The Grozovski family was originally from Belarus. They lived for a while in Vilnius, where Reuvens father Jehuda opened his optician shop in 1919. In 1925 Jehuda and his wife and child moved to Palestine in 1925. The same year Jehuda opened a shop in Jaffa and shortly afterwards moved the shop to 27 Nachlat Benjamin Street in Tel Aviv, where it was open for 82 years.
Reuven was born in Tel Aviv in Ein-Gedi Hospital on Maze Street, on 9 B-Av eve. It was in the 1929 Arab Mutiny, the hospital staff was busy taking care of the dead and the wounded, so Reuvens father had to give a hand and help in Reuvens delivery.
After graduating from high school, Reuven had to serve one year (Shnat Sherut) in the Hagana underground in the service of the Yishuv (The Jewish Agency), wherever he was needed, either in the Palmach or the J.S.P. (Jewish Settlement Police), a branch of the British Police, officially dedicated to guard the Jewish moshavim and kibbutzim. The contact person between the British Police and the Jewish Agency was Amos Ben-Gurion, David Ben-Gurions son. In Reuvens words: “In reality what we did was transferring arms to the kibbutzim that settled in remote places in the Negev, and patrolling the roads to warn against British paratroopers patrols whenever "illegal" refugees were unloaded from immigrant ships and taken to a safe haven”. Reuven was stationed in Beer Tuvia, in the Gaza District for a year. When the British closed areas to search for "illegal" arms, underground radio stations, refugees etc., Reuven, being in a police uniform, could enter and leave these areas freely, and was used to transfer messages between commands (no radio communication at the time).
In 1947 Reuven was released from the JSP and went to England to study. He enrolled in the Northampton Polytechnic on Oxford Street. In 1948 with the declaration of independence, in the Anglo-Palestinian Club, opposite the Windmill Theater in London, there was a meeting of Palestinian (now Israeli) boys, and local Jewish boys and they volunteered to go to Israel to join the fighting. With the help of The Jewish Agency they got to Marseilles where the ship "Kedma" was waiting to take them and refugees from Europe to Israel.
The recruiting center was on HaYarkon Street (where Gan HaAtzmaut is today.) Reuven enrolled, and because he spoke Hebrew, English and Yiddish, he was sent to the 7th Brigade, 72nd Battalion, to communications. The 72nd was composed of Anglo-Saxon volunteers and Yiddish speaking new immigrants and Reuven translated between the parties concerned.
One episode stuck in Reuven’s mind, descriptive of the times he lived in. Says Reuven: “The Commander of the 7th brigade was Big Ben Dunkelmann, from Canada, where his family was in the ‘Shmate Business’. Because we were stationed in the Galilee, the winter was terribly cold and we were only partly equipped for the cold winter. Big Ben Dunkelmann approached Ben Gurion and offered to dress the whole brigade in winter cloths at no charge! He would use his stores in Canada! Ben Gurion objected saying that in no way only one of my brigades will be dressed warmly and the rest not…!" So we had to choose what we wanted, which was either sweater, battle dress or battle pants.”
At the end of the 1948 fighting, Reuven was sent to an Officers Course, where he spent over a year and graduated a 2nd Lieutenant. This was the 6th graduating class of ZAHAL. Serving in the reserve forces, he was transferred from the infantry to Armor and participated in the wars of 1956 (Sinai Campaign), 1967 (6 Days War), 1973 (Yom Kippur War).
Meanwhile Reuven studied and graduated from the High School of Optometry in Koln, Germany. He lectured in the Israel School of Optics, the Chamber of Accountants ("Solving Visual and lighting conditions when working with computers"), and in the Committee of Health and Hygiene in the Ministry of Labor.
He served for many years as the secretary of The Israel Optical Association and then as its Chairman and represented Israel in Optical Congresses. He was active in the committee that established the The Optometric & Optical Law, Ministry of Health in Israel. He also served many years on the Local Council of Savyon. He also initiated the Nachlat Benjamin Pedestrians Mall, and served as the Chairman of its Merchants and Property Owners committee.
As part of one of his hobbies, Reuven wrote a book "GASTRONOMY - Encyclopedic Dictionary of The Art and Science of Good Eating" which appears in five languages – Hebrew, English, French, Italian and German. He still loves good eating and traveling.