Jack Hardy (sometimes Richard Enmale), born Dale Zysman (November 18, 1901 - July 2, 1993?), was a 20th-Century Communist author labor leader as "Jack Hardy" and a teacher and board member of the New York City Teachers Union under his birth name "Dale Zysman": investigation by the New York Board of Education (now the New York City Department of Education) led to public awareness that the two names belonged to one person and subsequent expulsion from the school system in 1941.
Career
High school coach
In November 1927, Zysman is pictured as a football coach of the "New Utrecht Gridders" of Brooklyn. In September 1928, he is listed as one of three football coaches in Brooklyn. "Zysman steps into the shoes of Hyman Saul, who withdrew after being at the helm for two years. Zysman was Saul's assistant in 1927." Zysman's football team lost in October 1928 but was thought ready to win in November. Yet shortly thereafter, the local Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported: Although this is his first year at the helm as mentor, Dale Zysman is said to have already tired of the job. He has been meeting with mediocre success due to the fact that he was left with only a handful of veteran players. Zysman succeeded Hyman Saul, who resigned and withdrew from the school system last year. By the end of the month, the newspaper was reporting that Zysman was one of four coaches expected to be fired for their team's poor season performance. However, Zysman weathered his first year, as he receives mention in the same position in 1930 for spring training. By September 1930 as the new football season started up, the local newspaper was reporting: Coach Dale Zysman and Assistant Coaches Raskin and Levin have a powerful working force this season made up of 16 regulars and scrubs from 1929. In addition the newcomers are the most likely looking batch Coach Zysman has had to work with since he took over the team two years ago... Coach Zysman will be able t o master his plays earlier than in previous seasons and he hopes to get the jump on the rival schools and get off on the right foot at the outset.
Closet communist
In the 1920s, "Jack Hardy" was a member of a class taught by Scott Nearing that sought a law of social revolution (though, according to Whittaker Chambers, "an infiltration of Communists... really ran the class, steered the discussions," and tried to "make the law of social revolution a Marxian law.") Members included Sam Krieger, Eve Dorf, and her husband Ben Davidson, as well as Alfred J. Brooks, Myra Page, Benjamin Mandel, and Rachel Ragozin.
In 1937, Hardy was one of eleven Communist Party members who was also a member of the board of the New York City Teachers Union and in December of that year became chairman of the board. (The Teachers Union and the Teachers Guild of New York reformed in 1960 as the United Federation of Teachers.) According to Harvey Klehr, "The American Federation of Teachers' Local 5 in New York, the union's largest affiliate, was [Communist] Party stronghold. Its vice president, Dale Zysman, was a Communist who used the pen name of Jack Hardy." Klehr also mentions that Bella Dodd was a close associate. In Dodd's memoir, she states: "We had one man in the [Teachers] Union who was so talented in manipulation that he was regarded as the Stalin of the Union -- Dale Zysman, also known as Jack Hardy. He had been to Moscow."
Dismissal
In 1938, Zysman remained vice president of the Teachers Union.
In 1939, he was listed as a party official using the name "Jack Hardy, identified as a New York schoolteacher" when providing visa for a false passport obtained for Fred E. Beal (fugitive from justice and a leader of the 1929 Gastonia strike)." who was to travel on to disllustionment in the Soviet Union.
In 1940, U.S. Representative Martin Dies, Jr. (Democrat - Texas, 2nd district) had already marked him out as a subversive: "Dale Zysman, teacher in the public schools of New York, has written books for the Party under the name of 'Jack Hardy'."