Retiring After 4 Decades, Charity Director Looks Back, and Ahead

At the grand opening last November of the youth center that bears his name in Newton, Mass., Anthony J. Bibbo overheard two men talking as they entered the building.

“You mean the guy they named this place after is still alive?” the first man asked.

The other nodded his head. And Mr. Bibbo smiled to himself.

“I thought, you know, how nice, because it’s usually not the case,” says Mr. Bibbo, who recently retired after serving as executive director of Newton Community Service Center for 43 years. “I’ve spent my life dreaming of all that could be, and so much has come true.”

After four decades of leadership, Mr. Bibbo still talks with the idealism of a fresh-out-of-college rookie. He has guided the community-service center from a one-man show with a handful of part-time staff members and volunteers to a thriving organization with more than 70 employees, offering a wide range of services.

Mr. Bibbo grew up in the Boston suburbs; his father died when Mr. Bibbo was only a year old, leaving his mother to raise him, his twin brother, and his two older sisters by herself. He came to social service by accident. He majored in business at college, with aspirations of entering the corporate world. But while he was waiting for an assignment in the Army to fulfill an ROTC obligation, he took a job working with street gangs in Boston.

“I saw the struggle that went on for a single mom,” Mr. Bibbo says. “She did a magnificent job, but I could identify with what the street kids I was working with were going through. This type of work wasn’t where I was originally headed, but it was where I belonged. It didn’t take me long to find that out.”

After two years working as a troop information officer in the Army, Mr. Bibbo returned to his hometown and took a job as director of the Newton Community Service Center. Although he officially retired in early July, he will remain at the organization as a consultant, assisting with the transition to a new executive director, who has not yet been named. In an interview Mr. Bibbo talked about his accomplishments and future.

You introduced many new programs. What has been your approach?

My intent when I started was to change the image of the agency from recreation to human services. I thought that was the need in the community at that time. I saw us as fulfilling a need for full-day child care. There was none in the city of Newton and there was very little around the commonwealth at that time. The first contract for full-day care was for 30 youngsters from 7:30 a.m. to 6 in the evening. For that proposal my notes were typed on a Royal typewriter and I had penciled in the words “day care beware” as a reminder when I was talking about the idea. There was still some concern that day care was really going to disrupt the fabric of the community and that mothers should be home with their children. That thinking turned around rather quickly, but initially it was a risk.

What have been the biggest challenges for nonprofit organizations during your tenure?

Many of the changes have happened in all of society, not just nonprofits. E-mail, voice mail, and cellphones have turned nonprofits into seven-day operations. There is so much more paperwork these days and so much more accountability.

Also funding: In the early days it was all private money. Then, when the government got involved in the early 1970s, we saw a lot of wonderful things start to happen. The problem is that the government hasn’t been able to keep pace. It is impossible to do what has to be done for the staff in terms of compensation. As a result, what’s happening is that people are leaving the field, and also we have trouble recruiting people.

How have you maintained your enthusiasm for 43 years?

There are a few things. One is being with people and seeing their excitement. If I was in the office behind a closed door and just getting a little battered, I’d open the door and walk down the hall and go down to child care and see the children or see the adult day care center and see the senior citizens doing their exercise. It’s uplifting. Not in terms of economics, but I feel like I am the wealthiest guy in the world when I see those things.

How do you measure the difference you have made?

By the people we’ve helped. My wife passed away almost a year ago. I spent a lot of time at the hospital with her. I slept there, and it was about two days before she passed away when a nurse came to me and said, “Tony, you probably don’t remember me, but you gave me a chance.” Then she said, “I came to your agency with a small child and you provided day care for me and got me into counseling. While my child was in day care, I was able to go off to work and go to school and I became a nurse.”

I’d see that nurse in there with my wife working the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. She would be in there with my wife rubbing her back and helping hold up her head and make her feel comfortable. I thought, Isn’t it wonderful that I have seen this? And isn’t it nice for this nurse to feel that she is giving back? I think something like that is payback that many don’t see.

What is the most important advice you would give leaders of other organizations?

Be a listener. Listening is so important because you’ve got to hear what the needs and the problems are and then you have to help find solutions. To provide services that aren’t being requested doesn’t make sense.

How are you going to make the transition to consultant and not run the show every day?

I’m just looking forward to being able to do a little something and staying busy. I’m also going to look at other opportunities that may be out there. One of the things that I’m going to like is that I’m not going to be working 50 to 60 hours a week, so I’ll have that extra time that I can spend with my family and still coach my granddaughters’ basketball games. I’ve always prided myself on being a team player — being there to be called upon and stepping back when my input or advice or action is not needed. I can handle that and I look forward to this opportunity. It’s going to be a great time to renew myself.

ANTHONY J. BIBBO, FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF NEWTON COMMUNITY SERVICE CENTER, IN NEWTON, MASS.

Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree in management from Boston University School of Management, in 1957, and a master of social work degree from the university’s School of Social Work in 1962.

Previous work experience: Mr. Bibbo was a street worker who provided guidance to troubled teenagers at the Columbia Point Center, a social-services organization in Boston. Later, he served in the U.S. Army as a missile commander and troop information officer for two years at Fort Bliss in El Paso, and worked as a program director at the Dorchester House, a social-services charity in Dorchester, Mass.

First book he plans to read during his retirement: When the Buck Stops With You: Harry S. Truman on Leadership, by Alan Axelrod.

First adventure he plans in retirement: Taking his son and daughter, their spouses, and his five grandchildren on a trip to Italy, to visit the birthplace of his mother and father near Naples.