Remembering Benjamin R. Burdsall, 1903-1968

Got to thinking about Benjamin R. Burdsall this week as our Upper School faculty has been doing its own thinking about recipients of our annual awards for the Upper School closing ceremony on June 9. Today seems a good day to remember who Mr. Burdsall was for so many at BFS and why BFS gives a scholarship in his memory. BFS encourages the entire BFS community to be deeply involved in and concerned with the life of the school. Among the myriad opportunities for involvement are celebrating reunions at Alumni Day and attending special events like the Spring Gala, giving annually to the Brooklyn Friends Fund, volunteering as a PAT class parent, a Brooklyn Friends Fund class agent or as a guest speaker at BFS - contact the Development and Alumni Office at 718-852-1029, ext. 211 or ext. 208 to learn about such opportunities and much more. BFS also encourages giving to the school to honor and celebrate special people and milestones in our lives. 

One special gift celebrated a 50th reunion and was sufficient to create a separate endowment fund which has enabled BFS to annually remember our 1934-1968 English teacher and Upper School Head Benjamin R. Burdsall, 1903-1968. Thanks to the generosity of the BFS Class of '49 in celebration of its 50th reunion, BFS has given an Upper School junior the Benjamin R. Burdsall Scholarship of $500 towards his/her senior year's tuition for the last decade. The recipient demonstrates the commitment to public service that Mr. Burdsall encouraged in his students and the scholarship helps BFS honor its excellent students of today who emulate the enduring values of a Brooklyn Friends education, the same values Mr. Burdsall helped his students develop in themselves. Through his actions and words and his deep sense of responsibility and commitment to international law and peace, Mr. Burdsall guided his students at BFS to a deeper and more internalized understanding of Quakerism, of what the values of integrity and excellence, compassion and community can help achieve for our own selves and for our world.

After his death, the Class of '69 included this line in their yearbook: "Benjamin R. Burdsall was a man of that peace and gentleness which inspired love in all who met him." One '69 graduate included the following on his personal page of that yearbook: "Mr. Benjamin Burdsall - The only person I had ever met who always had time to guide and advise no matter how complicated or trivial the question or problem." In the words of his student, the late L. Ronald Scheman '49, founder of the Pan American Development Foundation, "I am sure today Mr. Burdsall would be deeply involved in getting students to address the issues of climate change, nuclear non-proliferation, and education. In all, he was a man who, with his gentle, caring manner, opened the world to us and wanted to help his students to be positive, constructive global citizens. If he had the opportunity to talk to BFS students today I am sure he would ask them about their primary concerns for our country and for ensuring the health and safety of our planet. And he would give them a lot to think about to help them define the vision for their lives. "

For generations at BFS, Mr. Burdsall inspired many of his students and the Class of '49 was further inspired to give that inspiration back to BFS. How are we inspired today, individually and collectively, and by whom and by what? 

Tribute to Mr. Benjamin R. Burdsall from the October 30, 1968 edition of The Life

Mr. Burdsall must have had a fine sense of humor as shown
on the right in this photo from a 1940s BFS Variety Show

In Meeting
by Benjamin R. Burdsall
published in Friends Journal, June 15, 1968

My ship is now in harbor;

Its sails are furled,

And gentle waves

Make peaceful murmurings

Along the shore

My friends are here to greet me

And to tell

Of what is closest to their hearts

Now that the journey of the week is o'er.

Tomorrow I shall once more set the sails

And head again for an uncertain sea,

But I shall have a compass and a star

And vision that this hour has given me.

Join us for Alumni Day, June 7

Dick Begelman, 1968

BFS Alumni Day is June 7 and it will be a fabulous event as always. Our annual Alumni Day is for all alumni, faculty and friends. Alumni of all graduating years are welcome, yet Alumni Day is also the day for alumni class reunions. BFS often recognizes faculty at Alumni Day and this year we are delighted to honor Dick Begelman, English and Drama teacher from 1967 to 1988. Mr. Begelman will be there and we hope you will be too.  For more information, please contact Director of Alumni Lekeia Varlack, lvarlack@brooklynfriends.org. 

