My wife Laurie is from Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to Elvis, barbeque, and the blues, Memphis is home to Laurie’s big family. We enjoy visiting them regularly, as they always shower us with their gracious southern hospitality.
As I often stress in this Family Legacy Planning blog, preserving family heritage is an essential part of creating a lasting legacy. Today, I shine a spotlight on Laurie’s grandfather Albert Herzberg. Grandpa Herzberg was an intellectual. His hard-knocks immigrant roots pushed him into the workforce and ended his formal education at age 12, but his insatiable thirst for knowledge never diminished. Albert taught himself French, Spanish, and advanced mathematics. His favorite magazine was The Journal of the American Medical Association, which he read avidly. He even tutored his son AJ years later when AJ attended MIT for college.
In addition to his intellectual acumen, Grandpa Herzberg had a heart of gold and was a gifted writer. His motto was “three-a-day.” He put it to use in two ways. First, he wouldn’t go to bed until he had done “three good turns” each day. His soft heart embraced all in need, providing food, clothes, shoes, and all forms of one-on-one charity to the needy. In addition, he had a daily regimen of crafting three pieces of philosophy, ending each with the words “three-a-day.”
Fortunately, Laurie’s mother Aimee saw the value in preserving many of her father’s writings. On a recent Memphis trip, I had the joy of reading Grandpa Herzberg’s words of wisdom. His typing was impeccable; he rarely missed a key. I can picture him cornered away at the keyboard and after a full workday, composing his masterful creations.
The “three-a-day” theme resurfaced for me in reading Catherine Sanderson’s blog on “How to Feel Better.” Sanderson’s post of April 2, 2026, is entitled: “Why pausing to notice three good things can change your whole outlook.” She adopted a gratitude practice of “identifying three small, good things that happened in the last week—and then sharing those things on Instagram…. And I’m hoping that my sharing of three tiny—very achievable—positive things in the last week will help prompt others to look for the small joys in their own lives.” So, Grandpa Herzberg’s “three-a-day” proves even more ambitious than Sanderson’s “three-a-week,” but kudos to both of them.
Here are a few highlights of Grandpa Herzberg’s words of wisdom.
“We must strike an average in judging people, because if we look at just one thing they did or said or acted and if we keep on thinking and talking about that one thing, we become hypnotized by that one thing and forget that we are acquainted with an average and not just one separate part. That’s the reason some people have so few friends, they throw them aside on account of considering just one thing and not the whole individual which is an average. A person is like a diamond which has many facets, some of which are defective and some which shine with heavenly luster. So don’t throw away the diamond because it has a flaw, just consider the beautiful glowing facets.”
“A man to be of benefit to his family must be a thing apart. He must go off into new fields to do or die for the family but he must not take the family along…. The bee that gets the honey don’t hang around the hive.”
“Mother Nature as we choose to call it, is a consummate diplomat…. When you are young, she smiles at you and cajoles you, with pretty faces and smiles and makes loving so beautiful. She will play her wiles to enmesh you for a few years, till suddenly or gradually the smiles and the guiles disappear from her face, and she becomes enraged…. Friends of youth she drives away, she brings wrinkles to her countenance where there was youth and smiles.”
“Liberty is something that if you don’t keep working on it will fade away.”
Albert Cardozo Herzberg understood the importance of documenting a legacy in writing. I encourage all to do the same, even if not quite so ambitious as “three-a-day.” Thanks to Grandpa’s foresight, his wisdom lives on for future generations. One of those beneficiaries is his great-grandson Adam Cardozo Blum. Laurie and I named our son for his brilliant ancestor, yet another means of keeping alive the memory of a man who lived a life full of meaning.
Marvin E. Blum
Laurie Blum’s grandfather Albert Herzberg (center, as groom) on his wedding day. Grandpa Herzberg bequeathed to his family a brilliant collection of his “three-a-day” words of wisdom.
A century later, Grandpa Herzberg’s descendants gather in Memphis to celebrate family connection. This photo (taken in the home Elvis Presley built for his doctor) includes Marvin Blum (far left) and Adam Cardozo Blum (far right), named after his great grandfather Albert Cardozo Herzberg.