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Morton Greenspoon Obituary
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Memories and Condolences
for Morton Greenspoon
Clive Kay
April 2, 2025
A great friend and a great inspiration in what is the ultimate in a professional capacity. I miss him ! Love to all the family
Jane and Clive Kay
Dr Bruce J. Spera
April 1, 2025
In memory again...to the finest mentor a fledgling doctor could ever hope to have. And to a wonderful husband and father of three...God bless my friend. Thank you Morton. Dr. Bruce J. Spera.
Clive Kay
April 4, 2024
Clive Kay
April 4, 2024
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Clive Kay
April 4, 2024
Clive Kay
April 4, 2024
Just thought I would put up a few photos of some great times and memories! Absolutely one of a kind !
Clive Kay
April 4, 2024
Clive Kay
April 4, 2024
Clive Kay
April 4, 2024
Clive Kay
April 4, 2024
Some great memories !
Andrea Medina
April 2, 2024
Andrea Medina
April 2, 2024
Andrea Medina
April 2, 2024
Andrea Medina
April 2, 2024
Andrea Medina
April 2, 2024
Daddy I miss you every day. I had the wonderful opportunity to work with you for 6 years back in 1992. I can not believe it was 6 years ago since your passing. It seems like it happened just yesterday. I wish you could of lived forever. Missing you more than ever today. You are in my thoughts always.
Clive Kay
April 2, 2024
How time flies past. I miss the sensible mindedness of Mort who I looked up to as a colleague. We worked together on may films and spent much time together on my travels to LA. I haven't managed to get back there for many years so have lost contact with the family. I would love to reconnect if possible but do not know how. If anyone reads this please contact me . Love and best wishes to all who loved and admired Mort ( and Sandy ! )
Dr Bruce Spera
April 2, 2024
Still thinking of you as well. My mentor, my friend...Dr. Morton Greenspoon-you were the best. And Claudia-God bless. Dr Bruce Spera.
Claudia
April 1, 2024
Thinking of you Dad - 6 years. Always in my heart. With love, your daughter, Claudia.
Dr. Bruce J. Spera, Optometrist
March 29, 2023
On this fifth year remembrance, I would like to once again express my heartfelt appreciation for having Dr. Morton Greenspoon as my mentor and as my friend. My condolences and my respect go out also to Claudia, Rhonda and Andrea. Your father was so much more than an inspiration to me. He was, as people say, but I truly mean-one in a million. God bless you and your respective families. I wish you all-all the luck in the world on your separate journeys. I will never forget him. And yes, it´s another 4:00 AM April the 2nd. But this time, I stayed at home here in Laguna-waiting for that sunrise. Dr Bruce J. Spera
Dr. Bruce J. Spera
April 2, 2022
Saturday April 2nd 4:30 A.M. I´m late...I know it...but it´s so dark this time and I can´t exactly see where I´m.....oh my... there you are -Lantern! I shouldn´t have left you here...´ untended `. Is this the same place? Doesn´t seem right somehow and it´s so cold. "Hello...Are you here my old friend?" Oh no...the last time I was here I did tell you about your light glowing above and around your children but..you were here to listen. Now...we´ll...you are truly a part of infinity. But wait...so who am I talking to? Just myself and you-you ugly Lantern. So why don´t I just sit down and you and I can wait for the first speck of light that will come over that mountain right there. If I have to carry you back we´ll need that light. Well...alone...then let me say one final thing. And let me direct it, my old friend, to three individuals...to your `girls´. So to: Claudia Linn, Rhonda Diane and Andrea Lee- I wish you all the joy and happiness life has to offer. I wish you long sunny days filled with carefree smiles. I wish you all the luck in the world. I wish you will always be able to follow your dreams. And I can wish this because I know the light still emanates from your two wonderful parents will not only guide you in the right directions but will also give you a sharp focus and a defined clarity to see and thereby recognize the best possibilities in your lives to come. And that is truly heaven on earth. God bless you...and God bless the best mentor anyone could have had. Finally.....dawn...6:38 AM. Hey..Lantern! Yes you ugly....come with me, it´s time to go home. Dr. Bruce J. Spera. Laguna Beach.
August 19th, 1978 Captains Ballroom of the Queen Mary
Bruce Spera
April 10, 2021
Bruce Spera
April 10, 2021
Bruce Spera
April 10, 2021
Saturday August 19th, 1978. Captain’s Ballroom on the Queen Mary.
