Gary Passmore, who has spent several years working with the Congress of California Seniors, was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania “on the cutting edge of the Baby Boomer generation.” He moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, when he was three, and since then, has “never gotten rid of the Texas twang in my speaking voice.” Read on to learn more about Passmore.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. It was something that I lost some years ago. When I was a senior in high school, I went on a hunting trip with my dad. I shot a ten point whitetail buck, and my parents had it mounted. I owned it for years, and it was the possession I had the longest. But several years back, I had a house fire, and it was destroyed because it was over the mantel.
Q. What promise do you make to yourself that you break the most often?
A. That I will lose 20 pounds.
Q. What should you throw away but haven’t been able to part with?
A. A lot of old clothes that I don’t fit into anymore, and every time my daughter comes to visit me she screams that I need to get rid of some of my books, I have thousands.
Q. What teacher or professor changed your life?
A. Dr. Edith Parker. She was a history professor and had, as a young woman, gone to Washington D.C. and worked for a senator. She met Franklin Roosevelt and actually was in the room when the declaration of war against Japane was drafted. She had a handwritten early draft of it – in Roosevelt’s hand – on the wall of her apartment. She made history come alive for me.
Q. If you were about to be executed, what would you want for your final meal?
A. Thanksgiving turkey dinner.
Q. What is the best gift you have ever received?
A. I have an only child who is 30-plus years old now. Her mom and I divorced many years ago, and a few years ago my ex-wife found a picture that my daughter had drawn of me in kindergarten. She had it framed and sent to me.
Q. When was the last time you felt inspired?
A. I get inspired by the people I work with and for. I’m an advocate for seniors. I was at a function here in Los Angeles where a 96-year-old man was out fighting for causes he had worked on all his life. When you’re around people like that, who have passion and energy, you realize, boy, why would you ever want to retire?
Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. I like to laugh.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?
A. A medieval Dominican monk named Meister Eckhart. He led a reform movement in the Catholic Church that was essentially based on Hinduism and mysticism, and he was one of the first really storng people to advocate for women’s rights.
To read about Passmore’s panel on long term care, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.