Bert Nelson, retired superintendent of Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools, dies at 83

Across nearly 30 years leading Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools before retiring in 1998, Bert Nelson navigated numerous crises, including the AIDS epidemic, and championed such causes as early-childhood education and English-as-a-second-language for immigrant students.

Nelson died July 23 at age 83 from multiple health conditions at Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside.

Shortly after becoming superintendent in 1983, Nelson expanded the district’s pre-K and kindergarten program to its own building, Hewlett’s Franklin Early Childhood Center. In February 1987, his district became the first in the nation to screen the myth-dispelling educational film "Sex, Drugs and AIDS." And in 1994, long before #MeToo, he had his district draft its first sexual-harassment policy for students.

"He was very progressive-minded and a very smart guy, and he made things happen," said Steven Schopp, a retired music educator, administrator and Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame inductee. "I've known him for 40-plus years as a colleague, as a good friend and, frankly, as a mentor."

Nelson held many posts over his career, including president of the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents and executive administrator of the New York State School Music Association. But "he always put his family first, even while being very devoted to the school district and the work he did," said his son, Adam Nelson.

This may be nowhere better exemplified than when Bert Nelson — severely ill and less than two weeks before he died — rallied enough to travel from his Hewlett home to Philadelphia for his son’s wedding. "It was the last thing he did," Adam Nelson said, "before he had this severe episode and died."

Born Bert Nissenfeld in Queens on Aug. 19, 1942, he was the younger of two sons of Samuel and Jean Hilsenrath Nissenfeld. He attended Forest Hills High School.

After earning his bachelor of arts and master of science degrees from Queens College, his family said, he went on to a doctorate of education from Hofstra University in Hempstead. In 1963, he married Gail Lasky, with whom he had two children; they later divorced and in 1974 he married Carol Rosenthal, with whom he had another child.

He had his last name legally changed to Nelson "60-some years ago" for reasons now unclear, his son said.

After a brief sojourn west to teach in Redondo Beach, California, he went to work in the New York City school system. He then taught education at Queens College before moving with his family to Hewlett in 1969 to work variously as assistant to the superintendent, assistant superintendent and deputy superintendent of Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools. The district then encompassed four elementary schools (now two plus the Franklin school), two junior high schools (now one middle school) and George W. Hewlett High School.

In October 1981, Nelson was promoted to superintendent, taking office the following July. Besides the Franklin center, AIDS education and ESL, his initiatives included what "may be a national model for reducing electromagnetic fields" from aboveground utility power lines and, more prosaically, schools’ electrical wiring and other factors, Newsday reported in 1994.

Nelson advocated for free and reduced-fare lunches for disadvantaged students, calling proper nutrition “[o]ne of the most important ways the Board of Education helps to ensure that our children achieve more in their classes." Following the high-profile murder of Woodmere middle-schooler Kelly Tinyes in 1989 — her killer was convicted the following year and remains in prison — Nelson convened a crisis-intervention team of mental health and social work professionals for his district’s students.

"He was friendly and very even-tempered and rational, very thoughtful, extremely ethical," said his son. "He was the superintendent so he'd have union negotiations, and even the union negotiators liked him," he said.

"I remember at one point," Schopp said, "he got a very good offer to go upstate and was about ready to take it. And Hewlett [officials] said, 'We're not letting you go,' and kept him."

Though not a musician, his administrative skills were such that he was asked to lead the New York State School Music Association, where he served as executive director from 1998 to 2006 and remained active on committees and as an adviser through last year. Among many accolades, he was named a Lowell Mason Fellow of the National Association of Music Education. A member of numerous professional organizations, Nelson also belonged to MENSA, the high IQ society. He wrote articles on education and was an adjunct professor at New York University and Hofstra University, his family said.

In addition to his wife, with whom he shared a vacation home in upstate Rhinebeck, and son, Nelson is survived by daughters Julie Nelson Robeson, of Sarasota, Florida, and Rebecca Nelson Bauer, of Lynbrook; and six grandchildren. His brother, Leon, predeceased him. All three of Nelson’s children followed him into teaching.

A funeral was Wednesday at Boulevard-Riverside Chapels, in Hewlett. Burial in Sharon Gardens, in Valhalla, was scheduled to be family only.