The contents of a case honoring former Stuyvesant student and jazz musician Thelonious Monk, which included items worth up to $2000, are missing.
The case, located on the first floor, was replaced by a SING! awards plaque two years ago. Members of the faculty and administration did not know who replaced the case or where the contents are now.
Former Stuyvesant English teacher David Kastin, who conceived and organized the display in the early 1990s, first brought the issue of the missing contents to the school several months ago after a former colleague informed him that the case had been replaced.
The case contained Monk’s school transcripts, a photograph of Monk taken by Lee Tanner, photographs of the 1964 Time magazine cover featuring Monk and the commemorative stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service, and a collection of representative records, which included a tribute album compiled of different artists playing Monk’s songs.
The Lee Tanner photograph is worth about $700. Some of the memorabilia in the case, such as the school transcripts, can be sold for around $1,000 to $2,000 at a jazz auction.
“I don’t know what happened,” Principal Stanley Teitel said. “Everything was intact and then one day the SING! award is in the display. I have no clue as to how it got there.”
“I doubt anyone would have thrown it out,” Teitel said. He said he believes the items are boxed up somewhere in school. If any memorabilia were to be thrown out, the Stuyvesant Alumni Association would be notified first.
“I know nothing about the disappearance,” said Executive Director of the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association Henry Grossberg.
Assistant Principal of Music and Fine Arts Dr. Raymond Wheeler was also unaware of the whereabouts of the contents.
Kastin plans to recreate the memorial if the contents cannot be found. “I want to ensure that this time the installation will be both secure and permanent.”
Monk attended Stuyvesant from 1932 to 1934. He left school in 1934 to pursue a career as a professional musician. As wellknown jazz musician in New York, Monk developed the bee bop movement which has a more complex rhythm and more of an emphasis on dance than earlier jazz music.
Kastin said, “I feel as if there is a lack of appreciation for a great musician. If the school Mozart attended can honor its student, why can’t Stuyvesant?”