Family background

My parents were married in June, 1944, shortly after my father was discharged from military service due to a bleeding ulcer.

This photo was taken in Providence, RI, when Ralph graduated from grade 8. — with 

My father graduated from Brown University. He was a Phi Beta Kappa

 1927

majoring in pre-Med. He finished the very demanding 4 year program in 3 years, while playing football and participating on the Debate Team.

He changed his mind however, and attended Harvard Law School, working as on overnight telephone operator to make ends meet. Sometimes, his only nourishment was tomato juice made by adding water to free ketchup. He developed an ulcer in those years, a condition which haunted him the rest of his life, and eventually killed him, only a year before a simple cure was discovered.

Graduating in the midst of the Depression, the only legal job he was offered was at $15 a week, conditioned on him changing his name. He refused, and became a Treasury agent instead. During World War II he served as a counter-intelligence officer. Released from the service early due to  his ulcer, he finally opened hie own law practice at 114 State Street in downtown Bridgeport:

Fouth Floor corner office

He later bought, and when I joined the firm in 1969, moved his offices to the 4th floor of the Newfield Building:



My father was the son of

Samuel Kantrowitz, 1917

 

Samuel Kantrowitz
May 1940

 

 Dad, Me, Grandfather

Samuel Kantrowitz

Deb Becker Jonathan, Cousin Susan, and me with our Bubbie on a summer's day.

and Esther Okin Kantrowitz.

A comprehensive Kantrowitz-Okin interactive family chart is available by e-mailing jdk@queueiinc.com.



My mother was Beatrice Schine Kantrowitz, the daughter of Julius and

 

Across the top Helen, Annie, Samuel
Bottom row: Nathan, Florence, Beatrice

Annie Freed Schine.

An unbelievably comprehensive interactive Schine family chart is available by e-mailing jdk@queueiinc.com.