Q NEWS A QUEST Publication Spring 2012 Vol. XIV No. 2 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Here we are at the end of a most wonderful Quest semester, looking forward to a terrific Summer Session highlighting the best presentations of the past year. Our membership remains stable at 191 active members, and we have Quest Vice President Beverly Francus and her committee to thank for this continued success. Although Beverly’s term as VP has ended, she will continue as Chair of the Membership Committee. We wish to express our gratitude to Beverly for her years of service on the Council and as Vice President. She is an integral part of the governance of Quest, and we hope she will remain a vital and con- tributing force. This past year saw the addition of three new members to the Council: Doreen DeMartini, Roy Clary and Carolyn McGuire, bringing total council membership to 11. And of course we congratulate Michael Wellner on his election to Vice President, Jim Slabe on his reelection as Treasurer, and Marian Friedmann on her reelection as Secretary. Additional- ly, we have reelected Marilyn Rosen and Steve Allen to the Council and elected June Dwyer as the newest Council member. Our new course offerings are highly anticipated, and the Fall Catalog is being distributed. Our thanks to Bob Hartmann, once again, for his strong leadership of the Curriculum Committee, and to Carolyn McGuire and Anita Hunter for the catalog’s outstanding quality. We have explored the feasibility of installing “Hearing Loop” technology in all our classrooms and the Auditorium and made a proposal to CWE/CCNY at the end of last year. This technology provides high-quality sound transmission directly to hearing aids equipped with hearing coils as many are. To comply with NY State requirements, we are working with CCNY Procurement to get competitive bids. We hope to have everything in place by the summer. So as summer approaches, we wish you all a great season, much enjoyment and good health. Marc W. Deitch President Q NEWS You may already know that Bob Hartmann has en- A QUEST Publication dowed an annual scholarship for a worthy qualified CWE student to enable him or her to continue work Editor toward a Bachelor's Degree at the Center. It’s a wor- Myra Nissen thy contribution and something other Quest mem- bers might consider in their charitable donations. Associate Editor Bob Reiss Contributor Barbara Blakemore Photo Editor Lila Heilbrunn QUEST, a community for lifelong learning, is affiliated with City College of New York (CCNY), the Center for Worker Education (CWE) and Elderhostel Network 25 Broadway at Bowling Green New York, NY10004 212.925.6625 Ext. 229 www.questonline.org Meet Bob Hartmann Bob is one of 140 people who founded Quest 17 years ago after leaving the New School's Institute for Retired Professionals (IRP). He has been an integral Bob Hartmann part of our organization ever since, serving in various capacities: President from 1996-2000, currently When Bob is not busy with his Quest duties he is tu- chairman of the Curriculum Committee, and coordi- toring second graders at PS 163 once a week and still nator throughout the years of many varied courses. manages to find time to satisfy his voracious reading Of these, his favorites include The American Musical habit. He recently finished Ann Patchett's State of the Theatre and Assassinations. World and Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra. Waiting in the bookshelf is Robert Massie's Catherine the Great. Raised in Merrick, Long Island, Bob graduated from Thank you, Bob - for making Quest such an important Adelphi University, where he majored in Spanish. He part of your life - and in doing so, enriching ours. then continued his Spanish studies, having won a fel- lowship at New Mexico State University. Rather than following a teaching track, he preferred the challeng- es of a business career. Specializing in international trade, he managed to combine his passion for travel with his vocation. His fluency in Spanish proved a definite asset. His business travels took him to Australia, Latin Amer- ica, and the Caribbean. His pleasure trips with Gladys, his significant other (they met in college), have taken them to Israel, Cuba, and on a cruise to various Baltic countries, among many other destinations. His next trip, sadly, is to take care of the affairs in Thailand of a friend of 40 years who died this year. 2 Quest Moments Bob Reiss What is a “Quest Moment”? It happens in class when The course: Jazz Legends the presentation and a member’s life trajectory inter- The Presentation: The Music of Django Reinhardt sect to create a learning moment unique