Michael J. Halberstam

CRIMSON EDITORS still play hockey in the newsroom, but nobody plays it quite the way Michael J. Halberstam '53 did. One day in the spring of his freshman year, Halberstam got just a little carried away during a newsroom scuffle, jumped out a first-story window and landed hands-first on the concrete driveway. Re-entering the building through the front door, Halberstam said his hands hurt a little--in fact, he had broken both of them.

Michael Halberstam did everything in his 48 years the same way he played hockey--intensely. A foremost physician, a noted author, and a determined athlete, Halberstam was the realization of an elusive ideal, the true renaissance man. "Nothing is wasted and every experience is used at least once," he once said; and the relish with which he approached the projects he worked on--including his practice as a foremost cardiology specialist and his well-received novel, The Wanting of A. L. Levine--put his credo onto practice.

What distinguished Halberstam above all, however, was his deep personal concern for the people he worked with: It is said that he never walked away from a situation that needed his attention. A man of extraordinary energy, Halberstam even drove himself to the hospital after a burglar pumped two fatal shots into his chest.

Halberstam lived a life of many examples--as a doctor, he helped those in need; as a journalist and author, he articulated the subtle humor and pressing questions of his times; as a man, he proved that energy and motivation are compatible with thoughtfulness and care. His voice and his presence will be mourned and missed by many people in many places--not least here at 14 Plympton Street.