Dwight Morrow High School

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Sandra Wohlberg Nagy

Hi, it's me again. I just posted the 1955 class photo of Englewood Jr. High 9-WL on my profile. You might want to check it out, especially if you were in Mr. Worrell's homeroom. Also, below that are your autographs. Do you wonder if your handwriting has changed since 1955?

Jon Bittmann

From Gerri Kahn Karetski

Hello class members, Recently my daughter had a baby who I have not seen for three months. Consequently, I have begun to oggle over little babies in carriages and strollers. I remember when I was a young Mom and Old Ladies came up and made funny noises over my babies. Guess what! Now I'm one of those Old Ladies! Where have 50 years gone? I cast a vote for Mrs. Dincin, too. What an inspiring teacher. You wanted to give her your best. Also, I enjoyed Miss Pokorny -- but she may have been Jr. High, and my math teacher in 10th grade, whose name escapes me now, but I will remember it. Happy June.

Ann Fiur Fleisher

HI ALL...I TOO CHOOSE MRS. DINCIN...AS I RECALL,
SHE USED TO SAY "SHARP PENCIL, SHARP MIND"...ANYONE
REMEMBER THAT?

ROOSEVELT SCHOOL ALUMNI...PLEASE CHECK OUT A PICTURE
I FOUND OF OUR 4TH GRADE CLASS SITTING AT OUR DESKS!!!
IT IS AT THE END OF MY PROFILE.

REGARDS TO ALL....ANNE FIUR FLEISHER

Anne Mason Colburn

I would have to give a thumbs up to Miss Winfrey. She was so encouraging in a soft spoken way. She had no need to intimidate, just gave us direction and expected our best. One never wanted to let her down. She thought her students could do anything.

Mr. Lundy was another favorite. He made math easy to understand. He always felt he loved teaching us which made his class was a highlight.

In reading the profiles, I am thinking we were very lucky to attend DMHS at that time...so many exceptional teachers.

Sandra Wohlberg Nagy

MRS. DINCIN! EITHER YOU LOVED HER OR YOU DIDN'T. MRS. DINCIN TOLD IT LIKE IT WAS. WHEN I DIDN'T GET HER FOR ENGLISH IN MY SENIOR YEAR, I WENT TO ADMINISTRATION AND BEGGED, AND THEY GAVE IN.
PLEASE SEE PICTURE NUMBER TWELVE ON MY PROFILE.

Jon Bittmann

Favorite Teacher: Peter Rothenberg

Miss Cotter, senior mathematics, was the one that had the most influence on me. I addition to being an excellent teacher she sold us a book of common trigonometry formulas and logarithm tables which I used throughout college. This was in the days before pocket calculators. In addition in the last week of class when all the books were turned she read the class a book called, "Flatland" about a world in 2 dimensions where there was no concept of "up". It was a great way to learn to think outside the box. I still have a copy of the book today.

Jon Bittmann

Teacher Stories from Steve Ploscowe

A few things come to mind:
1.Having Mrs. Dincin tell me that if I am anything like my older brother she will not like me too.
2.Having Coach Baldwin try and change me from a righty hitter to a lefty hitter since I am naturally left handed. What a disaster.
3.Having Tennis Coach Dawson tell me after I lost a singles match in the state championship tournament in Princeton, that he should have taken a film of the way I played. Then, after six months off we'd study the film and, thereafter, I should give the game up permanently.
4. All in all I have lots of fun and received a good high school education. I did get into Cornell. How???????

