“I only got her first name—Valerie—but I took an immediate liking to her,” says Martin Gitter (’49), who was introduced to his wife-to-be by a mutual friend one fateful night on the ninth floor of the Field Building at 17 Lex. It was September 1948.
The day after that first meeting, Martin returned to the ninth floor, to the student card file, to learn Valerie’s last name. There was only one Valerie, junior Valerie Shark (’50). Although Martin and Valerie were both day session students and active in school, they had never met.
From the card file, Martin also discovered that Valerie lived in Brooklyn. He lived in East Harlem in Manhattan, more than an hour’s subway ride from her home. He was undeterred. That same day he called her and asked her to the rodeo in the old Madison Square Garden as their first date. A friend who was very active in the Gene Autry Fan Club had given him two tickets.
The 17 Lex lovebirds have been married over 61 years.
If finding a lifelong partner weren’t enough senior-term excitement for Martin, he credits another ninth-floor incident with changing his life. A friend dared Martin to join him after graduation at Brooklyn Law School for night classes, while working in the day. Martin took that dare, finishing law school in three years. He and Valerie married during his second year of law school. Several years after passing the bar, Gitter helped found a mid-sized Manhattan law firm.
The Gitters retired to Arizona in 1984. Today both are active: Martin does pro bono legal work. Valerie dances as part of Rhythm Tappers, a senior citizens’ dance troupe that has won numerous awards and been featured in movies, most notably 2006’s The Savages. Valerie also leads Jazzy Poms, a group of about 40 women between the ages of 60 to 88 who march and dance in parades around the country.
—Diane Harrigan
Want more love? Read the story of another Baruch couple, George and Barbara (Traiger) Gershon.