Bob Tashman, 53

Our friend Bob Tashman passed away last Saturday. The blog will be offline while we attend the funeral in Chicago. Bob was a good friend, and I'm taking the liberty of republishing his obituary from today's Chicago Tribune:

Bob Tashman, age 53, loving cousin of Barbara (David ) Weinstock, Robert (Mary Kelly) Mindell, Benjamin (Delia O'Hara) Mindell; dear friend of Nina Brodsky, Larry Jarvik, Nancy Strickland, Doron Weber, Steven Wasserstein, Nancy Heneson, Elena Brunet, Gary Gerstle, Jacob Epstein, Catherine Tice and Claude Cazzulino. Services Wednesday, 11 a.m., at Chicago Jewish Funerals Chapel, 195 N. Buffalo Grove Rd. (one block North of Lake Cook Rd.), Buffalo Grove. Interment Sunset Memorial Lawns. Memorials in his name to Pan CAN, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245, or the charity of your choice would be appreciated. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals, 847-229-8822, www.cjfinfo.com

He had an illustrious early career after graduating from Brown (BA in History) and Columbia (MA in Philosophy). Bob had worked as Salman Rushdie's editor, an editor at the New York Review of Books, and an editor of Granta. He was a true "highbrow," a cultured intellectual and music lover, who took us to Shostakovich's late quartets at the Ravinia Festival, performed by the Emerson String Quartet, when we visited Chicago last year. Bob died from pancreatic cancer, a terrible disease with no known cure--I hope some readers of this blog might join in contributing to PanCan, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, in his memory.