Houghton was president of the A.D. Club, a member of the student council and the Republican Club, and active with Philips Brooks House.
"I took music lessons, piano at the New England Conservatory. I was an absolute failure at the piano," Houghton laments.
A Little Elbow Room
None the less, he is gearing up the motor home to get out on the road and talk about the issues with his constituents.
"They announce that he'll be coming in advance. And then the motor home pulls in, and he opens it up as an office. People come in and talk to him," Rowlfe says.
The re-districting issue will be Houghton's main challenge in his seventh term, and Rowlfe says the 31st district almost certainly will be eliminated.
"His district will definitely go. He plans to use seniority to broker a deal, so that we are not made a district that is attached to Rochester or Buffalo," Rowlfe says.
During his 13-year stint as a member of Congress, Houghton has focused on economic development in his district, improving transportation with refurbished highways and airports.
He has served as a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, and was married for the second time in 1989.
And he still hopes to go on a mission trip to Africa, like he had originally planed to 13 years ago, before Congress got in the way.
Looking back, Houghton says he is glad he went into business, and proud he has had the opportunity to represent the part of New York he calls home.
" I realized in college that I probably could do what I wanted to do within business, and I'm really glad I did," he says. "Corning is a wonderful company with extraordinary people. Corning [the town] is a rural community, you have a little elbow room to spread out. I like that."