Friday, August 18, 2023
Alex and I worked closely together at Golf Journal and Tennis USA (published by Chilton) before we both came to GD/Tennis the same week in 1979 (even sharing a mover!). So Alex and I go way back. In the spring of 1977, fresh out of college, I lived with Alex for 6 weeks in Philadelphia before I got my own apartment in Ardmore. He was a dear friend and was dealt a bad hand. He was born with a heart condition, which he had surgery to correct 30 years ago, was also in a back brace for several years as a kid, suffered from severe migraines, and more recently had a form of cancer that he really didn't talk about. But he didn't' let any of this stop him. He was an incredibly good tennis player -- especially as a doubles partner with those quick hands at the net -- and an even better writer, finally completing his novel last year. What a talented guy. He was a walking encyclopedia of tennis. He knew more about the history of the game than anybody on the planet! I used to test him. I'd ask Alex something obscure like, "Who won the 1937 Wimbledon mixed doubles?" He'd think about it for about 15 seconds and then say, something like, "It wasn't Fred Perry. He won it in '36 with Dorothy Round. I'm pretty sure Don Budge and Alice Marble defeated Yvon Petra and Simonne Mathieu." I would look it up and he was always right. Of course, this was well before Google. Arthur Ashe entrusted Alex to ghostwrite a book with him, "Arthur Ashe on Tennis," so what does that tell you? I will forever miss Alex, as a colleague, as a mentor, and as a true friend.
