Four generations of family ownership and counting...

Scatico has been owned and operated by the Fleischner/ Holman family, through four generations, since it was first founded in 1921 by Nat Holman. Nat, elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964, played professionally for nearly 20 years in the 1910s-30s and coached City College for more than 40 years from the 1920s-60s. He is the only college basketball coach to win the “Grand Slam”—NCAA and NIT championships in the same season (1950). 

When Nat founded Scatico in 1921, he was 26 years old. The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, he grew up in New York City on the Lower East Side and was one of 12 siblings. Scatico was born out of an overnight camping movement in the early 20th century that looked to provide summer opportunities for Jewish children in rural and outdoor environments, away from the cramped conditions of urban settings. In the summers prior to World War II, more than 75 percent of the Scatico’s population came from New York City.  

Nat’s oldest sibling, Jacob (Jack) Holman, joined him as a director in 1934, when Scatico moved from Wingdale, NY, to its present location in Elizaville. Previously, Jack had been an elementary school English teacher and the principal at Public School 62 (the school Nat and he attended as children).  

Ruth and Irwin “Flick” Fleischner purchased the camp from Jack (Ruth’s stepfather) and Nat in 1964. Ruth and Flick met as New York City public school teachers in the 1950s. When Flick retired from the New York City school system in 1977, he was the principal at James Monroe High School in the Bronx. During his camping career, Flick served terms as president of the New York State Camp Directors Association, the Association of Independent Camps, and Surprise Lake Camp (a not-for-profit camp in Cold Spring, NY). 

Ruth and Flick’s son David and his wife Diana Wallerstein joined them as directors in the late 1980s. David and Diana’s daughters Nicole and Audrey currently work year-round at camp, Nicole as a co-director since 2020. (Learn more about Scatico’s current leadership team here).

Scatico is grateful to be part of over a century of camping history. With each passing decade, the world has evolved and so has Scatico. And yet, we marvel how some universal camp truths and our core mission remain and continue to connect all Scaticonians from across generations.