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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Oct '89
Saul Horowitz, Jr. No. 15368 Class of
1946 Died 24 June 1975 in New York, New York , aged
50 years. |
IN 1975, at the private graveside
service for Saul Horowitz, Jr., West Point Class of 1946, this
classmate folded the flag and presented it, assisted by the chairman
of the 1976 Honor Committee, Cadet William E. Andersen. Taps
were sounded. Days later, there was a moving memorial service
at the Jewish Community Center in White Plains, New York. Cadet,
Andersen again participated, carrying the American flag down
the aisle to a stand in front of that large assemblage. I then
read the Cadet Prayer, as we had recited it thirty years before
in our interfaith services at West Point. Saul--or "J. R."
as we knew him--was of the Jewish faith; I was Methodist; the
cadet was Roman Catholic.
J.R.'s wife 'Tykle" Horowitz had requested that
all this be done, knowing that J.R. would have wanted it that
way. The participation of a loving classmate was not unusual,
but that of a Cadet Honor Chairman was. It was also appropriate,
however, for no West Point graduate nurtured and won a vast reputation
for honor, integrity, and devotion to country more than did J.R.
Horowitz.
J.R. was born in New York on 5 May 1925, and he died in
an airplane accident at Kennedy Airport on 24 June 1975. Between
those dates, he grew into a giant of a man, who enriched our
lives, raised a fine family, and gave freely of himself to public
service. He served in the Corps of Engineers for eight years,
and became chairman of the Board of the HRH Construction Company;
mayor of Scarsdale, New York, and president of the Associated
General Contractors of America. He built skyscrapers in New York
City, banks in Puerto Rico, and apartment buildings in Paris.
He headed great national philanthropic organizations and was
pivotal in the development of the Jewish Chapel at West Point.
And all in the first fifty years.
Saul Horowitz, Jr., was the son of Saul
and Miriam (Ravitch) Horowitz. After early education in New York
City public schools, he was graduated from Phillips Academy in
Andover, Massachusetts, in 1942. He attended Yale University
for a year, and entered the Military Academy on 1 July 1943,
with an appointment from Congressman William B. Barry of New
York's Second District,
In F-2 Company, we remembered him as a quiet, studious
fellow with an avid interest in city sports like baseball. He
accumulated the usual demerits from Major Powell and Colonel
Williams, but when he was packed off to Fort Bragg for two weeks
instructor duty in the Replacement Training Center, an Artillery
captain wrote that he would particularly desire to have him as
an officer because "he is consistently devoted to his work,
shows unexcelled enthusiasm for any job, and is resourceful,
punctilious, and most attentive."
During those war years, we company mates of J.R. could
not travel home, and often accepted the invitations to dine at
the Horowitz apartment in the city. When we all went our separate
ways on 4 June 1946, J.R. was among our smartest, graduating
82nd in a giant class of 875.
Commissioned in the Corps of Engineers, J.R. attended
a Branch Immaterial course at Fort Benning and a Basic Engineer
Course at Fort Belvoir. Following parachute training, he was
assigned to the 127th Airborne Engineers of the 11th Airborne
Division in Japan. He was moved to the Office of the IXth Corps
Engineer in late 1948, and when he left in March 1950, was praised
for having "constantly displayed initiative, common sense
and good judgement commensurate of officers many years [his]
senior."
Before he left Sendai, Japan in 1950, J.R. was married
to Mary Elizabeth "Tykle" Blakeney, daughter of Colonel
Charles and Mary Blakeney. The newly marrieds traveled first
to Boston where he undertook graduate engineering studies at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When the Korean War
intervened, he was sent to Fort Belvoir, where he served in the
Engineer Replacement Training Center and attended the Engineer
Advanced Course.
In his final year on active duty, J.R. served in Korea
as S-3, executive officer, and finally commanding officer of
the 76th Engineer Battalion (Construction), which received the
Meritorious Unit Citation for unusual accomplishments on facilities
in the Demilitarized Zone and bridges over the Han River. His
citation for the Bronze Star Medal noted the "superior efficiency
and leadership which characterized his efforts," and the
"exemplary manner in which Captain Horowitz repeatedly performed
duties normally assigned to officers of field grade rank."
As he left active service in July 1954, he received a letter
from the Chief of Engineers, Major General S.D. Sturgis, Jr.,
who wrote, "I assure you that your recent resignation from
the Regular Armv is a source of real regret to your brother officers
and friends in the Corps and to me personally."
The decision to leave active service was made with
great reluctance and under considerable pressure to assure the
continuance of a family business. The Horowitz and Ravitch families
had been in the construction industry in New York since the 1880's,
and incorporated as the HRH Construction Company in 1925. When
two of the partners died, all eyes focused on J.R. to keep the
firm running. He set out to learn city construction from the
bottom up.
