Interview with: Eleanor Charwat
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY
Transcribed by Lola-Dillon Cahill
For the Marist College Archives and Special Collections











Eleanor Charwat
2

Interviewee:
Eleanor Charwat
Interviewer:
Gus Nolan and Jan Stivers
Interview Date:
8 September 2022
Location:
James A. Cannavino Library
Topic:
Marist College History
Subject Headings:
Charwat, Eleanor
Marist College- Faculty
Marist College- History
Marist College (Poughkeepsie, New York)
Summary:
In this interview, Gus Nolan and Jan Stivers ask Marist employee Eleanor Charwat
about her experiences as a young girl living in Poughkeepsie, her growth both inside and outside
of Marist, the places she’s traveled, the interesting job opportunities she’s had such as working
for the Kennedy Administration, the charity work she’s done for the community, as well as how
and why she’s continually remained connected to the college over the past several decades.







Eleanor Charwat
3

00;00;00;04 - 00;00;13;05
Gus Nolan
We don't have a script that we follow, we go all over the place. And you know--.

00;00;13;07 - 00;00;15;24
Jan Stivers
But we do have anchors <laugh>.

00;00;15;26 - 00;00;27;27
GN
We kind of know where we're going, but [pause], this was the last one. We had Lou Zuccarello
here. And Barbara.

00;00;27;29 - 00;00;29;00
Eleanor Charwat
Oh, nice. Very nice. I should’ve warned them--.

00;00;29;03 - 00;00;46;19
GN


Eleanor Charwat
4

It happened to be another day, in another building, and I happened to have a red sweater on. They
both had red sweaters on, so you would think we had posed for the occasion. Yeah, but, not so.

00;00;46;21 - 00;00;49;18
EC
Yeah, well, you gave me--.

00;00;49;21 - 00;00;53;20
GN
Okay. Can we begin ma’am?

00;00;53;20 - 00;00;55;07
JS
Absolutely. We are recording. We are ready.

00;00;55;09 - 00;01;18;16
GN
Okay. Well, good afternoon. Today is Thursday, September eighth, and we have the joy of
interviewing Ellie Charwat, retired director of adult education at Marist. And I'm not sure what


Eleanor Charwat
5

other titles she deserves, but we'll get to that later. Ellie, this is really like in three parts. Before
Marist, Marist, and after Marist.

00;01;18;19 - 00;01;19;17
EC
Okay.

00;01;19;20 - 00;01;36;18
GN
And so, before Marist, we just like to do kind of a thumbnail sketch of who Ellie is? Where were
you born and grown up and siblings and we’ll be more defined as we go. But, where would you
begin?

00;01;36;20 - 00;02;03;29
EC
Okay, well, I was born in Poughkeepsie. My father was born in Poughkeepsie. My grandfather
came here in the 1890s from Lithuania. He was in the glass and mirror business, and the
railroad—Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge was just being built. And one of his brothers was a
laborer on that bridge. So that's why he came to Poughkeepsie, most of the family was in New
Jersey.



Eleanor Charwat
6


00;02;04;01 - 00;02;30;08
EC
So, he had a glass and mirrors store on Lower Main Street, right across from the Milanese
restaurant. It's now a nursing home. And, like my father was an only child, grew up over the
store. My grandmother was the bookkeeper. My dad went to Poughkeepsie High School and
went to Cornell, Cornell Law School and was a lawyer in Poughkeepsie for almost sixty years.

GN
Wow.

00;02;30;11 - 00;02;50;16
EC
I wrote a book about him called
Small Town Lawyer
. So, I was born here. I had a sister three
years younger, and I grew up here. I went to Poughkeepsie Day School until eighth grade. Then
Poughkeepsie High School. And then I too went to Cornell, as did my sister. So that's sort of my
childhood.

00;02;50;16 - 00;03;05;11
GN


Eleanor Charwat
7

Okay. Through your childhood, let’s break it apart a little bit. Let’s say, friends in childhood, play
opportunities. What did you do? Besides going to school and doing well <laugh>.

00;03;05;14 - 00;03;39;27
EC
Well, I took piano lessons, I did ballet. I wasn't particularly good in either of those. I was not
really an athlete. I was a bookworm. I read a lot. I had glasses, you know, kids made fun.
Because, yeah, I was one of the few kids with glasses. I had good friends. It was a nice city to
grow up. And Main Street, Poughkeepsie, was where everything was. Thursday night, all the
kids hung out on the corner of Luckey Platt, and it was just a nice, quiet, small town.

00;03;40;02 - 00;03;45;14
GN
I was going to say where Main Street now, when you say Luckey Platt. It references uptown a
little bit.

00;03;45;17 - 00;03;49;18
EC
That's now where Social Security is. Yeah.



Eleanor Charwat
8

00;03;49;20 - 00;04;01;09
GN
Yeah. Okay. And through that time, any particular interests? I know you said you played the
piano a little bit, school plays, hobbies, anything like that?

00;04;01;12 - 00;04;14;26
EC
In the day school, everything was--everybody did everything. In high school, I was on the
yearbook staff. I was the assistant editor of the yearbook. That was one of my—and I also wrote
for the newspaper.

00;04;14;28 - 00;04;17;29
GN
So was there photography, or writing, what was it all?

00;04;17;29 - 00;04;28;24
EC
Writing, yeah. And then when I went to Cornell, I was on the Cornell newspaper. And that
reporting and editing really helped me get my first job in Washington after college, so.


Eleanor Charwat
9


00;04;28;24 - 00;04;36;00
GN
Okay, moving into college, then, going to Cornell. You went there because your father went
there, I guess.

00;04;36;04 - 00;04;57;06
EC
Well, I was going to go anywhere except there <laugh>. But my first choice was Swarthmore,
actually, and I didn't get in there even though I was fourth in the class. The girl that was second
didn't get in either. And we found out they never took kids at that time from Poughkeepsie High,
because they were a Quaker school, and they took kids from Oakwood.

GN
I see.

00;04;57;08 - 00;05;22;23
EC


Eleanor Charwat
10

And that counted as a so our guidance counselor didn't tell us that. So anyway, so yeah, I went to
Cornell. It was a wonderful educational experience. Socially, it was really hard. I was not in a
sorority. I didn't go in for all the beer drinking fraternity parties, but I made my circle with the
newspaper, and that’s how I--.

00;05;22;26 - 00;05;24;14
GN
Field of study. What was your major?

00;05;24;16 - 00;05;38;25
EC
I majored in political science. I really was going to be an English major, but I knew I would
always read and write, and political science was sort of a push. But there was a very strong
department at Cornell.

