Peter Leftin
Peter Leftin's roots in South Africa reached back to grandparents who came from Latvia and Moscow around 1898. Both sets of grandparents were entrepreneurs and philanthropists, particularly involved in Jewish community affairs. His father was born at a dynamite factory where the family ran a concession store, and his grandfather built a substantial iron and steel merchanting business starting in 1903, which ran for about ninety years. Remarkably, when Peter and Helena married, all four of their grandparents, each over ninety, attended the wedding. After his father and grandfather died within six weeks of each other, family infighting led to the sale of the business.
Peter described his South African childhood as paradise. He attended Hilton College, a self-sufficient boarding school outside Durban, where he endured a difficult first year but came to treasure the camaraderie and discipline. Rather than attend university, he served an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic. He contracted polio during a hockey tour in Rhodesia and spent months paralyzed and hospitalized, suffering severe headaches for about a year afterward. He later toured Europe for a year with three friends, living out of a camper van. He met Helena through a friend, Lewis Cohen, and they married in 1960, raising three children, Brian, Daryl, and Gregory.
Concerned about South Africa's future for their children, the Leftins sent their sons abroad for college; Brian earned a scholarship at a university in Denton, Texas, and both sons decided to stay. The family immigrated to Dallas in September 1987, waiting until after Helena's father had died. Their immigration process was a costly nightmare until Gil Brennaman, who sponsored Peter and mentored him in the security business, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who helped locate their lost papers, stepped in. Peter built a security company, moving from Royal Lane to Plano and finally Addison. Warmly welcomed by neighbors, he became a longtime Rotarian and feels himself an American citizen while remaining South African at heart.
Full Transcript
foreign is working the camera and we're very happy to have this opportunity to interview you nice to be here now be happy to tell you everything that I know great talk about life in South Africa what you know about when and why your family originally came to South Africa and share something about their lives in South Africa we go back a long way my grandparents came to them from Latvia and to them from one from Moscow and the other one also from latria they and they came here in 19 I think 1898 they came and from there they started a business in 1903 one in the soft goods business the other one in the concession store at modified Dynamite Factory uh my dad was actually born at modern Dynamite Factory and uh from there it just developed they were both entrepreneurs they were great philanthropist they were very involved particularly my mother's parents were very involved in the Jewish community and Jewish affairs and they were very philanthropic with what they did um interesting enough when Helena and I got married we had all four grandparents my grandparents at the wedding and all four were over 90.
they died shortly afterwards but it was quite a unique situation to to have them all there I was probably closer to my mom's parents because they were cut they were all fine my dad's mother was a tyrant if there was anything that you could say she ruled the whole family For Better or For Worse and often it was for worse but it's a she was she was there but it's uh that came from quite a big family he had three sisters and himself girls were married one married Dr Abelson in Cape Town one married her High School in Johanna and the other one married is
eastleper and we were just all involved together uh my mum didn't get on all that dad experience for whatever reason and I don't know and I never it was like in most families it just didn't work out I guess but they were fine they started and they built up particularly and dad's father built a big business started in 1903 and he had this concession store which he moved to Johannesburg and started this nuclear smelting roach which is an Iron and Steel business merchanting and from that it grew he bought a small piece of land in Hilo Street which turned out to be four and a
half acres stage it was it was probably for nothing but uh it's developed anywhere there I mean he started the business in 1903 and it was it was going for 90 years before washed away and it's and they sold the business so it was just amazing my dad and my grandfather died within six weeks to see each other which was a tremendous shock to everybody uh my dad's dad actually came to the business every single day and almost till he died he was like the first person there and I can remember so clearly that we had to open the mail on his desk and if
we open the mail and we didn't cut the envelope nicely Etc and through the envelope in the trash can he would pick it up and put it back there and say you use that as a scrap pad you don't throw and that's how we were brought up to to you know well there's a family business which very good to the whole family for a long time actually my granddad died and dad died things with sound a lot of infighting with the family wasn't great but we decided to sell the the sale of the business because there were so many shareholders involved because it was their
