Edward Torchy Smith

Sorry for not adding more information about Joel. Joel died on January 1, 2020 of esophageal cancer at the age of 72. He leaves behind a wife but no children.

Happy Birthday Torchy. Thanks for all you do!

THIS MESSAGE IS FROM JERRY KELLER

Torchy - If you could post this for Connie Zucker’s page, I’d appreciate it.

There could not have been another female classmate whose demise would have had as much of a shock as hearing about Connie’s passing. My memory is of her warm and tender heart, shining face, and magnetic personality. We went out to many functions over the matter of our years in high school,, and whenever she accepted my date offer, it always felt the world was right again. 

      I played Saxophone in the Sunliners with Ronnie Carren and 

Howie Weiner, and whenever we played the song Misty, for some reason I would think of her. After quite a hiatus, I picked up the Sax again, and whenever Misty is requested, it still gives me flashbacks to memories of Connie. 

  I am sure knowing that Connie is gone, playing Misty will not just pull on the strings of my heart, but will also create a tear in my eye.  

Here is the link to her Obituary :

https://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?n=connie-zucker-reider&pid=195806631&fhid=2153

Posted on: Mar 16, 2020 at 1:11 PM

How are you hitting them? It's the only thing left to do now that we are all shut ins.

Posted on: Jan 12, 2020 at 7:48 PM

Hey Les...have a great Birthday...I know I am early but I wanted to make sure I got to you this year...after all you never know what my happen in four days from now.

Hi Torchy-- Don't know if you had this: We are saddened to share with you that Ileen Klein (nee Kurlander) has passed away. Beloved wife of Jeff. Loving mother of member Russ (Debbie) Klein and Scott (Tracy) Klein. Cherished grandmother of member Jordan, Julie and Ellie Klein, Tali and Maya Klein. Dear sister of the late Larry Kurlander and Elizabeth (Joel) Israel. Loving daugther of the late Norman Kurlander and the late Naomi Kurlander. Services will be held 10am Tuesday, December 17 at Temple Israel, 91 Springside Drive, Akron, OH 44333. Family will receive friends following services until 2pm on December 17 at Temple Israel. Family will also receive friends: 6:30-9:00pm Tuesday and 6:30-9:00pm Wednesday at the home of Jeff Klein at 554 Haskell Dr., Akron, OH 44333. 6:30-9:00pm Thursday at the home of Russ and Debbie Klein, 32750 Aspen Glen Dr., Solon, OH 44139. Friends who wish may contribute to the Ileen Klein Memorial Park Bench Fund. As a passionate lover of nature and the outdoors, she wanted to provide loved ones with a simple opportunity to connect with her memory in a meaningful way. Please use the following link to make a donation: http://bit.ly/ileenkleinparkb…. Donations can also be made to Temple Israel in Ileen’s memory at https://www.templeisraelakron…. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Klein family during this difficult time; may they be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Here is a link to her obituary:  https://everloved.com/life-of/ileen-klein/obituary/

Of course, her husband Jeff is a classmate of ours. 

JULIE...I can't find you on Face Book. Other Julie Loyds pop up but not you. Can you find me. I am the only Torchy Smith out there.

Hello! I am one of David's 3 children, and Sarah Blackman had forwarded the comments to this site. I wanted to say how grateful I am to read of my father through his former schoolmates' stories. How wonderful to know that the qualities my father exuded in his adult life were extensions of youth. Reading about him here, I see he was very much the man (and the father) I knew him to be. I suppose the more things change, the more they stay the same.

This was sent directly to me from Jody Schor.  I am posting it for her:

A life well lived. Her memory will be a blessing to all who knew her.

This letter was on Facebook from a friend, Gary Lipp.

nancy Livingston and husband Fred Levin endowed dozens of San Francisco cultural institutions and nonprofits.

A line from Shakespeare sums up the life and personality of San Francisco arts supporter Nancy Livingston: “Though she be but little, she is fierce.”

Livingston died Saturday after a nine-year battle with cancer. She was lying in a hospital bed at the UCSF Medical Center, holding hands with Fred Levin, her husband of 40 years. She was 72 years old.

“She passed away peacefully,” Levin said that night.

His relationship with Livingston was a long conversation that began on their first date — Chinese food and a movie at the Alexandria Theatre on Geary Boulevard. From that point on, he said, they never stopped talking.

“We talked constantly,” he said. “We shared everything. We were not one of these couples that sits together at a restaurant with each one on their cell phone.”

The two met when the manufacturing company where Levin worked hired the advertising business where Livingston worked. After a threemonth courtship, they became virtually inseparable. The couple shared everything — even an email address that was a mix of their initials.

Livingston grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in a family steeped in both the arts and the Jewish community. She graduated from Boston University in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and later served on the dean’s advisory board.

She and Levin lived in Marin County for 35 years and in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood for the past eight years.

Serving as donor stewards of the Shenson Foundation, a trust set up by Levin’s cousins, the couple sat on boards and gave endowments to dozens of major cultural institutions and nonprofits, including the San Francisco Symphony, American Conservatory Theater, the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Film Society. Livingston was also vice chairwoman of Cal Performances in Berkeley and a board member at the Congregation Rodef Sholom synagogue in San Rafael. They were low-key benefactors, never wanting to have their names plastered on plaques or pamphlets. But within the scene they were beloved.

“Nancy was among the warmest people I have ever known in my life,” said Jay Xu, director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum. “I miss her terribly.”

Levin and Livingston were “incredibly warm and constant friends and supporters” of the San Francisco Symphony, Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas said in a statement.

Thomas has especially fond memories of Livingston.

“Her energy, intelligence and spark lit up the room,” he said. “I can’t imagine that I won’t see her smile again or hear her quick wit and perceptive observations. I will miss her greatly.”

Carey Perloff, a former artistic director of ACT, was so close with Livingston that the two jokingly called each other “Thelma and Louise.” Livingston chaired ACT’s board during the recession in 2009, a time when foundation grants were drying up and fewer people went to museums and theaters.

“We lost money,” Perloff said, adding that the board considered difficult cuts to balance its budget.

Livingston tirelessly raised funds, saved a master’s program that might have been on the chopping block and steered the theater through the financial turbulence. In 2015, she helped open ACT’s Strand Theater, a 283-seat performance venue in what had been a boarded-up movie theater on Mid-Market.

“She just loved artists, and she was not scared of failure,” Perloff said, comparing Livingston to the character Hermia in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” — a petite, exuberant, committed woman whose spirit could always fill a room.

When Perloff checked her phone Saturday and saw a missed call from Levin, she immediately knew what had happened. She was in Alberta directing “The Merchant of Venice” with a woman — actress Seana McKenna, who Livingston loved — starring as the villain Shylock.

Even in her last days, Livingston wrung the juice out of life, friends said. This year she and Levin traveled to Paris, Jordan, Egypt and Israel, working through Livingston’s everevolving bucket list of new places to go.

One of her last acts was to sponsor Perloff’s play “The Fit,” which opened at San Francisco Playhouse in June.

In addition to her husband, Livingston is survived by a daughter, Victoria; son, Jeff; daughter-in-law, Jane; and three grandchildren. Friends and loved ones are invited to donate in her memory to ACT, or to the UCSF Foundation, earmarked for gynecologic oncology research.

Posted on: May 02, 2019 at 9:22 AM

I am a day late. Who are these two people?

Posted on: Apr 06, 2019 at 4:33 AM

See you later tonight.