To many of us, celebrities are mere stars in the distance, untouchable except for the occasional autograph encounter.

But to some South Floridians, they are much more — mentors, confidantes, close friends they know intimately, beyond the hype and hyperbole of a Hollywood storyline.

Today, we bring you the stories of three such locals, all accomplished men in the their 80s whose brush with fame changed the trajectory of their lives, and their careers, and made an imprint on South Florida in the process.

Albert Einstein's chauffeur

Stanley Cohen's book, "My Time with Einstein" (AuthorHouse, $14.95), details "the truth about Einstein from a friend who really knew him," culled from two years of driving the noted scientist around the New Jersey countryside.

Stanley Cohen calls Albert Einstein a model father, not to his own kids, but to the 18-year-old he befriended on long drives around New Jersey.

Cohen was a Rutgers University student in 1946, when he introduced himself to the Nobel Prize-winning physicist in the nearby Princeton University library, which both frequented. Einstein, then 67, soon hired Cohen as his personal chauffeur.

The teen's pay: $14 a month.

Over the next two years, on drives to the zoo, the art museum and to friends' farms in the New Jersey countryside, Cohen said he learned more from the world-famous scientist than he ever got from a college course.

Often, Cohen said, Einstein packed up food and other goods and distributed them to poor children.

"He was really an incredible person that way. He really wanted to serve people," said Cohen, now 85 and living in Pembroke Pines. "He would tell me, 'You earn money to make a living, but you have to give something back to get a life.' Boy, he pounded that into me."

Cohen had rare access to a man he calls "a rare bird," frequently eating dinner at his house and spending the night before early-morning, bird-watching excursions.

The scientist could be odd, he said, once eating a grasshopper off the ground. And he could be melancholy, playing Mozart on his violin during bird-watching treks, his cheeks soaked with tears from the beauty of the music. But he was always fascinating, Cohen said.

"If I could pick a 'Barbie father,' that would be who I would have picked," Cohen said. And yet Einstein admitted to him he wasn't close to his own wife and children, who Cohen said were highly critical of the man and his quirks.

Einstein, perhaps the greatest scientist of his time, was deeply insecure, Cohen explained. Dyslexic, he was eventually pulled out of school by his mother, who told him, "Albert, you are my dummy." The scars, Cohen said, lasted a lifetime.

But Einstein left an indelible impression on his protege, challenging Cohen's book-taught knowledge and urging him to conduct experiments that tested the unknown, rather than pull information from a textbook with predictable results.

Cohen said he was offered jobs at four universities because of the tools he learned from his mentor. He eventually landed at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, where he has served for 32 years, as a professor, grant writer, vice provost and, now, executive vice dean of the school's Health Professions Division.

"Albert Einstein changed my life," Cohen said. "He made me a better teacher" and a better man.

Manager, PR agent to the stars

Tired of his stories about all his show-biz buddies, Jack Drury's friends told him to write a book. Five years later, "Fort Lauderdale: Playground of the Stars" (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99) has sold thousands of copies, he said.

Jack Drury's "brush" with fame was more like a sweep. It lasted throughout his decades-long career as an advertising and public relations man and involved dozens of top-name stars, like Bob Hope, Joe Namath, "Howdy Doody" creator Buffalo Bob Smith, Billie Jean King and Johnny Carson.

Some were clients whose careers he managed or represented from his well-known Jack Drury & Associates PR firm in Fort Lauderdale. All were dear friends, he says. And many made their homes in South Florida because of their agent buddy's exuberance for the area.

"I never took on a client who wasn't a friend," said Drury, now 82 and president of a foundation that acquires wheelchairs for the needy.

At Drury's suggestion, Carson invested in the budding Broward County city of Coral Springs in the 1960s, buying up almost 60 acres that Drury said made the celebrated TV show host "a nice return."

The pair became friends after Drury brought Carson's team to Fort Lauderdale beach to map out the beginnings of a new concept in night-time television, what would later become "The Tonight Show."

Carson became a big fan of the Mai-Kai restaurant on Federal Highway, and his affable wingman, Ed McMahon, vacationed at the Lago Mar beach club every Easter, Drury said.

"I had such enthusiasm for the area, so they all ended up doing something down here," Drury said.

Drury moved from New York in 1960 and started an agency in Fort Lauderdale, landing his first big celebrity client when the New York Yankees moved spring training operations to the city and hired him.

"I never met a celebrity before that," said Drury, who became fast friends with Yankee greats Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford.

For his contributions to the Fort Lauderdale area, the city honored Drury during its Great American Beach Party this summer, presenting him with a commemorative marble paver on its Walk of Fame, on the east side of State Road A1A at Las Olas Boulevard.

Drury's paver is in the sidewalk in front of the Elbo Room, a frequent watering hole for the PR man and his famous friends.

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