The source of the envelope was unmistakable from across the room. There was barely room for the stamp, once Fred Boos had used his large, legible penmanship for your address and his return.
Inside, you would find several sheets of paper filled with strongly held opinions for a sports writer to consider.
Basically, I quit golf several years ago, which I'm sure Freddie would agree was good for the game in general, but it meant I wouldn't run into him at the Pines in the summer.
The contact remained, though — through the highly anticipated letters that arrived every few months.
Fred died last weekend at age 84. He was married for 55 years to the late Mary Cote, the daughter of Brownie Cote, the patriarch of the family business.
Brownie first started Camp Lake Hubert for Girls and Camp Lincoln for Boys in the Brainerd area and bought Grand View Lodge in 1937. He added the Tanque Verde Ranch in Tucson, Ariz., to the family holdings in 1955.
Mary's brother Bob ran Tanque Verde, and Fred became the general manager at Grand View in 1960.
Boos was an avid golfer, and he came to see that as the future of bringing groups to Grand View in bigger numbers than family fishing and boating vacations.
