Mesothelioma | Mesothelioma

It was terminal.

Chuck had one year to live.

The doctor was right.

On Sunday, May 17, 1992, I received a call from Chuck’s fiancé, Dawn Pacheco.

In a low, quiet voice, she told me “We lost Chuck tonight.” He was just 42.

Damn that disease!

I told you I wouldn’t make it past the third paragraph.

When I lost my best friend, boxing lost its finest administrator.

But I’ve always heard that when the good Lord closes one door, he opens another.

Believe me, it’s true.

Chuck had two other “brothers” besides me.

One was Edwin “Flip” Homansky.

He is a warm and brilliant physician, who, for years, worked as a ringside doctor for NSAC.

His other “brother” was Marc Ratner.

When I was Editor-in-Chief of Ring Magazine and a boxing analyst for ESPN and later the USA Network in the first half of the 1980’s, I used to get together with Minker, the boxing judge, on my many trips into Nevada to cover the likes of Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran.

Later in the decade, I’d visit with Minker the Executive Director, when I was on official business in Nevada as Chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission.

I attended his seminars, I attended his organizational meetings, I learned his ways and I met his staff and colleagues.

Included in that lot were Chuck’s “brothers,” Dr.

Flip Homansky and Marc Ratner.

My initial reaction to meeting Ratner was that he sounded, not a little bit, but exactly,...

Read more...