Name: Mark Isack

Occupation: Financial planner

Address: Scotch Plains

Family: Married 32 years to Tish, a social worker at Runnels Hospital in Rehabilitation Department. Two daughters, Nora, a junior at Rutgers, and Magda, a freshman at New York University.

A sister, Marsha Lester, a Department Chair of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania living in Philadelphia. A brother, Ronald, married to Renee and living in San Bernrdino Ca. Mother, deceased. Father, Marvin, remarried to Phyllis and lives in Davie, Fl.

Community activities: Current President of Temple Sholom, Fanwood overseeing a $2 million capital campaign to fund the first phase of construction on five acres on Lake Avenue for a new Temple first established in Plainfield in 1913. Board member for eight years of Temple Sholom where he chaired committees and was Treasurer and third, second and first vice president and then co-president of the Temple with Susan Sedwin. Member and President of his home-owners association.

Hobbies: "I'm a student glider pilot taking my test in two weeks and spend a day on weekends flying gliders."

Self Portrait: "I'm energetic, enthusiastic and committed to everything I do. I'm not as well organized as I try to let on."

Motto: "Respect our past, but focus on the future"

Greatest Accomplishment: "With my wife successfully getting two kids into college and on their own "

Bad habits: "I smoke cigars – but in the back yard."

Favorite foods: "Broiled salmon. I learned to enjoy it on vacation. We vacation on Cape Cod and learned to enjoy the fish."

Favorite TV: "Watching the Steelers football games on Sunday afternoons."

Best childhood memory: "Vacation with my siblings and parents at a house or hotel in Nags Head, North Carolina. There was the beach, sand dunes and Kitty Hawk and the beauty of the ocean. It was unpopulated then, not like it is now. It was with family, and we had a lot of solitude."

People don't know that I... "was for many years a competitive racquetball player and that I was a bar mitzvah in a very Orthodox synagogue that my grandparents were members of in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania."

Last book I read: "I read constantly and most of my books are popular mystery novels by favorite authors Ken Follett and James Patterson."

The biggest asset in the local Jewish community: "I think to continue our 93-year-old tradition of Reform Judaism in this area of Scotch Plains is a tremendous opportunity for Temple Sholom and for our community."

The biggest problem in our local Jewish communities: "Continuing to get people to affiliate in local congregations and participate in synagogue life."

If I had more time, I would: "Travel more. I've never been to Israel or Europe and I'd like to see more of this country. I've never been west."