10/11/26 - I've Been Moved: The Social and Cultural Ripple Effects of IBM Kingston

For roughly forty years, IBM shaped the rhythm of life in Ulster County — drawing people in from across the country and around the world, and eventually sending them away again. But the IBM story isn't just an economic one. Every person who arrived brought with them their own perspectives, interests, and cultural lives, and many threw themselves into the community in ways that left lasting marks — on local arts organizations, civic institutions, schools, and neighborhoods. Sometimes those contributions were welcomed; sometimes they met resistance. In this program, Bruce Whistance — a 30-year IBM veteran who has called Ulster County home since 1954 — shares selected profiles and stories drawn from his own experience and those of his colleagues, painting an intimate portrait of what it meant to arrive, to belong, and eventually to leave. It is a chapter of Ulster County's story that many in the audience will recognize — and one that deserves to be told.

About the Presenter

Bruce Whistance moved to Ulster County with his family in 1954 and has lived in the towns of Hurley, Ulster, and Rosendale ever since. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Union College and spent 30 years at IBM — 22 of them at IBM Kingston, where he worked on numerically intensive computers and engineering design systems, rising to Senior Programming Manager and Product Manager. Throughout his IBM years and beyond, Bruce has been deeply engaged in the cultural and civic life of Ulster County. He has served on the Historic Preservation Commission in the Town of Hurley and has collaborated with his wife Gail on exhibitions at the Hurley Heritage Society Museum. He is the author of Real Stories from a Hudson Valley Boy: Memoirs by Bruce Whistance (2022). He brings to this program something no outside scholar could: the lived experience of arrival, community, and departure.

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