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Senior in Action: Len LeventhalLen Leventhal
Senior in Action:
Senior in Action:
Senior in Action: Len Leventhal
Senior in Action: Len LeventhalLen Leventhal

by Marilee Marrero Stefenhagan of memoirs which I printed, titled My
Life As I Lived It. Another class I enjoy
Are you willing to reveal your age, Len? is Genealogy. Family history is my
Sure, I’ll turn 90 on December 10, 2018,. main hobby; I’ve researched both my
How do you fit the title, “Senior in family tree and my wife’s family
Action?” genealogy to pass on to our children.
For one thing, I belong to OLLI, Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute at CSU Any family stories you’d like to
Fullerton. It’s the largest Lifelong Learning share?
Institute in the country with over 1600 My parents raised me in Chicago,
until we moved to Oklahoma City
when I was 15. My father never
finished college; he took care of
inventory at an IBM “Selectric”
typewriter warehouse. He outsold the
salesmen! My mother occasionally
worked retail in department stores. I
had one sister. She fell in love, married
a man from Peru and lived in Lima for
ten years, then moved to Israel.
Unfortunately, she was a smoker and
passed away in her late fifties from
lung cancer.
I earned my BA in Economics from
the University of Oklahoma. After
graduation, my first stop was in Yuma,
AZ as a civilian contractor for the U.S.
Army. Those were my footloose and
fancy-free days. I measured ballistic
test-firing of artillery and stared at
cactus. After a year I had heard
enough explosions, so I moved to Los
Angeles. My future wife Theda and I
met at a Youth Group fundraising
committee for the Jewish Community
Center in the San Fernando Valley.
We enjoyed a 57-year marriage,
raising a daughter and three sons.
Theda developed ALS, known as Lou
Gehrig’s disease, and died in 2014. It’s
comforting that three of my four
children live nearby; my oldest son
moved to Australia. My five
participants. Philanthropist Bernard Osher grandchildren, ages 13 to 26, give me
provided funding to keep it going. Classes great pride in their accomplishments.
are available six days a week. Cost is When I moved to Sunnycrest*, I
roughly $260 per year, which includes never expected a second chance at
campus parking. I’m Historian for OLLI, romance until I met Sandra, a fellow
and was once on the OLLI Board. I chose to resident. We both like to dance at the
live at Sunnycrest* because I can use their Fullerton Community Center. We
bus to travel to OLLI classes at CSU started dancing together, and now
Fullerton, a great perk. Due to macular we’re “going steady.”
degeneration, I can no longer see well What other interests do you pursue?
enough to drive. When I was young, I was in Scouts
What OLLI classes have you taken? for short periods, but the Scoutmasters
An OLLI class I coordinated, Roman and kept getting drafted into military
Byzantine History, was taught by a retired service during World War II. My three
judge. I operated his slide projector, set up sons were involved in Boy Scouts, and
his wireless microphone, and prepared a two achieved Eagle Scout rank, as did
humorous introduction for each session. I one grandson.
took the Life Story class and wrote a book Continued on Page 5

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