Message from the Executive Director

Dear members,

I learned early in the year that one of my mentors and dear friend of Extension, Joan Howard, passed away after an illness. Joan was a community development professional in Sullivan County for years before her retirement and an ongoing active member of the Sullivan County community right up until she fell ill. I met Joan in a previous life, before my time at CCE Sullivan, at an informal lunch of professional women in the Orange and Sullivan region. I actually remember meeting her and thinking what a strong, strange, opinionated woman she was! Little did I know that she would be the board president and chair of the committee that hired me at CCE Sullivan several years later! After a grueling two session 12 hour interview process, Joan coaxed me into accepting my first executive position here at CCE Sullivan. She assured me that she would coach and support me and that our new relationship with be mutually beneficial. In reflecting, I like to think that she was right. Joan spent hours and hours on the phone and in person with me, listening, sharing stories, griping, and laughing. I learned pretty early on that setting a one hour calendar appointment was never even close to enough. We spent half days together every time we connected. She bought my son and I Christmas presents every year. She introduced me to all the folks in Sullivan County who have been a part of Extension for decades, new friends that continue to provide feedback and support on my work and CCE’s role in staying relevant and useful in the community, and to folks who were important in her life, like Sally and Wade. She also introduced me to pickled scapes, and my life hasn’t been the same! How lucky I have been these last 8 years under her tutelage! Joan was assertive, smart (a smarty pants in fact!), and funny. Sometimes she had a rough way about her, but I firmly believe it’s because she cared so much. She cared about her family (she bragged about them incessantly!), her friends (the stories we could tell!), her colleagues (whom she had the utmost respect for), her neighborhood, and her county, all of which she adored in their entirety. She was so invested in other people’s success and happiness, sometimes she got frustrated, and that came through in a sense of urgency that some people didn’t always understand. Ultimately, Joan had a solid foundation of democratic values, and she just didn’t give up pushing for what she believed in, and what she thought was the right thing.