Q: How long have you been a member of the Board of Directors at Catholic Charities?
A: I was asked to join in 2002, by Monsignor Thomas Bride and I’ve been on the board for the past seventeen years.
Q: Why did you become involved with Catholic Charities and what has your involvement looked like during your tenure?
A: Before joining the Board of Directors, I was a driver for Father Martin’s First Saturday Club for the handicapped in Norwich. Fast forward, some years later, I returned to Main Street to be part of Catholic Charities. I’m struck by the remarkable coincidences in my life and how they seem to fit so well with the mission of Catholic Charities. I feel privileged to be in a position where I can live out the mission of responding to Christ’s call, to care for those most in need and be a part guiding Catholic Charities over the last seventeen years. Currently I serve on the Strategic Planning and Human Resource Committee.
Q: How would you characterize the Board’s role for a non-profit like Catholic Charities?
A: The board’s role consists of oversight, strategic planning, governance and growth not to manage the direct operation of the organization but to support the executive director in executing the strategic plan. Tolland and Windham Counties are underrepresented on our Board of Directors and we are always looking for candidates who have backgrounds in marketing, public relations, fundraising, finance and human resources. If you are interested and would like more information about the board and the work that Catholic Charities does, please contact the executive director edwardtessman@ccfsn.org.
Q: Tell us something about your career that most would not know?
A: I received my BSC in chemistry in 1964 from San Francisco State College and my PhD in physical organic chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1968. I was in medicinal chemistry research as a scientist at Pfizer. After 32 years I retired having served at the highest scientific position.
Q: Tell us about your personal life or family?
A: I was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1944 to parents who were refugees from Poland in WWII. I was baptized, not in a church, but by a military chaplain in the Polish 2nd Regiment Motorized Artillery. We moved from Canada to San Francisco Bay and on December 16, 1966, I was naturalized as an American citizen. I’ve lived a full and blessed life. I’ve been married to the love of my life, Nancy, for 50 years, and we have two grown children, Robert and Janet. We are members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Quaker Hill where I serve as parish council chair and church trustee. I was honored as Catholic Charities’ Humanitarian of the Year in 2018, and am very excited for my investiture in the Knights of Malta this November.