Tom Weisbuch xxx1939-2003
After three years of rooming with Tom W., our paths
diverged from college on. Then, amazingly, in the seventies I ran
into him again via a mutual friend who lived in Philadelphia and for
whom Tom was instrumental in funding a restaurant. After a year of
intermittent meetings, I lost contact with him and then refound him
living in Berkeley in the late eighties. He had started The Old Rug,
a fabulous rug store. He had exquisite tastes and could go on and
on (as only Tom could) about the weave warp and woof of each rug.
I don't think he was particularly interested in business but he was
in love with acquiring rugs. He told me he would go to NY's garment
district and rummage through rug merchants' stores, finding old tattered
rugs which he would buy. He was the first, I think, to cut up these
rugs and make pillows out of them. Bloomingdales and others followed
suit years later. He hired Vietnamese, I believe, to be his sewers
and ran a really pleasant shop.
He had a beautiful house high in the Berkeley hills,
stocked with good books, good wine, and maintained some kind of relationship
with a very nice woman.
I saw him several years in a row and then , once
again, he disappeared, back to the East to care for his mother to
whom he was devoted. In the course of his mother's dying, or after,
he married a Czeck? woman who was his mother's nurse.
I heard this via phone with him but never met her or saw him again.
He was a truly complex and generous individual with
a photographic memory. a story by Tom was novelistic in length and
detail, whether it came from Andover days or elsewhere. He burned
with a hard, gem-like flame. I shall miss him. Tom B.
I am really sorry to report that Tom Weisbuch passed
away yesterday as a result of prostate cancer. Thanks much to Arkie
Koehl and Alan Blanchard for letting us know.
I got to know Tom really well, when we lived next door to each other
our upper year. Tom was a heckova wrestler to go along with an awfully
bright mind, particularly in the area of creative writing.
We had a really nice phone visit a couple of years ago, when we visited
about Tom's coming to the PA '57 dinner in Los Angeles. While he couldn't
make it, we reminisced about some great times we had had at Andover.
What a nice guy.
Best regards to all.
Gee
That's a really nice remembrance of Tom Weisbuch
from Tom Bissinger. I didn't know Tom W. as well as Tom B. did, but
I do remember sharing two French classes with him. Tom W. was also
a kind. considerate and patient classmate as I recall, especially
during a few cram sessions. I'm sorry, too, that I now wouldn't be
able to say that to him. That's why I truly feel we should all try
to attend whatever reunions are scheduled from now on. We're not getting
any younger, time may be running out for some and it sure as hell
wouldn't hurt anyone, from anywhere, to be kinder, gentler and more
in touch. All the best to all, Austen.
Thanks for reporting so kindly such sad news. I remember
clearly the many times Tom showed at PA his multi-talented abilities,
ranging from athletics to creative writing to his many contributions
to our various drama projects particularly including Pen Hallowell's
Shakespeare plays.
Regards to all.
Dave Cathcart
tom... weisbuck.... i remember well... his wirey
energy. very close to perfection. and he was an artist too and a craziness
i might find inside myself as well if only i had a clue. ah, but he
was jewish and wouldn't stand up for onward christian soldiers. all
power to the people. and we both one night put terrible plastic drippings,
fleshy colored with paint for blood wet, into the steaming covered
serving dishes at the commons... and bissinger and all my white friends
in mississippi against the war were jewish too. some warmth and passion
and love.
and i ran into tom in cambridge ma in early mid seventies into hydroponics
and mushrooms or speed. and then word of rugs and the bay area....
and then death .damn we getting short...
xoxooxxoox ... J>