BFS Alumni Day Schedule, Saturday, June 7, 2014
1:00 pm - Alumni Basketball Game, 375 Pearl Street Gymnasium
2:00 pm - Tour of School Buildings at Pearl and Willoughby
3:00 pm - Meeting for Worship, 375 Pearl Street Meetinghouse
4:00 pm - Celebration of former Upper School teacher Dick Begelman
4:30 pm to 7:00 pm - Cocktail Party toasting Alumni, Special reunion classes, and Faculty

Thought it might be fun to take a look back at when Mr. Begelman first came to BFS. We are fortunate to have several issues of The Life from his first year at BFS, 1967-1968. Of course, Mr. Begelman had numerous mentions in The Life over the years, but readers can discover them and much more on their own in the Newspapers Section of the BFS Digital Archives. 

Mr. Begelman was first mentioned in the October 10, 1967 edition of The Life article, "Varied Backgrounds Distinguish Faculty" on page 1. Mr. Begelman was first hired as a reading specialist for the Upper School. At the time, the Upper School consisted of grades 7-12 and the Lower School, grades K-6; our Middle School was created a few years later. 

A terrific feature about Mr. Begelman, "Versatile Teacher Instructs in Reading; Experienced in Dramatics, Film-Making," is on page 2 of the March 26, 1968 issue of The Life, and it was written by Alexandra Levitt '71, author of the highly acclaimed, Deadly Outbreaks: How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites. On Alumni Day, perhaps we will learn if Mr. Begelman's favorite book is still "the dictionary." 

Hope you can join us for BFS Alumni Day on June 7!

BFS "head" count. Heads of school, that is...

Stuart Smith, 1968 to 1978

Since 1867, BFS has had 19 heads of school, not including interim heads. Over the years, the title of our school's highest administrative role has evolved from principal to headmaster to today's head of school. The history of each administration is unique, fascinating and lengthy, so today I'll only give the list of BFS heads of school and a few facts I find interesting, including the fact that only nine of the nineteen BFS heads of school were Quakers. 

BFS 9 Years Ago: A Video Interview with Gil Zalman

Thoughts this week turn to the many wonderful people we know and have known at BFS, particularly those no longer with us. Such thoughts make me feel fortunate to have worked with the late Gilbert Zalman. I so enjoyed my occasional conversations with Gil over the years that I envied his students their near-daily opportunity to learn with and from him. We're only human and we often take things and people for granted, so I know I may not have been able to appreciate Gil as much at a young age as I continue to appreciate him as an adult and as his colleague.

A rare find, 19th Century student remembers his BFS days

Found tucked away in the archives several years ago is this item written by Henry Morris Haviland, recalling his student days at BFS from 1872 to 1876.  Such items are quite a find for our school, especially since Mr. Haviland explained the locations of the classrooms in the lower level of the Brooklyn Meeting House. Our school was smaller in those early days and the entire school was conducted in the Brooklyn Meeting House, of course. I love his nickname "Hash," but I think I love even more the phrase once heard regularly in our school, "Go to the Social Union room." 

Henry M. Haviland's Reminiscences of Friends School

Video archives return with Forward to the Past, 1989

Forward to the Past - Finale - 1989

Do you remember Forward to the Past: Historical Hysterical Follies of Brooklyn Friends School? That was the 1989 musical about BFS - written and produced by BFS community members who also starred in the production. Forward to the Past was about an alien named T.E. from the far-distant future. T.E. was a budding cultural anthropologist visiting the planet Earth in the great search for "friendly" peoples. The actual site of T.E.'s visit just happened to be 375 Pearl Street in Brooklyn where he stumbled upon a trunk of memorabilia and shared its contents with his superiors in outer space. They learned a bit of Brooklyn Friends School's history and learned it has always been a friendly place. This rainy Thursday, let's look at the finale of Forward to the Past which features our first principal Mary Haviland leading the cast in song.

History, Weiss Style - 40 years ago...

Welcome back to a new year at Brooklyn Friends School! For those who may not have attended opening days at BFS this year, Head of School Larry Weiss pointed out that it has been 40 years since he first came to BFS, at the start of the 1973-74 school year. Our former student newspaper The Life actually published the article below about Larry in its November, 1973 edition.

Our First Meeting for Worship, 1941

Meeting for Worship is such an important element of the Brooklyn Friends School experience that it is difficult to imagine that it did not exist in its present form at Brooklyn Friends School until October 30, 1941. We can thank Douglas G. Grafflin and S. Archibald Smith, two former BFS Heads of School, for introducing the Meeting for Worship we know today to both Brooklyn Friends School and