Myra Gordon, Hunts Point stalwart and champion, retires

It was 1986 when Myra Gordon started as a part-time executive assistant for the newly formed Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association Inc.

In her 35-year career at the Bronx, N.Y., wholesale market, she quickly transitioned to full-time, adding responsibilities and redefining her role into more of a catch-all champion for Hunts Point, before retiring.

“I did the interview as a lark because I thought there was no way they’d ever hire me. Then I started and never stopped. On at least one Thanksgiving, I was even directing traffic,” Gordon said on the phone, between directing renovation contractors at her Millwood home about an hour north of the market.

The 10 years prior, she’d been running a consumer food cooperative of 36 families in suburban northern Westchester County, just north of New York City. They’d take an SUV down to the wholesale terminal, and she’d gather food from the merchants to take back to her garage and repack for the families.

Over time, the women knew what brand, shipper, packer or house would do the best items. “That’s how I got to know the merchants very well,” she said. “In those early years, the salespeople were rough, and their language wasn’t, shall we say, pure. I have learned to work with all of them, and some of them I have come to love.”

Joel Fierman, president of Fierman Produce Exchange and co-president of the association with Matthew D’Arrigo of D’Arrigo New York, has worked with Gordon since the start.

“I’ve known Myra for over 40 years. I will miss her,” he said. “There’s nobody like Myra.”

For almost three dozen years, Gordon has worked with three generations in many of the companies.

A few years ago, Gordon gathered the names and emails of all the youngest generations working at their family-run companies and met with them in the board room, giving them a copy of the book, “Robert’s Rules of Order,” on how to run a board meeting.

The NextGen committee was born, providing a unified voice of younger people in market decisions.

One such young professional is Gabriela D’Arrigo, vice president of marketing and communications at D’Arrigo New York.

“She’s fearless. She’s really the reason this market got organized. Myra knows how to command respect, has a great ability to multitask and can speak to the market as a whole and not pick out a particular company,” D’Arrigo said. “She knows your business and your family. She’s able to be human as well as a machine. Myra helped me a lot.”

Gordon’s work included:

• Acting as trustee for the management side for United Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 202;
• Establishing a safety group for a worker compensation program;
• Set up cooperative insurance program;
• Public speaking at events;
• Lobbying;
• Recording minutes for board meetings;
• Participating in lawsuit depositions;
• Taking notes at committee meetings;
• Writing speeches for some board presidents;
• Hosting booths at expos; and
• Leading market tours for students, from elementary schools to universities.

Gordon recalls delivering hand-picked peaches to Gracie Mansion, where the New York City mayor resides, at the start of every season. She remembers riding on trucks to donation events, having lunch in the community with the volunteers and recipients. She would speak at city government meetings.

Food always played a primary role in her life, starting with her father, a butcher during the war years, who also grew tomatoes, corn, zucchini, raspberries, squash in New Jersey, bringing harvests to the supermarket. Her daughter, Leslie Gordon, is CEO and president of the Food Bank for New York City. Another daughter works in catering at Adams Fairacre Farms supermarket in Newburgh, N.Y., while her son is a lawyer.

Gordon got involved in a commissioned study of the available space in different time frames at Hunts Point, which discovered that only 30% of parking space was available for customers and might have started the shift from wholesale market to distribution center for at least eight of the 10 larger merchants, who deliver in the tristate area and states beyond, she said.

“I tried not to insinuate myself into everything, although Joel would tell you I didn’t succeed in that well,” Gordon said. “There’s very little I didn’t get involved in.”

Her driving force has been to give as much to her position as the merchants gave to their businesses.

“How can someone like myself work any less than these (mostly) men, who are such hands-on people, even when on vacation? When they got a phone call, they took it. I wanted to give all I could,” Gordon said.

“Do I miss it? 100%. Do I like working not as hard? 100%. Do I want to still keep my hand in? 100%.”