“A Camelot-like experience“

Harold Passmore died in 1983 – description below based on a quote from Nancy Spears 9/9/23. 

  We often described it, not just me, but many of us, at least for the first 25 years sure, that it was a Camelot-like experience. It was just extraordinary. We worked really hard, and we had a good time together. And we cared deeply about each other, the residents, the staff, and the board. Harold Passmore was our first executive director.  He was just a wonderful man. He was the kind of person who would one minute be running a meeting or conversing with the board, doing a budget, and in the next moment, he’d be out in the hall with a mop because help was needed there.  Harold was such a good role model. The irony is that because we had a nursing home, everybody on the staff had to have a physical. At that point—it is different now—but at that point, the nursing home regulations were such that even Harold had to go have a physical, which he hadn’t had in a really long time—and that’s how he found out he had leukemia. That gave him four more years of life, because  he got treated, which he would never have received if the state had not made him get that physical.

  Harold was CEO till 1983, when he died. He died quickly. He was fine for the whole four years. He had a bad month, and then he died. In that respect, it was a blessing, but he made such an impact. That’s why when we built the fitness center,  there was no question in the staff’s mind who it should be named after: Harold  Passmore, who was so self-effacing, so hard working. He was just really beloved by everybody. Mike [Levengood], who had been there with Harold, succeeded him.  There were three people that got Pennswood marketed and going, in addition to the board members: Harold Passmore, Michael Levengood and a woman named  Patsy Tinsman, the [board] Secretary. The three of them did it all, in a trailer  [office], everything that had to be done. On June 10, 1980, Pennswood opened. And  there was this little baby staff, all of us there—we didn’t have a clue really. Ten  apartments a day started moving in, every day, all summer. So that was June 10,  1980, and at the end of August, Pennswood was full [with 350 residents].