Elliott Barry Mazur

Although we were not in regular contact, my cousin Elliott was a very important person in my life. He was so generous as to host me for a few weeks at his Mt. Washington home back in the late 1980s, when I as a wide-eyed 21 year old left Michigan for California, without clear plans and with all my belongings in my 1978 Buick. His unquestioning openness meant so much to me back then. Since I always viewed him as a happy, friendly outsider in the family, who didn't follow the expected middle-class professional or social conventions, I completely identified with him. He helped give me a perspective outside the norms of my upbringing. Even as I took that opening in a different direction than Elliott did, it was knowledge of his decisions that inspired me to seek more out of life than what I thought was expected. His example is something I will always hold dear.