Update 7-10-07

Hi,

Gonna save the information about Andrew Karp and Peter Olson, the Tampio and Gibson scholarship winners, till next week.  For now, a note, two address changes, an explanation, a really nice letter about Irving Saffrin that Evelyn Roedel Read '59 wrote for the latest Alumni Association bulletin, and a couple of familiar announcements.
   
    First, from Jane Ruzow Tiell:  After twenty-two years, I have retired as an assistant principal of a high school in the Bronx, and the first thing my husband saw in The New York Times  was an ad for the principal of South High School.  He looked at me and I said, "I'm retired," but I thought about it for about sixty seconds.  Good luck to all those who have joined my rank.
   
    Next, from Don Doubrava:  Please change my e-mail address from:  moneyman@ntcnet.com  to:  dondoubrava@yahoo.com.  Thanks.
   
    From Jeff Powitz:  I haven't been to the reunion websites in a few years, but this is regarding my brother, Stephen Powitz -- he still lives in the first half of the 20th Century and doesn't have e-mail.  Anyone interested in reaching him can send e-mail to my new address:  grandprints@sbcglobal.net.  I will pass your information on to him via telephone -- I think he has one of those.   For your information, my company's website, www.grandprints.com -- picture retouching & duplication -- also has links to my e-mail address, and my phone number is:  818-763-5743.  Thank you.
   
    [Rich -- A quick explanation:  Over the last year, probably a dozen people have sent in new e-mail addresses and asked me to replace their old addresses on the class home page.  Sometimes, I've tried to do that, and sometimes, I've succeeded.  But AOL fights me on it a lot, probably because I've so overloaded the home page with information and photos.  Maybe if I had DSL, the home page would be easier to access, but I doubt it.  I really should start over with a different company hosting a more accessible website.  But that's an enormous amount of sorting and uploading and re-editing information that almost no one ever looks at anymore.  So I just let it lay.
        Also over the past year, we've lost touch with a number of our former teachers.  They've probably updated to DSL and changed their e-mail addresses like many of the rest of us, and then haven't told us.  But I figure if people really want to stay in touch with us, they will.  Also, many of these teachers may prefer to stay in touch by way of the Alumni Association, which obviously spans more years than our group.]
   
    The letter from Evelyn Roedel Read:  In the previous quarterly Alumni Bulletin, there was a picture of my all-time mentor, Mr. Irving Saffrin.  I clicked on the zoom and brought him to me, life size, face-to-face. He no longer looks like the Jack Webb of Dragnet, as I pictured him in the 1950s, but seeing him brought back memories of his "Just the facts, Ma'am" lessons that were always so very interesting.
        Mr. Saffrin was strict in a loving way.  His class control was beyond any I have ever seen.  He was serious, and we were serious.  I recall his very erect posture as he walked about impeccably dressed in a business suit "investigating" all the scientific facts.  He had us fill notebooks -- I think I ended up with three, fat, black-and-white composition notebooks by June -- with all of this information, along with illustrations of things like paramecium and amoebae that were kept and treasured by many and not tossed as were most of our notebooks in June.  Mr. Saffrin routinely collected these notebooks and graded them, which ensured that we were to do them accurately and completely.
        I spoke with Mr. Saffrin about a year ago and explained the impact his teachings had on my teaching first graders for thirty-four years in the Middle Country School District on Long Island.  Each year, I had the children purchase three fat, black-and-white composition notebooks.  In fact, in August, when the notebooks went on sale, I purchased as many as I could get and allowed the parents to send in the money for them, since the price was always higher once schools opened.  One notebook was just for handwriting, one was for reading, and the third was for phonics and spelling. The last two notebooks were divided into sections including:  number words, color words, reading words, spelling words, family words, and contractions.  Every September, I explained to the children how important their notebooks would be.  I told them about Mr. Saffrin, my high school science teacher, who had us make important notebooks, too.  Their notebooks would have sections just as ours did in high school.  None of the other first grade classes were this organized.  They had one notebook with math on page one, spelling on the next page and so on.  The work was added as it occurred, so everything was disorganized.  At first, the parents couldn't believe that their six-year-olds needed so many notebooks, but as my career unfolded, the parents learned what was coming from other parents, and many kept these notebooks for a younger child that couldn't be placed into my class.  So, Mr. Saffrin, you not only had an impact on the lives of the students at South, but your excellent teaching skills found their way to impact on the lives of over eight hundred little six-year-olds you never even met.  Your impact continued long after you retired.  Just last week, one of my students, now a senior in high school, called to tell me about the wonderful start I had given him and about those wonderful notebooks.  He called to let me know that he was accepted by Harvard, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.  He is going to Harvard, and Harvard is paying the $47,000 per year for four years.  So, Mr. Saffrin, you had an amazing impact on my life and my teaching.  When I think of the number of teachers who have had me as a student from elementary school through college, there is no one who even comes close to you.  I just want you to know how important you have been to so many people  From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
   
    Finally, the repeated announcements:
   
    The 40th reunion of the class of '67 will be held on Saturday, July 28, 2007, at the Huntington Hilton Hotel in Melville, New York.  Everyone is welcome.  For further information, please contact Andrea Schwartz Neenan at:  aneenan@tampabay.rr.com
   
    The Evening with Booker Gibson at the Irish Coffee Pub in East Islip, New York, will be on Wednesday, August 1, 2007.  It will start around 6:15 though Booker does not begin to play until 7:00.  To make a reservation, please contact Claire Brush Reinhardt at:  reino@optonline.net