The son of an immigrant tailor, Oscar Epstein grew up in the old West End, peddling papers with Melvin Nimoy, whose kid brother would become Spock. He served in World War II, studied engineering on the GI Bill, and helped design Route 128, that symbol of postwar prosperity and suburbanization.
Now 89, he reads the newspaper The Forward in Yiddish, nurtures a bunny named Horatio, and cut his own lawn until last summer, using a push mower. All this would be notable enough if Epstein were playing shuffleboard in Boca. But he’s not much for Florida, and he never retired.
Comments
Congratulations, Oscar! You're a role-model for all of us.
What a nice piece. Truly, Oscar is a member of the Greatest Genetation!
Nice story, good worker
He's the greatest. He knows how lucky he is to have his health and be able to just enjoy living and being around co-workers who appreciate him.
I used to work with Bennet and he is a great guy. Nice to see he gets it from his dad.
Well done, Oscar! If more state employees had your work ethic, our taxes would be a lot lower.
so glad to see Oscar receiving such deserved notice! I have known him for a few years and can vouch for his being a totally honorable and decent human being. and all around him, there are 6 degrees of separation. In my own case, not only did he grow up next door to where my mother lived as a child in the West End, but his family then moved across the West End, next door to where my boyfriend's father grew up! Oscar's daughter Barbara had another elderly friend of mine, the late Robert Pound, as a physics professor at Harvard. Last but I am sure not least, Oscar worked with and was good friends with not 1 but 2 other close friends of mine whom I first met when I was writing my book about local Holocaust survivors and soldiers who liberated the camps: Michael Gruenbaum, and Cranston "Chan" Rogers.
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$80K???
So what? What did you expect an engineer to make?
Oscar needs to go home and retire and give up his job to someone that needs a job. Oscar is working for peanuts with the number of years he's worked. There's plenty of volunteer jobs to keep him busy.
State employee pride! Go Oscar! A lot of us are NOT slackers.