Howard Brandenstein, President Emeritus

Howard Brandenstein, one of the longest-serving Trustees and President Emeritus, was first elected to the Board in 1992, was its President from 2002 to 2005 and currently serves on its Finance and Facilities & Technology committees. A native Long Islander and Shelter Island property owner since 1976, he and his wife, Judy, have lived on the Island full-time, year-round since 2000. He is an active volunteer on Shelter Island and also a trustee of its Historical Society and of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church Vestry. A Cornell graduate, Howard served in the Army Ordnance Corps for 22 years, including at the Pentagon, procuring commercial mainframe computer systems. After his Army retirement, he introduced and integrated computer systems into a number of small businesses in northern Virginia and subsequently helped automate the Shelter Island Library during the early 1990s. “Back then the library still had a card catalog. We bought some computers and set up a little network with the software most East End libraries were using at the time. It took a year or more to key the books – and that’s the system we used until 2008 when we went to PALS, in 2008,” he recalls. Inveterate globetrotters, Howard and Judy have traveled throughout the Far East, Europe, Africa, Central and South America, Mexico and the Carribean. Howard’s special interests include croquet and antique Ford farm tractors.