{"id":62,"date":"2024-09-15T16:28:37","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T20:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f24\/?p=62"},"modified":"2024-09-15T16:28:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T20:28:37","slug":"robert-frank-solinsky-dyurea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f24\/2024\/09\/15\/robert-frank-solinsky-dyurea\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Frank Solinsky Dyurea"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Frankie Solinsky Dyurea pulls out a Tunisian Blend Camel cigarette from his backpack, a habit he picked up during his summer trip to Morocco as a Princeton junior studying Arabic. Alone in Morocco and excited by the prospect of cheap cigarettes, Frankie says he wanted to act on impulse.

\u201cFor a good amount of my life I did feel controlled,\u201d Frankie says. \u201cTrying to find independence now<\/em> when I feel like I had it restricted as a kid,\u201d he adds.

With the cigarette still in hand, he pulls out his student ID, tracing it with his fingers. Occupying the entire width of the laminated card is his name: \u201cRobert Frank Solinsky Dyurea.\u201d

\u201cI\u2019ve been correcting people when they say \u2018Frankie Dyurea,\u2019\u201d he explains. \u201cI wanted to claim my full name.\u201d

Despite his quest for independence from his parents, Frankie is proud of the four names that bind his identity. The outer corners of his name\u2014Robert Dyurea\u2014hold the memory of a Catholic priest who broke celibacy in secret to marry and father a child, Paul Dyurea, Frankie\u2019s father; the inside\u2014Frank Solinsky\u2014holds the memory of a man, once destitute, who worked to send his daughter, Susan Fischer Solinsky, Frankie\u2019s mother, to Princeton.

Frankie stands at a crossroads. On one hand, he values his independence; on the other, tinges of his hometown in Burlingame, California, follow him to Princeton, 2,900 miles away.

Paul\u2019s earliest memory of Frankie\u2019s thirst for independence comes when Frankie was just seven, on a ferry ride during a family vacation to Italy. Paul and Susan, seeing Frankie sitting on the deck by himself, decided to join him. \u201cWe probably grabbed him and pulled him over,\u201d Paul recalls. \u201cHe got up and sat on the other side.\u201d

Frankie doesn\u2019t remember the ferry ride or much of Italy, but his parents have told him the story enough times for it to stick.

What he does remember, however, is the freedom that his parents gave him to pave his academic path at every juncture. His earliest decision came at five years old when his parents managed to get him redistricted to a Spanish immersion public school. Frankie was given the final say on whether he would enroll.

Decisions continued. Paul recalls a fourth grade Frankie after an admissions interview at the Synapse School. \u201cI know you told me not to set my expectations\u2014but I\u2019ve set my expectations and I want to go here,\u201d Paul recalls Frankie insisting. Frankie was admitted, and completed middle school there.

But when it came to college, Frankie says he wasn\u2019t excited when he was accepted to his mother\u2019s alma mater; in fact, he hadn\u2019t even wanted to apply to Princeton\u2014it was Susan who made him.

\u201cI was controlled into applying,\u201d Frankie says.

\u201cAntebellum\u201d\u2014that\u2019s the word Frankie chose to describe Princeton when he first toured it with his mother. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to follow in her shadow and I thought that that was what it was when I got in,\u201d he says.

\u201cI got in here<\/em>,\u201d he says referring to Princeton, \u201cand Columbia and I think if I hadn\u2019t gotten into Columbia I wouldn\u2019t have gone here.\u201d

\u201cIt affirmed that I was personally capable of doing this; that I,\u201d he searches for the right word, \u201cdeserved<\/em> to be here beyond the fact that my mom had gone here.\u201d

It took Frankie three weeks to choose between Princeton and Columbia. Still, Frankie involved his family in his decision. \u201cI ran the decision by a lot of people in my family, because I have a hard time making decisions,\u201d Frankie admits. \u201cIt was tough and it felt like an important one.\u201d

Now, in the place that Frankie disdainfully refers to as the \u201cbubble,\u201d he sits holding the names of his two grandfathers inked onto his Princeton ID: \u201cRobert Frank Solinsky Dyurea.\u201d

Rev. Robert F. Dyurea was a Catholic priest. He married Luilan Dyurea, a nurse at the hospital where he worked and, two years later, fathered Paul\u2014both in secret. Marriage violated the church\u2019s celibacy law and Rev. Dyurea risked excommunication. In 1971, despite overwhelming opposition from his congregation Rev. Dyurea was excommunicated, according to the New York Times<\/em>. Paul was only five.

