Timeline & Notable Graduates

1920/1921

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Students stage the pageant spectacle “America’s Making.”
• Soccer claims the title of Eastern State Champs.
• Cross-Country becomes second in the city

'21 Notable Graduates

• Capt. Charles Gartenlaub '21 Chief, Radiology, US Naval Hospital, St. Albans, Queens, NY
• Marcus D. Kogel, MD '21 NYC Hospital Commissioner; founding Dean and advisory council, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Chairman, Epidemiology and Social Medicine
• Peter Sammartino, PhD '21 Co-founder/Chancellor, Fairleigh Dickinson University; Member, President's Commission on Higher Education

The Wider World

• New York City is unique in world history: the majority of the population lives in apartments and are renters.

1921/1922

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Track Team wins PSAL and a National Championship!
• Football Team almost wins first City Championship.
• Principal von Nardroff and Dr. Tennent prepare the Student Guide.
• Radio Club has up-to-date equipment made in Stuy’s shop.
• Seniors’ graduation and dance is at the Hotel Pennsylvania.
• Broadway play, “It Pays to Advertise,” is first 3-act play attempted by Dramatic Society.
• ARISTA institutes The Stuyvesant Club, to develop a high standard of character in the student body and promote a greater spirit of sociability among students.
• Bicycle Club tries to establish HS Bicycle League and gain PSAL status. They organize Sunday trips to Coney Island, Sing Sing, Pelham, Rockaway and Rye beaches, some trips include camping.
• Bibliophiles meet.
• Biology Club practices "the gentle art of vivisection, and it is done with the gust of true biologists.”
• Camera Club organizes the HS Camera Club League.

'22 Notable Graduates

• George Bragalini '22 NYS Tax Commissioner; VP, Manufacturers Trust
• Harry B. Frank '22 NYS Supreme Court Justice
• William M. Hitzig, MD '22 Surgeon, Mt. Sinai Hospital; Professor, Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University; "Hiroshima Maidens" physician and friend of Albert Schweitzer; president, Mt. Sinai Alumni Administration
• Victor Keppler '22 Photographer; lecturer; author, Victor Keppler Man+Camera, photo-autobiography; Trustee, Photographic Hall of Fame; one of the most successful commercial photographers in the U.S.; First color photo cover of Saturday Evening Post
• Harold T. McLaughlin '22 NYS Supreme Court Justice
• Philip Neufeld '22 Wall St. financial consultant; founding Member, SHS Alumni & Scholarship Association (1954)
• Ernest W. Rovere '22 Bridge Life Master; Member, American Contract Bridge League; Author, Point Count Contract Bridge Complete
• Irving Saypol, Esq. '22 Prosecutor, Ethel & Julius Rosenberg and Morton Sobell '34 espionage case; then NYS Supreme Court Justice
• Sidney Sugarman '22 US District Court Judge, Southern District of New York
• John J. Theobald '22 Chancellor, NYC Board of Education; NYC Deputy Mayor
• Herbert Zelenko, Esq. '22 US Congressman, Manhattan, west side; Assistant U.S. Attorney, NY southern district

1922/1923

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Students flock to Stuy from all boroughs and school goes to triple-sessions for this year only.
• Francis ("Frank") Hussey ties the world record in the hundred-meter.
• Baseball wins City Title.
• Track Team wins Princeton Meet and is named "Best team in City".
• Football Team wins City Championship; beats Clinton, 14-0.

'23 Notable Graduates

• Norman C. Armitage (Cohn), Esq. PhD '23 Six Olympic fencing teams, twice US flag bearer, saber bronze medal winner (1948); Chemical engineer and patent attorney; VP, Deering-Milliken Textiles
• Harry Berlfein '23 Reporter, entire career, Women's Wear Daily
• Leroy Brown '23 Olympic silver medal high jumper (1924); US National high jump champion
• William Canton, Esq. '23 Founding Secretary-Treasurer, SHS Alumni & Scholarship Ass'n (1954); instructor, aviation branch, US Navy in WWII
• Lt. Gen. Garrison H. Davidson '23 SHS Championship football teams 1921/1922; West Point football team, then Head Coach, 1933-37; Gen. Patton’s Engineer in WWII, 1941-45; Korean War Division Commander, 1951-52; Superintendent, US Military Academy, West Point, 1956-60; Commanding General, US Seventh Army (Germany) 1960-62 and First Army (New York); US Military Representative to the United Nations, 1963. (Gen. Davidson's son, Thomas Marshall Davidson, Sr., Davidson Capital, McLean, VA, is National Spokesperson for The Campaign for Stuyvesant/Alumni(ae) & Friends Endowment Fund, Inc. since 1999)
• Adolph Gottlieb '23 Artist; founder, NY school of Abstract Expressionism; started with class of '19, finished after hiatus with '23; winner U.S. Treasury sponsored nationwide mural competition; developer of "Pictographs"; 1st prize winner, Brooklyn Society of Artists Annual Exhibition
• William Lebowitz '23 Executive Director, Alconox
• Sam Levene '23 Actor, Broadway and Hollywood, Three Men on a Horse, Guys & Dolls, The Babe Ruth Story, and Sweet Smell of Success
• John Shaw '23 Captain, SHS basketball and swimming teams; Captain and stroke, championship crew team; President, G.O.; member, football and track team; Coach, SHS and Clinton; Chairman, Physical Education, Franklin K. Lane HS, William C. Bryant HS
• Herbert Tenzer, Esq. '23 Founder, Tenzer, Greenblatt, Fallon & Kaplan; US Congressman, 1964-68; Founder, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Founder, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, endowed school's Florence and Herbert Tenzer Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics; Awarded honorary degrees by Yeshiva University, L.H.D. 1972, and LL.D. 1984
• Frederick Zimmerman '23 Double bassist, NY Philharmonic; author, Contemporary Concept of Bowing Technique for the Double Bass

