We Made It! The Newcomers Can Too!
By Martin Kleinman
Despite my Luddite tendencies, I will admit that The Interweb can be a help. I’ll go one step farther: The Interweb can be fascinating.
Recently I searched the digital landscape to see whatever became of some of my classmates and early workmates from The Bronx. I was very impressed, given our modest start. Most of us were first- or second-generation Americans. None were descended from passengers on the Mayflower – steamer steerage was our forebears’ mode of transport.
A sampling includes:
• My next door neighbor, a teen who patiently showed me how his gas-powered model airplane engines worked, went from Bronx Science to NYU, to MIT to Stanford and was a pioneer in the development of public key cryptography. This is the bedrock technology for the internet security protocols that make digital transactions possible. He is the co-winner of the Marconi Prize and the Turing Award (computer science’s highest honor), and was named to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
• A P.S. 86 classmate, with a powerful snowball-throwing arm used to pelt passing 38 buses, is a full professor who specializes in American cultural and political history, the history of New York City, and American Media history. He served as an advisor to such shows as BBC’s “Copper” and was elected to the Society of American Historians.
• Another kid from 86 made his way up the ranks of U.S. banking, to become CFO of a financial services giant with nearly $2 trillion in assets. His dad was the baker who used to provide the cupcakes for kids’ in-class birthday parties.
• A friend of mine from De Witt Clinton H.S. runs one of the largest and most successful independent contracting firms in New Jersey. His dad worked on the platform at the Daily News. This kid was a whiz at 35mm photography, having commandeered his family’s University Heights bathroom as his processing lab. In a pre-Photoshop world, he was a master of dodging and burning, and managed to manipulate an image of our friend’s face into a photo of a toilet bowl in mid-flush – much to our mutual glee.
• The girl who led daily in-class flag ceremonies with her golden voice became an award-winning newspaper columnist and broadcast media specialist, as well as a classically trained flutist. Her dad worked his way up from a modest start to head an advertising agency specializing in medical accounts.
I remember three guys who worked with me as part-time office boys while we attended college.
One became bank president in an affluent Connecticut town. His father worked in the Post Office. His home life was miserable. I remember him telling me that he and his father had fistfights.
A second guy, a gifted guitarist in an East Bronx garage band, became a noted gastroenterologist in upstate New York. His dad worked as an accountant for a furniture company.
A third fellow, one of three brothers, studied civil engineering at City College, and is now senior vice president for a leading engineering firm. Over his career, he handled complex assignments rebuilding bridges and highways. He rose to the rank of Major and Company Commander in his 25 years in the Army National Guard.
Why bring this up? Because these are direct descendants of immigrants who came to the United States speaking little if any English, with little if any skills. Their kids studied hard, in publicly-funded schools, and became lifelong taxpayers and solid citizens. Their lives are the glue that makes our society hum.
In one or two generations, these families took root and built exemplary lives. Now it’s your turn. Go online and see how your childhood friends fared. Tell your stories here: we’re listening.
