Hank Laventhol

Hank Laventhol, a gregarious, kind man with a fine, broad mind enjoyed life to the fullest. Besides being a disciplined, hard worker he had a wide array of interests and hobbies. His art was his passion, but he rarely started a day without an early game of tennis. He was an eclectic music lover and an opera and chamber music buff. It was hilarious to hear him sing, slightly off-key, along with all the voices while listening to an opera as he worked. He was well versed in American folk music and loved playing his classical guitar - not well, he admitted. During the 1960s he sought out small locales all over Europe to tape indigenous music - Flamenco in Spain, Fado in Portugal, Stornelli in Italy and jazz in Northern Europe - using a huge reel to reel recorder. Mexican and South American indigenous music was another interest added to his music collection .

He spoke fluent Spanish and Italian and said he knew enough French, Dutch and German to defend himself. Whatever the topic, he communicated. His sense of humor got him past being embarrassed. He was smart in a confident, quiet way enabling him to establish contact with people from all rank and file. An adventurous traveler with an infallible sense of direction, Laventhol met his Dutch born wife over a chessboard in Mallorca, Spain, and was kind enough to let her win a few times during the ensuing 40 years. An imaginative chef, he made up his own multi cultural recipes. Stuffed trout was served with the head on. Asian wok-cooked food was a treat. Dill, unavailable in Mallorca, was imported from the U.S. to pickle a fresh crop of cucumbers in large clay pots placed around his Mallorca rental house. When they started fizzing, it was time to serve them to his “expat” friends, together with his amazingly good baked beans. He used a wood chip smoker to prepare fish and fowl and made his own gravlax and seviche. He said eating Dutch New Herring in the Netherlands was a life altering experience.

Frugal artistic life never held his ingenious imagination back. Any potential problem or road block was dealt with and solutions found. The Mallorcan car mechanic built an hibachi that was carried from his tiny fishing boat, which he called, a “one lunger”, to friends’ houses. The same mechanic fabricated a roof rack for a convertible VW beetle to carry paintings to art shows. Laventhol’s talents converted what he saw as poetry into striking atmospheric work with a touch of the mystical.