Percy Zelnick
Percy and Marilyn Zelnick
After graduating from high school, I went to work as a sales person in Montreal selling office supplies. I really couldn’t read. (I have subsequently discovered that I am severely dyslexic.)
At around 22, I quit my job to attend Sir George Williams as a partial non-registered student. I ultimately worked my way into becoming a full-time student, where I minored in philosophy, and then majored in “a poor man’s diluted” history. I graduated (BA) in ’74.
Friedrich Nietzsche knocked me out! I am still waiting for Marc Shell to write the definitive primer “Nietzsche for Dummies.” Nietzsche actually exacerbated my already overworked, hard-wired insecurities. I felt I was the only student who couldn’t “get him.” Then one day, it hit me. It’s not me; it’s Nietzsche. First, why would anyone have a first and last name that forced poor spellers to struggle with the confounding “i before e” rule? Moreover, why the “tz” before the “che”? Marc? I mean, come on. Mostly, I realized that Friedrich was actually a certified psychotic, I mean, really way out there. I had enough complexes comparing myself to considerate, quite well-adjusted, normal people. Why let a German pre-Nazi psychotic existentialist born in 1844, ruin my life? I’ve pretty much been O.K. since that epiphany.
After a 6+ year courtship, I married Marilyn Chisholm in ‘76. She was a TMR girl, a Sacred Heart high school student, and a Sir George Williams University graduate. Fortunately, she knew no one who knew me from MRHS. We actually never met in TMR or at Sir George Williams, but why go there. Suffice to say, she was the only girl that would date me, a decision she regrets to this day.
So, I married Marilyn, joined Xerox, and we had our first child, Shawna, in ‘76. In ’78, still unsuspecting as to what had just happened, and before Marilyn could get her bearings, in less than 22 months, we had a second child, Kimberly. After Kimberly’s birth, Marilyn understood the depth of her life-altering mistake. So we only have two girls.
I transferred with Xerox to southern California in early ‘79, and we ended up in Solana Beach, San Diego, in ‘82. Marilyn was unaware of a unique California Proposition that specifically prohibits TMR mixed-inter-faith divorces. So, because of our California domicile, Marilyn is forced to remain married to me.
A Reading Specialist at Rancho Santa Fe School (29 years+), Marilyn supports bright kindergarten and first-grade students with early reading difficulties. She artfully helps these little tykes to learn to read.
Our 2 girls left home as soon as they were legally allowed and moved moved as far away as possible from their dad. Shawna completed her Masters in Education at the University of Minnesota with a Learning Specialist credential in Psychology. I am still unclear what that means, but she landed a great teaching and administration situation at Horace Mann, NY. She moved to Los Angeles in August 2014, and is now the Director of Instruction and Student Services at Sinai Akiba Academy.
Kimberly did her undergraduate studies at Williams College, and completed law school at Yale in ‘03. She married Scott Mitnick in ‘07. Kimberly and Scott live in New York and gave birth to Henry Max Mitnick in October 2009 and Derick Mitnick in November 2012. Kimberly is a litigation partner at a law firm in New York called Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer. I have no idea what she does at the firm. Among Kimberly's wedding photos is one in which I am looking at Marilyn, while Marilyn is turning away from me. But that is another story.
On my LinkedIn page, you will see that I have no career, no connections, and no friends.
We have a bedroom overlooking a golf course, with a 40” flat screen Sony TV, and a large California king size bed. Fortunately, there is 24 hour repeat TV, and I sleep a lot. For some of us MRHS less motivated alumni, at our age, sleeping a lot is highly underrated. When I was at school, because I could not read, I would sit around all day, not pay attention, and just wait for class to end. That is sort of what I still do.
God bless.
 Kimberly and Scott |
 Percy and grandson, Henry, at about 1 year old |
 Daughter Kim and grandson Derick |
 Grandson Derick at age 3 1/2. |
 Daughters, Kim and Shawna, at Kim's wedding |