Why Delco United

Although I didn’t know it at the time, the shootings at Kent State were the tipping point which launched my public service career.

I was born and raised in Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia in the home in which my grandmother was raised. I was a product of the Catholic school system in Philadelphia, attending Saint Gabriel’s elementary school and later Bishop Neumann High School. Grays Ferry during the late sixties was a tinderbox of racial hostility with almost daily skirmishes between young blacks and whites. As I approached graduation in 1968, the world seemed to heading to “hell in a hand basket”. Two months before graduation Martin Luther King was assassinated and 4 days before graduation Robert Kennedy was shot. That summer ended with the infamous riots during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. I entered the University of Pennsylvania in September, wondering what my generation was going to be able to do to get the country on the right track. While my studies were challenging, my extracurricular activity as a manager for the men’s basketball team was a blast. During my freshman year, Frosh Coach Digger Phelps led the team to an undefeated season. I was fortunate to experience the coaching styles and team building efforts of Digger and varsity coach Dick Harter, both of whom went on to have very successful coaching careers, and to be a part of Penn’s greatest team.

My public service career began in May, 1970, when a few days after the shootings at Kent State, I decided to leave my studies at Penn and get involved. I wanted to be a part of the solution and make a difference.
On May 7th I joined the Philadelphia Police Force. It was a tumultuous time for Philadelphia and its Police Commissioner, Frank Rizzo. I graduated the Police Academy as a 19 year old patrolman at the start of the Labor Day weekend and was assigned to the 18th District in West Philadelphia where during the previous week 5 officers in the district were shot, and one, Frank von Coln was assassinated. My self-described duties as an “armed social worker” gave me a very unique insight into poverty, crime, education and the importance of a community support structure. While serving as a patrolman, I was exposed to another unique facet of life as a male in the 70's, I was drafted into the army. Following Airborne training, I was assigned to service at the Army Infantry School at Fort Benning Georgia. Upon completion of my military service, I returned to Penn to complete my education at the Wharton School.

I began my non-profit career in the early 80’s when my boss, State Treasurer R Budd Dwyer, “loaned” me to United Way to conduct the charitable campaign among state employees. For over 25 years I worked for three United Ways in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and have come to appreciate the importance of coordinating the work of non-profits within a community. Arriving in Chester in 1996, my tenure as Executive Director of the United Way had been noted for active engagement of community leadership in the development of human care strategies. I recognized that alignment of a non-profit organization’s staff and volunteer networks is a key component of its role as a community provider. I am currently consulting with non-profit organizations and working to support education in Upper Darby.

In 2008, I was honored to be named a “Literacy Champion” by the Center for Literacy in Philadelphia in recognition of my efforts in southeastern Pennsylvania.

As I stated earlier, I entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 wondering what my generation was going to be able to do to get America back on the right track. Looking around today, I can safely say we did not not get the country on track, we just screwed it up differently. My purpose for creating this blog is to periodically point out ways in which I feel the public service and non-profit communities serving Delaware County might collaborate to better serve the County’s ethnicly, economically and educationally diverse population. … To make “Delco United”

I welcome comments...