Category: Brooklynites In Florida

Brooklyn native Harvey Zipkin’s photographs reside in the permanent collections of 20 museums across the US, including The Brooklyn Museum, The Library of Congress, and The Smithsonian American Art Museum, just to name few. At the time of our interview with Zipkin (2016) some of his critically acclaimed Coney Island photos were going to be displayed in the Brooklyn Museum Exhibition “Forever Coney”. (You can see a sampling of Zipkin’s photos by clicking a link on the full interview page.) … Read More >Interview: Harvey Zipkin

90-year old Brooklyn native Jack Koolick started high school back in 1941 at Abraham Lincoln in Brooklyn. He left high school after his sophomore year to join the Army Air Corps (Air Force). He went on to fight with General George C. Patton’s 5th Army in WWII. His job, during the successful invasion of Sicily, was to identify low flying enemy planes trying to evade U.S. radar along Mediterranean beaches. “My father was a Russian immigrant. I remember he used to work in the basement all the time. He was a tinsmith, he built the metal linings for the wooden ice boxes people used before refrigerators were widespread.” … Read More >Interview: Jack Koolik

Young Brooklyn Cellist, conductor, and member of the well known string quartet Brooklyn Ryder, Eric Jacobsen was recently tapped to be the Musical Director for the Orlando Philharmonic. “In a lot of ways though, while I want to do new things and be a part of today’s cutting edge musical ideas, I’m also a conservative. I went to Julliard, so I’m always remembering and paying homage to the tradition that we come from. “It’s easy to do something different, but if you don’t achieve, or strive to achieve the highest level you can from each endeavor, then I think one is missing the point.” … Read More >Interview: Eric Jacobsen

“My mother dragged me kicking and screaming to Queens. But I kept going back to Brooklyn because that’s where my friends were, that’s where my heart was.”
Lisa Howard was born in 1950 and grew up in East New York, just south of New Lots Avenue where she and her parents lived in a three-family house with her grandparents.
“It was a tough area,” she said, “at the time I was growing up it was, well, let me just say that I grew up in the middle of a Martin Scorsese movie.” … Read More >Interview: “Made In Brooklyn” Lisa Howard

“I feel blessed having grown up in Brooklyn. My dreams from when I was a kid actually came true. Brooklyn made that happen.”
Brookyn native and famous Boston Red Sox All Star short stop Rico Petrocelli was born in Coney Island Hospital just off Ocean Parkway near Coney Island Avenue in 1943. When Petrocelli was seven, his family moved to Bedford Stuyvesent on Kosciusko Street. That’s when he first started playing stick ball and basketball. During the spring and summer months he and his friends played stick ball in the streets everyday, or as he jokingly said in a recent interview with the Brooklyn Eagle; “We played until someone broke a window, and then we all scattered.”
… Read More >Interview: Rico Petrocelli

A Park Slope native, Carolos Diaz, now lives in Miami where he co-founded the large scale energy efficiency company ENTIC (energy analytics). Maintaining connections in New York, ENTIC clients include Yankee Stadium, the New York Mets, and many other commercial buildings. Other high profile clients include Trump Hotels in Puerto Rico and the Miami Marlins. Diaz recently spoke with the Brooklyn Eagle about his early years in Park Slope and how he built a company that saved Broward General Hospital in South Florida $315,000 in energy costs during the hospital’s first year of using ENTIC technology. … Read More >Interview: Carlos Diaz

When we told Theocarpolous we had read somewhere that he was opening a new “Cooklyn” restaurant in Palm Beach, he said: “You’re the first media outlet I’ve talked to about it. (He laughed) So there’s your exclusive scoop. And we’re building a food Market next to the restaurant, where we will definitely sell many Brooklyn-based items. But even more than that, the Market ambiance will have what I believe is a Brooklyn flair.” … Read More >Interview: Anthony Theocarapolous

NATHAN’S FAMOUS celebrates its’ 100th year (2016). Make no mistake about it, Nathan’s Famous is definitely famous. Movies stars like Jimmy Durante, Cary Grant, and the gangster Al Capone were all regular customers in the early days. President Franklin Roosevelt served Nathan’s hot dogs to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called Nathan’s the “Best hot dog in the world.” Bruce Miller, Director of Operations, grew up in Brooklyn and has worked for the iconic Brooklyn Brand for 36 years: “I remember my grandmother making French fires just like Nathan’s French fries. I remember that because when I ate Nathan’s French fries as a kid I would think, oh yea, this is just like Grandma’s French fries.” … Read More >Interview: Bruce Miller

Brooklyn native, co-inventor of DSL, distinguished engineer Richard Gitlin currently teaches at University of South Florida in Tampa. As the oldest child in a family of four living in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, Gitlin would watch NBC’s “Mr. Wizard” and create scientific experiments in the only laboratory he had — his mind. Today, at 73, Gitlin currently teaches engineering at the University of South Florida in Tampa. In 2005 he was elected into the prestigious National Academy of Engineers (other living members include Bill Gates and the founders of Google). … Read More >Interview: Richard Gitlin

“Where I grew up back in the 60s was considered the end of Brooklyn. It wasn’t trendy then, and still isn’t today. We were out there near the end of the last stop on the D Train. We were called the BMT people.”What I most admire about Brooklyn is that its always remaking itself. There are a lot of Brooklyn Eagle readers out there today who I’m sure will understand when I say how profoundly amazed I was to learn there is now a ‘Whole Foods’ market on Gowanus Canal.” … Read More >Interview: Joe Brancatelli