By Suzanne M. Ellis

Ted Pasinski hasn’t even retired yet, but he’s fairly certain he’ll soon be repeating the mantra of many a retiree: “How did I ever have time to work?”

Come Dec. 31, Pasinski will leave St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse after a 16-year stint as its president and CEO — and a career at that institution spanning 36 years.

As he prepares to leave decades of 50- to 60-hour work weeks behind, Pasinski said he’s excited about getting busy on the “bucket list” of things he’d like to do in retirement.

“I enjoy golf, and I’m sure there will be a bit more of that,” said Pasinski, 58, who lives in Clay and is a member of the Onondaga Golf & Country Club in Fayetteville. “And I’m sure my wife and I will have quite a bit more flexibility in terms of being able to travel.”

His wife, Diane, is a registered nurse who works parttime at St. Joseph’s College of Nursing and also as an admissions nurse at the hospital. The couple has three grown children.

Neither of the Pasinskis has any plans, at this point, to become snowbirds in retirement.

“The winters don’t totally bother us, and we have a lot of friends and family here, so we don’t plan to go away for months at a time,” Ted Pasinski said.

The Pasinkis’ son lives in Las Vegas, so that will likely become a regular destination, he said.

“And from there, we’ll probably expand the trip and go on to California,” he said. Their two daughters live in Central New York.

Pasinski said he and his wife have always enjoyed cruises and now that retirement is looming, they’re discussing a couple of long ones to Alaska and Hawaii.

“We’ve always talked about an Alaskan cruise. Well, I’ve talked about it more than my wife,” he said, laughing. “And we would both be excited about going to Hawaii, but I think she’d be more excited than I.”

They’ll continue their yearly trips with friends to the coast of Maine, he said, but “now we’ll be able to stay longer.”

Even though he’s not yet retired, Pasinki said, his “honey-do list” seems to be growing longer and he’ll need to do better about taking care of those things.

“There are a number of projects that need to be done around the house that I tend to put off because I don’t have time to get them done,” he said. “What I should be doing is spending a half hour here and there on them, but instead I just tend to put things off.”

Pasinski said volunteering will “absolutely” be a part of his retirement.

“I plan to serve on health care-related boards because that’s one area where I really feel I can help,” he said. “I’ve been approached about serving on some of the many community boards in the area, but I haven’t made any decisions yet.”

Regardless of what retirement brings, Pasinski said, he’s certain he won’t be bored.

“I am the type of person that will want to keep busy,” he said. “I can certainly envision asking myself how I ever had time to work.”

By Margaret McCormick

Bill Delavan will never forget the Labor Day storm of 1998. Its ferocity tore the roof off the Delavan Center on West Fayette Street in Syracuse and dropped it on nearby Wyoming Street, causing extensive damage to the building’s core office space.

But seeing a section of the building stripped of its roof, ceilings and walls gave the owner of the Delavan Center a “eureka’’ moment — and a second career.

“This looks like a nice open area,’’ Delavan recalls thinking as the building underwent repair. “Since it was necessary to fix the place up, I decided it would be nice to create a gallery.’’

And so he did.

As a landlord to more than 70 business tenants, including dozens of area artists, Delavan, now 66, was keenly aware of the lack of quality exhibition space in Syracuse for artists to show and sell their works.
The Delavan Art Gallery opened in 2003, five years to the week, Delavan likes to say, after the Labor Day storm. In the six years since its debut, the gallery has hosted the works of more than 130 artists, most of them from Central New York, or with ties to it.

“There is a need for good exhibit space and shows. There aren’t enough galleries to do it,’’ Delavan says. “You build up a gallery and artists so people can attend and not only attend but buy.’’

Delavan describes himself as a landlord first, gallery owner second. “I rent space,’’ he says. “I run a building.’’

He grew up in Skaneateles and excelled at math and science in school. “I could not describe it as an artistic household,’’ he recalls. He studied economics and history in college, and worked as a systems analyst at IBM for five years before assuming management duties at the Delavan Center in 1971.

“Running an art gallery was the last thing I could have imagined for the future,’’ he says.

