WILLIAM KAPLAN

1924 - 2022

KAPLAN--William Myron. Bill Kaplan, 97, died on July 13 surrounded by his family, friends, creditors, and bankruptcy lawyers. Okay, we promised our father we would open with that line. We hope he's chuckling right now. William Myron Kaplan was born on July 20, 1924 in Brooklyn, NY, the son of Dora and Barnet Kaplan and little brother of Irma and Zelda. He graduated from Erasmus High School in 1941, and then attended City College of New York for three semesters before entering the Army Air Corps in early 1943. He received his commission as a Communications Officer in the fall of 1944, and subsequently as an additional specialty, Cryptographic Security Officer. He arrived in the South Pacific from the spring of 1945 until his return home in the summer of 1946. He then attended Syracuse University for two years and received his B.A. in Political Science in 1948. The next year he entered Yale Law School, where he received his LLB in 1951. In 1955, as he likes to tell it, he followed a woman into the ocean on Nantucket. He and Anita Zuckman were wed three months later and were married for 64 years, until Anita's death in 2019. Bill was a devoted father of Stephanie, Michael and Barbara; doting grandfather of Eli, Naomi, Leah and Nathan; great-grandfather to Jude (son of Naomi and Jeff), and uncle to Richard and Penny. Bill took a position in the Legal Department of ABC in the 1950's, and was subsequently assigned to be the lawyer for ABC's subsidiary record company. During that period, he had the privilege of being in the studio when Louis Armstrong recorded "What a Wonderful World." In 1967, he moved the family from Hastings-on-Hudson, NY to Los Angeles, CA where he joined the law firm of Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp. Bill became a partner in the Music Department, and represented such clients as Ray Charles, Rod McKuen, the Beach Boys and Chicago. He also specialized in, and pioneered, the field of license rights for the use of music in motions pictures, helping to assemble the soundtracks for Easy Rider, Last Picture Show, and Nashville. Bill took special pleasure in representing the estates of John Coltrane and the composer, Walter Donaldson. In 1994, Bill and Anita moved from Los Angeles to Pacific Grove and enjoyed vibrant decades of retired life. During those globetrotting years, they visited such favorites as Kenya, Egypt, Tanzania, India, Italy and China. In 2021, Bill moved to Forest Hill Manor. Those are the facts. The ways that Bill Kaplan touched so many of us are manifold. He was charming, witty, opinionated bordering on judgmental (I can hear him right now, questioning my sentence structure), and absolutely engrossed with politics, world travel, and the arts. A lifetime bi-coastal Dodgers fan, he saw Pete Reiser (his favorite) crash into the wall at Ebbets Field and watched an unknown kid named Fernando pitch opening day at Dodgers Stadium in 1981. Many have described Bill as a glass half-full personality, and he always brought an upbeat energy that was invigorating for his friends. He was never happier than when he got to tell his stories, or punctuate the tales told by others with off-the-cuff witticisms. And Lord, he enjoyed his singing! Bill sang in the Bass sections of the Monterey Symphony Chorus and the San Jose Choral Society, and he would happily break into September Song or Send in the Clowns at the slightest hint of interest. Beneath his larger-than-life persona there lurked a sweetness that was captured perfectly in a recollection he wrote about his time stationed at Amherst College during his service in the Army Air Corps: "One of my fondest memories is a time in the Fall of 1943, when many of us were recruited to help the apple farmers in the valley bring in their crop. We stood on long ladders, with grappling devices, pulling apples from the trees and dropping them gently into baskets. The days were clear and crisp, the sky was exquisitely blue, and we could see across all of Massachusetts and forever." Dad, we hope you've made your way back there. Donations can be made in Bill's honor to Planned Parenthood or any candidate that will help the Democrats keep the House this Fall.