Interview with Geoffrey H. Strauss

Strauss, Geoffrey H. ; Gashurov, Irene

At Harpur College, Geoffrey studied accounting. A summer job as a counselor with the college’s Upward Bound Program for disadvantaged youth decided him on a career in teaching. He taught accounting at Broome Community College and Endicott High School for 33 years.

2017-12-14

In Copyright

2017-12-14

Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni

64:09 minutes

Alumni Interviews
Interview with: Geoffery Strauss
Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov
Transcriber: Oral History Lab
Date of interview: 14 December 2017
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(Start of Interview)

IG: 00:00
Oh, it is snowing again. Okay, so are we on?

Third speaker: 00:15
Yeah.

IG: 00:22
So, Jeff, please tell me your name, your birth date, and where we are.

GS: 00:32
Okay. My name is Geoffery Strauss. My birth date is May 3, 1946 and right now we are in my living room.

IG: 00:43
Okay, so what are the years that you attended Harpur College?

GS: 00:47
For our bachelor's, I went there from 1964 graduated in 1968. Then for my master's, from 1969 to 1971.

IG: 01:01
Where did you grow up?

GS: 01:03
Grew up on Long Island.

IG: 01:04
Where in Long Island?

GS: 01:06
Baldwin, small town on the south shore, middle of Nassau County.

IG: 01:10
So, so what? What were your- What did your parents do? What? What was their occupation?

GS: 01:20
My father was a certified public accountant. My mother was for most of my life, a homemaker.

IG: 01:27
Right.

GS: 01:27
And then when I got to high school, she started a business. So she was a businesswoman for-for a few years,

IG: 01:35
Oh, what kind of business?

GS: 01:36
Uh, she made things, she made- took-took umbrellas and decorated them, and they had these things called bobeches. They were like a tube. She decorated those, and you put a candle inside, so the candle looked pretty.

IG: 01:55
What were- where did you go to high school?

GS: 01:59
Baldwin Senior High School in Baldwin.

IG: 02:02
Was there an expectation in your family that you would go on to college?

GS: 02:07
From the time I was born. [laughs] Yeah, that was one of the things fairly typical for Jewish families. Education is very-very important. So yeah, the expectation was- my father always said you could do anything you want, but first you go to college and then you can do whatever do whatever you want.

IG: 02:24
Did you have siblings?

GS: 02:25
My sister, had an older sister. She went to Smith.

IG: 02:30
So of course, the expectations were for her as well.

GS: 02:34
Oh, absolutely.

IG: 02:35
Why did you, why did you decide to go to Harper College?

GS: 02:38
Kind of a funny kind of story. There was uh, I had been accepted by Drew University in New Jersey, and I went there to look at-- it was a beautiful campus, absolutely gorgeous, like a little piece of New England in New Jersey. Uh, and they had a wonderful program for social studies where you spent your senior year, your junior year, I am sorry, abroad. So I was all set to go there, and then I got accepted at what was then Harpur College, and my mother sat me down and said, "Still, we are still paying on your sister school, Harpur College, your scholarship will take you all the way through while your father said you can go anywhere you want. This would be much less expensive thing." So I ended up going, I ended up going there. So which was actually, I guess, changed my life. My wife there. I changed my occupation there. So it was kind of interesting.

IG: 02:57
Right. So what were some of your expectations going in to Harpur? Did you have sort of a career in mind that you would pursue?

GS: 03:55
Yeah, I was going to, I majored in accounting, so I was going to take over my father's or join him in his practice, and then eventually take over his practice when he retired. That was the initial thing there. Accounting had no part of my life when we went to Drew, but they had a good accounting program at Harpur, so I switched, and that was my idea there. And I also enjoyed social studies, so I took a lot of classes in the social science department, and a professor there thought I was a social studies major and offered me a graduate position. But I said, I am an accounting major. He said, “You are an accounting major. Why are you taking 200 level courses?” So I said, I like it. So that was a holdover from-from Drew. I just love the politics and the history and-and that. So it is still interested in that.

IG: 04:50
So you graduated with a degree in-

GS: 04:53
Accounting.

IG: 04:54
-in accounting, in accounting. What are you- what is your profession now?

GS: 05:01
Well, of course, I am retired now, but for many years, I taught accounting at high school, the local high school, Union-Endicott, and then we also had a program with Broome Community College whereby I taught college accounting. The kids got college credit for-for that as well as high school credit. What was your graduate degree at Binghamton? And- That was in teaching accounting.

IG: 05:26
Oh, and teaching in accounting.

GS: 05:27
Mm-Hmm.

IG: 05:28
What made you decide to go into the teaching profession rather than join your father in his business?

GS: 05:38
I had in my- I forgot whether it was my freshman or my sophomore year, they had a pro- they began a program at Harpur called Upward Bound. This was a program for college or kids with college ability, but because of economic or social reasons, probably would not go to school. So this was to encourage them to go. And I became a counselor there, started working with kids, and really enjoyed it. So when I graduated, I sort of combined the accounting and working with kids and went to- started at Maine Endwell, and then moved over to Union Endicott, and played high school for 33-34 years.

IG: 06:26
Was your father disappointed that you did not join him in his business? Or did he really like the direction that you were going in?

GS: 06:36
It was funny. I think at first, he did not want me to become an accountant. He said as much, too much work, too much work, too much time involved. And I remember, I remember as a kid, you know, he would go- leave in the morning. He would not come home until seven at night because he worked in New York City. And by the time he got home, he did not have dinner until 7:30 or so forth. And then it was basically, after you did your homework, time for bed. So during the week, yeah, hardly ever got to see him, so I realized he spent a lot of time working, but still, that seemed like the thing to do. But I think as I went through college, he sort of warmed to the idea. For a couple of summers, I worked for him, and we worked together going into the city during the summer. We are trimester then, so we had four months off. And so I think he wanted the idea, but then, you know, I sort of moved away, and I do not think he was too upset by it.

