Harry Kabler
Harry Kabler was born on July 8, 1921, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, then an almost entirely Orthodox Jewish section of the city that he compared to a shtetl. He grew up with two sisters after his father deserted the family when Harry was four, leaving his devout mother to raise them on very modest means with help from an aunt who owned a grocery store. His mother instilled in him a strong sense of integrity, and he recalled her insisting she would rather see him barefoot in the snow than wearing shoes that were not his own. A curious and outspoken boy known by his Yiddish name, he attended Hebrew school under demanding teachers from the old country and clashed with them over his many questions, once nearly being expelled for asking too much.
After graduating high school with a scholarship he could not afford to use, Harry faced heavy antisemitism in Boston and struggled to find work outside Jewish-owned businesses. He earned an apprenticeship at the Boston Navy Yard through a civil service exam and later enlisted as an aviation cadet, serving as a navigator on B-25s in the Pacific. He was stationed on Okinawa when the atomic bombs were dropped and later flew over Hiroshima and Nagasaki and did occupation work on Kyushu. He remained in the Air Force Reserve for nearly 30 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. After the war he studied at the University of Texas, initially aiming for law but earning a degree in accounting, and moved to Dallas in the summer of 1950.
In Dallas, Harry worked for the accounting firm Peat Marwick Mitchell for five years before joining the Texas Turnpike Authority, where he helped build the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike, the early Dallas North Tollway, and other projects, writing the first toll collection manual and serving for 39 years. Deeply devoted to Jewish life, he was a longtime volunteer solicitor for the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas and served on the boards of many organizations, including the Jewish Community Center, Temple Emanu-El Brotherhood, and the Dallas Jewish Historical Society. He led services at retirement homes, conducted blood drives at Temple Emanu-El for decades, and was active in veterans groups. He was married twice, to a first wife with whom he had a son, Karl, and to Beatrice, a beloved wife who died in 1993, and he cherished a large blended family of children and grandchildren.
Full Transcript
today is Thursday August the 4th 2011 my name is Clint Reisner and I will be doing the interview interview I am the interviewer in the viata group videographer and my interviews name is Harry K blur in place of interview Jewish community center and I want to make a brief comment I feel very honored to conduct this oral history with you Harry and let's begin you can start whatever information you'd like to have in your oral history well let's start with my beginning I was born and raised in the city of Boston Massachusetts July the 8th 1921 was on a Friday the reason I know it
was on a Friday because my mother told me later on she's a very religious woman and I was kind of late in coming and she wanted to make sure I was born before Shabbat so I know I was born on a Friday I was born in the Dorchester tortoise Jewish section of at that time the Jewish section of Boston called Dorchester yeah back then I started kindergarten at 4 years old and then started a Hebrew school or must've been about 6 years old I have to interject a sort of a funny story that's part of me because I grew up with it they grew up
with it there were three Harry's in my family and I was raised I was raised Orthodox and in Orthodox Judaism you name that to some supposedly great person and there were three Harry's all of us all of us are named after some great scholar who lived years ago in Lithuania there was my uncle my mother was the second youngest of 11 and her youngest brother was named Harry we called him uncle Harry the other Harry was the oldest child of my mother's oldest sister and and he was only about seven eight nine years older than my mother but for some reason his friend stopped calling
him Tom and the family called her tom back then we didn't get a Hebrew name we were born we got a Yiddish name my get his name that was given to me was Harrison it see that's my full name is Harry Isadora Kaiba and I was given a Yiddish name of here's the it C and so I was called it C and I was called it C all during my my boyhood all during my the algorithm and time I spent in Boston by my friends who knew me I'll tell you two funny stories about it see I had a I had a lot of had
a lot of girl cousins all of whom older than me and evidently must have been frustrated school teachers because they took me under their belt and I was this and I love to learn so I was their student they taught me to read and talk they taught me you know things that you normally wouldn't get into you got it the kinder got a first grade so when it came time for me to go to the kindergarten I said my mother well I don't have to go to school I said I know how I can do this I know this I know that my mother was
a very strict woman she's young man you're gonna go go to school no way fam buts about it and so she dressed me up and we went up to the went up to the school and I was a little Hellion back then I was screaming and yelling and the and the kindergarten teacher whose name wasn't as feeling I never forget her she came out intimacies table she says let me handle the young man I brought with things like that my mother was very embarrassed at the time said let me take care of him I promise everything's gonna be fine my mother finally turned me over
to her and boy she took me by the hand took me into a washing room push my head into a sink turn on the water faucet and start splashing water in my face this young man says you keep screaming and non keep splashing what's it gonna be I quit screaming we got into this big room all these little kids were four-year-olds we formed the big circle and she said all right she says we're all gonna be become friends but no to become friends we have to know your name and so they'll go around a circle given air names when it came to me I said