parents and their children and the children had married and we had Outsiders etc etc they only wanted the best prices they could get for it it wasn't a good deal Eric Sampson wanted to buy the business which condition was that I stayed on and everybody else went and I since plus the fact we were very friendly but it didn't work out either and we ultimately sold it to a company called Rand London and ran London was a shell on the stock exchange which basically brought up anything that they could buy and bring it under one umbrella and they were going to float it into a
huge organization which also didn't happen it was interesting uh I did not enjoy going to visit the coal mines I had some pictures here of going into a coal mine I went into coal mine for about 50 yards turned around and went out there was no ways I was going in there I was claustrophobic pitch black you couldn't see a damn thing so it was it was interesting and we used to fly from place to place because they had their own aircraft at that stage and it was interesting but for two years I had a five-year contract and after two years I said listen either
you pay me out and I go and the other alternative is don't pay me out I'm going irrespective so we left at that stage and uh I went into business a business had started with with Alan hedger uh I joined Ellen and we developed that and it became security Center in South Africa which was similar base to what I ultimately started when I came here it was just a New Concept in security uh we tried to tell people what is available because people were really not aware of anything that was available security that was them was you know put an alarm system uh as cheap
as possible and and that's it but that really you know My Philosophy was don't put it in because it's not going to work for you so we started it at Royal Lane that was great I really enjoyed that that we built a inner store show people everything what they should or shouldn't have and it's up to them what they wanted but at least they could see from personal security from domestic security from from external security lighting Gates anything that they were they could either buy it and put it in themselves or they could buy it and we were to install them it made no different
but at that stage before I actually even started the business we had come here on a visit us about two years before and I was introduced to film Runner and Gill had his own security company and and for better always Gill and I just headed over he said to me if you ever come to this country contact me and I will give you a job because I want to give you a job so I came back to the hotel and told a job and of course she said well you know I've heard that story before so anyway off we went and we came back about
two years later I phoned him and I said girl who does he said you come to the office tomorrow I said absolutely went to the office it was a Wednesday he said when you want to start I said whenever you want me he said okay Monday morning he did everything for us he sponsored me in here without him we would never have made it your word permit he sponsored us I mean what he went to I don't think he really was aware of the paperwork that went with this Etc because up until he got involved we were messing around with an attorney in Fort Lauderdale
the biggest Messer ever nice guy Jewish boy recommend highly recommended by some South Africans here in Dallas and nothing worked it just was thousands after thousands after thousands down the drain it got so frustrating because he lost halima's papers he lost Gregory's papers and when we had to go I mean we just got tired of going down to 35 and standing in line at four o'clock in the morning at the offices down there and it was just chaos so Gil stepped in and it was amazing we got rid of the attorney in in Fort Lauderdale uh he subsequently got divorced and he blamed he's messing
around on his divorce I mean he lost Gregory's papers and when we said to him well what do we do now he said you start again we said what do you mean start again after all he said yeah he said anybody can lose a piece of paper in an office so we started again I was ahead of them and ultimately after going down and down and down to the ins officers uh Helena jumped ahead of me and she was called for to be sworn in before I was yeah [Music] so I thought no I've got to do something I phoned K Bailey Hutchison and I
said I gotta see you he said okay Glenn can you come and we set a time that was a went round I told her our story and she said okay they have to answer me in 30 days in writing if they don't this is an ins uh there's abdominal within two weeks he called me she said we've located your papers in Nebraska so I said where the heck is Nebraska anyway she got the papers back phoned me and said come around to the office and she then helped me submit the papers again and a couple of months later we were it was really almost Desperado
