"RE-LIVE YOUR ROOTS"
BEST OF THE BRONX - ALL BRONX REUNION
Welcome to the James Monroe H.S., Bronx, New York Class of 1958 50th Reunion
Luncheon at the Bronx Zoo on Saturday October 11, 2008
Our theme is "Best of the Bronx" and features a reunion luncheon at the nice meeting venue in the Bronx Zoo and several optional pre- and post-luncheon activities - all in the Bronx. We have a group rate for rooms in a new hotel in the Bronx (see #11 below).
1. Friday morning, October 10, 10:00 AM: Walk in the Bronx Botanical Gardens and lunch at the cafe. 20 Henry Moore sculptures are on display throughout the Garden's beautiful 250 acres. We are meeting at the Leon Levy Visitors' Center at the main entrance on Kazimiroff Blvd. Kazimiroff Blvd is the extension of Southern Blvd north of Fordham Road. The main entrance is less than 0.5 mi north of Fordham Rd, where there is a big parking lot. Parking costs $12.00. The Gardens open at 10:00 AM and close at 6:00 PM. General Admission is $3.00 for Seniors, a little more for adults, a little less for children. However, full admission - for those who may want to spend the whole day, see special exhibits, ride the tram, and not go on the canoe trip - is $18 for seniors. Check out their web site: http://www.nybg.org/ for map and info on special exhibits. Dress according to the weather. We will have lunch at the cafe at 11:30 AM and meet for the canoe trip at 12:15 PM.
2. Friday afternoon, October 10, 1:00 PM: Canoe trip on the Bronx River in the Botanical Gardens, led by the Bronx River Alliance. Note: rare and beautiful Bronx River Beaver may be spotted (not kidding). The route is about two miles long from the put-in at 219th St and Bronx Blvd to the take-out just above the waterfall near the Snuff Mill in the Gardens. We should complete the trip before 4:00 PM. The expedition is led by our experienced guide, Michael Hunter, of the Bronx River Alliance (http://www.bronxriver.org/). Only heavy rain will cause a cancellation.
Where to Meet: We meet at the Visitors' Center near the main entrance to the Botanical Gardens (see #1, above) at 12:15 PM. We will double up in cars and drive to the put-in on 219th St. and leave the remaining cars in the parking lot and walk to them (less than one mile) after the canoe trip. There is a $12.00 parking fee and a $3.00 general admission fee for seniors for the Botanical Gardens.
What to bring: Old sneakers that you can still walk in comfortably, hat, snack, water, rain poncho, and a complete set of dry clothes to be stored in dry bag.
How to Register/Pay: If you are going, please e-mail me (greatunc@aol.com) or call me (see below) and let me know. I have to let Michael Hunter know how many are going by next week. Pay Michael by cash or credit card at the put-in on 219 th St. The cost is $25.00 per person. If you have any questions call me at 702-896-4049. Marvin Saines' cell phone number is 702-845-5976. Michael Hunter's cell phone number is 231-392-9035.
3.Saturday, October 11, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM: Luncheon at Bronx Zoo meeting venue. The luncheon is located in the pavilion near the Dancing Crane Cafe. There is a $12 parking fee that you pay in the parking lot. The parking lot is located off of Southern Boulevard in the southwest corner of the zoo. Pick up your tickets at the Group Sales Information Booth.
The pavilion is a covered outdoor area where we will have barbecued hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, salad, etc. After the luncheon I will welcome everybody and then introduce our Keynote Speaker, Ken Lipper. Ken will tell us what happened to him at the peak of his success, and how his Bronx roots and Bronx values helped him get back on his feet. After Ken speaks the floor is open to anybody who would like to relate something about life in the Bronx in the 50s or life at James Monroe High School - perhaps a funny story or a special moment.
DIRECTIONS TO THE BRONX ZOO
BY CAR
From Manhattan’s Eastside: Take the FDR Drive north to the Triboro Bridge (toll). Follow signs to the Bronx and the Bruckner Expwy. Take Bruckner towards New Haven (stay left), after drawbridge exit right for the Bronx River Pkwy north. Take exit 7W for Fordham Road. As you go down Fordham Road you will see the Botanical Gardens on your right and the Bronx Zoo on your left. Stay to your right and you will go up a slight ramp to the intersection for Southern Boulevard. Make a left at this light and continue on Southern Boulevard. Just before the fourth light, you will see a Dunkin Donuts on your right The Southern Boulevard entrance is on your left. You can make a left at the fourth light to loop around to the entrance.
From Manhattan’s Westside: Most direct route:Henry Hudson north to the Cross Bronx Expwy East (I95). Once on the Cross Bronx, take exit 4B and follow signs to the Bronx River Pkwy north (you’ll be bearing left after the I95 entrance ramp). Take exit 7W for Fordham Road. As you go down Fordham Road you will see the Botanical Gardens on your right and the Bronx Zoo on your left. Stay to your right and you will go up a slight ramp to the intersection for Southern Boulevard. Make a left at this light and continue on Southern Boulevard. Right before the fourth light, you will see a Dunkin Donuts on your right The Southern Boulevard entrance is on your left. You can make a left at the fourth light to loop around to the entrance.
HOWEVER, the Cross Bronx (I95) can have a lot of traffic, an alternate route, although longer and not as direct is: Henry Hudson north (toll) to the Mosholu Pkwy (Exit 24). After about 2 miles, the Mosholu turns into a local road with stoplights. Follow Bronx Zoo directional signs. At the intersection of the Mosholu and Dr. Kazimiroff Blvd (8th stop light) turn right onto Dr. Kazimiroff Blvd. This turns into Southern Blvd.The Bronx Zoo is approximately 2 miles up on the left, and the entrance can be found at 182nd St. This is the Southern Blvd.
From Westchester:From the Taconic State Pkwy, follow the Sprain Brook Pkwy (*then follow below)From the Saw Mill River Pkwy or I87, take the Cross County Pkwy east (*then follow below)From I684 or the Hutchinson River Pkwy, take the Cross County Pkwy west (*then follow below)* - to the Bronx River Pkwy south - Take exit 7W for Fordham Road. As you go down Fordham Road you will see the Botanical Gardens on your right and the Bronx Zoo on your left. Stay to your right and you will go up a slight ramp to the intersection for Southern Boulevard. Make a left at this light and continue on Southern Boulevard. Right before the fourth light, you will see a Dunkin Donuts on your right The Southern Boulevard entrance is on your left. You can make a left at the fourth light to loop around to the entrance.
From Connecticut:Take I95 south (New England Thruway) to Pelham Pkwy west (* then follow below)Or the Merritt Pkwy south to the Hutchinson River Pkwy south to Pelham Pkwy west (* then follow below)
* Continue on Pelham Pkwy west until you see New York Botanical Garden on the right and the Bronx Zoo on the left. Stay to your right and you will go up a slight ramp to the intersection for Southern Boulevard. Make a left at this light and continue on Southern Boulevard. Right before the fourth light, you will see a Dunkin Donuts on your right The Southern Boulevard entrance is on your left. You can make a left at the fourth light to loop around to the entrance.
