Conte School Float, Freddy Fixer Parade, mid-'70's.

More than half a million people have watched the parade during its 37-year history.

Other spinoffs of Freddy Fixer have been enduring, as well. There is a Freddy Fixer Recycling Center in New Haven, as of this writing, so the spirit of Freddy Fixer has found new meaning in the consciousness of the new millennium.

It has been written and widely believed that my father was "The Organizer" of the Freddy Fixer Parade. Again, it's not true, and my father never claimed that.

However, I think it is a fair statement to say that he was one of the principal organizers. More importantly, he embodied the spirit of Freddy Fixer, by his actions both inside and outside of his medical practice to promote and maintain a robustly healthy black community.

This close identification with Freddy Fixer, an identification that developed from a friendly joke, was the most meaningful of all the tributes he received during his 30 years of community leadership.