Potpourri

This page is dedicated to whatever is of interest, but does not fall into the other site categories. This is your page. Send me whatever you think is of interest, good taste and appropriate.

Richard Mallia at rmallia@pol.net has come upon an Erasmus medal that he has photographed. We are hoping someone would be able to properly identify it and get us as much information as possible. We Know It is a Track medal for a Relay race, but cannot make out the weight class or yard run. If you have any information contact Richard Mallia or the Webmaster at alan.stein1@verizon.net. Thank you.

>

Erasmus Hall and the Constitution Are 200 Together This Year

Reprinted from the NY Times 3/3/1987, Courtesy of Irving H. Plotkin Class of 1959.

To the editor:

Your news story on New York's plans to mark the bicentennial of the Constitution's inception and signing (Feb. 10) provide a welcome summary. And your characterization of celebration events as "cerebral" is apt, for the city's educational system is linked with that historic period - through the 200th anniversary of Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, the oldest secondary school in New York State and the second oldest in the country.
Sept. 27, 1787, just 10 days after the Constitution's birth, saw the opening of what was long called Erasmus Hall Academy, a private institution built by the townspeople of Flatbush, a Dutch - influenced farming village and popular vacation retreat.
Funds came from the post-Revolutionary period's most distinguished citizens, including two authors of The Federalist, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In naming the school, on land donated by the Dutch Reformed Church, its founders honored the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus, who did much to take the Renaissance to England in the reign of Henry VIII. Initial enrollment numbered 26 boys, including students from New Orleans, the West Indies, France and Portugal. Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Sweden and Spain subsequently came to be represented as the school's renown spread.
Girls were admitted in 1801. In 1895, the trustees offered building, land, and equipment to the City of Brooklyn for use as a free public school. Erasmus Hall Academy became Erasmus Hall High School the next year, with an enrollment of 150.
More than a quarter of a million students have attended Erasmus Hall in these two centuries, and its alumni have gained wide recognition in the arts, commerce, law, government, science and athletics.
The school's contribution to education are manifold, including the first school library in the United States and origination of the grade-adviser system and the Arista Honor Society.
Bicentennial preparations are under way, including provision of memorabilia for exhibition by the New York Historical Society. Former students interested in information about the observance are invited to write to the school. The 200th birthday of Erasmus Hall is a celebration of all that is best in American public education, and of what it can yet become.
Robert F. Wagner Jr.
Irene Impellizzeri
Brooklyn, March 3, 1987

The writers were respectively, president and vice-president of the New York City Board of Education.

Wow! Talk about an Erasmus Hall High School alumni with spirit, check this out.

Submitted by Richard Friedman, Class of 1964

This cartoon was donated by Jack Rossi, Class of '40, to Phyllis Nathan, our past "Dutchman" Editor.
I wonder, is this a general consensus of what we are really like?

These cartoons, by Jack Rossi, '40, are his unique depictions of the "Reunion of the Millenium" March 3, 2001 in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Enjoy!

This recent cartoon by Jack Rossi is his way of keeping the Erasmus name as part of the new schools that are opening on the campus.

Please send your materiel to me in a SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE, and they will be returned. If they are used, you will get on-line credit.
Thank you.
Please send to : Alan F. Stein, PO Box 8168, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002-0168

BACK TO HOME PAGE
REGISTRATION or UPDATE
ALUMNI LISTINGS