Irv was a thoughtful and good-humored fellow. He was in classes with me almost every year. His younger brother Richard came to visit us in California some years ago. Sursum ad summum omnes.
I was very sad to hear of Irv Crandall's death. He lived not far from us in St Paul, and John and I had several pleasant meals with him in past years. I always found him to be an interesting and kind person. We had not heard from him for quite a while, and he did not respond to an email I sent him a few months ago, so I wondered how he was doing. I did attend a lovely memorial service several years ago for Suzanne, his second wife, who had developed Alzheimer's. I also met his sister from Cincinnati at at that time.
Although we were 6 years in the same Class, and were in the same classes for several years, I'm pretty sure that Irv and I never had a conversation. In spite of that, when I heard of Irv's passing, his face immediately came to mind with a sad pang. Irv was one of those people who were quiet and kind, and as such, are memorable. May his memory be a blessing.
Irv and I went to Haverford College together. As seniors at WHHS, when we found out we would be going together, Irv invited me over to their home in East Hyde Park one evening to share and make some plans. It was all set up when I got there: two places set at a small table in the kitchen. Irv´s mother was very welcoming (can´t remember his father there) and busied herself around, encouraging us to take seats. Younger siblings, wide-eyed, hanging in the doorways. Irv´s mom pulled out a quart bottle of beer from the fridge, opened it, poured us each a starter glass and put the bottle on the table, with some snacks.
So Irv and I talked about our plans and hopes, other Walnuters that would be there, how to travel (train?). The little kids still as mice, the mom doing good at ignoring us. So that was the first time I can remember being treated like "Joe college", and they did it right handsomely.
A slight correction to my previous post about Irv - His sister Martha Crandall currently lives in Chicago. (But she told me she remembered coming to our house as a kid to play in one of my mother's student piano recitals.)
I didn't know Irv well during high school but it was clear that he was a gentleman, a peaceful soul. When you first log in to this website and then to the 'In Memoriam" page you see the list of those who are gone. There's no correlation or commonality. The list is random. One day I'll be on it. One day we'll all be on it. I hope those days are far, far away.
My closest connection to Irv Crandall was when we were in 11th Grade AP English with Miss Vivian Ross. She had all her students do a weekly bulletin board on the back wall on some aspect of literature, and she paired us with another student to do said board. I was paired with Irv Crandall, which might have been viewed as something of an "odd couple" -- me, rather flamboyant in my humor, and Irv, as has been mentioned above, quiet and reserved, but not without his humor, either. Perhaps Miss Ross paired us together on purpose.
At any rate, as you may guess, I immediately took over the project, telling Irv, when we met in my basement in Clifton, that we were going to do a bulletin board on "Humor in Literature." What he actually thought of the idea, I do not know, but he acquiesed. I then announced that we were going to include all of the ancient Greeks' "nine levels of humor" -- satire, lampoon, parody, farce, wit, word play (i.e., puns), burlesque, bawdy, obscenity, or whatever these or the others were (I forget now) -- putting the words in yellow letters around the edges of the board on a background of black burlap. Again, Irv acquiesed, as I told him (did I make this up?) that black and gold were the traditional colors of court jesters (we included on our board a Joker playing card of a jester so dressed from a pack of Norwood, Ohio-produced Congress Playing Cards).
We included on our bulletin board all of the major English and American writers of humor that we could fit in -- Shakespeare, Dickens, Holmes, Twain, and the like, and, yes, Poe (cf. "'Thou Art the Man!'" and "The Systems of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather" if you don't believe he was a humorist). Although I was quick to insert my ideas and opinions, Irv held his own and contributed knowledgeable suggestions. We went together downtown to the central Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library to select pictures we could borrow (do they still do this?) for our bulletin board, making sure that we borrowed as comic and bizarre a pictures as we could find for our purposes, Irv making as many selections as I did.
We felt that our bulletin board was a roaring success; we each got an "A" (or maybe an "A+") on it (it was always hard to tell what Vivian Ross really thought about anything). But, in short, Irving Crandall and I had communed together and had achieved a mutual triumph.
Thanks, Phil. I remember Miss Ross but have no memory of doing a bulletin board in her class. But I loved your description of yours, and it sounds like you and Irv were a great team!
Dale Gieringer
Irv was a thoughtful and good-humored fellow. He was in classes with me almost every year. His younger brother Richard came to visit us in California some years ago. Sursum ad summum omnes.
