Bronx Community College
Legacy Award
Mr. Howard Stein & Ms. Beverly Spitzer
oward Stein and Beverly Spitzer both believe in the absolute importance of a college education for young people today. Long-term supporters of Bronx Community College, their commitment stems from their understanding of the emphasis BCC places on academics and new experiences as the way to open student minds.
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For Spitzer, college is important because it’s where students begin to seriously learn responsibility. “College gives students opportunities to expand their minds and take courses that open up new arenas they might not have considered or explored”. Now 76, she once managed her own interior decorating company and helped start a fabric protection company called Fiber-Seal.
Stein incorporated RiteCheck Check Cashing & Financial Services Center in 1956. It now has eight branches in the Bronx and four in Harlem. Although he never went to college, Bronx Community College’s campus has always been special to him. He was 6-years old in 1926 when his hard working parents moved to West Burnside Avenue, two blocks from the campus.
“My father drove a taxi. My mother set up a beauty parlor manicure table in our apartment. She made 25 cents a client doing manicures and eyebrows. These quarters helped keep us above water,” says Stein, who turns 90 in July.
Stein attended the Bronx High School of Science the first year it opened, where he studied French, but didn’t think it would help get him a job. He transferred to Commerce High School where he learned shorthand, typing and bookkeeping skills. This helped him get a job in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in Canada, with the United States War Department’s Division of Engineers. He returned to New York in 1942 and was drafted into the Army, where he became a second lieutenant. Upon being honorably discharged, he worked in General Douglas MacArthur’s Tokyo-based headquarters before returning home.
For BCC students, Stein offers this advice: “Figure out the choices you want to make in life. A college education is important on your resume for your future career. Honesty, integrity and family values helped me to move forward in my life. One thing more to remember, you maintain your humanity by always having empathic feelings for everybody.”
Spitzer offers this advice: “Treat every day as the first day to reach for your dreams, never have limits, believe in your heart. If you believe in yourself all things are possible.”
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