Irv & Charlie, Commercial High ​’45, Remember

Charles Ludwig and Irving Rohinsky celebrated a high school reunion for two on a park bench — as the lifelong friends and Commercial High School Class of 1945 graduates kept alive a tradition that has been going strong for 77 years.

Ludwig, 96, and Rohinsky, 94, met up on the New Haven Green by the Bennett Fountain at the corner of Chapel Street and Church Street Wednesday just after 3 p.m.

The two Commercial High ​’45 graduates have been meeting at that spot every five years — with a two-year delay thanks to the pandemic — since the end of World War II.

For the past few decades, they’ve been joined for their quinquennial meet-ups by the mayor at the time, including Biagio DiLieto in the 1980s, John DeStefano in the 1990s and 2000s, and Toni Harp in 2015.

On Wednesday, Justin Elicker got to join in on that tradition, bringing with him official city proclamations honoring Ludwig’s and Rohinsky’s friendship, their commitment to New Haven, and their enduring two-person class reunions.

“We made a pact between us that, regardless of where we were or what we were doing, we would meet here at the fountain on the Green every five years and have our own private reunion, the two of us,” Ludwig said as he recalled that fateful promise he and Rohinsky made to each other back in 1945. ​“And we’ve kept that up.”

A lot has changed since they graduated back in 1945. 

Commercial High School moved from its former home near what is now the Yale Bookstore. It’s now called Wilbur Cross.

Ludwig and Rohinsky are both long retired from their respective careers in commercial printing and plumbing.

Both have moved on from their childhood homes on Vernon Street in the Hill and subsequent homes. Ludwig now lives at the Towers, Rohinsky in Westville on Forest Road.

And Ludwig’s late wife and former Commercial High classmate Violet Kantrowitz has sinced passed.

The two have kept alive a mid-century slice of New Haven history through their persistent friendship, their cherished memories of growing up in the now-demolished former Oak Street neighborhood, their decades’ long involvement in their respective synagogues (BEKI for Ludwig, Westville for Rohinsky), and — of course — their two-person class reunions.

So what do the two Commercial High ​’45 classmates remember about their high school years towards the end of World War II?

While Ludwig’s favorite classes were stenography and law (“I had thoughts of becoming a court reporter, but that never materialized”), the high school activity he and Rohinsky remember the most fondly took place after school.

That was rifle club. 

Ludwig was the president, Rohinsky the vice president. Both would go to the then-active Winchester Arms factory with their favorite teacher and rifle club instructor Tom Ailworth to learn how to shoot.

“We both were sharpshooters. We were good,” Ludwig said.

He recalled taking a course with then-legendary marksman Jack Lacy. Ludwig recalled a write-up that Ripley’s did about Lacy. ​“If he missed a bullseye, there was something wrong with the gun,” he said with a smile. ​“He was that good.”

Rohinsky said that what he remembers most clearly about his last year in high school in 1945 was all of the swimming he did at the Jefferson Street pool (where LEAP now operates). Rohinsky said he spent all that time underwater — trying to swim without making waves — as preparation for what he assumed would be a stint in the army.

“Everyone wanted to be in the army,” he said. ​“We wanted to help the country.”

Rohinsky, 16 at the time the war ended, wound up not enlisting, in part because of the look he remembers his mom giving him at their home on Vernon Street when he told her he wanted to go overseas.

He recalled the pain and fear in her eyes, as well as the wails of lament heard from an upstairs neighbor when she found out that her son had been shot down while parachuting into battle in France.

Before the war, before Commercial High School, Ludwig and Rohinsky grew up as neighbors in the now-demolished former Oak Street neighborhood in the Hill.

Both came from Russian Jewish families. Both were first-generation immigrants. Ludwig lived on Oak Street and Rohinsky on York Street before their families moved into adjacent houses on Vernon.

As kids, they did everything together, Rohinsky said. ​“We shine shoes. We collected stamps.” And they sold newspapers.

The New York Sun, in particular. They said they hawked the evening edition of the paper while walking and biking around downtown at 11 p.m.

“The Sun is out! The Sun is out!” Rohinsky recalled shouting in the darkness as they tried to sell papers.

Both remember the former Oak Street neighborhood fondly for its diversity and liveliness. They recalled neighbors who were Jewish, Italian, Irish, African American. ​“It was a thoroughly mixed neighborhood,” Rohinsky said. ​“And everybody got along. No one locked any doors.” (The city razed much of the neighborhood during Urban Renewal.)

Thinking back to that time, each couldn’t help but praise the other.

Ludwig was the fastest kid in the neighborhood, Rohinsky said. He recalled a race that Ludwig ran against another local sprinter. Dozens of neighbors turned out to a field where Yale New Haven Hospital now stands, he said. Ludwig won the race by a hair.

Rohinsky, Ludwig said, was small — but tough. ​“He would get in fights with guys twice his size.”

He said Rohinsky was always the athletic one of the two, a talented basketball player and swimmer. (Don’t forget, Rohinsky chimed in, that Ludwig was also a champion ​“street wrestler” in the neighborhood.)

Of the two, Rohinsky was also the one engaged with local Democratic Party politics.

That was largely thanks to his close friendship with former Alder and City Clerk Leon Medvedow, a mentor to former Mayor DeStefano.

Rohinsky remembered back in 1977, Medvedow decided to run for mayor. He said he asked Rohinsky to manage his campaign.

So Rohinsky raised a few thousand dollars — only to find out soon thereafter that Medvedow had decided to drop out of the race and support Ben DiLieto instead. 

Why drop out? Rohinsky remembered asking.

“He said: ​‘Listen, Ben DeLieto and I are close friends. One of us has got to drop out,’ ” Rohinsky remembered Medvedow saying. Also, and as importantly, ​“I love my summers at the beach,” Medvedow told Rohinsky. ​“I don’t want to give that up.”

Amid the reminiscing, at around 3:30, Elicker and myoral spokesperson Lenny Speiller arrived. The two nonagenarians shook hands with yet another top city elected official, thanked him for taking the time to meet up with them during their private class reunion, and received a proclamation from the mayor in honor of their tradition. 

Below is the full text of that proclamation.

Proclamation

Of the City of New Haven

Celebrating the Friendship and 77th Reunion of Irving Rohinsky and Charles Ludwig

WHEREAS, seventy-seven years ago on June 15, 1945, Irving Rohinsky and Charles Ludwig, classmates and best friends, graduated from New Haven’s Commercial High School;

WHEREAS, Irving Rohinsky and Charles Ludwig, preparing to go their separate ways and embark on the world, vowed to maintain their friendship by meeting every five years on June 15th on the New Haven Green at the famous ​“Water Fountain”,

WHEREAS, every five years these good and true friends have kept their vow and met on June 15th,

WHEREAS, Irving Rohinsky and Charles Ludwig have remained close friends and have demonstrated a lifetime of commitment to friendship, to family, to their Jewish faith and to New Haven, their home,

WHEREAS, on June 15, 2022, Irving and Charles will celebrate 77 years of friendship when they meet again, as promised, on the New Haven Green.

NOW, THEREFORE, do I, as Mayor of the City of New Haven hereby wish to recognize and thank

Irving Rohinsky and Charles Ludwig

for reminding us of the power of friendship to enrich our lives and the power of a promise kept.

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of the City of New Haven to be affixed. Dated at New Haven, Connecticut, this 15th Day of June, in the year Two Thousand and Twenty-Two.

Justin Elicker
Mayor