Eulogies
This page links to eulogies I've composed to people whose lives (or, in one case, death) called out to me to memorialize. Each one had, and is still having, a profound impact on my life and/or the world I inhabit.
Many of these tributes were published in Streetsblog. Others appeared in Grist, Counterpunch, or the Carbon Tax Center's blog.
These people were dear to me. (Jose Alzorriz, of whom I learned only after his killing in 2019 by a sociopathic driver, seems someone I wish I'd known.) I do not exaggerate to say that I think of them nearly every day. I hope these remembrances inspire you as their lives inspire me.
The posts, in chronological order:
Colin Fletcher (1922-2007) Farewell Complete Walker recalls the one-of-a-kind outdoorsman-writer who inspired and guided a generation of backpackers, myself included, to explore America's wild places. Published in Grist.
Ted Kheel (1914-2010) In Memoriam: Ted Kheel, Transit Advocate and Visionary sketches Ted's vast imprint on civil rights, New York's civic fabric and the national stage. I like to think of myself as Ted's last protege. My career as congestion pricing advocate and modeler owes everything to him.
Sy Schwartz (1923-2011) Farewell Sy Schwartz depicts the soul of a deeply humane, irrepressible man who detested NIMBY's, understood carbon taxing, and revered Bach and Mozart. Published by the Carbon Tax Center.
Richard Grossman (1943-2011) Undamaged Nature, Unbroken Autonomy: Richard Grossman, a Bicycle and Me, while nominally about a bicycle ride from Manhattan to the Croton Reservoir, also explores the life and legacy of a visionary writer and organizer who goaded and guided me to always reach for more.
Richard Grossman, redux (1943-2011) Richard Grossman, consummate corporate personhood slayer, is a remembrance I composed shortly after Richard's death, in late 2011, and shared with fellow writer-activist Jan Lundberg, who published it in his online journal "Culture Change." "The import of Richard's thinking and organizing," I wrote, can be seen in the language, focus and sheer existence of 'Occupy' encampments all over the U.S. The occupier with the iconic sign, 'I'll believe a corporation is a person when Texas executes one,' is just one of thousands who learned from Richard."
Steve Athineos (1956-2015) The Man Who Saved NYC Cycling offers a glimpse of a diamond in the rough who through commanding presence, gift of phrase and indomitable will spearheaded the successful uprising against the 1987 Midtown Manhattan bicycle ban.
Paul Kantner (1941-2016) and the Jefferson Airplane On the passing of the Jefferson Airplane. The deaths on the same day of two founding members of the quintessential San Francisco rock band provoked this personal meditation about songwriting, the hippie era, memory and foregiveness. Published in Counterpunch.
Jose Alzorriz (1967-2019) The Last Seconds in the Life of Jose Alzorriz depicts the unfolding of a homicidal recklessness that, seemingly out of nowhere, took the life of a fellow New Yorker. Though I never met Jose, I'm haunted by the still picture from the video showing death hurtling toward him.
Carl Hultberg, (1950-2019) Bowery Flowers — The Green Spark Behind NYC’s 1980s Bicycle Revival recounts how Carl seduced and compelled me to embrace my bicycling soul and become a full-time participant in New York City's livable streets movement (though this was decades before that term took hold). I miss him terribly and try my best to carry forth his example.
Carolyn Konheim (1938-2019) In Memoriam: ‘Do All The Good You Can’ — The Life of Urban Ecology Pioneer Carolyn Konheim recounts the pragmatic yet prophetic work and life of this urban ecology pioneer and dear friend, who with her husband, Brian Ketcham, probably did more than anyone to bring about New York's and other cities' clean-air renaissance.
McCoy Tyner (1938-2020) Spiritual: How McCoy Tyner Lives On. The music of John Coltrane, and the soul, grace and power of his pianist, McCoy Tyner, have occupied a deep part of me since I first heard their records as a teenager in the early sixties. This essay, centered on a single performance in 1961 and including my long-ago transcription of a Tyner piano solo, explains why "a world that can give us McCoy Tyner is a dear thing." Published in Counterpunch.
Al Butzel (1938-2024) He Won Key New York Environmental Battles That Reverberate Today: Remembering Al Butzel. From the late 1960s into the 1990s, Al was New York City's pre-eminent environmental lawyer, a leader in monumental campaigns that prevented a Con Edison power project from defacing Storm King Mountain in the Hudson Highlands and stopped a Manhattan highway boondoggle that would have undermined mass transit financing. This post, co-authored with renowned attorney Michael Gerrard, recalls how Al's tenacity and humor animated the environmental movement in NYC and beyond. Originally published in 2023 in Gotham Gazette.
Brian Ketcham (1939-2024) Brian Ketcham, Automotive Engineer Who Subverted Car Culture, 85. Brian was a revolutionary NYC figure, planting the seeds for congestion pricing as a municipal engineer-planner 50+ years ago and later providing the traffic-engineering brains behind the campaign that stopped the Westway superhighway boondoggle and showcased the possibilities in "trading in" federal highway largesse for mass-transit dollars. Brian also pioneered car/truck/highway "externality" cost analysis, helping set in motion my work for road-pricing policies to dethrone motorism in New York and other cities.
