One Minute With... Harold Martin Brewster

Name: Harold Martin Brewster

Occupation: Retired principal of Harold Brewster Associates, a consulting firm, and former Exxon International Manager

Address: Hillside

Family: Married for 53 years to realtor Ruth Lebau. They have three daughters. Sharon is a volunteer for the civil air patrol married to Andrew Ingrham, an electrical engineer. They have two children: Jordana, 27, and Harry, 22, and live in Acton, Mass. Allison is a concert pianist and a professor at Kean University married to Carlos Franzetti. They live in Cranford with their daughter, Mariana, a recent a bat mitzvah at Temple Beth El, Cranford. Pamela is an MBA Stanford graduate who worked in the financial industry and is married to Stuart Rosenthal who works for Credit Suisse. They live in Cranford and are the parents of twin sons, Lee and Ryan, 4, and William 2.

Community Activities: Member of the Elmora Hebrew Center and Vice President on the Board of Directors. Former member of Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey. Former President of the YM/YWHA of Union County, which is named after his father-in-law and longtime Y director, Harry Lebau. Director of the Judges of the Bronx High School of Science Fair for 10 years. Served for three years with the Navy during Korean War and was in the Naval Reserve Unit for 21 years, retiring as Lt. Commander.

Hobbies: "Attending classes at Kean University in accounting and playing with my grandchildren."

Self- portrait: "I'm a very self-sufficient individual and enjoy people, but I also like hibernating. I enjoy being active. I was active before...in community affairs and now that I am recovering from two major operations – I am considering returning to volunteering for the Jewish Family Service."

Motto: "Take each day as it comes."

Greatest accomplishment: "My family. I found that my work was always satisfying. I never felt that I was locked into a boring job. I did research on the Jet engine that went into the Boeing 707, and after years of working in management for Exxon, retired to become an entrepreneur with my consulting firm in 1986-- the same year my wife decided to open her own office, Brewster Realtors, after working since 1973 as a realtor."

Bad habits: "I smoked from the time I was 17 and stopped in 1983. It was difficult to stop."

Favorite TV: "'ER,' and when it was on, 'Star Trek.' Today there are more advertisements on the TV interrupting the story."

Favorite Food: "Sushi."

Best childhood memory: "Playing football in with my friends in the streets of Brooklyn and the care my uncles gave to me and my brother after my father died after being hit by a car when I was 4. They treated me like a son."

People don't know that I... "Met my wife, Ruth, at a Young Adult camp weekend. Ruth was prevailed upon to drive her father, the director of the Union Y, to the camp. I came to the camp as the president of the young adult group in Passaic. We met, and a month later we were engaged, and five months later we married during the Thanksgiving holiday because Ruth was still in college."

Last book I read: "The Bancroft Strategy" by Robert Ludlum and "Whiteout" by Ken Follet, "two good reads involving current world situations."

"Yiddish Wisdom for Parents" by Rae Meltzer and illustrated by Kristina Swarmer. "It's a compilation... of Yiddish folk sayings about parenthood in both English and transliterated."

The biggest asset in the local Jewish communities: "The people who work to help others who aren't as well of as they are, especially the Y and Jewish Family Service."

The biggest problem in the local Jewish communities: "There are too many differences between the Conservative and the Orthodox-- there is always a little pull and a push, but everyone gets along with everyone else."

If I had more time...:"Now that I am feeling stronger, I would spend time volunteering and going to more classes at Kean."