A Passing

On May 23, an explosion tore through a minibus in an African capitol and took the lives of several of the riders. Among them was our friend Hezy, an Israeli-American elephant professor who used to work at the same university as I did.

For two years our apartment was across from his and his dog's. His white hair and smiling face conveyed a sort of Jewish Santa Claus. I remember hearing stories of how he kept elephant dung on the balcony so he could measure its moisture content. While on safari, counting the few elephants remaining in the country, his puppy nearly killed him when all thirty pounds of it challenged a bull elephant. He came to our house for Thanksgiving. We often road the bus to school together and talked politics.

As I read about him and others who will miss him, I realize that he really was brilliant. One person said that he might know more about elephants than anyone else in the world. And despite this, he worked sacrificially for a University that lacked running water, decent textbooks or consistent electricity

He was a good man. I would have liked my son to have known him.