2
12
215
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/3f71106095c7d44b6882d93f9a02a3a7.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=l5x28GoZhlkYkB1f9I4DMlG6CwJ%7EzwEqA7awdIrhFdXLXHguXOVpp%7ENrKwzZovHRkjnaNaysLYfSNex15FXW9-dpEjLstKWtAllgOwf6FLTvnJx-FZnSDAUYRnlAeBm-AmlSnu7T9y75f9Mog1-colp0sLrgdCvlyrLbs6m%7E5QPCmRdHghTFtURd1h3LHWjCFL9nY1LdRTtyEhYB3TKqNe9Sw72RhIG7040vSvyXj9jC7FBSkYPT8SOO0os4lzc63vC3743uJZoIZihgQNf5zk5AjeTgL3BuHuRkNFPgNOMpFqBanKhEqJzyAMDxdmI%7EY9bofsvoEmkdR5wtf2CgCw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
3c4335d5f5db16fd815bf2b45951e6b4
PDF Text
Text
SUMMER 2015
Celebrating the greenest,
bluest day of the year
The Colors of
Commencement
Page 12
�Contents
Wagner Magazine Summer 2015
vol.13,
no.1
F e a t u r e s
12
18
22
The Colors of
Commencement
See the stories of Wagner’s happy graduates
written in the colors of their gowns on the
College’s biggest day of the year.
Buried Stories
Seventy years have passed since Nazi
concentration camps were liberated,
and we are still learning amazing tales
of rescue and bravery.
The Tigress
After a devastating cancer diagnosis,
Cynthia DiBartolo ’84 has clawed her
way back into business, with a fierce
commitment to the social good.
photograph: VINNIE AMESSé
�departments
2
From the President
3
From the Editor
4
From Our Readers
6
Upon the Hill
28
Alumni Link
32
Class Notes
43
In Memoriam
44
Reflections
Bachelor of Arts
One graduate celebrated the occasion
with a bejeweled mortarboard. See more
commencement color on pages 12–17.
�From the President
The Class of 2015 Inspires Hope
THE NEW ACADEMIC YEAR
has just begun, allowing us
to welcome 423 new firstyear students from 28 states
and 15 countries to Grymes
Hill. It’s an exciting time in
the life of the College.
But even as we anticipate
the accomplishments of the
class of 2019, let’s take one
more look back at the remarkable students who crossed
the stage to receive their well-earned diplomas in May.
(Please turn to page 12 to see a photo feature celebrating
“The Colors of Commencement.”) Wes Moore, acclaimed
author of the New York Times bestseller The Other Wes
Moore, gave a moving address, telling the new graduates
that it was now up to them to make their mark. I am
pleased to say that they are off to a good start.
The class of 2015 exemplifies strong academic
achievement, solid leadership, and sustained commitment
to public service and civic engagement. We recognized
many of its members for their scholarly research, academic
presentations, performances, civic leadership, and athletic
achievements.
The class hailed from 31 states and eight countries.
Most came from the traditional route of high school to
college, seeking a welcoming place, an engaged campus,
a caring faculty, and New York City. But some arrived
from different roads — such as Thomas Goodheart of
Staten Island. Before coming to Wagner, Thomas served
in the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa, Japan. A member
of Marine Helicopter Squadron 262 (known as the
Flying Tigers), he contributed to relief efforts after the
2011 tsunami that hit the main island of Japan. Thomas
graduated with a double major in economics and business
administration / finance.
Another example is Sandra Minchala, a first-generation
American whose family emigrated from Ecuador. While
at Wagner, Sandra maintained a four-year GPA of 3.95
in chemistry, while completing scientific field work at
the Mayo Clinic and publishing abstracts as a primary
author at professional conferences such as the American
Geological Society. (Read more about her on page 6.)
Abeer Mishal, another first-generation American whose
parents are Palestinian, truly became a global leader while
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
at Wagner. As an
“Today’s young leaders
IMPACT scholar, seek solutions rather than
president of the
becoming mired in simple
Muslim Student
Association,
critiques or skepticism.”
a high school
democracy coach with Generation Citizen, a volunteer
tutor at El Centro del Inmigrante in Staten Island, she used
her intelligence and grit across the various cultures that
populate Wagner and New York City. She received many
special scholarships, not the least of which was from the
Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women.
Each graduate’s story is unique and very special, and
I wish I could tell you every one. Departing Wagner,
our graduates were prepared to embark on many new
adventures. For the second consecutive year, a Wagner
student has earned a Fulbright award (see page 7 for
more about that). In addition, our students were headed
for graduate study at places like the Cornell Veterinary
School, Ohio State, New York University, University of
California, Washington and Lee, Clemson, Columbia, and
American, among others.
Others were headed to impressive positions at a variety
of prestigious organizations that include PriceWaterhouse
Coopers, JPMorgan Chase, British Petroleum, the Peace
Corps, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Disney
Cruise Line, among others.
Sharing all of the accomplishments of this senior class
makes it clear that its members leave an indelible mark
on this campus, boding well for their future and ours.
Their commitment to excellence and to ethical leadership
is paving the way to solving the seemingly intractable
challenges of poverty, ethnic and racial injustice, and
environmental crises.
Today’s young leaders seek solutions rather than
becoming mired in simple critiques or skepticism.
Working with them leaves me feeling very, very hopeful —
a hope we can all share and celebrate as we work together
toward a better Wagner College in this new year.
Richard Guarasci
President
�A
From the Editor
You See Me ... Every Time
lmost as soon as the performance began,
I found myself choking back tears — an
unexpected surge of emotion provoked by the
powerful images, sounds, faces, and words I
was experiencing in a stuffy room at the Staten
Island Ferry Terminal.
It was the annual show put on by the Sound of
Port Richmond, a community theater program
started in 2013 by Wagner College, Imagining
America, and local residents. Only 12 days
earlier, this troupe of 15 non-professional actors
had started meeting to develop this performance.
They did not (yet) have a script, but they did
have a mission. “It’s about bringing forward those
difficult things that we don’t talk about much,”
said Diana G. Daniels, one of the performers and
Sound of Port Richmond organizers. “But mostly
we want it to be entertaining.”
From its inception, the Sound of Port
Richmond has been dedicated to promoting
conversation about challenging issues via artistic
self-expression. In a year fraught with racial
tension, set off by incidents such as the death
of Eric Garner only half a mile from the ferry
terminal, race and class were the obvious topics of
conversation for the Sound of Port Richmond. So,
on July 17, 2015, a year to the day after Garner’s
death, this volunteer crew of white and black
and Hispanic, young and old and middle-aged,
offered their reflections upon racial dynamics and
their hopes for a better day.
The show’s title, Every Time You See Me,
borrowed the first words Garner said on the
famous video capturing his final moments. “Every
time you see me, you want to mess with me,”
Summer 2015 • Volume 13 Number 1
Garner complained
to the police officers
who confronted
him. The show did
not take a point of
view on that specific incident, but reflected on
the larger resonance of those simple words: the
universal human desire to be seen — that is, to be
understood, not stereotyped and dismissed.
After many stories and skits — in turns funny
and heartbreaking, and always authentic — the
show concluded with a powerful ensemble piece.
Facing each other in pairs, they first repeated
the phrases, “See me,” and “Every time.” Then
suddenly, one person grabbed the other in a
chokehold-like grasp. After a few long and painful
seconds, however, they transformed this violent
gesture into a gentle embrace. Together, the cast
declared, “I can breathe.”
All of our commencement speakers this year
also emphasized that all lives matter, and that
appreciating each other allows people to “breathe”
— to flourish and thrive. Wagner’s new Citizen
Alum video series (wagner.edu/citizen-alum)
showcases the work of alumni who live this
ideal — people like Nadia Lopez ’99, a school
principal in Brownsville, Brooklyn (see page 35),
and many more. I hope you will read and watch
these stories, and feel pride in how the Wagner
family is helping our human family realize their
full potential.
Laura Barlament
e di tor , wag n e r m ag a z i n e
On the Cover
Laura Barlament
e di t o r
Erika Reinhart
g r a ph i c d e sig n e r
writers
Laura Barlament
Joan Oleck
ph o t o g r a ph e r s
Vinnie Amessé
Deborah Feingold
Lee Manchester
Anna Mulé
pro d u c t io n m a n ag e r
Donna Sinagra
Wagner Magazine
Advisory Board
Lisa DeRespino Bennett ’85
Susan Bernardo
Jack Irving ’69
Scott Lewers ’97
Lorraine McNeill-Popper ’78
Brian Morris ’65
Hank Murphy ’63 M’69
Andy Needle
Nick Richardson
Wagner Magazine: The Link for Alumni and Friends
is published twice a year by Wagner’s Office of
Communications and Marketing.
Wagner Magazine
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
718-390-3147
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
President Guarasci awards a BA in Spanish to Emily Shaner.
She wears sashes representing her membership in the sorority Tau
Kappa Sigma and her study abroad semester in Argentina. Active
in the Wagner choir and the Port Richmond Partnership, she has
started her first job teaching Spanish and ESL at Douglas High
School in Massachusetts.
Photograph: Vinnie Amessé
SUMMER 2015
wagner.edu
�From Our Readers
“
Since publication of “Rooted in
Grymes Hill,” Wagner Archivist Lisa
Holland located an additional tidbit of
Seahawk arboreal lore. The minutes of
the April 1952 meeting of the Wagner
Guild, for which Guild Hall was
named, record that President Walter
C. Langsam’s wife, Julia Stubblefield
Langsam, announced that she was buying
a honey locust tree to be planted in front
of Guild Hall. In a charming detail, the
minutes add, “She asked but one thing:
that the tree be named ‘Walter.’”
Today, four honey
locust trees stand
on the patio of
Guild Hall, all
of an age
consistent with
planting in the
mid-Fifties.
I recall spending
many a pleasant
afternoon under the
trees on the Oval.
I just read the article “Rooted in
Grymes Hill” in the fall 2014 edition.
Fascinating! I recall spending many a
pleasant afternoon under the trees on
the Oval, and writing my best paper
under the trees behind Cunard Hall.
Lee Manchester did a wonderful job
of bringing the past to life. Not only
was I able to see the planting of the first
maple trees, but I was able to visualize
my own time at Wagner. I truly enjoyed
the trip back in time. Thanks!
Rich Curtin ’85
PHOENIX, ARIZONA
I enjoyed the article by Lee
Manchester, but was looking forward
to reading about the circle of Japanese
flowering cherry trees which graced the
oval behind Cunard Hall in the early
“
Arboreal Memories
1960s. I think they were planted in ’62
or ’63, and they continued to be the
backdrop for photos of clubs, sororities,
and couples in love throughout my stay
on campus. I believe they were a gift,
but I no longer recall from whom or for
what reason.
Kathy Block Rock ’65
GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA
Editor’s Note:
We have not located
any information yet
about the planting of
those cherry trees, eight
of which still grace
the Cunard oval with
magnificent spring
blossoms. On pages 224–225 of the 1962
yearbook, you can see old photos of them in
full bloom. Presumably they were planted
some years earlier.
WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU We welcome letters from readers. Letters
should refer to material published in the magazine and include the writer’s
full name, address, and telephone number. The editor reserves the right
to determine the suitability of letters for publication and to edit them for
accuracy and length.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Morning Routines
I am responding to the article in the
fall issue of Wagner magazine, written
by Ethel Lee-Miller, entitled “The
Heel.” I loved it because it was well
written and I loved it for its quirky
interpersonal details between a husband,
wife, and food. Ethel’s love affair with
breakfast mirrors mine. I too have a
husband who enjoys capitalizing on
this particular facet of my personality
(Jeff Safford ’56). Our friends are
somewhat dumbfounded to learn that
every evening after clearing the table of
dinner dishes, he or I set the table for
breakfast, complete with attractive place
mats, cloth napkins, and proper place
settings. Hence, each morning we arrive
at a dining room table that invites us to
Laura Barlament, Editor
Office of Communications, Wagner College
One Campus Road, Staten Island, NY 10301
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
�start our day fueled in a satisfying way.
We sit down and partake.
But Ethel Lee-Miller’s article also
caught my fancy because it was centered
on breakfast in bed, an experience I
enjoy and am gifted a few times each
month. Not many of my women friends
feel as comfortable as I, sitting up and
eating in bed. Maybe one has to be
a writer or avid reader, two activities
carried out nicely while nibbling on
food and sipping coffee, propped up by
pillows. I have appreciated the routine
so much, that one morning I wrote a
poem entitled, “Breakfast in Bed.” I am
sending it along as my response to the
article I so enjoyed in your last issue.
June Billings Safford ’59
BOZEMAN, MONTANA
Editor’s Note: We heard from several other
alumni, paying tribute to Dr. and Mrs.
Steen’s positive influence on their lives
through voice lessons and choir experiences,
and contributing to the Sigvart J. Steen
Scholarship Fund at Wagner.
Alternative History
Motivated by a photograph of Wagner
students holding old copies of The
Wagnerian student newspaper (fall
2014, “‘The Wagnerian’ at 80,” page 11),
I went rummaging around and found
some interesting Wagnerian history
that I doubt anyone is aware of. From
December 1964 to May 1965, an
alternate paper, The Observer, existed on
campus, and not under the auspices of
the College.
Richard “Dick” Mollette ’67
Editor’s Note: To read June Billings
Safford’s poem “Breakfast in Bed,” please
visit wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
Larger-Than-Life
Couple
Margery Mayer Steen and her husband,
Dr. Sigvart Steen, were immensely
important in my life at Wagner, and
helped shape me as a professional
classical musician. I remember both of
them vividly — impossible not to! —
and will be thankful to both of them
for as long as I live. Reading of her
passing in the recent Wagner magazine,
I thought: Wow, all across America, and
probably beyond, her voice students,
and Dr. Steen’s choir members, are
remembering this larger-than-life
couple, with great affection, respect,
and thankfulness. We were lucky to
know them.
CUSTER, WASHINGTON
SOUNDS FOUND,
STORIES SOUGHT
We have recently unearthed
three vinyl LP recordings of
the Wagner College Choir
under the direction of Sigvart
Steen — from 1956, 1964 and
1968 — which we will post online
for free downloads during the
College’s annual Founders Week
celebrations this October. To
accompany the digital release
of these historic recordings,
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Mr. Mollette
for donating his copies of the five issues of
The Observer to the College archives.
The Observer began publication in
December 1964 in response to student
discontent with conditions at the College,
and the lack of coverage of such issues
in The Wagnerian. It also filled the
gap when The Wagnerian was briefly
suspended from publication. The Observer
was funded by donations and advertising.
we would like to share the
remembrances of Wagner College
Choir members. When did you
first hear the choir? Whose
faces — and voices — do you still
remember from the choir? What
was your most memorable choirtour experience? Tell us all about it!
Send your remembrances to
lee.manchester@wagner.edu.
Vicki Heins-Shaw ’71
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�Chemistry for Humanity
Wagner contributes to international child health study
WHILE PROFESSOR ALAUDDIN was away in Bangladesh this
summer for his Fulbright assignment (see “On the Move”),
he left his lab in the capable hands of Sandra Minchala ’15,
a recent chemistry graduate. (They are shown above on a
study trip in Bangladesh.)
Alauddin is a partner in a research initiative, WASH (Water,
Sanitation, Hygiene) Benefits, centered at the University
of California, Berkeley, and funded by the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation. Its purpose is to improve the health and
development of children in poor, rural areas of the world.
Environmental enteropathy — i.e., intestinal disease — is
a widespread problem in the developing world. Its victims
cannot absorb nutrients properly, causing a vicious cycle of
deteriorating health. Seventeen thousand children under
the age of 5 die every day, and in one-third of those cases,
A Smart
Investment
New guidebook touts Wagner’s
“Return-on-Education” value
WAGNER COLLEGE was ranked among
the 209 best-value colleges in America
by the Princeton Review in a new
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
undernutrition is the cause of death.
The Alauddin lab is testing thousands of urine samples from
children in rural Kenya and Bangladesh to measure the extent
of the problem. So far, Minchala says, all of the samples reveal
the presence of the disease.
The next step in the WASH Benefits project will be to test
variables like access to clean water, handwashing practices, and
nutrition, and find out which interventions provide the biggest
health benefits.
“I’m very humbled to be working on these projects,” says
Minchala, whose goal is to follow in Alauddin’s footsteps of
using chemistry to solve public health problems. “I can’t wait to
start on my own projects, like Dr. Alauddin. I will do whatever I
can to help from the chemical aspect. It gives me more drive to
finish my Ph.D. and do what I have to do.”
guidebook, Colleges That Pay You Back:
The 200 Best Value Colleges and What It
Takes to Get In, released in February.
Wagner College has been listed in
the Princeton Review’s primary college
guidebook, Best Colleges, since it was first
published in 2004. The new Colleges
That Pay You Back guide is designed
to address two particular concerns of
college applicants and their parents:
paying for college, and graduating with
a good job and paycheck.
To address these questions, the
Princeton Review developed a “Returnon-Education” rating that measures
40 weighted data points — everything
from academics, cost, financial aid,
and student debt to statistics on
graduation rates, alumni salaries, and
job satisfaction.
�{
Quote
Unquote
Wagner students see each other for more
than what we do, but for who we are. … We
all have a piece of that same Wagner heart.
Heather Wolf ’15
Spiro Scholar,
Commencement
2015
}
On the Move
Student and professor receive Fulbright grants to teach abroad
THIS YEAR, for the
second year in a
row, a Wagner
student was
awarded a
Fulbright
U.S. Student
Program grant
as an English
Teaching Assistant.
Alexandria “Allie” Sethares ’15, a
business administration major, is spending
2015–16 in South Korea teaching
English at a middle school. In addition,
Mohammad Alauddin, professor of
chemistry, received his second Fulbright
grant, a specialist grant in chemistry
education for Bangladesh.
Alauddin is developing curricula and
faculty training at the Independent
University’s Life Sciences Division
in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A native of
Bangladesh, Alauddin has long been
engaged in applying science to the public
health challenges of Bangladesh — in
particular, water pollution and indoor air
pollution. He taught at the University of
Dhaka for a semester in 2004 on his first
Fulbright grant.
Sethares began her year abroad in June,
with a six-week intensive language and
teacher training course. She will spend
the academic year as a teaching assistant
at Yeongheung middle school in Mokpo,
about 200 miles south of Seoul.
Sethares became interested in Korean
culture through an exchange student she
met at her high school in East Falmouth,
Massachusetts. “[She] brought me a CD
copy of all the ‘K-pop’ music she owned,”
Sethares recalls. “I fell down the rabbit
hole of experiencing another culture
through indulging in its media.”
Hearing about her teaching assignment,
Sethares says, was thrilling and brings her
back full circle. “This is a city surrounded
by beautiful islands but still has hiking
mountains, is known for its seafood, and
reminds me so much of my childhood on
the Cape,” she wrote on her blog.
�You can follow Sethares’s adventures
in South Korea at littlebluepassport.
wordpress.com.
SITED
Allie Sethares (pictured above)
and other Fulbrighters mark their
teaching locations on a Korean map.
WA T E R P O L O P H O T O G R A P H : C A R L I S L E S T O C K T O N
THE SEAHAWKS women’s water
polo team won the Metro
Atlantic Athletic Conference
championship and qualified
for the NCAA tournament for
the second year in a row; and,
for the first time in program
history, they ended the season
in the Collegiate Water Polo
Association National Top 20
Poll (they tied for #18). They
achieved much in the classroom
as well, ending the season with
the highest team GPA in the
nation for the fourth year in a
row. Shown above: Goalie Emily
Riddle ’16.
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�Upon the Hill
{
First the
Facts . . .
1
314
Day of G i v i ng , Dec e m be r 2 , 2 014 , w i t h a n
onl i n e c a m pa ig n to m atc h t wo $ 25, 0 0 0
c h a l l e ng e g r a n t s .
G i v e r s to t h e Wag n e r F u n d
on t h at day.
From Wagner Plan
to Wagner Purpose
Video series captures stories of inspiring
alumni, in their own words
WAGNER COLLEGE has joined a group of 30 colleges and
universities devoted to showing off stories illustrating
the ideal of an alumni network for good. The project
is called Citizen Alum, and its goal is to promote
Major
Excitement
New program in film and media
studies has students abuzz
THERE’S A LOT OF BUZZ on campus
about the new major in film and media
studies, says Laura Morowitz, chair of the
Department of Art and Art History, in
which the program is housed.
Created by the Wagner faculty last year,
the major was launched in January with
the hiring of a new faculty member, Sarah
Friedland, assistant professor and director
of the film and media major.
The excitement is audible in the voices
of students like Shane Ertter ’16, who
took Friedland’s Introduction to Video
Production during the spring semester.
“I’m taking this course and am
interested in this major because I see the
value of media and communications in
everything we do,” he says. “I think the
film and media studies major is going to
help a lot of students convey their stories
and open them up to a whole new world.”
It’s not just the students who are excited;
Friedland is equally enthused. “Building
a new program is a thrilling and exciting
project anywhere; it’s a creative endeavor,”
she says. And there are several factors that
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
alumni as “allies in education — crucial partners in
building multigenerational communities of active
citizenship and active learning.”
At Wagner, Heather Wolf ’15 has been focused
on the project since the beginning of this year,
capturing on video the stories of exceptional alumni
who are civically engaged in their communities,
whether personally or professionally.
�Watch these inspiring stories at wagner.edu/
citizen-alum, and nominate more candidates
whose stories deserve to be told.
make it especially exciting at Wagner,
she adds, such as the involvement of
departments across the College, the nexus
of civic engagement and documentary
filmmaking, and the prospects for
international exchanges.
A documentary filmmaker as well
as an educator, Friedland taught video
production part-time at Wagner
previously and loved the experience. “The
students were so excited and invested in
their projects,” she says. “You don’t always
have that experience as an educator, so it
was really refreshing.”
Wagner’s program in film and media
studies is distinctive for a few reasons,
says Morowitz. First is the focus on
documentary filmmaking. The major
was designed to promote that type of
filmmaking not only because it fits well
with the College’s existing facilities,
but also because it meshes so well
with its mission of civic engagement.
Documentary filmmakers often
come to the medium from a
background in journalism,
social justice, and history,
Morowitz notes.
Friedland strongly
agrees. “As a
filmmaker and a
documentarian,
most of my films
RICH NEGRIN ’88,
Philadelphia deputy
mayor, is among those
featured by Citizen Alum.
are focused on communities, and I’m
focused on doing that in a responsible and
meaningful way. And there’s a lot of space
to bring that into the program here,”
she says.
Film’s interdisciplinary nature is also
a good fit for the interdisciplinary core
of the Wagner Plan curriculum, and the
widespread interest of Wagner faculty
in film.
The film and media studies major
offers three concentrations: filmmaking/
digital arts, focused on production and
creation; film studies and criticism,
focused on film theory; and media studies,
which incorporates the context of civic
engagement, non-profit, and communitybased careers.
IN FOCUS Professor
Sarah Friedland gives
Shane Ertter ’16 a lesson
on operating a video
camera.
�129,479
D ol l a r s r a i se d to
h e l p Wag n e r g row.
. . . Then
the Quiz!
What was the most successful
short fundraiser in Wagner history?
A n sw e r on Pag e 11
}
The Wagner groups took more than 2,000 pairs of gloves and many sharps containers (as in this red box) for needle disposal.
2
3
Debra Thorne ’14 M’15 prepares individual kits.
4
Meagan Maniscalco ’14 M’15 sorts urinalysis supplies.
3
4
2
5
WHAT’S INSIDE
1
Cunard Hall, Clinical Skills Room
WAGNER’S physician
1
Mark Beyer ’14 M’15 holds a sack of syringes used to test for diabetes.
5
Elizabeth Felter ’14 M’15 labels supplies.
assistant program
has started an initiative called Project
PAC (Providing Access to Care).
Here, they are packing their supplies
for trips to rural areas of Belize and
Guatemala. It takes about a month
to organize and pack 2,000 pounds of
donated medical supplies.
If you’re interested in learning more or donating supplies, visit wagner.edu/physician-assistant.
Photograph: anna mulé
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�Upon the Hill
{
Quote
Unquote
It is now our task to … celebrate
and appreciate our differences, taking
into consideration that each of us is
one of a kind and our voice is essential.
Kerri Lee Alexander ’15
Class of 2015
Commencement
Speaker
}
PLAYING HIS PART
Charles Taylor often attends
Wagner College Theatre
shows and contributes to
the Wagner community.
Life’s Learning
Opportunities
Heritage Society member
Charles Taylor ’64 is expanding
them to others
is learning how other
people live, and the difference between
your culture and their culture,” says
Charles Taylor ’64.
Taylor traveled the world during his
37-year career with Schering-Plough,
a pharmaceutical company now part
of Merck. A chemistry major, Taylor
started off as a laboratory chemist,
but decided to switch to the business
side. He earned an MBA at St. John’s
University and went into purchasing,
finding ways to save the company
millions of dollars.
While working in supplier quality,
he visited plants in Italy, Germany, and
China. He was especially fascinated
by Chinese business practices and
“PART OF LIFE
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
“fearsome” risk-taking. He ended
up helping a new Chinese factory to
write the “drug master file” required
by the US government. “I was able to
use my chemistry knowledge, business
knowledge, and learn about business
contracts law,” he notes.
Taylor retired in 2003 as manager
of technical documentation. He
has continued to be involved in
business as a volunteer consultant for
SCORE, a nonprofit that helps small
business owners. Often, he works with
people who are looking to operate
internationally, such as a would-be
exporter of cars and computers to
Pakistan, and an Ecuadorian chocolatier
who would like to expand to China.
Taylor has also grown closer to his
own Polish heritage in his retirement.
His mother’s parents were Polish
immigrants. During his childhood, he
spent a lot of time with his grandmother
and spoke Polish and English, but he
knew nothing of his relatives in Poland
until a few years ago. Since 2009, he
has traveled to Poland several times,
enjoying the hospitality and the homebrewed vodka.
During his student days, he recalls
one time when the Varsity Players
recruited him for a role on stage. It was
in 1963, the romantic comedy Sabrina
Fair. He was only supposed to be in a
crowd scene, but ended up getting about
10 lines. “I was scared,” he remembers.
“I stopped at the bar, now known as
the Roadhouse, on my way and had
a few drinks. I managed to do it and
survived it.
“Life throws a curveball,” he quips.
“The trick is to hit it.”
Taylor has made a planned gift to
Wagner College, making him a member
of the Heritage Society. Through his
gift, Wagner’s learning opportunities
will continue to expand — and more
students will learn how to hit those
curveballs in life.
Interested in the Heritage Society?
Contact David Martin at 718-420-4341
or dmartin@wagner.edu.
Photograph: ANNA MULé
�{
The
Answer
QU i Z qu e st ion
on pag e 9
The Grow Wagner campaign on the 2014 National Day
of Giving was the most successful one-day fundraiser in
Wagner history! Help us grow even more this year: Watch
your email, the Wagner College Facebook page and
Twitter account on December 1, 2015.
Serving
Alma Mater
Two alumni take on top College
leadership positions this year
two Wagner
alumni have taken on top
leadership positions at their
alma mater: John Carrescia
’99 M’06 and Christian
Carrescia
Miller ’84 M’88.
In January, Carrescia was
appointed chief financial
officer and vice president
for finance and business. He
succeeded Bill Mea, who
Miller
left last August. Carrescia
began his career in accounting at KPMG. He
has worked at Wagner since 2003, beginning
as assistant controller. Since 2005, he has
also taught graduate and undergraduate
courses as an adjunct faculty member in the
Department of Business Administration —
and he has earned the title of Outstanding
Graduate Teacher.
Miller joined Wagner this summer as
director of campus operations, succeeding
the longtime previous director, Dominick
Fontano, who retired after 50 years of working
at Wagner College.
Miller had served as vice president of
THIS YEAR,
Prime Numbers
15
E l i t e pe rc e n tag e of
A m e r ic a n c ol l eg e s prof i l e d
i n t h e Pr i nc e ton R e v i e w ’ s
B E ST COL L E G E S , w h ic h
i nc lu de s Wag n e r C ol l eg e
}
maintenance for the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Development Corporation for the previous
year, but most of his career was with the
YMCA of New York City. As the director
of property management, he managed 25
facilities. He also served as executive director
of the McBurney YMCA and oversaw
its move from its 100-year-old building
on 23rd Street (famous for the Village
People’s “YMCA” music video) into a new,
70,000-square-foot facility on
14th Street.
Miller is not entirely new to working with
facilities and operations at Wagner — during
his student years, he worked on the grounds
one summer. “I cut an awful lot of grass,” he
recalls. “If you look out over those lovely Tiers
parking lots that are so nicely manicured,
they weren’t so much then. I actually spent
two weeks with a hand sickle chopping down
lots and lots of weeds and grass.”
A business administration major with a
minor in theater tech, he even interned for
the director of campus operations at that
time, Stan Shilling. What he calls “my love of
the mechanical, using my hands” became the
basis of his career.
“I’m thrilled to death,” Miller says
of his return to Wagner. “There are a
lot of challenges, but it’s a very positive
environment. There are lots of opportunities
to do some really cool stuff and make things
better for everyone.”
16
#
Stat e r a n k i ng of
Wag n e r C ol l eg e
a lu m n i sa l a r i e s by
PaySc a l e i n 2 015
5
Rappers’ Revolution
We don’t know this for a fact, but
we’ll venture to guess that before
Ousmane Traoré, no Wagner faculty
member had appeared on MTV.
In a recent
episode of
the MTV
documentary
series Rebel
Music, the
Wagner
professor of
global and
African history sets the context to
help viewers understand the modern
history of his native Senegal. The
episode of this stylish and educative
series, titled “Senegal: Ready for
Change,” focuses on Y’en a Marre (in
English, “I’m Fed Up”), a popular
political movement spearheaded by
socially engaged hip-hop artists.
Y’en a Marre fulfills the classic
function of protest movements —
speaking truth to power — in the
highly charged political environment
of Senegal. During Senegal’s 2012
presidential elections, Y’en a Marre
helped defeat the Liberal Party, which
had held power since 2000. Now,
“Enough is Enough” is nurturing a
movement across Africa by inspiring
youth political movements, activists,
and artists to promote democracy and
social justice and fight poverty and
hunger.
Traoré, who has taught at Wagner
since 2012, holds a B.A. in history and
Egyptology from Cheikh Anta Diop
University in Senegal, an M.A. in history
and archaeology from University Lille
3-Charles De Gaulle, and a Ph.D. in
history from Sorbonne University.
#
Nat iona l r a n k i ng
of Wag n e r C ol l eg e
for i n t e r n sh i p s
by U. S . N E WS &
WOR L D R E PORT
F� ind a link to “Senegal: Ready
for Change” at wagner.edu/
wagnermagazine.
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�ALYSSA CONNORS ’13 M’15 , master’s in early
childhood and special education, shows
off her master’s hood (lined in blue for
education) as well as her Kappa Delta Pi
education honors purple and green cord.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�The Colors
of Commencement
W hat day is greener than the day of Wagner commencement?
Sitting on the green grassy Oval, Dr. Guarasci and honored guests
swathed in green robes, hundreds of green diploma covers held high,
all awash in Wagner pride: There is no greener day. W hat day is
bluer than the day of Wagner commencement? Marching under a
cerulean sky, tears flow and hearts twist as graduates and parents
and inseparable friends realize four wonderful years have come to
an end: There is no bluer day.
But green and blue don’t just represent Wagner pride
and emotion, grass and sky: The ceremony itself swims
in literal color. In fact, the colors and costumes that lend
commencement day its dignity have as rich a story to tell as
do the speakers who step up to the podium.
The use of the academic costume dates back to Medieval
Europe, and to this day colorful ensembles of diverse
styles are commonly used abroad, where academic attire is
distinctive to each university.
At American colleges and universities, by contrast, styles
and colors for the academic costume were established by an
intercollegiate agreement in 1895, so that the mortarboard
photographs by VINNIE AMESSé
cap and the gowns for bachelor’s and master’s candidates, and
the master’s hoods, are prescribed in style.
But, here is where the color begins: Wagner master’s hoods
indicate the field of study by color, and all students may wear
stoles, sashes, and cords that indicate where they studied
abroad, what honor societies or fraternal organizations they
belong to, or other aspects of their membership in this
community.
So, in this feature, let’s unpack some of the stories our
graduates have to tell about their Wagner experiences, all
shown in the colors they wore on this year’s biggest day on the
Wagner calendar — Friday, May 22.
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�PORTIA EMORY (red-and-yellow stole for
study abroad in Barcelona, green and white
student athlete cord), GRACE ZHANG (red
stole for Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority; red,
green, and white stole for study abroad
in Kenya; cords for Omicron Delta Kappa
national honor society, Pi Sigma Alpha
political science honor society, and Order
of Omega Greek leadership honor society),
ANGELA D’AMICO (green, white, and red
stole for study abroad in Italy, gold cord for
Honors Program), KELLY YAMAHIRO (lei for
her home state of Hawaii, stoles for Alpha
Sigma Alpha and study abroad in Grenada,
Spain), and ANTHONY CARRINGTON (cords
for being a student athlete and member of
the Center for Leadership and Community
Engagement).
Bottom Left: ABEER MISHAL , whose parents
are Palestinian immigrants, painted on
her mortarboard the Palestinian flag and
the Greek initials of her honor society
memberships: Omicron Delta Kappa
(leadership), Phi Alpha Theta (history), and
Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish). Her cords also
represent those three honor societies, plus
civic engagement, the Muslim Student
Association, and the Honors Program.
Her stole represents Argentina, where she
studied abroad, and Palestine, where she
made paintings on a Gaffney grant.
Middle Right: STEVE DIVUOLO , BS in
business administration, wears the
Wagner green gratitude stole. After
commencement, graduates give their
gratitude stole to someone who has made
a difference in their academic career.
He is surrounded by his biological family,
who just happen to also be one big Wagner
family as well: His parents, ROBERTA FARRELL
’85 M’89 DIVUOLO & TOM M’90 DIVUOLO , stand
to his left; his brothers, MATTHEW ’16 and
BRIAN ’18 , also business administration
majors, stand on either side. On the far left
are his aunt and uncle, MARION FARRELL
ANDERSON ’86 M’89 and Robert Anderson; on
the far right, his cousin Catherine.
Bottom Right: Seahawk football players
show off their championship rings as well
as their green and white student athlete
cords. RALPH GREENE , left, is going to get
his MBA in media management at Wagner,
while JARRID WILLIAMS , who adds the gold
and green cord of the Center for Leadership
and Community Engagement, is going for a
Wagner MBA in marketing.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�“I finished my
undergrad
experience e 13 years
ago, and the truth is, no one
ever asks me anymore, ‘So,
Wes, what did you major in
in college?’... The question
that will never fade for you
is, ‘W ho did you choose
to fight for? W ho did you
choose to stand up for when
it wasn’t easy? W ho did you
choose to advocate for when
it wasn’t convenient? W ho
did you choose to stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with
when it might have been just
you two standing there, but
you did it because it was the
right thing to do?’ W hat
you study will fade. W ho
you fight for will not.”
— �C ommencement Speaker Dr. Wes Moore H’15,
New York Times Bestselling Author
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�DANIEL CIMILLUCA ’14 M’15 , master’s in
microbiology, wears a hood lined in gold
indicating his science degree.
Top Right: Physician assistant master’s
graduates wear a gold-lined green and white
hood: RICK LEUNG (also wearing a Pi Alpha
green and blue cord for P.A. honors), headed for
a job in spinal surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian
Hospital; NICOLE D’ANGELO , whose first job is
in the neonatal ICU at Richmond University
Medical Center; BRENNA DEAN , specializing in
orthopedic spine surgery at the Kirshner Spine
Institute; and KARA CLARK .
Middle Right: Greeting President Guarasci, LEO
SCHUCHERT, BS in psychology, was a member
of psychology honors society Psi Chi (silver stole
and cord) and of the Center for Leadership and
Community Engagement (green and yellow cord).
Bottom Right: COLBY CAROLIN , BS in
international affairs and business, sports a stole
representing his study abroad in Spain, as well as
the maroon and gold cord of fraternity Delta Nu;
LAUREN DE BLASI , BS in nursing, wears a purple
and white cord to signify Sigma Theta Tau
nursing honors and a green cord for community
health nursing; CARMINE COPPOLA , BS in business
administration (finance concentration), has a Delta
Nu cord, Delta Mu Delta business administration
honors purple and gold cord, ODK cords, and a lei
for his Expanding Your Horizons study trip to Hawaii.
“Wagner took
a chance on me.
Wagner nurtured me
and helped me find my
niche. Wagner made me
believe in me! I truly
believe that my early
struggles helped me succeed
in my teaching career”
—D
� r. Aletta Kipp Diamond ’65 H’15,
Wagner Trustee
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�“ You are Wagner!
You are among
the few and select
college graduates who
already know how to
serve others, how to teach
and touch the soul of
a young child, how to
hold a hand and heal
the sick, how to bring
harmony and creativity
to our community, how to
manage business, how to
apply the sciences without
ever forgetting that the
arts touch our hearts.”
— �D r. Timothy M. Gannon H’15,
Principal of Port Richmond High School
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�Why Wagner College is strengthening its
commitment to Holocaust education
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�S
eventy years ago, Allied troops
rolled into Nazi concentration
camps and started uncovering
the extent of the Holocaust’s
horrors.
Seventy years later, amazing stories of
courage and survival against all odds are
still being told, heard, and appreciated
— in some cases, for the first time ever.
And new generations are still struggling
with the questions this historical episode
leaves in its wake: How and why did this
happen? And, most importantly, how can
we prevent it from happening again?
In this context, Wagner College has
launched an effort to establish a Holocaust
Education and Programming Center.
Staten Island is the only borough of
New York City that does not already have
a Holocaust center, notes Lori Weintrob,
professor of history and director of this
new initiative.
“This is something the community
really needs at this particular moment,
when Holocaust studies are slowly
disappearing from curriculum of public
schools, and we’re losing survivors,” says
Weintrob. “Yet there still are survivors
who can inspire students with their
stories of courage and determination and
resilience.”
The Chai Society, a group that has
supported Jewish life at Wagner College
for the past 12 years, is in full agreement.
They have sponsored a rabbi in residence
and scholarships for Jewish students, and
now they are focused on raising funds to
establish the new center. Dr. Ron Avis, a
Staten Island dentist who is a co-founder
and former chair of the Chai Society,
made a lead gift of $100,000 toward
Wagner’s Holocaust center.
“This center is a dream, a place
where the history and the memory of the
Holocaust will not be forgotten,” says Dr.
Avis’s son, current Chai Society co-chair
Dr. Victor Avis.
Rescue and Bravery
Weintrob is particularly interested
in connecting students with Holocaust
survivors who live in Staten Island — she
knows there are at least 40, and probably
as many as 75.
“This is something that Wagner
College students and younger students
can really get excited about, because
amid the tragic stories and the loss of
family and the conditions in the ghettos
and the camps, there are also stories of
helping each other, of rescue, of bravery,”
Weintrob says.
During last academic year, Wagner
student interns began documenting these
stories, teaching in four local schools,
and bringing Holocaust survivors to the
schools to speak directly to the children
and youth of Staten Island.
One of the Wagner student interns
and teachers was Julia Teichman ’15. A
psychology major and president of Hillel
at Wagner, she connected Holocaust
history to a contemporary issue that the
kids could relate to: bullying. “They really
get the importance of standing up to
bullying and not letting bullying happen.”
Teichman also participated in the
first Wagner trip to Germany and Poland,
as part of Professor Weintrob’s course,
Confronting the Nazi Past. In March,
the group of 18 students and community
members traveled to Berlin, Warsaw,
Krakow, and Auschwitz (below), to view
Holocaust sites, memorials, and museums,
and meet with people to talk about past
and present Jewish life.
Studying the Holocaust, Teichman
says, has helped her connect with her
own history: “I have family that perished
during the Holocaust and family that
survived the Holocaust, so it’s part of my
history. So essentially I was confronting
my own Nazi past.”
Photo, page 18: Children’s memorial, Warsaw Cemetery, by Leslie Lopez.
Photo, page 19: Barbed wire fence at Auschwitz, by Rita Reynolds.
A Moral Compass
For other students, the course and
trip made Holocaust history become
alive and relevant in a way they had never
experienced before. “This is my first time
getting away from the books and getting
to see the topics and experience them first
hand,” says Leslie Lopez ’17. “It’s not in
the past, it’s still here today. I think it’s really
important to apply it to today. Because if
we see what happened before, we can try to
correct it so it doesn’t happen again.”
For Weintrob, this is the essence of
the value of studying the Holocaust: “The
Holocaust story can become central to a
21st-century education, a moral compass
in times that are fast changing and when
young people might not know how to
define ethical leadership.”
Documenting Tragedy
and Survival
“The Holocaust Education and
Programming Center is important because
it documents the tragedy, the horror, and
the epic survival of those who came through
the Holocaust,” says President Guarasci. “It
is also important to give witness to the fact
that that these kinds of things still occur in
different populations throughout our world
today, and that we need to educate young
people to be prepared to encounter that and
be prepared to defeat that kind of thinking
and behavior.”
Professor Weintrob’s students
researched the materials for a fascinating
exhibit at Wagner in the spring of 2015,
“Tragedy and Resilience: Holocaust
Survivors of Staten Island.” Curated by
Weintrob and Lauren Citarella ’17, the
exhibit documented the stories of 16
Holocaust survivors. These pages present
a selection of the stories and artifacts
exhibited, part of what will become the
permanent collection of Wagner’s Holocaust
Education and Programming Center.
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�STORYTELLER OF SURVIVAL
GABI HELD , b. 1932 in Enc,
Hungary, boxed after the
war as an act of defiance
against the sufferings of the
Holocaust. He survived two
concentration camps.
RACHEL ROTH was born in 1926 and grew up in Warsaw, Poland. After the Nazi
occupation of Poland in the fall of 1939, her father — a respected journalist
— was quickly targeted and fled to Palestine. The remaining family members
were removed into the Warsaw ghetto, where Roth suffered hunger and
endured forced labor. In the summer of 1942, the Nazis deported and killed all
of her close family members. Still working, Roth managed to smuggle in a few
weapons used in the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943. The Nazis
deported the survivors of that struggle, and Roth faced hard labor, illness, and
deprivation in Majdanek, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.
A born storyteller, she sustained her fellow inmates’ hope by telling them about
the Shabbat dinners in her home before the war. One woman made Roth
promise to write about her experiences if she survived — and she did. Her book
is entitled Here There Is No Why. She was reunited with her father after the war,
and she married and raised five children in Staten Island.
A TORAH SCROLL FRAGMENT saved after a
synagogue burning in Josefow, Poland, 1942.
DEATH PARTED THEM
Among these celebrants of
a wedding in the Warsaw
ghetto, Rachel Roth was
the only one who survived
the war.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
ROMI COHN , b. 1928 in
Bratislava, Czechoslovakia,
forged a Nazi secret police
I.D. and joined the Slovakian
partisans at age 16.
�A YELLOW STAR OF DAVID
inscribed with Jude (“Jew”)
was required on the
clothing of German Jews
beginning in 1941.
BRENDA PERELMAN (above, with her parents, in Bologna,
Italy, ca. 1945), b. 1937 in Poland, spent the war in
hiding, but her baby brother was shot and killed. MORITZ
PERELMAN (right, with his grandfather), b. 1931 in Poland,
hid in a secret room in the family grocery store for
nearly two years.
ARTHUR SPIELMAN , b. 1930 in Poland,
survived the Krakow ghetto until his
family escaped on foot and hid in
Slovakia and Hungary, and ended the
war in a displaced persons camp (shown
above, Arthur on far left).
EGON SALMON , b. 1924 in
Rheydt, Germany, attempted
to escape Nazi Germany with
his mother (shown in passport
above) on the M.S. St. Louis in
1939, but Cuba, the U.S., and
Canada turned the ship away.
The family finally reached
Staten Island in 1940. Egon
served in the U.S. Army.
EMIL JACOBY (1923–1998), a native of
Czechoslovakia, was in Budapest studying art
when World War II broke out. He lost all of his
family and survived the brutal Mauthausen
extermination camp. He came to Staten Island
in 1982, and in retirement devoted himself to
art commemorating the Holocaust, such as the
drawing above.
LEARN MORE
•C
� ontact: Professor Lori Weintrob at LRWeintr@wagner.edu or
718-390-3309.
• �Attend: Kosher lunch and reunion for Hillel alumni on
September 27, 1–4 p.m., as part of Wagner’s Fall Festival weekend.
Visit wagner.edu/homecoming to register.
PHOTOGRAPHS: Portraits of Rachel Roth, Gabi Held, Romi Cohn, Arthur Spielman, and Brenda and
Moritz Perelman by Sara Signorelli M’15. “Jude” star and Torah fragment from the collection of
the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�THE TIGRESS
How Cynthia DiBartolo ’84 clawed her way back into business —
on her own terms
By Joan Oleck
T
o enter the tigress’s den, a
visitor must first maneuver
the tony shopping district
of New York’s Midtown,
then pass beneath the archway of the
landmark 500 Fifth Avenue building,
with its shimmering gray marble and
Art Deco-style sconces, before ascending
to the 15th floor.
There, inside the doors of Tigress
Financial Partners, awaits ... well, nothing
particularly scary. Just a light-filled office
decorated in orange and white, with
flickering Bloomberg screens, a Plexiglasencased basketball from former client
Walt Frazier, and a photo from a longago relationship with Prince Albert
of Monaco.
Nor is the tigress herself at all
frightening, but rather an attractive
blonde in her early 50s, with a heartshaped face, a ready smile, and a petite
physique attired in chunky gold jewelry
and what the tigress herself describes as
P H OTO G R A P H : D E B O R A H F E I N G O L D
her standard attire: a long-sleeved dress
jacket.
To hide the scars on my arms.
Here at last lies the first clue why
Cynthia DiBartolo ’84 gave her financial
services firm the name for a female tiger
or an equally fierce, passionate woman.
Because she herself is one.
D
iBartolo is a tigress not just
because she started her own
investment banking and
brokerage firm — a rare feat in the
male-dominated financial industry.
