Bernd Debusmann
Jean Espinassy
Thursday 19 May 2011
It took Bernd Debusmann a matter of hours to solve the mystery of the Lebanon correspondent who used to call on Lt Col Jean Espinassy, the French chairman of the Israel-Lebanon Mixed Armistice Commission (ILMAC) in Beirut in the late 1970s. Gavin Bell is the name Jean has been searching for all these years. Thanks to Bjorn Edlund and Paul Holmes who also came up with the answer. Now, of course, after telling me tales of his encounters with Gavin – “I think he thought I had some state secrets to leak to him” – Jean wants to know what happened to him. I gather he’s living somewhere in Scotland. Is anyone in touch with him? Jean and his wife Annie clearly have very fond memories of Gavin and I’d love to be able to put them back in touch. Jean is an interesting man who served in Berlin, Indochina, and the Sahara as well as with the UN in Lebanon. In Berlin, as a young captain, Jean tells me he was very popular with the Americans. “I had the only heated jeep and I also had camembert.” On his wall is a framed certificate attesting to the fact that he had a share in the Nobel Peace Prize won by the UN Peacekeeping Forces in 1988. “I got the certificate, he (the UN Secretary General) got the money,” he says.
Terry Williams
Gavin Bell’s contact details are listed in The Baron Directory – Editor.
Terry Williams
Gavin Bell’s contact details are listed in The Baron Directory – Editor.
Arthur Spiegelman
Thursday 25 December 2008
Following is a quick wrap of Arthur’s funeral service on Tuesday, December 23, 2008.
The service was at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City near Los Angeles, which is surrounded by a hilly cemetery (Al Jolson is buried there). About 150 people attended amid a lot of tears and a lot of laughter as they paid their respects to Charlotte, sons Michael and Adam, daughter-in-law Karen, granddaughter Molly Mae and brother Marvin. Most Reuter staff came from the Los Angeles bureau. Betty Wong, global managing editor, and Evelyn Leopold, former Reuters UN chief correspondent, flew in from New York and Kevin Krolicki, former LA bureau chief, came from Detroit where he is now bureau chief. (Charlotte intends to hold a memorial in New York, at a time and place not yet decided.)
Highlights from the service in order of the eulogies.
Rabbi John Rosove read at length from Belinda Goldsmith’s tribute on Arthur’s career, including quotes from David Schlesinger, Bernd Debusmann and Bernie Woodall. He also spoke of a little known event in Arthur’s life when he was 9 years old. “He, his young brother Marvin, and mother Hannah were walking in the Bronx one Shavuot day and Hannah was fatally struck by a car. Arthur’s leg was badly injured and spent the next three months in a hospital. His doctor wanted to amputate, but Arthur’s father wouldn’t hear of it and did everything he could to successfully save his son’s leg.” The full text is attached.
Evelyn Leopold: “Arthur has been part of my life since The (Bergen) Record days. Charlotte was still Charlotte Alter, as wonderful then as she is now, and Michael and Adam were not yet in sight. He paved the way for my joining him at Reuters in London...
“A poet once said, We are the dreamers of dreams... Yet we are the movers and shakers.’ Arthur dreamt big, lived his dreams and made us laugh and cry at the words he used to shed light on the pleasures and sorrows of the world. We heard his voice, his laughter. We miss his warmth, friendship, wonderful sense of humor and never-ending quest for answers. We are blessed for having known him...”
Bernie Woodall (Reuters LA bureau who visited the Spiegelman household throughout Arthur’s illness)
“Arthur is gone but he lives on in his friends and his family – his wife of 42 years Charlotte, his sons Michael and Adam, his daughter-in-law Karen, his 14-month-old granddaughter, Molly Mae... I’d say that Michael’s and Adam’s kindness and humor are in large part derived from our dear friend Arthur.
“We can’t be Arthur. We surely won’t be able to write like him. But if we remember him, he can help us be better people. Write a better story. Put more passion into a letter. Be the one people are happy to see. Be kind.”
