Abraham Lincoln High School is a public high school located at 2800 Ocean Parkway, in Brooklyn, New York City. The principal is Ari A. Hoogenboom. Built in 1929, Lincoln has graduated three Nobel Prize laureates, along with many other doctors, scientists, engineers, politicians, and other notable alumni.
It was built during the Great Depression, and in order to save money, one set of blueprints was used for Lincoln and other high schools in New York City, including Bayside High School, Samuel J. Tilden High School, John Adams High School, and Grover Cleveland High School.
The school was established in 1929, and named for former US president, Abraham Lincoln. In 1983, Dr. Jack Pollock, the principal at the time, reported that 8 of 10 graduates went on to attend college and/or university. However, by 2010, C. J. Hughes of The New York Times reported that Lincoln High School had "struggled" with student academic achievement. In 2009, the school had a 58% graduation rating. The SAT averages for the school were 411 in reading, 432 in mathematics, and 401 in writing. The New York State averages during that year were 480 in reading, 500 in mathematics, and 470 in writing.
In 2007, there were 2,688 students enrolled. The school's racial composition is very diverse. African American students made up 38.3% of the school's student population, a plurality of the student body. White students made up over one-quarter (26.3%), Hispanic and Latino (of any race) students made up over one-fifth (21.1%), Asian American students made up 14.0%, and Native Americans made up the remaining 0.3%.
Marv Albert (né Marvin Philip Aufrichtig, born 1941), class of 1959, television sportscaster.Ken Auletta (born 1942), class of 1960, author.Eddie Antar, former businessman/owner of Crazy Eddie.Richard Bellman (1920–1984), class of 1937, applied mathematician and control theorist who invented dynamic programming in 1953.Paul Berg (born 1926), class of 1943, recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.Bernard Cornfeld (1927–1995), businessman and international financier.Millie Deegan (1919–2002), professional baseball player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.Neil Diamond (born 1941), class of 1958, singer/performerPete Emelianchik (born 1943), class of 1960, football player, NFL, Philadelphia EaglesNelson Figueroa (born 1974), class of 1992, major league pitcher, MLB, Houston Astros John Forsythe (né Jacob Lincoln Freund, 1918–2010), class of 1934, film and television actor.Louis Gossett, Jr. (born 1936), class of 1954, basketball player, Academy Award winning actor.Howard Greenfield (1936–1986) songwriter.David S. Guzick (born 1952), class of 1969. Dean of the University of Rochester School of Medicine, President of the University of Florida Health System, Member of the Institute of MedicineJoseph Heller (1923–1999), class of 1942, author of Catch-22.Leona Helmsley (1920–2007), real-estate businesswoman, noted hotelier and "Queen of Mean".Raul Hilberg, class of 1942, historian of genocide.Elizabeth Holtzman, class of 1958, Democratic congresswoman, the youngest woman elected to serve in the United States House of RepresentativesJerome Karle (born 1918 né Jerome Karfunkel), class of 1933, won Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985.Harvey Keitel (born 1939), stage, film and television actor.Arthur Kornberg (1918–2007), class of 1933, won Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1959.Herbie Mann (né Herbert Jay Solomon, 1930–2003), jazz flautist.Wallace Markfield (1926–2002), class of 1943, comic novelist.Stephon Marbury (born 1977), class of 1995, professional basketball player (NBA).Lee Mazzilli (born 1955), class of 1973, 1986 World Champion major league baseball player (New York Mets, New York Yankees), manager and coachHank Medress (1938–2007), singer in the group The Tokens, best known for The Lion Sleeps TonightArthur Miller (1915–2005), class of 1932, author, playwright and screenwriter (Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, The Crucible, The Misfits); Marilyn Monroe's third husband.Larry Namer, class of 1966, Founder of E! TV networkRonald Ribman, class of 1950, author, poet, and playwrightBuddy Rich, jazz drummer and bandleaderSaul Rogovin, major league pitcherNeil Sedaka (born 1939), class of 1956, pop singer, pianist and songwriter.Seymour Shapiro, (born 1916), Class of 1931, organic chemist, developed phenformin.Mort Shuman, singer, pianist, and songwriter Alex Steinweiss, class of 1934, graphic designer and inventor of the album cover Lance Stephenson, class of 2009, professional basketball player (NBA)Louis Stettner, (born 1922)class of 1939, photographer noted for his pictures of "everyday people doing ordinary things" in both New York City and Paris.Sebastian Telfair, class of 2004, professional basketball player (NBA).Arthur Tress, class of 1958, surrealist photographer.Sherry Turkle, class of 1965, Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT.Meryl Vladimer, class of 1969, noted theatrical producer (David and Amy Sedaris, Blue Man Group).Jack B. Weinstein, class of 1939, Brooklyn federal district court judge.Dallas Williams, major league baseball player and coach.Isaiah Whitehead, class of 2014, professional basketball player currently playing for the Brooklyn Nets (NBA)Stephen Yagman, civil rights lawyer.Peter Zimroth, American attorney and court-appointed monitor of the NYPD’s policies and practices regarding stop-and-frisk.Rachel Green, Monica Geller and Ross Geller, characters of Friends said they studied at Abraham Lincoln High School, at the first episode of the show.Jesus Shuttlesworth, from the Spike Lee film He Got Game was the #1 high school basketball recruit playing for Lincoln HS.Francis Ethelbert Sharkey, character Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea said to have received an "A" in Home Economics from Abraham Lincoln High School.