Nor because she rose through the ranks
of U.S. banking to direct the complex
integration of Citicorp’s and Smith
Barney’s investment divisions.
Nor is she a tigress just because she
reached a high-enough perch in the
financial world to chair the Greater New
York Chamber of Commerce and be
anointed a “leader” on the White House
Business Council.
No, the biggest reason Cynthia
DiBartolo is a tigress is that she has
faced not one but two terrifying bouts
of dangerous head and neck cancer.
Diagnoses that twice forced her to
endure a tracheotomy and the surgical
dissection and rebuilding of large chunks
of her tongue and neck, using veins,
muscle, and arteries from her arms.
In turn, those treatments not once
but twice required that she relearn how
to speak and swallow. And as if that
weren’t enough, doctors at the second
surgery opted to aggressively cut out
the cancer by literally splitting her face
in two, involving more postsurgical
complications and pain than any one
person deserves in a lifetime.
“I think it’s about seizing my life
back,” DiBartolo says, looking back
on her ordeal and subsequent choice
of a name for her company, which she
founded in 2011. “I’m a big believer that
when you get cancer, you could be a
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�victim — and it’s okay to be a victim.
But it’s not okay to be a ‘volunteer.’
“I also realized that if I allowed my
world to get small, my family’s world
would get small,” DiBartolo continues.
“So, I had to get a quality of life back that
they were used to seeing me have — to
be engaged in a way they were used to
seeing me engaged. And to inspire other
people along the way.”
T
o hear her tell it, DiBartolo
herself got a huge dose of
inspiration, growing up, from
her now-retired orthodontist-father,
Anthony, who owned practices in
Brooklyn and Staten Island. She
remembers asking him, at age 10 or
11, “Daddy, what does it mean to be
a ‘success’?” And she remembers his
answer: “I’ll be a success when you’re a
success.” (Years later, when she founded
Tigress, he would tell her, beaming,
“Now, I’m a ‘success.’”)
Another favorite quote from her
dad is one she elicited after one of her
surgeries, during a depressed moment.
“Daddy, what will I do with myself?”
she cried to him. Growled Anthony
DiBartolo in response: “Those doctors
operated on your tongue, not your brain.
Figure it out!”
As a little girl, Cynthia remembers,
life was happy and not particularly
dramatic, with her big Italian family in
Dongan Hills, Staten Island. Her mom
was Dolores; her older and younger
sisters, who also attended Wagner,
Lorraine ’83 and Tracy ’86.
Middle daughter Cynthia, who’d first
turned down a prestigious congressional
"
I’m a big believer
that when you get
cancer, you could be
a victim — and it’s
okay to be a victim.
But it’s not okay to be
a ‘volunteer.’
"
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
nomination to the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, began her own
four years at Wagner torn between
theater and political science. That’s why
she started out with a double major.
And she did well, graduating cum laude
and getting elected president of student
government her senior year.
The latter role entailed a rocky
relationship with the then-president of
Wagner, whom we’ll call Dr. F. “We had
some issues going on in the dormitories
that weren’t being properly addressed,”
DiBartolo remembers. “And I was very
outspoken about the issues and the safety
of the students.”
Dr. F, she remembers, wasn’t at all
responsive and seemed to watch her
every move. Before commencement,
when DiBartolo was scheduled to give
the customary student-body president’s
speech, he outright demanded a copy in
advance. “Knowing how Dr. F worked,
I gave him a speech, but it wasn’t the
speech I gave at graduation!” DiBartolo
says with a sly smile. “I didn’t give it to
him, so he could sit there and wonder
what was going to come out of my mouth.
... My message was really, ‘Listen to the
students. Listen. And you could learn a
lot.’
“Today’s president [Richard Guarasci]
is much better,” she’s happy to add about
Wagner. “As a result, you see a campus
that is breathtaking; you see students that
are fully engaged.”
D
iBartolo herself was certainly
fully engaged. She remembers
the intellectual excitement she
felt around faculty like the late political
science professor Phyllis Andors (“I’m
grateful for every minute I was able to
share in her class”) and theater professor
Randy Alderson (“a visionary in terms of
how he saw productions”). She especially
remembers the pure joy of her turns
onstage.
Mostly, she recalls the friends she
made in theater, like Cheryl Gucwa ’81.
Gucwa herself remembers DiBartolo’s
role as one of the Hot Box girls in the
musical Guys and Dolls, and a specific
scene where DiBartolo’s character had to
look for an earring.
“Every night she would find the
earring in a different place!” Gucwa says,
chuckling. “She was finding her own
moment on stage ... a moment when the
audience was looking at her.”
Another close Wagner friend,
Georgette Fleming Reed ’84 M’86,
met DiBartolo outside of theater, during
a study-abroad semester in Bregenz,
Austria. “She’s quite a woman and besides
that quite a friend at the same time,”
Reed says. But back in their Bregenz days,
the friendship was new and tinged with
friction. DiBartolo, explains Reed,
“was a fashionista before ‘fashionista’
was in vogue.
“She had a suitcase full of shoes she
brought over [to Austria] with her and
continued to add to her collection along
the way, in Italy and Switzerland; and
it was too big and heavy, and we were
always late for trains. So I was always
lugging the suitcase around,” Reed says.
“But, if you look at all the pictures, she
never had any of those shoes on! I don’t
know what I was lugging around!
“And when we got back, I had back
surgery. I called and blamed her!”
The grudge didn’t last. “She’s
extraordinarily smart, intellectual, a great
people person,” says Reed of DiBartolo.
“She makes people feel comfortable, no
matter who they are and what level they
come from.”
T
hose qualities served DiBartolo
well following graduation, when
it was time to get serious about
her career. She’d replaced theater with
political science as her focus and had her
eyes on the law. Admitted to law school at
Villanova University, she showed the first
hint of the tigress to come by choosing
the decidedly non-mainstream specialty
of federal securities regulation. “I thought,
‘I can do something innovative, in a space
that doesn’t have a lot of lawyers and
be one of the few female lawyers in it,’”
DiBartolo says.
�LIVING LARGE Top row: DiBartolo delivers her 1984 commencement address at Wagner College; with longtime Wagner friends
Georgette Fleming Reed ’84 M’86 and Linda Crane ’84 in Las Vegas, 1999; with former flame, His Serene Highness Prince Albert of
Monaco, in Monte Carlo, 2003. Bottom row: At a 2009 Wagner Theatre reunion with Jodi Krakauer Birns ’84; the cast of Hair, Wagner
College Theatre, 1981, with DiBartolo standing on the right. Below: Cynthia and her sister Lorraine ’83 were touted as star students in a
1981 ad that ran in the Staten Island Advance.
Already, she’d proven her chops in
finance, working at now-defunct Bear
Stearns right out of college and quickly
rising from administrative assistant to
junior analyst. She also got her first taste
of the industry’s misogyny: Asking her
boss — a partner, no less — why he’d
hired her, she remembers his saying, “If I
have to work with somebody eight hours a day,
they’d better be easy on the eyes.”
DiBartolo ignored him, and doubled
down on work. “I had always wanted to
work on Wall Street,” she says. “I didn’t
know what ‘Wall Street’ was — a place?
An actual street? A culture? I got there
and [discovered], ‘Oh! It’s a cult!’”
A law position at Merrill Lynch
followed law school. And that led to a
bank manager job at Citibank, where
DiBartolo committed to learning every
job. Tigress-style, she attacked even the
ground-level teller job: handing money
to customers, stamping receipts, smiling
nonstop (“Thank you for banking at
Citibank!”) until the operations manager
leaned in with a helpful hint: “Cynthia,
next time, count the money.”
She learned. And, later, after creating
a hybrid banking-investment product
called Citigold, she was promoted
to direct the complex integration of
Citigroup’s two broker-dealers, Smith
Barney and Citicorp Investment Services.
Those years, the late ’80s and 1990s,
were a time of big money and big living,
as well as two marriages: the first to a
dentist, a childhood sweetheart; the
second to a Monaco film producer
she’d met in New York. There was a
luxurious excursion to Bali, a journey
across the Sahara with Bedouin guides, a
stint meditating with monks in Taiwan’s
Hsinchu mountains.
Her friend Georgette Reed
remembers DiBartolo’s lavish three-day
wedding to the filmmaker, in Monte
Carlo — with
parties in France
and Italy — and, a
year later, the big
party the couple
threw on the
Caribbean island
of Mustique to
celebrate their first
anniversary.
Then, there
was Prince Albert
of Monaco, whom
DiBartolo’s second
ex had introduced
her to in Monaco
and whom she initially greeted with,
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�— I’m getting choked up, saying this —
she squared her shoulders off the way a
fighter would. And went in like she was
returning defective merchandise.
“I’ve never seen a person accept a
challenge more readily.”
D
EYE OF THE TIGRESS At Tigress Financial Partners, CEO DiBartolo works in a cubicle
just like her employees. Their investment results regularly best those of bigger-name
investment banks.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Serene
Highness — did I screw that up?”
No screw-up at all. Rather, her humor
and smarts and adorable good looks
captured the Prince’s heart. After her
divorce, the two dated for over a year —
Albert used to love when she picked him
up at his New York hotels in her Prowler
Mulholland sports car and the two sped
off, trying to outrun his security detail.
A
t Citigroup, DiBartolo was at the
peak of her career, as the global
bank’s risk manager. It was 2007,
and the markets were roiling, starting
their slide toward the Great Recession
that would start that December.
All that stress took a toll: a flare-up of
her old nemesis, psoriasis. So, she followed
her doctor’s advice to take the injectable
"
I need to be a voice
for the voiceless. ...
I’m blessed to have
access to platforms.
I just want to use
them for advancing
social good on
different levels.
"
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
drug Humira. But, after 10 months of
treatment, in 2009, things went horribly
wrong: facial pain, hearing loss, oral bleeding.
The diagnosis: squamous cell carcinoma.
“When the doctor told me, ‘You have
advanced carcinoma,’ I was like, ‘Let’s fix
it because I’ve got to get back to work!’”
DiBartolo says of her initial naïveté. “And
he said, ‘Do you know what a glossectomy
[removal of the tongue] is?’ And I’m
sitting there kind of glazed over.”
The doctor was saying there was no
time for radiation or chemo. That, without
surgery, she’d have six months, a year
maybe, to live. That with surgery, she’d be
permanently disfigured.
The tigress roared, her friend Cheryl
Gucwa remembers. “I use the word ‘grit’
to describe what I saw in Cynthia — that
determination and persistence she had
to dig deep to find, to live through this
adverse diagnosis,” Gucwa says. As a
speech pathologist herself, Gucwa knew
exactly what DiBartolo faced.
Indeed, DiBartolo confronted her
diagnosis head-on, with help from her
family — especially her sisters, both
Wagner-trained RNs — and Mark
Greenberg, the man who would become
her fiancé a year later. “She was nothing
short of inspiring,” Greenberg says.
“When she went in for the first surgery
iBartolo softens, talking about
Greenberg, an investment
banker, but also — an odd
pairing — a TV actor and accomplished
drummer who has played with the likes of
Dave Matthews and the Allman Brothers’
Dickey Betts. “It was June 27, 2005,”
Greenberg says of their first meeting. An
art gallery owner had put together a rock
event, and Greenberg spotted her across
the room. “I saw Cynthia and walked
right up to her, kissed her without a word,
and said, ‘I have two questions for you:
One, are you married?’ She said, ‘No.’
‘And, two, are you engaged?’”
Replied DiBartolo, “Not anymore.”
In fact, she broke off her thenengagement to commit to her handsome,
long-haired beau, who proved his love,
sticking by her after her surgery, when
she was having seizures, pneumonia,
pulmonary edema. “She literally was
drowning,” Greenberg says. She herself
describes “pain, grueling, indescribable.”
But she also recalls loving support, as
she struggled to relearn to speak with a
heavy, rebuilt tongue: from her mother,
Dolores, who withheld a glass of water
until Cynthia could pronounce “water.”
And from Greenberg, who promised
an engagement ring if she could speak
two particularly tough words, “ring” and
“bling.” (She got the diamond.)
I
n 2011, realizing that her limited
speech made returning to banking
impossible, she registered Tigress
Financial Partners as a broker-dealer,
with a feminist twist. “I wanted to form
a company that’s sensitive to women
with disabilities, and woman-owned and
controlled.
“Right now, what I’m focused on is
hiring female wounded warriors.”
�What she’s also focused on in her
post-surgery career phase, author
Kim Ann Curtin writes in a new book
Transforming Wall Street, is “balancing
consciousness and capitalism.”
As DiBartolo explains it, “I had an
awakening about the culture of banking.
It had become everything I thought
it shouldn’t be. It was about financial
‘products’ rather than financial ‘services.’”
By embarking on a small business of her
own, she decided, “I could interject the
culture and philosophy I felt was right, as a
‘conscious capitalist,’ transforming what Wall
Street had become … to get that trust and
integrity that needed to be re-established.”
And so she founded Tigress, which
two years after opening to customers
attained the coveted Zacks rating for
superior portfolio performance. The
firm, where CEO DiBartolo owns an 80
percent stake, now has 34 employees,
three branches worldwide, and an
international clientele. “Nobody ever
heard of us, yet we outperformed
these major houses,” DiBartolo brags
(deservedly). “Institutions were calling us,
saying, ‘Who are you?’”
Now, they know. They know, too,
of DiBartolo’s cancer reoccurrence in
2012, when, to finally knock out the
disease, her surgeons advised that facial
dissection. This time, she drew on the
lessons from her first surgery, so that only
eight weeks later, she was speaking on a
panel about finance. Greenberg was there.
“I remember realizing, ‘I never would
have recognized the fact that she’d had
surgery eight weeks before, after having a
major portion of her tongue removed and
reconstructed,’” he says.
Today, DiBartolo’s speech — though
limited to just a few hours a day —
evinces only a slight lisp, hardly reflective
of her ordeal. She wears heavy makeup
and long sleeves to disguise the scars. And
she is relentlessly upbeat and busy. She
chairs the Greater New York Chamber
of Commerce, with 22,000 small business
members. “I’ve seen her work with the
governor and lieutenant governor to make
sure there’s a level playing field for women
P H OTO G R A P H S : D E B O R A H F E I N G O L D
and all those [Chamber] entrepreneurs,”
says Chamber CEO Mark Jaffe. “Those
are pretty solid accomplishments.”
She’s sued the makers of Humira for
millions as part of a massive legal case.
She’s testified on Capitol Hill about
issues like paid family medical-insurance
leave and pregnancy discrimination.
She’s founded Tigress Cares Foundation
to advocate for head and neck cancer
patients. She’s worked on economic issues
for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, led by
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who calls her “a titan, a
fighter, a champion and a strong advocate
for diversity and inclusion.” She’s even
found time to connect Wagner women
students to mentors in the business world.
And, according to her fiancé, she
may finally be planning that long-delayed
wedding.
Beneath it all is the image of
that tigress pacing, trying to make
things better for women in the
workplace, and overall for America’s
smallest entrepreneurs, rather than
its biggest banks.
“When you can speak only for the
limited time that I can speak, for eight
hours a day,” DiBartolo says, “I need to
be a voice for the voiceless. ... I’m blessed
to have access to platforms. I just want to
use them for advancing social good
on different levels.
“I hope that I am able to impact
people’s lives in a positive way. My goal
is always to leave people in places better
than I found them. So, if I can figure that
out, and I do that every day, I feel good
about it.”
IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH DiBartolo and her fiancé, Mark Greenberg, who stuck
by her during her horrifying ordeal with cancer and recovery from radical head and
neck surgeries
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�Improving Wagner’s Drive
New alumni relations director wants to engage alumni on the things they most care about
AS A STUDENT, COACH, COUNSELOR, and
more, Christopher Fourman ’09 M’11 found his niche in
the Wagner College community. As Wagner’s new director
of alumni relations, he wants to assist his fellow alumni in
connecting with the College, too, so that they can help make
Wagner an even better place.
Fourman began leading the Office of Alumni Relations
in February. “I am really enjoying working with Heather and
Rebecca [see page 29] to build our alumni programming,”
he says. “Since February, we have executed several wonderful
events like Reunion and the Eataly cooking class, and we have
many more great events planned for the rest of this summer,
this fall, and next year.”
Fourman has been a member of the Wagner community for
10 years. He grew up in Greenville, Ohio, and had intended to
stay in Ohio for college until he was recruited by then-assistant
CONNECTING Chris Fourman (right), director of alumni relations,
presided over a successful Reunion Weekend in June. Here, with
President Guarasci and John Trentacosta ’70, he congratulates
Pat Pappalardo ’70 upon receiving the Alumni Leadership Medal.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Wagner golf coach Dan Waeger M’06.
Fourman calls himself a “numbers guy,” and he grew up
helping to run his family’s appliance and furniture business.
He pursued a major in business administration focused on
finance. A Wall Street internship revealed to him that finance
was not what he wanted for his career.
Also during Fourman’s senior year, the golf program
experienced a devastating loss: Coach Waeger died of lung
cancer at the age of 26, the culmination of a four-year battle
with the disease.
Upon graduation, Fourman stepped into Waeger’s shoes
and became the graduate assistant for golf while also earning
his MBA in finance. He was named head coach in 2011, and
Fourman remains head golf coach while also serving as alumni
director. His passion for the program is obvious; it earned him
the recognition of NEC Golf Coach of the Year in 2011 and
this year.
Fourman has always held multiple jobs at Wagner —
while coaching, he was also co-resident director of Harborview
Hall, then an admissions counselor, and then assistant athletic
director for academics and compliance. All of these positions
helped him discover his niche in higher education and his gifts
for working with people.
Fourman says that his work with the golf team, in particular,
motivates his efforts in alumni relations.
“I’ve put so much effort into reinvigorating what I found
important in my Wagner experience,” he says. “I loved my
coaches, but we needed more resources, and we needed to play
on better courses. We just needed to do a little bit more. So I
put a lot of effort into improving my program.
“This place is constantly growing and evolving,” he adds.
“But it doesn’t grow and evolve without people who drive and
propel that evolution. I’m interested in tapping into alumni who
have their golf team, or their choir, or their residence
life experience that they really care about as I do my
experiences at Wagner and they want to help the College
evolve in those areas.”
�Alumni Association Honors
The 2015 annual awards recognize leaders in serving the
College and the community and in professional achievement.
Alfred ’61 and Christine Zullo ’64
Palladino were named the John “Bunny”
Barbes ’39 and Lila T. Barbes ’40 Wagner
Alumni Laureates. A longtime Wall
Street executive, Alfred has generously
contributed his financial advice to Wagner
College for many years. An educator and
commodity broker, Christine has mentored
many students and helped with Wagner
fundraising.
Pat Pappalardo
’70 received the Dr.
Kevin Sheehy ’67 M’70
M’92 H’99 Alumni
Leadership Medal.
He has helped to run
his family business, the
famous Joe and Pat’s Pizzeria, and owns a
successful real estate firm, Papp Realty. He
served on the Alumni Association Board
for six years, has supported the Wagner
Fund for many years, and attends many
campus events.
Pastor Carl F.
Wilfrid ’65 received
the Reverend Lyle
Guttu Award. Recently
retired, he served as a
Lutheran pastor for 50
years and contributed
much to communities in North Dakota,
Arizona, California, and Nevada.
Find out more about all of these
highly gifted and giving people at
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
ALUMNI RELATIONS
TEAM MEMBERS
Scott Fink ’83 was
named a Wagner Alumni
Fellow in Accounting.
He is president and CEO
of six car dealerships in
Florida, including the
nation’s largest volume
Hyundai dealership.
Christina DeCicco
Sisko ’02 was named
a Wagner Alumni
Fellow in Theater. She
has become a star of
Broadway, with roles
including Eva Perón in
the 2012 revival of Evita.
Jeannine MorrisLombardi ’05 was
honored with the
Wagner Alumni Key
for her professional
achievements as a young
alumna. She has built an
entrepreneurial media career based on her
blog, originally known as BeautySweetSpot.
REBECCA COLUCCI KELLY ’06
Since 2008, this arts
administration major has
helped organize alumni
events and answer alumni
queries. A member of the
local co-ed fraternity Kappa
Sigma Alpha, she works to
keep alumni engaged as well
as make them feel “at home
again” at Wagner College.
Posthumous Honors
Patricia A. Amis ’90
was named the
Distinguished Graduate
of Wagner. Up until her
death last year, she was
a dedicated advocate
for the elderly and for
victims of domestic abuse.
Wendell C.
Martin ’69 received
the Certificate of
Appreciation for his
professional development
workshops for studentathletes. A talented basketball player and
businessman, he died last year.
HEATHER WOLF ’15
This year’s Spiro Award
winner joined the alumni
relations team during
the summer. A business
administration major,
member of the cross
country and track and
field teams, and founder
of “Humans of Wagner”
on Instagram, she is
meeting with alumni
around the country.
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�Alumni Link
History Makers: How Stan Jay M’67 built a world-famous music
business on Staten Island
In 1971, Stan Jay M’67 co-founded Mandolin
Brothers in Staten Island, a company that became
one of the world’s top sellers, buyers, and restorers of
fine new and vintage American guitars, banjos, and
mandolins. All kinds of aficionados and collectors, as
well as great musicians including Joni Mitchell, George
Harrison, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan — to
name just a few — have visited Mandolin Brothers’
unassuming storefront. Up until his death on October
22, 2014, Jay made sure his customers’ dreams were
fulfilled with the right musical instrument.
There are many fine guitar stores in New York
City — in Manhattan. How did Jay come to place his
world-famous shop in Staten Island? Wagner plays a
large role in that story.
In 1965, the New Jersey native finished his
undergraduate degree in English and education
at Penn State and came to Wagner for a master’s
in education.
He knew a lot about Wagner because a close
high school friend, Bob Zentmaier ’66, was a Wagner
economics major. The two bonded over their love for
music; they met in Hillside (N.J.) High School’s mixed
chorus. Zentmaier’s brother owned Rondo Music
in Union, New Jersey, where Jay worked during his
summer breaks and bought his first guitar.
So it’s no wonder that, according to a 1989
letter Jay wrote to the Wagner director of alumni
affairs, education wasn’t all he was up to during his
graduate studies.
“He played and taught guitar privately while at
Wagner,” Jay wrote (in a third-person narrative about
himself), “hung out around and in the Hawk’s Nest,
a snack bar in the basement of the Administration
Building, met his first wife there and formed a musical
group with her (Linda Gerhold), and Jack Smith, called
The Smith Brothers. They played at coffee houses and
clubs on and outside of campus, and attempted to
obtain a recording contract with a major label,
but failed.”
Jay went on to pursue an Ed.D. at Columbia’s
Teachers College, while also developing his knowledge
of vintage fretted instruments and their value during
this time of the folk music craze.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
“[He] taught music and arts courses for six years
in the Performing and Creative Arts Department at
Staten Island Community College,” the 1989 letter
continues. “He met his second wife (Bea Berntsen)
in an adult ed class he taught there, and founded, in
1971, a company [Mandolin Brothers]. …
“In many ways, in fact, in nearly every way,
coming to Staten Island to matriculate at Wagner
College changed his life and led him inexorably to
his present level of achievement,” Jay concluded of
himself. “He hopes that, at or near the turn of the
century, his children will attend Wagner College and
become worldly, articulate and sagacious from having
done so.”
His children, Alison and Eric, didn’t follow in his
footsteps to Wagner; but they are carrying on the
business and upholding their father’s standards.
By the way, it was yet another Wagner alumnus
who influenced Zentmaier to choose Wagner: Edward
Monkman ’58, economics teacher at Hillside High
School. Mr. Monkman died in 2010, and Zentmaier
reports that he and Jay lamented never having
thanked him. “He got both of us to Staten Island and
changed our lives,” says Zentmaier.
STAN JAY M’67 holds a limited-edition guitar he designed
with the Martin Custom Shop in 1997. “This guitar’s radiant
physiognomy can cause the conversation to cease at any
gathering into which you bring it; yea, its sound can make other
players stagger back in awe, wide-eyed and slack-jawed,” he
wrote in his customarily effusive sales copy when offering one
for sale at Mandolin Brothers.
�Upcoming Events
SEPTEMBER
Homecoming
Wagner Oval and Stadium, September 26
Don’t miss the biggest, best Oval day in
Wagner history, with food trucks, beer
garden, live music, and kids’ activities from
2 to 5 p.m., followed by the Homecoming
Parade and the NEC Champion Seahawks
taking on the Lafayette Leopards. For
families of current students, the whole
weekend of Sept. 25–27 is Fall Festival,
a chance to reconnect with your student
and experience a bit of College life. See full
details at wagner.edu/homecoming.
Viva Italia! Finale Concert
October 25, 4 p.m.,
Music Performance Center
Winners of the Italian Idol singing contest
and others demonstrate the power of
Italian music.
NOVEMBER
Wagner Choirs Fall Concerts
November 8, 4 p.m., Trinity Lutheran
Church, Staten Island
November 14, 7 p.m., Redeemer
Lutheran Church, Kingston, New York
Wagner College Theatre: Damn Yankees
November 15, 3 p.m., St. Stephen
Lutheran Church, Syracuse, New York
Just in time for the World Series comes
the musical comedy based on Douglass
Wallop’s novel The Year the Yankees Lost
the Pennant.
Wagner College Theatre: The Most
Happy Fella
September 30–October 11, Main Stage
OCTOBER
Wagner College Theatre: Dutchman
& 21 Chump Street
October 6–11, Stage One
A double bill: Dutchman, the explosive
1964 play by Amiri Baraka, stands as an
incisive critique of race relations; Lin-Manuel
Miranda’s short musical 21 Chump Street
shows how love can blossom in the most
unintended of ways.
Founders Day Convocation and
Kaufman Repage Lecture
October 7, 7 p.m., Spiro Hall, Room 2
Historian Bruce Chadwick, author of George
Washington’s War and The General and Mrs.
Washington, presents “George Washington
in New York: War, Peace, and a Good Bottle
of Wine.”
Columbus Day Parade
October 12, Fifth Avenue (44th to 72nd St.)
The Seahawk Marching Band struts its stuff
for the second year in a row since its revival
in 2013.
Staten Island Jazz Festival
October 17, 2 p.m., Music Hall,
Snug Harbor
Wagner’s elite a cappella vocal ensemble
Stretto performs.
Reunion Weekend,
June 7–9
MEMORY LANE Strolling the campus and
traversing “Abbey Road” at the British Invasion
Dinner Dance.
Main Stage, November 18–22 and
December 2–6
Frank Loesser’s most romantic musical
tells the heart-warming story of a love
triangle set on a Napa Valley ranch.
DECEMBER
TWISTING AND SHOUTING Carin Guarasci
(center) and alumni at the British Invasion
Dinner Dance.
Wagner College Theatre: The Tempest
Stage One, December 1–6
Shakespeare’s most autobiographical play
is a meditation on family, love, power, and
the theater itself.
Fall Concerts
Guitar Ensemble: December 2, 8 p.m.,
Music Performance Center
Jazz Ensemble: December 3, 7:30 p.m.,
Music Performance Center
Concert Band: December 12, 3 p.m.,
Main Hall Auditorium
DEDICATED Richard and Carin Guarasci
celebrate the naming of the Moles Athletic
Offices in honor of Thomas G. ’65 H’00 and
Polly Peck ’68 Moles.
Wagner Choirs Holiday Concert
December 6, 4 p.m., Trinity Lutheran
Church, Staten Island
Vocal Jazz Set by Stretto / Espresso
December 8, 8 p.m.,
Music Performance Center
MORE INFORMATION
wagner.edu/calendar
ANCHORED ON GRYMES HILL Lorraine McNeill-
Popper ’78 and Dr. Kathleen O’Brien Ellis ’81
(who just finished her Ph.D. in leadership studies
from Alvernia University) revisit a cherished
tradition.
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�1943
writes,
“At 92 years old there
is not much to ‘update.’
However, I still get about
with my trusty walker. All
these years have passed,
and I’m still waiting to hear
the promised chapel would
be built ‘looking out to the
sea,’ on Chapel Knoll. But
then, that was the time of
Wagner Memorial Lutheran
College.” (Editor’s Note:
Wagner College’s Knubel
Chapel is located in the Kairos
House, originally built in 1918
as the president’s house.)
Dorothy A. Deal Morten
1949
’49 M’56
wrote to us to pay tribute
to Joseph Romano ’50, who
died on January 2, 2015.
“He was a good friend for
many years,” William writes.
William Wagner
“We will miss him. He
was a very successful New
York Life Insurance sales
representative and a man of
high integrity.”
1950
John ’50 and Margot Selman
write that they
are “happily retired and are
enjoying life to the fullest.”
They live in Longboat
Key, Fla.
’52 Eagleton
1951
Katherine “Kay” Patterson
Hulle , a freelance writer
and teacher who lives in
Denton, Md., has been in
touch with the Office of
Alumni Relations to share
her memories and writings,
including essays and poetry.
She writes, “I was the 7 a.m.
to 3 p.m. daily switchboard
operator in the office of
Marguerite Hess at Wagner
through the 1940s until I
graduated in 1951. I was an
evening school student who
felt that Wagner College was
my ‘home away from home,’
and I miss both places.”
1953
Dorothy Schmidt Boesch
honored her best friend
and nursing classmate,
the late Norma Zawadzki
Banta-Maute , who died
on March 14, 2014, with
a gift to Wagner College
in her memory. Dorothy
worked as an RN until she
had children in 1962. She
lives in Huntington Beach,
Calif. Walter Scott Blomeley ,
who lives in Bradenton,
Fla., was presented with his
second Purple Heart last
November, 63 years after
serving in the Korean War.
U.S. Rep. Vernon Buchanan,
R-Sarasota, presented the
award at a ceremony in the
Old Federal Building in
Sarasota, honoring him for
wounds received on June
10, 1951, during the battle
known as the “Punchbowl.”
His first Purple Heart
was for shrapnel wounds
received while patrolling
near Hon Son in May
1951. “It’s a thrill that I
can never get over,” he told
the Bradenton Herald. “The
fact that I was able to have
my Purple Heart given to
me in front of my wife and
my family and my friends.
Over there, we had the
Purple Hearts given to us in
formations …. Not many of
us had the opportunity that
I’m having today to have
it given to me personally. I
take it as great honor and
I’m very, very appreciative
to everyone who did this
for me.” Walter enlisted in
the U.S. Marine Corps in
Keep in Touch!
Email: alumni@wagner.edu
Web: wagner.edu/alumni
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Wagner College, One Campus Road,
Staten Island, NY 10301
Deadlines: This issue reflects news
received by June 1. The submission
deadline for the Fall 2015 issue is
October 1.
Content: Wagner welcomes your news
and updates, and we will happily share
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
them with the Wagner family. We ask
that you send us announcements of
weddings, births, and graduations
after the fact.
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner
groups at weddings and other special
events. With the photo, send the names
and class years of all alumni pictured;
birth date, parents’ names, and class
years with photos of children; and dates
and locations of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos
must be clear and of good quality. Prints
should be on glossy paper with no
surface texture; they will be returned at
your request (please attach your address
to the photo). Digital photos must be
jpegs of at least 250 pixels per inch; lowresolution photos converted to a higher
resolution are not acceptable.
�December 1944. He earned
the rank of corporal by
1946 and later the rank of
sergeant. He trained with
the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine
Regiment, and fought in
some of the key battles of
the Korean War, including
the amphibious landing
during the Battle of Inchon
and the brutal five-day
Battle of Chosin Reservoir,
the deadliest of the war.
1954
Jacques Noel Jacobsen Jr.
1955
writes,
“I have three sons, four
Nancy Bechtel Harter
1957
Annemarie Jensen Godston
published a book, A
Year in My New England
Garden, in March 2015. A
certified master gardener
in New Hampshire and
Connecticut, she has had
a blog for many years to
answer gardening questions
online, for gardeners
around the globe. Her book
provides a New England
gardening calendar and shares
her personal experiences in
her own gardens. Annemarie
has moved to Seattle, but as
a former longtime resident
of Haverhill, N.H., she was a
member of the Grafton
County UNH Extension
Services Advisory Board.
She served as chair of
the Haverhill Zoning
Board and Conservation
Commission. She also served
as secretary for the Cohase
Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors. She
taught gardening classes for
the Institute for Lifelong
Education at Dartmouth.
The book is available on
Amazon.com. Salvatore
Tuzzo , M.D., writes, “At 79
I am still skiing the moguls
and working as a psychiatrist
part time in private practice.
My grandchildren are all
active skiers.” He lives in
Mountain View, Calif.
Alumni Link
’54 M’63 announces that
his book, They Answered
the Alarm: A History of
Firefighting on Staten Island
1805–2005, is now in its
third printing. This is his
second book; the first was
The Red Blue Coats: The
Indian Scouts. In addition,
he has published more
than 20 monographs and
many scholarly papers in
various journals. Manfred W.
Lichtmann , member of the
1950–54 Wagner football
team, writes, “Following
the [Seahawks’] impressive
23-20 win over the Bryant
University football team
[in 2014], our son and
granddaughter, Madison,
went over to meet Coach
Walt Hameline. They were
cordially greeted and enjoyed
talking with him and some of
the team members. Madison
is a senior at Bryant and
captain of the cheerleading
squad. I am most proud of
my alma mater.”
grandsons, and finally
got a great-grand-girl.
She is named Riley. After
graduation, I worked 40
years as a lab tech due to
my good education. I’m now
81 and have been relaxing
the last couple of years.”
She lives in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Doris Rockefeller Lehmann ,
who lives in Mahwah, N.J.,
last fall traveled with her
daughter, Joanne, to Seattle,
the Olympic Peninsula, and
Vancouver Island. Their trip
included visiting a friend
of 75 years at her ancestral
home in the Malahat region
of Vancouver Island, north
of Victoria.
Crib Notes
1. Angelo Cordova M’12
and Lisa Dalessandro
Cordova ’93 announce the
birth of their new bundle
of joy, Adriana Lily, on
December 5, 2014.
1.
3.
2.
2. Janet Anne Wolter
Rumble ’00 M’02 and her
husband, Morgan, announce
the birth of their second
daughter, Dylan Paige
Rumble, on November 11,
2014.
3. Shane Morgan ’01 and
Kathryn CannizzaroMorgan ’02 announce the
birth of their third child,
Matthew Peter, on March 26,
2015. His big sister, Annabel,
and big brother, Andrew, are
embracing their new little
brother.
We’d love to see your baby’s face.
Please see opposite page for publication guidelines.
summer
2015
�UNCOMMON LIVES
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Nadia Lopez ’99
Principal of Possibilities
CLAIM TO FAME: In January of this year, a Brownsville, Brooklyn, middle school student
named Vidal Chastanet was featured on the well-known blog Humans of New York.
Asked who was the most influential person in his life, Chastanet answered, “My principal,
Ms. Lopez,” explaining how she encouraged the kids of this impoverished neighborhood
to value themselves and “told each one of us that we matter.”
THE VISION: Nadia Lopez ’99 founded Chastanet’s school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy,
in 2010, because she wanted to create “a learning institution that shows our scholars
why they matter and how they too can become successful.” The public middle school
has just over 200 students (called “scholars”) in grades 6–8. The student body reflects
the socioeconomic challenges of the neighborhood, with 28 percent having special
learning needs, and 75 percent qualifying for free lunch. Yet MHBA receives the Board
of Education’s top rating for its culture of high expectations and support for high
achievement.
THE CAMPAIGN: After interviewing Chastanet, Humans of New York blogger Brandon
THE EXAMPLE: Lopez herself is well aware that she exemplifies this promise. “What
I love is sharing the possibilities that tomorrow has to offer,” she says. “What I love is
being the example of a Brooklyn girl whose parents are immigrants, whose parents
separated when she was in middle school. I think I exemplify a lot of those things that
may be considered a struggle in life but still I was able to succeed.”
FALSE START? Lopez came to Wagner College in 1995 to study not education, but
nursing. But, it gradually became clear that nursing was not where she belonged, even
though she loved the profession and loved the nurturing environment in Wagner’s
nursing program. One professor, Lauren O’Hare, pointed her in a new direction.
“Professor O’Hare told me to consider education or psychology because she believed
that my passion was for people, but not so much through a nursing career. Evidently,
she was on to something, but I wouldn’t trade my nursing degree and the experiences I
gained through the program for anything else.”
NEW DIRECTION: After her daughter, Cenne, was born in 2002, Lopez felt drawn to
teaching. Two Wagner alumnae, Jodie Clanton ’97 and LaJuan White M’96, helped
Lopez find her way — first into the classroom through the New York City Teaching
Fellows program, then into school leadership through New Leaders, a national program
for aspiring principals. Lopez also earned a master’s in education from Long Island
University and wrote the proposal for a small, nurturing middle school that became Mott
Hall Bridges Academy.
‘A SENSE OF VALUE’ With the new funding, Lopez was able not only to take the entire
school on a trip to Harvard University, but also to start a college scholarship fund and a
summer program focused on the “STEAM” disciplines: science, technology, engineering,
arts, and math. The campaign, Lopez said, “also gave [the MHBA scholars] a sense of
value that they don’t often get to experience, especially in Brownsville, where there’s
so much negative media attention that speaks to crime and low socioeconomic status,
but doesn’t speak to either the positive things that are happening or people coming
together to create change, to implement programs, to support students.”
P H OTO G R A P H : D E B O R A H F E I N G O L D
retired
from teaching in New York
City after 35 years of service.
She is teaching folk and square
dancing at Kingsborough
Community College, and her
husband, Don Coy, is a square
dance caller.
Dorothy Sickler-Coy
1959
Rita Carin Reinhold Shiga
writes that she is enjoying her
“retirement” tremendously and
has never been busier. She lives
in Central Nyack, N.Y.
1960
The Reverend Charles G.
Biegner Jr. celebrated his
75th birthday in June 2014
by walking 75 miles in five
days, from Lake Chautauqua
Lutheran Center to the
Resurrection Health Center
in Buffalo (which he started
in 2001). Along the way, he
raised over $20,000 for these
two ministries. Norman Black
’60 M’73 has published two
volumes of interviews with U.S
World War II combat veterans:
Combat Veterans’ Stories of World
War II. Volume I covers North
Africa and Europe, November
1942–May 1945; and Volume
II focuses on the Pacific, China,
and Burma, August 1942–
September 1945. A reviewer
describes the stories as “very
moving accounts of ordinary
men doing extraordinary things.”
Norman is now at work on a
book of interviews with Korean
War veterans. He previously
published a novel about the
Korean War, Ice, Fire, and Blood:
A Story of the Korean War. All
of his books are available on
Amazon.com. Harold Crater was
summer
2015
Alumni Link
Stanton featured Lopez and her staff as well, and he started an online fundraising
campaign for the school. Its goal: to fulfill Lopez’s vision of taking her sixth graders on a
trip to Harvard University. “If you talk about college and career readiness and you don’t
take them to college, if you don’t expose them to what those careers look like, then
we’re just using buzzwords that have no true purpose,” Lopez reasons. And the public
found her case compelling: The campaign not only met its goal of raising $100,000; it
raised $1.4 million from more than 51,000 donors. Mott Hall Bridges Academy and Nadia
Lopez became emblems of hope and promise despite difficult circumstances.
1958
�featured in his local paper,
the Advocate of Victoria,
Tex., last December in an
article entitled, “Giving
Is in His Blood.” Since
his retirement as a testing
coordinator for the Victoria
Independent School District
in 1999, Harold has made
it his regular routine to
donate not just blood
but also platelets — a
two-hour procedure that
benefits cancer patients
and premature babies. He
has donated more than
30 gallons of platelets and
plasma, the equivalent of
the amount of blood in the
bodies of 25 people. Lou
DeLuca has retired, after
30 years as an adjunct
education professor at
Wagner. Before that, he also
served as Wagner’s alumni
director. Vincent Gattullo
M’60 was very honored
to have been nominated
for a 2015 Ellis Island
Medal of Honor from the
National Ethnic Coalition
of Organizations (NECO).
He teaches biology at the
College of Staten Island.
1962
has
completed a book, Comfort
in Dying: Reflections of a
Hospice Nurse. It responds
to the questions often asked
by loved ones, friends, and
professional caregivers:
“How can I help?” “How
can I say ‘good-bye?’” “How
can I let go?” Katherine
earned her master’s degree
from Syracuse University
as a clinical nurse specialist
specializing in palliative
care and gerontology,
and she helped develop
Katherine Klimacek Beiter
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
three hospice programs
throughout New York
State and taught Death
and Dying, along with
other advanced courses, at
the University of Buffalo
School of Nursing. In her
book, she shares the lessons
learned through her many
hospice patients, as well as
those learned from losing
her twin sister, Kathleen
Klimacek , and her 32-yearold husband, Brian R.
O’Connor ’60, who perished
in the Marshall University
football plane crash in 1970.
These lessons can provide
comfort to others. The book
is available on Amazon.
com. She has retired and
lives in Avon, N.Y. Richard
Bertucco retired in June
2014 from his own financial
planning practice, which
he built from scratch more
than 30 years ago. He
now lives in Lake Geneva,
Wis. He does portrait and
figure oil painting and is
an artist member of the
Palette and Chisel Academy
of Fine Arts in Chicago,
where his works have been
displayed. Rita King has
been busy developing her
desert garden in Scottsdale,
Ariz., which has been
visited by the garden
editor of Better Homes and
Gardens magazine and
by Scott Calhoun, noted
horticulturalist, xeriscape
garden designer, and author
of many books on xeriscape
gardening. Her husband,
Tim, has added his own
amazing sculptures to
the garden, now that he is
retired from architecture
and taking welding classes.
“The garden is now two
years old and quite mature,
and I am so thrilled
with what is my artistic
expression,” Rita writes.
“As Sydney Eddison has
noted, ‘Gardens are a form
of autobiography,’ and this
is mine.” Beverly Hoehne
Whipple received the People
of Distinction Humanitarian
Award in October 2014
in New York City. This
award program was started
by broadcaster Al Cole of
CBS Radio to recognize
“unsung heroes” and wellknown figures who have
contributed to humanity. A
sexuality educator, counselor,
and researcher, Beverly was
recognized for her work in the
area of human sexual health.
1963
’63
M’65 married Bernard
Brooks in Las Vegas, Nev.,
on September 13, 2014.
She now goes by Elizabeth
Brooks, and she lives in
Huntington Beach, Calif.
The Rev. Charles Gravenstine
spent the fall semester of
2014 teaching in Cape
Town, South Africa, and
in Arusha, Tanzania, at the
Lumen Christi Pastoral
Institute. Dr. Zuzana Plesa
is working as a counselor for
the military at Hurlburt Field
U.S. Air Force base in Florida.
Elizabeth Brun Fertig
1965
retired after
36 years of teaching in
Carmel, N.Y. He served in
the U.S. Navy for six years
after his Wagner graduation.
His wife, Betsy Holderle
Brockway ’68, is retired
as well, and they live in
John Brockway
Pawling, N.Y. They enjoy
travel, biking, volunteering,
and their five grandchildren.
“Life is good indeed,” John
writes. Greta Davis retired
from teaching in Brooklyn
more than 15 years ago.
She continues to enjoy
retirement in the foothills
of the Adirondacks. Stephen
R. Deutsch has lived in
Port Charlotte, Fla., since
2004, and was reelected
to the Charlotte County
Commission in November
2014. He is a member
of the YMCA Board
of Directors, Homeless
Coalition, Habitat for
Humanity, Veterans
Council, and Metropolitan
Planning Board. In 2014,
Florida Weekly named him
a Charlotte County Leader
of Distinction. He serves
as an usher and greeter at
Murdock Baptist Church
in Port Charlotte. In his
former home in Rhode
Island, he served as a
town councilman, state
representative, and state
senator. He also campaigned
unsuccessfully to become
the lieutenant governor of
Rhode Island. During all
his service in public office,
he has never missed an
official session. Pete Dirlam
retired from teaching in
Hauppauge, Long Island,
N.Y., in 1999 and moved
to northern Idaho, where
he built a log home. After
35 years of officiating for
amateur wrestling, he is still
very much involved in the
sport as a volunteer assistant
coach. He is also still
involved in education within
the local Elks Lodge, where
he is scholarship chairman,
�Knot Notes
1.
2.
3.
Alumni Link
2. Monica Lopez ’05 married
Humberto Castaneda on November
22, 2014. They celebrated with
Wagner friends Erik Richardson,
husband of Jenny Brumm
Richardson ’05, Megan Adams
’05, and Marc Schaeffer ’05.
4.
5.
1. Nicole Mahoney ’10 married
Colin Johnson in Spring Lake
Heights, N.J., on August 3, 2014.
Her sisters Laura Mahoney
’12 and Gail Mahoney ’16 (not
pictured) served in the bridal
party. Nicole and Colin celebrated
with three generations of Wagner
alumni. Back row: Lydia Haas
Holsten ’61, Joanna Williamson
Monday ’72, Janet Junge Merkel
’57, Scott Williamson ’93, Fred
Williamson ’64 H’11, Trevor
Williamson ’17, Ray Williamson
’68, Bob Williamson ’91. Center:
Gerry Williamson Mahoney ’79,
Laura Mahoney ’12, Sarah Faye
Kauffman ’10, Emma Acciani ’10,
Emily Visnovsky ’10. Front: Nicole
Mahoney ’10, Kaite Belmont ’10.
3. Charles Nicolais ’08 and
Taylor Wheaton ’09 celebrated
their wedding on October 26,
2013, in Syracuse, N.Y., with
Wagner family Michael ’49 and
Margaret ’49 Nicolais, Adam
Nicolais ’13, Jillian Maloney ’13,
Alex Vasilakos ’09 M’11, as well
as professors Nick Richardson,
Amy Eshleman, and Mohammad
Alauddin.
4. Jenny Brumm Richardson
’05 with Monica Lopez ’05, her
former Wagner roommate and
bridesmaid, at Jenny’s wedding to
Erik Richardson on September 13,
2014, in Monte Rio, Calif.
