PLATTSBURGH -- With less than 30 days left on the job after 30 years, Edward R. Brohel's to-do list as director of the Plattsburgh State Art Museum includes:

Clean out desk.

Answer as many questions as possible about things that are in order and not.

Work on the permanent collections and three new projects.

Brohel said he's arranging for a show of 55 pieces of James Fitzgerald in Donegal, Ireland, which opens Sept. 13.

"More than 200 pieces of Rockwell Kent will be on exhibition at the State Museum in Albany and opens on Nov. 15. We're waiting to receive a donation of 150 Andy Warhol photographs from the Andy Warhol Foundation. We made it into the big league with that. I don't think I could orchestrate something like that again."

Three decades ago, Brohel saw a New York Times ad about the Plattsburgh State job. He traveled with his then-new girlfriend, Bette.

"We took the train from Grand Central. I was teaching at (New York University) part-time. We were met at the train (station) by Joe Hennessey, the sculptor and head of the Art Department. He was wearing a straw hat and Bermuda shorts. I had an interview. They sent me to have dinner at Burger King. It was unclear where I stood, whether they would hire me or not. Joe Burke was the president. He thought I was a good candidate. I got hired."

A native New Yorker, Brohel was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Queens and lived in Manhattan. He practiced art and had an art history and criticism background. He worked with contemporary and antique art in a commercial gallery from 1956-1974 and learned that he was not a business man.

"I have very good taste. I like to share the value, quality and beauty of art," he said.

He drove a taxi for two years, learned New York City well and realized that money comes hard. He segued to teaching, which was part of his lure to Plattsburgh State, along with a full-time job in the arts complete with a pension and benefits.

When he arrived in 1978, the Myers Fine Art Gallery was open, and the Rockwell Kent Gallery had been open for only two months.

"It was not put in much order. They had paintings on the wall, and that's it. No proper lighting. Nothing."

He liked the idea of a college gallery.

"The process was one of criticism and looking at art at the same time. It had this whole educational dimension to it. I really wanted a job in education in a gallery rather than a classroom, though the gallery became my classroom."