Fred Taylor

teachers:

george baldwin -- i remember his "final." had all of the girls sit in the stands and then we had to do 100 pushup's. i don't think any of the guys failed to do them!! my future wife went to bloomfield h.s. where he wound up later on. she saw him somewhat later and told him that she knew an "englewood guy." he correctly told her that she could do much better.

anita dincin. very hard on me but brought out abilities that i didn't know that i had. couldn't "love" her, but had to respect her. still use things that she taught me to this day.

mrs. gaski. first year spanish. oh that i could have had her for year two as well!! still speak it somewhat although i now have to go back to rosetta stone to review. more traveling in business to mexico and central america as well as increasing hispanic population in my neck of the woods means that i'd better brush up. she gave me a good head start!!

tom morgan. learned two of the most valuable words from him that i still teach to this day: "caveat emptor!" also his topics. the worst form of punishment known to man or womankind - although my class was all guys.

mrs eckerson. i think it's probably been said on this site more often and better than i could say it. but, one helluva teacher!!! truly inspired and had faith in me when few others did. the only person who could've gotten me to go in to the nyc public library to do research on zoroastrianism!!! still somewhat of a sinophile, to this day, thanks to her.

Ann Fiur Fleisher

new photos for everyone to check out...
roosevelt school graduation...
carl hirsch and anne fiur...jr. high
joe ferrante and anne fiur after the prom..

please look at the end of my profile...hope
you all enjoy them...anne fiur fleisher

Jon Bittmann

Jon Bittmann

Make another visit to Jean Dawson's page, and meet the Women's Faculty of 1932.

Jean Jacocks Hill

There isn't much that I remember from yesterday, much less 50 years ago! However, I do remember Miss Pokorny because my ex-husband and I purchased her home and raised our two children there. The house had a very warm and comforting atmosphere and was filled with some extremely happy times.

Barbara Lowell LaPointe

From Bob Lindquist:

The teacher that inspired me the most was Frau Marjorie Schwartz, who introduced me to the German language and piqued my interest in learning foreign languages, of which I now speak bits and pieces of several. Her lessons served me well when several years later I found mysels stationed in Germany as a member of the US Army, and living in an apartment owned by a family in which no-one spoke English

I still vividly remember the International play, with parts being played by myself, Toni Laub, Gerry Danker, Arlene Glausman and Fritzie Hug. Little did I realize how prophetic that play would be for me.

Barbara Lowell LaPointe

From Judy Rosner Gedalia:
Well, Jon has asked for memories of teachers, so here goes. I have fond memories of Mrs. Eckie - who doesn't. She was an ardent sinophile, peaked my interest and finally I was able to go to China last year. Thanks to her insistance I applied for the AFS scholarship which I was awarded. To this day, 51 years later, I am still in touch with my Swiss family having participated in the joys and sadness that that implies. I would venture to say that it is Mrs. Eckie that infected me with the travel bug.
Then there was Mr. Bernardi, the French teacher. I doubt he was much older that we were. His accent was perfect in comparison to Mrs. Larned but I had a good time teasing him when he wasn't up to par.
And then there was Ms Berger in Civics and Sara Sproule. How can I forget her acting out Shakespeare?
Also, wasn't Mr Trout the advisor for the debate team. My memory seems to have slipped there.
Looking forward to hearing more about the people who tried to infuse us with knowledge!

Richard Cross

The pictures of Ione Eckersen and the visiting international students on Judy Tunick Greenspan’s profile page unleashed a rush of recollection. (It's daunting to think that Mrs. Eckie was ten years younger than we are now when those photos were snapped.)

Mrs. Eckersen's passion for introducing us to the larger world fed into an intense, but at that point undernourished, curiosity on my part: I hadn’t seen much of this country, not to speak of any place beyond its borders. The sort of broadmindedness and generosity of spirit Mrs. Eckie exemplified were pretty unusual in the rather pinched atmosphere of the 1950s.

I knew her best not as a classroom teacher, though I did take her Far East Survey, but as adviser to the Foreign Policy Club. The club was the nexus for our American Field Service exchanges, which brought to DMHS one or two international students a year (Monika Danielson from Sweden when we were seniors). I have particular reason to be grateful to AFS, since my wife, Christa, first came to the U.S. in 1958-59 under their auspices (although we didn’t meet till a decade later when both of us were teaching at UCLA).