stations Etc we were running out of money I mean we spent tens of thousands literally tens of a thousands it was just horrific but Gil brennaman was I mean if there was a saint in Mount is still around I don't see him much but I just be except you know we hear we started a interesting enough and I'm not telling things out of turn but when we started in Royal Lane he said to me look I want you to have your store there you're going to work out of your store but you're going to work under me so you go out and sell and I
will come with you because he took me everywhere that he went so I could learn from everybody he knew the Jewish community in Dallas like a back of his hand so he after about probably 18 months to two years he said look got a few customers but what I'm going to do I want to sell my business and he said I sell my business I'm not sure that they'll want you or that you will want them so at this stage I wasn't licensed he said I want everyone came back and said I'm letting it be known that I'm selling my business so as far as
they're concerned also what I'm going to do for you is because you don't have the financial backing and because you don't have a cash flow I'm going to give you 100 of my monitored accounts and you can have those monitored accounts and monitor them and you can pay me a figure which we will determine as and when you can afford to do it but at least when I sell the business you're on your own and you're away and I never looked back from that day he he helped me he was still always in the background as it happened he sold his business it was resold
three months later and a result of people in Chicago it was a mess so thank goodness he had the foresight and I listened to what he said and uh and they started and he got into this retails business which was great except the retail hours were horrendous I also better for worse I took in a South African who client of ours in South Africa uh who came here didn't have work I took him in as a partner into the business disaster had to get rid of him finished up in court cost more money again and it was just so we stayed at Royal Lane until
our lease was up and when our lease was up Henry S Miller came to me and he said I've got a great deal for you I said what's that he said this is what I'm going to be this is what you pay now and this is what you're going to be I said you know it's an outstanding deal for you not for me I'm out of here so we went up to plan it started again in Plano we were in Plano for seven eight years which again was terrific the retail hours of a killer because it's supposed to be from 10 until 6 but it
starts from eight until whatever uh again therefore that period of time and it was before anything happened there was world's restaurant I don't know if you remember wool's restaurant was at the corner of uh Park and Preston and there was nothing there that shopping center would hold through it nothing there it was lovely trees and Lawns and one thing that was great same thing happened but this time it happened with also came to see me a great deal for you same story I said but we decided that there and then we dropped the retail site because it was too stressful it really was uh I
guess my kids like most kids no we don't want to work on Saturdays and we don't want to work at six o'clock Etc so we went awake and we decided to go back to where we were in Addison and we'll start just just installing and servicing and monitoring and that's where we went and that's what we got today and that's that's uh all right interesting can I just back up a little bit let's get back to South Africa tell us a bit about your life in South Africa your schooling where you met Elena when and where your children were born in one way to sum
it up was Paradise we lived a life in South Africa which you know I've I was very close to my parents and uh when Dad went up north in the Army I forget when it was in 1940s Etc it was the done thing for Jewish parents to get rid of their pain in the neck children and send them to boarding school so I went in 1950 I went to boarding school at Hilton which truly and I think you've seen the pictures and I'll show you a picture I mean there is no school that I have seen or know anything about that had the facilities the
grounds and everything that went with it that's Hilton College outside of Durban it's outside on Hilton Road and it was there it was predominantly only boys school there were only 400 kids there it was totally boring but it totally self-sufficient they grew their own vegetables they had their own cows and their own milk and one thing another and latterly they had their own meat which they started Etc so you could take a course in agriculture which embraced that uh it it really was amazing our Daisy started at 5 30 in the morning the entire school had to come out onto the lawn in front of
the school and do pt it didn't matter whether it was rain or snow and believe me when the snow on the drakensberg and the winds blew in anyway we I mean facilities were unbelievable I enjoyed every bit of it after the first year I mean the first year for me was hell prefix at that stage were allowed to claim people who were the students who were there in the presence of a master and it didn't matter and I mean but you had such respect for that you could be walking around and I could say to fill I was that guy's a little you know what
