Tom Lehrer

 Tom Lehrer died Saturday, at the age of 97.

If you don't know who Tom Lehrer was, look him up immediately. I'll wait.  waits  Yeah. That guy. You've probably heard some of his work without knowing it was his, or who he was.

His irreverent, satirical songs were part of the soundtrack of my youth. Even though he stopped performing – he was never comfortable with it – before I graduated from high school, his work remained everywhere. I've got the lyrics to "Wernher von Braun" stuck in my head as I write this. His music was cheerful and catchy, but the lyrics were . . . well, "dark" would be one word, I suppose. "Downright sick" might cover some of them better. He shone a bright, and very snarky, light on political and social issues, upset some people who badly needed upsetting, and appealed to many more, especially in the counterculture of the time. He said in an interview that he doubted that his words changed anyone's mind . . . but they did. Not directly, perhaps, but through the people whose feelings and beliefs were reinforced by his snark. Some of us who thought "Hey, this Lehrer guy gets it" grew up to become the people who did affect others, and changed the world.

But being a world-famous satirical songwriter was really just his hobby. His day job was college mathematics instructor. While he never finished his PhD, he taught math in Harvard, MIT, and UCal. When he left music, he went happily back to academia. He popped up every now and again, but what he really wanted to do was teach math, and retire to rest on his laurels. Which is what he did.

A lot of people, not just me, thought he died decades ago. That's how he wanted it. He said, once, that he hoped people believing he was dead would cut down on the junk mail.

There isn't enough space in a Daily Illuminator to say even a fraction of what I want to say about Tom Lehrer. He was one of the people who mattered.

-- Jean McGuire