passing. My sincere condolences to his family.

Nicolina Evans (Neau)

We all had a crush on Lance.... He was a really nice person.  I would like to know more about his life here in CA.  I'm in Northern CA and have been since 1968.  It's always interesting to find out how many of us are out here.  Ken, Tom - do you have any information about his life in SoCal? It would be nice to know his story.  We all have one.