11
A Strong-Willed Child
In 1982 the Zuckerbergs had their first child, a daughter named Randi.
Mark was the second child and has two younger sisters. Donna was born
in 1987, and Arielle was born in 1989. The year Donna came along, Ed-
ward moved the dental practice from Brooklyn to the basement of his
Dobbs Ferry home. He loved deep-sea diving, so he decorated his of-
fice with aquatic knickknacks like seashells and
fishnets. A huge, 200-gallon (757 L) fish tank
dominated one wall in the operating room.
According to Edward, working at home with
Karen created a perfect environment for rais-
ing a family. “My wife was a superwoman,” he
once commented. “She managed to work and
be home. We had a unique situation because my
office was in the house. I highly recommend it
if it works for your occupation. It did afford the
ability to work and be home with the kids at the
same time.”
7
The situation also meant the family had first-rate dental care. To
this day, Mark claims he has no dental cavities, thanks to his father’s
profession. But even when they were not getting free dental work, the
Zuckerberg kids would wander in and out of Edward’s basement office.
According to his father, Mark often wanted to play with the dental tools
and machines, which sparked his interest in technology. And, as Edward
states, when Mark wanted something, he was strong-willed and often
got his way:
For some kids, their questions could be answered with a simple
yes or no. For Mark, if he asked for something, yes by itself would
work, but no required much more. If you were going to say no to
him, you had better be prepared with a strong argument backed
by facts, experiences, logic, reasons. We envisioned him becom-
ing a lawyer one day, with a near 100% success rate of convinc-
ing juries.
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“Growing up Jewish in
New York City, if you had
half a brain, your parents
wanted you to be a doctor
or a dentist. I was actually
a numbers guy. But back
then, there really weren’t
a lot of jobs in computer
programming.”
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—Edward Zuckerberg, father of
Mark Zuckerberg.
