Girls fit right in at Science, reunited class of '49 recalls

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Paula Cullen was part of the first class at the Bronx High School of Science that allowed girls. But Ms. Cullen, 82, who graduated from the lauded high school in 1949, said she never felt out of place. 

“All the girls, we just blended in,” she said. “[The boys] were nice to us.” Ms. Cullen, 82, said she liked chemistry and other science classes, and she eventually went into teaching after attending Hunter College. When asked if she had a favorite memory from Bronx Science, Ms. Cullen choked up and had to regain her composure.

“I just get emotional,” she said. “It was the best education I ever had, including college. It taught me how to think.”

Last week, Ms. Cullen was at a small, informal reunion of graduates from Bronx Science’s class of 1949. Gerald Pinsky gathered about a half dozen men and women, all in their eighties, at the Blue Bay Restaurant at 3533 Johnson Ave. 

“Well, there was nobody else doing it, so I decided to do it myself,” he explained.

Mr. Pinsky, who suffers from congestive heart failure, had someone help him gather names and addresses and sent letters to as many people as he could. 

“One of the reasons I’m doing this is to show it’s useful having me around,” joked Mr. Pinsky, 83.

Barbara Rubinstein, 84, was another one of the first girls at Bronx Science.

“Girls going to other schools were taking classes like home economics, things like that. We were taking labs. I loved it.” Ms. Rubinstein said. “I liked machine shop; I liked mechanical drawing.”

Ms. Rubinstein was joined at the table by her husband, the gregarious lawyer Robert Rubinstein.

“I went to this school because it was all boys,” Mr. Rubinstein, 83, joked. “And the first year they make it coed and I met my wife!” 

Memories of classmates dominated the conversation at the restaurant. The graduates were especially proud of fellow class of 1949 alumnus Melvin Schwartz, who co-won the 1988 Noble Prize in Physics. Mr. Schwartz died in 2006. 

“I don’t mean to boast, but I was in the same class as Mel Schwartz and I got a better grade in physics,” Mr. Pinsky said.

“We were the best high school in the United States,” said retired Marine Stanley Cohen, 84.

When it was pointed out that the High School for American Studies at Lehman College now ranks higher than Bronx Science on a national list, Mr. Cohen took offense.

“How many Nobel Prizes do they have?” he demanded. None, is the answer. (To be fair, the school was founded just 13 years ago.)

“Well we have eight,” Mr. Cohen said with a satisfied smile. “I’ll put the kids in Bronx Science up against any others in the world. Not just the United States, but in the world.”

Bronx Science, Paula Cullen, Gerald Pinsky, Blue Bay Restaurant, Isabel Angell

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