High-profile Central New Yorkers talk about their retirement life

By Mary Beth Roach

One was involved with county government for more than 40 years; one helped to guide a philanthropic organization for more than 20 years; and one ran a local coffee company with his cousin for nearly 30 years.
They all supposedly retired, but recent chats with Nick Pirro, Peggy Ogden and Paul de Lima prove that they have done everything BUT retire from the community.
A glimpse into their so-called retirements

Nick Pirro

Nick Pirro, 69, served in the public sector for more than four decades—22 years in the Onondaga County Legislature and 20 years as the Onondaga County executive.

During his career, he was instrumental in such projects as the county’s trash-burning plant; Syracuse’s downtown convention center, which bears his name; the Onondaga County Justice Center and Alliance Bank Stadium.

Although he retired in 2007, he continues to remain active in the community.

“I live here. I want it to be a good place,” he said.

He’s an advocate for the North Side neighborhood he grew up in and where he and his wife, Patti, still reside, living in the family home.

He volunteers as treasurer for the Central New York SPCA, an organization near and dear to his heart; he teaches a local government course at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School; he’s a business adviser for Gilberti Stinziano Heintz & Smith, P.C.; and has his own consulting business, NP Associates LLC.

“There’s a lot of time in the day,” Pirro chuckled.

It’s obvious that he’s putting that time to a lot of good use.

After his retirement, he had a lot of requests to go on boards, but he joked that he had had enough meetings for awhile, so he decided to become more involved with the SPCA, a group with which he’s had a long-time association.

Before the three Labrador mixes they have now, the Pirros had had two dogs that they got from the SPCA.

Of their current canine collection—Jeter, named for the New York Yankees star; Rudy, who they got shortly after 9/11, and is so named in honor of then-New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani; and Rocky—one came from the SPCA, another came from Wanderers Rest, and the third was a stray.

For about 20 years, he has played Santa Paws in the SPCA’s annual fundraiser, “Picture Your Pet with Santa Paws.” According to a news feature on this event in 2008, over the years that he has played Santa Paws, he’s been photographed with snakes, llamas and all kinds of animals, in addition to dogs and cats.
When the organization faced serious financial times a while ago, Pirro suggested that it make the public aware of the situation, and it paid off.

“From my experience, this community responds when there are serious issues with things that people know are important,” Pirro said, noting that the public response helped them a great deal.

His long-term goal is to work with the group to expand its base of ongoing operations and increase the public’s awareness as to all that the SPCA does. Not only does the organization take in and care for abandoned dogs and cats, it operates an animal cruelty program; assists the Onondaga County Health Department with its rabies clinics; and has an education program focusing on the care of animals.
But this is only one side of Pirro’s retirement.

Shortly after his retirement, he was approached by William Coplin, professor and director of public affairs at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, to design a local policy government course. While many of the classes were on state, national and international government, Pirro said Coplin wanted a class that would focus on local and county government. So for the past two years, he’s taught the local government class during the fall semester.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s great working with the college students.”

The Syracuse native is also part of the McBride Street Homeowners Group, which has been expanded to Prospect Hill and is working with St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center on the multi-faceted Prospect Hill Project, aimed at improving and expanding the business base in that area and stabilizing housing.

“I like living in the city, certainly like our neighborhood,” he said, and he is encouraged that some positive things are happening.

After 40-plus years in government, does he miss it?

He said that he gave the job as county executive everything he could.

“I wanted to go out at 100 percent effort, and I didn’t want anything less than that,” he mused. “I have no regrets.”

Peggy Ogden

“I wanted to make sure I could stay connected to people and to causes that mattered.”

This statement summed up Peggy Ogden’s plans as she retired in June of 2008 as president and CEO of the Central New York Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization. She then developed a new consulting company that enables her to continue to make positive changes in the area by connecting donors with not-for-profits.

With her company—Peggy Ogden Solutions in Philanthropy—she is able to utilize her talents to match donors’ wishes with the needs of various not-for-profits, while maintaining her own work schedule and pace.

