Brandeis Alumni, Family and Friends
The Brandeis Avengers: The Legend. The Legacy.
November 10, 2025
A lifelong friendship forged in North Quad leads to shared memories and values.
By Lloyd Michaels ’66
Lloyd Michaels ’66 reflects on the tight-knit group of Brandeis freshmen who became lifelong friends. Spearheaded by Bob Safron ’66, and in gratitude for the role Brandeis has played in their lives, they recently joined together to endow a scholarship for Brandeis students.
The ten of us first met as freshmen living in North Quad and have remained close friends for more than 60 years.
We call ourselves the Avengers (more on that in a moment), and our members include Rich Fertel, Rob Hausner, Bob “Nelse” Nelson, Joe Perkins, Bob “Saf” Safron, Alvin Stauber, Harvey Stone, Ronnie Weinger, Dick Winkelstern, and me.
Our friendship initially formed around intramural sports, where many of us played on the same teams. By the time spring softball season rolled around, we had become a tight-knit group and given each other animal nicknames like Tiger, Antelope, Muskrat, and Spider.
The name “Avengers” was coined early on – well before the popular 1960s TV show or the Marvel Universe. One day, Ronnie was using the shared phone in our dorm lounge to ask a girl on a date – no one had phones in their rooms back then. None of us were strangers to rejection, so a few of us were circling him, pretending to be fighter jets. When the girl turned Ronnie down, one of us crouched in machine gunner position while the other “planes” crashed and burned. Undaunted by our shenanigans, Ronnie rose up and declared: “Listen! We can’t continue to accept these insults! We must avenge these putdowns!” And so, our new name was born.
Our years on campus were filled with learning, bull sessions, and laughter and fostered countless stories that would be retold again and again. How Alvin flirtatiously worked the crowd of young women in the kosher line at Swig. That time Nelse nearly drowned in a huge puddle during a post-thunderstorm football game. How Rob and I had to stifle our hilarity when our narcoleptic classics professor slowly slumped in his chair and fell asleep during a guest lecture (in Greek!) on Homer.
When graduation neared, we asked Brandeis’ beloved photographer, Ralph Norman, to take our portrait in front of the statue of Justice Brandeis. Although we all agreed to dress in jackets and ties, I wore a sweater and Harvey wore white socks – our nod to non-conformity, I suppose.
After graduation, our friendships continued to grow, along with our careers and families. We became a diverse and accomplished band of overachievers. Today, the Avengers comprise two medical doctors, three tenured professors, two lawyers, one dentist, four authors, and two entrepreneurs. We can be found from Cape Cod to Florida to San Francisco.
The group has attended milestone class reunions – often arriving a few days early to enjoy the scenery and reminisce. At our 20th reunion, we began a tradition of re-creating that senior-year photo at each reunion — thereby recalling past glory and observing the aging process.
Our wives formed their own cabal – dubbed the Avengers Auxiliary — and often went shopping or sightseeing while the guys stayed behind, burnishing their own legends.
With advancing age, the Avengers have found ways to gather more frequently: a surprise 60th birthday celebration for Saf in Sedona, AZ, weekend gatherings in White Plains, the Brandywine Valley, New Hope, Sun Valley, and Boulder.
A subtle change marked the turn of the century: instead of simply re-telling the old stories, we began to focus on our present lives. We began to share more of our present lives: concerns about children, retirement, illness, grandchildren, and, of course, politics. News often replaced nostalgia.
After September 11th, Joe began calling each one of the Avengers every Thanksgiving, simply to say hello and to give thanks for our friendship.
Then suddenly, unexpectedly, Nelse died in 2018. We had an emergency conference call to share our grief. To lighten the mood and suspend the eulogies, we took turns counting the number of prescription drugs we took each day. A few months later, several of us attended the memorial service at the Nelsons’ summer home in Shepherdstown, WV.
The Covid-19 pandemic pushed us online, and despite a few glitches, everyone managed to appear on our first Zoom call. Our screens looked like a geriatric version of Hollywood Squares, but our faces reflected sheer joy at being together. Those calls have continued on the first Friday of every month, without fail, since then. Our computer skills, however, have not improved.
Living, studying, and playing together at Brandeis forged enduring ties among us. I expect that many alumni have remained close to a few of their Brandeis friends over the years. But, hey, we are talking about ten guys after sixty years! Did I mention we’re overachievers?
At our Sun Valley gathering about a decade ago, Nels spoke about how much joining the Avengers meant to him. He initially thought he had been included because of his athletic prowess (considerable, but still exaggerated). For the first time in his life, he had found not just acceptance but meaningful camaraderie, and this connection had provided comfort throughout his entire adult life. The rest of us around the table became quiet. He had touched on a truth that everyone felt. The moment passed, we lifted our glasses and laughed, but the memory now lingers behind our octogenarian smiles.