Alan Friedman

Thinking of ALAN FRIEDMAN New York Hall of Science • 47-01 111th Street • Queens, NY 11368 • www.nysci.org i ii Eulogies; Alan’s Memorial, June 14, 2014, NYSCI iii 1 MARGARET HONEY especially those who live here in Queens. To begin today’s program we’re going to start Good morning everyone. I am Margaret Honey, with the story of Alan here in Queens. The Honor- president and CEO of the New York Hall of Sci- able Claire Shulman was borough president from ence, and I want to welcome you to the house that 1986–2002, and you might say that Claire and Alan Friedman built. Alan were co-conspirators in building the insti- Alan’s legacy extends well beyond NYSCI and we tution into what it is today. It’s my pleasure to will hear during this celebration of his life from welcome Claire — a dear friend and colleague of people who knew him before he came to New Alan’s and as he always said, one of Queen’s great York and those who continued to work with him women. after he retired from the Hall. Claire. I want to take a moment and share one story that for me exemplifies Alan, and especially his funda- mental humanity. When I joined NYSCI he was one of the first people I sought. I wanted his advice, his guidance; I wanted to draw upon his years of wisdom and his deep expertise. He was a larger-than-life legend and I wanted to know what he knew. When I finally met Alan for lunch — at the Cen- tury Club, of course — he didn’t talk about the city of New York, or dealing effectively with the NYSCI board, or the financial challenges that are always present in institutions like ours. Instead he looked at me and said, “The thing I think I always underestimated, was how much my mood influenced what happened at the Hall. If I walked in the door and was troubled or brooding, it had an effect. If I could do one thing differently it would be to be more aware of this dynamic.” I think about Alan’s words every day, and I try to take his guidance to heart. What Alan perhaps didn’t realize is how much his presence, his passion and vision for engaging the public in science, continue to influence what we do day in and day out here at NYSCI and through- out the entire field. Since that day back in 1984 when Alan walked into what was essentially an abandoned facility — a place that almost no one believed mattered — the New York Hall of Science has in fact mattered deeply to millions of children and their families, 2 3 were so low that a child could easily fall over SETH DUBIN bet we were. It wasn’t until many years later that them, and the project manager turned out to be Alan told me that I’d been bamboozled in think- terrible. I am Seth Dubin. I was President of the Hall of ing that the turn of events had been providential. Science for many years many years ago. Alan and What actually happened was that Alan and Sheila None of this seemed to bother Alan. He operated I were close friends for 30 years. scripted the scenario — they were old friends who in a world all his own. If anything bothered him, Claire just said that the Hall would not have wanted to work together. And that was the break he didn’t show it. He was always calm. Smiling turned around without Alan. And of course that’s that the Hall needed. under the most difficult circumstances. I would true. But if Alan were here he would have added be tearing my hair out and Alan would say, “Don’t New York newspapers paid a lot of attention to right away that the Hall would not have turned worry, it will work.” Thank God it did. Alan’s hiring. One of them quoted me as saying around without Claire. And that’s true too. It was that Alan “is known among museum people as When I heard that Alan was sick and might not Claire who created the conditions and facilitated one of the most creative thinkers in the world recover it was a real visceral shock; because, I funding that allowed Alan to do his magic. about informal science education” and that his never considered the fact that Alan might be The core of the Hall was built for the 1964/5 “extraordinary knowledge of science centers, human. World’s Fair. A year or two after the Fair closed, and his experience and vision qualify him to lead the building was reopened as a science museum. Though I haven’t seen Alan and his wonderful the Hall of Science to the front ranks of science The end of the 1960s was an exciting time in wife Mickey much in recent years; I always felt institutions.” Alan was our passport into the com- science museuming. Some of you were pioneering that they were part of my closely held group of munity of excellent informal science centers that new ways to interpret science at institutions in dedicated public servants and part of my history. were reshaping what creative science museums other cities. Unfortunately the Hall wasn’t part of could be. Alan created toys that children enjoyed while all that and over time it lost its promise. Beyond absorbing the most profound concepts. Who can that, the Hall’s physical plant turned out to work Alan wasn’t the only Friedman who drew New forget the universally used microscope that even I better as a World’s Fair exhibition space than as a York newspaper attention. Every Sunday my wife could use. Can you believe they never patented it? science museum and, to top it all off, the building did the Times doublecrostic. You know how that was falling apart. works — the first letters of the answers spell an Alan inspired young people to love science and author’s name, and those answers when they are some eventually choose it as a career. They were It was time by the early 1980s to shut the old inserted in the body of the puzzle become an ex- the Explainers. Young people taught younger Hall, find a new leader, and start all over. There cerpt from the author’s work. One Sunday, soon people to love science and look at what we have were a good number of excellent applicants but after Alan and Mickey settled in, Dotty screamed CLAIRE SHULMAN today. Thousands of parents and children learn- two stood out. One was Sheila Grinell, from ing science and enjoying it. whom you will hear in a few minutes. She had worked with Frank Oppenheimer at the Explo- When I first looked at the Science building Out of Alan’s incredible mind and energy has ritorium and was the Executive Director of the closely it was nothing but a shell with a ham set. come a new generation of thinkers. The Board of Trustees however, was very much Association of Science -Technology Centers. The alive and proceeded to seduce me into rehabbing This institution has, and continues to have, a other was Alan who was spotted by Jane Safer, the structure. They wanted to start a new great and generous board. They deserve some of who then worked with the City’s Commissioner science program. the credit for what this marvelous museum has of Cultural Affairs. At the time Alan was on leave become. from the Lawrence Hall and was consulting for With no director, and no program, spending tax- the French government helping to design the sci- Whatever I say about Alan will never be adequate payer money was quite a challenge. Well, along ence center at La Villette in Paris. We invited him enough to describe the effect he has had on so came our guardian angel Jane Safer. She spoke of to come to New York to speak with us. Of course many. Those of us in Government do not often a guy in Paris working on their science program he bowled us over. That left us with two superb meet the Alan Friedman’s of the world. So this who seemed to be very special and his name was candidates. What to do. Unexpectedly, Sheila experience has been a treasure. Alan Friedman. So, I called Alan Friedman. He came to my office to explain that she had a little said, “If you get me an apartment in Manhattan, I Alan, your Spirit will live forever in the hearts boy and that being director of the Hall would be will come.” And as they say, the rest is history. and minds of those who have had the privilege of an 80-hour a week job. She wondered whether Alan was facing a building in very bad shape. spending time with you. we were interested in hiring her and Alan too, There was water all over the floors, the banisters Alan as Director and Sheila as the Deputy. You 4 5 “oh my goodness.” The text was from one of when we invited only friends who had telescopes. RICK BONNEY Mickey’s mysteries and the first letters spelled After dinner we all went outside to look at the “Mickey Friedman.” They had both arrived in skies under Alan’s tutelage. It was magical. Or the My name is Rick Bonney, and I’m the director New York with a splash.

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