Virginia Mangold (2019)
Ginny Mangold was born to Vincent and Anna (Marino) Eufemia in a quiet town in northern New Jersey. During summers, the family vacationed in upstate New York, staying at a local family boarding house in Norton Hill known as Lena Bishop’s. During WWII, her parents relocated to the country, moving to Creamery Road, South Westerlo in 1945. Further work on the old farmhouse resulted in the restaurant we know today as Vince Anna’s Restaurant.
Ginny enjoyed 4-H with Marion Blasidell and Priscilla Palmer, and she admits to being a good student, graduating with the GCS Class of 1954. Her enjoyment and skills in bookkeeping and stenography led to jobs with New York Telephone in the Commercial Department (Ginny thanks one of her teachers, Muriel Harding Falkey.)
She would marry fourth grade sweetheart Robert Mangold in 1956 and raised five children: Rob, Kim, Jeff, Michael & PattiAnn, with twelve grandchildren and four great-grandchildren to follow.
Ginny left the phone company during the family years, but continued work at her family's restaurant, as well at the Pioneer Insurance Company, and then for 15+ years at the Greenville Central School, first as an aide in Elementary Office and then as Administrative Assistant with the Special Ed Department and Director Pam Again-Smith.
A side job, real estate, became a full-time job and Ginny went on to create Virginia Mangold Realty in 2001 and expanding her perspective of the Greenville area. Her husband Bob and daughter PattiAnn joined her later on.
If this were all, Ginny would be a valued and active member of the community. But it is other activities that burnish Ginny’s service star.
Ginny was invited to join the Greenville Rotary Club in 1989, the first woman in Greenville Rotary. She served the Rotary community for more than 20 years, assisted the Interact Club, and was instrumental in raising funds for the Four Corners clock.
Virginia has served on the Town of Westerlo Zoning Board of Appeals Commission since 1987, assisting in establishing the Towns’ first Zoning Law in 1989, and continuing today as its Chairperson.
Another major community service saw her involvement with All Arts Matter, teaming up with friend and artistic director, Tony DeVito, AAM offered plays, theatre, major concerts and children’s events in the former Presbyterian Church next to the Greenville Library for twenty years, suspending their efforts only for major repairs needed to the building.
Her passion for her community led Ginny to join the Greenville’s Beautification Committee (GBC) in 2003, an organization she still serves. Ginny is proud of GBC’s success in group grant writing, leading to funding for projects such as the establishment of Prevost Hall (the former All Arts Matter building). She looks forward to Prevost Hall becoming a viable asset to the community.
Ginny has watched and overseen, with other caring members of GBC, an “old fashioned Colonial town undergoing major improvements. We still have a way to go,” she explains, “but it will happen;we just have to be determined and hopefully it happens in my lifetime.”
This optimism and determination has marked Ginny Mangold throughout her lifetime, serving as an inspiration to many and reminding the Greenville community of the asset they have in Ginny.
Ginny Mangold, the Greenville Local History Group is proud to recognize your lifetime accomplishments for our town.
- by Don Teator, Greenville Town Historian