Biography for Paul Betz……………1963 to 2007 A work in progress

    After graduation in June of 63 I moved to Utica, N.Y. and got a job in a supermarket and started classes at MVCC in electronics.  It was a work study thing so I learned quickly that more was needed so went back and in an additional year got an AAS in Engineering Physics. I got accepted at Dominion College to study physics but couldn’t work and carry that academic load so took at job at Eastman Kodak in Rochester making photographic plates for the microelectronics industry, found out they would pay for night school so went to RIT for Chemistry, worked 56 hrs a week, played folk music in a local club two nights a week until 2AM and went to night school 2 or 3 nights a week (If I tried that now I’d be dead in a week!).

    Four years later, disenchanted with the city and Kodak, I was introduced to a girl from Vermont, one visit here was all it took, found a job at IBM and moved to Vermont. We had a son who was born prematurely and has Cerebral Palsy, it made for a very intense and closely knit family life.

    We fished in Lake Champlain, made maple syrup in the family sugar woods, hunted, worked in community service organizations and Priscilla one day found herself in the antiques business, shortly after I had started raising bird dogs (Brittany Spaniels). I have had the advantage of working in a state of the art high technology business and in five minutes could be out in the woods or on one of the most beautiful lakes in the U.S. The antique business grew and expanded and in 1987 we brought an old realty office and opened “Sugar Hill Antiques”, one of the largest antique shops in Vermont at the time (we added over 2500 sq ft to the “office”) It was on the main road to Stowe, Vt.

    In 1988 Priscilla had an operation for a blocked intestine, diagnosed afterwards as carcinoid cancer, not supposed to be fatal or metastasize. So for the next eight years we sold antiques, played golf, went to Myrtle Beach, visited Las Vegas many times and somewhere in there I continued my career at IBM. I was Quality Engineering manager and then a Program manager. 1998 what the doctors really knew came true, another abdominal operation, suggested chemotherapy, and having to sell the antique business and property. We had brought a camp on Lake Carmi (1 mile from the Canadian border) Priscilla loved it there and our son came up often to go fishing with his mom. Priscilla passed away in April of 2000, we made 30 years together.
 

    That next year was a blur, I kind of hid from everybody and everything, hired my neighbor’s 11 yr old to keep the lawn mowed at my house and commuted from camp. Put in my retirement papers for the end of the year, and signed up to do some consulting for a firm out of Florida.

    That fall the neighbor lady sent the lawn mowing son over with a pie at Thanksgiving for my son and I knowing we would be alone that year. Christmas time she showed up with a big plate of Xmas cookies, same reason, she was dressed to the nines (to take her mother to church). I asked her to a house party later that week so I wouldn’t have to go alone, and, zip—bam, we had more in common than most married folks. She had raised two boys by herself and had never been married, so I changed that for her late in 2001.(They were some good cookies, let me tell you!!)
She taught me to ski, I am teaching her golf, we both love the outdoors, antiques, traveling so that you can stop and see interesting stuff you come across on the back roads off the interstates, and fishing.

    We have rebuilt the camp (together) into a three season home and will keep that. Jane works at the High School as an AA in special ed, and I gave up my short consulting career (cancelled contract), went to work for a doctor’s office, left there and now have been substitute teaching in elementary school in a small rural town for three years. There are a lot of disadvantaged kids in that school and I get to hopefully give a little back. It has the advantage of us having the summer off to spend at camp.

    I didn’t keep in touch with anyone after High School so missed the reunions that have taken place so far. I have been very interested in the bios showing up as I have thought of many of you often and of course wondered where life might have taken you.

    My dad stayed in Cortland until his death in 1993, my mother( after a stint in the Peace Corps and becoming a mail order bride at age 67) now lives in Indiana. Will lives in South Carolina. It has been great being able to contact you and read the bios about what you’ve been doing and I look forward to seeing some of you soon.

......Paul Betz