Bruce Spera
April 5, 2021
Yes..it’s 4:00 A.M. once more and I guess I needed this lantern to find my way back. Let me set it down. My arm hurts from it’s weight. Well, here we are again—has it really been three years? Come to think of it, this light not only guided me here but it is a very good representation of what you’ve given to so many....and especially your family...your girls. When God produces a rare and wonderful man such as yourself, others find not a temporary flame but more so a light that will never expire. It burns in your children and your children’s families. They, after all, are the offspring of your great generosity. They then work within your intellect, within your example and within your love. And in that magical way—you live forever. You have given them their own diversity that will shape their own lives, open their own hearts and thereby give fulfillment to their own souls. We all should cherish the virtues and beliefs of our fathers and mothers. This heavy lantern I carried here is like the light you bestowed on your family. But unlike this—yours will never go out. It will never need ‘tending’ to stay lit. It cannot expire. Underneath it’s brightness your girls move along in life. They become the parents of their children and the children to come. So life is accomplished because of you. No immense void but instead in its place are lives of immense fulfillment. So rest easy my old friend. Be nothing except joyous. Be everything in the realization that your warmth and your generosity and your smile gave us the “light” that gave birth to it all. Here...I’m going to leave this with you. Not that you need it...my arm’s too sore to carry it all the way back. And besides, I see that first hint of light coming up over that mountain—in the same spot—just like it always does now every April the 2nd—every year. Dr. Bruce J. Spera. Laguna Beach, California.
Bruce Spera
April 3, 2020
Well its 4:00 in the morning once again. And even though three years have passed I cant say that its any easier knowing that youre not here my old friend. The world has changed so much in such a short time that I dont think youd recognize it anymore. And maybe thats ok because I dont think youd like what you see. A little like the profession we both chose. Now everyone is running around with panicked expressions on their faces wearing surgical masks and glovesand I dont mean the doctors! We are living in a very different time. But..Im still here..still practicing..still trying to implement those things you taught me. Still missing you. Like so many other people do, Im sure. Like your girlsthose threeyou go on through them and their families. Do you remember what you told me that hot August afternoon on the Queen Mary? You looked up with that knowing smile if yours and said; Life is familyand family is pure joy. Its so true. I wish you peace my old friend and I hope your life was filled with that joy. Its funny, I dont think Ill wait for the sun to come up this time. I think Ill just leave early...and go back to bed and try to go back to sleep. God bless.......Dr Bruce Spera
Clive Kay
September 14, 2019
I had the honour and pleasure to have known Mort since 1984. We worked on many movies together as we were both into Contact lenses . I was in the UK and we met over the filming of Legend, with Tom Cruise (1985) . Over the next 25 years whenever I was in LA I would see Mort and Sandy . I just read that he had passed away and wanted to add this to the condolences , firstly to Sandy and also to the girls who I remember with great affection ! He was one of a kind and I will miss him ! I will try and contact when I am next in LA .
Bruce Spera
April 3, 2019
4:30 in the morning...and it's so quiet. These pre-dawn hours can be loaded with reflection. It's the time that soft Sinatra lyrics linger in that part of the mind where echoes live. April the 2nd...has it been a whole year my old friend? No...it can't be..or..well..you know when I think back over the last several months and I recall how often I felt so sadly frustrated that I couldn't ever again tell you just how much you meant to me. Well then...maybe it does seem that long. I was the one you gently pushed out of that nest at the very end of the 1970's. The one who, from under your wing, you taught how to fly from that office on Ventura Bouldvard. Do you remember...the one who, after a few months working for you, at lunch break ran a few blocks west to play piano at Green Streets Restaurant. Hey...it was an hour's pay plus tips! And if you taught me anything, it was to work hard and learn how to save your money. So that put a little extra money in my wallet but nothing in my stomach. But then on so many other lunch breaks you took me to Art's Delicatessen definitely filled our stomachs while simultaneously emptied our wallets. I will never forget my first day of work with you in March of 1977. At the end of the day I was back of the office glancing at a yellow lab tray with the name Curtis, T on the front and a small pair of near-vision glasses