Description

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Dick Shineman and Barbara Palmer, two middle-aged, respected professors at SUNY Oswego in Upstate New York. A meeting in a church parking lot. A romance. A marriage. Two lives lived generously, despite vastly different backgrounds. Few knew that Richard Shubert Shineman, a bachelor and founding chair of the college's chemistry department, had a privileged childhood, later inheriting and further building a fortune beyond most people's imaginations. Barbara Ann Irvine Palmer, a widow who grew up relatively poor, had employed her iron will to surmount age norms, constantly improving her education and professional skills. From this intersection, their lives grew together, forming a combination that ultimately worked much as two elements in a chemical formula to create a potent Catalyst For Change in Oswego County and Central New York -- the Richard S. Shineman Foundation. Spanning the tumultuous year of 2020, this book shines a light on the foundation's extensive impact and also traces the history of this unique couple -- with all the twists and turns of their productive, big-hearted and eventful lives.

About the Author

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Jeff Rea has more than 40 years' experience in communications. He worked as a reporter, editor and manager at the former Herald-Journal and The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com for 32 years. During his brief first retirement, he taught journalism courses at SUNY Oswego – his alma mater – then joined the college's Office of Communications and Marketing for nearly 10 years. He retired in 2019 and soon began to pursue freelance writing. This is Jeff's first book. He and his wife, Karen Goetz Rea, reside in Syracuse, NY, and have five sons, four daughters-in-law and six grandchildren.