Dancing with the Queen, Marching with King

Sam Aldrich

Description

When he was twenty-five, Sam Aldrich danced with Queen Elizabeth II in London. By the time he was thirty-seven, he was marching with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma. Recounting the journey between and beyond those two points, and musing over the irony of the contrast they represent, is the subject of this remarkable and entertaining memoir.

After a cosseted childhood in New York's silk stocking district, including weekends on Long Island's Gold Coast and summers in Dark Harbor, Maine, Aldrich was expected to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a career in high finance. "Dancing with the queen of England was just a small function of the privileged life and family into which I was born," he writes, "and events such as this would be a regular part of my upper-class, well-traveled social life." Instead, and to his parents' chagrin, he chose decades of hard work in the public sector, serving as deputy police commissioner in New York City, director of the New York State Division for Youth, executive assistant to Governor Nelson Rockefeller, president of the Brooklyn Center of Long Island University, and commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, before entering teaching full-time at midlife.

Illustrated with photographs from Aldrich's personal collection, this lively memoir offers personal insights into New York State politics and history. Whether working to develop an effective system for rehabilitating juvenile offenders in New York City, trying to find an environmentally sound means for development in the Hudson River Valley, or teaching public policy at SUNY's Empire State College, Aldrich shows what it means to follow one's passions and interests, and to take the gifts one has been given and use them to try to make this world a better place.
1. Dancing with the Queen

2. Who is SAM? 

3. I Have a Dream

4. Marching with King

5. Honored with Deep Roots

6. Education

7. Marriage and Milbank

8. On the Beat

9. Angel’s Pal

10. Was I Officer Krupke?

11. From Minnow in the City to Big Fish in Albany 

12. Campaign Loss and Harlem Triumph

13. Rioting 101: A Man and His Plan

14. The Hudson River Valley Commission and Storm King      

15. Board Memberships

16. Nineteen Years with Nelson 

17. Sing Sing 

18. Erastus and Me 

19. Aboard Strider 

20. A Full-time Teaching Career 

21. Phyllis

22. A Farmer’s Life for Me? 

23. Fatherly Farewell

24. Parks Commissioner

25. The King Funeral

26. The Road to Meadowbrook

Sujets

• Local history
• Memoir
• Region
• History of the Americas
• Regional

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438439891
• Langue: English

Extrait

Dancing with the Queen, Marching with King
The Memoirs of Alexander “Sam” Aldrich
Sam Aldrich

Cover photo of Sam Aldrich taken by Phyllis W. Aldrich in 2008.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2011 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aldrich, Sam, 1928–
Dancing with the queen, marching with King : the memoirs of Alexander “Sam” Aldrich / Sam Aldrich.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4384-3987-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Aldrich, Sam, 1928– 2. New York (State)—Politics and government—1951– 3. Lawyers—New York—Biography. I. Title.
F125.3.A54A3 2011
974.7'043092—dc22
[B]                                                                                                                         2011010858
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Foreword
Alexander “Sam” Aldrich is a man born to great privilege who nevertheless chose a life of public service. Bestowed with the name “Sam” by chance when he entered St. Paul's School, Aldrich hung on to it for life, a small but firm affirmation that his path would be different from that of his forebearers. His grandfather, Nelson Aldrich, was America's “general manager” of the early twentieth century; as Senate majority leader, he had a big hand in creating both the Federal Reserve system, and—most un-Republican—the modern national income tax. His father, Winthrop Aldrich, was CEO of the Chase National Bank and ambassador to the Court of St James. And, most important for this memoir, his cousin was Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, New York's forty-fifth governor and the dominant figure in state public life of his era.
Aldrich followed his father's path to Harvard College (after an interlude at MIT) and Harvard Law School. He began his career in a white-shoe firm, but then escaped the law to begin public service as an aide to New York City's police commissioner. In the NYPD he developed an interest in youth work and delinquency prevention, one area in which his cousin the governor later called upon him to provide leadership. Sam Aldrich also served Governor Rockefeller in various other capacities, first as an executive assistant and overall trouble shooter, and later as Parks Commissioner, a job in which he further developed his great passion for the environment.
The author remains loyal to Nelson Rockefeller even today, as he offers vignettes that enrich the governor's record, while debunking commonly accepted stories that diminish his luster. Aldrich's account of his leadership at the governor's request of the response to race riots in Rochester in 1964, and the failure to later apply the documented lessons of how to respond to similar emergencies, is particularly interesting in light of our post-9/11 preoccupation with disaster preparedness and response.
It is often forgotten that, for much of American history, civil rights was a Republican cause, not a Democratic one. Sam Aldrich's value to the governor as his representative at great movement events of the 1960s was enhanced because he was a member of the family. He clearly draws from diaries or other detailed contemporaneous notes as he reports here in great detail, more than half a century later and with great passion and pride, of his presence at the “I Have A Dream Speech” at the Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1963, and of marching with Martin Luther King in Montgomery in 1964.
Sam Aldrich was a man present as New York history was made, a player in state government, though not a transformative one. His life-long effort to achieve autonomy and self-definition was clearly not easy, and yet he is discreet in this telling, both about his public and his private life. His family, I am sure, will be happy to have this story, but other New Yorkers too are enriched because Aldrich decided to give us this account. As a result, we know a bit more about our state and the people that made it, and the promise it still holds.
Gerald Benjamin

