The following members of the
Bartlett, Martin (staff)
Berger, David Lewis (99)....................Obituary............Remembering
David Berger
Bougher, Dan ('69)
Brown, Jerald R.
Drulis, Ripple (staff)
Effross, Mark
(staff).................................In Memorium
Feinstein (Howe), Frankie
Galbraith, Bruce
Gillespie, Gideon
Graham, Ceacyl (staff)
Granatowski (Pazos), Donna ('97)
Granatowski, Tony ('04) ....................... Obituary
Gray, Stuart ('92)
Hedemark, Earl
Hind, Ellen
Huggins, Chris ('97)
Katona,
Elspeth.................................... Note from
Steve
Katz, Tom
Kirkish, Merton
Locke, Toby (circa '87)
Megargee, Tim
Moore, David ('97)...........................Memorial
Moore, James
O'Hara, Mike ('96)
Page, Jeffie
Pillsbury, Tom
Prael, Beth
Pulliam, Nancy
Quinn, Suzi
Runage, John
Ryback,Michael
Shuman, Bill
St. Clair, Nick
Strain, Alan ('03) ............................ Obituary ............. Remembrances
Steffins, Bob
Street, Michael
Stutzman, David ('85)
Taulbee, Milton
Wilsher, Becka
My Step-Dad Tony Granatowski
To say that Tony Granatowski was one of the
most wonderful humans to walk this earth does not do him justice; he is
deserving of so much more.
I am the stepdaughter of Tony and I grieve
every single day. Tony was compassionate, caring, hard-working and
self-sacrificing.
The world is missing a wonderful man.
I have known Tony since I was in
kindergarten in
After Tony and Donna moved to
Tony, Emilee and Jessica moved back to
As two single parents, my mother,
Katherine, and Tony helped each other out in any way they could.
Tony took care of me and my mom took care
of Emilee and Jessica and our two families often cooked dinners together.
It wasn’t until years later that my
mom and Tony began a romantic relationship and the two were married in October
of 2000 at
Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in
Lake Oswego.
After their marriage, my mom and Tony
expanded and remodeled our home to help blend our families.
They put their heart and soul into every single
aspect of designing and manually constructing the house.
They spent hundreds of hours going to
nurseries, buying exotic plants, and landscaping the yard into a beautiful
garden.
Each plant had a meaning and many were
gifts that they gave to each other. When the house was finished, it was
incredible.
It was obvious how much love the two of
them put into their work together.
At the beginning of my mom and Tony’s
marriage, I was a young adolescent and I was immature, rude, and sometimes
outright cruel.
Tony and I did not have the best
relationship due to my inconsiderate behavior, yet he continued to love me as
his own child.
It was not all fights between the two of
us, but I wish that I could tell him how much I truly cared, and still care
about him.
By the end of my sophomore year in high
school, I grew up. Tony and I were friends and we enjoyed each other’s
company.
We would stay up late talking in the
kitchen eating the wonderful leftovers from his dinners.
I will always miss his fantastic cooking
and his incredible ability to whip up amazing meals when I tried to claim that
there was nothing to eat.
Tony began to teach me how to golf over the
summer and I wish he was here to teach me now.
We had many jokes together and I can still hear
him poking fun and me or my mom.
In November of my junior year in high
school, I was in a terrible car accident; and although Tony had just gotten
back into town from traveling for his job
and was sound asleep, he and my mother
immediately drove to the hospital to sit with me through the night.
As a child, Tony had been in a bad car
accident and he related to me throughout the process and helped me greatly.
I still suffer from orthopedic problems
from the accident and I would give anything to have Tony here to talk to about
it.
Immediately after the car accident, my
entire family became sick with the flu, but unfortunately, Tony never
recovered.
He became more and more sick and was
diagnosed with terminal cancer right before Christmas. One month later, Tony
passed away
early in the morning on January 24, 2004
with my mother holding him close.
It breaks my heart that by the time Tony
and I were bonding, he was taken away from those who loved him dearly and those
who were yet to be blessed
by his presence. Tony Granatowski was an
incredible person who gave his all to those around him. He loved people
unconditionally and worked incredibly hard to protect and provide for his
family. He was kind, caring, loving, intelligent, and funny. There are not words
to express the wonderful nature of Tony.
Only those who knew him know the incredible
loss that this world has suffered.
Claire Von Derau
January 24, 2006
Dear PHS,
Tony Granatowski was one of my best friends for a
decade, yet I never met him in real life. He was one of the early players at a
place called the Internet Gaming Zone, now known as www.zone.com.
