Update 8-25-09

Hi,

A whole lot of letters.

First, from Booker Gibson:  I wanted to say something about the South music department.  Two weeks ago, I decided to call Bob Leist, to check on his health.  Bob sounded very robust on the phone.  To those who don't remember, Bob was the first South High band director.  He wrote "March, South High" and the alma mater "Valiant Falcons."  Unfortunately, the school no longer uses "March, South High."  Bob lives in Sarasota, Florida, and he's over 85, but I forget which particular number.
        Occasionally, I am visited at the Irish Pub I play in by Bob Griffin, the first South High orchestra director. He stayed at South for about 25 years and then moved back to his hometown of Olympia, Washington, where he grew up.  He always likes to travel in a motor home, all over the continent.  Like Bob Leist, he's over 86.
        Two weeks ago, my wife, Frances Butler Gibson, and I went to a wake for a Forest Road band director, Henry Kohlman, who came after John Price.  There were many Valley Stream music teachers there, and it became a lively social event!
   
    Booker also quickly added:  Before anyone rushes to contact Bob Leist, my earlier message could be misleading.  He sure sounded "robust" on the phone, but after I discussed our conversation with my wife, I'm not sure Bob knew who I was.  We talked for less than a minute, and when I spoke with his wife before, she used the term "dementia" and said that Bob was not doing anything.  One of their daughters lives nearby and comes frequently to help, since Bob and his wife are both about the same age.  I didn't want to include a phone number, but I remember some people like Barnett Kellman were great students of his.
   
    From Eric Hilton:  Judy Hartstone reminded me of some wonderful teachers and about some people in our guidance department.
        Miss Dillback was my English teacher, and I’m sure she had mirrors in her glasses.  After being reprimanded by Miss Dillback, one of our more irreverent classmates, Bob Conradis, proceeded to flip her finger.  In a spinning turnaround that would have shaken Bruce Lee, Miss Dillback caught Bob and said “Now, I have you,” and she walked him down to Mr. Bergen’s office.
        As for our guidance department:  I had Mr. Hoffman, who was a very nice man but who never advised me in any way that led to any future goals.  He just told me to make it through school.  When I told him I was quitting to join the Navy because I lacked enough credits to graduate, he had no solution.  It was Mr. Caruso who saved my butt.
        Paul DeMartino mentioned Miss Hardy:  not only was she a wonderful teacher, but she was also a sweetheart, and it was a pleasure to go to her class.
        On another topic:  by any chance does anyone know if there is a class of '66 reunion web site?
        Thanks again, everyone, for keeping these communications and wonderful memories alive.  It is great to hear from so many classmates and to see how successful and challenging some of their lives have been.  I am so grateful for growing up in Valley Stream and for going to South High School.  Kindest regards to all.
   
    From Peggy Cooper Schwartz:  I remember Miss Dillback taking a group of girls in 7th or 8th grade -- I forget which club it was -- to see The Miracle Worker on Broadway.  Patty Duke played Helen Keller, and Annie Sullivan was played by an unknown named Suzanne Pleshette; Anne Bancroft had recently left the show.  A wonderful memory!
         Mr. Saffrin was a terrific teacher.  I remember sitting in his class as he taught us about DNA and RNA.
    Pretty amazing and new for 1962!
        On a personal note, my husband and I just returned from a cruise on the Baltic Sea.  We sailed out of Copenhagen and visited Berlin; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg; Helsinki; Stockholm; and Kiel, Germany.  We had gorgeous weather and saw amazing sights.  The highlight was 2 days with a private guide in St. Petersburg:  The Hermitage; the various palaces of the Czars; the Peterhoff -- built by Peter The Great; The magnificent Choral synagogue; and the stunning Russian Orthodox cathedrals.  They were all amazing. 
         We walked around Berlin for a day.  The enormous and moving "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe" -- which includes a large museum under the monument -- is so important to see.  It is necessary that it is there, right near the Brandenburg Gate and the beautiful center of the city. 
   
    From Jan Blake Dickler, class of 1966:   I always enjoy reading your class’s newsletter.  The recent discussion of our memorable teachers brings to mind Clara Hoogenboom -- we were close and in touch into the mid 1980s; Booker Gibson -- our introduction to opera and so much more; and Toni Rea -- her Humanities seminar in 12th grade rivaled many of my college courses, and she gave so much of herself to our literary magazine.  I was also delighted today to see Josephine Dillback’s name.  She was an amazing teacher -- strict and not especially “cool” -- but her weekly grammar lessons became second nature, and to this day my daughter calls me the “grammar police.”  I remember the first day of school, when George Friedman sneezed, and Miss Dillback said that since the Latin class had only one period of English -- instead of the usual 1 1/2 periods -- we did not have time to say “God bless you” in her class!
   
