Click here for a larger view

(Honesdale, February 12, 2008)…A desire to “give back” to the community inspired two local retired businessmen to join the Wayne Memorial Hospital/Health System Board of Trustees. Jim Asselstine, Tyler Hill, and Dirk Mumford, Lake Como, both call their participation an “opportunity.”

      “I was glad to be able to represent a part of the county that is often under-represented,” said Mumford, speaking of northern Wayne County. “At the same time, it’s allowed me to follow a tradition in my family for community service. In my previous work, I wasn’t able to do much because I traveled extensively.”  Mumford, who worked for Exxon Mobil for 38 years, calculated that he was out of the country for his job about 20% of a year.

      Jim Asselstine, who spent the last 19 years of his career at the financial giant Lehman Brothers in New York City, also saw his retirement as a chance to make a difference in his home environment.

      “The hospital and healthcare system are critical components of the local community,” said Asselstine, “And now that I’m retired, I saw the board membership as an opportunity to be a part of it.”

      Asselstine, who was a managing director at Lehman, was born in upstate New York and raised in Northern Virginia. He also served as a commissioner for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at one point. He and his wife Bette owned a house in Callicoon for about 15 years before moving across the border from New York to a house in Tyler Hill.

      Since his retirement, Asselstine has also served as a trustee at the Dorflinger-Suydam Wildlife Sanctuary and recently become Chairman of the Board at Dorflinger."