Untitled (2)12—Poughkeepsie Journal
42 °ars A Teacher
Sunday, July 9, 1972
He Found RInn"is For Law
WAPPINGERS F A L L S
"Law was always my fi
choice," said Fred V. D
manda of this village, who
tired F r i d a y after teach)
school for 42 years.
D e m a n d a did somethi
about that first choice beside
dreaming. He has been a pra
tieing attorney since 1951, a
was police justice of the vi
]age for one period.
Despite the fact Demand
has not been practicing law e
elusively, and the goal w
thwarted somewhat, he has en-
joyed himself, teaching as we11
as in the courts.
He liked being a villa g
judge, too, but was not as fon
of two other posts in Wappin
gers Falls, village trustee and
commissioner of parks.
But he gave up the judgeship
voluntarily a few years ago
because t h i s combined with
teaching and the law practice
took up too much time.
Wappingers Falls is not Da-
manda's hometown, but 35 of
his 42 years as a business
teacher have been in the Wap-
pingers district. When he first
came from upstate, it was the
Wappingers Falls High School
on Mesjer Avenue where he
taught. This is now a nursing
home.
Later his base was Wappin-
- gers Central High School ,just
fir outside the village. (This is
a- now Wappingers Junior High
School). Since Roy C. Ketcham
re High School opened, he has
ng been there as head of the com-
merce (business) department.
ng In all, he has been a depart-
s ment head about 31 years. At
c- Ketcham recently, he has been
an
in charge of business teachers
1- at four secondary schools in
the Wappingers district, Ket-
a cham, John Jay, Van Wyck
x and Wappingers Junior High.
as About the same time he be-
came a lawyer, after years of
study nights and weekends, he
declared, "It was a long, hard
e climb, but I kept punching."
d The language comes as a re-
- sult of being a bantamweight
boxer on the Syracuse Univer- _
situ team.
The "punching" was typical
of his life. He graduated from
high school in three and one-
half ,years and had the second
highest average of his class.
In 1930, he graduated from'
Plattsburgh N o r m a I School,,
and later attended Buffalo Uni-
versity as well as Syracuse.
He gained his bachelor of
science d e g r e e in education
from the New York State Col-
lege for Teachers, and his
master of arts degree from Co-
lumbia University.
It was not until after World
War II, in which he served in
the C o a s t Guard, that he
started his drive to become a
lawyer. The nights and week-
ends work paid off by 1951
when he received his law de-
gree from St. John's Univer-
sity Law School, Brooklyn.
Once interested in politics, at
least on the Wappingers Falls
village level, this is no longer
one of his goals.
He now wants to concentrate
his law practice on estate prac-
tice and wills, devoting any
spare time he has to travel.
Damanda credits his w if e
and her "patience" with being
a great help during the time he
worked toward his law degree,
10 to 12 hours a day, on week-
ends and through the summer,
under the World War II GI bill.
The D a m a n d a s' one son,
Duane, works at the East Fish.
kill plant of International Busi-
ness Machines Corp. and lives
in New Windsor. There are
three grandchildren.
Strange]y enough, Damanda
is not the only school teacher
in the Wappingers Falls area
who also was a lawyer and vil-
]age official. The other is Wil-
liam H. Pearse, now in his 80s,
who was principal of Beacon
High School until his retire-
ment in 1959, and for most of
his working years was also an
attorney. -From 1963 to 1965, he
was village attorney of Wap-
pingers Falls. He lives on Old
Troy Road, Town of Wappin-
ger.