The IGZ pre-dated Windows 95 and browsers and the world wide web. It was a
place where one could drop in and play a few card games and, in our case, make
friends and be part of an actual, if virtual, community. I, and countless
others, developed lasting friendships with Tony, whom we all knew as
"Potz" from his years-long web nickname, potrzebie. We played
hundreds of games of spades and hearts on the internet gaming zone, shared
thousands of jokes -- mostly corny -- and spent hours and hours trying to
out-pun each other. But it was more than that. We shared pictures and stories
of our families, sought and got advice about life's trials no matter how big or
trivial, and even called each other on the phone to talk in person when times
got tough.
As you mentioned, Tony was fun, witty, charming, and so smart! Potz knew so
much about music, and as much about old 60's soul and Motown as I did, and I
grew up in
(Insert
smiley face emoticon here).
Later, after finding the second love of his life in Katherine, moving back to
Over the past couple years, both Tony and I drifted away somewhat from our
online community. We kept in touch through occasional emails, swapping jokes and
family news. My last note from Tony was -- how typical is this -- a Polish joke
he forwarded to me in December '03, the month before he died. Today, while
catching up on old correspondence, I realized I hadn't heard from my good
friend Potz in way too long. My email note to him bounced back. I knew
something was wrong, because Tony and I always kept each other's addresses
current. Google brought me to your website, and the shocking news of this past
January when Tony died. I thank you for your touching obituary and tribute to
our mutual friend. Although my relationship with Tony was merely virtual, my
sense of loss is very real.
It feels a bit odd, writing to his high school alma mater, and telling stories
about a man whom I knew so well, yet never met. I envy you, his classmates, who
knew him in person and could, no doubt, sense his warmth and caring, and his
easy, friendly manner firsthand. But I wanted you to know about this virtual
side of Tony G. -- the friend so many of us know as Potz -- and to tell you
that hundreds of us out here in the ether of the Internet will miss him, too.
"DetroitDave"
Dave Taylor
Ashland,
September, 2004.
Anthony John Granatowski
02/02/04
The Oregonian (w/ edits by Robin Bee and Claire Von Derau)
A Memorial Mass was held on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2004, at Our Lady of the Lake
Catholic Church in
Lake
Oswego, Oregon, for Anthony John Granatowski, who died suddenly of Cancer on
Jan. 24 at age 50.
Tony was
born Sept. 17, 1953, in
He was a student at
was an
incredible guitarist and musician and was always hanging with other musicians
and jamming
away. He
spent some time living in the Green Dome with Efross, et al, and at
Bob,
Jonathan, Lorna and Alan.
Tony was gregarious, outgoing, and always a happy person. He returned to
business. They
married, and moved to Lake Oswego about 1988.They moved to Scottsdale,
Ariz. for
treatment in the mid 90's while Donna was fighting Cancer, before returning to
Lake
Oswego in
1997 where she died during the PHS 1st All-School Reunion in August 1997. I was
lucky
enough to
meet and get to know her for a few months. They were really something,
together!
Those of you who were at the reunion should remember the fundraiser we had for
the Susan B.
Konen
Breast Cancer Research program, in Donna's name. In 2000 he married Katherine
Von Derau,
Donna's
best friend, whose kids had grown up together with theirs. He did make it to
the
and had a
ball catching up with everybody over the weekend. Tony was the one who
heroically drove to
the
flatlands late Friday night and procured hundreds of pounds (?) of cheeses,
crackers and
other
goodies for the Saturday gathering. We certainly had plenty to eat!
We had a small, fun regional PHS gathering hosted by Tony and Katherine
at their place about 4 weeks after the
2002
reunion, with Pete Moss, Dorothy Detsch, Kurt Nebel, Wendy Temko, and Aron
Helligas.
The
expansion and remodeling of their home had just been finished after 6 years of
construction chaos.
Tony and Katherine
worked side-by-side to complete the project and it really looked great.
He was director of
business analysis and systems integration for Food Services of America
(computer whiz kid),
and is survived by his
wife Katherine; daughters, Jessica and Emilee; stepchildren Michael and Clair
and sister, Karen Hetzel.
Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to say goodbye. I will miss his
good-nature and ready
laugh.
Robin Bee (Bloomgarden)
If anyone else would like to contribute
recollections about Tony send them in please.
As you may have heard, Alan Strain passed away
peacefully on
August 26th at home in
He had suffered a few strokes in the last few years compounded by
congestive heart failure, and as sad as we are to say goodbye, we
feel that perhaps he was ready to move on.
Alan helped to found
math there for the first few years of the school's existence as well
as handling important organizational duties. I think he had a
profound influence on many students.
The family is planning a memorial service on Saturday,
September 13th at 10 am at the Santa Cruz Friends meeting at
Rooney St.
Cruz
and feelings about Alan.
Most sincerely, Laurie Friedman (Alan's inherited
daughter
and PHS student 1962-3) You may call for more information at (530)
758-9668
Mark Efross was a central figure from
By the time that I arrived at Pacific in the
spring of 1970, it had already become a "national school" with
students - many the childrenof the hip and well to do - from around the
country. I felt very much out of place as a local and a scholarship student.
