Former Resident to Honor Summit's 'Living Legend'

Peter Kaufmann was raised in Summit, but he hasn’t lived here since 1994.

But one day Kaufmann, who now resides in Jersey City, came out of his home and was startled by who he saw: Andy Anderson, a lifelong and well-known Summit resident.

“I knew he walked. He’s the master walker,” Kaufmann said. “That’s the joke: ‘What, did he walk here?’ But I knew that he didn’t.”

On that day Andy, who is developmentally disabled, was on his way to Liberty Science Center with his caretaker. Kaufmann, who hadn’t seen his former neighbor in years, didn’t stop to say hello.

"I was too busy to even stop," he said.

Then, last Halloween, Kaufmann was shopping at the Livingston Mall last minute for a costume.

“I’m sitting at the food court and I look over and Andy is sitting next to me” Kaufmann recalled. “I said ‘You know what, I keep bumping into this guy in the strangest places. This has to be some kind of sign.’”

So, believing in intuition, Kaufmann took a picture of himself and Andy on his cell phone and started a Facebook group for his old friend when he got home.

Eleven months later the group has almost 800 members spanning the globe from Summit to Japan.

What started out as an innocent Facebook page to reconnect with Andy has turned into a full-fledged effort to honor what Kaufmann says is Summit’s living legend.

“It’s because everybody knows who this guy is,” Kaufmann said. “He’s been around since the '70s. He’s like an icon of Summit—the living icon.”

So Kaufmann has teamed up with Jesse Patteron to begin production on a short documentary about Andy Anderson. Kaufmann said he hopes to interview notable members of the community about their Andy memories and even follow Andy around town.

For those who don’t know, Andy Anderson is well known for walking the streets of Summit, coming out to support local sports teams, and memorizing even the most seemingly inconsequential game scores.

In addition to the documentary, to air on Hometown Television, Kaufmann said he and Councilman Dave Bomgaars have been discussing trying to get a piece of a street named after Andy. Currently they are considering Larned Road between Prospect Street and Ashland Avenue.

“He would be the perfect representative of this city and how people can be kind and want to help each other,” Kaufmann said. "He's sort of like the unofficial mayor."

Andy has been through many difficulties in his life with his disability, losing his father recently, and also the death of his wife Kay Lipper to breast cancer shortly after their marriage. But Kaufmann says Andy takes it all in stride.

“You should enjoy your life, do what you love, and take a genuine interest in people and then you’ll realize, if everything centers around that, everything else becomes a lot easier,” Kaufmann said. “Look how many people love Andy. That’s a living example.”

Part of what makes Andy such an icon is his presence in town. But Kaufmann said it’s more than just being here.

“A big part of it is because he’s always visible,” he said. “But it’s the reason why he does it. He’s going somewhere. He’s walking to the game to support the kids. Or he’s going to the YMCA to help people or he’s walking to the park to cheer on the girls tennis team.”

“That’s like the perfect person in a way–kind of like a saint.”

Kaufmann said his dream would be to make a full-length documentary about Andy, but the funding for that scale project just isn’t there. As it is, Kaufmann said he needs support from the community in the form of donations and sponsorships to even make this short 30-minute piece.

“Andy’s story is really where everybody really wants to be in life: to wake up each day and to do things that you’re interested in,” Kaufman said. “It’s about what he stands for. You can still be very successful in life without being rich or having a super-high career. He wakes up each day and is grateful for each day.”

While the point of the documentary, and hopefully the street-naming, is to bring positive attention to Summit and to honor and respect Andy, Kaufmann said, it’s also to teach people a lesson through Andy’s story.

“As adults we all get caught up in the rat race of life, trying to make as much money as we can,” he said. “But in the end those aren’t the things people remember. That’s the reason why Andy has almost 800 friends around the world. Because he’s giving away kindness. And he’s giving it away to people who haven’t seen him in 30 years.”

“People remember kindness. All the other stuff—money, fame, even success—comes and goes,” Kaufmann said. “We can have that. He’s the living example."

Anyone wishing to contribute to Andy’s documentary can e-mail Kaufmann at pistol@rockinlifestyle.com or go to www.rockinlifestyle.com.