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ROBS SCHOLARSHIPS
POSTED 6/1/22
     Thanks to the generosity of our members, once again ROBS will be awarding scholarships to five Brentwood High School graduating seniors studying towards a career in education. Fern Sasso has been hard at work and the choices have been made for the ROBS scholarship recipients.
      The scholarships are the following:
In Honor of Jack Zuckerman - $1000
In Honor of Dorothy Zuckerman - $1000
In Memory of Our Departed Colleagues - $1000
In Honor of Sheila Sustrin - $500
Florence Corkery Memorial Scholarship - $1025
Peter Vercillo Memorial Scholarship - $1000
      During these uncertain times we are sure that the recipients of these scholarships will benefit greatly by the generosity of the members of ROBS!

SAD SHARING
POSTED 6/17/22
     Robert Wiener, who retired as a Special Education Teacher from Brentwood High School in 1996, passed away in Greenwood, South Carolina on April 12, 2022. While working in Brentwood, he had been named "Teacher of the Year". Please select the image below to read his obituary.
        
A footnote to Bob's Brentwood Story
by John Sherin:
     In his role here as District Psychologist he also worked in the “Rapp Room” between Ross and Sonderling buildings providing a ‘safety net’ for kids in pain (between ‘70 –‘73) after the district had sent a residential team to participate in workshops run by Dr. Gerry Edwards of Adelphi U. Nat’l Training Institute at the Southampton Inn on the East End of L.I. It was a life changing experience for several who attended. Those who I learned also went to New Utrecht HS in the ‘50’s when they lived in Brooklyn before coming to Brentwood were Guy DiPietro, Anita Silverman, John Sherin, (and I believe ) - Bob Leiterman. New Utrecht was the site of Welcome Back Kotter made famous nationally on network TV by Gabe Kaplan.

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Why did we do it?
     What was our purpose in taking on such an open ended “History Project”; for which we evolved a script of questions and got answers from over 150 subjects for two decades?
     We couldn’t answer the question in 1994 when people would ask “What are you going to do with the interviews?” All we could say was that for educational purposes we had to document our record now or lose the chance to preserve so many poignant accounts, funny stories and touching tales told by exemplary educators. We knew these dedicated public servants might shortly, for reasons yet unknown, be leaving Brentwood for good.
     So, we decided to let time sort out the details. We began scheduling appointments. We asked questions and listened saving for generations the essence of what it meant to have been an educator or employed, in this large public school system during the second half of the 20th century. Brentwood remains an exemplar to all others; a diverse microcosm of America reflecting 124 districts on Long Island while simultaneously resembling thousands across the U.S. We’ve accomplished something here to be proud of. Whether we were interviewed or not, ours is a claim of service that few professionals in the State of New York or elsewhere have positioned themselves to share in the way we have.
     INITIALLY the practice of sitting with a subject for an hour and giving them a hundred percent focused attention seemed somewhat daunting to a number of friends and colleagues. So much so in fact that many declined our repeated invitations to speak with us as they left careers or retired from full employment. Despite all assurances that we were not about investigative journalism or invading privacy, they deferred. Now, twenty years after we began, some are saying they may be ready. “Better late than never” we say. However, to all among you who were willing to share not only your classroom experiences and personal stories, but precious memories from your lives along with your fondest hopes for the future, we say “Thanks”. Thanks for allowing us to continue the process by paying it forward as we share these interviews with the Brentwood community and countless professionals and researchers near and far. Through an acceptance of ROBS offer of collaboration with Archivist Dr. Geri Solomon and The Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University our History Project lives on in academia as well as in the collection of the Brentwood Public Library, thanks to Director, Thomas A. Tarantowicz.
   You can enjoy unlimited visits to www.robsny.org where you can watch and listen to segments from featured Interviews in the ROBS History Project Section on our Announcements Page each month. Return here to listen and learn again and again.

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