It [piano lessons] wasn't a priority, but it was an interest and through that I became acquainted with classical music, which was a main interest at the time.

Jack Sturtzer, one of my cousins, had gone to art school and suggested that I might be interested in a private school called the Art Institute of Buffalo, and in fact that is what happened. So upon graduation in 1948, I then went to stay with my cousins on Seventeenth Street and enrolled in the program at the Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue.

I was engaged in all the required courses of math and geometry, but the area that I blossomed in was the art program.

I'm pleased to say that it [ a paper on the history of Attica] got much recognition with a 99 grade. It was shown to the Attica Historical Society, who enthusiastically responded to it and read it at one of their annual meetings resulting in an article in the local newspaper about this excellent paper being presented. As I now look back at it, I think of that as being really my first book and did indicate that I did have interest in research.

In a social studies class I did a paper on the history of Attica, which ended up being a little book that I created.

I think I was really naïve. I had no context to think about what I wanted to do. Each step was a next stage of exploration.

At school there were some programs in music. I did take piano lessons, and we had a piano at home. I got very interested in that.