Orthopedic surgeon Bob Geiger began his influential friendship with Hunter S. Thompson over a dinner party at the writer’s house in Sonoma in 1964. Drinks led to a late-night gopher-hunt on the grounds, then Thompson’s eviction from the property by a landlady who did not appreciate being awakened by gunfire.
Geiger, who lived with his then-wife Terry and two young kids in a rental in Sonoma, did the proper thing, which was to invite Thompson and his own wife and year-old son to live with the family.
That was the start of a 40-year friendship commemorated on the dedication page of Thompson’s greatest work, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”…