Lou Lefevre

I was born 62 years ago and grew up in Western New York between Rochester and Buffalo.  Three of my four surviving siblings and my mother still live in that area.

I have two children, both daughters, and three grandchildren.  All of my descendants live in a small community in Northern New Hampshire about 50 miles away from the Canadian border.

I was a civilian employee of the US Army for 30 years. I got my MBA from Rutgers-Camden in 1983.  I did budgeting, accounting, and business management.  As Business Manager for the Directorate of Public Works at Fort Hamilton, NY, I had my first exposure to the landlord business.  I worked deals, made bills, and collected rents from about 20 different government organizations, most of whom had some connection with the Army.  Most of our buildings were around 50,000 square feet (roughly twice the size of 439-451 South Broad Street).  The post's total floor space was a little less than 1.5 million square feet.

Usually my professional life as a resource manager for the Army did not mesh too well with my spiritual life as a convert to the Religious Society of Friends, one of America's best-known pacifist groups. But it certainly made life interesting.  I actually volunteered for extra assignments (such as "Equal Employment Opportunity counselor) that were more in tune with Friends' beliefs, and would work my fanny off to try to get folks whom "the system" was abusing the best possible deal from it.  I got pretty good at it with the result that I was given the "tough cases"--some of my counselees were actually mentally ill.  Friends also support efforts to democratize their workplaces.  I took every opportunity available to democratize the bureaucracy, and in the process got a MS in Quality Management in 1995. I retired from the Army as soon as I could in 2006 because I could not stand to see our little historic post in Brooklyn, NY drained of its resources to support the unjustified and unending war in Iraq.

I have always loved the arts, especially music.  I have sung in a number of choruses, and currently sing with the Arbeiter Maenner und Damen Chor in Hamilton Township.  I sang Italian, French, and English madrigals with a group of seven other voices for Mary Roebling's eightieth birthday celebration.  I have also acted in a number of plays including "Our Town", a dramatic reading of Dylan Thomas's "A Child's Christmas in Wales", "The Tryal of William Penn and William Meade" and "On Fronting Slopes", a civil war piece.

I first set foot in Trenton on September 7, 1976, and have always been amazed at how, despite its poverty and dinginess, the city always maintains a cultural life.