Long Island’s North Shore Civil War Roundtable President’s Long Legacy

By Bill Bleyer · Originally published June 2016 · p. 31

After running 200 meetings, producing 200 copies of the newsletter and organizing eight trips south to tour battlefields, Andrew Athanas has decided it’s time to relinquish command of Long Island’s North Shore Civil War Roundtable. Stepping down from the presidency after more than 15 years hasn’t proved easy for the retired history teacher. The membership of the organization is aging. So finding one of the more than 80 members – mostly retirees – willing to step up to head the Roundtable was difficult, especially since four of the other eight board members were also planning to exit with Athanas in July. “We’re in a transition mode,” Athanas told the members and guests at the March meeting at the South Huntington Public Library. “I’ve been president for 15 years so it’s time. We are looking for board members who are interested in being officers. I don’t want this organization to go away.” The board held a special meeting about the pending leadership vacuum on March 10. Athanas was gratified that five members said they were willing to serve on the board and fill all the officer positions that will be vacated. Most are younger than the current officers. So, he said, “The future of the Roundtable is secure.” The membership was scheduled to vote in May on putting the five on the board, and then the board would vote on the officers. Athanas’ serious interest in history and teaching developed while he was attending Locust Valley High School and social studies teacher Robert Knickerbocker inspired him.

Athanas taught history at Huntington Middle School for 32 years and served as department chair before retiring in 1999. “I’ve always found American history to be fascinating,” he said. “The American Revolution period and development of the Constitution was my favorite period early on. Then I got interested in the Civil War era and then from Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era to Vietnam. Why things happened in the past has always interested me.” As for the main focus of the Roundtable, he said, “when I started teaching, I taught the Civil War.” But he really didn’t get especially interested in it until after his college-age son Ryan recommended that he read Michael Shaara’s 1974 novel about Gettysburg, “The Killer Angels.” His favorite general played a significant role in that climactic battle: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a colonel who led the 20th Maine Regiment in a charge on the second day. “Lawrence Chamberlain saved the day at Little Round Top,” Athanas said. Gettysburg is his favorite battle “because of all the maneuvering” by the two armies. “I’m very passionate about the war,” Athanas continued. “I wouldn’t have been doing this for 17 years had I not had a deep interest. A lot of the problems we’re having today that are surfacing in the Trump campaign have their roots in the Civil War. There are unresolved questions that Reconstruction didn’t solve.” Athanas also came to the Roundtable through his son. As a graduate student at St. John’s University, Ryan was working at Book Revue in Huntington and told his father that he should check out a group called the North Shore Civil War Roundtable that had recently formed at the store. Athanas and his wife Barbara went and joined in 1995. Cass Baker, one of the co-founders, asked him to become vice president in charge of programming when the other co-founder, Al Hahn, moved to Virginia in 1997. He became president in November 2000 when Baker retired. He also became the editor of the newsletter, Drum Roll, as well as the program director and eventually the webmaster when the website was created. “I did it all” until he recruited Richard Welch more than five years later to help out by taking over the programming VP slot. Athanas also organized eight of the annual battlefield tours before Benson “Buzz” Schultz took that over five years ago. Now Schultz is leaving the board too. So is treasurer Alvin Kravitz of Huntington, 89, who has been a board member for 15 years and treasurer for the past decade. “It’s time for a change,” Kravitz said. Vice president and programming chair Al Short and membership chair Boyd Scheff are also departing the board. The aging of the group has affected the Roundtable’s activities as well as recruiting leaders. Athanas said on the first battlefield tour he organized, to Gettysburg, the members walked the route of Pickett’s Charge, almost a mile, but now is no longer possible. This year not enough members signed up to do any tour. “We have to bring in younger people,” Kravitz said. Athanas said that issue is discussed at every monthly board meeting. The Roundtable leaders have been attending antique gun shows to look for new blood. “I have not lost interest,” said Athanas, who will remain a member and continue to edit the newsletter and serve as webmaster http://www.northshorescivilwarroundtable.org. It’s a big year of changes for Athanas. The 47-year East Northport resident has also given up another longtime activity to which he has devoted a large piece of his life: coaching girls’ varsity basketball at John Glenn High School in East Northport. On March 13 Athanas was inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of New York Hall of Fame. Asked what he’ll do with the additional time now that he’s “shedding the two big things that had been so important to my life for a very long time,” Athanas replied: “I don’t know. We’ll see.” He’s never been able to take a winter vacation because of the coaching, so a trip to Florida is a possibility. His newly found free time is likely to be used for traveling, home improvement projects, working on the classic cars that he and his son own, sketching Civil War and other subjects, and doting on his two grandchildren. The one thing that Athanas and wife Barbara are sure of is that he won’t be vegging out. “I bought a rocking chair and he wants me to throw it out,” she said.