The Wider World

• Feb. 16, 1923 Bessie Smith makes her first recording, "Down Hearted Blues."

1923/1924

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Francis Hussey, the track captain, is a member of the record-breaking Olympic Gold Medal Relay Team.
• SHS wins The World’s Biggest News Contest.

'24 Notable Graduates

• Thomas Chimera '24 NYS Supreme Court Justice
• Frank Hussey '24 Olympic Gold Medal relay sprinter (1924)
• Joseph L. Mankiewicz '24 Four-time Oscar-winning producer, writer, director; brother of Herman Mankiewicz who won Oscar for writing "Citizen Kane"; son of Stuyvesant teacher Frank Mankiewicz.
• Robert M. Weitman '24 Producer, Paramount, ABC, CBS, MGM, Columbia, and independent productions; started career as a doorman at the Times Square Paramount

The Wider World

• Calvin Coolidge
  Dec. 6, 1923, a presidential address is broadcast on radio for the first time as President Calvin Coolidge speaks to a joint session of Congress.

1924/1925

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Swimming team takes 1st place.
• Francis (Frank) Hussey leaves Stuy; he was Track Captain, 100 yd PSAL Champion, and a member of the USA Olympic record-breaking relay team.
• Footballers beat Clinton 25-0, Morris and Erasmus, and are City Champs.
• Principal Ernest R. von Nardroff, EE, Columbia and DSci, St Lawrence leads a faculty with degrees from these schools, colleges and universities:
  Columbia; Williams; Bowdoin; Amherst; Wellesley; Hunter; CCNY; Teachers College; NYU; Smith; Brown; Bristol (England); Barnard; Yale; Temple; Harvard; Purdue; Hamilton; Cornell; Middleburg; Dartmouth; Laval University; the Universities of Paris, Heidelberg, Berlin and Madrid; Haverford; Escuela Normal (Vera Cruz, Mexico); Ohio Wesleyan; University of Pennsylvania; Swarthmore; Rochester; Rutgers; Alfred; Springfield, Syracuse; the Pratt and Brooklyn Polytechnic Institutes; the Universities of Indiana, Michigan and Vermont; Mt. Holyoke; Cooper Union; Boston; Tufts Medical College;...and the librarian graduated Vassar.

'25 Notable Graduates

• Charles Belous, Esq. '25 "Mr. Stuyvesant"; Student leader; NYC Councilman and elected political leader in NYS and NYC
• Philip Birnbaum '25 Architect, Parker Meridien and Trump Plaza
• Samuel DiFalco '25 NYC Councilman; NYS Supreme Court Justice and Surrogate; NY Italian-American community and Democratic Party leader
• Sheldon Leonard (Bershad) '25 Emmy-winning director, actor (Dick Van Dyke Show, I love Lucy, It's a Wonderful Life), and producer; author, And The Show Goes On

The Wider World

• The Scopes Monkey Trial ruled the teaching of evolution illegal.
  Mar. 23 1925, Tennessee passes a law against the teaching of evolution in public schools, setting the stage for the Scopes Monkey Trial (July 10-25).

1925/1926

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Symphony orchestra wins first place in Inter-Scholastic Orchestra Meet, and goes on to win for the next six years.
• Dr. Law returns from a trip to Africa, and tells students that the new Africa “will undoubtedly be the result of the well-managed villages of the continent.”
• Dr. Von Nardroff presents one of his famous lectures, “Acoustics of the Flute.”

