In an increasingly modern, information-based economy, survival requires an ability to adapt to the changing environment.
On the other hand, those who shrink in the face of change will have the hardest time navigating this new normal. This week, TBR News Media was fortunate to speak with several leaders throughout our area. Their warning was the same: Long Island is still unprepared to meet the demands of the 21st century.
Martin Cantor, director of the Long Island Center for Socio-Economic Policy, shared with us the history of mass transit systems on Long Island.
Sometime during the suburbanization of Long Island, regional planners failed to account for population increase and the great many cars to accompany it. Today, we pay the cost of failed planning in the form of cluttered roads and endless traffic.
So reliant are we on our cars, some well-intentioned reformers now suggest that we transition to electric cars here on Long Island — and throughout the country. This, too, has its drawbacks.
Kevin Beyer, vice president of government affairs at the Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association, said the push for electric vehicles is unrealistic and expensive. The grid simply cannot accommodate an overnight increase of millions of electric vehicles, and we shouldn’t expect it to.
The Long Island parkway system is nearly a century old, yet our commuters rely upon this infrastructure every day to get to work. Without a modernized mass transit network, Long Island commuters must choose between cramped train cars or congested highway traffic. We expect antiquated transit networks to support today’s mass of commuters.
Time and again, Long Islanders apply outdated methods to modern problems. This is like building a jet engine with stone tools.
Not all hope is lost, however. For example, look no further than Smithtown’s Office of Town Clerk, where you will find that the transition from old to new technologies is already underway. For the last 16 years, Town Clerk Vincent Puleo (C) has worked to digitize paper records for electronic filing. This has made the day-to-day operations of the office faster, simpler and more accessible to his constituents.
We need to apply Puleo’s approach elsewhere. We must update our transportation systems to account for the many more drivers on our roads today. We must invest in mass transit, such as buses and boats for commuter travel, so that we are no longer helplessly delayed.
We must embrace the changes happening all around us, for change is the only constant in this life. And with all of that being said, we should remember and learn from the ways of the past. Let history be our guide as we move ahead into the world of the new.
From right, Town Supervisor Ed Romaine, Councilwoman Jane Bonner and Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich with members of Cub Scout Pack 204. Photo from TOB
Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine, Councilwoman Jane Bonner and Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich recently welcomed “Arrow of Light” Cub Scouts from Pack 204 in Miller Place to Town Hall in Farmingville.
The group held a lively discussion about Town government and the role of the Supervisor and Town Council. Part of their requirement to transition from Cub Scout to Boy Scout is to speak with local leaders about how they serve their community.
“Scouts visiting Town Hall is a longtime tradition and I am always happy to join my colleagues to speak with them about my career in government. These scouts asked very good questions and their enthusiasm gives me great hope for the future of this country,” said Supervisor Romaine.
Councilwoman Bonner added, “I really enjoyed our meeting with the Cub Scouts at Town Hall. They were so enthusiastic to learn more about how government works, and I was happy to spend the time talking with them. These boys are the leaders of tomorrow and from what I can see, we will be in good hands.”
“I really enjoyed meeting with the Scouts. I was so impressed by their well thought out and sophisticated questions. Explaining how government and politics work to young people really helps put into perspective what we’re here to do and I have every hope and confidence that these young people will grow up to be an active part of the community,” added Councilmember Kornreich.
TBR News Media sat down with Vincent Puleo, town clerk of Smithtown. In our interview, he discussed his professional background, addressed his recent endorsements for Suffolk County clerk, and shared his expectations for the upcoming race.
Smithtown Town Clerk Vincent Puleo, right, during Supervisor Ed Wehrheim’s swearing-in ceremony earlier this year. Photo from Town of Smithtown
Q: Before we go into the details of your upcoming race, can you provide an overview of your own professional background? How did you get to this point in your career?
I was in the private sector, in the bar and restaurant business, for 26 years. I spent most of my career in the private sector. I did some insurance business up until around 2005, when the previous town clerk was retiring. I’m also a volunteer. This month, I’ve been in the Nesconset Fire Department for 50 years.
I had community ties. An active Conservative since ’92, before that I was a Republican. I knew [Smithtown] Supervisor [Pat] Vecchio [R] very well. I knew the chairman of the Conservative Party fairly well, and they were looking for somebody with a little bit of a profile. I started my 17th year here in January.
