Blue White Illustrated

The Edgewater Beach hotel and hos- pital were located alongside Lake Michigan between downtown Chicago and Evanston. I did some re- search and discovered that Hillary Clinton also was born in the hospital in 1947, six years before you. Did you know that her father and a brother played football for Penn State? I knew that they both played here from articles that were written during the Clinton administration. My father's name is Robert and my mother's name is Maxine. They were di- vorced when I was young. My father was a printer and lived in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue, and I lived in the north side of Chicago through the years and then in a suburb for a little bit. I went to George Williams College in Downers Grove, Ill., and during the col- lege years lived in the dorms. In the summer, I worked in a resort called Nip- persink [in southern Wisconsin]. It was a family-style resort and it was mar- velous. Think of the movie "Dirty Danc- ing," and it was an accurate picture of the lifestyle of the employees who worked in that industry. It was predomi- nantly Jewish but not exclusively. I understand the resort was once a hangout for Chicago gangsters. Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett performed there. There was a reunion in July for alumni employees like you. I didn't attend the resort reunion, but have spoken with a number of the atten- dees. I loved my time in the resort busi- ness and feel my life lessons learned there have been some of the most valu- able ones I have attained. Although I didn't feel like going back this time, many of the friendships have lasted a lifetime. Did you have any brothers and sis- ters? I have a brother, Richard, who is five years older than me. Unlike me, he was a terrific student and a good boy. Follow- ing him in school was an experience. In my later years, my performance pre- ceded my attendance and they would look at me because they wanted to put a name and face with trouble. My brother is very bright and analytical. He went to the University of Illinois and earned a degree in electrical engineering and computer science when that program was first starting. He worked for Mo- torola his entire career. I was more about having street smarts. What about your grandparents? My father's family was Russian, and my mother was of German descent. When I was born there were no grand- parents alive, so I really didn't learn a lot about their background. What did you want to be when you grew up? I attended Senn High School in the city for three years, and in my senior year I got relocated to Fremd High School in Palatine. One of my friends, unfortunately, committed a crime, and my parents moved me out of the city based on association. It coincided with racial riots in the city following the death of Martin Luther King. My new location was right down the street from the race track, and I would go to Arling- ton Park almost every day during the racing season. I would call my friends in the city and find out who they wanted me to bet on. Then I would just drive over to the race track between races and go back and forth. Did you do any other type of gam- bling? I think living in the '70s with long hair was a gamble. How did you wind up going to col- lege? Typical of a lot of families, my father wanted to keep his printing business in the family. My brother was already im- mersed in his engineering career. The company had a lot of clients. I didn't think that was what I wanted to do, par- tially because I didn't want to wear a tie every day, and I saw my father wear a tie every day. As I said, I enjoyed the resort business. My father said, "If you're not going to go into my business, you really need to go to college." He asked me what I wanted to do and what I liked. I said, "I like gambling, sports and girls." As a 17- year-old Jewish kid, that probably kept me in the 95th percentile of my peers. I thought I liked sports and coaching. I asked my phys ed teacher what was a good phys ed school, and he recom- mended a small college called George Williams College. It was very, very late in the admission process and it was un- likely I would be applying to a lot of schools. I had taken the SAT and ACT, but my grades wouldn't have gained me admission to the University of Illinois where my brother attended. We met with the person in charge of admissions at George Williams, and after a contri- bution to the school, I was admitted. Early lesson learned in life that money talks. George Williams and its old campus as I knew it doesn't exist anymore. It's joined forces with Aurora College, al- though it still retains its Williams Bay campus in Wisconsin. When you started college, what did you think you would be doing after graduation? I went there thinking I was going to be a basketball or football coach. While I was there, I became an Illinois high school official for basketball, baseball and football. I was certified in all those sports. The college didn't have a football team. That wasn't a train of thought for me. I thought I was going to play base- ball, but it was the '70s and I had long hair. The baseball coach wanted me to cut my hair, and I didn't think there was a correlation for playing baseball so I played on the golf team. I also took a volleyball class my first year. I played golf my first two years of college and volleyball the last two. I fig- ured I was going to be a phys ed teacher and coach in high school and maybe col- lege. Our basketball coach, Norm Sonju, went on to be an NBA part-owner and general manager in Dallas, so I had someone to mentor and guide my early interests. But I really became involved in

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