06/17/2026
Happy Father's Day from all of us at Tools for Working Wood. 💙
Joel shares a deeply personal story this week — about his father, the guy second from the right in a 1940 junior high graduation photo from PS 30 in Manhattan's Yorkville neighborhood.
Joel's father came to this country from Czechoslovakia in 1936, speaking no English. He was 18 when he graduated junior high because in those days immigrant kids couldn't advance until they could keep up in English. He desperately wanted to be American. The school gave him a tutor. He learned. He went on to high school, rode the bus with a kid named Bernie Schwartz (later known as Tony Curtis), enlisted in the Air Force in 1943, worked as a mechanic on B-24s, and attended City College on the G.I. Bill.
His grandfather emigrated in 1922, became a blacksmith in New York, working on the ironwork at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The family only left Europe because of a rail strike that ruined a grape harvest. Those who stayed behind were murdered.
Joel's father was always grateful — he said paying taxes was a privilege because it meant you were successful.
For the full story with more photos please click the link to Joel's Blog in the Bio.
