Daniel Gardner posted
the school newspaper photo of Josh with the exhibit he took to the Westinghouse
Finalists meeting in Washington - A very small part of my relationship with Josh,
which began 53 years ago at Bronx Science, was photographing Josh with the exhibit
late in the evening before his early morning departure to Washington. Reading some of the posts, I thought others
might enjoy seeing how the complex of qualities for which Josh was loved were
already quite well established before he won the prize which compelled his
Harvard college admission and launched him on the figurative and physical world-wide
road where most of the other memorial blog contributors felt so privileged to encounter
him.
The story of the photo
foreshadows the dinners not pre-cooked, the recipes not followed, the
involvement of friends, losing the wedding rings, BUT in the end, through great
wit, engaging banter coming up with an extraordinary result and everyone involved sharing - feeling part of - his joy
and success and laughing about it all.
----The story of the
picture begins with my difficulty in pinning down a day when I could do the
school newspaper photo- He kept making excuses for not doing it despite knowing
we had a printers deadline to meet...
When I pressed him, he finally admitted that the exhibit "wasn't
finished" –
Apart from the photo
requirement, talking to each other for 1/2 to 2 or more hours almost every
evening, despite the dismay it caused and complaints of our respective mothers,
had long been an important ritual and
mechanism for mutual reflection and in
some respects emotional survival for each of us.
After failing to agree
to any other time, Josh suggested I come for the photo-op on the last evening
before departure when he would pose with
the exhibit. --That gave me barely enough time to get the photo engraving
completed and added to the already done lead type-set layout being held back
because of Josh at the printers shop on Bleecker Street The
blog readers who knew Josh, have now already anticipated the next part of the
story - To my great surprise - at the time - when I arrived and walked into his
room in the home on 69th street, I
didn't see the exhibit -- "Where is it? I need to set up the lights for
the photo..." Josh showed me the BLANK Story boards and ran off to the
darkroom!!!
I followed -- He was
just printing and reprinting the bird photos that are visible behind Josh's
back on the left edge of the picture. Like helping cook the meal or not eating,
I found myself helping put together the exhibit material. My contribution was
immaterial in a fundamental sense - but necessary for him to make a showing the
next day in D.C. –
Much later that evening
we finally set up the exhibit - the 1961 photo technology now scanned from the
old glossy newspaper doesn't show either the sweat dripping down Josh's brow or
his perspiration soaked shirt when we finally shot the photo.
No photo could ever show
the effort I put in to get my little print photo "credit" on the lower right
photo corner - a credit which now is the tiniest part of the memorial to my
departed close high school friend.
But there is more to the
story -- Finding my name at the lower right corner isn't important -- but
looking carefully at the rest of the picture might lead the reader into the
funniest part of the story -- the part that says this only could have happened
to and because of Josh –
How many readers can
identify what is remarkable about the exhibit pictured?? The eminent panel of
Scientists hired by Westinghouse to judge in person the 40 Finalists Exhibits
in Washington either missed it --- or
more likely we hypothesized afterwards.......never had a chance to find it
because Josh engaged each of them verbally and so completely involved them in
the artful rigor of his experiments and reporting that they were powerless to
notice - like a waiter or a new friend who's complete attention Josh could
completely absorb and command in just a moment.
After that issue of
Science Survey was distributed one classmate found the Goof Josh (and I ) made
that night –
So.....who among the
readers here noticed that we had misspelled EsophAgus ! When she saw the
printed newspaper, long after Josh returned as the triumphant National Winner, Josh's
high school girlfriend, Ginny Jordan, immediately pointed out the error -- No
one else had.
Had the panel of eminent
(but not infallible) scientists focused on
the goof and (stupidly) let it detract from their CORRECT assessment of Josh's talents and potential,
Josh's path might have been quite different and many whose lives he enriched as
amply documented in this memorial might
have suffered a loss greater than they would ever know.
Goodbye to my friend
with whom I shared so much difficulty
and happiness. Thank You.
Leslie Levy, M.D., J.D
(Science '61 )
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