Do You Know Who I Am: Garrison's Cathy Lilburne

A bookseller and longtime school board member, Cathy Lilburne is vice president of the Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES Board of Education. Lilburne says she most values honesty in board members and a willingness to listen. Here, we interview Lilburne as part of the New York State School Boards Association's "Do You Know Who I Am?" campaign.

How long have you been a school board member?

I became a Board member in 1995, so for almost ten years.

What made you decide to run for the school board initially?

There was a failed building referendum in Garrison for a school that needed to be renovated. It hadn’t been renovated in over 40 years and many of the classrooms were half of the state-mandated size. I wanted it to be fixed.

What is your occupation?

I am a bookseller at Antipodean Books, Maps and Prints in Garrison. I own the business with my husband. We started it in 1976 in England, where we both worked after college. My father-in-law was a collector and that’s pretty much how it started; we bought too many books for him. One of my favorite books that has passed through our collection is a book we’ve owned several times. It’s a copy of a book that was printed at the South Pole with Ernest Shackleton. He and other members of his expedition drew and wrote poetry during the expedition. Then they bound the book out of the wooden packing boxes that were used to send the expedition supplies. I think there are only 67 copies in existence, but we’ve had three copies over the years.  

What is special about serving on a BOCES board of education?

I would say it is the high level of staff that we have. They constantly amaze me with what they’re doing for our students and my fellow board members.

What is the biggest challenge you face as a board member?

Reading the board packets and staying on top of all there is to know about the agency. Board packets can be 80 pages to read once or twice a month.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Play tennis and garden.

What qualities do you most value in a school board member?

Honesty. And the ability to listen. Listening gets easier the longer you’ve been a board member. In the beginning, you believe everything you have to say is very important, but you don’t realize it’s even more important to listen to what others have to say.

What qualities do you most value in an educator?

Leadership and continuous improvement.  That would include just about every administrator at BOCES. And on an individual level, one of the women I play tennis with, Diane Hughes, she’s a teacher in the middle school at Hendrick Hudson- when I talk to her I can just see she goes the extra mile. She participates in committees and there’s really nothing static about her approach. I admire that tremendously. She and others like her disprove the myth that teachers stop trying after they receive tenure.

Who are your heroes in real life?

My mother. She was smart and loving and inspiring. And she was always there for us. She made her way as best as she could in the work world.

Who are your favorite writers?

Well, I’m a bookseller, so there are far too many, but I’ll throw out an archaic one that most people won’t have heard of and that’s Katherine Mansfield. She’s a New Zealand writer who wrote short stories from 1911 until 1930. She can crystalize an emotion in so few words.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

At first I was going to say a quiet weekend at home, but now I’m thinking that’s not it. I’d have to say being with our three boys, which is hard because they all live in Australia in different parts of the country.