McGonigal Walks Out on Hollywood

Robert J. McGonigal of Kendall, N.Y., recently completed his first year of retirement from Eastman Kodak at Rochester, N.Y. where he had worked as a line mechanic in the production of bulk film stock for thousands of major Hollywood movies.

Recruited almost providentially at 21 by Kodak after graduating from the automotive program at Delhi Agricultural and Technical College, Bobby completed 34 years at the company, enabling him to accept a buyout at the age of 55.

Bobby's departure marks an ongoing corporate purge, which has seen his company diminished from a sustained workforce of some 60,000 to a mere 10,000 or so, with further cutbacks anticipated. The once bustling complex has been reduced in many sections to an almost desolate sprawl of building after building silenced and shuttered as Kodak downsizes to keep pace with overseas competition and cutthroat off-shore production costs, which in some cases are government subsidized.

Bobby has spent much of his first year of retirement at home with his family and indulging himself with his hobbies of off-road and highway motorcycling, fishing and hunting large and small game with his 12-gauge Remington pump or with bow and arrow. Not long he ago returned from a three-week adventure seeking elusive, 1,200-pound elk in Colorado.

Bobby and his family each summer visit historic Cooperstown, where his son Kyle McGonigal, 27, works security during induction week at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Kyle works for the Buffalo Bills during football season, and is on a first-name basis with quarterback Trent Edwards, running back Marshawn Lynch and other stars.

Continuing to work as a secretary at State University of New York at Brockport is Bobby's wife Mary McGonigal, easily the most beautiful debutant ever to emerge from Portlandville. Come to think of it, she is the only debutant ever to emerge from Portlandville.

Bobby and Mary were Milford High School sweethearts, and have known one another since childhood, as Bobby's boyhood home in Milford Center is just a short jaunt to Portlandville.

Bobby is the son of the late James McGonigal, plant superintendent at State University of New York at Oneonta, and the late Emilie Fieg McGonigal, who was an avid gardener, cook, antique collector and doll maker.

When Bobby was a toddler, the family's 1825 homestead was memorable for its black cast iron wood stove on which his mother prepared all the family meals, an original, old-time, wooden, handcranked magneto wall telephone, and even a two-hole indoor privy (which had been replaced by indoor plumbing sometime previously).

In Milford Center Bobby can still be remembered as Teedee, the name his playmates gave him after hearing his mother addressing him as such. Teedee is how you say "Sweetie" in baby talk. Please be advised that it is no longer permissible to call him Teedee.