I just learned that my old classmate, David Zeibel, had died. I was told that he had been unwell for several years, reduced to getting around with a walker, and then succumbing. The news was disturbing because I always had in mind to call him and to propose a meeting. Knowing that such a call was now useless left me in an awful state.
I remember David very well from our three years at Music and Art. We were both art students, often working in the same art studio. He was a wiz of a painter, producing very impressive canvases as though effortlessly. In fact whatever he attempted, he did so with ease and grace. After painting I think he loved sports and basketball in particular. He had the build for sports, not gangly like many adolescents, but of medium height David was compact and solid. He exuded health and confidence.
I trekked a number of times up to his home in the Bronx on Allerton Avenue, near the Bronx Botanical Gardens. I met his mother and his brother, his friends and his girlfriend Leah who he eventually married. David’s mother was a courageous woman for she was working and raising her two sons by herself. She was strong and confident about the future.
The class of 1940 was proud about being the first full class at the school. We knew full well how lucky we were to be charter members of the experiment in education of specialized schools. We had seen and heard Mayor Fiorello La Guardia address the whole school in the auditorium when he declared his pride in giving birth to his baby: The High School of Music and Art. We were so privileged to have great teachers, mostly not much older than the students. We were never treated with condescension. The place was too small for that. We could talk to our teachers.
I was thrilled to be in the company of so many talented people. And no one found the long hours of our school day a problem. Like David I lived in the Bronx also so we made the ascent and descent of St. Nicholas Park on 135th Street to and from Convent Avenue every day.
Those were fateful days. World War II would begin within a year and a half of our graduation. Everyone moved in different directions. I heard that David was involved in coaching, mostly basketball. And later his interests led him to the game of golf. I always thought that he could have made a career as an artist. He certainly demonstrated great promise in that area. But I knew that whatever professional path David took he would excel in it and above all he would always be surrounded by family and friends that loved him. (9/27/06)