IG: 07:36
Where did he work? And did he have his own firm? Or...?

GS: 07:40
Yeah, he was, he was in, he was in practice by himself, and but most of his clients were in New York City, although he had some up-up- upstate Westchester County. And then actually he had some down in Georgia too. So he would fly to Georgia, do some of his work there. And then he would, he would fly home.

IG: 08:00
So what- before going to Harpur, what reputation did Harpur have in your mind and-

GS: 08:10
My mind, oh, it was a real, highly academic school, high pressure school, but certainly one of the better-better schools and in the, in the SUNY system. I was out for liberal arts. And so it met my-my requirement there. So it was, it was, it was a good mesh, but it met with its reputation. It was a very high-pressure school.

IG: 08:39
And when you arrived and spent some time here, did that impression change?

GS: 08:45
Oh, no-no. It just reinforced, once I was a student, that everything revolved around the-the curve, you know, and if you were having a good time, there was some kid back in the in the dorm, studying a little more, which would mess up the curve. So you had a, you had to be back there and studying yourself, so you could get up on that on that curve.

IG: 09:13
What was the- so you took liberal arts at first as a requirement.

GS: 09:18
Mm-Hmm.

IG: 09:18
So what were some- did you have any outstanding courses that you- outstanding faculty that you studied with that kind of pushed you in the direction of teaching?

GS: 09:30
Uh, not actually in the direction of teaching. I had a few professors who I really liked. There was one, again, in the Social Studies Department, Dekmejian [Richard Hrair Dekmejian], who was just fantastic. He was he really- I really enjoyed the classes I took with him, and the accounting classes we had Phil Piaker, who was also a local CPA, had his own firm here, and he was terrific. I-I really enjoyed the courses I took from him, but nothing pushed me toward the teaching during the school year, it was, it was the program, the Upward Bound, during that during the summer, that sort of moved me in that direction.

IG: 10:14
So you spend most of your time studying, what did you do? What was, what was residential life like? You know, you would spend all your time studying in your room or in the library. And what did you do for recreation?

GS: 10:32
[laughs] It was kind of interesting back then. I remember in my freshman and sophomore year that they only had one classroom building called the CA building. Half of it was the administration, and the other, other way was the classroom building. So very often you would go there find an empty classroom. You just sit in there in the evening and then you would study there was nice and quiet. I do not know if they still do things like that, but we did it back then. The library--I did not study in the library too much. It was either in my room or over in the classroom building.

IG: 11:04
Right-right. So um, your wife mentioned that she met you in your freshman year.

GS: 11:14
Yeah.

IG: 11:15
And could you just describe how you remember her from that time? You must have a lasting memory.

GS: 11:22
Well, it was funny. She was one of the few upstate people up there. There were so many kids from the metropolitan area, so we sort of called her the funny little upstate girl. And she was very naive, very Catholic. So it was a real change for me.

IG: 11:46
Yeah.

GS: 11:47
Because most of the kids that I knew on Long Island and associated really with in college too, were nice Jewish boys and girls, and somehow, she-she came, she came to the fore, and there was just something that clicked, right from the very beginning, when I first met her, there was just something special about her, and seemed to work. We have been married for almost 50 years, so it seems seemed pretty good.

IG: 12:13
I would say. So, did you first interact after class? Where would you go out? Would you be in your-

GS: 12:24
Well, a little bit of both-

IG: 12:26
-segregated dorms, which were called co-ed dorms.

GS: 12:28
Well, the first semester where we were in what they considered at that time a co-ed dorm, you know, boys in one wing and girls in the other wing.

IG: 12:36
Right.

GS: 12:37
Then come the fall, that dorm was filled up. So I started during the summer, and then I went over to Broome when Broome first opened up. Now that was the Broome that is not there anymore. They built that building. The construction of it, even when it was brand new, we knew it was really poor. I was like, this building is not going to last. And obviously it did not, because now they have a brand-new dorms. You know, that whole section there. So we, you know, we were there. I had her in a couple of different classes, Spanish class, which was not my forte. So she, she helped me with that.

IG: 13:16
She mentioned that.

GS: 13:17
Yeah, sometimes by looking over her shoulder, [laughs] uh, languages were not my thing. I took Spanish in seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth grade, tenth grade, eleventh grade and twelfth grade, and they wanted to put me in Spanish. I think two were Spanish three, and all they did was speak Spanish in there. And that was just way beyond me. So they let me audit once again, and then I made it through two, and somehow, I managed to squirm through the language requirement. But boy, that was not easy for me, and it actually runs in the family. My sister had the same problem with languages. She-she took Latin, and then she took Spanish in college, and had the same, same difficulties. We have comprehensions and different thing. Languages not mine-

IG: 14:04
You have ability in math, and you have probably for accounting.

GS: 14:10
Well, in accounting. And what I really wanted to be for many-many years was an architect.

IG: 14:15
Oh really?

GS: 14:16
Uh, there was no room for me an architect. I could not do like, I could do the accounting kind of math, the higher math, calculus and stuff like that. I had a lot of difficulty with that. So the architecture was-was going to be out. But I do have a- I do enjoy building things. So that is, that is my idea. I like, I like building accounting systems. I like building physical things,

IG: 14:47
Did you build any part of this house?

GS: 14:47
Uh, not the house--some of the cabinetry, that clock there, that clock there. So all these things, I build the porch. If you look out in the porch. The porch I built. So, you know, I do like working with my hands, and I got that from my father. He did a lot of woodwork, so I followed with that. I have gone further than but then he did. But then I have- I had being a teacher. I had more time to really do that, and my father never took vacations except to play little golf.

IG: 15:19
Um, in my mind, Harpur College at the time was really strong in liberal arts, but you said that you had good experiences in the accounting department. Can you describe what the accounting department was like at the time?

