Fort Schuyler Magazine Fall 2020

BY MATTHEW BONVENTO

SHELDON MEREL ’44 A L U M N I I N T E R V I E W

WHAT YEAR DID YOU GRADUATE AND WHAT WAS YOUR MAJOR? Back in those days I didn’t have many role models. My brother went to City College and studied accounting, which was not that I wanted to do. I started in City College and joined the ROTC. In City College I studied engineering, where in physics I failed twice. I switched majors to business, until one day I ran into a friend from my neighborhood who helped me decide to go to the New York State Maritime Academy, NYSMA. I graduated in 1944 with my engineering license. Back then the school was accelerated, and the

told that if we were separated from our ship for any reason, our pay would stop unlike our navy and coast guard counterparts. I was left in Tunis for an appendix operation during the war, and my pay stopped. This was one of the reasons that I did not pursue a career at sea. WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION TO GO INTO SINGING? When I realized that I had a talent for singing I wanted to pursue it. Many cantors aspire to be an opera singer. I aspired to sing like the great virtuoso cantors of Eastern Europe

program lasted only 18 months before we were out to sea supporting the war effort.

WHAT WERE YOUR EXPERIENCES AFTER GRADUATION? During the war I sailed on two Liberty Ships and a tanker. Back then, there was a lot that was not public knowledge about sailing in the merchant marine. Since the coastline was not under blackout at night, the German U-boats were sinking merchant ships right off the coast, and this was kept from the news. I learned quickly that I didn’t want to make my life at sea. In school, we were never

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