Howard Godnick Receives Award of Courage

SRZ litigation partner Howard O. Godnick received the Award of Courage from a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds to support Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Howard's friend and personal role model, the actor Michael J. Fox, introduced him at the awards ceremony held in New York on May 10, 2012. Howard was honored with the award for his perseverance in overcoming a series of serious medical challenges, any one of which would have been a reason to give up. At age 35, Howard was diagnosed with heart disease and underwent quadruple bypass surgery, despite being in seemingly good health with the stamina to have run four New York City Marathons — each in under four hours. Ten years later he suffered a heart attack and needed a "life flight" to the nearest hospital. In 2009, Howard was stricken with anterior ischemic optic neuropathy in his left eye, a rare neurological condition that left him with impaired vision in one eye. In 2010, the same condition struck his right eye, leaving Howard visually impaired with an extraordinary sensitivity to light that has been likened to having two flashlights shone directly into one's eyes, all the time. "I don't know what challenges tomorrow holds for me, but I do know that whatever they are, they aren’t bigger, better, or badder than I am," Howard said in his acceptance speech. "I didn’t die. I will live."