And perhaps find a little time for golf and visiting her grandchildren, she said with a smile. Her husband is Tim Atseff, from The Post-Standard, and together they have five children and three grandchildren.

“Right now, it’s the perfect balance between what I think I can offer. I have experience. I have expertise, and I think there’s a value to using that in the community. I get my rewards from doing that,” she said.

During her 24-year tenure with the Community Foundation, its assets increased from $7 million to more than $120 million.

According to the Community Foundation’s Web site, it annually makes more than $5 million in grants and provides leadership support in the fields of arts and culture, community and economic development, education, environment, health and human services.

“The Community Foundation gave me a lot of advantages,” she said, enabling her to go into all different parts of the community and meeting a lot of different people.

“It is the best job in the whole wide world,” she said with a big smile.

One of the projects she was most proud of during her time with the Community Foundation was the neighborhood leadership training program, in which citizens were taught how to better serve their neighborhoods.

She has taken her passion for such grassroots initiatives as evidenced in an endeavor she took on through her consulting firm—the establishment of the Cayuga Community Fund, which is a fund of the Community Foundation.

Prominent businessman Jerry Bisgrove, who was raised in Auburn but lives in Arizona, was visiting his hometown in 2007, and he suggested that the area build a community endowment that would help the county reach its potential.

He had been involved in the community foundation in Phoenix, Ariz., and saw how instrumental it could be in the development of an area. So, his private foundation, The Stardust Foundation, issued a challenge grant of $250,000, matching contributions raised for the new fund. A leadership council was established that has raised $250,000, and it will begin its first grant-making work within the next several months, Ogden said.
“It benefits the Cayuga community and the Community Foundation,” she said.

Ogden is also helping with some organizational work with the St. Agatha Foundation, created by well-known and much-loved Central New Yorker Laurie Mezzalingua, who valiantly battled breast cancer, but passed away last summer.

In addition, to determine where the foundation might be the most effective in providing care and support to those people with breast cancer, Ogden and Laurie’s mother, Kathy, who serves as foundation president, are researching where there are gaps in services.

She has also become involved in helping Jessie Keating, a fellow member of the Dewitt Community Church, to start “Imagine Syracuse,” which offers enrichment opportunities to those on the near west side of Syracuse.

She will soon be joining the boards of the United Way and the MOST Foundation.

While her work continues to leave a mark on neighborhoods, community service agencies, and individuals throughout Central New York, Ogden has left her mark by breaking down some gender barriers over time.
“I think there have been opportunities for women in this community to break down some of those barriers,” she said. “It’s just my style to want to do that in a way that is gracious but also makes a powerful statement.”

She was among the first women to become members of the Century Club, a club of community leaders and business professionals, but which had been a men’s-only club for more than a century. Her “crowning” moment might have been when she was elected president of the club two years ago. “I pulled a tiara out of my bag and promised that I wouldn’t let it go to my head,” she said with a chuckle.

The tiara has a place of honor in a bookcase at the Century Club. “That tiara is going to stay there,” Ogden joked.

And Ogden is dedicated to stay here in the community for quite a while, too, active, connected and making positive differences.

Paul de Lima

Paul de Lima has had plenty brewing since he retired five years ago as CEO of the coffee company that bears his family’s name.

“When you spend 30 years of your working life managing a rather small business, everyday you’re fully immersed in it,” said de Lima, 67, who ran the Paul de Lima Coffee Co. with his cousin, Peter Miller, for decades. “It’s pretty intense, and when you leave that it takes awhile to move to a different level of thinking.”
Yet, he has always been mindful of how he can make a difference in the community where he was born and raised, grew his company and raised his family. He continues to serve on numerous boards and has taken on a few new projects as well.

“It’s pretty rewarding when you look backwards,” he noted. But, “You have to move onward and provide some value.”

He chooses his volunteer efforts by two criteria—“Can I be useful?” or “Can I make a contribution?”
“I do it if I think I can make a contribution and help either some person or some organization,” he said.
The second criterion is to find those projects in which he feels he has the time and the expertise to do the work satisfactorily.

