Editorial of August 1, 2024

So Long, Beloved Senator

Last Saturday, the 27th of July, in the morning, we here in Otsego lost one of the most notable figures in county history. Jim Seward, of Milford, died, after a long battle with cancer, leaving behind his beautiful wife, Cindy, and two children. He was born in Oneonta 72 years ago, and he was a graduate of Oneonta High School and Hartwick College; and he lived not far from there for the rest of his life.

For a good part of his life, and to the benefit of his home county, Jim Seward was our state senator. First elected in 1986, when he was 38, he served 17 terms, and retired in 2020, after 33 years in Albany. He represented all of us in Otsego, Cortland, and Schoharie counties, and some of us in Chenango, Tompkins, Cayuga, Delaware, and Ulster counties, fighting hard for what he believed to be the right ideas and opportunities for our reasonably large and unquestionably not-so-rich landed, forested and still somewhat wild portion of Upstate New York. He believed in his constituencies, he loved his work, and he performed it miraculously well, constantly working together with his fellow senators to reach reasonable, workable and forward-thinking agreements. In the end, Senator Seward accomplished a great deal for all of us, working through and around the mysterious and formidable bureaucracies of government. Jim Seward never gave up, his voice for us here in Otsego County was heard the state over, and he left an astonishing legacy that will be difficult to equal or better.