If you want a normal obituary, go somewhere else. The Internet is full of them. Or check out Tom’s excellent Wikipedia Entry. This is just my personal take on a great man and a great musician—even if he was a Harvard grad (1946).

Tom Lehrer was the soundtrack of my life. My parents loved That Was The Week That Was (TW3), when I was 11. Since we had one TV, when they watched it, I watched it.

I was precocious, so I understood nearly all the satire since I read the newspaper every day. From that and TV I knew of Sherriff Clark in Birmingham, using a fire hose on demonstrators. “Sherriff Clark and Lena Horne are dancing cheek-to-cheek” was, thus, my favorite line in National Brotherhood Week.Best rhyme: its fun to "eulogize" those people "you despise." you-la-jise  / you-desp-ize. And to top it off, an internal rhyme. An internal rhyme in a single word! Rhyming "eu" with "you."

There were 50 TW3 episodes from 1963-1965. I feel certain I watched all of them. My parents bought, probably, the 1976 release That Was the Year That Was. I wore it out.

Things heated up once I went to MIT. I joined WTBS (now WMBR) immediately on arrival in the fall of 1970, a mere five years after their broadcast of Tom Lehrer's Subway Song, composed in 1944 and sung by the composer on WTBS in 1965. A rarity, because its hyper-local content made it meaningless to listeners out of The Hub Of The Universe (talk about Humblebrag; that was Boston’s self adopted name for itself). Everyone at the station was a fan, and busting their buttons about what was probably the first broadcast of the song.

Fans also abounded at The Tech. The special favorite was The Vatican Rag. Everyone on the staff knew the lyrics, and my friends John Hanzel (Catholic) and Norman Sandler (Jewish) had a dance routine they performed to the song, usually accompanied by them singing it a capella. The often performed in the newsroom, and they performed it at my wedding as well. It’s no wonder, then, that I used the music for a love song.

During his half-century of withdrawal from the public eye, Lehrer granted one or two interviews and performed once or twice. He made himself relatively hard to find, and since he preceded the Internet age, there wasn’t much to go on. But, a diligent search by a talented researcher (modesty forbids) discovered that throughout his wanderings, including his years at UC Santa Cruz, he had maintained his undergraduate address. I knew he did not respond to fan mail, but I sent him some anyway, shortly after I wrote my song. Since everything reminds me a story, and the story is always about myself:

August 3, 2022
Tom Lehrer
11 Sparks Street
Cambridge, MA

Dear Mr. Lehrer,

First let me thank you for a lifetime of entertainment. Also, I salute your unusual and magnanimous decision to release your music and lyrics into the public domain. I imagine you hoped for, or even expected, something like a love song set to the tune of Vatican Rag.

That’s the windup; here’s the pitch. I’d be pleased and honored if you’d take a look at my performance of When Your Hand Is On My Knee.

Finally, a little gratuitous background. I met you once when you came to MIT Student House in 1971, at the invitation of your student Cathy Buckley. I couldn’t get into your seminar, as it took me three tries to pass Calculus.

Two years ago, at age 68, I started writing love poems to my wife of 42 years. After she read When Your Hand Is On My Knee, she asked me to set it to music. Usually, I pay a Welsh freelancer to do that. He’s been the Sullivan to my Gilbert a dozen times.

I was just about to pay him for a new tune, when a bell went off. I’ve been singing Vatican Rag since the 70s, and suddenly realized the poem essentially fit.

The only response I expect or hope for is to bring a smile to your lips.

I’d be shocked it you were interested, but my other efforts are at schindler.org/b4

Sincerely, Paul Schindler