EDITOR’S NOTE: Les Gapay is a former Montana resident and writer in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He has lived in Miles City, Missoula and Bigfork. He has been a reporter for various newspapers including The Wall Street Journal and The Missoulian.

By LES GAPAY

A friend of mine got a lifetime achievement award recently and it got me to thinking about the Holocaust again, something that’s never been completely out of my mind for the past 22 years.

Randolph L. Braham and I are an odd couple to be friends. That’s what I consider him, even though our families were on different sides of the Holocaust. His emails to me over the past 20 years have always been signed Randy, but I call him Professor Braham out of respect.

Braham is distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, director of the Rosenthal Center for Holocaust Studies there and the author of more than 60 books on the Holocaust. His parents and many relatives were killed - murdered in cold blood is more accurate - in the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania, which during World War II was part of Hungary. Braham himself was in a forced labor camp during the war.

My late father, on the other hand, was one of the perpetrators of the Holocaust in Hungary.

By DAN CARTER - MSU Billings News Services

Seated smack-dab in the middle of some freshly minted Montana State University Billings graduates on April 28 was Clark Swan. Like many others, he walked off the stage that day with a bachelor’s degree, some memories as an involved student and a sense of accomplishment.

Never mind the fact that it started it all when Lyndon Johnson was president.

Swan is a 63-year-old history major, a member of the MSU Billings Yellowjacket golf team and a dedicated student. His journey to a degree may have taken 40 years, but it was worth the time.

“The history department has been fantastic to me,” he said recently. “They were pushing me and pulling me in their classes. It’s been an enjoyable experience for me.”

By SCOTT PRINZING - For The Outpost

One thing that the Billings music scene seems consistently willing and able to do is help fellow musicians in times of crisis. While the funds raised at benefit shows may not cover the medical expenses that have occurred due to illness or injury, the show of support must really raise the spirits of those in need.

Last Saturday, the Garage Pub at Yellowstone Valley Brewing Co. was filled to capacity by music fans and supporters of Joe Sullivan. The talented pianist has incurred medical bills as a result of a painting accident that left him with three broken vertebrae, a broken shoulder blade and “three or four” broken ribs, according to fellow musician Bob Brown.

Bassist Brown was part of two of the acts performing, the Peach Pickers and an ad hoc group put together backing his son, Steve Brown. The Peach Pickers played in the middle spot, which might have been good for logistics, as half of the group backed Steve Brown and the other half were the openers, the Kemmick Family.