The rabbi said an ancient Jewish legend holds that there are always 36 people who sustain the world and its people.
"Their identity is unknown to the rest of us - and sometimes the individuals themselves do not know they are one of the 36," Rabbi Dena Feingold said at the memorial service for long-time newspaper industry leader Howard Brown. "But I always thought that Howard perhaps could have been one of the 36."
I'd never heard of the legend, but I could believe that if there are 36 such people, Howard was one of them.
Everywhere he went, Howard brought kindness and added cheer. He sustained all who knew him -- through encouragement, compliments, financial support or other sustenance.
Howard, president of United Communications and retired president of the Kenosha News, died April 29 at the age of 87 just a month after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.
I last saw Howard at a newspaper conference in Florida in late February. We toured a beautiful museum in St. Petersburg erected to Salvador DalÃ. Howard seemed hale and hearty, and full of whimsical quips about the artwork. It was stunning that he could die just two months later.
Some 900 people attended his memorial service May 4 at Carthage College on the shorefront of Lake Michigan in Kenosha. City buses were used to bring mourners to the memorial service. "This huge crowd is a testament to the many lives he touched," said his daughter, Amy Brown Tuchler.
Howard served in a combat unit the U.S. Army in France during World War II, before returning to complete his undergraduate degree at Princeton and earn a masters at Columbia.
He was an old-school journalist and publisher. He traveled the world in 1948 and 1949, reporting on events in Greece, Israel, India and China for the Chicago Sun-Times. He then worked as a reporter and editor for papers in Cleveland, Middletown, New York, and the Ottaway newspaper group. He purchased the Kenosha (Wis.) News in 1961, and later acquired daily newspapers in Attleboro, Mass., and Watertown, S.D. His company also owned several TV stations, weekly newspapers and the digital publishing company Media Innovations.
The many honors he received included the Inland Press Association's Ralph Casey Award for industry leadership and service, and the Golden Shovel Award from the International Newsmedia Marketing Association. At his death, he was INMA's longest-serving member.
Usually, he dressed in wingtips, coat and tie with a matching handkerchief in his coat pocket. But he liked to ride motorcycles, and he told his employees to call him Uncle Howard rather than Mr. Howard. When they told him of his grim prognosis with cancer, he responded: "It will be difficult, but it will be interesting."
Howard sustained people. Once, when I was a fledging entrepreneur in Montana, he told me that if I needed $1 million for any project, he was good for it. "If you need another million, I'll have to ask my board."
I never asked him for anything but his friendship, which he always gave fully. "Enjoy life," he always would advise me and all his many friends. "Life is interesting. Be of good cheer."
The world will miss Howard Brown. I know he helped sustain so many of us. I can believe he was one of the 36.