my name is itse and and the kids just died laughing they thought those the funniest thing they ever heard they teach it oh she wasn't laughing she was giving me that she's alright young man I had enough out of you she says what is your I said miss feeling my name is itse and she said come on out man I want I want to know what's your real name not what people call you i says miss feeling x-bar cheese now man when you come back to school the next day you better know what your name is they were very strict in those days they were
excellent teachers but they were very strict when I my mother picked me up later that day I looked at his mother I says what's my name what do you mean what's your name your name is Izzy I told her the whole story she laughed so much that tears roll down her face that's the first time I learned that my name was Harry cable believe it or not and how were you at this time four years old another cute story when I started he was schooled at six years old when the theta and my first teacher was name is Volsky lovely woman and and she said
how many children here know their Hebrew names somebody kids raised and how many do not know that Hebrew name well I was one of those that raised his hand and and she's well tell me what your name is and I'll give you your Hebrew name so the children she was going down with the rose and when she came to me instead of telling Harry cable because anybody called me gypsy cable I said my name is it see Kayla so I got the wrong Hebrew name I became yes got cable and I was get shocked Kayla and I'm still at mr. Kaiba all through my life so when I get in the Lea I'm you Scott Ben drove a to cute little stories where were you born there I told you oh you did okay yeah I told I was born in Boston okay and you a section of Dorchester as a child how was your neighborhood alike well the neighborhood was about 90 plus percent Orthodox Jews fact is all the Jews my neighbor Orthodox where I grew up believing that if you a Jew you were Orthodox was like a shtetl when we had and we had Jewish butchers we had Jewish babies who heads Jewish everything everything was
Jewish Jewish Jewish Jewish fact is the neighborhood was so densely populated with Jews that when she was holidays came along we didn't even have school public school and yet nine-tenths of our teachers were Irish got the iris of the law the largest ethnic group in Boston my I had a very very tough boyhood for two reasons number one I had a very had a bad father very bad father he deserted my mother when I was 4 years old I had a younger sister a year and a half an older sister two years older any man the last time I saw him when I was 4
years old because they were they were over the house there was a big discussion I was there at the discussion and that's the last time I ever saw my father and it's a good thing as the last time I ever saw me because I have a I ran into him on later life I would have beat the living hat guy and how did your mother raise your face well we went on back then we went on what is called mother's relief and for mothers relief we were we see the tremendous amount $16 a month for the four of us this was many this is this
is way back when when a dollar was a daughter life again what year was well I was born in 21 and so since 1925 yeah and but fortunately my mother's oldest sister my aunt Hana owned a grocery store and so she gave us groceries at Cost which helped tremendously but I had I had a wonderful mother I was I was very hyper my two sisters were lovely girls didn't even know they were around because I was I liked to draw poor mother up the wall and that's why she was very strict with me and I'm glad she was glad she was but she she taught
the integrity the neighborhood I lived in was a very poor neighborhood I wasn't only pool one there were lots of other poor poor children there and a lot of the boys got in trouble stealing and they went back then if you were a young boy was caught stealing he was sent to reform school and my mother was she wanted the mother had some wonderful character characteristics about her and like I say she taught the integrity because Boston has very very severe winners and she looked me in the face one day she's young man I was out with a young boy at the time she's young
man and want you to listen to me and listen closely she said I'd rather see you going barefoot in the snow than wearing a pair of shoes that didn't belong to you now do you understand what I'm saying I said yes ma'am and I think because of that I was a straight you know honest boy you know that sort of stuff I we went to school that time we get out at 3:30 in the afternoon this is from the kindergarten through the fourth grade and they called it elementary back then and we went from the kindergarten through the fourth grade and we got out at
3:30 and then I went home got picked up my Hebrew books and went to theta and went the Hebrew school from 4:00 to 6:00 the teachers we had were from the old country they were tough as nails they yell at you they throw things at you and but they were excellent teachers I have to give him credit there were very good teachers because the third day but because they were so tough when the average boy got to be bar Mitzvahed once he was bar Mitzvahed they can somehow convince their parents this is it let me go and so I was left in the class with
just me and all girls when I graduated I was the only boy in the whole neighborhood they graduated when I graduated it was just one boy and all these bright girls because all the boys had just disappeared when it got bar Mitzvahed I was a free thinker back then as I am now and I and you know if you're gonna be raised as an Orthodox Jew and please don't take this wrong but they want you to be a sponge in other words whatever they tell you you listen to it you hear it you accept it and that's it that's God's Word but unfortunately that wasn't
me and and I used to question a lot of things they used to get so angry out of me they'd throw me out of class three different times they wanted to expel me from human school and at one time I was told by the principal you are not to come back unless you bring your mother with you make a long story short we met in the principal's office and principal his name was mr. tumor Ralph I remember that and he a head teacher was mr. Hilson he was in the class with us and my mother there were four of us and mr. Hill since mr.
