1Like many people in his generation, Rothstein remembers where he was when President Kennedy was shot in 1963. He was 7 years old and growing up in Brookline, the town where Kennedy was born and spent much of his childhood. It was a formative moment in Rothstein’s life.
“On Nov. 22, I was at a friend’s house, playing. We were drawing American flags when I heard about the assassination. The idea of having positive trust in government, his basic ideas of service, courage, and innovation — that’s just as relevant today.’’
2 One of his biggest priorities as the foundation’s executive director will be digitization: ensuring more primary source materials about everything from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the formation of the Cape Cod National Seashore can be accessed online.
“I would like anyone from anyplace in the world to be able to look up materials.’’
3 This isn’t the first time Rothstein has worked at a Kennedy-related nonprofit. In 1979, he helped launch Citizens Energy Corp. with Joseph Kennedy II, and was the nonprofit oil company’s general manager for seven years.
“Joe was watching the news. People were freezing to death and oil company profits were going up. He said, ‘That’s not fair, that’s not the society we [should] live in. Let’s take some of those profits and give them to people.’ I didn’t think it could be done. It’s evolved over time, but it started by purchasing oil, refining it, and bringing heating oil to Massachusetts and then to other states.’’
4 He doesn’t seem fazed by the UMass Boston construction work that has turned the Columbia Point peninsula around the library into something resembling a warzone. Or he’s just adopting his hero’s diplomatic skills to describe the disruptive situation.
“UMass is going to be beautiful when the construction is over. To get to that point, to go through the process, there are times that it’s not much of an issue, and sometimes it’s a little more complicated. UMass is doing a great job communicating. But they’re working within limited space.’’
5 Despite the fact that Rothstein is a lifelong Kennedy fan, he says he’s still surprised by the number of people who describe their important personal connections to JFK.
“I talked with someone yesterday on the phone who met John Kennedy when this gentleman was 13 years old. He met him for a few minutes when John Kennedy was campaigning. He said John Kennedy was so respectful of public service and the police officers [that] this man went into the police and devoted 30-something years to the police, literally because of that one experience. It affected his whole life. It affected [my life] in that way. I would have done something very, very different [if not for the Kennedy legacy].’’