5. Yvonne Rodriguez ’08 married
Octavio M. Casuso III on February
13, 2015, at Mountain View Manor
in Glen Spey, N.Y. Pictured with
Octavio and Yvonne: Ashley
Werneken ’08, Naveena David
’08, Amber Santos, Nicholas
Palumbo ’04, Evora Cherry, Miggie
Boylan, and Matthew Boylan.
summer
2015
�national essay chairman,
and organizer of dictionary
distribution to third graders.
Pastor Carl Wilfrid was the
subject of a feature, “Good
Bye, Good Shepherd,” in
the Reno Gazette-Journal
on July 28, 2014, upon his
retirement as pastor of the
Lutheran Church of the
Good Shepherd. He served
that church for 14 years and
spent a total of 45 years in
parish ministry in locations
from Benedict, N.Dak., to
Chico, Calif. In the article,
fellow clergy and church
members praised him
for his welcoming nature,
intelligence, and ecumenical
vision. He retired on June 29,
2014, the 45th anniversary
of his ordination. He also
received the Rev. Lyle Guttu
Award at Wagner Alumni
Reunion in June 2015.
1967
retired in
November 2014 after
45 years with British
Airways at New York
City’s John F. Kennedy
International Airport.
Arno Rafael Minkkinen was
named a 2015 Guggenheim
Fellow in photography. A
photographer, educator,
curator, and writer with
over 100 solo shows to his
credit, Arno is a professor
of art at the University of
Massachusetts Lowell.
Joseph Glenn
1969
Haziel “Bruce” Jackson
writes, “After study (M.A.
from NYU), teaching,
journalism, and politics in
Central America and Asia,
especially China, India,
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Korea and Japan, I’m back
in the U.S., now owning the
most affordable B&B left on
Nantucket Island.” He and
his wife, Tomomi, invite you
to visit. Check it out at www.
carriagehousenantucket.
com. Aino Lautsio-Riccitello
wrote in February that
her year began with an
inspirational response to a
training that she conducted,
“Through the Therapist’s
Multicultural Lens,” at the
Mental Health Counselor’s
Association in Palm Beach
County, Fla. She has been
providing counseling
services to clients in Palm
Beach County for 26 years.
Linda Barbes Stein ’69 M’73
retired in November 2014.
She is working hard on
fundraising for the Wagner
Guild, an organization of
which her late mother, Lila T.
Barbes ’40, was a leader for
many years and which offers
the Lila T. Barbes Guild
Scholarship at Wagner.
1970
writes that
she was excited to read
about the new Doctor of
Nursing Practice program
at Wagner. She earned a
DNP at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst
in 2012. After graduating
from Wagner as a nurse
in 1970, she had clinical
experiences at the Brooklyn
V.A. for psychiatry and
the Public Health Service
hospital on Staten Island,
which influenced her career
path. She earned a master’s
degree in psychiatric nursing
at Boston University and
a master’s in public health
at the Tulane School of
Public Health and Tropical
Medicine. “I continue to
work in the field of public
health and mental health,
and am constantly aware
that it all began at Wagner,”
she writes.
1972
’72 M’81
was appointed the North
Shore-LIJ Health System’s
executive vice president
in March 2015. The role
includes new responsibilities
as the chief affiliation officer
and regional executive
director for Westchester.
Anthony has served as
Staten Island University
Hospital’s president and
CEO since 2003 and
as executive director of
the North Shore Health
System’s Western Region
since 2013.
Anthony Ferreri
1974
is still a
math teacher (as well as
department chair) and
Brian Manske
varsity tennis coach at Staten
Island Academy, where he
has worked for 38 years.
1975
Joan C. Arnold , a partner
with Pepper Hamilton
LLP and chair of the firm’s
Tax Practice Group, has
been elected president of
the American College of
Tax Counsel (ACTC), the
preeminent professional
association of tax lawyers
in private practice. Joan is
the first woman to hold the
office in the 33-year history
of the ACTC. Her one-year
term began on March 1.
She focuses her practice on
federal and international
income tax. She has more
than 30 years of significant
experience in domestic
and cross border M&A,
and corporate international
tax counseling, including
substantial tax experience
in the private equity arena.
Donna D’Ermilio was honored
with a Minty Award by the
Minty Organization for the
Nancy Langman
Grow Wagner
Wagner College is all about growth: Students develop
in body, mind, and spirit. Knowledge expands. The
local community progresses. The world benefits.
Be a part of it! Make a gift today, and
watch us grow tomorrow.
wagner.edu/grow
�1976
Dr. Linda Ahlqvist Walsh
received the 2014
Humanitarian Award from
the American Academy of
Family Physicians. A family
physician at Jarrettsville
Family Care in Jarrettsville,
Md., Linda is also the
medical director and chair
of the Steering Committee
for the Dominican Republic
Medical Mission. She has
been leading annual medical
missions to the Dominican
Republic since 2003, and
she and her team also sponsor
a school lunch program and
fund the education for several
university students, including
two medical students.
1977
received his
Doctorate in Divinity
from Emmanuel Baptist
University in Wilmington,
N.C., in July 2014, and
was appointed dean of
academics at Emmanuel
Baptist University in
October 2014.
Steven Rocco
1978
Augustin “Augie” Melendez
was named president of
Hillside Work Scholarship
Connection in Rochester,
N.Y., a nationally
recognized, evidenceinformed partnership
model for youth at risk of
dropping out of high school.
It serves over 4,000 students
in Rochester, Syracuse,
and Buffalo, as well as in
Prince George’s County,
Md. Ed Nessel has published
a new book, Keeping the
Athlete Healthy (Sage Words
Services, 2014, available on
Amazon). He describes it
as “everything you wanted
to know or didn’t know
you wanted to know about
preventing injury and
illness in those participating
in competitive sports or
vigorous training. All ages,
all sports.” Ed lives in Viera,
Fla., where he is an aquatic
teaching professional.
His website is www.
movingthroughwater.com.
Steve Russo received major
civic honors this spring
for his efforts to educate
students and the public
about the fields of space
exploration and astronomy.
Steve is director of the East
Kentucky Science Center,
and he teaches astronomy
and runs the planetarium
at Big Sandy Community
and Technical College in
Prestonburg, Ky. In April, on
his 60th birthday, the mayor
of Prestonburg presented
Steve with the Key to the
City, while the Governor
of Kentucky commissioned
Steve a Kentucky Colonel,
the highest title of
honor bestowed by the
Commonwealth of Kentucky.
This ranks Steve with Col.
Sanders, although he has no
plans to sell fried chicken!
Steve notes that John Glenn,
the first American to orbit
the Earth, is also a Kentucky
Colonel. Steve got his start
operating the planetarium at
Wagner College during his
student years.
in June 2015 in Lignano,
Italy. “With doctors from
Australia, Japan, Colombia,
Albania, Italy, Russia,
Germany, France, Canada,
it is a learning experience
as well as an honor to be
among their company,” he
wrote. He has previously
been part of the medical
staff for the USA Olympic
Team, the Guadalajara
Pan American Games, and
the Vera Cruz Caribbean
American Games.
1979
Dr. Louise Marie Priolo
Grecco , a board-certified
obstetrician and
gynecologist, is a member
of the American Congress
of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists, the American
Board of Obstetrics and
Gynecology, and the
Brooklyn Gynecological
Society. She offers BRCA
and Lynch genetic testing.
is in her
seventh year at the
Women’s Health Center
of St. Francis Hospital in
Roslyn, N.Y. She is a breast
radiologist specializing in
MRI and ultrasound. Victor
Dolan, a chiropractor in
New York City, was part
of the medical staff for
the World Sport Games
Patricia Barry
1980
’80 M’97
joined the editorial board
of the monthly online news
magazine Magyar News
Online (magyarnews.org) in
the summer of 2014 and
has been writing articles (in
English) on subjects related
to Hungarian culture. Dr.
Louis F. DeSantis received the
Richmond County (Staten
Island) Dental Society’s
Lifetime Achievement
Award in January 2015, at
an event celebrating the
society’s 100th anniversary.
In addition, Dr. Edward
Jastremski was elected
president of the society.
Charles Balintitt
Alumni Link
Performing Arts in Staten
Island in January 2015.
The Minty Awards salute
the best and brightest of
Staten Island’s Catholic high
school theater departments.
Donna has been director of
the St. Joseph Hill Drama
Club in Staten Island since
1977. Sharon Roth Eckhardt
has been a pastor at Prince
of Peace Lutheran Church
in Rockaway, N.J., for 12
years. She has a two-yearold grandson who is the
joy of her life. Elizabeth
Gargiulo Farishian is on the
board of PLAN New Jersey
and works as a nurse for
ECLC in Chatham, which
provides education, careers,
and lifelong community to
children and adults with
special needs. Gary Farishian
is the director of athletics
and health/physical
education supervisor for
the Verona, N.J., Public
Schools. The Farishians live
in Westfield, N.J. Marylou
Findley ’75 M’04 was
named the 2015 Education
Services Professional of
the Year for the Franklin
Township (N.J.) School
District. As school nurse
since 2005, she has provided
CPR training, coordinated
holiday giving trees and food
donations, and led many
other community support
endeavors. John T. Lettieri
writes, “Forty years goes by
fast!! Best to 1975 fellow
graduates.”
1983
summer
2015
�1985
hosted SWAN
Day Staten Island in March
2015, an event honoring
local female artists and
their contributions to the
Staten Island community.
SWAN (Support Women
Artists Now) Day is an
international celebration
created by womenarts.org.
As part of the celebration,
Elaine created an exhibit
at Wagner’s Spotlight
Gallery entitled, “Upclose:
A Retrospective of Women
Artists on Staten Island.”
Elaine Mendez
1986
was
appointed an inaugural
board member of the Long
Island chapter of Autism
Speaks and chaired the
first annual Laugh Now for
Autism Speaks Comedy
Showcase in August 2015. In
addition, he was honored for
his work as an attorney in
the fields of personal injury
and education law when
he was recognized for the
third consecutive year by
New York Super Lawyers, a
rating service of attorneys in
the New York metro area.
Edward J. Nitkewicz
1988
is the
director of the Real Live
Relic Hunters, a New Yorkbased team who search for
ancient relics throughout
the world. Inspired by an
ancient Middle Eastern
ring that retired Wagner
Professor Joedy Smith
once showed him, Andrew
developed the nine-person
team and is talking with TV
Andrew Ostrowski
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
production companies about
the program. Find out more at
www.realliverelichunter.com.
1989
is working on
her Doctor of Psychology in
organizational psychology,
specializing in wellness,
at the University of the
Rockies. Tony Carter M’89, a
member of the faculty at the
University of New Haven’s
College of Business, was
featured by Cormac Gordon
in the Staten Island Advance in
January 2015 for his programs
to introduce Staten Island
children to college athletes,
including the Seahawks.
Eileen Braun
1993
Lisa Dalessandro Cordova
and Angelo Cordova M’12
announce the birth of
Adriana Lily on December
5, 2014. (See Crib Notes, page
33, for a photo.)
1994
is a co-host
of The Morning Answer with
Brian, Ben and Elisha on AM
870 (KRLA) from Glendale,
Calif., and Newsmax named
this team one of its “50
Most Influential Local Talk
Radio Shows in America”
in 2015.
Brian Whitman
1996
M’96 led the
Mississippi State Bulldogs
football team to its best year
ever in 2014, reaching a #1
ranking, finishing the season
10–2, and appearing in the
Orange Bowl. Dan’s first
professional coaching job
was at Wagner in 1994–95.
Dan Mullen
1997
was honored
with a Minty Award by the
Minty Organization for the
Performing Arts in Staten
Island in January 2015. The
Minty Awards salute the
best and brightest of Staten
Island’s Catholic high school
theater departments. A
graduate of Moore Catholic
High School, Kathy received
the inaugural Distinguished
Alumni Award. In 2002,
she created the role of
Marcie Walsh on ABC’s One
Life to Live and received
an Emmy nomination in
2004. In 2003, she also
took on the role of Tracy
Turnblad in the Broadway
smash hit Hairspray. Most
recently she has played
Sophie Tucker in HBO’s
Boardwalk Empire. Danielle
Libretti Fornes ’97 M’00 is
the “Mom Who Knows”
on the Internet, blogging at
www.momwhoknows.com.
The Jersey City resident
has gained attention for her
good advice on products,
recipes, parenting tips,
fashion, trends, arts and
crafts, and more. She has
also written for Vogue
Bambini, most recently in
the July/August 2015 issue.
Carolyn Oglio married Joseph
Taverner on July 19, 2014,
at St. Thomas the Apostle
Catholic Church in Staten
Island. Carolyn, who holds a
doctorate in developmental
psychology from the CUNY
Graduate Center, is an
adjunct professor at Wagner
College and at the College
of Staten Island, as well as a
grief counselor with Emma’s
Place in Staten Island. Joseph
Kathy Brier
is a locomotive engineer
with the Staten Island
Railway. Kathleen Ramirez
Wright and her husband,
Kirk, welcomed their first
child, Amelia Faith, on
October 25, 2014.
1998
’98 M’11
was appointed director
of budget and reporting
in the Business Office of
Wagner College. She began
working at Wagner in 2009
as a staff accountant. Rosa
Graziano , who owns and
operates an Italian food
truck in Los Angeles, was
chosen to compete in Food
Network Star, Season 11,
which ran this summer. She
was eliminated from the
show at the end of June, but
she made an unforgettable
impression with her high
spirits and charisma.
Lana Flotteron
2000
Janet Anne Wolter Rumble
’00 M’02 and her husband,
Morgan, announce the birth
of their second daughter,
Dylan Paige Rumble, on
November 11, 2014. (See
Crib Notes, page 33, for a
photo.)
2001
and Kathryn
’02
announce the birth of their
third child, Matthew Peter,
on March 26, 2015. (See Crib
Notes, page 33, for a photo.)
Shane Morgan
Cannizzaro-Morgan
2002
was appointed
by North Carolina
Governor Pat McCrory
Lucas Armeña
�before she entered religious
life. “The forward-thinking
Ramler — a free spirit who
rarely wears socks, even on
the coldest days — invited
Maurer to join his coaching
staff. Maurer spent so much
time watching practice that
Ramler figured he might as
well put her to work,” wrote
Pat Borzi for the Times. St.
Scholastica won the Upper
Midwest Athletic Conference
championship for the fourth
year in a row in 2014.
2003
Jenny Brumm
is teaching in
the universal pre-K program
on Staten Island. Kurt
Ramler M’03, who was wide
receivers coach at Wagner
and is now head football
coach at the College of
St. Scholastica in Duluth,
Minn., was featured in
the New York Times last
November because of his
unusual pick for an assistant
coach: Sister Lisa Maurer,
a Benedictine nun, who
coaches punters and kickers.
She had been a faithful
booster of the team and had
experience with coaching
Carmen Attia
2004
married
’10 on March
14, 2014. They met at
Wagner Homecoming in
2007. Jacqueline Wolter , a
realtor in New York City,
returned to campus during
the spring 2015 semester
to conduct information
sessions for seniors starting
their apartment search in
New York City.
John Orecchia
Theresa Barrilli
2005
married Erik
Richardson on September
13, 2014, in Monte
Rio, Calif. Her Wagner
roommate, Monica Lopez ,
served as her bridesmaid.
Jenny is a client partners
manager for Facebook in
Menlo Park, and Erik is a
senior analyst for business
development at NRG
Energy in San Francisco. A
couple of months later, on
November 22, 2014, Monica
Lopez married Humberto
Castaneda. They celebrated
with Erik and Jenny Brumm
Richardson , Megan Adams ,
and Marc Schaeffer . (See
Knot Notes, page 37, for
photos of Jenny’s and Monica’s
weddings.) Bridget Herrmann
has joined the field staff at
Crush Music, covering all
radio formats across the
U.S., with a focus on the
Midwest. She was formerly
a staff member with A&M/
Octone in New York City.
2006
Michael Armato , who is
now at the University at
Albany–SUNY, came back
to Wagner in March 2015
to present his research,
“The Civically Oriented
Activities of Big City
Mayors: The View from
Website Press Releases.” In
his talk, he analyzed the
role of mayors in promoting
civic engagement. Dana
Guariglia Baranello ’06 M’07
M’10 and John Baranello
welcomed Gemma Joycee
Baranello on June 18,
2014. Gemma Joycee is the
granddaughter of Dr. James
Guariglia ’74 and Joycee Rina
Cini Guariglia ’75. Rebecca
Colucci Kelly is serving as
co-chair of the inaugural
Staten Island Walk to End
Alzheimer’s on September
27, with a goal of raising
$100,000; 79 percent of
funds raised will go toward
programs and services
for Staten Island families.
Her grandmother died of
dementia in March 2015, and
she dedicates her work to her
grandmother’s memory.
2007
Chris Allen , who is the P.S.
57 arts education liaison
and instructional tech
specialist and mentor,
received the Capt. John
Jackson Pioneer Award
at the third annual Island
Voice Golden Image award
ceremony on February 28.
The award ceremony was
part of the annual “Know
Your History” Youth
Empowerment Summit,
held at Wagner College
and organized by Island
Voice Inc., a Staten Island
nonprofit organization
engaged in community
development among the
African, African-American,
Caribbean, and immigrant
communities. Jeffrey Logan
and Jenna DiMatteo were
married on December 7,
2013. Jeff is director of
business development and
client services for Taylor
Management Company in
New Jersey, and Jenna is an
analyst for Ross Stores in
New York City. They live
in Cedar Grove, N.J. Mark
Magro ’07 M’08 writes,
“Since leaving school, I
became a teacher by day
and an aspiring young adult
writer by night. After many
years of hard work, I’ve
obtained a publishing deal
for one of my manuscripts!
The book is a young adult
sci-fi thriller called Surfacing.
It will be published by Jolly
Fish Press on October 20
of this year.” The book is
available for preorder on
Amazon.com. Mia Lynn
Romano defended her
thesis on December 10,
2014, at Rutgers to earn her
Ph.D. in Spanish literature.
Jenna Ward ’07 M’08 was
promoted to the position of
controller in the Business
Office of Wagner College.
She has worked at Wagner
since 2009, beginning as a
compliance accountant.
summer
2015
Alumni Link
to the state’s Dispute
Resolution Commission,
part of the North Carolina
court system. He is
pursuing a master’s degree
in emergency management
and business continuity at
the New Jersey Institute
of Technology. Kathryn
Cannizzaro-Morgan and
Shane Morgan ’01 announce
the birth of their third child,
Matthew Peter, on March
26, 2015. (See Crib Notes,
page 33, for a photo.) Sean
M. Connery was promoted
to partner at the law firm
Perkins Cole, where he is
a member of the business
practice in the New York
office. He represents
corporate trust companies
in a wide range of capital
markets transactions, and
also counsels corporate
trust clients in their
capacity as trustee or agent
in connection with bond
and loan default scenarios,
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
proceedings, and
commercial litigation.
�2008
became
the third generation in
her family to join the
FDNY in 2008, but she
is the first member of the
FDNY to come out as
transgender. Born George
William Guinan, Brooke
made the news when she
appeared in the “So Gay
So What” social media
campaign of V.O.I.C.E,
the Vocal Organization
for International Courage
and Equality. Her photo,
in which she wears a T
shirt emblazoned with
“So Trans So What” and
firefighting gear, became the
campaign’s most popular
post when it was released
last September. She was
featured in a Village Voice
cover story, the Daily News,
MSNBC, and other media
outlets. James Morro joined
Chuhak & Tecson, P.C., in
Chicago, as an associate in
the banking group, where
he concentrates his practice
in the banking industry,
with an emphasis on real
estate and litigation. Charles
Nicolais married Taylor
Wheaton ’09 on October 26,
2013, in Syracuse, N.Y. Erin
O’Neil married Matt Ban ’09
on June 7, 2014. Yvonne M.
Rodriguez married Octavio
M. Casuso III on February
13, 2015, at Mountain
View Manor in Glen Spey,
N.Y. Yvonne is a major
gift officer at CureSearch
for Children’s Cancer, and
Octavio is a nurse at New
Vanderbilt Nursing Home
and Staten Island Care
Center. They live in Staten
Island. (See Knot Notes,
Brooke Guinan
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
page 37, for photos of the
Nicolais-Wheaton and
Rodriguez-Casuso weddings.)
2009
married Erin O’Neil
’08 on June 7, 2014. Robert
Geronimo has a new wordless
picture book in the works,
Little Maia and the Lunar
Express, a sequel to Little
Maia and the Coral City.
He successfully funded
its completion through a
Kickstarter campaign. Harry
Jackson , former president
of Wagner College’s Student
Government Association
and an associate at the
commercial legal firm of
Fox Rothschild LLP, was
elected to the tribal council
of his Native American
tribe, the Nanticoke LenniLenape Tribal Nation. This
council is charged with the
legislative governance of
the tribe, and Harry will
be responsible for coding
tribal laws, creating a system
for non-native attorneys
to request permission to
appear before tribal courts,
and advising the principal
justice in matters arising in
the Tribal Supreme Court.
The Nanticoke and LenniLenape tribes’ homelands
have been in southern New
Jersey and the Delmarva
Peninsula from ancient
times. Taylor Wheaton
married Charles Nicolais
’08 on October 26, 2013,
in Syracuse, N.Y. (See Knot
Notes, page 37, for a photo.)
Matt Ban
2010
married
Colin Johnson in Spring
Lake Heights, N.J., on
Nicole Mahoney
August 3, 2014. Her sisters
Laura Mahoney ’12 and
Gail Mahoney ’16 served in
the bridal party. Nicole
and Colin celebrated
with three generations of
Wagner alumni. (See Knot
Notes, page 37, for a photo.)
Theresa Barrilli married John
Orecchia ’04 on March 14,
2014. They met at Wagner
Homecoming in 2007.
“Back in 2006,” Theresa
writes, “I never would have
dreamed I would meet my
future husband at college,
but I did and I have my time
at Wagner to thank!” Andrew
Wells and Melissa Beck were
married at Holy Rosary
Church in Staten Island
on December 13, 2014.
They are both New York
City public school teachers:
Melissa teaches special
education in a kindergarten
in Staten Island, and
Andrew teaches special
education in a middle school
in Brooklyn.
2011
wrote for
the Missoulian, an online
publication, in June
about her work with faith
communities in Montana
to combine their resources
to combat climate change.
She is the intern pastor for
Valley of Christ Lutheran
Church in Frenchtown,
Mont. Jonathan Pigno
published a collection of his
writings, entitled The Island
Never Burned So Bright,
available on amazon.com.
He has published poems,
short stories, and articles
in magazines such as Vine
Leaves Literary Journal, Five
Sarah Nehm
2 One Magazine, Asbury
Pulp, and the Staten Island
Advance. Read his work at
http://jonathanpigno.com.
2012
Angelo Cordova
M’12 and
Lisa Dalessandro Cordova
’93 announce the birth of
Adriana Lily on December
5, 2014. (See Crib Notes,
page 33, for a photo.) Rose
Tobiassen earned her
master’s in sustainability,
culture, and development
anthropology at Durham
University (UK) in January
2014. She did a study of
mobile phone use among
Kenyan women for her
master’s thesis, drawing on
contacts she made during
her Wagner EYH trip to
Kenya. She was an intern for
the Clinton Global Initiative
until the end of 2014, when
the CGI hired her for a
full-time, permanent staff
position as program and
operations coordinator. She
prepares the meetings that
CGI hosts all over the world
and assists the CEO.
2013
finished his
second year of doctoral
studies in applied
psychology at Boston
College. Jamie Lynn Macchia
won the Miss New York
competition on June 6 at
the St. George Theatre in
Staten Island. This year, she
advanced to the competition
as Miss Greater New
York (she was Miss Staten
Island in 2012 and 2013.)
She competes for the Miss
America title in Atlantic
City on September 13.
Kevin Ferreira
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Rev. Gunther Stippich ’36
Mrs. Mildred F. Messenbrink Hergenhan ’40
Mrs. Esther Turnheim Kolbjornsen ’40
Dr. Robert P. Vomacka ’41
Dr. William Levy Lloyd ’42
Mr. Edwin Saul ’42
Mrs. Louise Niclas Saul ’43
Rev. Helmut T. Dietrich ’45
Mrs. Ruth Witthoft Wilkinson ’45
Mrs. Penny Spina Curry ’46
Mrs. Ann Jamieson Ariemma ’48
Mr. Walter L. McColl ’48
Mr. Sam J. Antico ’49
Mr. Wilson R. Gearhart ’49
Mrs. Muriel Elizabeth Anne Byrne Hassel ’49
Mr. Robert Molinari ’49
Mrs. Helen Sup Patterson ’49
Dr. Trygve R. Skarsten ’49
Mr. Edward F. Bellew ’50
Mr. John Castle Jr. ’50
Mr. Charles R. Chamberlain ’50
Mr. Franklin J. Larson ’50
Mr. Joseph Romano ’50
Mr. Bernard Baratta ’51 M’55
Mr. Sabin Mancini ’51
Dr. Arthur V. Pinski ’51
Mr. Lindsay T. Andrews ’52
Mr. Jerome Bradley ’52
Dr. William Harvey ’52
Mr. H. Theodore Johnson ’52
Ms. Dorothy Ann Reynolds ’52 M’64
Mr. William K. Roehrich ’52
Rev. Hugh C. Whitaker ’52
Mr. John J. Como ’53
Rev. George E. Kenyon Jr. ’53
Mr. Richard A. Koss ’53
Mr. Francis A. O’Leary ’53
Dr. Joseph W. Christiana ’54
Mr. Lionel Rotelli ’54 M’61
Mrs. Ann Robinson Carmer ’56
Mr. Irwin N. Jaeger M’56
Mrs. Doris Dittmer Pitou ’56
Mrs. Germaine Bunosky Coleman ’58
Mr. Patrick R. Sbarra ’58 M’75
Mr. Malcolm G. Stannard ’58 M’59
Mr. David E. Wainwright ’59 M’62
Mrs. Maria F. Da Rocha ’60
Mr. Lawrence Dober ’60
Mr. Ralph J. Porch ’60
Dr. Thomas J. Kelly ’61
Rev. Herman A. Soderberg ’61
Rev. Richard B. Markham ’62 M’73
Mr. John R. Scallan ’62
Mrs. Nancy Barbour Werkheiser ’62
Mrs. Mary Catherine Costello Farrell ’64
Mr. Edgar H. Jensen ’64 M’67
Mr. Stephen V. Robinson ’64
Miss Louise Valuck ’64
Mr. John N. Bowden ’65
Mr. Clifford L. Lish ’65
Mr. David W. Ostergren M’65
Mr. John A. Di Carlo-Cottone ’66
Mrs. Irene Farmer M’66
Mr. Joseph J. Ficarra ’66 M’69
Mr. Edward J. Mastellone ’66
Mrs. Evelyn Larsen Nilsen ’66
Mr. Robert Perry ’66
Mr. Steven F. Zuntag ’66
Ms. Nancy L. Kiligas Clemens ’67
Mr. Stanley M. Jay M’67
Mr. James Longley ’67
Mr. Ronald Pfeiffer ’68
Dr. Frederic P. Cande ’69
Mr. Fred Carullo ’69 M’74
Mr. Eric D. Halberg ’69
Miss Victoria C. Mullin ’69
Ms. Kimi Nakamura Fukuda ’70
Mr. Allan D. Barbes ’71
Mr. John A. Cucco ’73
Mr. Robert L. Smith Jr. ’73
Mr. Stephen J. Vaccarella ’73
Mr. Michael A. Cavallo ’74
Ms. Marta E. Rodriguez M’74
Miss Maureen Kandrach ’76
Mrs. Regina Deutsch Fried M’77
Ms. Debra C. Rotolo ’77
Mr. Michael Di Marco ’78
Ms. Joyce Rusinak ’78
Ms. Anne Beveridge ’81
Mrs. Carol A. Haynes-Loughran ’81
Rev. John R. Pearson H’81
Mr. Salvatore Gerardi ’86
Ms. Kimberly A. Foulks ’87
Mr. Peter Pellegrito ’07 M’08
Mr. Michael A. Diomede ’11
Rev. James E. Gunther
The Reverend James E. Gunther, Wagner trustee from 1981 to 1986, died on May 7, 2015, in Philadelphia. Gunther served at Transfiguration
Lutheran Church of New York for 38 years, retiring in 1998. Known as a “poor, humble parish priest,” he was active in church work on economic
justice and human rights, and he was the founder of the Harlem College Assistance Project, which sent more than 5,000 black and Hispanic
students to college.
Mr. Bob Mathews
Robert M. “Matty” Mathews, 84, died on December 7, 2014. He taught and coached for 30 years at Port Richmond High School, his alma mater,
and also served for many years as alumni association president. After retiring in 1989, he came to work part time in the Admissions Office at
Wagner College. He loved the College and was a fixture on campus, not only working but also attending plays and games. A scholarship in his name
will fund Port Richmond High School graduates’ attendance at Staten Island colleges.
Dr. Miroslav Martinovic
Miroslav “Mike” Martinovic, 58, died on February 24, 2015, in Newtown, Penn. A native of Serbia who held a doctorate in computer science
from Belgrade University, he taught in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Applications at Wagner from 1989 to 2000. Many former
students and colleagues remember him fondly, including Frank Cafasso ’00 M’02, Wagner’s chief information officer. “He taught me so much about
thinking critically in this field, taught me skills I still use to this day, and taught me what role models should be like,” said Cafasso.
Mrs. Lorraine Mrozinski
Lorraine Mrozinski, 81, died on July 7, 2015. A lover of animals and longtime nursing home volunteer, she served as secretary to the president of
Wagner College and acting director of personnel from 1969 to 1984.
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�Reflections
Why Did I Run the 2014 Boston Marathon?
Thoughts on Overcoming Life’s Biggest Challenges By Bob Haberle ’71
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
“
Putting one
foot in front
of the other was
what mattered
that day.
“
T
he 118th running of the Boston
Marathon, on April 21, 2014,
was like no other. I know,
because I was there the year before.
At 2:49 p.m. on April 15, 2013, I had
finished the race and was walking
toward my wife when a loud noise
erupted three blocks away, followed
twelve seconds later by another
immense bang. Chaos quickly ensued
when word spread that two bombs
had gone off. A woman came running
toward us from the finish line, crying
and yelling that there was blood
everywhere on Boylston Street.
We looked up to the Prudential
Center, located near the finish line,
thinking the building may have been
struck by terrorists. My wife and
I then decided to leave Boston as
quickly as possible, even though the
physical effects of finishing a marathon
would make a sudden departure
challenging for my recovery. As we
drove westbound on the Massachusetts
Turnpike, state troopers were
streaming into the city. My mind
flashed back to memories of standing
on Broadway in Lower Manhattan on
September 11, 2001, when 1 World
Trade Center tumbled down right in
front of my eyes.
On that morning, I was at work in
my company’s office, located only
a few short blocks from the WTC
complex. Members of our staff started
to receive panicked phone calls from
family and friends who heard the
initial report that a small plane had
flown into one of the towers. I was
sitting in a conference room with some
colleagues on the ninth floor, and we
noticed large amounts of paper floating
in the air, like a ticker tape parade —
except that we could see the paper had
charred edges.
After the second tower was hit,
we received conflicting information
about whether to leave or to stay.
I decided to take a walk to Broadway
and assess the situation. I was two
blocks away when 1 WTC collapsed.
As the building imploded, many of us
frantically ran towards the East River.
I’ll never forget someone yelling that
we were all going to die. Fortunately,
I saw a post office loading dock nearby.
I never ran so fast to get there and take
refuge. Chaos and uncertainty reigned
for the remainder of the day and for
weeks and months ahead.
These two seminal events in my life
have made me think back to my days
at Wagner, from 1967 to 1971.
The Vietnam War was raging,
and anti-war and anti-discrimination
protests surrounded us. Society was
going through a major transition, and
college campuses, including Wagner,
were feeling the effects. I remember
watching the military draft lottery
on television with fellow students
in Towers dorm. Your future and
possible fate were being determined
by the order in which your birthdate
was drawn from a large cylindrical
container. There were a lot of mixed
emotions in the room that evening,
and on many other days and nights,
as we all wrestled with our beliefs and
values. Sometimes we debated and
argued, sometimes we partied and
defied authority. I’ll never forget the
electric atmosphere on campus.
Fortunately, Wagner gave me the
opportunity to attend the College’s
study abroad program in Bregenz,
Austria, during the spring semester
of 1970. That time away provided
me with some space to reflect upon
what was going on in our country.
The Wagner experience helped us
grow and develop in so many ways that
we could rely upon in future years.
It was challenging to go through the
transition, but we learned important
life skills in being adaptable and
resilient.
One of the lessons I learned during
those turbulent times was to keep one
foot moving in front of the other, no
matter what. As a college student,
I had watched the World Trade Center
towers dramatically arise from the
�New York City skyline. As an adult,
I watched them implode, changing the
lives of everyone in America forever.
Our company lost the friendship of
former co-workers who died on that
tragic day. Nevertheless, I knew it was
important to get back to as normal a
routine as possible and to keep moving
forward. On Monday, September
17, 2001, we returned to work, as
our building was one of few in Lower
Manhattan that never lost power.
Over the next several weeks and
months, all New Yorkers rose to the
occasion, demonstrating strength and
resolve while attending memorial
services for families and friends.
Similarly, after the 2013 Boston
Marathon, many runners, including
myself, made a commitment to return
to the start line one year later in order
to pay respect and demonstrate support
to the families of lost and injured loved
ones. Many of us went to Fenway the
day before the race to cheer for the
injured, who came onto the field using
prosthetic devices or wheelchairs. The
injured simply had done what so many
Bostonians do every year on Patriots’
Day: cheer and support the runners of
Boston. They had paid a high price, but
they were not giving up.
As we walked towards the start line
that day, there was something electric
in the air — captured in the slogan
“Boston Strong” — that provided
us runners an even greater sense of
purpose to finish the race no matter
what lay ahead. It really did not matter
what your finish time was that day, as
long as you got to the finish line. Putting
one foot in front of the other was what
mattered that day, and it is what matters
through all of life’s peaks and valleys.
Bob Haberle ’71, a veteran marathoner, is the chief liquidation officer
for Legion Insurance Company. Previously, he was president of Reliance
Insurance Company. He lives in Pennington, New Jersey, with his wife,
Pam; their son, Taylor, is a sophomore at Wake Forest University.
S U M M E R
2 0 1 5
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, New York 10301
Stroller
Derby
P H OTO G R A P H S : V I N N I E A M E S S É
Five Wagner girlfriends,
all education majors and all
teachers, brought their kids
to Reunion this year adorned
in matching green bows. An
irresistible photo op! Above, Mom
and Dad Seahawks: Jonathan
’04 M’10 and Leanne Driscoll
’06 M’10 Raymond, AnneMarie
Vargas Olton ’06 M’08, Kathryn
Laudino Paolucci ’06 M'07,
Brittany Osti Bramley ’06 M’08,
and Kathryn Gannon Otero ’06
M’07. Below, the little Seahawks:
Emery Bramley, Anna Paolucci,
Violet Raymond, Penelope Olton,
and Mason Otero.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Summer 2015
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/d0cf44baadeba6ba17785f004957b946.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=ogN0bygfa5K7olrbnwzekpc9jqJqtg-1zyjWbvbEtAsrmFtellACugjpu9wSl2N2Q2RJQvkbMgLUoGfQqWndkkNqpbS0jQ6Tm1N5Irof2Url1qrhHwHY9p-3f65bsu134J%7EGDP4uQhOaVcZcgHDLRhEJqBr6C0-EvL5o82vlIEgbwJKgs9VFcsRdL4A5wh6hsivr7IYaq3f9V0S79JGGYvAr7KEvlWwE18ZKEbvtvrbXWhEiZPaVUTq04P9Th%7EbMjh7%7Eenh8fkFa6oyfiavzRxwRODW9jVgrqF3%7EfknudjF%7EoA6SHJRZDbAR2jjuq0-CN85CYPaP-ywAlECPgIugtg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
b3f0d8e029279153bf6ee2368b47a5be
PDF Text
Text
FA L L 2 0 1 4
THE
LINK
FOR ALUMNI AND
FRIENDS
The history of
Wagner trees helps to tell
the College’s story. Page 26
Rooted in
Grymes
Hill
#Awareness
The Next Frontier
Master Mixologist
Page 12
Page 16
Page 20
�Contents
Wagner Magazine Fall 2014
F e a t u r e s
vol.12,
12
16
20
26
no.1
#Awareness
Seniors Kerri Alexander and Jarrid Williams speak about their experience
of race at the College and their leadership in mentoring other students.
The Next Frontier
Higher education is at an inflection point. We find out where it is
headed by listening in on the national and local conversation.
Master Mixologist
From stained glass to beverage design, Cliff Oster ’69 is a man who ‘just
knows what goes together’ — intuitively.
Rooted in Grymes Hill
From the “Old Apple Tree” to the London planes on the Oval, the
history of Wagner trees helps to tell the College’s story in this place.
departments
2
From the President
3
From the Editor
4
From Our Readers
5
Upon the Hill
32
Alumni Link
36
Class Notes
42
In Memoriam
44
Reflections
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Photograph: anna mulé
�Writing a New Story
At an after-school program at PS 20 in
Port Richmond, Staten Island, Wagner
education faculty and graduate students
work with immigrant children and their
parents to build up their literacy skills
and confidence. Read more at
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�From the President
Why ‘U.S. News’ Is Important
IF YOU saw the 2015
edition of the U.S. News
& World Report “Best
Colleges” guidebook, you
surely noticed that the
accomplishments of Wagner
College were celebrated in a
number of the book’s pages.
Wagner, for example,
was one of seven colleges to be cited at least four times
in the guide’s “Focus on Student Success” section, which
recognized our first-year experience, internships, learning
communities, and service learning opportunities as among
the best in the nation.
This recognition is especially significant because it is an
acknowledgment not only from U.S. News, but also from
our competitors. Inclusion in this part of the guidebook
comes through a survey of college presidents, provosts, and
enrollment officers nationwide. They decide which schools
best fit these categories, look up the unique codes for the
particular colleges and universities they are nominating,
copy those codes, and enter them into the guidebook’s
questionnaire. It takes a bit of time and effort, indicating
that our colleagues feel strongly about our work in these
areas.
You’ll also see that Wagner is prominently mentioned
in the book’s main feature. The magazine discussed our
emphasis on civic learning from the first year onward, and
notes how we create learning communities that combine
courses from different disciplines that are seemingly
unrelated, but help our students approach and analyze reallife challenges. Wagner’s 2014 graduate Kellie Griffith, who
is now teaching English on a Fulbright award in Ecuador,
was quoted as an example of the success that the Wagner
Plan can help our
“All of this … speaks
students achieve.
to the role that Wagner plays
All of this,
as a leader and an innovator
I would argue,
speaks to the role
in higher education.”
that Wagner plays
as a leader and an innovator in higher education. This is
important because higher education is at a crossroads —
or, as a friend of mine likes to say, at an inflection point.
As members of the Association of American Colleges
and Universities (AAC&U), Wagner faculty and
administrators have been participating in some of the most
interesting discussions that are now going on about higher
education reform and innovation. AAC&U is essentially a
think tank. It is important that we thoroughly understand
how the landscape of higher education is changing under
our feet if we are to truly thrive and not just survive. In
the current environment, I believe even survival will be
difficult for some institutions. At Wagner, we must be
prepared for these changes in order to continue to prepare
our students well.
You will read more about these challenges and changes
in Wagner Magazine Editor Laura Barlament’s excellent
story on the future trends in higher education. (See page 16.)
Please come and visit campus in the new year. Much
is happening here, as always, and I would enjoy the
opportunity to say hello.
Richard Guarasci
President
An Education That Works
Professor Cyril Ghosh teaches a government course, which together
with an education course makes up the Intermediate Learning
Community “Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and Disability
Rights.” Wagner is celebrated for its programs leading to student
success, including its sequence of three learning communities.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�A
From the Editor
What the Survey Said
bout a year ago, we asked you, our
readers, to take a survey and tell us
what you think about Wagner Magazine.
More than 400 of you completed the
questionnaire, which was administered
online. I’m deeply grateful for your time
and your interest!
Considering that I usually answer
surveys only when I have some bone to
pick, I felt all the more gratified that,
by and large, people felt good about the
publication: Around 90 percent rated
it good or excellent for content, ease of
reading, design, photography, and writing.
The most interesting part of the survey
to me was finding out what types of stories
you would most like to read. Now, I have a
Wagner Magazine readership Top 10 list.
In the spirit (though not the humor)
of David Letterman, here we go:
10. Alumni in their personal lives
9. Student achievements
8. Individual alumni profiles
7. Alumni chapter activities and
regional programming
6. Campus facilities and growth
5. Cultural events and performances
4. Obituaries
3. Institutional history and traditions
2. Alumni in their professions
1. Class notes
Fall 2014 • Volume 12 Number 1
Another area the survey is helping
me to address is the role of the website.
Survey respondents tended to favor print
heavily — 77 percent said they prefer
print, whereas 6 percent prefer online and
17 percent prefer both. But a good slice
of the pie, 44 percent, said they would be
interested in seeing additional online-only
content.
If you haven’t visited wagner.edu/
wagnermagazine lately, now would be
a great time to check it out: We have a
brand-new website, launched in December!
I believe it’s much more attractive and
functional than the first version we built.
And we do, indeed, have online-only
content for this issue, such as a slideshow
of the spectacular stained glass windows of
Cliff Oster ’69. (See story page 20).
I was also very happy to hear that
Wagner Magazine strengthens your feeling
of connection to the College, because that’s
its main purpose. Please do let me know
if you have other ideas about how this
magazine can better fulfill its mission and
serve you and the College in new ways.
Laura Barlament
e di t or
Shaowei Wang
gr a ph ic de sig n e r
wr iters
Laura Barlament
Arijeta Lajka ’16
Lee Manchester
phot o gr a ph e r s
Vinnie Amessé
Jim Gipe
Lee Manchester
Anna Mulé
Shaowei Wang
produc t ion m a nage r
Donna Sinagra
Wagner Magazine
Advisory Board
Lisa DeRespino Bennett ’85
Susan Bernardo
Jack Irving ’69
Scott Lewers ’97
Lorraine McNeill-Popper ’78
Brian Morris ’65
Hank Murphy ’63 M’69
Andy Needle
Nick Richardson
Wagner Magazine: The Link for Alumni and Friends
is published twice a year by Wagner’s Office of
Communications and Marketing.
Laura Barlament
e di tor , wag n e r m ag a z i n e
Wagner Magazine
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
718-390-3147
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
On the Cover
This Norway maple, located in front of Cunard Hall, is one of
the many magnificent trees on campus, such as the red maple
(see page 26–27) on the other side of Cunard or the European
beech (see page 28–29) in front of Main Hall. Visit wagner.edu/
wagnermagazine to see a picture of our rare American elm.
Photograph: shaowei wang
FA LL 2014
wagner.edu
�From Our Readers
An Abiding Enigma
is impressive, and good.
Willard was and, perhaps, remains an
enigma, but he changed my way of
looking at the world, and when I think
about it, that’s what a college education
is supposed to do. I had Willard Maas as
my professor at Wagner College, and he
changed my life.
YOUR WORK
“
I had Willard
Maas as my
professor at Wagner
College, and he
changed my life.
George Semsel ’59
West Yarmouth, massachusetts
“
Clarifications
story “Who’s the Source for
‘Virginia Woolf’?” (Wagner Magazine
winter 2013–14), the source of the
quotation by Kenneth Anger on page 20
was Scott MacDonald’s book A Critical
Cinema 5: Interviews with Independent
Filmmakers (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2006), pp. 39-40.
We regret any misunderstanding of
the source.
IN THE
Several readers responded to the Winter
2013–14 feature “Who’s the Source for
‘Virginia Woolf’?” about Wagner
Professor Willard Maas and his wife,
Marie Menken, as the inspiration for
Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?
Dining Hall
Dialogue
summer of 1961, I was a house
proctor at Wagner’s North Hall, taking
summer courses and working part time
at the Wagner dining hall as well as
lifeguarding at South Beach. I met a
group of people in the dining hall who
were at a playwriting workshop. The
workshop was headed by Edward Albee.
I knew Willard Maas but did not know
he was involved with the workshop. At
IN THE
the dining hall, the workshop members
talked about playwriting, and Edward
Albee was particularly sharp and
dismissive of a middle-aged woman
workshop member. I did not know who
Albee was, but was told he had had a
couple of short plays produced. I do not
know the woman.
I did not see the play Who’s Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?, but when I saw the
movie, I recognized the method of
delivery and dialogue as being very
similar to what I heard in 1961 from
Edward Albee. I drew the conclusion
that Albee was in the process of writing
the play, and he was trying out dialogue
on his workshop member.
Your article filled in some holes in my
memory of over 50 years ago.
John C. Schaller ’63
CHICO, CALIFORNIA
WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU We welcome letters from readers. Letters
should refer to material published in the magazine and include the writer’s
full name, address, and telephone number. The editor reserves the right
to determine the suitability of letters for publication and to edit them for
accuracy and length.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
The “Flashback” archival photo
feature of the Wagner College Seahawk
Marching Band, ca. 1969 (Wagner
Magazine winter 2013–14) mentioned
that the band performed in the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1971.
Kathy Van Tassell Maxcy ’71 contacted
us to say that the band also marched
in that parade in 1969, as confirmed by
a dated photo and by clippings in the
Wagner archives.
Laura Barlament, Editor
Office of Communications, Wagner College
One Campus Road, Staten Island, NY 10301
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
�PREPARED FOR ANYTHING Wagner’s DNP graduates will be trained to deal with global health emergencies, such as the West African Ebola outbreak.
This photo shows a worker in England wearing the protective clothing needed to treat Ebola victims and prevent the disease’s spread.
A New
Generation of
Nurse Leaders
Wagner’s first doctoral program
proves itself a timely offering
AS THE West African Ebola outbreak
grabbed headlines this fall, the relevance
of Wagner’s first doctoral program, a
Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP),
became all the more sharply defined.
The DNP program, launched this
fall by the Evelyn L. Spiro School of
Nursing, provides advanced training for
nurses, with a special focus on disaster
preparedness and population health
worldwide.
