Michigan native Gayle Belin grew up in the Detroit suburbs and worked as a speech language pathologist for nearly five decades. She and husband Gary Kessler, an MDC boat captain, live in Ormond Beach and have volunteered at the Marine Discovery Center for more than 10 years.
Gayle is one of the Welcome Desk volunteers on Tuesday mornings and she might also take you on a tour of MDC’s exhibits area. Learn more about Gayle in her conversation with MDC staff writer Lisa D. Mickey:
Q: Where were you educated?
A: I went to Michigan State University for both of my degrees [bachelor’s degree in audiology & speech sciences, where she was Cum Laude, and her master’s degree in speech language pathology], but there were way more graduates than there were positions in Michigan for hospital work.
Q: Where did you end up?
A: I took a job in Green Bay, Wisconsin working in the public schools. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was a fine job. During that time, I drove to California with a friend who was moving out there. I opened up the Los Angeles Times one day at the kitchen table and there were two full pages of jobs for speech pathologists. I applied for four positions, went on four interviews, got offered four jobs and took the job offer in a hospital. I didn’t know anything about Los Angeles. It was in the barrio [Hispanic inner city]. I didn’t speak Spanish and I didn’t know anything about how dangerous the barrio was because of the street gangs, but I loved that job and I worked there from 1977-1986.
Q: That must have been a culture shock for a woman from Detroit.
A: Yes, and I decided I needed to learn Spanish, so I took an intensive two-month course at UCLA every evening from 4-7 p.m., five days a week. During that time, I met my first husband in California. After having two children, we decided to move closer to our families.
Q: Where did you end up?
A: We ended up in Vermont. We each made our own list of what was important to us. At the top of my list was a vibrant Jewish community and a university, because where there’s a university, there are good public schools. I also wanted natural resources for sports. I’m a skier, so I wanted to be able to ski, and we also wanted to be around water. At the top of his list was an international airport, because he owned a company and needed to fly. We did our research, set our geographic boundaries, wanted a low crime rate and to live where people were environmentally astute. We came up with five places: Pittsburgh, Portland, Maine, Nashua, N.H., Boston and Burlington, Vermont. We wrote them down, crumpled up the pieces of paper, put them in a bowl and our then-20-month-old child picked one and out came Vermont.
Q: So, you moved from California to Vermont?
A: My son was three weeks old and my husband, who was from Chicago, said let’s go visit during Thanksgiving week. We rented a car and drove around Burlington and spent Thanksgiving with his cousin. I went into grocery stores, into the local temple and we walked around the university. It was bleak in November, but there was something about it – something quaint. We were in our mid-30s and I said, “Let’s do it.” My husband could fly into Toronto and connect wherever he needed to go. So, the following February, we made the move. We reasoned that if we went then, we would only have to survive half a winter, and by the time the next winter rolled around, we would be used to it. We moved on my birthday [Feb. 7], and it was 20 below.
Q: Did you go back to work right away?
A: I didn’t work for three years because we had two small children. I would drive around and learn the various neighborhoods in Burlington. We bought a house that was nearly 100 years old — with 100-year-old problems. Once, we had a skunk in our house that got in through a small hole next to our chimney. The skunk was in the subflooring and we had just renovated with a brand-new kitchen, carpeting and wall paper.
Q: When did you rejoin the workforce?
A: My husband sold his first company and came back into the house to work, so that’s when I started looking for a job. There was a job opening at Porter Hospital in Middlebury, Vermont, which was 15 minutes away. It was a small hospital with 29 beds and an attached nursing home. I had planned to work a couple of mornings a week, but within a month, I was working four days a week.
Q: What was the work you were doing?
A: I was treating in-patient and out-patients who’d had strokes and trauma. Some had swallowing issues. I helped them speak and we worked with language formulation. A home-health agency called me and said there was an opening for a speech pathologist. I did that for a while with a lot of driving and then the university called and said they had an opening for a clinical supervisor. It was only a half-time job, but it was one mile from my house, so I did that along with the hospital and nursing home half-time work. That job turned into full time. I had voice therapy experience and they needed someone to teach their graduate course in voice disorders. I was teaching at night and doing the clinical supervision during the day.