I’m married. I have three step-boys, eight grandchildren, and I’ve been the president of my chamber of commerce for the last three years. I’m active in my local community of Nesconset, born and raised on the same block. That’s just what I do. It helps me here because I know a lot of people. I do like to help wherever I can. In terms of people having nowhere else to turn, they call me.
My duty is to help my community and help my town. I’m a lifelong resident here and that’s what we do.
Last year, Councilman Tom Lohmann, Puleo and Wehrheim presented a check to Pat Westlake of the Smithtown Food Pantry. Photo from Town of Smithtown
Q: For those who may not know, what are the responsibilities of a clerk?
Here in Smithtown, I’m first and foremost the secretary to the town board and to the supervisor [Ed Wehrheim (R)]. I maintain all the records of any vote that the town board makes, so I’m the secretary to the town board meetings. I’m also the records retention officer. I’m responsible for any records that are official. We continue to keep the records up to date here in Smithtown, so that’s
one facet.
The other facet is that I’m a registrar. The registrar records birth and death. We have a record of every single birth and death in Smithtown. Certainly, we do permits. We maintain the marina list of all of the boat slips, and we keep a list of people who are on a waiting list to get a permit for their boat. We presently have a 26-year waiting list for boat slips, so people get a little antsy. We do garbage permits, dog licenses for our animal shelter and all the things of that nature.
The most important thing for me is to keep up with the times electronically. For the past 16 years, I have probably obtained $750,000 to $800,000 worth of grants in order to take paper and put it into an electronic format. My office is pretty much an electronic format. We very rarely have to go into our records retention room to retrieve any records because over the years, that’s been something that I thought could save time and it does. We are able to pick up records and get our constituents whatever they need much quicker than we ever have before.
Q: To move into your upcoming race for Suffolk County clerk, you have received the Republican and Conservative Party’s endorsements over incumbent Judy Pascale (R). From what I have read, you seemed a bit surprised about how this race has unfolded. Why?
I was asked in 2018 if I would be interested in running for that position. At that time, that was Judy’s spot and I said that as long as she’s going to retire, I would be amicable to run for that position. She, at that point, had a conference with the Republican and Conservative parties and she decided that she wanted to stay. From what I was told — and I wasn’t in the room, so I don’t know for sure — she said she wanted just four more years and then she would retire.
In early February of this year, the chairman of the Conservative Party called me and said he would like me to run for county clerk. I said I’m flattered that he asked me again and certainly would be honored to do that. A week later, I hear that she’s very upset and that she changed her mind and now there is a possible primary. That’s what surprised me.
I’m surprised that she decided to not retire. Now, I already have both the Republican and Conservative endorsements and we will see what happens.
Q: Are you interested in a primary?
I’m going to wait to answer that question until after the petitions are filed.
Q: If elected, what is your vision for the Office of the Suffolk County Clerk?
Judy has done an outstanding job in making the office as transparent as possible. I’m going to continue that. I think that regardless of being two different worlds — where town stuff is town, and the county is a little bigger and has bigger roles — the thing that I want to continue is making sure our constituents get what they need as quickly as possible.
[Whether town or county clerk] it is still the same premise. I want to continue to go out there and get as many grants as I can to facilitate electronic filing. The scope of the work is different, not the intent of what you are looking to do. I really feel that constituent services are number one and that’s what I will continue doing.
Q: Is there anything else that you would like to say to the local readers?
I just hope that everything moving forward goes smoothly. I would be happy to be in a race and compete. Hopefully, I won’t see a primary. That’s basically it.
Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine. File photo by Erika Karp
Fund reallocation would help up to 100 more households
In a letter to the Commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (NYS OTDA), Supervisor Ed Romaine advised that the Town of Brookhaven return and reallocate $1.5 million in administrative funds received from the United States Department of Treasury as part of a second round of Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERA-2) funding to address the unmet needs of eligible Town of Brookhaven tenants and landlords.
In the letter, the Supervisor requested to have the NYS OTDA return the money to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program application portal, which is controlled by NYS OTDA for the benefit of Brookhaven residents. It is estimated that the reallocated funds can help an additional 80 to 100 eligible households that need assistance to pay for rental arrears and prospective rent.
“Although it appears that the pandemic is nearly behind us, there are still many Brookhaven Town residents who are experiencing economic hardship. The funds are available, and we should do whatever we can to provide assistance so they can stay in their homes,” said Supervisor Romaine.
“Because the Town worked well with our partnering non-profits and community-based organizations to perform outreach and get the word out, the response from residents was overwhelming. Now, we want to help even more people,” he added.