The last time I saw Mrs. Eckie was at her retirement dinner in 1968. If I hadn’t realized it earlier, that occasion made it evident how large a part of her life we, her students, had been. News of her death reached me three years later while I was a Fulbright lecturer in Würzburg. She would certainly have approved of my being there, and--who knows?--I might not even have been teaching abroad had she not touched my life.

Another teacher who had a major impact on me--again, more outside the classroom than in it--was John Trout, who coordinated English programs in the Englewood schools and served as adviser to the Tower Club. He was selfless in his concern for us; I couldn’t add up the number of Saturdays he sacrificed to take us to debate tournaments all over the state and occasionally beyond. It was on one of those forays that I first visited Princeton. The fact that Mr. Trout was a Princeton alum was not lost on me when I made my college choice a year or two later--not that he himself would have done anything deliberate to influence it. I stayed in touch with him until the mid-1960s, when he accepted an administrative post in, I think, Fairfield, Connecticut.

The high school years were for me, as I’m sure for many of you, a time to reconsider attitudes and values inherited from parents and grandparents. I'm thankful to have had such mentors as Ione Eckersen and John Trout to help me navigate that choppy passage.

Judith Tunick Greenspan

I must agree with so many of you who have chosen Mrs. Eckersen as one of the most influential teachers during our high school years. She was a mentor and a friend to me, a very special person. However, the most interesting experience I had with her was not during my years at DMHS but rather after college. She and I were both graduates of Smith College. She graduated with the Class of 1922, although I do remember her telling me she was supposed to be in the Class of 1921 but was quite ill during the year, causing her to lose too much class time. She recuperated and joined the Class of 1922 to finish her studies and graduate that year.

I always kept in touch with her during and after my college years. In 1967 when I told her I was going up to Northampton for my 5th reunion, she told me her 45th reunion was at the same time. After much thought she decided she wanted to come with me.

I can’t begin to tell you the fabulous time she had. She hadn’t been back to Smith since 1922 and she was so excited to be there again. She took part in every activity she could and the smile never left her face. She was like a college student all over again and it was great seeing her in a completely different light.

I will never forget her.

Louise Anne Geissenberger Caporaletti

Laughs: Freddie Frank
Spanish: Mrs. Gaski----No Rio usted//anyone remember translation?

Mrs. Dincin: I will never forget her nor ever forgive her for making me an example in class. She read a paper of mine outloud and busted it apart. After class I went to see her and she said, : you write English like it is a foreign language. Well it was because my parents spoke mostly German and I always had to translate for them and teach them. See I NEVER forgot her impact on me and still am talking about it today. Well Ms. Dincin Baby I am a success despite your making me run away in tears. So now you know my " weak spot" my good friends. Louise A. Geissenberger Caporaletti

Barbara Lowell LaPointe

Louise, you seem to have survived admirably in spite of that early trauma.

My own teacher memories are dim, but as I read some of these little anecdotes and browse the yearbook, more tidbits begin to resurface. Ms. Kulik's autographed "Get a good alarm clock" in my yearbook brought back 2 hitherto lost memories - one being that she was my homeroom teacher and the other a memory of my late sister, Betty and the reason for my frequent tardiness...not really a teacher memory, so I'm putting that elaborate explanation (or belated excuse) at the end of my profile.

Lorraine Tripido Gallagher

I enjoyed reading this. Your mention of Mrs. Kulik reminded me that I owe her whatever I am today. I couldn't go to college because my parents wouldn't allow it. Against their wishes, I was encouraged by Mrs. Kulik and made application. She even drove me to Montclair to take entrance exams as I had not taken college boards. Further she wrote a lovely, and very personal recommendation and even spoke to an interviewer personally. It was certainly due to her that I got my acceptance and though I was accepted to Fairleigh Dickenson also, Montclair was my dream. Your profile reminded me of her and her faith in me and that was a really good moment. Thank you.