From New Jersey (the Bronx Zoo is only a few miles from the GW Bridge):Most direct route:Take any of the major highways (I95/NJ Turnpike, Garden State Pkwy, I80) to the GW Bridge.Once across bridge follow signs to Cross Bronx Expwy (I95) (* - then follow below)Take Cross Bronx take exit 4B and follow signs to the Bronx River Pkwy north (you’ll be bearing left after the I95 entrance ramp) (* - then follow below)
* Take exit 7W for Fordham Road. As you go down Fordham Road you will see the Botanical Gardens on your right and the Bronx Zoo on your left. Stay to your right and you will go up a slight ramp to the intersection for Southern Boulevard. Make a left at this light and continue on Southern Boulevard. Right before the fourth light, you will see a Dunkin Donuts on your right The Southern Boulevard entrance is on your left. You can make a left at the fourth light to loop around to the entrance.
From Brooklyn, Queens or Long Island:Take any of the major highways (L.I.E., Grand Central, Van Wyck, BQE, Cross Island) to the Whitestone Bridge. Once across bridge, take the Hutchinson River Pkwy north.Exit the Hutchinson River Pkwy at Pelham Pkwy west (approximately 2 miles up)Continue on Pelham Pkwy west until you see New York Botanical Garden on the right and the Bronx Zoo on the left. Stay to your right and you will go up a slight ramp to the intersection for Southern Boulevard. Make a left at this light and continue on Southern Boulevard. Just before the fourth light, you will see a Dunkin Donuts on your right The Southern Boulevard entrance is on your left. You can make a left at the fourth light to loop around to the entrance.
BY SUBWAYTake either the #2 or #5 train uptown to East Tremont Ave/West Farm Square. Exit to the left, through the turnstile. At street level, walk straight ahead (follow train uptown) on Boston Road 2 1/2 blocks to the Bronx Zoo gate. This is the Asia entrance (Gate A).
To avoid the long stairs at East Tremont Ave station you can take the #2 train to Pelham Pkwy. which has an escalator. However this is a longer walk to the zoo. From the Pelham Pkwy. station exit to the right off train and again at the token booth. Once on the street walk straight on White Plains Road 1 block to Lydig Ave (you’ll be walking past the stores and away from Pelham Pkwy). Make a right on Lydig Ave. At the intersection of Lydig and Bronx Park East make a right, then a quick left on Boston Road at the stoplight. The Bronx Zoo entrance is directly ahead, after the underpass.This is the Bronx River entrance (Gate B).
From Brooklyn or Queens, please refer to the MTA web site for connections.BY BUSIn the Bronx, both the Bx9 and Bx19 routes have a bus stop at our Southern Blvd. Gate. This stop is located at 183rd Street. The Bx12 and Bx22 can also be taken to Fordham Road and Southern Blvd. You must then walk 5 blocks south on Southern Blvd (the Zoo will be on your left) to the Southern Blvd and 183rd Street entrance. These buses all take you to the Southern Blvd entrance (Gate C).From Queens you can take the Q44 to 180th Street and Boston Rd. You must then walk north (take a right on Boston Rd.) one block to the Bronx Zoo entrances.This is the Asia entrance (Gate A).
The cost is $55 per person. This includes the site or entrance fee ($25), the luncheon ($25), plus tax rounded up to $55. Any money left over will be donated to the JMHS Alumni Association for student projects.
You are welcome to bring your children/friends to all or any of the activities to show them your roots in the Bronx.
Send checks made out "JMHS 50th Reunion" to Marvin Saines, 1587 Figueroa Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89123.
Checks are 100 % refundable.
4. Saturday afternoon, October 11: Walk in Bronx Zoo.
5. Saturday evening, October 11: Dinner at a restaurant on Arthur Avenue ("Little Italy"). Join us for dining at Mario's Restaurant. Mario's has been in the Migliucci family since 1919 and was the winner of the 2000 James Beard Award. An episode of The Sopranos was filmed there. It is located at 2342 Arthur Avenue, between 184th and 186th Streets. They take reservations (please make them soon as they can be quickly sold out for a Saturday night weeks in advance). Couples, groups of couples, and families, just make your own reservations. For "singles" if you would like to join Joe Pundyk and Marvin (Nick) Saines at our table e-mail Nick. The phone number for Mario's is 718-584-1188. They have valet parking.
6. Sunday morning, October 12, 9:00 to 10:00 AM: Tour of Monroe High School. Park in the Monroe parking lot south of the building on Boynton Avenue.
7. Sunday morning, October 12: Drive through the old neighborhoods in private cars. We will double up in cars according to neighborhoods and drive the streets we walked and played on over 50 years ago. .
8. Sunday afternoon, October 12, 1:00 PM, lunch at Le Refuge Inn, City Island. We have reservations for lunch at the Le Refuge Inn, 586 City Island Avenue. Lunch/brunch is $25.00 per person. Our delicious choices are vegetable quiche and salad, poached eggs with smoked salmon and spinach, and a vegetable omelette. Please call them to make a reservation. The phone number is 718-885-2478. The Inn is located on the left after you cross the bridge, across from the Seashore Restaurant, next to the church. They have a parking lot.
9. Sunday afternoon, October 12: Walk on City Island
10. Sunday afternoon – Pelham Bay Park - if there is enough time, the weather cooperates, there is enough light, and enough interest - after our walk around City Island we can drive to visit the Pell-Bartow mansion www.bartowpellmansionmuseum.org
The mansion-museum closes at 4:00 PM. Then history buffs may want to also visit Glover’s Rock of Indian and Revolutionary War significance.
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=11599
And, possibly end the day with a walk on Orchard Beach!
11. Hotels
You can stay wherever you want, but we have a group reservation at the new Howard Johnson Inn, Yankee Stadium, 1300 Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. 10452. This hotel is one mile from Yankee Stadium. We have 6 non-smoking room with two beds for $148 including tax, and 18 non-smoking rooms with one king bed for $138, including tax. The phone number for reservations (Group Booking) is 800-654-9122. The Group Booking Number is 59193487. (The hotel phone number is 718-293-1100.)
Other possiblilities include: Le Refuge Inn, City Island (718-885-2478), but it has a limited number of rooms and you have to share bathrooms; the Holiday Inn at Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers; the Marriot and Radisson hotels in New Rochelle.
12. James Monroe High School History
Opened in 1924, the original school ran for seventy years before being shut down in 1994 for poor performance. The original building now houses four smaller high schools - The Monroe Academy for Visual Arts and Design (H.S. 692), The Monroe Academy for Business and Law (H.S. 690), The High School of World Cultures (H.S. 550), and Bronx Coalition Community School (H.S. 680). The building also houses an elementary school, The Bronx Little School.
