MIDDLETOWN – You would think that 85-year-old Benjamin Gilman was running for office again, shaking hands, smiling and hugging everyone in the room.

The occasion Thursday was the dedication and ribbon cutting for the new Gilman Center for International Education at Orange County Community College in Middletown.

There family and friends, supporters, politicians past and present, including former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi. Gilman is a Republican, but it didn’t matter what your political affiliation was for everyone who attended the event to honor the life of what many call a statesman.

The facility will house all of Gilman’s papers from his years as a member of the House of Representatives where he served for a number of years as chairman of the powerful House International Relations Committee. He said the material he has donated with be an invaluable tool for the students.

“You’re going to find a whole history of what we did for 30 years; treaties, debates, important visits with leaders from throughout the world. It will give them the opportunity to learn what foreign affairs is all about,” he said.

The center will also serve as the foundation for the global studies curriculum at the college. College President Dr. William Richards said the large lecture room is already booked for months.

“I predict it will be the most frequently used space on the Middletown campus and it’s just wonderful for us.”

Gilman, who is an attorney by profession, was in the New York Assembly from 1966 through 1972. He then served in Congress from January 1973 to January 2003 when he retired when his district was cut and split between the two districts now held by Maurice Hinchey and John Hall.