Denham it's a tumor off the principal said that I had teach you all right mr. Ellison tell me what the problem is what is wrong and mr. Hilson you know had a very thick accent he was in the old country and everything English he says I'll tell you but the problem is he has still got infections that the Bible says Oh what kind of treasures does he ask you I did print the principal didn't talk about what he talk good English what kind of questions did he ask you and he said however studying the Hamas and the Colossus says you know what he stopped enumerating when it says in fact I say he says how could that be that doesn't make sense but he mean how could that be this dismembered it is
written and he asked how can that be and so this went on for a while and finally my mother she couldn't stand any more she stood up and she said are you trying to tell me that's your Warner that you want it spell my son because he asked questions what kind of nervous guy does that and those who don't know he is nervous that means conscience and principles of an intelligent man realized it was Mary strike make a long story short mister Hilson left the room and I had to take almost an oath after the only kind of questions that I could ask is if
I did not understand not that I disagreed or in any form of fashion and so the compromise was made and that's why I was able to to finish my human school studies so your mother and your brothers and sisters all be blown to north adopts sure right yeah we went to an orthodox show and there's another strange thing about it you know on my apples I because my mother was very from I became very firm from men's religious and I used to go services besides going to Hebrew school and the High Holy Days I'd go we had a big we had a big synagogue men
downstairs and women upstairs was called the Fowler spring show fo WL ER and it's excuse me and we had this big show and but all my uncles that I prayed with you know an orthodoxy you classified as a coning a lady and in Israel and on those were Israel's I assumed that I was in Israel so I grew up I'll do my young life as in Israel later on it happened here in Dallas there was a Jewish professor in the University of Arizona that had figured out that that the coins passed on through their sons a certain spring which identified him as cohan's and that
they were making a study all over the world to decide who were really cohan's and who weren't really calling it they weren't going just by the name and they were asking for volunteers so yeah I volunteered and what they did they swab the inside he had cheeks and they sent they sent it off to to the University of Arizona and the first report that came back and said you're definitely a lady but but the study is still on he could be a : and sure enough came I'm a coin and that's what I find out that goes with my father's side my mother side of
all use whereas my father's idyllic oh he's but it was quite a revelation let me tell you one more story that that bothered me when it came time to be bar Mitzvahed as an Orthodox Jewish boy you went by the Hebrew calendar and whenever the Hebrew calendar came along that's when you'll by misread well the my my mr. attack came along there were three of us there were three of us that were gonna be by miss wood at the same time and even though there's three of us back then maybe still now you did the whole thing nothing was shortened but in this synagogue that I was in that that a strange room that when you gave you by mr.
speech and had to be either in Yiddish irony he would know English so so I went but two weeks before the two weeks before the my limits were I went to the rabbi the show and I said rabbi I said I'm gonna be by miss within two weeks and I said or one of the three boys you know it's gonna be my misfit and I said I know they're gonna give thereby miss they're gonna give their speeches and Yiddish but I'm gonna give mine in Hebrew because my ego is better than my Yiddish I know Hebrew better than you dish I understand it is but
I'm speaking as well as well as I do Hebrew and I said and I said I want you to know that I wrote my own Hebrew speech I'm not bragging about it I just want you to know it because I also want to give a speech in English because I want the whole congregation most of whom won't understand Hebrew I want to give a speech telling them what a wonderful mother I had what she's done for you know for me and my my sisters and he says and rabbis in those days are not like the rabbi's that today believe me he says no you can't
do it and I said rabbi what is it written that you that you can't give a nova mr. speech in English never mind it where it's written or not written I say you can't do it alright as you can tell for my story I'm not exactly the kind of a person that cocktails so luckily the two boys came time for my bar mitzvah and to book - I know I knew both of the boys they were friends of mine they gave their speeches in Yiddish I get up there and gave my speech in Hebrew you know crap properly properly very few understood what I was saying then finally I broke into my English speech and you could have heard a pin drop you know
know that I'm sure it's never quiet never quiet but boy it was quiet I guess they thought that silly was gonna cave it but I gave my English speech which people told me later on was a wonderful speech and I was because I wanted I was talking about my mother not about me I was even mention in the speech and after what speech was all over there's the rabbi sitting up in that high chair is with that full beard you know and it's a fair complete right so I smiled at him and he gave me a look that looks gonna kill I would have drop
dead right then and there the rabbi's of my day were not nice people the only rabbi that I liked was rabbi Joseph Sullivan who came to Boston as a young man and he and I became very very close friends he's the only rabbi of my whole young career that ever put his arm around me by Joseph Sullivan who became one of the great rabbis of all time very interesting extremely interesting when you came to Dallas from Boston 19 come to Dallas and boss where did you go no no way I got well if you want to know how I got the Dallas is it's kind
