A Treasure in Life's Collection

I have a note written by Shirley Sue Swaab, ASA dated 7.4.04. That summer I interviewed the vivacious and nationally renowned antiques expert, collector and appraiser for an article I was preparing about funeral practices and the art of writing obituaries.

A resident of Cheltenham Township, Swaab was on the program for an upcoming lecture at the historic Montgomery Cemetery in Norristown, speaking on the general topic, “To Die For: Funeral Customs of the Victorian Age.”

She was 82 at that time. Swaab was keeping a file of obituaries – She called it “People I Wish I’d Known.” Her note to me accompanied some materials she was graciously sharing. Her note read in part, “I can’t send you my own obit, as it’s not time yet to release it!”

With a grieving heart, I report that mournful time has now arrived.

On March 21, 2010, Shirley Sue Swaab passed away. I learned of this profound loss through the Cheltenham Township Adult School, on whose Board the dynamo served for over 49 years until her sudden death. Along with her family, her colleagues in the American Society of Appraisers and everywhere else she made her mark, her friends throughout CTAS were devastated and stunned.

You wouldn’t generally use the term “stunned” when a person of that age dies, but that’s part of the magic that was Shirley. As one friend commented, “She didn’t seem mortal.”

The day prior to her heart attack, Shirley delivered the feature lecture for the Victorian Society in America’s Philadelphia Chapter on “Dignity and Decadence” in the Victorian Period. The day she collapsed, she had just taken part in a ceramics study group. And she’d already arranged for two Adult School trips for the autumn of 2010. Shirley had just completed writing a book that had begun with her handout for a seminar, How to Be a Silver Detective.

Though Shirley never did give me her “advance” obituary, it’s cathartic to share some of her essence. In doing so, I rely partly on the public record, and partly on background from a second formal interview she gave me for an article on “collecting,” as well as on our relationship through the Adult School. Marsha Fischer, past president and continuing officer of Cheltenham Township Adult School, also contributed information and the Swaab family corrected what we got wrong.

Shirley’s reputation transcended local. Her lectures were often sponsored by such prominent institutions as the Smithsonian and the Rhode Island School of Design. Recipient of ASA’s George Sinclair Professionalism Award in 2007, Shirley always punctuated her seminars with wit and humor and she was known for demonstrating her talks with hands-on artifacts from her personal collections, instead of using slides. She created and ran for 60 semesters the very popular Antiques Seminar for Cheltenham Township Adult School, bringing in other experts each week. There was nothing else comparable. Her energy was enviable.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Shirley Sue Maring’s first college degree was in metallurgical chemistry. For some time, she worked in the corrosion department of Monsanto. She married in 1946. Her plans to complete a doctorate in the sciences were thwarted by a turf battle over transfer of credits. A second career was Christmas tree decorating, which she said proved too seasonal. She later turned to appraising. Textile restoration is what she planned for her 4th career "When [she] was too old to walk or talk,” she told her family. Shirley said she adored lecturing, because she loved sharing.

Meanwhile she remained happily married to Don for 64 years, raised four children, and became a significant party in the lives of her grandchildren. Six months before her death, Shirley asked math professor Marsha Fischer to recommend a good book on linear algebra so she could keep up with her grandson. Perhaps playing – and teaching - tennis also helped keep her young.
Shirley Sue was always dressed and groomed impeccably, bejeweled and made up to match what remained of her captivating Southern drawl.

Swaab’s collections ranged from the fine and serious (silver, porcelain, ivory, etc.) to the whimsical and “offbeat.” She was proud of her Victorian mourning jewelry, large black bloomers (like those worn by Queen Victoria) and “paper ephemera” – including funeral invitations. She also enjoyed collecting air sickness bags from the days when airline travel was luxurious and competitive and these items were artful or interesting. She even had a special cabinet made for the airline bags.

Research was one of the most compelling aspects of collecting for Shirley. “It’s part of my training in the scientific field. I like to go to the bottom of things, to know why, where they came from,” she told me. “What makes the articles tick?” Shirley called research and collecting “Joyful.”

