RIP commenter “Mike K”
I’m sorry to have to announce the death of commenter “Mike K” on October 25, 2024. Mike K began commenting here in 2007 but only very intermittently at that point, and became a regular and prolific part of the commenting community at this blog in 2016. I will miss him, and I know a lot of you share that sentiment.
In the real world as opposed to the virtual one, “Mike K” was Dr. Michael Thomas Kennedy of Mission Viejo and Tucson. He was 86 years old, and the author of a book about his years of practicing medicine called War Stories: 50 Years in Medicine. I’ve never read it, but Mike K had a way with words, and I bet it’s well worth the journey.
Mike K had a blog for many years, and it still can be found here. I don’t think I even knew it existed until now, but it has a wealth of information about Mike’s life and work. He seems to have also been an avid sailor, at least until recent years. And from his blog I also learned that in 2004 he had written another book entitled A Brief History of Disease, Science and Medicine: From the Ice Age to the Genome Project. It seems to have sold pretty well and gets good reviews on Amazon.
One of Mike K’s last comments here was about some books by Samuel Eliot Morrison that he owned:
I have both, including another volume. We are having to move to a smaller place and I will have to give them away. Golden Years, my ass.
The “Golden Years, my ass” comment got several approving dittos.
On September 6, Mike K wrote this
I have five kids. Two are conservative and two are lefties. One, a daughter, is a reasonable lefty. She and I have had conversations about politics. The other lefties just agree to disagree. Both are lawyers, of course. We don’t argue as we all know it would be uinseless. My moderate daughter has a child, now 5, and she says it has changed her life. Maybe she is saying what I want to hear, but I think it has had a huge effect on her.
And how about this one:
I operated on a 1 pound 10 ounce baby in 1969. She survived and thrived. I did not write it up. Too busy. Two guys in FL operated on a 2 pound 2 ounce baby the next year and got credit for youngest to survive.
And ah yes; it was Mike K who had a mother who lived in three centuries. He wrote this in July of 2024:
I am still a kid compared to my mother but I will be 87 next February. She died at 103 having lived in three centuries, 1898 to 2001. She kept all her marbles until the last 6 months. Speaking of hair, she never fixed her own after childhood. She had an unfrocked priest who lived in her building drive her to the beauty parlor every 2 weeks til she gave up her apartment at 100.
RIP Mike K, and all the commenters here who may have died but all we know is that they disappeared never to return.
Sorry that he has passed away. Prayer for his spouse and family. He had much wisdom.
I have not completed “War Stories” but have read much of it. Dr Kennedy was an interesting guy, he also commented over the years at Althouse and Chicago Boyz, he grew up in a Chicago neighborhood that was once good for families, but has been a no-go zone for some years now. He led a full and useful life, may his memory be a blessing
I’m so sorry to hear this. I’ve enjoyed Mike K’s comments. I’ll look for his book.
Neo, thank you for caring about your commenters and for memorializing them when you have the information to do so. It reinforces my sense that many of us here are a group of friends. Mike K was one of them.
Through Kindle Unlimited:
https://www.amazon.com/War-Stories-50-Years-Medicine-ebook/dp/B00ZQLNHXU?ref_=ast_author_dp
Several days ago, someone noticed that we hadn’t heard from the Good Doctor for some time (just over a month). We combined information, and apparently Miguel Cervantes was able to reach his son by phone to get the news.
I will greatly miss Dr K and his commenting. We came close to hooking up a couple times in real space, on visits down to Tucson, but it was not to be.
Dr. Kennedy lived a full and interesting life. He accomplished a great deal in different areas, and what a prolific reader and writer he was.
I’ll miss him and his wisdom. I feel like I knew him from his comments. It’s a blessing to have such interesting and accomplished people here at Neo’s place. May Dr. Michael K. RIP.
He was always a smart, good guy. I always paid attention to his comments.
RIP Mike K.
Mike K was an avid sailor and mentioned sailing from California to Hawaii–I think it was a race–using celestial navigation.
I’ve been working on a post (making slow progress) about the celestial navigation method known as Lunar Distances, and had been looking forward to his comments. Wish I’d finished it and posted it earlier.
I own his history of medicine, a very good book.
He was favorite of mine, both here, and at Chicago Boyz.
Badger Howl of Grief.
I will miss his voice.
Neo
RIP Mike K, and all the commenters here who may have died but all we know is that they disappeared never to return.
I don’t remember where I read his comments–this blog?–but there was a Chemistry Professor in California–both on the job and then in retirement–who regularly made perceptive comments. Then, like Mike K, he stopped commenting.
Mike K’s comments–which covered a wide array of subjects–were well worth the read. He led a long, productive life. RIP.
I am glad to have made his virtual acquaintance.
Gringo:
I don’t remember the chem professor detail, but might it have been Occam’s Beard?
Oh, I always read Mike K’s comments. RIP doctor!
I don’t remember the chem professor detail, but might it have been Occam’s Beard?