While still working with the family, de Lima served on a number of boards for a range of organizations, among them Hospice of Central New York, American Red Cross, and the YMCA Foundation. His long-term commitment to the Salvation Army has earned him the status of lifetime board member. His business acumen has served these groups well.

His business skills also prove beneficial for another one of his endeavors—SCORE, a volunteer consulting organization that, partnering with the Small Business Association, provides guidance to those who are starting or trying to grow their own businesses or those experiencing troubles in their existing businesses.
“The theory is that retired people have been through many of these problems,” he explained.

“If you’re involved in managing a business, typically a smaller business like my cousin and I were involved,” he said, “you’re going to learn a few things—some good things and some not-so-good things,” he added with a chuckle. “You’re going to learn a lot through the school of hard knocks. To the extent you can share that with somebody else, you can maybe help them avoid some of the same issues or help them figure out a problem which they’ve never faced but you might have faced.”

With their deep roots to this area, he and his wife, Melanie, are firmly planted here.

De Lima’s grandfather, Paul, founded the coffee manufacturing company in 1916. His father, Paul W., was in the family business from 1936 to 1943, when he went in the Army. He was killed in World War II at Normandy in 1944.

Paul W. Jr. (although he doesn’t often use the “Junior” these days) was just about a year old.

His mother, Kathryn, decided to remain in Syracuse and joined the faculty at Syracuse University.

He graduated from Nottingham High School in 1960 and from Harvard in 1964; he served from 1964 to 1967 in the U.S. Navy, where he was on a minesweeper from 1965 to 1967. He went on to graduate from Syracuse University’s Law School in 1970.

Having grown up in the business and having worked there for a few summers while in school, he and his cousin had often talked about the business.

Miller joined the company in 1967, but de Lima went on to Syracuse University’s Law School and then moved to Illinois, where he practiced law for two years. He and Melanie then moved to Arizona, but between the time they left Illinois and moved to Arizona, his grandfather died, and his uncle, David de Lima, took over the company.

It was 1973, and Paul W. was 30. He and Melanie decided that if he was going to become part of the family business, now was the time.

When his uncle died in 1981, he became CEO, Peter became president, and the two co-managed the company.

In looking back on his career, he reflects on the enjoyment he got from the business and from working with his cousin, his pride in their product, their ability to grow the business amid the changing trends and demographics, and the opportunity to work with good people.

He should also take pride in the company’s initiatives to be a good corporate neighbor.

“From a business point of view,” he said, “you can commit your time, your money or both.”

The de Lima company tried to do both—giving financial support when possible and giving time, serving on boards or volunteering in other ways, he said.

The strategies for profit or not-for-profits are similar, he explained, in that both are concerned about the financial stability of their organizations, their clients or customers and about the development of plans for marketing and growth.

While the social service agencies are helped, he believes that companies and their employees benefit as well.
“It’s good for the corporate culture,” he noted. “It’s good for people within the company. They feel good working for a company that contributes to the community. It’s self-fulfilling in many ways.”

Even when he and his cousin decided to sell the company in 2004, they were mindful of the family legacy and the relationship between their Syracuse-based company and its impact in the community.

They decided that the best way to ensure the company’s continuity was to find a local buyer. And they did.

The cousins sold it to another Syracuse family business, the Drescher Management Group. The Drescher family had sold their own food distribution business about four years prior, and wanted to get back into a food-related operation, de Lima said.

In addition to his interest in community endeavors, de Lima said he enjoys the intellectually challenging courses he has found through OASIS in Shoppingtown in Dewitt and Syracuse University’s Lifelong Learning Institute.

He has also become involved with the planning committee of his 50th class reunion, a project that is taking up more time than he had anticipated since there is so much swapping of stories and memories.

Marvin Druger added zest, zaniness to biology studies

By Lou Sorendo

Marvin Druger finds it difficult to journey about the Syracuse University campus without bumping into a student he has taught.

That’s no surprise, since he has taught more than 40,000 students in his teaching career.
“Of all the faculty members on campus, I’ve probably taught the most students,” Druger said, noting that many hundreds of students sign up for intro to biology every semester.

