In the 1970's, 80's and 90's, Sandy Sigoloff was famous for resurrecting or liquidating deeply troubled companies. In the early 1990's he helped resurrect the firm I founded, Capital Associates and he and I became friends for the rest of his life.
He was educated as a physicist and was one of the smartest people I ever met. And while to the world he was known as "Ming the Merciless," to me he was compassionate, thoughtful and witty. When he past away at the age of 80 (born 1930), it was Alzheimer's related which had become noticeable the last 2 -3 years of his life and grew worse.
Because of that horrible disease which had begun to take Sandy from his family and friends in stages, I came to grips with his mortality well-before he passed away. At his funeral service, Anne and I were at the Wilshire Temple in Los Angeles with hundreds of others there to celebrate the life of this great man.
On 6/14/12 I dreamt he had invited me to a family dinner, a formal affair in which dinner was served at a long table. Some of the people there felt I should not have been invited and were aloof to me.
Sandy, who starting in the 1990's became a teacher at the UCLA graduate school of business, assigned us each to write a paper. I think my topic was Workman's Comp.
But somehow, my topic evolved into one presented on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," the night before, 6/13 in which Maggie Gyllenhaal pitched her new movie about the invention of the vibrator for women during the Victorian Era, certainly a worthy but unusual business topic.
At that stage the dream came to an end. But as I awoke, I missed my friend Sandy.
Dick
Sandy's Los Angeles Times obit: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/27/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20110227
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