The Book of Dietz: Memories of the late great
by Mark McDermott This is the beginning of a story I have been unable to write for two years. On June 26, 2023, my friend Pat Dietz and his grandson Charlie were outside the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Torrance when an elderly man driving a Tesla ran into a parked car and lost control of his vehicle. Rather than braking, the man accelerated, and sped toward Pat and Charlie. If you knew Pat Dietz, you know that he was one of those rare humans possessing the ability to slow down time — whether telling a slow-winding story, teaching a music lesson, or playing a graceful guitar lick, Pat had mastered one of life’s most elusive arts, that of pace. In a world increasingly governed by pings and gnawing distraction, Dietz moved unhurriedly, with clear focus for whatever task, situation, or fellow human being was at hand. And so at this moment, Dietz saw with utter clarity what was about to happen. Torrance police would later review footage from the bookstore’s security camera. The video showed Dietz leaping in front of the runaway vehicle and moving his grandson away from its most brutal point of impact. “The way the police officer said it is that he threw himself forward so that he was…
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