of a circus route the Walker Boston that was along with him to tell him my story so let's get this get things and let's get the things that they are Boston was one of the most anti-semitic cities ever lived in in my life very anti-semitic and then it was the the largest ethnic group there were Irish the second largest ethnic group Italians they're both Roman Catholic yet the Irish Roman Catholics hated us with a passion but the Italians Roman Catholic ought along with no problems and later on when I was about 14 years old unbeknownst to my mother I stopped going to an Irish Catholic
Church to find out why not hell they hated us so much and when yet we can still get along with the Italians and if you go to heard that hatred to come out of the mouths of those priests you'd know why they hated us it's terrible also it was almost impossible as a Jew to get a job working for other than a Jew when I was a teenager you know like I said because of my situation I've worked ever since I've been 8 years old I did a newspaper outs I had breakfast routes I shined shoes you name it I did it and I'm not
bragging it's just that there are others just like me doing it I wasn't the only poor boy in the neighborhood but that's what had to be done it had to be done but but then when I became a teenager you know after I graduated high school I had a scholarship but I didn't take it because I had a work I hadn't worked and trying to get a job is almost impossible back then you got to fill out an application and the application always asks you religion and when you put down Jewish that was a kiss of death so that was gone so one time I've
been interviewed by job and I put down America and the man interview and he said what are you trying to be a wise guy I didn't ask your nationality I asked your religion that you ain't get an answer the question right I said with all due respect sir I know exactly what you asked I says I'm Jewish if I put down Jules your job I mean he says hell no get your ass out of here and that's the way it was I'm telling you the Emmis the Emmis means the truth well finally and so I went to work and in the factory I'm not complaining
I was glad to work in a factory that was owned and run by Jews that's how I got a job run by Jews anyhow I finally I heard about that the federal this was before the war the law hadn't broken out and the federal government looking for teenagers to go to work at the Boston Navy ID as apprentices but you had to take a civil service exam and there were thousands of us took it took this exam well fortunately the good Lord gave me some good brain so I did very well and I was one of the early ones that was selected to become an
apprentice and so I went to work with a Boston Navy eye before the war broke out we were working on English ships because they would the war broke out in 39 against England and Germany and English ships were coming into the Boston Navy Arctic to be repaired excuse me anyhow but then then the war broke out and even though I had a defence deference to God I worked myself until I got my journeyman's papers in less than two years which normally takes four years and and and they had classified me they had it gave me a defense deference which means leave me alone he's an
important man we need him here but being a Jewish boy and practically most of my friends already gone origin to the service I couldn't do it so I anyhow Boston's a big Navy city and so but I always wanted to fly and so I went down at the Navy recruiting office while I was working at the Boston AVR to get into the Naval Air Corps and I filled out all the papers took all the physicals and all that sort of stuff but then when I went through web review of a review group and wait wait wait wait wait shows that you're working for the Boston
Navy out of that well yeah that's so what oh no we can't overrule you know another section of the Navy was sorry would we can't take you I said what are you talking about I says I said trying to tell me that that I'm doing more for the war work on the Navy and then I would go on it to the naval you know and becoming a naval pilot these are this is that's not the question the question is we can't overrule them but they said but look we need guys like you should come at a couple of months and we'll see if we can
maybe things have changed the Rooney have changed worlds or rules so I'm back in about two or three months say and so I got fed up one time the army there's no question when a NASA aviation cadet and and that's how I left Boston I left Boston went through a BG to get that I went through an aerial gunnery school I went through a lot of things but I want you everywhere is to volunteer in school and navigation school ended up in b-25s in the Pacific hours and I was in places like New Guinea the Philippine Islands and Okinawa I was on Okinawa when they
dropped the two atomic bombs and after the war I flew over Hiroshima and Nagasaki and started damage that had been wrought even did some occupation work and the southern island of Kyushu I got to tell this one story though a lot of people I meet today think that the dropping the atomic bombs was a terrible thing and I said yes it was a terrible thing but let me explain something to you after the war my group was sent to a plate was sent to the southern island of Kyushu to a town called Sasha nakooma and we were sent there because that was supposedly a Japanese
aircraft factory there and we were going to take it over we got the Sasha nakooma there was no airplane factory and all we found was one old dilapidated aircraft and and and but after a while we found out they had gone out into the mountains hollowed out a section of the mountains and moved the whole factory in there let me tell you the Japanese were will have a very very tough enemy they had a top-notch Navy the Air Force was top-notch their fighting man they'd fight to the death they were brainwashed to die for the Emperor make sure you have a it goes directly to
