Friday, October 24, 2014

Tom Driscoll - Essex County Clerk of Courts

Posted by at

1 comment:

Anonymous said...


Mr. Healy was 66 and had “battled chronic severe depression for years, mostly controlled by medication, but exacerbated by alcohol,” she said in an e-mail to their friends two weeks ago.



A week ago, Balzo was going through papers on his desk and discovered a note on a legal pad: “JH memoir on depression: Can’t see the sun even in June. A lifetime of fighting — and beating — depression.”

“Sadly, Jerry didn’t beat it,” she said by e-mail Sunday evening.



As a teacher, he modeled himself after Charles Kingsfield, the Harvard Law professor portrayed by John Houseman in the film “The Paper Chase.” Mr. Healy addressed students formally, by honorific and last name, and insisted they stand while answering questions.



He saw himself as “the last line of defense” in preparing competent lawyers, said Robert V. Ward Jr., an attorney and former colleague at New England Law who also has served as dean of the University of Massachusetts School of Law. Only at graduation would Mr. Healy address his students informally.



“Graduates coming across the stage would be floored and talk about how great it was to have Professor Healy call them by their first name,” Ward said.



While teaching at New England Law, Mr. Healy began writing the Cuddy series. “I had two great careers and no life, so I had to choose between them,” he told J. Kingston Pierce for the January magazine interview.



Born in Teaneck, N.J., Jeremiah Francis Healy III shared with his father, and with his most famous fictional creation, a background serving as a military policeman.



He graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey and from Harvard Law School before becoming a trial attorney. After turning to novels, he served as president of the Private Eye Writers of America and president of the International Association of Crime Writers.



His marriage to Bonnie M. Tisler ended in divorce. Living with Mr. Healy, “every day was a learning experience,” she said. “He couldn’t stop teaching.” Or researching. Mr. Healy marked up newspapers with a red Flair pen, clipping potential ideas for stories and plots and filing them for future use.



Mr. Healy struggled with clinical depression that had been debilitating in the past, and which surfaced powerfully in late spring this year. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Balzo, who added that Mr. Healy used to say: “When you’re fully depressed, you look in the mirror and you don’t see yourself. You see depression leering back saying, ‘I’ve got you.’ ” “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I’ve come to the realization that this wasn’t about Jerry leaving me or leaving all of us,” she said. “This was about Jerry finding his peace.”

November 8, 2014 at 12:50 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)