Eight new Madison graduates were inducted into the school's Wall of Distinction, which is located in the lobby just outside the auditorium. After the induction, the Wall included 4 Nobel Prize winners, 3 sitting U.S. Senators, a Supreme Court Justice, and many other Madisonians who have excelled in the arts, the sciences, show business, athletics, finance, and other fields of endeavor. Four of the eight inductees were able to attend the ceremony and make short speeches, and the careers of the other four inductees were described by friends from Madison. Harry Eisenstat '34, a left-handed pitcher, went from Madison directly to the Brooklyn Dodgers, and later, the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians. His career was described by his long-time friend, Maury Allen '54, a noted sports writer, who compared him to another left-handed Jewish pitcher from Brooklyn, Sandy Koufax. His widow, Evelyn Rosenberg Eisenstat '36, her class valedictorian, was given a warm round of applause. Beverly Stoll Pepper '39, a world renowned sculptor/painter, is still active at 86. Unable to attend the ceremony because of illness, her career was described by her daughter, Harvard English Professor Jorie Graham, a widely published poet. From the time she was a little girl serving as the mascot of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Beverly displayed a fiery temper, a great work ethic, and a monumental talent. Her sculptures were sometimes seven stories high, and usually required being suspended in a harness more than 50 feet off the ground, a feat Beverly still manages at the age of 86. Paul Krinsky '46, spent almost his entire working life in the Merchant Marines, capping his career as the Superintendent of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, one of the nation's five service academies. Paul and his brother, Ed '50, the sons of Nat Krinsky, who taught at Madison for five decades and served as the school's track coach for most of that time, talked about their time at Madison, their father, and their relationship with each other. Robert Haselkorn '52, a world renowned scientist in molecular genetics, went from Madison to Princeton, and then to Harvard for his PhD. For the last 47 years he has been at the University of Chicago, where he serves as Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology and as Distinguished Service Professor. A neighbor of another Madisonian, Gary Becker '50, a Nobel Prize winner in economics and a fellow Wall of Distinction inductee, Robert has stayed in touch with many friends from Madison, and considers their accomplishments at least as significant as his own. Al Kasha '54 and his brother, Larry '50 (who had previously been elected to the Wall of Distinction), began their musical careers at Madison, where Larry introduced Sing. Unable to attend because of illness, Al had his classmate, Rowena Sustrin Kovler, read a beautiful letter, describing his feelings about his school. Al has had a long career in show business, highlighted by his two Academy Award winning songs, "We May Never Love Like This Again" (from "The Towering Inferno") and "The Morning After" (from The Poseidon Adventure"). Perhaps the emotional highpoint of the afternoon was reached when a Madison student, Kimberly Quijano, sang the "The Morning After." Sid Ganis '57, was described by his classmate, Marty Weinstein Alpert, as still the same unassuming Brooklyn boy he was at Madison. Sid talked about growing up in a three-room apartment just a block from Madison, with his parents and sister. Everything he needed was within walking distance, especially the Nostrand, the Marine, the Avalon, the Kingsway movie theatres, and the Jewel -- which showed foreign movies. Sid went on to become an actor, a major movie producer, and, since 2005, the President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Academy Awards. Bernie Sanders '59, moved to Vermont
in 1964, and, in 1981, was elected Mayor of Burlington, an office in
which he served four terms. Elected to Congress as Vermont's representative,
he steadfastly refused to join either major party, and was reelected
six times as an independent. When he was elected senator in 2006, he
became Madison's third sitting U.S. senator. Bernie, who was the captain
of Madison's track team, and one of the city's top distance runners,
remembered his coach, Nat Krinsky, his team mates, and his brief foray
into school politics, when he ran unsuccessfully for S.G.O. president,
noting that his opponent appropriated parts of his platform. Bernie,
who coincidently, grew up in the same apartment house as Sid Ganis,
is still very much in touch with his working class roots. |