In one sense, it wasn’t a shock. Al had been in declining health for years and had suffered a cascade of nasty setbacks in the last few months.
That said, the finality of it is still a shock.
Al didn’t have to work very hard to be a Duke guy. Not only was he a Durham native but he had some Duke DNA in his family. All-America football player Elmore Hackney was an uncle.
Al and I were at Duke at the same time but our paths didn’t cross all that much until about 20 years ago or so.