SIDNEY SILVERMAN

SILVERMAN--Sidney B. Sidney B. Silverman of Manhattan and Amagansett, N.Y., died on November 4 at the age of 88. His health had declined, and he decided that his time was up. Strong-willed and clear-eyed, he would not brook argument but waited for his children and grandchildren to arrive from Israel and Oregon to say goodbye. After that, he refused food and water. Born in Brooklyn on December 30, 1932, to David L. Silverman and the former Bertha Schlefer, Mr. Silverman attended James Madison High School there before graduating from the Horace Mann School. An honors graduate also of both Colgate University and Columbia Law School, he became a trial lawyer. His cases were heard in federal courts across the country and in the Delaware Chancery Court; he was honored when the Delaware Bar Association invited him, a New Yorker, to teach continuing education courses to Delaware lawyers. As an adjunct professor, he also taught a course at Yale University on fiduciary duty. Mr. Silverman was particularly proud of his role in preserving an environmentally prized site in the Arctic National Wildlife Region. In 1987, he represented stockholders of Standard Oil of Indiana after British Petroleum made a takeover bid for the company. Standard Oil had an exploration well in ANWR -- the only one ever drilled -- but B.P. assigned no value to it, and neither company would divulge the results of the drilling. Mr. Silverman fought to be allowed to depose B.P.'s chief petroleum engineer and succeeded. A single copy of the deposition, the only one made, was lodged in B.P.'s lawyers' safe. Mr. Silverman agreed to keep the information confidential. Thirty-three years later, after the Trump administration announced a controversial plan to open ANWR, a pristine habitat for caribou and other native species, to oil and gas drilling, a New York Times reporter called. Mr. Silverman sided with the caribou and broke his confidentiality agreement. "This is important for the whole country," he said, telling The Times that the well was not a potential gusher, but a dry hole. The story ran on the front page, dealing a setback to Mr. Trump's proposal. In Amagansett, Mr. Silverman was an enthusiastic still-water swimmer. One summer day, work in Los Angeles prevented him from catching the red-eye back to New York. He rose early the next morning, swam in the Pacific Ocean, and raced to return. Arriving in Amagansett at 9 p.m., he jumped into the Atlantic. "Not many people," he would say, "have swum in both oceans on the same day." In 2000, after retiring from the law, Mr. Silverman returned to Columbia to take a master's degree in philosophy. With the M.A. in hand, he then turned to writing -- a memoir, six novels, and a collection of short stories -- certain that one would be optioned by Hollywood. To his surprise, none was. Among several charitable grants, Mr. Silverman funded three professorial chairs, two at Columbia and one at its medical school. At the law school, he established an annual grant that repays student loans in return for a five-year commitment to work in the public interest, as well as a scholarship in the name of his father-in-law, Daniel Levy, Columbia Law class of 1926. He honored his own parents, too, by supporting aspiring opera stars at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv. One of his great passions was the game of chess. A longtime member of Chess Collectors International, he spent hours playing online, cursing at the computer when he lost and celebrating when he won. Mr. Silverman is survived by his wife of 60 contented years, Irene; three children, Dr. Emily Silverman of Tel Aviv; David L. Silverman of Portland, Ore., and Julia R.L. Silverman, also of Portland, and six grandchildren: Daniel, Leo, and Tamara Silverman; Noam Heinz Lowenstein, and Eleanor and Benedict Azerrad, all of whom will miss him dearly.