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01/11/2023 08:30 AMConstant upward mobility has been a fixture in the life of Lucille Finkel, who can encapsulate such a direction considering the changing nature of automobiles.
“I remember growing up, to start the car, you had to crank it,” she says. “Today, you start the car from the house! How much more progress can you make?”
Lucille, who is 98 years old, saw all kinds of progress during her careers at telecommunications and technology companies such as Armstrong and IBM, seeing gargantuan manual machines give way to desk-size computers. She characterized non-digital systems as arduous beasts akin to Rube Goldberg machines.
“I worked until I was 80, and every time I had a job it seems the machines were all an improvement when I started with that Rube Goldberg [machine]. They kept updating them, progressing more and more, until we came to the computer.”
Lucille was born and raised in the Annex neighborhood of New Haven, attending Ross Woodward and Fair Haven schools. Although she was only at the latter for one academic school year, their message was her biggest takeaway from her experience there:
“I’ll always remember the motto: ‘Enter to learn, go forth to serve.’ To this day, I always remember that.”
Going forth to serve and progress is the name of the game for Lucille, who took that message to her current position as secretary for the volunteer group Angels by the Shore, which formed following the closing of St. Clare Church.
“We had a beautiful ladies guild, we did a lot, and that’s what it’s composed of, mostly,” she says. “But then outsiders joined. The Fire [Department] were very gracious. They gave us one day a month [at the firehouse] to meet.”
When Lucille was a member of St. Clare prior to its closing, she joined the active ladies guild with a determined mindset, not just to be another volunteer. Because to truly serve in any organization, one has to strive for the highest level possible.
“I always felt when you were a part of something, you had to get to the top,” Lucille says. “I was vice president [of the guild]. Or it doesn’t count. A lot of people don’t want to be president.”
“I feel if I’m in something, I want to be in it, and I want to be on the top. That’s where I want to be,” she says. “What’s life if you’re not accomplishing something?”
With the Angels, she is engaged in community work which can involve helping out at the Food Pantry or assisting school children whose families may be facing financial difficulties. They illuminated their message of giving light to the community by putting up a decorated Christmas tree on the Town Beach. Lucille says she and the rest of the Angels are more than willing to assist those in East Haven, “if there’s anything we can help out on.”
Her consistent work does not stop at the Angels, as Lucille is also an active member of the Harry R. Bartlett Post 89 chapter of the American Legion, where she has been involved for around 55 years. Her long-standing presence at the Legion stems from a familial connection to the American armed forces.
“My husband, John, was a first lieutenant. He got the Purple Heart. My brother was in the service too, and my dad was in the Navy years ago, too,” she says. “I have always been much in favor of the American Legion for what they’ve done.”
Given her decades-long experience at the Post, she has seen the camaraderie and compassion between veterans from both the first and second world wars.
“You never saw more devoted men as there were from World War II,” she says. “They were a very close group. There was always something going on. Their hearts and souls were into it. I was familiar with a lot of members from World War I because they were still alive. The ladies auxiliary was very active. When the Legion had anything, that place was packed with units from all over. 89 was always a big hit.”
Lucille has always kept close to her heart those experiences of being around the men who fought and protected the United States and others in two of the world’s greatest conflicts and being with the supportive, participatory women’s wing.
“We just all had such a good time. Knowing what the men went through, it was like a family. They enjoyed being together, they were like brothers,” she says. “Everyone got along beautifully. The Auxiliary was always active too. Back then we had conventions in Hartford, and you had the most beautiful time.”
Lucille credits her constant state of business, professionally or personally, as the primary reason for reaching nearly a century in age. But she does not consider the number attached to her lifespan as a defining trait, especially when all that one can do is to keep themselves occupied and not let time slow their motion down. Even when she is knitting or doing any other kind of arts and crafts project, it’s never a slow activity, but with a purpose.
“Just keep going, I don’t think about it as an age,” she says. “I never really put my age in anything. I just did what I was comfortable doing. Never belittle yourself. Get up and do it, don’t think about it.”