Sam Hall Kaplan (journalist, author). Sam first met Arthur while he was at the Bergen Record in the 1960s. Sam was then at the New York Times and recommended they hire Arthur. “He had street smarts... He sang even then as did his copy... The Times then made it clear it wanted Jews who may have thought Yiddish – as I did – but looked British. It was their loss and subsequently Reuters’ gain.” Sam met Arthur again years later in LA, hung out in his office “to score a book or two and laugh and laugh and laugh.” ... “He really had a sharp pencil, a sharp tongue, a sharp mind... You had to like him... a mensch.”
Larry Klingman (film producer). “You don’t cry in baseball and you are not supposed to cry in journalism. What I observed here is laughter. And it wasn’t the kind of laughter when you don’t know what to say and what to do. It was the kind of laughter that reflects Arthur... Arthur lit up the room... “I held on to Arthur on his way out... and I whispered one last joke, one last bad joke, and asked him to share it on his journey... Arthur opened his eyes and looked deeply into my eyes: ‘Are you kidding. That is the worst joke you have every shared with me’.”
Richard Dysek (actor who played Leland McKenzie on LA Law) who met him three or four years ago along with his artist wife, Kathryn Jacobi. He attributed the Yiddish-British line to Arthur and said Arthur gave it in response to a question from a young journalist. “What is important,” Arthur said, “Dress British think Yiddish”... “He was one of a kind. There was a man.”
At the end of the ceremony, Rabbi Rosove noted that everyone had stories about Arthur that made them laugh. He suggested that they be sent to Charlotte at charlotte520@mac.com (Address is 520 N. Fuller Street, Los Angeles, CA 90036). In lieu of flowers, the family asks for contributions to the Sova Food Pantry www.jfsla.org/sova/index.php.
Many of us then went to the Spiegelman residence where food was delivered in large quantities, starting with a load from Mary Miliken, LA bureau chief, and baskets from Zabar’s in New York.
Rabbi Anne Brener, a psychotherapist and friend of Charlotte (who is a clinical social worker), presided over the Shivah (Jewish mourning service). She said: Arthur died at the beginning of Chanukah, the time of the winter’s solstice, the darkest time of the year. She encouraged Charlotte and the family to allow the seasons, with their slowly increasing light to comfort and guide them as they move from this darkness toward a brighter future. “By binding themselves to the natural world, it is my hope that they will find consolation and hope.”
Evelyn Leopold
The service was at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City near Los Angeles, which is surrounded by a hilly cemetery (Al Jolson is buried there). About 150 people attended amid a lot of tears and a lot of laughter as they paid their respects to Charlotte, sons Michael and Adam, daughter-in-law Karen, granddaughter Molly Mae and brother Marvin. Most Reuter staff came from the Los Angeles bureau. Betty Wong, global managing editor, and Evelyn Leopold, former Reuters UN chief correspondent, flew in from New York and Kevin Krolicki, former LA bureau chief, came from Detroit where he is now bureau chief. (Charlotte intends to hold a memorial in New York, at a time and place not yet decided.)
Highlights from the service in order of the eulogies.
Rabbi John Rosove read at length from Belinda Goldsmith’s tribute on Arthur’s career, including quotes from David Schlesinger, Bernd Debusmann and Bernie Woodall. He also spoke of a little known event in Arthur’s life when he was 9 years old. “He, his young brother Marvin, and mother Hannah were walking in the Bronx one Shavuot day and Hannah was fatally struck by a car. Arthur’s leg was badly injured and spent the next three months in a hospital. His doctor wanted to amputate, but Arthur’s father wouldn’t hear of it and did everything he could to successfully save his son’s leg.” The full text is attached.
Evelyn Leopold: “Arthur has been part of my life since The (Bergen) Record days. Charlotte was still Charlotte Alter, as wonderful then as she is now, and Michael and Adam were not yet in sight. He paved the way for my joining him at Reuters in London...