and he said excuse me what did you say repeat it okay straight inside bend down you've got four of them it didn't do me any good but for the first three months you could only be wet once a week I was wrecked every single week for the first three I couldn't do anything right I thought what the hell whatever I do is wrong I want to anyway I got over it it didn't hurt me I feel bad camaraderie the discipline the I mean I've just got now I mean I mean trick anniversary there are over 120 people coming I didn't know you know that so
many people were still alive because it was not only amatric class it was three years in a row but 1950 50 . so I mean uh it was just amazing I mean the school life there was great I never used to go back to Johannesburg for vacation unless it was for the long School of holidays uh it was quite interesting because there were only five Jewish boys until when it came to they were there they treated us fine we still had to go to Chapel every single morning and try some Sundays it also didn't hurt me but I learned a lot about the other half living but I never used to go back to Johannesburg for vacation I used to go down to Durban and we families there
from kids who were to school we used to go down and we used to have the most unbelievable town at the end of the vacations if we were in Johannesburg we used to have an absolute ball because we had to go back by train so Hilton College was here and Saint Ann's the girl school was there so what happened is that sedans were in the front of the train and then there was a dining car and the boys so when you left Johannesburg station you all bye bye bye etc etc by the time you got to germist and you got off and you changed into
wherever you so we were met at the school we used to get off met with trucks trucks with wooden frames around them used to stand and you had to hold on to those friends because they took 30 40 50 kids there and it was like cattle trucks that's what they were but there was frames around there so you could hold on so you didn't fall off uh we used to have our Caps or our hats we used to have straw bashes Etc and the senior guys used to take the Russian you know throw it over the side of the truck and you know then they
come to you so where's your basket you can't you have to have a I mean we learned a lot on it didn't address but the facilities of the school were amazing uh didn't think so then but now I mean there is no school that I can even think of or know of and including the facilities of a school like Green Hill they don't have what we have to start uh and it was amazing I mean the school was situated on 4 000 Acres and you had the freedom in fact on Sundays you had to leave the school perimeter you had to go and buy your
rashes at the school store whatever you wanted whether it was cold drinks or sandwiches or whatever you can buy that and you used to have to get out of school about 11 30 and only come back at five summer winter rain doesn't matter anything it said we used to have I mean summer we used to go rafting down the um Gainey River I mean we had a great time when do we used to make fries and lie under pine needles and I don't know if you've ever he not pine needles but they're not the most common but we I mean we just we we we
cooked if we wanted to be made fire I mean it was just we grew up after Hilton what did you do after that after Hilton I came back my dad said to me at that stage do you want to go to university to study or to play I said to play he said well that's fine go find a job so he wouldn't have me in the business he said he said somebody's got to bring you back down to reality Etc you're too full of it and just start Ed so I went and became and served my apprenticeship as a motor mechanic it was opposite the
uh Street at all but it was opposite the African beer hall and they used to stand outside there on with big drums and cook mealies or whatever that barbecue mealies Etc I used to get sent across the road there go and get Minnie's for lunch and go across here I'll just wash my ass no no don't get to meetings come back and there's grease all over the Millies and whatever my first day at the garage there okay I said look I'm going to help you and I'm going to sort you out I said fine so he takes one of those rolling things where you go
underneath the motorcar and he says this is the car and you slide underneath there and I'll tell you when to stop because you'll find that bolt which is the sump for the oil sump now you undo that bolt and then we'll tell you what's from there is of course you undo the bolt and the oil just comes right from head to toe was terrible but I learned a lot and so a lot and it is fun and then after that unfortunately uh three and a half years to graduate there and then I contracted polio actually on a hockey tour in Rhodesia and I got hit
under the eye here here just everything went wrong I couldn't see properly I was feeling sick I couldn't I couldn't and they said listen you can't stay here we're going to fly you back to Johannesburg so the flew me back to Johannesburg and our house doctor then met us and because I'm gonna congratulation hospital I'm going to give you a lumber puncture and they never were really 100 clear with was polio meningitis I didn't know everybody who was there from little kids in tents and older people and it was just amazing I was there for roughly four to six months after I was there it
