I found a quote by American Playwright Thornton Wilder that I thought was appropriate. He said: "The greatest tribute to the dead is not grief, but gratitude." So I'm here today, like all of us to express my thanks, my gratitude to Judith for making my world, our world, a better place because of her presence in it.

I first met Judith more than 17 years ago across a negotiating table. She was living in Minneapolis at the time, working for U.S. Bank and we were working to close a construction loan on our Sunset Galleria mall in Henderson, Nevada. I found Judith particularly enthusiastic about our new center and motivated to finance it — not knowing at the time that our center was being built in a town that bore the same name as where she grew up in Texas. She earned my respect, in fact the respect of the whole Forest City team through her friendly but firm and professional approach in getting that center successfully financed. It was that transaction that convinced us it would be better for us to have her on our team, negotiating for us instead of against us.

Given the circumstances of Judith's final interview with us, I have never been sure about why Judith actually took the job. It was the last evening of the shopping center convention in Las Vegas and I had two competing priorities — a final interview with Judith to determine whether we should make her an offer and a regular "last night of the convention" dinner with Dave LaRue and Emerick Corsi at Mortons. I made the somewhat questionable decision of asking Judith to join us so they could provide "input" into the decision. After steaks, more bottles of wine than I can remember and cigars for everyone (yes including Judith), we agreed that she should join our team. Anyone who could hold their own at that dinner was clearly headed for stardom at Forest City.

Since Judith would now be reporting to me, I presumed that my days of having to negotiate with her were in my past. I was mistaken. It's not that we disagreed about many things, but as all the lenders in the room can attest, when she believes strongly in her position, she is nothing if not persistent. Diplomatic, logical, patient, respectful, reasoned, all those things for sure, but persistent. Intelligent, professional, never loud, thorough, methodical, principled, respectful, but always persistent. That professionalism, her intelligence, her graceful manner and her determination earned her the respect of her Forest City colleagues, as well as those throughout the real estate business.

Judith's achievements and her success resulted in her becoming the leader of the Finance team. She has led that team with the same caring, dignity and grace that she brought to most things she pursued. She built a cohesive, collaborative and highly effective group. While it was her determination, her optimism and her persistence that helped Judith battle her illness, I believe her finance team represented very valliant warriors at her side, allowing her to focus her energy on getting better. To each of you I say Thank You.

I have received numerous emails and phone calls from many of the people in our business with whom Judith worked. I certainly don't have time to read them all, but the respect that she earned may best be shared by comments from Dave Henderson of Allstate:

"I knew Judith to be just a good human being and a consummate professional. She commanded our respect always during the many years we had done business with her, and I know she was a very capable leader of your team."

The Judith I've spoken of is the career professional that her Forest City family knew best. Some of us were lucky enough to see glimpses of the other, more personal side of Judith. Anyone who knows her knows that a piece of her heart would never leave Texas. She could be and at times was the "Southern Belle" that grew up in Henderson — the apple of her parents' eyes. Just a hint of her "texas twang" could be detected at times after a few glasses of wine. Judith spoke fondly of her annual trip to the Florida panhandle with some of her girlfriends from Texas and I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to hear some of those conversations.

Shortly after Judith and Robin moved to Cleveland, my wife Ann and I took them out to dinner and I got to see for the first time their relationship. In a strong, loving marriage, the participants can't hide their inner lights, and it was clear from that dinner that the light you shared together was very strong. She is a different woman in your presence Robin — your Texas Belle, a southern princess who lit up your heart and radiated it right back to you. You've been an amazing husband.

But I'll end where I started — while we all are, and have a right - to be sad, I am so very grateful and such a better person for everything that Judith shared with me.

It has been said - Everyone leaves footprints in your memory, but the ones that leave footprints in your heart are the ones you will truly remember.