Hall of Fame 2003 Inductees

George Berlin graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1940. He received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Case Institute of Technology in 1943, and served three years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineering Corp during World War II.

Since 1968, George Berlin has been actively involved in the creation of what is now the City of Aventura. As a partner in Turnberry Associates, he has overseen the development of condominiums, the Aventura Mall, and other shopping centers in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. In 1979, he was voted "Builder of the Year" by the Builders Association of South Florida, and was then elected president in 1982. He has served as director at the state and national levels, and has been inducted into the Builders Hall of Fame on the state and local levels.

He was the governor’s appointee to the Energy Advisory Council in 1979, and served on the state’s Growth Management Advisory Committee in 1985. He has also been appointed to a number of county task forces and advisory boards. George Berlin is a past president of Temple Sinai of North Dade, a former board member of Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, a founding member of the Joint Council of Aventura and the Aventura Marketing Council. He has been honored by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce with their Leadership Award, and has been recognized by the Police Officers Assistance Trust.

George passed away Sunday, March 16, 2008, at age 85, following a week of celebration his family and friends.

Gary Glick graduated from the University of Virginia with a Master of Arts in English, and joined Miami Beach Senior High School’s faculty in 1968. After 35 years teaching all levels of English in Room 115, he retired in 2003.

He has had an enormous impact on thousands of students who credit him with their future educational and professional successes because he expected the best from them, taught them how to write, expanded their literary horizons, and inspired them. "For the entire length of my career, I have tried to prepare students to follow the path of Tennyson’s Ulysses," Gary Glick says. "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Paul Nagel, Jr. graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1944. While still a student at the University of Miami, he began teaching there and stayed for 41 years, retiring as the Director of UM’s Motion Picture Program in 1991.

He has written more than 700 scripts for radio, television, and film, and has appeared in films, including The Mean Season, Absence of Malice, My Girl, and Cape Fear. He has also acted on the stage, and in the late 1950s, he appeared in the world premiere of Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth in Miami. His television appearances include Miami Vice, and numerous commercials. Many of Paul Nagel’s former screenwriting students have gone on to successful and award-winning careers in film and television in many capacities, including writing and producing.

In 1991, he received a Silver Circle Award from the Miami Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Paul Nagel continues to consult, lecture, and write.

Paul Nagel, Jr., a beloved professor emeritus and alumnus passed away on Dec. 26, 2018. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Margery. He was 92 years old.

Herb Rich graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1946 after a stellar career as a student athlete, playing basketball, baseball, and football, and winning the Florida State Basketball Championship. He enrolled at Vanderbilt University in 1946 and became one of only two students ever to earn three letters (football, basketball and baseball) in his freshman year.

Football would be Herb Rich’s path to sports fame. At Vanderbilt, he was a two-time All-SEC (Southeastern Conference) player and an All-Southern player. In 1949, he was named Best Offensive Back in the SEC, and in his senior year he was ranked 4th nationally for season rushing attempts. Herb Rich joined the Baltimore Colts in 1950, then moved to the Los Angeles Rams, where he played defensive back from 1951-1953, was named All-Pro in 1952 and 1953, and was a starter on the 1951 world championship team. He moved to the New York Giants in 1954, and was the defensive captain of their 1956 championship team.

He retired from football and began a career as an attorney-at-law. A long-time resident of Nashville, Herb Rich has served on the Board of Directors for the Nashville Boys Club, and received the city’s Bronze Key Award in 1989 for 30 years of service. He is a past president of the Nashville Quarterback Club and the Nashville Jewish Community Center, and was honored in 1996 by the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.

Herb Rich passed away in 2008 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Nan (Herman) Rich graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1959, and attended the University of Florida from 1959-1961. Elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000, Nan Rich lives in Weston, Florida and has devoted her professional life to community service, and in particular to serving the needs of children.

She has served on numerous boards and committees, and has provided dedicated leadership in many areas: She is the founding President of the Board of Trustees of the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), a former Chair of the Children’s Services Board of Broward County, and served as National President of the National Council of Jewish Women (1996-1999). In 1999, President Clinton appointed Nan Rich to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. She serves as Chair of the Government Affairs Committee of the Florida Association of Jewish Federations and is a member of the Executive committee of the Jewish Federation of Broward County. Florida House of Representatives, Nan Rich serves on the Banking, Child and Family Security, General Education, and the Health and Human Services Appropriation committees.

She has been named Child Advocate of the Year by Family Central, a Woman of Vision by the Weizmann Institute, has received the Champions of Children Award from Save the Children, and in 1998 was honored with the Silver Medallion Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, among many other awards and honors from numerous organizations. In the Florida House of Representatives, Nan Rich serves on the Banking, Child and Family Security, General Education, and the Health and Human Services Appropriation committees.

Barry Sugerman graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School in 1955. He received a B.S. in Science and a Bachelor of Architecture, both from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has also served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, attached to the Civil Engineering group.

As an architect based in North Miami for nearly 30 years, Barry Sugerman has won more than 145 local, regional, and national awards, including the coveted "Best in American Living" Home of the Year Award for the Best Custom Home in the United States from the National Association of Home Builders in 1993. He has been awarded the Better Homes & Gardens Responsible Growth Award, has been featured in numerous magazines, and his work has been published in four books. He has designed homes around the country and the world, including the private residence of the President of Honduras.

His commercial designs include Temple Beth Moshe and Boca Raton Federal S&L. He is on the City of North Miami’s Economic Development Board and its Architectural Review Board, and the Board of Directors of the North Miami Museum & Art Center. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the Builders Association of South Florida.

Eugene C. Weiner graduated from Miami Beach Senior High in 1951. While at Beach High, his leadership skills emerged as he was elected president of his class in his junior year, president of the Student Council in his senior year, and honored that year as "Best All Around," "Most Popular," "Most Likely to Succeed," and "Done Most For Miami Beach High School." He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia College, an M.H.L. from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as a rabbinical graduate, and a PhD in Sociology from Columbia University.

An internationally renowned sociologist, spiritual leader, civil rights activist and humanitarian, Dr. Weiner moved with his family to Israel where he became a professor of sociology at Haifa University, and then head of the Sociology Department. He co-founded the International Institution for Mediation and Historical Conciliation, and founded both The Carmel Institute for Social Studies and the World Jewish Peace Corps. In 1965, Dr. Weiner joined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the historic Selma, Alabama civil rights demonstrations. He served from 1972-1990 as a Rank Captain in the Israel Defense Forces Reserves in the Field Psychological Unit and saw active duty during the Yom Kippur and Lebanese Wars. He was the co-founder of Zahavi, which promotes the rights of large families in Israel, and he served as the UJA-Federation of New York’s first managing director of its Commission of the Jewish People. From 1996-1999, he lived in Moscow as Manager of Special Projects for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and helped revive Jewish institutions in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In 1989, he co-founded The Abraham Fund Initiatives (TAFI), the first and only not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting tolerance and building understanding between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews. The author of a number of books, including Israel: A Precarious Sanctuary, Dr. Weiner spoke on many topics, including peaceful, co-existence between Arabs and Jews, and he has been hailed as "the father of the coexistence movement."

Dr. Eugene Weiner passed away on February 24, 2003, at the age of 69, of cancer, in Haifa. At the time of his death, he was working to create a World Peace Corps.