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Neil Leifer, the renown sports photographer (now retired) had a Memorial Celebration for my good childhood friend and his brother, Howie on Friday evening in Manhattan. There were about 100 people present, mostly over 60 years old who had known Howie from different times of his life and his career.
At various times, Howie was a teacher at the French American School in San Francisco, an artist, a puppeteer, a musician, a performer and a manager for Neil's famous photographs.
Everyone who spoke at the Memorial said the same thing: Howie was the nicest, kindest man that they ever knew who never was in a bad mood and always had a smile for everyone.
I was given the honor to say a few words about my friend and I told the story that had a profound effect on my development and life.
I grew up in Laurelton in Queens, a suburb of New York City. It was a lower middle class area that was all white neighborhood with no people of color in the homes or the schools. This meant that I grew up with no preconceived ideas or negative thoughts about non-white folks.
On the evening of the Floyd Patterson (who was black) and Ingemar Johansson (of Sweden) Heavyweight Boxing Championship match, Howie and I sat down to watch the fight. I asked Howie who he was rooting for and he said, "Patterson, the American, of course." At that moment I understood that being an American was more important than whether someone was white or black or what religion that they practiced. For an 11 year old kid, this was a profound concept as it preceded the Civil Rights Movement by about 5 years.
I will be forever grateful to Howie for opening up my mind and for being an incredible human being.
