I first met Rory while he was still a teenager ... training at a long forgotten gym on the eastern edge of the Los Angeles basin a bit SE of Bill Pearl's Pasadena Gym.
He used to cut hair in the backyard of that gym and if I recall correctly I think we talked about Holland for some reason.
Even back them everyone felt that he was going to be bodybuilding's next big name.
Then years later I was present in San Jose, California at the contest in which he placed second to Bob Paris and had the opportunity to speak with him and his wife.
If I recall that conversation correctly, they had just had their first child.
And another "if I recall correctly" .... I sort of and kind of recall that Bob's best friend at that time was a celebrated Opera singer.
Those were the good old days when bodybuilding events were much smaller (as were the contenders themselves), and we all seemed to be kinder and less 'gossipy' than the way we find ourselves today.
But eventually the internet appeared and we all changed drastically.
Almost without even realizing it.