In her KCRW column airing tonight at 6:44, swimmer Diana Nyad calls the late documentarian Bud Greenspan "my long-time, dear friend...and he was far and away THE number one mentor in my career." Excerpt:

Bud was moved by the soul of human drama…and nobody, but nobody, depicted, elevated that drama as he did.

And it wasn’t just the larger-than-life Olympic moments that inspired him. We would sit in his New York office for hours at a time, Jonah with a twinkle in his eye as I regaled him with the eccentric saga of my family history. He would invite the waitress to sit down and join us at lunch, fascinated to hear the rest of a story she had started.

Greenspan's given first name was Jonah. He died last weekend at 84.

Earlier: Alan Abrahamson's tribute.