Floyd Resnick was my security man for many years, and also chief of security for many others, including David Horowitz and Ann Coulter. He was a consummate professional, with twenty-plus years in the NYPD and training from the British Secret Service. I never worked with a more thorough and able security man. Floyd was a man of so many comprehensive abilities that it is no overstatement to say that much of what you have seen in this ongoing struggle for freedom and human rights — the events, the rallies, the conferences, and much more — simply would not have been successful without him.
But that is just what is on the surface. Floyd was courageous, generous beyond measure, and as charming and affable a human being as I have ever known. He was a fluid and effortless storyteller, and everyone who was lucky enough to be his friend knows that no one ever had a more loyal one. Nor have I ever encountered anyone who was wittier, or funnier, or as sunny-natured. He was self-effacing: he would contemptuously wave away my calling him a “hero of freedom,” but that is exactly what he was. Floyd Resnick was a patriot, an American, of the indomitable type that threw off British rule, faced down the Kaiser, chased Hitler into his bunker, and got that wall in Berlin torn down. He was the kind of man who made this country great — as great as he himself was.
He was one of the best friends I ever had, and one of the best men I’ve ever known. Who is there now for me to share a joke with? Our long drives between speaking events, talking over the state of the world, the vagaries of human relationships, the mysteries of the heart and the soul, the things that make for a joyful existence — those are some of my most prized memories. He taught me a great deal. I see so many things more clearly, and my life is better in so many ways, because I knew him.
On Friday, to the shock and the sorrow of everyone who had the privilege to know him, that great, magnificent heart gave out. The loss for those of us whom he loved and who loved him is irreparable and irreducible. There is no one like him, and there never will be anyone like him. I can only hope, for the rest of my days, to be half the mensch he was.
May his memory be eternal.