Druger has been teaching biology for about 55 years, and he taught the introductory biology course at SU for 45 years. The 75-year-old Druger is currently among the elite set of faculty members who have been at SU the longest.

While sitting in his office within the new Life Science Complex at SU, Druger recently discussed his storied career and transition into retirement with his wife Pat by his side.

Pat and Marvin have been married for 51 years. He tells people they’ve been married for 52 years. She corrects him and says: “It’s only 51 years.” His joking reply is: “Well, it feels like 52 years.”

At SU, Druger—known for his zany antics and quirky humor—reinvented the way introductory biology was taught. In a phrase, Druger made science fun and interesting. He would make it a point to relate science to a student’s everyday life. He tried to engage students in experiences and get them excited about understanding the world, not just memorizing facts and figures. His biology course was “Adventures in Life,” says Druger. His goals went beyond mastery of subject matter. He stated that his greater mission was to “provide meaningful, motivational experiences that enrich the lives of students and help them identify their unique talents and where they fit in life. That’s what an education should be all about.”

He’s also known for his leadership as chair of the Science Teaching Department for about 21 years and president of three international science-teaching organizations: the National Science Teachers Association, the largest science education organization in the world; the Association for Science Teacher Education and twice president of the Society for College Science Teachers.

Druger is also highly regarded for his programs for high school students and his numerous publications and professional presentations.

His hard work did not go unnoticed, and he has received many awards. In 1997, Druger was appointed as a Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence, one of SU’s highest teaching honors. In 1998, he was awarded Honorary Emeritus Membership in ASTE, and in 2000, NSTA awarded him the Robert J. Carleton Award for National Leadership in Science Education. These are the highest honors that can be bestowed by these international science education organizations.

Druger is unquestionably one of the more colorful and popular personalities among SU faculty. At one point, the university bookstore sold “Marvin Druger Fan Club” T-shirts.

There certainly was a market for those shirts. He mostly taught students in the classroom, but for many years, he instructed a number of adult students through the university’s distance-education program.

“I like interacting with people, especially first-year students because they are fresh and you can impact them tremendously and make them think about life in new ways,” he said.

“If I had to list my major accomplishments, the most important one would be having an impact on the lives of over 40,000 students,” he said.

During one of his lectures, Druger parodied the ”modern day” student, dressing in baggy jeans, earrings, tattoos, sunglasses, a cap on backwards, a backpack, running shoes, and equipped with a cell phone and a water bottle.

“I think he grabs students’ attention by being a little crazy,” Pat said. “Students pay attention because they don’t know what nutty thing he will do next.”

On April 28, 2008, Druger gave his last BIO 123 lecture. Because many of his former students wanted to show their appreciation, the Marvin Druger Recognition Fund was established. It raised funds to underwrite a lab in SU’s new Life Sciences Complex that opened last fall. Pat set the ball rolling with a $50,000 contribution.

“I wanted the ‘Marvin Druger Pre-memorial Fund’ because I wanted to know who gives and how much,” he said jokingly. “If they do a Post-memorial fund, I’d be dead.”

The “Marvin Druger introductory biology laboratory” is now part of the Life Sciences Complex. A bench and tree on the SU campus bear the name of the longtime teaching legend. His former students established a “Marv Druger Fan Club” on Facebook on the Internet. The Drugers also donated funds to have their names on two chairs in Setnor Auditorium and on a brick in the Orange Grove. To top it off, a life-sized cardboard cutout of Druger greets students entering the SU bookstore.

“I feel good about making an impact on so many lives. That’s what I’ve done,” he said.

His wife Pat is 70 and retired from an administrative position at SU. Among many of her activities, she serves as a volunteer docent at the Erie Canal Museum. She also does tax returns as a volunteer AARP tax-aide. She is also a talented seamstress and quilter. Pat is also a member of the board at the Jowonio School, an inclusive preschool in Syracuse. Last year, the Drugers contributed funds toward the creation of the Druger Family Community Room at Jowonio.

