OBITUARY: Tony Savage, R.I.P.(Obituary)

The news came as a bolt, in mid morning. Tony Savage had been taken to the hospital the day before and there suffered a humiliating day and night of seizures and hemorrhages of different kinds and died early the next morning. His fianc?e had tried hard to get him to go off to be treated for his alcoholism. She failed, and he failed.

Tony was born on March 11, 1944, attended Rock Springs (Wyoming) High School, and graduated from the Journalism School at the University of Missouri. He came to New York as an aspirant actor, and as most actors did and do, took part-time work; after a few years, this became full- time, with only occasional appearances on screen.

I knew him since the late Sixties when he came to National Review as a typist and archivist. His files of his boss's material were copious, stored with infinite attention to detail -- at which he excelled -- on his computer, and using his palette he produced imaginative and colorful sketches, which he several times exhibited in book shops and art galleries.

His twin passions were softball and people. He could not do enough for his friends, whom he appreciated, egged on, and poured out his affection for in memorandum after memorandum. He referred to me, always, as "Godfather," a formality that recorded an avuncular relationship (he was, always, "Godson" in my replies). He prided himself, justifiably, on his mastery ...