Mark described his first take on me years later - lonely, looking lost but
trying to seemaloof, smoking Virginia Slims and wearing all the wrong clothes.
Mark, on the other hand was always "the
man" (as my twenty two year old son would say). Even then he hung out with
the staff, acted liked he owned the place. If you were in with Mark, he could
get you anything. He had the best pot, or could line you up with a spot in a
dry dome. It was a big day for me, a watershed moment, when Mark decided to
befriend and watch out for me. From then on I felt that I had a home and a
brother in it.
Our relationship was cemented by a
semi-apocryphal event that occurred near the beginning of that first summer,
when Mark decided he would teach me how to drive in his VW van. We drove up to
the top of the ridge road. Mark put me behind the wheel, stuck it in second
gear and told me to steer it down to the parking lot. As the speed picked up I
lost control around a curve and the van went over the steep side, stopped by a
tree about five yards down. I saw it coming and ducked, Mark went through the
windshield. He survived that crash with a few scars, but the van was totaled. A
meeting was held and a restitution plan was arrived at. The school would reimburse
Mark for the value of his van, but he and I would each be responsible for a
portion of it. We would both have to work at the school for the summer, and I
would commute to my job at a nursing home - a very graceful way to address the
fact that neither of us had homes we wanted to return to. (Pause here for a
minute for your favorite Mark memory)
Over the years, I heard the stories about his
pre-Pacific years. He had run away from his home near D.C. at fourteen and
bummed around the
It was in the later years, when Pacific had
stopped paying staff or accepting tuition and become a "self-sufficient
educational community" that Mark crashed and burned for the first time. It
was discovered that Mark had been putting the proceeds from a school business
that he ran up his nose. Many people pleaded for a second chance for him at the
community meeting held to discuss the problem. It was hard to imagine Mark
without Pacific, or the community without him. But the offense was too large,
the betrayal too great and Mark was exiled from paradise. The school didn't
survive for too long afterward, not that there was necessarily a relationship.
After that, Mark evolved a pattern to his life
of business successes flamboyantly destroyed. He did have a great business
sense, too. His D.C. based answering service called Detente flourished with the
end of the cold war, before he poured all the assests up his nose. But he also
conned and betrayed many friends. Mark always protected me from his
"evil" self. He never burned me for a dime, was careful to be in good
shape when he got in touch. Sometimes six months or a year would go by, but I
knew I would hear from him eventually, knew the stories would be bad, but that
would all be in the past by the time he called.
Our friendship taught me alot about addiction.
He really struggled with it, 12 stepped it, sweated it out, went cold turkey
many times, but fell back. A few years ago I started volunteering with the AIDS
prevention needle exchange program in
In the last few years of his life Mark had moved
towards some level ground and his own forms of harm reduction. He made amends
with most of the folks he had burned over the years. He worked as a
telecommunications consultant (his business card had a picture of a large man
in a superhero suit emblazoned: THE COMMUNICATOR), so if he fell, he didn't
take anyone else with him. He had a relationship with a wonderful woman who I
finally met at his memorial. But he spoke of the fact that he couldn't
"master" coke as a rat that ate at his soul.
I know that some of his friends may be horrified
at me talking about his drug problems in a memorial to him. But it was a
central fact of his life, just like his big heart, his great sense of humor and
his dedication to his friends. To me, remembering Mark without talking about
drugs is like portraying
Mark died of a heart attack in his sleep in his
Jan
Gilbrecht
October
30, 1949 - May 18, 1999
David Lewis Berger died at
Born in
In 1965 David moved with his family to
During the early 1980's David invented and
developed a new system of visual signs for teaching the harmonica, which he
introduced in the classes he taught at different times in Santa Cruz. In 1984
he co-wrote and performed the musical score of the film "Hard Travellin'." Returning to
the guitar in later years, he composed songs in various genres, including
several big band and blues ballads. From the late 1960s on, he was a avid
record collector, building up an extraordinary library of blues and jazz - rare
78 and 33 rpm records - that reflected his unique tastes and his love of music
history.
For much of his adult life David lived and
worked in
David is survived by his father, Harry, his
sisters, Caroline and Cynthia, and his nephew, Ezra. He was preceded in death
by his mother, Marguerite Long Berger, and his older brother, Thomas Harry
Berger.
(obituary published in the S.F. Chronicle,
5/30/99)
For those
who don't know, Elspeth died a tragic death on April 16, 1990,
just months short of her 21st birthday.
She was a
complex, talented young woman, driven to success,
never quite satisfied with her achievments.
She
graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in
in 1989 and was working as an assistant chef at the time of her death.
(from Steve Katona)