Page 23 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 1 Fall 2012

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It’s 2012 – an election year – so it’s inevitable that
Michalis has national politics on his mind as well. Despite
the modest way he describes his job, he is, after all, part
of the government hierarchy, though he asserts that he
doesn’t “vote for party lines, I vote for people and ideas.”
He references two figures in particular: Senator William
Bora from Idaho and former Senate Majority Leader Robert
Taft of Ohio. Unlike the politicos of today’s world, these
men, he says, stood by their convictions. Michalis notes
that Taft, who formulated the Taft-Hartley Act – legislation
that limited the powers of the Labor Movement – was con-
tinuously reelected by a powerful union state. “They knew
that when [Taft] talked, he talked with conviction and
people knew exactly where he stood,” Michalis says. “I’m
afraid today’s politicians are not that transparent; you never
really quite know what they believe. They adjust their dia-
logue to what is most appropriate to get them reelected.”
One of the biggest changes in Michalis’s tenure is the
dawn of the 24/7- news cycle. Cable news channels and
political talking heads are “phenomena that have changed
the whole complexion of politics,” says Michalis. As both
parties vie for unquestioned loyalty from their respective
constituencies, he says, the finesse of deal-making has
become a calculated political gamble. When everything
gets put under a microscope, the collegiality seemingly
disappears for fear of being castigated by constituent bases.
“I think people today are worried that the media are
going to give them a black eye with their constituents,”
Michalis says. “The truly great leader doesn’t give a damn
about that. He believes in what he believes in, and if you
don’t like it, don’t support me.”
The history of our country, Michalis notes, has always
been one of centrist beliefs. The extreme political factions
of today have derailed the notion of the mutual respect,
friendship, and bi-partisanship of a functional government
system. “Any idiot who wants to go into national politics
deserves what happens to him,” Michalis says. “All the
dirt and mudslinging that goes on, and the incredible
amount of money that gets thrown around, is just crazy.”
The Obama and Romney campaigns broke records this
year, with both campaigns surpassing the $1 billion mark
in contributions. “Why waste all that money?” Michalis asks.
He cites the escalating student-loan debt. “If some of that
money somehow were used to subsidize higher educa-
tion, to me, it would be a hell of a lot more constructive.”
The 90-year-old is a throw-
back, a politician driven to help
others for the sake of helping
others. The title of mayor just
happens to be a circumstance
of his job, not a title he relishes
talking about, but one he plans
to hold onto as long as he can.
ment of visible house numbers on the outside of resi-
dential properties after firefighters couldn’t locate a
burning home. In compliance with New York State law
that required more communication with state residents,
Michalis and his team also implemented a town website.
Communication seems to be the main component of
being mayor, more than politicking.
According to Michalis, being mayor isn’t politicking at
all. It’s hardly even a job, when you’ve got the right team.
“The big test of whether the guy is doing the job right is
that they’re willing to make decisions on their own and
then call you, rather than call you and ask you to make
the decision.”
During his 40th anniversary as mayor, the village
honored Michalis at the Bailey Arboretum. When asked
to identify the accomplishment of which he was most
proud, he said, “Getting Gail Wickes to chair the board
for the Arboretum.”
If a job is all he’s interested in, it’s never been for poli-
tical reasons. The lifelong New Yorker and Harvard gradu-
ate never considered his pursuits as anything other than
a duty to others, a sentiment he’s carried with him all his
life. He was commissioned during World War II and boarded
a Navy vessel the same day. It’s only recently that people
have begun to ask him about the experience, as if young
people, he says, suddenly have an interest in talking about
“these sorts of things.”
Why would people want to know? His father, a historian
and one-time chairman of the Museum of the City of New
York, instilled many of the values that Michalis has em-
ployed in his own professional and private pursuits – from
his time as CFO of Bristol-Meyers Squibb, to his many
philanthropic efforts as board president of the Nassau
County Museum of Art. His mother died in 1933 and
Michalis’s father assumed many roles in the household,
raising four children and finding time to work with local
philanthropies. “That was his life,” Michalis says. “I asked
him when he was about 70 years old, ‘Dad, why don’t you
take it easy?’ I’ve quoted his reply many times since: ‘If
you should be so fortunate as to reap the material rewards
that a successful business career can give you, then you
ought to pay it back to society.’”
St. Paul’s also imparted values to Michalis through
lessons of service and good will. Back in the late 1930s,
Father Bartrip, an SPS parishioner at the time, traveled
throughout rural New Hampshire, volunteering to lead
services for congregations with no permanent minister.
Bartrip often brought Michalis and other students with
him to help. The congregations, Michalis recalls, were
small, “in a tiny church on a dirt road, maybe several
miles off the main road.” The memories linger. “It was a
great experience for a young guy to be exposed to the
Christian ideals of serving communities,” Michalis says.
SERVANT