Died July 14, 2002
College: Branford
Children: Jennifer Galaz, 1966; Philip, 1968
A remembrance from David’s son, Phil.
Dad wrote for a time for “Gentleman’s Bazaar” magazine. While there he claimed to have favorably reviewed a suitcase full of airbrushed ties, which helped launch the career of Ralph Lifshitz (aka, Ralph Lauren). Dad was subsequently the men’s fashion editor for “Playboy” magazine for 13 years. During that time, he split his time between New York and our home in Connecticut.
My parents’ marriage ended after 26 years, in part due to his struggle with alcohol. He got sober in the early 1990s and started over again back in Manhattan working in various administrative roles. While at Trinity Church production studio, he met a good sailing buddy and they did several excursions around the Northeast. He then spent a few years back in his home state of Kentucky as a reporter for a newspaper in Owensboro while caring for his father. When his father passed, dad took his final job as a reporter for a newspaper in Wolfeboro, NH. It was around this time he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. There were treatments and surgeries, but cancer ultimately took his life at the age of 63.
He loved opera, sailing, chicken vindaloo, black coffee, and mystery novels. He ate fish and fowl but no red meat. He made a delicious vegetarian chili and Irish soda bread. He put butter on PB&Js, which I’ll never understand. He had a good sense of style and knew how to make a space feel homey yet masculinely elegant at the same time. His thoughts and emotions were mostly kept private, and he probably best communicated via the written word.
Obituary:
David Gregory Platt was born March 11, 1939, in Louisville, Kentucky. He died July 14, 2002, in New Hampshire after a long illness. He attended high school in Kalamazoo, Michigan, graduated with a B.A. in history from Yale College in 1961, and undertook graduate studies in English at New York University. He married Linda Louise Groves in London, England, on December 11, 1964. He wrote for various publications throughout his career and served his final stint as a reporter for the Granite State News based in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. He resided in New York City and Greenwich, Connecticut, for most of his adult life.
Survivors include: brother Peter of La Jolla, California, brother Michael of Louisville, Kentucky, daughter Jennifer and grandson Caleb of Stamford, Connecticut, and son Philip of Boston, Massachusetts. Donations in remembrance of David can be made to the Community Hospice House, 210 Naticook Road, Merrimack, NH, 03054, tel. (603) 595-5688.