16 North Shore Towers Courier n February 2014 TED BARON: From Manchuria to NST Ted Baron, a resident of Building Two, was born in Harbin, Manchuria and grew up in Tientsin, China. He was born to European expatriates; his mother had fled Russia from the Bolsheviks, his father from an anti- Semitic Poland. After China suffered humiliating defeats as a result of the Opium Wars, the country was divided into extra-territorial enclaves known as Concessions: British, French, Italian, Russian, and others. Within these Concessions, the Europeans lived comfortable lives alongside the impoverished and subservient Chinese. The average family, including the Barons, had three Chinese servants: an “amah,” who took care of the children; a cook, and a “Boy” who cleaned. Ted was enrolled in the only English-speaking school left open following the Japanese occupation, the Tientsin Jewish School (TJS). During the occupation of China, many non-Jewish children who previously had attended British and American schools moved to TJS, whose curriculum was fashioned after the Cambridge public school system. Life under the Japanese was harsh, especially for the Chinese. The British and Americans were interned in bare-bones camps; “Neutrals”, or nationals whose home countries were not fighting the Japanese, were left to cope for themselves. With the end of the War, in 1946 Ted was accepted as a foreign student by the University of California at Berkeley. While he was studying there, the communist takeover of China took place and foreigners were “invited” to leave their homes for new havens, including Israel, Australia, and the United States. In 1958 he married Irene, a British native working in New York, whom he met on a ski trip to Vermont. By 1959 he formed his own public relations firm in Manhattan, after serving for eight years as a writer and account executive for several leading public relations agencies. Listed in “Who’s Who in America,” Ted Baron is a past-president of the Public Relations Society of America’s New York City Chapter. Prior to entering the PR world he was a newspaper and wire service editor. Articles bearing his byline appeared in national consumer and professional magazines. He earned a BA from Berkeley as well as a law degree from NYU and was a member of the New York Bar. One of the many prominent clients of his public relations firm was the builder William Levitt, with whom the Barons socialized at the Levitt mansion and on their yacht, “La Belle Simone.” Ironically, Ted and Irene now look down on Levitt’s former Lakeville Road office building from their NST terrace. While living in Merrick for four decades, Ted and Irene raised two children, Susan and Michael. Their household included first a Golden Retriever, Duke, and later a Yellow Lab, Rocky. Rocky was trained to fetch the morning newspaper each day in the driveway and bring it to his master in the kitchen. When on vacation with friends on Cape Cod and elsewhere, Ted couldn’t dissuade Rocky from bringing him a copy of the neighbor’s freshly delivered paper. During that time, Ted managed to enjoy many sports and traveled widely. He completed three NYC Marathons and a score of local races. His passion for fly-fishing has taken him around the world from waters in New Zealand to Alaska. An avid skier, he was a member of the “70 Plus Club” whose roster includes active skiers well into their nineties. With this group, he skied the Andes in Chile. He has also enjoyed both European and American slopes, including Davos, St. Moritz and Telluride. Ted returned to China in 1992 and 2008. China, he feels, has changed greatly for the better, “at least for the Chinese.” People are better clad and better fed. Pockets of poverty still exist, however, even in the midst of seemingly prosperous neighborhoods. On visiting the site of his school in Tientsin (today known as Tienjin) he found the building now housed scores of families cramped into small rooms, with the former schoolyard taken over by makeshift huts devoid of adequate sanitation or heating facilities. The Barons moved in to NST in 2012 – on the day super storm Sandy struck – and recall it as their “lucky day,” to be here. Here at NST, the Barons are increasingly partaking of its many activities. Ted is a member of the Men’s Golf Club and utilizes the Gym and Pool regularly. In addition, he is a regular and welcome member of the 8 AM Men’s Breakfast Club, which meets in the VIP Room. By FRED CHERNOW Ted and Irene Baron
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