By ANDY CLIBANOFF

So many people were posting yesterday about the passing of Ross S. Malkiel. I was in too much shock to post. I had just had an hour-long phone conversation with him a few days ago (well, if you know Ross, that translates to about 50 minutes of him speaking to my 10 minutes of speaking).

Growing up four doors down the street, he was one year older than me and one year younger than my brother, so the three of us truly considered ourselves to all be brothers. He could walk into my house unannounced as I could into his. If anything was cooking I was always welcome to join his family for a meal and vice versa.

As we got older, Ross made some bad choices and chose to go down some roads that I refused to take. He never ever pressured me to travel those roads with him. He actually grew to respect my decision to stay away from those roads when it was clearly the less popular choice among most of our friends at the time.

The problem is Ross was never truly able to find his way off those roads. Maybe there was something more I could have done to help him. I don’t know.

But I do know this: Ross loved me like you wish every friend that you ever had loved you. Ross would have my back whenever I needed him, and plenty of times when I really didn’t need him.

He truly had a heart of gold and always believed that the future ahead of him was a brighter one. I will truly miss him.

Rest in peace, my brother.