said I was paralyzed from the waist down I couldn't walk at all the doctor at that hospital happened to be a lady who was a rag queen her name was Robbie Bruckner and when Robbie came I used to come oh I'll get checked when she used to come into the ward everybody from you know who was lying like this he couldn't move I would manage to get up and look at Robbie Etc and we just convinced that Robert got us out of there Etc nobody could visit us he's a doctor parents used to stand outside the glass there and wave to me he was allowed
to come in so we you know it was tough but you know it it was what it was and it's uh and I really I suffered for about a year with the most excruciating headaches I couldn't go in the sun it was just awful got over that would for about a year amazing tools I was in their hardware department I still got my first paycheck I sent it something like 19 pounds something for the month Etc uh had enough of that so I had the opportunity of going abroad with three of my real close friends so the four of us decided we were going to
tour Europe we got on the Windsor Castle and hopefully tour Europe for one year went from London to Austin and then drove all the way up through then it was Holland Belgium up through Switzerland Germany up Scandinavia and came all the way back again from France Spain and back to Rome I mean we had we bought a vehicle and we lived in this vehicle I mean it was a door mobile which is similar to what the Volkswagen companies are here except it had a roof that went up and you stepped to the bottom and two at the top we bought bicycles we put them on
the front and off we went we soon realized that we stayed at camping grounds which were I think something like equivalent of five Shillings per night per vehicle okay throughout Europe uh we very quickly learned that we should see things while we're there so we used to find American buses who were touring with kids and we used to follow them and when they got to a museum we used to park our car and go in where there's part of their tour we also used to go straight into the bathrooms we take all this out and everything that is available we then used to go into
whatever their writing rooms were Etc and then we used a right home on all this fancy writing prep my parents said what the hell do you think you're doing where you're getting this money from I said don't worry about but we had about we finished up in round state in Rome for one month while the age was phenomenal and then when did you meet Elena and it went together when she was working for maester publicity I had a very good friend of mine who's here in then by the name of Lewis Cohen you may know Lewis not Lewis and Barrel she was from Miss Ed
blow and Etc Lewis fancy tellina but he said I work with her I can't take out I told her that I've got a guy for you she said don't worry about guys I got my own guys you don't have to worry about me anyway one day he calls me and he says I want you to come by at lunch time and he brought Helena down we met in in Market Street I think it was outside high high etc etc Etc then we started I started trying today too she used to play hard to get but she didn't realize that I was playing Cricket on Saturdays
and Sundays so if I didn't phone on Monday for Saturday I'm a Fearless I'm busy I'm going out suited me down the ground because I played Cricket on Saturday afternoon I was exhausted I stayed home Saturday night and started playing Cricket all that Sunday so it didn't matter to me until she clicked onto this and said and it seems to come with me to Cricket and we just developed and it was great I got married when did you get married in 1960 and then when were your children born London 64 down in the 66 and Gregory in I think I was 68 I'm not sure
of the exact dates I should know all right so when did you make the decision to leave South Africa and why we made a decision to leave after Daryl been in the army or the Air Force and they'd served their time there and we just felt not knowing and no crystal ball Etc that we didn't believe that South Africa going forward was going to be the South Africa that they knew growing up so we set them look we don't know you've got the opportunity we're going to send you out of South Africa to go to college wherever we can get you in and you can
go to college graduate and then you could decide you want to come back to say that's fine we to go to India that's what's your decision don't ever say to Helena or myself you made us go or you made us it's your decision we tried all over Brian graduated from Fortress in Pretoria we got hold of the college book here in Dallas ignorant stupid we didn't know we looked at this book and thought are you kidding me we've got this and we've got one in Durban and one in Cape Town anyway we applied to about probably 30 different colleges we've got positive responses back from
about six when I saw the price I said you know there's no ways anyway we persevered and we followed up on three of them which we liked because we knew the weather in Florida was good we knew the weather in California was good so there's a way we live Brian at that stage was an above every and that was coming out all the time until he actually got offered a scholarship at in you in NTU in Denton and that's how he came here he we didn't know a much about Texas we knew that Hilton and Marina here that we went that close because you know
