NPHS Reunion Interview: Marc Lerner, Class of 1969. "I was told Woodstock was where kosher chickens were raised, not my social consciousness"

Marc Lerner in high school

Where do you live now and where have you been living the past 50 years?

I live in a home on the campus of University or California Irvine in a community built to assist faculty to afford housing in southern. California.  We are between Los Angeles and San Diego, and a few miles from Newport Beach, CA (the “OC”).  I have lived only in cities associated with my training in pediatrics (Rutgers / New Brunswick), New York City (Mount Sinai School of Medicine), Toronto (Hospital for Sick Children), Boston (Boston Children’s Hospital) and then moved to Mission Viejo and Irvine in California. 

Tell us a little about your career.

I am an academic pediatrician at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).  I specialize in development and behavior, and have worked with children surviving extreme prematurity, experiencing learning disabilities and most recently in the area of autistic spectrum and related disorders.  My UCI research focuses on ADHD and the relative impact of medication vs. behavioral treatments in children. Our team worked to create long acting ADHD treatments (Concerta, Strattera, Adderall XR, etc.). I spent five years as the medical officer for Orange County, CA, schools and am the current Chair of the  Council on School Health of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

What was your sense of community at NPHS?  And who or what influenced you the most?

I was an immature, socially ineffective student and part of a fairly invisible group of great guys who enjoyed each other and a range of activities (cross country, band, etc.).  I was influenced by some of the bright students from our class (Kevin Ashley stands out) and felt supported by some of our great teachers (Evelyn Abrams) but the biggest influence was Mr. McKenna, our biology teacher and cross-country coach.  Mr. McKenna made a strong impression on our class one day when his lesson was disrupted by a large fly in the classroom.  As I recall, he would shoot rubber bands at sleeping students and on this day, he loaded up, took aim and took out the fly in one shot.  I enjoyed the class, admired Coach and left high school with the plan to become a high school biology teacher.  I recall fondly hanging out in the locker room with my cross-country teammates. We had more fun than should be allowed for a team with a 1-16 dual meet record (all of our real track athletes in the fall were on the soccer and football fields).  But I was so grateful to have an excuse to avoid being home after school.  I was proud to join my teammate, Carl Christiansen (the flying NPHS Norweigan) as a member of our team’s 1000 mile (run in practice) club, which was recognized with a t-shirt and a life time of knee pain. 

How did growing up at a child of the 60s – and all the social baggage and impact that it may have entailed – impact you at the time and in your young adult years? 

I totally missed any action as a child of the sixties.  I was told that Woodstock was the area where kosher chickens were raised, not my social consciousness.  As a college freshman, I found a voice and in April 1970, participated in protests that led to the shutdown of Rutgers following the US invasion of Cambodia.  I came back to NPHS, met with a few teachers and then with students to share our passion to end the war in Vietnam.

Explain why you and your wife Karen were in Vietnam in 2016 (see photo below).

We were on a medical mission to Vietnam for Project Vietnam.  The goal of the organization is to support change on behalf of children’s health. Nearly 100 children had cleft lip and palate repairs by our team as they trained Vietamese surgical teams at Military Hospital 175  in Ho Chi Minh City.  We delivered educational programs for Vietnamese physicians, psychologists and educators at the Children’s Hospitals in the North and South, and at the teachers college on ADHD, ASD and learning issues.  We then visited a series of small schools for disabled children and met with child advocates.  Quite an experience (and great food!).  

Marc and Karen Lerner, Hoàn Kiem Lake, Hanoi, March 2016

Michael Maresca Is a Runner Who Is Driven: He's Jogged 70,000 Miles -- And He Hopes to Hit 100,000

Michael Maresca, interviewed here by WTSP-TV, hopes to crack 100,000 as a long-distance runner.

Michael Maresca, NPHS class of 1969, has a passion for running.  Check out this recent interview  with WTSP-TV(Tampa, FL) where Michael explained his love for the sport, discussed some of the favorite places he's run and revealed that he's jogged 70,000 miles.  The interview starts seven minutes into the video clip.  Michael and his wife Gerda are expected to be at the October reunion.

NPHS Reunion Interview: Judy Nazemetz, Class of 1968

Describe your career. 

