Several clues about the history of Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School are visible to anyone who enters the school. There is the name engraved above the door, the cornerstone marked 1931 for the year Falk School was built, or the plaque mounted inside the entryway that reads “Erected by Leon Falk, Jr., and Marjorie Falk Levy in memory of their mother Fanny Edel Falk.”

What’s not as readily apparent is that descendants of the school’s founding family are still present at Falk today, playing an active role in the school’s governance and in its classrooms.

Leon Falk, Jr., co-founder of Falk Laboratory School, had five children: Ellen, Sara, Sigo, David, and Susannah, all of whom attended Falk.

Ellen Falk Hirsch and Her Descendants

Ellen Falk in a newspaper story about Falk Laboratory School.

Ellen Falk Hirsch (1929–2020) attended Falk Laboratory School from nursery school through eighth grade. She was married to Joseph Glick and later to Wallace Hirsch. In addition to Pittsburgh, she resided for several years in New York City, Philadelphia, Jerusalem, and Oxford.

Ellen’s sons, Jonathan and Timothy Glick, attended Falk School in the 1950s. Jonathan later served on the Falk School Board for many years as one of the two Falk family representatives.

Among those representing the third generation of the Falk family at Falk School were the children of Jonathan Glick and Debra Rubinstein: Sarah, Seth, and Susannah Glick. Seth, who graduated from Falk in 1999, was proud to bring his son to his first day as a Kindergartener in 2023, thereby making him the first member of the fourth generation to begin the Falk School experience.

Seth Glick, Falk's class of 1999, with his son, a fourth-generation member of the Falk family to attend Falk Laboratory School.

“I always knew I wanted my children to come here,” says Seth. He adds that while dating his now-wife, he told her that if they were to have children, those children would attend Falk. His wife, a Pittsburgh native, agreed at once, saying that most of her best friends had attended the school.

Seth’s sister, Sarah Glick, will also return to Falk School when she brings her son to his first day of school in 2024.

Ellen’s daughter, Nancy Glick, currently serves on the Board. A longtime educator at Pittsburgh’s Community Day School, and her son, Benjamin Grossman—another member of the third generation—attended Falk from fourth through eighth grade.

Sigo Falk and His Descendants

Leon Falk, Jr.’s oldest son, Sigo, graduated from Falk in 1946. At that time, the school only went up to sixth grade due to a temporary teacher shortage following World War II. Sigo married Jean (Davis) Falk. Their son, Andy, married Dorothy Snee Falk in 1994.

For more than 25 years, Dorothy has served on the Falk School Board as a Falk family representative. Andy and Dorothy’s three children, Sam, Ellie, and Amy, all attended Falk.

Dorothy earned a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction and recalls that when she first toured Falk, she was impressed by how forward-thinking the school’s curriculum was.

“They were doing all the things I had learned about in my masters program,” she says, “and doing it successfully.”

What impressed Andy, Dorothy says, was seeing that Falk eighth-graders were nice to Kindergarteners.

“It felt like a big family,” she recalls. “It was the family feeling of the school that most appealed to us.”

Her background in education has informed Dorothy’s work on the school board.

“It’s been rewarding to me to see that people still have the same goals as those for which the school was created,” she says. “All these years later, the intent of the charter is still being lived out. It permeates the culture of the school.”

Andy is the University of Pittsburgh’s Executive Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations. He and Dorothy have provided Falk Laboratory School with significant ongoing financial support on behalf of the extended Falk family. In 2018, the family made a $50,000 gift via the donor advised Falk Brothers Fund to create the Falk Family Diversity Initiatives Fund, which provides support for workshops and training for teachers and staff; engaging speakers to present topics relating to diversity and inclusion; materials for student-involved projects; and other related activities and programs.