Julius Bialostosky

It is with very heavy hearts that we write of the passage of Julius "Blackie" "JB" Bialostosky, who went, as he often said over the years, "to where the woodbine twineth" on the morning of Oct 30th, 2015 at the age of 93.

He will be fondly and forever remembered by his family as a loving husband and father and a doting grandfather. He also touched the lives of many students during his years as a high school teacher and baseball coach at Gresham High School, and also during his many years as an administrator at the state and county level.

Born Sept 4, 1922 of humble beginnings in a basement tenement apartment at 335 E. 95th Street, Manhattan, he grew up the youngest of four children (siblings Abraham, Martha, and Rose) born to Louis and Sophia Bialostosky, both of whom had immigrated from Poland around the turn of the century. Louis was the son of a prosperous rabbi whose family's wealth was confiscated by the Bolsheviks in the 1920's. Sophia was from a small Jewish shtetl, Szczuczyn, which was decimated by the Nazis during WWII. Louis and Sophia sponsored many family members in Poland to join them in NYC in the late 1920’s and 1930’s, including Julius' beloved Babcia (his grandmother Shayna Bialostosky) whom he visited daily after school; those who stayed behind in Poland were not heard from again after the late 1930's and presumed lost in the Holocaust.

Julius, called by his family by his Hebrew name Yud or Yudie, thus grew up surrounded by a large extended family, where he was fond of the constant hustle and bustle. There were many traditions brought from their lives in Poland, one of which was someone composing and then reading poems on every holiday and family occasion. JB continued this tradition his entire life, always regaling his own extended family with witty rhyming couplet poems about family members' events at every holiday, staking out the time he called "between the main meal and dessert". He loved having an audience and had "the gift of gab" as his sister Martha was fond of telling him.

Julius was raised first in Manhattan and had many colorful tales about life in NYC of that era, including horse-drawn carriages in the streets of Manhattan and, once during a fire in a building, having to jump with his father from the rooftop of one tall building to the rooftop of the next door building. The family then moved to Brooklyn, where he noted how his family was made to sit in the "poor people's" section of their local synagogue, and because of this discrimination he thereafter lost interest in Judaism, describing himself in later years as "strictly a culinary Jew." He continued however to admire throughout his life the Jewish tenet of social justice.

After Brooklyn, and against his strong wishes, the family moved to the Bronx during his teenage years (he didn't want to leave his Brooklyn baseball team the Srojams ("Majors" spelled backward) that he played on, where his nickname was "Little Lefty"). He was always a brilliant student with an extraordinary intellect, and skipped many grades until his teachers felt he was too small in height to skip further. He graduated from Alexander Hamilton High in the Bronx. He was a lifelong sports fan, especially of boxing and baseball; he followed the NY Giants baseball team before they became the San Francisco Giants, was part of a "Knothole Gang" at the Polo Grounds, and also excelled at playing baseball himself. A Majors scout saw him play and reportedly told him "Kid, you can't miss!" His dream of playing in the Bigs was short-lived, however, as his focus had to be on helping his family get through the Great Depression. He and his older brother Abe joined FDR's "New Deal" Civilian Conservation Corps, shipped out to Idaho, and worked to support the family back in New York. He then worked on farms in upstate New York where his family had bought a small farm, before deciding to follow Abe and enlist in the U.S. Army at the onset of WWII.

He trained as a medic at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas. There, he acquired the nickname "Blackie", when with a group of his buddies they all went to a movie theater but due to Julius' dark tan, he was mistaken for a black person in then-segregated Texas and was barred from entering the whites-only theater. His buddies uproariously called him "Blackie" from then on, which stuck for his entire life. He was shipped out to the Pacific Theater, first to Guadalcanal and then to the Philippines. He was busted from sergeant to private when he refused to provide morphine from the medics' cabinet to his drug-addicted commanding officer. In the Philippines, he met his beloved wife-to-be, Lieutenant Kathleen Whitley, an Army nurse. Their wartime courtship, "illicit" and secret due to her outranking him, lasted only a few weeks before she shipped out for home to North Carolina, but he had time to sing "I Only Have Eyes For You" to her before she left, and their subsequent long-distance romance via letters led to Kathy's coming out to the new family farm in Damascus, Oregon where his family had moved to work in the Kaiser shipyards during the war, and to a marriage that endured for 66 years before Kathy's passing in 2013. After the war they settled on the farm and began raising their 5 children: Don, Neal, Lynne, Julee, and Del. JB's brother Abe and family co-owned the Damascus farm, and their parents Louis and Sophia also lived with them on the farm.

Julius pursued his education at Lewis and Clark College on the GI Bill and graduated with honors in 1951, with degrees in History and Political Science. He later earned a Masters in Teaching from the University of Oregon. He taught at Gresham High for 16 years and coached the Gresham High Gophers baseball team for 9 of those. From there it was onto the State Dept of Education in Salem as a Social Studies consultant, and then to the Multnomah County IED, first as Curriculum Coordinator, and then rising to Assistant Superintendent before retiring in 1975 due to health reasons.

Throughout his career he was a beloved teacher and colleague, and was proud of the enduring relationships he had with many students. Many kept in touch with him over the years and came back to visit him, inviting him to their class reunions, and this meant a great deal to him.

The family drove cross-country to visit Kathy's family in North Carolina several times and JB was equally beloved there by her extended family. In addition to the frequent poems that he wrote for every occasion, JB was also known and beloved by family for the many quotes he oft repeated, including (regarding advice about public speaking, describing William Jennings Bryan): "Serene and self-possessed, and with a smile upon his lips, he faced the roaring multitude with a splendid consciousness of power." And: "Screw your courage to the sticking-place" (Macbeth). And: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em" (Twelfth Night). And: "Simplicity is the keynote to successful living", as well as many others. He was also known among his family as a "Jumble genius", with an amazing ability to solve even the hardest Jumble puzzles instantaneously. He attributed this skill to having learned Hebrew as a child, which is read from right to left.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Kathleen, sisters Martha (Zukerman), and Rose (Glasheen), and brother Abe (co-founder of the Metropolitan Learning Center in NW Portland). He is survived by son Don Bialostosky (Sue), son Neal Bialostosky (Donna Phillips), daughter Lynne Harrington (Clifford McGrew), daughter Julee Bialostosky, and son Del Bialostosky (Sandra Barton). He is also survived by 8 grandchildren (and 5 great-grandchildren): Sophie Armstead (Doug, with Ben and Ruth), Ivan Bialostosky (Rachel, with Elanor and Peter), Anna Bialostosky, Meralee Valenzuela (Baruch, with Sean Pyle), Ivy McGrew, Colin McGrew, Lindsay Hulbert, and Rory Bialostosky. Additionally, he was fond of his former sisters-in-law Betty Groves (Vernon) and Sue Bialostosky, nephew Gary Bialostosky (Terry, with Jenna, Megan, and Nick), nieces Debbie Zukerman (Stan Breed, with Korinne Breed), Carol Bialostosky (Ramsey Embick), Kay Smith (the late Steve Smith, with Spencer Smith), Rachael Hein (Ivy) and Johanna Bialostosky.

Even in his final years, diminished by health issues, his larger-than-life personality remained, continuing to shine through now and again, and he loved and deeply appreciated his family's care until his very last breath. We will miss JB forever, and his absence "from this mortal coil" (another of his Shakespearean quotes) leaves a very big hole in our homes, our lives and our hearts.