COMMENTARY | JOE BUTKIEWICZ: Edmund Poggi’s commitment to community lives on as a challenge to all of us | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton PA

AFTER 25 years in the newspaper business, I had the chance to revisit a basic skill set last week – I wrote an obituary.

This wasn’t the old-fashioned typing a faxed release or even cleaning up an e-mail – the way most death notices arrive these days. I was writing from scratch after my father-in-law, Edmund Poggi, died on Thursday, March 6.

Edmund lived to be 96. Even though I’d known him for 20 years, when the time came to sum up his life, I had that wave of surprise that washes over local newspaper readers every day. They open the “morning sheet” – Ed’s old-fashioned slang for the paper – scan the obituary pages for names of people they know and have the bittersweet surprise of learning more about friends and acquaintances than they thought they knew.

Edmund had that full life that overflows an obit. Family, hobbies, service overseas during war … the accumulation of a life in a community. He was a successful businessman with a career longer than the average lifespan. He worked in the real estate business in Luzerne County from 1933 until 2004, first for the Howell and Jones Co. and then as owner of the company. Many say that during his heyday, Edmund’s company was one of, if not the most, prominent in the area. He served as president of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Board of Realtors and director of the Pennsylvania Realtors Association.

The real estate profession is a competitive business. I was pleasantly surprised during viewing hours to see the tremendous turnout by real estate brokers and agents who paid their respects to Edmund. They were former competitors or people who now run the competing firms, from Kevin Smith and Dave Hourigan, to Rhea Simms and her daughter Virginia Rose, Bob Kopec, Joe O’Connor, Eileen Malone, Pat Busch, Buddy Rothstein and Agnes Rundle and dozens of others. The Realtors showed heart and should stand tall.

At the same time he was running a business, Edmund also was involved with the chamber of commerce, the industrial fund, the Wyoming Valley Council of Churches, Planned Parenthood, Wilkes College, the United Way, the Home for Homeless Women … I could go on, but this would turn into an obit.

Edmund cared about the community and was involved with a tremendous number of organizations, often at the expense of time with his family. But he made an impact. He made a difference. Maybe that’s one reason a nonagenarian’s viewing had a couple hundred people paying their respects.

Edmund set a great example that seems difficult to follow. The world appears to move faster. There are challenges to be more places, do more things, multiplied by the number of children in the family. We place expectations on ourselves, often at the expense of contributing to the community. I can’t fathom putting in the time Edmund did, but I can’t fathom how the community would have come this far if Edmund – and scores like him – hadn’t made the sacrifice to make this a better place.

Edmund, I am told, implored his employees and agents to give – one and all – to the United Way and the agencies that came before it. There are more than a few cynics who resist giving to charity because they don’t want their money to pay for administrators. Edmund knew, however, that the agencies couldn’t operate without management to make sure the good work got done. Just as all those community agencies couldn’t move forward without volunteers to man the phones, raise the money and serve on boards to give direction and advice.

In an old scrapbook I found a Wyoming Valley United Fund newsletter, the “Narrator,” published in the summer of 1970. In it Edmund is quoted as saying: “Let’s be the community with a responsive and responsible heart; let’s be the Fair Share givers, each within our own capacity. Let’s get involved, and make this Wyoming Valley a better place in which to live.”

Like many men and women of his time Edmund did his fair share and more, setting an example for the rest of us. That’s a legacy the people of this community are challenged to match: be a fair share giver, not just of money but of time and self. And for what better cause than the community we share?