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| Kathy Raymond, Mark Duffy and Linda Hughes. |
Today is the first official day of my retirement. The last three days have been filed with celebration beginning with a wonderful retirement party shared by Linda Hughes, Kathy Raymond and myself.
Together we racked up over 90 years of service with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, THE best public agency in the country. We were all proud to have served there and we put our heart and souls into the job. For those of you who are not aware, our headquarters was the World Trade Center. As a result, we had the improbable distinction of experiencing two terrorist attacks, surviving and working with our colleagues to rebuild the Agency and our lives.
I had the honor of working with a great boss for the last couple of years, Mary Lee Hannell. She is a spectacular Human Resources Director. She did a wonderful job speaking at our retirement party, thanks Mary Lee. More importantly she does a great job caring about the people who work at the Port Authority and working to make it a better and more productive place to work. Those who would criticize government have no further to look if they want to find a role model for competent intelligent public servants. The future of the Port Authority is in good hands.
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| Mary Lee Hannell and Me at my last official luncheon |
My friends and colleagues at the Port Authority are my second family, and I will miss them dearly. I look forwarding to continuing my relationship with them in my retirement. Harry, Mike and Bob below were with me from the day I began work, nearly 30 years ago.
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| Harry, Pete, Mike, Me and Bob |
I am now speechless, literally. The retirement party at the Manhattan Penthouse on Wednesday night (thanks Charlie, Chantay and Marianne) was followed by a lovely dinner on Thursday at my friend Jonathon Sand's apartment (thanks Lauren and Jon), a lunch at City Crab on Friday with my work buddies, and more celebration throughout Friday afternoon and evening. I have no voice, but I am well and happy with three days to rest before a trip to Texas on Tuesday.
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| Charlie and Me |
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| The Ladies having fun, Kathy, Eileen, MLH |
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| Annette, Stella, Kevin, Brian, Frances and Charlie, Terence where are you? |
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| Serina and Me |
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| My only picture of Chantay there, she's in the blue |
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| Stephanie and Debby |
Thanks to everyone who supported me and helped me to celebrate.
I cannot help but think about how happy my father Jack Francis Duffy III and my mother Betty would have been to see me achieve this milestone and I feel a real sense of gratitude to them and thankfulness to God for being so blessed. Now it is onward to "bag my first summit. This one is for you Dad.
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| My Brother Steve, My father Jack Duffy and Me on his 75th Birthday |
Oh my goodness, your retirement photos are superb. I am so pleased that you had such brilliant time. At the local event venues in NYC my uncle also hosted an outdoor retirement party for his wife and it also turned out to be very enjoyable for all of us.
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