00;05;38;28 - 00;05;43;27
GN
They were so well developed, even in the years you were there—political science. I wouldn't
think it's--.



Eleanor Charwat
11

00;05;43;29 - 00;05;54;05
EC
It was very developed. <Affirmative> Yeah, yeah. No, look, they had Clinton Rossiter, they had
some big names there. So, I did that. But I always did better in my English classes <laugh>.

00;05;54;07 - 00;06;00;05
GN
Okay [pause] leaving college, you mention going to Washington?

00;06;00;07 - 00;07;34;15
EC
Right. So, I didn't know what to do after college. A lot of my friends were going to graduate
school. I was only twenty-one. I was young at the time, and I had a wonderful political science
professor who was a European scholar, and he looked at me--and I had studied a lot of Russian
and Russian studies. He said, you're too young to bury yourself in Russian studies <laugh>. Go
get a job and live in the world. Of anybody, I thought he would want me to be a scholar. So, two
or three of us went to Washington. We took the civil service exam. No job. I actually brought two
outfits. I thought I would get a job one day and a place to live the next. That's how naive I was
<laugh>. And, so I would go to a government department. I'd look on the directory and one
office that looked interesting. I'd just walk in and say, do you have any jobs? Well, I didn't get
too far. I got referred around. And then my dad had a friend and I, of course, I wasn't going to use


Eleanor Charwat
12

that, but he had a friend who was a lawyer in the Justice Department. I said, what am I going to
do there? I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a typist. He said, just go have lunch with Harry. Harry told
me, this is the beginning of the Kennedy administration. 1961, September. And President
Kennedy had just created a presidential committee on juvenile delinquency. And the head of it
was his brother, Robert, who was the attorney general.

GN
Uh-huh <affirmative>.

00;07;34;18 - 00;08;54;11
EC
So, I went to the Justice Department, and the attorney general had these big, heavy doors. And
next to him was his special assistant. It was a guy named David Hackett, who had been Bobby's
prep school roommate, and he was the director of the delinquency committee. He knew nothing
about delinquency. I knew nothing about delinquency. So, he interviewed me and said, well,
what can you do, in his Boston accent. And I said, well, I can write. So, he said, but can you
type? And I said, well <laugh>. He said I have all these letters for you to write. But you also
have the type them. So, I said, okay. And he said, no, you never accept a job right away. You
have to think about. So, I turn around, went to the big door, turned around and came back, and
said I thought about it. He said, start work Monday. I mean, this is unheard of in the government.
So, I ended up setting up the files. I ghost wrote speeches for Bobby Kennedy and anyone in the


Eleanor Charwat
13

Kennedy administration that talked about young people or delinquency. It was the job of a
lifetime. I got to meet Sammy Davis Junior, I got to meet Carrie Grant. I was—I wrote part of
the state of the Union address. I mean--.

00;08;54;08 - 00;08;55;00
JS
Oh, my lord.

GN
What a remarkable ( ).

00;08;55;05 - 00;09;18;11
EC
It was—it was unbelievable. And then my two roommates got jobs with the CIA, and we all got a
place to live in Georgetown. They couldn't talk about their work, it was secret. So, all they could
tell me was what they had for lunch <laugh>. So, I would be the only one that would tell them
about my day in the Justice Department working for Bobby Kennedy.

00;09;18;11 - 00;09;29;15


Eleanor Charwat
14

GN
Yeah. Well, you can see the connectedness though. The President takes on Bobby and Bobby
takes on his roommate, and his roommate you know, the whole interchange of ( ) and how it
works, you know?

00;09;29;17 - 00;10;18;17
EC
Well, it was amazing. Did you ever read the book
A Separate Peace
by John Knowles that was
based on Bobby Kennedy and Dave Hackett? Dave Hackett was the hero in prep school. He was
the athlete, and Bobby was this kid that kept getting kicked around from one prep school to
another. He had no friends, he wasn't particularly athletic. And Dave Hacker took him under his
wing. So, in later years, when Hackett flunked out of college, Bobby got him a job. So, right, it’s
amazing. Because I had to write a bio of David Hackett, and I said, oh, you went to—you
graduated McGill University? He said, you better put attended. He never graduated <laugh>.

00;10;18;17 - 00;10;19;27
JS
<Laugh> that’s quite a story.

00;10;20;02 - 00;10;22;03


Eleanor Charwat
15

GN
How long were you in Washington? Why did you ever leave?

00;10;22;03 - 00;11;03;09
EC
Well—so I worked there till ‘64. I mean, when President Kennedy was shot, I was just starting to
work on the anti-poverty program. President Kennedy had set up a task force to look into
poverty, and we were meeting across the street from the White House when we got word that, in
Dallas, that he had been shot. And we looked at each other, we didn't know, you know, if we'd
have jobs. What--I mean, so, and Bobby Kennedy went in a big depression. He didn't come into
work. I helped answer some of the letters that people wrote to him and to Jackie, and
condolences.

GN
What part did Johnson play in this?

EC
No, he was nothing in delinquency. I mean, the Kennedys and Johnson were in two different
worlds, you know, so when Johnson took over, he took over the poverty program and created the


Eleanor Charwat
16

Office of Economic Opportunity and some of my staff, the staff went to work for him. So, wait a
minute <clears throat>.

00;11;24;26 - 00;11;29;13
JS
You can speak softly. This will pick it up.

00;11;29;19 - 00;11;30;21
EC
Okay. Okay.

00;11;30;22 - 00;11;33;19
JS
So, you can protect your voice.

00;11;33;21 - 00;11;59;12
EC
I could see that was going to become a big bureaucracy. Our delinquency committee at the most
was fifteen people. And we were spread among the Labor Department, health, education and


Eleanor Charwat
17

welfare and justice. And then we had grants that we gave to different communities. And when I
used to teach at Marist, political science, I would say we had $10 million to give to different
cities in the country.

