Jon came to see us––my late husband, photojournalist Ted Polumbaum and me––before going to Chile; he'd heard we knew something about the country and the plots by the Nixon administration. It turned out that we were returning there at the same time, so we introduced him and saw a great deal of him over the next months. He told us of finding a circle of peasants in the south, sitting outdoors and staring at a TV screen, although there there was no electricity. He said that stopped him from writing the book he planned, and indeed he didn't produce one of his wonderful books as a result of that long stay.

When he returned to Boston he said he would apply to Columbia J School, mostly for the old boy contacts he didn't turn out to want or need. One incident seemed characteristic: wearing a dress shirt and tie, he drove downtown for an interview (I think it was at the Christian Science Monitor). As he was parking, he was accosted by a gang of kids demanding money; as usual, he wasn't carrying any. They were so angry that they lashed his head and hands to the doorpost with his tie before taking off, and there he sat in the driver's seat until he was noticed by laughing pedestrians who took pity and let him loose.

We eventually lost contact, but there are many good memories of the friend who was a one-of-a-kind.
Nyna P

I knew Jonathan briefly while i was an EA at the Herald News from 2000 to 2003. At the time, he was the most patient and talented editor in the building. A saint in room full or egos & hacks.

I'm deeply saddened by the news of his passing. He taught me a lot, whether it was the extra time he spent working on one of my stories or the time he kept an injured bird under his desk. (He waited for me to come in later that morning, so that I could bring it to a wildlife center)

We would talk local history constantly and he had a couple dozen book ideas about Passaic and Paterson. Unfortunately, those books will never be written, and the world is a lesser place now.

Some kind of way Jonathan's passing should have gotten through to me. I wonder that not having heard from him or anybody that he was ill the earth itself did not signal the problem to me as it’s supposed to when something happens to a person you love. Maybe it did and I thought it was just “global warming.” I’m not sensitive enough. I left a message on his phone after he died. I had no idea.

As his intern, helping to publish the Cape May Geographic Society Annual Bulletin during the summers of 1990 – 1991, I counted otters and crabs, studied oysters and trees, and reported on an effort to monitor the quality of the water that Jonathan made sure we swam in absolutely every day. How was Jonathan’s last swim? Last in the lake? Last in the Atlantic? I am certain of how he relished those swims, whether he knew they were his last or not, as he swam all of them just that way.

My last swim with Jonathan was when he came to Japan with Liliya and Arseniy in 2002. We enjoyed ourselves to the fullest and I had been looking forward to the next chance ever since.

Here are some photos of that wonderful time:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ku...EvanMaslow

A sad irony with, perhaps, a bright side: As you might imagine, Jonathan and I had hoped eventually to derive some modest income from this site and related activities. To that end, we set up Amazon and Google advertising accounts.

Just today, Amazon notified me that they had, for the first time, deposited money into Jonathan's account for the site--a whopping $22.16. I don't have access to that account (and don't want it), but I do hope that Liliya does.

I'm almost positive, incidentally, that I generated that revenue myself by doing all of my Amazon shopping through this site (they hold the money until it's larger than $20).

Which brings me to the bright side: If Liliya does indeed keep that bank account active, and if all of Jonathan's friends would always do all of their Amazon shopping by coming here first and then using the Amazon search box on the home page, it could help Jonathan's family significantly.

And it costs you nothing; the Amazon prices and shipping are exactly the same as if you went to Amazon directly. Amazon pays the referral fee to this site out of their pocket.

Misha: Thanks for what you're doing. In this particular commenting software, the button above the text-entry box that looks like a globe creates two bracketed "url" tags. You put the actual URL between those tags to make it clickable.

And another link ... Sorry, Ralph, I can't figure out how to hyperlink those.

http://www.nj.com/columns/glou...xml&coll=8

Here is a new link to a more recent article from the Herald. The article features links to Jon's columns and a couple of photos. There are also several in memoriam comments from colleagues appearing after the article.

http://myheraldnews.com/view.h...int_this=1

Misha (or Ralph): Would you please hyperlink those links? Thanks.