heaven and they would tough tough enemy if we hadn't done that hundreds of thousands of Japanese and Americans would have been killed before we were able to take over today because they would have fought to the end and to the right to the end and I felt happy to tell that story anyhow so after the war was over I got back to the states and oh by the way I got back time it became obvious when you're in the armpit the Army Air Corps that everybody who flew for the Army during World War two they were in the Army Air Corps there was no army
here there was no Air Force then the Air Force came into existence after World War two and after a while was over I got separated at Fort Lewis Washington and and they wanted me to sign up as a regular you know they didn't eat me as a bomber there but they needed me as a navigator and I says he'll no I'm not gonna sign up as a regular breast this is a pilots Air Force it goes from your overseas the pilots there the air common dance they get all the races and rank you know and so forth and so on I says yeah I'll become
a regular fee let me go through pilot school they said we don't need pilots look at all the pilots we need we need guys like you and I said yeah I'm gonna get guys like me the heck with it that's well how about joining the reserve well I've always been very patriotic so I joined the Air Force Reserve which is one of the best things I ever did because as a navigator I could fly in any aircraft I got to go all over the world I had a wonderful experience I served about close to 30 years and retired from the classified as a lieutenant colonel
US Air Force Reserve retired and it was a wonderful decision I make anyhow after the Lord went back to Austin and got my health back and we went to live up and went to live up and we went up to Boston you know to more where I was from and after they were sure a while my first wife told me she says Harry she says I don't like living it she's I'm going back to Texas she said that I'm not gonna live here and I had a tough decision to make but I'm one of those that even though my first marriage did not work out
I still would have made the same decision because I believe that a man's first duty is to his wife I believe that very strongly so he came back to Austin and which is fine but for some reason I don't want to go into it because the sole point in my life I lost a whole year I lost a whole year of my life because because they they wouldn't let me into the University of Texas and so I lived in the county until I was there for a year so I finally got into the University of Texas went to all year-round now my childhood ambition was
to become a judge so when I signed up the University of Texas that was in I signed up as a pre-law student and and but as a pre-law student but before you can want to loss but we have to get degrees in something you have to get it either an arts and sciences or abyss School of Business and I was one of those that used to go to courthouses and listen to trials and became obvious to me that when a trial that had to do with business came up a lot of these judges were not too wise with respect to business and so I figured
if I'm going to be a good judge I better learn as much about business as I can and so I chose the business route and so what I when I saw it I started the University of Texas they had they had a ruling there that everybody in the School of Business and it's a good ruling by the way everybody in the School of Business is required to take eight hours of accounting mandatory well for math that always been my forte and even though accounting is not all math there's a lot of math to it I found accountant to be very easy I mean to me
it was very simple and so I figured what the hell I just get a degree in accounting and then go on to law school you don't have to get a degree in something and fact is I even did some teaching and they wanted me to stay there and teach accounting but but no I was I was in tenth cuz I became I was very involved with with uh with the law and they had free Law Society there and I became president of the pre-law Society which was one of the largest groups they had there at the University of Texas at the time and I did
very well I went all year round because I was trying to make up for my last year's and you know and taking you know more courses I should work my tail off but I don't mean it's disrespectfully but there are some women that should work and there are some women that should not work and my first wife unfortunately it was one of those that didn't like to work and she kept complaining about and I even though I explained to her that there's no way in the world that we can make it on the GI Bill it's impossible I said if you don't work I said
there's no way in the world that I can finish my education and here I was I had a part-time job I was I was I was I was grading three different courses in accounting and for practic peanuts and going school all year round so to get her off my back I says look when I graduate I can go to work you will not have to work that's my promise to you but your promise to me has to be is to quit complain because you've got to so sure enough get very well in a County I made practically straight A's and and and I applied to
law school and accepted the University of Texas law school and that's when things got nasty because she was thinking uh if I graduated in january of nineteen fifty and and she figure well now I'm gonna go to work and she won't have to work anymore but I said wait wait I said I thought the law school accepted me and I can go now go on and become an attorney and then maybe realize what I want to be is really a judge you know and then and she complained about it so much she says look and she made an argument that was hard to it's at
