When Richard Reisman found out two good friends and fellow Yorktown High School seniors were going to make a trip to Albany in the winter of 1969-70 to scout out the University, he decided to go along. "We stayed in the downtown dorms with a University freshman who�d gone to Yorktown, and the whole time we were there it was a blizzard," he recalls. "But something clicked. We basically got a lot of positive information from the students in the dorms and the people we met on campus. And I just decided right then I was going to go there too."

Of such nondeliberate decisions are legacies sometimes made, because from 1970 through 1982 there was never a year at Albany without a Reisman brother. Richard graduated in 1974, Robert in 1976, David in 1980 and Daniel in 1982.

"Actually, my father always thought that he�d like �the boys� to stay in the state system for our undergraduate years," said Richard. "He thought it would be a lot easier to put all of us through school that way and then still be able to afford graduate schools."

Arnold Reisman, then a physical chemist at the International Business Machines facility in Yorktown Heights, had, like his wife Hilda, been a product of public higher education at the City College of New York (CCNY), now part of City University of New York. "The reputation of CCNY at that time was world-wide," he said. "It had the largest percentage of its graduates going on to graduate schools and acquiring Ph.D.s of any college or university in the world.

"And by the time our boys got older, I had heard from many people that the SUNY system had basically taken over from CCNY. And I think I was proved to be right. The four boys had no trouble getting into the schools of their choices."

All four brothers graduated Albany summa cum laude. Richard went on to New York Medical College and is now an anesthesiologist at the Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, Ga., outside of Atlanta. Robert graduated from the New York College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University and is now on staff at the Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in New York City. David went to UCLA Law School and is now U.S. associate general counsel for the Dutch bank Rabobank. Daniel graduated from Yale Law School and became a partner this January at Connolly Epstein Chicco Foxman Englemyer & Ewing in Philadelphia, Pa.

Each of the Reismans saw his career success enhanced by his coursework at the University. "Albany had a very strong pre-med setup," said Richard. "If you did well there you knew you could get into a good medical college."

"I had an interest in veterinary medicine since high school," said Robert, "so I took several zoology courses at Albany. But it was important to have the same type of background as a medical student, so I had the two and a half years of chemistry and a year of physics in addition to my bio courses. Academically, I enjoyed it a lot. I was a good student, and I was able to be a good student at Albany."

David had similar opinions of his courses in rhetoric and communication: "It was really the perfect background for going to law school, helping me to write and speak in a persuasive fashion."

And Daniel, a political science major, said he thought "the academic opportunities were terrific. At Yale I met so many students who had had access to different things in their educations: private schools from elementary to prep, then on to Bryn Mawr or Williams, with everywhere a small student-to-faculty ratio. "But the bottom line was that it was all here for the taking for you at Albany. I had mentors who made a difference, courses like Bruce Miroff�s �American Presidency� that impacted my life, and if you sought out faculty, they were there for you."

And yet it was the opportunity for self-expression within the Albany experience that the four brothers remember with most intensity: "The extracurricular activities are what made Albany special," said David. "The people who went there focused on not just classes, but something else: Telethon, intramural sports, the newspaper, the radio station, the political groups. All this stuff going on, and you�d meet so many great people beyond your classes or who you were living with."

The brothers all entered with athletic credentials: Richard and Robert were both number one singles tennis players at Yorktown High, Dave a number three singles. Daniel was a starting forward on a very successful Yorktown basketball team.

Richard and Robert played junior varsity tennis for a freshman season each at Albany, Daniel J.V. basketball his first year. Each left, not because the practices impeded on their major courses of study, but because they were exploring additional talents.

