Pennsylvania Society

The heavyweight pols were there: the governor, the House speaker, Mayor Street, and a host of mayoral contenders. But so were educators. And arts administrators. Humanitarian leaders and corporate executives. People who run nonprofits and public utilities, physicians and hospital administrators, lobbyists, lawyers, and religious leaders. When the Pennsylvania Society convened its 108th annual dinner Saturday night at New York's storied Waldorf-Astoria, it was "not just a political gathering," said executive director Carol Fitzgerald, a hard-driving blend of Ava Gardner and Ethel Merman.

When Pennsylvania politicians gathered here for a weekend of partying at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, there was lots of talk about the Philadelphia mayor's race. In 2003. Democrat John F. Street, winner of a narrow victory over Republican Sam Katz on Nov. 2, hasn't even been sworn in yet. But Republicans were urging Katz to plan for a rematch. They had already given the fight a promotional tag: Street-Katz II. It took two tries for New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, to beat Democrat David Dinkins.

Manhattan at Christmastime was very special last year for John Perzel. Attending Pennsylvania's premier out-of-state political party as the State House speaker, Perzel saw a $55,000 reception thrown for him by a paving contractor, a billboard giant, and 10 other politically connected companies. And this weekend it occurred all over again - not for Perzel this time, but an equally powerful cast of political bigwigs. With all the recent talk about ethical lapses in the Capitol corridors and Philadelphia City Hall, the drive for cleaner government has not reached New York - site of the annual Pennsylvania Society gathering of more than 1,000 politicians, business executives and lobbyists, which will end this morning.

Stacy B.C. Wood Jr., 78, of South Philadelphia, a naval officer and historian devoted to keeping his ancestors' stories alive, died of a stroke Saturday, April 28, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Wood, a native of Chestnut Hill, graduated from the Westtown School, attended Haverford College, then interrupted his education to tend his family's farm outside Malvern. He eventually earned his bachelor's degree in 1961 from American University. He served in the Navy during the Korean and Vietnam Wars with the Naval Security Group and the National Security Agency.

With U.S. government auditors demanding answers after years of questionable spending, the Philadelphia Housing Authority sent two officials to New York City last weekend to join the Pennsylvania Society's celebration. A PHA spokeswoman said Thursday that the agency spent $2,515 on travel expenses for Shelley James, an assistant executive director, and Kafi Lindsay, who recently was promoted to senior counsel after serving since 2008 as an assistant to PHA Board Chairman John F. Street.

Top managers at the Delaware River Port Authority ran up corporate credit-card expenses of $38,167 in 13 months, DRPA records show. The expenses included $500-a-night lodging at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City for two executives to attend the Pennsylvania Society gala, an annual meeting of Pennsylvania politicians and power-brokers. In March, two executives charged $4,666 to attend a cruise-ship convention in Miami. On other trips, three executives went to Miami and Seattle last October in pursuit of cruise-ship business, putting $2,325 on their cards, primarily for lodging and dining.

Attorney General Tom Corbett gets a posh party thrown for him at a Fifth Avenue apartment. Former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan takes guest-of-honor billing at a reception at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. And Lehigh County executive Don Cunningham is hosting an "Irish tea" at that famed hotel's bar. Like debutantes taking center stage at the ball, Pennsylvania's gubernatorial hopefuls will descend on Manhattan today for the annual Pennsylvania Society event: a weekend of politicking, partying and, perhaps, even some policy-making.

Clifford Lewis 3d, 95, the last surviving member of the original board of trustees of the Atwater Kent Museum, died Sunday of pneumonia at Chestnut Hill Hospital. He had resided in Flourtown after living in Media for many years. Mr. Lewis, well-known in Philadelphia society, also had been a longtime resident of Center City. A 1924 graduate of Episcopal Academy who held a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Lewis was a stockbroker by profession, a historian and genealogist by inclination.

If history is the impression left on the collective spirit, there is little doubt what marked the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Wars. On Saturday night the hereditary society will herald its 100th anniversary with a trio of toasts: to the queen of England, to the president of the United States, and to the armed services of then and now. To each, in order, the honor of its time. It will be an elegant occasion for a men's organization whose rolls brim with great Philadelphia names, whose founders included Waynes and Mifflins and more, whose members, even today, must be able to trace their lineage back to leaders of the colonial period before the 1775 Battle of Lexington.

