New Utrecht High School - Comet Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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MR. SERWER Adviser fo Class of January, I932

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A Message To The Senior Class From Dr. Leuchs N a few days you-and I hope this means all of you-will be grad- uated from our New Utrecht High School and will have completed another stage-I trust it may not be the last stage-in your education- al career. I congratulate you most heartily upon this definite achievement and I wish you the highest possible degree of success in the future. Most of you have been so regular in your attendance, punctuality, and general deportment that I have hardly been able to make your personal acquaint- ance. In all of you I have the utmost faith and I cannot express too em- phatically my unshakable belief that there resides within each one of you a great store of goodness and of usefulness which has manifested it- self during the years of your membership in this school and which will continue to manifest itself, of course, along far deeper and broader lines, as you grow older. It has been the pleasant duty of us, your teachers, to guide and to help you in your formal education. Perhaps we seem at times to have been unduly abrupt and severe in our attitude toward you. In a large institution such as this, discipline and precision are necessary factors. If there is one last thought I would have you carry away with you it is this: We teachers, I think I may speak for all my colleagues, do not for a moment imagine ourselves to be any nearer to perfection than any other group of persons is, or should hold itself to be. We are human and we err. Our field, education, is an art of infinite intricacies and possibilities. We, who are engaged in it, are probably more often than any one else at a loss as to just how to act. But we can truthfully say that we are a serious, conscientious, striving body of persons. It is this confident belief that has invariably prompted me, as Dean of Boys, to uphold at all times, the decision of the teacher. He may not seem to you always to have shown perfect judgment, but as you look back I trust you will feel that he was sincere in his dealings with you. You will find similar conditions as you go forth into the world for which we are supposed to train you. You may often have to submit to the dis- agreeable and the difficult, you will occasionally have to face conditions in life that seem unfair and that are, indeed, false, when measured by the standards of scientific accuracy, yet you will find yourselves all the better for such occasional experiences. And so I hope you will leave our school with the feeling that we, as a body, have meant well with you and that we shall ever be glad to hear from you and to see you again as the years roll on. F. A. H. L. I wezzly-Jix

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.ii CLASS PRQPHECY U . FTER passing four phlegmatic years of wading through Macbeths, Burkes, and what-nots, I was finally graduated from that institution of learing known as New Utrecht High School. Confidentially, mayhap a bit brazenly, I strode forth into the world that had been pictured to me as kind and unselfish. Alas! and alack! The puny protection of all my knowledge was insufficient to ward off the scorn and derision that met me. Thus it is that I hid myself, for twenty years, in solitude. On the fourth of February, 1952, cu- riosity having overpowered discretion, I ven- tured into the world a second time. The first member of the january '52 class that I ran across was Harry Zuckerman. Fa-cheese, he exclaimed, where have you been all this time, Joe ? He was on his way to Jack Goldberg's dentist's office and from there to the Mildred Isaacs Theatre. We're showing the 'Green-grey Galoshes' by none other than Mildred Dunetz, he said. No ? I questioned in surprise and doubt. Yes! says Zuck, and Jack Bleckner, Lucy Zinberg and Sylvia Katz are starring in it. No ? I questioned in surprise and doubt. Yes! Zuck said, and Harry Greissman is the publicity agent. Greissman ? tooted up the voice of toothless Bernie Selevan, wasn't he in our class? Yes, I think I can chisel some tickets for tonight, and off he scurried throwing a hurried nod over his shoulder. And if you want to know something, Perry Rosenberg is going to run in the La- bor Sports Union Olympics for the fourth Twenty-eighl time, said Abie Ratzan at my elbow. Reluctantly, I had to tear myself away and go to accomplish the fulfillment of my quest. My plodding feet carried me in the direction of Union Square. The square was black with people. My strength was too puny to enable me to get nearer to the speaker. In despair I was about to depart for other parts, when suddenly I beheld none other than William Curtis fnow a successful Tammany man, with Sylvia Dubrow on his arm. Bill, I shouted, you've got to help me get close to the speaker. Sure, sure, he answered nonchalantly pointing to a small group standing on a side, there is the solution to your problem. To my extreme confoundment I noticed that the group was composed of former classmates. There was Ben Roskin, who was now playing short stop on the Brooklyn Dodgers, joe Ceravalo, star half-back of the New York Giants and soon to retire to coach Notre Dame's eleven, and Hattie Un- gar, now Olympic swimming champion. I acquainted them with my problem. J-j-just f-f-follow us, said joe Ceravolo. Pow! They broke through the mob and we were in the front row before I could say Gavriluk Schmusy. While passing through the mob I had a fleeting glimpse fo Sarah Richman, Eunice Kawolsky, Jack Richman, Sarah Koplowitz, Gizella Fire- stone and Joe Weisdorf all attentively listen- ing to the speaker. I immediately recognized the speaker on the platform. It was Leo Genzeloif. He was swiftly moving his arms hither and yon in excited expostulation. fC071fi7ZZl6d on Page 661