Alumni Profile
Barry S. Gellers
BA'81, Journalism
Flushing, N.Y.
"Bloomington is my oasis. From the start of the drive down from the Indy airport until the time I leave to go back to New York, I'm usually smiling."
Barry S. Gellers
When Barry Gellers came to IU from New York City, he didn't know anyone. Seeking a strong journalism program at a school far removed from his hometown, Gellers says he got lost his very first day on the IUB campus. "A group of us were trying to find the Noble Roman's on Third Street from Foster Quad," he recalls. "It was at pre-registration and that was my first impression."
Gellers didn't stay lost for long. His four years on the Bloomington campus — the only years he has ever lived away from New York — were among his happiest. "I really enjoyed my time at IU," he says. "I made lots of friends that I still have and I learned that I was compatible with people from outside the area where I had spent my entire life."
That lesson would serve Gellers well more than 20 years after leaving IU, when the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 felled the World Trade Center towers just three blocks from where Gellers worked at a not-for-profit jobs-training program. Almost immediately, Gellers — who has been president of the Metro New York Chapter of the IU Alumni Association since 1998 — began fielding phone calls from alumni all over the country who wanted to know if their friends and family were okay. Communication was difficult, however, and when IU President Myles Brand called, Gellers was unable to give him much of an update. Determined to create a clearinghouse for information about Hoosiers in New York City during the attacks, Gellers asked the IUAA to send an e-mail to all New York alumni requesting that they contact Gellers and let him know they were all right.
Gellers continues to offer hospitality to Hoosiers in the Big Apple — and he continues to remember fondly his only four years outside the Empire State. He visits whenever he can. "Bloomington is my oasis," he says. "From the start of the drive down from the Indy airport until the time I leave to go back to New York, I'm usually smiling."