GLR Review March-April 2019

   This was one of many field trips that we took over the years, though the others usually involved an ocean: a memo- rable holiday on Maui (with my partner Stephen), any number of stays in Key West (with Stephen and Lars’ partner David), and many in Provincetown (with various boyfriends in the early days), where we would spend the day at Herring Cove Beach and the evening at the A-House (early on) or the Gif- ford House Porch Bar (later in life). When you add up these elements, here is a man from a good family with a musical gift who was amazingly bright and went to Harvard, was happily gay, and—have I mentioned that he was incredibly good-looking?—and you might be describ- ing the ultimate golden boy. Except for that one thing, which he referred to as “my disease” (said à la Katharine Hepburn from a line in a movie: “Tobias, I think there’s a disease in this household.”). He lived with it stoically, without complaint or self-pity. Cheerfulness would rule the day, even when he started to lose toes and eyesight and the ability to play the key- boards. How he remained so confidently upbeat I’ll never know, though I’m grateful to have had a chance to tell him that he was my hero before he lost the ability to communicate. Somehow he kept his sense of humor; in fact, he laughed quite loudly, and easily, and once said that he kept me around be- cause I made him laugh. He leaves behind four sisters, many nieces and nephews, and his husband David Lloyd Brown, who cared for him heroically, at home, day and night, for many years during the slow decline. Lars’ wish to end his days at 233 Com. Ave. was fulfilled. was talking about and saw through the whirl of current events to grasp the underlying historical significance. For example, he nailed the invasion of Iraq as an oil grab masterminded by Dick Cheney years before this was widely recognized. Indeed he was one of the few people I’ve known who was consistently guided by evidence and reason rather than conven- tion or mere faith. He was a true agnostic in all matters, which is probably what brought us together. One time he was working on a piece of music that included the line “secure in faith com- pletely,” to which I asked, Why not “secure in doubt com- pletely”? This became a catchphrase of ours for years thereafter. We met in the summer of 1980, a few months before Ronald Reagan was elected president. What amazed us most was that America had elected a B actor as president. Lars was always intrigued and disturbed by the mingling of politics and entertainment, so it’s hard to imagine (well, not that hard) what he would have thought about the election of a TV reality show star with no political experience. I’m assuming—hoping, for his sake—that he was past being able to comprehend the fi- asco of 2016. Basically, I think he would have been heartbro- ken. Oh, but he would have pontificated. Lars did contribute one article to the magazine. In the sum- mer of 2003 we drove out to western Massachusetts to inter- view countertenor David Daniels, who was performing at Tanglewood. The interview, which appeared in the September- October 2003 issue, was conducted by Lars over a memorable breakfast in Pittsfield, just south of my alma matter, Williams College, which we visited later in the day. KOOB PLEH-FLES ATON SISIHT " !                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        These Words Are True and Faithful A novel by Eugene Galt