If you measure a man by his children, yesterday’s memorial for Sid Goldberg was quite the award ceremony. The love those two have for him is the most fitting tribute, and was at his memorial, as JPod relays.
NRO readers all know him as Poppa G (no relation to Kenny), but Sid Goldberg, besides being beloved family man (which, as his sons made clear yesterday, was his heart’s devotion), was a successful newspaper man. He was the long-time head of United Media’s newspaper syndicate, which, as it happens, is where I’m syndicated now. I mention this because in recent months I’ve been struck by how much the folks over there love him—when at their offices a month or so ago, folks were asking about him, and his young successor relayed a recent jovial phone conversation she had with him. Many of his former colleagues were there yesterday, devastated that they wouldn’t have Sid’s humor and wisdom to call upon anymore. If you knew nothing about Sidney Goldberg and just encountered the United Media affection for him, you’d have enough to see clearly this was a man who had a vocation, not a job. And he was a giving man—not one who walked out on retirement day even, but who would always be a part of the enterprise he had devoted so much time to.
Beloved by family, by friends, by colleagues, dearly missed by all of the above.
As a mere sidebar to JPod’s post: Sid wrote a number of pieces for Tech Central Station in his retirement years. Here’s a sampling:
On the constraints of ’sovereignty’ in foriegn policy
I know so many readers have the Goldbergs in their thoughts and prayers. And I know they’re grateful for that.