Q: That must have been challenging for you and your family.
A: Around that time, I got divorced, so I was a single mom. The children spent half of the time with their dad and those were the nights that I taught. We both wanted our children to stay in their current schools and I wanted them to remain with their support system – their parents and their friends. I had toyed with the idea of going for my Ph.D., and there was a full-ride Ph.D. opportunity offered to me at Northwestern University in Chicago. I thought about it, but there was not going to be a new position at the University of Vermont for a full-time faculty member. I was already published in several journals and professional magazines and I had even written a chapter in a book for pediatricians. My then-ex-husband even offered to move to Chicago with the children if I wanted to go back to school, but I decided to continue what I was doing while staying active in our temple.
Q: When did Gary Kessler, now one of our MDC boat captains, come into the picture?
A: I met Gary while I was still married. He and my ex-husband were both traveling with their jobs and they would take the Friday-night Pittsburgh to Burlington flight. They were seated next to each other and one night, they had a conversation the whole way home. Two weeks later, they were on the same flight and chatted again in the airport. Another night, they couldn’t land in Burlington because of ice and their plane was diverted to Albany, N.Y. They were bussed to Burlington and sat next to each other on the bus and chatted for about three hours. When they got to the airport, they said, “Why don’t we get together with our wives?” This was in 1991. We all went to dinner together and then we got our kids together. Later, Gary’s wife got sick and had to have surgery. They came to our house for Passover. I saw Gary at the temple for high holidays.
Q: Did you continue seeing Gary and his wife?
A: I had a patient at the university in 2001 who had fallen off a ladder. He was an I.T. guy and he asked if we could use computer books in his therapy? I called Gary, thinking he might have some books we could use. When I spoke to him, he said they were admitting his wife into Hospice and that he had a colleague who could help with the books. His wife never made it to Hospice and died three days later. I saw her obituary in the newspaper and called my then-ex-husband and told him. We went to the funeral. I signed the guest book, but I did not attend the reception. About a month later [in late 2001], Gary called and said he was contacting those he didn’t see at the reception. We chatted and he learned that I taught at the University of Vermont and I learned that he taught at Champlain College. Our offices were a block and half apart.
Q: At this point, you were divorced and Gary had lost his wife?
A: We were friends and we met for lunch several times. I was dating somebody and had broken up with him. Eventually, Gary called and wanted to grab some Chinese food for dinner and see a movie. We went to see “Lord of the Rings” and from that point forward, we became a couple. It was so clear. We dated for four years and got married in August 2006.
Q: When did you and Gary leave Vermont?
A: We came to Florida in 2012. I officially retired from the University of Vermont and moved to Florida, but the University wanted me to teach a course online. So, I did that and the person they hired to replace me left after nine months, so I taught another course online. Meanwhile, I worked at the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine two to five days a week for about four years. During that time, I started a private practice in Daytona Beach. My practice was growing and I was getting tired of that drive to Orlando.
Q: Are you still working in speech pathology?
A: No, I retired at the end of 2021. I was a working therapist for 46 years. I miss the aspect of working with people, but I don’t miss the paperwork or the billing and I still have a lot that I can offer.
Q: When and how did you get involved with MDC?
A: We met Ken and Nancy Nusbaum on the weekend we were here for Gary’s interview to teach at Embry-Riddle [Aeronautical University]. The temple was having an outdoor event in a park and that’s where I learned that Nancy also was a speech pathologist. We chatted and immediately bonded. Ken [MDC’s board chairman] is a sailor and Gary is a boat captain and they bonded. They have since become our closest friends. After we moved here, Nancy asked if I wanted to take the Florida Master Naturalist Program’s Coastal System class at MDC with her? At that point, I didn’t even know what MDC was, but I signed up for that class in spring of 2014.
