In Memoriam

I'm sorry to not have our regularly scheduled program, but it's a day of remembrance for the Willow Ridge diaspora:

Obituary

Robert Irwin Ganz

August 12, 1946 - June 29, 2021

Born in New York, NY to Louis and Florence Ganz and raised on Long Island. He is survived by his wife Jo Ann, daughters Nicole (Jackson) and Jacqueline (Matthew), grandsons Levi and Milo, nephews Adam and Omar and niece Bethany.

In his early career, Bob manufactured coats with his mother and father in New York City. A place that pulsed through him his entire life, with pinochle and disco nights that bled into the mornings, a basketball game that spanned forty years and counting, and the eternal magic of meeting the love of his life, Jo. Later he worked in real estate which provided the flexibility to work from home. His world revolved around his wife and his girls. He most prided himself on being an ever available Dad, coaching every team, reading every paper, dancing in the living room and never missing the little moments. When his girls moved west, Bob and Jo followed to Westlake Village, California so together, as a growing family, they could continue family dinners, summer pool days, sunsets over the Topa Topa Mountains and all of the little moments he so cherished through all of their earlier years.

Family was the center of his world and friendships were as valued. An avid golfer, he loved his years at Willow Ridge and all the camaraderie on the course. Bob was a man who made life long friends at every juncture of his journey. If you met him and he liked you, you knew it, and easily could have known it thirty, forty, fifty years later. Bob lived with enthusiasm for each day, and never wasted a minute. He believed in living one’s life by the golden rule.

Services will be held at 10am on Friday, July 16, 2021 at Hawthorne Funeral Home, 21 West Stevens Avenue, Hawthorne, NY 10532. Burial to follow at Sharon Gardens Cemetery, Valhalla, N.Y. The family will be sitting shiva on Friday, July 16th and Sunday, July 18th in the afternoons.

Bob was a big supporter of The Fresh Air Fund in New York. Donations may also be made to The Neurology Department at Montefiore Medical Center/ Albert Einstein School of Medicine where he was gifted more time.

Bob and Jo became dear friends of ours during our time at Willow Ridge, and the loss is profound.  My favorite story involves a match that Theresa and Jo played before they moved West.  I went out to watch the finish to the match, but wanted to stay out of Theresa's line of sight, so I ducked under the overhanging deck.  Who do I run into there but Bob, doing exactly the same for his bride, and we watched the conclusion of our girls' match together, with much hugging to follow.

Readers who have been along for the full ride might remember recurring references to Maggot, a nickname pinned on Bob by a golf buddy long before we met which, to his credit, Bob embraced and wore  proudly.

Without Bob's encouragement, this blog would likely not exist.  I had shared some of my early golf writing with Bob, and he encouraged me to do more, including my first foray in to blogging from Ballyliffin, Ireland.  I would come home from a day on the links and find an e-mail from Bob with his reaction to that morning's post, often under a header along the lines of "Love the verbiage". 

We have a sad day ahead of us and I simply don't have regular blogging in me, notwithstanding the fact that I think Bob would want the show to go on.  Not to worry, Bob, the show will indeed go on.... Just not today, which is devoted to Jo and your beautiful family.

R.I.P.