Fallen Gladiator

Rest in peace, Lee Reherman. [More]

He lived a few blocks from where I used to in Manhattan Beach. I got to know him from when I worked with him for a few years on fundraising with fireworks. He was helping low-income kids get martial arts training along with the needed discipline and caring adult guidance that went with it.

He wasn't just muscle. He handled the books for that nonprofit, had an MBA and at one time was going for a doctorate in economics.

I'd lost touch with him, fewer than a dozen emails over the years, but got a pleasant jolt watching the Star Trek reboot, when the security guard he played confronted Simon Pegg's "Scotty" and I immediately recognized who it was. That's pretty surreal if it's totally outside your life experience -- to go to the movies and suddenly see a closeup of someone you know on the screen. At least that's my excuse for exclaiming "That's Lee!"

Good man. Sad news.