First in a series
[Editor’s Note: Steve Levin, rocket scientist, officially will launch (what else?) his School Board campaign on Saturday afternoon, July 20, at 10733 Ranch Rd., Culver Crest. See
http://levinforschoolboard.com]
[img]1993|right|Steve Levin||no_popup[/img]You don’t find many men who introduce themselves the way Steve Levin, owner of one of the community’s most fascinating professional roles, does. Since Eden, men have identified by their jobs, women by their families.
And so, yesterday at lunch at the Roll ‘n Rye, Mr. Levin, arguably the most intriguing candidate in the small field chasing three School Board seats in the November election, opened his verbal biography:
“First of all, I have three kids in Culver City schools. My eldest is going into 10th grade, my middle child into fifth and my youngest is going into third grade. So I have a vested interest in the schools. Our whole community probably does. For people who own property, their property values are affected by how well the schools do.”
The brother of former Mayor Sandi Levin grew up the middle child in a Santa Monica family where “we were expected to be contributing members of society. To me, part of that is getting involved.”
Unlike traditional candidates for office, any office, Mr. Levin isn’t going to drown his audiences – even a crowd of one – in verbiage.
He isn’t shy, he says, but “I tend to think about what I am saying before I say it.”
Mr. Levin’s most public exposure in recent times came a year ago May when he was one of the founding fathers of the parents union, United Parents of Culver City. He was the inaugural president, preceding Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin.
The Opening Night organizing scene of Mr. Levin persists 14 months later: Here was the soft-spoken JPL scientist standing on a lawn chair at twilight in the backyard of an empty home, addressing dozens of curious/committed parents about UPCC’s aggressive perception of the future.
On this day, he announced his occupation as routinely as a stock boy at Von’s. “I get along well with people,” he says. “In my day job, my main job is that I am project scientist for Juno, the spacecraft on its way to Jupiter. A lot of what I do is working with groups, trying to get the scientists and the engineers to understand each other and to solve problems together.”
It follows that a clever person associated with the Levin campaign came up with the appropriate theme:
“Sometimes It Does Take a Rocket Scientist.”
(To be continued)
