[BobbyB]

“A world of friends is a world of peace”


I covered my eyes with both hands as our driver - an impatient and angry young man - barreled down the Moscow boulevard in the small car. He crossed the yellow line at least twice, honked the horn and screamed at other drivers.

Sharing the backseat with me was fellow Albany resident Jim Tolbert, the guy who got me to take the trip to Moscow. I momentarily opened my eyes and glanced over at Jim, who was laughing and seemingly enjoying the wild ride through the streets of southeast Moscow. That seemed to fit. Jim liked to go with the flow. The was a man who inserted the quotation “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape” at the end of his emails.

We reached our destination — a party at a teacher’s home — in one piece. Jim took the ride in stride. I was a bit rattled by the experience.

I retold that story Sunday to Jim and his family at his home in Albany. Though he was struggling with an aggressive form of Lou Gehrig’s disease, Jim remembered the story and smiled.

Jim shook my hand before I left, and I told him I’d be back Wednesday or Thursday to tell him more stories. I won’t get that opportunity, however. My friend Jim died Monday at age 75.

In honor of Jim, I’m going to tell two more stories anyway.

On our all-night Finnair flight from New York to Moscow via Helsinki on Oct. 3, 2005, I saw Jim standing in the back of the plane. I joined him and asked what he was doing. He told me he couldn’t sleep on those long flights and liked to stand for a while. We probably stood there and talked for most of the next hour.

Jim guided many Americans to Russia on 15 trips between 1998 and 2007. He did it through the Friendship Force, a group he loved.

When I asked him that night on the plane why he traveled to Russia so many times, he pulled out a Friendship Force letter and pointed to the organization’s motto. The nine words summed up his motivation.

“A world of friends is a world of peace.”

This last story about Jim is from “Moscow Musings,” a web journal entry I wrote on Oct. 10, 2005, my last night in Moscow.

“I headed to a farewell party at Moscow School 1256 for our Friendship Force group. Students sang and danced and a professional trio with a cellist, violinist and pianist performed a number of Russian classics.

“Throughout the week here, our Russian hosts have been singing the praises of Jim Tolbert, the retired Linn-Benton Community College instructor who organized this trip. Tonight’s gathering was no exception.

“‘Jim Tolbert is really a wonderful man,’ said Natalia Guskova, president of the Friendship Force of Moscow. ‘He visits us and keeps coming back.’

“The tireless 72-year-old globetrotter has made 12 trips to Russia since 1998 and he’s already planning to return again next February and June. Since 2000, he has brought more than 114 people from the United States and two from Canada.

“If you had asked me two years ago what countries I wanted to visit, Russia never would have made the list.

“Tolbert and members of the Kiwanis Club of Albany arranged for students and staff from Moscow School 1256 to come to Albany in 2004 and again last April. After my family hosted two of those students, Russia became the only place I wanted to visit.

“I thank Jim Tolbert for that and for planting the seeds of so many new friendships.”


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