Meet Others
Giving as a Family Affair
Since they moved to Binghamton in 1997, Elysia and Tom Gudas have made the community their own. Elysia has volunteered for the PTAs at their two daughters' schools and at the family's church. Tom works as a radiologist at Wilson Hospital and also has sought out other ways to serve.
Read more...
A Legacy for the Future
Walter Rich believed in the future of upstate New York. As Chairman, President and CEO of The New York Susquehanna and Western Railway and The Central New York Railroad, based in Cooperstown, he worked to ensure that the region had a viable, safe rail transportation system to move freight from local markets to those of larger metropolitan areas. He was widely respected and greatly liked, a fine achievement for any lifetime. But there was more to Walter than that.
Read more...
Planting for the Future
Community service is second nature to Kent and Barbara Turner. Kent learned about philanthropy while growing up in Norwich, where his parents were deeply involved in the Greater Norwich Foundation. "My mother and dad talked a lot about it over the dining room table," he recalls. Barbara grew up in Mamaroneck, N.Y. and Williamstown, Mass. In 1972, she and Kent moved to Binghamton, where he took a job as a trust banker.
Read more...
Giving Back, Close to Home
Stephen and Betty Purtell both grew up in families of modest means, but they did well in life. In 1959 Steve started building his business, a Manpower employment agency in Binghamton. Betty joined the firm in the 1970s. Hard work earned the Purtells a more than comfortable living. In 1996 they sold their business and got ready to move full time to Florida. Just because the Purtells planned to head south, however, didn't mean they planned to leave their home town behind.
Read more...
A Circle of Hands, A Single Heart
They came together to study the Bible and stayed to study world religion, philosophy, science and more. They have assisted one another, and they've joined hands to assist others in need. They say they've become a single being with a single heart. That's why they call themselves the Organism. "We felt we had one purse, and we felt we had one tongue," says Fannie Linder, the retired psychotherapist who in 1977 founded the Bible study group that became the Organism.
Read more...