The program, currently open to boardcertified family nurse practitioners, is for
working professionals. Those enrolled in
the program are expected to complete
their doctorates in two years and three
months, including two summers.
According to Kathleen Ahern,
professor and director of graduate
nursing studies, watching the aftermath
of Hurricane Katrina inspired her and
Paula Dunn Tropello, dean of the Evelyn
L. Spiro School of Nursing, to create the
DNP program.
“When Katrina happened, what really
touched me was that the doctors and the
nurses were so poorly prepared to handle
that kind of disaster,” Ahern says. “We
discussed that we really needed to prepare
leaders who could function in those kinds
of devastations.”
The interdisciplinary program features
courses in biostatistics, taught by biology
professor Don Stearns, and in medical
ethics, taught by philosophy professor
John Danisi. A course on global nursing
requires a 50-hour clinical experience,
where students observe international
health systems. The nursing program
has established partnerships in Haiti and
Mexico and with the Navajo Reservation
in Arizona.
This fall, 15 students were accepted
into the program. “Some of them
P h o t o g r a p h : O w e n H u m p h r e y s / PA W i r e
would like to become faculty with their
doctorate and continue their practice,
while others are looking to take a larger
role perhaps in their city or state health
departments,” Ahern says.
Kathleen Oberfeldt, assistant dean for
Wagner’s Center for Health and Wellness,
is in the DNP program’s first cohort. She
says that the program will enhance her
ability to plan for public health crises,
especially in the context of a college
campus.
The program has already broadened
her comfort level with helping in case of a
natural disaster. “I never thought I would
see myself in that role, but I am emerging
and taking a step out of my comfort
zone,” she says. “It’s great to be able to
have that opportunity. Opportunities
like working on the Native American
reservation, that really touched my heart.
“Going with a group that is already
established and has confidence in the
work that they do — I am very happy to
be part of that kind of group. I am capable
of doing more than I ever thought I was
capable of,” Oberfeldt adds.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�Upon the Hill
{
First the
Facts . . .
40
35
M i n i m u m n u m be r of wo ody pl a n t t y pe s
on c a m pu s
N u m be r of Lon d on pl a n e t r e e s
lo c at e d on t h e Ova l
Looking
Back
BACK WHERE YOU BELONG Wagner College’s No. 1-ranked theater program specializes in musical theater training. This year’s Main Stage season
kicked off with Hello, Dolly! starring Allie Luecke ’16 as Dolly Levi, directed by Norb Joerder.
‘The Power of Storytelling’
Wagner back at the top of the Princeton Review best collegiate theaters list
WAGNER COLLEGE THEATRE was ranked #1 in the nation, and
The Wagnerian student newspaper was ranked among the
country’s top 20 collegiate news publications, in this year’s
Princeton Review Best 379 Colleges guide.
Wagner College Theatre has been ranked among the top
5 collegiate theater programs in the United States by the
Princeton Review for the last decade, but this is the first time
since 2005 that WCT has claimed the #1 position.
“The Wagner College Theatre Department — faculty,
staff, students, alumni and audiences — is honored by our
Number One ranking in the Princeton Review,” said Felicia
Ruff, department chair.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
The department, created in 1968, has a long list of
distinguished alumni, from Tony Award winner Randy
Graff ’76 to Jersey Boys film star Renée Marino ’04.
“Wagner College’s tradition of doing theater, particularly
musical theater, clearly remains strong,” Ruff said. “We take
pride in our work on stage and in the classroom, but we are
even prouder of our community, which is united by our
belief in the importance of live performance. Our Number
One ranking is a well-deserved endorsement of our excellent
faculty and the values they teach, but it is also evidence of
the power of storytelling to impact our culture, especially our
campus culture.”
Photograph: Karen O’Donnell
�1
. . . Then
the Quiz!
R a r e A m e r ic a n e l m
lo c at e d on c a m pu s
How many deer have been
sighted on the Wagner campus
this fall? A n sw e r on Pag e 11
}
A Good Turnover
After 34 seasons, Hameline hands off to Houghtaling
ON NOVEMBER 22, Walt Hameline
completed his 34th season as head
football coach and athletic director with
a riveting 23–20 win over Bryant, giving
the Seahawks their second NEC title in
Making It
Practical
New MBA program in media
management draws a lively
cohort of students
THERE’S EXCITEMENT in Campus Hall
this fall, where Wagner College has
started a new MBA program in media
management. Former film company
executive Stephen Greenwald, who
helped design and build the program,
gave us an update at the end of its
inaugural semester.
Photograph: David Saffran
the past three years.
And, he announced the following
Monday, he also completed his long
and successful head coaching career at
Wagner. He handed the reins over to a
beloved Wagner insider, Jason “Hoss”
Houghtaling M’09, associate head
coach. Hameline remains as athletic
director.
The 2014 campaign was the 24th
winning season for the Green &
White under Hameline. Hameline’s
win record, 223-139-2, ranks fifth
among active Football Championship
Subdivision (FCS) head coaches.
Houghtaling’s deep relationship with
Wagner football goes back to 2006–09,
his first coaching stint on Grymes
Hill. He returned during the 2011–12
season and again this year for a total of
seven years on the Wagner sidelines.
His accomplishments include
coaching the Seahawks’ record-setting
quarterback Nick Doscher ’13 during
Wagner’s 9–4 NEC Championship
season of 2012, when the Seahawks
became the first NEC team to win an
NCAA FCS playoff game.
“I am thrilled that Jason Houghtaling
will take over as Wagner head coach
and I have full confidence that he will
continue to keep the Seahawks on the
path to success for years to come,” said
Hameline. “His work ethic, passion,
football knowledge, recruiting contacts,
and familiarity with Wagner College
are all major assets that will pay huge
dividends for our program.”
“We have seven students in our first
cohort,” Greenwald said. “They’re into
different aspects of media — sports,
TV, music — and bringing a mix of
backgrounds and aspirations to the
program, so it’s a lively bunch.”
The group is taking its first three
foundational courses this semester —
among them, a course in media law and
ethics taught by Greenwald.
“In our class, we’re trying to make it
practical,” he said. “They’re not lawyers,
and they’re not training to be lawyers —
but they need to know enough about
media law to know when they need a
lawyer!”
Looking forward, Greenwald is
particularly excited about two aspects
of Wagner’s media management MBA
program.
“For their capstone project, our
students will come up with a business
plan for a media venture — and then
they’ll work on getting it launched,”
Greenwald said.
“And we have some very solid
international content programmed into
this MBA, with weeklong intensive
seminars abroad. Students can study at
Israel’s Kibbutzim College of Education
or the HFF München in Germany, one
of the 15 best film schools in the world.”
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�Upon the Hill
The Women’s Executive Perspective
Alumnae speak about the triumphs and challenges of corporate success
LEADING WOMEN Kathleen Haggerty ’80,
Cynthia DiBartolo ’84, Lisa Bennett ’85,
Mary Caracappa ’82, and Joan Arnold ’75
all serve in executive positions at major
financial corporations and law offices.
WHILE FEMINISM may have “conquered
the culture,” as a recent New Republic
cover story proclaimed, the discussion
about women’s equality is far from over.
One new effort to promote women’s
leadership in the workplace is the Take
the Lead organization, co-founded by
Gloria Feldt and Amy Litzenberger, a
former investment banker (connected to
Wagner College via her husband, Robert
Litzenberger ’64).
On the public launch date of Take
the Lead, February 19, a panel of five
Wagner women graduates who have
been highly successful in the corporate
world spoke to a packed audience in the
Manzulli Board Room of Foundation
Hall.
All five talked about how their
careers have evolved. “It’s a fascinating
industry,” said Mary Caracappa ’82,
managing director for firm strategy and
execution at Morgan Stanley, where
she has worked since 1986. “I’ve been
afforded so many different types of
roles.”
Kathleen Haggerty ’80, vice president
of global credit for American Express,
has had a similar experience, having
held leadership roles in correspondent
banking, collections management, global
rewards, and global data. “I have
re-engineered myself out of a job several
times,” she said.
Cynthia DiBartolo ’84, a political
science major, left college with a desire to
work on Wall Street. She left after being
told that she had been hired because she
was “easy on the eye.” She entered law
school, and ended up becoming director
of corporate compliance for Citigroup.
Now she runs her own company, Tigress
Financial Partners.
Lisa Bennett ’85, executive director
of communications for technology and
digital business at J.P. Morgan Chase &
Co., said that women are forced to make
choices between family priorities or
workplace advancement. “You can’t have
it all,” she said. “The women I respect
make their choices and are happy with
them.”
Bennett’s comment sparked a
discussion about whether workplaces
‘She Touched
Countless Students’
Professor Janice Buddensick dies at age 59
are becoming more accommodating to
both men’s and women’s commitments
to family. “There’s been a generational
shift,” argued Caracappa. “This next
generation is going to radically change
all these horror stories we’re talking
about. Firms have to figure out how to
balance lifestyles and career cycles in
order to retain women and men.”
Joan Arnold ’75, a partner and chair
of the tax practice group with Pepper
Hamilton LLP in Philadelphia, said that
the discussion of women in leadership
roles needs to be conducted with the
male leaders at the table as well. “The
senior male leadership of the firm has
to be there and deal with the barriers to
women’s leadership,” she said.
With the help of these alumnae,
Wagner has started a Women’s
Professional Network for students.
In October, DiBartolo hosted the
students in her office.
“For me, the biggest takeaways were
her personal story and career tips,” said
Arijeta Lajka ’15, one of the student
participants. “She almost died of cancer,
and she still managed to rise again and
build up a company. She also taught
us how important diversity is in the
workforce: Diversity of different races
and also diversity of talent are needed to
build a successful company.”
since the previous fall semester.
“It is a very sad day for the Wagner College community,” said
John Carrescia ’99 M’06, interim CFO and adjunct accounting
professor. “Janice was my faculty adviser many years ago, and
has had such an impact on my teaching career. She touched
countless students and will be deeply missed by so many of us.”
THE WAGNER community was deeply saddened to hear of the
death of Janice Buddensick, associate professor of accounting,
on September 20, 2014. She had been on leave for health reasons
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Read more about Janice Buddensick’s life and service to the College
on page 43.
�{
“The nice thing about environmental
writing … is that you can start to get at the
question of, ‘Who’s right? Where does the
weight of the evidence lie?’”
Quote
Unquote
7
Dan Fagin
2014 Pulitzer
Prize Winner,
at the 2014
KaufmanRepage Lecture
}
The wall is now impervious to Nor’easters with new brickwork and mortar.
6
2
New internal risers and fan coils in each room have greatly improved the building’s HVAC system.
Kathleen’s mother breeds champion show pugs.
7
2
6
3
4
5
1
WHAT’S INSIDE
Harborview Hall, Room 613
of service, Harborview
Hall underwent major renovations
last summer to make it watertight and
energy-efficient. Here’s a glimpse into
one room and its residents.
AFTER DECADES
1
Kathleen Thieme ’18 of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who loves music, dance, and science.
3
4
5
Nicole Farkouh ’18, a physician assistant major, wasn’t at home, but the wall art that she created shows her personality.
Nicole keeps a live mint plant in the windowsill (all new throughout the building) for her tea.
One of the 400 new double-pane, energy-efficient windows installed this summer.
Photograph: shaowei wang
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�Upon the Hill
{
Quote
Unquote
“Here, I have met Africa, the [Africa] I have
always believed in. She’s beautiful.
She’s young. She’s full of talent and
motivation and ambition.”
A Quiet Friend
Estate gift establishes a sizable endowment for
student scholarships
how sometimes your
quietest friends can turn out to be your
best friends?
That’s how it was with the late Helen
Raminger Abichandani ’54 and her
alma mater, Wagner College.
For many years, while the Bronx
native lived in California, she did
not maintain an active connection to
the campus where she had studied
to become a teacher. But she never
forgot the College or her gratitude to
her parents for supporting her Wagner
education.
Abichandani moved to California
for the sunny weather, says Joni Magee,
who knew her late in her life while
serving as her case manager at Siegel &
Associates. Tall, striking, and elegant,
she was also funny, outspoken, and
talkative, Magee recalls.
She taught elementary school. “Her
former students kept up with her for
years,” Magee says. “She was funny, and
YOU KNOW
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
I’m sure she made her classes fun.”
She married Krishin Abichandani,
an aeronautical engineer who
immigrated to the United States from
India. They lived in the Hollywood
Hills in a striking Mid- Century
Modern home.
Helen began reconnecting with
Wagner College in 1999, attending her
first class reunion. Krishin died shortly
after that visit, and Helen continued to
enjoy Wagner events, even an alumni
cruise on the Queen Mary II.
Former alumni director Gail Kelley
’97 and President Guarasci also visited
her in Los Angeles, and she spoke with
them about her desire to use her estate
to boost her favorite cause, education, at
Wagner College.
Helen Abichandani passed away on
February 25, 2013, one day short of her
80th birthday. Her Hollywood Hills
friends organized her memorial service
at the Unitarian Universalist Church
Sobel Ngom
A Mandela
Washington
Fellow from
Senegal, at
Wagner for a
summer seminar
}
A PASSION FOR EDUCATION
The late Helen Raminger
Abichandani ’54 moved to
California years ago but never
forgot her gratitude to her parents
and to Wagner College.
of Studio City. “She was an incredibly
wonderful and generous soul,” says her
former neighbor, Shane Nguyen. “I miss
her dearly.”
Her estate plans included an
$868,000 gift to Wagner College to
establish an endowed scholarship in
memory of her parents, William and
Erna Raminger. Polish immigrants of
German descent, they worked hard
to make sure their only child received
the gift of education. Neither of
them graduated from high school, but
William built a successful auto parts
business in the Bronx, and even held a
patent on an antiglare headlight.
Inspired by her parents, Helen
Abichandani is passing along the gift of
education to future Wagner students.
As many as five students per year will
benefit from the William and Erna
Raminger Scholarship Fund.
�}
{
The
Answer
QU i Z qu e st ion
on pag e 7
Groups of 2–3 deer have been seen crossing
campus frequently this year. The New York City
Parks Department estimated the Staten Island
deer population at almost 800 as of early 2014.
‘The Wagnerian’ at 80
Current staffers of the student newspaper take lessons from the past
student newspaper,
The Wagnerian, turned 80 years old
on November 8, 2014. From political
movements to campus tragedies, The
Wagnerian has been through it all, giving
students the opportunity to voice their
thoughts and report the news.
This year, the venerable journal
even received its first accolade from
the Princeton Review, earning a top-20
college newspaper listing.
To celebrate the anniversary, editors
rummaged through the archives to create
an issue highlighting The Wagnerian over
the decades.
Working through the 1950s issues,
Sports Editor Grace Zhang ’15 pointed
out the cigarette ads, gossip columns,
and the dean’s list, which are no longer
Wagnerian fare.
Co-Editor Erik Parshall ’15 drew
attention to how The Wagnerian took
stances on major political issues over the
years, such as racial justice in the 1960s
and the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.
Throughout Wagnerian history, the
WAGNER COLLEGE’S
Photograph: Olivia Pea
campus has been the biggest topic of
all, with perennial coverage focusing on
issues with the College administration,
food in the dining hall, and campus life
policies.
“What separates The Wagnerian from
other news is that we talk about Wagner,
which is more relevant to students.
Students are excited to see their names
in the paper and are excited to know
that somebody’s listening,” Co-Editor
Audriana Mekula ’14 explained.
Parshall said that looking through
old issues inspired him to feature more
stories on major social and political issues.
“There was more open conversation
back then,” he noted. “In one issue, a
pregnant girl wrote about her experiences
being pregnant on campus and how it
affected her mental state. I think that’s
fantastic.
“I want to run stories that will stand
the test of time, as the cliché goes,” he
added.
— Arijeta Lajka ’16,
Wagnerian contributor
}
Gustav Klimt:
Why Not ‘Degenerate’?
Duke University’s lecture series “Art,
Conflict, and the Politics of Memory”
featured Wagner art history professor
Laura Morowitz this November.
Her subject: an exhibition of Gustav
Klimt’s works staged by Vienna’s Nazi
governor, Baldur von Schirach, in 1943.
Blogging about the Neue Galerie’s
“Degenerate Art” exhibition earlier
this year, Morowitz explained how
Klimt, a product of fin de siècle Vienna,
escaped the Nazis’ “degenerate” label,
despite his provocative style and his
prominent Jewish patrons.
One example of why Nazi cultural
officials accepted Klimt’s work is his
Beethoven Frieze (detail seen below).
“Klimt’s frieze hails the triumph
of idealism over materialism, an
idea often found in Nazi aesthetics,”
she explained. “The rescuing knight
around whom the frieze revolves can
easily be read as a proto-Fuhrer figure,
leading his people to a higher realm.”
On the other hand, Klimt’s sensual
subject matter made his work suspect
to many. Von Schirach took a risk,
promoting the Klimt retrospective as
an example of the glories of Germanic
art, Morowitz said, and erasing their
connections to the Jewish community.
Morowitz is teaching an honors
course, Art and Aesthetics in Nazi
Germany, next semester. She is also at
work on a novel about Klimt’s art and
cultural legacy.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�#Awareness
Student leaders find their way at Wagner
and mentor the next generation
R
ace is an undeniable force in American society.
This summer, it was brought to the fore by the
tragic deaths of several African-American men and
boys, including Staten Island’s own Eric Garner, in violent
encounters with white policemen.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Photograph: anna mulé
�a predominantly black and Hispanic
public high school in Poughkeepsie,
New York.
Wagner Magazine:
How did you decide to
come to Wagner College?
Kerri Alexander: Well, I knew I wanted
to be in New York City. When I visited
Wagner, I thought, “Wow, this campus
is beautiful!” and I knew I wanted to
be here.
Jarrid Williams: I am a football
player, and I had a few scholarship offers
from different schools. When I visited
campus, I got sold on the “family” feel
of Wagner. My little brother sat with a
vice president at the basketball game,
front row. Everyone knew who everyone
was, the president knew the names of
kids all over campus — and that was a
completely different feel than what I got
from any other college.
WM: Once you enrolled,
what was it like? Was there
any culture shock?
Like many predominantly white
colleges, Wagner College has had its
share of challenges over white privilege
and diversity. Fortunately, Wagner
has also had some extraordinary
students who have led us in an ongoing
conversation about social justice and
civic engagement.
Wagner Magazine talked recently
with two of those student leaders,
seniors Kerri Alexander and Jarrid
Williams. Kerri came to Wagner
from a Catholic high school in West
Hartford, Connecticut. Jarrid attended
JW: The makeup of the student body
here was quite a culture shock for me,
coming from Poughkeepsie High. The
only people at Wagner who looked like
me were my teammates. You would go
to class and look around, and you would
be the only person who looked like
you — it almost made you feel like “the
other.” My high school wasn’t the best
— we had a ridiculous graduation rate,
something like 52 percent — so when I
started to get into college classes, I was
nervous. I didn’t want to be the guy that
answers the question wrong and have
people think, “Wow, look at that stupid
black kid,” so I stayed to myself. I hung
out with the other football players, and I
wasn’t open to other students for my first
couple of years.
And then, “the Wagner way” kind
of pulled me onto the right track. I
say “Wagner way” because I think Dr.
Guarasci has created a good atmosphere
and put the right people in place to
help you become a leader. Sam Siegel
[Samantha Siegel ’12 M’13, director
of the Center for Leadership and
Community Engagement] taught one
of my education classes, and I started to
meet with her outside of class. I started
to gain more confidence in myself, and
I met some of the other students in the
civic engagement program who helped
me, people like Kerri.
Before, I was just getting by. I was the
football player, an athlete here at Wagner
College, but civic engagement helped me
create a new identity for myself, a civic
identity, and a sense of community. I felt
empowered enough to talk over things
I thought were problematic, things that
we can change. … That’s why I think
President Guarasci did a good job of
putting people in place, because we have
a lot of young leaders here who are active
enough to change things and to really
have their own voice — to speak up for
what they believe in.
KA: My story is very similar to Jarrid’s. I
spent my first two years here very much
on the outskirts of the social scene. My
two or three best friends were people I
met in my first-year learning community.
We weren’t the same race. That didn’t
mean we couldn’t be friends — but,
being the only black woman in this
group, it was difficult to feel valid in
those relationships — and they were the
only ones I had. After that, I decided, “I
think I will be on my own for a little bit,”
just because it’s hard to feel “heard” when
you’re the outsider of the group.
And then Dr. Guarasci stepped in.
He was my teacher during my freshman
year; he always knew my name when we
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�ran into each other on campus, and he
would always say hello. Toward the end of
my second year at Wagner, I went to him
and said, “I don’t know what I am doing
here.” He introduced me to Samantha
and many other people who helped me
examine what I wanted to do and the type
of person I wanted to become. Once I
clarified that for myself, I started attracting
people who needed to be in my life, and
vice versa. We had such similar goals and
values. Some of them looked like me and
had the same textured hair as me, and
some of them didn’t — but they were
the people I was able to connect with,
regardless of who they were. And I made
those connections through the help of Dr.
Guarasci and the people he put in place.
WM: Both of you have
become very active student
leaders in the past few years.
JW: I was one of the students involved in
starting a program for student athletes
on campus called MOVE — Motivate,
Overcome, Visualize and Empower — to
help them with the same process I had
gone through, finding their real identity
instead of just being “an athlete.” For the
past three summers, the student athletes
enrolled in MOVE spent 20 hours a week,
either working in the community or in
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
seminars on things like building a resume,
creating an elevator pitch, writing a cover
letter. The community work is with innercity children and youth at a boxing gym
run by a Staten Island nonprofit. Through
boxing, we were able to build relationships
with those kids, a mentor kind of thing.
For me to see that, and to know that’s
where I was once — it’s re-energizing
for me.
I’ve also been involved with the Black
Student Union all four years I’ve been
at Wagner, and this year I became BSU
president. I felt that our black students
needed more, and I wanted to take
that role and work my butt off to
change things.
KA: During my sophomore year, I
started working with Unified Theater, a
performing arts program that promotes
inclusion by bringing people together
through theater productions — people
with disabilities, traditional students,
everyone. And when Dr. Guarasci
introduced me to Sam Siegel, she got
me involved in something similar in Port
Richmond. With help from community
partners and allies like Imagining
America, Project Hospitality, and El
Centro del Inmigrante, we conduct a
theater workshop and put together a
show that tackles social justice issues. Last
year, we covered interracial relationships;
this year, we covered gun violence — all
from the perspective of Port Richmond,
a predominantly black and Hispanic
community. It’s been such a great
experience to work with them and to
merge creativity with democracy and
citizenship and what it means to be part of
a community.
And two years ago, I helped start a
student organization called My Sistah’s
Keeper, an activism and mentorship
program for women of color. It grew out
of the challenges of being both a student
and a woman of color. We wanted to
create that space on campus where the
female student of color could feel, “You’re
valid, you’re empowered, your dreams are
accepted and beautiful.” And to pass that
on, we started mentoring students in the
nearby Park Hill housing project — we
brought books with main characters of
color and held workshops and had a lot of
fun with the students. I am in my second
year as MSK president, and I hope that we
can do some great things in the time we
have left this year.
WM: The Black Student
Union and My Sistah’s
Keeper were both part of
Wagner’s response last
spring to a campus incident
�that, for many of us, had
insensitive racial overtones.
Photos taken at a party
sponsored by two campus
Greek organizations were
posted on Instagram. The
white students’ photos
featured captions that were
meant to be humorous,
but made fun of the terms
“African” and “African
American.”
KA: That was kind of the last straw for
a lot of people, because it wasn’t the
only thing that has happened. As in any
community, black and other minority
students at Wagner face small racial
indignities, microaggressions, all the
time. I think that, because this was so
high-profile, it kind of made everyone
wake up, it made everyone say, “Okay,
this is actually happening, and we are not
doing what we thought we were doing; we
are not being mindful or aware.” That’s
when BSU and MSK came together and
started the #Awareness campaign, which
asked everyone to just be aware of each
other and our differences and accept
one another — and be aware that not
everyone has the same experiences as
you, so they may not know what might
offend you. We organized two long group
discussions over Awareness Weekend
and from that, bigger conversations
began. We started proposing an
awareness component in the orientation
program, and a space on campus where
students can feel comfortable expressing
themselves.
JW: It’s like Martin Luther King Jr. once
said: “A man can’t ride you unless your
back is bent.” After the posting of those
pictures this spring, the black people on
campus stood up and said, “We’re not
going to tolerate this. We are going to
take action for ourselves.” The voice that
we struggled to find, a lot of people felt
was controversial and adversarial, but it
empowered a lot of people to speak and
come out of their shells and get involved
on campus. It was kind of hard at first to
see how challenging this climate was for
black and other minority students, but it
was great to go through the process and
finally be able to say, “Now we know, we’re
aware of it,” instead of trying to escape or
hide from the realities that are happening.
We are aware of this; and now the
question is, “What can we do together?”
That’s how a lot of programs like this start
forming, get their legs; people had been
thinking about them, they were in the
works, but to get started they just needed
that extra push.
WM: You two worked with
Campus Life Dean Curtis
Wright this summer on a
new mentorship program,
LEAD, to help first-year
students of color at Wagner
find a place for themselves.
How did you and Dean
Wright come up with
LEAD?
KA: Every year there are students
coming to Wagner College from different
backgrounds, experiencing the culture
shock of being the only African-American
or Latino student in a class, and we’ve
been there. In LEAD, we tell our mentees,
“What you say matters, and it’s OK to
speak up for yourself.” There are a lot
of people who don’t have a seat at the
decision-making table; the Jarrids and the
Kerris are sitting at that table, and behind
them are a bunch of people they have to
represent. We are trying to say to them,
“No, you can come, too, and you should
be here. You are valid; you are worth it.”
JW: We talk about being the only black
kid in the classroom — and that’s an
experience that’s probably hard for
someone else to imagine: being the token
black, and having to speak not only for
yourself but for all the black kids who
have the capacity but don’t have the seat
you have in that classroom. That decisionmaking table Kerri spoke of — if you’re
not at the table, then you’re on the menu.
That’s what it ultimately comes down to.
In LEAD, older minority students share
their experiences with younger minority
students about things like this, and that
helps them see those experiences in a
positive light.
RELATED VIDEOS on
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
•
New York 1 television news interview with
Kerri Alexander, Jarrid Williams, and Provost
Lily McNair following the Staten Island grand
jury’s decision not to indict a police officer in
the death of Eric Garner.
•
Seeds of Change documentary by Brian Morris
’65, about an earlier generation of student
leaders and their campaign to make Wagner
College more inclusive.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�
Where is higher education headed?
By Laura Barlament
As the nation debates the value of college
education, Wagner College and the university
associations to which it belongs are continuing to
develop educational quality while also expanding
accessibility and vigorously defending the core
principles of liberal education.
P
resident Guarasci, for one,
is worried about the state of
the conversation in the public
sphere. “Where is higher education
going?” he asked rhetorically in an
interview with Wagner Magazine.
“We hear about online learning,
people sitting around in their pajamas
and never meeting anybody. Where will
people learn about diversity? Where will
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
they learn about citizenship, being
an engaged citizen in a democracy?
Where are all the social and affective
pieces? How do you build a strong,
vibrant democracy? How do you
build teamwork? Where are students
going to develop ethical values?
That bothers me.”
Over the past year, we listened in on
the conversation in a couple of venues:
the annual meeting of the Association
of American Colleges & Universities
(AAC&U) last January, and a Wagner
College symposium held in October.
The discussions were challenging
and exciting — just as you might hope
and expect from the people who drive
so much innovation and discovery and
development of the next generation in
our society.
�An Efficiency Problem?
A
giant hotel conference room
gradually begins to fill at
the opening session of the
Association of American College &
University’s annual conference.
I introduce myself to a woman sitting
near me. “My name is Funke Fontenot,”
she says. “I’m a dean at Georgia College
in Milledgeville, Georgia.”
Why is she here? I ask. “This is one
of the major conferences on higher
education,” she tells me. “It’s where the
conversation is happening, and I want to
be a part of the conversation.”
When Debra Humphreys, AAC&U’s
vice president for policy and public
engagement, kicks off the session by
announcing, “This is the 100th meeting
of the AAC&U,” a few “woots!” are
heard from the audience. The attendees
represent 45 states, she says, and the
attendance may be the biggest on
record.
“We’re all here seeking to work
together for a shared purpose, to make
sure today’s college students get the
quality college education they need,” she
says, adding that the AAC&U recently
expanded its mission to encompass
extending the advantages of liberal
education to all students, in all the
sectors of higher education.
And it is this issue — access to
and affordability of high-quality
education — that haunts many of the
conversations at this conference.
Introducing the opening panel, Scott
Jaschik, editor of the widely read website
Inside Higher Ed, asked the crowd,
“How many here think that higher
education has a quality problem?”
Only a few people raised their hands.
But when he asked, “How many here
think that higher education has an
efficiency problem?”, many more hands
were raised.
The Way of the ‘Ugly Ducklings’
I
n a panel discussion the
next day, I heard about an
association of colleges that is
working to preserve residential liberal
education through a “provocative” (to use
President Guarasci’s word) new model of
collaboration.
Wagner is one of the 22 institutions
in the New American Colleges &
Universities (NAC&U), a national
coalition of small-to-medium-sized
schools dedicated to the “purposeful
integration of liberal education,
professional studies, and civic
engagement.”
Once lovingly called “the ugly
ducklings of higher education,” colleges
and universities of this type started
banding together 20 years ago. Now
they are seriously starting to break
down institutional walls and offer more
opportunities to their students and
faculty throughout the network, while
preserving their individuality.
“We’re creating a new and innovative
type of academic community,” said
Thomas Kazee, president of the
University of Evansville. He compared
the association to a free trade zone,
creating access to resources that one
institution alone can’t provide.
Already, the association shares special
programs for students, such as study
abroad programs and also “study away”
programs — a domestic version of
experiencing a different campus with
different resources, specialties, and
opportunities.
“This collaboration is a better
response to the crisis facing colleges than
increasing competition and stratification,”
said Guarasci.
The College of the Future
N
ext up, a thought experiment:
It is 10 years in the future,
January 2024. A generous
alum has made it possible to restart
Able College, a residential liberal arts
college that has failed. You have free
rein to design a new program to develop
students’ critical thinking and problemsolving, communications, intercultural
competence, and teamwork — but
the tuition can’t exceed $60,000 for
the entire program, and a four-year
residential degree would cost a minimum
of $104,000. What would you do? What
is your new business plan?
In this “flipped session” led by Richard
Holmgren, vice president for information
services and planning at Allegheny
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�College, everyone in attendance gathered
into small groups around the tables in the
room to form a mock leadership team for
the new Able College.
My team brought together professors
and administrators from real universities,
both public and private, co-educational
and single-sex, in New York, Alabama,
Rhode Island, and California. Despite
this diversity of backgrounds, the
conversation was soon bubbling with a
plan for a three-year, intensive degree
program. Three semesters’ worth of
studies would be completed each year. A
transformative first-year program should
kick it off, they agreed, immersing the
students in the local community. Next,
all students would leave campus for
internships or co-op programs, overseen
by faculty. Finally, the students would
return to campus for their capstone year
and another culminating project serving
the local community.
As all of the groups in the room
presented their business plans, the idea
of reducing the time spent completing
the degree was a common thread, as was
incorporating local service and work as a
part of the educational experience.
I left the room thinking that, whether
or not any of these business plans could
work, the idea of “flipping” the conference
room activities is great: problem-solving
with a group is more fun and inspiring
than listening to someone else give you
the answers.
Responding to Disruption
W
agner College has long been
a leader in developing new
trends in undergraduate
education that have become widely
adopted across the higher education
landscape. Now, the College is
considering the next phase.
The faculty took one day of the
College’s fall break in October for an
Innovation Celebration — a symposium
by and for Wagner professors to share the
latest methods in teaching and learning.
President Richard Guarasci kicked off
the day by noting, “We’re at an interesting
point in higher education. We’re at a
moment of what the business folks would
call disruption.”
Technological change and economic
uncertainty is driving colleges to
reconsider and adapt what they do.
But at Wagner, innovation and
adaptation — around a core set of
principles embodied in the College’s
signature curriculum, the Wagner Plan
for the Practical Liberal Arts — is a way
of life.
“In my time here,” Guarasci said, “we’ve
always risen as a faculty and staff to say,
‘OK, what do we need to do next? How
do we take this [Wagner Plan] model and
tweak it or reform it?’ And we’re at that
point again.”
The core principles, according
to Guarasci, are “active learning,
experiential learning, collaborative
learning, and interdisciplinary learning.”
Throughout the day, more than 40
faculty, staff, and even a few students,
presented posters, videos, discussions, and
talks about classroom projects, avenues
of collaboration, assessment studies,
effective use of teaching technologies,
and other aspects of their teaching and
scholarly work.
Multifaceted Learning
M
any of the projects presented
at Wagner’s Innovation
Celebration encompassed an
amazingly broad range of constituencies
and communities to create rich learning
experiences.
Take, for example, the chemistry
research summer program for Port
Richmond High School students
presented by Nicholas Richardson,
associate professor of chemistry and
department chair.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
It started with a chemistry major of
long ago: Clarence A. Faires ’46, who
worked for Exxon for many years.
He and his wife, Anna R. Faires,
designated a portion of their estate for
the improvement of Wagner’s chemistry
department. That endowment fund now
provides about $20,000 per year for the
department to use for special projects.
For the past several years, Richardson
has been thinking about involving the
department more in the Port Richmond
Partnership, the college-community
collaboration focused on a single Staten
Island neighborhood with great economic,
educational, and health needs. He
envisioned a summer program that would
expose high school students to advanced
laboratory research and give Wagner
students valuable mentoring experience.
In 2014, he launched the program.
For three weeks, four students from
Port Richmond High School lived on
campus and worked every day in the lab
�under the supervision of Mohammad
Alauddin, professor of chemistry and an
internationally known expert in the field
of environmental pollution.
Their focus was on Alauddin’s
specialty: the problem of water
contamination in Bangladesh. The high
school students analyzed water samples
collected by Alauddin’s research team,
using advanced tests and instrumentation.
To bring their learning back home, they
also did field tests on water samples in
Staten Island.
Two senior chemistry majors guided
the high school students in the lab.
Another Wagner student, who is a
member of the Bonner Leaders program,
provided co-curricular activities and
supervision.
This past summer, Wagner College
also launched another summer program
for Port Richmond students: a leadership
academy for potential first-generation
college students, which combined a
community-focused internship with
instruction in writing and math.
Integration of the summer chemistry
research program with this leadership
academy is under discussion,
Richardson said.
Intelligent Redesign
T
he one non-Wagner speaker
at the Innovation Symposium
was Carol Geary Schneider,
president of the Association of American
Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
She admitted at the outset of her keynote
speech that much of what she and
her organization have learned and are
promoting as the best model of college
education came from Wagner College.
And, she said, “the next frontier in
higher education” is also to be found at
Wagner College.
The AAC&U promotes the ideal of
“liberal education” — an education that
provides broad knowledge, cultivates the
“power of the mind,” and promotes civic,
social, and ethical responsibility. “These
goals are worth fighting for, in a moment
when higher education is besieged by
a narrow, reductionist, instrumentalist
conception of why people go to college,”
she emphasized.
Added to those goals is another
essential learning outcome of the 21st
century: integrative and applied learning.
“It’s what students can do with their
knowledge that makes it an empowering
education,” Schneider said.
The AAC&U has also studied and
defined techniques for achieving these
liberal education outcomes: “high-impact
educational practices” such as the firstyear seminars, learning communities,
service learning, and internships that are
hallmarks of the Wagner Plan.
But now, Schneider said, a new vision
is emerging that ties together all of these
learning outcomes and high-impact
practices: “an intelligent redesign of the
undergraduate experience,” she said. “And
it’s all here — you were pioneers in it —
it’s a notion of a cornerstone-to-capstone
form to the curriculum.”
In other words, the new thrust of liberal
education is to help students better tie
together all that they are learning, to
provide themes that thread throughout all
parts of the students’ educational journey,
and to promote student involvement in
answering the big, real-world questions
that they want to solve.
Specifically, this new frontier requires
rethinking the general education portion
In summary, Richardson said, the
summer chemistry research program
provided invaluable mentoring
experience for Wagner students, critical
research experience for Port Richmond
High School students, and engagement
with the Port Richmond Partnership for
the chemistry department.
“And it exposed more people to
science,” he concluded — not as an
abstraction, but as a hands-on, real-world,
problem-solving experience.
of the curriculum and making it as
vital and meaningful to the students
as their major.
In a reflective session that concluded
the day, the Wagner faculty started
thinking creatively about ways that the
whole educational experience could
be redesigned to make it even more
meaningful for students. Ideas included
having students from different disciplines
write on a common theme, holding a
senior conference on a common topic,
and threading themes into the general
education curriculum.
“Great ideas to further explore,
discuss, and pursue,” said Mary Lo Re, a
business professor who has been named
Wagner’s new dean of adult education and
extension programs, and who organized
the symposium.
The symposium grew out of the
work of a faculty committee on teaching,
learning, value and cost; that group, as
well as a special committee on general
education requirements, will keep
the conversations going on these
important topics.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�From stained glass
to beverage design,
Cliff Oster ’69 is a
man who ‘just knows
what goes together.’
Intuitively.
BY LAURA BARLAMENT
Evidently I must have
a good palate,” says
Cliff Oster ’69. That’s
his modest explanation
of how he became intimately involved
in formulating the debut flavors of
Vitaminwater — a drink that became
a sensational success and changed the
beverage industry.
Pressed for an example of his flavor
sensitivity, he tells this story: He was
at an internationally renowned flavor
company, tasting one of the beverage
products he was helping to develop.
He took a sip and declared, “The taste
isn’t clean enough. Just add one drop of
lemon juice concentrate.” The flavor
experts scoffed. One drop added to a
batch? “No one can tell if that one drop
is in there or not,” they replied.
“Yes, I can,” he said, and accepted a
challenge to test his taste buds. The staff
brought him four samples of the drink,
one of which had a single drop of lemon
juice concentrate added to the batch.
Oster picked it out of the lineup.
Still not convinced, they gave him
another test. They made four batches
of another drink with a completely
different flavor, one of which contained a
single drop of lemon juice concentrate.
Oster tasted all four, and picked the
one with the added lemon. The flavor
experts scoffed no longer.
“
I believe in intuition,” says
Oster. And it’s no wonder he
does — his career has taken
some extraordinary twists and turns.
The Wagner history major grew up in
a blue-collar family in Farmingdale,
Long Island. An aspiring attorney, he
became a top debater for the College
team. But instead of going to law school
after college, he worked as a buyer for a
department store, and then as a teacher,
earning his master’s in history at night.
Along the way, he got into stained
glass making, and invented one of the
world’s foremost silver stains, used by
prominent stained glass artists around
the world to create rich, vibrant gold
colors. He procured materials for a
manufacturer of aluminum ladders,
and natural ingredients for a pioneering
natural-juices company, After The
Fall. He ended up becoming famed
entrepreneur Darius Bikoff ’s right-hand
man as he created the international
phenomenon Vitaminwater.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�COLOR PALETTE Cliff Oster makes his silver stain at his home in rural New Hampshire. The late stained glass artist Dick Millard created this
“Salesman Sample” to demonstrate the color range and vibrancy of Oster’s Ancient Walpole stain, from a soft yellow to a deep amber.
But this man who helped make some
of the hippest beverages on the market
really values old-timiness: He collects
painted glass lamps from the early
20th century, restores rare vintage cars,
writes about the homespun wisdom of
his elders, and makes music on wooden
flutes. And, he believes in liberal arts
education.
C
liff Oster lives with his wife,
Marcia, in a lovely, light-filled
house on a hilltop in rural New
Hampshire — her family’s ancestral
farm — where a visitor can marvel at the
pristine view of green fields, forests, and
mountains.
Wearing a Panama hat and a white
linen shirt, Oster serves his visitor
neither juice nor nutrient-enhanced
water. Instead, he offers a rich and
fragrant cup of coffee, with beans he
roasts himself in small batches and grinds
to perfection. He brews the drink in a
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
1940s Chemex coffeemaker, immersing
the beans in water for 90 seconds before
letting it drip. “The beans get wet and
release a lot of flavor,” he explains.
During a consulting trip to coffee
plantations in Guatemala, he found
out that Chemex is the preferred
coffeemaker of the most astute coffee
buyers. Because of his reputation in the
beverage industry, he often receives
requests for help from entrepreneurs
seeking to make the next hit beverage
— especially health-related ones. On this
trip, Oster was looking into the idea of
creating a beverage out of the luscious,
highly perishable fruit of the coffee tree.
(Coffee beans are actually the seeds of
this fruit.) He didn’t have enough time
to spend on the experimentation that
would be required for such an endeavor,
he says, “but I learned about coffee!”
Oster’s ability to tackle a task with
minimal previous knowledge and make
himself into a noted expert in the field is
legendary. Mark Panely, the founder of
After The Fall Beverages, still wonders at
his former employee’s achievements.
“Cliff is one of the best, if not the best
beverage purchaser I’ve ever encountered
in 37 years in the business,” says Panely.
“He was brilliant at it. But, when he
applied for the job, his resume showed
me nothing to believe that he was
qualified for the job.”
At that point, in 1991, Oster was in
charge of purchasing for White Metal
Rolling and Stamping in Walpole, New
Hampshire. Its main business was
producing aluminum ladders for Sears.
Through a combination of charm and
persistence, Oster persuaded Panely to
hire him as the purchasing director of
the beverage company, located in nearby
Brattleboro, Vermont. And Panely never
regretted it.
“I feel like Christopher Columbus
discovering a diamond in the rough,”
says Panely, enthusiastically mixing his
P H OTO G R A P H : J I M G I P E
�metaphors. “I believe he’s a genius in
some form, by virtue of his extraordinary
intuition and knowledge of people.”
Through his skills in relationshipbuilding and his attention to the details of
every deal, says Panely, Oster helped After
The Fall get better prices on the highestquality ingredients, packaging materials,
and manufacturing contracts. While
traveling extensively to do research on the
company’s purchases and manufacturing
processes, Oster also started developing
his palate.
“Beverages are created not just on
taste,” says Panely, who is a trained
chemist. “There is a science behind it.
Clifford just jumped on the science.
And, I wanted to teach him more to
make him a better
purchaser.” One of the
fundamental aspects of
beverage formulation
is the balance of
sweetness and tartness,
known as the brix/
acid ratio. “He got very
good at it and took it
and made it his own,”
Panely says.
Oster was an integral
part of the team during
the company’s best
years, says Panely. This
success led to Oster’s
being out of a job: a
bigger competitor,
Smucker, acquired
the small, entrepreneurial company in
1994. Most of the staff of After The Fall,
including Oster, were laid off.
by Darius Bikoff, founder of an innovative
beverage company known as Glaceau
and Energy Brands. It was the late 1990s,
and Bikoff was just starting a new venture
called Vitaminwater. It was an idea whose
time had come, as consumers were
becoming more and more conscious of
the nutritional content of their food and
drinks. The FDA’s nutrition facts label
had been implemented in 1992. Now,
drinks formerly considered healthful, such
as the natural juice products of companies
like After The Fall, were seen in a more
negative light because they were high in
calories and sugar.
Bikoff hired Oster as his director of
operations and explained his new concept
to him: To add vitamins to water in a
“
doing quality control on the positioning
of the labels.
Oster says he doesn’t remember the
exact discussions about how they chose
the flavors; but “everybody knew that
we were all about being natural, not too
sweet. And we insisted on good flavor,”
he says, with emphasis. “We were making
something that was healthy and had
benefits, but it had to taste good. So many
beverages now are not refreshing and
flavorful in a real way.”
According to Mark Panely, it was
Oster’s genius to experiment with
the expected sweetness content of a
beverage — the brix/acid ratio — and to
drastically reduce it while maintaining an
acceptable taste for American consumers.
“That was a radical
and brilliant move on
his part,” says Panely.
“He should be in the
beverage hall of fame.”
I said, ‘That’s a
home run; no, that’s
a grand slam.’
Everyone knows you
should take vitamins
and you should drink
water.
O
ster and some of his After The
Fall colleagues started their own
company. “It didn’t do well,”
Oster says. “We had great products, but
we didn’t know our way around the sales
world.” Oster also worked for Panely’s
second company, Journey Foods. But
then, he got a call from another of his old
colleagues.
Frank Bombaci, the former head of
sales for After The Fall, had been hired
”
drink that would be low-calorie and
flavorful. “I said, ‘That’s a home run;
no, that’s a grand slam,’” Oster recalls.
“Everyone knows you should take
vitamins and you should drink water.”
It became Oster’s mission to realize
Bikoff ’s vision. “From the very beginning,”
says Bombaci, “Cliff worked very closely
with Darius Bikoff, the founder, to
develop the idea of creating a great waterbased beverage that had nutrients and
great taste and a low sugar profile.” Oster
did everything from overseeing the flavor
formulation in the lab and making sure a
high-quality product was manufactured to
B
ikoff ’s
company
began to
grow exponentially
with the introduction
of Vitaminwater. Before
then, it had been doing
less than $1 million
in sales annually;
sales tripled annually
during each of the
following three years.
In 2007, six years after
Vitaminwater’s introduction, it was sold to
Coca-Cola.
Oster retired just before the CocaCola purchase. Since then, the company
and its signature beverage have come
under quite a bit of public criticism,
including two major lawsuits accusing
the company of deceptive marketing
practices. It’s now common to find
critiques of Vitaminwater’s sugar content
and marketing claims in the media.
What does Oster have to say about
these complaints? “I don’t know. I’m not a
critic,” he says. “But what we claimed was
in the bottle was in the bottle. If we said
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�there was 100 percent vitamin C in the
bottle, we put more in. Because vitamins
degrade over time, and we wanted to
make sure that consumers got what they
paid for. It was an ethical company right
from the beginning. Our goal was not to
make money and hoodwink people, but
to make a healthy beverage.”
Oster points out that Vitaminwater
was first sold in health food stores.
“People who go to those stores will read
and question labels, and we met their
expectations big time.”
