Title
Mandarano, John, 2017
Document Type
Audio
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Files
Download Mandarano transcript 10.12.2017.pdf (233 KB)
Abstract
John Mandarano was born on February 26, 1954 and has lived in the city of Cortland his entire life. The eldest of five children he has had a good positive relationship with both of his parents and all of his siblings. He was especially close with his father who owned and operated a machine and tool shop in town until 1976. John is a Machinist by trade, a Career he was inspired to do because of his father. His Father’s shop got most of its business from the Brockway Motor Company and when Brockway shutdown in 1977 most of the necessity for a Machine shop in Cortland went away as well. His father’s shop, Cortland Machine and Tool is also how he became close with his younger brother, Patrick, because of his father having both of them around his machine shop when they were young. As a result of their experience in their father’s Machine shop, John and Patrick have their own business venture together where they manufacture custom pieces that people order from them. They both enjoy this because they are able to pick and choose which projects they work on giving them freedom in their work. John worked all over Cortland County throughout his 40+ year career as a Machinist working for his father’s shop as well as Haskell Machine and Tool in Homer, New York. Then when Haskell Machine and Tool burned down in 1978 he moved to Coller Machine in Ithaca, New York. After working at Coller for a period of time he then went back to Cortland to work for Wilson Sporting Goods, making tools and jigs and machinery for their racquetball line of products. John began working for Pall Trinity in Cortland, New York and has been working there for the past 36 years. John is also very involved in the History of Cortland He is a member of the Cortland County Historical Society as well as a board member of the CNY Living History Center. He helps plan a Brockway truck show that goes down Cortland’s Main Street every August. He is also a part of planning the exhibits in the CNY Living History Center helping design the layout of what should be shown and the rotation that they should display all of the pieces of history that they have there. His passion for the history and preservation of Cortland is inspiring.
Date of Interview
10-12-2017
Duration
50:02
Provenance
Interview conducted by Matt Morgante, Tommy Murphy, and Zach Modine on october 12, 2017.
Keywords
John Mandarano, Oral Histories, Cortland Community
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Disclaimer
These oral histories express the personal views, memories, and opinions of the interviewee. They do not represent the policy, views, or official history of SUNY Cortland.
Recommended Citation
State University of New York College at Cortland, "Mandarano, John, 2017" (2017). Cortland Community Oral History. 5.
https://digitalcommons.cortland.edu/cortlandoralhistory/5
Comments
Matt Morgante, Tommy Murphy, and Zack Modine are students at SUNY Cortland. This interview was a part of their Public History course. -- HIS 280, Fall 2017, with interviews as part of a project on the Wickwire factory for the 1890 House Museum. This class was taught by Evan Faulkenbury.