In the late 1970s, soon after I made the transition from public philanthropy to private, Richard Grossman came to see me. Instead of bringing a proposal for funding, he brought a poem. The poem was a scandalous epic, as he called it, featuring the outlandish antics of several of my colleagues – by name. Richard implied that I could avoid being included in the next iteration of the poem if I would just hand over some money and not require something as pedestrian as a proposal.
My dear friend Harriet tells me that Richard died a few days ago. As Harriet pointed out, there's a respectful obituary in the Washington Post; good for them. For once.
For those of you who inexplicably have been sending blog-related e-mails calling me a “curmudgeon,” not to mention that flimsy friend who compared me to Andy Rooney: my role model in cranky-tude was certainly Richard Lee Grossman. And I say this with the greatest of affection. I suspect Richard’s basic belief was that there is nothing unserious about injustice and suffering. I was never in his presence without being exposed to his outrage, which always included me as an object as well as a subject, if you know what I mean.
I think Richard believed there was something pro-social about being irate at actions and above all corporations he considered to be misbehaving or wrong. I always felt like Richard’s younger brother–he was two years older than me. I too don't think the world needs that much more happy talk; instead, I suspect we could all benefit from a bit of outrage. If you're reading my blog, you're at least slightly tolerant of this point of view, for which I thank you profusely, on my behalf, and that of my sensei Richard.
The other thing I want to tell you about Richard is that aside from the various organizations he founded or worked for in his long career, he was associated with 3 expressions of activism that epitomize what a person could do to make the world a better place. First, he was at the Highlander Center in Tennessee, the place I heard about from my mom when I was a kid, the place where “We Shall Overcome” was written/promulgated, and the place where some of the finest social changers of the 20th century - not the least of which was my late wife Mary J Harrington – hung out in rocking chairs on the porch, and received training in how to be agents of worthy progress.
Richard subsequently became executive director of Greenpeace. One is tempted to add: back when Greenpeace was Greenpeace. There was a time when that organization represented the actual front edge of social change work–that wasn't based on social class or ethnicity–in the world. And Richard ran the place. Or tried to.
Recently, Richard was advising Occupy Wall Street. I don't know the details of that relationship, but I’m not surprised this is how Richard spent his last days. I can only imagine that for OWS Richard was a respected and also enigmatic figure–at least I hope he was.
I may be a curmudgeon, but I hope I'm not maudlin in this blog. I'm mentioning Richard Grossman to you not to inflict my sadness, but rather to share a little bit of this fine man's life–and his example to us all.