Dear Karen,

…I wanted to send the enclosed note to your son, so that he can be reminded now and always of what a special person your husband was to so many people, even those of us who did not know him as well as we might have liked.

Dear Zach,

Even today, fifteen years later I can still smell the burning bread and melting cheese and hear your father call out for someone to put some coins into the nearby laundry machines for him. Every girl in the bagel bar jumped at the opportunity because each of us had a not very secret crush on Rch. I can still taste his special bagel concoctions, nobody ever before or since has had such a magic touch with the toaster. In his Berkeley Bagel Bar, Rch Lee was King; especially to those of us who ventured underground nightly for this much needed nourishment. It is not an exaggeration to say that your father’s cooking kept the rest of us happy, healthy and sane.

And I can just as vividly recall the silly face this big powerful man would make when your mother was around – his face said “in walks the most beautiful, special woman in the whole world.” Theirs was a universe unto itself in our midst. No doubt you carry within you the sacred power, greatness and love of that universe.

--Cynthia Rosenfeld (Y’92)