Melanie and I were married and lived in Berkeley from 1969 to the early ’70s, while she was a grad student in Comparative Literature and I was a young engineer in a draft-deferred job. I will always remember her sweet smile and voice, her sense of humor, and her passion for social justice, which the women’s movement at Berkeley gave her a platform for. The reasons for our separation include my own immaturity, our not knowing where she would get a job as a new PhD, and, I suppose, her recognition of herself as a lesbian. She went on to greater things than she would have had we stayed together, and our breakup freed her to be the self she was always destined to be. Rest in Peace, Melanie.
—Peter Persoff