O
ster’s colleagues in the beverage
industry admire him not only
because he was effective at his
job, but also because he is just a mensch,
a good guy with a great attitude and
sense of fun. “He always treated other
people with kindness and always handled
tense situations in a reasonable way,” says
Bombaci.
Bombaci also says that to understand
Cliff Oster, you have to know about his
work in a very different part of the human
endeavor: the world of stained glass art.
“I’m jealous of him creating those stains,”
says Bombaci. “Those are something
really special.”
The world’s foremost stained glass
artists agree.
John Kebrle, for example, has created
stained glass windows for 43 Hard Rock
Cafes around the globe, and each one of
them features the golden glow of Oster’s
Ancient Walpole stains. “The reason for
this is that Clifford’s stains are simply the
best available anywhere and have always
been so,” says Kebrle. “The others were
just not up to snuff.”
Another fan is John Reyntiens, one of
whose recent works was Queen Elizabeth’s
Diamond Jubilee window. This gift made
by the Houses of Parliament in 2012 is
the first new piece of permanent art to be
installed in Westminster Hall, the oldest
building of the English Parliamentary
Estate, since the Renaissance. It uses
about 1,500 pieces of glass to depict the
Queen’s coat of arms, and 60 percent of
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
‘DEPTH OF COLOR’ Oster’s Ancient Walpole silver stain captures the fall foliage
of the gingko tree in this piece designed and painted by Nikki Vogt, with the glass
cutting, leading, and building completed by Oster.
used the stain, and
“ He
everyone went nuts.
”
the window features the Ancient
Walpole stain.
“I’ve always used Clifford’s stain,” says
Reyntiens. “It’s the best I’ve used. You get
a really good consistency of shade. There
are cheaper alternatives, but I prefer not
to use them.”
Silver stain is distinct from other types
of color used in stained glass art. Whereas
most colors are paints that adhere to the
glass’s surface once fired, obscuring the
passage of light through glass, silver stain
actually “stains” the glass. (Hence the
name, “stained glass.”) Based on silver
nitrate, silver stain chemically bonds with
glass when fired and alters its molecular
make-up, creating a transparent color
that varies from yellow to gold to orange.
“Stain gives you another dimension of
color,” explains stained glass artist Paul
Coulaz of the famed Durhan Studios.
Oster learned the craft of stained glass
in the 1970s at Durhan Studios, then
located in Manhattan and owned by
Coulaz and the late Albinas Elskus. Oster
created his silver stain in 1983, a few years
after he had moved to New Hampshire
and established his own stained glass
studio. One day his teacher and friend,
Albinas Elskus, came for a visit and
showed him how to make silver stain and
fire it into glass, using an old kiln Oster
had refurbished.
“The first results … were mediocre,”
�Oster wrote about the experience.
“I knew that I could do better. After
reviewing our initial firings, I instinctively
knew what changes had to be made.”
Oster kept working on the formula,
aiming for maximum vibrancy. “I
somehow knew what to mix in, and in
what proportions,” he says. “And on
the very first experiment, I got it right.
The stain was named Ancient Walpole:
‘Walpole’ for the town of its creation,
and ‘Ancient’ because the depth of color
resembled stains from previous centuries.”
Elskus liked it so much that he used it in
his next commission, a series of windows
honoring Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the
first American Catholic saint, for her
namesake church in Shrub Oak, New
York. “He used the stain, and everyone
went nuts,” says Oster.
Word spread quickly. Over time, in
response to artists’ requests, he developed
two additional shades of silver stain,
Ancient Winchester and Ancient Lemon.
They were all featured in a 2010 book by
J. Kenneth Leap, Silver Stain: An Artist’s
Guide, which compared Oster’s stains
with others made in the U.S., Germany,
and France. Oster makes the stains at his
home in individually prepared batches.
are not
“ We
limited. You
hard work, have guided Oster far in
life. But there’s also one other factor.
“I attribute it to my liberal arts
education. At one time I doubted
it, but it’s prepared me to do a lot
of different things. My Wagner
liberal arts education gave me the
confidence to talk to anyone about
almost anything. It also introduced
me to the art of listening.
“I want people to value a liberal
arts education,” he continues. “It’s
almost like a religious feeling I have
about it now.”
And he jumps into his 1937
Starlight Blue Pontiac sedan
convertible, which he has been
painstakingly rebuilding over the past two
years, to guide his guest to the highway.
can do things
people don’t
expect you
to do.
”
See more examples of Ancient Walpole
stained glass, including the Queen’s Jubilee window, at
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
“
We are not limited,” Oster
insists. “You can do things
people don’t expect you to do.
Mark [Panely] called me ‘Lazarus Man’
because I’ve been up and down, and I
just get up and keep going. That’s a good
quality people need to have. Always move
forward. End of sermon for today.” And
he laughs, with two high-pitched wheezing
breaths.
Lately Oster has been working on
another new venture: writing a book.
“It’s about how to achieve a good life
based on things many of us learned as
kids,” he explains. “Like how my father
would say, ‘Anything worth doing is worth
doing well.’ Or my aunt, ‘A promise is a
promise.’”
Those words of homespun wisdom,
plus an absolute belief in intuition and
P H OTO G R A P H : J I M G I P E
JUST HAVE FUN WITH IT Oster, who played in an award-winning drum and bugle
corps as a boy, started collecting and playing wooden flutes when he traded a case
of Vitaminwater for one during a business trip to California.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�Rooted in Grymes Hill
The history of Wagner trees helps to tell the College’s story in this place
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�s in the book of
Genesis, a tree plays a
major role in Wagner
College’s creation story.
And our first
yearbook, published
in the spring of 1918,
serves as our bible.
It tells the story of how two
Lutheran pastors founded the
school in 1883 in Rochester, New
York. Next to a photo captioned
“The Old Apple Tree,” the editors
wrote, “This particular tree is
intimately connected with the
founding of our Alma Mater. . . . It
was in its shade that the venerable
patriarchs . . . often met to discuss
the project which was so dear to
the hearts of both.”
BY LEE MANCHESTER
THE UR-TREE In Wagner’s first yearbook, published
in 1918, the editors described the school’s founders
meeting under “The Old Apple Tree.”
P H OTO G R A P H : S H AOW E I WA N G
FA LL 2014
�BRANCHING OUT A limb of the Founders
Tree was used in Main Hall’s dedication.
That apple tree, known as the Founders
Tree to the early Wagner community,
continued to be a powerful symbol
throughout our early years on Staten
Island. According to the 1925 yearbook,
plans were even made “to transplant a
shoot of the tree on the Hill next year
with the hope that it will grow up as a
‘new Old Apple Tree.’” No record has
survived, however, of the success or failure
of those plans.
But that was not the end of the
Founders Tree in our early history. In
February 1930, a branch cut from that
tree was brought to Staten Island for
Main Hall’s dedication ceremonies. As
a church official handed the branch to
the College president and the trustee
chairman, “he admonished them to …
have Wagner grow in numbers and service
in the future as she has in the past since
the days of its humble beginning under
this old apple tree.”
I
t was no wonder that trees were
such powerful images in the
College’s early life on Staten Island,
considering that our first permanent
home in Rochester had been a single
three-story building on a tiny urban lot,
just a block away from the city’s busy
railroad yard. By comparison, Wagner’s
new home was a veritable park, “located
in a region of tranquil seclusion. … Tall
and stately trees, stretches of greensward
truly give Wagner something which
may be referred to as a ‘Campus,’” the
Wagner College Bulletin said in its spring
1918 issue.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
In 1922, four years after the new
campus opened, a Pennsylvania miners’
strike created a shortage of the coal used
for heating throughout New York City.
“There is a shortage of 40 per cent. in
anthracite of domestic sizes, and by no
possibility can it be made up this Winter,”
said the New York Times early that
December.
“All the professors’ homes and the
dormitory are hard hit for coal,” said
the Wagner College Bulletin in November
1922. “There is but thirty days’ supply of
coal in the borough of Richmond for the
86,000 inhabitants.”
Our solution to the coal shortage?
Culling the deadwood from our
campus forest.
“Our students have been very faithful
during the past few weeks in cutting
down dead trees and sawing them up
for fire-wood,” the Bulletin said. “They
are organized into ‘gangs,’ led by
upperclassmen, to attend to this work at
least two hours each week.”
T
he next episode in Wagner’s
arboreal history began in
September 1933, when the
first women enrolled on Grymes Hill,
�“Tall and stately
trees, stretches of
greensward truly give
Wagner something which
may be referred to as a ‘Campus.’”
NEW GROWTH Left: Some of the first women to enroll at Wagner College in fall 1933.
This page: The campus in 1938 shows the saplings lining the drive to Main Hall.
ending a half century of
male exclusivity. The
enrollees included
17 first-year students and
four others who transferred from
other colleges.
Two years later, the father of one of
those pioneering women pledged to give
Wagner 17 maple trees honoring our first
co-eds. According to a December 1935
story in the Wagner College Bulletin, the
trees “will be planted in an open space
behind the administration building [that
is, Main Hall] sometime next Spring.”
Sure enough, that pledge was fulfilled
the following spring, according to the
April 1936 Bulletin: “From Mr. Fred J.
Biele of Huntington, Long Island, [have
come] twenty sugar maples.”
Several varieties of maple trees can be
found today on the inner campus behind
Main Hall — red maples, Norway
maples … and, yes, sugar maples. As this
article is being written, they are bright
with autumn colors.
So, how does this documentary
information mesh with the popular but
unsubstantiated campus myth that the
trees around the Sutter Oval were the
ones planted to honor our first co-eds?
There are, after all, 17 trees rising from
the inside of the walkway around the Oval
— is that just a coincidence?
Our best answer to that question is,
“Yes, it is.”
A campus aerial photograph from
1938 shows a neat array of saplings that
had recently been planted on both sides
of the driveway in front of Main Hall
— the area we know today as the Oval.
Another aerial photo taken in 1950 shows
maturing trees rising around the Oval in
the same array as the 1938 saplings —
and the height of those trees is consistent
with the known growth habits of the
London plane tree, which reaches about
60 feet in its first 20 years.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�The fact that there are 17 London
plane trees on the inside of the Oval,
and 18 trees on the outside, is just a
fluke: The blank space between two
trees in the pattern on the inside of
the Oval shows where one of the 18
original trees was removed at some
point, possibly because of disease.
The trees memorializing
Wagner’s first co-eds, however, were
maple trees, not London plane
trees, and they were planted behind
Main Hall, not on the Oval in
front of it.
I
n 1960, a new organization
was created to share the
botanical resources of
Wagner’s park-like campus with its
neighbors on Staten Island.
“An arboretum — a botanical
garden specializing in trees and
shrubs — will be established on
the Wagner College campus,” wrote
Robert Olwig in the Sept. 1, 1960,
issue of the Staten Island Advance. “A
joint announcement was made today
by the college and a new citizens group
called Staten Island Arboretum Inc.”
While “the arboretum will include
plantings throughout the 75-acre hilltop
campus,” Olwig wrote, “the focal point
… will be the heavily wooded ravine off
Howard Ave. between Hillside Ave.
and the library building now being
constructed.”
The purpose of the Staten Island
Arboretum, according to the October
1960 Wagner College Bulletin, was to
“demonstrate the wide variety of trees
and shrubbery suitable for local soil
and weather conditions and serve an
important service to home owners” who
were landscaping their new houses.
By 1964, however, the Arboretum
was “being challenged by ‘progress,’”
according to the Advance. “The college
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
‘WOODY PLANTS OF WAGNER COLLEGE’ Want to take a look at this 1974 survey of campus trees?
You can download a copy at wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
is completing a new dormitory, other
structures are being planned and a large
area between Wagner College Rd. [the
main entranceway] and Hillside Ave. is
being filled in with dirt from the Staten
Island Expressway.” That fill created what
we know today as the Tiers parking lot.
We don’t know what arboretum
activities were undertaken in other parts
of campus, or for how long. We do know,
however, that by 1977, the Staten Island
Botanic Garden (as it had become known)
had moved to the campus of a former
retirement home for merchant seamen,
Sailors Snug Harbor, that had been
landmarked and purchased by the City of
�New York for refitting as a cultural center
on Staten Island’s North Shore.
T
he next stage in Wagner
College’s consciousness of its
own sylvan resources came in
1974 with the publication of “Woody
Plants of Wagner College,” a 16-page
illustrated guide to the common tree
species found at that time on our Grymes
Hill campus. It was written by biology
professor Dean Christianson and student
John Cain ’73, with leaf drawings by Paul
Grecay ’74 and a species locator map by
Alice Cook Taylor ’74.
“We were really an active group at the
time,” Christianson told us. “Earth Day
had been celebrated for the first time in
1970, and we were pretty fired up.”
The booklet, however, was not
created as a tool for the Staten
Island Arboretum, Christianson
said. In fact, Christianson doesn’t
recall ever hearing of the arboretum
project during his tenure at Wagner,
which ran from 1969 to 1975.
“Woody Plants” wasn’t meant to
be a definitive, exhaustive inventory
of all the tree species found on
Grymes Hill, just “a guide to some
of the more common woody plants found
on the Wagner Campus. … Many other
species are also found on Campus, but
most are not common in this region other
than for ornamentals.”
was right on the outskirts of town — on
one side of us were fields; on the other,
forests.”
Some years back, after Onken
happened upon an old copy of
Christianson’s “Woody Plants” in a lab
drawer, he decided to create an updated,
informal tour of Wagner’s modern trees
for new biology students — his way
of introducing them to the varieties of
woody life in their new community. He
gave us an abbreviated version of that
tour early this fall.
As we walked through Trautmann
Square, next to the library, Onken knelt
and picked up the spiny, open seed cover
of an American beech tree.
“Squirrels love the beechnut,” Onken
O
ur last exploration of
Wagner’s campus trees was in
the company of Long Island
arborist Maryann T. Matlak, the mother
of Corrine Matlak ’15, a student worker
in our Communications Office. Maryann
Matlak helped us look with a landscaper’s
eye at the trees currently growing on the
Inner Oval, the small yard behind the
Cunard family villa that served as the
core of Wagner College’s original 1918
Staten Island campus.
“Most of what you see here is for
shade,” Matlak explained, pointing to the
two magnificent red maples, the ash, and
the sassafras in the yard, and the towering
old white oaks that ring the area. “You
also have lots of ornamental trees along
the margins — the cherries lining
the walks, the crabapple off one
corner of Cunard, a little dogwood
on the south end, a magnolia. With
all of those blossoms, this must be
lovely in the spring.”
And so it is, as all Wagnerians
know — but, of course, it’s lovely
all year around, and inspiring, too.
The trees of Wagner College, these
great, huge creatures rising into the
sky, serve as a powerful nonverbal
counterpoint to the river of words
that flows through our classrooms and
textbooks, a silent, strong testament to
the diversity and durability of Being.
And the Wagner woods endure.
“Squirrels love the
beechnut,” Onken said.
“They’ve already got the
nuts from this one.”
F
inally, to bring us into the
present day, we enlisted the
help of two current members
of the Wagner College community. One
of them was biology professor Horst
Onken, an animal physiologist who grew
up surrounded by the greenhouses and
orchards of his family’s nursery in western
Germany, a business started by Onken’s
father and uncles.
“I enjoyed that a lot,” Onken said. “It
said. “They’ve already got the nuts from
this one.”
Onken guessed that the beech tree in
Trautmann Square was probably about
the same age as the twin European beech
trees planted on either end of Main Hall
after the building opened in 1930. One
of those trees succumbed to illness half a
decade ago; it was replaced with a young
tree of the same variety — and since
the beech only grows to a certain
height, and no more, eventually the
two Main Hall beeches will again
be of matching height,
Onken explained.
FA LL 2014
�Tricks and Treats on
Fall Festival Weekend
A three-day event drew more than 700
students, parents, and alumni
COMBINING TWO HUGE annual Wagner fall events —
Homecoming and Family Weekend — along with Halloween
and NYC Marathon Sunday, Wagner’s Fall Festival weekend
generated a lot of energy and school spirit on campus, despite
the not-always-hospitable weather conditions.
The weekend kicked off on Halloween, with open classes
for curious parents and alumni, followed by an open house
in Harborview Hall for little trick-or-treaters. Hardier souls
visited the Towers of Terror, a haunted house in Wagner’s
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
spookiest residence hall. A spirit rally with free food trucks and
a parade by the Seahawk Marching Band, cheerleaders, and
dance team warmed everyone up for the game day.
On Saturday, November 1, a big tent kept everyone dry
and decently warm as a cold drizzle fell outside. Staten Island
food vendors Alfonso’s Pastry Shoppe, Cucumber Sushi and
Salad Bar, Jimmy Max, Joe & Pat’s Pizzeria, John’s Restaurant,
Marie’s Gourmet, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Planet Wings, Venga
Mexican Grill, and Wagner Dining Services provided a wide
variety of eating options. Staten Island’s new craft beer brewery,
Flagship, was also on hand for sampling.
The Wagner Seahawks fell to the Sacred Heart Pioneers,
7–23, the team’s only NEC loss of the season. But everyone was
able to warm up, dry off, and forget their cares that evening
while watching the Wagner College Variety Show, featuring
student performances by magician Mathieu Loiselle and a
cappella singing groups Fermata Nowhere and Vocal Synergy.
P H OTO G R A P H S : V I N N I E A M E S S É
�Upcoming
Events
Robert Geronimo ’09 Little Maia and the Coral City and Agent
87 and the Black Train (Ascalon Press, 2014) A successful
Kickstarter campaign allowed Geronimo to publish his first solo
book, Little Maia and the Coral City , which tells a story entirely
in pictures. Through Ascalon Press, he is publishing more books
that feature strong female characters overcoming adversity —
such as the protagonist of his second work, Agent 87 and the
Black Train , whom Geronimo describes as “a cross between
Indiana Jones and James Bond.”
Wanda Schweizer Praisner ’54 M’57 Sometimes When
Something Is Singing (Antrim House, 2014). Praisner’s fourth
collection of poetry “reflects on a lifetime of close family ties
and far-flung travels, with an eye for local color, period detail,
the surprise flash of memory,” according to poet Maxine
Susman. “She brings an unflinching candor to poems about the
death of her son, and her own survival as a wife and mother.”
FEBRUARY
Wagner College Theatre:
Monty Python’s Spamalot
Main Stage, Feb. 18–March 1
This outrageous musical comedy (lovingly ripped
off of the 1975 film classic Monty Python and the
Holy Grail) opens on Ash Wednesday.
College Choir: Black History Month Concert
Feb. 21, 12 p.m.
First Central Baptist Church, Staten Island
College Choir: Tribute to Black Music
Feb. 24, 9 p.m.
Music Performance Center, Campus Hall
Wagner College Theatre:
The Dance Project 2015
Stage One, Feb. 24–March 1
MARCH
College Choir Mini-Tour
March 5–8
Hear “Wagner’s best choir ever” (according
to Director Roger Wesby) on March 5 in the
Washington, D.C., area; March 6, St. Mark Lutheran
Church, Yorktown, Va.; March 7, Trinity Lutheran
Church, North Bethesda, Md.; and March 8, Trinity
Lutheran Church, Staten Island.
APRIL
Treble Concert Choir: Spring Concert
April 19, 4 p.m.
Trinity Lutheran Church, Staten Island
Wagner College Theatre: Cats
Main Stage, April 22–May 3
flashback
Cheerleaders, Homecoming 1968
One of the world’s most popular musicals makes
its long-awaited Staten Island debut right here at
Wagner College. “Memory” will be made.
Wagner College Theatre: Helen Keller:
The Eighth Wonder of the World
Stage One, April 28–May 3
This year’s Fall Festival recalled the big Homecoming celebrations of yesteryear,
featuring a parade and student-designed floats. Here, Linda Barbes Stein ’69 and Anita
Carroll-Sabattino ’69, co-captains of the 1968–69 Wagner College football and basketball
cheerleading squad, spur the Seahawks on to victory for the 1968 Homecoming game.
Jack Cummings III applies his acclaimed theatrical
storytelling to this extraordinary woman’s life.
More Information
wagner.edu/calendar
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�Alumni Link
Who in the Wagner World Was... Joan Venes ’56?
Although today women make up half of all medical school graduates,
their numbers are vanishingly small in specialized fields — only 5 percent of
neurosurgeons, for example, are female.
That perspective makes the achievements of the late Dr. Joan Lisbeth
Venes ’56 all the more remarkable. In the 1960s, she was one of only two
women certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery. “Dr. Venes
was a legendary figure,” said Alan R. Cohen, secretary of the American Society
of Pediatric Neurosurgeons. “She helped to define the field of pediatric
neurosurgery.”
Venes grew up in a blue-collar, immigrant neighborhood in Queens. According
to her sister, Virginia Riffey, the family lived in poverty. But Venes was driven to
make a change — and to help children, especially.
Venes was the first in her neighborhood to attend college, graduating
from Wagner in 1956 with a degree in nursing. She started her career as an
emergency room charge nurse, but she wanted more. “Nursing tended to become more and more of an administrative thing,”
she said. “I very quickly saw that the things which interested me in medicine just weren’t in nursing.”
She earned her M.D. with high honors from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 1966. She found her calling during her
surgical residency, when she witnessed the sudden death of a bright young boy who was being treated in the hospital for
hydrocephalus.
Joan became the first woman neurosurgery resident at Yale, and later taught neurological surgery at the University of
Michigan medical school. In 1990, she became a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, and served as a health policy
assistant for the U.S. Senate. That year, she was also named one of Wagner’s 500 most successful alums ever.
She made many significant contributions to her field through research and practice. She was the third woman to be
admitted to the American Board of Neurological Surgery and a founding member of the American Society of Pediatric
Neurosurgeons. Her proudest possessions, however, were the letters she received from children and parents thanking her for
her lifesaving care.
Venes spent her retirement years in Maryland and California, and died on March 31, 2010.
O
n the Wagner alumni China tour, September
2–15, about a dozen Seahawk travelers not
only saw many of the must-see sights — from
the Great Wall to the Yangtze River — but they also
gamely (pun intended!) involved themselves in cultural
learning opportunities. Aboard the Yangtze River Cruise,
Rita King ’62 and Tim Keneipp, Christopher and Nancy
Myers ’69 Benbow, and Irma Bahr Madrid ’71 got a
lesson on playing mah-jongg. The origins of mah-jongg
can be debated — some believe it was invented around
500 B.C. by Confucius, while others believe Chinese
army officers developed the game during the Taiping
Rebellion in the late 19th century. Regardless of origin,
the playing of mah-jongg, a game similar to gin rummy,
is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture.
中国行
When in Beijing …
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�3
4
2
1
1
7
6
5
8
Alumni Link
HONORED At Reunion 2014, the Alumni Association recognized those who have given outstanding service to the College, the
community, and their professions. 1. The awards were presented by President Richard and Carin Guarasci. 2. Representing the
late Donald M. Fox ’64, posthumously named the John “Bunny” Barbes ’39 and Lila T. Barbes ’40 Wagner Alumni Laureate, are his
brother-in-law, Charles Barnett, and his sons, Alex and Graham. 3. Ernie Jackson ’87, professor of music technology and director
of the jazz band at Queensborough Community College, was honored as an Alumni Fellow. 4. Harold Theurer ’79 received the Dr.
Kevin Sheehy ’67 M’70 M’92 H’99 Alumni Leadership Medal for his consistent service to the Alumni Association. 5. Bianca ’80 and
William ’81 Formica were given the Certificate of Appreciation for their support, dedication, and commitment to Wagner College.
6. The Reverend Bruce Buchanan ’73 received the Reverend Lyle Guttu Award for his spiritual contributions to his community.
He is the associate pastor of community ministries for the First Presbyterian Church in Dallas and leads the Stewpot, the church’s
ministry to the homeless and hungry. 7. Joyce Anastasi ’79, honored as an Alumni Fellow, is the Independence Foundation
Endowed Professor of Nursing and founding director of the Division of Special Studies in Symptom Management at New York
University. 8. Nancy DeBasio ’68, president of the Research College of Nursing in Kansas City, was named the 2014 Distinguished
Graduate. Not pictured: Renée Marino ’04 received the Alumni Key, which recognizes career achievements of graduates from the
last decade. (See story, page 41.)
Reunion News June 5–7, 2015
CELEBRATE your Wagner
memories with old friends and
reconnect with today’s campus
during a weekend packed with
fun events. If your graduation
year ends in a 0 or a 5, this is
a special anniversary year for
your class.
HONOR a fellow Wagner
graduate with a 2015 Wagner
College Alumni Association
achievement or service award.
Recipients are honored during
Reunion Weekend. The
deadline for nominations is
Fri., Jan. 23, 2015.
SERVE your alma mater.
Applications for the Board
of Directors of the Wagner
College Alumni Association
are being accepted for the
term 2015–18. The deadline
for nominations is Friday,
February 27, 2015.
More Information and Forms: wagner.edu/alumni • 718-390-3224 • alumni@wagner.edu
PHOTOGR A PHS : V I N NI E A M E S SÉ
FA LL 2014
�1951
sent in an article
he wrote, “Religious Freedom in
This Nation Is a Gift from God,”
defending the importance of
religious liberty in the United
States. He lives in Austin, Tex.
Gerry Kern
1952
Chris Hamann, son of Elaine Lopez
Hamann ’60 and the late Herman
C. Hamann ’60, sent the following
note about his aunt: “ Elizabeth
Hamann Lawrence passed away
quietly on February 13, 2014. She
was preceded in death by her loving
husband, Douglas Lawrence , in
2002, and her brother, Herman
C. Hamann ’60, in 2008. She is
survived by her sister-in-law, Elaine
Lopez Hamann ’60. Elizabeth held
many fond memories of her years at
Wagner College.”
1953
85 filmmakers attending. Betsy
escorted the group from Capetown,
South Africa, representing the
opening night film, I Live to Sing,
and also took a writer from the
Danish Film Society sightseeing
around the Coachella Valley.
“Fascinating people!” she says.
1964
left Wagner after
three years, without finishing
his bachelor’s degree, to attend
the Tufts University School of
Dental Medicine, where he earned
his doctorate in dentistry. After
celebrating the 50th anniversary
of his non-graduation at the 2014
commencement ceremony at
Wagner College, where he led the
procession as a Golden Seahawk, he
looked into what it would take to get
his Wagner undergraduate degree.
Wagner awarded him his Bachelor of
Science as of August 31, 2014, and
he is invited to commencement next
May to receive the degree with the
class of 2015.
John E. Dreslin
wrote several articles
about her experiences overseas
and her family history, which were
published in Creative Expressions
magazine.
Miriam Plitt
thoroughly
enjoyed serving as the home stay
host chair for the 2014 American
Documentary Film Festival in Palm
Springs, Calif., in March. It included
135 films from 18 countries, with
Betsy Ebers Press
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
past president of the Educational
Testing Service (ETS), had a
great honor bestowed upon him
in April 2014: ETS President and
CEO Walt MacDonald dedicated
a 105,000 -square-foot building
on the ETS campus in his honor.
Landgraf Hall provides a highperformance working environment
that encourages excellent human
and environmental health, reduces
impact on the environment, and
incorporates significant operational
efficiencies. Mary Ellen Peeling
Markant published a book,
Pondering Leaves: Composing and
Conveying Your Life Story’s Epilogue,
in 2014. The book offers a new,
personalized, and fun approach
to planning funerals. A nursing
major and former obstetrical nurse
educator, Mary Ellen became an
end-of-life pre-planning facilitator
after realizing the joy of organizing
a memorial weekend to celebrate
her father’s life. She promotes
“revised approaches [to funeral
planning] that reflect an individual’s
unique characteristics and personal
tastes.”
MUCTARR JALLOH ’05 paid a visit
to the Wagner campus in April with
his wife, Houssainatou Balde, and
their son, Mohamad Hady Jalloh.
They received a hearty greeting
from President Guarasci. Muctarr
works as a care coordinator at
Coney Island Hospital.
1972
was honored with the
annual Staten Island Advance Service
Award in 2013 for his decades of
teaching and dedication to sports on
Staten Island, including service to
Wagner College Athletics.
John Iasparro
1973
retired in 2012 after
teaching high school English for 38
years. Ed spent 36 of those years
at Cañon City High School in
Cañon City, Colo. In June 2014, Ed
graduated from Pueblo Community
College with a degree as an RN.
Ed Bray
1976
published a novel,
Daddy, It’s Only a Game (Bookstand
Publishing, 2014). This gripping
account of what happens when
student-athletes are pushed too far
is a “must-read” for anyone with
children involved in organized
sports. A retired public school
teacher and coach, Lou remains
active in physical fitness and
education as well as volunteer work.
He lives in Sayville, N.Y., with his
wife, Margaret.
Lou D’Aquila
was featured
in the Santa Fe Reporter in January
2014 in an article entitled “History
Re-Beating: Local Jazzman John
Trentacosta Is Here to School
You.” He is a drummer, public
school music teacher, KSFR DJ, and
professor at Santa Fe Community
College, where he teaches the history
of jazz and the history of rock and
roll. He also founded a non-profit,
the Santa Fe Music Collective.
1977
1971
1979
John Trentacosta
Manfred W. Lichtmann
1958
Kurt M. Landgraf , immediate
1970
1954
recommends reading The War That
Ended Peace by Margaret MacMillan
(Random House), in memory of
World War I beginning 100 years
ago. “It is a remarkable account of
the events that led to this terrible
conflict,” he says. Wanda Schweizer
Praisner ’54 M’57 has published
her fourth collection of poetry,
Sometimes When Something Is Singing
(Antrim House, 2014).
1968
was appointed
director of the Norwich University
School of Nursing in 2013. The
school is located in Northfield, Vt.
Sharon Richie
attended the 2014
Winter Olympic games in Sochi,
Russia, with his son, Josh. Josh
trained with many of the 2014
Olympic luge competitors. Jerel,
who is a pastor in Pennsylvania, is
an official for international luge
racing events.
Jerel Gade
Ann Marie Stanger Henderson
was named senior vice president
and general counsel for Raritan Bay
Medical Center in Perth Amboy,
N.J., in March 2014. Ann Marie was
previously senior associate attorney
for North Shore-LIJ Health System
and associate vice president and
deputy general counsel for Staten
Island University Hospital.
�1980
Claire Regan , journalism professor
at Wagner College as well as
associate managing editor for the
Staten Island Advance, received
the Charles R. O’Malley Award
for Excellence in Teaching at the
90th annual spring convention
of the Columbia Scholastic Press
Association in 2014.
1981
left Wagner College,
where he had been associate head
coach and offensive coordinator
for the football team for the past
two years, to become defensive
coordinator at the University of
Massachusetts in 2014. He has
previously been the head coach at
Fairfield, Boston University, Central
Connecticut, and Fordham.
Tom Masella
’82 M’84 was
appointed in January 2014 to the
management team of the financial
services firm Lee, Nolan &
Koroghlian LLC, a general agency
of the Massachusetts Mutual Life
Insurance Company. He is focusing
on expanding the firm to a new
location in Edison, N.J. Before
joining MassMutual, Dominick
worked for many years at MetLife
in a variety of leadership positions.
Dominick Iorio
1984
’84 M’88 marked
his 30th year with the YMCA in
June 2014, including 17 years with
the YMCA Retirement Fund and
13 years with the YMCA of Greater
New York. Robert O’Neill M’84
was named assistant director for
Christian Miller
1993
had two of her plays
staged in February 2014: Black Bee,
given a reading at Keep Soul Alive
Mondays at the National Black
Theatre in New York City, is about
a celebrated violin virtuoso whose
love is oppressive to his family; and
Generation T, produced by Adelphi
University, is about two Marines
returning from Afghanistan. She is
also working as a communications
associate at Artemis Partners.
Pia Wilson
1996
’96 M’98 is senior
vice president, Ocean Freight Asia
Pacific, at DHL Global Forwarding.
He and his wife, Natawan
Phichetkorn Goldberg M’98, live
in Taipo, Hong Kong, with their son,
Matthew. Natawan launched a new
women’s clothing line, Zuri Zuri
By Flora. The brand is registered in
the U.S., Europe, and Asia, with a
design office in Hong Kong, and a
production location in Shanghai.
David Goldberg
1998
released a short
romantic comedy film in 2014, Two
Sides of Love, which was shown at
film festivals including the AOF
International Film Festival in
Monrovia, Calif., and the Garden
State Film Festival. Two Sides of
Love was originally a play, which
premiered at the Roy Aries OffTom Baldinger
Broadway Theater in 2011 and
toured throughout New Jersey,
earning three NJACT Perry Award
nominations. Tom founded the
company 624 Productions LLC,
which allows writers, actors, and
producers to work in a collaborative
environment on screen and stage
projects.
2000
Frank Cafasso ’00 M’02 and
Kara McGann Cafasso ’07 M’09
announce the birth of Olivia Grace
Cafasso on January 21, 2014.
See Crib Notes, page 38, for a photo.
Victoria Crispo ’00 M’02 was
selected as a career coach for the
website WomenWorking and wrote
blog posts for the site throughout
June 2014. Victoria’s advice was also
featured in an article, “7 Common
Career Mistakes That Can Hold
You Back,” published on DailyWorth in July 2014. She is a
managing partner and career
coach with Career Services USA,
based in Morganville, N.J.
2004
was the subject of a
story published on the Columbia
University website in March. A
violist and student in Columbia’s
post-baccalaureate pre-med
program, Michael “has worked to
reconcile his passion for music with
his medical studies,” the story said.
“He teaches music part time, is a
violist in a piano quartet through
the Columbia University Music
Performance Program, and serves
as an assistant principal of the
Columbia University Orchestra.”
A native of Cebu, Philippines, he
gave benefit concerts to raise money
for his community after Typhoon
Hainan devastated the area.
Michael also revived the Columbia
University Medical Center
Michael Alas
Orchestra, which includes practicing
physicians, medical professionals,
and Columbia University College
of Physicians and Surgeons faculty.
He is also principal violist with the
Weill Cornell Music and Medicine
Initiative Orchestra. The story
concluded, “After finishing the
post-bac program, Alas intends to
apply to medical school with the
hope of becoming a pediatrician,
though he doesn’t plan on putting
down his viola any time soon.” Kyle
Breuninger married Margaret
Bristol on May 11, 2013, in New
Rochelle, N.Y. See Knot Notes,
page 39, for a photo. Dr. Stephanie
Famulari graduated from the
New York College of Podiatric
Medicine with a doctorate in
podiatric medicine. She completed
her surgical residency in foot and
ankle surgery at Lutheran Medical
Center, Brooklyn, in July 2012,
and is in private practice on Staten
Island. On May 29, 2010, she
married Jon Fundaro at the Pierre
Hotel in New York City. The maid
of honor was cousin of the bride
Amanda Savino ’08. Dr. Dana
Romano , Frank Giusto , Michael
Vicidomine , Michael Savino ’13,
and Brittany Fundaro ’14 also
served in the bridal party. Many
other Wagner graduates were also
in attendance and helped the couple
celebrate this special day, including
Michela Agozzino Schiavarelli ,
Kelly Dalton Noto ’03, Nicole
Gaeta Barone , Jessica Errico
DiMarco , and Lauren Babcock
Rymer. See Knot Notes, page 39, for a
photo. Dawn Yngstrom Perniciaro
and her husband announce the birth
of Abigail Grace on December 27,
2013. They live in North Bellmore,
N.Y. See Crib Notes, page 38, for a
photo.
Alumni Link
1982
financial services of the New Jersey
Courts in Trenton. Robert oversees
financial operations, including
budgeting, financial reporting,
spending plans, accounting, and
other areas. He lives in Readington
Township, Hunterdon County, with
his wife and two children.
2005
’05 M’08 left Wagner
College, where he had been serving
Jake Browne
Keep in Touch!
Email: alumni@wagner.edu
Web: wagner.edu/alumni
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Wagner College, One Campus Road, Staten
Island, NY 10301
Content: Wagner welcomes your news and
updates, and we will happily share them with
the Wagner family. We ask that you send
us announcements of weddings, births, and
graduations after the fact.
Deadlines: This issue reflects news received
by October 15, 2014. The submission deadline
for the Summer 2015 issue is June 1.
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner groups
at weddings and other special events. With the
photo, send the names and class years of all
alumni pictured; birth date, parents’ names,
and class years with photos of children; and
dates and locations of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos must
be clear and of good quality. Digital photos must
be jpegs of at least 250 pixels per inch;
low-resolution photos converted to a higher
resolution are not acceptable.
FA LL 2014
�Crib Notes
2
1
3
4
1. Frank ’00 M’02 and Kara McGann ’07 M’09 Cafasso welcomed their first child, Olivia Grace Cafasso, on January 21, 2014.
2. Christopher ’07 and Laura Woodruff ’07 Duni welcomed Natalie Claire Duni on November 22, 2013. 3. Dawn Yngstrom
Perniciaro ’04 and her husband welcomed Abigail Grace on December 27, 2013. 4. Mark ’05 and Amanda Concilio ’08 Intoccia
announce the birth of Joseph Victor Intoccia on February 16, 2014, in Staten Island.
We’d love to see your baby’s face.
Please see page 37 for publication guidelines.
2005 cont.
as director of admissions, to become
director of admissions at Eckerd
College in St. Petersburg, Fla., in May
2014. Mark Intoccia and Amanda
Concilio Intoccia ’08 announce the
birth of Joseph Victor Intoccia on
February 16, 2014, in Staten Island.
Corrine Mertz finished her Master
of Social Work at Smith College.
Jeannine Morris , founder of the
blog Beauty Sweet Spot, has found
great success as a beauty and lifestyle
blogger. She has appeared on the
Emmy red carpet for the E channel
several times as well as on Today and
The Wendy Williams Show. In January
2014, she was featured in a national
Crest 3D whitening strip campaign.
The print ad reads, “Beauty Sweet
Spot blogger Jeannine Morris gets
in the holiday spirit with teeth that
sparkle.”
32
WA G N E R M A G A Z I N E
WA G N E R M A G A Z I N E
2006
’06 M’07 gave
a talk at the TEDx Fulton Street
location, in Lower Manhattan,
in June 2013. She discussed the
founding of her company, Caffè
Unimatic, and her journey in
entrepreneurship, inspired by her
father. Caffè Unimatic products are
now sold at the famous Di Palo’s Fine
Foods in Manhattan’s Little Italy
and at Lioni’s and Papa Pasquale’s in
Brooklyn, and they were approved
for sale at Whole Foods Markets
as well. Seth Golden and Kristen
Guerra Golden celebrated their first
wedding anniversary on August 3,
2014. They live in Denver, Colo.
Victoria Opthof-Cordaro gave birth
to her first child, Dahlia, on October
30, 2013. David Osborne and Ashley
Morgan Caprio were married in West
Milford, N.J., on December 29, 2013.
David works for the Montclair Police
Department, and the couple settled in
Oak Ridge, N.J.
Elisabeth Cardiello
2007
Kara McGann Cafasso ’07 M’09 and
Frank Cafasso ’00 M’02 welcomed
their first child, Olivia Grace
Cafasso, on January 21, 2014. Laura
Woodruff Duni and Christopher
Duni announce the birth of Natalie
Claire Duni on November 22, 2013.
Monette McKay married Preston
Warren Dugger III on September 29,
2014, in Flanders, N.J. How do we
know this? Because it was written up
in the New York Times on October
5. (Look it up online to read their
charming love story.) The article
reveals that the couple met in 2011
while performing in the ensemble of
Memphis: The Musical on Broadway.
Monette has ended her run with
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and
she has paintings on display at the
jazz club Birdland. Preston is an actor
in Motown on Broadway. Gina Watzka
graduated from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison with a Doctor
of Veterinary Medicine degree in
May 2014.
2008
M’08 married Cara
Liander on September 19, 2014, in
Staten Island. Their wedding and the
story behind it attracted the attention
of the Staten Island Advance. The writeup was titled “Love Is A Brewing,”
because the two first met at a Staten
Island coffee shop, and are now part
of the leadership team of Staten
Island’s new craft beer company,
Flagship Brewing. John is CEO and
president of Flagship, as well as a
portfolio manager at Reich & Tang
Asset Management in Manhattan.
Cara is a producer, writer, and actor at
ROAM Productions in Staten Island
and the public relations director for
Flagship. Flagship was also featured
by the New York Times on May 23,
2014, in a piece by Alex Vadukul
entitled “Staten Island Gets a Craft
Brewery of Its Own.” Amanda
Concilio Intoccia and Mark Intoccia
’05 welcomed Joseph Victor Intoccia
on February 16, 2014, in Staten
Island. Greg Mescall M’08 was
John Gordon
�spotted on ESPNU in March 2014,
calling women’s water polo. He lives
in Long Beach, Calif., and works for
USA Water Polo.
2009
Matt ’09 M’11 and Alissa Cafaro
’09 M’11 Abbey , who got married in
Jacob Shore , a Wagner creative
writing instructor, wrote a play,
Sick City Blues, that premiered at
Manhattan’s Connelly Theater, part
of the New York International Fringe
Festival, in August 2014. His entry for
the 2013 festival, Down the Mountain
and Across the Stream, earned him an
Excellence in Playwriting Award.
Shauna Sorensen talked to Wagner
students in March 2014 about her
life as an artist. She is thriving as a
master’s student at CUNY Hunter
College, manager of Brooklyn’s Open
Source Gallery, and an administrator
and artist with the Ligo Project’s Art
of Science program, an artist-inresidence program that pairs artists
with scientists to learn about research
and create science-inspired art.
Shauna also got one of her Wagner art
professors, Jenny Toth, involved in
the Art of Science program.
2011
left her job with
Wagner’s External Programs to join
the Customer Centricity Office of
MetLife as a project leader. She works
Christine Angeli
my Hebrew to living through the
most recent war, I can truly say I had
a wonderful time abroad and learned
a lot in and out of the classroom.”
Connections she made through
Wagner helped her through the
good times and the bad: She spent
many Shabbat meals and holidays
at the home of a family she had met
in 2010 while on Wagner’s program
at Hebrew University; she went to
Kenya during her winter break to
volunteer at the orphanage and school
founded by Jennifer Musick Wright
’09. “Finally,” she writes, “during the
mentally, emotionally, and physically
exhausting war, I had numerous
peers, professors, and staff reach out
to either check in or offer places to
stay if I felt unsafe.”
2012
was featured in
the comedy-horror film Jersey Shore
Massacre, produced by Jennifer
“JWoww” Farley in 2014. Danielle
has also appeared in NBC’s Law and
Order: SVU, MTV’s One Bad Choice,
Brooklyn Valentine, and a national
Pepsi commercial that aired during
the 2013 MLB All-Star game. Anna
Demenkoff received kudos in the
Huffington Post for her work with an
Danielle Dallacco
Alumni Link
September 2013, moved to Newport
Beach, Calif., this fall. They plan to
open a franchise of the CKO cardiokickboxing gym. For the past three
years, Alissa worked at Wagner, two
years in financial aid and one year as a
staff accountant in the business office.
Matt was working as an insurance
underwriter at C.V. Starr. Christine
Seraphin moved to Germany and
competed in Keep Your Light Shining,
Germany’s version of American Idol.
With only three singers left standing,
Christine sang “Burn It Down”
by Linkin Park and was crowned
“Soul Queen” by German Grammy
nominee Andreas Bourani. Christine
performs regularly with her band,
Seraleez Quintet, which combines
the sounds of soul, jazz, hip hop,
and fusion.
2010
closely with the communications,
marketing, and human resources
departments. The office is located
in Manhattan. Emily Burkhardt
was featured on the AmeriCorps
blog on Mother’s Day, May 12,
2014, for sharing how her mother,
Councilwoman Molly Markert of
Aurora, Colo., inspired her to service.
Emily was with New York City
Service, a program of AmeriCorps,
for two years. She went on to work
for New York Cares as a disaster
response program manager. She also
mentored students in Wagner’s new
Bonner Leaders program. Now she
has joined Teach for America and
is teaching middle school science at
Martin Luther King Jr. Early College
in Northeast Denver. Colin Shaw was
hired as the head coach for lacrosse
at the University of Oxford in 2013.
He also plays in lacrosse tournaments
all over Europe, where his prowess
has earned him the nickname
“The Force of Nature.” Katie Jo
Younkins ’11 M’13 finished her
master’s in counterterrorism studies
at the Interdisciplinary Center in
Herzliya, Israel, and returned to the
United States in September. She is
looking for jobs in intelligence in
the public and private sectors. She
writes, “Reflecting on my diverse
experiences, from trying to remember
Knot Notes
Kyle Breuninger ’04 married Margaret
Bristol on May 11, 2013, in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Many alumni joined the celebration. Pictured
here: Jared Andrus ’01, Phil Maravolo ’01,
Ryan Scanlon, Kyle Breuninger, Chris Zaki
’04, Venus Cowan Roman ’05, Alfredo
Roman ’04, Ray Breuninger ’71, Denise
Kyle Breuninger ’74, Michael Hiney ’05,
and Tauny Ventura ’07.
At the May 29, 2010, wedding of
Dr. Stephanie Famulari ’04 and
Jon Fundaro ’04, many Wagner
alumni joined in the celebration,
including these members of the
bridal party and of the bride and
groom’s family: Amanda Savino
’08, Brittany Fundaro ’14, and
Michael Savino ’13.
Have a wedding photo with “Wagner family”?
Please see page 37 for publication guidelines.
FA LL 2014
�UNCOMMON LIVES
Russ Johnson ’67 M’72
The Way of the Foot and the Hand*
CLAIM TO FAME: Russ Johnson ’67 won the USA Taekwondo
National Championship for the men’s fourth master division
(ages 66 and over) in July 2014, and he took the bronze medal
in the World Poomsae Championships in Mexico in November.
A sixth-degree black belt, Johnson has been a student of
Taekwondo since 1972.
POOMSAE? “Poomsae is the Korean word for what most martial
artists know as ‘forms,’” Johnson says. “Poomsae is a complex
set of techniques — strikes, blocks, kicks, etc. — organized into
a rigidly choreographed ‘fight’ with imaginary opponents. When
you perform one of the eight black-belt poomsae required by the
World Taekwondo Federation (the Olympic governing body), you
are expected to perform it precisely the way it was designed. My
execution of a given poomsae, in other words, should be precisely
like that of a competitor from Korea, Australia, Mexico, or any
other country.”
