Saying Good Bye And Thank You To Andrew Patner

• Deanna Isaacs
• Andrew Patner, remembered at Orchestra Hall

Since WFMT critic-at-large (and Chicago Sun-Times music critic) Andrew Patner’s sudden death on February 3, a number of people have confessed that they not only admired him, but actually wanted to be him—the irrepressible, erudite man-about-town with a seat at every table and a world of friends.

Laura Emerick, Patner’s former editor at the Sun-Times, noted that he could also handle art, architecture, film, theater, dance, and literature. Philanthropist Fred Eychaner, one of many who mentioned that Patner’s cultural chops coexisted with an active—even confrontational—passion for social justice, said he “will always be with us, asking ‘Which side are you on?’”

All this sounds like hyperbole, but wasn’t. If, somehow, Patner were still alive, I, who barely knew him, could count on an e-mail about this post. He was a hawk-eyed postpub copyeditor but, more than that, a generous reader.