Nephron –
We've found interesting tidbits about your grandfather. What's been
unique about this search is that many organizations in which he's been
active probably still have information that will be available to you.
I will catalog what we have found from three sources:
* Internet-accessible databases
* fee-based search services
* print/microfilm resources
There are a number of holes in the history, which would be expected
for any non-family researcher. For someone of the World War II
generation, we can find out much more about Sam B. Topf than is normal
because of his activity with philanthropic causes.
At the end of this answer will be a variety of suggestions for further
research, including how to get
help in the Miami area.
EARLY LIFE
----------
Samuel Benjamin Topf was born Nov. 12, 1912 to Moses and Fanny Topf,
of Brooklyn, NY.
Moses was a tailor, who had apparently come to the United States in
1900. (I use the word 'apparently' because documents can be
misleading on past dates, particularly on immigration dates.) He had
come to the U.S. from Russia at age 23, where he was born to
Yiddish-speaking parents.
Fanny (nee Katschka) came to the U.S. in 1896 from Austria and your
great grandparents appear to have met in New York in the early 1900s.
Her maternal tongue was also Yiddish. Both Fanny and Moses were
naturalized in 1906.
In 1920, the family is living at 956 Dumont Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. The
1920 Census taken on Jan. 5, 1920 lists them with the 7 children:
Benjamin, 14
Frieda, 12
Joseph,
Samuel, 7
David, 4 11/12
Irving, 2 6/12
Estelle, 4/12
And it also lists the father-in-law, Nathan Katschka, 75, as living
with them. All three of the adults are shown as speaking English. Of
course Nathan was born in Russia. This information is taken from Vol.
200, ED 1426, sheet 7, line 17 of the New York State Census for 1920.
(I didn't get a chance to check the 1930 Census, which is has been
available since last spring but will explain how to find Census data
for 1900/1910/1920/1930 in the resources section at the end.)
There are a number of Topfs living in Brooklyn at the time who may or
may not be related, including Morris, 48, married to Bessie; Julius,
20, married to Laura; and Solomon, 50, married to Minnie.
GRADUATION FROM NYU
-------------------
The next that we see of Samuel B. Topf is his graduation from New York
University with a BS in Electrical Engineering in a class of 52. He
received his diploma from Dean Thorndike Saville of the School of
Engineering on June 9, 1937, according to the New York Times. There
were 15,000 people at the 105th Commencement of NYU, held at Ohio
Field in University Heights. Honorary degrees were given out that day
to 7 people, including General Motors President Charles Franklin
Kettering and Miss Edna Vincent Millay.
By the way, it appears that his brother Benjamin, who was the eldest
and 7 years his senior, received his diploma in from City College's
School of Education on June 17, 1936. He was later certified by the
state as a health educator for junior high schools, passing exams on
March 15, 1939. This too comes from the NY Times on that date.
POSTWAR
--------
There is nothing that we could find about his occupation during World
War II, though clearly as an electrical engineer he would have been
doing valuable work.
The next online mention of him is in the New York Times archive on
Oct. 12, 1949 when the property at 1779 1st Avenue (the southwest
corner of 92nd Street) is sold by Tops Motor Sales & Service to him,
carrying a mortgage of $8,122. At the time Selma Topf is the
vice-president of Tops Motor and they are living at 116-36 224th
Street, St. Albans, Queens, NY.
There then appears a reference to a book called "A Manual for
Industrial Development," by S.B. Topf, published by Rhodes Publishing,
Cambria Heights, NY, in 1953, 1954, 1955. It appears in a library
reference catalog but unfortunately we can't find anything more about
the publisher or the book.
TO FLORIDA
-----------
We know that in 1958 he is in Coral Gables, FL because his patent, US
#2,853,758 for a "Water-Proof Closure" has that listed as his address.
It is highly possible that he is working as an independent designer
at this point, because his 1955 patent applicaton and this one show
him as the sole owner, with no assignee.
The 1955 patent application shows no address. Finally granted on July
21, 1959, it was US #2.895,400 for a "Grain Storage Bag."
As previously mentioned, patents before 1976 are not indexed at the
U.S. Patent Office site by inventor. Instead, you must know the
patent number. Here's where you can find, view and print your
grandfather's patents:
U.S. Patent Office
Database Search
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/
You'll want to use the links for:
-- Patent number search
-- Once the patent appears, view it by hitting the "Image" button
As you'll see from the patent search pages, there are several classes
of patents, including the "utility" or "invention" patents that most
of us recognize. There are also patents for industrial design
("design" patents) and for industrial processes ("plant" patents).
Your grandfather does not have any patents in the database for 1976 or
later.
The other patents that we know about show that he was working with
Jordan Industries of Miami, FL, and at least one other collaborator.
The following two patents are assigned to Jordan Industries:
* 3,094,892 "Combination Spacer Anchor Having a Frangible Head," June
25, 1963
* 3,065,767 "Reversible Pip cap," Nov. 27, 1962
I have not been able to determine whether or not the company is
related to privately-held Jordan Industries, of Deerfield, IL:
Hoover's Online
"Jordan Industries"
http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/3/0,2163,44943,00.html
Two later patents are very interesting, appearing to be similar
designs used for "molly" type fasteners commonly used to anchor wall
racks and picture frames. The first, U.S. #3,3350,976 is held jointly
with Louis Rolnick, of Miami Beach for a "1-Piece Plastic Expansion
Fastener," and was granted on Nov. 7, 1967. (A search for "Louis
Rolnick" using Google indicates that a man by that name graduated from
PS #109 in Brooklyn, NY in June, 1920.)
