From the summer of 1963...Is this Harvard Yard? Possibly somebody will recognize the landscape.
My grandfather, Harold J. Ginsburgh, in his element, Harvard Yard. A brilliant man, he excelled in his career (he was a leader in actuarial statistics). He would pull a book off the shelf and read to me in the original Greek and Latin. Immensely proud to be a Harvard graduate, he belonged to the class of 1920. He came from modest circumstances, the son of a printer's helper (or similar) from Rochester, New York. He started at the University of Rochester and then won a scholarship from the Harvard Club of Rochester to complete his education. He awed his children, my father and aunt, who always tried to to measure up to his accomplishments and intelligence.
I've read some histories that Harvard, along with other elite universities, were concerned at this time with the number of young Jewish men attending their schools. Disturbed the established alumni. Many thought that the motivated Jewish students studied very hard and outscored their Anglo counterparts on the New York Regent's exams and other competitive entrance exams. The development of the SAT, a test that you supposedly could not prepare for, may have been designed to deter the diligent Jewish students.
Maybe it was difficult at Harvard for young Harold Ginsburgh, a Jewish boy from Rochester from a blue collar family. If so, he never mentioned it. He identified very strongly as a Harvard man. I'm not sure of this particular event, some kind of summer alumni gathering at Harvard attended by my father and grandfather (My father had a masters in aeronautical engineering from Harvard). All the men in formal attire, no women or children in sight, not allowed!!!
I had a special relationship with my grandfather, his first grandchild and his favorite. He did not suffer fools and could be quite severe but he always had a soft spot and a smile for me. I could get him to do things that nobody else could. In all these slides, I don't remember any pictures of just myself and my grandfather (maybe my own college graduation). I asked my brother and sister after his death "Did you think you were his favorite?" Maybe I was mistaken. They both laughed and emphatically said "No way, it was always you"
2 comments:
purple chai/oldewoman:
Wow, that really is quite an achievement. 1920! My father was accepted to Harvard in 1937, registered for classes, got a room and a job, and was then told that they changed their minds. It was always assumed that someone from a wealthier Jewish family, one who could donate to the school, was accepted in his place, and they didn't want to go over their "Jewish quota." Your grandfather sounds like quite a scholar, and truly a man to make his children and grandchildren proud.
Grandma was over 100 and my x-sister in law and I were visitng with her. We were looking at the flowers in a court yard below where we were sitting. She stood up out of her wheel chair to look out and told us the names of some of the flowers.
Some how they connected her with a memory. She said ;
" I use to walk across Haaavaaard Yaard at night while walking home. (I think from her job or maybe from where she was going to school) I was NOT suppose to do that, they said it was not safe. I did it every night so I could look in an upstairs window in a building where Harold would study. We would wave at each other every night."
She was so pleased to relate that memory to us. For a few minutes she was very cognitative and she smiled remembering her true love.
Post a Comment