Sam Kravitz: Honoris Causa Pre Obit.
Jan. 27th, 2007 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thedarkagesSam Kravitz, my friend, is close to death. He went into hospice in Connecticut today, and it doesn't seem as though he will be there for long.
Sam and I met in the Yale Glee Club in 1987. He wasn't actually a Yalie of any kind, but he somehow got Fenno Follansbee Heath III, our conductor, to let him in and sing. He was eleven or twelve years older than me, and we sat together in the bass section. What brought him and me together was our status as outcasts. On every tour, we were roomed together, because I was eccentric and he was more than eccentric -- a character. Sam was a pessimist, of a stripe that made Eeyore look like Pollyanna. He was highly opinionated, and extremely abrupt with people he didn't know. It was easy to categorize him as demanding and rude. But he was actually kind, if you got to know him. He and I had a lot in common; we were both strongly Jewish, our fathers were both prominent lawyers, and we both had a keen eye for hypocrisy and pretense, especially among our fellow Glee Club members. Sam had his moments of paranoia. On tour in Vienna in 1990, we slunk from building to building, hoping to evade the anti-Semites whom Sam believed were all around us. But he was a true friend; we have regularly stayed in touch until the present day, often riotously, both of us collapsing in laughter.
Sam never had much of an actual job. Like me, he was a luftmensch, and he was very fortunate to have had the financial support of his family. But to his way of thinking, he knew everything about what those goniffs on Wall Street were doing, and how to invest without getting swindled. His imitation of Alan Greenspan could not have been bettered by Rich Little. For the last couple of years of his life, he was preparing at NYU for certification as a Chartered Financial Analyst while taking care of his elderly, frail mother in New Haven.
Although Sam was a heavy smoker at many times in his life, the diagnosis of advanced lung cancer came as a surprise, only a few months ago. Surprisingly for Sam, he was optimistic about his prospects; no one told him that the disease was terminal. I think that the move to the hospice today probably tipped him off.
I am very fond of him; I wish he could stay for longer.
Sam and I met in the Yale Glee Club in 1987. He wasn't actually a Yalie of any kind, but he somehow got Fenno Follansbee Heath III, our conductor, to let him in and sing. He was eleven or twelve years older than me, and we sat together in the bass section. What brought him and me together was our status as outcasts. On every tour, we were roomed together, because I was eccentric and he was more than eccentric -- a character. Sam was a pessimist, of a stripe that made Eeyore look like Pollyanna. He was highly opinionated, and extremely abrupt with people he didn't know. It was easy to categorize him as demanding and rude. But he was actually kind, if you got to know him. He and I had a lot in common; we were both strongly Jewish, our fathers were both prominent lawyers, and we both had a keen eye for hypocrisy and pretense, especially among our fellow Glee Club members. Sam had his moments of paranoia. On tour in Vienna in 1990, we slunk from building to building, hoping to evade the anti-Semites whom Sam believed were all around us. But he was a true friend; we have regularly stayed in touch until the present day, often riotously, both of us collapsing in laughter.
Sam never had much of an actual job. Like me, he was a luftmensch, and he was very fortunate to have had the financial support of his family. But to his way of thinking, he knew everything about what those goniffs on Wall Street were doing, and how to invest without getting swindled. His imitation of Alan Greenspan could not have been bettered by Rich Little. For the last couple of years of his life, he was preparing at NYU for certification as a Chartered Financial Analyst while taking care of his elderly, frail mother in New Haven.
Although Sam was a heavy smoker at many times in his life, the diagnosis of advanced lung cancer came as a surprise, only a few months ago. Surprisingly for Sam, he was optimistic about his prospects; no one told him that the disease was terminal. I think that the move to the hospice today probably tipped him off.
I am very fond of him; I wish he could stay for longer.