GS: 15:35
Uh, kind of difficult at that time we- I was just taking courses, uh, but the idea of eventually, of course, joining-joining my father. Uh, but you know you, they had the courses set up and the catalog--this was the one you took in your freshman year; this is the one you took next, one, next one. So I just follow the progression some professors I like better than others. You know, just like in any, any of the departments, but Dr. Piaker showed he was, he was one of the one of the better ones, because he-he explained things so-so wonderfully, and he had the practical experience to do it, because, you know, he was a practicing CPA as well. Anyway, I just, I just followed her through and eventually got my degree.

IG: 16:30
Were you as sort of politically aware as-as your wife at the time?

GS: 16:38
She was more politically aware than me. I like more of the history part of it, but the-the mechanics of politics I enjoyed.

IG: 16:52
How do you mean?

GS: 16:53
You know how different countries worked. You know how they set up their political systems. One of the professors I had in one of my classes, Dr. Ulc [Otto Ulc] I believe he was from one of the communist countries and-and was a judge there and escaped into, you know, into the West. And he was really an interesting guy, really interesting guy. And, of course, he showed us how, taught us how the legal system and the political system worked in the, in the communist regime at the time. And we- you know, compared those to, you know, democracy most of the time in Europe, United States always being sort of a little different. Now, it is all falling apart, but-but-but at the time it was, it was the years of the war in court, kind of liberal, progressive, and it was, and it was kind of kind of fun. I just like those kinds of things.

IG: 17:50
Yeah. Were you influenced by the Vietnam War?

GS: 17:54
Oh, yeah, a lot, yeah, certainly against the war. Probably one of my reasons for not going into-into accounting itself, we could get a teaching deferment. So that-that-that influenced me a little bit, but if I did not have any interest in teaching, I do not think that would have entered my mind just-just to pick up teaching as for deferment. But that was part of it.

IG: 18:17
Yeah.

GS: 18:18
Yeah. Vietnam war, with to me, was a disaster from-from the get go, and it turned out, turned out to be-

IG: 18:23
Were you aware of it being a disaster? Did-did-

GS: 18:26
Oh, yeah-yeah. I did not think it would be such a disaster, where we, you know, I mean, the mightiest army in the world, and could not defeat a whole bunch of, basically a ragtag army.

IG: 18:39
Right.

GS: 18:39
But they were very dedicated, very clever, very-very dedicated to the to their cause. And I do not think we really had our heart in it. And the truth, I do not think the guys over there had their heart in I do not think the country had their heart in fighting this war. It was more of war for the politicians. And as it turned out, it seemed to be even they knew it was not a good war, but they just felt to save face, we had, we had to stay in.

IG: 19:09
Was there- do- in your memory, was there a lot of student activism?

GS: 19:15
Oh yeah, there was, you know, a lot of marches-marches, busses going down to Washington, DC. Yeah

IG: 19:23
Were you involved in that at all?

GS: 19:25
Not as much on campus a little bit, but not-not so far as going down to Washington. I stayed pretty much, you know, on campus with our studying and with our- the group of people who are our friends.

IG: 19:41
Did the army recruit at all at Harpur College?

GS: 19:45
I do not think so. No, I am not even sure they were allowed on campus. Looking back, it was pretty anti- Very anti-military. -military at that particular point.

IG: 19:57
Um, there was a big town and gown separation, and I- in Binghamton,

GS: 20:02
[inaudible]

IG: 20:04
You know, town and gown.

GS: 20:07
Oh, town and gown. I am sorry, yes-yes, I gotcha, yeah.

IG: 20:10
So, you know, I imagine that many of the Binghamton locals were probably supportive of the war.

GS: 20:18
Yeah, there was not a real close town and gown relationship while we were there at all. There was the town and there was the gown.

IG: 20:25
Right.

GS: 20:25
And they seemed very resentful of the campus. They did not mind us spending the money in town, but they did not associate with us. I am not sure if that is changed or not. There was very few of the students who lived off campus.

IG: 20:40
Right.

GS: 20:40
Almost everybody lived on campus at that particular time. Uh, so I guess the relationship between students and-and the community, I do not think we are very strong at that particular- during those days.

IG: 20:58
Well, perhaps you know now I noticed that the I know that the university is very invested in helping them- Binghamton community, but before it might not have happened.

GS: 21:11
Now, it is a little satellite all by itself.

IG: 21:14
And you felt that very much, that you were sort of a culturally apart.

GS: 21:19
Yeah, since most of us were from downstate, yeah, and more liberal, this was a pretty conservative. Was and is a pretty conservative area. Harpur sort of stood by itself.

IG: 21:30
Right.

GS: 21:31
You know, pretty iso- physically, it was isolated.

IG: 21:34
Right.

GS: 21:35
You know, on campus, small campus, lots of land all around where- which the campus owned, but kept us, kept us separate. The only way to get into town was a bus, you know, the public bus, which had to stop. And the only, you know, the mall, as we know it was not built yet. All we had was the Vestal Plaza and the stores that were there, Britts, which was a department store that is long gone. And so that is where we would go shopping.

IG: 22:05
Nobody had cars at the time.

GS: 22:07
Very few, very few. There was not even much parking. Eventually, I got a car. I think it was in my junior year, and that really liberated up a lot of us, but we- as far as driving around is concerned, you drove home, you drove back, but once you were on campus, unless you went out for dinner or something like that, yeah, you pretty much stayed on campus.

IG: 22:31
So um, tell me about, you know, residential life more and the dormitory situation and where you would visit your wife. Did you go out? Did you visit her at her dorm when you started going out?

GS: 22:51
Yeah, well, we did both--for a couple of years, couple of semesters, we were separated. I was in Broome, I think she was in Whitney, and then eventually a place opened up, a room opened up, so I went there. So we were, we were pretty close, because they locked the ladies up. So that, you know, after that the guys would go out, but, and you had to have your girlfriend back on campus, by-by-by curfew. But, you know, we would go out. We would go to dinner together. We would study together. She would help me with my Spanish, one way or another. She did not help me with my accounting.