In his letter, Supervisor Romaine stressed the urgency of his request since the moratorium on evictions in New York State expired on January 15, 2022. To date, more than 3,700 applications have been submitted to the NYS OTDA and $21,837,851.00 in ERAP funding has been administered to 1,257 households through the Town of Brookhaven’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
Prices at a North Shore gas station. Photo by Jim Hastings
Consumers are not the only ones feeling the pinch of ballooning gas prices here on Long Island.
Kevin Beyer is vice president of government affairs at the Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association, a nonprofit trade association which represents over 700 independent service stations throughout Suffolk, Nassau and Queens. According to Beyer, gas retailers are suffering as well.
“When it hurts you as a consumer, it hurts us,” Beyer said in a phone interview. “People think that when prices go up, these gas stations are making a killing. It’s quite the opposite because we’re constantly trying to keep the price down. When we start making money is usually when [the price of gas] levels out or it goes down.”
Beyer also notes that the cost of diesel fuel has increased exponentially. This affects a wide range of consumers, particularly commercial and pickup truck drivers.
“There are a lot of consumers that use diesel because a lot of people have bought pickup trucks in the last few years,” he said.
Despite recent calls for electric vehicles, Beyer believes that the wholesale transition to electric cars is not feasible due to difficulties related to the technology and is counterintuitive due to already high utility rates in New York.
“You have to deal with massive batteries that have to be produced,” Beyer said. “To produce the batteries, you’re buying products from other countries, number one. Number two, to discard these batteries, you’re talking about a hazard. Number three, there aren’t a lot of charging stations, and New York and California already have probably the highest utility rates in the country.”
Beyer believes that as gas prices continue to rise, governments that tax oil will have a windfall profit. This is why he said LIGRA is lobbying to remove gas taxes at the county and state levels.
“One thing that we are working on is to try to push for some tax relief, even on the county and state levels,” he said. “People don’t realize that they’re making a fortune — the county and the state — as the cost goes up because it’s a percentage per gallon.”
Other than the railroad which carries the commuters, Long Island is not a mass transit-friendly community.
— Martin Cantor
Soaring gas prices will also disrupt local businesses on Long Island, according to Martin Cantor, director of the Long Island Center for Socio-Economic Policy and author of “Long Island, the Global Economy and Race.”
According to Cantor, Long Island was originally envisioned as a bedroom community for New York City residents. To continue their existing way of life, commuters who drive to work have no choice but to pay up.
“The reality is that Long Island has a workforce of about 1.4 million people with, at its peak, 300,000 Long Islanders commuting daily on the Long Island Rail Road,” he said. “With the LIRR operating at 48% of pre-pandemic capacity, some of the workforce has no option but to fill up at the high prices.”
According to Cantor, Long Island’s transportation networks were not designed to support the commuter economy of today. He said antiquated public transit systems have led to increased reliance on automobiles.
“Other than the railroad which carries the commuters, Long Island is not a mass transit-friendly community,” he said. “We just don’t have enough public transportation to carry Long Islanders around. We are wedded to our cars and will continue to be.”
Cantor said that the exorbitant cost of gas will leave residents with less discretionary income, which in turn will harm local businesses.
“Just think, a year ago [gas] was pretty much half the price,” he said. “Right now, with gasoline prices so high, as people have to go to work and have to commute to work, more people are putting gasoline in their cars at higher prices and have less money to spend in the surrounding communities.”
Cantor believes that not only drivers will suffer due to the cost of gas, but that local business owners will take a major hit as well.
“Some of the workforce has no option but to fill up at the high prices,” he said. “That will hurt the economy because the money we spend for gasoline really gets exported off the Island. Those additional dollars we spend for gasoline will take money out of Long Islanders’ pockets to spend. That’s going to hurt the small businesses that already are hurting from the pandemic.”
To read about Cantor’s work, visit martincantor.com.
During the height of the pandemic, a COVID-19 drive-thru testing area was set up in the South P Lot of Stony Brook University. Photo by Stony Brook Medicine
This week marked two years after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, leading to the shutdown of schools, the closing of businesses, a surge in emergency room visits, and a desperate search for treatments to a new disease that was sickening and killing people around the world.
Pastor Doug Jansson, below, of Living Word Church in Hauppauge hugs his family while in SBU hospital for COVID-19. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
For health care providers, life two years after the pandemic has dramatically improved from those first few days when medical professionals had far more questions than answers.
“The cloud that was hanging over our heads seems to have disbursed,” said Dr. Sunil Dhuper, chief medical officer at Port Jefferson’s St. Charles Hospital. “I feel a lot more optimistic now.”
