Amsterdam man was author and aeronautic expert

By Bob Cudmore

The story of Amsterdam native Adam Golab came to the foreground recently because the Walter Elwood Museum of the Mohawk Valley needed copies of Golab’s popular books for the museum gift shop.

“Adventures of a Small Boy in His Small World” was published in 1994 and illustrated by the author.  Ann Peconie, director at the museum, said she gets more requests for Golab’s “The Mighty and Awesome Chuctanunda Creeks Runs Through a Limestone City,” published in 1999.

After detective work on the part of history buff John Szkaradek, copies of one of the books were secured from Golab’s daughter, Carole Martin, who lives in Amsterdam.  The book focusing on the Chuctanunda Creek is now available at the 300 Guy Park Avenue museum gift shop for $10.  The earlier book is out of print.

Golab, born in 1920, was married to the late Regina Majewski and they had two other children--Lisbeth Golab of Amsterdam and James Golab of North Carolina.

Adam Golab studied aeronautic engineering at the Bedford Technical School in Brooklyn.  From 1940 until 1943, he was employed at Precision Instrument Company in Brooklyn and later worked as an aircraft mechanic at Roosevelt Field on Long Island.  He served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1948, including a stint aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard. 

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He returned to Amsterdam in 1949 when he secured a position at Schenectady General Electric, first in the steam turbine plant and then at GE Research and Development in Niskayuna.  He was a specialist in materials and processes and retired in 1982.  His wife died in 2000 and the author died in 2004.  They made their home on Wallins Corners Road.

Martin said her father’s first book was a surprise to her but that she was the typesetter for book number two.  She has followed in her father’s footsteps to some extent.  Martin today works at GE’s Niskayuna research headquarters.

“Adventures of a Small Boy in His Small World” tells tales of Golab’s youth.  He lived on Grand Street on Park Hill, adjacent to the Bigelow-Sanford carpet mill.  His parents, Joseph and Katherine Kosiba Golab, were Polish immigrants, both of whom worked in the rug mills. 

Martin recalled one story from her father’s first book.  Since the carpet mills used the North Chuctanunda Creek as a dumping ground for dye and other waste, parents could tell if their children had been playing in the creek if their clothing had picked up unusual colors.  Golab also wrote how adventurous boys would walk on the top level of the girders of the old Pulaski Bridge that spanned the creek, connecting Park Hill with the city’s other traditionally Polish neighborhood, Reid Hill.

“The Mighty and Awesome Chuctanunda Creeks Runs Through a Limestone City,” according to Martin, is the story of Amsterdam and the North Chuctanunda Creek.  The creek is a character in the book (called Chuck) and the author asks Chuck to describe places, people and things along the route the stream takes on its way from its source north of Amsterdam to the Mohawk River.

Golab had other interests in addition to writing. He was a member of the Sacandaga Boat Club over 40 years and built his first boat.  He was a master carpenter and woodworker who built his own home and the custom designed furniture in it.  He was a photographer and worked on a photographic almanac of historic barns of the Mohawk Valley. 

He enjoyed radio controlled airplanes and was a member of the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Schenectady.  He belonged to a number of historical organizations, including the Elwood Museum.

Bob Cudmore on The Radio this Weekend

WCSS Amsterdam and WIZR Johnstown (Noon Saturday)

Wednesday, June 14, 2023-Polo player and carpet executive Laddie Sanford, a 1940 Northville fire and a newspaper contest from the early 1900s.

Thursday, June 15, 2023

A dark day for Amsterdam in 1955

“I remember the announcement of their leaving broadcast over WCSS in 1955 that made the rumors official,” recalled Rochester resident and Amsterdam native Dave Northrup. “It cast a real pall over the city.”

New release this Friday

June 16, 2023 – Episode 479 – Cosby Gibson and Tom Staudle with songs of the American Revolution.  Previously Cosby and Tom, who live in the Mohawk Valley have done musical programs with songs of the Erie Canal and other historical events.

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Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, June 13, 2023

60 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:10AM

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