Voices of the Past
AMD: How do you think people remembered your father, first as a president and then as a person?
SMD: Um I think they remember him very fondly. He was very fair and just um acknowledged people, always reached out and sometimes you don’t always know that until they are gone. I know at his funeral a local banker, another bank president, said how on his first day on the job as a banker my dad walked over across the street to his bank and went in and introduced himself and welcomed him to the community and said if there’s anything he needs to call him and he said I’ll never forget that. You know, people don’t normally do something like that. It was very genuine and he just wanted to welcome me and he was very sincere and um very fair and a great dresser. (laughed)
AMD: And how he was so welcoming to that man he didn’t even know. Do you think he brought that to the club and that’s why he was so successful bringing diversity to the club?
SMD: Yup, yup, I think people trusted him. It wasn’t like-- You know, someone else could have come in and said we are going to let these people in. They have a Greek background or this family is Jewish and we are going to let them in. He did it in a way that was very genuine, and he was able to reach out to members and say these are good people, they are you know. We have to open up this club; we want good people, we want financially secure people and um we can’t continue to be this way, so-- And they were friends of my Dad’s and it was kind of like he had their back and that was it.
AMD: Did your mother have any influence on helping him change the club or was she just there?
SMD: I think she supported him 100% and so and I think you know my dad was the one, but I think people had a lot of respect for my mom also. She was involved in different things in the community um Pittsfield girls club, the art association and very well liked and I think that it was not something people thought the wife if making him do it or vice versa.
AMD: And can you say some words that describe your father?
SMD: Mhmm um let’s see very fair, very smart, very dapper, great dresser, very supportive. He, you know, growing up there was assumptions of things but how you did it was completely up to you. You know, there was an expectation my sister and I had to go to college that was a done deal. Where you go or what you study was completely up to you. So you know it was, it was always just for us to be successful and be supportive as women you know not having sons and in that age there was an expectation that we would go to college and we would be successful in whatever we did, and as women or men, it didn’t matter; we could do whatever we wanted.
AMD: Was there anything your dad told you that seems to stick out in your mind?
SMD: He always told me to be me and always be thankful for the people around you. He told me it’s not what you do in life or what you become; it’s about being happy and being you. I always tell my kids ever morning, “thank you for being you,” and that’s something my father always told us. Thank you for being you.