Indeed, Suffolk County officials tracked a host of numbers throughout the pandemic, which carried different meanings at different times. In 2020, state officials considered a 5% positive testing rate as a potential warning sign to consider closing schools. Entering another phase of reopening businesses required that hospitals have at least 30% of their hospital beds available.
Those numbers, fortunately, have declined dramatically, with the current positive seven day testing rate at 1.5% for Suffolk County as of March 15 and 35% of hospital beds available, according to the New York State Department of Health.
Lessons learned
Amid much more manageable levels of COVID-19, health care officials reflected on the last two years.
For Dr. Adrian Popp, chair of Infection Control at Huntington Hospital/Northwell Health, the “most important lesson we have learned is that we can never lose hope,” he said in an email.
Despite an initial United States response to the pandemic that Popp described as disorganized and confusing, he said “communities got together fast, local leaders took charge and, I think, we did our best under the circumstances.”
Carol Gomes, chief executive officer for Stony Brook University Hospital, suggested that one of the biggest lessons was to remain flexible, with the “ability to pivot into paradigm shifts that were unimaginable,” she wrote in an email.
She described how most good business practices suggest a just-in-time inventory, which is efficient and cost effective.
“During the pandemic, when the national supply chain was considerably weakened, we shifted to an entirely different model and now focus on stockpiling key supplies to ensure continuity of services,” Gomes wrote in an email.
Stony Brook Hospital has dedicated more space to ensure the availability of supplies by securing additional warehouse facilities, Gomes said.
Dhuper said a high level of coordination and cooperation in health care created the ability to “work wonders. A classic example of that is the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. I think it has been a phenomenal accomplishment and a true game changer,” Dhuper said.
Signage outside of Stony Brook University Hospital. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine
Low point
Amid a series of challenges over the last two years, health care professionals also described some of the low points.
Popp recalled April of 2020, when COVID hit one of the nursing homes in the community. Of the 50 elderly residents under his care, 24 died in the span of two weeks. During this time, the hospital couldn’t even test for COVID. Popp described the losses as “heartbreaking.”
Dhuper, meanwhile, pointed to the roller coaster created by variants that brought concerns about infections and sicknesses back even as vaccinations seemed to create a viral firewall.
The delta variant followed by omicron “eroded confidence” in the viral response, as millions of people contracted variants that were more infectious than the initial Wuhan strain.
Monoclonal antibodies were also not as effective against these strains, which was “another blow,” Dhuper said. “Everything seemed like there was no end in sight and we were not going to come out of it” any time soon.
Message from 2020
If he could go back in time and provide advice to health care providers and the public in the early stages of the pandemic, Dhuper said he would encourage more mask wearing, particularly before vaccines became available.
“The mask was the only guaranteed protection in the absence of any medications,” Dhuper said. “That message was not very well delivered. Hand washing was good, but masks definitely helped.”
Gomes would urge the 2020 version of herself to remain on the same path traveled, which is to focus on the “safety and well being of our community, including our staff, faculty, patients and community at large,” she explained in an email. “What has worked well in the past may not necessarily help with a new crisis. Flexibility is key.”
Next steps
Recognizing the burden COVID-19 placed on health care providers, area hospitals have focused resources on the mental health strain.
Stony Brook has “significantly expanded its resources to provide support and assistance for health care staff,” Gomes explained. Resilience at Stony Brook is a special location within the hospital dedicated for staff and faculty that includes pet therapy, aromatherapy, massage chairs, counseling services, mindfulness and meditation classes, among other options.
Stony Brook also has a crisis management intervention team to support staff and faculty.
Outside the clinical setting, Dr. Adam Gonzalez, director of the Mind-Body Clinical Research Center and assistant professor of Psychiatry at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, said several studies have shown a rise in anxiety and depression across the country and increases in suicide ideation for sub-groups.
Stony Brook Medicine launched depression screening throughout its practices to identify those in need of mental health care.
Positive signs
Health care providers appreciated the support they received from the community and the collaborative spirit that strengthened the medical community.
“We functioned as a team often working with health care providers that were not our usual team members,” Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, explained in an email. “It was not uncommon to see adult and pediatric physicians covering care of COVID-infected patients or working with residents across the spectrum of specialties making rounds together.”
For many health care workers, including Popp, the support from the community for health care workers was helpful and inspiring.
