Remembering Raphy Sugarman

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To the editor

I learned a lot from Sug.

“Do you know that tree in Van Cortlandt Park? I want to write about it,” he said at an editorial meeting five years ago.

He was the sports editor at The Press then. I had been a reporter for all of three months and I had no idea what I was doing.

Despite it not being his beat, he wrote a story about the tree: a Sugar Maple that is the first tree in Van Cortlandt Park to change color every fall. “For perhaps a century or more, it has been one of the most admired trees in Van Cortlandt Park…”

That story became a bit of a joke at The Press. The Sugar Maple, which you could see across the Parade Ground from the old Press office on Broadway, became Raphy’s tree. We laughed about it and joked with him about it. I didn’t appreciate the story all that much. It was just another solid Raphy story. 

I re-read that story, “Fall’s first is reaching out for aid in Van Cortlandt Park,” the other day after I heard he died. Sure, there are parallels you could make now between Raphy and the tree — which he discovered actually bursts with bold colors early because it’s fighting to survive — but I was struck by a single paragraph near the end.

“As officials try to save the tree, park-goers are still enjoying it. More than two-dozen people were interviewed in Vannie last weekend. Many said they had long admired the tree, but only one or two knew of its unique color-changing cycle.”

More than two dozen. In a 700-word story about a tree. 

“That is amazing, I walk by it all the time and I never realized it,” a Riverdalian told him.

That was Raphy. He was a dedicated reporter who saw what no one else saw. And a damn funny guy, too.

ADAM WISNIESKI

Sug, Van Cortlandt Park, Sugar Maple, Parade Ground, Broadway, Adam Wisnieski

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