I met Michael in Los Angeles when my firm consulted on his retirement plan. I was an actuary while Michael was in many ways a scientist himself, so to a degree we hit it off. As much as anything else, he was an idea man—the world interested him and he did his best to figure things out. I remember thinking at the time that his books were written by committee. Something, somewhere, somehow, would trigger a thought or an idea that intrigued him. He would then hire a team of young researchers to whom he would assign various tasks. Once completed, he utilized the findings in whatever book he was constructing. Although I never much cared for the writing quality of the finished product—something I never felt necessary to tell Michael—I was amazed by the process and especially by his energetic quest for answers. To put it simply, he was fun to be around.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw him. I was visiting Michael’s business manager in an office on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. I heard someone coming down the hall, looked up from my chair and saw his six-foot-nine frame fill the doorway. He smiled, held out his hand to me, and told me he “really wanted to figure this pension plan crap out.” I hope I helped him do so.
His was a unique talent. His search for understanding taught us all many things we didn’t even know we needed to learn. He will be missed by those who knew him, and by those who will never learn what else he had up his long sleeves.
