A Renaissance man is defined as someone who is “well-educated, knowledgeable and proficient in a wide range of fields.” So let me introduce you to Alan Sloyer, M.D. I’ve known Alan for many years and consider him to be one of my dear friends. We both have a passion for hot yoga and golf. But the more I got to know him, the more I became aware of the breadth of his interests and depth of his talents.
Alan was born and raised in Lawrence and is the youngest of three siblings. His mother was a professor at Hofstra University and his father was a lawyer and also owned a houseware company, restaurants and real estate holdings. He went to Hofstra as an undergrad and got his medical degree at Brooklyn Downstate.
We played golf this weekend at his home course of Engineers so that I might get more data before I wrote about him. During the first few holes, I gathered all the preliminary stuff and by hole No. 5 I asked him casually when he knew that he wanted to be a doctor. Without skipping a beat he remarked “When my parents told me to be one.” So you see, renaissance men also have a good sense of humor.
We were playing that day with his older brother, Eddie, who is a dentist, so I got to observe up close and personal what good-natured sibling rivalry looks like.
In addition to being the head of North Shore Gastroenterology Associates in Great Neck, Alan is also an award-winning photographer. His photos have appeared in The New York Times and he has won the prestigious Nikon Holiday Card Award with a photo of Main Street in Roslyn on a snowy winter morning. He is best known for his travel photography and has been to 70 countries over six continents. I own two of his photos, one of a quiet fishing village in India at sunset and the other of the harbor in Portofino.
When I asked him what drew him to photography, he told me that his parents took him and his siblings to Florence when he was 17 and he was so stunned by the look of the streets, the foreign language newspapers and the cafes that he wanted to document what he saw. That was the beginning of his love affair with the camera. If you visit his website (Alan Sloyer Photography), you are in for a treat because you’ll get to see photos of glaciers in Patagonia, umbrellas in the rain on a street in Copenhagen, the Tigers Nest Monastery on the cliffs overlooking Paro, Bhutan, and a breathtaking view of the shoreline of Portofino, Italy.
This is a man who has ventured all over the globe and has brought back home a treasure trove of beauty inside his Nikon camera.
Alan is also known for his altruism, which means my paltry $10 a year donation to my church pales in comparison. Now, I must confess that deep within my tiny little soul there lies a place of envy and though I’m aware that envy is one of the seven deadly sins, I still find this fiery little place easily ignited.
I thought I was doing well with my envy problem with Alan until it came to the last hole in our match. We were gambling on the golf course and all the money was riding on the last hole. Eddie and I were one down and were playing against Alan and his partner, Adam, who claimed to have a 10 handicap but who swung just like Gary Woodland, last week’s US Open winner. The 18th at Engineers is a downhill dogleg, a right monster of a hole and I smashed my drive all the way down the hill. Alan pushed his drive to the right and for the first time I hitched my pants up just like Arnie Palmer and sauntered up to my drive, sure that I would save the day for myself. I grant you that Alan Sloyer is tall. Sure, he’s handsome. Sure, he has a medical degree and is an award-winning photographer. Sure, he has a nice wife. But alas, I’m the big golfer in the group. My nickname is Bit T., the guy who has won college tournaments and even now, at my age, I still have an impressive — dare I say majestic — golf swing. So at last I would be able to claim a small victory over Alan.
Now Alan pulls his second all the way down the hill and well short of the green. I hit a cute wedge to about 25 feet short of the cup and I am on the verge of triumph. It is Alan’s turn to hit and stubs a weak chip to about 15 feet way. All I must do now is two-putt to save the day. Eddie gives me a wink to encourage me and I cozy my putt up to about 3 feet. I begin to feel even more confident and watch as Alan lines up his putt. He strokes the ball, forward it slowly rolls on Engineer’s lightning fast greens and the putt begins to take the break and falls into the center of the cup. Alan makes a four and Alan wins the match. He comes over to me, takes off his hat, shakes my hand and says “Nice match, Tom.” I grimace and say “Oh yes, congratulations.”
You see this is the way of Renaissance men. They simply do many things well. They help people, they are good husbands. They have a sense of humor. They smile warmly and graciously. They even play good golf. We can admire these men for all their talent, generosity and goodness. But a word to the wise. Just don’t try to gamble with Alan on the golf course.
