Page 13 - Southern Exposure - September '19

CLub NeWs from page 12
Southern Exposure, Page 13

southerN proFiLe

Noel Trachtenberg Celebrated For

Leading An Impactful And Spirited Life

Full Of Resilience In The Face Of Adversity

Noel Trachtenberg, a resident of La Posada (a premier at the Rudolf Steiner Hindu professor of comparative religions. My last summer
Kisco Senior Living community), faced adversity at a High School, where volunteer project while in high school was at a secretarial
young age, and though life kept presenting challenging she attended classes school, where I answered phones and ran the ditto
circumstances for her to overcome, she prevailed and for three years. machine in exchange for lessons in shorthand and typing.
continues to lead an inspiring life worth highlighting. “My mother was an After graduation, I started nighttime classes at Brooklyn
Healthy Aging Month, recognized in September, is an editor at Macmillan College, where I majored in English and education. By
annual health observance designed to focus national Publishers, and day, I worked at a large international chemical company
attention on the positive aspects of growing older. Seniors’ I grew up with a in the library, where they were translating experiments
valuable contributions to their communities create better passion for reading,” performed (mostly on humans) in concentration camps
places to live, and Trachtenberg’s story is a testament said Trachtenberg. during WWII.”
to that. Though she experienced some unusual and “Because of my poor The librarian Trachtenberg worked with at the chemical
emotionally trying events during her childhood in New vision, there were company was a refugee from Heidelberg, Germany, and the
York City, she began volunteering at the age of 12. Born not a lot of physical experiments were detailed on microfilm. She translated as
with monocular vision, she started orthoptic exercises at the activities I was good she rolled the film, and Trachtenberg typed the translation.
age of 9 and frequently helped her neighbor who was blind. at, so you could After two emotionally trying years, Trachtenberg joined
Her mother encouraged her to volunteer at the Industrial always catch me with IBM’s service bureau, scheduling corporations which were
Home for the Blind, and she traveled by subway most days a book in my hands. Artie and Noel, 1982 renting time on the new scientific System/360 mainframe
that summer to and from their Brooklyn headquarters. It was this love of computer. This included RCA, which was in the process
The next summer, she volunteered as assistant to the reading that inspired me to volunteer in several capacities of inventing color TV, and Sperry, which was working
librarian of the Theosophical Society in Manhattan, and involving librarian duties. While in high school, I also on electronics for the Polaris submarine – all with tight
later spent three years volunteering as the school librarian studied braille and became a volunteer reader for a blind confidentiality rules in place. IBM charged $600 per hour
to use the computer, and many clients brought their own
operators. Trachtenberg learned to keypunch and operate
Summer Weekly Specials some of the auxiliary machines but found it was not her
strong suit. Sometimes, she would run the sorter or collator
and do dance steps to the different rhythms.
MONDAYS CLOSED FOR THE SUMMER SEASON
Tuesday Wednesday Pizza Thursday & Sunday “While still attending night classes, I found my
favorite job – serving as secretary to the director, who was
Free Corkage Half Off Bottled Wines B.O.G.O Neapolitan Style Pizza totally blind, of the American Foundation For Overseas

*bring your own bottle *for bottles full priced 120.00 and below *buy one pizza, get one on us!
Blind [AFOB], the sister organization of the American
We are making our restaurant better than ever for our favorite guests Foundation For The Blind – both founded by Helen
Keller,” said Trachtenberg. “I met Ms. Keller during
We'll be closed for renovations from September 1st-16th this time, and it was an inspiring moment as I shook
her hand. It was like a celebration whenever she visited
We hope to see you again on September 17th for Flavor of Palm Beach the foundation, with murmurs of anticipation running
throughout the building. After the director retired, I was
Three Course LUNCH DINNER given the responsibility of evaluating applications and
Prix Fixe $20.00 per person $39.00 per person awarding scholarships to international students seeking
Served daily careers in facilities teaching the blind.”
5520 PGA Boulevard, Suite 104 • Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418 • 561.660.8272 • lamasseriapbg.com After nearly 10 years of working at AFOB, Trachtenberg
and her Peruvian roommate decided to open their own
business after dealing with inequality of pay in the
workplace and sexual assault by men in authority. They went
through a list of their abilities and decided the secretarial
business would be an appropriate fit. They founded, owned
and operated an international secretarial service, running
the company out of a 15-story building on Madison Avenue
dedicated to independent small businesses. She and her
partner were a multilingual duo with a built-in clientele.
They expanded to larger offices in the same building and
added staff as needed due to what became a 24/7 business.
“Artie became my client in 1976 and asked for a
discount the first day he came into my office. He was the
only client who ever received a discount, which was due
to the twinkle in his eye. We married 10 years later,” said
Trachtenberg. “This company soon fostered the creation
of an international market-research firm specializing in
the Hispanic market, both in the States as well as in the
Latin countries, which was just beginning to be tapped by
corporate America. We ran both businesses simultaneously.
When my relationship with Artie began to suffer due to my
18-hour days seven days a week, we decided to close both
companies in 1982. I was offered a position by a client who

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