Acknowledgments
These are the people who inspired, influenced, and otherwise assisted me in writing these memoirs.
Harriet Alexander Aldrich, born 1888, died 1972. My mother, who kept a diary every day of her life, devoted photographer, world traveler, who penned the renowned “Dear Girls and Alexander letters” to her children which form the collection stored at the Aldrich Library of the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence, R.I.
Clem Williamson, my father-in-law, the best storyteller in my memory.
Judith White, writer, publicist, critic, chorister, who took my first draft and beat it into shape.
Ken Valentine, my computer consultant, who kept me from being driven insane.
Judy Drake, artist, chorister, who helped me select many of the photos in the book.
Field Horne, my neighbor in Saratoga Springs, who took the original material and prepared it for publication. Field also proofed my galleys and compiled the index.
The talented editorial staff at SUNY Press, including James Peltz, editor-in-chief; Amanda Lanne; Diane Ganeles; and my marketing guru, Fran Keneston;
My beloved sister, Lucy Aldrich Burr, of Mystic, Conn., the artist of my family;
Nelson Aldrich, my First Cousin once removed, who showed me years ago that Aldriches can write, and it was OK for me to try;
Steve Kennedy, the bold and brave Police Commissioner of New York City, who was the first man who trusted my judgment;
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller who did so for 19 years.
Gwynneth Smith, Sharon Smith, Cynthia Fulton, and Sunny Wright, my wife's four wonderful sisters, whose support and understanding has always sustained me;
And, above everyone else, to my adored wife Phyllis Williamson Aldrich.
A. “Sam” A.
1
Dancing with the Queen
The two most exciting public events of my life occurred before I turned forty.
In the spring of 1953, when I was only twenty-five, I was invited to attend the opening of the new American Embassy residence in London. My father had been appointed ambassador by President Dwight D. Eisenhower two years before, and my wife Elizabeth and I had enjoyed the privilege of attending Queen Elizabeth's coronation and all the preliminary festivities. Even so, I was only somewhat prepared for what happened at this embassy event.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip had been invited to the embassy party and had accepted, as had Sir Winston Churchill, who had recently been returned to service as prime minister for the second time.
The morning of the Big Day was devoted to preparing me for the ordeal of dancing with Her Majesty. My wife, my four sisters and their husbands were all there, and there seemed to be a general assumption that I would goof up somehow.
I was shown a small line on the floor of the ballroom where I was to be stationed as soon as my father danced once around the floor. When the moment arrived, I dutifully oozed into place and watched as my father and Her Majesty smoothly danced around and approached me.

Taken as the Queen arrived for the ball at the Embassy in Regent's Park, the night we danced together. She is being greeted by my father, the Ambassador. Photographer unknown.
“Ma'am,” he said quietly to her, “may I present to you my son, Alexander?”
I do not remember her reply, but it must have been affirmative, and I placed my arm around her waist. I was frightened out of my wits, but immediately noticed how small she was, and how beautiful her complexion.
We danced a slow, two-step fox trot once around the floor, and by some miracle I managed to avoid breaking her or stepping on her foot, while making unremarkable small talk the whole time. She danced beautifully.
As we completed the mandatory single circuit of the floor, there was former Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge standing on the place from which I had started. I had a sudden impulse to go right on by, but instead I stopped dancing, turned to the queen, and said “Ma'am, may I present to you Ambassador Lodge?”
She smiled prettily, thanked me for the dance, and was whirled away.
The entire event must have lasted for about ten minutes. Sadly, from the moment the dance ended, I could never remember anything either of us had said.
What I do remember was what happened next. I stood near the dance floor watching other people dancing for a while, and suddenly noticed I was standing next to a short, chubby man who was lighting an absolutely colossal cigar. He could only be Sir Win