BROOKLYN, NY, September 22, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present the late Stephen Leonard Berman, PhD, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Berman had many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. Berman served as an influential mathematics and statistics educator for nearly 50 years. As a young man at the age of 13, he won the eighth-grade science award for creating a working record player using only wires and a potato. He also interviewed The Legend and Icon Sid Caesar along with two female classmates, and he took photos of him for his school. At the age of 15, he served as a delivery boy for his father's pharmacy, he also earned his ham radio license, which required him to pass a three-hour test and demonstrate a proficiency with Morse code of no less than 19 words per minute. In 1965, he taught a class in amateur radio operation at the Y in New York City, and, after 1974, he was an advisor for other classes at The Horace Mann School, through which he taught Morse code and ham radio operation, with the goal of preparing students to earn ham radio licenses of their own. In preparation for his prolific career in education, he obtained a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, from the City University of New York, a Master of Arts from Columbia University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from New York University. He began his career as an instructor of mathematics at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, NY. He then went on to teach throughout New York City at institutions such as the Human Relations Commission of New York State and Pace University. He taught at Pace as a professor in mathematics for eight years from 1966 until 1974, and then joined The Horace Mann School.
Dr. Berman taught at Horace Mann School for 36 years, as a dedicated teacher, advisor and director of clubs, before retiring on June 10, 2010. As a well-respected and dedicated teacher, Dr. Berman managed to awaken in all of his students an interest in covariance, probability, and statistics by applying these to real-world situations, often incorporating legal cases, criminal investigations, and relevant social issues in society throughout the eras during which he taught. To that end, he also invited guest speakers to help contextualize cases that students would be reading about in the newspapers. These guests included, but were not limited to, Avery Corman, the screenwriter of the Academy Award Winning movie "Kramer vs. Kramer," starring Dustin Huffman and Meryl Streep. He also invited as guest speakers, prominent defense attorney Joel Siegel and Mary Beth Whitehead, of the Baby "M" case, which was made into a miniseries, staring JoBeth Williams, John Shea, Dabney Coleman and Jenny Lewis. These real-life cases helped form the backbone of a "social science course" that Dr. Berman created. Eager students and their friends would sign up for this course and compete for spots, since it was a very popular elective. Other interesting topics Dr. Berman covered in his course "The Lone Survivor of an Airplane crash", a 4 year old little girl named Cecilia Crocker, in the late 1980s. When she was told her parents and brother died, all she asked for was a chocolate milkshake at the hospital. Her parents wrapped their own bodies around her to save her when the plane crashed, and she was badly injured. Dr. Berman also showed the 1989 movie, "Fire and Rain," which detailed the crash of Delta Airlines Flight 191. He also showed news clips of the Rodney King beating, to show unfair police brutality and racism. He kept it real, that's why his students were so fascinated with his courses. He showed movies, news articles and newspaper clippings, which he transformed to overhead projector slides. He did not hide the world from his extremely intelligent seniors. He also said that the students kept him young, he said that he would get older, but they would stay the same age.
As a testament to his reputation as an educator, former students would send their children to The Horace Mann School and request that their child be placed in Dr. Berman's math classes, as he had made math such an enjoyable, positive learning experience for them. His interdisciplinary approach to education allowed him to reach and inspire students who were normally apathetic toward mathematics. With an in-depth grasp of the intricacies of statistics, Dr. Berman was able to motivate countless students toward rewarding careers in a wide range of industries.
Although Dr. Berman was a gifted teacher and mathematician, this does not tell the whole story. His family remembers him as a devoted and passionate father, who had a lifelong drive to help others. As a child, he spared his parents the experience of identifying his grandmother's body, who had sadly taken her own life. Later, he had also served as a camp counselor for underprivileged youth for three years. Although some campers were different, including a young boy with cerebral palsy, Dr. Berman helped them all fit in and accept each other. He was a sleep away camp counselor for two years, and on one occasion he saved the life of a child, who was suffering from an acute appendicitis with a 104 degree fever.
As hard as Dr. Berman worked, his family recalled, he always made time for his children and wife. "He was a really great dad," said his daughter, Christian Karen. "He gave a lot to his school, and he was always there for his children, no matter what." He would work 12-hour days, would happily tutor a few kids in math during his free time, and have teacher/department faculty meetings after school hours. He would still make sure to pick up a good, wholesome dinner for his family on the commute home from school. He also loved animals and had many beloved parakeets as a teenager, who would talk on the ham radio with him. A great lover of animals, he brought home many pets for his family, including a goldfish named Dodger, a Chinese box land turtle named Lucky, and two dogs: a red Golden Retriever named Mary Theresa and a Shih Tzu named Ritchie Patrick. He gave to charity as well, having donated two Oldsmobile Cutlass Cieras to the Jewish organization Kars 4 Kids.