Shirley was mentor and muse to all who knew her. She took a personal interest in promoting others, treating folks to homemade goodies and sending supportive letters and helpful clippings.

For example, there was the custodian who had a toothache. When Swaab realized that he would not be able to obtain dental care, she made an appointment for him with her own dentist.
Some years ago, I would have missed one of my favorite all-time writing gigs had she not told me about a particular job posting.

Everyone has stories to tell.

If you, like Shirley, are also keeping a file of People You Wish You’d Known, Shirley Sue Swaab would have to rank awfully high on your list.

Info x 90

Ninety years can be a long or a short time, depending on the context. This year marks the 90th birthday of the Constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. It’s also the 90th birthday of the League of Women Voters, founded to help newly enfranchised women inform their own political choices.

Vivienne Spector (no relation to Arlen Specter) is the president of the League of Women Voters of Abington-Cheltenham-Jenkintown (LWV-ACJ). She’s NOT ninety! Spector says she was attracted to the League when her kids were young by “the wonderful, intelligent, vibrant women” performing such important roles in educating the public. For many decades now, the League has also embraced male members and officers as well. “The League gives non-partisan information about candidates’ positions and brings issues to the forefront,” says Spector.

For example, the League’s 2010 Government Directory is hot off the (courtesy of Abington Township) press. This annual publication is a handy little 8-1/2 x 14 fold-over, containing the current election calendar, absentee ballot information, contact information for local, county, state and national representatives, and local meeting information. Copies can be picked up free of charge at libraries across these municipalities, or by calling 215-887-6444.

The Government Directory is only one of many invaluable resources, long provided to our communities by LWV-ACJ. In addition:
• Twice a year, the League prints a Voter’s Guide with vital background about the candidates, ballot questions and polling information.
• The League conducts voter registration drives at Willow Grove Mall, Arcadia, grocery stores and street fairs. (Voters who move need to re-register in order to be eligible to vote in their new residences.)
• Every January, ACJ sponsors its “Legislative Interview” at which the broader area’s state representatives and senators answer questions posed by the League, and then the public, about legislative activity in Harrisburg.
• The League organizes numerous Meet the Candidates forums for school boards and other elected offices.
• Local league members organize studies on major issues in order to determine appropriate public positions. For example, over the past months, ACJ members have been researching natural gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale deposits across the state. They’ve discussed the research and sent their consensus viewpoints to LWV of Pennsylvania to be factored into the state League’s policy.

Spector’s background is in real estate. If your settlement package ever includes voter registration information and a Government Directory, you can thank her for that initiative. Meanwhile, she remains as impressed with the League today as she was when she originally joined. “Members are involved, and they’re always intent on learning more!”

It’s a rare organization that has the staying power of the League. You don’t have to be ninety to appreciate good information.

Expand Your Borders, Too

Expand your borders.

Hear a physician from Doctors Without Borders discuss her experiences abroad at the next Cheltenham Forum, Tuesday evening, March 23, Cheltenham High School Auditorium, 8:00 p.m. The public will have time to pose questions in writing and from the microphone.

Dr. Anje van Berckelaer focuses on fighting malnutrition, especially in children, around the globe. Her presentation and the Q & A is part of Cheltenham Township Adult School’s Forum Series and is sponsored by MossRehab, Elkins Park.

General Admission $20, students $10. For more information, contact CTAS: 215-887-1720 or www.cheltenhamadultschool.org.

Fashionable fundraising

Abington High School seniors Samantha Rubin (right in photo) and Melanie Highbloom are performing valuable community service in high style. They’ve organized a powerful fashion statement for breast cancer research, and the public is invited to join their exciting fundraising effort.

You can support the Eileen Stein Jacoby Fund at Fox Chase Cancer Center on Thursday evening, March 18, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. by attending (or just purchasing tickets for) the Pretty in Pink Fashion Show at Old York Road Temple – Beth Am (971 Old York Road, Abington, 19001).

