75 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE IN The Headmaster, Faculty and Students of DETROIT COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL ACADEMICS-ATHLETICS ARTS-ACTIVITIES Writing the music was easy, Bree says. Coming up with lyrics was not. "I remember one afternoon we were sitting in my base- ment trying to come up with words for songs and we couldn't think of anything. "So we decided to just start phoning people. For about two hours we made these random calls and asked, 'If you were writing a song, what would it be about?' I don't think we got very far with that one." Robert loved music, but "his consuming passion was his book," Bree says. Robert spent hours developing the protagonist, Seth, whom he Invite you to a Lower, Junior, Middle & Upper School OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12 VISIT with students, faculty and parents. EXPLORE and ASK questions about the school and its programs. "For about two hours we made these random calls and asked, 'If you were writing a song, what would it be about?' " Detroit Country Day School prepares leaders of tomorrow for success in college, career and life through a dynamic program of academics, athletics, arts and activities. UPPER & MIDDLE SCHOOLS (Grades 6-12) LOWER SCHOOL (Pre K-Grade 2) MAPLE ROAD CAMPUS 3003 West Maple Road Birmingham, MI 48010 433-1050 MAIN CAMPUS 22305 West 13 Mile Road Birmingham, MI 48010 646-7717 2:00-4:00 P.M. JUNIOR SCHOOL (Grades 3-5) VILLAGE CAMPUS 3600 Bradway Boulevard Birmingham, MI 48010 647-2522 1:00-3:00 P.M. 1:00-3:00 P.M. bruce m. weiss Custom Jewelry 26325 Twelve Mile Rd. in the Mayfair Shops At Northwestern Hwy. CONTEMPORARY • furniture • lighting • wall decor • gifts • silk florals interiors • 36th ANNIVERSARY SALE home furnishings, gifts and accessories at 20050 % OFF! casual living modes For the best in contemporary home furnishings and accessories for over 36 years! 544.1711 • 22961 WOODWARD • FERNDALE 40 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1989 Monday-Saturday 10-5:30 -Thursday 10-8:30 353-1424 • Unique Gifts For All Ages 0- E 0. a • THAT PERSONALIZED f1,1 TOUCH -g Customized Imprinting g° Always 20% OFF! cg? Napkins, Guest Towels, Place Cards Cake Boxes and Matches. Bev and Sue 661-0177 0 invitations For All Occasions • CLASSIFIEDS GET RESULTS! Call The Jewish News 354.6060 based on himself, and other characters he patterned after his friends. Only mon- ths before his death, he wrote about the book's plot in numerous letters to Bree, who was camping in Alaska. Robert had read and reread Piers Anthony's Xan- th and The Adept science fic- tion series and Through the Ice was written in Anthony's style. After Robert's death, his friends Bree and Andrew Linovitz decided to send Robert's manuscript to the author. Robert's friends approach- ed his parents with the idea. Dr. Kornwise recalls being less than enthusiastic. He told the boys they needed their time to prepare for university, adding that he doubted Anthony would even look at the manuscript. Bree admits he also was pessimistic. "I thought we might get a letter that said, `Thanks, but I'm not inter- ested," he says. "But we wanted to try for Robbie." Linovitz went to the library and found Anthony's address in Who's Who. Then he and Bree wrote a letter to the author, describing Robert and asking him to consider reading the draft. "About a month later, we got a postcard from Piers Anthony. It began 'Ordinari- ly I would not be inter- ested . . ! And then at the bottom it said, 'I will read Robert's manuscript.' That part was so incredible." Anthony remembers very well the note he received from Robert's friends. "I don't get a letter like that very often," he says. He was impressed by the manuscript, which he says "shows insight you don't often see." He was especially drawn to a scene in which the central character sees a dead deer tied to the front of a hunter's truck. "Seth is so struck by the look in the deer's eyes," An- thony says. "It was a look of such innocence, not anger or fear. The deer had been caught off guard, killed simply because it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was such a terrible irony, because that's what happened to Robert, too." Anthony says Through the Ice remains for the most part as Robert wrote it. His role was to correct grammar, sharpen the prose and rewrite Chapter Five, which Robert had lost on his com- puter. "I didn't change the story, I just added to it," he says. That Anthony will receive little money from publica- tion of Through the Ice and his Author's Note at the end — a lengthy description about Robert, much of which was taken from a letter by his sister, Jill —suggests the author simply took on the project as a kind, gesture. He was moved by Robert's life, he says. "But his work had to be a good story or I wouldn't have done it." R obert's parents are pleased by the publi- cation of Through the Ice, but don't look for them to mumble cliches about how their son will live on through his book. Fulfilling his wishes, they also donated some of his bodily organs after his death. But it doesn't give them "a great feeling," as they often hear from well- meaning acquaintances, that with this action they saved the lives of four others. For Maureen and Dr. San- ford Kornwise, Robert's greatest legacy is the kind of human being he was. "He was the kind of kid you always wanted," Dr. Kornwise says. "He was car- ing and considerate, a good student but very modest, and socially and politically aware. He was someone who wanted to make a difference in this world. "When he was little, he wanted to grow up and become an FBI man. As he became older, he thought about becoming a judge or running for a political of- fice." <