Just Kids From the Bronx (37 page)

General Powell earned a master’s in business administration from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 1972. He is a retired four-star general, former United States secretary of state, national security adviser, commander of the United States Army Forces Command, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has advised Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. He is the founding chairman of America’s Promise Alliance, dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth. His many accomplishments also include that of bestselling author of his autobiography,
My American Journey
.

Amar Ramasar
, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, got his performing start at TADA! Youth Theater, in the musicals
Prop Shop
and
Sleepover
. In 1993 he studied at the School of American Ballet (SAB) as well as the American Ballet Theatre Summer Program and the Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet.

Mr. Ramasar became part of the New York City Ballet as an apprentice in 2000 and joined the corps de ballet in 2001. He became a soloist in March 2006, and in October 2009 he was promoted to principal dancer.

I. C. (“Chuck”) Rapoport
is known for his work as a photojournalist in the 1960s and more recently as a television and film screenwriter. Mr. Rapoport’s photography career is notable for his
Life
magazine photo essay on the aftermath of the tragic Aberfan, Wales, mining disaster and for his exclusive photos of the fitness master Joseph Pilates. From 1970 to 2004 he wrote a dozen Movies of the Week for television and worked as a staff writer and producer for
Law & Order
.

Carl Reiner
is a writer, actor, director, producer, and comedian. He has performed and written for stage, television, and movies and has also written novels, autobiographies, and children’s books. He created
The Dick Van Dyke Show
, in which he was also an actor. He appeared on television with Sid Caesar in the
Admiral Broadway Revue
, which ultimately became
Your Show of Shows
.

His album, with Mel Brooks,
The 2000 Year Old Man
, was a hit comedy record in 1961. In addition to having received many Emmys, he is in the Television Hall of Fame and has won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Most recently he has acted in the movies
Ocean’s Eleven
,
Ocean’s Twelve
, and
Ocean’s Thirteen
and is currently busy writing another memoir.

Jaime (“Jimmy”) Rodriguez Jr.
is a restaurateur. His Jimmy’s Bronx Café (1993–2003) included a three-hundred-seat dining room with an outdoor deck that seated another four hundred people. The Café hosted New York Yankees ballplayers and other celebrities. In 2003, Jimmy was listed in
Crain’s New York Business
as one of the Top 100 Minority Business Leaders. He currently owns Jimmy’s Don Coqui, in New Rochelle, which he runs with his two daughters, Jaleene and Jewelle. It specializes in authentic Puerto Rican cuisine.

A. M. (“Abe”) Rosenthal
had a distinguished career of almost sixty years in journalism. He was a Pulitzer Prize–winning foreign correspondent, an associate managing editor, managing editor, and executive editor of the
New York Times
. Of his many achievements, he was most proud of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States, which was bestowed on him in 2002 by President George W. Bush.

Joel Arthur Rosenthal
, known professionally as
JAR
, graduated from Harvard as an art history and philosophy major in 1966 and soon after moved to Paris, the city he loved. There he wrote scripts for movies, designed tapestries, and worked in the couture world, which he realized was not for him. His interest in jewelry design led to opening his company, JAR, with partner Pierre Jeannet. JAR’s designs are known worldwide for their unusual stones, vibrant colors, and remarkable workmanship. His exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Jewels by JAR,” is the museum’s first retrospective of the work of a living designer of jewelry.

Andy Rosenzweig
has been a policeman, a detective, and a chief investigator for the Manhattan district attorney. As chief investigator, he solved a double murder that had previously remained unsolved for twenty-five years. That case was the subject of an article for
The New Yorker
and a subsequent book, called
The Cold Case
, written by
New Yorker
staff writer Philip Gourevitch.

Since his retirement from the police force, Andy Rosenzweig has gone on to earn a master’s degree in writing. He is currently working on his first novel.

Gabrielle Salvatto
began her ballet training at the Dance Theatre of Harlem at age eight. She continued her studies at the School of American Ballet and received her high school diploma from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. She graduated from the Juilliard School with a bachelor of fine arts in dance, where she performed repertoire by Ohad Naharin, Jerome Robbins, Nacho Duato, Eliot Feld, and José Limón. Ms. Salvatto has since danced for Austin McCormick’s Company XIV and Sarah Berges Dance. After a year dancing and performing with the Professional Training Program at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Gabrielle proudly joined the newly formed company in August 2011.

Lawrence Saper
is an inventor as well as an entrepreneur. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering. He had worked in that field for fifteen years when he invented the first synchronized heart monitor and founded Datascope. He is the former chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer at Datascope, where he served in those capacities from 1969 until January 2009. Datascope makes high-tech medical diagnostic equipment. The company went public in 1972. By the mid-1980s it was the market leader in both patient-monitoring equipment and cardiac-assist devices. Its two principal products were intra-aortic balloon pumps and patient monitors. Mr. Saper also started Genisphere, which is a subsidiary of Datascope Corporation.

Julian Schlossberg
, movie, theater, and television producer, is also a distributor and teacher of film. During his tenure at the Walter Reade organization, he hosted the radio program
Movie Talk
, which was on the air for nine years.

His stage productions include
Sly Fox
,
The Beauty Queen of Leenane
, and
It Had to Be You
. He was the producer of PBS’s American Masters special
Nichols and May: Take Two
, about the comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May. In 1978 Schlossberg left Paramount and went on to establish Castle Hill Productions, a film production and distribution company. Castle Hill has distributed more than five hundred first-run and classic movies to theaters, pay TV, basic cable, home video, TV syndication, and all other motion picture outlets worldwide. It has become one of the largest independent film distribution companies in the world.

