In Memory

Ivri Kumin

Ivri Kumin

September 7, 1946 - April 16, 2001

 

Ivri Matthew Kumin

 

Following graduation from Lee, Ivri attended Tulane University where he majored in English and pre-med.  After three years as an undergraduate, he entered Tulane Medical School and afterward did his psychiatry residency there.  He also served in the Army Reserves. Following graduation from residency, Ivri started his private practice, and became Board Certified in Psychiatry and Neurology.  He pursued advanced psychoanalytic training through the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, eventually becoming director of the studies at Tulane.  

When Ivri was a freshman at Tulane, he met his future wife Linda who was a sophomore at Newcomb College.  They were introduced by their parents.  Linda describes Ivri as a wonderful, sensitive person who liked amusing people and making them laugh, often with self-deprecating humor.  His love of language and writing were evident at Lee when Ivri was voted “Wittiest” in the senior class and was also the associate editor of the Bugle Call and the humor columnist.  He was president of the Quill and Scroll and a National Merit Finalist. He won the election for Junior Class VP with the slogan, “Elect Ivri Kumin – make his mother happy.”

Ivri and Linda moved to Seattle where he received more advanced training in psychoanalysis. He put his energies into teaching psychoanalysis and enriching the training experience. When he became ill he was serving in the volunteer position of Director of the Seattle Institute for Psychoanalysis.  He was also very active in welcoming non-medical professionals into psychoanalytic training.

Ivri is listed in Who’s Who in the South and Southwest and was an active member of the American Psychoanalytic Association.  In 1996 he published a book on Early Attachment and the Psychoanalytic Situation, a book which explores the life of the infant and its critical relationships to its caregivers.

Wife Linda describes Ivri as full of life and humor.  He was a devoted family man, a wonderful father and husband who made every day a joy.  He was also serious about his profession and helping people.  Besides his practice and involvement in psychoanalytic teaching, Ivri loved playing golf with his buddies.  Ivri is survived by his wife Linda, son Avi, daughter Esther, four grandchildren, and two brothers and their families.  Son Avi is an attorney in Washington, D.C. and daughter Esther is a computer programmer in Boston. 

Ivri passed away in Seattle on April 16, 2001 from a terminal brain tumor.  He was 54. 



 
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12/13/13 03:50 PM #1    

Richard Erdmann

Last week I was in the Austin airport and in spite of a reputation that a classmate of ours called somewhat aloof, I have become quite the conversationalist – not always to the listener’s enjoyment, I am sure. The Austin airport has few tables for sitting on the curbside of security so I invited a couple that seemed stranded to join me at my table.  They were going to spend the next twelve hours waiting for their flight and I suggested that they go and do something. The husband suggested that he call Alicia to pick them up. I assumed Alicia was a woman but he then corrected me and said that Elisha was a man and his brother-in-law. I have only known one Elisha in my life – one of Ivri Kumin’s older brothers and it turns out that this brother-in-law was Ivri’s brother. I went curbside when he arrived to say hello and we talked about Ivri. Both Ivri and I lived on islands on opposite sides of Seattle when he died and while we emailed and talked occasionally on the phone, we never took the time to see each other. I never expected him to be gone.

 

Ivri is the reason I reconnected with another Lee classmate who moved at the end of our sophomore year, Gretchen White. I had dinner with Ivri and his wife in New Orleans when we were both in our mid-30s. I mentioned that if I could find one person that had disappeared, it would be Gretchen White. His wife choked back a laugh and said that Ivri had written, or intended to write, an article on Gretchen for the Most Interesting Person I Ever Met page in Reader’s Digest but never submitted it. I suspect Gretchen would have been an excellent subject for Ivri, since my memory of his writing in our high school paper is one of frequent, if not constant, humor and Gretchen was quite a character. Even though this was before the Internet, Gretchen was not hard to find through her father and the Post Locator services of the U. S. Army. She lives in Oakland and for a month every year in Venice, Italy. She and Ivri got together a few years later. I think that Ivri would have enjoyed coming back and seeing Elisha brought back strong and good memories of him.  


