What can I tell you about someone who has made a remarkable impact on my life? Where do I begin?

I first met Harlan (us business folks knew him as Harlan, his family as Ray) in 1989 when I was hired as an office manager for WMJK AM 1220 radio in Kissimmee. I knew from the very first day we met that Harlan was a unique human being who was somehow separate from the “norm” with his winning smile, his wonderful sense of humor and someone who had something special living within him - and someone who motivated everyone he touched to seek the peace, joy, and fulfillment that lives within us.

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After the radio station was sold we lost touch for a few years but ran into each other at Rife’s Meat Market (of all the strange places to renew a friendship with a vegetarian) and I found out we only lived a block away from each other. We ended up working together again at Phoenix Applied Technology and later became business partners and launched KSIB together.

I value highly the lessons he taught me, not only for what I learned about the business world from him but what I learned from him on a personal level as well. He had this uncanny ability to show me how not to take life so seriously and how to truly laugh at myself when things would get me down. The statement “It’s the end of the world, Man.” was something he would say that would get anyone who was being “negative” to crack a smile.

One of the other things I will always remember is how he would break out into a song - usually tunes of an “oldie but goodie” with one difference. He’s make up the words to the song as he went along. We’d laugh till tears rolled down our faces. He was so funny!

I could go on and on about specific things that Harlan would say or do but all who knew him could not help but be touched in some way by him and he truly was a great guy to do business with and he was a special friend to just about everyone he ever met.

I offer my heartfelt condolences to his wonderful wife, Connie (a living Saint if there ever was one) and all whose life was touched by this remarkable man.

Yes, Harlan, we were all “lucky to even know you.”

Susan Blake
Ex Co-Owner of KSIB