they were in Boston and went there and we hadn't kept up with them all that time but we knew they were here dental insurance what the heck is Dental where's Dental you never knew anything about them so we got Brian and they accepted him and he came over and he started first of all and transcended to Paris and Junior College he spent I think four or five months if that I can't do this I'm out here and he went back to you to enter you and he he flourished here and he graduated there he played golf there and he graduated with a business degree and
uh he'd been here about maybe six months and he said if you want to see me come visit because I'm not coming back and at that stage Daryl had finished his term and he actually got Daryl into NTU as well we didn't do anything he got Daryl in there how well we didn't ask questions we just knew that they would and Daryl was there and he decided he wanted to do physical therapy and they don't have a department there so we pull strings of everybody we knew Etc and he managed to get him into Southwest Medical School and he graduated from there he also said
I'm not coming back so that's when we started to put the wheels in motion which was all I can say is was nothing short of a nightmare we actually waited to do anything until Helena's father died because he would have had a heart attack uh my dad had died my mother was alive and she said go I think you need to get out of here uh and that's when we started putting the wheels together and we put it all together and and came here in September of 87. and once you were here did you arrange for any other friends or family to join you to anybody not really I mean we talked a lot about what was here and you know we didn't really know enough though we you know it's we were here we were like new boys we were finding our feet Etc so yeah we talked a lot about how great it was and I mean we were welcomed here by people literally and I can remember first we bought this house that we're staying in sight answer Helena came over and met with Maureen Israel so and I had done previously about six
months come over here and done all the legwork with Realtors and one thing another Maureen said throw them away I've got the houses for you so they came and Helena actually bought this house without she said I'm right I said that's fine price we bought this house and came straight here coming over she said to me what happens if you don't like the house asking what options they're never funds to do anything Etc and I said of course I like it you like it I like it it's not a problem through the Israel says we didn't know the recuses at that stage but when we
were unpacking here all of a sudden Headley and the girls arrived and they said were you going to sleep and we had a following stretches Italy City no worries see girls coming took the girls and went away came back about maybe an hour later with mattresses on the top of his car with the girls holding the mattresses up there Etc brought them in and said this is what you're going to sleep on yeah I mean and people just Embrace this and I mean I'd integrate it at all I mean I miss South Africa for certain things but I don't listen to go back there I
haven't you know I've got family there with cousins Etc which I've grown grown away from uh we keep in touch but it's just you know a curse to see you really than anything and do you have any siblings and where are they I've got a sister who lives in lockdown two daughters who live in Los Angeles and a son who's in Greensburg North Carolina Kevin's in Carolina is a anesthesiologist uh the younger daughter in La is a physical therapist at Sinai and the other one is a some sort of a therapist but for herself she works on her own but she teaches kids who are
backward or struggling and one thing are very lucrative and they are both all of them lovely kids talk about citizenship you you are a Citizens Citizen and do you consider yourself an American do you feel American feel American I feel that I'm a citizen but still in South Africa and you know it's a strange thing to say I had the opportunity of running my business with the experience that I've had which has been close on 30 years I would run it with only South Africans I find that we're on the same wavelength we understand the same things and they have the moral principles and ethics
which I know which I'm afraid lack in other people is there anything you want to tell us that I haven't covered anything you want to show us I mean I you know I came here uh I tried to get involved I've been a rotarian for about 15 years uh very interesting wonderful wonderful organization uh but again after 15 years I felt you know you meet once a week you've got things to do twice and it was just becoming too much for me Etc so I I enjoyed it I did I did since well I got awards from rosary and I met a lot of wonderful
people really a lot of wonderful people uh I met one American remains nameless who was a it was a shame he was hit it uh he was president of our Rotary Club such a financial trust it was absolutely horrific but we look we we ranied around and we've done what we had to do we we've got no had no aspirations of making we wanted to live nicely take care of our kids and just be happy and that's what to a certain extent we've achieved good well thank you Peter