JULIAN MAZOR

JULIAN MAZOR
Short story writer Julian Mazor, whose work appeared in the New Yorker and Shenandoah magazines, as well as various anthologies of short fiction, died Sunday. He was 88 years old.

Mazor, who went by Jim or Jimmy, was born in Baltimore in 1929. He moved to Washington in 1934, where he went to Alice Deal grade school and John Eaton middle school. As a boy he spent his summers at Camp Wigwam in Maine, and later returned as a beloved coach and counselor. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947.

Mazor attended Indiana University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and then Yale law school (class of 54). He spent two years as a legal officer in the Air Force, serving at Perrin Air Base in Sherman, Texas. While there, he met Arra Ann Tolbert, who would later become his wife.

In 1958 Mazor moved to New York to pursue a writing career. He sold his first two stories to the New Yorker magazine in 1962. A collection his work, Washington and Baltimore, appeared in 1968. He and Tolbert married in April of that year.

After receiving a Rockefeller grant, he and Ann traveled to London where their first son was born. They lived for a time in Ireland, then moved Alexandria, Va. Their second son was born soon after.

Mazor, a devoted father and coach, continued writing. A second collection of his stories, Friend of Mankind, was published in 2004.

Mazor had a lifelong love of baseball. An avid player in his youth, he took up the game again at 69 with a trip to Orioles fantasy camp in Sarasota, FL. He played for the next 11 years.

Mazor and Ann divorced in 1995. A second marriage ended in 2014.

In his later years, Mazor became a fixture in Georgetown, frequenting Martin's Tavern and taking daily walks with his devoted caretaker, Lucy.

He'll be remembered for his kindness and generosity, and the stories he left behind.

Mazor is survived by his sons William and John, his ex wife Arra Ann, and his granddaughter Ellie.

He will be deeply missed.

Graveside services were held on May 23.