I hate to look like a copycat, but a lot of this column is going to be reminiscent of Editor Mike Scharnow’s column that ran last week.

It is about people who have passed away recently that I was close to or they touched my life in some memorable way.

Mo Smith comes to mind immediately. He and wife Maggie lived on Dull Knife Drive for years. I had interviewed another couple in that house before the Smiths moved to the community in the early 1970s.

A plumber named Howard Chamberlin built the home. He operated Howard’s Plumbing in the community in the early days.

Getting back to Mo and Maggie, he was the subject of a Page 1B feature story about his World War II exploits as a B-17 pilot in our Veterans Day week edition. They were the first members of the Fountain Hills Swim and Racquet Club. The facility had five lighted courts, a pool and a clubhouse. And they were the only couple to remain members under all of the eventual owners of the facility. It opened in February 1975 and was located on Fountain Hills Boulevard just north of the intersection with Saguaro Boulevard.

A grand opening of the facility drew a large crowd of people to see a variety of celebrity tennis players have some close matches.

The afternoon began with Bobby Riggs, coming off his loss to Billie Jean King in the nationally televised “Battle of the Sexes.” He played Chris Penn, the top-ranked girls tennis player at ASU. Other celebrities included MacDonald Carey of “Days of our Lives,” Barbara Anderson of TV’s “Ironsides,” Claudine Longet (Mrs. Andy Williams), Robert Stack of “The Untouchables, and Doug McClure of “Wagon Train.”

Another person who died recently and Mike mentioned him last week, was Bruce Conklin. He was well known in the community for his efforts on veterans causes. But he also had a great sound system and worked on weekends as a disc jockey.

When I was doing my Elvis routine around town in the late 1980s and 1990s, he was generally the guy playing my cassette tape. He played it the last time I performed, which was on New Year’s Eve 1998 at the 19th Hole restaurant at what is now Desert Canyon Golf Course.

Another person who recently passed away was Earl Stavely. He and wife Ann ran the gift shop in the River of Time Museum during its early years.

Earl was also an elder of the Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church and was a charter member of the Noon Kiwanis Club.

He was also the first employee hired at the original Paul’s Hardware store. It was located on Saguaro Boulevard, just across the alley from our original location.

I first came into contact with Earl when another employee of Paul’s died and we ran an obituary in The Times. We ran a picture of Earl by mistake with the obituary.

The day that the paper came out, I got a call from Earl.

“Alan, my name is Earl Stavely and I think you have an error in your paper today. That’s my picture you have with Ernie Hoyer’s obituary.”

Then he said something I will never forget.

“Yeah, I was reading the paper this morning and I saw my picture in the obituaries. I went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror and saw myself. I just wanted to make sure before I called you.”

We shared a good chuckle over it and we became friends from that point on.