The Clementes and the Kantrowitzes
This article was written by Howard Elson
This article was published in ¡Arriba! The Heroic Life of Roberto Clemente (2022)
Top row L to R: Orlando Zabala (Vera Clemente’s brother), Henry Kantrowitz, Pearl Kantrowitz, Vera Clemente, Luisa Walker (Roberto Clemente’s mother). Second row: Richard Kantrowitz and Roberto Clemente holding a stained glass image of Clemente glued onto canvas. To the right is a snapshot of Vera Clemente holding the item. (Courtesy of Sam Kantrowitz’s personal collection.)
Most baseball fans know about Roberto Clemente’s heroics at bat and in the field for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Many know of his humanitarian efforts. The award bestowed annually to the player who “best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy, and positive contributions, both on and off the field” is named for Clemente. And of course, many know that he lost his life on December 31, 1972, in the humanitarian effort to fly emergency relief supplies to Nicaragua from his native Puerto Rico, after a devastating earthquake.
He is especially revered in his birthplace, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and by Hispanic players and baseball fans everywhere, many of whom never saw him play, almost 50 years after his untimely death at age 38. He had so much more to accomplish, on the baseball field, and in the world. Much of that humanitarian work is still being carried out by the Roberto Clemente Foundation.
What isn’t well-known is the small, personal story of a lasting friendship between the Clemente family and a Jewish family living in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, the Kantrowitzes.
This story was told to me by Richard Kantrowitz and, after Richard’s death in April 2022, by his son, Sam. Richard’s father, Henry Kantrowitz, a second-generation American, lived with his wife, Pearl, in Squirrel Hill, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh known for its Jewish personality. Henry, a CPA by profession, was a sports fan holding season tickets for both the Steelers and the Pirates. Henry was a big fan of the young Roberto Clemente, plucked from the Dodgers’ Montreal farm club in 1954, who, by the late 1950s and early ‘60s was a star at nearby Forbes Field. Henry could literally hear the cheers from the old ballpark in his home on Fair Oaks Street.
Henry had a friend in the Pirates organization and invited him to dinner at their Squirrel Hill home. Henry asked his friend if he could bring Clemente … which he did … and they hit it off. Henry became a close friend and a tax and financial adviser to Clemente. When Clemente complained about “not being used to the cold in Pittsburgh,” Henry gave him a warm winter coat. Even before Roberto married Vera Zabala in 1964, Pearl Kantrowitz, Henry’s wife, befriended Vera, took her shopping, and helped her learn English. When their sons, Luis and Roberto Jr., were born, the Kantrowitzes baby-sat for them.
Roberto, in the middle, flanked by the Kantrowitz brothers, Richard on the left. (Courtesy of Sam Kantrowitz’s personal collection.)
Henry and Pearl Kantrowitz visited the Clementes in Puerto Rico on many occasions and were with them during that fateful month of December 1972. The Kantrowitzes flew home a week before Roberto’s death, in part because Roberto was so busy with the relief flights to Nicaragua.
Henry and Pearl’s son, Richard, lived at home and like his father, became a CPA. He was always around when the Clementes would visit and became their accountant and confidant, working with Vera and the Clemente sons in starting the Roberto Clemente Foundation, serving over the years as both treasurer and president.
The next generation of Clementes and Kantrowitzes continues the friendship. Roberto Jr. was a pallbearer at both Roz (Richard’s wife) Kantrowitz’s and Richard Kantrowitz’s funerals. It was at Richard’s funeral that I talked with Sam and Roberto Jr. Sam knew I had been trying to get in touch with his father to interview him for SABR’s 2022 book, to ask about the families’ friendship. He agreed to talk with me, in his father’s stead. I also spoke with Roberto Jr. about the SABR project, and he told me that he’d had conversations with those involved.
Sam Kantrowitz and Luis and Roberto Jr. continue to keep in touch – texting, phoning, and visiting when the Clemente boys travel to Wilmington, North Carolina, where Sam is a school principal, to play in the Willie Stargell Charity Golf Tournament, held annually in “Pops’” hometown.
Roberto Clemente Jr. visited Richard Kantrowitz, the day before he died … to say goodbye and thank him for all he’d done for the Clemente family.
The family friendship that had begun nearly 70 years earlier still endures.
HOWARD ELSON is a longtime SABR member, actor, and semi-retired pediatric dentist. He wrote “Mickey Mantle Returns in a Pinch” for SABR’s Games Project, was “Professor Baseball” for four MLB All-Star Game FanFests, and traveled throughout North America performing his one-man show for dental conventions, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Dr. Howard Elson!” His “sports family” includes son Phil, “the baseball voice of the Arkansas Razorbacks,” and son-in-law Dan, the athletic director at Western Michigan University. At age 74, Howard still pitches competitive baseball in both the Men’s Senior Baseball League and he plans to be Roy Hobbs. He and his wife, Robin, a CPA who worked with Richard Kantrowitz and helped prepare the Clemente tax returns, are native New Yorkers, saw Roberto play at Shea Stadium, have lived in Pittsburgh for over 40 years, and revel in the exploits of their four grandchildren.