Dorothy Stier 1930-2016

My mother came of age in a unique time for women. She went to college at the end of the World War II when, largely in response to the fear of unemployment on the return of servicemen from the war, women were being strongly encouraged to limit themselves to the role of homemaker. And that was perhaps especially true for college educated women. Working class women, even then, often had to work. But as the middle class expanded in the post-war years, the middle class idea of marriage became ever stronger.Ā So women like my mother were encouraged by parents, like my grandparents, who tremendously valued education, to get a very good education. And they were then encouraged to stay at home with their children rather than enterĀ the work world. Despite some appearances, my mother never really fit that mold. She worked almost her entire life. She was a telephone operatorā€¦ Continue reading

Shopping

My wife and I have two totally different approaches to food shopping. I make a list, go in and get what’s on the list, and am out of the coop in no more than 15 minutes. She has a list, too. But then she looks at what else is on the shelves. She compares products. She seeks out new products. She asks when something is not on the shelves. She consults with the staff about products and their alternatives. She shops as if she were in a hardware store! Continue reading

Lost and Found at the Polo Grounds

The Times has a nice story about the early Mets today. And itā€™s especially nice for me on the first anniversary of my father’s death. One of my earliest memories is him taking me to the Polo Grounds in 1962 or 1963. I don’t remember much about the game except the great name of the Mets’ catcher, Choo-Choo Coleman. And I remember how green everything seemed to be from the stands to the field.

And there was a brief momentā€”probably no more than ten seconds that felt like ten hours to meā€”when we got separated in the crowd after the game. Iā€™ll never forget the enormous relief I felt when he grabbed my hand and I looked up to see him.

He could always make me feel safe. And that’s perhaps the most important thing any parent can do for their child.

Noted attorney Larry Stier dead at 83–Sullivan County Democrat

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 By Kathy Daley LIBERTYā€”Lawrence Stier graduated from the best law school in the nation but he didnā€™t flaunt it and those he encountered wouldnā€™t have guessed it. ā€œLarry was friendly, warm and low-key, so most people had no idea he graduated from Harvard Law School,ā€ said local attorney Garry Greenwald. ā€œHe was a superb attorney, very, very bright, a fabulous judge and a decent man,ā€ Greenwald noted. You could tell when had to sentence someone to jail that it was difficult for him. But he knew that he had to apply the law.ā€ Stier, age 83, of Liberty died Sunday morning of complications from cancer. Continue reading

Modeling activism: a eulogy for my father

This is a little longer version of the eulogy I gave for my father at his funeral today. I think he would have liked it although I can hear his voice saying, “It’s too long.” I want to tell you some things about my fatherā€™s life. But, before I do, I want to say something about how he died. As most of you know, he had been sick with pancreatic cancer since May. Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease for which there is no cure. Death usually comes very quickly. My father lived almost ten months. He had two different rounds of chemotherapy. The first round seemed to have slowed the disease for a time but ultimately stopped working. The second round worked for a while, too, but then he had a bad reaction to it. That, and the spread of the disease, is probably what weakened him so muchā€¦ Continue reading

My father and the rally for Wisconsin workers

There is a rally for Wisconsinā€™s workers this week in Philly. Please join labor and other organizations including Penn ACTION to stand up for labor on Thursday 2/24/11 @ 11:30 PM at Thomas Paine Plaza in front of the Municipal Services Building across from Philadelphia City Hall. I won’t be there because my father died on Sunday and i’m with my family in upstate New York. But I’ve been thinking about how much my father benefited from public services that are now under attack and how much he was able to contribute to the public good because of those benefits. My father was able to go to college and law school because of the GI Bill. That education made it possible for him to provide for his family and also to dedicate himself to working with community organizations that built a regional hospital and a synagogue / community center. Heā€¦ Continue reading

Growing up in a Catskills resort hotel

                    This is a long post, about 7000Ā words. It might be easier to download and print out the pdf version. Introduction One of the last times I walked on the grounds of the hotel my family ownedā€”Stierā€™s Hotelā€”was about twenty years ago when I took my wife and some cousins to see it. That was also about fifteen years after we sold the hotel. At the time, our hotel still functioned as a hotel, although much had changed and it was owned by Hasidic Jews. They day we showed up was Shabbos and I was reluctant to walk onto the grounds. So we just stood at one of the gates and looked in. Soon a young boy, probably no more than 12 or 13, came up to us and asked who we are. I told him who I was and heā€¦ Continue reading

A eulogy for my grandfather, Frank Stier

What I’m thinking about at any one time tends to be massively over-determined, for good or ill. In the last few days I’ve been thinking about the elderly. (I hate the term senior citizens). Partly this is because I’ve been doing a lot of health care events with old folks. Partly it is because my mother-in-law had a stroke last week and I’ve been talking with daughterĀ about grandparents and what they mean to us. And partly its because Ted Kennedy just died andĀ I think of him, as I thought of my grandparents, as someone who passedĀ  a political and moral tradition on to me, not in theory but in practice. I’m a political philosopher and I believe in the importance of theory and reason in politics. But I’ve always believed that myĀ  fundamental commitments come from some place deeper than theoretical reasons, from a way of life that is exemplifiedā€¦ Continue reading