Leonard “LENNEM” Nemerovski (1925-2004)

Leonard “LENNEM” Nemerovski (1925-2004)

My father, Leonard, died quietly at home yesterday, July 2, in Wilmette, Illinois, after many downs and ups with heart disease. He was a huge influence on me, my family, and hundreds of friends and associates.

Dad had a strong, idiosyncratic personality, complete with humor and quirky traits that will outlive him in our memories and anecdotes. He involved himself vigorously in the lives of his family and business clients, to the advantage of everyone.

A lawyer by education, Leonard entered the family’s small Chicago insurance business, where he remained, eventually working solo from home, until he died. His clients became his friends, and vice versa. Volunteer pursuits led Leonard into leadership roles in the Chicago area, with highlights being years of supervising a summer camp, plus more years of assisting Russian refugee resettlement.

Dad played golf and tennis with enthusiasm if not skill. He helped his three children, and then his seven grandchildren, with homework and personal development projects. He had a strong, traditional marriage to my mother, and very different relationships with each of his two brothers.

When I returned to Chicago after five years in England, in 1977, Dad was already using a funky personal computer for basic word processing and spreadsheets. He eventually progressed through the Windows family from Win 3.1 through 95, 98, and XP. Learning the computer was difficult for Leonard, because the fundamentals were less important than what he wanted to accomplish.

Dad was the first person I knew on the Internet, meaning Prodigy and America Online ten years ago. He taught me a little about computing, and I taught him a lot, especially the bizarre way AOL defines itself in relationship to the rest of the computer, and more recently, how to turn trash images into treasure using Photoshop Elements 2.

One month ago, at my Mom’s 80th birthday party, Dad insisted we buy and begin using a small Nikon digital camera. Our final activity together before going out dinner with the family was cropping and improving some of the Nikon’s first photos, plus a couple more from his grandsons that arrived via email.

After dinner I played guitar and all ten of us sang and danced in the living room of their apartment, as the light faded across Lake Michigan out the window to the east. That was the last time Dad was himself before a month of illness and struggle.

Dad left behind several unpublished stories, some more complete than others. I’ll edit them during the summer and prepare them for publication, so we all can experience the creative side of “Lennem.”

Hospice of the North Shore assisted at the end, once his doctors acknowledged Leonard’s medical decline. Now we family members are preparing to gather in that same living room as we join in tears and laughter to remember our father, husband, brother, grandpa, and great-grandpa.

Bye, Dad. You were a real character, a tremendous force of personality and motivation, helping and encouraging me to be who I am. You’ll be alive in my memory as long as I live, and hundreds of other people feel the same about you. Thanks, and love from John.