Chic apparel comes from Linda’s Loft, an established Jenkintown boutique in Noble Square just south of the Fairway (817 Old York Road, 19046). Barbizon will supply the models, hair and makeup by Studio Artur. Raffle prizes are donated by area merchants. You’ll hear music from A# Sharp Production and feel torn between ironically tempting dessert tables and fashion aspirations.

A quick conversation with the well-spoken Samantha dispels notions that the student may be free-riding because her mom just happens to be Linda’s Loft’s owner, Linda Rubin. Samantha describes the work of organizing such a large event as “Hard, stressful, but a lot of fun.” The challenges she and her classmate Melanie have faced, notes the eighteen-year-old, include the difficulty in coordinating all the players “on the same page” and in securing donations for the event to maximize the money that goes to cancer research. It’s hard for the teen to disguise her disappointment with (don’t worry: un-named) prospective vendors who haven’t been able to rise to the occasion.

Samantha devised this particular senior project because it seemed more dramatic or extravagant than more typical high school fundraisers. She’d been inspired by charitable shows her mother had run, and wanted to plan one herself.

Samantha Rubin is a strong student, favoring math. She contemplates a future career in counseling or teaching. “I love kids. I work summers in a day camp,” she says. Another of her passions is dance, particularly hip-hop and jazz. She earns considerably more than certain bloggers I know dancing professionally for a DJ on the local party circuit.

Tickets to the fundraising fashion gala are $15 for adults and $10 for students when purchased in advance. Add $5 to each category when purchasing at the door. For more information about the Eileen Stein Jacoby Fund, contact: 215-947-6183; www.esjffund.org or Fox Chase Cancer Center: 215-728-2745; http://www.fccc.edu/helpingFoxChase/makeAGift/SpecialFunds/jacoby.html

President Obama arrives and departs: Getting past the garbage and the exhaust

Perhaps this photo of the garbage being removed from Air Force One after President Obama arrived Monday morning at Willow Grove Naval Air Station can inspire us to a meaningful cleansing of our country’s health care nonsense.

First, the setting. There were a number of things missing at the president’s arrival: There was no red carpet. No band. No military fanfare. (Well, one of the security guards trained a rifle toward the media platform, but not for more than about 15 minutes.) No P.A. announcement that Air Force One would soon be arriving at gate, uh … building number 780.

The setting — continued: Our stage is currently dominated by an oligopoly of privatized health care insurance. We have quite an unsocialized, even uncivilized, concentration of the nation’s health care insurance market by large and uncompetitive private insurance giants. Hardly socialism! Not even decent capitalism.

This afternoon, after Obama spoke at Arcadia, I took part in a conference call with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. She detailed the destruction of free market choice by today’s private health care manipulations. She described quite intentional and substantial hikes to health care insurance premiums that far exceed the hikes in actual medical costs. She described insurance goliaths’ “slicing and dicing” of market segments. She criticized premiums calculated to be high enough to push weak payers, vulnerable patients and small group players out of the market entirely, while still being able to capture plenty of revenues and profits from those who can pay the artificially bloated rates. She described the damage this oligopolistic control wrecks on the economy, the public, and on individual patients.

Sebelius calls for better transparency and defends the administration’s health care reforms.

That wouldn’t be a bad start.

In today’s world, a government-sponsored insurance option should certainly be no more of a “socialist” threat than the free market-driven public charter school movement. Aren’t we all supposed to be dedicated to competition?

There are a lot of additional problems with health care these days.

When we think about health care costs, think about the advertising assault we’re subjected to every day from insurers and big pharma. Those budgets may help camouflage some profit lines. Think about the entire industries that have grown up in the past decades for medical coding, claims, billing and pricing strategies. (Yes, job growth, BUT…) A far cry from the medical offices I remember from the 1950s, when the doctors knew the patients well and didn’t charge at all unless they could pay; when sliding scales were considered progressive and when the only insurance needed was catastrophic care. How much of today’s health care dollar translates into actual patient care?

When we think about problems with health care, think about the daily struggle with MRSA and individual responsibility. Read everyday horror stories of medical errors. Who needs science fiction? With budget-strapped health providers all-too-frequently stretching their personnel too thin to meet highest standards of care, we all know the mantra that today’s patients had better be their own advocates.