13. Biographies of Attendees - how to post your bio or read others'
We are using the "Comments" feature on this web site to post the bios. To see the 10 that are posted so far look carefully for the small word "Comments" below and click on it. To put yours on you should e-mail Marvin Saines (see e-mail address below), or if you have a G-mail address, do it yourself according to their instructions. We are interested in reading your bios - how has your life unfolded over the past 50 years since JMHS?
14. "Back in the Bronx" - the Bronx magazine - has a classified ad with this reunion info in it. My e-mail address is wrong but I created a new e-mail address to match their typo. I also requested the revise the Reunion section on their web site. Check out their virtual tour of your neighborhood and the old photographs. http://backinthebronx.com/
15. List of Those Who Are Attending the Luncheon:
Marvin Saines - Las Vegas, Susan (Miller) Urofsky - Gaithersburg, MD, Melvin Urofsky, Camilla (Schwieger) Humphreys - Florence, MA, Richard Humphreys, Joy (Schildkraut) Glaser - Rye, NY, Bobbi (Lewis) Krantz - Manaquan, NJ, Robert Krantz, Joseph Pundyk - Topanga, CA, Marilyn (Moldoff) Bauman - Wilmington, DE, Don Bauman, Madeline (Dasch) Goliger - Milton, ON, Dan Goliger, Marty Kulick - Carmel, N.Y., Barbara Kulick, Cookie (Solomon) Weiss - Riverdale, N.Y., Audrey (Sturman) Stumacher - Rego, Park, N.Y., Martin Stumacher, Caroline (Gassner) Kaplowitz - Roslyn, N.Y., Gail (Markowitz) Goldman -Flushing, N.Y., Francine (Mintz) Schuller - Millington, N.J.,Thomas Schuller, Ken Lipper -NYC, Marion (Drayson) Holmes - West Trenton, N.J., Al Porter Holmes, Arnold Pollack -Oceanside, CA Maria Pollack, Andy Bauman, Pam Bauman, Josh Bauman, Joel Schachter - Lords Valley, PA, Sherry Schachter, Barry Shay - Silver Spring, MD, Stuart Shay - Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Jay Weinstein - Upper Montclair, N.J., Ilene Block, Philadelpia, PA, Carol (Glickman) Tichler - New York City, Jeffrey Held - Mohegan Lake, N.Y., and Sandra (Portnoy) Hirschman - Gastonia, N.C.
16. James Monroe H.S. 50th Reunion Planning Committee
Marvin (Nick) Saines, Chair greatunc@aol.com (702-896-4049)
Judy Schiff judithschiff@aol.com
Marty Kulick mirelee@comcast.net
Richard Bermanmailto:mribrib60@hotmail.com
Date of Last Update: October 7, 2008
11 comments:
Marvin (Nick) Saines Bio
I lived on Longfellow Ave and 174th St and went to Herman Ridder JHS. My bedroom window faced east and I could see the 174th St bridge and the Bronx River Valley, the “Projects,” Monroe, Parkchester, and planes heading in and out of LaGuardia. I loved that view. My best friends in high school were Anton Shurpik and Kenny Lipper. Kenny was very ambitious and smart. I remember he would drag me along to early morning “Leadership” classes. I was too timid and too tired to participate.
After graduating Monroe I went to Brooklyn College. After I while I got used to the 1 ½ hour train ride each way and stayed there instead of transferring to Hunter or City College. I got a degree in Geology and went on to Miami University, Oxford, Ohio for my Masters, and U.Mass, Amherst, for my Ph.D. in Geology.
My first job was in West Chester, PA. in 1969 as a geologist with Roy F. Weston - at the time a small engineering company. By this time I already had a wife and two kids. Then I moved to Chicago for a job with Harza Engineering Company. In the 70s I was an engineering geologist and hydrogeologist with Harza and worked on projects in Guyana, Iran, Afghanistan, and Jordan, traveling there for months at a time. (This is when Americans were welcome in the Middle East.)
In 1973 I got divorced and enjoyed the single life of the wild 70s in my bachelor pad on Lake Shore Drive. In 1981 I went overseas for five years working on groundwater exploration and development in the Sultanate of Oman. Every summer I had six weeks off and took my sons on vacation all over the world – Russia, Japan, Greece, and all over Europe.
I returned to Chicago in 1986 and struggled to get back up to speed in my profession after being away for five years. In 1989 I took a job in Las Vegas where I have lived now for almost 20 years, doing mostly groundwater work. I married Dawn in 2001. Now I am semi-retired - doing a little consulting, a little teaching (at Regis University, where I met Richard Berman – Monroe Class of 1958!), and part-time work with FEMA. Last year I worked with FEMA on the wildfires in southern California. I enjoy movies, reading, and listening to classical music. I am also a Sierra Club hike leader and lead trips into the Mojave Desert and mountains – a long way from the Bronx Botanical Gardens where I learned to love the outdoors over 50 years ago now.
Marilyn (Moldoff) Bauman Bio
From my 7th floor bedroom window on McGraw Avenue in Parkchester, I could see Starling Avenue. Pakula’s Bakery had the best cookies in the world and the deli the best pickles. At night, I listened to the bus squeal to a stop, its air brakes hissing. This urban lullaby soothed me to sleep, and it is in stark contrast to my current home in suburban Wilmington, Delaware, where all I hear at night are the sawing of cicadas in summer or silence in winter.
I must admit, I remember very little of my high school years. I went to school and went to work (first at Macy’s in Parkchester and later at the Donnell Library on 53rd Street). Two teachers of the so-called core-program (that spectacular combination of social studies and English), Mrs. Kolevzon and Mr. Sonnenburg, stand out, as does Miss Berenson, the math teacher. If I had any encouragement to be (or do) more than get married, have children, and keep house, I might have become a mathematician because of Berenson’s fine teaching. As I think back, however, I realize it was Kolevzon and Sonnenburg that allowed me to hope I might work at something more interesting than I thought possible at the time.
We were called “Core Babies” by my subsequent history teacher, a woman I hated and whose name I have forgotten, but who made my life a living hell during my senior year. I like to think I got revenge by studying hard for the history regents (which I know she expected me to fail). My best friend Susan Pines and I memorized everything necessary, set what we could not memorize to rhymes, and spent most afternoons and all weekends at it, for months. I scored a 95. When Berenson handed me my grade, she said, “this was a pleasant surprise.” Some things one never forgets.
I also never forgot my other “best” friends: Carolyn Young Dettmer, Marilyn Mintz Press, Janet Morse (who, by her dedication to ballet, instilled in me a life-long love for dance), and Susan Miller Urofsky. We laughed a lot. We went into Manhattan together, went ice skating in Central Park, and just “hung out.” They made an otherwise difficult home life bearable.
