Hard to grapple with the death of that young man we knew: prelaw, ethical, smart, kind. He rushed a frat and had a very nice girlfriend. [I had a crush on him before I met his nice girlfriend one day at the office.] He was our editor in chief. He went on to NYU Law School and was now a leading attorney. We all saw him a few years back at a Targum reunion in Tumulty's on George Street. He was wearing a suit.
He was a husband and father.
He will always live on as our friend and mentor in our memories of the Targum newsroom in the early 1980s, with its manual typewriters, rotary phones, blue-jeaned editors, hunt for stories and commitment to accuracy.
Our paper came out Monday to Friday and we were hardworking and proud. Our friend inspired us with his even keel and deep wisdom, rare in a college kid. He used to circle any typos that made it to the front page [no spell check back then, though we really tried] and bring it into the office. He didn't lord it over the staff but wanted us to rise up and be our best.
Our friend took a big piece of our innocence and youth with him--under his watch, we first wielded and learned to respect the power of the written word. We would have liked to help feather his wings for the flight--or better still, delay it, so he didn't fly off at all. May the heavens be soft and kind after what sounds like a career rife with pressure--and the angels be good spellers.
Until tomorrow.
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sorry for your loss, alice.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kim.
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