Back in June 2013, Montclair honored astronaut Buzz Aldrin with a a key to Montclair, a plaque at Montclair High School, and the renaming of STEM small learning community at the high school as the Buzz Aldrin STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) Academy. In January 2013, Montclair honored baseball legend Yogi Berra by renaming Edgewood Terrace as Yogi Berra Way.
Jonathan Alter, in a Montclair Times guest editorial, says neither man, now age 85 and 89 respectively, has been properly honored by the town.
Says Alter: “Let’s face it: We will feel worse if they die before we give them their proper due.”
Alter wonders too why Aldrin was quoted as saying he hasn’t heard from anyone since his 2013 visit to discuss the possibility of naming a school after him. Back in 2005 there was buzz about naming a school after Buzz and again in 2006 when the new elementary school was named after Charles H. Bullock, there was talk back then about naming a school after Aldrin.
As far as Berra is concerned, Alter would like to see a park, or at least a baseball diamond, named after the Yankee great.
Tell us what you think in comments.
Yessssss I agree. At the very least Yogi Berra should be give a key to the city. Perhaps a baseball field be named after the baseball great. Perhaps a kind of honors to both a student in sports and science.
Since it takes centuries to get a stop light put in, let alone change the name of a school, why do we think the town will move on this quickly?
That said, the minute someone dies, everyone rushes to honor that person. Considering that they’re dead and have no idea they’re being honored, that “honor” simply makes US feel better.
So yes, they will both have to die first before they are honored.
At the very least, the high school field should be named Berra Field. They can leave Woodman for the football field. Yogi’s son played there and legend has it he hit a home run into Essex Street. Or the diamond at Nishuane Park where the JV team plays. But that seems like an after thought. DO IT NOW while he can see the love.
How can anyone not support changing the name of the MHS field to Yogi Berra Stadium? For Aldrin, maybe change the name of the street where he grew up, I think Princeton, to Aldrin Street. If Buzz can be used to help raise several million and make Mt Hebron a strong Science hub, then I’d slap his name on that institution.
Well said, townie.
Second that townie, but I don’t think naming a street for Aldrin is sufficient. Nothing less than a school with his name on it will convince me we’ve properly honored the man. It’s a shame we’ll done nothing up to this point.
Montclair’s native son Buzz Aldrin ….merely one of the first two men on THE very first mission to successfully land humans on an extraterrestrial body outside of earth….and all that Montclair can come up is a semi anonymous plaque bolted to a side entrance wall at MHS ? Not to mention another pathetic little bronze bust ( or is it a paperweight ) hiding somewhere in the shadows over at Mt Hebron ??
The fact that other US towns/cities have named buildings and schools after Dr. Aldrin (while Montclair hasn’t even come close), isn’t just an embarrassment, it’s a disgrace.
Buzz is a Republican….that could explain his lack of recognition in Montclair.
Aldrin seems well regarded on this thread, flipside. I have yet to hear an unkind word said about him anywhere in town. You might want to peer at that theory of yours under the hood and see if it’s time to take it over to Grease Monkey for an appointment. My guess is that it just needs a new filter.
I’m dying to see which councilor steps up to name a STEM school after a Buzz.
And one more glaring oversight – What about Larry Doby ?? Kinda like the Buzz Aldrin of baseball in a sense – a second in a profound first of it’s kind – breaking the color barrier in the National Pastime.
Name the MHS High School Field in honor of BOTH Yogi and Larry.
Buzz, Larry, Yogi …….any other town/cities in the USA would kill themselves to lay claim to such magnificent legacies .
Mayor Jackson/Montclair : What’s the problem here ?
Don Miller’s King Mural https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2013/01/honoring-our-history-through-artwork-martin-luther-king-jr-in-library-of-congress-primary-sources/
There is no copy to be seen anywhere in town.
There is no mention or memento in town for Mrs. Hortence Tate, director of the Black YWCA, or for the fact that she hosted Langston Hughes who would come to Montclair to do poetry readings.
And guess what else flipside, he’s also a Freemason. Even worse, he doesn’t believe in global warming.
He did, however, rap with Snoop Dog, and accompany Homer Simpson into space, so he’s okay in my book.