I defied family expectations by attending Queens College for two years and then Cortland State College where I received a teaching degree, one of the three choices I had (the other two were nursing (too much blood) or office work (too much paper). Problem was, at Cortland I fell in love with English literature because a fine teacher and friend, Dr. Robert Glenn, opened up another world to me.
After a dismal year teaching first grade in the Bronx, I went to grad school at Penn State University (urged on by Robert Glenn), earned an MA degree in English, fell in love with a chemistry Ph.D. candidate who lived upstairs in Grange Hall, a co-ed dorm, and married him a year later.
After PSU, my husband Don and I moved to Davis, California, so he could complete his degree. We drove across the country in Don’s tiny, non-air-conditioned Valiant, with our pet canary, Charlie, singing his heart out from the cage we hung on the clothes rod across the back seat. He sang until we reached the Mojave Desert at mid-day. Then, with his wings spread wide and his little beak open sucking air, he fell mute. He lost all his feathers (a severe molt, the vet called it) during our first weeks in Davis, but he lived to sing again.
While Don completed his research and earned his degree, I worked at the Davis Enterprise, a family owned, by-weekly newspaper where I did everything from taking ads to writing copy. I still have the typeset of my first by-line.
Don’s job at Houdry Air Products and Chemicals and later at DuPont in the Pigments Division brought us to Delaware (right after the assassination of Martin Luther King and during the riots). We arrived when the National Guard was patrolling downtown Wilmington.
To continue a hobby I had started as a child, I signed up for a painting class at the Delaware Art Museum taught by Edward Loper, Sr. Once again, fate provided a mentor. While I had every intention of returning to grad school for a Ph.D. in English, I instead found myself seduced into becoming an artist. I record the experience in my book, Edward L. Loper, Sr.: The Prophet of Color; A Disciple’s Reflections. Ed, a self taught, intimidating, exasperating, and brilliant teacher also sent me to study at The Barnes Foundation so, as he put it, “Miss de Mazia can sharpen you up.”
That she did. I again fell in love, now with objective aesthetic appreciation, and I studied with de Mazia at The Barnes Foundation for 10 years. In that time, I started teaching painting in my home studio, continued to teach in the English Department at the University of Delaware, raised three children and, at 50 years old, became the executive director of the Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education, a statewide arts program serving Delaware teachers and students. The only change I made to accommodate this new job was to stop teaching at the University of Delaware.
Ten years later, the Violette de Mazia Foundation hired me to teach the objective method of aesthetic appreciation I learned from de Mazia herself, appointed me director of education, and that is what I am doing still, along with teaching painting, making paintings, enjoying four grandchildren, traveling, and jogging.
Judith Schiff bio
Early childhood memories focus upon an overcrowded apartment (2-3 families) in the Bronx rich in art and books. I was constantly seeking an oasis in the harsh, ugly Bronx jungle, housing a population of adults and children whose emotional outlook seemed to embrace anger, dissension and aggression on a daily basis. One month a year holidays in the Berkshires constituted an outdoor and arts reprieve. I managed to complete JHS 123 at 13, and the James Monroe Honor School Program at 16. Along with a hectic school curriculum, I was required to work at 14 to pay for clothes, movies, etc. I began college at Adelphi University on Long Island at 16, and worked as well. It took several years leave from school to alleviate an anorexic situation that dropped my weight to 65 and to regain my physical health.
At 23, in 1965, I met and married a Swedish model/Wall Street Broker and went back to Queens College for a B.A. in Psychology, which enabled me to better understand my family and childhood. I then completed an M.S. degree in Education at CW Post College on Long Island. We resided in Roslyn and Huntington, New York. My only daughter, Brigette, was born in 1970. A series of traumatic experiences followed: the death of my Dad at 60 (medical error), my husband's deterioration into alcohol, the slow and painful death of my Mom due to cancer, financial crisis, my head going through a car windshield after my divorce from my husband, and two miscarriages.
In 1980, I moved to Santa Barbara with my daughter. The beauty and serenity of the physical environment, the enjoyment of teaching combined with the art tours of Europe I was leading was therapeutic. A significant challenge was functioning as a single parent to a rebellious adolescent daughter. My Joie de Vivre Fine Art and Photography business began there and continues to this day.
Brigette and I left Santa Barbara for San Francisco in 1990 when she began Sonoma State. I was accepted in the doctoral program at the University of California, San Francisco, while teaching for San Francisco Unified School District. My Doctorate was written as a Character Education Curriculum using Jewish Folktales. I am now making this into a text for Jewish educators, incorporating Jewish folktales. These will be utilized as a character education curriculum for English students in Middle and early high school. I am also currently pursuing funding to start my own creative K-8 charter school in San Francisco.
Bio of Joe Pundyk (July 22, 2008)
After graduation from Monroe I entered CCNY's Chemical Engineering school on 139 St and Convent Avenue. I unfortunately forgot to buy one of those huge townhouses that I passed by everyday on that street now valued from $1 to $2 million dollars each. After 5-years of engineering school I did receive 4 job offers valued from $565 to $635 per month and took the one that was highest and furthest away from NY in Southern CA and for the last 45 years I have been living mainly in Santa Monica. I speak with both of my wives on a regular basis, which is a good thing since I'm still married to both under Jewish Law and I didn't bother getting divorced from the first. My 3 children have begotten me 5 grandchildren and their procreation is continuing, I believe given that they are too busy to see me that much! My eldest daughter is 42 years-old and a fashion designer, living in Westport, CT. My second daughter is a Project Manager and lives near us. My 21 year old son just graduated in Architectural Design from the University of Colorado, Boulder and is probably returning home to live with us as he just found a good job with a really good firm in Santa Monica, which makes my bank account very happy.
I visit NY frequently and last week I ate with guys from the Monroe neighborhood; Dr. Arnold Melman, Harv Leshnick, Tom Krajewski, Lew Derzansky, Ray Silverstein and Fred Weiner (the latter 3 went to Stuyvesant HS). I really haven't changed that much and have created an environment much like our old one in The Bronx, but on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. The old one was more interesting than my new one; the latter is ritzy and more like Madison Avenue in the 80's. My group of boy friends meets every Thursday night, called BNO, which has been continuing for 25-years -- proof that you can remove a guy from Bronx ZIP 72, but he still belongs in the Zoo (it rhymes). I started a fast walking group that meets every morning and afterward we have Peet's coffee then I bus over to work.
I started my own company about 37 years ago that works in the energy field and is most known for our software that models high temperature furnaces used in the refining and petrochemical field. Over the last 45 years I've worked in almost all energy forms including geothermal, solar, biomass, wind, oil, clean coal, nuclear, Liquid Natural Gas, Methanol and really almost everything in the energy conversion field. I guess I am an expert in these energy areas and if you would like a tip on what to do next -- emigrate to Canada or New Zealand, both of which have really pretty women and cute sheep and lots of energy sources.
