In Memoriam--Edgar Grossman (1919-1999)

My Grandfather

by Yoni Goldberg

When I was five, my grandfather took me to my first Red Sox game. Sometime between that warm May afternoon and today, he became the man I have grown to respect most, for he has taught me more about myself, people, and life than anyone else. The lessons I have learned from Grandpa are far greater than all of those that I will learn in my many years of school. He taught me not about Shakespeare, but trusting myself, not arithmetic, but living in the present, not grammar, but relationships, not the Constitution, but hating the Yankees, not verb conjugations, but philanthropy. . . . He has been my teacher, my mentor, and the one who has guided and inspired me. As a result of my relationship with my grandfather, I have come to realize the never-ending capabilities of man and an innate ability within each of us to be great. Though unintentionally, Grandpa modeled much of his life after the ideals of transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The two transcendentalists thought that all men had the capacity to be great. In their writing they wrote about idealistic ways man could achieve this greatness. . . but I could not relate it to my stressful, constantly moving, topsy-turvy high school life. . . .

However, after much thought, I came to recognize that my grandfather's life was the concrete evidence I needed. Emerson and Thoreau recognized many of the virtues found in great men, and Grandpa embodied these great values. Grandpa exercised the spark of the divine about which Emerson and Thoreau wrote and for this, he has become great.

In retrospect, Emerson and Thoreau wrote brilliantly about the greatness that existed in man. . . . Often I felt their writing spoke to me in a condescending tone, as though they had the audacity to tell me how great people were made. It was not until after we finished reading their works that I took the necessary time and energy to visualize their ideas in use.

Each time I tried to imagine what they acknowledged as greatness, a crystal clear picture of Grandpa was etched in my mind. I saw that, in fact, Emerson and Thoreau were right in their analysis of humanity. Greatness is within all of us and we must practice a handful of virtues and morals to achieve the described greatness.

Finally, Grandpa is a part of numerous childhood memories that I will never lose: playing catch in Igonish, fishing, going to McDonald's for breakfast, Harvard football games, and comforting me while I was in tears after we watched Murder, She Wrote when I was in kindergarten.

However, more indelible than the individual events is the way Grandpa shaped me as a person. I am certain that all of you will agree that Grandpa had a most positive role in all of our lives and in some way changed all of us for the better. The highest compliment one can bestow upon an athlete is to say that he made the players around him better players. So I will pay Grandpa the highest compliment I can give to anyone. Through his warmth, generosity, love, courage, and joy, Grandpa made the people around him better people.