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By Philip Newman
Long before Abraham Beame became New York's 104th mayor, he stood before Richmond Hill High School students, imparting the principles of bookkeeping, the field at which he excelled and inspired his campaign slogan decades later: ‘He Knows the Buck.”
Beame, who died at age 94 on Feb. 10, taught school at Richmond Hill during some of America’s toughest times — from the Great Depression through World War II.
In the elegantly detailed, wood-paneled office of Richmond Hill Principal Susan Feldman is a huge ledger that evokes, if not a Dickensian counting house, surely an era without computers or fax machines.
The tome is as thick as a Manhattan telephone directory, with 15-by-20-inch pages containing the typed names of faculty members and notes on who was absent or late to work. It covers the period from September 1939 to February 1955.
There, listed between math teacher William Andrews and history and civics instructor Henry Behn, is the name Abraham Beame followed by his teaching job description: Accounting and Business Practices.
Looking at what the Board of Education then called Monthly Report – Personnel in the spring of 1941, the reader discovers that Beame had a perfect record. No absences. No lateness. It was that same throughout his teaching career, although his excellent record was not exclusive. The work ethic may have been stronger then, but it was also a time when millions of Americans had no jobs and the specter of unemployment hovered over most of the rest.
The future mayor's time clock cards indicated that his work day began at 8 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m. with Beame usually punching in anywhere from 7:50 a.m. to 7:59 a.m. and leaving sometimes as late as 3:15 p.m.
Beame’s career as a civil servant began in 1946 when he left his high school post to take a job as an assistant budget director for the city. The job paid more than $9,000 a year, surely a princely sum in comparison with the salary of a teacher. He was elected city comptroller in 1961.
Beame’s extraordinary grasp of finance, in evidence since he was a teenager, became his stock in trade when he ran for mayor in 1973. It was reflected in his campaign slogan, “He Knows the Buck.”
Although he is remembered as the mayor who presided over the near-financial collapse of New York City, many observers point to his predecessor, Mayor John Lindsay, as responsible for the crushing debts that brought on the crisis. Beame was widely praised for ordering massive belt-tightening and refusing to declare bankruptcy for the city.
Richmond Hill High has changed in many ways since Beame’s era, but time has not diminished the architecturally distinguished look of the imposing stone and brick school at 89-30 114th St. that opened in 1929, about the time Beame joined the faculty. The first school building opened on the same site in 1899 and was demolished to make way for the present structure.
The students of long ago tended to be of Irish, German and other European descent. Now they are predominantly from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and other Asian nations along with Latinos of many countries and Guyana.
Unlike, those days, Richmond Hill, with an enrollment of more than 3,000, now conducts double sessions of classes.
Several alumni who went on to achieve fame include Phil Rizzuto, Mae West, Cyndi Lauper, Jack Cassidy, Steve Whitting and Rodney Dangerfield.
Class of ‘45 alumnae Dorothy Berks of Orient, N.Y., and her longtime friend, Lorie Betke Greeley, who lives near Philadelphia, both remember Beame at Richmond Hill High, although as students pursuing academic rather than commercial studies, they were not in his classes.
“We were so delighted those years later when he was elected mayor,” Berks said. “And surprised, too,” added Greeley.
In some ways, it still seems much like schools of a distant yesteryear. You can walk in the front door at will even though there are unobtrusive security personnel on duty.
“We have no metal detectors,” said Pat Brand, College Office secretary. “We have a nice group of students in our school.”
At intervals, orchestral music fills the corridors, the signal for students to pour out of classrooms.
“We have classical music instead of bells to signal changes in classes,” said Brand. Asked whether the students like the classical tradition, she replied with a laugh, “Oh, we get a few complaints.”
As for Richmond Hill High School's most famous accounting instructor, he seems to have taken seriously its motto: “Reach for the Stars.”
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 136.
