DON'T STOP WORKING...if you can
By Gordon Bishop (11/13/07)
Longevity keeps the body and brain activity, if you work at it!
As I approach my 70th birthday January 1, 2008, I find myself surrounded by my working friends who are in their 70s, 80s and, yes, even the 90s!
For openers, I work three days a week as a media consultant for some conservative politicians and highly successful entrepreneurs.
I share an office in Middletown, NJ with former State Senator/Assemblyman Joseph Azzolina, who owns a chain of SuperFoodtown (Circus) Supermarkets in Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties (Central New Jersey).
Joe will be 82 in January. He is President, Chairman and CEO of his family business. He’s also the guy (some call him the “Bull”) who brought the USS New Jersey Battleship to its homestate, a major journey that took him 20 years. But he never gave up.
Our namesake battleship is the most decorated and honored battleship in the history of the United States Navy. “B-62”) its nick-name) is anchored at the Camden Delaware River waterfront, a mighty and awesome military museum and education center serving generations to come.
Thanks, Joe, for a job well done!
Then there is my own first cousin, Charles Fletcher, a World War II hero and decorated Navy fighter pilot, whose single-engine “Hell Cat” plane was hit by shrapnel and crashed in the Pacific Ocean. Charlie floated around in a little yellow raft in these dangerous waters for almost four days, as enemy ships and submarines searched for him I the swelling and tumbling waves. It was a life-and-death game of hide ‘n seek.
Charlie prayed and clutched a family medal of the Virgin Mary in his hands, which he imagined, under the scorching Pacific sun, was actually bleeding. Mary’s illusionary blood kept him alive, he believes to this day.
Charlie will be 86 this December.
Charlie is in the Inventors Hall of Fame and the Aviation Hall of Fame for designing and building the world’s first Hovercraft in his garage. He also has 28 other patents, including one for the world’s smallest rocket engine that can fit in the palm of y our hand. The tiny rocket is fueled by hydrogen peroxide (yes, what some folks use to dye their hair blonde).
Yes, Charlie is a bonafide, certified “Rocket Scientist.” He was on the engineering team that worked with German rocket scientist Warner Van Braun after World War II to build America’s first rocket to explore outer space.
Thanks, cousin, for a job well done and also making scientific history here in Franklin, Sussex County, New Jersey.
Another good friend is Henry Madison Rowan, who donated $100 million dollars to Glassboro State College and since renamed Rowan University.
Hank will be 85 in December.
Rowan made his fortune by building the world’s most efficient and effective “melt furnaces” in Trenton, NJ, also after World War II. Hank flew a “Flying Fortress” at the end of that war.
Rowan is also in the Inventors Hall of Fame when my cousin Charlie nominated him for induction for his contributions to industrial scientific innovations improving the quality-of-life for people and the free enterprise systems thoughout the world – the foundation of world’s economic systems.
Melt furnaces are the building blocks of industry, as they melt metals to make the parts for appliances, vehicles and other consumer products throughout the world – even jewelry!
Great job, Hank!
Another life-long dear friend is Belva Plain, who at 91 is writing her final novel after having more than 21 No.1 best-selling novels – some 400 million copies in more than a dozen languages throughout the world. Her most famous novel, Evergreen, was made into a popular NBC-TV mini-series in the 1970s.
I first me “Bel” in 1970 when the Editor of The Star-Ledger, Mort Pye (my boss) introduced me to her, as Bel’s son and Mort and Pearl Pye’s son, had gone to school together in South Orange, NJ. Belva’s husband was Mort Pye’s doctor, and later, my own doctor, in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city.
Quite impressive families, at that.
And then there’s Robert Ludlum, one of the most popular novelists in the world, who also wrote more than 20 best sellers for some 400 million readers.
Ludlum’s mega-best sellers included the thrilling spy Bourne series. One of them, The Bourne Ultimate, became the huge hit move this past summer, starring Matt Damon, one of today’s cinema super-stars.
Ludlum, A World War II Marine veteran, died at 73 in 2000 (3 packs a day).
From the beginning Bob and I pursued the same career paths. He began as an actor (as I did at 18 in 1956). Bob became a major 20th Century historic novelist, having written his first book, The Scarlatti Affair, in the late 1960s at the ripe ole age of 40!
Our paths crossed when Bob established the nation’s first Playhouse-on-the Mall in Paramus, NJ in 1960. I was a reporter/columnist at The North Jersey Herald News, at that time the State’s second largest evening newspaper. I was also the paper’s movie and theater reviewer because of my teenage background as an actor.
After every one of Ludlum’s playhouse productions, I’d visit him in his small office in the Mall theater. He always asked me the same question,” Did you like it, Bishop?” Most of the times I did.
For years, Bob kept thinking about writing a novel. After several years of hearing about this spy thriller idea he had for a book, I finally told him, “Just write it and stop talking about it!”
He did. And we became friends until his untimely death in 2000.
Bob’s best friend was actor Alan Alda, who lived around the block from Bob in Leonia, NJ. Alda starred in his first drama at Ludlum’s playhouse when he was an unknown thespian. Bob launched Alan’s career in that wonderful small theater along Route 4 Paramus.
I interviewed Alda for The Herald-News because Bob was promoting this talented comedic actor’s career, as well as other blossoming stars of the stage and screen.
Ahhh…those were the “good ole days!”
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