I thought it interesting to note the most important things in my life, in order of importance:
Spouse and Family - blood
Friends - guts
Work - no reason to retire
Vacation - to please my wife
Hobbies - ancient history, walking and hiking to please my wife as it gets me out of her hair
Universal Peace - a joke
Musical Comedies -- really love them - especially The Fantastic's!
From a happy go-lucky simpleton living near to Tinsel-town!
Love and Best Regards,
Joe Pundyk
KENNETH LIPPER
(212) 841-5906
Ken.lipper@cushwake.com
Kenneth Lipper is Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Acquisition Committee of Cushman & Wakefield, Inc's Board of Directors. C&W is a leading worldwide commercial real estate enterprise. He was longtime CEO of Lipper Funds, a $5 billion family of funds and an investment bank. He served as Deputy Mayor of the City of New York under Mayor Edward Koch. Prior to entering public service,
Mr. Lipper had a long career as a senior investment banking managing director and general partner of Salomon Brothers and a general partner of Lehman Brothers, respectively. For 6 years, Mr. Lipper was an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University Graduate School of International Affairs ("The Resources and Objectives of United States Foreign Policy"). Earlier Mr. Lipper was the Director of Industry Policy at the Office of Foreign Direct Investment, The U.S. Department of Commerce and an associate with the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.
Mr. Lipper received an Academy Award in 1999 as Producer with Steven Spielberg of "The Last Days" and has been involved as a producer and/or author in film projects "The Winter Guest" (Emma Thompson), "City Hall" (Al Pacino) and
"Wall Street" (Michael Douglas). He is the founder and co-publisher of the celebrated 32 volume biography series "Penguin Lives," under the Lipper/Viking Penguin imprint.
Mr. Lipper is the senior member of the Board of Directors of Case New Holland Corporation (CNH on NYSE), a $17 billion Dutch manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment and a director of BIG (Business Integration Software). He is a Trustee of the Council for Excellence in Government, the Governor's Committee on Scholastic Achievement and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Economic Club of New York and The Century Association.
Mr. Lipper received a B.A. from Columbia University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School and Masters in Civil Law from New York University/Faculty of Law & Economics, University of Paris.
Marilyn (Mintz) Press - Biography
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Although I will not be able to attend the JMHS reunion in NY in Oct., I was inspired by the bios on the blog to attempt one of my own. While lacking in glitz and glory, fame and fortune (would Mrs. Klaf criticize that last as pompous and pretentious?), and my story is hardly gripping, I'll try to post this before there are more bios than people have time to read. If you're bored already, this would be a good place to stop.
I was born at Jewish Memorial Hospital on April 25, 1942 only one day after Barbra Streisand was born in Brooklyn. I mention this only because it is so remarkable how parallel our lives have been; for example, we were both born in NYC and now live in CA!! I lived in Parkchester, a neighborhood that I learned many years later was where the "rich kids lived." My father would have been astonished. (He was a traveling salesman of leatherettes that were used in automobile seat covers.)
I went to P.S. 106 where my 4th grade teacher, Miss Klarreich, a harridan whose face, I'm certain, was the prototype for the Wicked Witch of the West, appeared in my nightmares for years afterward. At J.H.S. 125 I had Mr. Kaplan for 7th grade Core. What an extraordinary teacher he was. I still remember words he taught us---one a day---words too long to be useful in Scrabble and a bit awkward to work into everyday conversation, but fixed in my memory: esoteric, salubrious, soporific, perfidious, abstemious...(Hmmm. Seems he was big on adjectives.)
At Monroe, my fondest classroom memories are of Mrs. Klaf (whose dour demeanor and exacting discipline felt right to me), Mrs. Finkel (who made me passionate for algebra), and Mrs. Kolevzon. Mrs. Kolevzon was exasperated by our collective ignorance in answering a test question to identify the Marseillaise. I'd answered that it was a seaport in southern France and added (for effect) that it was the point from which Napoleon left to fight some war; Susan Pines pegged it as a "famous man who wrote books." Mrs. K. climbed atop a chair and burst out, "Allons enfants de la Patrie..." Awesome, truly. Another lesson was devoted to the proper technique for folding and reading the NY Times on the subway. We each brought a paper to class that day; I will never forget how the room became a sea of newsprint as we struggled for ease and grace. And one more---a long term assignment followed our reading of Silas Marner. Among other things, we were asked to cast the parts of the novel's characters with famous performers and justify our choices. I've forgotten the actors I chose, but I vividly remember debating my choices with Robin November. Mostly I remember the laughter...
I graduated from Queens College in 1962 with a B.A. in Elementary Education. I had started out as a math major, but when my mother looked at me in alarm ("OK, Miss Smarty---just what do you think you'll ever do with THAT? And how do you expect to find a husband if you're going to insist on being brainy?"), I switched majors. I have always wondered at the contradictory messages I was given---first, get top grades and excel in school, second, make sure you're not smarter than the boys you date. Talk about a delicate balance... Later, in the mid-'70s, I did graduate work in school counseling at San Jose State.
I cannot explain it, but all the connections I have retained over the years are with people I knew at Monroe; I have not one enduring friendship from my 4 years at Queens. Among those with whom I've continued some level of connection include Bobbie (Schneider) Rabinowitz, Marilyn (Moldoff) Bauman, Robin (November) Bleecker, Joy (Schildkraut) Glaser, Susan (Miller) Urofsky, Ed Finder, and Janet Morse. New friendships which grew out of the 2004 reunion include Sandy (Zanger) Purowitz and Lois Lerman.
I got a job teaching first grade at P.S. 154, stayed for 3 years while living at home. By that time, nearly all my friends were married or getting married and starting their families. Parkchester and P.S. 154 (on 138th St. and Alexander Ave.) had something of a paucity of interesting male prospects. I felt increasingly smothered by my mother's doleful and tragic looks when still another weekend passed without my having a date. The situation was not improved when, having taken up skiing in 1964, I returned home one Sunday night with a cast up to my hip. Somewhere inside my little head a voice was beginning to urge me toward some sort of break that was not anatomical.
Then, two girls I had met in the Vermont ski cabin I'd joined asked if I'd be interested in moving to San Francisco. One was going to pick up with a guy she'd met who was a Navy lawyer stationed on Treasure Island; the other was just going for the adventure. I took a map of CA, circled all the ski areas and saw that more of them were driving distance from S.F. than L.A. I joined them and we subleased an apartment on Leavenworth St. on Nob Hill. My parents were appalled. How was I going to find a NJB ("Nice Jewish Boy") in San Francisco? At least go to L.A. if you must do this.
