Introduction to Robert Dreifort

Since graduating from  Shaw High School in 1958, I have educated myself, married a wonderful wife, raised two great kids, and pursued happiness through a number of interesting hobbies, all of which was supported by a long and checkered career in government, health care and higher education mostly in the Cleveland area. 

Shaw High School

I met my wife, Jean, while we were undergraduates at Western Reserve University.  I have my AB in History and Political Science and Jean earned a BS in Psychology.  Jean went on to get an MSLS at Western Reserve and I have a Master of Public administration Degree from Cleveland State. 

Shaw High School

The first twenty years of my working life involved a number of positions in government at the federal, municipal and county levels.  I was a field representative for the federal Urban Renewal Administration, then a research assistant for the Citizens League of Greater Cleveland, followed by service as an Urban Planner for the Cuyahoga County Regional Planning Commission, and a Budget and Management Analyst in the Mayor's Office for the City of Cleveland.  That experience included service to two Cleveland Mayors, Stokes and Perk.  My last job in government was as the Operations Director for the Cuyahoga County Mental Health Board.  The last twenty years of my working life were almost equally divided between service as a Health Care Administrator at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF) and as a Department Administrator at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU).  I retired from CWRU in 2004 and have been pursuing my hobbies full time since then.

One of my hobbies is Big Band Music as the leader of the Smart Set Band.  Click on this link for more information about that:


Smart Set Band

 Another of those hobbies is the study of Cleveland area  history with an emphasis on the History of East Cleveland.  My youth spent in East Cleveland was a wonderful time.  And I have been spending a lot of my retirement  trying to recapture the spirit of East Cleveland during the time that I lived there from 1940 to 1963.  As I write a section of my memoirs, I will post it to this blog.  

If anyone wants to comment on my memoirs or has some memories they wish to share, please post a comment.  

For more Dreifort family history go to www.dreifort.com

 Some East Cleveland Images

Here are some images of East Cleveland that should bring back some memories.  The first is the old Prospect School before the addition was built to the right of this picture.  When I started kindergarten there in 1945, the School included this building and the addition.  There were two playgrounds, one between the new building and Euclid Avenue and another to the left of this building.  The playground to the  left was behind a wooden barracks style building, which faced Shaw Avenue and was Shaw High School's band room.  Also on that playground was a wooden shed known as the "paper house".  That was used during the wartime paper drives.  I will later post my class pictures, which were taken on the stairs of the building in this picture.

Prospect School

Shaw High School

Above is a picture of Shaw High School taken in 1933.  This is looking South on Shaw Avenue.  My home was on the corner of Shaw and Plymouth just behind where the photographer is standing.  This was my view as I went to school from 1945 until we moved to Nela View in 1953.  More about that later.  Just outside of this picture on the left was the Abel Funeral Home.  On the right was a  gas station and Karl Brown's Colonial Inn, a fine restaurant. 

Copyright  2011  Robert C. Dreifort  All rights reserved