The year 1954 was a big year for Mary and Joe Dobransky. So big their golf-cart license plate is 1954. Their phone number is 1954. The license plate on Joe’s truck is 1954. It was also 58 years ago, on Sept. 11, 1954, that Joe and Mary Dobransky got married.
The years since then tell a story that has taken them from Cleveland, Ohio, to various locations around the country and, finally, to their home at The Landings where they have become known for their charitable contributions and their work with nonprofits in Savannah.
On March 22, they were among 19 civic and philanthropic leaders to be recognized during the annual Community STARS luncheon at Savannah Technical College.
“We had some rough roads to travel,” Joe said, “but came through them all.”
The beginnings
Joe and Mary were born and raised in Cleveland. Growing up Joe, and his brother, Bob, had a seven-day-a-week paper route with over 300 Sunday deliveries.
“Dad used to pull the sled or wagon on Sundays, and Bob would do one side of the street and I would do the other,” said Joe. “And we had to collect, too.”
Of all his experiences, Joe feels this one had the most influence on his life. Between the ages of 12 and 18, the paper route earnings paid for the brothers’ clothes and other things they needed.
“It was a big help to our parents, but also us because we learned how to deal with people, how to communicate and accept responsibility,” said Joe. “The other thing was, it was the end of WWII, and I would read the headlines, so I knew everything that was going on in the world.”
Meanwhile, Mary attended a sight-saving school until the sixth grade. The sight-saving school had small classes and individual attention.
“It was a tough transition,” said Mary. She was one of the first people to wear contact lenses.
Love at first sight?
In 1950, an emergency hernia operation just before high school graduation changed the course of Joe’s life.
The school district’s school absentee policy automatically failed students who missed more than 11 days, regardless of grades. Unable to return to school, Joe joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 18, which was, “…one of the better things I ever did.”
After boot camp, Joe got his GED, the Korean War began and Joe spent the next two years on a destroyer tracking Russian submarines in the Mediterranean.
The navy was a good fit, and although he was encouraged to make it his career, he left at 21.
“I told my executive officer I was going to go home and raise a family,” Joe said. “That’s what I wanted to do.”
One day out of the navy, Joe met Mary on a blind date.
“My girlfriend’s boyfriend knew this guy just out of the navy,” said Mary.
Already engaged to a Marine, Mary wasn’t taken at first by this new guy and didn’t want to see him again.
“It wasn’t love at first sight for me,” she said. Joe had a different experience. “The first time I saw her, I loved her.”
Mary’s girlfriend convinced her to go out with them again the next day. It wasn’t long before Mary broke off her engagement, and she and Joe were married on Sept. 11, 1954.
Joe’s first job out of the navy was swing man with Star Bakery in Cleveland.
“I had to go around and replace guys on their day off, so I got to know all the streets in Cuyahoga County,” he said.
After a year, Joe applied for a job with UPS, which had just opened.
“When they found out I knew every street in the county, they hired me on the spot,” he said. “It wasn’t anything to put in 16-hour days, six days a week.”
Joe started as a driver and quickly became a supervisor.
“We were growing so fast, I had the opportunity to do different things.”
No one in UPS knew how to drive a tractor-trailer, so UPS sent Joe to the University of North Carolina to learn how to teach people how to drive them. Joe was assigned to Chicago and established and managed UPS’s tractor-trailer school.
“Supervisors from all over the country would come in, and after a year or so, I knew people in all 48 states,” he said.
While Joe was growing his career, the Dobransky family was growing as well. The first three children — Linda, Bob and Laurie — came within two-and-a-half years. The next three — Joe, Beth and Julie — arrived over a 14-year span. Joe traveled a lot, and once when he was gone for a year, Mary and the children joined him for the summer, living in a rented trailer.
“She’s a tough lady. She has always been very flexible,” said Joe.
“I had to be,” Mary said, “because he was gone so much.”
Over the course of his 30-year UPS career, they moved around. When Joe retired in 1988, he was the regional manager and vice president responsible for 19,000 employees in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas.
To Savannah
In 1993, Dick Eckburg, a friend and fellow retired UPS executive who lived in Savannah, invited Joe to come up from Texas for a fishing tournament. Joe brought Mary, and they bought a small house at The Landings before they built their present home in 1995.
It wasn’t long before they became involved in community organizations and local charities.
When Joe started with UPS, he got stock as part of his salary, but in his 30-year career, he never cashed any in.
“We were so paper rich, we were poor,” said Mary.
Joe’s first management job paid $350 a month. But they never sold any stock.
As Joe took on special assignments, he received stock bonuses, and the opportunity to receive more shares. Those shares fund The Joseph W. and Mary A. Dobransky Charitable Foundation and their children’s asset accounts and trusts.
“My motivation is helping the less fortunate, but it’s amazing. Every time I write a check, I get it back double,” said Joe. “The market goes up, or something else happens. It’s truly unbelievable.”
In 2009, the foundation gave $50,000 to Park Place Outreach, a Youth Emergency Shelter, to complete the Dobransky Outreach Center, a safe place on the lower level of the facility for children to do homework and relax. In December 2012, they donated another $50,000, which will provide care and counseling for the children.
“We have always been interested in children’s education,” said Joe. “I’m a great believer that the only way this country is going to advance is to educate the kids.”
In 1995, when Joe was on the board of America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia, the food bank was located across from a housing project and one of its buildings had aluminum siding that had turned out at the bottom.
“I saw a boy come from the projects and sneak into the building under the siding and come out with a sweet roll,” said Joe. “That was his food. It blew me away.”
When Budweiser decided to sell its President Street building, which is Second Harvest’s current location, Joe met with the company, negotiated a better price, went to the bank and personally signed the $1.2 million note. Once established, responsibility was transferred to Second Harvest.
From that beginning, Second Harvest has grown and now feeds between 5,000 and 7,000 children a day. In addition to meals, kids have activities, get coaching for homework and get exercise. Second Harvest also sends tractor-trailers full of food to outlying areas once a week.
Mary Dobansky has been active with the Philanthropic Educational Organization for more than 17 years. The organization sponsors women who, for various reasons, had to leave college and want to return to get a degree. Members work on fundraising projects for sponsorships and support Cottey College for Women in Nevada, Mo.
The Dobranskys also support St. James Parish, St. James Catholic School and the Bethesda Academy.
“We get lots of requests,” said Joe. “People write us letters. We sit down with our financial advisor and decide what percentage of our earnings we can give to charity.”
Of family and the future
The Dobransky family has grown to include 15 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. Four years ago, they started taking one family at a time on a Caribbean cruise. Instead of Christmas gifts, they ask their children to make a charitable donation in their name to a charity of their choice.
“We have six wonderful children, and they are all great,” Joe and Mary said.
Joe celebrated his 80th birthday last July. He admits to being “high maintenance,” but says he’s been following orders for the last 58 years.
Mary turns 79 in May, and this couple, who once counseled engaged couples through Marriage Encounter, are busier than ever.
“He looks out for you,” said Joe. “I just believe you have to share. That’s what life is all about.”