I knew Cary from the wrestling team.  He was the same weight class.  He was a very serious athlete when I was still quite immature.  I did not know back then, I had a health issue that made me unable to keep up but I often tried to keep up with Cary.  He set an example for me that still sets with me today and probably added to my success in life in doing hard things.  I would bet that he passed that trait to many people in his life.

Cary was my very first friend in the world, outside of family. In the 1950's he lived 3 houses up the street from me, on 31st Street near Nottingham Elementary School, and we were inseparable. My younger and late sister, Martha, was best friends with Cary's younger sister, Pat (who gave the eulogy at Cary's remembrance ceremony in Colorado). I have a photograph of the four of us, from about 1954 or 1955, standing on the sidewalk on a sunny Sunday morning in our best Easter finery. And our parents were best friends, too. Cary's father, "Jess" Lacklen, was my father's duckpin bowling partner. They they shared a carpool to the Pentagon for about 10 years. And Cary's mother, Mary Jane, was one of my my mom's best bridge partners. The four of them shared many good times together. As very young kids Cary and I traded baseball cards and virtually lived on our bikes. But Cary was more adventurous (even at 8-10 years of age!!). In the summer he would lead a group of us kids for several miles through the streets of Arlington, all the way to the Pla-Mor bowling alley, near the old Bob Peck Chevrolet, where we would go to spend what little we had on bowling a few frames, buying a coke or a hamburger, and looking at teenage girls. (Pla-More is long since torn down; was located in Ballston, just about where Fairfax Drive now merges into Westbound I-66). I don't think our parents ever knew where we went. When skateboards came into fashion in the mid-1960's Cary just built one for himself -- taking an old foot-long two-by-four and nailing a pair of roller skates (the old kind with metal wheels and a key) to the bottom of the board -- and was not deterred even when he broke an arm. By the time of high school, Cary had gotten involved in wrestling and had found a new group of friends, and we did not see so much of each other as before. What will I remember? Cary was daring and courageous, both as a kid, and as an adult. As a kid, he was always the one in the lead, urging the rest of us in the neighborhood to greater and more dangerous feats. And as an adult, he was a noted lawyer -- dedicated completely to helping out those less fortunate than he. Cary, I miss you.    

Coloradodaily.com, 6/23/2008    Defense attorneys and prosecutors in Boulder and across the state have been left reeling by the death last weekend of Cary Lacklen, a lawyer who served for more than three decades in the public defender's office. "He was the epitome of a public defender, said Karen Pereira, the office manager for state Public Defender's Office in Boulder. He was the person who championed the poor. I don't think there will ever be another like him." Lacklen, 57, was found dead on Saturday in his Boulder home. Boulder County Coroner Tom Faure determined the cause of death was suicide. His family and friends remembered a passionate, hard-working man who always found the time to fight legal battles for those who needed his help the most. His son, David Lacklen, said his father was driven to make sure every defendant got the representation he or she deserved, regardless of their ability to pay.  "I don't think it was ever a question of not taking them on,he said. "He had the background, and he had the work ethic, and he figured if he wasn't on them, then someone else might not do the job right. ""I remember growing up, he would disappear six months at a time working on a death penalty case." When David Lacklen's friends got in trouble in college, his dad was there to help them out in court - and never asked to be paid, his son said. Lacklen brought that same intensity to his family life, his son said. Cary Lacklen had wrestled at Duke University, and introduced his son to the sport. "I don't think he missed one of my matches in eight years of wrestling, often losing his voice at the matches,â Lacklen said. "He was there for those heartbreaking losses, and the big wins as well. " Bert Nieslanik, who worked for Lacklen in the public defender's office when his career was first beginning in the mid-1980s, said Lacklen wanted lawyers to do everything they could to represent their clients - and, Nieslanik said, he led by example. "He was a wonderful mentor, but not in the sense that he would tell you what a great job you were doing - he would show you what you could do,â"Nieslanik said. "He was like a bulldog and wanted more dogs in the fight. He taught you how to stand up to authority and not be afraid.  He was always about what was best for the client, everyone and everything else be damned." Prosecutors who spent decades battling Lacklen in court praised him on Monday. Prosecutor Pete Maguire called Lacklen "a ferocious advocate.â Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy called him "incredibly honest and hard-working. Just this spring, Lacy worked with Lacklen to help move John Engel, a 21-year-old man convicted of killing his adoptive mother and grandmother at age 14, out of prison and into a halfway house.  "He had a lot to do with the system coming together and working for John Engel to help make him a productive member of the community,"Lacy said.