When you meet Andy Oliver, you can’t help but smile. His warmth is contagious, and he radiates the contentment of a life well-lived.
Andy grew up in Buffalo, NY, where, at a young age, he discovered his love for gardening. His passion for agriculture led him to Ithaca, NY, to earn a degree in agriculture at Cornell University. He mentioned that “although I always knew I would eventually study agriculture at Cornell, I first completed an undergraduate degree in botany at Dartmouth, as that was the closest field to agriculture.”
At the age of five, Andy unexpectedly began to lose weight and was eventually diagnosed with Wasting Disease, an autoimmune condition that causes the body to starve itself. Now known as Celiac disease, it was not widely studied at the time. Even at such a young age, Andy recognized “the profound impact food had on my well-being.” A natural problem solver, he spent much of his life managing the disease and its symptoms mostly through trial and error.
Throughout his summers, Andy gained valuable experience working on various farms, but his time on a farm in Dansville, NY, transformed his life forever. In 1951, while working on a farm, he met a young woman named Mary, from Alfred, NY, who was assisting on her sister’s farm. Andy was thrilled to have found a genuine “farm girl.” They married one year later and have enjoyed 75 wonderful years together.
Andy and Mary owned two hundred acres of farmland in Lansing, NY, where they raised their two daughters. Life was busy, with Andy working long hours on the farm while Mary and the girls helped prepare the fields—often by picking up rocks, a task Mary was happy to give up! Their primary crops were beets and alfalfa, and they also managed adjacent farmland, where Andy played a key role in developing “foundation seeds.”
Never one to sit still, Andy also became a secondary school math and science teacher at a small school in King Ferry, NY. Remarkably, he balanced his farming responsibilities while earning his third degree—a master’s in education from Cornell.
Combining his passion for teaching with his interest in agriculture, Andy took on the task of writing grants to secure funding for an Atmospherium planetarium in King Ferry, NY. He played a key role in its establishment and remembers when approximately “120 children were transported daily from various counties for an engaging, hands-on learning experience.”
In 1997, Andy and Mary moved to Kendal at Ithaca, as they were familiar with the Kendal model because Andy’s father was a resident at Kendal at Hanover.
Both Andy and Mary found their home at Kendal at Ithaca. Mary enjoyed cultivating friendships, while Andy focused on cultivating the Kendal Community Garden. Mary fondly remembers her time directing the Kendal Chorus and participating in a variety of exercise classes. While she no longer directs the chorus, she still enjoys regular exercise classes. Not surprisingly, Andy was drawn to the Kendal Community Garden and dedicated up to forty hours a week tending to it while sharing his lifelong farming knowledge with fellow residents.
Andy continues to find joy in gardening while residing at Kendal’s Health Center. With assistance from Frank, the Nurse Manager at Kendal at Ithaca, Andy’s walker has been modified with larger wheels, allowing him to navigate bumpy terrain safely while tending to his flowers. Andy’s efforts enhance the beauty of the grounds, and from Mary’s porch, she watches him work with a smile that radiates the contentment of a life well-lived.