3Claude Shostal was part of one of the few families who successfully made a hazardous escape from Nazi Europe in 1941. Even though they arrived in America penniless and in debt, his parents were able to create a good life that allowed their son to live out the American Dream. He has lived a rich life, marked by far more excitement and fulfillment than despair or disappointment.

How did a sickly infant smuggled through France during the darkest days of World War II become a Rockefeller guy, grow into something approaching an elder statesman in New York's civic community, and along the way amass a respectable portfolio of adventure travel? In Claude Shostal's words: Of one thing I am quite certain: my story could not have happened anywhere else.