Reasons to Love Obituaries

Today's NYT gives us the obituary of Arvid Anderson who has passed away at 94. Mr. Anderson was hardly a household name in NYC, despite being the chairman of its collective bargaining board under three mayors, starting with John Lindsay and ending with Mayor Edward Koch. This puts Mr. Anderson's service dates at 1968 to 1987, a truly incredibly span of time for a position that certainly might have trouble finding friends anywhere.

Like many people who do well in NYC, Mr. Anderson came to the city from somewhere else. He was  born in Indiana and honed his work experience as the commissioner of the Wisconsin Employees Relations Board before setting foot in the Big Apple as the chairman of the city's collective bargaining board.

There is A LOT of organized labor in NYC that does work for the city, so just surviving tenure under Lindsay and not being sent back to Indiana in a pine box is a notable achievement. There was one poor fellow, Richard Green, who was lured from Minnesota years ago to become NYC's public school's chancellor. Poor Mr. Green was shipped back not breathing.

What was Mr. Anderson's secret to lengthy municipal service and overall long life? Nothing specific is cited, but Mr. Anderson claimed to play golf with the names of his problems on his golf balls, and by the end of the round was relaxed in knowing that many of his problems could no longer be found.

As a song goes at Yankee Stadium, "...if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere..."

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