–neo
Sounds right. I recall him resurfacing briefly a few years ago.
Thank you Neo. You do attract an impressive group and I have greatly benefitted over the years. May perpetual light shine upon Mike K.
Lux eterna
A life well lived. May he rest in peace and be remembered with love.
Memory Eternal.
Neo: Occam’s Beard, yes.
huxley, do you remember any details about rediscovering Occam’s Beard a couple of years ago? Offhand, my last recollection of his comments is from about ten years ago.
Lux Aeterna – corrected spelling
Gringo; huxley:
The last time Occam’s Beard commented on this blog was 12/1/2012. I am able to look such things up rather easily. He was commenting regularly right up to that point but once he disappeared he never returned. I believe he died but I don’t know for sure, and I never even had a valid email address for him or a name so I couldn’t do any followup.
Would that each of us so live & thusly comment publicly to be fondly remembered & sorely missed.
Thank you for the eulogy for Dr. Mike. He will indeed be missed, here and at the other blogs where he commented wisely and well, and often with great humor.
@ Neo > “all the commenters here who may have died but all we know is that they disappeared never to return.” and “I never even had a valid email address for him or a name so I couldn’t do any followup.”
We recently completed our estate documents, including several different powers of attorney for financial and medical decisions.
I am making a mental note to include a directive to convey my final respects to Neo and the Salon!
And seriously, dear Neo, I hope you have named a blog executor to take care of your own oeuvre, which are very much worth preserving.
Recognizing your great service to Gerard’s readers when he passed away, I’m sure we would all like to have a similar opportunity to decouple gently from this delightfully addictive place, and some of our favorite internet people.
I read “War Stories” some years back and enjoyed it immensely. I didn’t realize he’d written “A Brief History of Disease,” or I’d already own it. I’ve ordered it now.
I’ll miss his comments, which were always some of my favorites. I’d love to have known him in real life.
He reminds me of a friend I lost a couple of years ago, well into his 80s, with four kids, two leftist, two conservative. He adored them all, and the feeling was obviously mutual. Although he told many stories about their politics, as well as about their lives, he didn’t identify them by name, so I never knew which two he agreed with and which two he didn’t. He was a strong conservative, not at all wishy-washy in his disagreement with the two progressives, but he never let it poison his family. Nor did he let his family affection and loyalty confuse his principles.
Thanks for this commemorative post, and thanks, too, to all the others for their comments here and in previous posts.
RIP.
Saddened by the death of MikeK and will miss his erudite and enjoyable comments. We frequented the same blogs ie Neo, Instapundit, Althouse, ChicagoBoyz, etc although I’m just a reader and rarely a poster. He and I did correspond some about our common experiences of the tribulations of practicing medicine in California, me in NoCal and he in SoCal, although he was about 10 yr ahead of me in the system. What a loss. I had detected in his recent posts that he was under stress with an illness and disability of his wife. I’m at that age now that it seems like every day brings more sad news about some one in one of my circles of friends and acquaintaces.
If I properly recall his account of the California to Hawaii yacht race, his casually assembled crew was in it for the shared adventure only to find the far more competitively rigged and crewed winning boat within sight at the end of crossing half the Pacific.
Such a story speaks to both his priorities and his abilities.
Sad to hear this news. A life well lived.
I had noticed that he was commenting less as he was one of my favorite commenters. I even found myself wondering what his kids – I seem to remember one was an FBI agent – thought about the Kash Patel nomination. Was hoping he would weigh in.
Godspeed, Mike K
Thank you, Miguel, for finding out about Mike K, though it is sad news.
Pingback:Michael Kennedy – Chicago Boyz
October 12 he is commenting on downsizing and moving to a smaller place and two weeks later he passes? Wow. No more words.
This is such a strange community, not the people, the association. Feeling deep sadness for people that you don’t really know.
A post about Michael Kennedy, with several links, is up at Chicago Boyz:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/72545.html
Well done, neo.
This blog is on my list of favorites and I’ve come here to read Neo many times, usually prompted by something mentioned by Insty or Althouse, but often just to see what she thought of the topic of the day. That a comment section even existed was something I had overlooked until today, but I was very familiar with Michael K from the Althouse and Chicago Boyz comment sites.
It is lovely to see him memorialized here and by the aforementioned hosts. Thank you to Neo and all who shared reminisces of Dr. K here. This is obviously a comment section I should frequent for the wisdom and kindness I have seen here today.
neo:
Yes, it wasn’t Occam’s Beard. It was another O-name from that period:
Oblio.
mentioned sailing from California to Hawaii
He posted video of parts of that trip, I don’t recall where. Lots of wind, they were really moving along. IIRC, they managed second place.
People I know, or are familiar with, are thinning out. Heck, there is a good chance that I will die in the next ten years, or so the statistics say. It sucks getting to the front of the line.
” and miles to go before I sleep
and miles to go before I sleep”
Robert Frost