IG: 23:08
Yes-yes. I understand that there were a number of breakups in that relationship.

GS: 23:35
Oh, yeah, that is the religious thing. Yeah, we had being Jewish and her being Catholic, my parents were not really keen on-on the-the-the joining of the two, but there were just something about her which I just could not-

IG: 23:50
[laughs] That is funny.

GS: 23:52
-could not-could not shake. So we kept on going back. And eventually we decided to get-get married. That was, that was a somewhat traumatic area, because my parents did not want us to get married because of the religious factor, and my father said he would disown us and so forth. But once we got married, he got to know her, found out the wonderful person she was and we did not, you know, we did not have any difficulty from that standpoint. But before we got married, my parents sent me to talk to a cousin who was a rabbi, to try and talk me out of it. And then from her, from her side, we had to go to, I think it called pre cana classes, which did not mean much to me, but you did what you had to do, and so we eventually ironed out all the problems, and things seemed to work.

Third speaker 23:53
How did you raise your kids? Did they get the both culture?

GS: 24:00
Yeah, they did, but that was basically my wife. I was not very religious. I was not very religious. And if it were not for my wife, I do not think they would have gotten much of the Jewish side. But we celebrated both. They did not go to Jewish religious school. They went to Catholic school. Well, you know the after-school kind of Catholic school, Sunday-Sunday school for a couple of years until they were confirmed, but after that, they did not, they did not go and we tried to show them that there were different ways of looking at things. Everyone has their own stuff, but there was really basically a commonality of all religions. But my kids aren't very religious either. Maybe that is my fault, but Jan was the one who made sure that we celebrated both and that the kids knew of both cultures.

IG: 25:51
Yeah. Do you think that-that kind of acceptance of, you know, of just of the coexistence, the possibility of coexist, of two religions, coexisting side by side in a family. Was that in any way influenced by sort of the liberal attitudes on campus at the time, or is that something that came to you.

GS: 26:23
That is an interesting- that is an interesting question. I cannot answer that. I do not know if it was my liberality. It was more my love for Jan than anything else that seemed to- I could not shake her out of my mind. She was, she was, she was pretty important to my life. From the time I met her, there was a chemistry there, obviously, and I was just determined to make it work. But two of us were determined, even though I said, "No," this is not going to work. This is not going to work so we would break up. Was not her breaking up with me? Was me breaking up with her because this is just going to be too much of a hassle. But then could not get her out of my mind, so I would be back. And then eventually I just scrapped that idea of this is not going to work, and decided it is going to work.

IG: 27:14
Did you have expectations of staying in Binghamton, or did you want to return to Long Island?

GS: 27:20
Well, that is sort of, sort of interesting. I- uh, Jan was from Niagara Falls. I was obviously from Long Island; we were physically almost right in the middle. It was four hours to her house, four and a half hours to my house, you know, her parents’ house. So her parents, I think, wanted us up there. I know my parents wanted us down there, and we thought, well, this is a good compromise in between, you know, from a physical standpoint. Plus the city in Long Island really started to get to me. It was just the long lines, the hassle down there, working for my father for a couple of summers, pretty much turned me off from-from wanting to-to be down there. It was just too stressful--was not-was not- I adapted more to the Upstate way of life than it was to the to the to the city way of life. We like to go to visit down there. I mean, museums and things were great, nice place to visit, but we did not want to live there.

IG: 28:24
So you stayed in touch with Binghamton, with Harpur College and then Binghamton University through the years, right? I mean, you went back to graduate school.

GS: 28:37
Right.

IG: 28:37
Would you- your wife mentioned that you had exchange students that- welcome to- into your home.

GS: 28:44
Right.

IG: 28:45
And some of them came from Binghamton.

GS: 28:47
Uh, the exchange students did not come from Binghamton.

IG: 28:50
Not the exchange but what was the name of the program?

GS: 28:53
There was a rotor- the rotary program, yeah-yeah, that, yeah. The Business rotary had the exchange program where they brought students in. They would go to high school, but they needed homes for the for the kids, and they would rotate them, I think, every three or four months, so they had experience with various families in the United States before they, before they went home. And through, I sort of, I think I gave her the idea, I am trying to, trying to think way back, because my-my school participated in the program. We had kids from the program, and my department and the language department shared an office. So they had, they had asked, does anybody have you know- is anybody interested in hosting some of these kids? So I went home and asked my wife, and she said, "Oh, that would be a great idea."

IG: 29:44
Right.

GS: 29:44
So this started really when my when my daughter was born.

IG: 29:48
Right.

GS: 29:49
So 40 some odd years ago, and it was, it was really, really, very nice. The kids came into the house. They- our kids had had exposure to.

IG: 30:00
Yeah.

GS: 30:01
Kids from all different-

IG: 30:04
Parts of the world.

GS: 30:05
-parts of the world. And then eventually we went and visited some of them in Brazil and so forth. And of course, Jan had the Spanish we had a lot of Spanish speaking students. We did have one from South Africa. We had one from the Philippines, I think all told we had 11 or 12-12, kids here and we and we also had a professor, a teacher, who stayed with us for a few weeks, because we-we were like a sister school of a German- our German department had a relationship, so the- our teacher went over to Germany, and their teacher came over here Helmut, and he was, he was, he was quite a fella.

IG: 30:49
But, you know, looking back, there was not a lot of international students or diversity at Harpur College when you were going there were there any students...?

GS: 31:00
I think, I think there was not to the extent that they have today.

IG: 31:05
No.

GS: 31:06
We developed a friendship with one guy from, from Africa, Yeah, your wife mentioned. Yeah. And he was, he was a super guy, but also very-very bright man, and went-went back. We-we have been in contact on occasions, through-through email.

IG: 31:28
Right.

