Phil Terpening Passes

From the Daily Freeman

KINGSTON – Ulster County Legislator Philip Terpening, D-Rosendale, collapsed and died Wednesday night during a candidates' forum in Esopus, Legislature Chairman David Donaldson, D-Kingston, said this morning.

Terpening, 63, was with fellow Legislator Alan Lomita, D-Rosendale, as Terpening debated a Republican challenger and collapsed.

Lomita knew Terpening for 20 years. Terpening was a Rosendale town supervisor before becoming a county legislator.

“He was dedicated public servant; one of the hardest working members of the Legislature,”Lomita said.

“He has always been there,” Donaldson said. “Phil didn’t do things because they were politically correct; he did them because they were right.”

Terpening,a retiree, was seeking election to a third two-year term as a legislator at the time of his death. He was running on the Democratic and Working Families line

He was a Rosendale town councilman from 1992 to 2002 and town supervisor from 2002-04.

From the Times Herald Record

PORT EWEN – Phil Terpening, a two-term county legislator and former town of Rosendale supervisor, collapsed during a candidates night and died Wednesday night.

Terpening was addressing residents at Birches at Esopus, a housing complex near the Ulster BOCES center on Route 9W, according to fellow legislator Alan Lomita.

Terpening had given his speech to the residents, sat down in the back of the room and collapsed about two minutes later, Lomita said. It was between 8 and 8:30 p.m., he said.
Wayne Freer, an Esopus town board member and emergency medical technician, and Freer’s wife, who is a nurse, immediately went to work to save Terpening, Lomita said.
They were able to recover a pulse in Terpening. A call to 911 brought more rescuers and Terpening was taken to Kingston Hospital where he died.

Terpening, a Democrat, was seeking his third two-year term as a county legislator. He was in his mid-60s, Lomita said.
“It puts everything in perspective,” Lomita said. He and fellow Democratic legislative candidate Deborah Silvestro has suspended campaigning out of respect for Terpening, also a Democrat. All were seeking election in District 7, the towns of Esopus and Rosendale. Terpening resided at 67 Charming Barn Road, Kingston.