I found out this morning that Jack Kevorkian died last night, and I was more than little sad to hear the news. A small handful of my friends already know this, but when I was living in Royal Oak, MI, after college, Kevorkian moved into the apartment across the hall from me shortly after he got out of jail. He was my neighbor for about a year.

I spoke with him a few times. In person, he was a genuinely nice guy; certainly not the incendiary pundit that he made himself out to be in the limelight. He shared with me his love of Einstein's philosophy, Bach, and of music in general.

He also gave me a piece of advice that I've never forgotten. It's a prototypical maxim from an old man to a young one, but it stuck with me when he said it: "If there's anything you want to do in life, do it now, while you still have the time."

Shortly after he moved in, I found out that he released a jazz album of his own composition shortly before he was incarcerated. I had to pay $30 on Amazon for a copy of the disc, but I found it as enjoyable as any jazz I've heard. Here's one of the tracks...somber, but soothing (and yes, that's him on the flute):



We'll miss you Jack. Thanks for everything you did.