Gerry as Ezra

Gerry is a volunteer at the Living History Museum in Homer/Cortland.  It is through that association that he was invited to participate in a lecture series there, and he appeared today as Ezra Cornell.

He told Ezra's story in first person.  The presentation lasted an hour.  It was thorough and excellent.  Gerry was convinced that there would not be anyone there, but in fact he had a really good audience, and they enjoyed it.  The museum has a very nice lecture room where the seats are slanted upward, and the lecturer is at the bottom, and can be seen easily by all.

As I was driving home, thinking about all that Ezra had shared about his life,  it struck me just how much Gerry actually has in common with Ezra Cornell.

 They both grew up on a farm and lived a hard scrabble life and worked hard all their lives.  They both had/have had a life long love affair with agriculture.  They both have always been interested in and intrigued by the mechanical arts and how things work.  Ezra invented many things.  Throughout his career, so did Gerry,  from a cabbage harvester,  to a better way to detect bruises when harvesting apples, to improving the process for coating peanut M&M's.   (Not to mention all the many things he has made or taken apart or fixed or built over the course of his life, from patios to decks,  to water lines, to vacuums, to lawn mowers, to motors,  to cars, to a house and on and on and on the list goes.)

There were two other things that I heard Ezra talk about that reminded me of Gerry.  When Ezra talked about his wife Mary Anne,  he always had a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face. (Both Ezra and Gerry found their wives in Dryden!)

And in Ezra's later years,  he had some frustrations trying to put together an agricultural museum at the University he founded.   It never seemed to catch on and develop the way Ezra Cornell envisioned.

Gerry Rehkugler has spent his years as a professor emeritus trying to collect and re-assemble the items from the original agricultural museum,  many of which have been scattered and lost.   He has also restored many of the model plows that were housed in the original collection.  He also has had frustrations in finding a permanent home for the miniature plow collection.

So not only did I get an excellent view into the life of Ezra Cornell,  but I also discovered how many things Ezra has in common with my husband!