Eulogy for a great guy who will be sorely missed

Marty Malin

Real geniuses don't need to tell people how smart they are.

Generally the folks who brag about their intellect -- as the "very stable genius" does -- are trying to make you believe they're something they're not.

I first met Marty Malin at Christmas 1994 when my sister Hilary brought him to Virginia to meet the family.

Before the decade was out, I had a brother-in-law and two nephews.

My sister is one of the smartest people I know, so it didn't surprise me when her two sons turned out to be gifted. Actually, incredibly gifted.


But while I knew my brother-in-law was smart, I didn't know how world-class smart he was until he died two weeks ago after an 18-month battle with bile duct cancer. I knew that when he and his family moved to Boston some years back, he was working for a big-time think tank. What I didn't know was that in 2007 he went to work for the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Hilary, Nathan, Jacob and Marty

Don't know that one?

It's part of the Kennedy School of Government.

Still not there?

It's part of Harvard University.

The Harvard?

Yes, the Harvard.

He didn't just work there, either. He was executive director of their Project on Managing the Atom, working with great minds in the field on nuclear terrorism, arms control and nuclear nonproliferation.

His colleagues posted their tributes to him on the Belfer Center website, and one of his colleagues said it best of all.

"It is not easy to be both brilliant and self-effacing at a place like Harvard, but Marty managed it."

The surfer

Of course there was more to him than that. Marty was born in San Diego and grew up in California, and he loved to surf, so much so that he kept longboards at his parents' home in San Diego and his own in Massachusetts.

When my younger brother Stephen went through a difficult divorce, Marty was there for him both to advise and to listen.

He never blinked when Hilary asked him if they could help take care of our mother once our dad died in 2008. She lived with them for 10 years and would likely be there still if he hadn't gotten sick.

It was 18 months ago my sister called to tell me Marty had Stage Four cancer and they were praying for a miracle. She may think that they didn't get it, but they had 18 months to say goodbye and that's pretty good.

He was just 59 when he died, leading us back once more to that old saying that only the good die young. I'm always reminded of the wonderful quote from the World War II era movie, "Since You Went Away."

Elderly Colonel Smollett has learned that his young grandson was killed in action at Salerno.

"The good die first. And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket."

If you believe, as I do, in an afterlife where we enjoy what we earned in life, I have to doubt where Marty is right now.

He's paddling to catch yet another wave, and they just keep getting bigger and better.

Miss you, dude.

Rest in peace.