    From Helen David, in answer to Paul DeMartino's question about why Italian wasn't taught at South:  Here we go, tickling my brain again!  At the beginning (of time), Mr Stoya from Trieste, taught Italian, Mrs. Vamvakis taught French, and Mr Batorski, the coach, taught Latin.  We also had a series of German teachers, including a lady from the United Kingdom who taught German with a heavy Scottish accent.  Herta Apfel, from Vienna, was the German teacher of note.  She switched to French after the demand for German dropped.  Eventually, Latin American Spanish was the only foreign language left in the course of study though we did have "English as a Second Language" classes towards the end of my tenure in 1985.  Also, I believe that Mr Bergen taught Latin in an earlier life.
   
    From Ellen Sue Brody Pilger:  Hi, back, Barnett Kellman and Judy Hartstone.  To catch people up, my activity between the 60s and the present has been widely varied.  Perhaps the most consistent interest for me has been an avid involvement in the arts, mostly as an avocation:  drawing and painting, dance performance, music, photography, handcrafts of all sorts, and assistance to those who wished to bring their work to a public domain in this area.  Our daughter, though raised in California, graduated from Juilliard and has a career in choreography, dancing with several companies and producing in New York City.  One of our sons is a musician who has transitioned from classical cello to... well... just about anything with strings.  I taught art in a Montessori school many years ago, with the idea of creating a tangible visual experience to bring botany, math, and history to life for little people.  I have also written many grants and learned non-profit accounting as a matter of course in that dabbling.  Thanks for mentioning all of those teachers, Judy.  A few of them planted seeds that made me feel that hanging around the arts might be a good idea.
   
    From Amy Miller:  I assume Andy is Barry Dolich's brother.  Barry was a classmate of my big sister, Sue Miller, from the first graduating class of South High in 1958.  In his article, Andy neglected to mention one of my favorite "not needed stinking name badges" from Staples -- the one that hangs from an elastic cord with metal tipped ends that you insert into holes in the clear plastic.  A quantity of these cords gets all tangled up, so for the next event, you can spend hours untangling the cords.
   
    From Paul Zegler:  Well, I finally landed a fall show.  I'm doing Guys ands Dolls at the Cabrillo Theatre in Thousand Oaks.  It's 5 minutes from my home, much better than my hour-long commutes to Long Beach.  We start rehearsals September 8th and open a month later.  I'm playing Arvide Abernathy and have a great song, "More I Cannot Wish You."  Hope some of you get to see the show.
   
    Finally, from Jay Berliner:  I would like to thank you all for your support and your e-mail during these trying times.   Enclosed is the obituary for my wife Sharyn.  It ran in Newsday on August 15th.
        Sharyn Berliner, a longtime educator in the Manhasset public schools who was known for mentoring younger teachers and making science accessible to children, died July 28 of a cerebral hemorrhage. She was 61.
        Born in Brooklyn, Berliner earned a bachelor's degree from Hunter College in Manhattan and began her career as an elementary schoolteacher in Brooklyn.  In 1990, after a stint as a science instructor for the Western Suffolk teachers center and at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, Berliner took a job as an elementary school science teacher in Manhasset.  In 18 years there, Berliner was a fierce advocate for hands-on science instruction and was a force in retooling the district's science curriculum, according to Jay Berliner, her husband of 39 years.  In particular, she loved astronomy and spent one summer studying curriculum development at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
        A pet project was a portable planetarium called Starlab, which uses a projection system to allow students to observe the stars and planets as they would appear in the night sky.  "She would stay after school to run the astronomy programs," her husband said.  "She basically did as much as she could for children."
        Berliner also served as an adjunct professor at Hofstra University, teaching graduate and undergraduate science education.  In July, she retired from the Manhasset school district but had plans to continue her work with educators as a science coach for New York University.  She and her husband settled in Glen Head in 1979, and she was involved in many community activities, including serving for several years as a board member of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Glen Cove.
        A service was held at Gutterman's Funeral Home in Woodbury.  Burial was in New Montefiore Cemetery, Farmingdale.  Besides her husband, Berliner is survived by three daughters, Michelle Taub of Plainview, Jennifer Harinstein of Pittsburgh, and Andrea Portnoy of Silver Spring, Maryland; and three granddaughters, Allison, Jamie and Sydney Taub.
   
    The South '65 e-mail addresses:  reunionclass65.blogspot.com
   
   
    Rich