Don brother Jim presided at the services and there were tributes from Don's brother Jim, Don's son-in-law Drew and myself.
An honor guard accompanied Don's ashes to the cemetery and taps were sounded in honor of Don's military service in Vietnam.
I am attaching the text of my remarks below, we have all lost a great friend in Don Hudgins.
Eulogy:
Words can’t express the loss of a great friend like Don Hudgins but I’ll try.
When Betty told me that she and Don wanted me to speak today I was honored but at a loss as how to say what Don has meant in my life and the lives of those who knew him.
Betty said that perhaps I could recount some of the good times and funny stories about the time when we were working together.
As I tried to recall them, I was stumped to come up with a way to do justice to the twinkle in Don’s eye , the suppressed grin when he discovered that he had pulled off one of his harmless practical jokes , or even when he realized that he had somehow wound up the victim of his own plot.
Don’s dry wit, his great interpersonal skills and self-depreciating style made me feel like I was working with Bob Newhart.
There’s no way I can do justice to those recollections
But there is one event that comes to mind that underscores his fanatical attention to detail and desire for perfection:
We were shooting a commercial for Gulf Heating Oil and a particular scene required us to shoot a single drop of heating oil in extreme slow motion. We had rented a camera that exposed 3000 frames per second instead of the normal 24 so that meant that a 400 foot roll of film ran out in about 5 seconds…
Only enough time for 1 drop of oil per roll of film. That high speed also meant that we needed 125 times as much light as would ordinarily be required.
Well, everything was set up in the studio… We had about 20 1000watt spot lights focused on the target dish of oil only inches away from the bulbs.
The client insisted that we use the real Gulf oil so we couldn’t keep the lights on for more than 10 or 15 seconds at a time because heat from the lights would cause the oil in the dish to smoke and catch fire.
Don had carefully pre-calculated the exposure and located each light just so…Then, just as we were going to roll the first take, Don just had to take one more light reading before we started.
He switched the lights on, shoved his light meter into the glow and it promptly shriveled the plastic dome on the light meter like a prune.
Don pulled it out of the light, looked at the mostly-melted meter and said “That’ll do”
Always there, always improving, always in a good mood, Don made work a pleasure for all of us.
Almost fifty years ago, when I was a wet behind the ears kid trying to look like I knew what I was doing, Bob Storer and I opened a brand-new motion picture studio here in Atlanta.
We thought that we were jumping over a puddle together but soon discovered that it was really the ocean and we were in way over our heads.
We needed help, and then, just like in the movies,
Mighty Mouse…in the person of Don Hudgins arrived on our doorstep.
He was back fresh from Vietnam and looking for a job as a Cinematographer … and he was our life preserver.
But Don was more than that,
he was the spark plug that lit our gas, the Klieg light lighting the way and the best friend that I ever had or will have.
We know that Don was a bit vertically challenged…you would always see Don’s home-made apple crate nearby so he could hop up and peek through the viewfinder or adjust a light…
but even without the DON BOX as we called it, he was head and shoulders above most men.
Don’s constant energy and our partnership with our great friends and partners Gene Nottingham and Hal Pearson allowed us to build a company that rose to the top of our industry and stayed there for twenty-eight years after Storer studios closed.
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Now Don has checked off the last entry in his ever-present to-do list:
He presented his resume for application into heaven
I know that it was a resume that all of would like to have to present and fortunately for him, Don didn’t have to say a word on his own behalf.
(We all remember how befuddled he would get when asked to appear in public or talk about himself)
But in this resume, his lifetime loudly speaks in all the entries for him.
It lists accomplishments like Humility, Honesty, Loyalty, and an unstoppable work ethic.
It speaks of a great sense of humor and his sometimes child-like mirth.
Items are there for creativity and talent without pride or selfishness.
It touts deep experience in sensitivity and a genuine caring attitude for everyone he came in contact with.
There are also enumerated there countless examples of his accomplishments:
Not having to be the first in line, Always being first to lend a hand, Being faithful, Trustworthy, open minded and open hearted.
Don led his life as directed in Proverbs 27:2: “LET ANOTHER MAN PRAISE YOU, AND NOT YOUR OWN MOUTH”
Don loved his family. He loved his work, whether working on a job, working around the house or helping a friend or neighbor he put 100% of himself into it.