GN
<Affirmative>

00;11;59;14 - 00;13;48;28
EC
Where do you think we gave the grants? So, somebody would say where delinquency was the
worst. I said, no, that's the rational answer <laugh> Yeah. What's the political answer? Where do
we give money? And most of the kids at Marist, this is the 90s, they didn’t know. I said, well,
where was Kennedy from? Boston. Oh, yeah, right <laugh>. What was the key city that helped
him win his election? Chicago. Right. Anyway, so, I went to work for Howard University, which
was one of our grantees that was doing curriculum development for delinquency projects. This
was in ‘65, in the middle of the civil rights movement. Howard is a federally funded university.
They were more conservative than Brigham Young I think. They wouldn't leave ( ) on campus.
Stokely Carmichael was a graduate. They wouldn't let him come on campus. I organized the sit-
in in the president's office <laugh>, one of the few white people working there. So that—that
was a real education for me, helping, being a minority, and learning the different kinds of black
people, the different backgrounds they came from. So, I worked there for a year, and I was


Eleanor Charwat
18

getting tired of delinquency and poverty. I wanted to go back to international relations, and
somebody told me about a job with a group called Sports International and Youth for
Development that was training youth leaders from developing countries, and it was in Puerto
Rico. This was in January in Washington after a snowstorm <laugh>. And I interviewed with a
guy who was sort of like an international—well a cross between Don Quixote and Ralph Nader.

GN
<Laugh>

00;13;48;04 - 00;14;31;14
EC
And, he said, how would you like to go to Puerto Rico on Monday? Sure. Done. I quit my job at
Howard, flew to Puerto Rico. I didn't know if anyone was going to meet me. I didn't know what I
was doing or where I was going. Anyway, someone met me there. With a sign, a charming
Frenchman. Most of the staff were former Peace Corps people. This was in ’66—1966. And it
was in the middle of Puerto Rico, on the island, right in the middle of a sugar cane plantation.
And there was a director in the office and another young guy whose name was Martin Charwat.

GN
Oh, <affirmative>.


Eleanor Charwat
19


JS
<Laugh>

00;14;31;02 - 00;14;36;17
EC
Martin Came from Long Island, he went to Georgetown. We both lived in Georgetown, and we
met in Puerto Rico.

00;14;36;19 - 00;14;41;02
GN
Wow. Do you have another language? Do you have Spanish, or French or--?

00;14;41;05 - 00;15;03;11
EC
I studied Russian for three years. And French. No use in Puerto Rico. Anyway, so Martin and I
had this whirlwind romance working in this mosquito laden, hot, un-air-conditioned office. I got
engaged after five weeks and got married three months later. And that was fifty-six years ago.



Eleanor Charwat
20

00;15;03;13 - 00;15;08;14
GN
Well, my question is, when does Marty enter the scene? <Laugh>

00;15;08;17 - 00;15;38;06
EC
<Laugh> That’s when. So, we met working together on this project. Went back to Washington.
Then they had another one. This was an AID sponsored project agency for international
development in port—in New Mexico. But they wouldn't let me work there because I was a
married couple now. So I was in our trailer on route 66, in the middle of a Navajo reservation.
<Clears throat>.

00;15;38;28 - 00;15;39;25
GN
Take your time, take your time.

00;15;39;27 - 00;15;42;23
EC
With nothing to do.


Eleanor Charwat
21


00;15;42;25 - 00;15;46;08
GN
I hate to leave the subject. Yeah. I mean, we could stay on it forever.

00;15;46;10 - 00;15;47;17
EC
Yeah, I know it's--.

00;15;47;17 - 00;15;49;03
JS
I think we’ll have to book a second interview to follow up <laugh>.

00;15;49;03 - 00;15;52;20
EC
Oh, no. All right, well, then.

00;15;52;20 - 00;15;56;12


Eleanor Charwat
22

GN
Well, in another month we’ll bring you back, you know, and say let’s go back to the first place.

00;15;56;14 - 00;15;58;10
JS
Okay, we're up to 1966 <laugh>.

00;15;58;10 - 00;16;35;08
EC
All right, all right. We went back to Washington. After New Mexico, just a couple of months, and
then, Martin got a job with a foreign service, and we went to Brazil for four years. And I was a
foreign service wife. Wasn't allowed to work, but I taught English as a second language. And
then, we came back to Washington. He went to law school and then he came to Poughkeepsie
and joined my dad in law practice. I never thought I would come back to Poughkeepsie.

00;16;35;25 - 00;16;37;27
GN
<Laugh> Not after seeing the world that you did see.



Eleanor Charwat
23

00;16;37;29 - 00;17;05;22
EC
But we had one child then, an eighteen-month-old. Our kids are both adopted. We adopted one
and then we adopted the second. And when I took the first one to the National Gallery, they said
no strollers allowed. And I said, Washington is not a child friendly town. It's not. So, I said, I'm
going to live in Chevy Chase, I might as well live in Poughkeepsie. So, we came back in 1975.

00;17;05;06 - 00;17;14;14
GN
I have a strange question here, when did you first hear of Marist? Well, you always grew up, it
was kind of a form up the road I guess <laugh>.

00;17;14;16 - 00;19;04;22
EC
Well, I didn't know anything about Marist. We had close ties to Vassar, because the day school
was connected with a Vassar child study department, and we knew a lot of Vassar people. But I
was home with the kids from ‘75 to the early ‘80s when they were little. I was just a stay-at-
home mom, and I went to a high school reunion, and one of the guys in my class who became a
colonel or something in the Army, he said you're too smart to stay home. And it was sort of a
wakeup call. So, I decided to think about what I should do. So, I talked to somebody I knew at
Dutchess Community College, Ken Moody, because I had been very active in volunteer work


Eleanor Charwat
24

when I was at home with the League of Women Voters, and Valkill. So, he told me, if you want
to work in a college, you have to have a master's degree. So, I signed up at Marist for the
master’s in public administration. I met with Lee Miringoff, and I went back to school in 1981. I
was forty-one years old, and, that's how I—my first contact with Marist—was an adult student
going at night, taking one course at a time. <Affirmative>. And when I was almost finished with
my masters, a friend of mine was working in adult ed and told Julianne Maher about me. And
they were just about to open the extension center and Fishkill. Part-time job. So they interviewed
me, because I think I was an adult student, I knew a lot of people in the community. They hired
me. So that's how I got to work at Marist.

00;19;04;11 - 00;19;21;06
GN
That’s an amazing story. Just, I was going to say, you know, I really—the concept of adult
education, as it becomes more formalized now, at least when you were there it was, and it was a
whole process. In time you had your own graduation, you know, it’s--.

00;19;21;09 - 00;19;30;13
EC
That's right. Yeah. But I think the first non—I thought the first lay students at Marist were
evening students.



Eleanor Charwat
25

00;19;30;15 - 00;19;31;07
GN
Yes, from IBM.

00;19;31;09 - 00;19;33;17
EC
Well, yeah. But I mean, they were adult students.

GN
Yeah. They were.

EC
So when faculty would tell my students you're not a real student, I had some Marist faculty tell
them, you know, they didn't consider adult students as real students.

00;19;46;19 - 00;19;47;06
JS
Yeah, yeah.



