Timeline & Notable Graduates

1980/1981

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Antares, a science fiction magazine, is founded.

The Wider World

• Ronald Reagan is elected President.
• Jan. 20, 1981, Iran releases the 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency passes from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
• Mar. 30, 1981, President Reagan is shot in the chest by John Hinckley, Jr.
• New York City faces a water shortage.

1981/1982

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Mr. Fabbricante retires.
• Acting Principal Kenneth J. Tewel assumes leadership.
• Tony’s, a popular hangout, closes.
• Roald Hoffmann, PhD '55 wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1981.

The Wider World

• Sep. 25, 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court Justice.
• Dec. 28, 1981, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, is born in Norfolk, VA.

1982/1983

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Principal Abraham Baumel
  Ronald Grabe, Astronaut on spaceshuttle Atlantis
  Abraham Baumel, Principal at New Dorp, and former Chairman of the Physics Department at Stuyvesant, returns as the new Principal.
• Oct. 3, 1982, Ronald Grabe '62 is on STS-51J, maiden voyage of spaceshuttle Atlantis.
• The Stuyvesant Pretzel Man haunts the 16th Street Lobby.

'83 Notable Graduates

• Matt Ruff '83 Author
• Kate Schellbach '83 drummer for the Beastie Boys and Lucious Jackson

The Wider World

• The Vietnam Memorial, Washington DC
  Nov. 10, 1982, the newly finished Vietnam Veterans Memorial opens in Washington, D.C.

1983/1984

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• SHS students have longer hair, and new lockers.
• The Class of 1984 has had three principals.
• Stuyvesant is featured in "Is Excellence Possible in Urban Public Schools?" in American Education (Nov. 1983).

The Wider World

• Completion of the TCP/IP network switchover marks the creation of the global Internet.
• Dec. 15, 1983 Wendy Wasserstein's D'39 "Isn't It Romantic," premieres in NYC.

1984/1985

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Nov. 18, 1984, 600 alumni(ae) come to celebrate the school's 80th anniversary.
• Robert Pam '63 is elected President of a newly-formed Alumni Association. In 1986, Evelyn Krejci '76, the first woman President, is elected; she serves for 16 years, until 2002.

The Wider World

• Nov. 1984, Ronald Reagan reelected President.
• Dec. 3, 1984, an industrial accident at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India leads to about 4,000 deaths in several days.

1985/1986

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• The Stuyvesant Coalition is formed to insure input from the school community while planning for a new school.
• Ideas for the new building are solicited, from alumni, students, parents and faculty.

'86 Notable Graduates

• Lucy Liu '86 actress, Ally McBeal Show, Charlies Angels, Kill Bill

The Wider World

• The explosion of the spaceshuttle Challenger
  Jan. 10, 1986, Spaceshuttle Challenger explodes on launch.

1986/1987

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Boys Cross Country wins Manhattan Championship.
• The Debating Team dominates the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and is crowned National Forensic Champions.
• Actress Lucy Deakins '88 is featured for her accomplishments as an actress. (Deakins is best known for her starring role in the movie The Boy Who Could Fly.)
• In the 46th Westinghouse Science Talent Search, Elizabeth Lee Wilmer wins Second Prize, a $15,000 scholarship, for her work on the three-color problem in mathematics.

The Wider World

• Dec. 23, 1986 the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completes the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling.

1987/1988

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

(l-r) New York Governor Mario Cuomo, President of the Board of Education Robert F. Wagner Jr., and Mayor Ed Koch announce the new building

• Construction of the new Stuyvesant building begins in May, with the move to Chambers Street scheduled for September, 1992.
• Stuyvesant places a record 47 semifinalists--and the final first and second place winners!--in the 47th Annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search---Chetan Nayak wins 1st prize, a $20,000 scholarship, for his mathematical analysis of the interaction between electromagnetic and gravitational fields; and Janet Tseng wins 2nd for her study of cryptosporosis, an opportunistic infection that causes chronic diarrhea in AIDS patients.
• The Spectator sends reporters undercover to take the SAT and Achievement Tests under assumed identities, exposing flaws and security weaknesses in the ETS system; the reporters are featured on the Today Show.
• Senior Charlene Brown wins the 1988 All-American Girl Contest, co-sponsored by Teen Magazine; she gains early acceptance to MIT and is awarded the Future Biochemist's Award.
• Student Daisy Tsui is featured in New York magazine on the 20 most important people in New York City.

'88 Notable Graduates

• Lucy Deakins '88 Actress, The Boy who Could Fly

1988/1989

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• Stuyvesant alumnus Ronald Grabe '62 rockets into space on May 4th aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, taking a 1932 Stuyvesant banner with him.
• At least 90 seniors almost lose their chances in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search competition when their entries are received after the contest deadline, having been delayed by Federal Express. After much pressure from the Stuyvesant administration and parents, Westinghouse bends the rules and allows the late entries.
• NYS Forensic League: Amanda Jacobs & Chris Bulger are Duo Interpretation Champions.

'89 Notable Graduates

• Raymond Lau PhD '89 software author, Stuffit algorithm developed while at SHS, software researcher, and founder of iPhrase Technologies

The Wider World

• Nov. 1988, George H. W. Bush is elected President.
• Dec. 21, 1988, a Libya-sponsored bomb explodes aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

1989/1990

Stuyvesant and NYC Public Schools

• The new building is “topped off” in June.
• The theater balcony is still a combination lunchroom and hangout, with the dire prediction that the hang-our area will someday fall on to the first floor.

The Wider World

• Aug. 2, 1990, Iraqi troops invade Kuwait, leading to the Persian Gulf War.