A Strong Collected Spirit: A Fighter's Memoir

Edward Gersh was a penniless New York University student when he entered the 1943 Golden Gloves tournament in Madison Square Garden. Fighting as "Eddie Irwin," Gersh won the heavyweight championship, contributing to the long and illustrious heritage of outstanding Jewish prize fighters. After his World War II service, Gersh became the disciplinary dean in one of Spanish Harlem's toughest schools, a career that spanned seventeen years. Combining strict discipline with kindness, he won the enduring respect of students, staff, and community. "My job was always a challenge, always different from day to day. I didn't know whether I'd be interviewing distressed parents in my office, visiting a truant child's home, confiscating weapons in the halls or preventing a gang fight on the schoolyard - and sometimes I had to identify bodies in the morgue." While teaching in the mid-1950s, Gersh scraped together a few thousand dollars to establish a day camp in Huntington, Long Island, and began building his fortune in camping and real estate. Meanwhile, he served until the mid-1960s as a disciplinary dean - a career he stayed with because he loved it. In the early 1980s, now a millionaire, Gersh returned to another love - boxing - as the manager of talented, but often troubled, young fighters. Spending his own money freely, he took a roller-coaster ride in the fight game, experiencing both bitter disappointments and soaring triumphs - two of his fighters won world championships. Gersh's high standards and ethics earned him a headline in the publication Boxing World: "Ed Gersh: A Manager who Brings Honor to the Boxing Profession."