Baruch Valentines: Lifetime Partnerships

[Reprinted from the Spring 1996 issue of Baruch Today]

Although “Frosh Chapel,” as the weekly orientation program for Baruch freshmen was once affectionately known, no longer exists, a romance it sparked is still going strong.

It was there, 62 years ago, that Alice Botte (’37)and Franklyn Bonnet (’37) met. “It was everything about her,” Franklyn says simply when asked what attracted him to the young lady who would become his wife. Despite the distances between their homes—he lived in White Plains, she in Bensonhurst—the two scholarship students remained close throughout their college years.

Alice’s parents insisted that Franklyn meet their daughter at their house and that the two double-date with Alice’s brother and his girlfriend. By the time Franklyn took everyone home after a night out, he would literally be sharing the road with the milkman. Fortunately, being students in the same building provided many opportunities to see each other during the day, even though Franklyn was a business and finance major and Alice was an accounting and education major. “He tried very hard to get into the classes I was taking,” says Alice. “As freshmen, we took a history course together, and Franklyn would come to every class and offer me candy.” Student clubs also provided opportunities for courtship. Among their fondest memories together are student outings to Bear Mountain and picnics in the country.

Baruch, then known as the School of Business and Civic Administration, brought Alice and Franklyn together, but the Bonnets credit the College with doing something as important. “Baruch trained us not just for jobs but for life,” says Alice, who is a general partner in Roney and Co., a New York Stock Exchange firm. Franklyn, whose career has spanned banking, accounting, and finance, agrees: “After all these years, we still have wonderful discussions about current events and politics and what is happening in the financial world.”

Although much has changed—in higher education as well as the world—since the Bonnets first met, a Baruch education can still be a wonderful matchmaker. Timothy Stark (’92) and Karen Nelson (’93) are among the newest Baruch couples, having tied the knot just last October.

They met four years earlier, when Tim, as president of the College chapter of the American Marketing Association, was recruiting students to join the club. “Karen walked into the room, and I was suddenly distracted,” he recalls with a smile. While neither claims it was love at first sight, Tim did manage to recruit Karen, who went on to become treasurer of the chapter. “We grew close through working together,” says Karen, an assistant account executive for Ogilvy & Mather.

The partnership they formed in the marketing club has also set a pattern for their married life. “Karen always had to sign off on all my expenditures back then, and she still pays all the bills and keeps the checkbook,” jokes Tim, chief of staff for operations for the Mayor’s Office and a student in the College’s MBA program. “I never expected to find my husband at Baruch,” says Karen. “But the time we spent dating and together at the College was probably the best time of my life.”

Baruch was instrumental in forming another important partnership. Although Claire Rosen (’40) and Eli Mason (’40) knew each other from high school, their friendship blossomed at Baruch. “We were always passing each other in the hallways, and we had friends in common and some classes together, so we grew close,” says Claire.

In 1939-40, New York City hosted the World’s Fair, and the two made frequent excursions there together. Eli took Claire to Radio City Music Hall one evening, and after dinner, he “propositioned” her. “I asked Claire if she would type my senior thesis,” he explains. Back then, students in the Bachelor in Business Arts Program had to complete a research project and write up their findings. Claire not only agreed to type his thesis, she waived the customary $25 fee that harried seniors paid for the service. Their efforts were well rewarded. Eli’s 185-page thesis, “Accounting and Commercial Aspects of a Radiotelegraph Corporation,” won the Wollman Prize, awarded to the best senior thesis.

After graduation, they continued to go out, and two years later they married. “If it weren’t for Baruch, we would have never gotten married,” says Claire, who was a commodities broker before giving up the business world to raise a family.

Can a newly married couple go for their MBAs at the same time and not drive each other crazy? Yes, according to William Fox (’74, MBA ’81) and Joyce Greenwald (’76, MBA ’81), who were married shortly before they returned to Baruch for their graduate degrees. “I think we were able to do it because we were such good friends before we got married,” says Joyce.

Both she and William credit their friendship to their undergraduate days at the College. “There were wonderful people in student services who were great at getting students together and talking,” says William. The Foxes first met in Room 212 of the Student Center, a favorite hangout during the seventies. Students came to the room to do arts and crafts, play guitars and sing, and to have discussions about their lives. William, now assistant controller for CUNY, and Joyce, controller for Jennifer Convertibles, got to know each other better through the activities they were involved with, including student government and the Lamport Leaders Training Society.

A generation earlier, the center of Baruch’s social life was seven floors above Room 212. The whole ninth floor was dedicated to student life, and it was there that Bert Wasserman (’54)
met Sandra Kahn (’55).“There was a huge lounge, where dances and lots of other social activities were held,” recalls Bert, now retired CFO of Time Warner Inc., who wasted no time asking Sandra out. After their first, improbable date—a hayride in Manhattan—they started going to Broadway shows with other Baruch couples. “We sat in the last row of the balcony. Tickets were $1.50 or $2.80, depending on whether it was a straight drama or musical,” recalls Sandra. “Afterwards, we would go out. Howard Johnson’s was about as fancy as we got.”

Though they had few classes together—Bert was an accounting major and Sandra, a poli-sci major—they got to know each other better on campus. They served on student council together—an experience that has helped define their married lives. “It established the fact that I had my own ideals and values, and I expected to have a voice in certain things,” says Sandra, noting that Father Knows Best defined gender roles in the fifties. “With Bert, however, I always knew that my thoughts and skills mattered.”

Today, the Wassermans count among their closest friends some of the couples they first met at Baruch, and, recently, they renewed the friendship of a Baruch couple they had not seen since graduation. “It had been 40 years, and we still had things to share,” says Sandra. “I think that says a lot about the importance of Baruch in our lives.”