Andrew Scherman and Diane Drutowski

AS was born in New York in 1959. They used salad tongs to get his head out -- AS's grandfather was upset about it. AS called his grandfather, the Colonel. AS's grandmother kept kosher until she died.

AS's mother left AS at his grandmother's house every Wednesday. When they went to the Virgin Islands, they got kosher food from Philadelphia.

AS's father also kept kosher. AS's mother didn't go to a family bar mitzvah because she was pregnant, and they got mad at her.

AS's father didn't know what to do with AS -- he was an "unusual child." AS's father went back to school at got Ph.D. in education. He got a job in the Virgin Islands and the family moved there when AS was eight. Then they moved to Hempstead, NY. AS went to Hempstead HS and Adelphi College. The high school in Hempstead had a big fire and they had to have classes in rooms all around the town. AS's father got fired. He was a tough guy.

Mel Jackson was an activist and AS was friends with his son, Jerome. Mel was happy to see that AS and Jerome could get along, because AS was white and Jerome was black. Jerome ended up going to MIT on a scholarship.

AS's father taught him to play chess. When AS was 10 or 11, he played with people on the Virgin Islands national team. AS played in national chess tournament -- the top six were going to make national team and go to the World Championships. AS finished fifth and they went to Europe and played in World Chess Olympiad. AS was the youngest to play in the tournament for more than 30 years. The team finished third from last in the world.

AS lost his virginity at the World Chess Olympiad in Nice when he was 15 to a girl from Sweden. In France, the World Cup was also happening at the same time.

AS met all the great chess players in the world at the olympiads.

In 2004, AS won the G/10 chess national championships in Houston. AS regrets that his father wan't alive to see him win.

AS didn't want to be a lawyer, but his father wanted him to be a lawyer. He wanted to be retired like his father.

AS went to University of Florida in the 1970s. He got a BS in history. He had gotten a lot of history credits at Adelphi because he played ping pong with a history professor.

AS joined a Jewish fraternity in college. AS is still friends with many of his brothers.

When AS got turned down from law school and Princeton, Harvard and Yale, his father told him that he was a failure. AS's father's father told him the same thing. But AS decided to never kick someone when they were down. It was a low point for AS.

AS helped lots of people -- he liked children, especially.

AS helped to organize St. Petersburg Chess Club. It started small and now hundreds come to their tournaments. AS helped kids who couldn't afford to play. AS also had high school assistants who helped run the tournaments.

One of AS's former assistants just graduated from college. She is going to be running a chess program for students in Arizona.

After law school, AS was recruited by the Army to JAG Corps, but it didn't seem very exciting to AS. AS worked for prosecutors office in Sarasota, FL as well as in private practice.