NY Daily News

 

A union man's union man

Friday, December 19th 2008, 5:27 AM

Richard Magelaner's retirement has been anything but retiring.

The former investigator for the state unemployment insurance office retired in 1999.

Then he got busy:

As PEF retiree committee president, Magelaner, 74, spends most of his time helping retired state workers understand and access the benefits due them - and making sure those benefits stay in place.

Helping former state workers retain benefits is his main concern.

"My problem is helping retirees keep our health benefits and not let the state dip into our funds," Magelaner said. "Twice the state, under Gov. [Mario] Cuomo and Gov. [George] Pataki, tried to dip into our pensions, and twice we beat them in court. We have to save our benefits today. It's a grim period, with crisis after crisis. I know Gov. Paterson is under the gun. But retirees need their money."

Liu describes Magelaner as "a stalwart Democrat who is out there pounding the pavement, spreading the issues and churning out the vote."

Magelaner gets involved in national issues like Social Security and Medicare and state issues such as pensions and pay equity, said Liu. The Flushing councilman praised Magelaner for his work on the local front, engaging people on quality of life issues.

"Richie is at the same time Richie from Queens and a Renaissance man," Liu said. "He has the energy of teenager. I told him not to retire because he would be twice as busy. He retired, and now he's twice as busy."

Magelaner, a former union shop steward, says he "had a lot of hats. Sometimes I think I still have too many hats."

He's worn more than a few professional hats over the years.

Born in the Bronx, on E. 173rd St. near Crotona Park, Magelaner's father, Solomon, was a "starving lawyer" who worked part time as credit manager at a store.

Magelaner attended Public School 61 and Theodore Roosevelt High School. A bit of a jock, he played basketball and was a fine enough ice hockey player to get picked up by the Guelph, Ontario, Junior Aces, the Rangers farm team, when he was 16 years old.

"I was on a pair of skates in Crotona Park when I was 6," he said.

His professional career was short.

"I went to Canada, but we only played on the East Coast, in Toronto and Quebec," he said. "I could never make it because the Canadian skaters were so good, and I was small."

After graduating high school in 1952, Magelaner decided in 1953 to enter the service, enlisting in the Army one week after the Korean War ended.

"When I told my father I was enlisting he told me a Jewish boy does not go into the service, he goes to school to become a doctor, a dentist or a lawyer," Magelaner said. "I figured I had a good chance to get the G.I. Bill [benefits], which I did and it let me go to school."

He spent two years in Germany "defending the borders" as squad leader with a anti-aircraft artillery unit.

"I still recommend that young people go into the service. They teach you a lot about dealing with people," he said.

Back home in 1956, Magelaner enrolled in New York University. It took him "a year of day classes, two and a half years of nights, and three summer schools at night" to gain a degree in accounting and personnel management with a minor in law .

During that time he worked as a margin clerk for a Wall Street firm. After graduation he held a raft of jobs: He was assistant personnel manager for the American Bleach Goods company and Kinney Parking. Magelaner landed a personnel manager gig for a warehouse company in Reno, Nev., but lost it because his wife at the time didn't have friends in Reno and called him at work so often the company let him go.

"My wife was not happy about leaving New York because she left her mother and relatives here," he said. "It was worth a try."

He got his first state job when he returned to the city in 1970 after passing the test to be a claims examiner for Unemployment Insurance Administration.

Magelaner was picked up by the administration's investigations unit, a part of the New York State Department of Labor, where he worked from 1975 until he retired.

As president of the PEF retirees committee Magelaner holds five meetings a year to keep retired members up on anything that might affect their lives and money.

"I have people come from the state attorney general's office to talk about things like fraud and telemarketing," he said. "I get the Police Department to talk about subway safety, and people from the civil service commission to talk about health benefits.

"That's why between 55 and 70 people show up for our meetings," he said. "That, plus I feed them pretty good."