Thinking of Bob on his birthday

February 15, 2019 would have been Bob Friedman’s 77th birthday.

Poking around old computer files, I came across this photo of the very young Hampton Roads team with the co-authors of HRPC’s second book, Tapping Into the Force, by Ann Miller and co-author Maxine Asher. This had to have been taken in Las Vegas, in 1990, where I attended my first ABA trade show.

From left, me, Maxine Asher, Ann Miller, Bob

For someone of his reach and influence, Bob was surprisingly modest about his potential abilities. I used to say to him, “Bob, you could contact anyone in the New Age movement with two phone calls,” which was no exaggeration but merely a statement of fact, but sometimes he seemed to doubt it. Yet look at his track record: Our very first book at Hampton Roads — the book that returned our capital and gave us enough money to get us going — was Linda Goodman’s 1,100-page novel in blank verse Gooberz. Our second, Tapping into the Force.

Whose personal interaction got those authors, if not Bob’s? Certainly not mine!

I can’t help wondering, for the actor whose last role was Bob Friedman, what’s next. Hard act to follow.

One thought on “Thinking of Bob on his birthday

Leave a Reply