Perspective on retirement—Druger is on official leave this year and plans to retire in May. The path to retirement, however, is not an easy road for someone who has been teaching since 1954, starting with student teaching at Midwood High School as an undergraduate at Brooklyn College.

Druger envisions two kinds of people: Those who can’t wait to retire and those who “find a life” and won’t quit. “The secret is to find a life. Don’t get a job, get a life,” he said.

“I was fortunate to find something that I think I’m good at,” he said. “If you like something, you have a life and never want to quit.”

“I’m at a transition stage,” he said. “I’m on leave, and all of a sudden there are no undergraduates to teach.”
Druger said he is ambivalent about retiring. “I’m fearful of retiring, then waking up the next morning and regretfully asking myself, ‘What did I do?”

“You can do many things after retirement, but you can’t un-retire,” he said. Druger said the key to a good retirement is to have something worthwhile to do that your job prevented you from doing. He noted that many people thrive on retirement and say that they are busier and happier than ever before.

Druger has his radio program—”Science on the Radio”—and poetry-writing to help him adjust to retirement. He enjoys visiting local schools and reading his poetry for children of all ages. His book, “Strange Creatures and Other Poems,” is available from the SU Bookstore or directly from him ($11.85 including tax). He carries copies in his car to sell. Pat senses when he is going to make a sales pitch to someone, and she sternly warns, “Don’t!” (See related story).

Druger sees retirement as “being out of the club. Even though you may still be on site, you are treated differently,” he said.

“I’m really apprehensive about being out of the action. So many people fade away,” he said.
Upon retirement, his wife Pat “moped around for six months” and was getting up late and just “hanging around.

“Now, she’s so busy that I hardly see her,” he said.

“Work organizes you,” Pat said. “Once you retire, you have to organize yourself.”

Pat says she is goal-oriented and dislikes the dismal feeling of having accomplished nothing during the course of a day.

Poor roots

Druger grew up in a poor neighborhood in his native Brooklyn. His father only made it through the sixth grade and was a truck driver. His mom took care of the kids and home.

“They didn’t think about going to school,” he said. “When you graduated from high school, you got a job to support the family.” His childhood friends—“Beezie” and “Junior”—proved to have huge influences on his life. They encouraged him to go on to Brooklyn College. Since Druger’s older sister went to work after graduating from high school, he was not obliged to do so. Besides, Brooklyn College was free. So, he went to Brooklyn College and graduated Magna Cum Laude.

“We had a gang called the Wildcats, wore purple jackets and had a club room,” he said. “It was not a bad gang and there were no drugs involved. We played basketball, punch ball and stickball. We didn’t drink alcohol because we didn’t want to injure our beautiful, athletic bodies.” When his then girlfriend Pat attended a “gang party”, instead of being greeted with beer and marijuana, it was Pepsi Cola and salami sandwiches.
“My childhood friends were a strong, stabilizing influence on my life. Everyone was successful despite coming out of a terrible neighborhood,” he said.

Druger recounted: “A few years ago, we received a postcard about a Wildcat reunion. I was reluctant to go, but Pat insisted, so I ‘compromised’ and we went. We had a wonderful evening at a restaurant in Greenwich Village in NYC, and we have had a yearly get-together ever since. One year, we all went to Las Vegas; another year, we all took a cruise to Nova Scotia; recently, we all attended the wedding of Beezie’s son. Childhood friendships remain throughout life.”

After attending Brooklyn College, Druger earned his master’s degree and Ph.D in zoology and genetics at Columbia University. He was hired at Columbia as a lecturer in zoology and was in charge of teaching the evening zoology laboratory course for adult students. At Columbia, he was a student of the legendary evolutionary geneticist, Theodosius Dobzhansky.

“To be in his lab was wonderful. He was a mentor to me and taught me a lot about teaching and about respecting other people,” Druger said. “He showed me how to treat students like friends and colleagues.”
“He was a fantastic influence on me, a great man, a leader in his field,” he added.

