Chick and Betty Jurgens proved that there’s life after high school sports. It’s one of the reasons why they’re the grand marshals of this year’s Fourth of July parade.
They met in the early 1950s when they were stationed in Arlington, Va. as members of the Marine Corps. “We went out with a big group of friends,” Mrs. Jurgens recalled, “and we just paired off.”
By the time Chick’s enlistment was up in September 1953, he and Betty were engaged. He returned home to Rockaway Beach, where he had played basketball for Far Rockaway High School and had led the team to a berth in the city championships.
Jobs were hard to find in the fall of 1953, but the young veteran had a lead from his fiancee. He traveled from Long Island to Poughkeepsie for an interview at Central Hudson. When asked if he knew anyone at the company, he replied that his future wife had three uncles on the payroll. Mr. Jurgens got the job and moved into a small apartment in Cornwall-on-Hudson.
He left the beach that he loved for a community where he didn’t know anyone. But that changed quickly. On Dec. 5, 1953, he was married to the former Betty White (a lifelong resident of Cornwall), and by the following spring they were both active with the Storm King Engine Company.
Within a few years, Chick was the chief and Betty was the president of the auxiliary. They had four children — Jeff, Peggy, Jim and John.
As the kids grew up, their parents followed them into youth sports. Chick coached the Little League Dodgers for 14 years, ran a CYO basketball league and helped start the Cornwall Youth Football League. To this day, he’s still greeted by men who played for him 40 or 50 years ago.
Betty was active in the auxiliaries. When the kids moved up to high school, she and Chick joined the booster club. Those were special years, highlighted by the 1971-73 basketball seasons, when the Dragons won 42 games in a row.
Every home game was sold out. There were always more spectators than seats. The boosters did their share. They raised money for jackets, team banquets and glass backboards. They worked the refreshment stand during the football season, and made enough money to pay for the tower and the scoreboard.
The Jurgens family was happy, but Betty still had some misgivings. “What are we going to do,” she wondered, “when the kids are out of sports?”
In hindsight, it was not a difficult question to answer. Mrs. Jurgens became so active in the Newburgh Ministry that she was named Orange County’s Senior Citizen of the Year in 2012. She was always busy. When the County Executive called to congratulate her, he could never find her at home. She was always out doing something.
But she still found time to author three books — “Golden Memories” (growing up in Cornwall in the 1930s and 1940s), “Fifty Voices” (remembrances of the Great Depression) and “Golden Voices II” (growing up in Cornwall in the 1950s and 1960s).
Her husband has also adjusted to the post-sport years (although there are still team pictures prominently displayed in the Jurgens household). Today, Chick Jurgens is an active member of the Cornwall Lions, the American Legion, the Newburgh Elks and the Cornwall Historical Society.
The interview on June 24 gave both grand marshals a chance to look back and reminisce. “This is a wonderful place to raise a family,” Mrs. Jurgens said. And her husband agreed.
