Remembering Jack Calfee

The sad news of Jack Calfee’s death came out of the blue yesterday morning.

I first met Jack about two decades ago. FDA reform had not yet become a hot topic, but it soon would be, and then several years later it would go into reverse after the drug recall overreactions, and now it’s emerging again as a serious issue. Through it all, I found Jack’s writing and advice to be invariably useful. The same was true of his older work on tobacco and advertising regulation, which I continue to use to this day. And because Jack himself was so invariably cheerful and personable, I never hesitated to pester him with out-of-the-blue requests for information that I figured he’d have at his fingertips. And usually he did.

His death is a terrible loss. I’m glad to have known him, and I know I’ll keep using his work — even if, sadly, I won’t be using his phone number.

Image credit: dellacalfee’s flickr photostream.