Dobzhansky taught Druger to always respect the uniqueness of the individual. “He helped me develop my view that you can be taller, smarter, richer, etc. than others, but nobody is better than anyone else. Everyone has unique talents and is special.”

Famous scientists frequently visited Dobzhansky’s lab, and Druger had the opportunity to discuss his research with the greatest minds in the field.

After earning his Ph.D at Columbia, Druger became a highly marketable commodity.

He spent a year doing post-doctoral research in genetics with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization at the University of Sydney, Australia. He later returned to Australia as a senior Fulbright lecturer and then as a visiting professor at Curtin University, Western Australia. He was offered an assistant professor position at the University of Michigan and at Syracuse University.

He accepted the position at SU as a dual assistant professor in biology and science teaching. Druger briefly entertained the idea of getting into a medical field, but opted for an academic career in teaching. “Doctors help people’s bodies. Teachers help people’s minds. It’s just as important,” he said.

He enjoys the seasonal changes in Syracuse, the lack of heavy traffic, the availability of beautiful countryside, and the friendly Syracusans.The Drugers live in Syracuse, but also have a house on Owasco Lake in Auburn.

On the air

Druger also does science information segments as “Science on the Radio” for WAER-FM 88.3. Druger’s goal for the program is to reach the general public and promote science literacy.

This is not Druger’s first foray into radio. For about 11 years, he hosted “Druger’s Zoo,” an information and interview program that aired on WAER from 1972-1983. On that program, Druger interviewed various people in the Syracuse community to inform listeners about different lifestyles and jobs.

He also did a series of TV programs for Newchannels Cable TV Network called “Druger’s Working World,” which explored different careers.

Druger also pioneered one of Syracuse University’s cherished traditions, the BIO 123 exam answer key toss.

Druger would open the second-story window of his office at Lyman Hall and engage in some playful antics with the students before the main event. Druger then would throw sheets of paper down to the students—answer keys to the course exam, just taken by hundreds of students in various locations across campus.

Druger’s premise for “The Druger Drop” was to give students a chance to review their exam answers immediately after the exam when they were most interested in the results. He believes that reviewing answers promptly is important, because students lose interest if they have to wait weeks to get the results. When he meets course alumni, they frequently ask him: “Do you still throw answer keys out the window?”

After several years of doing the “Druger Drop” after major exams, he did a TV program called “The Bio-Answer Show” on the student-run UUTV station. For this program, he performed a humorous “Saturday-Night-Live” type of skit, then reviewed the answers to the exam, and finally drew names of students from a fishbowl and gave out wacky prizes. Students could relax in the residence hall lounges immediately after the exam, enjoy the TV show and learn from it. The show was discontinued when technical difficulties disabled the broadcast. Druger then resumed the traditional key-tossing event.

“You forget information, but you don’t forget experiences,” Druger said. “What I was trying to do was to provide meaningful and memorable experiences that would stay with students the rest of their lives,” he added.

Physical fitness

Druger places a great emphasis on physical fitness, and frequents a health club on a regular basis. Many years ago, a colleague took Druger to the gym almost every day for a month to play squash. When Druger complained about how much time was being spent exercising, his colleague replied: “You find time to eat lunch, don’t you?”

“That remark changed my life. You have to build exercise into your day,” Druger said.
Druger realizes that as one ages, bodily functions decline, particularly after the age of 75. “However, if you exercise, the decline occurs more slowly,” he noted.

“I also exercise my jaw a lot at the club through social networking,” he said.

The Drugers also are proud of their longevity as a couple. Druger said there are several keys to a successful marriage. “The first is compromise. Do everything she says and don’t ask questions. ‘Yes, dear’ goes a long way in a marriage,” he said.

“The second rule is let her handle the money. I don’t even know my salary. I get $100 a week in allowance,” he said. He used to buy gas with much of the money. Then he discovered that he could pay for the gas with a credit card, and his wife would handle the bill. So, he says that he now saves much of his allowance to buy presents for his wife.

“A third key is friendship. We just enjoy doing things together,” he said.

Druger sees his legacy as “influencing lives in a positive way.”

