Pat & Dave Elsbree (2015)
Pat and Dave Elsbree have always lived in Greenville, or so it seems, and Greenville has benefitted from the half-century of their residency.
David H. Elsbree was born in 1930 in Cambridge, MA. His family, however, has a long history in Preston Hollow, and that is where David’s father, Hugh, was born, and would visit and vacation and became a connecting point with Greenville.
After a circuitous route, Dave would graduate high school from Middleburgh, NY in 1948, worked summers and odd jobs in the Preston Hollow and Potter Hollow area before working at the Stevens Farm Store (1953-1957) and then at Pioneer Insurance Company (1957-1995).
Meanwhile, Patricia E. McCabe was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, moving to St. Albans, NY before moving to Oak Hill, NY with her grandparents, attending the one room schoolhouse on Fish Road and graduating from Middleburgh, NY. She worked for NYS and took courses from Columbia-Greene.
Dave and Pat married on November 25, 1949 and lived in Albany and then Preston Hollow (ten years) before their eventual move to Greenville in October, 1961, buying the D. H. Rundell house on Rt 81 where they lived until 2001.
They would have six children between 1950 and 1965: Christiané, Ken, Jeff, David Andrew, Wayne, and Steven; and 19 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren grace their lives.
Dave still found time to volunteer and share. He:
Managed Little League and Babe Ruth Leagues teams in the late 1960s and early 1970s
Served as a member of the Youth Council about 1970
Served as a member of the Greene County Planning Board for several years in the 1970s
Was a member of the Greenville Fire Company and the Rescue Squad
Has been a member of The Methodist Church of Greenville-Norton Hill since 1963
Served as a Director of The National Bank of Coxsackie from about 1976 until 2005
Has delivered meals for the Greene County Department of the Aging since 2001
Was an active Red Cross blood platelets and/or plasma donor for most of the last twenty years
Yet, as much as Dave has done, he quickly defers to Pat’s contributions.
Pat worked part-time at Bryant’s and then became one of the first teacher aides in the Greenville Elementary School. She worked at GCS full time in the Reading Lab until a family accident in 1975. Pat worked for Parent Aides for Greene County, retiring in 1988.
In 1975, Dave and Pat’s son Jeff suffered a severe accident, and Pat’s earlier work with the Bryants led her to pattern (teams of five people coordinating the manipulation of Jeff’s limbs and head). After two years of tireless work, and with the help of 147 neighbors and friends, Pat and Dave realized their hopes that Jeff could walk and function.
In between, Pat found time to:
Served several years on the town election board.
Helped start the Area Council Churches Next-To-New Thrift Shop when it was in the shop where Cumberland Farms is now. It moved several times and ended in the Old Legion Hall.
Served as a member of the Greenville Volunteer Fire Company-Ladies Auxiliary
Served as an EMT on the first Rescue Squad
Was voted, along with Shirley Abrams, Concordia Circle’s Outstanding Young Women of 1965
Is a member of the Greenville Quilters
Is a member and officer of the Clematis Garden Club, working with Community Partners with the plantings in the village park and the Town of Greenville.
Helped with the founding of the Medical Center in Greenville when Dr. Bott retired (Pat had read in a magazine how a small village rallied to build a new medical center in their town; she passed that idea to others)
Helped with Meal on Wheels, the Old-Timers dinner, organizing the Red Cross blood drives, 4H, Cub Scouts, GCS school activities
Helped neighbors and elderly with meals and everyday chores
Served the United Methodist Church of Greenville-Norton Hill: committees, Administrative Board, choir, Sunday School teacher, lay delegate, Elliot House Thrift Shop, Caring team (home visits, hospital calls, driving people to doctors, baby sitting and other chores), and United Methodist Women member (holding many offices on the local, district and conference levels since 1962).
Worked with the group who helped Garth and Terry Bryant pattern their son Michael
Thus, the GLHG recognizes Pat and Dave Elsbree, as a couple, and as individuals, for a lifetime of influence, neighborliness, and friendship in our community.
- by Don Teator, Greenville Town Historian