“I saw people and businesses alike help frontline workers in any way they could, making masks, bringing in food to the hospital, helping quarantined people with food shopping,” Dr. Popp wrote in an email.
Local gas pump showing the surging price of gasoline.
The skyrocketing price of gas has hit record highs here on Long Island and across the entire United States. TBR News Media took to the streets of Port Jefferson and Setauket to find out how local residents were feeling about it all.
Photo by Jim Hastings
Crista Davis, Mount Sinai
“We’re pretty local, thankfully. I don’t have a far commute, but if I did, that’s something that would surely affect other aspects of my life. I’m fortunate that I live close to everything, but I feel bad for people who have no choice.”
Photo by Jim Hastings
Kenny Dorsa, Selden
“We’re pretty local, thankfully. I don’t have a far commute, but if I did, that’s something that would surely affect other aspects of my life. I’m fortunate that I live close to everything, but I feel bad for people who have no choice.”
Photo by Jim Hastings
Mitch Steinberg, Huntington
“It’s definitely going to make us consider our finances. Conserve a little bit. But we still have to drive to work and do the things we have to do.”
Photo by Jim Hastings
Abby Buller, Port Jefferson Station
Owner of Village Boutique, Port Jefferson
“From my business point of view, all of my wholesalers are complaining about their cost rising and having to pay more to employees. So, the higher cost of employees, gas, oil, freight. If I hear anything more about the cost of freight. When my wholesaler increases my cost of $7 an item, I have no choice. I have to pass that $7 on. I used to live in Queens and drive to Port Jefferson every day. I thank God I don’t have to do that, because that would have been, at these prices, a decision to close this store.
Photo by Jim Hastings
Walter Martinez, Shirley
“I pay now double what I was paying last year, but I don’t blame it on the president and I don’t blame it on the government. Everything is just going up. And now with this war thing it’s just getting worse. It is what it is. You just gotta stand by and hope for the best. You know, we gotta pay the price. I do regret that I didn’t go for an electric car before.”
Rocky Point High School students in Christine Blume’s English 10 class created websites revolving around a blog niche of their choice. In these lessons, the students learned how to blog, providing them the opportunity to engage in literacy activities and teaching them how to publish their writing and share their writing with authentic audiences.
“When students write blogs they become an integral part of a lively literacy community for real readers, not just their teachers,” said Blume.
To complement the lessons, Ms. Blume — with the technical help of high school librarian Jessica Sciarrone — brought in via Zoom self-made blogger Nicole Lewandowski, who spoke to the students about blogging in a refined niche, getting inspiration to promote a blog and gain followers. She also shared how she monetizes her blog, which has now become her career and main income source.
According to Blume, students were engaged, asked questions and gained valuable information from the presentation.
“Furthermore, this unit comprehensively recognizes that reading and writing texts online offers students the basic skills that they need to be literate citizens in the 21st century,” she added.
It’s been a long time since I took a child to a playdate or to the first day of a kindergarten class. And yet, I felt as if I had gone through a time warp recently when my daughter, who is home for spring break, and I took our three-year-old dog Bear for his second visit to a dog run.
While I’m sure many dog owners are familiar with the process, I found the collection of dogs circling trees, bushes and owners fascinating and familiar.
When we arrived, several dogs played in groups of shifting sizes while their owners, like anxious parents hoping their children play well together, stood by, observing the action and preparing to intercede.
Dog owners looked back and forth at my daughter and me, trying to figure out which of the collection of pets straight of a Dr. Seuss book filled with colorful illustrations of dogs of all shapes and sizes was ours.
That process isn’t as obvious as the genetics of trying to match the faces of young children with the parents standing by, waiting for the bell to ring and a teacher to bring their children inside.
Like protective parents, many of the dog owners watched their pets carefully, not only to make sure they were behaving, but also to ensure that none of the other dogs was threatening them.
Some dog owners shared stories about their dogs, much as my children’s classmates had done over 15 years ago, talking about what their dogs like to do and how eager they are for their dogs to get out all their energy now, so they’ll sleep well. Just as it does for young children, a day of healthy activities means a good night’s sleep.
A medium-sized dog paused in a puddle, stomping in the squishy mud. Her owner raced over and barked at Roxy to “stop,” annoyed that her paws looked like they had brown booties.
Meanwhile, a giant dog with the name Zeus written on a horse collar lumbered from one group to another, his head held higher than other dogs who came up to his shoulder.
Bear shifted from one group to another, awed by the athletic prowess of two huge dogs that vaulted onto a picnic table.
