photo credit: Joel Washing
Tim was only eight years older than I am. A wonderful life cut short. Career-wise, he was a man at the pinnacle of his game, “a man in full” as they say. But as Peggy Noonan points out in her WSJ article, it was not his fame or success that earned him the most praise over the last week since his passing, it was his humanness, the fact that despite his fame, not because of it, he managed to connect with people.
He remained who he was.
He remained true to himself. One point I would add to what Peggy said was, unlike many who achieve fame, he was not ashamed of the very humble roots from which he came, in fact, he embraced and celebrated his upbringing in Buffalo, not in a way of saying, “I’m better than that now”, no, he was genuinely proud of his dad and was moved to write a couple of books about fatherhood. He never tried to hide from his roots, he was not embarrassed by his parents.
He enjoyed a very close relationship with both his parents and his son. That is what people marveled at, that one so successful, one who had risen so far, managed to remain at his core a decent human being, managed to strengthen the ties of blood.
He was a good man. He came from good people. His son turned out to be a good kid.
I ask you, does it get any better than this?
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I never agreed with any of russert’s political views but there definitely was something different about the guy. He had so many stories to share too and he always looked like he was excited to talk about politics and family.
Informative post. Thanks to share such great thought.