Meet the new boss of the old Brooklynites.
The Society of Old Brooklynites elected Gerritsen Beacher George Broadhead its new president on May 7. Broadhead remained humble about becoming the 49th head of the 135-year-old society, whose members include the former mayor of the former City of Brooklyn (peace be upon it) Seth Low, and the so-called father of baseball, Henry Chadwick.
“I’m honored,” said George Broadhead. “To think that Walt Whitman was a member — and of the many prestigious past presidents — I’m probably least distinguished of them all.”
The retired Newhouse newspaper chain publisher joined the society in 2007, but the Brooklyn native’s roots run so deep they practically hit China. His maternal ancestors were among the Quakers who lobbied Peter Stuyvesant to allow New York’s first Jewish immigrants to settle on Manhattan. And British forbearers on his father’s side landed in Gravesend during the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Long Island.
Broadhead was born in Park Slope in 1932 and his family moved to Gerritsen Beach in 1938. A stint in the Marines took him to Korea, where he earned a silver star and a purple heart before he was discharged with a disability. He attended St. John’s University in Brooklyn before joining the publishing trade, which took him to Tennessee and California.
But ever the Brooklynite, Broadhead returned to Gerritsen Beach upon retiring in 2001.
The 300-strong Society of Old Brooklynites holds an annual memorial for the Revolutionary War prison-ship martyrs in Ft. Green Park. It only accepts as members those who have lived in Brooklyn for at least 25 years.
Members’ ages vary but tend on the older side, and Broadhead wants to attract some new blood to the group.
“It needs some revitalization that’s for sure,” he said.
