I want to thank all of you for participating in this celebration of life.
I have enjoyed a wonderful life.
I am living in the promised land. To be surrounded by friends in Sarasota is as good as it gets.
Let me share some other good news!
I am overjoyed that to date my colon cancer has not returned.
What could be more wonderful than celebrating my good health with friends?
Secondly, I wanted to thank my family for coming to this event. Every one of them traveled great distances.
I am very grateful for their sacrifice.
My wonderful sister, Joella, flew in from Seattle.
Her significant other, bill, came from North Carolina. Bill will be giving a prayer at our Coming Together Against Cancer event
My daughter Elle, her husband Yorgo, and my fantastic grandson, Aristides, flew in from Los Angeles.
My daughter Michele came from Washington D.C.
In a few weeks Michele is traveling to Uruguay where she plans to work for the next few years.
My sister-in-law Liz and her significant other Bill came from Cleveland.
And my nephew Dan, his wife Stacy, and their children Molly and Jack flew in from Connecticut.
I also want to recognize my cousins Laurie and Andy Werlin. Both of them came from San Francisco to celebrate my birthday.
Laurie has performed a special duty. That is, this wonderful cheese display is a function of her hard work.
It is hard for me to put in perspective my life.
I would like at this time to pay special respect to my fantastic parents.
My late brother, herb, summed up our feelings several years ago when he noted that my parents were self-made.
My parents worked tirelessly to enlarge our horizons beyond our native Texas.
Let me share with you one example
At a time when 10% of Americans attended college and very few college students studied abroad, my brother, my sister and i all attended oxford university.
My parents’ accomplishments were extraordinary.
To honor their memory, we established a faculty award for my father at the university of Houston in 2004.
In 1967 we had previously established the joseph and rosella Werlin scholarship in their honor.
This scholarship recognizes outstanding sociology students at the university of Houston.
More than 100 students have received these scholarships.
Because my dad needed to support his family, he dropped out of high school.
Despite the uphill battle of educating himself, my father ultimately earned a Ph.D. at the university of Chicago at the height of the great depression.
Dad was a founding professor at the university of Houston and chairman of their sociology department.
My mother was the first woman to head the publicity department of a major city, Galveston, Texas.
She was a pioneering journalist. In the course of her career she interviewed Golda Meier, Jack Dempsey, and Al Capone.
To mom’s credit at the age of 80 she waited for more than an hour to interview Henry Kissinger, who failed to keep his appointment.
Possibly, Mr. Kissinger will keep his appointment in the afterlife.
Because of mom’s love of journalism and her admiration for Ernie Pyle, my real name is Ernie Pyle Werlin. Ernie Pyle was the most beloved journalist during World War II.
My parents were indeed accomplished, loving, and supportive.
As we all know, parents who believe in us are the keystone for success.
Several years ago, some 55 years after the death of my father and 40 years after the death of my mother, the Jewish historical society of Texas wrote articles about them.
I brought a framed copy of these articles tonight in recognition of my on-going love for them. For my part I have tried hard to fulfill my parent’s ambition.
In that pursuit I believe that I have displayed loyalty, integrity, philanthropy, and empathy. In some ways, the Eloise Werlin Park that I created in my late wife’s memory attests to these virtues.
Sadly, only a few of you got to meet Eloise. She was indeed a very special person.
While not long enough, Eloise and I were married for 40 years until her death in 2011.
In closing, I just want to emphasize how fortunate I feel that all of you are part of my life.
For me friendships are the ultimate scoreboard in evaluating a person’s success.
