Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street is a much traveled corner, navigated by past and present generations of Baruchians who have classes or other business in the Field Building at 17 Lex. For Daniel and Charlotte Bender Eth—now married for 65 years—it has special significance.
Daniel remembers a day in 1944: “I saw her on the corner, leaning against the building and sort of writing up the wall on a piece of paper. I asked, ‘What are you doing?’” Explains Charlotte, “I’m left-handed, and in order to have the writing look like a right-handed person’s, you turned the paper the other way. He said something to me, and from there on it was full-speed ahead.”
At the time, Daniel was a senior and Charlotte an entering freshman. They were both evening-session students earning their BBAs. Like many working City College Downtown students, they couldn’t afford to attend during the day; their families needed their salaries to make ends meet. “We both worked very, very hard,” says Charlotte, who completed her degree in a mere five years.
Their first extracurricular assignation was a double date. “I got a friend of mine to come, because I didn’t want to go by myself,” recalls the then-shy Daniel. “I asked Charlotte if she’d like a chopped liver sandwich, and she said yes. She hates chopped liver,” he chuckles, “but she smiled and acquiesced. We didn’t have any money at the time.”
Daniel, who would go on to become a CPA and earn MBA and law degrees, had his own CPA practice and still remembers how he got his first client. The Eths were living in their first apartment in the Bronx, and, like many folks then, they didn’t own a phone. “There was a candy store around the corner with telephone booths,” says Daniel. “Somebody came running and said, ‘You have a call.’ I picked up the phone, and a voice asked, ‘Are you an accountant?’” This initial customer would lead to many others. “I always had nice clients. My wife insisted that we not have clients we didn’t like.”
The couple eventually moved to a house in suburban New Jersey and had three children, all girls. Charlotte went back to college for another degree and taught junior high for 17 years, but subsequently left “because I was unhappy with the system.” She then joined her husband in his practice after taking refresher courses in accounting, having studied the subject at Baruch. “It worked out very nicely,” says Daniel. “As far as finance goes, I would make the deposits, and she would make the withdrawals,” he adds, laughing.
“We did a lot of traveling,” says Charlotte. “We used to leave a message with our answering service: ‘Gone fishing, see you after Labor Day.’ We did that every year for about 15 years.”
In 1995, the Eths attended Daniel’s 50th reunion at Baruch. “We sat down at a table with people we’d never met, others just like ourselves,” he says. “After we got to talking, it was as if we knew these people all our lives.”
Though they worked hard to get where they are, they consider themselves blessed. “A little bit was work, a little bit was luck,” says Daniel of the life they made. “We’re two very fortunate people, with wonderful children and grandchildren,” acknowledges Charlotte. “We’re very content. We’ve had a good life.”
—Marina Zogbi