Here are some links to pieces about Jon which may be of interest to others like me who are attempting to deal with this profound loss.

http://communitybridge.com/zz/...rview.html

http://www.yonigreenbaum.com/i...ns-a-loss/

I am infinitely greatful to those who have written here and elsewhere about Jon; thank you so very much. Your heartfelt words bring solace.

I was one JM's reporters at The Herald News. He was my hero. I once told my mother about him and she laughed, "You're talking about him as if he walked on water," she said.

He did.

Jonathan is immortalized in my heart forever. Every time some public official gives me an excuse why they can't tell me the truth or avoids answering my question, I'll think to myself: What would Jonathan do?

Every time some editor tells me my idea for a story isn't very good or doesn't sound like "news," I'll think to myself: What would Jonathan say?

Every time I can't think of what to write and it's 10 minutes to deadline, I'll remember Jonathan's quip: "Keep it short. Don't Overwrite!"

Every night when I see the Peruvian cleaning ladies pick up the old newspapers in our office, I'll remember how he took the time to acknowledge their presence and make them feel special with his soothing Spanish accent.

I think Jonathan was a throwback to the days when:

* using a typrewriter meant learning the art of pure writing first — so you didn’t have to do all that cutting and pasting that’s so easy now with computers.

* most people in America were just “getting along” economically and so money was not such a huge barometer of how well you were doing. What counted most was what you amounted to in character, not the amount you had in the bank. It’s no coincidence that pictures taken at Yankee stadium during the Great Depression show nearly everybody in a suit — probably the only one they owned in those hard times. It was the Average Joe saying “I may be broke, but I still have Class.” Jonathan cared a lot less about money than about projecting a classy persona.

* A time when schools emphasized composition, mostly hand-written, as well as book learning. You want to be Jonathan-esque wiggy brilliant and informed? Read, read, read, read. And then grow old and read some more. There’s no substitute for a lifetime of applied learning. Along the way you are bound to stumble upon an ideal, or two, or three, that you can embrace as a life mission. Which speaks to:

* The courage of conviction. Reading Jonathan’s obit, it’s clear he was crazy with conviction, to the point of habitually being willing to risk his life. I recall a soldier from World War II who spoke of his actions in combat, and when asked how he could have risked death continuously and not gone nuts, he said “Perhaps life was not as precious back then.” Indeed, not as precious as the principle you’re pursuing at the moment. Jonathan seemed a prime disciple of the concept.

* a time when orneriness was as unpleasant as it is today, but far more tolerated as part of mainstream character. Who did not have heated disagreements with Jonathan? But they were never the “Why do I need this extra BS” kind of disagreement. They were turf battles of the mind, and a twist on that Voltairism: “Lovers’ quarrels are a remanifestation of love” — meaning that whatever you were arguing with Jonathan about, it was something that was near-n-dear to both of you.

I knew Jonathan only briefly, but I hope I can offer some solace to others by saying that I recognized him instantly: The human being trying to live the human ideal. There’s lots of them out there. Make sure they’re a part of your life. Jonathan would be so honored to know his small life is being distilled as part of that pantheon. He’d be even more honored if each of us tried to join him there.

Thank you, Anna. I admired the pieces you wrote for Jon's blog before this site existed (and I imported them here). I can't express my sorrow, either. I always worked on this site in response to something Jonathan had done. Today I worked on it because he was gone. It's incomprehensible.

Thanks, Ralph, for writing this today. It has been a very bad 8 months, and it was good to read a written memorial to Jon after getting the news about him finally dying, from my friend Steven tonight. I knew Jon, originally, from Marlboro too. Jon and Licorice, one of the first dogs to wear a red bandanna.

Somehow, writing anything right now seems flat and inappropriate and I know I can't possibly express my sorrow, and yet this website meant so much to Jon, it seems like the right thing to do. Bye dear dear Jon. We love you so much. The world is a worse place without you in it.