Deceased December 25, 2023
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In Memory
My beloved friend, Andy Blue, died Christmas Day 2023.
Google Anthony Dias Blue and be astounded at what a far-ranging, sensationally successful entrepreneur he was, emerging as our nation’s tour guide to good food and drink and inspiring us with his love of life. But, for a minute or two, learn what I owe him as a close friend.
We met in September 1952, in seventh grade at Riverdale Country School. Our first adventure together found us playing leads, the following spring, in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Ruddigore. The next April, fellow Giants fans, we were together opening day at the polo grounds and together before his TV in October when our heroes swept Cleveland in the World Series. We both came to Amherst, both pledged DKE in 1959.
Years later, while an Army reservist, my travels as a musician allowed me to be in a “control group,” excused from meetings and summer camps. It was Andy—not the Pentagon—who alerted me, in 1967, that the Army was ending those groups and I’d have to find a regular reserve unit or face being drafted for 18 months. My friend to the rescue!
But my greatest debt? Starting in our mid-teens, Andy urged me to share his passion for jazz. I spent many weekends at his home, puzzled by strange sounds from guys with names like Phineas Newborn, Horace Silver, Duane Tatro. Nothing doing.
Then one day … Thelonious Monk’s “Honeysuckle Rose.” I literally fell on the floor. Finally, a pursuit I could choose to embrace and which would begin fulfilling this adolescent’s yearning for a special identity. Jazz remains my faith. It’s difficult to put into words how much this gift from Andy has meant to me.
David Lahm ’63