Forest Hills High School

Forest Hills High School (FHHS), a public secondary institution serving the middle-class

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Forest Hillssection of New York City's Queens County, is located all but adjacent to Flushing Meadow Park, site of two World's Fairs. The United States Open tennis championshiphas long been held nearby, first at the West Side Tennis Club in upscale Forest Hills Gardens and later at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow Park.

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FHHS frequently has been extremely overcrowded

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throughout its history, sometimes running three overlapping sessions. But the school has shined as an example of academic excellence throughout the decades all the same. Traditionally, a very large fraction of FHHS graduates have gone on to attend college. Aspiration to demanding professional callings like medicine have survived the evolution of its ethnic makeup far from its original demographic of very many Jewish students.

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Many of FHHS's most famous students have gained recognition in entertainment fields. These include childhood-TV veteran Bob Keeshan("Captain Kangaroo"), perennial TV-serial star

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Michael Landon, TV freak-show host and one-time mayor of Cincinnati

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Jerry Springer, "easy listening" songwriter

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Burt Bachrach,folk-rockers

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Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel,punk-rock pioneers The Ramonesand

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comic-book legend Stan Lee, whose fictional Spiderman was raised in the neighborhood.

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FHHS graduates who went on to become entertainment producers

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include network-TV's Fred Silverman and

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Hollywood's

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Leslie Urdang.

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War-time dropout Art Buchwald, class of '43, won the Pulitzer Prize twice. The first space tourist, ex-NASA engineer and millionaire investment fund manager

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Dennis Tito, graduated FHHS in 1958.

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In 2000, US First Lady

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Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton

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delivered the

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commencement address.Jacob J. ("Jack") Lew, a 1972 graduate of FHHS, was then the Clinton administration's Director of the

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Office of Management and Budget, having been elevated to the post two years earlier. (It is interesting to note that the surname 'Lew' often derives from a shortening of 'Lewinsky'.)

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Stan Lee (cf. above) has an interesting connection with fundraising for Mrs. Clinton's 2000 Senate race.

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An elusive billionaire whose 'Cinderella-midnight' pardon by outgoing President Bill Clinton caused a furor, commodity trader

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Marc Rich, attended Forest Hills High School for a spell in the 1950s, until he was enrolled in an exclusive prep academy, the Rhodes School. The crimes for which Rich was forgiven by Clinton include the largest tax-evasion case ($48 million) in history.

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Another important political figure, the brilliant and abrasive

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John Henry Sununu

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attended FHHS in the 1950's, before moving away. He served as

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White House Chief of Staff for

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US President President G.H.W. Bush between 1989 and 1991, co-hosting CNN's

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"Crossfire" through much of the 1990's.

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