'26 Notable Graduates

• Milton Gabler '26 Recording industry mogul; Jazz & Rock ‘n Roll pioneer; independent music producer & distributor; member, Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame; founder, Commodore Music Shop, Commodore record label, & first mail-order record label, United Hot Clubs of America (UCHA); originated business of reissuing surplus records; produced Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong duets, & the seminal Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock; vice president, Decca Records; Uncle to actor/entertainer Billie Crystal; National Academy of Recording Artists’ Trustees Award for lifetime achievement; career began at SHS after-school job at Commodore Radio Store.
• Abraham M. Lindenbaum, Esq. '26 Brooklyn lawyer, lobbyist, fundraiser; represented developers Zeckendorff and Trump; President, Brooklyn Law School; NYC Planning Commissioner; Trustee, Federation of Jewish Philanthropies
• Irving A. Sarot, MD '26 Professor, Cardiac & Thoracic Surgery, NY Medical College; WWII Army Major, field hospital head; Normandy invasion; liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp

The Wider World

• Dec. 15, 1925, 1st hockey game is played at Madison Square Garden, Montreal Canadiens 3, NY Americans 1

1926/1927

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• The Debate Team claims the title of NYC Debating Champs.
• Baseball wins championship, beating Clinton 1-0.

'27 Notable Graduates

• Irving C. Fischer, MD '27 Ob/Gyn, Mt. Sinai; 1954 Founder/President of the SHS Alumni & Scholarship Association (until his untimely death at 50 in 1962); son David Fischer, MD '60, psychiatrist, Washington, D.C., was Pegleg QB
• John R. Raggazini '27 Dean, Engineering and Science, NYU; Professor, applied science, NYU; Chairman, electrical engineering, Columbia University; WWII Manhattan Project

The Wider World

• Charles Lindbergh and his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis
  May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his plane, "The Spirit of St. Louis."

1927/1928

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• The Baseball Team wins its first PSAL championship, shutting out Clinton 1-0 (See last year.)
• Jawetz, Muslin, and Weekes, Track Team members during ’28 and ’29, set 4 high jump records.
• A record number of students, over 5,000, are registered at SHS.
• SHS comes in second in NYC Debating.

'28 Notable Graduates

• Col. Adam J. Rapalski '28 Army Surgeon General's Staff
• John Ashley Wells, Esq. '28 Rogers and Wells; NY Republican advisor to Thomas Dewey, Nelson Rockefeller, and Jacob Javits

The Wider World

• May 11, 1928, The first regular schedule of TV programming is begun by General Electric in Schenectady.
• First Academy Award for Best Picture: WINGS

1928/1929

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• The Debate Team wins NYC Debating Championship.
• The Soccer Team ties for the championship with the Monroe team.
• The library grows through many book donations.
• SHS students win 15 state scholarships.
• Swimming wins the relay championship.
• In order to join the Bunsen Chemical Society, one needs to pass a test with at least 75%; the club is the only high school club allowed to visit the Loft Candy Company’s plant.

'29 Notable Graduates

• Ciro James Digangi '29 Motion picture/TV producer, production manager, art director; Movie production supervisor, Man in a Glass Booth
• Buddy Walker '29 Band/Orchestra leader; Harlem Socialite; discovered/promoted tennis great Althea Gibson

1929/1930

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• With the roster continuing to swell, a system of entrance exams are inaugurated.
• Indicator resumes publishing after 5-year hiatus.
• SHS is named City Champs in Swimming (breaking the school relay record) and Debating.
• The Radio Club holds its own class, which replaces a requirement. Students in this class are exempted from a Regents examination, provided that they take a licensing exam, the contents of which are taught as the class’ curriculum.
• The Philharmonic Society awards 20 prizes to orchestra members.
• An Astronomical Society forms.
• The “Silver Jubilee” is organized to celebrate the Track Team’s 25 years and holds the largest Stuyvesant track meet to date.

'30 Notable Graduates

• Robert Alda '30 Actor/entertainer, Broadway (Guys and Dolls), Hollywood (George Gershwin in Rhapsody in Blue), TV (M*A*S*H), vaudeville, burlesque, and radio; born Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Toberto D'Abruzzo; father, actor Alan Alda
• Gustave Dammin, MD '30 Professor, pathology, Harvard Medical School; President, Armed Forces Epidemiological Board; Binford-Dammin Society of Infectious Disease Pathology, International Academy of Pathology; Legion of Merit award; field & lab research on dysentery in India and Burma; Organ transplant pioneer; lyme disease researcher; namesake, lyme tick: Ixodes Dammini

The Wider World

• The stock market crash of 1929
  Population of NYC is almost 7 million. New York is the largest city in the world.
• Oct. 29, 1929, the stock market crashes.