Stacy B.C. Wood Jr., 78, of South Philadelphia, a naval officer and historian devoted to keeping his ancestors' stories alive, died of a stroke Saturday, April 28, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Wood, a native of Chestnut Hill, graduated from the Westtown School, attended Haverford College, then interrupted his education to tend his family's farm outside Malvern. He eventually earned his bachelor's degree in 1961 from American University. He served in the Navy during the Korean and Vietnam Wars with the Naval Security Group and the National Security Agency.

Gov. Corbett cited "Pennsylvania's Gilded Age, a time of industrial might," with some nostalgia in his remarks Dec. 10 at the Pennsylvania Society's yearly steak dinner for lawmakers, lawyers, lobbyists, and business operatives in the fancy Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. It was an appropriate setting. Maybe too appropriate. The society holds its conclave in New York, as it has since 1899, amid the trappings of the original Gilded Age, when wealthy Pennsylvanians, and the state's finances, were relocating to the nation's metropolis.

NEW YORK - Call it the anti-Occupy movement. That, in many ways, is Pennsylvania Society, the annual gala for Pennsylvania politicians who travel to New York City for some government-like forums but mostly for schmoozing, networking, fund-raising, backslapping, wining, dining, and deal-making. Here, Pennsylvania's political elite congregate annually in the marbled halls of the Waldorf-Astoria and venture out for a weekend of dinners, receptions, and cocktail parties (many invitation-only)

THE LEGENDARY, and kinda crazy, political consultant Neil Oxman likes to say that Philadelphia has long been run by and for the same 300 insiders. He's challenged me over the years to expose those insiders, to show their connections in our power constellation, and we try to do that in these pages. He says I should know them. "You're one of them ," he says, spitting out the word. "You're nothing but a bald dilettante. " OK, so he's right about the bald part. And, as I was preparing to make my way to New York tonight for Pennsylvania Society weekend, the annual party-a-thon for Philly's 1 percenters, it dawned on me: More than most years, this swanky soiree of our power elite just feels kinda icky, at a time when the zeitgeist has (finally)

Casimir A. DeCwikiel, 88, of Rosemont, who rose to the top of his profession as president of the national society of cost engineers, died of cardiovascular disease on Sunday, July 10, at Riddle Memorial Hospital in Media. Mr. DeCwikiel spent 37 years as a cost engineer for the former Sun Oil, now Sunoco Inc., working from Philadelphia. A cost engineer creates an estimate of how much construction will cost and follows the project to see that it remains on target. He was both a registered engineer in Pennsylvania and a certified cost engineer.

Got few minutes? A few bucks? A heart? You can pitch in at the PSPCA, 350 E. Erie Ave., 215-426-6300, pspca.org, volunteers@pspca.org . If you wanna go First, sign up for an hourlong volunteer orientation (there are four each month). When you're done, you'll be able to get right to work - and you can come back at your convenience to: Play with a dog outside. Hand-feed a dog or a cat. Clean cat cages. Do laundry. Take photos of animals. Greet clients.

With U.S. government auditors demanding answers after years of questionable spending, the Philadelphia Housing Authority sent two officials to New York City last weekend to join the Pennsylvania Society's celebration. A PHA spokeswoman said Thursday that the agency spent $2,515 on travel expenses for Shelley James, an assistant executive director, and Kafi Lindsay, who recently was promoted to senior counsel after serving since 2008 as an assistant to PHA Board Chairman John F. Street.

NEW YORK - Pennsylvania power brokers have made their holiday pilgrimage to Manhattan for those four days of networking, glad-handing, and elbow-rubbing known as the annual Pennsylvania Society gathering. Since Thursday, politicians and lobbyists, lawyers and business leaders have trolled the halls of the posh Waldorf-Astoria hotel and other venues, where lavish receptions with open bars, live music, buffets, and other largesse have awaited them. Some have come to give, many to receive.

Top managers at the Delaware River Port Authority ran up corporate credit-card expenses of $38,167 in 13 months, DRPA records show. The expenses included $500-a-night lodging at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City for two executives to attend the Pennsylvania Society gala, an annual meeting of Pennsylvania politicians and power-brokers. In March, two executives charged $4,666 to attend a cruise-ship convention in Miami. On other trips, three executives went to Miami and Seattle last October in pursuit of cruise-ship business, putting $2,325 on their cards, primarily for lodging and dining.