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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/31361/full/31361/david-malnick-attorney-and-technion-booster-dies-at-62/ <br /><br /> <b>David Malnick, attorney and Technion booster, dies at 62</b> <br /> Friday, January 12, 2007 | by dan pine <br /><br /><p>David Malnick told his wife and daughter on New Year's Eve that the week they'd just spent together in the Galapagos Islands was the best week of his life. <br /><br /> That's saying a lot for a man who loved his family, his work and life as much as Malnick. The 62-year-old Los Altos attorney died unexpectedly in Peru the next day on Jan. 1.<br /><br /> A respected personal injury lawyer and a dedicated activist in the local Jewish community, Malnick leaves behind devastated friends and family members.<br /><br /> "He was an adventurer," said his wife, Carol . "He had no fear, he never looked back and rarely looked forward. He was so happy and at peace with life."<br /><br /> "This guy is what we Jews call a mensch," said Jack Kadesh, regional director of the North Pacific for the American Technion Society. "We've lost a leader here."<br /><br /> Malnick served as president of the organization's Silicon Valley chapter, which supports the Israeli technology institute. Added Kadesh, "David used to say that the future of Israel was really at Technion because of the cutting-edge science and technology. He felt [Technion] had the best and the brightest of the students."<br /><br /> Not only did Malnick serve 25 years on the board of directors of the American Technion Society, he and his wife, Carol, regularly took students from Technion into their home when they came to the region to pursue internship opportunities with Silicon Valley firms. Many became life-long family friends.<br /><br /> Along with his wife, Malnick had also been very active at Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, where he was a regular at Saturday morning Torah study. In recent years, he took up Modern Hebrew, and reached enough proficiency to toast in Hebrew an Israeli friend at his wedding in Israel.<br /><br /> A native of Piedmont, Malnick graduated from the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law and American University in Washington, D.C.<br /><br /> In a legal practice spanning more than 30 years, Malnick became an expert in the area of closed-head injury, writing articles and lecturing at law schools including Santa Clara University, Stanford University and Kazakhstan State National University.<br /><br /> "David's supreme passion was being a lawyer, an advocate and defender of those who had been wronged," said Malnick's friend Robert Hessen in his eulogy.<br /><br /> In one case, Malnick represented a Russian-born pianist who had been severely injured in an automobile accident and was unable to pursue her music career. Malnick persuaded the judge to bring a baby grand piano into the courtroom, so his client could demonstrate how her injuries made it impossible to play as she once had. The jury awarded his client a large settlement. <br /><br /> "He knew what was really important was making his clients whole," said Carol Malnick. "And he wouldn't settle for anything less."<br /><br /> "He always made everyone feel that they were the star," recalled Kadesh. "From the first day I met David, he told me how great I was going to be in this position [at ATS], and 17 years later he was telling me the same thing. He was totally self-effacing, a great human being, generous with his time and energy."<br /><br /> One of Malnick's other passions was sailing his boat, the Jury Rig, which, according to Hessen, he once described as "a floating piece of timber with a hole into which he is constantly stuffing dollar bills. He was exceptionally generous in inviting his friends and colleagues to join him on his boat, though none of us, I suspect, loved sailing as much as he did."<br /><br /> Added Kadesh, "The family was wonderful. Any time we had a professor in town, Carol opened the house and had a reception, invited people in. You can replace dollars that people give, but you can't replace the dedication and love that David had. That's what he gave us."<br /><br /> Malnick is survived by wife Carol and daughter Meredith of Los Altos; his mother, Edith Malnick, of Piedmont; and brothers Warren of Walnut Creek and Joel of State College, Pa. <br /><br /> The family requests that memorial contributions be directed to Congregation Beth Am's Youth Education, Camp, and Israel Scholarship Fund; or to the American Technion Society, 870 Market Street #800, San Francisco, CA 94102.</p>

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