Longevity of Kingsley Staff Reflects Culture of Community

 

Jeannie Weber

The year was 1984 and Los Angeles was in the middle of hosting the summer Olympics, when Jeannie Weber, who had just moved to town, took a part-time job as the Kingsley Manor Retirement Community receptionist on the night shift.

Thirty-five years later, Jeannie, who long ago migrated from the front desk, is the director of sales and marketing. “Kingsley has become my second home,” she smiles, looking over at the rose bushes outside her office. “Who could ask for a nicer place to work? And I just fell in love with the residents – they’re my extended family.”

But Jeannie is far from an anomaly among the Kingsley staff. As of this year, the community has 14 team members celebrating 25 years of employment or more.

“I don’t even think of it as work anymore,” said Emyrose Lacuesta, director of health 

Emyrose Lacuesta

services. 

“It’s where I live. It’s where I enjoy being.” Starting her career at Kingsley 31 years ago, Emyrose worked her way up from a part-time charge nurse to director.

“You really get to know the residents, and their families,” she said. “I love that part of it. I miss them when I go on vacation.”

Both Jeannie and Emyrose had a background in their chosen field when they arrived at Kingsley, but for 30-year veteran Angela Pineda, who was still in high school when she started, Kingsley was where she discovered her calling. “I started off working in the dining room part-time,” she said. Later, Angela received her CNA training and was hired in the Care Center. Now, as the life enrichment director for the Care Center she’s found her passion.

“I had no idea when I started here how much I would love coming up with fun, engaging experiences for residents,” Angela said. “I love that I’m contributing to a sense of community. I love the creativity involved.”

“I’m not surprised about the longevity of our employees,” said Executive Director Shaun Rushforth.

“Word gets out that Kingsley Manor is a great place to work and live. We’re a family here.”

Lewis MacAdams: Always Searching for the Impossible

“If it’s not impossible, I’m not interested.”

It’s a phrase that Lewis MacAdams, poet, journalist, filmmaker and activist has become known for over the years. Often repeated by friends and fans, it’s made its way on to tee-shirts and is now forever etched in the base of a seven-foot sandstone sculpture of him overlooking the Los Angeles River - his muse and mission for more than 40 years.  

 

Lewis’ relationship with the LA River dates back to 1985 when an impromptu stroll along its banks led to a vision: that the concrete entombed waterway could once again become a flourishing oasis for wild life and recreation.

 

“Essentially, I asked the river for permission to speak for it in the human realm and the river didn’t say no,” Lewis explained.

 

Since then, Friends of the River, an organization he co-founded, has made significant strides toward returning the river back to a more natural state. “Friends” organized river clean-ups days, community events and has advocated for improved water quality, development of surrounding green spaces and increased neighborhood access.

 

“An unexpected pleasure has come to me knowing just how many people have responded over the years,” Lewis said. In 2017 Friends of the River mobilized 10,000 volunteers to help remove 100 tons of trash.

Lewis’ inclination to tackle the seemingly “impossible,” however, did not start with his mission to revitalize the 48 miles of winding concrete, but has been a guiding principle since childhood, as the son of Civil Rights activists growing up in a sleepy town in west Texas.

Along the way he’s penned dozens of books of poetry, co-directed the documentary What Happened to Kerouac? and has been a contributing writer for Rolling Stone, the LA Times, and Men’s Journal. He is also the acclaimed author of The Birth of Cool: Beat, Bebop and the American Avant Garde. He is currently 200 pages into a memoir project, Poetry and Politics, which he’s working on with historian Michael Block.

 

At Kingsley Manor Retirement Community, a community that attracts many artists, intellectuals and like-minded lovers of the “impossible,” he’s found many kindred spirits, including a few fellow river enthusiasts, who share his desire to connect regularly with the thriving metropolis all around.

His favorite spot, naturally, is Kingsley’s rooftop deck which he visits on a daily basis to take in its expansive view of the city. From the Hollywood sign to the Library Tower downtown to the Pacific just on the horizon, it’s a vista which, like the river, reveals itself slightly differently every day: magnificent, impossible and ever-inspiring.

Resident Voices: The Greatest Generation

By Ed McQuiston, resident at Casa de Mañana

This month we recognize another Casa resident, Albert Fitzpatrick, born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Upon graduating high school in 1943, he knew what he wanted to do – “Fly, rather than walk”. In July he enlisted in the Army Air Corps flight training program and received his wings as a Flight Officer. In New Guinea he flew troop support missions with combat cargo, infantry, and the wounded. Moving on into the Philippines then Okinawa and, eventually, Japan, he flew B-25, B-26, B-17, and cargo aircraft until 1946, when he returned home.

He remained in the Air Force active reserve in Long Beach, CA, attending USC, where he received a Bachelors degree in Business, then a Masters degree in Business Administration. Recalled in the Korean war, he flew C-47 aircraft in a weather squadron for a year.

Subsequent tours of duty included teaching Air Force ROTC classes at Baylor University in Business and Economics while he earned a Master of Science in Economics; then for one year study at the Air Force Institute of Technology; AF Contract Representative to the North American and Douglas Aircraft Manufacturers; After receiving a PhD. In Economics from USC, he taught economics classes for six years at the Air Force Academy. After 24 years, he retired from the Air Force in 1966 as a Major, with 6 Combat Air Medals, numerous battle stars and area campaign medals.

In his second career as a Professor of Economics, he taught classes at the University of Colorado and University of Maine, where he settled with his wife, June, to raise his family of 4 at Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He became a Registered Investment Adivisor and Expert Witness Authority on Personnel Economic Value in law cases up to and including being referenced by the Supreme Court. He finally retired at the age of 80.