Brandeis Magazine

I sent out a call to our Class of 1953 octogenarians with a specific request: Now that you have completed your work or professional activities, tell us how you keep busy. Ruth Shiller Banks and her husband, Alex ’52, P’79, P’82, have moved to an adult community in Monroe Township, N.J., near children and grandchildren. Ruth is president of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, an organization she has been active with for 50 years. Alex is the editor of its community publication. Lois Lindauer still runs Lois L. Lindauer Searches, which focuses on development/advancement positions. The Boston Business Journal recognized her company as a 2014 Pace­setter for being one of the state’s 70 fastest-growing private companies. Herb Gross was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters by the State University of New York Board of Trustees for his contributions to mathematics education. Throughout his 55-year career of innovative teaching, publications and service, Herb worked to reduce mathematical illiteracy in society. His commitment continues through “Mathematics as a Second Language,” a free course offered through the open-access MathAsASecondLanguage.com. Back pain has limited Natalie-Joy Hittner Coch’s work at a library on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, but she does check in at the library from time to time. The work gap is filled by pleasure from children and grandchildren. Barbara Koral Raisner is the great-grandmother of a 1-year-old girl, who lives nearby. Barbara sings alto with the Oratorio Society of Queens and sits on the group’s board of directors as membership chair. The group gives two concerts a year and sells out an 800-seat theater at Queensborough Community College. Harriet Becker Jedeikin lives in a senior community in Pittsburgh. She has finally taken up bridge, and her teacher turned out to be a Brandeisian — Naomi Glazier Sogoloff, P’77. They were friends “then,” and they have become friends once again. Harriet is a member of several book groups, and enjoys Pittsburgh’s cultural attractions and her young grandchildren. She has yet to succumb to the universal use of the computer; this information was communicated by old-fashioned telephone. Naomi teaches bridge, works at the Hebrew school at her synagogue, and tutors bar and bat mitzvah students. Judith Diamond ’55 writes that students, colleagues, friends and family of her late husband, Norman Diamond, have in his memory established the Dr. Norman H. Diamond Endowed Prize for Leadership and Service at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. Norm was a professor of orthodontics at Tufts for nearly 50 years. He died of complications from Parkinson’s disease in 2013. As for me, I continue to read, write and do no arithmetic. I still do a little teaching and talking at my Reconstructionist synagogue, volunteer at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, do what I can in support of Israel, and belong to a reading group composed of fellow retired English professors. I delight in my children and grandchildren — and worry about their futures as well.