Eleanor Charwat
26

00;19;47;06 - 00;19;51;06
EC
Yeah, I would tell the faculty, read your history of Marist.

00;19;51;08 - 00;19;51;24
GN
Yeah.

00;19;51;26 - 00;19;52;14
JS
Yeah. For sure.

00;19;52;18 - 00;20;09;10
GN
Right. I'm going to has the speaker over to Jan here and let her continue. There's a lot more I
could say, but I’ve used up your speech, <laugh> up to now. Yeah.

00;20;09;13 - 00;20;25;06
JS


Eleanor Charwat
27

It's—you were with adult ed right for thirteen years. <Affirmative>. And, during that time, you
instituted a lot of new programs to serve adult students—weekends, extensions for group
completion, I think.

00;20;25;08 - 00;21;03;22
EC
Right. Well, some of them, Julianne did that. She did the she did that integrative major, that's like
a liberal arts. And she started the extension center in Fishkill. So she did a lot of the innovation.
She did a lot of the IBM contract training program. So I continued that. And then when I took
over, we opened the extension center in Goshen. When IBM cut back on their contracts, I know
Dennis—Antonio Campilii relied on us for revenue. <Affirmative>. When Tony had $100,000
shortfall in the budget, he said, Ellie, I put you in for another hundred thousand dollars.

00;21;03;19 - 00;21;04;23
GN
Yeah <laugh>.

00;21;04;25 - 00;21;20;13
EC


Eleanor Charwat
28

<Laugh> So I had to come up with something. So, we started the Center for Lifetime Study. We
started the Small Business Training Center. What else did we start? A weekend paralegal
program, right.

GN
What was the—go ahead.

00;21;20;16 - 00;21;21;16
JS
I didn't realize the paralegal—sorry.

00;21;21;19 - 00;21;22;04
GN
I'm sorry.

00;21;22;10 - 00;21;26;12
JS
I didn't realize paralegal was started under you guys.



Eleanor Charwat
29

00;21;26;15 - 00;21;36;16
EC
Well, they had it in the evening, but we put it on the weekend where they could—people could
just do the courses all on the weekend. Working people.

00;21;36;18 - 00;21;37;03
GN
Yeah. What was the year you--?

00;21;37;05 - 00;21;41;11
JS
Sorry—is somebody's phone going off?

00;21;41;13 - 00;21;43;16
EC
Oh, yeah. That’s mine. Sorry.

00;21;43;18 - 00;21;48;10
GN


Eleanor Charwat
30

I thought the sound was outside or something.

00;21;48;13 - 00;21;50;01
JS
<Laugh>. I think it’s some nice music.

EC
I don’t know where that--.

JS
So, considering all of those different things. What would you say were the factors that led to the
success of that program that led Tony to be able to say, oh, I need another hundred thousand
dollars, let's look to it adult ed?

00;22;06;03 - 00;22;29;28
EC
Well, because we were bringing in revenue, at that time I was also in charge of summer school,
winter intersession. So we handled all the marketing for that, and we did all the marketing for the


Eleanor Charwat
31

adult students. Now, it's all being done under admissions, and I don't think they really know what
the adult students want. But anyway. But every time Marist took another parking lot away.

00;22;30;01 - 00;22;30;29
GN
Yeah, yeah.

00;22;31;02 - 00;22;54;10
EC
Everybody was excited for a new building. And I said, where are my students going to park?
They're coming from work. They have five minutes to make class. <Affirmative> So my goal—a
lot of my conflicts were with other parts of the college. With Jerry Cox, you know, with the—his
interest was the housing and the athletics and student services.

00;22;54;10 - 00;22;56;14
JS
The traditional undergrad.

00;22;56;16 - 00;22;58;29


Eleanor Charwat
32

EC
Undergrad. The adult student didn’t use any of those services.

00;22;59;03 - 00;23;03;22
JS
You know. And yeah, typically the adult student was paying full price.

00;23;03;24 - 00;23;14;15
EC
They pay full price. They pay the full price for the student activity fee that I tried to get waived
because they didn't do any student—but, you pay, you have to pick your battles.

00;23;14;17 - 00;23;27;11
JS
Well, so you—that is one of the questions we're asking. Missteps or missed opportunities? Like
the failure to recognize the very pragmatic and logistical needs of adult students.

00;23;27;15 - 00;24;12;18
EC


Eleanor Charwat
33

Right. Well, in your department, a Margaret Calista was very helpful was the weekend social
work program. A lot of the faculty said I don’t want to teach weekends. She said where do you
think you're going to get your students from? A lot of them were in some professional roles and
social service agents, and they wanted to move up. So they had to come on weekends. And
business Jack Kelly and I would have battles royale. His faculty didn't want to go off campus,
they didn’t want to teach at night, and they didn't want to teach weekends. I said, you’re not
going to have any adult students. I mean, at one point, he had enough undergrads, so he didn't
care. Other times he needed them, so. Yeah.

00;24;12;26 - 00;24;15;18
GN
Yeah. When he speaks <laugh>. When he speaks loud.

00;24;15;21 - 00;24;19;29
JS
So those were significant challenges.

EC
They were.



Eleanor Charwat
34

JS
What were the factors that helped you to overcome them?

00;24;24;01 - 00;25;02;29
EC
Well, I got so—I would recruit my own adjunct faculty and Jack had to approve them. And my
successor actually got some faculty assigned to adult ed to teach the adult students. So I wouldn't
have to beg and borrow. I mean, Onkar, on the other hand, was very helpful with the computer
science because he knew a lot of the students were IBMers, or others who wanted to go there.
And, so he was very helpful. Liberal arts was helpful, though most students didn't major in that.
So it just depended on—so I learned to--.

00;25;02;26 - 00;25;03;06
JS
Individuals, yeah.

00;25;03;06 - 00;25;07;13
EC
Yeah, I learned to work around them is what I did, that's what I did <laugh>.


Eleanor Charwat
35


00;25;07;15 - 00;25;10;05
JS
You mentioned, Center for Lifetime Studies.

00;25;10;07 - 00;25;11;00
EC
Yeah.

00;25;11;02 - 00;25;14;15
JS
What would you say—well, first of all, can you tell us about your role in that?

00;25;14;21 - 00;25;29;28
EC
Well, Joan Sherman gave some seed money. I had heard of those kind of programs, and I didn't
think they would work because the faculty was all volunteer. And having worked with Marist
faculty <laugh>, usually the first question is, how much do I get paid?



Eleanor Charwat
36

00;25;30;01 - 00;25;33;20
JS
Okay. In defense of Marist faculty, we were getting nothing. Nothing, nothing <laugh>.

