My Life Story

Jack Schwartzman

[1998]

Jack Schwartzman is the possessor of two earned doctorates, Ph.D. (N.Y.U.) and JS.D. (Brooklyn Law School). He is also a graduate of the prestigious Townsend Harris High School. As an attorney in New York State, he practiced law for 55 years, retiring in 1993. He is editor-in-chief of Fragments, an international individualist magazine; author of three books and several hundred articles; and public speaker, having delivered over a thousand talks. At Nassau Community College, N.Y., he was professor of English for thirty years (1964-1994), winning, in 1974 (the very first year of NCC's participation), the N.Y. State Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1975, he was appointed to the state-wide Distinguished Professorship Review Committee, and his profile appeared on the cover of the college's Speakers Bureau brochure. In 1990, a Dr. Jack Schwartzman Scholarship for qualifying students was established in his name. When he retired from teaching (at eighty-two) with the rank of Professor Emeritus, he received from Dr. Sean A. Fanelli, president of the college, the following letter: "Your retirement signals the end of an era. Your dedication, your enthusiasm, your instructional talents, ... abilities, ... and your happy smile will be sorely missed.... Upon your retirement, you will rightfully assume the designation of 'legend.'"

Schwartzman was also associated with the Henry George School in New York City for sixty years (on and off). He taught numerous classes, initiating a one-year course, "The History of Economic Thought." His classes were so large that they were held in the auditorium. He co-founded two branches of The Henry George School, in Seattle and San Francisco. He is member of: Board of Trustees of The Henry George School, Board of Directors of the Henry George Institute, Council of Georgist Organizations, etc.

He also taught mathematics in Rhodes School in New York City from 1956 to 1960.

Born in 1912 in Ukraine (then part of Russia), Schwartzman and his family fled from the Soviet Union in the 1920s, finally settling in the U.S. He served in the Army of the U.S. in World War II (1942-1946), rising from private to captain, and received the Army Commendation Ribbon (1947) for "extraordinary skill and application to his task."

Schwartzman is the author of the much reprinted, acclaimed, and translated prose poem, "Lilacs" (1966), and Rebels of Individualism (1949), which was reviewed by Fletcher A. Russell in the Chicago Daily News on June 8, 1949, as follows (in part): "Writing in English that is as pure and beautiful as that of the old masters, Schwartzman prefaces his volume with an introduction that is as powerful an appeal for individualism as I have ever read."

Thomas S. Gulotta, County Executive of Nassau County, N.Y., proclaimed March 22,1991, as "Dr. Jack Schwartzman Day," and issued a similar Proclamation in honor of Schwartzman's 85th birthday on March 22, 1997.

His biographic sketch appears in Who's Who in the World and other Who's Who volumes. He is a member of the National Association of Scholars, N.Y. Academy of Sciences, Thoreau Society, Emerson Society, etc. He is determined to continue writing and speaking - to the end of his days.