2-26-10
As He Grew Business, Tom Mirabito, Sr., Also Tended His Community
By JIM KEVLIN : SIDNEY
To hear Tom Mirabito, Sr., talk about it, he just happened to be there when Norwich High School’s fabled 1937 football team went unbeaten, untied and unscored-upon.
He just happened to be quarterback.
He just happened to be there at the H.M. Bloxham Coal & Feed Co. as James Mirabito & Sons grew into a regional gasoline, fuel oil and convenience store behemoth that spanned the Southern Tier.
He just happened to be president and, soon, owner, beginning in 1942 at age 23.
He just happened to be there during the 1950s, as the Village of Sidney annexed multiple acres to the south, enhanced the Thomas Z. Fagan Municipal Airport and developed Sidney Industrial Park.
He just happened to be mayor.
You get the idea.
As Mirabito related it in the cozy den of the brick home on James Street, one of the village’s most desirable neighborhoods that he just happened to develop down the street from Sidney Central High School, he was just coincidentally around when good things happened.
What you’ve read so far is
MIRABITO/From B-1
just the tip of the iceberg.
Sure, he was quarterback, company president, village mayor, but that just scratches the surface.
There’s not room here to list all his accomplishments and the key roles he played in a long and varied career, so here’s a sampling: president, Sidney Chamber of Commerce; first president, Delaware County Chamber; president, Sidney Development Corp.; president, Sidney Rotary Club (and later, district governor); one of four original members, Route 7 Association (which led to construction of I-88); director for a couple of banks; member, SUNY Oneonta College Council; trustee, Pathfinder Village; director, Oneonta Y.
Another key accomplishment: He married Concetta – they were raised on the same street in Norwich and went to school together – on Sept. 5, 1942, and had five children: Rosemarie Weed, James (he passed away of leukemia at age 5), Thomas Jr., John J. and Joseph P.
When Thad Demulder – his father operated DeMulder Realty in Sidney as the family grew up in Unadilla, (hold that thought) – was asked who is “Mr. Sidney,” he immediately answered: Tom Mirabito, Sr.
Anyone whose been here a while seems to concur.
In began on Jan. 17, 1919, when Mirabito was born in Norwich, one of four brothers and son of Jim Mirabito, who had been running a Norwich fuel business since 1927. “He was an aggressive, young responsible citizen,” the son remembers. (Concetta added, “He helped everyone in Norwich.”)
Those same qualities, Mirabito believes, contributed to his winning football team: “We were in excellent shape, because when we didn’t go to school, we worked.”
As Norwich toppled archrival Binghamton Central and “clobbered” Oneonta, the young quarterback learned a strategy that helped him in his business career: “You learned to try to solve the other team’s problems.”
Graduating from high school, he took a two-year course at SUNY Alfred – it allowed agriculture students to take business courses, too – and in 1940, at age 21, he found himself in charge of his father’s Sidney operation.
As World War II ramped up, “Main Street was a beehive,” he remembers. Gas was rationed, so people wanted to live near their work. “The plant” – Bendix’ Scintilla Division – “was increasing employment very rapidly.”
In 1939, the company had affiliated with Atlantic Richfield, and converting homes from coal to oil, including installation oil burners, became a big part of the business.
“We believed in being fair to people,” he said of his approach. “We didn’t expand unless we felt we could do it.”
But it wasn’t all work: Tom Mirabito was a catcher for the Sidney Cardinals, the winning town team. Jim Konstanty pitched. Ken Chase, formerly of the Washington Senators, was on the team, which used to play – and beat – such powerhouses as the Sampson Naval Base.
By 1952, when the company bought an asphalt plant and moved its headquarters to Sidney, Mirabito had already taken his first step into politics, elected village trustee in 1948.
“I didn’t think there was enough being done for the responsibility Sidney had,” he explained, adding, “That’s when we really did things.”
Tom Mirabito is 91, but you wouldn’t think it. You get a sense of what he must of been like during those years he was piling up accomplishment upon accomplishment.
Then Concetta brings in a thick scrapbook. There’s a big, black, all-caps headline: “MIRABITO MAYOR IN RECORD VOTE,” with a mug shot of the victor looking relaxed and confident.
There are lineup shots of his various boards. There he is speaking at a Sidney Chamber of Commerce annual dinner, declaring “we’re on the threshold of a greater Sidney.”
There he is, talking intently with Rocky, or posing with Malcolm Wilson. (His collaboration with Warren Anderson, Sidney’s longtime state senator and Senate majority leader, ensured I-88 gave Mirabito’s village prime access to the four-lane.)
The village expanded. The airport expanded. Keith Clark was found acreage in the new industrial park. Bendix wanted to expand and was accommodated.
“We did things,” he repeated. “We didn’t question: I wonder, I wonder, I wonder. We were becoming more progressive. People weren’t afraid to do things.”
As you might expect, retirement at age 63 – the company had grown from 10 employees to 700 during his tenure – was just the beginning of new ventures.
Mirabito took up tennis, and ended up founding the Golden Valley Sports Camp to pursue his new interest.
For years, he and Concetta would winter in Florida, although in recent years they find it more relaxing to just stay home.
His tenure as Rotary district governor peaked with the annual convention, the largest ever, held that year at the famed Hershey Hotel. A record number of exchange students went to foreign lands or came from there.
About that time he was driving through Unadilla to a meeting at SUNY Oneonta, and there was a young fellow hitchhiking – to his SUNY classes, it turned out.
Wouldn’t you know, Mirabito related, it was young Thad DeMulder.
A friendship developed, and soon DeMulder found himself in India on a year-long Rotary exchange. A Paul Harris Fellowship that followed allowed Thad to study for two years in Japan.
It’s just one example of the people Tom Mirabito, Sr., helped.
“It’s hard for me to give any advice,” he said in response to a question. “The laws have changed so much.”
Tom Mirabito, Sr., summed up his achievement typically: “I just kept my eyes open for opportunities.”
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