Remembering Jack

I have known Jack Schwartzman since his son Steve and I became friends when we were about 4 years old (52 years ago). The Schwartzman family lived just around the corner from my family in Franklin Square on Long Island. Most of my memories of Jack Schwartzman date back to my childhood and my high-school years. He was Mr. Schwartzman to me then, and that was how I always addressed him. Now that I am practically a senior citizen, I think of him fondly as Jack.

I spent countless hours at the Schwartzmans’ house visiting Steve. The wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookcases in the dining room and the upstairs rooms made an indelible impression on me and probably have something to do with why I live with thousands of books to this day.

Jack Schwartzman was always kind and generous toward me. On several occasions in the summertime he took me along with Steve and our friend Michael Kindman to cavort in the ocean, usually at Long Beach, after which he took us to out to eat. My parents made sure I had money to pay for my own expenses, but Jack always insisted on treating. Another favorite spot that Jack sometimes took us to was Jahn’s Ice Cream Parlor, where the decor was a throwback to the early 1900s and the menu contained scores of ice-cream entrees, including “the kitchen sink,” which served six.

On several occasions I and a few other high-school friends of Steve had the privilege of attending seminars with the editors of Fragments, usually in Jack's office. We listened to these elders discuss topics such as individualism, Henry David Thoreau, and Ayn Rand. Jack proclaimed his philosophy of individualism so eloquently that it made a lasting impression on my young mind. To this day, largely because of the influence of Jack and Steve Schwartzman, I am an individualist and a libertarian.

Jack didn’t stress his Georgist beliefs as much as his philosophy of individualism. One day when I was visiting at the Schwartzman home he gave me a copy of Progress and Poverty. He told me it explained with perfect logic everything about how society should work, and he encouraged me to read it. Other than that he made no attempt to convert me to Georgism. Consequently, I still think that even a single tax is too much. It goes against my individualist-anarchist philosophy.

When it came time for me to apply for admission to college, I think I used Jack as a character reference. I chose Grove City College in Pennsylvania because they do not accept any tax money and because my parents could afford its low costs and they liked its affiliation with the Presbyterian denomination. When I told Jack about it, he told me that Grove City College had once offered him a job as chairman of the economics department and that he knew Hans Sennholz who took the job. It’s a small world. I ended up taking several courses from Professor Sennholz.

After my high-school graduation in 1963, at which Steve gave the valedictory address, I don’t think I saw Jack again until he came to my father’s funeral in 1980. However, I received every issue of Fragments, usually with a brief note from Jack, and Steve and I have visited each other and kept in touch through letters and e-mail over the years.

The only other contact with Jack that I can recall after high school was in 1970, when I was applying for conscientious-objector status. I wrote him a letter asking if he would write to my draft board to substantiate my opposition to war. Not only did he write a glowing testimonial to my sterling character (which I proudly have framed and hung on my living-room wall next to the one that Murray Rothbard wrote), he offered to be available at any time to answer questions.

Jack was the first intellectual I ever met. He impressed me with his wide-ranging knowledge, his love of ideas, and his extraordinary vocabulary. I understand why his students found him charismatic. But I knew him before I was old enough to appreciate his intellect and to be awed by it. As a child I formed my impression of him as a jolly and generous man, and that is how I will always remember him.

Roy Halliday
Raleigh, North Carolina
January 7, 2002

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