00;25;33;20 - 00;25;50;27
EC
I know, I know. So I wasn't pushing it. But then, when the Shermans gave the seed money, Marc
van der Heyden and Dennis called me in and they said, we have this money, we want to get it
done, get it done. So, I--.

00;25;50;29 - 00;25;55;12
GN
Was there a model that you were following for it?

00;25;55;19 - 00;25;58;23
EC
Well, we called the guy up from the new school in New York.

00;25;58;29 - 00;25;59;05


Eleanor Charwat
37

JS
They had the longest line in the country.

00;25;59;12 - 00;26;41;23
EC
They, they had a long one. Right. And I went to visit a couple of programs in Delaware and in
Washington D.C. at A.U., and we started with a little volunteer committee of elders, and then we
offered a few courses as a trial up at the FDR library. <Affirmative>. And it grew from there. I
had one of my staff be part-time doing the clerical work, and then we hired Jodi Delahoyde. Oh,
so the guy from the new school, I said, where are we going to recruit from? He said, in a year,
you're going to have a waiting list, don’t worry about where to recruit. People will hear about it.

00;26;41;25 - 00;26;46;04
JS
Yeah, new school is not offering anymore. It moved to CUNY.

00;26;46;06 - 00;26;58;21
EC
Oh, it did? <Affirmative>. Well, so, we were the first, of course, and then New Paltz. And now
Vassar has a program, Mount Saint Mary, Bard.


Eleanor Charwat
38


00;26;58;24 - 00;27;03;23
JS
Yeah. What would you like to see happen with CLS in the next ten years?

00;27;03;25 - 00;27;32;10
EC
Well, it's wonderful using Locust Grove, I'd like to see more Marist faculty involved in doing
classes. Martin's gotten a couple of the history faculty, Michael O’Sullivan and ( ) from political
science. So we've got a few—very few from our English, or certain departments, we haven't
gotten anybody, really.

00;27;32;13 - 00;27;37;09
GN
Some guys, I think DeGilio, Skip DeGilio, used to say--.

00;27;37;11 - 00;27;42;21
EC
Skip used to do, and Helen Gegenwarth Hayes. Oh, she used to teach. Yeah.


Eleanor Charwat
39


00;27;42;22 - 00;27;45;13
GN
He talked about some of them—Lou Zuccarello.

EC
Lou Zuccarello, too.

GN
Yeah, I said he could just read the telephone book, and the class would be full <laugh>. Yeah.

00;27;53;15 - 00;28;04;25
JS
Yeah. So, you know, the Poughkeepsie community very, very well. Having served two terms as a
council person.

00;28;04;28 - 00;28;06;22
EC
Town board, yeah. Right.


Eleanor Charwat
40


00;28;06;24 - 00;28;27;12
JS
Town Board. And, by my accounting, just about fifty years of volunteer work. <Affirmative>. In
volunteer agencies. How was Marist seen in the community when you first came back to
Poughkeepsie, and how do you think it’s seen today?

00;28;27;15 - 00;28;32;07
EC
It's a good question.

00;28;32;09 - 00;28;34;27
GN
Well, what's the year when you first came back?

00;28;35;00 - 00;28;37;21
EC
Seventy-five. 1975.



Eleanor Charwat
41

00;28;37;21 - 00;28;40;00
GN
All right, so Dennis was just about to arrive on the scene.

00;28;40;03 - 00;29;31;27
EC
Dennis was here. Yeah, he had come just a couple of years before that. I don’t think from the
native, you know, my father's generation, they didn't really have much of an awareness of Marist.
You know, it was a Catholic school, they didn't know much about it. Again, we were more tied
with Vassar because we knew those people. But even Vassar, there wasn't much town relations, I
would say in general. Over the years, with Dennis being so active with the sports program, with,
I think with more kids from the community going to Marist, I think it's become more known and
better, and only positive feelings. I never heard any negative. I mean, there were those few house
parties.

GN
Yeah, they used to have students living in the city.

00;29;31;13 - 00;29;34;11
EC


Eleanor Charwat
42

Yeah, that got bad press.

00;29;34;13 - 00;29;34;27
GN
Yeah.

00;29;35;00 - 00;29;36;18
EC
But other--.

00;29;36;22 - 00;29;38;02
GN
They were not welcome <laugh>.

00;29;38;04 - 00;29;47;27
EC
Yeah. But in general in CLS, I think it's done a lot for improving Marist’s image in the
community. Yes.



Eleanor Charwat
43

00;29;47;29 - 00;29;58;10
JS
How could Marist be a stronger force for good in Poughkeepsie or in the greater Hudson Valley?

00;29;58;13 - 00;30;15;20
EC
Well, I know we have a lot of student interns who've helped a lot of non-profits. I think that's
good. You know, I'm really not impressed of what's going on now or what the new president
wants to do with community. I mean, there's always needs in the community.

00;30;15;23 - 00;30;16;13
JS
Well, internship programs, I think that’s a good place to start.

00;30;16;15 - 00;30;18;24
EC
Internships are good. Yeah.

00;30;18;26 - 00;30;58;20


Eleanor Charwat
44

JS
Yeah. I'm gonna switch, and move a little bit away from Marist, and just talk about your
community service. So, this part I have to read because it's so long. So, you have a record of
volunteerism, that is inspiring. <Affirmative>. Really inspiring. You’ve served, typically on the
board or in other leadership positions, the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val Kill, the
Poughkeepsie Library, the Poughkeepsie branch of the AAUW, the Dutchess County United
Way, the Dutchess County League of Women Voters, the Oakwood Friends School, the Arlington
Rotary, and Literacy Connections.

EC
Right.

00;30;58;20 - 00;31;07;29
JS
My favorites. What can you tell us about your service that might encourage others to follow your
lead?

00;31;08;02 - 00;32;48;27
EC


Eleanor Charwat
45

Well, I was always taught, I mean, my dad was active. He was active with the Catharines Street
Center at the time. When he grew up, there was a lot of anti-Semitism here. He was one of a
dozen tennis players in Poughkeepsie, and he wasn't allowed to belong to the tennis club. The
lawyers, there was no integration of the Jewish law firms and Christian law firms. No mixing at
that. They would sit—Jewish lawyers would have lunch at one table. So, I was aware of some of
that. He gathered all the time. The banks never referred closings to Jewish lawyers. I mean, there
was all that stuff. So, I guess I was aware of being sort of left out. So he always taught me to
give back to the community, to never treat anyone as inferior. Anyone. He had clients that paid
him in chickens and lasagna. I mean, when they couldn't pay, I mean, he would take anybody,
despite what they got. So I tried to follow that example. And I've just met wonderful people.
Every thing I've done has been great. The one—least thing I liked was being on the town board. I
learned I did not have a thick enough skin to be a politician. When I decided to run for the town
board, I asked Dennis whether that would be a problem and he asked me, was Marist in your
ward? And I said, no, Vassar actually was. So there wouldn't be that kind of conflict. So he said,
and then he said, well, can you win? And I said, well, we'll see. So, he supported my running.
Well, I couldn't take some of the heat. The people just, horrible things people did. I mean, things
are bad now, but, so I learned that, that I'm better behind the scenes than being in the front of
angry people.