As I think of this move, I marvel at my naivete. I had no job, little money, no family (other than a cousin who was a graduate student at Stanford), no friends other than my two casual ski acquaintances, and meager familiarity with S.F. (none whatsoever with the greater Bay Area). It was early July when I started calling school district offices in cities within a 30 mile radius of S.F. (Well, north, east and south anyway.) Knowing nothing of how the school calendars differed from that in NYC, I quickly learned that everywhere school had ended weeks earlier and most staffs for Sept. had long been finalized. (Oakland interviewed me and said a position would be forthcoming, but I'd need to wait a few weeks.) Then, as I was running out of geography, a little town on the Peninsula (San Carlos) asked me to come in for an interview. Beyond having circled it on my map, I had no clue how to get to this place and knew absolutely nothing about the area, district or population. I rented a car, donned a tailored gray suit, white gloves (!), a little pillbox hat and set off 2 hours ahead of my appointment to make sure I could find this location no more than 25 miles south of S.F. There I found a principal and superintendent, clearly irritated by having been called back to find a replacement for a first grade teacher who had resigned unexpectedly the day before. So, up pops up little Miss Mintz, with 3 years of experience teaching first grade, who spoke slowly and carefully (stiffly trying to avoid anything of a NY accent), and seemed the answer to their eagerness to get back to the business of summer break. They offered me a contract on the spot, I signed, drove back to S.F in a blaze of glory and have always wondered how my life would have been different had I waited for and taken a job in Oakland. For sure I'd not have spent the next 39 years teaching...
That was 1965 and I lived in the City (at the rate of one apartment and an assortment of roommates per year) until Dec., 1969 when I got married and moved (Good Grief) to the suburbs! I love San Francisco and always thought I'd move back there some day, but time and the vicissitudes of life (another of Mr. Kaplan's words) led a different way. Still, I live only 40 minutes south of the City now and though I get up there only occasionally, S.F. still fills me with the excitement I remember of those 1960's years (especially the summer of '68). I remained in the San Carlos School District, teaching every grade from 1-8, doing a stint as school counselor for a few years, introducing and mentoring teachers in the use of classroom computers starting in 1979. Then, in a fortuitous turn of events (I hear you, Mr. Kaplan), I became the math dept. chair and inherited the 8th grade honors algebra classes which I taught for the 12 years or so before I retired in 2004. I have often thought that I'd like to let Mrs. Finkel know that I became an algebra teacher, that I hoped that her passion and enthusiasm might somehow pass through me to my students. I think I was a good teacher.
In 1969 I met Harvey Press who'd come to the South Bay from Chicago to work for Fairchild Semiconductor. (Alas, he came along too late for my mother to know that I had, indeed, found an NJB in No. CA---she passed in 1966). Mutual skiing friends introduced us. Harvey was also a private pilot who nursed an intense ambition to fly commercially. Astigmatism and competition from too many returning Vietnam veterans with far more jet time than he had crushed that goal, but he was a freelance flight instructor and bought and flew planes up to his passing in 2003. He moved from Fairchild to National Semiconductor in 1970 and 2 years later was persuaded to move over to a small, newish company named Intel. He remained there until retiring in 1996, still a relatively young 53 years old, to pursue his first love---flying. You need to know that I HATE flying in small planes!!! Even so, he wanted me to get my license, so off we went on weekends when I gritted my teeth and submitted myself to learning to fly. It was one bright, sunny day when, on approaching San Jose Airport, I had the plane lined up perfectly---except that I was heading straight for a taxiway rather than a runway. That did it; I took my hands from the controls and called it quits. Truth be told, even had I gotten to the point of a solo flight, I'd never have gone up alone. As it was, I learned enough that (I think) I'd have been able to follow instructions from the ground to land a small plane in an emergency. Thankfully, that never happened.
Harvey and I had one son, Stuart who now lives in L.A. He is still single and assures me that I have no grandchildren.
So, now I have been retired for 4 years and I am trying to trick the Golf Gods into allowing me to develop the skills to qualify for an as yet unformed Super-Super-Senior Ladies With Bad Backs circuit. I am persuaded that hitting a little white ball long and straight is harder than anything I have ever attempted, and that includes childbirth and flying a Cessna 340. I still get up to Lake Tahoe a few times during the ski season (though I seek the blue squares now rather than the black diamonds). I do some volunteer tutoring, lots of reading, a fair bit of traveling and whatever else I feel like.
I've reread what I've written and I'm trying to imagine what Mrs. Klaf would say about it. A bit rambling, I suspect. Too much use of parentheses, dashes and ellipses, no doubt. Too many commas here, not enough there. In my next life I will be a mathematician who also writes novels. And, if you got this far, thanks.
HARVEY J. GOLDSCHMID
Harvey J. Goldschmid is Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia University. He has served as Dwight Professor since 1984, and was an Assistant Professor (1970-71), an Associate Professor (1971-73), and a Professor of Law (1973-84) at Columbia. He is also Senior Counsel at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. From 2002-05, Professor Goldschmid served as a Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and in 1998-99, he was the SEC’s General Counsel (chief legal officer); from January 1 to July 15, 2000, he was Special Senior Advisor to SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt.
Professor Goldschmid has been a frequent lecturer at national and international legal programs and conferences, and during the 2005-07 academic years, served as a Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany, as Citigroup Distinguished Fellow in Ethics and Leadership at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and as a Business Law Advisor for the ABA Section of Business Law (“a distinguished leader of the profession” who will share “wisdom and experience with members of the Section”). He received: the 2004 Lawrence A. Wien Prize for Social Responsibility from Columbia University (honoring an attorney who puts his “legal skills to work for the public good”); the 1999 Chairman’s Award for Excellence from the SEC; and several teaching awards, including Columbia Law School’s Willis L.M. Reese Award for Excellence in Teaching in both 1996 and 1997.
From 1980-93, Professor Goldschmid served as a Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Principles of Corporate Governance: Analysis and Recommendations. In 2000-01, he served as Chair of the Nominating Committee, and in 1998, completed a term as Treasurer and a member of the Executive Committee (i.e., Board of Directors) of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where Professor Goldschmid previously served as Chair of the Executive Committee, Chair of the Committee on Securities Regulation, and Chair of the Committee on Antitrust and Trade Regulation. He also has served as Chair of the Section on Antitrust and Economic Regulation of the Association of American Law Schools and as Founding Director of Columbia University’s Center for Law and Economic Studies. In 1997-98, Professor Goldschmid was a consultant on antitrust policy to the Federal Trade Commission, and in 1995-96, was a member of the FTC’s Task Force on High Tech/Innovation Issues. He now serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Greenwall Foundation, as a Public Governor and Chair of the Regulatory Policy Committee of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, as a Director of the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law, as a Director of Transparency International-USA, and on the Governing Board of the Center for Audit Quality. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Yale’s Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance, on the PCAOB Advisory Council, and on the International Advisory Board of the Israel Securities Authority.
Professor Goldschmid received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Columbia Law School in 1965 and a B.A., also magna cum laude, from Columbia College in 1962. He was Articles Editor of the Columbia Law Review and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is the author of numerous publications on corporate, securities, and antitrust law.