Judy Nazemetz, 2018, Los Angeles

I'm a performer, and that includes acting, singing, and dancing. My forte is comedy, though, when I can't make 'em laugh, I love making 'em cry. I'm also a songwriter and have released 2 albums of comedy songs, VARIETY PAK and BALANCING ACT. I've improvised, taught improv and I keep up my comedy chops by doing sketch comedy with the great Fred Willard. judnazemetzmusic.com  and  judynazemetz.com

 Where do you live now? 

I live in Los Angeles, after having lived in North Plainfield after college, then Weehawken, NJ; then New York City; Studio City, CA; Sherman Oaks, CA; and now Valley Village (North Hollywood), CA.

What was your sense of community in your class/in the school at NPHS?  

I felt a deep sense of community. In high school, I was in many classes with the same kids I'd gone to Stony Brook School with. And I loved 6th grade at Harrison School, when the Stony Brook and West End 6th graders were together. When I was a senior and worked as a cashier at Castroll's, Lou Carlucci and David Siegel also worked there and I used to see parents of many of my classmates there. I knew what everybody was eating! And, a PS here. Years later, when I was doing a comedy gig in NYC, in a small performing space up a rickety flight of stairs in the theatre district, I went behind the bar and found an empty bottle of 5v. You'd have thought I'd found gold! I told everybody there about Vitelli Brothers and those little bottles of soda, and why that bottle of 5v meant so much to me! Yes, the sense of community had extended into New York City and, again, into my life.

What experiences in high school, positive or negative, helped to shape you as a person? 

My modern dance training with Mrs. Schuman taught me to create and to focus and to work as part of a team, all qualities necessary for anyone in the arts. Our glorious first dance assembly, 7 pieces based on the music "The Planets", in which we danced the astrological essences of 7 planets, as defined by composer Gustav Holst, was stopped less than halfway through because the boys in the auditorium wouldn't stop yelling, mocking, and making fun of us dancers on stage in our leotards and tights. I was making my entrance presenting Saturn, the planet of old age, as the heavy maroon curtains closed on me. How did this shape me? It shaped me to be fearless. To go out and do what I train to do, to go out and do what I do, no matter the audience response. Key for any improviser or actor. This experience also influenced my volunteer work when my daughter was in grammar school. I made it my mission to bring music and dance assemblies to all classes in the K-5 school, and to teach the children how to be a good audience. Happy to report I succeeded.

Do you have any regrets about your experiences during your high school years? 

Absolutely no regrets. Oh, perhaps that I never really learned to play chess. I tried, at the Canteens, but it never stuck.

Now, 50 years later, has your perspective on your high school years changed at all? 

If so, how? I used to think everyone loved high school, just as I did. Then I met people who hated their high school years. For me, NPHS was great school. A terrific education and great extracurricular activities.

What is your fondest memory of your years at NPHS?  

I have to go back to 7th or 8th grade here (but, hey, we were all connected then) and I fondly remember David Schmedes getting an appendicitis attack in Mr. Kanter's math class. 

What was the craziest or stupidest thing you did in high school?  

I volunteered to be Decorations Chairman for our Junior Prom and worked for weeks getting all the giant daisies ready. A few days before the prom, I didn't even have a date and assumed I wouldn't go. But, Richard Quigley came to my rescue and I went.

What was your proudest accomplishment in high school? 

I'd have to say that it was getting my parents to go to my junior prom. All class officers' parents chaperoned. My parents had never gone to a prom. My mom made her gown. That night, when the band struck up a polka, only four couples got on the dance floor to do the polka. My parents, me and Richard, Linda Shebey and her date, and one more couple. My folks got an ovation! A proud moment for me!

Who was your favorite teacher? 

