Here is an overview of my entire life in five paragraphs, which is elaborated upon in the remainder of this website.:
I began my life as an only child in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 6, 1937. My mother, Ida, my father, Jack, and I moved to Wilmington, Delaware, when I was 6. I attended Harlan Elementary School, Warner Junior High School, and P.S. DuPont High School, where I played varsity football as well as many intramural sports. In 1954, at the Wilmington Jewish Community Center (then called the YM-YWHA), I placed first in the decathlon for boys 15 to 18 years of age and also received the Arthur M. Blatman Memorial Award, as the “outstanding athlete who best exemplifies the spirit of good sportsmanship.” My friends identified me, and I also identified myself as a “jock.” As is often the case with jocks, I was an underachiever in school, graduating near the bottom of my high school class. However, this was not related to being preoccupied with sports or having a diminished intellect. Rather, it was related to having a vision impairment that prevented me from reading effectively.
For a year after high school, I attended Washington College in Maryland and then transferred to the University of Delaware, but I continued to have serious academic difficulties. I left school to join the Marine Corps and, after being discharged, had an eye operation that enabled my eyes to work together. I then did well enough in school to graduate, and then, reading more effectively, I got a master's degree in social work from NYU and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
I was married a few days after I received my master's degree, and Judi (nee Wuntch) and I raised four children. The "kids" are middle-aged now; Lisa lives in Manhattan, Cami and Jeffrey in Brooklyn, and Scott in Vermont. The marriage ended in divorce after 19 years, and about 10 years later, Linda Piester and I got married. We lived in Brooklyn for 26 years and, in 2018, moved “upstate” to Taghkanic, New York, in southern Columbia County. We bio;t a new house on the site where Linda grew up.
Occupationally, I worked in social agencies for a while and then had a series of jobs as a public official, ultimately serving for 10 years as Commissioner of Mental Health in Westchester County, New York. I later became a management consultant, specializing in interim management, which involves temporarily replacing executives until the agency finds a replacement or decides on a new direction. I left my last interim job in 2015, necessitated by having to replace both of my knees, and my last engagement as a management consultant was in 2016. I changed direction and took an unsalaried position as Director of Legislative Affairs for Carlos Menchaca, a New York City Council Member for whom I also campaigned actively in 2013 and 2017. At the end of 2017, I retired.
Avocationally, I have been playing harmonica since 1986, taking lessons since 2007. In 2018, I added instruction on the baritone ukulele and took voice lessons. I was the family genealogist and spent a fair amount of time volunteering for what I consider good causes. Since 1984, I've led a rather rich spiritual life, a serious student of A Course in Miracles. I have also written extensively and have developed a separate website on which my memoirs and short fiction are located. To visit that site, click here.
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Thanks for visiting.
Gene