Tuesday, May 7, 2013
(----¶1----) Dorene, Thuy Linh ("Twee") and I were saddened to learn Carolyn Peet passed away. She played such an important part in our lives - one we've missed a lot since her stroke. She was more than the world's best office administrator and mother hen. She was a dear personal friend and extended member of our crazy-quilt family.
(----¶2----) The first gift my daughter, now fifteen, received after her adoption from Vietnam was a rocking horse elephant, Ganesh, that trumpeted obnoxiously when you squeezed its floppy ears. Twee caught sight of Ganesh the moment she entered our apartment (Carolyn left it with a bow in the center of our living room) and our daughter knew at once it was hers - her first genuine possession. She climbed aboard and rocked and trumpeted until all the neighbors arrived to see about the commotion. Carolyn was thoughtful that way. She had an instinct for what would delight our still-reluctant daughter and how best to announce her arrival to our neighbors. Ganesh occupies a position of honor in our apartment, the last of many childhood toys. We would not get rid of it for the world.
(----¶3----) Carolyn and I met at Stern Stewart & Co., a then tiny management consulting firm with two overbearing egomaniacs as its founders. Carolyn set up and coordinated all their appointments, took shorthand dictation of their endless ramblings, and somehow translated their tirades into pearls of brilliance for Forbes, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal. She had an instinct for that too - making warring blowhards sound not only sensible, but immensely intelligent.
(----¶4----) I probably hired Carolyn for that reason when I formed my own firm. We would have been helpless without her. She handled everything - workers' compensation, income tax, UBT and sales tax filings in multiple jurisdictions, partner correspondence, partner coddling, cold calls, and, as at Stern Stewart, furnishing an immense amount of solid business judgment. She made us look a lot smarter and more professional than we were. And she kept the troops, our young associates and analysts, mollified and motivated (they had egos too). There were many times after I gave up running my own firm and joined a large multinational, when I wished Carolyn had come along with me. There was so much we gained by having her around.
(----¶5----) I became really sick in 1997, working from home or the hospital for the better part of a year. Most of my employees panicked - jumped en masse to a Big-Six consulting firm. But Carolyn stuck by. I'll never forget that. We had three strong years before I finally closed shop. It was during one of those years that Dorene and I concluded the only way we could have a child was to adopt one. Carolyn became our daughter's surrogate aunt. Thenceforth Carolyn was "family." She attended my grandmother's ninetieth birthday bash in Tortola (British Virgin Islands) and each of her mini-birthday bashes thereafter until her final one at age 95. Carolyn was not fond of being photographed. Otherwise, we would have hundreds of photos. She was at each of my daughter's birthday parties and most of mine - small affairs with just immediate family and of course Carolyn. She celebrated New Year's Eve with us and the running of the New York Marathon (our apartment overlooked the festivities). Carolyn was always there - my daughter's adopted auntie.
(----¶6----) Carolyn had a marvelous tiny studio on East 72nd Street. Dorene and Twee would stop there after school was dismissed. She attended East Side Middle School, then on East 79th Street. The four of us would rendezvous at a sidewalk cafe behind Carolyn's building and gaze up at the townhouse that belonged to the late William F. Buckley and his wife, Patricia, wondering what scion of the press would inhabit it next, enjoying a glass of wine and hors d'oeuvres. Carolyn enjoyed a good glass of wine … or sherry. She cooked us a marvelous dinner of roast salmon, French green beans and wild rice just days before her stroke. The cheese was Stilton. It was always Stilton. I wish I could recall the label on the wine. It paired beautifully with the salmon. Carolyn had an instinct for that too. I imagine she paired the Stilton with a port, but it might also have been a burgundy. Carolyn would be able to tell me. And then I could repeat the pairing at a business dinner and look brilliant. Carolyn had an instinct for helping us that way. Dorene, Thuy Linh and I miss Carolyn greatly.
(----¶7----) Please accept our deepest sympathy and condolences.
