Phyllis Hudson, YMCA aquatics mainstay, retires after 36 years

By Sandra Hutchinson, Chronicle Chief Operating Officer

Phyllis Hudson served in a number of roles at the Glens Falls Family YMCA since joining the staff over 36 years ago. But more than anything, she is associated with the swimming pool and aquatics program.

Last week, she wrote what she calls the most difficult letter of her life. She sent 300 e-mails and 40 letters on paper advising her students and friends, most from the aquatics program, of her decision to retire.

Yet rather than feeling heartbroken, she has been moved by the outpouring of support. “It’s amazing, the support I’ve gotten. Some of the responses are really uplifting.”

The YMCA, of course, has been forced to close due to the health emergency. Phyllis said she was laid off temporarily.

She was working part-time and says she had no intention to retire. But after spending hours unsuccessfully trying to contact NYS Unemployment, she says she finally called the YMCA retirement fund, reached them almost immediately, and was advised of what she terms generous benefits that offered some much-needed stability in these uncertain times.

She stresses the Y has been “terrific” to her, and has an excellent retirement plan.

Phyllis graduated from Queensbury High School, class of 1976. As a teenager she worked at Storytown, USA (now The Great Escape), as the “animal girl,” taking care of the “billy goats gruff” and “three little pigs,” as she termed them.

She also emceed the dolphin show.

During college, she worked as a lifeguard at Queensbury’s Gurney Lane Park.

Phyllis graduated from Vermont’s Norwich University with a degree in physical education, and began working as a PE teacher in Schroon Lake.

In the fall of 1983, she says she went to work at the Glens Falls Y as an assistant swim team coach, while also holding down several other jobs such as substitute teaching, waitressing at the Glens Falls Country Club, coaching girls field hockey in Hudson Falls and volleyball in Fort Ann.

In 1985 she was hired to be a Nautilus instructor at the Y. In 1988 Phyllis left for Rochester, with her husband Steve, an engineer, who went to work there. They returned to Glens Falls in 1989.

In 1990, Phyllis says the Glens Falls Y was in a fiscal squeeze, and the staff was reduced to a handful of full-time staff.

That’s when she was made the physical and aquatics director. She says, Lee Bunting, the Y’s director at that time, told her, “You’re not going to make much money and you’re going to work many hours, but we’re going to save the Y.”

By 1992, Phyllis says the Y had turned the corner, and she then became the aquatics director. She continued a couple of aqua aerobics groups that were already running in the pool and added more.

She says Polly Wiswall created the Y’s first aqua exercise groups in 1976, calling the program “Mermaid Fitness.”

Phyllis says at that time, women were limited in when they could use the Young Men’s Christian Association. Polly’s group used the fitness room, and then the pool, on “off times,” when the men weren’t there.

Phyllis also credits the late Mrs. Wiswall as the long-time, anonymous donor of thousands of dollars in cash “to make sure kids and adults had an opportunity to have swim lessons, enjoy the pool and have water workouts” even if they couldn’t afford it.

Phyllis says Mrs. Wiswall would hand her cash, crisp $100 bills, in an envelope labeled “kitty,” never asking whose YMCA dues Phyllis was paying.

Up until a few weeks ago, Phyllis taught on average, about four adult aqua classes a day, and 19 to 20 classes a week.

She had taught youth swim lessons for many years, but shifted to adults several years ago.

She accommodated up to 50 adults in her water workout aqua classes, and there was nearly always a waiting list.

Her classes were made up almost entirely of women, but some men did participate.

Asked about some of her longest attending students, Phyllis names Martha Durkee, who began classes with Polly Wiswall in the 1980s, and Jean Morgan, who has been coming since at least the early 1990s.

Jean has made two quilts for her, and they are signed by members of the classes.

Phyllis is known for her remarkable ability to remember every student’s name. Asked about that, she says that one of her physical education professors had advised, “If you don’t do anything but remember all your students’ names, you will be successful as a teacher.”

She says she tells her students that if she forgets their name, she owes them a drink, and knowing that motivates her.

If there’s one thing Phyllis wishes to convey, it is YMCA’s importance to her.

“The Y has been my life,” she says. “It’s been my family’s life. The members of the Y are my life. It is truly amazing to say that you’ve not only touched my life in so many ways but I’ve been able to touch them.”

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