On your left is the official photograph of the 1952 P. S. 217 eighth grade graduating class, contributed by a classmate who now teaches in Brazil. (Click to enlarge). It's quite the time capsule, isn't it -- the dated costumes, the old-fashioned hairstyles, along with the clean-cut and dewy enthusiasm of far-away-and-long-ago youth. What has become of these promising young people? Some of them have long since left the planet and some are no doubt still engaged in distinguished careers. Do any of them still live in the old neighborhood? Sent their children or grandchildren to the old school?
A panel of experts has tentatively identified some of the graduates. Some of these ascriptions are sure to be inaccurate. Corrections, suggestions and comments are very welcome.
FIRST ROW, left to right: Carl Bernstein, Robert F. Cohen (now Robert C. Forst, attorney, Montecito, CA), Michael Silver (ret. stockbroker, Queens), Michael Gerber, Nicholas Antonucci (said to have died in Korea), Arne Neilson, unknown, unknown, William Roberts, unknown, George Coven (entrepreneur, owner of Score Oil and Zodiac nightclub, d. 1983), Ralph Tromba, supposedly living in steamy Florida, Theodore (Teddy) Schorr; SECOND ROW: Ira Bernstein, Bernard Sandigorsky, Anthony (Buddy) Sogluizzo (semi-retired from a career in librarianship), Elihu Pearlman (Boulder, Colorado), Helene Rosen, Sylvia Gordon, Harold Jacobson, Fred Ljubicich, Donald Carbone, Michael Brody; third row: Ann Cacioppa, Ria De Castri, Claire Rabinowitz (now Claire Maret, formerly Dominican Republic, now Orlando), Charlotte Meineke, Carol Gerber, Marlene Gold, Ruth Rubinstein, Eleanor Troy, Sheila Katz, Carol Coniglio, Barbara Heiferman, Maureen Haynes, two unknowns, Josephine Casalino, unknown, unknown, Mary Anne Abrahams, Sandra Abrahams; fourth row: Yvette Rosenthal, Beryl McLeod, Sandra Roseman, unknown, Anita Friedman, Karen Scheer, Jeanne Boyce, Barbara Dinner, Bridget Pugliese, Carol Zeitlin, Marjorie Rennick, Selma Schnier, unknown, Wendy Rosenberg, Mimi Shyko, Barbara Wolowitz, Evelyn and/or Norma Greenberg, unknown, Leah Goodman, Rochelle Yasser, Ruth Wintheil, Beverley Leventhal, Lori Katcher (now Laurie Lindner, psychoanalyst, NJ), two unknowns, Hilda Tarud; fifth row: Herbie Wessoly aka Percy Wessoly, Albie Luongo, Donald Schiebel, Daniel Roos (Prof at MIT), Thomas Bellavita, John McKay, Alan Lipis, Robert Goldstein (retired orthodontist, now of Asheville, NC), Alan Ihrig, Lester Silberman (ret NE ob/gyn), Harvey Greif, Melvin Polay (CPA, died 1996) Howard Nirenberg, Morton Kamienny, Eric Sanders, Herbert Damsky, unknown, unknown, Melvyn Krauss, Martin Wallenstein; SIXTH ROW: Anne Perkins, Linda Bly, Francine Hershkowitz, unknown, Diane Spatz, Appolonia Yacovelli, three unknowns, Pauline Aridas, Estelle Tarman, Lisa Pomerance (finance, LA), Phyllis Mancuso, Roberta Katcher, unknown, Janet Solomon, four unknowns, Marcia and/or Virginia Gargiulo, unknown, Evelyn Fleishner, unknown; SEVENTH ROW: Stuart Blickstein (now a South Carolinian), Allen Guday (longtime Israeli), Paul Citron, Stuart (Sandy) Stillman (atty, Southampton and Scottsdale), Donald Caress (MD), Carl Sprung, Norman Young, Jonathan Guliner, Michael O'Gorman, Stephen Lewin (ret from a career in publishing), Edwin Lawlor, Stanley Weinberg, George Molinari, Allan Stern, Robert Jaclin, unknown, Fredric Litto (Prof in Brazil), Fred Hohl, Richard Schwartz, Stephen Richard Conn (Cornell grad; deceased); EIGHTH ROW: Barbara Williams, Marcia Katz, Judith Peretzman, Norma Harris, Diane Wert, Marilyn Snow, unknown, Dolores Bormann, Rosalind Simons, unknown, Loretta Tillman; top row: Alfred Podhurst, Michael Welch, unknown, Ira Blum, Herman Bressel (USN ret, Long Beach, CA), Norman Kaufman, unknown, unknown, unknown, Kenneth Tucker aka Drupiloff, Gary Steinberg, Charles Gillen.
May 14, 2008. More names of members of this class have been recovered. They can be found at this site, Match the name to the face and win the eternal gratitude of your classmates.