Richard Crance

As I guess with many of us, teacher memories have become dim after 50 years, but my significant memories include Mr. Krop and my time in the band and the Chansoneers. While I think we all hated that we had to sing or march again and again and again, he not only gave us identification in the school, certainly a sense of pride in what we did. Special affection for Ms. Eckerson for allowing me to move into Far Eastern Survey from Trig/Calc where Ms. Cotter said I "HAD" to get out or "FAIL"

Lorraine Tripido Gallagher

By the way, why is there no area of information in this site about what happened to all those teachers? I wonder about them. I know 50 years is a long time but some were young and must still be alive, while some others may have done things of note we would like to know about. (Other than the bringing out of the class of 1958, which was, of course, a historic footnote of the highest order!)

Barbara Lowell LaPointe

I find myself wondering, "Where is Ms. Sarah Sproule among all these mentions?" Am I the only person who found her to be inspiring? She seemed so cultured and reserved -- and when she rolled those innocent, pale blue eyes, one would think she was about to swoon! But then would totally surprise all with her "acting."
She encouraged me to be myself in this little poem she shared in an after-class conversation. I've never forgotten it for some silly reason: "I am the way I am; that's why I do the things I do. If you don't like the way I am, the hell, my love, with you." To hear her say "hell" when I thought her so proper, surprised me -- not to mention the "attitude" it conveyed -- and which I sorely needed. She again surprised me by not blinking an eye when I chose "Madame Bovary," which I thought risque, for a book report and, in fact, encouraged me to "read and learn." I had a long way to go and, bless her, she knew it. She was, indeed, a complex and funny lady!

Ruth Johnson Ruibal

When I look back on those teachers who influenced me I think of three:
Mrs. Dincin for insisting on our learning grammar, her love for literature, and writing in general. I never expected that writing would be such an important part of my life, but I am thankful for the background I had with her.
Miss Cotter for encouraging and challenging me in math. I owe it to her for having pursued the subject and was able to teach statistics in Colombia... something I really loved.
Mrs. Gaski who taught us to hear Spanish and speak before trying to get us to learn grammar. It is because of this background that I could teach as soon as I arrived in Colombia. I am so thankful for the education she gave us.

Jon Bittmann

TRUE CONFESSIONS -- SUBMITTED BY GAIL ARNEMANN

This is the first story to come to my mind--I did have a driver's license. Three of us (the other two remain protected under copyright laws) always drove out to Jones' Beach for a day in the sun, and we wore our bathing suits under our clothes. Then, coming home, we stripped the suits off. One day, driving thru the pay booth, I missed the change basket so I hopped out, retrieved the quarters and hopped back in. Suddenly, a car load of guys passed us, hooting and shouting and giving us the high sign--I had hopped out with my dress open in the back and inadvertently mooned the car behind.

Richard Cross

What I think of as the Cotswold caper took place in August 1963. I was headed home, in the company of a grad school friend, at the end of a several month sojourn in Europe. We stopped in London, where Bob Hunter was studying, and the three of us took a couple-of-day road trip into the West Country— Stratford, the Wye valley, Oxford, the Cotswold hills. Lovely stuff.

Imprudently we waited till late in the afternoon to begin looking for a place to spend the night. The response we got from an innkeeper in the village of Wotton-under-Edge was representative: “I’m dreadfully sorry, chaps, but we’re absolutely chock-a-block.” Finally after several hours of knocking on doors, a woman with a broken-down trailer—“caravan” in Britspeak—in her backyard took pity on us. Over toast and coffee the next morning she chatted with us about the day’s events, which included what was up to that point (and may still be) the most lucrative heist in history, the Great Train Robbery.

A day later Bob drove my grad school buddy and me to Heathrow to catch our flight back to the U.S. Scotland Yard was waiting when he returned to his flat. Beneath the veneer of compassion our hostess had been a bounty hunter. The constable reported that she had described us as suspicious-looking types “with London accents.”

Fortunately Bob was able to keep the officer talking till we were airborne (with the swag).