Celebrate Life: Guy Blynn Memorial Service - January 10, 2015

Celebrating the Life of Guy Blynn

May 26, 1945 – December 17, 2014

Please join family and friends to remember Guy and celebrate a life lived to the fullest.

When: Saturday, January 10, 2015 at 5:00 pm

Where: Reynolds Place located in the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts
251 N. Spruce Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101 (Limited onsite parking is available. Street parking is also available in close proximity to the venue.)

There will be an opportunity for anyone who so desires to share a memory of Guy at the service. Additionally, we are preparing a slide show and are hoping to collect photos from all areas and times of his life. If you have a photo you would like to include, please send it to Sarah Blynn (email: sacastro28@gmail.com or text: 202.262.1337).

We are forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have received during this difficult time, and we thank you for that. Many have been kind enough to inquire about making a donation to one of the causes that Guy worked tirelessly to support. If you are so inclined, please consider making a contribution to one of the following organizations in Guy’s memory:

• Blynn Holocaust Collection: https://foundation.forsythtech.edu/ Once on this page, you can create a login or click on Make a Gift on the left side. To designate to the Blynn Collection, under Designation, click Other and then type “Blynn Collection.”
• Glen Canyon Institute: http://www.glencanyon.org/donate
• Anti-Defamation League: https://secure2.convio.net/adl/site/SPageNavigator/donation-api/donation_form_single_main_1.html
• University of Pennsylvania Wrestling Program: https://giving.apps.upenn.edu Choose
  “Athletics” in the “General Area” dropdown, then “Varsity” in the “Program” dropdown,
  then “Wrestling” in the “Specific Fund” dropdown.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dan (336.403.1512/dsblynn@gmail.com), Harlan (301.379.3622/hblynn@gmail.com), Aaron (336.403.4278/asblynn@gmail.com), or Sarah (202.262.1337/sacastro28@gmail.com).

Guy Marc Blynn

Guy Marc Blynn, 69, passed away unexpectedly but peacefully shortly after 6:00 pm at Forsyth Memorial Hospital on Wednesday, December 17, 2014.

Guy was a long-time Winston-Salem resident.  The son of S. Jerry and Viola Blynn, he grew up on Long Island, playing “stoop-ball” with his friends and selling hotdogs at Jones Beach in the summers.  He earned merit scholarships to and put himself through the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Harvard Law School.  He always taught the value of hard work.  He served as a Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for years; he tirelessly volunteered in the local community and sat on a number of advisory boards.  He was generous with his time and resources, and always quick to offer a hand to those in need.  He taught intellectual property law to Wake Forest law students; he lectured on the Holocaust at Forsyth Tech Community College (the library of which houses the Blynn Holocaust Collection).  He was a prolific author and lecturer.  He never retreated from championing potentially unpopular causes, often giving a voice to those who could not speak for themselves – such was his disposition.  He loved the outdoors, Arsenal Football Club, and reading.  He loved playing softball and basketball with the guys on the Louis Friedman Athletic Club.  He loved his daughter-in-law, Sarah Castro Blynn and his closest friends, “Uncle Louie” and Bonnie, just to name a few.  He loved his friends near and far, those who he had seen yesterday and those he had not seen for years.  He loved life.  He was many things to many people.  Most importantly, though, he was the father to three boys – Dan (36), Harlan (33), and Aaron (30) – who survive him and love him very much.  Always.
The funeral service was held on Friday, December 19, 2014 at 2:00 pm at Mount Sinai Cemetery in Winston-Salem (1600 block of Utica Street); a memorial service  to celebrate Guy's life will follow on January 10, 2015. Additional details will be shared soon.  

Congratulations to all of us!  We survived another round of endless television ads, intrusive telephone robocalls, and unwanted overly familiar emails.  Another round won’t begin until…tomorrow?

This election cycle made me reflect upon certain things.  How many people in the United States are “strategists?”  Same question re “pollsters?”  Are these full-time jobs?  Who pays them?

Wouldn’t it have been nice if there was a public service television/internet outlet -- a place accessible by almost all --which offered candidates the opportunity to be interviewed in a serious way – say for an hour or so -- by some non-partisan who knows how to ask pointed questions and demand answers and which publicized those candidates who participated and those who didn’t?  (I’d volunteer for the job.) 

Now, for the future.  We hear talk about Democrat primary candidates for almost any office running to the far-left base, and Republican candidates running to the far- right.  Then, the nomination secured, the respective nominees “pivot” to the middle for the general election.  Isn’t this a strategy of lying?  Do we really want to institutionalize a process in which our prospective leaders are rewarded for lying?  Haven’t we had enough of this?

(Submitted to the Winston-Salem Journal November 5, 2014)

Penelope Niven

My friend, Penelope Niven, passed away yesterday.  Her passing was sudden; the quickness both shocking and a mitzvah.  Pena-lope to some, Penny to more, this elegant woman will be missed by all who knew her and many who didn’t.

Others will recount her many accomplishments; her books ranged from meticulously researched and painstakingly written biographies of Carl Sandburg, Thornton Wilder and others to “The I Hate to Chew Cookbook – a gourmet guide for adults who wear orthodontic braces.”  But, I think her greatest accomplishment was the pleasure her company gave to those, from a teenager working an internship with her to those with many degrees and other titles, earned or honorific,  who were fortunate to be able to spend time lunching, or writing, or book clubbing or enjoying other extended interaction with her.

Letter published in slightly different form:  Winston-Salem Journal 09.03.14

Immigration?

C’mon, Americans!  Where is that much expressed sense of social responsibility when it really is needed?  Children are flooding our southern border and, for the most part, sponsors have not shown up to ensure that these children will not become public charges.  This concept, the sponsorship of immigrants by individuals who would ensure that the public would have to maintain them, used to be fundamental to immigration policy.

Ditto all of the above in the case of children (i) dislocated because of the war in Syria or the ISIS control of Iraq, (ii) in peril because of terrorists in Nigeria or Afghanistan who will not permit education, or because of  disease in West Africa, or iii) suffering because of the war in Ukraine or in Gaza.  Where are the sponsors for these children, all of whom should be transported to the United States for refuge? Surely these children deserve a shot at a better life.

Those millions whose hearts bleed for all of these children should step up.  Sponsor a child.  Ensure that health care, food etc. for these children will not have to be paid for from the public coffers.

Twenty or Thirty million more children in the U.S. easily could be absorbed if those who advocate their admission only would step up.  Right?

Sticks and Stones

“Sticks and Stones will break my Bones, but Names Will Never Hurt Me”

We, of course, know this 19^th century children’s rhyme never was entirely true.  Names sometimes do hurt and, in some circumstances, are and should be punished.  Witness the idiotic statements of a particular owner of a professional basketball team whose words resulted in a very quickly imposed million dollar fine and the loss of his ability to be a member of that exclusive club of NBA franchise owners.

But, just as words may hurt, much more often so do “sticks and stones” and fists.  It seems to me that the use of “sticks and stones” or other forms of physical force isat least as objectionable and should be punished just a severely.

 The Journal, in its Sunday edition, reported that an NBA player (who did time at Wake Forest),  had been arrested.  According to an affidavit, the player allegedly “hit his wife in the face with an open hand before choking her.”

Why no call for banishment from professional basketball?  Why no huge fine?  While I have no chance of ever owning an NBA team and never had any chance of being a player, I think that, if I was in either position, if I had to choose, I would much rather associate with a bigoted idiot than someone who battered a woman (or anyone else).  Why the difference in treatment by the NBA and the public?

Letter to the Editor, Winston Salem Journal, June 16, 2014