BA '76
The reason why I went to CCNY was that I heard so many good things about professor Irving Rosenthal and his undergraduate journalism program. I was happy to take some summer courses in 1973, and everything was wonderful after that. Professor Rosenthal was so encouraging. The other professor who made an impression on me was Ross Alexander, who was a playwright. He was very practical, a very good writer, and a very good teacher. At that point, the Communications Department hired people who were not necessarily teachers but who were in the field and doing certain types of writing. The other great author and teacher that I met was Francine du Plessix Gray. I was very honored when she recommended a couple columns that I wrote to the New York Times for an op-ed piece. She opened the door for me. I became a member of the campus newspaper, and I did reviews of movies and National Lampoon shows. It gave me encouragement that, 'Yes, maybe I can write for a living.' I got a full-time job at Chemical Market Reporter and got a lot of experience. The best thing that happened at that job was that I met my wife, Marian. We've been married for 40 years. I eventually worked at Fairchild Publications. I worked as a reporter for electronic news and went to a couple of other places. After four years, I eventually went back to Fairchild. For most of my career, I was an editor-in-chief. I was the editor of the International CES Daily from around 1990 until 2014. For about five or six years after that, I did some freelance work, so I'm semi-retired. In 2016, I was proud to be voted in the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame for my journalism. The opportunities that I got, the lessons I learned, and the people I met at CCNY opened up my world. It gave me the basics of not only learning my trade, but to do it with integrity.