to our or- The moment: Ruth Robbins’ husband knew a musi- ganization. cian who played with Reinhardt. The musician once Examples: explained to her how Django was able to play guitar chords with only two working fingers by wrapping his The Course: Movers and Shakers thumb around the guitar neck. The Presentation: The Genius of Tom Lehrer The moment(s): Dave Robinson regaled us with re- membrances of his days at Harvard, where he was Tom Lehrer’s roommate. The course: Movers and Shakers The Presentation: Gypsy Rose Lee (A Mover AND a Shaker) Arbor Day Performance of Physical Revue The moment(s): The presenter, Wally Butler, wasn’t (l to r facing camera): David Z. Robinson, Richard N. sure whether Otto Preminger ever had acknowledged Schwab, Robert H. Welker, Lewis M. Branscomb, his son with Gypsy Rose Lee. Sondra Lipton told the Thomas A. Lehrer class that she knew all three of Preminger’s wives and assured us that Otto did indeed acknowledge his son The course: The Supreme Court Erik. The Presentation: The Three Women Justices The moment(s): The presenter, Marty Helpern, wasn’t sure of the pronunciation of Kagan. But Ger- rie Rude knew Elena’s mother and assured us that it rhymes with Megan. In the same class, there was some doubt as to the extracurricular activities of Ruth Bader Ginsberg at Madison H.S. in Brooklyn. However, we learned from Ruth Kovner (via her sister, Naomi, who followed Ginsberg by two years at Madison) that Ginsberg was a Madison Twirler known as “Kiki” and was adorable as well. Gypsy Rose Lee 3 Dith Pran and Me zine about the rescue of Dith Pran, which later be- Dolores Dolan came a movie, “The Killing Fields." In March of this year, there was a Sunday Times Trav- Pran and his family came to New York, and Sydney el Section story about the beautiful beaches, hotels got him a large corner house in the Midwood section and friendly people of Cambodia. It brought back of Brooklyn and also arranged for him to intern as a very sad memories of the mid-1970s, when Cambodia Times photographer. The day Pran came into the was a killing field and the Khmer Rouge almost de- newsroom, all the reporters and editors, purportedly stroyed the tiny country. I was then at The New York sophisticated people, came to shake his hand, and in Times as secretary to Sydney Schanberg. Sidney was some cases were moved to tears. Pran was short, the Metropolitan Desk editor after serving as a for- very thin and had a big smile on his boyish face. He eign correspondent and winning a Pulitzer prize for was 35. his coverage of Cambodia. He was very anguished, thinking daily of the Cambodian man, Dith Pran, who It was the day after the Magazine article appeared the Khmer Rouge had taken by force from the French that Sydney asked me to take Pran to Brooks Broth- Embassy, where foreign journalists found sanctuary ers to buy him a suit, shirts and sundry accessories. in 1975. Pran was Sydney’s interpreter, and he had Fortunately, Pran spoke English (as my Cambodian refused to take one of the last planes out of Phnom was nil). When we got to the store, I asked for the Penh. He wanted to stay with Sydney and the “big men’s department. The salesman responded helpful- story." Fortunately, Sydney had arranged for Pran’s ly, “I think you might first try the boy’s department." wife and four small children to be flown to San Fran- I soon noticed that groups of salespeople were gath- cisco. ering and peering at us. One woman approached and said “We read about you in the Times Magazine, Mr. The Khmer Rouge had made all native-born Cambo- Pran. So nice to see you at Brooks Brothers.” A week dians leave the French Embassy and work in the fields later I was asked to take Pran’s wife to Lord & Taylor or be killed. Sydney tried to keep Pran at the Embas- and help her choose a cocktail dress for a dinner the sy; he also tried to forge a passport for Pran, saying UN was hosting for Pran that night. Added to my re- he was a French citizen. But it didn’t work, and Pran sume, I guess, could be “personal shopper.” had to leave the embassy. After no word for a couple of years as to Pran’s whereabouts, Sydney assumed - but never quite believed - that Pran was dead. I wit- nessed his weekly phone call to Pran’s wife, Ser Moeun, assuring her he was doing everything possi- ble through international agencies to find her hus- band. Sydney told her he would never stop looking for him. One morning in 1978, a clerk on the Times Metropoli- Dith Pran tan desk said, “Mr. Schanberg, a call for you from Par- is.” It was from an East German journalist who had Over the years I remained friends with Dith Pran and been writing about the refugee camps in Thailand.