Marvin Druger’s name is attached to places all over campus: a bench, a tree, a chair in Setnor auditorium and a lab in Life Sciences, to name a few. But it was a woman behind the scenes that made the donations in Druger’s name.

“My wife used to make these donations to everything in my name and I would always complain. I’d say, ‘Why don’t you leave some money for us?’ And she would say ‘I’m making you a generous man. What is there that you need that you don’t already have?’

“I could never answer that question,” Druger said. “I have everything.”

This past Saturday, Druger dedicated the Patricia Meyers Druger Astronomy Learning Center in honor of his wife, who lost her battle to cancer last January. The Syracuse University professor emeritus’ donation helped refurbish Holden Observatory to have a functioning telescope and a usable classroom.

A photo of the Drugers hangs in the Holden Observatory with a plaque that reads: “Marvin and Patricia Druger who loved, laughed and traveled together for 60 years.” Druger said he hopes that his donation will preserve Pat’s memory and allow everyone to remember “the beautiful sparkling star who lit up the lives of all those who knew her.”

Druger wanted to memorialize Pat’s life and her love of SU in some way, when he realized that making a donation to restore the Holden Observatory would be what Pat wanted. She had loved astronomy since she was a child and would visit the Hayden Planetarium with her father.

“It’s what she would have done. So, I’m trying to follow in her footsteps, which is hard for me because I’m not that generous, but it was in her heart. I would pay anything for her. I don’t need the money,” Druger said. “What more is there than what you need?”

In the midst of Druger’s grief, he balances his sadness with happy memories of Pat and the witty jokes they shared. “My wife is there with me everywhere I go, and I laugh and laugh, that’s my theme with her. That’s what we had together.”

During the ceremony on Saturday, Chancellor Kent Syverud spoke about the importance of “characters” at SU. He was referring to Druger, who has taught in the biology department at SU for more than 50 years and claims to have taught more than 55,000 students during his career.

Perhaps what makes Druger a “character” is his infectious laughter and humor, his personalized tours around campus to prospective students, his innumerable accomplishments as an emeritus professor and his life-sized cardboard cutout in the SU bookstore.

Pat worked alongside Druger at SU in the biology department, then later as an administrator in the writing program. She attended SU for graduate school, earning a degree in mathematics.

“She basically made me who I am,” Druger said. “Without her, I couldn’t do anything.”

Druger points out Holden Observatory, the second oldest building at SU, on his tours of campus. On almost every tour prospective students ask Druger if the telescope works; when he told Pat that the telescope was broken she encouraged that they make a donation to fix it.

“I said, ‘What are you crazy? We don’t even work in the physics department.’ I talked her out of it. She was very generous with my money,” Druger said, laughing. “I didn’t even know I had this much money. I said this on one of my tours, and a kid yelled out, ‘Well, you don’t anymore.’”

Pat and Druger met when she was 15 and he was 20. They were married for 56 years and were together for 60. On their second date, Druger took Pat to a movie and she put her arm around him, an unusual thing to do back then, he said.

“She told me later that she didn’t put her arm around me, she was fidgety, so she put her arm around the chair,” Druger said. “I said, ‘Great, now you tell me.’ And that’s what we did together — we loved and we laughed.”

Druger described his wife as the head of the family. She controlled their finances, and she loved to quilt and knit. She spent her time helping people with their taxes, volunteering with children and was active in many clubs.

“She was an unbelievably talented woman who was beautiful in so many ways,” Druger said. “Everybody loved her because she was a sparkling person. She just sparkled. There are some people who come into the room and light it up — that was my wife.”

When Pat was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer, she never let it affect her.

“Even when she was dying, she never complained. I never saw a single tear,” Druger said. “She died as bravely as you could imagine, with courage and with humor.”

Pat and Druger’s daughter, Lauren Jamieson, said her mother would courageously counsel other cancer patients despite her own diagnosis.

“She set her mind to it, and she continued to live her life like it was nothing. She was really courageous,” said Jamieson, who graduated from SU in 1982. “She didn’t let the cancer take anything.”

The witty jokes between Druger and his wife didn’t end even during the final moments of her life.

“The funny part of it,” Druger said, “is the very last words she said to me before she died were ‘Marvin, shut up.’ It’s so typical of her. Those were the two things we did best together, we loved and we laughed.”

The Holden Observatory is now fully functional, and Druger’s entire family came to Syracuse to celebrate the dedication.

“She had a big presence in the SU community so this is really special for my grandma,” Pat and Druger’s granddaughter, Lindsey Jamieson said. “She would have loved it, she’d be really happy about the SU community getting together. She loved astronomy and she taught others by being herself — it’s really exciting that she’ll be immortalized in this way.”

Druger just finished his second children’s book — a story about his life with Pat. The book’s main character, Mr. Munny, is as rich as can be; ‘He looked in the mirror and what did he see, a greedy old man who’s as rich as can be.’

Mr. Munny bumps into a woman on the street who is kind, caring and generous. She changes his life as Mr. Munny finally realizes the message: “What more is there than what you need?”

Druger said he wants people to visit Holden Observatory, look up at the photo of the sparkling woman who did so much for so many people and say, “Wow, isn’t she beautiful.”

Published on March 30, 2015 at 11:08 pm

Contact Kait: kehobson@syr.edu