Dr. Stephen Leonard Berman's biography

When my Dad was 15 years old his Grandmother had been missing her husband terribly for the last few years, since he had died after a brain operation from a blood clot! The medical field didn't know then as much as they do now, he should have been helped to walk around and not been kept bedridden days after surgery! She was so sad without him, her name was Annie Garfinkel, his name was Louie, she was so distraught she went to the 5th Story of the apartment building and started talking very loudly! "LOUIE, LOUIE, I'M COMING, WAIT FOR ME!" And tragically she jumped to her death! My Grandmother was too emotional and in shock, so my Dad had to go down stairs to the street and identify the body of his Grandma he loved so much and he was very close to! He did that as a selfless act of deep love, empathy and care he had for his Mother! Grandma Annie use to bring him fresh rye and butter as his after school snack! He grew up in Brooklyn, New York! I think my Dad told me it was in the Daily News Paper the story in 1955! He played the piano since age 8, played stick ball, had asthma since age 6, which got better as he grew up, a camp counselor in the summer for under privileged youth! A group of 10 year old boy's one with cerebral palsy that the kids wheeled in a red metal wagon! They served Mac and cheese, ice cream bars and the kids were all very hungry, they swam, he played basketball with them! He was also a sleep away camp counselor from 15-20! He always loved teaching and working with children from when he was a child himself! He was a delivery boy on his bike for "Berman's Pharmacy" his father owned his own Drug Store! Joesph Berman his Father graduated from Columbia University as head of his class and Valedictorian and was very smart, in the genius category as my father was! He was also a very kind, loving and generous man like my Dad was! My Dad taught a ham radio class at the Y at age 25! He was teaching anyone who was interested in how to get their ham radio license, he had passed the Amateur Ham radio 3 hour test at age 15! He was written up in the New York Post for that in 1965! When he had been a sleep away camp counselor this 10 year old boy woke him up crying with 104 fever, he was feeling just awful and had 104 fever and severe stomach pains, my Dad was 18 and woke up the head counselor and told him this young boy was very sick! they found out he had a ruptured appendix, he had got to the hospital just in time to have an operation that saved his life! The boy left camp and went home after sugary, my Dad took him seriously and acted right away to save this scared and sick child! He graduated as a B.S. cum-laude at Brooklyn College, he has a M.A. at Columbia Teachers College, he also a Ph.D. in Education from New York University! He was a Professor as P.A.C.E. University in New York City for 8 years! Then in 1974 he was hired by Inky Clark on the spot, to teach at the elite private school, The Horace Mann School in the high school division, because they liked him so much! Dr. Berman was the 1st Jewish teacher to be working there! He taught selective topics, grades 9 through 12, he taught Geometry, Geometry honors, Algebra, Algebra II, Trigonometry, A.P. Statistics, Statistical Analysis and Social Science, Probability, Student Advisor and Director of Student Clubs! He was written up in the school news paper many, many times, he was a favorite school teacher, the most popular teacher too! Parents who have had him as a teacher in the 1970's sent their own kids back in the 1990's and they'd have the same teacher their Mom or Dad missed and loved so much! He meet many famous people during his teaching career, he taught Walter Cronkite grandson in his Geometry class, Tom Brokaw's kids, Nita Lowey's Kids, Dr. Ruth's kids! He was friends with the people behind the popular 1988 T.V. movie, "The Baby M Case!" Mary Beth Whitehead and Joel Siegel the real people behind the made for T.V. movie, came as famous guest speakers to my Dad's class each year to give a talk! The lawyer Mr. Siegel was my Dad's very good friend, who came every year for 10 years as a personal favor to my Dad and a Dr. Berman class tradition! Mr. Siegel enjoyed talking to my Dad's students about it too! My Dad played the movie to his class before hand so they would understand what the Baby M case was really about and the big deal it was in the mid 1980's! It's about their life and fighting over a mother's birth rights versus the surrogate mother's birth rights to the one baby they both want and love so much! So interesting, controversial and prevalent even today I believe! My Father related the statistics to show his students how you can actually use math in real life and enjoy what you do! Terribly fascinating, the kids didn't want to leave the class when the bell rang they enjoyed the talks and debating too much! He did the same with the movie Kramer vs Kramer, he had the writer Avery Corman come and give a talk about the movie, one of his student was even friends with Justin Henry, Billy Kramer in the Famous Oscar Award winning movie! Avery Corman Also wrote Oh God and Oh God II! Water Cronkite came to the school and gave a talk about his life to the whole school and faculty in the auditorium! It's a very expensive school with only the best and brightest students that work hard and enjoy learning, $50,000 per student! My Dad encouraged many kids who hated math to love and go in to the field of helping people, because he had taught them they had the power to help make a positive difference in the world and change the world for the better! He had created his own course "Statistics and Social Science" to teach his students Wholesome, Golden Rule Values that he truly believed in! His helping them pay it forward and them helping many other people in the course of their life, my Dad had made a positive difference in probably millions of people's lives, through the students he lovingly taught! Fair Court Trails for poor people that couldn't afford their own attorney's to keep things fair and honest! My Dad taught about current events, The O.J. Simpson Trial, The Rodney King Beatings and abuse of power by the police! Multiple Variable Analysis of Covariance! He loved open topics, this is 11th and 12 graders too, basically teenagers being taught graduate level material to help chance the world and make it a better place for everyone to live! He loved sitting down on a top of a desk and just listening to the class's group dissuasions being one of them! He was a cool teacher! They wrote essay's he graded relating it to the math! He tutored them and payed for many of the classroom supplies happily, out of his own pocket, if their needed their needed! He never cut back or cut out things to save money only the best for his students! It true, teachers don't make enough money for all the time, love and dedication they give, countless hours of their valuable lives just to help their students! They do it for the love and passion of teaching, he was "a shoulder to cry on" and acted as a School Counselor many, many times for any students in need! Gave up extra time for anyone who needed help, because he really cared about his students! His work day was he left the house at 6 am. he came home at 6pm, a very long, exhausting day, almost an endless day, but he enjoyed every minute, he had told me and many others numerous times! There was many after school teacher meetings, conferences with parents, calling parents, grading papers, teachers really help raise our kids, give their time and heart to them, all good teachers, my Dad won so many Awards for his Love of Learning, Teaching, Education and Dedication, maybe 30 Awards! He also wrote a 5 star, best selling book about a diabetes research drug study from the 1960's! About the first oral diabetes drug Orinase, they took it off the market do to a flaw in the control group study! A horrible mistake where many diabetes had to switch unnessisarily to insulin and inject themselves 4 times a day and check their blood sugar which was also very hard on their system! Which also let to many terrible side effects! It's an amazing find by my Dad, lots of in depth research went in to making this award winning book and a great read! My Dad was diabetic as well and on insulin! The book is called "Analysis of Covariance, by Dr. Stephen L. Berman@amazon! I hope you all sincerely enjoyed reading my Dad's extraordinary life story! Thank you!