the counter man she's a little carried she says you got into accounting maybe buy by accident but you but you had no trouble with it you did look at the grave Jemaine he even had you teaching it maybe this is where you should be maybe you should be in a County and not in law and and any I make a long story said I said okay I says maybe you're right I says because she making sense but I'm gonna stay in more and get a masters any of so I got out so in the summer time I came up to dowels there was no way
of conditioning back then there was no way I was gonna live in uses without air conditioning and that's how I ended up in Dallas and I wanted to go to work in public accounting because then you get your best experience and and whatever reason back then I was looking for a job in the summer of 50 I just I just would drive up the Dallas and I made a I had a list of all that the top accounting firms national accounting firms and there were no jobs there were no jobs and finally one of the partners and in peat marwick mitchell but was later vkk
MPG which is one of the big six of them they used to call it a big fire whatever he says look Terry says we don't have a job and he says but I think what I see I showed him my my transcript - my grades he said but I'd be stupid not to hire someone a hurry and I did make a long story short I work for people are Mitchell for five years and and I was working on that's one of the clients of Texas Turnpike Authority the Texas Turnpike Authority was an agency the state of Texas which it was going to build its gonna
build two roads is gonna build a road between Dallas and Fort Worth known as that that is what would Turnpike and also we're going to build one between the dallas-fort Worth area and he was going to be known as San Jacinto Turnpike I think that was the name of it and so I was I was working on a books and working with him and and then the man was in charge of it came to me one day he says how he says by the man we hired to be our chief accountant have decided not to work for us we'd like to have you come to
work for us and I said why I said I'm not gonna go work for the state no way and he said no and he said let me explain this to you he says we're a state agency in name only and the reason we have to be a state agency because you have to have the right of eminent domain we have to have the power to buy land to buy real estate but we're not gonna get a penny won in the state we're gonna have to operate like a business and basically the way it works we're gonna sell bonds and it's going to be a bond
indenture which which tells us exactly how we have to operate you have to go according to those rules and regulations and with the money that we get from them from the sale of the bonds initially we're going to build this Highway between Dallas and Fort Worth six-lane Road and and then as the bond when the bonds pay off it becomes a real freeway then admitted then it makes sense it's a real freeway it wasn't paid by tax money we just paid by those who used it and it's paid off and so forth and and he says that's how I was going to operate us is
all right that being the case and so but we started off with scratch with nothing you know really because we didn't sell the bonds until September of that year September of 1955 and yet we open you stop and think of this in less than two years because we opened on August 27 1957 is when Dallas where it was Turnpike opened this is a six-lane Road with all these tolls there was no automatic toll collection for every station had to be had a toll collection equipment had to be man these people had to be trained you had to get a maintenance organization in addition to an
administrative organization says and we had and all we had was at that time we had a couple of engineers at the man in charge he was called the engineer manager his name was mr. Dingwall by the way nice very good person and it was a hard work I mean I worked my tail off but it was rewarding because we built the world in less than two years and even though it's the biggest secret of the day if when because we did things efficiently and properly it it paid off 17 years ahead of schedule and became a freeway a free road and likewise we were ones that built the initial the initial Dallas North towing we also built the that thing over in Grand Prairie Mountain Creek Lake bridge the same way you sold bonds and each of those each of
those bond issues had a trust indenture and those trust and then she showed up you had to live by that was your Bible that's what you had a go by and to me it was fascinating because they every now and I have to go to New York and the sale of bonds and become pretty astute in what's going on and the whole finance intimate was fascinating fascinating well make a long story short I keep saying that it's the bad phrase of mine but I work for the Texas Turnpike Authority for 39 years I finally retired and the reason I retired I was into my 70s
but that's not the reason because I enjoyed working I enjoyed working on my life but it became a little too political for me and now you know it's been taken over by the North Texas Tollway Authority and one of the one of the perks that you would get as a retiree if you get free passage on a free passage on the toll road and you know they had these toe tags and the toe tag that I had was a toll free total time in other words I could ride on the tollway and it was a non revenue but you see employees had non-revenue toe tags
also while you're working you had a non-member who told that but as a retiree this was then one of many perks believe me but because there weren't many retirees but as a retiree one of the big perks you got was this was his toll-free told a but about less than two years ago I got a letter from the North Texas toy I thought they were revoked in my privilege and I wrote the chairman of the board never got an answer from him we've got an answer from one of his flunkies and finally found out how true it is I don't know that the only ones