J.R. became executive vice president of the firm in
1958, president in 1965, and chairman of the board in 1972. He
then noted with some wryness, "When you ultimately get to
the top of a company your daddy runs, it's hardly a Horatio Alger
story." During J.R.'s tenure, HRH Construction expanded
its operations into commercial and institutional building, while
keeping housing and construction management in its mix of contracts.
Specializing in high-rise buildings, J.R. and his team constructed
the Gulf and Western Building, Citicorp Center, the Whitney Museum
of American Art, the New York University Hospital, and scores
of other public and private buildings.
During these years, I often asked J.R. about his decision
making. "Reading a lot and talking to people. But there
is a heavy component of gut hunch; when you see everyone going
in one direction, it's time to start moving the other way."
In 1975, the Engineering News-Record quoted a colleague of J.R.'s:
"As a bidder he is a good river boat gambler.... He knows
what he is doing, where he should gamble and where he should
be conservative. He has great analytical ability."
When the New York City Subcontractors Trade Association
gave J.R. an award in 1972, they said, "In New York City's
cut-throat building industry, he has earned a reputation for
fairness and integrity." These words were used liberally
in the many tributes and articles about him, and he used them
frequently in his advice to other businessmen. "In order
to be a leader," he said, "one must have moral courage,
physical courage, a high pain threshold, and be honest."
It is this philosophy which placed him in such great demand to
serve as a director or trustee of a variety of corporations,
banks, hospitals, trusts, and foundations.
But he further reflected a sense of obligation to take
responsibility for sustaining our great public institutions.
"I think everyone who has the opportunity, to do so should
make deposits in our system to keep the system working. I feel
very strongly about this. I learned it from my father. That's
why we have been so active philanthropically in our family."
In the arena of community affairs he served Scarsdale, New York
as a member of the Board of Education and the Board of Trustees,
and as mayor, 1969-1971. He was a trustee of the Mount Sinai
Hospital, a director of the 92nd Street Young Men's Hasidic Association,
and in 1963 served as campaign chairman of the Federation of
Jewish Philanthropies. From 1969 to 1972, he served as a member
of the Republican National Finance Committee, and before then
he served for eight years as a member of the Finance Committee
of the American Heart Association.
Many of the tributes to Horowitz
came from within his second profession as a construction executive.
His greatest honor, and the locus of his greatest impact on the
construction industry nationally, was his election in 1973 to
be president of the Associated General Contractors of America.
This affiliation of thousands of firms representing general contractors
in construction as diverse as skyscrapers and highways, looked
to J.R. for commentary on values, and he emphasized SKILL, INTEGRITY,
and RESPONSIBILITY. He gave them new structure by setting up
the National Construction Industry Council. After his death,
many of his peers from within the affiliated firms set up scholarships
in J.R.'s name.
Among his many buildings, J.R. had been particularly
attentive to the construction of the Mount Sinai Hospital Medical
School in New York. Now, awards are given each year in his name
at the school's graduation exercises, to alumni for outstanding
service as teachers, investigators, or as professional practitioners.
This is a specially apt commentary on J.R.'s life.
Saul Horowitz, Jr. left a legacy in his words
and deeds. It is a legacy that comes from solid character and
an inner drive to serve the public good. It is a legacy of gifted
leadership in both the military and civilian arenas. The direct
heirs of this legacy are his family, who have established annual
scholarships in his name at Phillips Academy at Andover. Preference
for the scholarships will be given to "children from families
on active duty in branches of the United States Armed Forces
or for young people who hope to attend one of the United States
service academies." The donors are listed as "his wife
Tykle, and his four children: BeeBee, Mark, James (PA 1976),
Sarah (PA 1981)."
Thirteen years have gone by since that fatal crash
at Kennedy Airport and since the flags were carried at half-staff
in Scarsdale. HRH is no longer a family business, and Cadet Andersen
is now running for the United States Senate from Tennessee. The
Jewish Chapel has been built and dedicated at West Point, deeply
indebted to an initial interest by J.R. Horowitz, who contributed
early concepts and architectural plans. A memorial garden has
been given in his name by his wife and children. Here one can
recall a rich past, and J.R. often saying, "Dear God, help
me to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong."
Or remember his devotion to West Point, as he said in a talk
to his colleagues: "Most contractors build buildings pretty
much in the same way. The thing that makes it possible to choose
one or the other has to be in the area of integrity and willingness
to accept responsibility for performance... I learned that at
West Point. I've never forgotten it. It's the most important
thing I've ever learned in my life."
So be it, J.R.
Roger H. Nye, '46, Chairman, Friends of The West Point Library
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