Easy, ideological slogans and quick cute rhetoric too often hide more complex thinking and difficult policy making.

As Air Force One turned its nose away from the media platform and blew breathtakingly incredible exhaust, fumes, sand and heat directly in our faces, it was logical to think of ourselves as the butt of a nasty cosmic fart.

It’s not just up to Congress and the president. Citizens must become better informed and, as the president reminded us: “Seize reform.” 

Connect or disconnect ? Legacy of a certain school superintendent

Being employed may be a pinch overrated.

Exhibit # 1: the position of superintendent of schools - particularly that
post in the district of Lower Merion. Poor Chris McGinley Ed.D., is in a hot
seat there after school administrators allegedly abused the Web camera
capability of district-distributed laptop computers to photograph an
unsuspecting student in his home and then question his behavior.
Some readers may recall that prior to his hire by the Delaware County
Intermediate Unit and then by the Lower Merion school community, Dr.
McGinley had served as superintendent of Cheltenham schools.
McGinley was assistant superintendent in Cheltenham from July 1999 to June
2002. He then served as acting superintendent until March 2003, when he
became superintendent through December 2005. Stats-minded sports fans who
might see superintendents as analogous to team coaches or managers can play
with these numbers. Including all those years as sous-superintendent,
McGinley's length of stay in Cheltenham ranks on par with the national
average (roughly five to six years, depending on which research you credit;
less for large urban districts). But if you only crunch the years as full
superintendent, his turnover in that spot is considerably swifter than the
national average.
In case McGinley's legacy in Cheltenham could provide insight or descriptive
background into the situation on the Main Line side of our county, I've been
busy this past week listening carefully. Some Cheltenham folks figure the
gag order on the court parties applies to them, probably a reasonable
precaution. But others are more than thrilled to share their experiences and
offer thoughtful commentary on the impact of McGinley's Cheltenham
superintendency.
Like all superintendents - and coaches - McGinley has his cheering squad and
his detractors.
He still has very close friends in the community and within the district.
They respect him as a leader who's "not merely an administrator, but also an
educator." McGinley's known for having championed students with special
needs. On any scale of uncertainty, his benefit of doubt tipped in favor of
inclusion.
His supporters maintain that McGinley instituted significant programs - such
as the Delaware Valley Minority Student Achievement Consortium - to overcome
the notorious achievement gap. McGinley fought against the nationwide
reality in which student performance and outcomes correlate with ethnic and
economic backgrounds. This consortium, in collaboration with the University
of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Department of Education, focuses on
ways to improve student engagement and accomplishment. "In terms of student
success, for Chris, all means all," said one of his devotees.
The needs of students were paramount, according to many district insiders.
Some say that toward that goal, he was very professional to school
employees.
But others fault him for undermining teacher morale. McGinley is blamed by a
number of teachers for bringing in employees who didn't understand or
appreciate Cheltenham's approach, and administrators who didn't support
teachers or "cover their backs." A collection of negative anecdotes led
multiple former colleagues to say - not nicely - that the woes in Lower
Merion "couldn't happen to a nicer guy."
Conversations on McGinley's legacy raise important concerns about the future
of technology used by schools. So many systems installed for security and
improved instruction can be abused or sabotaged. Begin with surveillance
cameras on school buses and around the school buildings. Then consider
telephone, intercom and computer connections in the classrooms. What about
the data collection that is required by NCLB or in order to be eligible for
Race to the Top funding?
When a single, integrated platform can do it all, it may be easier to hack
and hijack. When an operation - like public education - is supported by
taxes, are there legitimate expectations of privacy? How do you balance
security and privacy? In how many calls each day do you hear a message
saying that your phone call may be recorded to improve customer service? Are
school calls recorded? Dateline: USA 1984?
At this time, 12 school districts in Pennsylvania are actively advertising
for superintendents in the personnel pages of School Leader News, a weekly
pub from the Pennsylvania School Boards Associations; more searches are just
beginning. Thin-skinned folks need not apply.