Regarded as a young man who loved life and lived each day fully, Patrick Elasik had accomplished a great deal since leaving McLean nine years ago.
He and friend Adrian Moeller, both graduates of McLean High School, went to New York City to start a magazine, “Mass Appeal,” in 1996, shortly after graduating.
Walking home from a party Tuesday night in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, Elasik went into the subway to ride home, slipped and fell onto the third rail of the subway tracks, and was electrocuted. He was 26.
The two men had been friends for many years, Ronald Elasik, Patrick’s father, said. “They were always really into sports and had a vision for what they wanted to do in life,” he said. “They started their first magazine when (Patrick) was 18 and went to New York City, got an office, and off they went.”
The magazine “Mass Appeal,” dealt with urban lifestyles.
Elasik was recently named one of the top 65 young entrepreneurs in the nation, Ronald Elasik said proudly of his son. “They also just started an outdoor sign company and already had deals with Converse, Adidas and Rock Star video games,” he said. “They had fabulous walls up that they leased in the heart of Manhattan. Their business was booming.”
Moeller said the magazine will continue despite the loss of Elasik.
“He was such a great person and accomplished so much in such a short amount of time,” he said of the man he considered his brother. “We were such a great team.”
Elasik was an avid traveler, fisherman and surfer, recently purchasing some land in Panama, where he planned to build a house.
“We’ve traveled all over with each other,” Moeller said. “Pat was one of those guys who was always ready to go do something. Anything he did or tried, he’d give 110 percent.”
A eulogy will be included in the next issue of “Mass Appeal,” he said. “We’ll do something up here (in New York City) to celebrate his life. I think he’d really like it that way,” Moeller said. “This magazine wasn’t just for the money, it was something we shared. We reveled in it.”
The loss has been deeply felt through their Brooklyn office, he said, and he’s received an outpouring of sympathetic e-mail in the past few days.
“Pat lived every day like it was his last,” he said. “I’m still in shock that he’s gone.”
Elasik is survived by his mother, Colleen Boskin, of McLean; his father, Ronald Elasik; and sister Lauren Treacy Elasik, a 2004 graduate of Langley High School. Funeral services were conducted at Gawler's Funeral Home in Bethesda.