Greg was the first person to explain baseball to me, up in the attic bedroom of the amazing old house where he lived at Old Mill Beach. I think he played on a high school team he called the Polish Navy or something. He was a diehard Mets guy. So, years later, I was shocked to hear he had changed his allegiance to the Yankees.

My fellow spelling bee champ! I think it was 5th grade, but it may have been 4th or 6th, the teacher threw in the towel and declared a draw when she realized Greg and I could go on pretty much forever. He stayed a pal though we went different ways come high school years. Loved to challenge the status quo, did Greg. Kept us on our toes.

Greg was obviously as accomplished as anyone from our class—with his sharing in a Pulitzer Prize being Exhibit A of that. But he still remained so down to earth—which is exactly the way he was back in our high school days.