“A poet once said, We are the dreamers of dreams... Yet we are the movers and shakers.’ Arthur dreamt big, lived his dreams and made us laugh and cry at the words he used to shed light on the pleasures and sorrows of the world. We heard his voice, his laughter. We miss his warmth, friendship, wonderful sense of humor and never-ending quest for answers. We are blessed for having known him...”
Bernie Woodall (Reuters LA bureau who visited the Spiegelman household throughout Arthur’s illness)
“Arthur is gone but he lives on in his friends and his family – his wife of 42 years Charlotte, his sons Michael and Adam, his daughter-in-law Karen, his 14-month-old granddaughter, Molly Mae... I’d say that Michael’s and Adam’s kindness and humor are in large part derived from our dear friend Arthur.
“We can’t be Arthur. We surely won’t be able to write like him. But if we remember him, he can help us be better people. Write a better story. Put more passion into a letter. Be the one people are happy to see. Be kind.”
Sam Hall Kaplan (journalist, author). Sam first met Arthur while he was at the Bergen Record in the 1960s. Sam was then at the New York Times and recommended they hire Arthur. “He had street smarts... He sang even then as did his copy... The Times then made it clear it wanted Jews who may have thought Yiddish – as I did – but looked British. It was their loss and subsequently Reuters’ gain.” Sam met Arthur again years later in LA, hung out in his office “to score a book or two and laugh and laugh and laugh.” ... “He really had a sharp pencil, a sharp tongue, a sharp mind... You had to like him... a mensch.”
Larry Klingman (film producer). “You don’t cry in baseball and you are not supposed to cry in journalism. What I observed here is laughter. And it wasn’t the kind of laughter when you don’t know what to say and what to do. It was the kind of laughter that reflects Arthur... Arthur lit up the room... “I held on to Arthur on his way out... and I whispered one last joke, one last bad joke, and asked him to share it on his journey... Arthur opened his eyes and looked deeply into my eyes: ‘Are you kidding. That is the worst joke you have every shared with me’.”
Richard Dysek (actor who played Leland McKenzie on LA Law) who met him three or four years ago along with his artist wife, Kathryn Jacobi. He attributed the Yiddish-British line to Arthur and said Arthur gave it in response to a question from a young journalist. “What is important,” Arthur said, “Dress British think Yiddish”... “He was one of a kind. There was a man.”
At the end of the ceremony, Rabbi Rosove noted that everyone had stories about Arthur that made them laugh. He suggested that they be sent to Charlotte at charlotte520@mac.com (Address is 520 N. Fuller Street, Los Angeles, CA 90036). In lieu of flowers, the family asks for contributions to the Sova Food Pantry www.jfsla.org/sova/index.php.
Many of us then went to the Spiegelman residence where food was delivered in large quantities, starting with a load from Mary Miliken, LA bureau chief, and baskets from Zabar’s in New York.
Rabbi Anne Brener, a psychotherapist and friend of Charlotte (who is a clinical social worker), presided over the Shivah (Jewish mourning service). She said: Arthur died at the beginning of Chanukah, the time of the winter’s solstice, the darkest time of the year. She encouraged Charlotte and the family to allow the seasons, with their slowly increasing light to comfort and guide them as they move from this darkness toward a brighter future. “By binding themselves to the natural world, it is my hope that they will find consolation and hope.”
Evelyn Leopold
Arthur Spiegelman
Sunday 21 December 2008
In addition to agreeing entirely with all the above comments about Art – e.g. Paul Holmes’s phrase “graceful prose, unfailing sense of humour”, Bernd Debusmann’s “sparkling prose”, Evelyn Leopold’s “beautiful, clear and ordered journalism”, Sam Perry’s “fluid genius” and Roy Gutman’s “spotter of news”, I would just like to add that he was one of the most RELIABLE colleagues I have ever worked with. Send him on an assignment, no worries. Turn your back on him, no worries. Leave him in charge, no worries. What a great and reliable journalist and friend!
Dave Betts
Dave Betts
