AC_1965_Web

152 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K S T E I N STEIN GEOFFREY THEN AND NOW 4 B.A. History FAMI LY 4 Wife, Sharon, deceased ADDRESS 4 P.O. Box 126 Clarksville, NY 12041 CONTACT gnstein@nycap.rr.com 518 768-2936 or 518 596-0726 [This was written in 2000; an update is at the end.] I T T O O K M E a long time to get some things done. And once I ac- complished some things, I stayed with them for a long time. For ex- amples, finishing my education and finding my wife took careful consid- eration.Then having found my wife, my job and various avocations, these interests or activities continued for decades and, for some, still have no defined ends. While in school, I was interested in bicycling. In the summer of 1960 I enjoyed a cycling youth hostel tour in Britain and nearby western Europe (thank you, parents). After I moved to Albany I often cycled to work, joined a bicycle club (serv- ing in offices including president), acquired and rode antique bicycles, vacationed with cycling friends in the northeast U.S. and in Europe, and (1972–1987) road raced.While I was a competitor in the first Empire Games (1978), overall I wasn’t fast or strong enough. Later I regretted training and racing for many years instead of, say, playing the oboe. My experiences with road ral- lies (cars) began with high school friends. I knew my first car would be a sports car and it was a 1963 Sprite. In college and later in Albany, I did more rallies and autocrosses.With a regular salary, I purchased, consecu- tively, a 1935 Singer Le Mans (which never ran), a number of shabby MG Midgets (one I foolishly spent a year rebuilding), a right-hand drive 1967 Lotus Elan (pretty but dreadful car), a 1971 Alfa-Romeo (ca. 1988–2004), and, finally, a new (2006) Mazda Miata.Along the way I started riding motorcycles and still have two. Antioch College was an inter- esting, five-year program with cam- pus-based classes and co-operative work experiences around the world. During nine months at the Henry Ford Museum, I thought I had discov- ered a good field—museums—but I hadn’t then decided it was to be my work. Through Antioch Education Abroad, 1963-1964, I spent one year in Germany plus two months in France. With an Antioch history degree, I went to the University of North Carolina to study American history (thank you, again, parents). A few months in Chapel Hill convinced me I was in the wrong place. One year later, the Cooperstown graduate pro- gram provided for me the appropri- ate graduate history museum pro- gram (ditto, parents). In September 1967, I started work at the NewYork State Museum. I’m still there (prom- ising to retire). After a year analyzing his- toric sites I transferred to the State Museum’s curatorial staff. Since then I have worked with objects representing transportation, agricul- ture, manufacturing, firefighting and other, for me, minor fields: electric- ity, communications, scientific in- struments and medicine. During the following forty plus years, the his- tory collection at the Museum has grown greatly. Among other curatorial tasks, I was engaged with colleagues devel- oping permanent exhibits in a new (1976) facility. More independently I organized temporary exhibits. An early temporary show in the new building was“Agricultural NewYork” (1978–1979 and remounted 1982), utilizing mid-nineteenth century artifacts gathered by the New York StateAgricultural Society.Other tem- porary exhibits included “New York in Motion”(objects of power genera- tion, 1980);“The Ideal Wheel” (New York bicycles,1985);“Home Cookers” (gas and electric ranges, 1986); “Laundereasy” (washing machines, 1987, also at the State Fair);“Racing Across New York” (26 automobiles, 1988–1989);“Christian F.Weeber and the Weebermobiles” (early cars and parts, 1990);“Sailplanes and Soaring” (1991); “Horse-Drawn Delivery Wagons” (1992); “Surveying instru- A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z