ELLIOT DLIN, A GREAT FRIEND TO THE MONUMENTS MEN FOUNDATION, HAS PASSED
March 5th, 2010 | 10:18 am
Elliott Dlin, the longtime director of Dallas’ Holocaust Museum. (Photo Courtesy of Dallas Morning News)
Everyone who has accomplished anything of importance has benefited by a key break from someone else. Perhaps it was the opening of a door to see someone otherwise unavailable, or help with solving a seemingly irresolvable problem. Oftentimes it’s something as simple as receiving an encouraging word. This has certainly been true for the Monuments Men Foundation!
One of the people who played an important role in our work and was a constant supporter of mine was Elliot Dlin, an instrumental figure in the Jewish community and longtime director of the Dallas Holocaust Museum. This week, Elliot died at the far too young age of 57.
I met Elliot at a booksigning for my first book, Rescuing Da Vinci, in 2006. This large man, who possessed the charming and genuine smile of a happy boy, came bounding up to me, bypassing the line of people in the most kind and enthusiastic of ways, and said….”I’m Elliot Dlin and I can’t wait to show you some of the documents and letters your work has brought to mind!!!” His passion and and energy for not only his work, but LIFE, were hallmarks of his engaging personality.
Over the next three years I saw Elliot 3-4 times per year, sometimes at events, and on other occasions when I visited the Dallas Holocaust Museum. Each time he would greet me with his warm smile and tell me how happy he was to see me – and I always knew he meant it. This fine man and dedicated public servant followed our work closely and took time to relay his pride in our achievements. He was a giver, a sharer, someone who wanted those around him to succeed.
In late 2006 Elliot contacted me, even before the Foundation was officially formed, to seek my assistance with several calls he had received from someone who claimed to have important Nazi documents. Elliot selflessly turned this over to the Foundation to handle. Over the course of the following year the Foundation not only determined the importance of the discovery, but ultimately acquired and then donated these documents to the National Archives. It was a great success for the Foundation and the Dallas Holocaust Museum, and a significant benefit for our nation. No one was more pleased than Elliot and appropriately so: but for his call to us, we might never have known about the lead.
We mourn the loss of this good man and extend to his family, and all those who knew and loved him, our most sincere condolences.
Elliot Dlin at the 2008 Hope for Humanities Dinner and Award Banquet. (Photo Courtesy of Dallas Holocaust Museum)
