I just finished reading the Second DC Showcase of the Doom Patrol series.
The thing that struck me about the whole thing was that Steve Dayton was probably more of a parent/caretaker to Gar than Rita was.
We often see them together, and while Steve isn't exactly Ward Cleaver, he's at least calling Gar his son and spending time with him.
(Most of the time we seem to see Rita running out on Gar and Steve to go join the Doom Patrol's adventures.)
I have to admit that my interest in the Titans sort of waned once I quit comics the first time, and I never really did develop the same passion I had for them as I did in the Perez/Wolfman days.
It seems to me that by the time of the early New Teen Titans it had basically been established that Steve basically abandoned Gar to go chase the DP's killers ... though they did have a touching reunion afterwards.
I know Mento went crazy for a while. Got cured by Raven. (Went crazy again, I think?) But how has his relationship with Gar been shown in the comics?