Tributes

To Philip F. Palladino
Homily on the occasion of Dad's Death
Given 4/23/05

" …that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them." This reminds me of one of the first answers posed in the catechism which says that man is made in the image and likeness of God. This is part of a complex answer to the question "Who is man?" I have reflected often on this phrase in my lifetime, trying to figure out what it really means to be man in the image and likeness of God, often looking for answers that concentrate on the unobtainable characteristics of God. Mankind, being as helpless as it is, knew early on that that extraordinary help was needed to prevent catastrophe, and so anything that humans could not accomplish could and would be done by God…. And of course, extraordinary events such as a plentiful harvest or rain to fill the wells or wonderful victory in war that was good for humanity around the world was attributed to God's power.

I would like to change things globally, stop death, earthquakes and tsunamis. I thought that would be pretty godlike. Then I slowly began to realize that even God does not do those things. I realize that I must search elsewhere for the image and likeness of God .

You don't have to look very far. Look for the love with which he loved. That is the image and likeness of god. The love with which he loved shined in Jesus. The love with which he loved, shined in a wonderful man, our Dad, Grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, husband, uncle: Philip Francis Palladino. In 1967, forty years after he had graduated from Catholic Central High School, a sister of Mercy who taught dad described him as a "noble" man. In 1996, thirty years after he retired from Montgomery Ward, a woman came into the guidance office at Chatham high and recognized my name as the name of a man with whom she worked at Montgomery Ward, and recalled my father as a "wonderful person." That is powerful! Godlike!

As you know, Dad, was a quiet man. It was as if his roots were sunk deep into the ground of being drawing on the source of life and love, and he grew to dominate the landscape in a quiet way. There was no shaking him no matter what was going on around him. And there was a lot happening in his life. There were six of us children; five of us gave him a lifetime of perplexing issues to deal with. Twice I remember him diving into Burden Lake to rescue one of us who were drowning. He saw the family through one plague after another: measles, chicken pox, whooping cough, tonsillitis and tonsillectomies.

His strength reached beyond the family as he gradually took on community responsibilities. I remember how hard he worked to create Sunnyside Day Camp. He and several other men painted that whole fence, both sides of it) around the property. That was an impressive labor of love. He made sure there was a boy scout troop available for us in the parish, enlisting scoutmasters when others had given up. He helped establish the Central Little League in this area of Troy. In all of this, he demonstrated the quiet persistence that got things done.

Through Dad, we all came to know the message of Jesus that has been proclaimed to us today. What better example of father do we have than our dear earthly father. He seemed to embrace the most wonderful qualities that a father could possess. Caring, supporting, encouraging; he was constant in his presence, loving all who came before him; who can forget his love and devotion for his wife, our mother Margaret.

The love of the heavenly father was truly manifest in him. (Sometimes he was grouchy, I remember one Christmas . I awoke, and by the dawns early light, I could see an outline of a huge bicycle wheel near the tree. I was very excited. I rushed into our parents bedroom and tugged on Dad and said I think Santa has left us a bike. Hardly waking, he growled "Santa will take it away if you don't go back to bed." ( God is grouchy, too; remember Adam and Eve.)

We came into being because of him. He was our source of life and fountain of love. He became the gift from God through whom we came to know God and Jesus. …that the love with which he loved may be in all of us.

He calls forth the image and likeness of God in all of us.

Phil Palladino

A Tribute to Richard Mugler, Jr.
October, 2006

From the book of Job, chapter 28

Silver has its mines,
And gold a place for refining.

Iron is extracted from the earth
The smelted rocks yield copper.

Man makes an end of darkness
When he pierces to the uttermost depths
The black and lightless rock…

He explores the sources of rivers,
And brings to daylight the secrets that were hidden.

But tell me, where does wisdom come from?

                                Where is understanding to be found?

This reading is a song in praise of wisdom.   Along the way the great accomplishments of humans is recounted.

        A search for gold and silver, and extracting it from the earth, finding iron, extruding copper, following the rivers to their sources. The ability to discover so many things about the earth.

        The reading ended with the question- Where is wisdom to be found? There are no mines, no rivers to follow, no process of fire to extract it. The answer given at the end of the song in scripture : Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wholesome respect for creatures and creation is the beginning of wisdom.

To the hills of Austerlitz, the Austerlitz mountains, Dick Mugler came as a child in the late 1930s. His family was one of the first to "summer" and "weekend" here. Not only did he and his family find respite from the city, but Dick found something else- an inexhaustible area that tantalized his imagination, an area to search and discover, an area that he cared for and preserved. ????

This church and school are examples of his endeavors at preservation. He tended to them realizing that these structures were irreplaceable, and if they were lost, they would be gone forever. He especially liked the school where he attended for a semester of elementary school.

As I think about it, there are about four other houses in town which were in some way preserved by Dick's enterprising mind, including the house that Bob Herron inhabits at the present time. He often said, "There are only a few left."

His discoveries included finding the grave of the partner and victim of the infamous Beckwith. He was sure of this discovery because the bones had saw marks.

Dick wandered the streams and discovered sites for mills. He uncovered the old mill stone which lies in the stream behind Ed Goldfrank's house.

A few years ago, he drove Lou Stone around looking for landmarks. He stopped in front of my house and showed me some charred wood. He found it on a piece of land off route 203. To anyone else, it was old coals from the fire place. To Dick, it meant he had discovered the old charcoal factory.

He was very curious about history, and enjoyed being part of it. In 1996, Dick wrote the first history of the Austerlitz Fire Company. He recounts the delivery of a "perfect fire engine found on Fire Island." He and Bob Herron went to pick it up. It had to be transported by boat to Long Island. "We tried using the long Island Parkways but the state police threw us off. We got as far as New York City and a valve blew. Finally, on a sunny day in the summer of 1947, the truck arrived in Austerlitz with sirens blaring"

What an adventure! All of Austerlitz was his adventure. He loved its antiquity, he loved its beauty, and I think most of all he loved its simplicity.

These are some of the things which show that Dick had found the source of wisdom. He had the fear of the Lord, the respect for creation, an appreciation of the timeless.

If only we knew where we could find the source for persons like Dick Mugler.

Phil Palladino