Andrew Makowsky

April 2004

In my earliest memories of Andy, perhaps from the second grade, I can see him flipping baseball cards against a red brick wall at South Mountain Elementary, so full of life and infectious enthusiasm. He seemed to know everything and how to do everything. Each ballplayer was discussed and the value of every card declared with great assuredness. This confidence and infield like chatter extended to his actually playing short stop with great aplomb, a fanatic fan of Phil Rizzuto. I was on first base. But most magically he had the enviable position of being the soda jerk at our local ice cream parlor with the power to make up any glorious sundae one would want.

Andrew’s love of the world was boundless and his unbridled enthusiasm for collecting and knowing what was best continued through many progressive stages in his life. In junior high there was suddenly his huge collection of books on the Second World War, soon to be followed by his collection of war medals. But the most magnificent of these collection obsessions was in the field of classical music. We both began to collect classical highlights sold at the A&P Supermarket and then there was no stopping. In high school we fell in love with Bach and Mozart and Andy even a little more with Italian opera. He had a wonderful ability to mimic singers and carry a tune and often uninhibitedly demonstrated his voice to his gleefully giggling friends.

I remember taking the bus into New York on school nights with him to sit in the old Metropolitan Opera House and hear singers who today are mythic. He even pushed our way into the dressing rooms of some of the most famous.

After high school our love and friendship flourished. We so enjoyed spending hours together listening to a new recording or a piece of music just discovered. We really sat and listened and discussed what we heard, how a composer was structuring the music, what the qualities of the instrumentation were. But, most importantly, beyond this sharing was the goodness and openness of his heart and the depth of trust one could have with him as a friend. He was immaculate in his tenderness.

Andrew loved to be the host to beauty and quality for others and to feel that he was presenting the best. As his love and interest in cinema increased, he began managing a number of the most important repertory and art house movie theaters in New York. Soon after he married and had two girls to whom he was extremely dedicated. About that time I moved to San Francisco.

Over the years and especially toward the end of his tragically short life, I would visit. His health was not good but he was cheerful through the most extreme difficulties. His marriage began to fall apart and soon he was living again on his own in an apartment in the West Village. Whenever I saw him, in a moment, all time fell away. The depth and warmth of his heart and our presence together through our lifetime of knowing one another overwhelmed the moment and all else seemed a little dim.

~ Nathaniel Dorsky (Nick)