GS: 31:29
Other than that, we have not but he was a really gutsy guy. He went back to try and improve a lot of the blacks in-in Africa. And he went into some problems with-with the government, which was a, you know, a white government back there. So he was, he was a very, very brave fellow, but, and just a super-super nice guy.

IG: 31:51
So you stayed in touch with him, since, you know what he did after graduating.

GS: 31:56
Yeah, he-he went on to graduate school, I believe, in Canada and also in England, he kind of got some degrees. We did have a tendency to lose touch during those-those years. We just hit on each other, you know, once in a while.

IG: 32:12
By email, by phone?

GS: 32:14
Well, back then, it was basically by-by contact, either someone knew of what he did, or things of that nature, or maybe by phone, email was unheard of back then.

IG: 32:26
Right.

GS: 32:27
So it was not until, I guess, a few years ago, somehow, we got in touch with him, got that phone. We somehow made contact there. It was interesting. We were down in New York City and visiting my sister-in-law, and there were posters on the telephone poles, and he was giving a talk, and we wanted to see him, so we called, and we for some reason, we just could not make contact there, and I was, I was really disappointed and but I cannot remember how, but we did make contact again once email came about a few years ago, because he was a friend, not only of jam myself, but also the-the group of people who we were with. So somehow, we made and then, you know, by this time is his brother had passed away, and, you know, he had his kids and-and what have you. And then we lost, lost contact again.

IG: 33:30
So it seems like you had a close group of friends that-

GS: 33:34
Yeah, we did.

IG: 33:35
-stay with- what-what do you think maybe it was a special thing about the school that kind of engender that type of relation,

GS: 33:44
Yeah-yeah. I think so.

IG: 33:44
Not everybody stays in touch with their-

GS: 33:49
Yeah, well, I think part of it was-was you needed a support system there, because of, again, the pressure, the pressure of the school, so you needed a support system to maintain your-your sanity and your ability to keep on going. So we developed this-this group of, I do not know about ten of us, I guess, and several of us married each other, you know. So now-now we are couples. So we-we certainly stay in touch. We see each other. We are going to see each other over New Year. One of them, one of the one of the group, became a doctor, so we use enough money to buy a home in the Poconos. So we all, we all meet in the Poconos, and then we then meet again, usually during the summer. And now he is going to retire, so I think they are going to be moving permanently to the Pocono place so well they will be close enough to- [crosstalk]

IG: 34:47
-is that, did he come to the (19)67 reunion? I see.

GS: 34:50
No-no-no, he did not know. The reason being that they, they had another commitment. Uh, but they had, they had wanted to, but they-they they could not do it, but he had graduated at that time to the (19)67-(19)66-(19)67 time. So he was, they were the only ones at the group who did, who could make it.

IG: 35:04
[crosstalk]-interested in- what was his name?

GS: 35:13
Oh, Wolraich. Mark Wolraich.

IG: 35:16
How do you spell it? Because I might [crosstalk]

GS: 35:18
Oh, boy, W, O, L, R, A, I, C, H.

IG: 35:23
Mark?

GS: 35:24
Mark, yeah, and his specialty is working with-with kids like-like our granddaughter. So when our granddaughter was first born and we started to see difficulties with her, he pretty much knew what was, what the problem was, and-and without him, she would not have gotten the help as soon as she would have. It is so difficult to get young kids to see the doctors and the organizations that will analyze and finally determine that-that she was autistic, and he knew people up in Rochester, and he got us, got us in-in just a couple of months, where, if we had called ourselves, it would have been over a year before she could have been seen, because they were just so backed up. I mean, so few facilities, so many kids like this now. So he has been through any-any calls to see how things are going. He looked at the SUNY has a thing for autistic kids, which-which we did not know until the situation came and then and John said-

IG: 36:36
It is new center. It is a new center, right?

GS: 36:38
It is a school.

IG: 36:39
It is a school.

GS: 36:40
It is a school. Yeah, it is down behind the old men's gym. Yeah. So we went and visited there, and we went and visited the Handicapped Children's Center in-in Johnson City, looked at both programs and because she is, she is kind of social, where a lot of autistic kids cannot. Along with Mark's input and so forth, we decided that-that would- the one at Johnson City would be a better fit for her. So it has- he has been just terrific. I do not know what we would have done without him. He just moved mountains for her.

IG: 37:19
That is very fortunate.

GS: 37:21
Very fortunate. Yeah, it is one of those things, you know. It is who you know.

IG: 37:24
It really is.

GS: 37:25
We were very fortunate. Yeah, one that he was our friend, and that he just happened to go into this field. He runs a big program out in the university where he where he teaches.

IG: 37:26
Where does he teach?

GS: 37:30
Uh, trying to remember, he has moved around so often. Jan-Jan [calling his wife], Midwest.

IG: 37:47
Well, it does not matter, I mean, um, so maybe you could tell me about some of the ways um, that you have seen the university change over the years.

GS: 38:09
Oh, yeah. Well, first of all, it became a university. It was not a university. And we were there when we started, and while we were there, it became the State University of New York at Binghamton.

IG: 38:20
Right.

GS: 38:21
That was the last couple of years. So they developed a small graduate-graduate program, and you get graduate degrees there. And just a physical plant itself has grown enormously since we were, since we were, we were there. We just had the little-little core the brain was-was there. No, but the brain.

IG: 38:22
Yes-yes.

GS: 38:23
So just-just basically the-the old buildings and the brain were there with a couple of dorms. Then by the time we finished, or almost finished, they built what we called the self regs, which is the Hinman complex, and-and the cafeteria up there. And of course, they have expanded their-their program tremendously, I mean, to the point where they have a school for-for kids with-with difficulties, right on campus. I mean, we had- we did not know the building was there, let alone that there was a school there.

IG: 39:18
And now they are expanding the health sciences to Johnson City.

