Generational Support for Friends Students
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
As an impressionable seven-year-old, David Hochman '74 has vivid memories of entering Friends Seminary for the first time in 1964 as a Grade 3 applicant. A sparkling new Hunter Hall had just opened, but like many good stories, this one began with rejection. There were no openings, so instead his parents enrolled him for Grade 6 at the now-defunct Downtown Community School. They waited for the next intake year, and in 1968, David enrolled in Grade 7.
Today, almost 60 years later, David and his wife, Genie (Eugenia), remain deeply committed to Friends – he as an alumnus and together as parents of two alumni – Daniel '07 and Joel '09. Both David’s Friends education and their sons’ were made possible through the financial support of their respective grandparents. Seeking to honor the generation that started this tradition and to create opportunities for others, David and Genie encouraged his parents to establish a scholarship fund in memory of Lee’s parents. In 2001 Lee (Eleanor) and Stanley Hochman established the Abraham and Sarah Bell Scholarship Fund with a $50K gift of shares. Today, the fund stands at more than $800K and is one of the largest named funds at the School. In 2025-26, the fund generated $27K in financial aid for a deserving student. David reflects, “My parents never sought recognition for themselves, and the idea of naming anything was never part of their vocabulary, but giving back and doing so in honor of my grandparents has always felt like the right thing to do.” David recalls growing up in Manhattan, where people of diverse incomes lived side by side, and recognizes that now, more than ever, funds are needed to expand the School’s socio-economic reach.
Sarah and Abraham Bell, whose families immigrated from Eastern Europe, married in 1926 and ran a ‘candy store’ as they were known. Typical of the times, they were corner stores that sold candy, newspapers, and soft drinks at old-fashioned “soda fountains.”. When leases ran out, Sarah and Abraham would relocate. They ran businesses in Pelham Bay Park, Long Island City and Bay Ridge and along the way purchased commercial properties, which transformed their finances. David reflects, “Their lives were not easy, but they worked hard and created an enduring legacy of educational opportunity.”
David’s parents, Lee and Stanley, both Brooklyn College graduates, met in 1949 on an ocean liner bound for New York from France. She was returning from a year of teaching English in Brittany; he from a year of study in Paris at the Sorbonne. They both went on to pursue their masters in English Literature at Columbia University. In 1952, they married, and in 1957, David was born.
Throughout their married lives, Lee and Stanley collaborated on literary translations in French and Italian and wrote romance novels under pseudonyms. Stanley’s final post was as Senior Editor at the former Fredrick Ungar Publishing Company, where he also served as founding editor of the Ungar Film Library. Lee served as long-time chief in the copyediting department of the New American Library, and in retirement expanded her master’s thesis into a full length book: Fictional Females: Mirrors and Models.
As a young child David recalls his parents reading to each other, “I listened from underneath the dining table, where everything was literally and figuratively over my head!” They lived in subsidized housing at 577 Grand Street. While the monthly rent of just over $100 allowed for some European travel, the cost of a Friends education was beyond their means. Sarah and Abraham Bell made it financially possible for David to go to Friends.
At Friends, David was one of very few Friends students who commuted from the Lower East Side on the Avenue B bus. David reflects, “Early on, I realized I was having a vastly different experience from my neighborhood friends. My classes were small and the teachers were kind. Friends is the place that shaped my adolescent-self. I learned how to learn.” David was well prepared for Princeton and a long career as an economic advisor at the intersections of technology, culture and growth.
In the summer of 1995, at short notice, David and Genie moved their family from Philadelphia to New York City. History did not repeat itself, and Daniel enrolled in Grade 1 that fall, and Joel in Kindergarten, the following year. Once again, grandparents stepped in to provide financial support. David reflects, “Their support did so much to ease our path.”
Returning to Friends as a parent was both familiar and disorienting. David recalls, “It was odd to have parent conferences in the same rooms where I was taught.” He enjoyed being back in the Meetinghouse and believes that the silence of Meeting for Worship plays a bigger role in the life of the School now than it did in his time. David served on a subcommittee of the Board of Trustees tasked with addressing issues related to tuition and affordability. Genie, a physician, donated and administered the flu vaccine to members of the School community.
Although David has celebrated his 50th reunion and Daniel and Joel are experiencing milestones of their own, David and Genie’s commitment to creating opportunities for future generations is as clear as it was in 2001. David comments, “Friends is a School where independent thinkers can thrive. It is deeply meaningful for us to help open the door of Friends to those who may not have grandparents or others to help them on their path.”