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| Bob Kazel |
"He was a fighter," said Patrick Kennedy, the former congressman who turned his own mental illness and addiction into a platform to encourage others to speak out and fund treatment and research.
Kazel was born in Chicago — his father, Sidney, an electrical engineer, died in a car accident when Bob was 14. His mother, Beverly, became his steadfast supporter. Kazel was editor of the newspaper at Von Steuben High School and set his sights on the Northwestern Medill School of Journalism.
"He always wanted to be a journalist," said his older brother Mitch. "When he was under 10, he got a typewriter for his birthday. He immediately started putting out a one-page newsletter of what was going on at home, with headlines like, 'MOM TO MAKE SPAGHETTI.'"
Kazel got into Northwestern. Then things began to go wrong.
"I started feeling overwhelmed," he said in "Profiles in Mental Health Courage," a 2024 book Kennedy wrote with journalist Stephen Fried.
Kazel ended his first semester in the psych ward at Evanston Hospital. He went on lithium and restarted the next year at Medill, where he shined.
"Oh, my God, he was the best writer at The Daily Northwestern," said Jonathan Eig, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2024 for his biography, "King: A Life." "We had a few Pulitzers come out of that group, but he was the best. Incredibly creative."
Eig pointed to a story Kazel wrote after the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. Kazel rode the L back from a downtown Medill class and pondered the subdued CTA riders.
"Television,” wrote Kazel, then 22, “a keeper of dreams that had guided them all their lives around the world’s realness, had betrayed their trust and shown them their own nightmares. A glimpse of chaos, of a baffling arbitrariness that they now saw clearly and would try to work out, by themselves.”
For Kazel, mental illness reflected the same "baffling arbitrariness."
"Bob took his meds, went to his psychiatrist, took good care of himself, and for periods he could live his life," Fried said. "Then his symptoms would break through."
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A number of readers wrote in to express condolences to me, and I should point out that while Bob was a devoted friend, he wasn't MY devoted friend. I never met him. I wish I had.
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| Bob Kazel at a 2008 birthday party at the Eig home. |
The tribute in the Daily Northwestern is a gem. As are the words from friends, family, authors, journalists, and even a former congressman. t's never easy losing a long-time friend. Especially as one ages. My condolences, Mister S. I
ReplyDeleteThank you Grizz though, to be clear, I never met the man.
DeleteI stand corrected. He wrote the Challenger story in 1986, as a Medill student. By which time you were already a working journalist, in the suburbs. Sorry about that, Mister S. My mistake.
DeleteBeautiful tribute
ReplyDeleteMy Bob is named Maureen. The parallels are striking. god rest his soul. My condolences to his family. May his memory be a blessing.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have an easy fast.
It will never cease to amaze me how incredible humans can be.
ReplyDeleteResearch shows that 23% of Americans suffer from mental illness at any given time. That remarkable figure obviously reflects the fact that about one in four of the people we see and interact with every day are struggling with their mental health. In my lifetime, largely for budgetary reasons, most psychiatric care facilities have closed in Illinois. Research also shows that the homeless population living in the streets and responsible for many urban problems is directly connected to these closures. 16% of Americans take drugs for mental health reasons, 13% for depression. As if these statistics aren't heartbreaking enough, a willful misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment means that the 23% of Americans that are suffering from mental illness have ready access to battlefield weaponry. A cursory reading of daily headlines reporting mass shootings, suicides, and domestic violence shows that this is a recipe for disaster.
ReplyDeleteI just completed a 42 year career serving mentally ill adults. Uncle Bob is the greatest kindness (of many kindnesses) you and your family have done. An early mentor of mine constantly reminded me that the greatest unmet need of mentally ill folks was the experience of belonging to a group or even a family. It can be difficult to maintain these relationships and I thank you.
ReplyDeleteLithium is an old medication. You'd think the doctors would give him a newer med.
ReplyDeleteLithium is the gold standard for a reason. Just because something's old doesn't mean there's something better.
DeleteSometimes the old meds work the best for some people!
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