Hank Reese would have loved Thursday at Mickie's Dairy Bar, the iconic Monroe Street diner that turned 60 last year. It's finals week and by mid-morning the joint was hopping. There wasn't an empty seat in the booths or at the horseshoe counter. Kids scarfed pancakes and rubbed their tired eyes.

It was a scene that has played out at Mickie's every spring for six decades, but there's something missing this year -- Hank Reese isn't near the front door, behind the cash register. And that, it is no stretch to say, makes this the end of era.

"He was the last link to the original owners," Tim Stapleton was saying Thursday. Stapleton owns Stadium Barbers, next door to Mickie's.

Reese, who worked at Mickie's nearly from the diner's beginning, died April 22, at 82. A much-loved figure at Mickie's and in the greater Monroe Street neighborhood, Reese worked nearly to the end. He lived in a house on Oakland Avenue behind the diner and didn't really consider going to Mickie's work. Reese once told the current owners -- Janet and Payow Thongnuam, who celebrated 17 years as owners this week -- that he'd come in and help even if they didn't pay him.

Where else could he meet, as Reese once put it, 50 people a day? That was a couple of years ago in The Capital Times when Rob Zaleski asked Reese if he had given any thought to retirement.

"My nephews have two nice homes up in Eagle River," Reese said, "and it's always been my dream to go up there and retire. I go up there for three or four days and I'm in a state of euphoria. It's green and beautiful and pristine. Then all of a sudden something's wrong. You know what it is? Nobody to talk to."

Reese continued: "I'm used to talking to 50 people a day here. But after a couple of days, I run dry with my nephews. There's nothing more to talk about and I'm lonely. Those 50 people I meet here every day, that's more important to me than retirement, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I'll be here until the very end -- until I drop, I hope. Why not?"

Born in Spring Green, Henry G. Reese saw combat in the Pacific while in the Army during World War II. Back home, he earned a bachelor of science degree in business at UW-Madison and was two years into law school when he decided to join his uncle, Evan "Van" Reese, at Mickie's.

Van had started the business at 1511 Monroe St. in 1947 with a partner, Andrew Weidemann. Mrs. Weidemann was known as Mickie and that sounded like a good name for a diner. It stayed Mickie's in 1955 when Weidemann left and Norm Bass came on board as co-owner (that was also the year Hank Reese began at Mickie's).

From the start, the diner's location and famously large portions were a magnet for UW athletes and Athletic Department staff. Legends from every era -- Elroy Hirsch, Alan Ameche, Pat Richter, Mike Webster -- ate at Mickie's. Hank Reese once recalled two non-legendary football linemen getting stuck when they tried to pass one another through the kitchen door.

"There were some exciting years," Hank told Jim Maraniss a decade or so ago, when Jim -- David's brother -- was back in town writing some nostalgic pieces for the Cap Times. "Mickie's was sort of an extended family. Van and Norm put so much time into it. They gave money to the students, too, to help them pay for school."

Payow and Janet Thongnuam didn't change much when they purchased Mickie's 17 years ago. They put some new tile down and added a dish or two -- including Cajun steak, liver and onions -- but why tinker with success? Favorites include the meatloaf sandwich with "yanks" -- American fries cooked to crisp on a butter-soaked grill -- and, of course, the pancakes.

Hank Reese came with the place, too. "We loved having Hank," Janet said Thursday. "He was the ultimate people person." After Reese died, she received a letter from a teacher at Randall School who'd been bringing classes to Mickie's for 25 years and wanted Janet to know how special Hank made the kids feel. Janet wasn't surprised: he made everybody feel special.

In the end, Hank Reese couldn't even stay upset about the Donald Lipski sculpture that the UW put up in 2005 at Camp Randall, not far from Mickie's. He didn't really like it -- who does? -- and after he was interviewed about it, Hank said, "I was diplomatic and said it was a monstrosity."

In another mood, though, he decided that at least it was a conversation piece -- and nobody enjoyed a conversation more than Hank Reese.