In the end, the Times really shines (Column praising NYT obit writers)
Rob Cibik
January 18, 2008
John P. Cleary
Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY)
I am a little obsessed with death.
Not my own, mind you, and not in any gory, crime-scene-photo way. No,
I'm a little obsessed with the obituary page of The New York Times.
I think the obituary writers of the Times are some of the best in
journalism. I can tell you from experience, writing obituaries is
sometimes pretty hard. Death is an emotional thing. It's hard for a
stranger to call up a grieving family and ask questions, hard to
condense a person's whole life into 12 or 14 inches of copy.
I've always admired the touch the Star-Gazette's own Salle E. Richards
has with obituaries. As Salle will tell you, obituaries might be
difficult, but they are also some of the best opportunities a
newspaper writer gets to tell stories. The Times writers do it well,
putting their subjects' lives, and deaths, into almost instant
perspective while revealing something of the person behind the
headlines.
What I love best about The New York Times obituary page is the amazing
variety of people they choose to write about.
The Times writes obituaries about the famous and infamous (movie
stars, politicians, sports stars and artists) and the not so well-
known (academics, poets, mobsters and business owners).
Take last Friday's page, for example. Two-thirds of it was filled with
an obituary of Edmund Hillary (one of my personal heroes), but tucked
into the lower right-hand corner was an obituary of Vincent Gruppuso.
Who's he? The founder of the Kozy Shack pudding empire, that's who.
I've eaten plenty of Kozy Shack's creamy rice pudding. I love it. I
never once gave much thought to the people behind it, but now, thanks
to the Times, I have an appreciation for a man who turned a small
bread delivery business into an international pudding dynasty.
The profiles aren't always flattering. The paper's obituary on writer
Norman Mailer made much of his enormous ego, and its look at Kurt
Vonnegut reminded readers some of his most popular novels got dreadful
reviews.
The paid death notices that run beside the features are almost as
interesting. These are for ordinary New Yorkers, people who don't rise
to the attention of the assignment editors. When people of a certain
level of society die, it is customary, in the big cities, for their
family, friends, business associates, houses of worship and clubs to
each post their own paid obituary. Taken together, they provide a
fascinating snapshot of a life. Reading them, I sometimes feel as if I
almost know these people just a little, as if they were friends of
friends, passing acquaintances. Is it foolish to mourn them just a
little?
I think I read obituaries because they help me put my own life in
perspective. Aside from my children, my only real legacy is what the
people who know me will remember about me. The obituaries remind me I
should work hard to make sure people have good things to say about me
after I'm gone.
John Cleary is the Neighbors columnist for the Star-Gazette. He can be
reached at jcl...@stargazette.com.
http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/HELP/50930010/1141