On occasion, Dr. Berman would stop at toy stores on the way home from school to pick up presents for his daughter. He was gone for 12-hour days, knowing that she was missing him, bored, sad, lonely, and just waiting for him to come home and talk to her. From time to time, he bought her toys, such as a Cabbage Patch Kid, Amazing Amy and Amazing Amanda dolls, and a doll carriage. Dr. Berman always wanted to make his daughter happy, so he would treat her with surprises and gifts whenever he could. He had worked so hard for his school and students, but didn't want to leave his wife and own children out either. He bought a Barbie sing-along tape recorder for her too, as well as many other toys whenever she asked for them, even a tandem double stroller for her baby dolls. For his son, Dr. Berman purchased a basketball and a large basketball net with a stand for the outside, not to mention a Playstation. He made time to help both his kids with their homework. He loved the few rare nights he could get out for a special night with his wife, like karaoke night at his temple. The best times was were when he took his family to the Catskill mountains on vacation every summer for a week, to the Nevele, Fallsview, Kutchers, Pines Hotel, Brickmans and Stevensville. He was happiest then, his daughter would be in the children's day camp, and he could be found by the pool with his son or playing shuffleboard and tennis with his wife. If he could have afforded it, he would have visited much more often, for in those days he was carefree and had time with his loved ones, including his beloved mother-in-law Lillian Cohen, who lived with them until she died in 1992. He loved the dancing and singing in the night club. Those memories lasted a lifetime, he would always go back to that happy place and look forward to going there every year. He loved all kinds of music, including that from the 60s, 70s and 80s, soft rock, Christmas music, the Nutcracker and Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You." He always tried to capture his kids' childhood on camcorder and in photos as they were growing up, he tried to give his kids the best, happiest life he could, even if it meant indulging and spoiling his only daughter at times.
Dr. Berman was altruistic and selfless, a true people person. He always put others first, and lived up to all of his responsibilities and obligations, even when he wasn't feeling his best. He never wanted to retire - he loved and thoroughly enjoyed helping teach future generations of students, getting them to see that math wasn't about numbers or statistics, but real-life people that mattered in real-life situations to help people. He encouraged all of his students and made them want to change the world and help make it a better place for future generations to live, by planting that "Giving Tree" seed in their minds. That legacy has been passed down to the countless thousands of students he ever taught, as well as the children of those students. There is no telling how much his positive, giving influence has helped many generations become selfless helpers like Dr. Berman.
Dr. Berman said once that he could have used his math skills and expertise to work for NASA and make millions of dollars, but he didn't become a teacher for the money. There is no money in teaching. In fact, many times he paid for the students' school supplies out of his own pocket, when he had little to spare. He also had said many times, "if you didn't like math, you just didn't have the right teacher." He went out of his way to get the kids who hated math and had the least interest in math involved in what he was teaching, by calling on them when they didn't have their hand up and moving them closer to the front of the room. This tactic worked, much to the delight of thankful parents. Dr. Berman also prided himself on his jokes, which he claimed were so bad that they were actually funny. This sense of humor helped to engage with his students, as did his unique vocabulary, which featured such gems as "gangbusters." His classes would have group discussions and debates about topics that Dr. Berman were teaching, and when the bell rang, no one wanted to leave. Students came to be dedicated and passionate about the subjects too, writing essays about the subject matter that was being taught. Some of these issues included discrimination cases about racism, where one party might win because they had the funds to hire a good lawyer, as opposed to poor people that were given a public defendant. Dr. Berman was a strong believer that, rich or poor, everyone should get a fair trial and have the same rights, innocent until proven guilty.
Dr. Berman had done research and found that many African American people behind bars for decades were later proven innocent and released after losing 20 years or more of their lives behind bars for crimes they didn't commit due to unfair trials. It hurt him that the wrongfully accused and their families had suffered all of those years needlessly, wasted their valuable time here on this earth, for something they didn't do or deserve, and he wanted to teach his students that, so they were aware of it and when they grew up, many of them who cared to, would be able to do something to change it in future, so this sad fate didn't have to happen to more innocent victims. Dr. Berman was the first person to teach and develop a social science course like this to make a contribution, to really make a difference and not just help all of his students, but to help make this world a better place for all of us to live. From an early age, Dr. Berman had a love of helping students to love learning and achieve to their highest potential, not waste their school career by just getting by, but excelling and enjoying each and every day and taking pride in their accomplishments.
