Larry Rosenberg
Stuyvesant HS - Class of 1961
October 22, 2011 (50th Anniversary Reunion)
A Journey and Reflections
Prequel
My path to Stuyvesant was without doubt launched at JHS 126 in Queens. From day one my homeroom
teacher Mr. O’Sullivan charged every one of his students to go to one of the 3 “special” NYC high
schools. The Bronx was too far, Brooklyn sounded too techy, so Stuyvesant was my goal. If I only knew
then how impactful getting into Stuyvesant would be on my life. Thank you Mr. O’Sullivan.
Career after Stuyvesant
Given my grades, family finances and my rejection from Cooper Union, off I went to CCNY to study
electrical engineering. Why not? Sputnik was up there, America needed to catch up and engineering was
the way. At CCNY a bunch of us, including many Stuyvesant ’61 grads formed a fraternity, Beta Sigma
Rho. Things were about as good as it gets, in college, in a fraternity, great friends, active social life. But
unfortunately my lack of focus on classes and studying and my great focus on the fraternity ended my EE
opportunities but opened up a door to Civil Engineering. While at City, a class of ’61 grad and my
fraternity brother, Jim Baltaxe, set me up on a blind date. The romance that started that night with my
wife Sheila is almost fifty years strong and getting better every day. Thank you Jimmy!
A few special mentions:
1. My dear friend Joel Arougheti, who I met at Stuyvesant and have stayed close to through my
entire life was the best man at our wedding. I spoke to him in Florida just this week and he
sends his best to all.
2. All too early, our classmate, Peter Vogel, died. Peter was with us at CCNY and had a great career
and life in NYC. He was a smart, caring, effective leader and a great communicator. I learned
much from him. His very early death was a great loss to all that he touched. I miss him.
After CCNY, I went on the NYU for a Masters in Civil Engineering and then even started at the PhD.
Program at Columbia. By that time I was working as a Civil Engineer designing small bridges. With all that
education and work experience in Civil Engineering I did the only logical thing – I totally switched
careers. I joined IBM as a Systems Engineer, had no idea what that meant but it had the word Engineer
in the title. I quickly moved over to Sales and then Marketing and then Management at IBM - a
wonderful company and a wonderful experience for just under 20 years. I then moved to an IBM
competitor in the mainframe space, Amdahl, where eventually I became a Vice President of Marketing.
Amdahl was owned by Fujitsu and my next move was to Fujitsu Consulting, again as a VP of Marketing.
From there I moved to my last corporate gig at EMC. Now I do a fair amount of sales, marketing and
operations consulting through my firm, Decisive Moment Marketing. As an unplanned journey this has
been great, working with the same group of people at just about every place.
Family
Sheila and I have been truly blessed. Our first daughter, Michele, is married to Craig and they have 3
incredible children: Mikayla, Jonah and Jordana. Our younger daughter Jill is married to Sonny and they
have 2 incredible children: Matthew and Alexa. Our family is the core of our lives and our happiness.
Community
Much to my surprise I became very active in my synagogue, The Jewish Community Center of West
Hempstead. I moved through the ranks, eventually becoming President and I am still very involved. My
connection there has become a big part of my life. As part of that role, I became interested in Holocaust
Education and Remembrance and have been the co-chair of our Holocaust Endowment fund and
programming for many years. That led me to become a volunteer interviewer for Steven Spielberg’s
Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which eventually became the USC Shoah Foundation
Institute. This role, which in retrospect lasted only a brief 4 years, was life altering for me and I am
grateful to the Foundation and my family enabling me to be a part of this great venture.
Reflections of Stuyvesant
After reading Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man, I was moved to write a sermon, which I presented to my
synagogue congregation a few years ago. It was a window for me to put my Stuyvesant experience in a
perspective from almost a lifetime of reflection. I believe Frank McCourt came to the school after we
left and if you have not read this book, I encourage you to do so. In my sermon, I reflected that at the
core of my very special experience at Stuyvesant was the un-ending list of teachers that each now seem
to be remarkable. Not only were they world class in their subject specialty, but they also imparted some
life lessons of great impact. And, each had some quirk, making them a bit larger than reality. Some
examples:
Mr. Schaefer, my drafting teacher who not only taught graphic arts but the value of a smile.
Mr. O’Kean, my surveying teacher, who also taught us the importance of friendship.
Dr. Rose Pascal, who tried but never succeeded in teaching me to speak Spanish but instilled in me the
value of peace and spirituality.
And of course the best, Mr. Emanuel Leibel, my English teacher, who left us with the lesson of the
importance of a strong family.
And another English teacher, Mr. Lowenthal who taught me to love books and also how to achieve self
confidence. And, he taught us the importance of a positive appearance in how we relate to others. Mr.
Lowenthal was a very natty dresser.
I can’t leave out my home room teacher Mr. Shulman, a shop teacher. He gave me a ton of N’s on my
“permanent’” record. I’m not sure what an N meant but I do remember him as a very nice person.
I could go on and on.
Frank MCourt introduces his experience at Stuyvesant in a chapter called “Coming Alive in Room 205.”
Looking back at Stuyvesant, in many respects it is where I came alive.
Retrospective
My apologies for the length of this tale. I just got carried away. I find it remarkable what a random chain
of events that started 50 years ago became a life for which I am most thankful. A random chain of
events! – or were they?
Larry Rosenberg
lrny@optonline.net
516 967 0726
Franklin Square, New York
Managing Director, Decisive Moment Marketing