Roberta Lewis (now Bobbi Krantz)
Reading the bios posted on our blogspot has encouraged me to attempt one of my own for the second time (the first one never got to where it was supposed to)! It doesn’t seem possible that 50 years have passed since graduation from high school. I loved those high school years although upon graduation I renamed myself Bobbi and have been called that ever since. So if I don’t answer to “Roberta”, you’ll know why!
Growing up in the Bronx leaves some special memories. Playing hide and seek in the “lots” across from our apartment building, picking flowers (weeds) to bring home to my Mom (who is still alive and well at 96), trying to learn to ride a bike on the sidewalk (which I never accomplished), skating (which I did learn to do), visiting with my best girl friends (Judith Schiff, for many a year) and Beverly Ritterband (who I am still in touch with) who lived across the street from me, walking with my Dad on Bruckner Blvd. where the Quonset huts were built and so many other memories I can’t isolate them.
I entered James Monroe as a commercial course student as my parents felt it was more important for me to be able to earn a living than to go to college. I never regretted having the typing or steno skills but during my senior year convinced my folks that I could support myself while going to college. I remember many happy years working with Mrs. Mamie Levin and the Senior Class officers, of which I was one—especially Marty Kulick who was president of our Senior Class and Ronnie Del Principe, who was Senior Class President for the class of ’57. In fact, I dated Ronnie during my junior year and even went to the senior prom as his date! However, Ronnie went off the college and I started dating someone else and on a date on Labor Day Weekend, stepped too close to a golf club and had my front teeth knocked out! What a way to start my senior year of high school—with my mouth covered with a bandage and my front teeth all broken. Fortunately, I married a dentist so it worked out o.k.
Upon graduating from Monroe, I entered the Baruch School of Business along with a couple of our classmates—Libby Bleaman and Rae Portilla. We were all members of the same house plan, Wright ’62. I also didn’t have many career choices (nurse or teacher were two of them although I really wanted to be an accountant—what a mistake that would have been). With my commercial studies as a background, I decided I would become a teacher and though my commercial courses have benefited me greatly, the only teaching I ever did was student teaching back at Monroe (where I have a great memory of Principal, Leo Weiss, telling me to get back in line while we waited for the teacher to open the classroom door and me telling him that I was a student-teacher in the class), and while my husband, Bob, served in the army at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, I taught the servicemen to type!
The summer after my sophomore year at Baruch, I spent working at the Delano Hotel in Monticello, New York, running the office, where I met my future husband. Bob’s first words to me was “What happened to your front teeth?” so my accident did count for an easy introduction. Little did I know that he was a dental student!
I graduated from Baruch in 1962, we married and moved to an apartment beneath Manhattan Beach (a basement apartment on West End Avenue and Oriental Blvd). As most of the high schools in Brooklyn taught Pitman and I taught Greg (stenography), I couldn’t get a teaching job so continued at U.S. Life where I had been employed on a temporary basis prior to graduation. I actually made more money as a private secretary than I would have as a teacher and also taught some of the new hires how to type, so I did get to use some of my teaching skills!
When Bob graduated dental school, we traveled to Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri in Waynesville, where we spent two terrific years. Our own home, I could finally get a dog, our son was born and only cost $35, and we made some great friends, who we are still close to today. Towards the end of the second year at Leonard Wood, Bob returned to the east coast to locate an area where he could set up a practice. Brick Town, New Jersey was the perfect place—not too many dentists. We lived in Brick for two years but eventually moved to Lakewood where I spent many years raising our three (two boys and a girl), volunteering and generally, making a life in a small town. After our youngest turned four, I decided to go back to work and was planning on doing some substitute teaching. However, a close friend of mine needed an assistant and although I had very little experience in the arts (besides an appreciation for them) he felt if I could run the many organizations that I had, I could run anything. And so, 34 years later, I am still directing the Fine Arts Center (recently renamed Arts and Community Center) at our local community college, Ocean County, and enjoying every minute of it.
We moved to one of the Jersey Shore towns, Manasquan, ten years ago and Bob retired to spend most of his days golfing and fishing. The best day of the week, however, is Sunday, which we spend with two of our three children who live locally (and four of our six grandchildren). It has been a good life and I am grateful for many things but mostly for convincing my folks that I should follow my dream of going to college for from that decision all else flowed.
Madeline (Dasch) Goliger
One of my favorite movies is “Sliding Doors”? The basic premise is “What if?” and it has 2 parallel story lines. Looking back on my life, I’ve often thought…”What if I hadn’t had the absolute worst New Year’s Eve 1961/62?” But it did happen, and that event changed the course of my life. Had it been a glorious evening, I probably never would have, the very next day, applied for an assistantship for my Master’s Degree at the University of Illinois. I was 19 and in a few weeks, about to graduate from Hunter College. Aside from the fact that I knew where Illinois was, I had little knowledge of anything about the university, as well as the program I was applying for. It didn’t matter. I needed a change. While I was teaching Health and P. Ed. at Bronx Science H.S. I received my acceptance to the U.of I. for Sept. ’62. But before I left NY forever, Karen Bass (JMHS ’58) and I, along with 2 other girls, wandered around Mexico for the month of August. What an adventure!
So off I went to Champaign Urbana, Illinois in Sept.‘62. What a culture shock that was! I went from the bustling Bronx to the cornfields of Illinois with its white bread and butter! By August ’63 I had my Mrs. and my M.S. It all happened so fast…probably too fast, but no matter.
From Illinois we moved to D.C., and on to Seattle, Penn State Univ., Freiburg, Germany and ended up in Montreal. I loved living there. It was the best of both worlds, combining the atmospheres of Europe and N. America. When I moved to Montreal in 1971, my daughters were almost 2 and 5. I taught fitness classes at the YMCA (way before it became the “in” thing) and helped develop their program into something the ladies really enjoyed. It’s amazing to think that I was being well paid to stay fit!
And it is here that I bring up the “What if?” question again: “What if my “ex” hadn’t decided he wanted his social and sexual freedom?” The answer is that I never would have experienced the fabulous life that I have had since December 1974. It was then that I met Dan Goliger, a NJB who would have been “Best Buds” with my mom had she not died in ’73. We were married in ’76 and moved to the Toronto area (along with 100,000 other Anglos) after the separatist party came to power in the Province of Quebec. But what if they hadn’t been elected to power? Clearly, we never would have moved.
By moving to Ontario, Dan was able to grow his travel business, through franchising, to the largest, family owned, travel franchise in Canada. Meanwhile, I grew the family. Our son was born in ’78. I continued working as a fitness instructor and then joined Goliger’s Travel as the coordinator for the 2000 sales reps we had across Canada. It was actually a fun job. Dan sold the company in 1988 and the next thing we knew he was into the airline business. It was a good fit, what with his travel and commercial pilot backgrounds. We owned CanAir until 1997. During that time I was heavily involved in volunteer work and never went off to the wonderful destinations to which CanAir flew. (Something akin to the shoemaker’s kids not having shoes.)