00;33;11;16 - 00;33;37;07
GN


Eleanor Charwat
46

Was Dennis hard to influence in the city? I mean, he was on the Vassar hospital board, I think.
And he was a member of, United Way. That kind of thing, you know. At least it was the
presidents, you know. So, I was just wondering, the image again of, he used to have a wall up
around him. ( ) property, you know. <Laugh>.

EC
Right, right.

00;33;37;09 - 00;33;56;20
GN
And then the wall eventually came down. You know, and with that, it’s kind of opening the place
a little bit more, really, to what it is. You know, people were driving on campus and just driving
around and going down the river, and that’s part of the social impact, I think, that it would have.

00;33;56;22 - 00;33;59;04
EC
No, definitely.

00;33;59;07 - 00;34;17;00


Eleanor Charwat
47

JS
Well, I want to come back to part of that question though, which is I do think that your record of
service is very uncommon, and it would be good if more of us could follow your example. What
could you say to people to help, to encourage them to do that?

00;34;17;00 - 00;35;05;03
EC
Well, I try and encourage and tell people of all the different kinds of, you know, needs. I mean,
one thing I learned from my friend Chad Patterson, when you get on the board, your first job is
to find your successor. <Affirmative>. So always, you know, when I’m looking at, when I left
the library board, I did find someone to take my place. So, I try to do that, to encourage. I mean,
now, at our age, living in our kind of community, we don't meet that many younger people. But
that's one reason I like the volunteer work. When I did this latest Oaxaca art project, I got to meet
a lot of the artists. I met a lot of the next generation of executive directors.

JS
<Affirmative> Mm-hmm.

00;35;06;00 - 00;35;16;21
EC


Eleanor Charwat
48

So that's helped me. I mean, a lot of people my age, they don't want to be bothered anymore, you
know? But I just can't sit at home, so.

00;35;16;23 - 00;35;20;19
JS
So you were instrumental in establishing that Poughkeepsie-Oaxaca partnership.

00;35;20;21 - 00;35;22;29
EC
Yeah, I started that. Right.

00;35;23;01 - 00;35;31;08
JS
And then, you were telling me before we started the tape about how it bore fruit. This past
summer, and how this ( ).

00;35;31;10 - 00;35;53;16
EC


Eleanor Charwat
49

Well, I had been working with Literacy Connections, teaching English to a Mexican family. In
fact, the husband in the family works at Marist. He's in the grounds department. <Affirmative>.
And his brothers, some of them work here. His sisters-in-law work in housekeeping. I don't
know if you realize how many Mexicans are working at Marist.

00;35;53;18 - 00;35;59;26
JS
We have—Literacy Connections for a while, was training Marist College students as tutors for
the folks that they have around here ( ).

00;36;00;03 - 00;36;59;17
EC
Oh, okay. Well it’s a big—so that's how I got to know some of the Mexican population, was
teaching, and then I was a book buddy at Clinton School working with second or third graders,
and a lot of them were Latinos. So, Martin and I like to travel a lot. We go with Road Scholar,
which used to be Elderhostel. And there was a cooking program in Oaxaca, and we had never
been to that part of Mexico, and I knew there were a lot of Oaxacans here. So I went to mayor
Rollison, who I know, and I asked him, would you like to write a letter to the mayor of Oaxaca to
see if we could set up a friendship program? So he said, of course, but long story, it wasn't that
easy to meet the Mayor of Oaxaca, but I got to meet some of his staff, and that's how it started.


Eleanor Charwat
50

Four years ago, we sent three teachers from the Poughkeepsie middle school to Oaxaca, three
years ago, for a week just to learn about the indigenous people.

GN
Oh.

00;36;59;10 - 00;37;15;07
EC
Then Covid came, so nothing happened. And then my contact in Oaxaca, offered these art
exhibits and sent them up here. And so I had to find gallery space. I had to learn the whole art
business. I never know about before.

JS
Keeps the brain in good shape, all of that.

EC
Right. So each of my volunteer things, I've learned, and met people and there's an ( ) by myself.

00;37;25;10 - 00;37;29;14


Eleanor Charwat
51

JS
Yeah, your life. Yeah, for sure. You have received so many awards.

00;37;29;16 - 00;37;31;06
EC
Well, yeah, some.

00;37;31;07 - 00;37;32;03
JS
So I’m going to mention some of them, not them all.

00;37;32;06 - 00;37;33;13
EC
You know, well <laugh>.

00;37;33;15 - 00;37;39;23
JS
( ) of the year, AAUW woman of the year, and the Marist College Community Service award.


Eleanor Charwat
52


00;37;39;26 - 00;37;43;14
EC
But the one that meant the most was the Eleanor Roosevelt Medal.

00;37;43;19 - 00;37;44;20
GN
Oh, yeah.

00;37;44;22 - 00;37;49;25
EC
And that year that I got it, the other one who got it was Bill Moyers.

00;37;49;27 - 00;37;50;12
GN
Oh.

00;37;50;14 - 00;38;20;20


Eleanor Charwat
53

EC
Bill and Judith Moyers, Sadaka Ogata, who was head of the refugee program at the UN. This
was in 1982. So, all the Bosnian, all the refugees she was—and the other one was Franklin
Thomas, who was head of the Ford Foundation, and me. And I had to speak first because it was
alphabetical. And, anyway, that was--.

GN
Yeah, great company to be in, though. I mean--.

00;38;20;21 - 00;38;23;07
EC
Yeah, that was amazing.

00;38;23;10 - 00;38;28;06
JS
Well, you know, the question was, which was the most meaningful to you, and I can understand
why that was so meaningful.

00;38;28;08 - 00;38;52;18


Eleanor Charwat
54

EC
Well, I had worked with Valkill, and Mrs. Roosevelt, I never knew her. I remember seeing her as
a child, down at the train station, she read Peter and the Wolf. We all laughed at her funny voice,
but, when I was in grade school, I think. Anyway, but, I always admired her. My mother claimed
I was not named for her. My father was a stark—staunch Republican. When I got involved with
Valkill. He said, you know, there are people who are going to think you're a Democrat <laugh>.
And I said, dad, I am, and I'm going to run for the town board as a Democrat. But he was proud
of me anyway.

