Bob DeLuca is like one of those enduring, beautiful old trees that are mercifully still left to grace the landscape and ease the eye out here. Like them, he has survived storms, pestilence and the relentless attack of the developers’ ax [“Group For The East End Celebrates 50 Years Of Advocacy,” 27east.com, June 2].
As a steady hand and president of the Group for the East End, he has remained a voice of reason, often soft-spoken, a tireless worker for environmental and aesthetic sanity, intelligent and knowledgeable, gracious under the provocations of eye-squinting morons: a zoolologist being hectored by baboons splayed out on a dais.
He is philosophical when defeated, but he is never defeated in his perseverance, and he soldiers on with a humility leavened by a wonderful sense of humor. He is patient with people who never bother to educate themselves to the ways of regulation and bureaucracy, then waste his time and buzz around his head like gnats when they need help for something affecting them. Moreover, he answers his phone or returns calls always.
I am sure his wife could identify some flaws. I can’t. The East End is fortunate indeed to have — and keep him — advocating here.
The work of the group, and of DeLuca himself, is a godsend. Look also at the wonderful programs for children offered by the Group, in addition to their dedication to protecting the environment. And, this man, for his diligence, grace and endurance in attending so many nasty, boring, enervating, manipulative and preordained municipal meetings and hearings and “sessions” of every description should be awarded sainthood.
Has anyone ever heard him raise his voice? I haven’t in over 30 years of knowing him. He is an inspiration, with his essence traveling down and sprouting roots in a wonderful, committed staff.
Long may this wonderful tree of a man survive.
If you value the protection and the fight he and the Group for the East End wage for all of us against the Greedy Huns of Destruction, feed, mulch and support them with a generous donation: Group for the East End, P.O. Box 1792, Southold, NY 11971.
Frances Genovese
Southampton
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