MASTER OF MANY TRADES: Armed with Wagner’s bachelor’s
and master’s degrees in English, Johnson became a captain in
the Air Force and taught at the Air Force Academy; vice president
for development at Wagner College in the late 1970s; and an
executive for several different investment banks. He retired from
Citigroup in 2001, having served as founding chairman and CEO of
Tower Square Securities, Inc.
WHERE HE WAS MEANT TO BE: After his retirement, Johnson
went back to his first love: art. “I’ve been a full-time watercolor
artist and workshop leader since 2001, having taken full advantage
of all those art classes I took as both an undergrad and graduate
student at Wagner,” he says. “Although I majored in English, which
seemed a bit more practical for an aspiring job-seeker, I suspect
that art was where I was meant to be.” Check out his work and his
workshop schedule at www.rhjart.com.
*A loose translation of the Korean words that make up taekwondo.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�2012 cont.
Off-Broadway show, Elizabeth Irwin’s My Mañana
Comes, in September 2014. Drama critic David
Finkle wrote, “Congrats to all concerned — that
includes set designer Wilson Chin and props
designer Anna Demenkoff — for achieving the
kind of verisimilitude that Arnold Wesker also
stalked and captured in The Kitchen, his 1959
play that followed restaurant workers through a
single morning to night slot.” Francyna Evins was
featured in the Staten Island Advance for her gold
medal performance in the college/open 55-meter
dash at the 40th Colgate Women’s Game finals in
December 2013, held at the Armory Track and
Field Center in Manhattan. Francyna finished in
7.2 seconds.
2013
Wagner College is all about growth: Students develop in
body, mind, and spirit. Knowledge expands.
The local community progresses. The world benefits.
Be a part of it! Make a gift today, and watch us grow tomorrow.
James Alicea
wagner.edu/grow
than 150,000 views. Douglas Donato was hired
as a development associate at Shakesperience
Productions Inc. in 2014. Concetta Raineri , whose
stage name is Chetti, released her first single, “In
the City,” in January 2014, followed by her first
EP, also called In the City. It’s available via iTunes.
Dominique Williams signed an NFL free agent
contract with the Minnesota Vikings in May 2014.
Dom was an outstanding running back for the
Seahawks football team from 2009 to 2013.
2014
joined the admissions team
at Avenues: The World School, an international
private school in Manhattan, last summer. “It’s
a great school with an even greater mission,” he
says. He is also serving as vice president for a new
non-profit organization, Interview Forward, which
connects women and girls cross-generationally.
Christopher DeFilippi
Alumni Link
is in his second year at Cornell
Law. He returned to Wagner in October 2014
to talk to students about how to prepare for law
school and what to expect once admitted. Sara
Auerbach returned to Wagner to discuss her
work as a child life specialist at K. Hovnanian
Children’s Hospital in Neptune, N.J. D’Mya Clay
M’13 began coaching for the National Basketball
Academy in Orlando, Fla., in June 2014. D’Mya
was previously an academic advisor for the football
program at the University of Central Florida.
Anthony Colasuonno has been getting a lot
of attention on YouTube for his music videos.
Under the stage name Anthony Corvyx, his cover
of “My Immortal” by Evanescence has more
Grow Wagner
From Stage to Screen
Renée Marino ’04 makes her film debut in
Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys
A veteran of the stage (including recent Broadway productions
West Side Story, Wonderland, and Chaplin), Renée Marino ’04
took on her first film role in Clint Eastwood’s summer musical,
Jersey Boys.
Marino had played the role of Mary Delgado previously on
Broadway and on the national tour of Jersey Boys. She’s also
a true Jersey girl, of Linden, New Jersey, just to the west of
Staten Island.
She says that Eastwood was the perfect director, for her and
for this movie.
“Clint Eastwood is one of the most upstanding gentlemen I’ve
met in my whole life. He is so genuine, so down to earth. He has
no ego,” Marino says. “I had to keep reminding myself that I was
speaking with Clint Eastwood, a legend.”
Marino says that Eastwood’s background in Westerns
influenced his directing style in an unexpected way. “When Clint’s
on set with you, he just kind of moseys up and says, ‘Whenever
you’re ready,’” she says, leaning in and squinting at me with one
eye in classic Eastwood fashion. That approach dates back to his
early acting experiences, she said; yelling “roll!” or “cut!” would
startle the horses, so directors would start the action quietly.
You may hear a bit of authentic Marino dialogue in the scenes
P H O T O G R A P H , B E L OW : K E I T H B E R N S T E I N
STAR POWER Renée Marino ’04 as Mary and John Lloyd Young
as Frankie Valli in Warner Bros. Pictures’ musical Jersey Boys.
between her and Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young). “We would
finish the scripted scene, and [Eastwood] would keep the camera
rolling. There was one time where Frankie and I were going at
each other, back and forth and back and forth, for probably 10
minutes. Then we finally cut, and he said, ‘That was great. I can’t
wait to edit that.’
“You just got to do what you do as an actor. And I really
appreciated that.”
— Laura Barlament
FA LL 2014
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Alumni
Mrs. Jane Davies Newhouse ’37
Mr. Edward J. Jones ’38
Mrs. Glorya Muller Stevenson ’40
Dr. Philip A. Marraccini ’41
Mrs. Cornelia Gurka Iversen ’43
Dr. Charles A. Fager ’44
Mrs. Violet Dittmer Geffken ’46
Mrs. Elizabeth J. Longair Rose ’46
Mr. Claude F. Geffken ’48
Mrs. Alice Jensen Hamlin ’50
Mr. Ernest Kiefer ’50
Mr. Martin Ratner ’50
Mr. Joseph J. Shannon ’50
Dr. Raymond A. Amoury ’51
Mr. Francis P. Hannigan ’51
Mr. Herman J. Methfessel ’51
Mr. Richard “Swede” Norlander ’51
Mrs. Elizabeth Hamann Lawrence ’52
Mrs. Norma Zawadzki Banta-Maute ’53
Mr. Francis E. Goodell ’53
Mr. Clarence F. Schneider ’53
Mrs. Phyliss Schmidt Seigel ’53
Mr. Albert Tosi ’53
Mrs. Emily George Bradt ’54
Mr. Clarke De Waters ’54
Mr. Jean-Paul Pillet ’54
Rev. Daniel Uzupan ’54
Rev. Harry A. Reis ’55
Mrs. Diana E. Young Thiemer ’55
Mrs. Elizabeth Traeg Hunter ’56
Mr. Philip Mione M’57
Mr. Donald L. Roper ’57
Mrs. Sara Walker Smith ’57 M’58
Mr. Fred E. Thiemer ’57
Mr. Andrew A. Crocco ’58
Dr. Thomas H. Falk ’58
Rev. Stanley M. Phillips ’58
Mr. Albert T. O’Donnell ’59
William J. Skeen ’59
Dr. Aaron M. Taub ’60
Mr. Peter Thompson ’61
Mrs. Nancy G. Luquer Wallich ’61
Mr. William R. Garrison ’62
Mr. Steven R. Grunsfeld ’62
Mr. Robert Lapen ’62
Dr. John E. Lehmann ’62 H’93
Mr. Robert G. Rebollo ’62
Mr. Gerald P. Bourne ’63
Mr. Francis J. Herel ’63
Dr. Anthony J. Scalia ’64
Rev. Dr. Paul D. Hrdlicka ’65
Mr. Richard C. Roman ’65
Mrs. Emily Fischler ’67
Mr. Thomas D. Olsen ’67
John E. Lehmann ’62 H’93
Lifetime trustee, businessman, and nursing scholarship donor
Lifetime Trustee John Edward Lehmann ’62 H’93 died on April 18, 2014,
at his home in Florida, following a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He
was 82 years old.
After serving in the Air Force during the Korean War, Lehmann worked
full time as a mail carrier while taking night-school courses at Wagner College.
He graduated in 1962 and became an accountant with Butterick, the sewing
patterns publisher. In 1983, he was part of a Butterick management group that
acquired the company in a leveraged buyout. In 1987, Lehmann was named
president of Butterick; the following year, he became CEO. He retired from
the company in 2001.
In 1988, Mr. and Mrs. John E. Lehmann endowed the Kim Adrienne
Lehmann Scholarship in Nursing in memory of their daughter. It helps four
nursing students continue their education each year. John Lehmann joined
Wagner College’s Board of Trustees in 1989. He served as treasurer and as
vice chair, until 2001, when he was named a lifetime trustee.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Mr. Marvin Lax ’68
Mrs. Marilyn Borack Spierer ’68
Mrs. Jacqueline W. Wolf ’68
Ms. Lynda Benedetto ’69
Mr. John Brand ’69
Mr. Wendell C. Martin ’69
Mr. James Herman ’70
Mr. Douglas Petersen ’70
Mr. Alexander Labetti ’71
Ms. Anna Savastano ’73
Mr. John B. Bonner ’74
Mr. Dennis M. Forde ’74
Mrs. Maureen McGrath Lynch ’76
Mr. William P. McGuire ’77
Dr. Gail Flathmann Palmisano ’77
Mr. Gregory C. Hiby ’85
Mrs. Patricia Smith Amis ’90
Ms. Maureen Dicks Ross M’91
Mrs. Aileen Sein Gupta M’96
Mrs. Mary K. Catandella Bonner ’05
Faculty, Staff,
and Friends
Prof. Janice C. Buddensick
Prof. Margery Mayer Voutsas
�Faculty Remembrances
Professor of Accounting Janice Buddensick
Beloved and dedicated teacher and colleague
Janice Buddensick, associate professor of accounting in the
Department of Business Administration, died on September 20,
2014, at the age of 59, in Staten Island University Hospital.
A native of Brooklyn, Buddensick earned her bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in business administration from Pace University
in Manhattan. She married her high school sweetheart, Thomas J.
Buddensick, in 1974, and they settled in Staten Island.
Buddensick taught at Wagner College for 28 years and even
served for a time as the College registrar. She helped Wagner
launch its master’s in accounting program and the Wagner
Plan undergraduate curriculum. She connected students with
internship opportunities, served many years as director of the
undergraduate business program, helped redesign the business
curriculum, and was a key member of important faculty
committees.
“Janice was a highly dedicated and brilliant teacher,” says
fellow business professor Mary Lo Re. “Janice embodied our
‘learning by doing’ ethos and was always willing to experiment
with different pedagogies to better reach her students. Her
integrity and devotion to her students’ success earned her their
respect and love. As a colleague, Janice was a superb collaborator
in research, a true and dear friend, someone I could always count
on. I will sorely miss her and her zest and passion for living.”
Her survivors include her husband, Thomas; her two children,
Thomas Jr. and Julie; and two grandchildren.
Professor of Music Emerita Margery Mayer Steen
International opera star and top-notch vocal coach
Margery Mayer Steen Voutsas, former music professor at
Wagner College and contralto with the New York City Opera,
died on May 12, 2014, in Cupertino, California, at age 96.
Known professionally as Margery Mayer, she enjoyed great
success as an opera singer, starting at an early age in her native
Chicago. In 1946, two important events occurred that brought
her to New York City and to Wagner College: her New York
City Center Opera Company debut, as Suzuki in Madame
Butterfly; and her marriage to Sigvart J. Steen, who served as
chair of Wagner’s music department and conductor of the
Wagner College Choir from 1948 until his death in 1968.
Mayer became a leading contralto at the New York City
Center Opera, starring in dozens of roles, including highly
acclaimed performances in Carmen, Aida, and Il Trovatore. She
was also an accomplished oratorio singer and performed with
major orchestras.
In 1961, Mayer was appointed assistant professor of music
at Wagner, where she taught voice lessons and also developed
a popular course in opera appreciation, drawing on her many
contacts in the New York City opera world to enrich students’
experience. Recalling her own teacher’s motto, “If you can
speak, then you can sing,” she taught singing for personal as
well as professional enrichment. A few of her students found
significant professional success, such as Olivia Brewer Stapp
’57, who received a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy and sang
major roles in Berlin, Vienna, New York, and San Francisco.
Mayer retired in 1977. The following year, she married
George Voutsas, a retired NBC music producer. Her survivors
include two sons, two granddaughters, and six great-grandsons.
The family requests that memorials in honor of Margery
Mayer be sent to the Sigvart J. Steen Scholarship Awards at
Wagner College.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�Reflections
The Heel
Notes on building a grown-up relationship By Ethel Lee-Miller ’69
I
n the early years of my second marriage, I felt confident in
my ability to avoid the mistakes of the past. After all, I had
invested thousands of dollars in self-actualization (my lofty
description of years of therapy). I had gone on to professional
family dynamics training. And Hank was the best of partners.
“We are the architects of our relationship; we are not copying
the blueprint of another,” I would say. “Yes, we can take what
we like and leave the rest,” he would reply.
Yet, in spite of this academic and therapeutic background,
I sometimes — oh, all right, very frequently — smashed up
against the wall of self-centeredness, and was forced to crawl
through the door of humility into the land of awareness to
regain the cozy glow of our togetherness. With a blush of
embarrassment, I recount one example — and its background.
My favorite meal is a scrumptious and luxurious breakfast.
Is it a reaction to my childhood breakfasts, planned first and
foremost with nutrition in mind? My sisters and I were served
one soft-boiled egg, one piece of
whole wheat toast swiped with
a knife that had barely kissed
the margarine, freshly squeezed
orange juice, and a small alphabet
of vitamins. And the torture of
chewing dry toast was multiplied
when you got the last piece at the
end the loaf: the dreaded heel.
The heel, as most people know,
is almost all crust. It is not as soft, not as comforting to eat as
the other slices. Sometimes by the time a loaf of bread has been
reduced to the heel, it has aged and is less than fresh. “It’s still
good for you,” my mother would insist. “We’re not going to
waste food. Eat it.” We ate briskly, in an atmosphere of what
can only be described as utilitarian dining. Food on plate;
utensils, glass, and napkin on the oilcloth that served as our
table covering for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sit, eat, swallow
vitamins, clear dishes, leave table.
During my years at college, I discovered new modes of meal
serving and dining. College cafeteria food, though not inspiring,
was certainly abundant. No limits on the number of times
you could go through the line with your plate piled high. I
discovered I loved toast with butter — real butter — and
jam. On the bread trays, the heels were abandoned like so
many orphans.
It was before my 8 a.m. Spanish class that my love affair
with breakfast began. I liked piles of bacon. I loved pancakes
smeared with syrup. Imagine my burgeoning gluttony when
I discovered the world of New Jersey diners! In a New Jersey
diner, the waitress (not “server”) has a coffeepot permanently
affixed to her pouring hand, deftly refilling as she goes by
your booth with another order. And the bread! Rye, wheat,
sourdough, challah, pumpernickel, and white. Toast, bagels,
grilled cheese sandwiches, three-decker clubs, French toast, with
never a heel to be seen.
Fast forward to the year Hank and I got married. We were on
a pretty strict budget and rarely went out to eat. My answer to,
“What do you want for your birthday?” was, “I’d like breakfast
in bed.”
Hank was inspired. He brought it in on a white wicker tray
with the New York Times in the side pocket, a tall glass of OJ,
two eggs over easy, and two slices of rye toast slathered with
butter and cut on the diagonal, which is always so much better
than rectangles. The good silverware
made an appearance, with a linen
napkin folded on the side. My saliva
glands stirred, the taste buds on my
tongue perked up. This was living.
This was a gift from a loving husband.
A bite of egg, a sip of juice, and
then, the climax: biting into the toast.
My hand froze. I physically recoiled.
The toast was … the heel. Was that the
last of the bread? Was he being funny?
My sweetie was waiting expectantly. I spoke from love. “It’s
wonderful. Thank you.”
Such was the success of this breakfast that, two months later,
on Mother’s Day, the wicker tray made an encore appearance
— scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, cranberry juice, and a rose in a
tiny acrylic bud vase that had “LOVE” etched into it. My eyes
scanned to the bread first. I couldn’t help it. I poked at it with
my index finger. Again … the heel. Come on. I felt my face
get hot.
“Eth, what is it? What’s wrong?”
We had agreed never to say “nothing” to the question “what’s
wrong?” when, in fact, something was wrong.
Possessed with the perceived deprivation of childhood, I
whined, “Why did you give me the heel? What kind of present
is that?”
Hank’s mouth made an O of genuine astonishment. He had
was before my
“It8 a.m.
Spanish class
that my love affair with
breakfast began.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
“
�no response.
Ha! See, he is being mean. My actualized, adult Ethel vanished.
The petulant child in me took over. I believe the look on my
face could be labeled a pout.
Hank turned and left the room. I almost cried. So much for
talking things out. When he returned, he had the loaf of bread in
his hand: a package containing about six pieces. So why’d he give
me the heel?
“Let me tell you something,” he began, as he sat on the side of
the bed. “I wanted to give you a really special breakfast in bed.
So I fixed all this and deliberately gave you the heel. When I was
growing up, whoever my mother gave the heel to was the special
one for the day and sure to have good luck. When someone got
the heel, my sisters would say, ‘Oh, you’re the special one.’ So,
honey, you’re the special one.”
The heel of my childhood or the heel of his? We kept the one
from his.
This essay is an edited excerpt from Seedlings: Stories of
Relationships (Wheatmark, 2014) by Ethel Lee-Miller ’69. A
former elementary educator in New Jersey, she now lives in Tucson,
Arizona. Her business, Enhanced Life Management, is at the core of
her work as a writer, educator, coach, and observer of life. Learn more
at etheleemiller.com.
Answers to Pop (Art) Quiz (see back cover, clockwise from left): Keith Haring dog, Frida Kahlo backpack with monkey, Van Gogh “Starry Night ” umbrella,
Cubist coat, René Magritte “The Son of Man” hat, Roy Lichtenstein pop art Wagner letter jacket, Piet Mondrian shoes, Henri Matisse boots, late 19th-century
boots, Andy Warhol blue shoe.
F A L L
2 0 1 4
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, New York 10301
Pop (Art)
Quiz
Last spring semester,
the art department
got creative with an
unused coat rack in
the stairwell outside
of their offices in
Main Hall. Seniors
Carly Schmidt and
Laura Salerno, with
assistance from
Professor Jenny Toth,
designed and painted
this mural alluding
to famous images
and styles of various
artists and eras. How
many can you identify?
Answers page 45.
P H OTO G R A P H : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
Photograph: lee manchester
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Fall 2014
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/c8719914a5214500372b38f8ac0705c0.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=ToMPh9FT6bjgjonoiZpkp404phcHUxkySiB9XmJIPW63CrGtvrJQJfXcNBQ%7E%7EpiNe3iOrnIb8LOGKG1fRr6I13tuHOS5iDzQlDNE1YM-5FBtNs95CB9WD9RSGE95COjlsl24COSHe6%7EZJYU2CeW0StinUzI9857Q96aO2k4LC6PU4OipCdgNwg20Hdp1npDicaEB%7EaJkdqMG-we-fpj0yWnY3LFoA1HYkflQVngm862RjxdSaXp0AUwZC7xEQkjwoT8AzpVnn6MvZsSqlrKyQNCBLUIUiT53eG4jFqT6CbC0olpZ441t9x8RksqQhQd-cg9w0EcY6G1BxOUSxx%7EIpg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
9b7f6da1c1333662f201dec1da28ee5d
PDF Text
Text
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3-1 4
THE
LINK
FOR ALUMNI AND
FRIENDS
Back to
Class
Take a peek into
students’ learning
experiences Page 12
Who’s the Source
for ‘Virginia Woolf’?
Page 18
The Art of
Arno Minkkinen ’67
Page 24
�Contents
Wagner Magazine Winter 2013-14
F e a t u r e s
vol.11,
12
18
24
no.2
Back to Class
Wagner Magazine takes a peek into students’
learning experiences — in classrooms, labs,
and offices, around the city and the world.
Who’s the Source for
Virginia Woolf?
How a Wagner professor and his wife became the models for two of
American theater’s most unforgettable — and disturbing — characters.
Risk Made Visible
In his photography, Arno Rafael
Minkkinen ’67 envisions a
world where the impossible
becomes possible.
departments
2
From the President
3
From the Editor
4
From Our Readers
5
Upon the Hill
32
Inside Sports
34
Alumni Link
38
Class Notes
43
In Memoriam
45
Reflections
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Photograph: Arno Rafael Minkkinen
�Body of Work
Arno Minkkinen’s four decades of
black-and-white documentary selfportraiture have gained worldwide
renown. Shown here: “Self-portrait,
Ismo’s Stick, Fosters Pond, 1993.”
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�From the President
Signs of Success for the Wagner Plan
IT HAS been more than a
decade since we launched
the Wagner Plan, an
innovative approach to the
undergraduate curriculum
that has become the
College’s signature, our
defining feature.
What the Wagner Plan
does is to combine a broad-based liberal arts education
with experiential learning. We’ve often referred to this
blend as the “practical liberal arts.” In the years since it has
been in place, the Wagner Plan has brought to us a group
of students who participate in their education in an active,
engaged way.
Accolades attesting to the Wagner Plan’s quality have
been coming in strong, but especially during the past
couple of years. Pick up the latest issue of U.S. News
& World Report’s Best Colleges guide, and you will find
that Wagner is recognized as having four “Programs to
Look For,” which are all fundamental components of the
Wagner Plan. The magazine cites our first-year experience,
internships, learning communities (which explore certain
issues or problems through an interdisciplinary approach),
and our service learning experience as among the best in
the nation. The American Association of Colleges and
Universities (AAC&U) calls these areas “high-impact
practices” that contribute to the overall quality of an
education. Of the hundreds of schools that are ranked
in U.S. News each year, only seven were mentioned in
four or more categories of “Programs to Look For.” That
is a gratifying recognition, and an affirmation of the
curriculum that we’ve developed and the work that
we do.
In this issue
“94% of the employers
(“Back to Class,”
surveyed endorsed a liberal
page 12), Wagner
arts-based education.”
Magazine takes
you along with
our students to show you the Wagner Plan in action,
from internships at the Clinton Foundation, to a learning
community studying the cosmos, to a study abroad
program in Italy, and more. Reading their stories and
seeing first hand how engaged they are in their work
demonstrates to me that Wagner students will continue to
be leaders in a rapidly changing world. And, there’s more.
While you’re reading about the Wagner Plan,
please look at the sidebar story, “Liberally Educated,
Professionally Prepared” (pages 14 and 17). This piece
describes a recent survey of employers conducted by the
AAC&U. In this survey, they asked employers which
skills they prized most in prospective employees, and
what it takes to succeed. The results reveal that the goals
and outcomes of the Wagner Plan are closely aligned with
the attributes employers identified as most important to
a successful career. In fact, 94 percent of the employers
surveyed said that a liberal arts-based education is the
most important curriculum for today’s students.
This is all good news for Wagner College and for
the Wagner Plan.
When you are next on campus, I would invite you to
speak with some of our students and hear what they have
to say about their studies. I think you’ll be both pleased
and proud.
Richard Guarasci
President
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE A quote in the 1959 Kallista could
describe Wagner’s philosophy today: “Above all, an interchange
of thoughts and learning by doing — this is the norm at Wagner.”
This photograph, which inspired our cover shot, features Walter
Baumhoff ’59 and Janet Henderson Bird ’60.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�From the Editor
L
Winter 2013 -14 • Volume 11 Number 2
Taking Responsibility
ast summer, I met George Laszlo ’72
while he was visiting campus with Ali*, a
20-year-old college student from Baghdad.
While we sat in the Union Atrium sipping
tea, I asked George how he had gotten
to know Ali. The story he told me
was extraordinary.
It all started with a chance encounter
on the subway in September 2007.
While taking the E train home from JFK
airport after a business trip, George gave
directions to a fellow traveler. This man
then departed, accidentally leaving his
backpack behind.
“I knew that if I gave it to the
conductor, I would never know if its
rightful owner would ever see it again,”
George says. “Our short connection made
me feel responsible to find him myself.”
George and his wife, Eileen, did manage
to locate this man, and they ended up
taking responsibility for much more than
the return of his backpack.
It turned out that this man — let’s
call him Tarik* — had just arrived from
Baghdad, where he had been working
as an interpreter and guide for the U.S.
military for the past four years without a
break. Knowing that Tarik was exhausted,
his Army buddies had suggested this
vacation trip to the United States. Then,
he intended to return to his family — his
wife, his son Ali, and his daughter — and
continue his work.
But Iraqi militias had already murdered
one of his brothers and attempted to
kill another in retaliation for Tarik’s
involvement with the U.S. government. It
became clear to the Laszlos and to Tarik’s
Army buddies that his life was in danger in
Iraq, and they persuaded Tarik to stay and
seek asylum in the U.S.
George and Eileen took Tarik in for
a couple of months, then persisted with
him throughout the frustrating two-year
bureaucratic nightmare of obtaining
asylum. It took almost four more years to
get his family out of Iraq, during which Ali
survived an attempted kidnapping and saw
his best friend murdered.
A week after arriving in New York,
Ali told Eileen and George, “For the first
time, I feel like a human being.” He is
headed back to college, his sister is in high
school, his father has a job, and his mother
is learning English. They live in Queens.
Does George regret picking up that
backpack, six years ago? No. “I’m happy
for them,” he says. “It was worth the effort,
and we now have a whole new set
of friends.”
Laura Barlament
e di t or
Shaowei Wang
gr a ph ic de sig n e r
wr iters
Laura Barlament
Cormac Gordon
Lee Manchester
phot o gr a ph e r s
Vinnie Amessé
Lee Manchester
Anna Mulé
David Saffran
produc t ion m a nage r
Donna Sinagra
Wagner Magazine
Advisory Board
Lisa DeRespino Bennett ’85
Susan Bernardo
Jack Irving ’69
Scott Lewers ’97
Lorraine McNeill-Popper ’78
Brian Morris ’65
Hank Murphy ’63 M’69
Andy Needle
Nick Richardson
Wagner Magazine: The Link for Alumni and Friends
is published twice a year by Wagner’s Office of
Communications and Marketing.
Laura Barlament
e di tor , wag n e r m ag a z i n e
Wagner Magazine
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
718-390-3147
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
*Names have been changed to protect the family’s identity.
See thelistproject.org for more on the plight of Iraqi
asylum seekers.
On the Cover
Pat Dugan ’57
used his wealth
to give us all a gift
Page 18
Grace Zhang ’15 of Irvine, California, who is double majoring in
English and government, and Christian Grotewold ’15, an arts
administration major from Guatemala, served as our models for
“Back to Class.” Both of them write about Wagner student life for
the HawkTalk blog at wagner.edu/hawktalk.
Photograph: Anna Mulé
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
wagner.edu
�From Our Readers
“
Pat often
reminded me of
John Wayne — tall,
robust, handsome,
a rumbling gait, and
of course courage
in the face of all
adversity.”
rumbling gait, and of course courage in
the face of all adversity. As we know, the
courage and adversity for Pat were real,
not fiction, and he never shrank from
the potential consequences of tough
decisions. Thanks and best wishes to
Pat and Marion. They look great!
Brian Boyle
A Great Future
GREAT ARTICLE (“Bouncing Back,”
summer 2013). I feel Dwaun Anderson
has a real future with Wagner.
Self-esteem, self-confidence are
evident in his performance and his
love for basketball. I see only a great
future in whatever he chooses to do.
Sue Minch
He is amazing... We love him so much...
His Momma is proud of him, watching
down from heaven....
“
Auntie Mary
Choir Pleaser
Editor’s Note: A couple stories from the last
issue of Wagner Magazine touched a few
people beyond our regular mailing list, who
read the stories and commented on them
online at wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
We hope you’ll check out the site sometime,
too, where you can find back issues since
fall 2010.
Wagner’s
John Wayne
THANK YOU to Laura Barlament,
the author, for an excellently written
article (“Question Everything: Pat
Dugan ’57,” summer 2013). I worked
closely with Pat for over 15 years as the
original CFO for PDI, beginning in
1990. Laura and her interviewees have
captured Pat beautifully and I have
nothing to add except to affirm all that
was said. Pat often reminded me of John
Wayne — tall, robust, handsome, a
WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU We welcome letters from readers. Letters
should refer to material published in the magazine and include the writer’s
full name, address, and telephone number. The editor reserves the right
to determine the suitability of letters for publication and to edit them for
accuracy and length.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
AGAIN, YOU have created an
informative and high-quality edition
of Wagner Magazine (summer 2013),
which also included upcoming events
under “Music.” The 300th anniversary
choir concert (October 27, 2013, Zion
Lutheran Church, Oldwick, New Jersey)
was listed and helped attract almost 50
alumni to this excellent concert! The
performance was greatly appreciated by
the congregation and the alumni — a
real “win-win” for them and the choir.
Gotfred C. Jacobsen ’54
se d ona , a r i zona
Laura Barlament, Editor
Office of Communications, Wagner College
One Campus Road, Staten Island, NY 10301
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
�LEARNING TO FLY The study of applied aerodynamics is possible at Wagner, thanks to a Flotek 1440 Low Speed Wind Tunnel in
Megerle Science Building. Carly Nicoletti ’13, Leobardo Dominguez ’15, and Michelle Greenough ’15 (pictured here) used it to
study aircraft icing and its effect on lift, in a research project supervised by Gregory Falabella, associate professor of physics.
Good Work,
Alums
Wagner lands in
rankings emphasizing
post-graduate outcomes
For many years, Wagner has
enjoyed a good position in college
rankings, such as the one published
by U.S. News & World Report, that
rate schools according to criteria like
incoming students’ SAT scores and class
rank, academic reputation surveys, and
faculty qualifications and resources.
In 2013, Wagner College got some
love from organizations that put more
weight on graduates’ outcomes.
PayScale, for example, ranked
Wagner 59th for alumni salaries, out
of more than one thousand colleges
and universities nationwide. That places
Wagner in the top six percent, based
on a survey of 1.4 million bachelor’sdegree holders.
Forbes Magazine also included
Wagner in its top colleges list for
the first time in 2013. Produced in
partnership with the Center for College
Affordability and Productivity, the
Forbes list emphasizes “output.” Major
criteria include student satisfaction,
post-graduate success, student debt loads
and default rates, graduation rates, and
student and alumni success in winning
national scholarships and completing
Ph.D.s. Wagner came in 337th out of
650 colleges and universities in the
Forbes list.
Bob Herr, Wagner’s dean of
admissions and financial aid, says that
these rankings respond to the increased
public interest in the question, “What
do I get from my educational dollar?”
This question is not only being asked
by parents of prospective students,
but is also being covered heavily in the
media and is a topic President Obama is
addressing as well.
“These rankings are really excellent
for us,” Herr says. “It resonates especially
with parents. They’re the ones writing
the check. Students are looking at
their experience for the next four years,
but parents are looking at the future
beyond college.”
The positive news continues with
other ranking organizations. In U.S.
News & World Report’s college rankings
for 2014, Wagner was the only college
or university in New York State with
four or more “programs to look for”
— and one of only seven such schools
nationwide. Wagner’s programs in this
category are the first-year experience,
internships, learning communities, and
service learning.
Wagner placed #24 in the U.S.
News overall northern regional
universities rankings, and it was listed
in the Princeton Review’s 2014 Best 378
Colleges guide for the 10th year in a
row. The Princeton Review also ranked
Wagner College Theatre #2 among such
programs nationwide, the 10th year in
a row that WCT has been included in
this list.
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�Upon the Hill
{
First the
Facts . . .
12/12/12
8,818
Dat e t h at t h e f ir st t wo m e m be r s
of t h e c l a s s of 2 017
m a de t h e ir de po si t s
M i l e s t h at G a bry e l Oloa pu t r av e l e d
f rom Auc k l a n d, N e w Z e a l a n d,
to beg i n c ol l eg e at Wag n e r
Looking
Back
FOND FAREWELL Professors Peter Sharpe, Ammini Moorthy, and Joedy Smith stand in front of a poster chronicling Smith’s work with ODK.
Right, top to bottom: Jayne Dean, John Jamiel, and Margo Governo.
Looking Back
Six longtime faculty members
retire in 2013
Margo Governo ’78, associate
professor of nursing; Ammini
Moorthy, professor of biology;
Joseph D. “Joedy” Smith Jr., associate
professor of religious studies;
Jayne Dean, associate professor of
economics; Peter Sharpe, professor
of English; and John Jamiel, associate
professor of speech and theater,
ended their tenures at Wagner
College in 2013, having given a
grand total of 165 years of service to
Wagner College.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Governo started teaching at
Wagner as an adjunct right after
finishing her bachelor’s in nursing;
she already had years of experience
as an RN at Maimonides Hospital
in Brooklyn under her belt by then.
Pushed by her mentor, Professor Jane
Bacher, Governo earned her master’s
and doctorate at Columbia, while
teaching full time. Her specialties
include psychiatric nursing,
community nursing and preventive
care, and holistic care.
In the past year, as the National
League for Nursing Ambassador
for the Evelyn L. Spiro School of
Nursing, she helped organize the
school’s successful application to
be named a 2012–16 Center of
Excellence in Nursing Education.
A cell biologist and genetics
expert, Moorthy graduated from
Kerala University in her native
India and completed her Ph.D. at
New York University. She taught
scores of biology courses at Wagner
— so many, in fact, that there was
a running joke about students
getting a “Minor in Moorthy.” She
takes special pride in her genetics
courses — granting that they were
tough, but the students appreciated
it when it came time for the MCATs
— and in an Intermediate Learning
Community, Ethical, Legal, and
Social Implications of the Genome,
that she created and taught with
sociology professor John Esser.
�10
N u m be r of f ir st-y e a r st u de n t s
w ho c e l e br at e d t h e ir birt h days
du r i ng Or i e n tat ion w e e k e n d
Smith arrived at Wagner in 1982,
one year after Moorthy, and promptly
took up not only the teaching of Biblical
studies but also a leading role with the
honor society ODK. The quintuple
graduate of Yale (culminating in a Ph.D.
in religious studies) received many awards,
including the Robert L. Morlan National
ODK Faculty Secretary Award. And,
the Wagner ODK chapter received the
national organization’s top award for five
years running, from 2002 to 2006.
In 1985, Dean began teaching at
Wagner College, having completed
her Ph.D. at the New School for Social
Research. Besides the regular array of
economics courses, she has co-taught a
First-Year Learning Community called
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Debates
on Love, Power, and Money in the
Public Forum
After earning his doctorate from
New York University, Sharpe came
. . . Then
the Quiz!
What percentage of this year’s
freshman class came from outside
of New York State? A n sw e r on Pag e 11
to Wagner in 1994 with considerable
experience both in literary study —
especially Southern literature — and in
journalism, and he helped the College
grow programs in those two areas,
adding popular courses such as Growin’
Up in Dixie, designing a new minor in
journalism, and advising the Wagnerian
and Nimbus student publications.
During most of Jamiel’s 18 years at
Wagner, he taught all of the acting classes
for theatre performance majors — until
the program grew too large for one person
to handle the whole sequence. During
that period, the program has steadily
gained in renown (for example, being
named one of the nation’s top collegiate
theater programs by the Princeton
Review) and has produced many alumni
with successful careers on and off
the stage.
Accolades from former students
exemplify what all of these professors
}
have meant to Wagner. “What makes
Joedy Smith a great professor is that he
takes a personal interest in students,”
said Sarah Nehm ’11, who followed her
mentor’s footsteps to Yale Divinity School
on a full scholarship. “Many years after
graduating, I can still lean on John [Jamiel]
for advice, help and comfort,” said Scott
Barnhardt ’01, a member of the cast for
the Broadway show The Book of Mormon.
Go to wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
and look under “From the Editor” to read
longer stories about these faculty members,
including more comments from their students,
their most memorable moments, plans for
retirement, and thoughts about the most
important developments in their fields of study.
Advancement’s New Chief
Wagner senior staff member shifts focus
ANGELO ARAIMO was named
Wagner College’s vice president
for institutional advancement as of
November 1, 2013. He took over a
position that had been filled on an
interim basis by Frank Young, former
director of major gifts, ever since Vice
President Myra Garcia resigned in
December 2012.
Araimo is a well-known figure at
Wagner, having served since 1994 as vice
president for enrollment and planning.
Under his leadership, enrollment has
grown by 50 percent and the residential
population has doubled. In his new
role, Araimo continues his oversight of
admissions and financial aid, areas which
are under the direct supervision of Dean
Bob Herr.
Frank Young retired as of December
31, 2013, after 10 years of service to
Wagner College. He had been a part
of Wagner’s fundraising team since
2000, first serving as vice president of
development from 2000 to 2002. He
resigned and then returned to the
College as director of major gifts
beginning in 2005.
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�Upon the Hill
&
Before
After
RENEWAL Left: Tree and roof damage on the Pape House, home of Wagner’s Office of Admissions, on October 30, 2012. Right: The same
view, almost a year later, on September 5, 2013.
The Long Haul
Hurricane Sandy-related
fundraising helps Wagner
families keep their heads above
the financial waters
JUNIOR NURSING major Audrey
White’s family did not celebrate
Thanksgiving 2013 at home.
More than a year after Hurricane
Sandy blasted across the Jersey
Shore, the Whites are still working
to make their Mantoloking home
inhabitable again.
On the bright side, however, Audrey
is still at Wagner, working toward
her degree.
Thanks to alumni, parents, and
friends of the College, Wagner raised
$60,000 to address Hurricane Sandyrelated needs, such as additional
financial aid for seven students whose
families were severely impacted by
the storm.
Mantoloking, where White grew
up and where her mother’s family has
lived for three generations, was one of
the hardest-hit towns in New Jersey.
Much of the town is still in shambles,
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
but the Whites were determined to
rebuild their dream home. The family is
the first in Mantoloking to have raised
their house, installing nine-foot pilings
on which the structure now sits to
keep it above any future floods. In the
meantime, the family has moved from
one short-term rental to the next, while
dealing with a string of delays in their
efforts to return.
For White, it has been a stressful and
discouraging year. “I’m still distracted
[from school],” she says. “I’m always
wondering when I get to go home.”
A year after Hurricane Sandy’s
floodwaters swamped Oakwood Beach
in Staten Island, including the home of
Hayley Semo ’16, she was approaching
the storm’s anniversary with trepidation.
“Now that we’re getting closer and
closer to the date, there is anxiety,” she
said in early October 2013. “What if it
happens again?”
Nevertheless, she is thriving in her
sophomore year at Wagner, for which
she also received additional financial
aid. Her family’s house is almost
completely restored, and she is leasing
a new car to replace the one destroyed
in the storm. She has declared a major
in biology, is in the pre-health program
with the ambition of becoming a
veterinarian, and is interning at the
Staten Island Zoo.
The student-organized relief group
WagnerCares has also stayed active in
helping the community. Students are
volunteering with Project Hospitality’s
Long-Term Sandy Recovery Team on
Staten Island, and WagnerCares is in
the process of hiring Wagner students
as interns to conduct outreach and
gather data on community needs for
storm recovery. The organization is
also expanding its scope to encompass
other causes locally, nationally,
and internationally.
PREPARED The Whites’ house in Mantoloking
was lifted onto nine-foot pilings.
�{
Quote
Unquote
“The little things around us can be keyholes
into much larger rooms of consideration.”
Billy Collins
}
poet,
at the 2013
Kaufman-Repage
Lecture,
October 16
Remembering
the Love
AWARDEE Arijeta Lajka ’16, an English and government major, is Wagner’s first
Gilman Scholar.
Heart and Mind
Top scholarship takes student
to a ‘newborn country’
DURING THE SPRING of 2014,
one Wagner student is using a
prestigious scholarship to live and
study at an unusual destination for
American undergraduates.
Arijeta Lajka ’16 received the
U.S. State Department’s Benjamin
A. Gilman International Scholarship.
The first Wagner student to win this
highly competitive award for study
abroad, Lajka (pronounced ‘LIKE-ah’) is
studying at the American University in
Pristina, Kosovo.
An English and government double
major with a minor in journalism,
Lajka wants to become an international
journalist. “Kosovo is a good place to
be right now for what I want to do,”
she says. “They’re a newborn country
and just came out of an ethnic war not
too long ago.” She had already begun
working for the Balkan Investigative
Reporting Network before going to
Kosovo, covering stories such as the
participation of Kosovar expatriates in
their home country’s elections.
But Lajka’s interest in the Balkan
region is more than just academic.
Lajka was born and raised on Staten
Island, but her family’s roots are in
Montenegro, a neighbor of Kosovo.
Both are former Yugoslav republics that
gained independence less than a decade
ago. Lajka is bilingual in English and
Albanian, one of the main languages
spoken in Kosovo.
Before her departure, Lajka was
excited about the opportunity. “It’s so
close to my heart, because my family
is from there. It will be nice to spend
a semester with people who speak the
same language.”
And if she gets homesick, her
grandmother is in Montenegro, only
a few hours’ travel away.
Students, faculty, and staff
mourn the untimely death of
campus leader Justin Stevens ’14
SHARING TEARS, music, and
laughter, the Wagner community
gathered on the night of August 27
to remember Justin Stevens ’14, a
theater performance major from
New Jersey. Stevens had just finished
co-leading the orientation program for
new students. On the first day of class,
August 26, he left campus for a doctor
appointment in Manhattan and never
returned. His body and a suicide note
were discovered by New York police
officers in Van Cortlandt Park in the
Bronx the next afternoon.
The news struck a hard blow to the
campus, where he was known for his
energy and charisma, roles in Wagner
Theatre productions, and many gifts of
friendship. In early October, Wagner
students from Alpha Omicron Pi
sorority and the Center for Leadership
and Engagement participated in the
annual Out of the Darkness walk,
sponsored by the American Foundation
for Suicide Prevention, raising money
for the cause in Stevens’ memory.
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�Upon the Hill
{
Quote
Unquote
“A marching band can motivate, be uplifting
and amplify a sense of commonality to a
college and to its students.”
Jose Diaz
}
Wagner
Marching Band
Director
In the
‘Wagnerian,’
December 4
WINDOW
ON WAGNER
Guild Hall
HOME AWAY FROM HOME This 1949 architect’s rendering of Guild Hall gives a sense of the original vision for the dormitory, said
to resemble a large country house in the French Eclectic style.
THE DEDICATION of a new women’s dormitory,
christened Guild Hall in 1951, marked a turning point in
the life of Wagner College.
From its founding in 1883 until the end of World
War II, Wagner had been a very small institution —
enrollment never broke the 500 mark before 1942
— but with the postwar boom fueled by the G.I. Bill,
enrollment nearly tripled in 1946. By 1951, we had nearly
2,000 students.
And it wasn’t just soldiers, sailors, and marines
returning from the war who were enrolling in record
numbers. Women (first admitted in 1933) accounted for
more than a third of total enrollment — and the need
for new housing was acute.
To design a women’s dormitory, we turned to one of
our own: noted architect Herbert E. Matz, whose work
has been listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. A member of our Board of Trustees from 1936
to 1958, Matz also served in the Department of Church
Architecture for the United Lutheran Church. His firm,
Bessell & Matz, was also responsible for the design of
the Sutter Gymnasium, now a part of the Spiro Sports
Center, and a men’s dormitory opened in 1957,
Campus Hall.
The architectural style of Matz’s Guild Hall is
difficult to identify. The May 1949 issue of the Wagner
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
College Bulletin said that “the style of the new dormitory
is Georgian, Dutch origin,” but the actual execution
is more eclectic than that. It has the identifying
architectural features of 15 different styles, but it doesn’t
entirely fit into any one of them.
“Although it is a big building, what it’s really trying
to be is a large vernacular country house of masonry
construction with a simple fenestration, a broad roof
and just a few distinguishing architectural details,” said
architectural historian Stephen Engelhart, executive
director of Adirondack Architectural Heritage —
in other words, the new women’s residence hall was
designed for “hominess,” not for monumental impact.
Engelhart suggested the French Eclectic style as a
good description.
At the December 1, 1951, dedication, the program
was opened by Ave Holthusen Futchs, president of the
Wagner College Guild and daughter of the College’s first
president, Pastor Adolf Holthusen. It seems appropriate
that this dorm, with its homelike architecture, was
named for the Wagner College Guild, a group that has
provided constant support and helped students feel at
home on campus since the College’s earliest days on
Staten Island.
— Lee Manchester
�{
The
Answer
QU i Z qu e st ion
on pag e 7
60% — the top five states besides New York
were New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut,
California, and Massachusetts.
}
MARCHING BACK
Wagner starts to rebuild
a long-lost marching
band program
For the first time in almost four
decades, the Seahawks are on the march
again — on the marching band field,
that is.
Inspired by the 2012 football team’s
success, Vice President Angelo Araimo
led the charge to revive a marching band
at Wagner. Jose Diaz, who previously
served as the orchestra conductor and
instrumental music teacher at Saddle
River Day School, was hired as the
band’s director last summer. During
the band’s first season, 22 students have
participated, and Diaz plans to expand
that number in the coming years.
Wagner previously had a marching
band, which started in the 1940s and
existed (with some interruptions) until
the mid-1970s. (See “Flashback,” page 35,
for more.)
Groundbreakers of the revitalized
Wagner marching band include flutist
Kendra Best ’16, who is also serving as
the band’s president. The psychology
major from Metuchen, New Jersey,
leaped at the chance to join the band
because, she says, “it has been a huge
part of my life since I first joined in
fourth grade.” She fondly remembers
playing with her high school band in
the Orange Bowl halftime show and at
Disney World’s Magic Music Days.
Now with Wagner’s fledgling
ensemble, she is eager to play at Seahawk
basketball games this spring, appear in
local parades, and perform a field show
for football games next fall. “I enjoy
being a leader, and I look forward to the
growing of the organization,” she says.
“It’s so incredibly fun,” adds Madeline
McKnight ’16, a psychology major who
plays bass drum and serves as the band’s
equipment manager. “I look forward to
every rehearsal, every game, basically
any time we get together.”
Music History
Brought to Life
Last summer, Ernie Jackson ’87
went back to his roots in classical
guitar and pieces of music he first
learned at Wagner College for a
video featuring a historic instrument
in the collection of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
The Met Museum is creating a
video series featuring all the playable
guitars in its musical instrument
collection. Because of Jackson’s
expertise in the music of the
19th-century guitar virtuoso and
composer Justin Holland, he was
asked to play the Met’s 1860s-era
Martin guitar.
