DECEMBER 1, 2023

TO RESPOND WITH A COMMENT OF YOUR OWN, PLEASE WRITE TO OR CLICK ON WHSALUM63@AOL.COM. 

Hi WHS Networking Companions and Friends,   

Beryl Lieff Benderly (6/60) appeals to our Alumquahics for volunteers to continue the worthwhile activities of the WHS Alumni Association:

For more than 25 years, I have admired the work of the Weequahic High School Alumni Association (WHSAA), which has raised and dispersed hundreds of thousands of dollars on college scholarships, class trips, band uniforms, and much more to benefit our alma mater’s current students. WHSAA certainly, as the school song goes, “bring[s] more honor to Weequahic High.”

Having had the good fortune to attend the Wigwam in its glory days as one of New Jersey’s and, indeed, the nation’s leading high schools, I have enjoyed the lifelong benefits of excellent teaching and extensive resources.  That’s why I have long supported WHSAA’s efforts to bring the resources of the vast network of Weequahic alumni to bear on improving opportunities for today’s students.  And to do so while fostering a sense of community that binds our school’s generations of graduates to the memories each of us cherishes of our own student days. For more than two decades, because I do not live anywhere near Newark, I thought the only way I could help was by donating money each year. 

Now, however, I have found another, much more satisfying, way to repay my debt to Weequahic, and I hope that others will, too.  A few months ago, I spotted a notice asking for volunteers to serve on the WHSAA board of directors.  That, I thought, was something I might be able to do from afar in these days of Zoom.  And, indeed, the board meets exclusively online, so geography makes no difference anymore. I volunteered and, before long, I found myself elected as the first board member who does not live in the greater Newark area. Meeting and working with my new colleagues, who warmly welcomed me and explained ways I could be useful, has been a real pleasure. A couple of WHSAA board members are people I knew at Weequahic.  Others were members of graduating classes before and after mine.  I say “were” because we have recently lost a beloved, essential, longtime board leader, Benjamin Wolfe. Ben, who was a number of years older than I, served for many years as Secretary and an active committee member.

Quite apart from the loss of Ben, however, the board could really use some additional members to share the work and bring their energy and ideas toward goals that include selecting the recipients of annual scholarships, evaluating proposals to help the school, raising funds, and more. That is why I’m inviting alumni of all classes to consider volunteering for the board.

It’s not a great commitment of time; monthly Zoom meetings that are not lengthy plus participation on at least one committee.  I, for example, joined the committee responsible for the “Hall of Distinction.”  The great bulk of the association’s work is ably and efficiently handled by our invaluable executive director, Myra Lawson.

So please, fellow alums, consider joining us in the carrying forward the distinguished legacy of, in the words of the Torch Day poem, “our living school.”  Anyone anywhere with access to Zoom can help improve the futures of today’s Weequahic students, as the school’s former supporters improved ours.  

For more information, you can visit weequahicalumni.org, or write to Myra Lawson at weequahicalumni@gmail.com or to me at blbink@aol.com.  Beryl 

Peshine Avenue School commentary: 

Arthur Schechner (49)

We lived on Renner Avene, so my brothers David, Richard and I went to Peshine for eight years. I was in the Class of 1945. Mr. Fry was the principal but the school was actually run by Miss Eichorn, the school’s VP. It was during the war and Mr. Fry was the principal of three schools, Peshine, Maple and Chancellor. 

We once painted a giant mural saying “GOD IS LOVE” and hung it on the auditorium balcony where it stayed for years. The gym teacher was Mr. O’Sullivan ("do two sixteens"). He would give out basketballs after school for the giant playground. Had to give him a $1 deposit which was paid back when you returned the ball. The auditorium ladies, who never did anything, were Miss Nass and Miss Sosnow. My teacher for 8^th Grade homeroom was Miss Kehrer. The building was old then, 85 years ago. Arthur

Rich Cobin (Peshine/Linden 64)

If you are travelling west on Rt 78 from the airport towards the Parkway, you can see the school as you near Hunterdon Street. Look quickly to your left, especially if you are going 70 MPH. Rich

Sharon Rous Feinsod (66)

This photo is the June 1954 graduating class of Peshine Avenue School. Of course, the class is standing on each row of the steps that have since been removed. I have identified the students I can recall who were connected in some way to my brother Marvin. I was finishing kindergarten when this was taken. I’m not sure how I can remember any of it, considering our age difference.

Pictured L to R

Bottom Row: Ellen ?; Kay Rabstein (6 from left)

2nd Row: Fran Rothenberg; Elaine Keefer (center); Ellen Rose (far left)

3rd Row: Miss Agnes Kehrer (teacher, ar right); Barry Kirstein, 2nd from left; Ezra Friedlander

4th Row: Steven Schwartz (5th from right); Barbara Silbermann

5th Row: Jerry Max (6th from right); Phyllis Asherman (5th from left); Wendy Kassel (3rd from left);Marvin Rous (2nd from left)

Top Row: Michele Graifer, 6th from right: Marty Weckstein (center)

W-Mining for memories: 

Bernie Kotkin (1/56)

This is a vintage postcard of Hawthorne Avenue School, probably sometime in the 1920's. Brings back great memories of grammar school and freshman high school years. Bernie

Bill Pollak (1/53)

Since submitting my notes, I have come up with a few more former Weequahic athletes’ whereabouts. Hal Lipton (1/55) is a former WHS shortstop who went on to make the baseball team at Syracuse University. He retired after a long career in social services and is living in N.J.

Art Novum was an excellent first baseman who, I believe, went on to play at Rider College. Last I heard, he was playing senior baseball in California.

Hal Bruck (54) was an outstanding halfback at Weequahic. Went on to play at Hamilton College where he made the Little All-American team. He then became a highly successful surgeon. Hal is a faculty member at Columbia University and is currently living in New York City.  Bill

Judi Wodnick Chait (62)

In keeping with Weequahic life styles, we lived on the “other” side near Hawthorne Avenue. Actually, I think it was called the Clinton Hill section of Newark. It was my mother, father, grandmother and two sisters in a 2-family house that we owned on Patten Place. Little did I know at the time that people considered us “rich” because we had wall to wall carpeting and owned two cars.

My dad was in the hardwood flooring business. How proud I was when I saw his truck passing by with his name on it, “Nat Wodnick.” Did we realize that we were really in Happyland?  Judi