Rocky Point, Einstein and Me
What’s a summer bungalow without a machine shop, a kiln and a working loom in the living room? Add in piles of beach stones waiting to be sculpted, framed pictures of Albert Einstein on the walls and various collections of insects and you’re starting to get an idea of life at Zvi and Temima Gezari’s home in Rocky Point.
On this episode we speak with retired NASA astrophysicist Daniel Gezari. Dan spent much of his childhood helping his father Zvi and brother Walter build their summer home in Rocky Point. Starting in the late 1940s with land purchased from Sylvester Hallock, they created a unique life for themselves that blended a keen interest in science with a passion for art.
Dan’s parents are the key and you’ll hear their stories. Zvi Gezari, the adventurous son of Hasidic farmers in Poland, Temima the Brooklyn girl (by way of Pinsk) who traveled the world whether it was ready for her or not. Temima’s artistic genius was matched by her husband’s talent for industrial design. For every etching and sculpture there was a homemade telescope and backyard railroad. And then there was that time Albert Einstein invited them over to his Princeton home.
Daniel went on to his own acclaim as an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. We’ve added a bonus episode on the feed where Dan talks about his time at NASA, his research and what prized possession Einstein gave him at that fateful meeting. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast (in iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your app of choice) to get the episode. [Updated Nov 24, 2016]
Further Research
- Daniel Gezari at NASA
- Temima Gezari
- Einstein’s Telescope
- The Writings of Temima Gezari (via WorldCat)
- Rocky Point Historical Society