Karen Eastman

I remember my first day at the Port Authority. I was 17 years old. I had been offered a job that would be starting right away. Like any teenager, I took the job but with the agreement that I would work for the Port Authority one week as a temporary employee and then take my planned vacation, after which I would be back on the payroll. (What do you expect from a teenager!)

Little did I know that I would have a wonderful and successful 40-year career at the PA. A career that started with one of the lowest positions in the agency to one of the highest level -- Corporate Secretary of the Port Authority.

I had the privilege to work with chairmen, vice chairmen, executive directors, directors and so on — and I loved my job and “my” Port Authority. But more than that, I loved my Port Authority friends, and I still do.

I retired from the Port Authority in mid-2018, 40 years from the same week I started at the Port Authority. I joined PARA when I retired. Since then, I have gotten to rekindle friendships even more with my Port Authority and PARA friends.

My family really didn’t and still doesn’t understand why I spent so much time at the Port Authority and now with PARA, but I tell them that the Port Authority and PARA are my family so I do what I have to do for them.
(Absent the pandemic, we would all be together at this time and I am looking forward to the day when we can return to normalcy.)

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Mother PONYA. She was a guiding light for all of us. She will always be with us.

The one thing I know for sure is that If I had to do it all again, I would not change a thing! The PA family will always be a part of me.

Happy 100th Birthday to The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey!!