Jackson first learned of this music
while he was an undergraduate
music major studying under Ed
Brown at Wagner College. Jackson
went on to produce a book and
recording of Holland’s music, The
Music of Justin Holland, 1817–1887:
Ten Solo Pieces Arranged by
the Prominent 19th-Century
African-American Classical
Guitarist (Cherry Lane Music, 1995).
Jackson has taught guitar, music
production, and audio engineering
at Wagner College and at
Queensborough Community College,
where he is now a tenured professor
and leads the jazz ensemble. His
latest book is The Only Guitar Book
You’ll Ever Need (Adams Media
Corporation, 2014).
See the video in display kiosks at
the Met or online at metmuseum.org,
and learn more about this story at
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�The nights are cooler, the days grow shorter,
and the crisp air is scented with falling
leaves. The campus surges with energy as
friends reunite after the summer break, and
as hundreds of new students search for their
niche in this ever-changing social ecosystem
— and, of course, for their next class. It’s the
fall semester at Wagner College.
Wagner Magazine took a peek into the
students’ learning experiences this fall
— whether they are in classrooms, labs,
offices, or on the streets all around the city
and the world.
---------------------------->BACK
TO
CLASS<
----------------------------By Laura Barlament
F
Science in Context
First-Year Learning Community:
Emerging Global Health Concerns
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
iona wants to be a dentist; Olivia
a veterinarian; Marisa a physical
therapist; Mahmoud a physician.
How does it start, their first year in
college? By pounding down the basics of
chemistry and biology, with an English
or history class thrown in on the side?
At Wagner, the answer would be yes,
sort of, but not quite. They are indeed
starting to pound down the chemistry
and other specialized knowledge they
need to enter the medical professions;
but they are also getting a bigger
picture on the field, and some hands-on
experiences with the populations they
someday hope to serve.
Students miss something important
when they are taught chemistry
alone, says Nick Richardson, associate
professor of chemistry. “It’s like science
in an abstract vacuum without realizing
there are consequences, there are real
issues that this stuff can address,”
he says.
So, the same group of students
who are in Richardson’s Chemistry
101 are also in a course called Health
and Society, about the social science
of health care, taught by Annemarie
Dowling- Castronovo, assistant professor
of nursing. And they are also in a
Reflective Tutorial class, co-taught by
Richardson and Dowling- Castronovo,
where they integrate the two topics
of chemistry and social science by
studying real-life issues like hydraulic
fracturing, alcohol abuse, and the
HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In addition, the students work
with community organizations and
health care facilities throughout the
semester, thereby gaining experience
with the health care system and the
people it serves.
“It promotes them being more critical
thinkers,” says Dowling- Castronovo.
“We discuss questions like, What are
you seeing? What does it say in the
literature? Does it synch, or are you
discovering something that doesn’t
synch, and how do you go about
understanding more about the gap that
you’ve identified?”
PHOTOGR A PHS : A N NA MUL É
�<-
Pushing the Boundaries
Intermediate Learning Community:
Exploring the Cosmos and Our Place Within It
A
s Otto Raths, professor of
physics, walks in one of the two
doors and down the steps to the
front of the small auditorium in Spiro
Hall, he pauses to look at his students.
About a dozen men and women sit
scattered across the room. Peering
through his thick glasses, the longtime
Wagner professor jabs his finger at one
door or the other and asks each student,
“You came in that door, right?” One after
the other, they confirm his guesses. “Ha,
I know how you think!” he observes.
After this unusual approach to taking
attendance, Raths picks up a piece of
chalk and asks, “What do you know
about the sun?”
This is Astronomy 108: The Solar
System. All of the students are also
enrolled in its partner course, Philosophy
205: Philosophy of the Mind. Together,
they make up an Intermediate Learning
Community (ILC), Exploring the
Cosmos and Our Place Within It.
Together, the two courses lead to
bigger questions than they would alone
— “such questions,” according to the
course description, “as, What can we
know about the universe and ourselves?
Is it possible to know the way the
universe exists and the way our minds
exist? Does the universe have a purpose?
Is there a place for consciousness, and
for God, within a scientific view of
the universe?”
It takes a scientifically minded
philosopher and a deep-thinking
physicist to create a course like this.
The philosopher is John Danisi, who
was a double major in chemistry
and philosophy during his own
undergraduate years. He and Raths
share a fascination with different views
of the cosmos — and a commitment
to keep questioning and finding
new answers.
In Raths’ lectures, therefore, he not
only conveys the facts about the Sun’s
makeup, temperature, size, and so forth,
but also continually contextualizes them.
He tells stories (for example, about
meeting the physicist and Nobel laureate
Hans Bethe); makes observations
(“Absolute truth in nature is very hard
to find. You never stop, but you become
very humbled”); and recommends
readings (like the Saturday edition of the
Wall Street Journal and a recent essay by a
psychologist in the New York Times).
W
hile Raths deals with the
makeup of the universe,
Danisi is exploring what we
can know about the nature of the human
self, from a philosophical perspective:
from the ancient Hebrews and Greeks,
through Descartes and Sartre to today’s
scientific-materialistic thinkers, who
“whittle away the mind” as a valid way
of understanding the human being.
“My goal is to restore a place for the
mind and for God,” Danisi says.
For students like Paul Passantino ’16,
who is still undecided about his major
but leaning toward business, this course
is mind-blowing and inspirational — so
much so that he can’t stop talking about
the ideas he’s learning with friends
after class.
“That’s why I’m really loving this
class,” he says. “We can have different
types of views, and I personally believe
that Danisi’s philosophy class has helped
me with just being able to accept other
people’s views. Being able to learn
someone else’s views, and make your
own opinion on it, that’s the beauty of
philosophy, I think. To see how things
work, how people think.”
After all, he points out, just as Galileo
and Copernicus overturned the received
wisdom of their day, today’s students
need to keep their minds open in order
to discover the next big thing. “As
students, we will take everything we learn
and find new answers,” he says. “That’s
our job, to better ourselves, so we can
keep this country and world going, so we
don’t just be OK with the normal. We
have to keep pushing the boundaries.”
PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY Eldona Sainovski and Huda Abuzahrieh build model molecules in Chemistry 101 with Prof. Nick Richardson (left),
while also learning about the social context of chemistry in their First-Year Learning Community.
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�Global Learner
n
al Immersio
n
io
t
a
n
r
e
Int
s Abroad
ternational Studie
In
r
fo
r
te
en
C
he
T
M
eredith Murphy ’16 and
Kendall Kulper ’16 both came
to Wagner College
with a strong desire to spend part
of their college years exploring other
countries. “I’ve always wanted to study
abroad because I loved traveling and
being immersed in new cultures,”
says Murphy.
Yet they are also nursing majors,
completing a curriculum that is not
normally compatible with study abroad
programs. In fact, in recent years, no
nursing majors have studied abroad for a
semester. But Murphy and Kulper were
determined to find a way — and they
did. This semester, the two students are
in Florence, Italy, with the Center for
International Studies (CIS) Abroad, an
organization with which Wagner has a
consortium agreement.
Yes, Firenze — the capital of
Tuscany, the birthplace of the
Renaissance, home of the Medicis
and Machiavelli, a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. Murphy and Kulper
are living there for three months,
taking Italian, history, intercultural
communication, and nutrition — the
last course the key component of
keeping them on track with the Wagner
nursing program. Learning from Italian
professors, Kulper says, gives her a new
perspective on each topic and helps her
to feel immersed in the culture.
Kulper and Murphy expect to come
home better able to serve patients from
diverse backgrounds, whether in the
United States or abroad.
“I have met so many amazing people
and have started to just touch the
surface of what it’s like to be from their
Meredith Murphy and Kendall Kulper in Budapest
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
New York
cultures and societies,” says Murphy,
who has a goal of someday working
with Doctors Without Borders. “After
traveling and studying abroad I will have
the communication skills to be a global
citizen and be mindful of others.”
Liberally
Educated,
Professionally
Prepared
I
n these days of high tuition prices and a
still-lagging economy, students and their
parents have hard questions for higher
education: What are we getting from this
investment of time and money? How can
we ensure that our investment produces
positive short-term and long-term outcomes
for students?
Wagner College takes these questions
seriously, and for years now has taken a
leadership role in developing an educational
plan — the Wagner Plan for the Practical
Liberal Arts — that purposefully guides
students toward learning experiences that
benefit them the most in today’s world.
Last year, the Association of American
Colleges and Universities (of which President
Guarasci is a board member) commissioned
a survey to find out what employers think
college students need to succeed in today’s
economy. The top results align closely with
the educational aims and outcomes of the
Wagner Plan; read about it on page 17.
�Starting a Career Path
Internship at the Clinton Foundation, New York City
T
hree days per week this semester,
Chris DeFilippi ’14 is not
making the short drive from
his Staten Island home to the Wagner
campus for classes.
Instead, the senior major in
government and politics gets dressed up
and boards a Manhattan-bound express
bus at 8 a.m. to arrive at the office of
the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton
Foundation on 125th Street in Harlem
by 10 a.m.
A huge international nonprofit
founded by President Bill Clinton, the
Clinton Foundation employs about 65
interns at its offices and initiatives in
New York City. DeFilippi was placed in
the scheduling department — a position
so privileged that he can’t share any
details about it with Wagner Magazine’s
readers. Suffice it to say, as DeFilippi
points out, that “it’s a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to work for a former
president.” Besides doing a steady stream
of scheduling work in the office, he gets
to attend special events, like the closing
ceremonies of the latest Clinton Global
Initiative meeting, featuring speeches by
Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton; and a
seminar with the former president, held
especially for the interns.
DeFilippi sees this internship as an
important training ground for his career
path. “I wanted to take what I’ve learned
here [at Wagner] — leadership skills,
communication skills — and apply them
to a nonprofit. The Clinton Foundation
is the biggest nonprofit in New York
City.” (In addition, the foundation has
a strong connection to Wagner College
through Laura Graham ’95, who has
served with Bill Clinton since his White
House days and is now his senior advisor
to global programs.)
Why nonprofits? That’s been an
evolution of DeFilippi’s interests. It
started in his First-Year Learning
Community about dissenting voices
in literature and politics. He read
Liberian literature and worked in the
African Refuge Center located near the
Wagner campus, where a large Liberian
immigrant community lives.
Then, as a sophomore, he took
Feminist Political Theory with Professor
Patricia Moynagh. The seminar-style,
discussion-driven class was so engaging,
and the ideas so inspiring, that he has
made the women’s equality movement
his personal focus. As a gay man who
just recently came out, he identifies
with women’s struggles to gain a voice in
society. To that end, he has been working
this semester for another nonprofit with
strong Wagner connections, the women’s
leadership organization Take The
Lead, co-founded by former Planned
Parenthood Federation President Gloria
Feldt and investment banker Amy
Litzenberger, whose husband is Robert
Litzenberger ’64. DeFilippi is building
the group’s social media presence.
“That’s what I do in my spare time —
the very little of it,” he says wryly.
B
ack on campus, he meets
with his Senior Learning
Community’s capstone seminar
and Reflective Tutorial, where all of
his fellow senior majors in government
and politics as well as international
affairs discuss their internships and
work on their senior theses. DeFilippi is
writing about the garment industry in
Bangladesh, compared with sweatshops
in New York City as well as in Milan,
where he studied abroad last year.
“That’s what I like about the Wagner
Plan. Through my learning communities
and also being abroad, I found out there’s
a lot that could be done in the nonprofit
sector, and it could bring about great
change, with more and more people
getting involved.”
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�-
-
-
-
------------------------- -----------------
-
F
our afternoons a week this
semester, the four graduating
philosophy majors are in class
together for their Senior Learning
Community. One part high-level
philosophy seminar, taught by Professor
John Danisi, it’s also an intensive
writing workshop where the students
develop their own theses and learn the
disciplines of critical analysis and
well-honed writing.
And philosophy majors expect no
less, says Professor Sarah Donovan,
who teaches the writing workshop,
or Reflective Tutorial, portion of the
LC. In other majors, seniors complete
internships in businesses or other types
of organizations. “Philosophy majors
want a traditional liberal arts experience,
where they’re focused on intensive
research,” she says. During the spring of
their junior year, they choose their senior
thesis topic, and 100 hours of research
time is required during the summer.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
-
Developing a Voice
Senior Learning Community in Philosophy
One Tuesday afternoon in early
October, the group meets in a small
Main Hall seminar room for the
Reflective Tutorial. The entire class is
focused on dissecting a reading that Julia
Zenker ’14 selected in support
of her thesis, in which she intends to
critique global trade policy’s neglect of
human rights issues and propose “an
ethic of care,” as she calls it.
Sitting at tables facing each other,
the students and their professor work
methodically through the article, first
analyzing its content, and then pointing
out its shortcomings. “This is what
research is,” Donovan remarks. “You
see what someone has done, see what’s
missing, and see what you can build on.”
It’s a helpful and exciting process,
says Zenker. “The research is really
interesting,” she says. “It’s fun and
exciting to develop my own theory. It
doesn’t necessarily have to be something
that has been written about before. I can
take pieces from this author and that
author and put them together and say,
‘This hasn’t been thought about in this
way before, why don’t we start thinking
about it in this way, and this is why we
should do it.’”
Zenker chose to major in philosophy
because she wanted this intensive work
on her reading, writing, and critical
thinking skills in preparation for law
school. At the same time, she has
developed a strong ethical stance on
social justice issues. In her First-Year
Learning Community, she learned
to connect her studies of Spanish
and philosophy with the practical
experience of teaching English to
immigrants. Her paper on the topic,
“The Moral Obligation to People in a
Learning Environment,” was selected for
publication in theWagner Undergraduate
Research Journal.
“I think that really shaped the way
that I think about civic engagement and
�Liberally
Educated,
Professionally
Prepared
According to a survey of employers
(described on page 14), 94 percent say it is
important to provide this type of education:
“Liberal education provides both broad
knowledge in a variety of areas and knowledge in
a specific major or field of interest. It also helps
students develop a sense of social responsibility,
as well as intellectual and practical skills that
span all areas of study, such as communication,
analytical, and problem-solving skills, and a
demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and
skills in real-world settings.”
FRESH THINKING Senior philosophy majors discuss their theses
-------------------------
Outcomes that a large majority of employers
consider important when hiring:
in a writing workshop, part of their Senior Learning Community.
•• •
•
issues of social justice,” she says. “And
that pushed me toward the trajectory of
public interest law.”
••
••
T
his kind of progression, says
Professor Danisi, is the goal of
a Wagner education: students
who become independent thinkers with
their own, distinct viewpoint and voice.
“Whatever occupation you’re in, you’re
dealing with novelty,” he says. “And you
have to come up with a solution and your
boss is going to say, ‘Well, why the hell
are you doing that?’
“At Wagner, we don’t want to turn out
people who are doctoring and lawyering,”
he continues. “We want to turn out moral
agents, or citizens, who are doctoring
and lawyering.”
TEAMWORK Philosophy professors John
Danisi (top) and Sarah Donovan (bottom, left)
lead the two parts of the Senior Learning
Community. Julia Zenker ’14 is in the bottom
picture on the right.
Ethical judgment and integrity
Comfort in working with colleagues,
customers, and/or clients from diverse
cultural backgrounds
Capacity for professional development
and continued new learning
Interest in giving back to
the community
Outcomes on which a large majority of
employers say colleges should place
increased emphasis:
••
•• •
••
•
••
•• •
•
Critical thinking and
analytical reasoning
Complex problem solving and analysis
Written and oral communication
Application of knowledge and skills
in real-world settings
Location, organization, and evaluation
of information from multiple sources
Innovation and creativity
Teamwork skills and the ability to
collaborate with others in diverse
group settings
SOURCE: “It Takes More Than a Major:
Employer Priorities for College Learning and
Student Success” (April 2013). You can view
the full report at aacu.org/leap.
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�How a Wagner
professor and his
wife became the
models for two of
American theater’s
most unforgettable
— and disturbing —
characters
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H , T H I S PAG E : E D I T TA S H E R M A N ; PAG E 1 9 : C O U RT E S Y F R A N K P O L AC H
�WHO’S THE
SOURCE FOR
‘VIRGINIA
WOOLF’?
BILLY ROSE THEATRE
E
very college campus has its
share of funny, sometimes
sensational rumors — stories
about famous professors, quirky
students, haunted secret passageways,
and the like.
Most such legends implode as soon as
they are investigated with the slightest
bit of diligence. So, what about one
particularly juicy Wagner College
rumor that has persisted, decade after
decade: the one about a Grymes Hill
professor and his wife who, the story
says, inspired the characters of George
and Martha, a fictional history professor
and his wife, in Edward Albee’s powerful,
emotionally wrenching drama,Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The play opened on Broadway in
October 1962 and has been a mainstay
of the American theater ever since. It
won the Tony Award for Best Play in
1963 and was further popularized by
the 1966 movie version with Elizabeth
Taylor and Richard Burton. In 2013, a
INSPIRATION Marie Menken and Willard Maas
at home in Brooklyn, 1948.
BY LEE MANCHESTER
50th-anniversary Broadway production
won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play.
“After ‘Virginia Woolf ’ opened,
countless people emerged from
academia claiming to be the models
for George and Martha,” wrote Albee’s
biographer, New York Times drama critic
Mel Gussow. “Often when Albee would
speak on a college campus, … he would
be approached by someone saying, you
must have been writing about so-and-so
and his wife. How did you know them
so well? …
“Albee has always rejected such
ADMIT ONE
Saturday Evening, OCTOBER 13, 1962
T 0003032013
✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯
FRONT MEZZANINE 7:00 P.M.
possibilities, except in one instance.
If anybody inspired George and
Martha, [Albee] said, it was Willard
Maas, a teacher and poet, and his
wife, Marie Menken.”
So, the Wagner rumor does, in fact,
have substance: Willard Maas, a member
of Wagner College’s English department
faculty from 1958 to 1963, and his wife,
Marie Menken, were the real-life models
for two of the most unforgettable — and
disturbing — characters ever produced
by the American theater.
How did this come to be?
�W
illard Maas was born in
1906 on an orange ranch
in California’s Central
Valley. He finished high school and
started college in San Jose, California,
before heading east to New York City
around 1934. Maas quickly established
himself as a poet, although his two books
were met with tepid critical reception.
Maas met and fell in love with Marie
Menken, an abstract artist working
as a secretary for the Guggenheim
Foundation, around 1937. Shortly after
the two were married, they faced a pair
of traumas: Menken miscarried, and
Maas discovered his bisexuality. Though
Maas actively and openly engaged
in affairs with men for years, he and
Menken continued living together as
man and wife, at once combative and
devoted to one another, for the rest of
their lives. In the end, they died within
four days of one another.
In the 1940s, Maas and Menken
shifted the focus of their creativity when
a friend going off to war left them a pawn
ticket for his movie camera. For much
of that decade and the next, Maas and
Menken were two of
the best-known figures
in the avant-garde film
world — and they were
known by even more
artists and intellectuals
for their parties.
“Willard and Marie
were the last of the
great bohemians,” Andy
Warhol remembered.
“They wrote and filmed
and drank (their friends
called them ‘scholarly
drunks’) and were
involved with all the
THE PLAYWRIGHT Edward Albee at his Greenwich Village
apartment, 1963.
modern poets. … The
Maases were warm and
like a lost weekend — well, a found
demonstrative and everybody loved to
weekend for them, because this was
visit them.”
how they could be themselves,” Anger
A onetime roommate, filmmaker
recalled. “Watching their arguments
Kenneth Anger, recalled their frequent,
was a little like watching Punch and
very public fights.
Judy. If I had been able to film their
“They would begin drinking on
fights, I would have had quite a film
Friday and would continue to drink all
because they did the most extraordinary
weekend, and then on Monday morning,
things. Sometimes when they were both
they’d both go back to work and be on
quite drunk, they would get up on this
time for their jobs. Each weekend was
parapet overlooking the skyline of lower
Manhattan and the river. … It was scary,
but also entertaining.”
Anger wasn’t the only person
captivated by Maas and Menken’s
homemade drama. Another frequent
guest in their penthouse on Montague
Street in Brooklyn was the young
playwright Edward Albee.
“He used to come here every time
to eat and just sit and sit and listen
while Willard and I argued. Then he
wrote Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,”
Marie Menken recalled. “That’s
supposed to be me and Willard arguing
about my miscarriage.”
WELL CONNECTED Willard Maas (third
from right) moderates a 1953
symposium, “Poetry and the Film,” for
Cinema 16, an avant-garde film society.
Pictured with him are filmmaker Maya
Deren, Amos Vogel of Cinema 16, film
critic Parker Tyler, playwright Arthur
Miller, and poet Dylan Thomas.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H , B E LOW: A N T H O LO G Y F I L M A RC H I V E S
�WHEN ‘NIMBUS’ EMBRACED
THE CREATIVE FERMENT
OF NEW YORK CITY
Produced under the supervision of faculty
advisor Willard Maas from 1959 through 1964,
the Wagner Literary Magazine (otherwise known
as Nimbus) was an extraordinary publication:
a student-run magazine that featured some of
the biggest names in the artistic and literary
avant-garde of its day.
We’ve compiled, in a single
volume, facsimiles of all four
issues of the WLM, plus a 1963
supplement, X by X. The collection includes a
thoroughly researched introduction. Paperback
copies can be ordered from the Wagner College
History online bookstore, at cost + shipping:
lulu.com/spotlight/wagnercollegehistory
W
illard Maas joined the
English faculty at Wagner
College in 1958. In 1961,
he began serving as faculty liaison to the
New York City Writers Conference, a
10-day workshop that had been held on
the Wagner campus each summer since
1956. Maas invited Albee to lead the
conference’s playwriting program.
One of Albee’s students that summer
was local high school chemistry teacher
Paul Zindel ’58 M’59, and he interviewed
the playwright about his work, including
his work in progress, Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? (see sidebar above). This
interview led off the 1962 issue of
theWagner Literary Magazine — the
same magazine that first published one
of Zindel’s plays, a one-act extract from
his first off-Broadway drama, in 1960.
(Zindel won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
in 1971.)
Willard Maas had taken over the
campus literary magazine shortly after
joining the Wagner faculty. George
Semsel ’59, a Wagner transfer student
from Concordia–New York, recalled how
it all began. Semsel had already known
Marie Menken from a mutual religious
affiliation before her husband appeared
on Grymes Hill.
“When the faculty advisor of the
college literary magazine, then called
Nimbus, went on sabbatical, I was asked
to approach Willard to see if he would
do the job,” Semsel recalls. “He said yes.
One of the first things he did was change
the name of the magazine to the Wagner
Literary Magazine.
“At the time, the Beats were starting to
show up, so he said we should do a whole
issue on the Beat Generation. He said,
‘The thing to do is have several articles
together — one pro-Beat, one anti-Beat,
and one in the middle — and send that
to all the great contemporary literary
figures,’” Semsel says. “Willard had floated
around the New York literary scene
enough that he knew a lot of people. He
could write a personal note to accompany
the so-called ‘Beat Symposium,’ and we
would get their responses — and, no
matter what they were, if the people were
famous, we would publish them.”
From “Interview with
Edward Albee”
By Paul Zindel ’58 M’59 and Loree Yerby,
students in the New York City Writers
Conference at Wagner College
Wagner Literary Magazine, 1962
YERBY: We understand that you are writing
a longer play … called Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? Can you tell us anything about it? …
ALBEE: Well, I always give a very vague answer
to that because I never know what a thing is
about actually until long after I’ve finished it.
The only thing I can tell you about the action
is that it concerns the exorcism of a nonexistent
child, and that most of the last part of the play
is going to be in Latin.
ZINDEL AND YERBY: Oh!
ALBEE: I think it has something to do
with … the substitution of artificial for real
values in this society of ours. It’s sort of a
grotesque-comedy.
The “Beat Symposium,” fueled by the
responses submitted by Willard Maas’s
many literary acquaintances, kicked off
the Wagner Literary Magazine in 1959.
Contributors included such prominent
figures as poet Marianne Moore,
theologian Paul Tillich, critic Lionel
Trilling, and novelist Norman Mailer, as
well as the biggest Beat poets themselves
— Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and
Peter Orlovsky.
Terence Diggory, editor of the
Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets,
says that the WLM was representative of
the New York poetry scene. “The people
who had really made the first splash on
that scene were the Beat poets — and,
of course, theWagner Literary Magazine
starts out with a symposium on the Beats.
… I think [Willard Maas] brought a lot
of notice to the magazine by starting out
with the Beat writers, but then through his
connections in the New York art world
and literary world, he brought in the firstgeneration New York poets, especially
Kenneth Koch, who had connections with
students that he was teaching at the New
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�School, and that led to a connection with
the New York scene.”
The first issue of theWagner Literary
Magazine was notable enough to be
reviewed in Newsweek — and the
magazine only got stronger after Maas
began working with the Writers
Conference, which became the
subject of an extensive feature article
written for Time magazine.
prefaced his poems by apologizing
somewhat disingenuously for not having
written a poem on the spot,” Gooch
writes. “His implication was that writing
poems was not such a casual affair
for him.”
A
gain and again, Maas was
able to capitalize on his
connections in the arts
world in ways that benefited the
college and its students. For instance,
a Main Hall auditorium event Maas
organized in early 1961 became one
of the most talked-about episodes in
recent New York literary history.
“One of [Maas’s] biggest coups
was putting together this poetry
reading for the College’s Winter Arts
Festival,” recalls Gerard Malanga ’64.
“He got Robert Lowell to read for a
pittance and paired him with Frank
O’Hara — amazing, as these were
the polar opposites of the New York
poetry scene at the time. Not only
that, he included Robert Harson [’63]
and me, Wagner undergraduates, to
participate as well. This event was the
jewel in the crown for Willard, and
for me as well.”
Brad Gooch describes the evening
in his biography of O’Hara: “It was
a snowy night on the Staten Island
ferry as O’Hara traveled in the
wintry dark to the reading. He fought
his discomfort by writing ‘Poem’ (“Lana
Turner has collapsed!”), inspired by a
story in the tabloids that day about the
actress’s collapse at a party. His reading
of the occasional poem a few hours
later was a predictable hit with his
amused audience.”
Robert Lowell, however, was not
so amused — in fact, he seems to have
taken offense at O’Hara’s spontaneous
approach to poetry.
“When Lowell began his set, he
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
FILMMAKING Through his relationship with
Willard Maas, Gerard Malanga ’64 became
an assistant to Andy Warhol.
‘Willard and Marie
were the last of the
great bohemians,’
Andy Warhol
remembered.
Events like this, and many others,
contributed to Maas’s reputation on
campus — but it was his presence as
a teacher that really inspired some of
his students.
“My memories come from a single
graduate class I took from Willard
Maas in the summer of 1959,” recalls
Jeff Safford ’56 M’60. “The course was
British literature, focusing on poets
like Gerard Manley Hopkins, the
Jesuit priest, and Stephen Spender,
the Marxist. I can still recite from
memory select lines from the poetry of
both. Maas never revealed an affinity
for either the Marxist or the religious
emphases of Spender and Hopkins, but
he convincingly conveyed his awe of
their use of language. … Willard Maas
[was] unquestionably the most scholarly,
erudite professor I’d ever encountered up
to that point in my collegiate education.”
Bradley Sherman ’65 was particularly
entranced by Maas’s classroom presence.
“He spoke in such a way and was of
such a nature that I couldn’t imagine
where he came from. Certainly not from
this planet. Olympus? How he managed
to show up at Wagner … was a mystery,”
Sherman says. “I opened my notebook to
take notes in his class, listened intently
to write down something he was saying,
thinking it would be on a test — and
when the class was over, the page would
be empty. I asked my brother Lloyd
[Sherman ’62] about it, years later. He
said, ‘Willard never lectured. That was
the whole deal. There were far more
important things to talk about.’”
George Semsel, himself a university
professor later in life, recalls more about
Willard Maas’s classroom methodology.
“His classroom manner was casual,
yet he always spoke with authority.
Often enough, he not only presented
the critical issues surrounding a writer
but made personal observations and
comments along the way — often, based
in personal experiences with the person
under question. His knowledge was
extensive,” Semsel says. “I don’t recall
him reading out of notes or outlines.
Instead, he would come into the class —
often from the Hawk’s Nest, where we
had already started a casual conversation
about literature — and ask, ‘What (or
who) are we talking about today?’ Given
a response (he did supply a syllabus), he
would launch into his views, often with
great joy or, although seldom, with a
sharp criticism of the writer in question.”
This was the presence that led the
editorial staff to dedicate the 1962 issue
of Kallista to Willard Maas.
P H OTO G R A P H : A RC H I V E S M A L A N GA
�‘Virginia Woolf’
Comes Home
Join us for a staged reading
of the opening scene of
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
and a panel discussion about
the play’s connection to
Willard Maas and Marie Menken.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 3 P.M.
WAGNER COLLEGE STAGE ONE
FREE AND OPEN
TO THE PUBLIC
POETS’ SUMMIT In 1961, well-known poets Robert Lowell (left) and Frank O’Hara (center)
read their work at Wagner College, along with students Robert Harson ’63 (bearded) and
Gerard Malanga ’64 (right), all brought together by Willard Maas.
B
ut by the following summer,
the fabric of Maas’s Wagner
experience had started
unraveling. Perhaps it was a personality
conflict with the new English Department
chairman and College president —
Maas had been vigorously supported
by their predecessors. Perhaps it was the
unchecked progression of his alcoholism,
exacerbated by the bipolar disorder that
went untreated until the last year of his
life. Whatever the constellation of reasons,
the 1963 Writers Conference marked
the end of Willard Maas’s sojourn on
Grymes Hill.
Tony Towle, one of the New York
City School poets enrolled in that year’s
conference, remembers a disquieting
conversation he had with a visitor.
“At one of the evening events I asked a
guy whether he was in the playwriting or
fiction classes — because I knew he wasn’t
in poetry,” Towle recalls, “and he said, ‘I’m
not at the conference, I go to the College;
I’m just here to see what Professor Maas is
going to do this time.’”
P H OTO G R A P H : A RC H I V E S M A L A N GA
Maas’s misbehavior at that conference
made it impossible for President Arthur
Davidson to resist the demands from
several key administrators for the
professor’s ouster. Several rounds of
correspondence passed back and forth
across the Atlantic between Davidson
and Maas, who was exhibiting his films
in Europe that summer — but the
inevitable outcome was the resignation
Maas submitted that fall, while he was
officially on leave to work on a new book.
For the next seven years, Maas
continued teaching, with short placements
at Seton Hall, Ricker College (Maine),
and Drake College (Florida). He also
continued making films, several of them
in collaboration with his wife and their
friend, Andy Warhol, with whom Gerry
Malanga began working in 1963.
But, for Willard and Marie, each
passing year seems to have been worse
than the one before. Roger Jacoby, one of
their friends, described their last months
as a “long, drawn-out suicide.”
Finally, in early January 1971, Village
Voice film critic Jonas Mekas had the
unhappy duty of writing an obituary for
his old friends.
“A telephone message told me, Marie
Menken died. She died on December 29.
Two days later, an early morning, we stood
in a small Brooklyn Heights church, a
few friends, and we looked at a coffin, and
Marie Menken lay in that coffin. There
stood Willard Maas, and he was bent and
beaten by grief, and few words were said.
We knew how closely these two human
beings have been together, both in the
struggle of life and in their art. A few days
later, another telephone message said:
Willard Maas died on January 2. Gerard
Malanga passed the message, late at night
at Max’s, and we didn’t want to believe it
yet, though we both admitted that when
we stood there, that morning, in the
church, we both had a feeling Marie and
Willard were going out together.”
And thus passed Wagner College’s own
George and Martha.
May they rest in peace.
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�In his photography,
Arno Rafael Minkkinen ’67
envisions a world where the
impossible becomes possible
RISK MADE VISIBLE
impossible becomes possible
envisions a world where the
Arno Rafael Minkkinen ’67
In his photography,
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�I
n 1988, Arno Minkkinen ’67
was finally able to give up working
as an advertising copywriter and
creative director. He had won a tenured
appointment as associate professor of
art at the University of Massachusetts,
Lowell, securing financial stability for his
family and a platform to practice his art, a
journey he had begun 18 years earlier.
That year, Minkkinen and his wife,
Sandra Hughes Minkkinen ’68, also
bought a house located on Fosters Pond in
Andover, Massachusetts.
The house was old and run-down, but
that didn’t matter. Minkkinen not only
had a secure position as an artist; he had a
muse right out of his back door.
A
Story by Laura Barlament
t dawn on Fosters Pond, the sky
glows pink and mists rise off the
water like spirits. The water is still,
and even the birds are hushed.
Only a couple of houses are visible
from the dock at One White Oak
Drive. A naked man can work alone and
unobserved — just as he wishes. His
purpose, after all, is not to perform or
to scandalize. It is to reveal the timeless
unity of man and nature, while letting the
camera take the picture.
This is basic to Minkkinen’s art: It is
documentary. The images are surreal,
giving the body magical powers. Yet,
there is no post-production manipulation
of the image. What you see in the image
is what happened in front of the
camera’s viewfinder and was captured
by the negative.
So, it is natural to wonder, how did
he do it?
Self-portrait, Fosters Pond, 1989
P H OTO G R A P H , R I G H T: A R N O R A FA E L M I N K K I N E N AT B L AC K M O U N TA I N ,
N O RT H C A RO L I NA , 2 0 1 3 BY D O N N L E V I N E
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�Arno Minkkinen tells the story behind
some of his photos, but not all of them.
Not this one, one of his most beloved
works, “Self-Portrait, Fosters Pond, 1989”
(see pages 24–25), where two arms cross
between two legs in an elegant symmetry
mirrored in the water, on which the body
seems to float.
He did almost give it away,
in the 1995 documentary
“Still Not There.” But, at the
film’s preview, he overheard
the nine-year-old daughter of
his gallery owner whispering
to her mother, “You know,
when I was very little I used
to think he was standing on
a crocodile.”
Minkkinen asked the
director to remove that
scene, saying, “Don’t kill
the crocodile!”
“The role of the artist is to
renew our lives, but also, in
turn, to listen internally to
the song of the child within
us all,” Minkkinen wrote in
an essay about his friend, the
filmmaker Kimmo Koskela.
“Or, as I like to remind my
students, how Brancusi puts
it: ‘Unless we see with the
eyes of a child, we will make
no art.’”
F
timelessness uncomplicated by elaborate
colors or visual sleights of hand.
“They are also timeless because
there is no obvious school or trend
that they attempt to be part of,”
Friedman continues. “There are other
photographers, like Cindy Sherman, who
have turned the camera toward their own
or more than 40 years,
Minkkinen has single- Self-portrait, Fosters Pond, 2000
mindedly pursued
his own unique vision in
bodies, but Arno’s style from his first
photography. The journey has not always
40 years only shows allegiance to his
been easy, and rewards and recognition
own vision and not to a particular
were slow in coming. Yet, he persisted;
school. His work constitutes a
and today, many consider him one of the
groundbreaking contribution to
“rock stars” in the world of photography.
“Arno’s work is very individual,” says his contemporary photography.”
Published and exhibited worldwide,
New York gallerist, Barry Friedman. “His
self-portraits are always nude and in black Minkkinen’s work can be found in
and white, which gives them a feeling of
museums from Boston and New York to
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Paris and Helsinki. Seven monographs
on his work have been published, and he
has had more than 100 solo shows around
the world. “Arno has had more individual
museum exhibitions than most artists
can dream of having in their lifetime,”
notes Friedman.
The year 2013 has been especially
gratifying. During the
summer, Minkkinen had
one of the major shows at
Les Recontres d’Arles, the
prominent international
photography festival in
Provence, France. Then,
at the 11th annual Lucie
Awards for international
photography, held at
Carnegie Hall on October
27, Minkkinen received the
prize for Achievement in
Fine Arts.
But when it comes time
to create new work, it’s still
exactly the way he started —
just his body, his camera, and
his own unique way of seeing
and being in the world. In
the words of his good friend,
the famous photographer
Sally Mann, “Everything he
does is radiant and clever —
but not too clever — and
filled with the impudent joy
of creativity.”
L
ast February, a selection
from the 40 years of
Arno Minkkinen’s
photographic self-portraits were on view
at Lincoln Center, in conjunction with the
Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Dance on
Camera festival. One evening, Minkkinen
was giving a talk about his work before
the screening of scenes from a movie he
wrote and now has in development, with
the working titleThe Rain House.
The gallery was filled with people
�he describes it: “Camera on milk crate,
shutter release in mouth, lower legs until
I think they are in the field of the camera’s
vision, and then I bite.”
One audience member asks him about
a photo in which a hand emerges from
Foster’s Pond, holding a pen poised to
write on the water’s placid surface. How
did he manage to stay under so long that
the water reached complete calm for the
photograph? “There are some things I
don’t tell you,” he replies.
A STAR OF THE SHOW Arno Minkkinen ’67 was a featured artist at the 2013 international
photography festival in Arles, France.
admiring the images and trying to
get a word in with the artist — a tall,
slender man (that we know from the
photographs), whose long, silver hair
hangs below his collar and into his eyes,
while a droopy mustache and long goatee
obscure his mouth. With his square
glasses, gray tweed jacket, jeans, cowboy
boots, and bright blue polka-dotted bow
tie, he looks like a combination of young
hipster and senior professor.
Arno Minkkinen is gentle, friendly,
and unfailingly gracious to all, despite the
fact that he and at least three technical
guys are trying, to no avail, to get his
PowerPoint presentation to project
properly so that he can start his talk.
Finally, he decides to wing it. “Technical
issues can sometimes happen,” he says
philosophically. “You can say that the
computer and projector didn’t wanna
make friends.”
Then Minkkinen starts to tell his story:
He began learning about photography
in 1970, when he was hired to be a
copywriter for a New York City ad
agency that had an account with Minolta.
By 1973, he had become a graduate
student at the Rhode Island School of
Design, and he figured out the basic tenet
of his work: “It’s possible to let the camera
take the picture.”
He began putting himself, exposed
and nude, in all kinds of places — some
of them painful, or even life-threatening.
That’s why, he says, he used his own body
instead of a model; he could never ask
another person to do things like “lean
off a cliff or go under the snow for 15
minutes. But you can do it yourself !”
Working for Minolta, he came up
with the headline, “What happens inside
your mind can happen inside a camera,”
and it became his personal motto as a
photographer as well: Imagining the scene
he wanted, he would set up the camera,
pose his body in front of it, and operate
the remote shutter release to take
the picture.
He often worked early in the morning,
before any other people were awake, he
tells the Lincoln Center audience — as
in the photo “Dead Horse Point, Utah,
1997,” where his legs soar over a canyon
thousands of feet deep. To capture his
image, he put the camera in a crate at the
cliff ’s edge and lay on top of it, holding
the shutter release in his mouth. Or, as
D
uring a conversation in the studio
he designed at his Foster’s Pond
home, he reveals that the picture
was made for the cover of a book entitled
Writing on Water, a collection of essays,
fiction, and poetry published in 2001 by
the MIT Press.
Sandra Minkkinen, his wife and fellow
Wagner English major, was a production
editor at the MIT Press for more than 20
years. Practical, tough, and well-organized,
she guided more than 400 books —
on topics ranging from Romanian
architecture to surveillance technology
— through the editing and production
process during her career.
It’s not at all unusual to see Arno
‘Everything he
does is filled with
the impudent joy
of creativity.’
Minkkinen’s art on and in books. Beneath
a row of windows and another row of
framed photographs in his studio, there
are shelves crammed with books featuring
his work: novels by authors like Charles
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�‘The dream world
fascinated me …
because in the
dream world we
are entirely free.’
Dead Horse Point, Utah, 1997
Bowden and Michel Houellebecq;
photography books (in French, German,
Italian, and Chinese as well as in English);
books about the body, the self-portrait,
light, the black-and-white image,
and more.
In Minkkinen’s life and work, there
has always been a strong connection
to storytelling, metaphor, and symbol.
Perhaps part of what gives him such an
original way of visualizing the world is his
ability to see stories in the raw material
of life — like a beautiful green stove in
another lake house he and Sandra almost
bought, but didn’t when they found out
the stove didn’t come with the house; or
a colorful woven rug that he accidentally
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
left at a Helsinki gallery, and in returning
to retrieve it fell into the conversation that
led to his first job after graduate school.
That green stove, that woven rug are more
than just objects in Minkkinen’s telling:
They become signposts and symbols in
the journey of life.
M
inkkinen’s original artistic
dream, in fact, was to be a
writer. Having immigrated with
his family to Brooklyn from his native
Finland at age six, he dreamed of writing
“the great Finnish-American novel.”
But first, his father had other plans for
him. The elder Minkkinen was a highly,
though idiosyncratically, religious man,
born in Japan to Finnish missionary
parents. He wanted his youngest son, who
was born with a double cleft palate only
partially repaired during his infancy, to
become a missionary.
Attending public schools in Brooklyn,
Minkkinen struggled, especially in
English (not until age 10 did he learn
to read), but he did have a talent for art
and for math, which came easily to him.
Art helped him in school — he kept
his teachers happy making classroom
dioramas and murals, and supplied his
classmates with student government
campaign posters — but math wasn’t
satisfying, he says. “I thought life
was about the subjective, not about
�factual theorems. There was no juice
in mathematics.”
In the summer of 1963, he was
a counselor at Boy Scout camp in
Narrowsburg, New York, when he
hitchhiked to a nearby town to see a
movie — Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2. From
the surreal opening dream sequence to
the wild mix of fantasy and reality that
makes up the plot, it blew young Arno
away. “I never saw anything like it in my
life,” he recalls. “I knew I wanted literature
and wanted to write. I wanted to answer
that film.”
At Wagner, he started to find his way
to that goal. As a sophomore, he started
pursuing his own academic interests,
and declared an English major, instead
of the religion major to which his father
had pushed him. “I just opened up to
academic pursuits, and I loved it.”
His English professors’ teaching was
unforgettable — especially Professor
Thomas Kendris, in seminars on Joyce’s
Ulysses and short-story writing. “Dr.
Kendris brought dozens of characters
from Joyce, Strindberg, and Yeats to life as
if they were actually alive, real folks you
got to know,” he says. To this day, a shelf of
his extended home library — overflowing
with all of Sandra’s books, plus books by
Arno’s touchstone photographers, like
Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Diane Arbus
— contains his well-worn college copies
of Yeats and Joyce.
I
t’s notable that throughout
Minkkinen’s decades of selfportraiture, his face rarely appears
— and when it is present, it’s blurred,
partial, or otherwise obscured. In fact,
his body is constantly disappearing into
the landscape, or the architecture, or the
other person in the picture.
And the most hidden element of
the body is the mouth. That is part of
Minkkinen’s story.
Take, for example, the photo “Sipilä,
1987.” Minkkinen wrote this comment
about that rare image showing his face,
but hiding his mouth: “The face is the
door to the soul, the mouth especially. It
is the source of our speech, our voiced
emotions. In my childhood, the mouth
had even more significance. It was my
Achilles’ heel.”
In his own recounting, his mother’s
first words on seeing him were a scream,
“Take him away!” The gaping hole created
by his cleft palate horrified her. During
his infancy, the palate was corrected
enough to allow him to function, but
Sipilä, 1987
not fully reconstructed. His mother
was so stressed by the ordeal that she
retreated for a time to a sanitarium
to recover. Throughout his early life,
Arno was acutely aware of his mother’s
embarrassment at his “deformity.”
But just as he embraced his own
artistic and intellectual interests at
Wagner College, he began overcoming
his feelings of personal inadequacy as
well. “In my sophomore year,” he writes
in an autobiographical essay, “I decided
to conquer the lip trip and dated only the
most gorgeous girls on campus, a different
�PARTNER Left, Sandra Hughes Minkkinen with some of the 400 books she shepherded through the editing process at the MIT Press;
right, Sandra and Arno studied abroad through Wagner College’s Bregenz Program in Alpine Austria, 1967.
date every weekend.”
For his first attempt, he says, he
determined to throw himself upon the
mercies of one of the most popular girls at
the College. “Would you do me a favor?”
he asked. “Would you go on a date with
me?” She agreed, and being with her
started a revolution in his self-image. He
started asking a different girl for the favor
of a date every weekend, explaining that it
was just for once. He even got a part-time
job to support his new self-therapeutic
habit. “The beauty and the beast, that’s
who we were, that was our secret joke,”
he recalls. “In the backseat of New York
cabs, the most beautiful girls in the world
kissed my scars away.”
The dating carousel stopped when
he met Sandra Hughes. If her opinion
is to be trusted, then Arno’s appearance
was not as beastly as he perceived it to
be. For her, he was a dream date — tall
and blond and Nordic, her very image
of attractiveness. They married in 1969,
and worked to make their relationship
as egalitarian as possible, she just as
committed to her career as an editor as he
was to his career as an artist. In fact, for
her sake, in 1986 Arno turned down an
offer to become a distinguished professor
of art in Finland. The family — which by
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
then included their young son, Daniel —
returned to the United States instead, and
Arno went back into advertising work for
several more years.
During his college years and later in his
20s, Minkkinen underwent further dental
treatments and surgeries, attempting “to
replace my crazy smile with something
more normal.” But, the lingering pain of
his mother’s reaction to his appearance
continued to influence his work. A former
‘Beauty and pain
are inseparable.’
student of Arno’s, Chehalis Hegner
(now a colleague at the University of
Massachusetts Lowell), sees pain
at the heart of Minkkinen’s work. “His
work for me is about — sure there’s
the irony and surreal sense of threedimensional space — but for me it was
the subtle calling out to be seen, and a
recognition of the body in pain. The
body can be a metaphor for what’s
happening internally.”
“Beauty and pain are inseparable,”
Minkkinen himself writes, “as are the
polarities of living and dying that guide
all of us eventually to that certain terror
and grace at the end.”
T
error and grace are also the
polarities that impel Minkkinen’s
photography. Or, as another one
of his personal mantras says, “Art is risk
made visible.”
In a work of art, he explains, “We need
to see the risk that somebody is taking.