that get they get the free passage the directors you know and but us retirees and and the thing that bothered me about it is I was considered part of management and as part of management we got no extra time well you were pioneers I know but but I know I wrote I wrote the first I wrote the first toll collection manual were you in the primary I designed that the toll collection manual the first one that was used here I even revised that the trust intentions that even the these these attorneys accepted a lot of my changes as I got to know it I understand
legal language I guess I probably would have been a good judge but that's that that's another point because I understand I can read legal language just like in the in the tax field you know they have their everything is everything is in a legal language and that makes sense to me yeah I understand it I can read it and understand it and it's really left me very angry I've been thinking one of these days I'm gonna expose and get a one of these TV what do you call them one of those reporters and I let the world know what they've done to me not just
me but others like me from Channel 8 News Harry anyhow that that's something I've kind of got it in the back of my mind I'm not exactly a vindictive person that's not my character but you're justified in doing that but but I gave 39 years of my life and hard years and a lot of times I worked 10 hours a day seven days a week never got an extra penny for it because I was part of Management C and that's the way that the rules were I didn't complain I knew that was those little rules never mind work and I always enjoyed working I grew
up you know as a young boy working and and convinced myself I'm gonna have to work all my life so enjoy it and it's the fact I always enjoyed working and still do all right now let's get into let's get into what's been going on with Harry Kaler here in Dallas yeah that was my next question area that's the city changed since you came here oh when I first came to Dallas they talked about Big D and believe me it'll sure as heck was not Big D was not Big D fact is I've seen Dallas change and Dallas become a beautiful city those of you
that don't get downtown much on a Sunday afternoon with traffic is like get in your cars drive downtown and just drive around and see what a gorgeous beautiful city Dallas has become really has and and I know Dallas I know it very well fish you know because when I first came to Dallas I lived in Oak Cliff so I know Oh cliff also so I'm not a stranger to all of Dallas if I called old cliff I'm not lost and there were people here never been told cliff never in their lives I mean people are born and raised here never been old cliff anyway let
me try a little bit about myself because I'm very very Jewish oriented I've been a volunteer solicitor for the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas for at least 50 years and have held various and sundry positions you know I wasn't I was a head of the various committees and one of the toughest committees that I've ever that I've ever became chairperson ah was the collection committee the collection committee you know people become in arrears and I mean I mean two three five six years in arrears and try to get to collect money that people own that they that they promised to pay and they pledged you
know it was really tough but anyhow and I still solicit for the Federation still do it I supported either the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation I've served on many many many boards of Jewish organizations been on the board of the Jewish Community Center here the community is said and we have a senior board and I'm a past president of the senior board and a temple emanu-el I'm a past president for the Brotherhood and I also served on a template Emmanuel board I've served on boards of the American Jewish Committee the Dallas Jewish Historical Society Dallas Hebrew free loan Society a keeper Academy a Dallas I was
on that board for 25 years Beit Midrash of North Texas this is this is a study group that a bunch of us started up but it finally didn't make it in fizzled out and also I was on the board of the Vogel alcohol which caters to these young children I'm very active in veterans organizations always been past commander of the Jewish War veterans of Dallas opposed to 56 I'm also a past commander the disabled american veterans big d chapter 57 i'm a past command past president the Greater Dallas Veterans Council which is an organization comprised of over 50 different veterans organizations I support Texas Hillel
and Austin when I was in University of Texas I went to Hillel all the time and I even support the National Hillel in Washington DC and the so called regional Hillel which is mostly SMU here in North Texas I'm a volunteer still I'm a volunteer at Children's Medical Center I do meals and wheels for both do meals and wheels for the family of Jewish Family Service representing temple Emmanuel and also Jewish War veterans I conduct I've been conducting two blood drives every year at Temple emanu-el I've been doing this for almost 30 years I do it one in April and one in October and the
reason I do two a year is because they have a they have a deal where a lot of people that are unable to donate blood and which I understand and so like for example in April when you give blood it's for you and your family cover you and your family there's a group plan that the blood people have but in October what you can do is give for someone who can't give so they can develop a group plan for them and their family and that's why I came back two hundred years that just one I used to conduct for long well I'm in charge of
assuring the template manual during a High Holy Days well for Yom Kippur Rosh Hashanah and we have to have to have to make arrangements for over Oh between 70 and 80 asurs and temple you know is so big that they have duplicate services tough job it's a tough job but I did it and for a while I even conducted services we used to I used to conduct the guest services on temple Emmanuel Ashish online when when golden acres was in existence I started conducting Friday night services there way back in 1965 and did it up until golden acres was was sold I've conducted Friday night
