2008 Woodie Awards
Looking Back: My Yeshiva College Years
Henry Kressel
Issue date: 3/8/05 Section: YUdaica
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Preparation for a medical or legal career was the objective of many of the students. A career in physics was of interest to very few students. These were the early years of modern electronics and vacuum tubes were the enabling components. Computers were just emerging from the laboratory, the transistor had been invented only a few years back and nobody dreamed of the Internet. The computing tool of choice was the mechanical calculator or the slide rule. Career options in physics were limited to employment in a few laboratories (such as Bell Labs or RCA Labs) and academia. Of course, a PhD from a top school was essential. Therefore, the focus of the college program had to be preparation for the prestigious graduate schools of which Harvard and MIT were on top of the list. It is not surprising that the number of physics majors was small -- I don't think that it exceeded half a dozen in an average class during the 1950's. There were a dozen mathematics majors and I took many courses with them. Dr. Henry Lisman and Dr. Jekuthiel Ginsburg taught the advanced mathematics courses with great distinction. (Noteworthy among my classmates was Harry Furstenberg who received his PhD from Princeton University and went on to a brilliant academic career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.)
Physics major benefited from almost private instruction. The only physics class with a significant enrollment was the introductory course taught by Dr. Perez Posen which was mandatory for pre-med and chemistry majors. This course included a lab of a relatively rudimentary sort which was not taken seriously by the physics "pros," but was torture for most of the pre-meds. Since the pre-meds needed A's in the course while usually demonstrating modest interest in the subject matter, Dr. Posen had a challenging teaching mission.
The more advanced courses were taught by Dr. Arnold Lowan. The classes were small, the students dedicated, and the standards much more demanding. It was in those classes that serious work was done. Among these students were found enthusiasts who actually enjoyed solving physics problems not on the assigned list and I remember "fun" problem solving sessions lasting late into the night. Dr. Lowan added a very valuable dimension to his teaching: Each student was expected to prepare a full lecture on a new topic to present to the class. Having to prepare a lecture on difficult new material was a very valuable lesson in self study. In fact, the acquired habit of self study made my life a lot easier in graduate school and later on as I had to master new fields of knowledge.
Crowded as the schedule was, we had the opportunity to take non technical courses with outstanding teachers. Dr. David Fleisher's introduction to the English literature classics was unforgettable as were his jokes which did not change from year to year. The standard ritual was to stay up the night before finals in group reviews of the material. The system worked because I have continued my interest in English literature. However, the course with greatest impact for me at Yeshiva was the one taught by Herman Wouk, the famous novelist. During my senior year (1954-1955) he gave a course in composition to a small class of selected students. The class assignments consisted of reading world literature classics and of creative writing assignments. He then carefully edited each piece and met with each student in his home to review the papers. I have never forgotten the lessons learned from one of the greatest contemporary masters of the English language. I must also mention the French literature course taught by Dr. Sidney Braun which introduced us to the classics and gave us the opportunity to contribute to a student publication called Le Flambeau. Here again, I have a maintained a life long interest in French literature.
Extracurricular activities were an important part of my education. As a freshman, I quickly gave up any ideas of doing sports after a short attempt at fencing and joined the staff of The Commentator. I eventually became feature editor with the privilege of frequently writing feature stories on topics that I found interesting. Among these was a story after my visit to the Packard Junior College facility that later became Stern College for Women. Writing features was a great experience in "professional" creative writing. I also benefited from my stint as editor-in-chief of Masmid.
After graduation, many of the pre-meds had the good fortune to enter the first class of Yeshiva's Albert Einstein College of Medicine. I left Yeshiva for Harvard University's Applied Physics graduate program, following in the footsteps of Arnold Knoll. The first semester proved difficult - the amount of material covered in each course was large, the teaching pace fast, teacher expectations very high and competition from fellow students was fierce. Thanks to my solid grounding in math and physics, however, the adjustment period was short and the second semester proved to be much less stressful.
I began my professional career doing electronics research at the RCA Laboratories. My first project in 1960 was developing a silicon transistor, which became the core electronic device in early computers. This was just the start of microelectronics, of course. Over time, using new technologies, I helped develop integrated circuits which eventually contained millions of transistors on one chip. These devices made possible desk top computer having many times the processing power of mainframe computers of the 1960's. It is important to remember that technological advances always leverage fundamental physical and chemical principles.
In the 1970's I had the opportunity to participate in one of the Yeshiva University activities as a part time lecturer at the [now defunct] Belfer Graduate School of Science and sponsor of one of the PhD level students, Yehuda Juravel. As luck would have it, I met him by accident at Ben Gurion Airport on one my trips to Israel. He made aliyah after graduation and worked for one of the leading electro-optics company in Israel.
In conclusion, I look back to my years at Yeshiva with great appreciation for the secular and Jewish education I received. Thanks to devoted and talented teachers, I acquired the intellectual tools that prepared me for my career.
Dr. Henry Kressel, YC '55, is a Managing Director at Warburg Pincus, a global venture capital firm where he is responsible for investments in high technology companies. In July 2004, Dr. Kressel was elected to the Board of Directors of the Sy Syms School of Business of Yeshiva University.