00;39;11;26 - 00;39;13;02
GN
Yeah.

00;39;13;04 - 00;39;21;23
JS
So, all this time up to now, including with CLS, you have stayed connected with Marist since
you first came.

00;39;21;23 - 00;39;54;15
EC


Eleanor Charwat
55

Yeah, I have. I’ve really enjoyed Marist. I love the people, faculty, the staff. It's a real
community. I like that. And then our son went to Marist. And I would meet faculty. They’d say I
might have your son in class, I said don't tell me <laugh>. He was not a good student, but he's
done very well in life. He's a good businessman, a great husband and father. But he was not a
good student. But, anyway <laugh>.

00;39;54;04 - 00;40;03;02
GN
When you first came though, Marist was somewhat, well, Dennis was here so it was stabilized.
But it was not thriving, I mean, even--.

00;40;03;04 - 00;40;11;26
EC
Well, it was a tiny campus. I mean, there was no Lowell Thomas, no—it was Donnelly and the
library and the dorms. It was--.

00;40;11;26 - 00;40;36;13
GN
The McCann Center had just gone up with Linus. McCann Center was there. For the dormitories,
it was just the three. <Affirmative> I mean, there was Sheahan, Leo, and Champagnat. And that’s


Eleanor Charwat
56

it. You know, and then Dennis starts the other side of the road is all, you know, blossoming. I
remember we had a cap of 1500 students when Linus was here. And, now there's over 6000 or
something.

00;40;36;16 - 00;40;42;26
EC
Well, it's huge. I mean, we were in the old Marist East. The old Western Printing building.

JS
Oh, yeah Western Printing. I taught classes there.

00;40;42;29 - 00;40;45;00
GN
Yeah, with ( ) in the middle of the hallways <laugh>.

JS
That’s where ( ) Murray’s office was

00;40;45;03 - 00;41;09;05


Eleanor Charwat
57

EC
You could smell the ink still. Yeah, right. That's right. We were there for a while. The Fishkill
Center was fun. My kids were little, and they would come down and, they would go to Hello
Kitty, or they'd go to a video arcade. They loved visiting. When I got my job on campus, they
said, there's nothing to do up here <laugh>.

00;41;09;08 - 00;41;15;01
JS
Gus, I’m through with my questions. Gus is our wrap-up guy.

00;41;15;03 - 00;41;43;27
GN
Well, it has to do with coming back to the Marist name. What would you say were some of the
forces that stabilized it? You know, was it ( ), in terms of numbers of students? But what was the
lifting it up to kind of, you know, when we turn away more than half the students that apply. So,
well, what would you say would be--?

00;41;44;01 - 00;41;53;18
EC


Eleanor Charwat
58

Well, I think Dennis’ strategic thinking, really. I mean, his alliance with IBM and with the
technology area. His--.

GN
With his technology, yes, absolutely.

EC 00;41;55;00 - 00;42;34;00
His concern for the physical look of the campus. I went around with my son to a lot of other
colleges. You could just see how they weren't well maintained. And the other was the faculty. I
mean, the faculty I thought were wonderful. They really cared about teaching and about students.
Even the adult students. And the administration. I mean, even though, the registrar, I gave a lot of
headaches to because we were always the exception to the system, but they all accommodated,
you know.

00;42;34;13 - 00;42;54;15
GN
Okay, looking at the crystal ball. <Affirmative>. Where do you see us now? Ten years down the
line from now or--. You know, like some programs have people saying ( ) they may just die away
because there's no need for going to get his degree. You know, you can get it online, or--.



Eleanor Charwat
59

00;42;54;17 - 00;43;20;04
EC
It’s all online now. Well, that’s one reason I left Marist. I could see it was going online. The
graduate programs and the adult programs, and it's good for the adults. It gives them the
flexibility. But that's not my field, the technology. I like talking to and helping the students
register and, yeah, I felt it was time for someone else to take over.

00;43;20;05 - 00;43;32;29
GN
Well, what do you think would be the step that has to be made to keep that development going?
Whether it be personal, and a discussion kind of thing.

00;43;33;01 - 00;43;50;25
EC
It's hard now. I mean, there's so much competition. If you're going to do online, you could go to
Harvard or, you know, why would you go to Marist for an MBA if you could do MIT or, you
know, I don't know how to compete in that—in this market. Frankly.

00;43;50;28 - 00;43;55;21
GN


Eleanor Charwat
60

What was the key to your drawing adult students, though? You talked about marketing it.

00;43;55;23 - 00;44;17;01
EC
Well, the one stop service is what we did. They came in the door, we met with them, we got their
transcripts. We made sure they got evaluated. We helped them figure out courses. We registered
them for the courses. We'd walk them down the hall to where the classroom was. So that hand-
holding, I don't think it's there. I don’t know if it is.

00;44;17;21 - 00;44;39;10
JS
I think it is a distinctive quality of Marist to pay attention to the individual. You’re right. To have
office hours, to adapt your assignments. Your instructional methods to teach the individual. So
you were at the forefront of a great tradition, you know, that I hope continues.

00;44;39;13 - 00;44;53;07
EC
Well, I hope it does. I really don't know. They’ve had at least four deans after me. I don't think
they filled a dean position. I don't know what's happening now with the new president, what his
thoughts are about adult--.


Eleanor Charwat
61


00;44;53;10 - 00;45;19;24
GN
Well he’s <laugh> he’s made known his need. We need students. Well, we’re, you know, tuition-
driven still. You know, we don’t have the big endowment that we can go ( ). But I want to give
you an invitation to speak to the Board of Trustees. What would you say to them, do you think--
something that Marist needs, or something it has to hold onto, or it’s going to go under.

00;45;19;27 - 00;45;54;15
EC
I think, to try to look beyond the traditional-age student. But—how to deliver what in what way?
I don't know the answer, but, you know, the CLS kind of a model. We don't really have big
corporations anymore to do training for. The big field now is health care, and we're in that with
the physical therapy.

GN
Uh-huh <affirmative>.

00;45;54;18 - 00;46;09;24
EC


Eleanor Charwat
62

I think the best thing would be to teach your own students some of the volunteerism tradition and
get them to get credit while they do it. And some of the internships, but to volunteer to encourage
that--.

