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I was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on Christmas Day of 1945. I went to elementary school at PS 23. In 1955 our family moved to Port Jervis, New York. I graduated from Port Jervis High School in 1964. I attended Orange County Community College and graduated with an AA degree in History. I transferred to the State University of New Yorks campus at Brockport. I married Eva Hipsman in 1969. Eve and I secured teaching jobs in Georgetown, NY. Eve taught kindergarten and I taught Social Studies grades 7-12. When Eve and I found out at the end of the school year that both of our jobs were done away with for the next year that is when we also discovered Eve was pregnant with our daughter Aimee. We moved to Syracuse, New York and did substitute teaching and other part time jobs to keep us afloat. We moved back to Port Jervis with the hope of landing another teaching job. I did a lot of substitute teaching but could not connect with a job. Eve found a job with the Middletown School District and I found a job with New York State at Wassaic Developmental Center. Wassaic was about 80 miles away and round trip it was 160 miles. I transferred to the Middletown Unit of Letchworth. That unit closed and I had to go down to Theills just off the Palisades Parkway. I was laid off from Letchworth in 1988 and began working for Rockland Psychiatric Center for a year and than was hired by Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center working in Peekskill, NY. Harlem Valley closed in 1993 and I was transferred to Rockland Psychiatric Center but still worked in Peekskill. In 1996 I was transferred to the In-Patient Services of Rockland as the Supervisor of the Work for Pay Program. In 1999 I was hired by RPC’s Computer department as a Helpdesk Analyst. I retired from NYS in 2004 after 30 years of working for New York. For the first six months after retirement I volunteered at a local soup kitchen. I applied for a teaching assistant position at Pine Bush High School and was hired. I have worked for two years in this position in the High Schools Library and Computer Lab. I really enjoy this work even though it is only six hours a day. I have completed several of the projects that I planned to work on in retirement. I have been enjoying myself in “semi” retirement. I really hate the term retirement and I would really rather call it “transitioning” into a different life level.
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