inside. I looked up at the lab guy and said ; Ah..and that patients first name is Tonyright? To which he glared back at me and with furrowed brow stonily snarled back ; Yes..Tony Curtis..so don't break his new pair while you're dispensing them to him tomorrow. He'll be here right at 9:00 when we open. So don't be late either! ( gulp). Do you remember the work we did on The Boys from Brazil? And when I brought Gregory Peck out after examing him..the two women who were picking up their prescriptions..how when they saw him just started babbling and running up to him and both nearly fainted? You were so incredibly quick with those smelling salts too!! But really you were so wonderfully relaxed even with the biggest of starsand you made them feel relaxed and comfortable. One of your many talents. Well..except maybe for the great Henry Fonda. He was tense...tense sitting in the front reception area...tense in the chair when I examined him...wait..I was tense too..I stayed tense for about a week. Incredibly, it was like being in On Golden Pond with him. ( Norman ) Fonda! I was numb that day..while you just smiled. And I remember how excited you were about working on Brian De Palma's new movie The Fury. You took Andrew and I examined Amy for those enormous blue sclera lenses. But the next day I had to be the patient (one).. because examining the great John Cassavetes involved four intermissions..because four cigarettes were mandatory. But his lenses were so huge as to be scary..and the great and legendary special effects king of Hollywood designed the tiny jets loaded with red food coloring. And when I found the large amount of Amblyopia in his left eyeand when it came to his glasses and I asked you how much to put in. And you thought, smiled wickedly and said Give it all to himlet's see what happens! But call Gena and warn her, just in case. ( Which I did ). Nice to speak to Gena Rowlands. You taught me the importance of appearance too. From the story of when you first examined Audrey Hepburn and how she had walked out of the office (before yours) because the doctor had dirty fingernailsto sending me downtown to be tailored for a proper suit at Roger Stuart's where, by the way, they all knew your name. You sent me to MGM to do Coma because you had to suddenly fly to Israel. And of course the 8 months or so on the set of The Hulk. You kept my spirits up...it was tough working the long hours of TV.. especially when you got behind and you had to film all night long, usually outdoors, in the rain once, and on an alley near 6th street in downtown LA!! No cell phones back then too...so you could return the next morning and find your locked out of your apartment on Woodman Avenue by a very upset young lady. Ah...you just smiled that smile at me and said Bruce, think of the OVERTIME! You even financially helped me by giving meMarty. And being with Mr. Rich for years did teach me the exciting world of taxes and write-offs and essentially being responsible with money. My yearly pilgrimage to Woodland Hills continued until the late 80's. So I wrapped everything around me I could...everything you so unselfishly gave me. It's funny I remember one year you were going and wanted me to go see Frank Sinatra at Universal Amphitheater. And was going and wanted you to go see Bob Seeger at the Forum. Well..Old Blue Eyes (and Sarah Vaughn) were great that evening. But you never made the trek to Inglewood did you? Even with the cool black Silver Bullit Band' T-shirt I bought for you...it's ok you're off the hook. You were so generous with your time and spirit. You were so very talented and so incredibly humble at the same time. A rare combinationespecially these days. And when you spoke of your familyyou absolutely glowed. My wonderful girls; you used to always say... ..and so it's been one year exactly..and I see the first light of the morning coming from over the mountains and I only have one thing left to sayto my mentor and to (hopefully) my friend-words from Emily Dickinsoncalled Parting. My life closed twice before it's close And it remains to see if immortality unveil a third event to me One so huge and hopeless to conceive as those that twice befell Parting is all we know of heaven And all we need of Hell. God bless you...Dr Bruce J Spera. Laguna Beach, California April 2, 2019 6:10 AM
Trissa Pipolo
February 26, 2019
I only found out today that Dr. Greenspoon had passed away last year. My most heartfelt condolences to his family and close friends. I started seeing Dr. Greenspoon many decades ago when I was 12 or 13 and am still a patient at his office. He always greeted me with his warmhearted smile and would give me updates on his daughters, whom he adored. He was such a wonderful man...may he Rest In Peace.
Denise Bettger-Dalven
July 20, 2018
In loving memory of a wonderful person. We will love you and miss you always. Dr. Greenspoon was our family eye doctor for over 60 years. 4 generations were helped by "Morty" to see well and look good! He always started an appointment with a joke. RIP Dr. Greenspoon.
