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Name: Florence T. Stein

Occupation: Retired social worker

Address: Monroe Township

Age: 93

Family: Married for 45 years to Melvin, who died in 1992 and was an auditor for the New York City Housing Authority. Two children: Susan Stein, a social worker in private practice in Summit, is married to Dr. Jack Skowron, a pediatrician. They live in Westfield with daughters Rebecca, 16 and Molly, 11. Son Joseph Stein works for IBM in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Sisters Esther Goldfarb and Rosamond Colbert both live in Monroe.

Community activities: A member of the board since 1994 of the Jewish Family and Vocational Services of Middlesex County. Retired in 1984 from board of Cancer Care in New York for eight years. Director of the Social Work Division of St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital. Past president of Sisterhood of Rossmoor Jewish Congregation. Now chairs the consolation committee. Past president and still active in Monroe Chapter of Hadassah. Life Membership chair of Southern New Jersey Region of Hadassah. In 1991, received the Citizen of the Year Award from the Kiwanis of Rossmoor.

Hobbies: "Reading, bridge. It used to be dancing -- line dance and ballroom dancing. Still driving."

Self-portrait: "Very active energetic and people-oriented. I believe it's my responsibility to pay back to the community and society. I believe you stay younger the more you do for others, the more you get satisfaction for yourself."

Motto: "Be thankful for the blessings you get."

Greatest accomplishment: "My professional work. I started working in the social work field in 1941 after receiving my master's in social science (as social work was called then) from Columbia and ended my career as director of the Social Work Division of St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital for 11 years until I retired in 1984. I even continued as a social worker, being called back to fill a part-time position when my children were in school."

Bad habits: "Getting to bed late. Often it's at midnight."

Favorite TV: "Jeopardy," "The View," CNN news, and Sunday morning news interview programs.

Favorite food: "Everything I shouldn't eat. But a favorite is chocolate."

Best childhood memory: "I had a wonderful childhood as one of a family of six children of five sisters and one boy. We lived in a fancy section of Flatbush, Brooklyn, and my parents had a summer home in Liberty, N.Y. We would go up to the Liberty home every summer, where we watched cows being milked, and played in the haystack. It was a wonderful life. At Erasmus Hall High School I played field hockey and won an athletic medal, and later when I attended NYU I played varsity field hockey."

People don't know that I... "Started my education at NYU with the intention of being a physical education teacher, but saw that only the Irish girls were being hired for those positions. So I switched to NYU's College of Arts and Sciences majored in English, minored in history, then pre-social work. I continued classes at Columbia in social work at my mother's suggestion."

Last book I read: "The Lemon Tree," by Sandy Tolan. "It's a wonderful book about Israel and the Palestinians. An Israeli film was based on it."

The biggest asset in the local Jewish communities: "The involved people and their concern for other issues as well. The Jewish federation has broader concerns, too, and reaches out to the Jewish communities."

The biggest problem in the local Jewish communities: "The people who don't support the Jewish agencies and the work they are doing. Especially in these times when the needs are greater than before."

If I had more time I would... "Do what I haven't done when I was first asked to be recommended for an honor as a person who shaped the social work profession early on. Several years ago, a couple of people said they would recommend me but I was too busy then to do the paper work. The people who would have recommended me have died. Now I'll never get it done. If I had had more time earlier I should have done it."