Occupation: I’m retired now. I was a chemist, first in polymers, and then with the pharmaceutical industry. I hold a degree in chemical engineering from Youngstown State in Ohio — which was rare in 1959.

Family: I’m married to Dennis. We’ve been married 46 years. He works for Inflatable Packaging in Sandy Hook and is very active in the Lions. We have three children. Elizabeth works for Fannie Mae in Washington, D.C. Michele is married to John Sommers and they have two boys, Brendan, 5, and Brady, 7. Rosalie is married to Charlie DiLiberto. They live in Queens and she’s a social worker. Their kids are Grace, 5, Adira, 3, Luke, 1, and momentarily another boy is on the way.

Pets: We have a “boomerang” dog. Our daughter boomeranged home after a job loss then boomeranged back out — and her dog stayed behind. Jubalee is a miniature poodle, a rescue from Queens, but she loves it here in Newtown. She’s about 14 years old.

How long have you lived in Newtown? We’ve lived here for 33 years. We’ve always lived in the same house in Sandy Hook that we bought when we moved here.

What do you like to do in your free time? I have been working for the last ten years with the library book sale. I volunteer two days a week, and I do book mending and check out the puzzles. I belong to the Newtown Woman’s Club and was president the past two years. I’m taking piano lessons and currently in book three! It’s a fun thing and something I always wanted to do. I used to do a lot of needlework. I do read a lot.

Do you have a favorite book? I ricochet a lot in my reading. I just finished a F. Scott Fitzgerald book and then a book of poetry by Billy Collins. I’m currently into a Nietzsche book. I go back sometimes and read the sciences. I’m currently looking at a general chemistry book, to see what’s changed. I read whatever happens to strike me.

Do you have a favorite travel destination? The Jersey Shore. We have rented a place in Ocean City the past three summers and will again next summer. A lot of our travel is back to Ohio to visit family. We’re both from there.

What is the best thing about Newtown? I cannot believe the amount of volunteering I see here. We lived in seven other places within 13 years before settling here, and I didn’t see this kind of volunteering. I’ve been in a lot of communities where they give either a lot of time or a lot of money. Here, people do both. People in Newtown volunteer with multiple organizations and the volunteering seems to have nothing to do with political or religious beliefs. People work together. It’s a quintessential New England thing, I think, that you have your independent mind, but still come together for the common good. Volunteering in Newtown is just absolutely amazing. I like that people in Newtown respect your privacy, too.

Who has been the greatest influence in your life? My Aunt Betty Trout. She’s turning 90 soon. When I was just starting first grade, she was starting college and Ohio farm girls just didn’t do that. She got a degree in biology and she was my ideal. She was the groundbreaker for me. I always adored her and looked up to her. She helped me get through college.

Do you have a personal philosophy? Because I have tended to be an outsider — I knew because I was interested in math and the sciences that I was different — I learned that you have to learn to like yourself. As long as you like yourself, you can be successful in everything you do in life. And you have to know that you win some, you lose some. I cherish my individualism.

Do you have a guilty pleasure? My guilty pleasure is to go into New York City and hit an art museum. Mostly, I end up at the Metropolitan. I like different kinds of art. I also take a subscription to the New York Philharmonic and go into the City six times a year for that… and there’s always chocolate.