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December 10, 2006

Jerry Shattner

Today, my friend Michael buried his father, Jerry Shattner.

The year I transferred to Northwestern (sophmore year), the first thing I did was get involved in a show. Well, that's not true, the first thing I did was audition and get completely rejected from all the shows. The second thing I did was apply for assistant stage manager on the Dolphin Show, which that year was Meet Me in St. Louis. And that was the beginning of so much. Blowing that audition and ending up backstage was the beginning of my love for the business side of theater. Doing that show was also the beginning of some amazing friendships - friendships that remain strong, reliable and the source of much laughter on a regular basis to this day.

One of those friends is Michael. We were fast friends, and I continued my habit of wanting to date my best male friends. Michael resisted for a while, then gave in. We dated that fall through maybe early Spring, and then Michael broke it off. We of course did the "let's just be friends" thing and I of course agreed b/c I was cleary still all about dating him. Right before finals, he confessed to me that he'd been seeing one of our other friends in the tight knit group. Those who lived through it, or saw the award winning play later written about the year and a half of drama that ensued, know that the story is too involved to be relevant here (though it's good, so if you don't know it, ask me about it over a drink sometime). The relevancy is that through the greek tragedy-like summer, the Dawson/Joey-like fall, the Harry Met Sally NY's Eve scene-like Christmas come full circle to the "let's see other people" that inevitably comes when a senior (me) is in a long distance relationship with someone who's already graduated, Michael and I went through a lot together. The range and intensity of emotion wove us into each others lives in a way that neither time nor distance will ever undo. If that makes sense.

Needless to say, I met and spent time with his family. One of the things that we bonded about was the fact that we both came from close, strong families. Michael's dad was brilliant. But, in like, that you'd never know it if you didn't know it way. He wasn't nerdy, quiet, head-down brilliant, he was like, I can build you a computer from scratch and work my way around a cocktail party brilliant. One of the things that immediately comes to mind when I think about Michael's dad is the MONSTER remote control he built for their house. I want to say there was one for upstairs and one for the basement. He had constructed this panel from which you could control everything in the house. And I mean everything. And this was in 1994. I was still way into theatre at that time, hadn't even started to become the web/tech/gadget geek that I am today. In hindsight, I'm pretty sure that was the first time that I found technology that cool, that I saw such a practical application. And while Michael told me at the time, it wasn't until technology was a daily part of my life years later that I truly grasped just what a technology and engineering rock star Michael's dad was. Like, SERIOUS. Al Gore started the internet WHATEVER.

While I only saw Michael's dad twice over the past 10 years, I've told the story about those remotes countless times, and I've thought of him when I see particularly rock star tech applications. And more than a few times it's crossed my mind how much of a mentor he would have been to me had Michael and I stayed together and had my career taken the course it did - though who knows if it would have. Regardless, in all this reflection surrounding his death, it seems possible to me that his brief entry into my life helped "turn on" the part of me that led me down that path. Which makes me smile.

He was only 61, and he wasn't ill. He had a massive heart attack while on business in Vegas. Not just in imagining it happening to me, but because of what a vibrant force his dad was, I can't imagine the emotion his family is dealing with right now - and will deal with for some time to come. If you pray, or send good vibes, or whatever it is you do, please take a moment to consider them and send healing and comforting thoughts their way.

Jerry Shattner. The original technology rock star.

Posted by nikl at December 10, 2006 09:17 PM

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