It was going to be difficult to convey a comprehensive portrait of Marvin Schick
Writing in this week’s issue about Dr. Marvin Schick a”h — whose shloshim is being marked on 30 Iyar — was quite a challenging assignment. In a 2013 profile of Rav Mordechai Elefant, rosh yeshivah of ITRI, I wrote: “ ‘Larger than life’ is a term used to describe unusually colorful personalities, exuding vitality and humor, brimming with ideas and projects. And then there are the individuals whose personas are even larger than that.”
I’d say that applies quite well to Marvin Schick too.
From the outset, it was clear that it was going to be difficult to convey a comprehensive portrait of not just the public Dr. Schick, his life’s mission and manifold accomplishments in fulfillment of it, but of the private man as well, his unique personality and character traits. So I didn’t even try.
Instead, I focused the piece on the area in which so many of his achievements came and where he spent most of his unbounded energy and wealth of talents — Jewish education (and quite appropriate for Shavuos-time reading). Even then, I’ve only provided an overview of his involvements, not delving too deeply into his vision and strong beliefs. In these lines, I’ll just elaborate a bit on some things the piece touched upon, but I suspect I’ll have lots more to say about Marvin Schick in the future — and to share from things he had to say about us.
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