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Cardozo celebrates 40 years in Bayside

Cardozo celebrates 40 years in Bayside
By Howard Koplowitz

Generations of Cardozo High School graduates and faculty celebrated the highly regarded school’s 40th anniversary Saturday at Douglaston Manor four decades after the class of 1968 entered a tumultuous world racked by anti−war protests and the assassination of two American leaders.

Wendy Weiner, a French and Spanish teacher at the school who helped organize the gathering, was a member of the school’s 1975 graduating class.

“I only had positive experiences at Cardozo High School,” Weiner said. “It really helped me find my niche because I’m a very artsy person,” she said, referring to the special arts classes and dance program at the school when she was a student.

A teacher for 25 years, Weiner returned to teach at her alma mater seven years ago.

“My dream was to come back to the school that gave me so much,” she said.

About two dozen graduates from the school’s first graduating class attended along with nearly a hundred graduates throughout the school’s 40−year history.

Cardozo opened its doors in 1968, the same year Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated and Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey.

Cardozo has a reputation of being one of the top high schools in the city and was voted as one of the top 100 high schools in the country by Newsweek. Its alumni include former CIA Director George Tenet, Mets radio announcer Howie Rose and porn star Ron Jeremy.

Jeremy, known as Ron Hyatt in his high school days, attended the celebration and reminisced with his former classmates.

A member of the class of 1971, Jeremy recalled hanging out with a rebellious bunch of friends who also had strong opinions about the Vietnam War.

“I didn’t — but my friends, they kidnapped the principal, Mr. Michaelson, because they wanted demands,” he said.

“We had a lot of demonstrations back in those days,” Jeremy said, noting that he had an “awful” draft number and doubled up on English and physical education classes so he could graduate early and enroll at Queens College to avoid being shipped off to the war. “We didn’t believe in the Vietnam War. … My 18th birthday, I was already in a college program.”

Ron Naclerio, Cardozo’s boy’s basketball coach, is also an alumnus.

“It’s great to see so many people who were my mentors and to have others say that I was their mentor,” he said. “This is unbelievable.”

Others did not have such vivid memories of their high school experience.

“High school — a lot of quaaludes. That’s what it was like,” said Jay Oringer, a 1980 graduate who now works in the sports industry.

The celebration also honored the school’s principals throughout the years and featured a PowerPoint presentation of school functions and former graduates.

Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e−mail at hkoplowitz@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 173.