Tim and I became friends over the words and concepts he valued so very much in life. Tim was fascinated by humanity’s battle with destiny.

He found beauty in simple pleasures, good foods, fine friends and … oh damn…where is he when I need the words…. Music was a passion; its rhythms… the folksy lyrics… the way it brought people together. And, the written word was his palette. He made the visions of stories and tales flow across the canvas. I could only sketch our ideas… apply the gesso… Tim’s wordsmithing made them come alive.

I spent almost eight years writing with Tim. Our stories challenged people to take control of their lives in the most difficult of circumstances. They portrayed the flaws of everyday men and women in the worlds of everyday life… intrigue… and even comedic fantasy. But, always he insisted that the heroes be strong in the end… There were no compromises with life’s challenges… In the end the characters had to stand on their own often re-found principles… Apparent destiny was not to be their fate! In “Put Assunder” a comfortable Ohio family found its idyllic life shattered by the recurring corporate downsizing that devastates their town and their personal lives. In “Moral Certainty,” against the glamorous backdrop of the Hollywood music industry, a celebrity lawyer finds that fame and power carry a heavier price than his conscience can afford. And in “FAB”, the greed, corruption and arrogance in Silicon Valley’s microchip technology industry turned friendship into parasitic gamesmanship with lethal stakes. But of course the heroes always fought back and survived.

Such was Tim’s life, and along with Jan he fought the battles of office gamesmanship, political diversity and social differences with a quietness and understanding that often left one in awe of his laid back southern virtuosity and her strong city savvy. This strength was so unexpected in someone so sensitive, yet it was something that I always respected in Tim.

Ah… but Hollywood WAS our Siren and the difficulties of pursuing the dream of telling our tales to the world were the rapids of the Rhine… we plowed forward and never looked back: A young Latina cook in a San Francisco diner gets swept into celebrity; a lonely GI schemes to get a trip home from the jungles of Vietnam to be with his pregnant wife at Christmas; a California desert town torn apart by an ethnically-tinged high school shooting learns to reunite itself behind an unlikely sports event…The San Diego Crew classic. I could have woven tales with Tim forever. We were stitching together a quilt of human conscience and I shall strive to see that it is never forgotten.

As a parting word to my bestest of friends, I want to tell you that your kindness and mental generosity have not gone unnoticed. The people who worked with you and the people who only got to know you through an occasional wedding, a party, a chance meeting at a club on Ventura Boulevard, were all touched by your magic and will carry you in their hearts forever.

Goodbye ol’ friend.
Bob Close