Mrs. Schuman, for showing me the world of arts and music. Miss Gordon, for letting us sing folk songs in English class. And, Miss O'Brien, for not giving me a failing grade when I wouldn't speak during Great Books discussions and then for letting me out of Great Books for a few months to make a movie with Mr. Dietzman. Oh, and I also had another English teacher one year who had an enormous effect on me. I can't even remember her name. That year, because of certain courses I had to schedule, I couldn't take English with all the other kids who'd I'd been in class with. I was put into an English class with all jocks and football players. I knew no one. I was incredibly shy and self-conscious. The teacher said we'd have to do oral book reports. I was so scared. I picked a book years too young for me. I got up in front of the class and fumbled, stumbled and finished, with tears in my eyes and knowing I sucked. The teacher just took me aside and said I had a week to prepare to do it again, but in front of a completely different class of hers. Strangers. She challenged me to face my fear. The second time, I flew. I soared. She'd seen potential in me and asked me to rise to the occasion. If I could remember her name, I'd thank her.

What was your worst class? 

Chemistry. Worst in college, too. Once, in a college chem lab, we had to boil water and add something to it and test it. Everyone around me was boiling water and finishing the experiment and walking out of class. At 45 minutes, my water hadn't even boiled. Then, the TA looked up, saw me, came over and discovered I was using a faulty Bunsen burner. No heat. Yes, Bunsen burner incident #2 (see below). I had no luck with chemistry.

What is your most powerful or haunting memory during your years at NPHS? 

Two things. One, the death of Irene Hutnick. She was our cheerleading advisor and, on Thanksgiving, she never showed up for the game and we couldn't figure out why. Later, we found out this beautiful woman -- inside and out -- committed suicide because of a rejection from a boy. I vowed to never let a guy make me feel like that. And, two, the time that my chemistry lab partner, Ricky Smith, set his hair on fire as he jokingly showed me how well he could handle a Bunsen burner. 

How did growing up at a child of the 60s – and all the social baggage and impact that it may have entailed – impact you at the time and in your young adult years? 

Judy Nazemetz in the late 1980s performing as
her hippie character Sparrow in "All that Naz"

The most horrific day of my life was Kent State. To be so let down by our government. I felt unsafe. I tried to finish the semester but was so emotionally distraught that I left my sophomore year early and went home. A couple of years later, I was working in Plainfield and every day saw a young man -- maybe my age -- out robotically walking his dog. Someone told me he'd been in Vietnam and this was the result. I just felt completely helpless. Empty. 

Were you a student at Kent State in the spring of 1970?

No, I was a student at University of Rhode Island. However, we had all been marching, going to rallies, protesting, taking part in whatever way we could, feeling we could make a difference...then, the shots. It was as if they went through me. I went from feeling powerful and hopeful, to feeling powerless, helpless, and afraid. I tried to make it through second semester but most of the URI students had already left, taking pass/fail grades. I so wanted to finish but was so downhearted I just left and took my grades pass/fail. I especially wanted to get a good grade in Urban Sociology -- the teacher was so awful and mocked me for coming to class in my gym clothes ('cause I didn't have time to change and run across campus to get to the class on time) but it was not to be.

NPHS Reunion Interview: Mike Watson, Class of 1968

Mike and Bonnie Watson

Describe your career in 100 words or less.
I spend almost my entire career as an electrician.  I also worked 38 years in the motion picture industry.  I was a post-sound technician and ended my career as a post-sound wireman foreman.  I retired in May, 2014.

Where do you live now?
I live in Arroyo Grande, California (almost halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco).  After retiring, I moved from southern California to San Luis Obispo County, California where Arroyo Grande is located.  Among the places I've lived since leaving North Plainfield: Minnesota (1968-69), Mt. Pleasant, Iowa (1970-71) and Santa Monica, California, beginning in 1976.

What was your sense of community in the high school?
I attended young life meetings for a year.  I was in Cub Scouts and then Boy Scouts.  And for a time I was with the Sea Scouts.

What experiences in high school -- positive or negative -- helped to shape you as a person?
Everything turned out pretty well so I would like to dwell on the positive and point to the friendships I made and kept.

Do you have any regrets about your experiences during high school?
Not studying harder and not getting better grades.

Now, 50 years later, has your perspective on high school changed at all?
For a while I thought that I had totally squandered my chances for success in any field. But I found something I loved to do.  They say if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life!

What are your fondest memories of your years at North Plainfield High School?
Some of my fondest memories were hanging out with my good friends.  I had a solid family life.  It was really great that my dad came to all of my football games.

Mike Watson, on his sailboat, off the coast of Catalina Island (California), 1976.