services at various Jewish not just Jewish but retirement centers throughout the city I've conducted tours of Tempe foot Comanche was a mentor life manual for visiting Christian groups for example I've spoken many a time to Christian churches about Judaism when requested when he requested and I was a graduate of the first Melton School held here and which is a great thing those of you that hadn't been to the mountains who got to give it to given some consideration I'm a member of the American Jewish Committee Bonet Zion B'nai B'rith VOA art so used to being will jewish congress which is not the existence anymore but
I'm now the treasurer of the Southwest Jewish Congress which is here right here in Dallas I also support a back support the Dallas memorial Holocaust Center remember that's a three-star cinema what is worth and I'm a regular member of temple Emmanuel and an associate member of the ferret Israel right now 90 years old just turned 90 on July 8th of this year I still play tennis I still do own yard work and I like to still like the dance I I still study Talmud every week right now it's sabbatical during the summer time but we'll start again in the fall and I've been studying Jewish
philosophy under rabbi and honestly for the last over five years and I'm still a student of his studying Jewish philosophy and I guess that's about it okay one concluding question tell me about your immediate family today do you have a son or oh yeah alright I've been married twice and my first marriage we had a son and his name is Karl spelled K ARL wonderful young man he's 57 years old when he was married to his first wife he had two children girl and the boy the girl is Kelly she's 30 years old she's married her married name is Brennaman her name is Kelly Brennaman
and she's married to Keith Brennaman and they live in uh-oh this a small town I think is called deer not deer park here's something that's a small town just northwest of Austin and they have their own home and they both work and and and she's been trying to have a child and he also has a son named Josh Josh still lives with his dad because he's uh he's finishing up getting a master's in international business and he should finish it up sometime this next spring a second marriage I married a wonderful woman the name was Beatrice Beatrice Dallman was her main name her married name
was Beatrice Brennaman she was married to Gill brotherman whom I know he and I are very good friends and Gill has since remarried and he's had three other children on his second marriage but but Beatrice and I didn't have any children but we got married we had three teenagers between us she had her two children and I had my son and my stepdaughters name is Carol Carol dojin she's a real estate broker has her own real estate firm down in Austin very successful and she has two children one is Andrew he's up in New York he's fashion business the other four daughters Katie it's Katherine
Geneva but he calls her Katie and she's working on two degrees she's working on a master's degree at the University of Texas and also a master's degree on Lyndon Johnson school of administration and also Beatrice had a had a son his name was Steve Steve Steve Brennaman he's an attorney family law he has his own law firm here in Dallas he had twins twins twins it's a boy and a girl Hayley Hayley and Chad Brennaman and the beauty of it is they were born on my birthday they were born on July the 8th which is really something and we have a very wonderful relationship throughout
when when the children are or not grant with f6 grant had six grandchildren all and when all the grandchildren were young my Beatrice and I used to rent this place rented a house down in Galveston every summer I would have the whole family down here and I really United the family and every night the six grandchildren were very talented would put on a show for us and it was terrific and after they went to bed the sixth adults we played Trivial Pursuit was always a man versus the wood but we have a wonderful relationship today and unfortunately Beatrice was a wonderful wonderful woman she died
of pancreatic cancer on August 29th 1993 so this August the 29th of the 18 years since she's passed away and it's I still haven't gotten over she was such a wonderful wonderful person bridges was a tag person that everybody liked she had a sweet smile just a just a lovely person if you ask anybody who knew Pinterest they'll tell you what a lovely wonderful when she was Harry I want to come in on something at this point you are truly a man of many mitzvahs and I have just extremely honored in overwhelmed to have had this opportunity to do your whole history well thank you
I appreciate you saying that and thank you so much for giving us that opportunity well it's really my pleasure it's really my pleasure thank you all I hope one of the things I've always become you know I grew up you know I grew up as an Orthodox Jew but then when I got out into the world I saw that they were but I'd live they're all Orthodox so I figured that I'll do through all the life never heard of conservative Jews never heard of reformed Jews never heard of reconstructing Jews and but but I've always been very very ecumenical I've made I've been on it
you know by data and one time and when I was honored by data I accepted on one condition that I could give a speech and my speech was on a feminism and my speech was that one of the most important thing that Jews have to learn is to like each other and respect each other and I'm going to close the making this comment you have added something that is very significant for all of us to be accepting of a diversity in our culture in religion amen Thank You Harry thank you you