The second is held entirely by your grandfather for a "1-Piece
Expansion Fastener," granted Dec. 2, 1969. It shows his address as
3925 Riviera Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33160. This patent is similar
to the plastic expansion fastener but apparently envisions a metal
casing that grasps the wall.
PHILANTHROPIC ACTIVITIES
------------------------
Sam B. Topf is one of the founding members of the National Parkinson's
Foundation, which was formed in 1957:
National Parkinson Foundation
"NPF Founders" (undated)
http://www.parkinson.org/founwall.htm
He received an honorary doctorate from the Technion Israel Institute
of Technology, according to the July 24,1992 Miami Herald. The
honorary doctorate is noted on this Technion page:
Technion
"Honorary Degrees and Awards" (undated)
http://pard.technion.ac.il/update/honorlist.html
Sam and his wife Eve had been active in supporting the school and the
Eve Topf Neurodegenerative Disease Reesarch Center, Technion, Haifa,
Israel is named for her. So too apparently is a dormitory there, the
"Sam and Eve Topf/Miami Dormitory."
American Technion Society
Home page
http://www.ats.org
In April, 1999, he is listed as one of the directors of the Committee
for Economic Growth in Israel (CEGI):
CEGI
"Director's List" (April 1999)
http://www.cegi.org/CEGIDirectors.html
A strong suggestion is to contact each of the organizations above to
get a record of your grandfather's activities. After finding a Jan.
13 press release on Parkinson's research from the American Technion
Society, I contacted one of their people on your behalf, though I
haven't had a response at this writing. If we do receive any more
information about him, it will be posted here as a clarification and
you'll receive notice of it via e-mail.
WHAT ELSE?
----------
According to an Oct. 23, 1994 article in the Ft. Lauderdale
Sun-Sentinel, he was a Pritikin diet advocate, having first gone to
the California center in 1977.
"I had a heart murmur and some angina problems, and I had heard about
it from a friend whose opinion I respected," says Topf in the article.
"My doctors said, 'It can't hurt.' That's the way they thought about
it in those days. They kind of looked down on it."
"I bought a treadmill right away, and my wife and I get on it every
day. I do 45 minutes before breakfast, and she does it later, around
9 in the morning. You can't do this program alone. It really works
when your spouse is supportive."
FURTHER RESEARCH
-----------------
There are lots of further places to look for information. The city of
New York would have records of his marriage to Selma, and being more
than 50 years old they should be available to you:
New York City
Department of Records and Information Services
New York Marriage Certificates
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doris/html/cityclerk.html
Should you care to look into naturalization of your GREAT
grandparents, you have to request a copy of the "Petition for
Naturalization" and "Certificate of Naturalization" from the
Immigration and Naturalization Service using a 'Freedom of Information
Act' (FOIA) request:
U.S. Department of Justice
"FOIA Request Form"
http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/g-639.htm
For more information about Sam's years at NYU, the alumni office may
be able to help. Inasmuch as they often keep profiles of graduates,
they may help to fill in the years since:
New York University
Development and Alumni Relations
25 W. 4th Street
5th Floor
NY, NY 10012
Tel: (212) 998-6900
Here are the Google search terms that we used to isolate information
about Sam:
Topf + patent
"Sam B. Topf"
"Eve Topf"
However, much more information came from fee-based databases, which we
had access to through our public library. They include:
* Proquest's New York Times historical newspapers
* Information Bank abstracts of the Miami Herald. Curiously, the
Miami Herald archives are available here since 1982 but didn't have as
complete an indexing as Information Bank:
Miami Herald
"Archives"
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/archives/
* And we used the National Archives Record Administration microfilms
to find the 1920 Census information. There are NARA record centers
across the country with Census records to 1930; military and
immigration records:
NARA
"Regional Facilities"
http://www.archives.gov/facilities/index.html
Should you be unable to easily visit one of the NARA facilities,
Ancestry.com offers a subscription service with Census information
on-line.
USING THE LIBRARIES
--------------------
One of the best newspaper archives available online is the New York
Times. My public library offers access to it via Proquest Historical
Newspapers, which is how we found out when Sam graduated. You'll want
to check with your library to see if it has other newspapers that
would be helpful in this search.
However, most newspapers before 1990 aren't indexed well in ANY online
database - - not even fee-based services. Event the Miami Herald's
text search, which goes back to 1982, missed an article that we found
via Information Bank.
The closer that you get to the source, the better your chances of
finding indexes. The best single suggestion would be to call the
Coral Gables branch of the Miami-Dade County Library System. Ask to
speak to the reference librarian, explaining that you'd like to know:
? are the Miami Herald and Coral Gables Gazette indexed on-line back
to the 1950's?
? are the two newspapers indexed in any other fashion? Some local
newspapers have indexes; sometimes local historians transcribe them.
? you might wish to fax them a copy of this answer and ask - - are
there any other resources they might suggest?
? ask if there are any genealogists who might assist in local
research. You can also find forums at Rootsweb.com to enlist the
cooperation of researchers.
Miami-Dade Public Library System
"Coral Gables Branch"
http://www.mdpls.org/info/locations/cg.asp
Your grandfather was active in Jewish Community affairs. Two logical
additional places to make contacts would be with his rabbi or
synagogue; and the Jewish Community Center in Coral Gables, FL.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
,
0 Comments
)