Marty Greenberg began his career at Ohio State at the age of 17 in 1949 with the same intentions as most other students.
“I needed to get a good job,” Greenberg said.
But his son, Josh Greenberg, said something very different happened.
“He told me, ‘Everyone was playing pinball, ping pong and bridge and I became a leader in all three!'” Greenberg said.
While excelling at these leisure activities, Marty Greenberg rarely attended his classes and was put on academic probation. He was eventually kicked out of OSU in 1951.
“He’s a unique guy that likes to do his own thing,” Josh Greenberg said. “But don’t get me wrong. He’s a wealth of knowledge; the kind of guy who watches ‘Jeopardy’ every night and knows all the answers.”
Despite his dismissal from the university, Marty Greenberg met his future wife, Pauli Zawitz, at OSU before finding out that he was being drafted to fight in the Korean War. They married shortly before he enlisted and the couple spent a year traveling in Europe while he was stationed in Austria with the Army as a stenographer.
“I like to say we had a one-year honeymoon,” he said.
Upon discharge, they returned to Columbus and he started a business. “Able Builders Supply” was a wholesaler and distributor of windows and doors to construction firms that ran for more than 20 years. He retired in 1977 and sold the business. He began selling antiques and art for about two years, sparking an interest in art that led to his decision to go back to school.
“I really never gave it a fair shot,” Greenberg said. “And I really wanted to understand art. I had looked at it, studied it, but I never understood what it meant.
In 1979 he re-enrolled at OSU as an art history major and began taking two classes during Autumn, Winter and Spring quarters, and has been at the university ever since.
“I met Marty in the first art history class I took at OSU as an undergrad,” said Mark Svede, a professor in the College of Arts and Humanities. “And last year, coming rather full-circle, Marty sat in on a section of History of Art 350 I was teaching, and he gave me his signature grouchy-yet-affectionate blessing after it was all through. I love Marty Greenberg.”
Greenberg paid tuition and used the health insurance to provide for his family, but has never been interested in earning a degree. He said he has always been at OSU to learn and wasn’t interested in some of the general education courses mandated by the different colleges within OSU.
“I didn’t need a degree, so I just couldn’t see the point in taking them,” he said. “The way I saw it, I got my insurance for a lot cheaper and I had fun.”
There was little adjustment necessary for him to get back into the college mindset.
“I didn’t have any problem keeping up with the younger students,” he said. “After class me and some of the kids would grab a beer.”
Besides the $28 tuition when he started, the biggest change in today’s classroom atmosphere is the lack of hard copies of handouts given by the professors, he said, admitting that “computers are something that has never come easy to me.”
Once he took all the art history courses he was interested in, Greenberg began branching out and studying subjects including communication, theater and economics.
“I can’t even remember what else, there’s been so much,” he said. “I probably have enough credits to graduate twice by now.”
Lately he has been taking mostly Jewish Studies classes and is
currently enrolled in History of Zionism and Modern Israel. He said he plans to keep going indefinitely.
“Which is a testament to the value of the programs at OSU,” he said.
After he turned 60, Greenberg became qualified to take classes for free through the Program 60 curriculum option offered by OSU since 1974. Program 60 is a state-mandated program that allows Ohio residents older than 60 to attend classes on a non-tuition, non-credit, space-available basis. The oldest current student in the program is 93.
“I’m older than all my teachers,” he said with a laugh. “There are plenty of other guys my age, but none of them have probably been going as long as me.”
For Greenberg’s son, the most important thing about his father’s story is his “true love of learning.”
“The university is a place of love and learning and it provides a venue for my dad and others like him; people who learn for the sake and love of learning.” Josh Greenberg said.