“His legacy has been left on students rather than the university,” Pat added.

“We learn from everything we do, and everything we do, becomes part of what we are. Experiences, not information, are most important.”” Druger noted

“My teaching atoms have infiltrated into a whole bunch of people,” Druger said, “My genes have been passed on through three children and six grandchildren, with another grandchild on the way.”

Former Fulton mayor still finds time and energy to volunteer

Q. When and where were you born?
A. I was born on Nov. 23, 1919 in Guttenberg, N.J. In 1963, we came to Fulton because my husband Joe got a job at Nestle Co. He retired from there in 1984.

Q. What do you enjoy most about being a longtime resident of Fulton?
A.: I find that the area is very beautiful, and the people are stable and hard working. I feel safe and very comfortable with my surroundings. I don’t think people realize how fortunate we are to live here. I certainly do. We live on Forest Avenue, right down from Struppler’s Fulton Big M. Our neighbors are absolutely fantastic. They put our newspaper on our steps in the morning and mow our lawn. You can’t ask for better neighbors than that.

Q. How are you spending your retirement?
A. I broke my hip two years ago, so I’ve been kind of out of it. I do what I can on the phone to call members of the Professional Journalists & Communicators [former Oswego County Press Club] for meetings, and my husband takes me to meetings when I need to go. I’m not as free to come and go as I used to since my hip replacement, but I enjoy my own space. I love to read and knit, and love to watch politics on the tube. I’m fully entertained and taken care of and try to participate as best I can.

Q. Being a political “junkie,” who do you see as the most favorable presidential candidate: Barack Obama or John McCain?
A. I have no favorite candidate and am not satisfied with either choice. I’m very much worried about our society and wonder whether either candidate can solve or help solve the very difficult situation we have today. We’re deeply involved in a conflict that takes enormous amounts of money and our own people are suffering considerably. I don’t think we’re highly loved in the world at large, and that’s unusual for us.

Q. Are you still active in the community? How?
A. I’m a charter member of the Professional Communicators & Journalists of Oswego County. I majored in journalism when I attended New York University in New York City. I worked for Cooper Union, and went to NYU at night. I attended classes for five years and was editor of the school newspaper.
That experience helped me develop contacts with people in New York City and I formed friendships that have been lasting for many years.

Q. What do you do to keep yourself healthy and fit?
A. My husband is a health freak, and we’re careful about the foods we eat. We try to exercise as much as we are able to. We’re interested in things outside of our own home. It’s important to be part of the community and we try hard to do that.

Q. Tell us about the “ritual” you and your husband have on Friday nights.
A. We both worked very hard at our jobs, and on Friday evenings, we celebrated having weekends free to ourselves. I cook a very good meal, mix up a Manhattan, and watch political news shows on PBS. There’s a string of very good programs on that station. That’s how we spend Friday nights, and are still doing it.

Q. What do you feel was your most important contribution as the former mayor of Fulton?
A. I was mayor of Fulton from 1987-1991. I tried to create activities that would bring people together to enjoy, like Riverfest and several other festivals that folks enjoyed being part of and attending.

Q. How did your experience at Cooper Union in New York City help shape your life?
A. One of the most important things was that I met my husband Joe there.
I was at Cooper during World War II, and there were fears at the time of being attacked. We worked together at Cooper to protect our institution. I was a member of the “suicide squad,” which was prepared to race atop the roof and put out fires.

Q. What’s new and exciting in the city of Fulton that residents can get excited about?
A. I think the city has done a great job restoring houses. Certainly, the Community Development Agency has worked hard to acquire housing and then upgrade it.
I think the city has also done a terrific job maintaining streets and makes every effort to make Fulton a comfortable and safe place in which to live and work.

Q. What has been the secret to your long marriage with Joe?
A. We’ve been married for 64 years and have really had fun. I’m not in a position to give advice. Life is luck. Together, we have had a good life and raised four children.
Our oldest boy is in Toronto, our second oldest is in Key West, Fla., and our daughter lives in California. Our other son died several years ago. They seem to like to come home once in a while, which makes us happy.