GS: 39:22
Right-right down in Binghamton, they have a campus, so they are going to have one in Johnson City. So now they have a, you know, a nursing program, which was not there when we were there, in addition. So, you know, the physical plan and the academic pursuits have just expanded dramatically since-since we have been there over the years.

IG: 39:47
Do you think that it still has the spirit of Harpur College? You know, the reputation that it had of being socially committed students and academically rigorous. How has, you know, the-

GS: 40:04
From everything I understand, yeah, it is rated one of the, you know, the highest schools in the state university system.

IG: 40:10
Yeah.

GS: 40:11
So I would say absolutely. And the kids, when we, when we go over there, we do not get off and talk to this, to the students therapy. You could see it. It seems very academic. They have the libraries in each of the complexes now. Now we just have the library now they have satellite libraries all over. The quality of the faculties remain very high as far as doctorates are concerned. So I would say academically, it is probably as good as-

IG: 40:43
As it was.

GS: 40:44
As it was, yeah.

IG: 40:45
But what really differentiated, you know, Binghamton now from Binghamton at Harpur College when you were going? Because it was a smaller school.

GS: 40:55
Much more. That is one of the reasons we went there.

IG: 40:57
It was, it was a smaller school, was it would you say that it was politically active more so?

GS: 41:05
Yeah.

IG: 41:05
Do you think that-that is was a response to the times, to the (19)60s, the culture those sort of the youth culture of the (19)60s? Or do you think that it was, you know, peculiar to unique to the school, or, you know-

GS: 41:23
Well, I think that the universities, a lot of the universities at the time, in the (19)60s, with the Vietnam War, Kent State, and a lot-

IG: 41:23
Right.

GS: 41:23
I know that stuff occurred during, during our, our growing up time, and I think that necessitated all the activity, the political activity that was generated on campus at that time, and now-now, I think again, because of the political situation which we have, it probably has, well, it rejuvenated our political interest and made much more active again, after years of, you know, raising a family and and-and working, we have got much more politically active now as a result of the Republicans taking over. So it is- [crosstalk]

IG: 42:17
Do you think seeds were planted at Harpur College?

GS: 42:19
Yeah-yeah, I think so, yeah. Plus-plus our-our liberal attitude, all right, we are much more inclusive that society has become. We-we just like everybody. That is one of the reasons we like to travel. We like to meet people, talk people. One of the advantages of taking the cruises that we do is we sit dinner with people from all over the world, and you get to talk politics. Although it was interesting. The cruise we just got back from, nobody taught politics. It was sort of a subject which was not brought up. This is the first time, and just so-

IG: 42:56
To Sydney, when you went to Sydney?

GS: 42:58
Yeah, we went to Australia and New Zealand.

IG: 43:01
Right.

GS: 43:02
People just steered away, even people from other countries just did not bring it up, which is totally different.

IG: 43:08
Well, maybe they are afraid to hurt you by saying anything negative.

GS: 43:12
Yeah. Well, you know, you are on vacation, you do not want to get into an argument. And in all-all truth, we probably would not get into an argument because we probably would agree with them. [laughs] As far as the situation is concerned, we are an awful situation. I am really worried about this country staying together as the United States, and we are so-so polarized that I just will be amazed if we survive this as a united country. So hopefully things will change. Do you remember any legends or great stories about Harpur College at the time?

IG: 43:53
But the only one was Lake Lieberman. Talk about that.

GS: 43:59
Well, behind- in the Broome complex, behind the Broome complex and behind the Newing dining hall, which is now, I understand it is gone. There was a pond, and the story was the time that one kid fell in, and they said, "Should we get them out?" And said, "No, just leave them in." So that is, that is how, that is how the name came about. That was the story. I do not know what the real story was- [inaudible] Lieberman got but that was the story at the time. So that was one of the thing. And then we had the coat ceremony.

IG: 44:41
So did the kid live?

GS: 44:42
Oh, yeah. I mean, this was not a pond, still there. It was not very deep, and it was brand new. It was a man-made pot. So that was, that was one story which we had, and that was, that was, that was behind our dormitory, so that there were. Two other, I guess, activities, the stepping on the coat ceremony, which was on the Esplanade, which is now gone, unfortunately, that took place, and that was annually, in the spring, when the cold weather stopped and the warm weather began to officially state that spring was here, they would have a stepping on the coat ceremony, where they take an overcoat, do a few speeches in old, an old English--some, some kid wrote an old, I cannot repeat it. Some of the people remember, I do not know if you have a recording of it, but it is it was quite something. And then they, when it was official, they would step on the coat. Okay. Spring has now arrived. That was, that was the official statement.

IG: 45:44
Did you see the ceremony performed at any point?

GS: 45:47
Oh yeah.

IG: 45:47
Oh you did.

Speaker 1 45:47
Oh yeah, I saw it, but I cannot repeat the Old English speech that was given, but oh yeah. That was probably the last couple of years I was there. And then the other- [crosstalk]

IG: 46:00
[inaudible] as-as being a student on campus, did you attend this? Oh-oh, so people kind of you know, plugged into the student events.

GS: 46:05
Oh, sure. Oh yeah.

IG: 46:10
on your [inaudible], yeah.

GS: 46:11
When we were there, you had the campus was our life.

IG: 46:13
Yes.

GS: 46:14
When we were there, that was, again, we did not do much off campus. Campus life was-was the life. And there were no other campuses to go to at the time. So, uh-

IG: 46:24
Were you into sports? Were you into any other activities? Really?

GS: 46:27
No activities. That is kind of interesting. One of the reasons I went to Harpur was--I was a target shooter, and I was on the rifle team in high school, and Harpur had, at the time, a target range by the time I got- but when I came up here, I found out that they had basically closed it down. So I was quite a, quite a disappointment to me. It was still there, but it was not being used. So I even brought my rifle up with me, which had to be locked up with the, with the campus police, and I never took it out. Yeah, or they would not let you keep in the dorm or anything. So that is where it had to be kept. And then if, well, even the campus police did not have guns back there, all they had was a night stick. Everybody has guns, yeah, on campus. I mean, kids have guns too.

