I
had the pleasure of meeting Mike Wallace in 1998 at a dinner sponsored by the
National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), which
was honoring him and his wife, Mary, for their mental health advocacy.
Mike
Wallace was best known as the hard hitting-- "tough but Fair" --
investigative journalist on 60 Minutes since the show began in 1968 and
until his official retirement in 2006---although he continued to contribute
occasional interviews as recently as 2008.
But
there was another side to Mike Wallace. He helped untold numbers of people
suffering from depression when he went public about his own battles with the
disorder. His courageous personal revelations helped remove the prevailing
stigma that discouraged so many people from seeking treatment for mental
illness. In Mike's case, medical intervention turned his life around.
I
was invited to the event at the Pierre Hotel in New York City by Pola Rosen,
publisher of Education Update, who commissioned me to write an
article about the guests of honor, the ceremony, and any other interesting
observations.
Loquacious
Mike was joined on the podium by fellow depression sufferers, humorist Art
Buchwald and Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Styron. Both Buchwald and
Styron had also come out of the closet about their depression. All three
appeared on Larry King and other TV shows talking about their years of
suffering and how depression compromised the quality of their lives and the
lives of those around them. William Styron authored a tour de force book (1992)
about his torturous struggles with depression. Darkness Visible: A Memoir of
Madness was an inspiring best seller.
Writing
about the evening was easy--the three friends exchanged banter and one-liners
that were rich fodder for my article.
Buchwald
revealed one sure clue that a person is depressed--when he is physically
healthy but obsessed with burial plots. That's exactly what happened to him
during one of his dark periods. Buchwald found two willing listeners in his
friends Mike Wallace and William Styron for his dreary talk about choice burial
plots that were available in a seventeenth-century cemetery on Martha's
Vineyard. The three compatriots routinely vacationed on this tiny island, where
Buchwald and Styron were home owners and Wallace was a renter. Buchwald was
fond of needling Mike about his lowly status as a renter.
But
renting wasn't an option when it came to cemetery plots. In fact, the three
friends put their money where their depression was and purchased plots in the
historic cemetery. Later they joked that Styron got stuck with a plot near a
septic tank and Buchwald, ever the one to play to the crowd, picked a final
resting place close to the road.
Mike
Wallace ended his talk at the banquet on a positive note: People can change, he
insisted, and gave an example to prove it. He said he once asked Art Buchwald
what should be written on his tombstone. Buchwald replied: "Here lie the
remains of Mike Wallace. He was always a renter." Three months later Mike
and Mary bought a house on Martha's Vineyard.
Rest
in peace, Mike. I hope you and your buddies are laughing.
(William
Styron died on November.1, 2006; Art Buchwald died on January 17, 2007; Mike
Wallace died on April 7, 2012)