But getting to know the artists he rented studio space to gave him an appreciation for their work — and an understanding of the challenges they face getting their art seen. The gallery’s mission, from day one, has been to show and sell fine art by mostly area artists.

The gallery features 3,800 square feet of space, gleaming hardwood floors, high ceilings, white walls, track lighting and white panels that can be reconfigured for each show to accommodate multiple artists and styles of art. The changeable background panels and lighting system allow a different layout for each show.

“It’s such a big space, with great lighting and a lot of room to stand back and actually view the art,’’ Kirouac adds. “It’s always interesting for an artist to walk in and see how their work is displayed.’’

To have their work considered for show, artists usually come to Delavan or Gallery Manager Caroline Szozda McGowan with slides or a disk showing examples of their work.

“We review the work of that artist, along with other artists,’’ Delavan says. “And we give them an answer of yes or no. That’s the fairly quick part. They have to have a body of work that can be shown as a group.

“The next part of the decision,’’ Delavan says, “is the when. That’s the much harder part. That can take some time. We have limited spots. The artist’s schedule we have to look at also. We try to mix the media: pastels, photos, drawings, prints, sculpture, oil. We look for some degree of theme or commonality. We want work, quite frankly, that we like.’’

Delavan and his staff are already considering and scheduling artists for shows to begin around the middle of 2010.

In the beginning, exhibits changed every three weeks, an exhausting schedule that Delavan says was difficult to sustain. The gallery took a hiatus in 2008 and reopened with a new focus: an area for continuing artists (whose work has been exhibited previously); an area for a seven-week show and a “Wild Card’’ area, which sometimes spotlights works by artists from outside Central New York.

While one show is taken down and a new show installed, the other shows can still be viewed by visitors.
Even before the country’s financial meltdown and current recession, artwork has been “a difficult sell,’’ Delavan says.

“It’s a discretionary purchase,’’ Delavan says. “And there has been a feeling among some area people that artwork by local artists is not as good as art work by artists in cities like New York and Boston.’’
Getting people in the door can be a difficult sell, too, Delavan says. There’s a perception that art is highbrow, even intimidating to people.

“There has been a feeling among some people of walking into a gallery and feeling uncomfortable,” Delavan says. “I actually had one person call and say, ‘What should I wear?’ I responded, ‘It’s November. I suggest you wear clothes.”

Delavan credits Th3, the citywide art open that takes place on the third Thursday of the month, with giving visitors an introduction to his gallery and others. More than 20 galleries and museums take part in the event each month, but the average visitor has time to visit only three or four of them. So it’s important, Delavan says, to try to sustain the “Third Thursday’’ energy and keep the gallery forward-thinking and moving.
“The art scene here is very active. There’s a lot going on, not just in the visual arts but performing arts, music. There’s a lot of energy going on here.’’

In addition to selecting artists and scheduling shows, Delavan and his staff are thinking forward in other ways. They are studying the potential for Internet sales, Delavan says, and talking about the addition of a virtual gallery at the gallery’s Web site. Earlier this fall, the gallery hired an independent art critic from Syracuse University to review shows immediately on their opening for the gallery’s blog (go to www.delavanartgallery.com and click on blog). The beauty of the blog format, Delevan says, is that it allows response — from readers and the gallery staff.

“We’re evolving,’’ Delavan says. “If part of our objective is to change things, I think we have met that.’

The Delavan Center is at 501 W. Fayette St., Syracuse, a few blocks west of Armory Square. Gallery hours are noon to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 425-7500 or go to www.delavanartgallery.com

In the past several years, many communities, including Syracuse, have developed programs to appeal to “active aging” populations. Offering courses and activities that help adults stay intellectually active and make new friends is nothing new to Syracuse University.

SU’s Institute for Retired Professionals (IRP) offers a great opportunity to hear from engaging speakers on important topics and to meet people with similar interests.

IRP was established in 1972 and was one of the first lifelong learning institutes in the country. Members hear from experts on a variety of topics, from history and the arts to current events. Returning speakers have included political scientist Robert McClure, writer Sean Kirst, and local historian Dennis Connors.

