Alumni News Layout 6/03

There were no fiftieth-year business executives, owners, and The Year in Retrospect graduates to march across that managers; and five clergymen. And Quadrangle in 1953 because Brooklyn that’s just from the database records Fifty Years Ago Today College was then only twenty-three we have. There were also judges, by Roberta Rose Wallach, ’53 years old. But I guess we all felt a geologists, accountants, architects, Thursday, May 29, 2003, was the little like Sir Edmund Hillary, who engineers, designers, social workers, day of the Seventy-eighth made headlines in the New York Times nurses, therapists, actuaries, Commencement of Brooklyn College on our graduation day, June 14, 1953, pharmacists, and even one farmer, and the Fiftieth Reunion of the Class by becoming the first to reach the specializing in livestock breeding. of 1953. I don’t know how we pulled summit of Mt. Everest. Commencement What course did he take? it off, but I think May 29 was the only was our Mt. Everest. We enjoyed the camaraderie of day in May or June when it did not In 1949 most of us were the house-plans, sororities, fraternities, and rain and the weather was sunny and children of immigrants working part clubs. Some friendships have endured cool. And Brooklyn College certainly time during college for the minimum for sixty-five years, as have mine with knows how to honor its fiftieth-year wage, $1.35 an hour. We came from Helen Marcus Daniels and Shirley graduates by celebrating the occasion Brownsville, East New York, Canarsie, Eisenberg Swidler. Some friendships on Commencement Day. There you Coney Island, Sheepshead Bay, have held fast for fifty years—Betty are, marching on the Quad in your Brighton Beach, Borough Park, Antonoff Arfin and Elaine Feldman flowing gold gown and cap across the Midwood, East Flatbush, Bay Ridge, Adler, for instance. most beautiful campus in the country, Bensonhurst, Bushwick,Williamsburg, Commencement Day began with a as noted in the Princeton Review’s Crown Heights,Windsor Terrace, and wonderful breakfast in the Georgian ranking of about 350 colleges in 2003, even from that distant land, the Bronx. Room, a time for bagels, hugs, cheers, right down that center aisle, past row We rode the trolley and buses to get and even some tears. Then there was after row of 2003 graduates in to BC. We studied on the IRT and the class picture taken on the steps of burgundy or black robes, cheering and BMT. We attended public high the New Ingersoll and lining up for the applauding, a stand-up ovation! I’m schools, not private schools. But we traditional walk. U.S. Senator Charles not sure if I walked or floated to the must have been doing something Schumer and Borough President Marty front row seats and the podium right. Our class turned out 184 Markowitz, ’70, were there to greet us carrying the BC banner with Arlene teachers and guidance counselors; at Commencement. At a luncheon Lichterman. It was a surreal fifty-eight college professors and that followed, in the Gold Room at experience. I was especially honored administrators; twenty-six principals, SUBO, we were greeted by President that President Kimmich had asked me supervisors, and superintendents; Christoph Kimmich. I offered greetings, to speak as the representative of the sixteen librarians; forty-two lawyers; too, as president of the BCAA. Class of 1953, and thrilled that my forty-seven doctors and dentists; Everyone got a great Fiftieth Reunion husband and four children could be twenty-two writers, editors, gold T-shirt and a fabulous, unique present that day. I am proud to say publishers, artists, poets, musicians, and Reunion Journal. And what a Reunion that all four children are also Brooklyn actors; six physicists; six biochemists; Journal Committee that was: Arlene College graduates. ten state legislators; seventy-nine Lichterman and Marilyn Sarhis, cochairs; Volume 6, Number 1 • Spring 2004A newsletter published by the Brooklyn College Alumni Association Phone: (718) 951-5595; Fax: (718) 951-5962; E-mail: [email protected] www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/offices/alumni/ Florence Miller Bernstein, Mina Leibowitz Herman, Leanora B. Katzman, Joan BCAA Levenson Cooper Mirrer, Estelle Broome Schaffer, defender, and most enthusiastic Awards Presented Malcolm M. Sellinger, and myself. What a cheerleader that Brooklyn has ever had.” by Samuel Rabinoff, ’49 Journal we produced, spectacular from The Alumna-of-the-Year Award was cover to cover, including highlights from presented to Mary McWilliams, ’49, who Sam Levenson, originally a Spanish The Kingsman and Calling Card from our interrupted her college years with a teacher at Tilden High School, left the student days, photos from our previous tour in the Women’s Reserve of the classroom to become a television reunions, and other articles and Coast Guard and a job with the FBI. comedian. One of his popular memorabilia. She taught from 1950 to 1975 and now monologues focused on a bar mitzvah The