This interview with Phil Gellert was conducted at his office in Hudson, at 524 Columbia St, on June 16 2015. Phil Gellert grew up on a poultry farm and is a permanent resident of Hillsdale, NY. However, he has owned rental properties in and worked out of Hudson for the last 40 years. He currently owns over 60 properties, some in Hudson and some in the surrounding cities and counties. In this interview, he discusses traveling, his family, experiences at Cornell University, the changing real estate market in Hudson, his plans to transition to more single family rentals, and his garden.
I was born in Iowa in 1988, went to elementary school in Madison, WI, and finished growing up in Richmond, VA. I work as a strategist and UX researcher, and am interested in oral history as a different way to explore who people are and why they do what they do.
Oral history is an iterative process. In keeping with oral history values of anti-fixity, interviewees will have an opportunity to add, annotate and reflect upon their lives and interviews in perpetuity. Talking back to the archive is a form of “shared authority.”