00;46;09;27 - 00;46;24;12
JS
You know, the campus ministry has an enormous community service program. <Affirmative>
And what you're saying makes me wonder about integrating that in a more direct way with
academics.

00;46;24;14 - 00;46;27;22
EC
Internships. With the interns, and the academics.

00;46;27;24 - 00;46;42;20
JS
Right now, I think it sort of counts if that's the right word, for housing. You know, you earn
housing points by community service participation, but it would be good to look to see which
ways you could integrate with academics.



Eleanor Charwat
63

00;46;42;22 - 00;47;23;07
EC
Absolutely. There should be some kind of informal study credits you could get from what you
learn. I mean, we did that. We used to give credit for life experience. Eileen Hickey, do you
remember, she was our assemblyman. She would call me while on the road up to Albany asking
me to register in classes. Well, I got her a lot of, life—or credits for public speaking, for small
group communications. She had to document all that—that she did in politics. So I don't know if
some of your younger students could use some of that kind of, a few credits.

00;47;23;09 - 00;47;26;26
JS
In my experience, when I wanted students to volunteer for something.

00;47;26;27 - 00;47;27;14
EC
Yeah.

00;47;27;16 - 00;47;29;06
JS


Eleanor Charwat
64

I had to find some way--.

00;47;29;06 - 00;47;30;06
EC
Some hook.

00;47;30;08 - 00;47;49;10
JS
Course credit for it. Not a lot. Didn't have to be much, but some alternate to a written
assignment—something. Yeah. I think that students are motivated, but they do need a little tiny
bit of a pay off. A little bit.

00;47;49;13 - 00;47;58;00
EC
Well, they need a pay off, but it gives them the perspective of what? What's the meaning of this
work you're doing, and your agency that you're working for?

00;47;58;03 - 00;47;58;24
JS


Eleanor Charwat
65

Yeah, yeah.

00;47;58;24 - 00;48;01;19
EC
Put some context.

00;48;01;22 - 00;48;05;09
JS
It speaks to the importance of gap year programs today.

00;48;05;12 - 00;48;12;17
EC
Yeah. Well, I think all the study abroad is great. I mean, when I first came, there was nothing—
hardly anything like that.

00;48;12;20 - 00;48;35;19
GN
Now, some percentage of the college goes abroad. But, I mean, despite Joe Bell went around and
said it, it can't be, you know, a touring course, you just go for one semester. Yeah, or six weeks.


Eleanor Charwat
66

You know, he wanted the whole semester to live in France, which is really where you would
learn, you know?

EC
Absolutely.

00;48;35;21 - 00;48;36;25
JS
That would be better.

00;48;36;26 - 00;48;37;25
GN
The culture and the language.

00;48;37;29 - 00;48;39;19
JS
But six weeks is better than nothing.

GN


Eleanor Charwat
67

Yeah, yeah.

00;48;39;19 - 00;48;46;26
EC
No, I think every American should live abroad at some point, realize what we have in this
country.

00;48;47;02 - 00;49;08;22
GN
Yeah. One of the problems, I think, was getting faculty, to pay them enough to be able to want to
come here. And yet at the same time, to have them do all this stuff that we're talking about, you
know, to volunteer, extra time, to really want to do it in their off hours.

00;49;09;23 - 00;49;29;27
EC
Yeah. Well, I think the faculty was very overworked, so, I don't think you can expect them to do
a lot of that. I mean, if they do a course at CLS once in a while, that's good. That's great. But the
students should be able to have more time to devote to the community.



Eleanor Charwat
68

00;49;30;00 - 00;49;57;21
GN
( ) my question, the glue <laugh>. Yeah. Well, we’re kind of saying, you know what—what
really kept you here through it all? You know what I mean, yeah. You had your bumps along the
road, some of the faculty, or the registrar's office, or somebody gave you a hard time, or Tony
Campilii <laugh>, coming and saying, you know, oh, get a little more out of the students.

00;49;57;20 - 00;50;54;27
EC
Well, I, with that, everyone did it with a good faith. I mean, I never felt sniping or nasty stuff. I
mean, they--I mean, Jerry Cox and I were vying for, and Harry Wood, the similar resources. So,
that was to be expected in the large organization. My last course in my MBA was with Dennis.
The capping course, and I compared three branch operations. Marist Fishkill Center, a bank—a
branch of Dutchess Bank, and motor vehicles. And the most cost-conscious and revenue-
conscious of all of them was Marist. More than the bank. The bank didn't even have a record of
each branch as separate. They didn't have separate budgets for each branch, where that--.

00;50;54;16 - 00;50;55;12
JS
That’s astonishing.


Eleanor Charwat
69


00;50;55;15 - 00;51;01;08
EC
Fishkill Center had a—had our own budget. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

JS
Well, that’s very nice.

00;51;01;10 - 00;51;37;02
GN
Well, finally we are going to say this. When I asked you whether you would be interested in
having an interview, you know, I couldn't get over the positive response. Like, you know, I knew
I'd say, well, you know, I wasn't there that long, I didn't—I knew you were here a long time, but I
had no idea of what we would have undercovered here today. You know. And I’m just so grateful
that you took the time to come in and share this with us—and not with us, but with Marist, with
the archives. People who will come after us and won’t believe what they’re hearing. Your work
in the Kennedy Office.

00;51;37;17 - 00;51;39;08
EC


Eleanor Charwat
70

Yeah, well--.

00;51;39;10 - 00;51;40;14
JS
It’s too good of a story to--.

00;51;40;16 - 00;51;42;05
EC
Well, Marist—.

00;51;42;07 - 00;51;44;12
JS
And we didn’t even talk about bootlegging <laugh>. One of your areas of expertise <laugh>.

00;51;44;14 - 00;51;56;22
EC
Oh, yeah. Right, right. Well, that, I fell into too, but. Oh, Marist was an important part of my life.
It developed me a lot professionally, gave me a lot of support.



Eleanor Charwat
71

00;51;56;24 - 00;51;57;11
GN
Yeah ( ).

00;51;57;13 - 00;51;59;13
EC
And I met a lot of nice people.

00;51;59;15 - 00;52;00;07
GN
Yeah.

00;52;00;09 - 00;52;02;27
JS
Yeah, you certainly left your stamp on Marist.

00;52;02;29 - 00;52;03;28
EC


Eleanor Charwat
72

Yeah. Well, thank you.

00;52;04;02 - 00;52;05;23
JS
Well, thank you very, very much.

GN
Yeah thank you again, Ellie, really.

00;52;06;00 - 00;52;10;29
EC
Okay. Well, I hope the quality is all right with my voice, I’m sorry.

END OF INTERVIEW