In Memoriam: Si Wakesberg

Wakesberg, an award-winning poet and writer, was born in Poland in 1913 and emigrated to New York City at age 8. He lived in New York the rest of his life.

Wakesberg earned a degree in liberal arts-social sciences at The College of the City of New York and a master’s degree in English at Teachers College of Columbia University.

His debut as a recycling journalist came in 1942 when he became editor of the Daily Mill Stock Reporter. He later worked for the Waste Trade Journal and the Daily Metal Reporter, where he interviewed and got to know scrap industry leaders and staff members of the Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel (ISIS) and the National Association of Recycling Industries (NARI), ISRI’s predecessor associations.

In 1958 he was hired by NARI as secretary of its metal dealers division and secondary metal institute, later assuming the role of commodities vice president. In those roles, he founded NARI’s commodity roundtable programs in 1975, an event that now attracts hundreds of scrap traders to meetings in Chicago each fall.

When NARI and ISIS formed ISRI in 1987, Wakesberg became New York bureau chief of ISRI’s Scrap magazine, a position he held until his death. For Scrap, he wrote commodity market reports, coverage of industry events, profiles of senior statesmen in the industry, and recollections of his career through a series titled “Si’s Excellent Adventures.”

Aside from his work for recycling trade publications, Wakesberg wrote both poetry and prose for many magazines.

In his personal life, Wakesberg married Alice Fein in 1938, and they had two children—Carol and Martin—as well as four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Following Alice’s death in 1989, Si found happiness with lifelong friend Sandy Fendrick.

“Si was an institution at ISRI and will be missed by all of us who had the privilege and honor to work with him and get to know him over the years,” says ISRI President Robin K. Wiener.

Donations in Si’s name can be made to the Jewish National Fund, the New York Public Library or the Central Park Conservancy.