At one point, Bear trotted to the other extreme end of the park, almost out of sight. I whistled for him and, despite his tendency to ignore me at home, he immediately picked up his head and pitched his ears forward. I signaled for him to come back and, to my amazement, he jogged the length of the field, where my daughter and I pet him appreciatively.
While Bear played with the other canines, he also visited every pet owner, thrusting his head towards their knees and staring up at them with his best “I-know-you’re-a-dog-person-so-please-pet-me” face.
An aggressive dog barked and nipped at the others who had been playing peacefully. After the newcomer lunged at Bear three times, he trotted to the exit, glancing over his shoulder periodically to make sure we were coming. We obediently followed.
Once we were near our car, an unleashed dog raced around the lot, as his owner shouted for Oliver repeatedly to come back and to stay away from cars moving slowly enough to avoid loose dogs.
As we drove home, with our dog panting from the exertion in the back seat, I glanced at our daughter and appreciated the brief trip down memory lane when we brought her home from playing with her peers.
Our dog has no intention of trekking off to college, even if he’s eager to explore the world of our neighbors’ houses, where the grass sometimes seems greener.
Like a hand reaching out from its watery grave, the stern of the ship with the name “Endurance” became visible in the underwater drone’s searching beacon of light. A century after the ice crushed and sank the vessel, along with the hopes of explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew for being the first to walk across Antarctica from sea to sea via the South Pole, the biggest shipwreck discovery since the Titanic connected us with those men a century ago. For many of us, the find was thrilling.
The three-masted ship is remarkably preserved in 10,000 feet of water below the surface ice, and from the photos, even the spokes on the wheel in the stern are hauntingly intact. Armed with the latest undersea equipment, marine archeologists, engineers and scientists, using the last data recorded when the ship sank, were able to find the wooden Endurance, survivor of one of the most heroic expeditions in history, at the bottom of the Wendell Sea near the Antarctica Peninsula. The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust’s group Endurance 22 announced the news. The darkness and frigid temperatures had made such search efforts in the past impossibly difficult but also created an inhospitable environment for bacteria, mites and wood-eating worms that might have devoured the ship. Instead it stands at attention since 1915 on the sea floor.
After the ship sank, Shackleton and his crew of 28 loaded food and anything else they could into three lifeboats and set up camp on ice floes, and when those disintegrated, camped on Elephant Island.
The Endurance. Photo from Wikipedia
Recognizing that they had somehow to get help if they were to survive, Shackleton, his captain, Frank Worsley and four other carefully selected men sailed across 800 miles of treacherous waters in a 22-foot boat to the nearest place of habitation, a remote whaling community on the island of South Georgia. Once they arrived, they had to scale steep mountains to get to the station on the other side. Shackleton’s decisive and heroic leadership ultimately saved the entire crew and is studied in business schools and management programs to this day. His planning and improvisation made the escape possible.
Shackleton died in 1922. Curiously the wreck’s discovery happened exactly 100 years to the day that Shackleton was buried. And while Endurance was photographed and filmed, nothing was removed or disturbed, and it is protected as an historic monument.
An Anglo-Irishman, Sir Ernest Shackleton was born in County Kildare, Ireland, and moved with his family to south London. His story seems a fitting way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. He led three different English expeditions to the Antarctic, walked to within 97 miles of the South Pole during the previous Nimrod expedition of 1907-09, and climbed Mt. Erebus, the most active Antarctic volcano. For those feats, he was knighted by King Edward VII on his return. Ultimately he led a final expedition in 1921 but died of a heart attack while his ship was moored in South Georgia. He is buried there.
Despite the fact that he was largely unsuccessful in business ventures and died heavily in debt, Shackleton was voted eleventh in a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons in 2002. He was to be the one others prayed to have lead them when under extreme circumstances.
The saga of Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance captured my imagination when I worked for Editor Alfred Lansing at Time Inc. I was 22 and had never met anyone quite like Al before. A volunteer in the Navy when he was 17 (he lied about his age and somehow got in), Al had a reddish-blond crew cut, bright blue eyes, a huge smile and a tattoo on his right forearm well before tattooes were a common occurrence. He smoked unfiltered Lucky Strikes, was one of the best storytellers I had ever met, and wrote adventure stories on the side for what were then called men’s magazines.
It was Alfred Lansing who wrote the book “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” four years earlier which had received a National Book Award nomination. Listening to him tell the story, I was hooked for life on that adventure and the marvel of Shackleton’s leadership. Sadly, both men died at an early age.
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