AC_1965_Web

153 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 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 S T E I N ments ...” (1994);“Rocket Car” (built by Daniel and Floyd Hungerford, 1994);“Crossroad Images: Postcards ...” (1999); “The Great New York Motorcycle Show” (47 borrowed motorcycles, 2000–2001); “Help Is Here” (fifteen ambulances and other emergency medical objects, 2004– 2005); and “Derby Doings: The AII- American Soap Box Derby” (2010). In recent years publishing be- came more important to me. In the early years at my museum, I wrote articles, mostly for the museum’s magazine. In 1988,my first book was released by the museum (and is still available): The Fire Apparatus at the New York State Museum , based on a perma- nent exhibit.On my own,moonlight- ing for another publisher, I wrote the text for Where’s the Fire? about fire postcards. Later some of the muse- um’s large-scale temporary exhibits produced books with expanded ma- terial. Those published by the mu- seum were The Motorcycle Industry in New York State (2001), Ambulances in New York 1911–2004 (2005), and A Great Day for Elmira (historic photographs of grade crossing elimination proj- ects in Elmira and elsewhere, 2009). Other writing has appeared in portions or chapters of a vari- ety of books, e.g., A Compilation of Historical and Architectural Data on the New York State Maritime Block in New York City (1972), “Curatorial Care of Agricultural Artifacts” in Agricultural Artifacts in Museums (1983), and “The Life and Times of an Early Ford Dealer” in The Model T Reconsidered ...World of the Model T Conference (2008). Several articles appeared in The Encyclopedia of New York State (Syracuse University Press, 2005).Among a va- riety of periodicals, others of my stories were in the State Museum’s magazines from 1972 to 2008. Now I am promoting the Syracuse University Press publica- tion of my biography of Daniel and Floyd Hungerford (who, as noted above, built the rocket car and who lived their unorthodox lives into the 1960s in Elmira). I hope that SUNY Press will publish my biography of Christian Weeber, an automotive in- ventor and entrepreneur.Weeber ar- tifacts have been in the State Museum since the 1930s. Between 1970 and 2000, I worked with Weeber’s older daughter to learn more about him and acquire more Weeber objects. And at the museum there are other projects for possible publication, for example, about Edgar M. Birdsall and the Birdsall companies that built ag- ricultural implements and steam en- gines in central and western New York from the 1860s to 1920. The book projects at the mu- seum are one reason I’ve stayed there even after a stroke 1½ years ago which changed my life radically. Reading, writing and speech have been problems. While my abilities have improved, I don’t work at the speed I once had.Of course, beyond book projects at the museum there are endless interesting tasks, chal- lenges that have kept me there for years (without mandatory retire- ment, obviously). Still I expect to re- tire soon, keeping access to the mu- seum as “curator emeritus,”finishing books, and more. I was 40 years old when Sharon and I were married. She worked as an administrator of several health programs until she retired.We enjoy bicycling - our honeymoon was a bi- cycling trip in France and Germany. Another mutual interest is music. I played the clarinet a little into the late 1980s, but mostly I listened to classical concerts.Twenty years ago, when I had a chance to try an oboe, my life changed. Sharon says the oboe (and English horn) became an obsession, one for which I have no regret (and hope she also has none). I practice almost every day, take les- sons, and play in orchestras, bands, a quintet and churches.The last men- tion is since Sharon is an organist, and I sometimes play in her church jobs (at present a Methodist Church). With concert bands in the 1990S, Sharon and I four times toured in Europe and once, when a second oboe was needed, in New Zealand and Australia. Locating a suitable house took me two years.When I first saw the house in Clarksville, I quickly (in two days) offered to buy it, an 1881 cottage in a rural area adjacent to the Onesquethaw Creek. Sharon has three children.Two, Lauren Gill (1963) and Christopher Gill (1966), had grown up before Sharon came to Clarksville. But the youngest child, Melanie Gill Ernst (1969), lived with us until she left high school. It was an interesting and important time for me as a step- father. Now there are five grandchil- dren: three and their parents live near Albany; the other two are near Boston. I’ve done other things since I went to Albany. Because I was inter- ested in historical agriculture, for nearly 40 years I volunteered in the barn and the fields of a dairy farm in Greene County. When the rescue squad of the local fire department advertised for help, I volunteered as a helper in 1988. Soon I became a driver and then an EMT.The EMT certification expires this year, and because of my post-stroke condition, I’m not likely to re-certify. Still I’m a member and involved. ADDENDUM, DECEMBER 2014 I did retire from the New York State Museum in 2010 although I am there still once a week as a vol- unteer consulting historian and re- search associate. One of my books is now a museum website publica- tion; look in the publications section for NYSM Record 4, Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life (2013). The other book I mentioned should be on the State Museum’s website also, early in 2015. My wife, Sharon Stein, drowned 2011 in tropical storm Irene. My