Outside of his practical work in mathematics education, Dr. Berman also published a book titled "Analysis of Covariance: A Comprehensive Expository Text," which has been hailed as breaking new ground in several areas of statistics in both content and instructional methods, and he also wrote a second book, which was not published. "Analysis of Covariance" detailed, among other topics, a finding in the late 1960s, in which diabetes patients undergoing the first oral diabetes drug were dying at greater rates than groups taking other medications. Dr. Berman conducted studies to uncover the hidden truth behind this disturbing statistic. Dr. Berman contributed his expertise in the field to several articles and professional journals. In addition, he is credited with the development of over 2,000 detailed color transparency slides for the highly effective instruction of research-directed topics normally covered in graduate school curricula in a range of topics with applications in business administration, medicine, human ecology, biology and social sciences. Additionally, he taught classes in geometry, statistics, algebra, calculus, A.P. Statistics and social science, geometry honors, trigonometry and statistician analysis. He personally wrote references for each student who asked him to, using his own personal free time, and he even called some of the colleges to tell them why the student would be a wonderful asset to their university.
For his hobbies, Dr. Berman loved talking on EchoLink, an updated version of ham radio on his iPhone. His family notes that he was always tech-savvy and loved new gadgets, devices and calculators. He had good friends all over the world through his work in ham radio. He loved learning about different cultures and making new friends. He also loved classical music and photography, but toward the end of his life, he found that he missed teaching and wished that he were still in the classroom, which he surely would have been, were it not for his poor health. Although Dr. Berman received piano lessons from ages 8 to 11, but he couldn't read the notes, he taught himself to play by ear, any tune he heard he could remember and play wonderfully by ear. Additionally, Dr. Berman loved movies about teachers and schools with struggling student having trouble succeeding. Films such as "Lean on Me," "Stand and Deliver," and "Summer School" were very inspirational for Dr. Berman. He also showed those movies to this class, as well as "I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School," a documentary film that featured Principal Deanna Burney, who would tell students, "and don't forget I love you." Dr. Berman wanted to covey that pride and love to his students, as he cared about them succeeding and getting in to the best colleges and universities.
Christian Karen said of Dr. Berman, "I loved him more than anybody, he was my whole world; he was comforting, understanding, loving and affectionate. We lived for each other, he even told his doctor a few weeks before he died, 'I can't die, how can I leave her, she needs me too much.' I loved my mom very much, too. I miss them both so much every day. I never expected him to die so soon. He never made a big deal about being sick, though he had congestive heart failure, kidney failure and diabetes. He'd tell jokes, stories about his life childhood, parents, my mom, about me and my brother, his students, what the good old days were like. I loved hearing all old his stories, I always wanted to hear a new old story he remembered. I tried to remember them all too. He was the life of the house. He would even talk to all the hospital staff when he was sick and in the hospital again, and I'll always remember him as very happy, friendly, personable and outgoing to everybody." Dr. Berman's wife, Beverly Berman, was a loving, supportive wife, without his wife's encouragement, Dr. Berman once said he couldn't finish getting his PhD, Mrs. Berman was his inspiration.
Dr. Berman's son, Larry, had this to say: "My dad was the most wonderful, amazing, incredible and best dad any kid could ever hope or wish for. He was always there for me, always had my back, was loving and caring, and was always there for me when I needed him the most. Dad had the biggest heart any person could have, he was always available and we shared lots of interest in computers, photography, and technology for the latest and greatest. He became more of a friend than a father since he was young at heart, and a lot of his interests were the same as mine. As well, we could talk about anything and everything. He was so down to earth and easy to talk to and solve any problem, and to this day, he was the greatest person in my world. He was truly irreplaceable. I am so lucky to have known him, have him in my life, and extremely lucky to have him as my dad."
As a testament to his many professional accomplishments, Dr. Berman was given an Excellence in Teaching Award and a Highly Exemplary Instruction Citation by Horace Mann School. He also received the Tina and David Bellet Teaching Excellence Prize for Innovative and Outstanding Instruction. Professionally, Dr. Berman maintained affiliation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, The New York Academy of Sciences, Phi Delta Kappa International and Kappa Delta Pi, the International Honor Society in Education. Dr. Berman passed in February of 2018, leaving behind two children. Memorial videos of his life and legacy can be found on YouTube under Dr. Stephen L. Berman. His book, "Analysis of Covariance" is available through Amazon. There are also beautiful memorial videos of his beloved and devoted wife Beverly Berman, who sadly passed away one year and a half before, due to a late diagnosis of stage four colon cancer. They are both very loved and deeply missed by their children, family and friends.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Stephen Berman has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit https://wwlifetimeachievement.com/2018/07/19/stephen-leonard-berman/ for more information about this honor as well as https://www.horacemann.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=165.
Visit Stephen Berman's tribute video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLT-7NxU4oA&list=PLnqka4wapju1dif0xGaIUczicXJkfGzxv & book link: https://www.amazon.ca/Analysis-Covariance-Stephen-Berman-Dr/dp/1453567690/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BTQMVFO62P0N&keywords=dr+stephen+l.+berman&qid=1673456221&sprefix=dr+stephen+l+berman%2Caps%2C82&sr=8-1
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