Becky Payne (Shockley)
Becky Payne (Shockley)
I was very sad to hear of Irv Crandall's death. He lived not far from us in St Paul, and John and I had several pleasant meals with him in past years. I always found him to be an interesting and kind person. We had not heard from him for quite a while, and he did not respond to an email I sent him a few months ago, so I wondered how he was doing. I did attend a lovely memorial service several years ago for Suzanne, his second wife, who had developed Alzheimer's. I also met his sister from Cincinnati at at that time.
Judy Holtzer (Knopf)
Although we were 6 years in the same Class, and were in the same classes for several years, I'm pretty sure that Irv and I never had a conversation. In spite of that, when I heard of Irv's passing, his face immediately came to mind with a sad pang. Irv was one of those people who were quiet and kind, and as such, are memorable. May his memory be a blessing.
Stephen Collett
Irv and I went to Haverford College together. As seniors at WHHS, when we found out we would be going together, Irv invited me over to their home in East Hyde Park one evening to share and make some plans. It was all set up when I got there: two places set at a small table in the kitchen. Irv´s mother was very welcoming (can´t remember his father there) and busied herself around, encouraging us to take seats. Younger siblings, wide-eyed, hanging in the doorways. Irv´s mom pulled out a quart bottle of beer from the fridge, opened it, poured us each a starter glass and put the bottle on the table, with some snacks.
So Irv and I talked about our plans and hopes, other Walnuters that would be there, how to travel (train?). The little kids still as mice, the mom doing good at ignoring us. So that was the first time I can remember being treated like "Joe college", and they did it right handsomely.
Becky Payne (Shockley)
A slight correction to my previous post about Irv - His sister Martha Crandall currently lives in Chicago. (But she told me she remembered coming to our house as a kid to play in one of my mother's student piano recitals.)
Paul Simons
I didn't know Irv well during high school but it was clear that he was a gentleman, a peaceful soul. When you first log in to this website and then to the 'In Memoriam" page you see the list of those who are gone. There's no correlation or commonality. The list is random. One day I'll be on it. One day we'll all be on it. I hope those days are far, far away.
Gail Weintraub (Stern)
Irv's daughter, Liz, sent me this interactive online link which includes photos throughout the years (including WHHS) and an interactive guestbook.
https://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/0000393945/?fullname=irving-b-irv-crandall
May Irv's memory always be a blessing.
Philip Spiess
My closest connection to Irv Crandall was when we were in 11th Grade AP English with Miss Vivian Ross. She had all her students do a weekly bulletin board on the back wall on some aspect of literature, and she paired us with another student to do said board. I was paired with Irv Crandall, which might have been viewed as something of an "odd couple" -- me, rather flamboyant in my humor, and Irv, as has been mentioned above, quiet and reserved, but not without his humor, either. Perhaps Miss Ross paired us together on purpose.
At any rate, as you may guess, I immediately took over the project, telling Irv, when we met in my basement in Clifton, that we were going to do a bulletin board on "Humor in Literature." What he actually thought of the idea, I do not know, but he acquiesed. I then announced that we were going to include all of the ancient Greeks' "nine levels of humor" -- satire, lampoon, parody, farce, wit, word play (i.e., puns), burlesque, bawdy, obscenity, or whatever these or the others were (I forget now) -- putting the words in yellow letters around the edges of the board on a background of black burlap. Again, Irv acquiesed, as I told him (did I make this up?) that black and gold were the traditional colors of court jesters (we included on our board a Joker playing card of a jester so dressed from a pack of Norwood, Ohio-produced Congress Playing Cards).
We included on our bulletin board all of the major English and American writers of humor that we could fit in -- Shakespeare, Dickens, Holmes, Twain, and the like, and, yes, Poe (cf. "'Thou Art the Man!'" and "The Systems of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather" if you don't believe he was a humorist). Although I was quick to insert my ideas and opinions, Irv held his own and contributed knowledgeable suggestions. We went together downtown to the central Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library to select pictures we could borrow (do they still do this?) for our bulletin board, making sure that we borrowed as comic and bizarre a pictures as we could find for our purposes, Irv making as many selections as I did.
We felt that our bulletin board was a roaring success; we each got an "A" (or maybe an "A+") on it (it was always hard to tell what Vivian Ross really thought about anything). But, in short, Irving Crandall and I had communed together and had achieved a mutual triumph.
Becky Payne (Shockley)
Thanks, Phil. I remember Miss Ross but have no memory of doing a bulletin board in her class. But I loved your description of yours, and it sounds like you and Irv were a great team!
Steven Levinson
Mike Lichstein and I did the Braille alphabet.