For Richard, that talent is on his diploma. He took his pre-med requirements, but in his junior year switched to a major in music. "I began taking some music courses and decided to increase my skills on the piano," he said. "But before long, having the ability�the opportunity really�to work with Findlay Cockrell increased my appreciation of music so much�and of what professional musicians and their innate talents bring to music�that I needed to get into music more and more. "Findlay is the most significant person that I came across in my entire educational life, and he had the biggest influence upon me. I�d never appreciate piano nearly as much as I do if I hadn�t sat next to him and watched him play and listened to him explain his musical ideas. "My love of piano caused some difficult academic decisions, but I managed to do all I wanted to do. The music has been a great thing for me. I play all the time now. I have a room in my house devoted to it."

Robert recalls the added avenues he explored in his major field. "I worked at a small animal hospital in Colonie part-time during my sophomore year, and then the summer after my junior year I actually worked full-time on a farm out in Fonda." On campus he also enjoyed courses in music and philosophy, playing intramural basketball, and being a D.J. on WSUA, the predecessor to the current campus radio station, WCDB-FM. But it was the level of both studio and art history classes he enrolled in that enriched him most. "I was with students who were art majors," said Robert. "I had to get permission to be in a lot of these classes, like drawing and painting. But the instructors could see I�d become serious about it. I even entered a juried art show in the art gallery with a charcoal and ink drawing of the fountain in front of the Campus Center. I didn�t get a prize, but the catalogue of the exhibition put my drawing on the cover. "I was always so proud of that, that as a bio major, I had enough talent to be on the cover. After my senior year I went to art museums all over Europe. I never would have developed such an appreciation if not for the opportunities and encouragement I received at Albany."

David did not need a short detour through sports to find his amateur passion. He admits, "Frankly, after Rich and Rob had gone there, I think I wanted to avoid Albany. But I knew its location as a state capital was valuable. And more than that� it had a radio station." David not only loved the serious rock music of the mid �70s, but he also "wanted to turn people on to what I was interested in." He began attending WSUA�s weekly organizational meetings in the Campus Center. "�Who is this guy?� people would ask about me. But they needed a new D.J., then they needed a production director, and I became that. "It was frustrating, of course. WSUA was a 10-watt AM �carrier current� station. That meant it only went through the dorm wires, not the air. And it had less wattage than a light bulb! So even on campus you had to really want to hear it." But David was also on hand at the end of his sophomore year when WSUA became WCDB-FM, and for two years he was its first general manager. "I still have a real father-like feeling of being there when it all started."

And he might not be a real father today if it hadn�t started. In 1988 he was invited by then station manager Samuel Murray to WCDB�s 10th reunion. "So when I went up to introduce myself to him, his sister, Emma, who had graduated in �83, happened to be standing next to him." They were married in 1989 and now have two children. (Richard and wife Susan have two; Daniel and wife Catherine one, and Robert and wife Lisette�s first child was due in February.)

By 1978, the Albany tradition for the Reismans was unstoppable. Father Arnold had even recruited a University Ph.D. for IBM, Gottlieb Oehrlein, who is now again at the University as a professor in the Department of Physics.

"I remember Danny saying to me before he applied, �Mom, do you think this is a little strange?�" said Hilda. "I said, �Go to Albany!� I thought it was such a great school by then." Daniel really needed no extra push: "I knew I�d be the fourth. I�d visited Dave and my other brothers over an eight-year period. I loved the campus, the fountains, the city, Thacher Park�it was already a home away from home, even before I got there." Good enough as a basketball player to be recruited by Binghamton University, Daniel said he found much more enjoyment in the University�s intramural leagues, where his team won championships two years in a row. His other interests branched off from his major: member of the Political Science Association, winner of the Presidential Scholars Award for outstanding essay in political science, intern with the State Legislature. Involvement with local environmental action groups too. When he graduated, he worked four more years in Albany as then-Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink�s representative to the Housing Committee, before going to law school. "I fell in love with the city, and it was very difficult for me to leave here," he said. "And I always talk about coming back to live here again."

The other brothers miss a Reisman in Albany too. "For six years after I graduated, I was still coming back to Albany to meet Dave or Dan," said Robert. "It was so nice that we had all gone through here. The University was really an extension of our time growing up together as a family."

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