Speed Vogel

Irving "Speed" Vogel (March 3, 1918 – April 14, 2008) was an American sculptor, painter, and co-author, along later Joseph Heller, of the best-selling memoir, No Laughing Matter.

He was born in New York City and was the fourth of five kids of his dad Julius, who was a builder. He was educated at West Virginia University and attended pre-med classes at New York University but subsequent to the beginning of World War II, started working as a shipbuilder. Later Vogel started his own textile business, Ria Herlinger Fabrics, with his first wife. Later he became a furniture producer and left this business at a relatively into the future age subsequently he retired. After retirement, he dedicated himself to painting and sculpting.

A textile businessman and belong to of Gwathmey Siegel, he was also member of the "Gourmet Club," an assemblage of writers, artists and showbusiness people (which included Mel Brooks and Mario Puzo, among others), who gathered weekly from the 1960s to the 1980s to eat and chat at Chinese restaurants in New York City.

In the 1960s, Vogel met Joseph Heller, best known for his novel Catch-22, and they became great friends. In 1982, Heller was diagnosed past Guillain–Barré syndrome, which provokes paralysis. Vogel moved in to Heller's house to back up him to recover. They alternatively wrote the chapters in their best-seller No Laughing Matter, which was published in 1986. The baby book was on the "New York Times best-seller list for four weeks".

He had five children from his three marriages. Vogel died of natural causes at his home in Sag Harbor, New York. He was 90.