Kip and I went to Fargo Monday to attend Terry's funeral.

I think it was a sendoff that Terry would have appreciated. We arrived in time for the visitation and prayer service Monday evening; when it was over, a bunch of Terry's former (and current) reporters repaired to the Old Broadway for, as my old pal Pat put it, our own wake for Terry.

We sat around for a few hours telling Terry stories. The only thing missing was Terry. He would have been in his element, sitting around bullshitting with a bunch of journalists.

When the topic turned to his famous "goddamn" notes -- which, as my former co-worker Dave pointed out, usually started out benign and quickly turned belligerent -- I suggested that we all raise our glasses to Terry and give him a hearty "Goddamn!" So we did.

I thought I knew Terry well, but I learned a lot about him from listening to people talk about him at the prayer service (and from observing the number of people who came to his funeral, which looked like about 600). The adjective that came up over and over was "big-hearted."

And he was. I don't think I've ever known anyone who was so kind and so genuinely interested in other people. It's not only what made him a good journalist, but a really good friend.

He was a good man. I am proud to have been one of the countless journalists who had Terry as a mentor, and even more proud to have been able to call him my friend.

The world will be a much less colorful and much poorer place without Terry in it. As my old friend and co-worker Jack Zaleski said, in a column last weekend and in his eulogy yesterday, and which I will now plagiarize: Godspeed, my friend.