John Pytlak Memorial Fund

[David Mullen ASC]

Since John's death from cancer this year, there has been talk of setting up some sort of educational fund in John's name.

 

Steve Hallat of Eastman Kodak sent this message to some of us a few days ago:

 

Steve Hallat:

____

 

I finally obtained the requested information regarding the Memorial Fund established for John Pytlak.

 

Checks can be submitted to the following name and address:

 

George Eastman House

Motion Picture Preservation Department

900 East Avenue

Rochester, NY 14607

Attention: Ms. Caroline Yeager

 

The check should indicate that it is "In Memory of John Pytlak".

 

----

 

This is a note to Steve Hallat from Caroline Yeager:

 

We?ve given the matter some thought and we believe the John Pytlak Memorial Fund should be designated to help support a worthy student or students in The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation each year. They are the future of our profession. What better way to remember John?s work and his many contributions to the field than by investing in its future? This fund would be the first of its kind for the school and would help cover a student?s costs for tuition and living expenses during their school year. This would be a great benefit to them.

 

We sincerely hope that you and John?s colleagues and friends will agree with us.

 

All the best,

Caroline

 

Caroline Yeager

Assistant Curator, Loans and Access

Motion Picture Department

George Eastman House

[Tim O'Connor]

As far as I can tell there are about 16,000 registered members on Cinematography.com

 

I'm sure that many of you would quietly go ahead and send a check, much along the lines of

the saying "let not the left hand know what the right is doing".

 

I'll speak up to urge everybody to participate and do so right away. This is a great way to honor

John, whose posts were so detailed, helpful and friendly. A massive response, no matter what you send,

will do good for this Fund but also think of how it can make John's family feel to let them know how many

people he touched.

[Michael Lehnert]

Thank you, David, for the information, which is especially timely re. the recent posts we exchanged in the Super 8 forum just a few days ago about John and his commemoration here.

 

I would like to encourage non-US-resident or non-US-banking members of this forum to discuss means and ways to send their contributions to the US with their bank managers or other reps of their banking institution.

 

International cheques can have high fees attached, so it might well be that a sizeable chunk of the donated money originally posted disappears in banking fees during the overseas clearing.

 

In order to avoid that, discussing transactional options is something rather important.

 

I think this memorial fund is a worthy cause that should find positive reflection according to what Tim posted.

 

-Michael

[Dominic Case]

International cheques can have high fees attached

Exactly my reaction too.

 

I'm asking Kodak if they can come up with some alternative way of receiving money - cheques are so-oo twentieth century ;) , especially when the information about the fund is disseminated via the internet.

 

Maybe someone there can get their head around a Paypal account or similar.

 

I'll pass on anything I get back from them.

[Chris Keth]

Exactly my reaction too.

 

I'm asking Kodak if they can come up with some alternative way of receiving money - cheques are so-oo twentieth century ;) , especially when the information about the fund is disseminated via the internet.

 

Maybe someone there can get their head around a Paypal account or similar.

 

I'll pass on anything I get back from them.

 

Paypal would be great. I'm poor enough but I'd happily consider a donation payment for the advice and knowledge I got from John while he was here.

[Francesco Bonomo]

Paypal would definitely be great. I'd love to contribute, but the international cheque is just too expensive, and I want my money to go to the fund, not the blood-sucking bank.

[Matthew Buick]

This sounds like a cracking idea. I would make a donatio, but I already give to other charities.

[Jesus Sifuentes]

We lost one of our key grips here in Texas about 2 months ago. Robert Chambers, who also died of cancer. He was one of our mentors. My respects to John Pytlak.

 

Paypal does have a donation link/button. It is really easy to set up. Here is the link http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p...e-intro-outside

Edited February 13, 2008 by Jesús Sifuentes

[Nate Downes]

Just noticed this. Now I know what that stupid payday-advance check the IRS is sending me, oh wait, "Economy Stimulus Package" check, can be used for.

[John Sprung]

We're less than a month from the first anniversary of John's passing. Perhaps we should plan on doing something for Yortzeit.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Ira Ratner]

We're less than a month from the first anniversary of John's passing. Perhaps we should plan on doing something for Yortzeit.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

 

John, I didn't know John, but was he an observant Jew? I'm a Jew although not observant, but it's only family members who are supposed to light Yartzeit candles for the deceased.

 

Hey...I didn't make this stuff up. I was just born into it.

[John Sprung]

No, he wasn't Jewish. I wasn't thinking of the candles or the religious aspect of it, rather of the very good idea behind it. Now, from the distance of a year, we can see more clearly what his absence has meant. We can remember all the times when asking John was our first thought on how to handle a problem or answer a question. We can remember his calm approach to things and his cheerfulness. Memories fade if we don't take the time to preserve them.

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[David Mullen ASC]

I've found myself thinking about him lately -- it's been a year already?

[Nate Downes]

I've found myself thinking about him lately -- it's been a year already?

Hard to believe. Seems only yesterday.

[K Borowski]

John, I didn't know John, but was he an observant Jew? I'm a Jew although not observant, but it's only family members who are supposed to light Yartzeit candles for the deceased.

 

Hey...I didn't make this stuff up. I was just born into it.

 

No, he was a Roman Catholic. I was at the funeral mass. Anyway, we Polocks can't be anything much other than Catholic these days. Polish Jews are practically extinct thanks to the policies of a certain German totalitarian state.

 

Yeah, hard to believe it's been like 11 mos. There are a whole bunch of questions I feel bad at not being able to answer in the "Film and Processing" Sub-forum that I know he would've. The best homage I feel I can do him is to try my best to answer questions there as well as he did, though I still haven't mastered the art of inserting a half-dozen Kodak website links into each one of my posts, or putting the perpetually skepticism post emoticon at the top of each one of my posts. . .

 

Let me take this opportunity to plug John's memorial fund. You'll be donating money to the excellent George Eastman house to help preserve and archive the past and present of motion picture and still photography.

 

On the day of the funeral I took the time to visit George Eastman house, and had an opportunity to see some original Ansel Adams prints, which were truly inspiring.

 

The House is not funded by Kodak at all, for obvious financial reasons, and it exists solely due to admissions tickets and donations. Staff are all volunteer, from what they told me.

 

So please, do John's Memory justice, and send a check to George Eastman House with "In Memoriam, John Pytlak" in the Memo line. It really is a worth cause and a good way to spend your money.