Steve and I got into a fight in the 5th grade at El Rodeo. We were both sent to the Principal's office to see Mr. Scott. We both thought it was pretty cool since we were both kind of nerdy and fighting was so out of character for us. We were fast friends before we both were thru the office door.
I met Steve at El Rodeo. He asked me out on my first date, I was thrilled, we were 12! His older brother/sister? drove. We went to a movie, then out for an ice cream soda. How Happy Days! Well, it was a happy day and I am so sorry we lost him. What happened?
Steve was in Boy Scouts with me and he was a friend. He was very smart and I always felt a really cool guy. I was really surprised when I heard he had died.
I knew Stephen at El Rodeo and BHHS. We went together to Nantes, France to the same home for the BHHS summer exchange program, and became Eagle Scouts together. If your ever met Stephen's dad, Colonel John Gottlieb, you never forgot it. After high school we saw each other less frequently but rode motocross bikes in the high desert with Stephen's brother. Of course, he and his brother rode Husquevarnas, the finest. He had refined, and expensive, tastes but was generous to a fault. He became a plastic surgeon whose most famous patient was Anne Margaret after her Las Vegas accident. At the time of his death he had just gotten married and his wife was pregnant. He did not die from an auto accident but at his office, on a weekend, as a result of an accident.
There was a time during seventh and eighth grade at El Rodeo, when a group of us who were the Boy Scouts of Troop 17 were really very good friends. Steve Gottlieb, Gary Raymond, Andy Israel, Mike Doland, Rusty Sheinkopf, Barney Feinstein, Craig Carmine, myself, and for at time I think Ronnie Heifetz (I hope I'm not forgetting someone) ….we were really quite inseparable.
Of that group, Steve and I shared two particular things in common. I think these things were part of an influence upon us, for him of his father, and for me my step father. The first was an affection, unusual among nice Jewish boys in Beverly Hills, for guns and for hunting. I remember shooting at squirrels in his back yard with our 22s! He sold me a British 303 Enfield rifle which I cleaned up to give my step father. It was a unique, unusual, and therefore special bond.
The second part of that common bond was that we were the only two right wingers – Goldwater Republicans - in 8th grade! I believe we both inherited that, now seen to be perhaps misguided, position from our father/father figures. I don’t remember how Steve fared in class discussion, but I daily had my positions shredded to mincemeat by Mickey Kaus –although I think being intellectually outgunned by the mind who Ann Coulter calls the smartest liberal in America is not so surprising! I remember Steve and I holding fast, together and alone, to political positions which clearly separated our thinking from the rest of the class, and we had many fun hours assuring each other that we were right (far right!) Those were quite enjoyable hours!
I do not know for certain more about the circumstances of his so sadly premature demise. Perhaps no one does. But I remember those days of eighth grade with Steve, and with the other members of our Troop 17 with a nostalgic loving warmth, and if lucky enough to see the rest of the guys of our old troop together, there will be a particularly sad part of the heart, I think for all of us, which will miss seeing Gottlieb there.
Alan Duke
Bonnie Burstein (Burstein)
I met Steve at El Rodeo. He asked me out on my first date, I was thrilled, we were 12! His older brother/sister? drove. We went to a movie, then out for an ice cream soda. How Happy Days! Well, it was a happy day and I am so sorry we lost him. What happened?
Gary Raymond
Steve was in Boy Scouts with me and he was a friend. He was very smart and I always felt a really cool guy. I was really surprised when I heard he had died.
Michael Doland
I knew Stephen at El Rodeo and BHHS. We went together to Nantes, France to the same home for the BHHS summer exchange program, and became Eagle Scouts together. If your ever met Stephen's dad, Colonel John Gottlieb, you never forgot it. After high school we saw each other less frequently but rode motocross bikes in the high desert with Stephen's brother. Of course, he and his brother rode Husquevarnas, the finest. He had refined, and expensive, tastes but was generous to a fault. He became a plastic surgeon whose most famous patient was Anne Margaret after her Las Vegas accident. At the time of his death he had just gotten married and his wife was pregnant. He did not die from an auto accident but at his office, on a weekend, as a result of an accident.
Lindy Wynn (Walsh)
Amy Mart was my best friend all during my school life. she was an elagant beautiful person. I will always miss her. Blessings, Lindy( Walsh) Wynn
Richard Nierenberg
There was a time during seventh and eighth grade at El Rodeo, when a group of us who were the Boy Scouts of Troop 17 were really very good friends. Steve Gottlieb, Gary Raymond, Andy Israel, Mike Doland, Rusty Sheinkopf, Barney Feinstein, Craig Carmine, myself, and for at time I think Ronnie Heifetz (I hope I'm not forgetting someone) ….we were really quite inseparable.
Of that group, Steve and I shared two particular things in common. I think these things were part of an influence upon us, for him of his father, and for me my step father. The first was an affection, unusual among nice Jewish boys in Beverly Hills, for guns and for hunting. I remember shooting at squirrels in his back yard with our 22s! He sold me a British 303 Enfield rifle which I cleaned up to give my step father. It was a unique, unusual, and therefore special bond.
The second part of that common bond was that we were the only two right wingers – Goldwater Republicans - in 8th grade! I believe we both inherited that, now seen to be perhaps misguided, position from our father/father figures. I don’t remember how Steve fared in class discussion, but I daily had my positions shredded to mincemeat by Mickey Kaus –although I think being intellectually outgunned by the mind who Ann Coulter calls the smartest liberal in America is not so surprising! I remember Steve and I holding fast, together and alone, to political positions which clearly separated our thinking from the rest of the class, and we had many fun hours assuring each other that we were right (far right!) Those were quite enjoyable hours!
I do not know for certain more about the circumstances of his so sadly premature demise. Perhaps no one does. But I remember those days of eighth grade with Steve, and with the other members of our Troop 17 with a nostalgic loving warmth, and if lucky enough to see the rest of the guys of our old troop together, there will be a particularly sad part of the heart, I think for all of us, which will miss seeing Gottlieb there.