IT'S WHERE JEFFREY STUDIED

After my husband’s back surgery, I was driving him to Rutgers Law School in Newark to teach his law class when I was detoured on the way home and came upon this magnificent-looking building in front of me. While sitting in my car, waiting for the light to change, I snapped a photo.

The next time we were in the car together, I took that route to show my husband the stately structure, commenting and asking whether he had ever seen it. After all, at some point, we each went to school and worked in Newark.

His response shocked me. He said, Jeffrey studied there! His brother Jeffrey was a graduate of Newark College of Engineering, now New Jersey Institute of Technology. He said that when Jeff studied there between 1958 and 1962, that building was the campus. There were no dormitories or buildings spread throughout downtown Newark, as there are today. Stopping to read the sign in front of the gargantuan building shows that it still belongs to Jeff’s alma mater.

For directions and a look further back in its history, the NJIT website shows, “Eberhardt Hall, located at the intersection of MLK Blvd. and Bleeker Street, has a rich history as it was originally the Newark Orphan Asylum established in 1857. Today, it serves as the administrative building for NJIT, reflecting a transformation from its original purpose to its current role in higher education.”

Learning that Jeff studied in that building, I was super glad that I appreciated it enough to stop and conveniently snap a picture with my iPhone. That stately building gave new meaning as I captured another piece of family history before it vanished. Where better to note it for posterity than in a blog post?

If you’re in Newark, take a look at that building on the corner of Bleeker Street and Martin Luther King Blvd. If you’re in the family, step through the doors and walk in Jeff’s footsteps. If only those walls inside could talk, they would certainly have much to say about Jeffrey’s lifetime achievements.

A world-renowned physicist, he received his PhD from Yale University after three years of study rather than the usual 4-7 year period. His brother told me that Jeff made a PhD caliber discovery after two years, but was told that was too soon.

Possibly the stately buildings attracted him to study at such places. For more about Jeff, see “Still Making Connections,” dated May 25, 2021, at sharonmarkcohen.com.

Jeffrey is holding his acceptance letter to Yale University for further study after graduating from NCE (now NJIT) in Newark, New Jersey.