01/21/14 10:16 AM #2    

George Loper

Sorry to hear about it. I really liked Ivri alot. And it looks like he lived a very interesting productive life. Wish that I had kept up.


01/23/14 10:00 AM #3    

Bobbie Abbott

 

Bobbie Abbott

Ivri was so special--one of my all-time favorite students and a treasured friend.  Over the years we never completely lost contact---a letter from Tulane describing his freshman exploits, bringing Linda and baby Avi to meet me in the l970s, letting me know when his book was published, and our last telephone visit a few months before his death when he told me of his diagnosis.  At that time, he wanted to talk about those magical days at Lee when a special group of kids published a newspaper that we thought could  rival the New York Times.

He had a truly unique sense of humor and a brilliant mind---always a little ahead of the rest of us.  He had a slightly irreverent appreciation of the "professional" journalism experience I was attempting to provide the Bugle Call staff. He laughed too much to be a serious journalist. But his contribution, a humor column he named Aardvarks Anyone? , was priceless. In one column he proposed that the school be required to supply "student students" for student teachers to practice on.  In another, he described Lee pep rallies as akin to Roman orgies, being overseen by Florius Caesar and featuring gladiator worship and "vestal virgins" stirring up the crowd. [Mr. Flory did not approve of the word "virgin" appearing in the student newspaper, and cautioned me to try to "better control Ivri."]

Ivri had a mischievous streak that provided a real challenge to  his teachers.  He used to brag that he was the only student I ever gave an A+- (A plus minus.)  I had assured him that he could not produce an acceptable research paper because he had not done the preliminary work over the semester and the assignment was due the next day.  He assured me that he could do it all in one night. Of course, the next day he presented an extraordinary study of "The Contributions of Ambrose Bierce to Modern Journalism."  I gave him the A+ but added the minus for "attitude."  He loved that!

If space allowed, I could write several more pages of fond remembrances of his life and times.  While we remember him as a skinny, funny, bright teenager, I know he was also a wonderful husband and father and an accomplished physician and scientist....an unforgetable character, for sure.

I.

I


08/02/14 09:00 AM #4    

Chris Marrou

If Ivri hadn't been such a good student, he would have been a great comedian. Unfortunately his grades and IQ condemned him to a life as an M.D.

Remember "Statehood for Moosylvania?"

Ivri was one of the first physicians on the scene after a horrific mass shooting in New Orleans in the mid-1970s. I asked him about it and he joked, "I'm a psychiatrist - all I knew how to do was send them a bill." The reality was he had done quite a bit.

He always explained his name by saying "Ivri is Hebrew - for Hebrew."

Ivri was a great joke teller and I remember dozens of the jokes he told me from seventh through twelfth grades. For some reason, all the ones I remember are incredible filthy. I don't know if that is a reflection of his taste in  jokes or my selective memory. More likely the latter.

He never suited up for P.E., having had rheumatic fever as a child. I remember seeing him in the stands reading books while the rest of us were being crushed in double bombardment (now known as dodge ball). I was surprised that his heart held out but his brain turned on him at the end.

 

 


10/12/14 12:38 PM #5    

Terry Tamon (Brewer)

I have a lot of fond memories of Irvi, but one I just recalled was from 8th grade.  Irvi & I had both been invited to a semi-formal dinner dance & our parents set us up to go together.  Of course awkwardness & frequent embarrassment go along with adolesence, and we were no exception.  Ivri looked very uncomfortable in a suit that probably belonged to his older brother, and it hung loosely on his thin frame.  I was wearing a borrowed dress that was a little tight, so I wore that torture device known as a merry widow bra, tightly squeezing me from hips to bust.  And I was precariously teetering on 3-inch pointed-toe heels (no big deal compared to today's platforms). 

We were both trying to be very grown-up, and Ivri pulled out my chair for me.  Apparently, he hadn't grasped the part about pushing it in, so when I sat down, my butt hit the floor hard.  I don't know who was more embarrassed, but it must have been very amusing to the other kids.  I've blocked out the rest of the evening, but I guess it was OK, 'cuz Ivri & I remained close friends through high school.  He was special, and I miss him.


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