I've known Mike my whole life and I hearing this news really spiked my heart. He was always SO AMAZING to me, the kind of family friend that I would wish everyone on this planet would be lucky enough to have. I don't even know where to begin. His smile. His warmth. His generosity. His smarts. His enthusiasm. His positive energy. He was always so warm, so authentic, so irrespressibly affectionate... just a total mensch through and through. Without a doubt I am a better person for having known him. Perhaps it's just the nature of being a kid that a person like me takes for granted what a great soul they had in their life when they were younger but WOW, was I lucky. Mike exemplified how to be a real man in this world to me in ways that I sorely needed. Not through false bravado and chest-thumping "look at me" accomplishments but by means of demonstrating how to conduct yourself with the right mix of high character, brains and heart. I'll always be a HUGE fan of Mike and as a tear comes to my eye, all I can say is I loved him and I am grateful to him and I hop I can pay it forward to some other young people one day in the same way he so awesomely brought light into my own life.