The scandal caused a rift. \u201cThe Duryea side, I\u2019ve been estranged from,\u201d Frankie explains.

The Solinsky name carries another story\u2014Frankie is the sixth \u201cFrank\u201d in his maternal family to bear the name. \u201cThe Solinsky name comes from Count Solinsky,\u201d Frankie explains. \u201cThey called him the Count, but no one knows if he was a real count with royal blood or if Americans were just racist,\u201d he laughs.

\u201cMy grandpa grew up shit poor in California,\u201d he adds. Despite that, Frank worked to send his daughter, Susan, to Princeton. Susan is now working on her third start-up, according to Paul.

\u201cShe goes to all these conferences and acts as a mentor to a lot of women founders,\u201d Frankie explains. \u201cI very much respect her and I think she\u2019s incredible.\u201d

Frankie gets his height, all 6\u20191\u2019\u2019, from the Solinsky\u2019s and<\/em> the Duyrea\u2019s. He still holds the Lick-Wilmerding High School high jump record and was Captain of his Varsity Jumps Team, according to his profile on NCSA College Recruiting.

But for a long time, Frankie went by \u201cFrankie Dyurea.\u201d The byline on his Nassau Weekly publications\u2014of which Frankie has been a contributor since freshman year of college\u2014still read, \u201cFrankie Dyurea.\u201d

His choice to reclaim \u201cSolinsky\u201d coincided with his maternal grandmother\u2019s passing. \u201cI was boarding the plane to Argentina when they called me to say that she had her second stroke\u2014and there was nothing I could do,\u201d Frankie recalls.

\u201cIt changed me.\u201d

\u201cI feel a lot of pride for the Solinsky part,\u201d Frankie says. For Frankie, the memory of his grandfather growing up with nothing to eat is close enough. \u201cI don\u2019t want to fall back,\u201d he adds. \u201cI take a lot of pride in the fact that my grandpa figured his stuff out, and was able to put his daughter through college.\u201d

\u201cMy mom succeeded,\u201d he adds.

Susan would graduate Princeton in 1986, writing her thesis on Spain, under the Department of Romance Languages and Literature, according to the Princeton Mudd Manuscript Library. Now, a comparative literature major and Latin American studies minor, these are interests that resonate with Frankie 38 years later.

\u201cI get my mom\u2019s interests,\u201d Frankie says. \u201cAs much as I try to resist it, I\u2019m a lot of her.\u201d

\u201cI still<\/em> resist it,\u201d he admits, \u201cbut a lot less now.\u201d


Sources:
1. https:\/\/nassauweekly.com\/byline\/frankie-duryea\/<\/a>
2. https:\/\/www.ncsasports.org\/mens-track-recruiting\/california\/san-francisco\/lick-wilmerding-high-school\/frankie-solinksy-duryea<\/a>
3. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1971\/04\/16\/archives\/parishioners-rally-behind-priest-who-married-excommunicated-cleric.html<\/a>
4. https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/news\/article\/robert-francis-duryea-2941273.php<\/a>
5. https:\/\/dataspace.princeton.edu\/handle\/88435\/dsp01t435gd59v?mode=simple<\/a>
6. Frankie Solinsky Dyurea
7. Paul Dyurea
8. Harry Gorman<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frankie Solinsky Dyurea pulls out a Tunisian Blend Camel cigarette from his backpack, a habit he picked up during his summer trip to Morocco as a Princeton junior studying Arabic. Alone in Morocco and excited by the prospect of cheap cigarettes, Frankie says he wanted to act on impulse. \u201cFor a good amount of my<\/p>\n

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