IG: 47:20
I do not think so.

GS: 47:21
Oh!

Third speaker: 47:21
Maybe not on campus, but in America- You go to the Walmart and purchase-

GS: 47:26
I know it is a gun crazy culture. I know a lot of our friends, yeah, we call them gun nuts, but a lot of my friends are gun nuts, so it is just part of our crazy cultures. I do not understand it, and I am an old NRA person, but that was the NRA back when I was a member. Was a lot different. That organization has been hijacked from an educational to a political group. Anyway. That is sort of an interesting story of itself. But yeah, from a sports I am not very sports oriented. I am also very, probably because I am very, not very good at sports. I am more into reading and doing my woodwork, things of that nature. I wish they would have to work- a wood shop on campus. We could have worked, worked up, but they-they did not. That would have been really cool. And the but the one other activity, if you are talking about sports, was train you were [inaudible] up train, you would- the cafeterias had fiberglass trays. That was very important, that they were fiberglass, and we would steal them borrow and there was a hill right by Broome that goes down towards the-the old gym and the fields down there. So when it snowed, we would take these trades, we would sit on them, and we would shoot down the hill. So that was that was about the extent of my-my kind of physical activity, but it was kind of funny. At some point, they bought new trays, and they were metal trays that were encased in a rubberized plastic case that was textured and they would not slide. So that was the end of tray, unless you got some other device. But we, I guess maybe they did it to save the trays in the in the cafeteria.

IG: 49:32
Probably somebody caught on.

GS: 49:35
Yeah. [laughs]

IG: 49:38
So, you know, tell me what you miss most about those years.

GS: 49:43
It had to be the people and the camaraderie we had with-with our group, that was great. I mean, we still meet with the people, but we have, we have, we have spread out so we do not see each other all the time, but I really miss. Living and being together with all-all of our friends, that was really great. I do not miss the pressure of the, of the academics. I mean, it was, I think 10 or 15 years after I graduated, I would still wake up in the middle of night, well, for my nightmare, saying, oh my god, the papers due tomorrow, only to realize, you know, you graduated, like, 10 or 15 years ago, but you had these nightmares, but the people were terrific. And I think also living, you got to learn to live on your own, away from your parents, you know, without their protection-

IG: 50:37
But in a community.

GS: 50:39
-but in a community which was which was loving and-and safe for the most part. I miss, I miss that a lot, because the world is not safe anymore. My world is not-not safe the way it was. You like-like any most colleges, you are protected. So.

IG: 50:58
It was safe, it was a haven. But the world still was not safe with the Vietnam-

GS: 51:03
Oh, absolutely.

IG: 51:05
-and-

GS: 51:05
Yeah, but-

IG: 51:06
I am being very aware that you could be- [crosstalk]

GS: 51:09
Oh, drafted. Oh yeah, the draft was-was-was an ever-present worry, yeah. But while you were on campus, as long as you had that deferment from- for being a student deferment. You were, you were safe as soon as you graduated. You were, we were in trouble. But they-they had the-the war boards. Well, one of the ways you could be deferred from-from the armed forces was to take this exam. And if you got a certain score in the exam, then you could continue your student affirming. If you did not do it, then you were up for- to be involuntarily taken into the, into the army and sent over to Vietnam. So I remember those. And then they had the lottery late later on, where they picked your name out of a or your birth date out of a hat. And if they picked your-your date, it was more difficult to get into deferment, you know, so and those people who were later dates than they would be recruited later on, but if they had the number of bodies that they needed to-to satisfy the-the army at that particular point, if you were in the-the end of the-the lottery, you did not get called.

IG: 52:36
Did any of your classmates get called during the college?

GS: 52:42
Uh, only one that I remember, we were not very close. One of the brothers ended up going over, and then, of course, we lost contact with him once he was recruited. But most of us went on to graduate school so we could continue our-our deferments, or we had occupations such as teaching which-which would defer. So most of us did not go. We mark got into a program whereby he had to do public service while he was in medical school, and that kept him out of the army, per se, but he was in the Public Health Service on an Indian reservation.

IG: 53:27
Oh, how interesting.

GS: 53:27
Well, they adopted-

IG: 53:29
Here in northeast, or...?

GS: 53:32
Oh, no-no, out west. Okay, see, I-

IG: 53:45
You want to stop this?

GS: 53:47
Yeah.

Third speaker: 53:54
Okay.

IG: 53:59
Soum, tell us about- do you recall any great characters from among your group of friends? Could you tell us about anyone you know who was a real character?

GS: 54:15
Māori Cruise. I think he was from Cuba.

IG: 54:18
Yeah.

GS: 54:19
He was a character.

IG: 54:20
How so?

GS: 54:24
Never took anything seriously. He was always one of those free flight people who just seemed to enjoy life. I think that was probably his Cuban upbringing. He got a mo- he even got a motorcycle. You know, it was my first and only motorcycle ride. Was holding on for dear life. Māori around, but he was, he was just a fun, a fun guy. I do not even think he lasted for more than a year or two at school. He just enjoyed life too much. But he was a real character. We had a, we had a good time, if you wanted, if you wanted a good time. Māori was the guy to go out with. I think he was Cuba- he was Cuban from Cuba.

IG: 54:59
Was he a Cuban American or Cuban from Cuba? So, how did you how did he talk about Cuba? How did you feel about Cuba at the time? Did you think that it was an enemy state?

GS: 55:13
I do not think so. We-we did not talk politics. As far as that was concerned with the Māori, everything was-was social. You did not talk to him seriously about things like that. In my memory, he was just happy to be here and was enjoying life. So he- his happiness was very infectious.

IG: 55:43
How do you think your classmates would remember you from your years at Harpur College? What would they say about you?

GS: 55:50
Oh, gosh, if they even remembered me.