“In retirement, my interests are in economics— finance, health, world events, and a little bit of everything else,” said IRP member and retired school teacher Tom Petro. “Twice monthly, I enjoy very qualified speakers who present information and take questions. This is part of a very good retirement.”

In addition to bi-monthly meetings, IRP organizes special activities such as tours and exhibits. “IRP is a great opportunity to learn more about our community and it also offers an opportunity to make new friends,” said IRP member Mary Lou Karrat.

Participants include teachers, engineers, homemakers, librarians and many other professionals — a mix of viewpoints leading to lively discussions.

Want to get involved? Meetings are held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of the month. Coffee, tea, and cookies are provided and attendees are invited to bring a bag lunch.

Sessions are held in an easily-accessible meeting space, just a few miles from campus and downtown.
For complete directions and more information, visit uc.syr.edu/IRP or call (315) 443-4846. (Submitted editorial)

By Barb Canale

Most people who enter a church are drawn to the altar with the center aisle leading the way. They usually seek a closer inspection of the ornate paintings, statues and tapestries.

But when Ben Merchant enters a church, he walks halfway down the aisle, turns around and looks for the pipe organ tucked in a corner or hiding in the choir loft.

This Baldwinsville man loves pipe organs for a good reason. He’s spent most of his life building them.
Merchant’s dad, an electrical-mechanical engineer, taught his son how things worked and how to fix them while he was growing up.

“As a result, I’ve always had a knack for working with tools, and things mechanical and electrical,” Merchant says. “Additionally, my dad is an excellent carpenter who I learned the rudiments of wood-working from.”
Merchant inherited his mother’s love of music and was involved in a church with an active music program.
His fascination with the church’s organ intensified his interest in how they worked. In college at SUNY Albany he studied piano technology and harpsichord building.

“I was able to combine my mechanical skills with my love of music,” he says.

While most undergraduates toil in libraries, Merchant spent one semester rebuilding a grand piano. “Another semester I built a small harpsichord,” he says, beaming. “I was particularly attracted to the harpsichord with its brittle, brilliant tone.”

Merchant says, “Bach has always been my favorite composer, and I fell in love with his many compositions for harpsichord. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven the first time I heard a live performance of the Goldberg Variations.”

He also studied voice during college, and sang in a choir at All Saints Episcopal Cathedral in Albany for four years. Merchant thought the music was challenging, but it was also high quality. He learned and performed a different mass setting every week. “I had never been exposed to such beautiful music on a weekly basis,” he says. “Singing there changed my life,” he says. “Beautiful church music is to me, literally, soul-soothing. I became, and still am, a church-music junkie!”

Upon graduation Merchant landed two jobs. One was for an organ builder; the second position was working as an apprentice to a harpsichord maker. He worked at both for several years learning the basics of organ and harpsichord building. In 1976, he enrolled in a graduate program at Syracuse University.

“As part of my degree, I even arranged to study several famous historic harpsichords at the Smithsonian museum,” he says. “I also attained an assistantship at SU, where I taught courses on the history of pipe organ and harpsichord building.”

At SU he met Rob Kerner, who had just completed his degree in pipe organ performance. In 1978 they formed a partnership: Kerner and Merchant Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd. Initially, their business was small, working from the basement up.

“I had been collecting used woodworking machines for a while, and we set them up in the cellar of my house,” he says. “In retrospect, I wonder how we survived. The first year in business I made about $3,000.”
Merchant wanted to build both pipe organs and harpsichords, but it was apparent that there was more of a demand for servicing and building only pipe organs.

“In the early 1980s we picked up the contract to service the pipe organs at the Eastman School of Music,” he says, referring to the school in Rochester.

According to Merchant, George Eastman was a big fan of the organ. He had one in his house, and the school he founded has one of the largest and finest organ departments in the world. Merchant also notes that the fulltime curator of the 17-pipe organs at the school was unable to maintain them. Merchant’s business partner eventually left the company and accepted the curator position. Merchant kept the company name and maintains a cordial relationship with Kerner, occasionally using him as a consultant.

