From: Chuck Guerriero

I met Cliff Reilly for the first time at CT Meyers golf course in the summer of 2016 shortly after I moved here from Washington DC. I was randomly paired with him and another gentleman for a round of golf. Writing this now I realize I'd only known Cliff for 5 years, somehow it seems so much longer, but that was Cliff's gift once you met him he made you feel like you'd known him forever.
Anyway while we were playing in between the where are you from and the are you working or retired he started recruiting me for the First Tee program. I remember telling him that my youngest daughter had been involved in the program when she lived in Buffalo and that just elevated his recruiting level even higher. After the round he asked if I'd like to come observe a session, to be honest at that moment volunteering was not a high priority. I had just moved here and was really just getting to know the area but Cliff persisted. "Give me your phone number and I'll text you the information" no obligation. Of course once he had my number it was just a matter of time before he got me to come down. The rest as they say is history. I don't know if I would have ever had a relationship with him had I not given him that phone number, but to my everlasting good fortune I did.
While Cliff and my time together exclusively revolved around golf our relationship did not. For those of you who don't play spending 4 hours once or twice weekly with someone give you a lot of time to really get to know them as people. I quickly discovered that in addition to being contemporaries age wise we shared very similar views about life in general. Oh and we both really really loved sports of almost any kind. Didn't matter if it was football ,basketball, baseball or of course golf if it was happening we were talking about it. This of course included his beloved alma mater the Michigan State Spartans.
Whenever we were scheduled to play I'd be anticipating rehashing whatever game or games had just been played or news had been broken as much as I did to the actual golf we were going to play. Whatever had happened I knew Cliff would be prepared to talk about it with me. While I never got to formally meet his wife or daughter, I did briefly say hello to his son Darren, I feel like I had as he'd share stories with me as we played. He loved his family and loved talking about them.
So the man, who I met by accident, over those five years became my friend. And now my friend is gone. I'm still having difficulty processing that fact. There is a part of me who still expects to see a text or email on Saturday or Sunday " Where we playing Tuesday", "are we walking or riding". I miss my kind gentle friend and I always will.
Chuck