JUNE 15 • 2023 | 27

Arriving at school that day 
to classmates asking about my 
gift was the first realization that 
people beyond my family and 
close friends knew of my father.

HIS GROWING UP YEARS
My dad grew up in the small, 
largely non-Jewish town of 
Kittanning, Penn., contracting 
polio in a neighborhood swim-
ming pool when he was 8. He 
recalled overhearing his dad 
say he would never walk again. 
Optimistic and determined, he 
says he knew he would, and 
took the challenge to heart, per-
severing with a weak left side 
and one leg shorter than the 
other, forever affecting his gait. 
I remember him walking our 
family home from Shabbat ser-
vices and then limping at what 
seemed like the speed of light 
to a neighbor’s front yard to 
threaten the teen driver of the 
car that had raced past us. 
As a child, he attended what 
he referred to as cheder (Hebrew 
school) and later Kittanning 
Senior High School, where 
he wrote the school’s anthem, 
which my siblings and I can 
sing from memory. He stud-
ied at Allegheny College in 
Meadville, Penn., when Jewish 
students were not admitted to 
fraternities. He helped create a 
new one and became one of its 
leaders. 
Looking to go on to study 
law, a professor suggested he 
first work on his small-town 
dialect by joining the school’s 
radio station team, where he 
discovered his calling. Instead of 
law school, after graduation he 
took a job at a station in Sharon, 
Penn., which proved to be both 
professionally and personally 
life-changing when a represen-
tative from Hadassah arrived 
from Pittsburgh to present a 
public affairs promotion. 
The station owner introduced 
the woman, the daughter of 
an Orthodox rabbi, to my dad, 
telling him, “You’re Jewish, she’s 

Jewish; you should ask her out.
” 
That lady became my mom, 
who was married to my dad for 
68 inspirational years, together 
raising four children in a home 
based on Jewish values and 
tradition.

LIFE IN BROADCASTING
A broadcasting job offer even-
tually brought my parents to 
Cleveland, where my three sib-
lings and I were born, where my 
dad teamed up with radio part-
ner Harry Martin and where 
he became “Specs Howard,
” a 
combination of his trademark 
glasses and a name randomly 
chosen from the phone book. 
After five years, the Martin 
and Howard drive-time radio 
program moved to Detroit and 
our family settled in Southfield. 
When the show later relocated 
back to Cleveland, my parents 
were unwilling to uproot our 
family. 
For an entire year, my dad 
awoke in time to be in the car at 
3 a.m. every Monday morning 
to drive to Cleveland and be on 
the air at 6. He slept at my aunt 
and uncle’s house weeknights 
and was back home for Shabbat 
after his show each Friday. 
In 1970, he left the air and 
took his radio and business 
knowledge, experience and 
expertise to a new level, 
founding what would even-
tually become the Southfield-
based Specs Howard School 
of Media Arts, which taught 
the skills required for a career 
in broadcast arts. 
His door was physically 
open to staff and to students, 
all of whom he knew by 
name. This past August, the 
school formed a partnership 
with Lawrence Technological 
University in Southfield 
under the name Specs@LTU. 
Just weeks before he passed 
away, I watched my dad cre-
ate a video message to be pre-
sented at a celebration in his 
honor at LTU, speaking with 

no notes and a perfect, clear 
message in his one-of-a-kind, 
pleasant, recognizable radio 
voice.

MAIL
’S HERE
Overall, my dad had mixed 
feelings about the computer. He 
liked having a landline. And he 
really liked his iPhone. But he 
loved the mail.
When COVID didn’t allow 
for an in-person 95th birthday 
party, friends, family and col-

leagues were invited to send 
personal birthday wishes … In 
an envelope. With a stamp. A 
photo of him with the slew of 
cards from a multitude of states 
and four countries, with heart-
warming messages, ran in the 
JN the week of his birthday.
As an adult, post-polio 
syndrome caused progressive 
weakness and muscle and joint 
pain leading to multiple falls. 
He accepted his physical status, 

90th birthday celebration

PAM HERDMAN

On-air with Specs Howard and Harry Martin 

continued on page 28

