#Tom raskin obituary trial

But NIMBYism (“ Not in My Back Yard”) didn’t faze him. He spent hours selling the concept of affordable housing to townspeople, many of whom staunchly opposed it. Executive Director Brian Boggia asked him to fill the vacancy, and it was then that “salesman Charlie” really hit his stride.Ĭharlie’s friendly attitude and interest in town affairs gave him access to board meetings where permits were doled out for construction of affordable housing units.

After making inquiries, he found that there was an empty seat on the board of the town housing authority.

“At BOLLI, I soaked up everything like a sponge everyone was so bright, so smart.” Charlie adds, “I was particularly pleased that socializing was, and continues to be, an important component of BOLLI life.”ĭuring that time, Charlie’s mother moved into an apartment at Bent Park in Wayland, an affordable senior housing development. Her move piqued Charlie’s interest in the town’s low-income housing or, more specifically, lack thereof. Drawing from these examples, Brandeis Professor Bernie Reisman, with the support of the OSHER Foundation, concurrently founded BOLLI, and Charlie and Kathy had found a new place to learn. Later, looking for adult learning classes, they discovered UMass Boston’s gerontology program and Harvard’s Institute for Learning in Retirement. Their introduction to Brandeis came by way of Hillel House, where they attended religious services and where Kathy held a position at the Heller School. The two New Yorkers hit it off, and within a year and a half, Kathy, an editor at Little, Brown and Company, and Charlie, still plying his goods, married and moved to Wayland. With a smile on his face, he says of those days that “the women were on the ski slopes looking for husbands.” During his second week of lessons, Charlie met a woman named Kathy, also from New York City. A friend cajoled hard-working Charlie into taking two weeks off to go skiing in Canada. “The company I worked for was one of the first to use computers for ordering and stocking that was one of the secrets to my success, turning merchandise into dollars quickly.”īut his bachelor life wasn’t all spent on the road. He made sales to homes and department stores in cities both large and small. I walked into their office, asked for a job, and was hired on the spot.” He was soon given all of New England as his sales territory.Ĭharlie then spent the next 45 years on the road selling all manner of clothing throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, all the way down to Westchester County, New York.

#Tom raskin obituary trial

He recalls that at the end of each day, “People coming down the elevator would stop by the store to chat with us before heading for home.” Is it any wonder that with these beginnings Charlie, a member of the BOLLI board of advisors, became the super-friendly, enthusiastic person whom we know?Ī graduate of Delaware Valley University in Pennsylvania, with a major in agriculture, Charlie initially wanted to go into farming, but after a trial period, decided that he couldn’t adjust to the mores of farm life. One day, while walking down Madison Avenue in New York City, gazing at shop windows, he became intrigued when he “saw a window display of men’s and women’s accessories.

No doubt an unusual place to be born, but for Charlie a uniquely warm and comfortable one since his family was quite well-known by their neighbors. “I was born in the back of my family’s candy store, located next to the Otis Elevator Company in Yonkers, New York”, Charlie Raskin told me when we recently sat down for a conversation.