Sometimes InMenlo turns personal. That was the case yesterday when we received a request from a Raleigh, NC, television station asking permission to use an InMenlo photo that Scott R. Kline had taken of Michael Rosenberg who had died in a plane crash earlier in the day.
Michael was not a routine InMenlo interviewee. We had been high school buddies who’d rekindled our friendship at a Menlo-Atherton High School reunion. He’d practiced medicine before starting a successful global health research company, Health Decisions in Durham, NC, in 1989, for which he garnered numerous awards. Both business and visits to his parents brought him back to Menlo several times a year where we’d catch up over breakfast or lunch at Cafe Borrone.
The crash was all the more tragic in that it took the lives of a mother and her two small children, who were in the home that the Embraer EMB-500/Phenom 100 twin-engine jet piloted by Michael crashed into. The jet was its way to Montgomery County Airpark in Maryland from Chapel Hill. Two others, whose names have not been released, were also on board the plane.
“Everyone at Health Decisions is devastated by the loss of our friend and colleague Michael Rosenberg,” Health Decisions Vice President of Clinical Affairs Patrick Phillips said in a statement. “The thoughts of the management and employees of Health Decisions go out to Dr. Rosenberg’s family as well as to the families of the other passengers.”
Fellow M-A classmate and Menlo Park resident Barb Slaton paid tribute to Michael on Facebook:
“Just learned that I lost an old, dear friend, Michael Rosenberg. He was my first MALE friend. 6th grade confidant, buddy through all the years, true friend at high school reunions. [Michael was a] gentleman and a scholar of the first order: BS, MPH, MD, devoted Dad, pilot, entrepreneur, lover of travel and life. My sympathies to Michael’s family and numerous classmates, friends, colleagues, students, employees, and loved ones.
“We will grieve this wonderful man. Oh, Michael, you will be missed!”
We second that emotion.
Photo by Scott R. Kline