Bruce Spera
May 25, 2018
I was fortunate enough to be taken under the wing of Dr. Greenspoon even before I graduated from S.C.C.O. and was privileged to work for him on Ventura Blvd from March 1977 through 1978 before I moved to Laguna Beach and opened up my own practice in Mission Viejo. There was no better wing than his to be under to learn how to do it. And I had to learn fast because three months after starting to work with himhe left unexpectedly for Israeland stayed a couple of months! Private practice and movie work and The Hulk setwere very daunting for a newly graduated OD. His family of the girls were wonderful to me and I was very proud he came to my wedding in 1978. My mentor and one of the best men I have ever known-pure class. We last talked at the ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel with his marvelous wife Sandy. All my thoughts go to you and the three girlsand the grandchildren!! Well time fliesGod bless you and I wish you all the very best life can offer. And let me tell you how great it was to come out from under that wing-knowing exactly how you want to fly. Love and all my sympathy....Dr. Bruce J. Spera, Optometrist. Laguna Beach, California
Marla Zaslansky
May 23, 2018
I met Dr, Greenspoon through one of his interns, Bruce. Bruce saw me at a party and thought I looked like Dr. Greenspoon's daughter, Rhonda. Every year for over 40 years Dr. Greenspoon and I would get a laugh about how we met.
During my exam last year, Dr. Greenspoon said I should consider who I will I go to if something happened to him, because, he said, "let's face it, I am getting a bit up there age. " He referred me to a specialist at Jules Stein. When I told her why I was there, she said, "forget it you will never find a craftsman and ophthalmology artist like Mort."
She is right, he was one of a kind. I will miss Dr. Greenspoon a remarkable man on many levels.
Elin Carlson
May 8, 2018
I loved seeing you each year for my eye exam. You were always so sweet, thorough, and knowledgable. I will miss you, indeed.
Lupe Zuniga, PhD
May 4, 2018
My dear Dr. Greenspoon,
Thank you for taking such good care of my eyes for some 40 plus (!) years. You found a solution to my very
difficult optical situation
for which I will always be
grateful. I'll miss sharing
good jokes as you went about
checking my eyes out.
My loving thoughts to your
cherished family and may they all take comfort in
knowing how very special
you were to so many people
throughout your fabulous
life.
Tanna Marshall
April 16, 2018
I was so sad to hear of Dr. Greenspoon's passing. He was my eye doctor for 30 years one of my favorite people. I just adored him - what a sweet and talented man! My sincere condolences to his family and friends.
Henry Oster
April 5, 2018
The passing of Mprt is a personal and professional loss I will feel for all the time to come. We graduate Optometry School 6 years apart and knew each other ever 1957, a blessed length of time for both of us.
My and my wife Susie's sympathy is lovingly extended to Sandy and the whole family with the hope that the pain of your loss will lessen with time, although we know it will never disappear.
Adrienne Chan
April 5, 2018
Dr. Greenspoon, I had the honor of writing an article about your tremendous career many years ago while I was a first year optometry student. Your story and work has been an inspiration for many young aspiring optometrists since. I am sorry that we never got to meet.
Judith Shaw
April 4, 2018
My deepest condolences to Dr. Greenspoons family, friends, and my fellow patients. He was my optometrist for well over 30 years, and he was just a lovely person. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him.
Adam Swanson & Kathy Swanson Japes
Kathy Swanson Japes
April 4, 2018
Kathy Japes
April 4, 2018
My condolences to Andrea Medina and her wonderful family. I was very lucky to spend so many wonderful times with your mother and father. Your father was a true Jewel. Know that he in heaven with my wonderful father. God bless you Andrea, Melissa and sweet Rachel and you're sweet and loving mother Sandy and both of your sisters amen
Harlan and Keitha Rue
April 3, 2018
What an amazing life he had!
Wishing the family condolences and comfort in their loss.
Melanie and Ron Rovin
April 3, 2018
May your hearts soon be filled with wonderful memories of joyful times together as you celebrate a life well lived.
Janet & Steven Scharf
April 3, 2018
Sending our condolences to the family. He was a very special man.
Linda Barron
April 3, 2018
I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Greenspoon for over 20 years! I have many fond memories and will miss seeing him and hearing all of his wonderful stories.
April 3, 2018
My condolences to the family. I went to Dr. Greenspoon since I was 6 years old in 1963. He always made me laugh and feel very comfortable in his office. He will be sorely missed.
April 3, 2018
Our deepest condolences
Lance and Candy Miller
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