By Bob Shullman
At the May 4 meeting of the Retired Men’s Association, the RMA, Gregory Zuckerman was scheduled to discuss his book, A Shot to Save the World, that takes us inside the top secret laboratories, corporate clashes and high-stakes government negotiations that led to the development of effective Covid vaccines. Unfortunately, this discussion had to be rescheduled to August because Gregory was sidelined by Covid and could not make his presentation. In its place, the RMA in this article is focusing on one of its members, Joe Dowling, who has lived in Old Greenwich with his family for more than 40 years and has been an RMA member for more than five years. Why? Joe had to become an adapter in 1952 when he was only 13 years old because a different pandemic was ravaging the United States at that time. It wasn’t Covid, the pandemic that we are fighting today; it was polio and Joe unfortunately had come down with polio. Joe fortunately survived polio after spending six months in a hospital ward with other young men who were in iron lungs. He then had to learn how to get around with leg braces and crutches. Despite the fact that there were only a few partly functional muscles throughout his hips and legs, Joe had no plans of needing cumbersome tools such as braces and crutches to get around in the future. In fact, Joe’s mind was quite made up—he would walk again someday. There were many hardships Joe had to overcome. Over time, he learned to tough it out in a world not yet made accessible to people with disabilities. He had to adapt and become an adapter, doing what individuals who are not handicapped do but in a slightly different way.
One of the many sports that Joe has participated in over the 70 years since polio entered his life is pickleball, a fast-growing sport, which he plays twice a week in Greenwich with those RMA members who are also pickleballers. Joe plays pickleball while sitting in a wheel chair and under the rules of the game, he is what is now called an “adaptive” player. When Joe needs time to get to the ball to return it, he gets up to two bounces to return it to the other players, while the other players get one bounce to return the ball. All the other rules of the games are the same for everyone who plays. In fact, Joe is such a talented, adaptive player, he recently participated in the Minto US OPEN Pickleball Championships in late April in Naples, Florida, where he was one of more than 2000 players in the tournament. Plus he won a Gold Medal in the division in which he played. In addition to playing pickleball with RMAers who enjoy the game all year, Joe also enjoys attending the weekly meetings with the many other members who enjoy interacting with other men similar to themselves. Joe also plays hearts once a week, one of the many activities the RMA provides to its 200+ members as well as to the community.
At the RMA this upcoming Wednesday, May 18, at 11 a.m. Ed Hajim will be discussing his life starting out as an orphan in his book, On the Road less Traveled: An Unlikely Journey from the Orphanage to the Boardroom. Hajim’s story is an improbable one of being bounced from foster homes to orphanages after his father left him to go to sea as a radio operator. Ultimately, however, he came to live the American dream as an accomplished Wall Street executive, proud father of three, grandfather of eight and charitable benefactor to a world which seemed intent on rejecting him. You are invited to be inspired by a real-life Horatio Alger this Wednesday at 11 a.m.
This conversation will be available to interested individuals on a webinar at: https://bit.ly/30IBj21 .This presentation will also be available on the local public access TV Channels, Verizon FIOS channel 24 and Optimum (Cablevision) channel 79.
RMA speaker presentations are generally presented weekly as a community service at no cost to in-person or Zoom attendees. The RMA does request that all eligible individuals consider becoming a member of our great organization, and thereby enjoy all the available fellowship, volunteer and community service opportunities that the RMA offers to its members. For further information, visit www.greenwichrma.org or contact Joe Mancinelli (mailto:jmancinelli@optonline.net) or Peter Stern (mailto:membership@RMA.org).
