N.A.A.C.P. Head Retires
Mary D. Killoran of Sag Harbor and Sarasota, Fla., president of the Eastern Long Island Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will retire from that office this month after serving 10 years.
Mrs. Killoran said she felt it was time to move on and let someone else assume the burden of leading the organization.
During her tenure as N.A.A.C.P. president, Mrs. Killoran also joined the League of Women Voters, the National Organization for Women, and the Anti-Bias Task Forces of Riverhead, Southampton, and East Hampton Towns. She met with members of Congress and other legislators and representatives of business and other organizations to lobby for her constituents and keep them informed.
She attended every national conference except one, and missed only two state conventions - and those were because of the expense involved.
Mrs. Killoran said she had worn out two cars traveling back and forth to workshops and other meetings on Long Island alone.
Rewards Of The Job
Her branch participated in sit-ins at the County Criminal Court in Riverhead and a three-year-long discrimination suit that was ultimately thrown out of State Supreme Court. The branch also earned at least four outstanding performance awards from the national and state organizations during Mrs. Killoran's tenure.
She said one of the most rewarding parts of the job had been to accompany a parent to court when a child was in trouble. "Just sitting there with the family was often most comforting," Mrs. Killoran said.
She counted many police personnel, County Legislator George Guldi, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., Southampton Town Justice Deborah Kooperstein, and Congressman Michael Forbes among her friends, Mrs. Killoran said.
"I still have little respect for the slow wheels of justice and I will continue to fight against that wherever I am," she said.
A Long Career
In 1995 Mrs. Killoran was honored by the East End Women's Network for outstanding community work. Prior to that her name was entered into the Congressional Record for outstanding work at the request of Congressman George Hochbrueckner.
While she led the local N.A.A.C.P. branch, Mrs. Killoran worked as a medical transcriber for Hamptons Gynecology and Obstetrics in Southampton until 1994, when she retired for the second time. She had worked as a district manager for AT&T for 27 years prior to that.
She won good citizenship and alumni awards from Bridgehampton High School, from which she graduated before going on to earn bachelor's and master's degrees at Brooklyn College, where she majored in business administration. She attended Yale University under the sponsorship of AT&T when she was employed in recruiting and hiring for the company during the early part of her career.
Time To Travel
She is working part-time as a receptionist and writing the "East of Eastville" column for The East Hampton Star. If things had been more open for African Americans in the field of journalism when she graduated high school, she said, she would have aimed to be a foreign correspondent.
She said she hoped to spend as much time as possible in Florida, Europe, and the Caribbean, and has been asked to serve on the executive board of the Sarasota, Fla., branch of the N.A.A.C.P.
When she is not out of town, Mrs. Killoran said, she would be happy to assist whoever is named her replacement.
"When the Eastern Long Island Branch was first formed, I was its only youth member," Mrs. Killoran said. Now, she said, "I am working on my 'Golden Heritage' membership."