AND AN OLD MAN

“And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father...” (Judges 8:32)

Yesterday, I posted the piece entitled, “JUST A YOUNG MAN”, and today I’m writing about an old man.  I was surprised and saddened to read in today’s MetroWest Daily News that Mal Schulze had passed away.  Mal was 75.  There was only one Mal Schulze!  He LOOKED like a bartender from the Bowery circa 1938!  Well, this is why we don’t go by looks!  Mal was actually a very wealthy man and a very intelligent man.  I think the first time I ever saw Mal Schulze was at a local Republican caucus in 1990.  (Lest anyone thinks I’m part of the inner circle of the Massachusetts Republican Party, I’m not!  That’s the only caucus I’ve ever attended.  It was held over in Holliston and I went as a supporter of Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Pierce.  Mal Schulze was there as an outspoken proponent of a “Bill Weld slate”.  As I recall, Steve Pierce prevailed in that caucus, but Bill Weld ultimately became the Republican nominee and was elected Governor.)

I used to see a LOT of Mal Schulze when I was active in a civic group called “Downtown Solutions” in the 1990s.  Again, the key word for Mal was “outspoken”.  He had no  qualms about rising to his feet and speaking his mind about this or that.  He was blunt, conservative, and anti property tax increases.  He “did not suffer fools gladly” as the saying goes.  

Sometime around 2001, Mal wrote a letter to the MetroWest Daily News that I strongly agreed with, and I wrote a personal letter to his home address thanking him.  Mal called me and we ended up getting together for lunch a couple of weeks later at the Cherry Blossom restaurant in Ashland.  Over delicious Chinese food, Mal told me his fascinating life story.  He’d lived on the west coast for a number of years and had made a lot of money in the computer field.  Mal was a Reform Jew, but pretty much a non-practicing one, although he loved when Temple Beth Am held candidates forums and events such as that.  I was surprised at that luncheon that Mal told me he’d just gone to a local meeting of the Democratic party, that he was all through with the Republicans, and that he’d voted for Ralph Nader for President.  Some months later, after I was one of a group a clergy who signed a politically motivated letter to the newspaper, I got a phone call from Mal Schulze.  He let me know he disapproved of my having signed the letter and that he was surprised I was supporting “Rabbi Don Splansky’s left wing agenda”.  (I really wasn’t supporting any left wing agenda, I just happened to be on the liberal side of THAT PARTICULAR issue- and right now I don’t even think it’s all that important to say what it was. Come to think of it...since I’m hesitant to tell you what it was, did Mal “get to me” on that phone call?  I guess he did!)

Mal very much wanted Framingham to become a City and abandon Town government.  He spearheaded the drive to get the City issue on the ballot in 1997.  I voted for Framingham to become a city, but unfortunately the proposal lost badly.  

I wasn’t real close to Mal.  I’d see him around Framingham once in awhile and we’d exchange “hellos” but that was about it.  I had no idea he was diagnosed with cancer in March.  I feel bad I never sent him a card or paid him a visit in his illness.  There will be an emptiness in Framingham political and social circles now that Mal is gone.