RIP Admiral James Stockdale

A bit of context -- this is actually very personal and saddening news for me. Yes, all anyone seems to remember is That Fucking 1992 Vice-Presidential Debate (and then Phil Hartman, I think, following on with the parodies), and nobody seems to want to recall that his hearing aid *was* acting up, dammit. But as I just said in a formal letter elsewhere, my reasons for remembering him transcend all of that:

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My family was privileged to live across the street from the Admiral in Coronado, California for many years (the TV biopic on his life, since it was partially shot on location, shows our old house in the background of some shots). I was too young to truly know him well, but my parents treated him with the utmost respect and friendliness and raised me to make sure I did as well. In turn his kindness and uprightness was always apparent, and I regret not getting to know him better, though a simple moment when he crossed the street to ask me while I was mowing if my father was available sticks in my mind -- mundane, perhaps, but surely for him after his war experiences one of many miniature blessings.

I'll always remember 1992 not for the debate -- my sister remembers getting a bit angry with college classmates who all assumed the Admiral was somehow senile or somesuch nonsense -- but for his attendance at my father's own retirement ceremony from the Navy, both a kindness and mark of approval my father was quite moved by. Unless I have the story wrong, on Election Day that year the two of them walked down to their voting station together, and I would have loved to have been there for that conversation.

RIP indeed to an intelligent man of incalculable strength and will -- but above all else, truly a good person.