Rochester 55+ 100th Issue!
The People Are the Stories
By Mike Costanza
As a freelance journalist writing for 55-PLUS, I’ve interviewed top journalists, health care executives, CEOs, musicians, academics, artists and an avid photographer who loves the cold. My conversations—that’s what I call my interviews—have yielded countless features and 22 cover stories for the magazine. Here are descriptions of a few of the more interesting pieces that got top billing.
ISSUE #1
Rochester’s Anchorman
Don Alhart regaled me with colorful stories from his more than four decades in television journalism when I interviewed him for 55-PLUS’s inaugural issue in 2009. During that time, he covered the race riots that broke out in Rochester in 1964, the 1971 Attica Prison riot and many other subjects of national, state or local interest. For one story, he went out and interviewed a local woman who was rocking in her rocking chair to raise money for a worthy cause. After coming in from the field Alhart anchored newscasts, presenting serious stories with the appropriate gravity and others with a positive point of view and folksy humor. Those qualities helped Alhart become the most popular news anchor at television station 13WHAM, where he spent most of his career He is a five-time recipient of the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, which is presented for excellence in television news. Alhart was also longtime member and past president of the Rochester Rotary and gave his time and energy to supporting its efforts to benefit the community and to other worthy local causes. Though he retired from television news in 2024 at the age of 80, he continued to be active in the club and the community.
ISSUE #2
At 68, Bank CEO Still Going Strong George Hamlin IV’s enthusiasm and energy had taken him down many paths by the time I interviewed him in 2010. With gusto and wit, he spoke of traveling Europe with the Whiffenpoofs, Yale University’s celebrated a cappella singing group, gaining his private pilot’s license and performing in summer stock productions. After graduating from Yale, Hamlin decided to enlist in the Air Force because, he joked, the Navy rationed its rum. By the time he was discharged he was a decorated captain who had flown 100 combat missions over Vietnam. Hamlin went on to acquire a law degree and worked as an attorney for a prestigious local firm for a number of years before becoming the president and CEO of the Canandaigua National Bank and Trust in 1979. Under his leadership, the Ontario County-based bank nearly doubled its assets, established itself in Rochester and its suburbs and increased its branch numbers. In addition to guiding CNB, Hamlin chaired or sat on the boards of many local nonprofits, including the United Way of Greater Rochester and the University of Rochester Medical Center. He retired in 2023 and died in 2024.
ISSUE # 3
Mary Taylor
Upon first seeing “The She-Wolf,” one of Mary Taylor’s many striking metal sculptures, I almost felt my own hackles rise. Made of steel rods that had been painstakingly welded together, the 150-pound piece seemed to capture the spirit of a fierce timber wolf. Taylor’s Mendon workshop was filled with many evocative depictions of animals on the day I interviewed her for a 2010 55-PLUS cover story, including a nine-foot-tall whooping crane. Her sculpture of a majestic bald eagle graces the Veterans Memorial in Brighton’s Buckland Park. All of those works arose from the award-winning sculptor’s love and extensive knowledge of woodland creatures — she even confessed to an affection for the common crow. In addition to tramping through the outdoors and working in her studio, Taylor played the bagpipes.
ISSUE # 4
Behind the Music
Fred Costello was celebrating his 33rd year of playing the organ at Rochester Red Wings baseball games when I interviewed him in 2010. Costello learned the accordion as a child and by the age of 14 was playing gigs with other young musicians. He eventually took up the organ and spent 11 years on the road playing jazz at the late Frank Sinatra’s Cal-Neva Lodge in Nevada, the Playboy Club in Hollywood and other clubs in Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas. After the Bahamas gig ended, Costello moved with his wife to Rochester and played in local clubs with his band, Fred Costello & Co. In addition to playing jazz, blues and rock numbers at Red Wings games, Costello released several CDs of his music, performed on nationwide radio and television programs and took the stage at numerous jazz festivals with his organ. The avid baseball fan also wrote and published the story of his life, “A Lifetime of Nightclubs & Ballparks.” When Red Wings fans head to the ESL Ballpark this year, they’ll hear Costello on the organ.
ISSUE # 32
Taking on New Challenges
When I interviewed physician Bradford Berk in 2015, he was ready to take on a new role as the founder and director of the University of Rochester Neurorestoration Institute. The RNI develops and uses innovative approaches to try to restore the physical functions of those who have suffered brain or spinal cord damage, or damage to their peripheral nerves. Berk was particularly suited to his new job — in 2009, when he was the CEO of the University of Rochester Medical Center, a cycling accident left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. Though the accident forced him to depend upon a metal frame to stay erect, Berk returned to work in 2010 and remained CEO until 2014. By that time, he’d transformed clinical care at the medical center, overseen the acquisition of Thompson Health and Lakeside Memorial Hospital and presided over the groundbreaking for the new Golisano Children’s Hospital. The divorced father and grandfather also remarried and through treatment and rehabilitation became able to ride a three-wheeled bicycle along the Erie Canal in warm weather.
ISSUE # 32
Evangelist for Science
Adam Frank was a young boy living in Belleville, New Jersey, when he spied his father’s pulp science fiction magazines. Their images of fantastical spacemen, spacewomen and aliens and depictions of other worlds led him to begin looking to the stars. He eventually chose a career in astronomy and became an astrophysicist on the faculty of the University of Rochester. I interviewed him in 2018 just after his newest book, “Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth” had been published. Based on extensive astronomical research, he argued that the universe is home to a “billion trillion” planets that could sustain life, some of which could be suffering the same problems as the Earth, including the effects of climate change. In that context, climate change can be seen as a stage through which a planet and those on it must pass. He asserted that to survive that transition, humans must turn away from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources. The Earth will still be here if we don’t, he argued — but we might not be.
issue # 72
Stress Relief on a Leash
One of the pleasures of covering a community is being able to depict the good that local people do. This 2021 story about Paul and Susan Anthony was a perfect example. After Paul saw how interacting with therapy dogs raised the moods of those who were attending a funeral, the married couple decided to buy a pooch and have him trained to provide such aid. No local nonprofit was willing to train him, so they decided to create their own training organization and in early 2021 used $3,000 of their own money to start RocDog. By the time I interviewed them at the end of that year, they’d hired a certified canine trainer to create and run a training course for therapy dogs. About 30 dogs had already gone through the eight-hour course with their masters, passed their certification tests and began visiting local hospitals, nursing homes and local police department’s headquarters. Even the dispatchers at Monroe County’s 911 Center spent time with the pooches to reduce their stress. RocDog subsequently became a nonprofit and as of this writing has trained 600 therapy dogs.
issue # 98
John Kucko’s Second Act
When I think of the subject of my most recent cover story for 55-PLUS a chill almost runs down my spine. John Kucko loves taking pictures of the outdoors, even when the temperature is way down and the wind is high. In his first career Kucko was a sports reporter or anchor for local television stations and covered everything from local basketball games to Super Bowls. After 32 years with WROC -TV, he left the station in 2016 to become a full-time content creator for his Facebook page, John Kucko Digital. To feed his followers’ desire for content, he arises very early most mornings and travels around Upstate New York capturing striking outdoor scenes and other images for his page. Using cameras, cellphones and even aerial drones, Kucko takes photos and videos of roaring waterfalls, burbling streams, trains, picturesque barns and other beautiful and interesting subjects. He particularly enjoys photographing winter scenes and once braved below zero temperatures and 80-mile-an-hour winds to capture Lake Ontario’s waves assaulting the Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse.
While others might want to avoid such discomforts, Kucko relishes the challenges. I look forward to meeting more people like him and the others I’ve interviewed for 55-PLUS.