Kenneth A. Smith
Duty, Service, Honor
By Jeffrey Roth | Photo by Donovan Roberts Witmer
Retired Vietnam War-era U.S. Navy pilot and American Airlines commercial pilot Kenneth A. Smith of Lancaster has lived a life of duty, service and honor. Smiths careers transformed a hometown boy into a global traveler—from Europe to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the war zone in Iraq to a sheep farm in rural Ireland. Eventually Smith and his spouse, Deb, returned to Pennsylvania. Retirement has not quenched Smith’s dedication to duty, service and honor—as evidenced in 2016, when he received the Heart of Hospice award from the Pennsylvania Hospice Network for his volunteer work with the Vet-to-Vet program through Hospice & Community Care, based in Lancaster.
Military Career
During his naval career, Smith flew various military aircraft, including the North American T-2 Buckeye, which is used for flight instruction, and a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, a single-seat subsonic fighter jet.
In August 1990, Smith was working as a Boeing 767 pilot for American Airlines when he was recalled to active duty during the Gulf War. Once again, as a Navy pilot, Smith ferried troops to locations around the globe in a McDonnell-Douglas C-9B. On a pickup flight to Izmir, Turkey, his passengers turned out to be members of Seal Team 6, which, on May 2, 2011, made headlines for a raid that resulted in the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In 1994, he retired from the Navy Reserve as a lieutenant commander and returned to his job with American Airlines until his retirement in 2005, when he and his wife moved to Donegal, Ireland, to help his cousin on the family sheep farm, “which was a real eye-opener for me, a city boy.”
In 2007, Smith answered the call of North American Airlines to once again assume the pilot's seat to fly U.S. combat troops home from Iraq. On March 3, 2009, Smith became the first commercial Boeing 767 captain of the Persian Gulf War, also referred to as the Second Gulf War, to land in a war zone to pick up troops for a flight home. Within the next month, North American Airlines pilots returned 15,000 troops to the United States.
Landing in Lancaster
In 2010, Ken and Deb Smith returned to Lancaster to retire for the last time. His wife got him involved with the Hospice & Community Care Vet-to-Vet program. “The Vet-to-Vet program is basically a way for veterans to honor our fellow veterans who are near the end of life,” says Smith. Once identified and matched with a volunteer, “we perform pinning ceremonies for these veterans” where they are presented with certificates of appreciation for the sacrifices made while serving their country and a small pin. “Afterwards, if I make a connection with that veteran, I like to go back and visit with them as often as I can, just to shoot the breeze with them, offering them a little friendship, a little companionship,” Smith continues.
Many of the World War II veterans, who are in their 90s, have outlived their own children and may have no family left, Smith says. Smith says he spends so many hours visiting with veterans that it has nearly become a full-time job—but one that he loves doing.
“There is a common bond between veterans that transcends all generational boundaries, all racial and philosophical boundaries, as a result of the military service experience,” Smith says. “This is just one way of one veteran supporting another.” He adds, “World War II veterans literally saved the world from the tyranny represented by the Axis powers. Many put their military uniforms and equipment, along with their medals, into boxes, and they remained silent about their wartime service. They didn't expect thanks. They just wanted to get on with their lives.”
Before Smith goes to a pinning ceremony, he researches the individual history of the veteran’s service. During the ceremony, Smith shares that information with the family members present. Oftentimes, the veterans open up and share some of their experiences in the military with their families for the first time.
Hospice & Community Care Vet-to-Vet program
Ashley Peck, communications manager for Hospice & Community Care, and Donna Mayes, director of volunteers, agree that Smith is an invaluable resource in delivering the hospice mission.
The Vet-to-Vet program, an effort of the National Hospice organization, started about five to seven years ago, according to Mayes. “They recognized that many vets were dying who had never shared what they had experienced—especially the World War II vets. Many times that was causing them conflicts at the end of life because they had never shared any of that. [National Hospice] realized how beneficial it was for them to share, and that sharing with another vet was what they found to be most beneficial.”
Currently, there are five Vet-to-Vet volunteers in York and 16 in Lancaster. Smith has been assigned 200 pinning ceremonies since he began as a volunteer, Mayes says. Hospice of Lancaster County has been serving the community since 1980. Hospice & Community Care began serving York County in 2012. Currently, the organization employs 380 staff and has 1,000 volunteers.
For more information, visit hospiceandcommunitycare.org.
Linda Goldstein
Breaking barriers and growing business
By M. Diane McCormick | Photo by Donovan Roberts Witmer
Right out of college, Linda Goldstein found a fabulous job in New York City’s Garment District as a buyer for some of the nation’s largest department stores. It was “the age of Calvin Klein,” who happened to be a contact.
“I learned to put deals together,” Goldstein says. “I had to bargain to a certain price point, so I really learned to negotiate and work with different people and how to listen to them.”
Fast-forward 45 years to Goldstein’s retirement as vice president and COO of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber and CREDC, the economic development corporation. Heading up CREDC for 14 years, the dealmaker helped package $135 million in grants and loans. Economic impact: $450 million. Jobs created: More than 13,000.
