Susan "Suze" Deitch
On her relationship with her grandfather, Reuben Gryzmish, L’12, H’69: "I was the oldest grandchild, so probably the closest to him. I used to go riding with him as a kid…I enjoyed my time with him."
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On Gryzmish’s graduate experience at the law school: “I would doubt that he lived on campus, is my guess. I think he did Harvard in three years, I’m not sure. He was a very interesting man. He took a course in, I think it was Slavic literature. The final came along, and of course the question - I don’t know whether he bothered going to class or not - but he figured if he wrote enough blue books it would be fine. And he did!"
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On Gryzmish’s entrepreneurial spirit: “He was involved in world jai alai…Several gentlemen from Boston got involved; the original fronton was in Miami. He was involved in that. He helped develop Miami Beach, in its early days. He used to fly from Boston to Miami, and then into Cuba, so he was in Miami lot.”
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When the Waitt and Bond cigar factory (pictured on the inner cover of this cigar box) opened in the early part of the twentieth century, it was considered to be the largest cigar factory in the world. Later Reuben Gryzmish bought the factory and manufactured Alles & Fisher cigars there. Today, the building is part of Northeastern University.
On visiting the cigar factory owned by Gryzmish, now located at 716 Columbus Avenue: “The offices of my father, my uncle, my grandfather were all on the first floor – this side near the windows, in the front. [They had] the roll top desks that you pay a fortune for today and have probably disappeared.”
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On what she tells people about Northeastern: “What I have seen of the co-op experience with these kids is phenomenal. I came up once for Northeastern Today, one of those weekends…These kids that we met were absolutely phenomenal. I’m a big fan of the school and not just the law school.”
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On what inspires her to continue supporting Northeastern, the law school, and its students: “Every year, I get the stack of copied letters that the students send. I don’t just toss it away; I flip through it. I look through who’s clerked where and done what. I think it’s very interesting. I’m very glad that we can help.”
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Portraits of Ethel and Reuben Gryzmish, L'12, H'69, grace the Law School's Gryzmish Hall. Pictured are their granddaughters Karen Stocker, L'74, and Suze Deitch (second from right); son-in-law Ben Schulman; and great-grandson Steven Shpiner, BA'07.
This interview is available in its entirety in the Northeastern University Archives. Photos: Craig Bailey, Mary Knox Merrill and University Libraries Archives and Special Collections Department.
Biography
Suze Deitch hails from a celebrated Northeastern family, with four generations attending the university during the past 100 years. As the number of alumni in her family has grown, so has the university, transforming from a one-room classroom in the YMCA into an internationally-recognized research institution. Throughout her longstanding association with Northeastern, Suze has remained committed to all of its students and in particular, those in the School of Law.» Read more