POWELL'S OLD NABE BOSS A BIG BACKER

Wednesday, August 2th 2000, 2:13AM

AFTER WATCHING Colin Powell's speech to the Republican convention on television, his former boss at a Bronx baby-furniture store recalled a Yiddish phrase he imparted to his teenage employee a half-century before.

"Gesund dein kepple," said 83-year-old Lou Kirschner.

The phrase means "keep a healthy head." Powell had cited these words as a guiding principle as he progressed from City College ROTC cadet to Vietnam War hero to national security adviser to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to a political figure actually worthy of respect.

"From a kid who got 75 cents an hour . . ." Kirschner said.

Powell was only 14 the day in 1951 when an errand for his mother took him past the J. Sickser store on Westchester Ave. A big shipment of unassembled cribs had just arrived.

"The first kid we saw we said, 'Hey, do you want a job?' " Kirschner recalls. "He said, 'Sure.' He took off his jacket and went right to work."

Powell assembled crib after crib, proving to be mechanically inclined, as well as eager and industrious.

"We said, 'Kid, you've got a job,' " Kirschner says.

Powell kept working at Sickser's as he attended Morris High School and continued on to City College. He stayed clear of the drugs that ruined so many other young men in the neighborhood.

"First of all, he was afraid his mother would kill him," Kirschner says. "His mother was very strict."

One day, Powell showed up at the store in a new getup.

"I said, 'Colin, what's that green uniform?' " Kirschner says.

Powell explained that he had joined ROTC. He became an officer after graduation, leaving Sickser's with a smattering of Yiddish that included those three guiding words.

Powell had reached the highest rank in the military when Kirschner chanced to see him on the news. Kirschner wrote to his former employee, and Powell invited him to the Pentagon. Kirschner arrived at Powell's office in the midst of the Persian Gulf War.

"He walks up to me and embraces me like a long-lost uncle," Kirschner says. "Here he was with four stars on his shoulders. I never met anybody with one star."

Kirschner had brought a present and Powell opened the wrapping paper to see it was a gift for his healthy kepple.

"A yarmulke," Kirschner says. "He gave me a golf sweater."

In 1993, Powell retired from the Army and began traveling the country, giving speeches. Kirschner had retired to Florida when he heard that Powell had cited "gesund dein kepple" during a talk at Yeshiva University.

Last year, Kirschner learned that Powell would be addressing an Anti-Defamation League dinner at the Breakers Hotel in West Palm Beach, Fla. Admission was $1,000 a plate.

"I couldn't afford $1,000 for a plate even with food on it," Kirschner says.

Kirschner arranged through some friends to get in for the speech. He expected anything but what happened when Powell stepped up to the lectern.

"He said he's happy to see everybody and especially his former boss," Kirschner says. "He said, 'Lou Kirschner, stand up.' I was so embarrassed, and then I got an ovation."

On Monday night, Kirschner watched from his Florida home as Powell addressed the Republican National Convention. Powell started much as he had in West Palm Beach, saying how happy he was to see everybody, especially former President George Bush. Powell then spoke of the man who had been secretary of defense during the Gulf War.

"I'm very pleased to be here with my old boss, Dick Cheney," Powell said.

Powell was speaking of Cheney as he had of his boyhood boss, Kirschner. Cheney rose and received an ovation, just as Kirschner had.

"I think mine was bigger," Kirschner says. "But, I didn't get any press coverage."

From his own experience as Powell's boss, Kirschner can offer an answer to a question that likely baffled millions of kepples as this man with the manifestly gesund head proceeded to deliver a speech that so passionately called on the fortunate to rescue the children at risk.

KIRSCHNER IS ABLE to explain in a single word why his former employee, who sounded so little like a Republican, was addressing this convention that would nominate Bush's son to be President and Cheney to be vice president.

"Loyalty," Kirschner says.

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