Goldstein, a native of little Martinsville, Virginia, came to Harrisburg to marry Corky Goldstein. He grew up in Harrisburg and is, today, among its best-known attorneys. For 43 years, they have lived in the airy city cottage he bought just before their marriage. Here, they raised their two daughters and now welcome their grandchildren.
At Linda Goldstein’s retirement, the Central Penn Business Journal called her “one of the Midstate’s most influential women.” She readily admits, though, that her career didn’t follow a straight line. It was more like Sheryl Sandberg’s jungle gym from Lean In.
“It zigs and zags in a lateral move and up a move, and maybe a move that wasn’t so great,” Goldstein says. “I had to get off the jungle gym because I had two kids. My career really was like that.”
Early on, she was a stockbroker working with other women in law and accounting to build a clientele from scratch. From there, political work seemed “really cool,” so Corky networked to find a post with young Bill Scranton’s—unsuccessful—campaign for governor.
“I made so many contacts that ended up being extremely, extremely beneficial,” she says. “Keep your contacts close to you,” she advises.
One of those contacts became chief of staff for Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, which led to Goldstein’s appointment to head the state Department of Commerce and Economic Development’s Entrepreneurial Assistance Office.
Goldstein won the job to head CREDC in 2001. Immediately, her philosophy of finding the right people to educate her on any task came in handy. To help Dura-Bond Pipe occupy 57 acres of former Bethlehem Steel property in Steelton, she learned the complexities of industrial-site remediation. “You want me to clean up what?” she wondered. But she persisted, and the project that created 250 jobs remains among her proudest accomplishments.
“You cannot do this yourself,” she says. “You have to have buy-in from different people. And you have to have those people work with you.”
Before retirement and since, she has worked for causes that are central to her family and interests. She was board treasurer and helped write a five-year plan for Harrisburg Academy, where her daughters attended school. She recently rejoined the Jewish Federation of Harrisburg board “because of the prominent issues that our communities face.” She supports JumpStreet, the Harrisburg arts facilitator, because the arts attract young talent eager to experience “a whole look and feel of a cultural community.”
She also “thoroughly enjoys” her part-time retirement job, identifying economic development opportunities for Mid Penn Bank. She has had, she says, “a really, really great career.”
“It’s not as much the product you’re trying to offer, but it is about the relationship,” she says. “I seem to have made my way into areas I really didn’t think, especially for a woman, would be available to me. I kept advancing my skill set, and everything worked out.”
Gareth V. “Lefty” Biser
Building character throughout tragedy
By Karen Hendricks | Photo by Jeremy Hess
Not only did Gareth “Lefty” Biser, 81, of Gettysburg serve as an athletic trainer and a professor of health/physical education for more than 40 years at Gettysburg College (1959-1987), but his summers were filled with volunteer and part-time work for the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado; the Washington Redskins; the Baltimore Colts; and Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ (FCA) camps nationwide.
Additionally, he served as head athletic trainer for the Big 33 Pennsylvania High School Football All-Star Classic for 12 years. “My first quarterback was Joe Namath (in 1964), and my last quarterback was Joe Montana (in 1976), and in between I had the privilege of seeing a lot of great high school athletes come through Pennsylvania,” Biser recalls.
In the early 1970s, Biser met Herman Boone and Bill Yoast, high school football coaches of the T. C. Williams Titans, a Virginia high school team being racially integrated—a real-life story later made popular by the movie “Remember the Titans.” Biser served as the Titans’ athletic trainer during summer camps at Gettysburg College from 1971-1974. “As they began to practice and play, the training room was like a blood bath due to the fighting that took place some days,” Biser says.
“Boone was an outstanding coach, able to bring together such divisive forces—T.C. Williams won the Virginia championship. He was a real influence on me. I learned that if you can function together as a football program, you can function that way in life—it’s a powerful message.”
Biser’s career path—his passion for sports, athletes and faith—created an incredible nationwide network of contacts and friends. And they came to his rescue, providing life-changing advice, when he needed it most.
His life was forever altered in 1985 when his sons Chris and Kyle, living in California in their 20s, were killed, along with Chris’ fiancée, in a horrific 15-car accident. A tractor-trailer carrying flattened vehicles destined for a scrapyard lost its load on an overpass, spilling its cargo onto the freeway below. “The next several days were the most difficult days of my life,” Biser recalls.
“I realized if I didn’t get past it, the loss would eat my heart away,” Biser says. His church Bible study, on the book of Job, was extremely helpful.
Another pivotal event was a conversation with fellow FCA colleague Tom Landry, then coach of the Dallas Cowboys. “He said to me, ‘Lefty, how’s your character? These situations either build or break your character.’ He read the first several verses of Romans, chapter 5, which talk about suffering producing perseverance, which produces character, which produces hope, which leads us to the Holy Spirit.”
Biser began publicly speaking about the healing power of positivity, faith and forgiveness nearly two years after the accident, and he’s still going strong. His next engagement is this spring, for the Harrisburg Christian Businessmen, more than 30 years later.
“In tragedy, God always visits us, and we can choose whether losses turn our lives in a negative or positive way,” Biser explains.
“Athletics teach us real life lessons,” says Biser. “And loss [not only in athletics, but in life] is an opportunity to build character.”