reunion supper on Wednesday is an activist for senior citizens. boy. The thirteen-year-old, overwhelmed evening—which featured the slide show All of us enjoyed the dinner, wine, by the large number of writing “Brooklyn:The Way It Was,” narrated by music, and dancing. Roberta Rose implements he received, began the BCAA board member Ron Schweiger, ’70, Wallach, ’53, president of the BCAA, traditional speech,“Today, I am a official borough of Brooklyn historian— acted as emcee. She took us on a trip fountain pen.” While fountain pens was a warm-up and prelude to the down memory lane to the Brooklyn have since diminished in popularity, the incomparable sheer joy of Thursday. and the College we knew so well. importance of education has not. We received rave reviews of the She reminisced about the Fox and the Every year, the Alumni Association reunion from Dolores Rosenbluth, Paramount, the Pitkin, the Oriental, gives three $2,000 awards to students Priscilla Lipton Lewis, Helen Marcus dining at Dubrow’s, Garfield’s,Wolfie’s, who have contributed to campus and Daniels, Sydelle Flaxberg Hirsch, shopping on Fulton Street at Mays, community life and/or the performing Leanora Katzman, Janet Sider Kleinman, A & S, and Russeks, and waiting for the arts. The awards are in honor of Arlene Lichterman, Alice Ruth Friedman Good Humor Man, Dugan’s and the Sam, ’34, and his wife, Esther Levine Alter, and Myrna Macowitz Egeth. To Bungalow Bar. She spoke of the many Levenson, ’34, and are presented at the those who have not yet experienced memorable performances at BC by BCAA Annual Meeting, which is held their fiftieth, I can only say that I wish Yehudi Menukin, Satchmo, Simon and on Alumni College Day and is open to you the good health and good fortune Garfunkel, Morty Gunty, Sam Levenson, all alumni. The recipients invariably to be able to reach that glorious and Dame Judith Anderson. represent the diversity and caliber of milestone and emotional high and share If you missed this wonderful event, the BC student body. The 2003 it with your dear family and friends. be sure to mark your calendar for winners are outstanding. October 16, 2004, when “Tracks to Darnel John, ’04, fascinated by Brooklyn” marks the New York City media since his childhood, worked as a Alumni Association subway centennial as we honor the production assistant at a television Gala Reunion, 2003 alumnus and alumna of the year. Join station in St. Lucia before arriving in the us then at Tavern on the Green for the United States in 2001. This experience by Agnes Ford, ’69 next annual reunion celebration. influenced him to pursue a B.A. in film On October 25, 2003, the evening of production. Darnel wants to help the Gala, the Water Club looked Errata in the spring 2003 newsletter express the “rich texture of the especially beautiful. The ships sailed on * Professor Sam Leiter has two children, Caribbean voice.” He is a member of the East River and Brooklyn sparkled not three. the Honors Academy and has served as across the water. The Alumnus-of-the- * Dominic Chianese was Professor Leiter’s president of the Brooklyn College classmate, not his student. Year Award was presented to Brooklyn Student Film Society. * Marilyn Friedman Antelis, ’52, is divorced, Borough President Marty Markowitz, ’70, not widowed. Desi A. Moreno-Penson, M.F.A.’04, who describes himself as the “best began studying drama at fifteen. She alumni news 2 pursued her passion at the Greer Garson Theatre Center, College of Santa Fe, New Mexico, earning her B.F.A. in theater and acting. She then studied in London and in June received an M.F.A. in dramaturgy and theater criticism from Brooklyn College. Desi feels “that multiculturalism is the future for American theater” and has founded an ensemble, Daddy Bear and Company, Inc., on that principle. Through an English Department honors program, Desi will return to England for independent study. Edward M. Rebenwurzel, ’04, is a student who is justifiably confident of Alumni College Day, left to right: President Christoph M. Kimmich, Ella Friedman Weiss, ’62, Antonia his ability to excel. Though working Yuille Williams, Bill Baird, ’55, Roberta Rose Wallach, ’53, Agnes Ford, ’69, Hal Schaffer, ’56. toward a degree in computational math, Edward plans to practice law. with excitement. Instead of the Schaffer, ’56, member of the BCAA Besides his full schedule at BC, he is traditional concurrent sessions, we had Board of Directors, presented the award. also enrolled as a full-time Yeshiva organized a forum to address a single Ella Friedman Weiss, a former student in Talmudic studies. He topic of great concern,“Freedom of schoolteacher, began her career at BC participates in student government, is Speech and the Media.” The day began as director of community relations and an editorial assistant for a student with an elegant reception hosted by audience development at the Brooklyn newspaper, and volunteers at his President Christoph M.

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