IG: 55:53
Basically your friends.

GS: 55:54
Well, those people, the ones are still friends. Oh, I think they would remember me.

IG: 55:59
How?

GS: 55:59
Well, how? I do not know.

IG: 56:04
[inaudible] yourself from those years.

GS: 56:06
Sort of, I am sort of a jokester. I- not practical jokes, but I use a lot of double intenders. I turn words around and things like that. That is sort of my reputation. But also sort of to a certain thing serious. And you can have serious discussions, which we do whenever-whenever we get together, we all talk politics and so forth. We are all of the same kind of political persuasion. And-

IG: 56:36
So, You are pretty much the same person that you-

GS: 56:40
I do not, I do not see me changing. I think, I think I am more tolerant. I thought I was tolerant them. I think I am more tolerant now. I think my attitude toward women have changed dramatically. I was used- I was brought up at a time when, you know, women did what they were told. Kind of idea. Wives did what they were they were told they were subservient to the husbands. Jan made quick disposed of that very quickly, [laughter] and obviously it was for the good, you know, but I learned quickly that-that is not the way you treat a woman or a wife.

IG: 57:27
So you are emotionally intelligent, not only book smart.

GS: 57:30
Well, I like to think so. Plus, I was in a profession where there were a lot of women.

IG: 57:34
Right.

GS: 57:35
In teaching there were a lot of women, so I always considered them my-my equals. I never considered them subserving to me in any way, shape or form. But then I felt the same way about secretaries and custodians. I never- there were a lot of professionals who think of those people and-and the I hate to use the term lesser occupations as somehow being inferior. And I was always friends with all these people. Yeah, we had to treat them- I mean, they are people who just were in a different field. That is all. That is why I looked at it. So I think most of my friends feel that way. And this, I think when they think of me, they-they think of a person who's very accepting and very tolerant and liberal.

IG: 58:24
Good. Just [inaudible] I forget this one thing, you were on a judicial board, the punishment for your wife's infraction.

GS: 58:38
Oh, not her infraction, her roommate.

IG: 58:40
Her roommate.

GS: 58:41
Her roommate, her roommates, infraction, yeah, yeah, judicial review board, we had [talking to his wife] No. [his wife replies] Okay. Okay, I have to read this later. Uh, supposedly we were self-governing. Okay. When it came to the real thing, of course, the administration took over. But for minor infractions of the rules, a student was brought before the judicial review board. Nine out of 10 of these things, maybe 99 out of out of 100 were curfew infractions. So we had to come up with some way to punish the girls because their boyfriends brought them home late. I mean, looking back, I was so absurd, [laughs] but we did not take it really all too seriously. Because, I mean, even then, we knew that curfew was kind of, kind of kind of dumb, so we imposed a penalty on Jan's roommate, who came back late, of having to make chocolate chip cookies for the dorm. I mean, this is a kind of a [inaudible]. We had this little, little cubby hole of a kitchen with this little tiny oven, and I knew that Jan mother had sent her with cookie trays and mixing bowls and so forth. So I thought, gee, this would be a good, a good thing. I like chocolate chip cookies. The dorm likes chocolate chip cookies, so why do not we have her make chocolate chip cookies for the dorm? So I did not realize at the time how much work was involved. We probably would have thought of something else, but it was sort of like almost in jest, almost in fun, because a silly infraction, you make a silly punishment. I mean, what do you- what kind of things are you going to do? How did you join this judicial board? You applied.

IG: 1:00:49
You applied.

GS: 1:00:49
You applied. Yeah, you know, they had different organizations on campuses like the radio or-or the newspaper thing. And I applied. And I do not even know how you got accepted. Right. Just all of a sudden, I was I said, "Sure, I will join that." And you were there.

IG: 1:01:08
You were there. Well-

GS: 1:01:11
So long ago.

IG: 1:01:14
I am, you know, I think that we are going to wrap up soon. I would like to know if there are any concluding remarks that you might have about Harper College and your experience there, and you know how it impacted the rest of your life?

GS: 1:01:32
Well, obviously it had a great impact in my life. My best friends, I met there, and we kept, we have kept in touch for 50 years, met my wife there, and we have been married for 50 years, but looking back on it, we had a super-duper education for a super-duper bargain price. The tuition was only $200 a semester at the time-- region, scholarship took care of that, so it was room and board, which I think was $400 or $435 a semester plus books. Why we do not continue to do that is beyond me. I know there is a cost involved, but here we had a situation where superb education a price that anyone could-could pay for and then we went on to make a country. Why do not we continue to do that? Encourage people to do that. I mean, people cannot just go out in the world without an education, especially now. So why do not we willingly and happily educate our populace at a reasonable price, right? Why burden them with years of debt? It is crazy. So I am definitely appreciative of the education I got, and every time I think of the costs, it just makes me laugh, because how- it was what an opportunity we had, what an opportunity we had, and we did not. I do not think we realized it at the time, how great, because we thought that would continue forever. State University is always going to be $200 a semester, and the quality of the education was just terrific. Could not, could not do better. And I assume the quality of education that the kids are getting there to State University today is at least equal to what we had, although the cost is-is a lot more, well, still cheaper than private schools, but because my son went to Ithaca, so we know how that is. But what an opportunity. I am indebted to the state of New York for the education they provided me, both elementary high school and college. Could not be what I am today without them.

IG: 1:03:59
Well, thank you very much.

GS: 1:04:00
Oh my pleasure. My pleasure.

IG: 1:04:02
Thank you so much for your time welcoming us into your lovely home.

(End of Interview)

2017-12-14

Irene Gashurov

1968

Geoffrey H. Strauss

At Harpur College, Geoffrey studied accounting. A summer job as a counselor with the college’s Upward Bound Program for disadvantaged youth decided him on a career in teaching. He taught accounting at Broome Community College and Endicott High School for 33 years.

Audio

Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in Broome County.

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Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in Broome County.