For the last 27 years, we’ve been living in a rural area, west of Toronto. It’s a far cry from my days in the Bronx and going into the city is like a big event for me. My 6 and 11 year old grandkids love coming to “the farm” to pick fruits and veggies. It’s wonderful to see them catching frogs from the pond. I am really fortunate that my kids and 3 grandkids live nearby.
And what do I do for fun? Well, for 20 summers I’ve been crew rowing in Hamilton Harbor, which is on the western end of Lake Ontario. At night we go down to the lakeside trails where I cycle as Dan roller blades. There’s so much at our fingertips to enjoy in this neck of the woods.
A world has been opened up to me of which I never would have dreamed. Since 1984 we’ve owned a plane and I get to see the world from a different perspective. I’ve done the flying lessons, the ground school and many solo flights, but never went on for my license. There was no point getting a license for a single engine when we have a twin engine (a good excuse!). We’ve flown as far a field as Alaska and the Bahamas. Sometimes when I’m sitting up there at 10,000’, talking to ATC and fiddling with the GPS, I think that all this isn’t real. I guess that I have to thank that lousy date on New Year’s Eve for my wonderful life.
Maddy
September 14, 2008
*Reunion Bio – Susan Miller Urofsky*
Looking back over so many years, I wonder about my roots being in the Bronx, although I truly loved James Monroe High School. Some of the places named as part of this reunion may actually be new to me. Our family trajectory on the weekends was to Brooklyn where my parents had been childhood sweethearts or to Queens where I was excited to visit relatives with backyards. In summer we headed to Long Beach on the South Shore of Long island. My summer jobs were in the department stores on Fifth Avenue and my love of theatre was nurtured in Manhattan. I do remember the Bronx Zoo, however, because I courted parental disaster by going there as a child escorted only by a cousin, just a year older.
When home in Parkchester, the community had the good and the bad of a self contained small town, albeit with Broadway a short subway ride away. My maternal grandparents and a cousin close in age also lived there. Most people had familiar faces or were family friends. As others have noted, the small shops on Starling Avenue, offered bread still hot from the oven and hot dogs with sauerkraut that could be eaten on the way home. To this day the chocolate ices at Lambiases, a little further away, still can’t be equaled.
Monroe was an awakening for me. I got there early in the morning and stayed late into the afternoon. Core and the honor school brought me into contact with wonderful teaching and classmates who became friends for life, although I wish that we were more in contact. I still value the knowing nod from Mrs. Kolevzon when I read aloud a short story or acknowledged the trepidation caused in me by the play, Anne Frank. Jess Witchell, advisor to the student government, saw in me potential that was news to me. He encouraged me to move beyond student government to further explore governance and equality. I was very fortunate to attend programs such as Girls State, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the citywide Mirror Youth Forum. Obviously nothing is completely positive. I was a math drop out despite Mrs. Finkel’s prodigious efforts: and I still do not see the rationale for one teacher’s multiple choice history tests where the wrong answer was the right answer.
After the heady experience at James Monroe, I was faced with realistic choices regarding college and a major. My protective parents didn’t want me to go away to school and even with a Merit Scholarship expense was an issue. I chose Queens College. It was not the ivy-vined campus of my dreams and I can’t say I was happy there, but I got a sound education. I majored in English, my favorite subject and minored in Education to satisfy the parental requirement to be job ready. Nobody considered a career in government to be viable for a woman. I taught for three years and later spent my entire professional career in government. As it turned out, the analytic skills and insights into the human condition gained as an English major were essential assets when dealing with human and policy issues in government. It wasn’t always fun to be the only woman or first woman or to work around the clock, but the satisfactions were worth it. I became an experienced strategist, change agent, and management troubleshooter.
Mel and I got married after I graduated from summer school and he landed a graduate fellowship at Columbia University. We just celebrated our forty seventh anniversary. We have two sons, married to special women, and three uniquely loveable grandchildren. Mel started out as a historian and gradually emphasized legal and constitutional issues, publishing over fifty books along the way. We moved as he traversed the academic grid. Our first stop was Ohio State. We thought Columbus was far west. We then spent seven very, very long years in Albany, New York at SUNY Albany before finding a home in Richmond, Virginia for over thirty years. Mel taught at Virginia Commonwealth University and I held successive positions in state government. Only the magic of grandchildren and the varied cultural life in the Washington D.C. area could make us move, which we did upon retirement about two years ago.
My interest in government quickly resurfaced when I left New York. While the children were young, I treasured the time with them and my endeavors were largely volunteer. I should have gotten a Masters in League of Women Voters. I started out in study groups in Ohio. More experienced when I got to Albany, I eventually chaired studies and later served as Vice President of the Albany County League and a member of the New York State Board handling legislative affairs. I can never repay my debt to the bright, dedicated women who became my friends and mentors during those years.
The jump to paid employment came in Richmond. I had a ground floor opportunity with a new agency created by the legislature to review executive branch agencies and programs. Over my ten years with the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the agency gained influence through quality reports on almost every aspect of State Government. When I left I had been for five years, chief of one of the organization’s two research divisions. During the next ten years, I held appointed sub-cabinet positions in the administrations of two Governors, Deputy Secretary of Administration and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services; and for five years I served as Commissioner of the Department of Rehabilitative Services (DRS). I was fortunate to be involved in major advances in State government, including reorganization of the cabinet system and significant infusion of new money and accountability into mental health services. At DRS I worked with wonderful staff across the state who were willing to embrace new skills and programs so that people with severe disabilities might better live and work in the community. Our key programs, for which we were awarded state and federal grants, included vocational services, assistive technology, comprehensive case management, and school to work transition.
When I left state government during a period of political upheaval, I started my own business consulting with several progressive nonprofit and local government agencies in Richmond and Northern Virginia. My favorite project was a management training program for nonprofit staff and leadership administered by the Community Foundation of Greater Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University. I guided strategic planning for William Byrd Community House, which strives to carryout the settlement house traditions in a changing world and later joined the Board. Having gained flexible time, after years of round the clock work, I devoted it to my grandchildren, making the trek to the D.C. metro area on a weekly basis and to Wisconsin or South Carolina as often as possible. I am delighted to have special relationships with two granddaughters and a grandson and to be enjoying children’s movies, literature, zoos, museums and a whole new world of activities.
Retirement also allows me time for interests other than family and work. I love to travel and, among other trips, relished the opportunity to co-teach with Mel in Asia and Eastern Europe for the United States Information Agency. Going back to my English major roots, I read a great deal and have started writing my own short stories and essays. I also can spend hours in my basement darkroom attempting to achieve in print what excited me about taking a photo in the first place. Sometime soon, I would like to share some volunteer time with an agency in Maryland or Washington. I still believe that effective government and nonprofit organizations do make a difference in the lives of families and their communities.
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