Tarlavsky befriends a camel while in the desert and at right, Tarlavsky (center) posing with Lenny Santiago (left) and the late Matt Pellettere (right). This was the last picture taken with his two best friends.
His sister said he was loving, competitive and inspiring his entire life. “My brother drove people to achievement,” recalled Wallis, now 40. Standing 5 feet 7 inches tall and all muscle, Tarlavsky was a gentle, driven, bulldog of a man. In 2004, the Washington Post published an article about the late Cliftonite: “He wanted to become an Eagle Scout before he was 18, and he did. He wanted to be a star swimmer in high school, and he was. By the time he was 30, he had mastered rappelling, scuba diving, and triathlons — and became a husband, father and a member of the elite Special Forces. He was, a longtime friend said, like Superman.” His Mustang Life Tarlavsky was born in Latvia, and came to the United States with his family in 1979. They first settled in New Orleans, but with relatives living in and around northern New Jersey, the Tarlavsky family moved to Clifton in July 1986. That September, Michael Tarlavsky enrolled as a 7th grader at Christopher Columbus Middle School and joined the Boys & Girls Club of Clifton and quickly found a home on the Seahawks swim team. He also found another home when he joined Boys Scout Troop 15, which was then in Paterson, where he met his two best friends, Lenny Santiago and the late Matt Pellettere. 8 May 2016 • Clifton Merchant
“He wasn’t long, thin and lanky like most swimmers,” recalled Santiago, who noted that Tarlavsky was already muscular even as a middle schooler. “He was just incredibly strong. He was an excellent athlete, especially in swimming considering he had the antiswimmer body.” That body seemed to work for Tarlavsky as he was a point man even as a teenager. “Matt and I cut high school and drove to West Point with Michael’s mother to go see him swim in a meet for the Junior Olympics in 1992,” Santiago continued. Maryanne Lyons Goodwin, who was Tarlavsky’s swim coach at CHS, said that her former pupil stood out at a young age due to his leadership and unwavering determination. “What a wonderful, wonderful boy. So energetic, so responsible,” explained Goodwin. “He would come to practice every day so he could improve himself and his team. He was a tremendous athlete. While he was relatively short, he was so fit and athletic. He was always the first one to practice and the last one to leave.” In 1990, Tarlavsky’s younger sister, Elina, entered high school and joined the team as a freshman. “He (my brother) drove an old Chrysler K station wagon, which he called the War Wagon while another swim team member drove a ‘hippie-like’ station wagon called the Dead-Mobile,” she recalled. “Together, they would have people pile into their cars and go to practice at the Garfield YMCA.”