Q: How did the class open your eyes to your new environment?
A: At the end of the class, I knew I wanted more of that and it’s when I started volunteering at MDC at the Welcome Desk and as a docent. Linda Minton and I have volunteered together for the Tuesday morning Welcome Desk since 2014.
Q: What do you enjoy most about volunteering at MDC?
A: I like the natural-world aspect of it and I love interacting with our guests. With lionfish on display, I can talk about how they are invasive and they’re not supposed to be here. I love interacting with the MDC staff and the fact that this center is expanding its scope and what it teaches the community here, outside of Florida, and even outside of the United States. I spoke to visitors from London who had lots of questions about coral, fish and they loved seeing our turtles. They make me want to learn more.
Q: How do you think your professional skill set benefits you at MDC?
A: It forces me to learn and I’m always reading about the animals we have here. I think because I have taught for so many years, it just comes natural to me. I’m not fearful of getting up in front of people and talking.
Q: Aren’t you very involved in your synagogue?
A: I volunteer at Temple Beth-El in Ormond Beach — the largest temple in Volusia County. I’m currently the co-president of the temple. I’m the past-president of the Women of Reformed Judaism, a.k.a. Sisterhood. It’s a group of women who do things together to benefit the temple. The Jewish Federation is a national organization with independent chapters in various cities. Now, we have a community chapter with Volusia, Flagler and St. Augustine. Our local chapter recently raised $150,000 to buy an ambulance that was sent to the city of Sderot in Israel, which is our federation’s sister city. It’s like a state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit on wheels. This federation has also funded three bomb shelters there over the last 15 years. I also currently serve as the co-president of the temple board of trustees.
Q: Do you volunteer in other places?
A: I volunteer for Volusia County as the Ormond Beach representative to the Volusia and Flagler County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, which is one of the sub-committees under the Transportation and Planning Organization (TPO). We meet monthly and hear presentations about the various municipal projects under the TPO. Some of them need TPO funding. If there’s a bicycle path or a mixed-use path being built, we listen to the presentations and rank them. I’m there to advocate for Ormond Beach.
Q: You and Gary seem to enjoy being outdoors together.
A: He does not like winter sports. He likes to dive and I’m not diving anymore, but I love the fact that he dives and comes back and shows me his photos. When I’m at MDC, I can say that I have been a diver, I have seen these lionfish when I dive, and I can also talk about how the coral reefs have changed.
Q: Do you and Gary compare notes about MDC?
A: All the time, and now, I’m trying to mesh other parts of my life with MDC. We have chartered MDC’s Discovery boat on shabbat [the weekly Jewish day of rest that begins at sundown on Friday] and we’ve participated with Hillel [Jewish university student groups] on MDC boat charters.
Q: What excites you about MDC’s mission?
A: I appreciate that it’s about conservation and preservation of the land and the water. We have so many problems with pollution and loss of natural habitat. MDC is doing its part to conserve and preserve the natural world for animals and for people to enjoy.
Q: What has been the highlight for you?
A: There’s just a feeling that I have had after I took the Coastal systems Florida Master Naturalist class. It opened my eyes and I have such a good feeling walking through the door at MDC. I drive a half hour to get here, but being at MDC is one of the highlights of my week. And the boat tour Gary captains on Friday nights is the highlight of his week. He just loves it. We both have been able to see all the changes here. I took the golf cart tour of the MDC campus and it was amazing to see the growth and changes. There is just so much to talk about and I feel very joyful when I’m here.
Q: Has there been something that you have learned here that’s changed you in any way?
A: I don’t eat oysters. I mean, how much can they excrete?
Q: Why is volunteering important to you?
A: It’s a way to give back to the community. When I was working, I didn’t have as much time to volunteer and now that I have the time, I do. We instilled in our four children that volunteering is super-important. You just can’t be on this earth and not give back.
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