Merchant, 56, has been in business for more than 31 years. He has eight employees and the business occupies a building on Johnson Street in East Syracuse.

The business maintains hundreds of pipe organs in Central New York and has built or rebuilt dozens of instruments.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, however. In 2005 the building caught on fire and was nearly destroyed. Merchant admitted it took almost an entire year dealing with contractors, insurance adjusters, inspectors, and architects, while trying to generate a revenue stream and stay in the black.

“The good news is that we were able to make a number of upgrades and improvements to our building with the insurance money,” he says.

The bulk of the income is from rebuilding, restoring and upgrading equipment.

At Holy Cross Church in DeWitt, Merchant received a contract to move the organ, store it, expand it and upgrade the controlling system with a new fiber-optic computerized system.

The business also has contracts with more than one hundred churches for which it provides tuning and maintenance. It tunes the organs once, twice, or in some cases, three times a year. Merchant says the business also maintains pipe organs at a number of universities and colleges around CNY and a few in peoples’ homes.

This is more than a full-time enterprise, according to Merchant. “I have worked 80 or 90 hour weeks, with several all-nighters, to complete a job,” he says.

If you wonder about the construction of a pipe organ, you’re not alone. Pipe organs are complicated, made of wood, leather and metal.

“Our company tries to make as many of the components ourselves, but if I find a supplier who can make the part cheaper, I will buy it from them,” Merchant says.

He mentions the organ at Holy Cross Church in DeWitt. “We made the console cabinet, and purchased the keyboards and pedal boards from various suppliers. The keyboards came from England, the pedal board came from Erie, Pennsylvania, and the interior controlling system came from South Dakota,” he said. The massive cabinet at Holy Cross was made by hand. Put altogether it’s a sight to behold.

Merchant feels organ building requires knowledge and skill in several disciplines. Organs are visual works of art or sculptures assembled right into the building. Good organ builders require a feel for design and style.
“Early in my career, I thought that how organs sounded was more important than how they looked. When I go back to some of my earlier installations, I think they look utilitarian and clunky,” he says. “It took me many years to learn that if an organ looked beautiful it would sound better. The visual opinion of the organ influences how the audience hears it. Now, I construct organs to look and sound beautiful.”

There are many facets to building pipe organs. One that Merchant enjoys is working with the pipes and sounds. An organ builder needs good ears and an understanding of how sounds are blended.

“Because I work almost exclusively in churches, I am sensitive to coupling the music to the liturgy,” Merchant says.

In addition, a successful instrument should fit the acoustics of a particular room. “I have heard well-built instruments that were unsuccessful because they couldn’t overcome bad acoustics in a room,” he says. “I have also heard mediocre organs sound fantastic because of great acoustics.”
Merchant says that first-rate organ building equals an instrument that compliments blends with its setting both visually and acoustically. He feels the trick is to correctly scale the pipes ahead of time to fit a particular room.

Acoustics will always be a poorly understood subject and even today the best acoustic engineers struggle in designing concert halls and music venues.

Merchant recalls when Holy Cross church was being designed, he persuaded the architect to improve the acoustics by making building modifications. “At one point they contemplated making the room less lively and install a $200,000 electronic reinforcing system,” he says. “We helped convince them to design the room properly and forgo the fancy electronic system.”

A large organ project can take almost a year to build. Parts and pipes are ordered, sometimes up to six months in advance. The key is to pull everything together in a timely manner.

“Finishing a job feels great, especially when the customers are satisfied,” he says. “One of my favorite times is hearing the organ played well after it is completed,” he says.

At the end of a project, Merchant has an idea of how the instrument should sound. “But as I work with the pipes, the sound takes on a life of its own,” he says. “I particularly love to hear a good organist play one of my instruments. I appreciate when they take the time to figure out how I constructed the sound and how they can use it. I’m delighted when they come up with a combination that hadn’t occurred to me,” he says. Merchant says it’s all about the music. After learning about his passion in building pipe organs, it’s more about the love that goes into making them.