I am still sad that he left us so early. He was an amazingly gifted person whom I would have loved to know better. We sat next to each other in social studies, and once played a little game where we would send funny postcards back and forth. Highly intelligent, with a good sense of humor. We miss you, Sheldon!
Shelly -- brilliant, funny, so gifted. One of the saddest moments of my life: attending his memorial services. The Kotz family had already been through so much. Miss him still.
It was an early fall Saturday morning, starting to be a bit chilly with the leaves just turning, when the knock on the door came which was a bit surprising as most of my freshman friends were not early risers.
There to my surprise was Sheldon. He had joined the Princeton Fencing team who was competing against my school later that day; and he had taken the time to track me down and hike up the five flights of old stone stairs to my "single". I had talked with Sheldon when we were both at Scottsdale, but generally just comparing notes on tests and teachers, to a lesser extent colleges we were mutually considering - but not much beyond that. I was surprised to find Sheldon warm, funny, engaging and interesting. We sat on the window sill bench with our knees up looking down over the large park below us and talked for several hours. Besides being charming I learned he had a wide range of interests to include playing musical instruments.
Sitting there I regretted not getting to know Sheldon better in high school. We stayed in touch after that and then he transferred from Princeton to Swarthmore (his family had moved from Scottsdale I understood...)... and then I got a call from one of our high schools associates to tell me Sheldon was gone. What a shame to lose him so young.
The Princeton Fencing Team! if you'd been in Freshman P.E. with Sheldon, you might appreciate how improbable that sounds to me. The terms geek and nerd weren't in use then - maybe "greasy grind" was the equivalent, I don't know. Whatever the term, Sheldon and I were certainly looked upon as such, Freshman and Sophomore years. We "hung out" together (to use another term that we didn't use then) a fair amount in those days, but as time went on I became aware how desperately Sheldon wanted to emerge into a world of normality and even popularity.
Whether or not family dynamics intensified these common and understandable teenage longings in Sheldon's case I cannot be sure. For reasons of my own I was not willing to move in the same direction, so Sheldon and I gradually became less close than we had been as beginning freshmen.
On learning of the circumstances of Sheldon's death my first reaction was anger. An unfunny Animal House sketch had robbed our generation of one of its most promising intellects. Later of course that feeling resolved to more resigned regret. Sheldon had given that urgent quest for acceptance the "last full measure of devotion."
Babette Gamash (Wood)
I am still sad that he left us so early. He was an amazingly gifted person whom I would have loved to know better. We sat next to each other in social studies, and once played a little game where we would send funny postcards back and forth. Highly intelligent, with a good sense of humor. We miss you, Sheldon!
Pat Lydiard (Barga)
Shelly -- brilliant, funny, so gifted. One of the saddest moments of my life: attending his memorial services. The Kotz family had already been through so much. Miss him still.
Hollis (Fisher) Hart
It was an early fall Saturday morning, starting to be a bit chilly with the leaves just turning, when the knock on the door came which was a bit surprising as most of my freshman friends were not early risers.
There to my surprise was Sheldon. He had joined the Princeton Fencing team who was competing against my school later that day; and he had taken the time to track me down and hike up the five flights of old stone stairs to my "single". I had talked with Sheldon when we were both at Scottsdale, but generally just comparing notes on tests and teachers, to a lesser extent colleges we were mutually considering - but not much beyond that. I was surprised to find Sheldon warm, funny, engaging and interesting. We sat on the window sill bench with our knees up looking down over the large park below us and talked for several hours. Besides being charming I learned he had a wide range of interests to include playing musical instruments.
Brian Stanley
The Princeton Fencing Team! if you'd been in Freshman P.E. with Sheldon, you might appreciate how improbable that sounds to me. The terms geek and nerd weren't in use then - maybe "greasy grind" was the equivalent, I don't know. Whatever the term, Sheldon and I were certainly looked upon as such, Freshman and Sophomore years. We "hung out" together (to use another term that we didn't use then) a fair amount in those days, but as time went on I became aware how desperately Sheldon wanted to emerge into a world of normality and even popularity.
Whether or not family dynamics intensified these common and understandable teenage longings in Sheldon's case I cannot be sure. For reasons of my own I was not willing to move in the same direction, so Sheldon and I gradually became less close than we had been as beginning freshmen.
On learning of the circumstances of Sheldon's death my first reaction was anger. An unfunny Animal House sketch had robbed our generation of one of its most promising intellects. Later of course that feeling resolved to more resigned regret. Sheldon had given that urgent quest for acceptance the "last full measure of devotion."