Producer, Singer, Songwriter

John Leventhal formed his first band in Quaker Ridge Elementary School.  A few years later in Scarsdale High School, a new band with Robby Kaplan, Marc Shulman and Zev Katz with Leventhal on the guitar was a bright spot in their Scarsdale education.

Journalist

“You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinions is.”     Mara Liasson’s quote in the 1973 Bandersnatch  was prophetic.  Her career in journalism suggests she has been tracking down that “corn pone” ever since.

Playwright and Avant-Garde Theater Pioneer

Two years after Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible” appeared on Broadway, it was directed and produced by Richard Foreman at Scarsdale High School.  That play was one of many that Foreman mounted during his high school years.  After Scarsdale, Foreman attended Brown University and in 1962, received a Masters in Fine Arts in Playwriting from Yale.

Producer, Writer

At Scarsdale High School, Aaron Sorkin was deeply involved in the Drama Club, serving as Vice President his junior and senior years.  Sorkin continued his love of the stage at Syracuse University, where he earned a bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater.  Initially, Sorkin hoped to be an actor, but experience taught him that his special talents lay in writing.

Journalist

Linda Carpenter-Leavitt’s writing skills and her creativity were evident early. In 1954, when Carpenter-Leavitt was in third grade, the Greenacres Star, a small, local newspaper, ran a writing contest. She won first prize for her story about “Isabell the Alley Cat.” Four years later she captured the grand prize in Scarsdale’s window painting contest.

Scientist, Engineer, Computer Scholar

Under Ivan Sutherland’s name in the 1955 Bandersnatch are the following:
“Univac . . .The answer man . . Scientifically yours…” Sutherland was also the President of the Science Club in both his junior and senior years. While still in high school he took on a challenge involving SIMON, a relay-based computer with six words of two bit memory. Before Sutherland, SIMON could only add. After Sutherland, SIMON could divide. At the time, few high school students had written a computer program. Sutherland produced eight pages of paper tape to “teach” SIMON to divide.

Educator, Administrator, Lawyer

Roger Hull has devoted most of his professional life to education.  A graduate of Dartmouth College with a law degree from Yale University and a Doctor of Juridical Science from the University of Virginia, he began his career as an attorney in New York City.  In 1970, Hull was appointed to the Board of William & Mary, which triggered his interest in educational leadership, and, in 1971, he was appointed special counsel to the Governor of Virginia where he was in charge of the Governor’s legislative program.

Nurse, Professor, Administrator

Florence Schorske Wald began her illustrious career as a visiting nurse in New York City shortly after she earned a B.A. from Mt. Holyoke College in 1938 and a Master of Nursing from Yale University in 1941. From 1956-1952, she was a research assistant in the College of Physicians and Surgeons.   In 1955, she secured a position as an instructor at the Rutgers University School of Nursing.  Two years later she returned to Yale as Acting Dean of the School of Nursing and Associate Professor.  Success followed, and within a year the leadership position was made official and Wald was appointed the fourth Dean of the Yale University School of Nursing..

Cultural Historian

Carl E. Schorske’s lecture, “A Life of Learning” begins, “My first encounter with the world of learning . . took place when I entered kindergarten in Scarsdale, New York.
To break the ice . . .my teacher asked her pupils to volunteer a song. I gladly offered a German one, called ‘Morgenrot.’ It was a rather gloomy number. . . about a soldier fatalistically contemplating his death in battle at dawn.” Shaken, the teacher took Schorske to meet the principal, who promptly promoted him to first grade.

Humanitarian, Motivational Speaker

Jim Tuman gives credit to Scarsdale High School for setting him on the road to serve humanity.  In his words, “It was there that I met people with a sense of social conscience.”