Mr. Schlossberg is also a producer’s representative for prominent figures such as Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall, and Elaine May.

His work-in-progress
Witnesses to the 20th Century
, a documentary series, examines the major historical events of the twentieth century from the perspectives of some of the prominent people of the time.

Louise Sedotto
is currently the principal of P.S. 76, the Bennington School, in the Bronx. She received her undergraduate degree from Iona College and her master’s degree from the College of New Rochelle and holds administrative and supervisors degrees from Mercy College.

Ms. Sedotto began her teaching career at Saint Frances de Chantal School in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx and five years later began teaching at P.S. 26, part of the New York public school system. In 2001 she became the assistant principal in P.S. 76 and in January 2003 she was appointed principal.

P.S. 76 was cited by President George W. Bush as one of the highest-performing schools in the city. A photograph of President Bush, some students, and Principal Sedotto hangs in her office at school.

Carlos J. Serrano
, playwright, director, poet, and theatrical producer, graduated with a bachelor of fine arts in creative writing from Brooklyn College in 1993. While there, he won the Irwin Shaw Award in Playwriting and the Grabanier Drama Award. He is a member of the People’s Theatre Project’s resident playwrights unit and its literary manager. Mr. Serrano’s play
The Ortiz Sisters of Mott Haven
was produced at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in 2005 and was featured as the inaugural play for the forty-seventh annual Puerto Rican Theatre Festival in San Juan and Arecibo in 2006. His other playwriting credits include
24 Hours at Tiempo
,
The Day a Mariachi Band Followed Charlie Home
,
Charlie Needs a Shrink
,
The Blues of Daisy Peña
, and
Alter Ego
. He is currently working on the
Nuyorican Circus and Medicine Show
.

George Shapiro
graduated from New York University and became an agent at the William Morris Agency in New York, after which he became a personal manager and producer with his partner and friend Howard West. They formed their production company and executive produced the Peabody, Emmy, and Golden Globe award-winning series
Seinfeld
. George Shapiro is the personal manager of Jerry Seinfeld. He has also packaged hit programs such as
The Steve Allen Show
,
That Girl
, starring Marlo Thomas, and
Gomer Pyle
, starring his client Jim Nabors. He also packaged a number of specials for Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, and Carol Channing.

Robert F. X. Sillerman
is an entrepreneur whose company, in the past, owned seventy-one radio stations. He is the founder and serves as the chairman and chief executive officer of SFX Entertainment Inc., concert promoters. He was the owner of Elvis Presley’s estate and the TV hit
American Idol
and was also the major producer of the hit Broadway show
The Producers
. Mr. Sillerman has been the CEO of Viggle Inc., his new company, since June 2012.

Valerie Simpson
, songwriter, pianist, and producer, formed the legendary songwriting duo Ashford and Simpson with her husband, Nick Ashford. Together they received ASCAP’s highest honor, the Founders Award, in 1996 and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. In January 2007 they accompanied Oprah Winfrey when she opened her Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

At President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, Ashford and Simpson rewrote their song “Solid as a Rock” as “Solid as Barack.” They dedicated it to the president at his inaugural festivities. Nick Ashford died in a New York City hospital on August 22, 2011, of complications from throat cancer.

Ms. Simpson released a new solo album in June 2012,
Dinosaurs Are Coming Back Again
, that features the last recorded performance of Nina Simone, a second duet with Roberta Flack, and an instrumental version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Ms. Simpson is especially proud of her induction into the Bronx Walk of Fame.

Dava Sobel
, a former
New York Times
science reporter, is the author of four highly acclaimed books, including
Galileo’s Daughter
and
Longitude
. She is also the coauthor of six books, including
Is Anyone Out There?
, with astronomer Frank Drake. She has received many awards for her contributions to the public awareness of science. Ms. Sobel is currently the Joan Leiman Jacobson Visiting Nonfiction Writer at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Sotero (“BG 183”) Ortiz, Wilfredo (“Bio”) Feliciano, and Hector (“Nicer”) Nazario
are dedicated graffiti artists and professional muralists. They are three of the original members of their company
Tats Cru: the Mural Kings
. They are known individually and collectively for their many letter styles, complex designs, and explosive use of color. Their work has been featured in many publications, music videos, and documentaries.

They are also known for their memorial murals, dedicated to young victims of violence.

Tats Cru has been part of the artists-in-residence program at MIT and has traveled and lectured all over the world, including England, France, China, Ireland, Italy, and Germany.

Their studio is in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
is an astrophysicist, science communicator, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City, and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. He also has hosted the PBS television series
Nova
and the current Fox series
Cosmos
.

Dr. Tyson majored in physics at Harvard University but was active in wrestling and rowing as well as various dance styles, including jazz, ballet, Afro-Caribbean, and ballroom. He did his graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin, getting a master of arts in astronomy in 1983. Dr. Tyson attended Columbia University and earned a master of philosophy degree in astrophysics in 1989 and a doctor of philosophy degree in astrophysics in 1991. He collaborated with Brian Schmidt, a winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, in the study of the measurement of distances to Type II supernovae and the Hubble constant.

Dr. Tyson lives in New York City with his wife, Alice, a physicist, and their two children.

Luis A. Ubiñas
graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, where he was a Truman Scholar. In 1989 he graduated from Harvard Business School with highest honors.