We need to see where the conflict is
that makes this work viable. Where are
you willing to be fragile and show the
insecurity of a chance, to do something
that hasn’t been done before?”
Minkkinen’s art thrives in a space
where the real and the imagined intersect
— where documentary practice meets
an imagination of unending fertility and
a willingness to do whatever it takes to
make the impossible come to life.
“The dream world fascinated me more
than anything else, because in the dream
world we are entirely free,” Minkkinen
has written. “Things happen there that
rarely happen in real life. You get to kiss
�Wagner College, 2013
King of Fosters Pond, 2013
beautiful women, fall off mountain cliffs
and live.”
During the past year, it seems as if
the hard-fought courage to embrace
the song of the child within himself has
reached a new phase: Full views of his
face are emerging from his dream world
landscapes. “Life is an arc,” he says. “My
latest work is the strongest.” Also opening
new possibilities in his artistic practice is
his recent embrace of a digital camera.
Finally convinced that raw digital images
are as reliably documentary as film
negatives, he is also enjoying features that
this new technology provides, such as a
shutter timer that can be programmed
to shoot several images in a row while
he holds a difficult pose in front of
the camera.
“The work is nothing less than
exquisite, and inventive, and relentlessly
questing down this vision that he has
within himself,” says Virginia Morrison,
executive director of the Society for
Photographic Education, of which
Minkkinen is a longtime member.
“He doesn’t compromise ever on
the craftsmanship. And he never
stops working.”
And now, he is ready to show his face.
�Inside Sports
WAGLITE
MAKING HISTORY On September 6, 2013, 2,634
fans witnessed the first-ever night game at
Hameline Field. The Merrimack Warriors eked
out a 42-41 victory over the Seahawks.
Hameline Field’s illumination beams new energy into athletic programs
By Cormac Gordon
I
t was a landmark evening
on campus.
Not just because of the
startling dusk-pink skies, either,
or the changing leaves and
electric views across the Narrows.
On this night, Wagner would host
Sacred Heart University in the first
Northeast Conference soccer game
played under the new lights that now
tower over Hameline Field.
And nursing student Sydney
McCarthy ’15 was excited.
Like many fellow team members
studying in the nursing and physician
assistant programs, McCarthy’s days
are crammed with class work and offcampus clinical sessions.
Soccer practice is not priority No. 1.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
“A lot of players used to miss
[practices] because of their classes
and clinical schedules,” the scrappy
midfielder was saying after the Seahawks
defeated SHU 5–2 on the Friday
evening in early October. “It affected
the way we played. For us, this has
changed everything.”
McCarthy is a perfectionist
by nature.
“She has that extra something,” is
longtime Wagner coach Mike Minielli’s
take on her. “Sydney’s a very, very
competitive kid.”
That personality trait explains
McCarthy’s meticulous approach to
preparation for the night game.
“The ball comes at you differently
at night under the lights,” she explains.
“You have to get used to the way it looks
when it’s in the air.”
But once you get the feel?
“It’s great,” she declares.
In fact, the new lights have been an
improvement in ways the junior had
never imagined before they were there.
“Everything is so much easier for us
now,” she points out. “We can practice
at night after classes. We don’t have to
worry all week about not being able to
be there.”
But improved team scheduling isn’t
the only benefit of the $600,000 project.
“More of our friends around campus
can come to the games now,” she says.
“And because we get to play on Friday
nights, it’s more convenient for our
families to come to see us.”
P H OTO G R A P H S : DAV I D SA F F R A N
S
L
B
T
N
�{
Quote
Unquote
“I can’t be lazy. … My mom worked
three jobs so I could go to private school
growing up. How do I wake up and say
going to teach for two hours
and coming here to coach is hard?”
STADIUM 220
LIGHTS 72
1500
BY
THE 108,000
NUMBERS 90
{
Bashir Mason M’13,
men’s basketball
head coach,
New York Times,
October 17, 2013. While
coaching, Mason did
his student teaching
and earned his
master’s in
elementary
education.
individual donors
gave to the project
Then there’s the bottom line: “We’re a
much better team because we can have
everyone together more,” says Minielli.
“And it’s more fun for the students. Plus,
there’s no question there’s more energy
for night games, and soccer is sport that
thrives on energy.”
Soccer, maybe not coincidentally, had
one of its best seasons in years this fall,
setting school records for most overall
wins (11) as well as most non-conference
(7) and most conference wins (4).
But it isn’t the only sport affected
in such a positive way by the alumni
gift that has been years in the making
— the foundations for the lights were
installed seven years ago. Football and
lacrosse, as well, have gotten a real boost
from the scheduling flexibility and the
practice freedom of added field time.
Lacrosse often practices at 6:30 in the
morning. “Sometimes, we’d have to wait
for the sun to come up,” says coach
light bulbs illuminate
Hameline Field
watts per bulb
watts total
feet in height
Matt Poskay.
Now Poskay simply hits a switch.
“It’s brought a whole new dimension
to campus life,” associate athletic
director Peg Hefferan said while
watching the win over Sacred Heart on
the picture-perfect Friday evening.
That, according to involved alum
Marc Lebovitz ’91, was the goal.
Lebovitz, a long snapper on the
Division III national championship
football team of 1987, helped with the
fundraising effort for the lights.
He comes from the era when Wagner
football was practiced on the old
baseball field where Foundation Hall
now stands.
There were no lights for evening
games, and no turf football field that
could be used for practices without
fear of tearing up the grass. There was
no real locker room, either; just some
cramped space in the basement of tiny
Sutter Gym.
“It’s always been about the students,”
says the College Board of Trustees
member and president of Romark
Logistics. “Just like the turf field and
the new scoreboard, the idea was to
accommodate the needs of the
student-athletes.”
The light towers have also made life
easier for Walt Hameline, and not just in
his role of football coach.
“The biggest change is in the time
allotments for the various activities,”
says the College’s athletic director. “Now
students aren’t rushed when they come
to practice. They can get there early to
work out, and stay late if they want to.”
For Wagner athletic team members,
the new field availability has even caused
something of a buzz on campus.
“All the kids have been talking about
it,” says McCarthy, the soccer player.
“Everyone loves it.”
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�Falling in
Love with
the First-Ever
Homecoming
Fall Festival
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
We tried something new for
Homecoming this year, and by all
accounts it was a success. Before the
game, the Oval served as the pictureperfect backdrop for the Homecoming
Fall Festival, drawing more than 600
alumni, students, faculty, staff, parents,
and children for great music, games,
food, and drink. The Sons of Origin,
featuring Dorian Lake ’02, Anthony
Babino ’09, Christopher Sabol ’12 and
Steven Babino ’13, rocked the crowd
while our guests feasted on some of
Staten Island’s best eats, from Alfonso’s
Pastry Shoppe, Clove Road Bagels,
Cucumber Sushi & Salad Bar, Jimmy
Maxx, Joe & Pat’s, John’s Restaurant &
Pizzeria, Lorenzo’s, Marie’s Gourmet,
Moe’s Southwest Grill, Muscle
Maker Grill, Hungry Sombrero, and
Lackmann Culinary Services, Wagner’s
own dining contractor. We’ll be building
on this new format for next year and
making it even bigger and better — so
stay tuned for announcements about
Homecoming 2014!
PHOTOGR A PHS : V I N NI E A M E S SÉ
�Upcoming
Events
Alumni Association
Philip Straniere ’69 Filing and Winning Small Claims for
Dummies (Wiley, 2013) Philip Straniere, the supervising judge
in Staten Island Civil Court, has been called “the bard of the
Staten Island courts,” known for his “entertaining judicial
writing” (according to a 2011 profile in the New York Times ).
Now he has written a layman’s guidebook to success in small
claims court. If you are in the midst of a minor conflict, or think
you may be someday, check it out.
June 13–15
Paul J. Bailo ’90 The Essential Digital Interview Handbook
(Career Press, 2013) “Like it or not, digital interviews are
an increasing reality,” writes Forbes blogger Cheryl Conner.
Paul Bailo’s book provides tips for how to handle these types
of interactions successfully via Skype, Google Hangout,
GoToMeeting, and more.
May 22, 4 p.m.
Reunion Weekend
Celebrate a lifetime of memories!
For alumni of all class years, with
special recognition for class years
ending in a 4 or a 9.
Campus Events
Baccalaureate
May 23, 10 a.m.
Commencement
Music
February 22, 12 p.m.
Black History Month Concert
Alumni Link
flashback
Wagner College Choir at First Central
Baptist Church, Staten Island
February 26, 8 p.m.
Choral Tribute to Black Music
Music Performance Center
March 3, 8 p.m.
Concert Band Concert
Concert Band Concert
Staten Island Technical High School
March 9, 4 p.m.
Home Choral Concert
Home Choral Concert
Trinity Lutheran Church, Staten Island
March 13–21
College Choir Florida Tour
March 13, 7 p.m.,
Hope Lutheran Church, The Villages
March 14, 7 p.m.,
Redeemer Lutheran Church, Bradenton
Wagner College Seahawk Marching Band, ca. 1969
This photo, which identifies the proud drum major as Craig Ferrari ’71, came from a
scrapbook dating to the years 1968–70, when the band was directed by James W. Hubert.
The first marching band was formed at Wagner in the years immediately after World War
II. Highlight performances included the halftime show of a Giants NFL game in 1970 and the
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1971. By 1976, however, the ensemble had ceased to exist
— until this year, when it was revived under the direction of Jose Diaz. (See story, page 11.)
Do you have ideas for “Flashback”? Contact us at 718-390-3147 or laura.barlament@wagner.edu.
March 15, 7 p.m.,
Faith Lutheran Church, Sarasota
March 16, 4 p.m.,
Shepherd of the Glades Lutheran
Church, Naples
March 17, 7 p.m.,
St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church,
Port St. Lucie
March 18, 7 p.m.,
St. Andrew Episcopal Church, Fort Pierce
March 19, 7 p.m.,
Redeemer Lutheran Church, Winter Park
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�Alumni Link
Who in the Wagner World Was... Bradford G. Corbett?
Better known as Brad Corbett ’60, the Bronx native was impossible not to know,
in circles from New York to Texas and beyond. He came to Wagner College in 1957,
transferring after a semester at Siena. He majored in economics, but (by his own
admission, in a 1979 commencement address) was remembered more as an
Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity brother and intramural football and basketball nut than
as an academic whiz. At Wagner, he met Gunnie Grunde ’60, an education major
and homecoming queen, and they married right after graduation.
He served three years in the U.S. Marine Corps and then went to work for
Allied Chemical Corporation. In 1967, he left Allied Chemical with a couple of his
colleagues and started his own business of manufacturing PVC pipe in Fort Worth,
Texas. Universal Pipe and Plastics Inc., which he launched with a $300,000 Small
Business Loan, quickly took off the ground. It merged with Robintech and became
a $50 million business in the early 1970s, claiming the title of the largest PVC pipe
manufacturer in the world.
Then came Major League Baseball. With a group of investors, of which he was the principal, Corbett bought the Texas
Rangers in 1974. He breathed new life into the franchise, packing the stadium but eventually also angering fans by his
penchant for trading players and firing managers. However, over his six seasons of ownership, the team progressed from a
losing record to four winning seasons, including two second-place finishes in the American League West. He was friends with
George Steinbrenner, the legendary Yankees owner to whom he is often compared. After selling his share in the Rangers in
1980, he started another company, which became the world’s largest supplier of pipe-sealing systems.
Corbett took great pride in Wagner College. He received the Alumni Achievement Award in 1972 and served on the Board
of Trustees twice (1972–80, 1986–89).
He died on December 24, 2012, and his funeral was attended by friends from around the world. “He was a very
creative, visionary kind of person, and good at fulfilling his ideas, and very hard-working,” says Gunnie Corbett. “Like many
entrepreneurs, his business was his life.”
Contact Editor Laura Barlament at laura.barlament@wagner.edu or 718-390-3147 with suggestions for “Who in the Wagner World Was…?”
Travel the World with
Wagner Alumni and Friends
Classic China & the Yangtze
September 2–15, 2014
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Comprehensive in scope yet briefer in
duration than many China tours, this
relaxed, well-paced journey combines
monumental Beijing, a cruise on the
fabled Yangtze River, fascinating Xian,
and cosmopolitan Shanghai in a small
group setting (limited to 24 travelers).
Pricing starts at $4,334 inclusive of air
(from LAX or SFO), hotels, and most
meals. This trip is hosted by the Wagner
College Alumni Association, and
operated by Odysseys Unlimited Inc.
Learn more at wagner.edu/alumni
�Seahawk Happenings
Wagnerians getting together across the world
Upcoming
Events
Music
April 8, 7 p.m.
Percussion Ensemble Concert
Music Performance Center
April 27, 4 p.m.
Treble Concert Choir
Trinity Lutheran Church,
Staten Island
April 30, 8 p.m.
Guitar Ensemble Concert
Music Performance Center
May 1, 8 p.m.
Jazz Ensemble’s Spring Concert
Music Performance Center
May 4, 4 p.m.
Duruflé Requiem
Alumni Link
A Wagner Welcome: Last summer, Wagner hosted get-togethers for new students and
their families. Pictured here is the Datta family — incoming Wagner student Adrienne
’17 and her brother Kenneth with their parents, Susan and Subrata, and President
Guarasci. This event was held at the home of John and Michele Sciarra, parents of
John Sciarra ’06 and Justin Sciarra ’13, in Newport Beach, California. Diane Iafe
Baldo ’84 hosted another gathering in Colts Neck, New Jersey.
College Choir at Trinity Lutheran
Church, Staten Island
May 6, 8 p.m.
Vocal Jazz Set
Music Performance Center
May 10, 4 p.m.
Concert Band’s Spring Concert
Main Hall Auditorium
Theatre
February 26–March 9
The Drowsy Chaperone
Main Stage
March 4–9
On Tour: Last March, the Wagner College Choir toured seven cities in Germany and
Austria. Pictured here: Warming up at the Salzburg Cathedral under the direction
of Roger Wesby, current students and choir alumni Kathryn Arn ’72, Lisa Bennett
’85, Diane Mathisen ’79, Victoria Opthof-Cordaro ’06, Lauren Patsos ’07, Jacob
Shoesmith-Fox ’09, Steven Taylor ’11, Anthony Babino ’09, Jonathan Caro ’09,
and Dorian Lake ’02.
Alumni Connections: Two groups met in July in far-flung parts of the country: Rita King
’62, past president of the Wagner College Alumni Association, helped organize an alumni
happy hour in Scottsdale, Arizona, bringing out 13 alumni and friends for drinks, food,
and conversations; and the alumni of Delta Nu, in particular Levent Bayrasli ’90 and
A. J. Palumbo ’08, hosted the 13th annual Delta Nu alumni golf outing in Old Bridge,
New Jersey, drawing 48 alumni and friends. On September 14, the Seahawks traveled
to the Carrier Dome to face the Syracuse Orange. More than 115 alumni, parents, and
Seahawk fans traveled from as far as Florida and California for a pre-game party.
My Soldiers
Stage One
April 23–May 4
Carousel
Main Stage
April 29–May 4
The Dance Project
Stage One
For more information,
registration, and tickets:
Alumni Relations 718-390-3224
Music Department 718-390-3313
Theatre Box Office 718-390-3259
Be there next time we’re in your neighborhood! Stay informed about upcoming
events by visiting wagner.edu/alumni/events
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�1949
The Rev. Harald Kuehne wrote of the
passing of his wife, Britta Woodbury
Kuehne ’50, on July 9, 2013. “We
met at Wagner in 1948, Britta an
English major, I a World War II vet.
Married November 23, 1950.” They
had three sons (one of whom died in
1959) and four grandchildren. Harald
is a retired pastor in Oceanside, N.Y.
1960
hosted his
Kappa Sigma Alpha fraternity
brother, Tonnes Stave ’58, at his
home in Puerto Rico last January.
Kenneth lives in Cross River, N.Y.,
and is retired from the New York
City Board of Education. He taught
history and social studies at
Stevenson High School.
Kenneth Hodgins
1962
Dr. Beverly Whipple , along
with many family members and
colleagues, attended the inauguration
of the Center for Sexology Research:
Dra. Beverly Whipple at the
University of Puebla, Mexico, in
October 2013. The university named
the center in honor of Beverly’s
many contributions to education
and research on women’s health and
sexual physiology.
1966
Dr. Robert Allwyn White wrote in
August that he recovered from a
major heart event. Now retired, he
lives in Asheville, N.C. Nevertheless,
he continues to teach at a local
college, and he is the co-owner of a
stained glass business specializing in
prairie glass and Frank Lloyd Wright
designs. “At 70,” he writes, “I wish all
from Wagner a wonderful journey.”
1968
’68 H’08 was profiled
on NJ.com as he prepared to retire
this winter after 13 years as CEO and
Kurt Landgraf
32
WA G N E R M A G A Z I N E
WA G N E R M A G A Z I N E
president of the Educational Testing
Service. During his tenure, the article
said, he turned ETS around from a
“near-bankrupt nonprofit fumbling
its mission to a $1.6 billion global
concern.” ETS conducts 50 million
tests in 180 countries annually. Kurt
and his wife, Rita Landgraf, will live
in Delaware, where she is secretary of
the state’s Department of Health and
Social Services.
1969
announces that
her second book, Seedlings, Stories
of Relationships, is coming out in
February 2014. Her first book,
Thinking of Miller Place, was published
in 2007. Find out more at her website,
etheleemiller.com.
Ethel Lee-Miller
1971
for spot news presentation from the
New York State Associated Press
Association in 2013. The awards were
presented for two front pages Claire
designed for the Advance in the week
after Hurricane Sandy. Her first-place
award is for the front page published
on October 30, 2012. Her headline,
“It feels like the end of the world,”
conveyed how she and many Islanders
felt as the city shut down and the
storm arrived. Her November 1,
2012, front page design won
third place.
1982
Randy De Meno , chief technologist
for CommVault, was recognized as a
Top 25 Innovator by the tech industry
website CRN, as part of its ranking
of the Top 100 Executives of 2013.
Randy helped CommVault come to
market with the latest version of its
data management software platform,
Simpana 10, in March.
1983
became special
agent in charge of the U.S. State
Department’s Diplomatic Security
Service’s New York Field Office on
September 30, 2013. In this role,
he oversees all operations at one of
Diplomatic Security’s largest and
most active domestic field offices.
He previously served as executive
director for the Overseas Security
Advisory Council, a public/privatesector partnership created in 1985
to promote security cooperation
between the U.S. Department of
State and U.S. private-sector
interests worldwide.
David J. Schnorbus
’71 M’79 is serving
on the curriculum committee for
lifelong learning at Molloy College in
Rockville Centre, N.Y.
Leland Jacob
1973
and his wife, Terry,
celebrated their 35th wedding
anniversary in June 2013 and
became grandparents to their lovely
granddaughter, Madison Grace,
in 2012. Madison was born to
their daughter, Marissa, and her
husband, Kevin.
Will Yozaites
1978
Gary T. Lombardo ’78 M’81 has
retired after 27 years in the New
York City Police Department, at the
rank of sergeant special assignment.
Along with his wife, Nedra, who is a
New York City police sergeant, and
daughter Sabrina, Gary has relocated
to Holly Springs, N.C.
1980
Claire Regan , associate managing
editor of the Staten Island Advance,
won the first and third place awards
Ensign Keri Muse ’13, one of the U.S. Navy’s newest mental health
nurses and a graduate of Wagner’s Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing,
poses with her roommate on the flight deck of the USNS Comfort, a
Navy hospital ship.
�1989
won an Honorable
Mention in the Penelope Niven
Creative Nonfiction Award
competition, conducted by Salem
College’s Center for Women Writers.
The award was given for a chapter
from Maria’s memoir-in-progress.
Maria Giura
1990
Patricia Amis , a licensed social
worker, has found a way to encourage
domestic violence survivors, donate
money to charities that assist victims,
and run a for-profit business at the
same time. She developed a logo,
symbolic of empowering these
survivors, which she applied to a
line of sportswear for women called
Snatched from the Fire Sportswear.
Each item bears the logo, which
reads, “SFTF Living Lives Beyond
the Sidelines.”
Dr. Christina Klein and Dr. Diane
Klein ’99, sisters who share a dental
practice in Staten Island, were
recognized by the Oral Cancer
Foundation with an award for
their contributions to the early
detection of the disease process
and for maintaining the highest
standards of dental practice. They
have also received Congressional
and Senatorial recognition for their
dedication and commitment to the
Staten Island community. Pia Wilson
wrote her first sci-fi play, Dominant
Gene, and it received a staged reading
at Urban Stages last August.
and her partner, Nicole
Anzuoni, are delighted to welcome
their daughter, Charlotte Elise
Kelley-Anzuoni, born on March 29,
2013. See Crib Notes, page 40, for
a photo.
Gail Kelley
2001
Bret Shuford ’s success on the
1999
Joe Balsamo , a former Seahawk
football player, combined his interests
in sports and technology to create a
free fantasy football app, RotoPop
(www.rotopop.com). Unlike other
fantasy games, RotoPop allows you to
play single NFL games. Dubbing it
a “must-have app” for football lovers,
an online review says, “The premise
is simple: pick a game, challenge a
player, draft a team, then sit back,
relax and enjoy the game.” It was
also reviewed in a technology news
segment on the History Channel
that aired in November. Dr. Diane
Klein and Dr. Christina Klein ’93,
sisters who share a dental practice
in Staten Island, were recognized by
the Oral Cancer Foundation with an
award for their contributions to the
early detection of the disease process
and for maintaining the highest
standards of dental practice. They
have also received Congressional
and Senatorial recognition for their
dedication and commitment to the
Staten Island community.
stage led him to a role alongside
Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew
McConaughey in a major motion
picture of 2013, The Wolf of Wall
Street, directed by Martin Scorsese.
During the past year or so, Bret
has worked with some of the most
successful actors in show business.
In October 2012, Bret sang with
Anne Hathaway, Harvey Fierstein,
Linda Lavin, Audra McDonald,
Raul Esparza, and others at the Joe’s
Pub fundraiser, Perfectly Mahvelous.
Earlier in 2013, Bret shared the
stage with John Waters, Mickey
Dolenz, Beth Leavel, and others in
the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
premiere of Hairspray in concert.
Bret hosts a weekly musical variety
show, Nerdgasm, at Ktchn restaurant
in the Out Hotel on 42nd Street
(Nerdgasmshow.com). He also has
a successful YouTube channel and
blog, and in November 2013 he
premiered his solo show, Charming:
A Tale of an American Prince, at the
Duplex Cabaret. Bret lives with his
spouse, actor and principal ballet
dancer Stephen Hanna, in their
home in the East Village.
2002
2000
Janet Anne Wolter Rumble ’00
M’02 and her husband, Morgan
Rumble, welcomed their first child,
Vivian Leigh, on July 14, 2013. See
Crib Notes, page 40, for a photo. Frank
2004
was named
the associate education director at
Roundabout Theatre Company in
June 2013. Since joining Roundabout
in 2005, she created the Student
Production Workshop, a studentled theater company modeled
after Roundabout’s professional
production process. Last summer, she
co-chaired the national conference
for the American Alliance for
Theatre and Education, and she
joined AATE’s Board of Directors
in July. Erika Hellstrom M’04, who
is vice president of development
and executive director of the
Richmond University Medical
Center Foundation, returned to the
Wagner campus in November for a
panel discussion of alumni non-profit
professionals. Renée Marino , who
played Mary Delgado in Jersey Boys
on Broadway last summer, was cast
in the same role in the big-screen
adaptation, directed by Clint
Eastwood and set to be released in
summer 2014.
Jennifer DeBruin DiBella
2006
’06
M’07 M’10 is the performing arts
department coordinator for PS
30 in Staten Island. The school’s
unusual and thriving performing arts
curriculum was featured in the Staten
Island Advance on October 16, 2013.
Wagner first-year students who are
Dana Guariglia Baranello
and his wife, Meg,
welcomed son Jack on March 28,
2013. The family lives in Oswego,
N.Y., where Jerry works as a major
gifts officer at SUNY Oswego.
Christopher Kline ’02 M’04 and
Jerome Jaworski
’07
announce the birth of Alexandra
Marie on July 4, 2013. Katie McAvoy
and her husband, Peter Caras,
welcomed their second daughter,
Blake Marie Caras, on May 26, 2013.
See Crib Notes, page 40, for photos.
Francie Kontominas Kline
Alumni Link
1993
1997
’00 M’02 and Kara McGann
’07 M’09 were married on March 2,
2013, at the Royal Manor in Garfield,
N.J. See Knot Notes, page 41, for
a photo.
Cafasso
Keep in Touch!
Email: alumni@wagner.edu
Web: wagner.edu/alumni
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Wagner College, One Campus Road, Staten
Island, NY 10301
Deadlines: This issue reflects news received
by November 20, 2013. The submission deadline
for the Summer 2014 issue is June 1.
Content: Wagner welcomes your news and
updates, and we will happily share them with
the Wagner family. We ask that you send
us announcements of weddings, births, and
graduations after the fact.
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner groups
at weddings and other special events. With the
photo, send the names and class years of all
alumni pictured; birth date, parents’ names,
and class years with photos of children; and
dates and locations of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos must
be clear and of good quality. Prints should be
on glossy paper with no surface texture; they
will be returned at your request (please attach
your address to the photo). Digital photos must
be jpegs of at least 250 pixels per inch;
low-resolution photos converted to a higher
resolution are not acceptable.
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�Crib Notes
1
2
5
3 4
1. Janet Anne Wolter Rumble ’00 M’02 and her husband, Morgan Rumble, welcomed their first child, Vivian Leigh Rumble, on
July 14, 2013. 2. Christopher Kline ’02 M’04 and Francie Kontominas Kline ’07 announce the birth of Alexandra Marie Kline on
July 4, 2013. 3. Katie McAvoy ’02 and her husband, Peter Caras, welcomed their second daughter, Blake Marie Caras, on May 26,
2013 4. Gail Kelley ’97 and her partner, Nicole Anzuoni, are delighted to welcome their daughter, Charlotte Elise Kelley-Anzuoni,
born on March 29, 2013. 5. Rebecca Colucci Kelly ’06 and her husband, Samson Kelly, announce the birth of Ryan Daniel Kelly
on June 26, 2013.
We’d love to see your baby’s face.
Please see page 39 for publication guidelines.
2006 cont.
taking public speaking with Professor
David McDonald come to the school
to teach the rudiments of theatrical
performance. Rebecca Colucci Kelly
and her husband, Samson Kelly,
announce the birth of Ryan Daniel on
June 26, 2013. Rebecca continues her
work at Wagner’s Office of Alumni
Relations. See Crib Notes, above, for a
photo. Malual “Joseph” Thuc and his
wife, Martha Deng, came to campus in
August to get a copy of his transcript
and diploma notarized. They were
planning to return to Africa to live
and work. They have been living in
Philadelphia with their three young
daughters, while Malual earned his
master’s at Villanova.
2007
’07 M’11
ran the 2013 New York Marathon
in 4:22:16. He works for Wagner’s
Center for Health and Wellness as a
peer educator advisor and counselor.
Andrew Keating has launched a small
publishing company, Cobalt Press,
based in Baltimore. They publish a
literary review and books, and also
sponsor writing prizes. Learn more
at www.cobaltreview.com. Francie
Kontominas Kline and Christopher
Kline ’02 M’04 announce the birth
of Alexandra Marie on July 4, 2013.
See Crib Notes, above, for a photo. Kara
McGann ’07 M’09 and Frank Cafasso
’00 M’02 were married on March 2,
2013, at the Royal Manor in Garfield,
N.J. See Knot Notes, page 41, for
a photo.
Christopher Flanigan
2008
Ashley Foley married Greg Avola
on September 28, 2012, in New
Haven, Conn. See Knot Notes,
page 41, for a photo.
2009
gave a presentation
on her doctoral research at Wagner
in October 2013. “It Takes Guts:
Intestinal Homeostasis Promotes
Longevity in Drosophila” was the title
of her talk. She is a Ph.D. student in
biomedical science at the University
of Connecticut Health Center.
Ryan Rogers
2010
started a Ph.D.
program in American history at
Nicole Mahoney
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
the University of Maryland-College
Park last fall. Previously, she spent
a year in Paris studying French
literature in a master’s program
with Columbia University.
2011
Avery Miller , who is an
assistant account executive for
media relations at the Partnership
at Drugfree.org, returned to the
Wagner campus in November
for a panel discussion of alumni
non-profit professionals.
2012
Janine Serio , who is a development
coordinator at the Partnership at
Drugfree.org, returned to the Wagner
campus in November for a panel
discussion of alumni non-profit
�professionals. Allison Smeck taught
English in France last year, and this
year she is teaching second grade at
Brooklyn Ascend Lower School, a
charter school in Brownsville, where
she named her classroom in honor of
Wagner College.
2013
Neal Fessler , who did his senior
OUR STRENGTH IS IN
THE WAGNER FAMILY
Wagner is family — for students like
Carolyn Savoia ’17 (pictured with her parents,
Joe and Catherine Flanagan ’83 Savoia),
and for every alumnus and alumna, every parent and friend:
You are all part of the Wagner family.
Your gift to the 2013–14 Wagner Fund will help
the family tree grow and flourish.
Everyone. Every Year.
MAKE A GIFT.
Alumni Link
internship at The Late Show with
David Letterman, was hired by the
show as a corporate staff assistant. As
a graduation present, he was given the
#2 spot in Letterman’s May 22 Top
10 list, “Things I’ve learned as a ‘Late
Show’ intern.” Watch it on YouTube
by searching “Late Show Intern Top
10.” Michael Lebovitz M’13 launched
a new business, Product Cycler, a
website that provides users the ability
to organize documentation about all of
the products they own. In a story
about it in the Westfield Patch, Michael
explained the system this way: “By
organizing your products on our site,
we are able to let you know what
products will work with yours, when
your products or warranties are due to
expire, and what you would like next
when your current product’s life cycle
finally runs out. Basically, Product
Cycler allows you to organize the
information you need to make smarter
and better buying decisions.” Check it
out at www.productcycler.com. Jamie
Lynn Macchia won the Miss Staten
Island pageant — again. She was
crowned Miss Staten Island 2012,
and now she is serving in the same
role again for 2014, the first person
ever to win the contest twice.
According to the Staten Island Advance,
“Pageant winners often re-enter local
pageants to get more than one try
at the Miss New York crown and,
ultimately, the Miss America title.”
Patrick O’Connor was named assistant
defensive backs coach of the Wagner
College football team for the 2013
season. Carl-Olivier Primé was drafted
in October 2013 by the Canadian
Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats
in Hamilton, Ontario.
wagner.edu/give • 1-888-231-2252
Knot Notes
Ashley Foley ’08 married Greg
Avola on September 28, 2012, in
New Haven, Conn. Jeff Greiner
’07 (third from left), Elizabeth
Mele ’07 (fourth from left), and
Courtney Donahue ’08
were part of the celebration.
1
Kara McGann ’07 M’09 and
Frank Cafasso ’00 M’02 were
married on March 2, 2013, at the
Royal Manor in Garfield, N.J. This
celebration was a real Wagner family
affair — about 50 alumni and staff
attended, and six members of the
bridal party were alumni.
Have a wedding photo with “Wagner family”?
Please see page 39 for publication guidelines.
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�UNCOMMON LIVES
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Scott Barnhardt ’01
Being Part of a Broadway Megahit
CLAIM TO FAME: Scott Barnhardt ’01
performs in the ensemble, and serves
as the assistant dance captain, for the
megahit Broadway musical The Book
of Mormon, which won the Tony for
Best Musical and eight other categories
in 2011.
it uses the Mormon religion to make
a bigger statement about the natural
evolution of religion in general. What I
love more than anything about the show
is that it gets people talking about faith,
how it works in their lives and what it
does for them.”
GETTING THE GIG: In August 2010,
Barnhardt was busy performing and
choreographing for regional theaters,
when he was called to audition for
the final pre-Broadway workshop of
Mormon. Rushing between rehearsals and
auditions, he got the job. Why did he get
the call? Years earlier, he had worked with
the show’s director/choreographer, Casey
Nicholaw. Taking a taxi down Eighth
Avenue one day, Nicholaw happened to
glimpse Barnhardt in front of a Starbucks.
“Casey said to himself, ‘I have to
remember to bring Scott in for the show.’
And that’s how I got the audition. Right
place, right time.”
THE WAY TO BROADWAY: Growing up in
Southern California, Barnhardt fell in love
with performing at about age 4, when
he saw tap dancing on TV and begged
his parents for lessons. He attended
the Orange County High School of the
Arts and wanted to go to a theater
conservatory, but was not accepted. But,
he says, “Wagner ended up being the
perfect training ground for me... a safe
place for me to grow up, become a man,
and really learn New York City.”
A MORMON PRIMER: Asked to describe
the show in one sentence, Barnhardt
offers: “A pair of mismatched Mormon
missionaries get sent on their mission to
a small village in war-ravaged Uganda ...
And there they learn the true meaning
of faith, friendship, and ‘Hada Diga
Eebowai.’” Barnhardt’s missionary has a
sweet nickname: Elder Pop-Tarts.
KEEPING IT FRESH: Barnhardt knew the
script was “amazing, shocking, brilliant,
and absurdly funny” from his first readthrough, and it has never stopped making
him laugh. Plus, he says, he’s surrounded
by a cast “full of hysterical, insane and
gloriously ridiculous people. I’d wager
to bet that my dressing room (which
we lovingly call ‘Das Boot ’ as it is a long,
submarine-like room that fits five very
funny Mormon boys) laughs more than
any other dressing room on Broadway. My
job rocks. That keeps me inspired.”
ON THE SERIOUS SIDE: “This show isn’t
meant to be Mormon bashing, but rather
P H OTO G R A P H : L AU R A M A R I E D U N C A N
BIG PICTURE: At Wagner, he indulged
his inner “academic nerd,” taking courses
ranging from religion to sociology to
business to ceramics. “My favorite class
to date is still Dr. Kaelber’s Death and
Beyond religion course, studying the
rituals and afterlife beliefs of cultures and
religions around the world. And I think all
of the academic variety really informed
my theater studies.”
BUDDING DIRECTOR: In 2009, he
stepped in to direct The Who’s Tommy for
Wagner College Theatre after the sudden
death of Professor Christopher Catts.
“That experience has led me to actively
pursue more directing work. I don’t know
if that sort of opportunity would have
been presented to me had I gone to NYU
or Carnegie, but I am so grateful that
Wagner College has given me as much
as it has.”
FAVORITE MORMON LINE: “The one line
that always makes me giggle is a Sound
of Music reference in Elder Price’s big
power ballad, I Believe. ‘A Warlord who
shoots people in the face What’s so scary
about that?’ Brilliant.”
Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Donald M. Fox ’64
Donald M. Fox ’64, a Wagner
trustee and ardent supporter,
died on July 13, 2013. A member
of the Seahawk soccer team and
vice president of the Student
Government Association, Fox earned
his bachelor’s in history from Wagner
College in 1964 and an MBA at the
University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton
School of Business in 1966. With
his associates Robert Henderson
and Alan Shepard, he started the
H. S. Fox Corporation in Dallas in
1985, growing it into the largest
reinsurance brokerage of its kind in
Texas. He sold the firm to the Marsh
and McLennan Companies in 1995.
Fox’s many contributions to
Wagner College included serving
twice on the Board of Trustees,
1985–94 and 2004–13. During
the recent recession, he challenged
his fellow board members to give
students extra financial support. As
a result, 10 Fox Scholars received
$5,000 scholarships for three years.
Fox was also deeply committed to
supporting service-research projects.
Between 2007 and 2009, the Fox
Family Fund for the Advancement
of Civic Engagement Scholarship
provided nearly $100,000 for
projects involving a dozen faculty
members and hundreds of students
that benefited thousands of people
in Staten Island, Bangladesh, Peru,
and Kenya. “I consider my giving to
be my way of paying an IOU the
College gave me when I graduated,”
Fox said, “and I hope that it will be a
boost to the faculty.”
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 -1 4
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Alumni
Dr. Sidney S. Leeds ’40
Mrs. Virginia Bock Oliver ’40
Mrs. Faith D. Vigurs Grannis ’43
Miss Evelyn R. Grannis ’45
Dr. Alphonse J. Iannacone ’48
Mr. Jay Spadaro ’48
Mr. Harold M. George ’49
Mr. Donald Drown ’50
Mrs. Britta Woodbury Kuehne ’50
Mr. Richard F. McAlister ’50
Mr. Max J. Moretti ’50
Mr. John J. Ford ’51
Mr. Vincent Lombardi ’51 M’55
Mrs. Dorothy Kratzenstein Norris ’51
Dr. I. Gene Schwarz ’51 M’53
Mrs. Emma V. Gustavson de Bastos ’52
Mr. Harry L. Kummer ’52
Mr. Robert B. Fath ’53
Mrs. Elizabeth Huf
Hibbeler-Anderson ’53
Mr. Louis Matura ’54
Mr. Thomas J. Coffey ’56 M’64
Mr. John L. Koushouris ’56
Mr. John A. “Johnny K” Knudson ’57
Dr. Charles W. Needham ’57
Mr. Richard J. Ryan ’57
Mr. Edmund F. Schubert ’58
Mr. Joseph P. Sellitto ’58
Mr. Kenneth E. Goehl ’59
Mr. Richard D. Piccini ’59
Mrs. Judith Ann Madsen Rank ’60
Mrs. Barbara E. Himan Knabe ’62
Mr. Eugene R. Lasinski ’62 M’75
Mr. Frank A. Melos ’62
Dr. Wayne W. Mouritzen M’62
Mrs. Cyrene Shirley Brown Davis M’63
Mr. Donald M. Fox ’64
Miss Julia E. Osswald ’64
Mr. Alfred Wickstrom ’64
Ms. Louise Pickersgill ’66
Mrs. Barbara Anderson Ebeling ’70
Mr. Brian Ruderman ’70
Mrs. Anita Budke Tietjen ’70
Mr. Ronald P. Vignec ’70
Mrs. Lorraine Wiest Dugan ’71
Miss Sandra Johnson ’72
Mrs. Doris A. U’Sellis Rendt ’73 M’73
Mrs. Virginia Gibson Crouch ’76
Miss Robin Gumbs ’77
Mr. John G. Yates ’78
Mr. Richard R. Baylor ’80
Mr. Joseph R. Fischetti ’84
Mr. Matthew A. Morales M’85
Mr. David W. Ross ’95 M’05
Mr. Adam T. James ’06
Ms. Kristen Senatore ’10
Dr. Muriel Siebert H’10
Mr. Kelsey Justin Stevens ’14
Faculty, Staff,
and Friends
Dr. A. Eugene Ellsworth
Mrs. Gwendoline Frevola
Mr. Jack Hynes
Mrs. Lilli A. Landstrom
Mrs. Gaetana C. Lambiasi
Mr. Robert H. Manske
Dr. Arnold Rosner
Mr. Robert Schlitt
Ms. Carol A. Zawadzki
Faculty Remembrances
Professor Emeritus Glenn C. Leach
Glenn C. Leach, professor emeritus of education, died in December 2012 in Manasquan, New Jersey. At Wagner
College from 1964 to 1993, he served as professor and chair of the Department of Education and also as director of
graduate studies. A lifelong educator, he taught in various New Jersey public schools and was the varsity basketball
and soccer coach at Rider College, before earning his master’s and doctoral degrees from New York University. He
was a leader in several organizations promoting health and physical education, and developed many films and programs
in this area. He is remembered for his quick wit, his warm rapport with students and faculty, and his love for children.
He was closely involved with the Wagner College Early Childhood Center, even playing Santa Claus for the kids. He
is survived by his wife, Vita, three daughters, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Adjunct Professor of Music Arnold Rosner
Arnold Rosner, who taught piano and composition at Wagner from the early 1970s until about 1980, died on his
68th birthday, November 8, 2013, in Brooklyn. According to musicologist Walter Simmons, “Rosner was one of the
true maverick composers of his generation.” He composed more than 100 works, including eight symphonies (two
of which are available on Naxos recordings), three operas, choral and chamber pieces. A close friend of the late Ron
Cross, he dedicated his Consort Music for 5 Viols, op. 75, to the longtime Wagner music professor. Many of Rosner’s
pieces were performed and even premiered on campus by Wagner students and faculty. He received a doctorate in
music from the University at Buffalo, and he also taught for several decades at Kingsborough Community College.
Coach John ‘Johnny K’ Knudson ’57
John A. “Johnny K” Knudson ’57 died on January 3, 2014. He retired from Wagner College in 1989 after a
32-year career as head athletic trainer, head coach, professor of physical education, and assistant athletic director.
Known for his lifelong friendships with Wagner students and alumni, he was also the driving force behind Wagner’s
Athletics Hall of Fame. A U.S. Coast Guard veteran, he taught water safety and water sports programs as a Red Cross
volunteer. He also traveled the world as athletic trainer for the NIT All-Star teams.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Reflections
The Woodwork Angel
Kindness changes everything By Amanda Pierce Bruscella ’76
Yes, I paid my angel back — but even more than that, I
determined that I would try to make a difference in the life
of another lost and struggling someone, if ever the opportunity
presented itself. And true to the promise I made to myself all
those years ago, I had the opportunity to help a young person
get on her feet after she found herself being abused at home.
In the Gospel of John, Chapter 13, Jesus washes the feet
of his disciples. It’s my conviction that, just as Jesus showed
kindness of heart and generosity
of spirit as he lowered himself
down to the floor to wash 12 pairs
of dirty feet, so we also must
render acts of kindness and service
on behalf of others. Like a snowball
rolling down a hill, you may never
know the magnitude of what you
start by paying your own blessings
forward — but it might just be
enough to change the world for
someone else.
something
“ When
disastrous happens,
these angels enter our
lives and change the
way we see the world.
“
I
t was early in 1976. I was a student who had married
before graduating from college, and even though my senior
year tuition had been paid by my parents, my husband
and I still needed to maintain a home and cover expenses,
which included commuting from New Jersey into New York
for work and school. Unfortunately, upon returning from our
honeymoon, we discovered that Dan had been furloughed
from his job with New York City in the fiscal crisis of 1975.
Dan was unable to find work, since
potential employers knew that he
would return to his city job once the
furlough ended. I was struggling,
too, as I was working and attending
my senior year of college classes full
time. And then one day, I developed
a toothache.
I had suffered for a number of
days when one of my professors, Eva
Lazar (of the music department),
saw my distress and asked what was
wrong. Tears in my eyes, I told her that I needed dental care
and could not afford it. She asked me if I planned to continue
working after I graduated. My answer was yes. She told me she
would loan me the money to pay for my care, and I was to pay
her back after I graduated and had been able to secure a better
job in my chosen field. I gratefully accepted her offer, and I
kept my word to this generous woman.
Many years later, I read a story, entitled “Woodwork
Angel,” which mirrored the events of my own life. It tells of
another struggling college student who comes down with a bad
toothache. In this case, it’s a local dentist who helps the
student, providing extensive dental care on credit till the
student graduates and gets a job. I did not understand the
title for the story until it was explained to me by the author.
A “Woodwork Angel” refers to someone who is part of the
circle of people we interact with, but whose importance is
not perceived. Like the woodwork in a home, we see it
every day. It may be beautiful, but we never fully notice
it. But, when something disastrous happens, these
angels enter our lives and their generosity of spirit and
kindness of heart change the way we see the world and
the people in it.
Amanda “Mandy” Pierce Bruscella ’76 retired after 30 years of
nursing and moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in 2000.
She is a nondenominational minister and a faith-based blogger at
http://mandyspath.wordpress.com.
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
Storm Surge
Professor of Art Bill Murphy captured these images of vessels wrecked on
Staten Island by Hurricane Sandy. Above: photograph of Great Kills beach;
below: an etching, “The Grounding of the John B. Caddell.” This tanker
driven ashore in Stapleton became “an iconic image of the hurricane’s
magnitude,” Murphy says. Read more about hurricane recovery, page 8.
P H OTO G R A P H : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Winter 2013-2014
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/c30c4b4b077eb824dd7a8cc0a5b49ebe.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=JyOEv9dgxRFmr939lVunl5aQem0%7EznLNUjusBdHonxzdlHlDk5j6vhzWTtxgOFNM44z7Wbp5GTxTCEEC1T2tkzrWQ3j3aDLo1qVTKxcOL-isTOxzsbKVtMALyfSp2CfMJVeEHpzuEPKDggQtooTHcKBWKQKlqJW4q6Pj7c9c6lj7b%7ENktbV8ifC6LR8MnAD6l2g9sUZjb2vW90aJeghOG3oGZe6cDLFXq127aNLDuC9326b5mXaNnWappUctEs3QppwR9rbxL%7EcIujl5LMUduXrPRvZGvh9ot83gT2WQfoWGFihfUEz9TjEJxn6KSGnx0uSyNAfdFr6cDWcW6DgMLg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
59c985e4fab3f5732db93c8ad1b3b468
PDF Text
Text
Question
Everything
Pat Dugan ’57
used his wealth
to give us all a gift
Page 18
Working Hard to Succeed • Saving Social Security • Finding a New Home
Page 12
Page 14
Page 26
�Wagner Magazine Summer 2013
vol.11,
no.1
departments
From the President
3
From the Editor
4
From Our Readers
6
Upon the Hill
26
Inside Sports
28
Alumni Link
32
Class Notes
42
In Memoriam
44
Reflections
F e a t u r e s
2
12
‘I Worked Hard Every Single Day
in Order to Succeed’
When Francis Zuniga ’14 returned to the U.S. after eight
years in El Salvador, she had forgotten English. Today
she is a self-supporting top student at Wagner College.
14
�See and Be Scene
Art major Francesca Shaw ’13
created this piece for her
senior project, Social Silhouettes.
Read more about it in “From the
Editor,” page 3.
Saving Social Security
As America’s retirement program approaches
insolvency, two Wagner business professors
propose a ‘simple plan’ to reverse course and
provide a more secure future for today’s workers.
18
Question Everything
When Pat Dugan ’57 became wealthy, he did
not merely give to charity. He gave us all a gift
by creating one of the most powerful watchdogs
in the world of philanthropy: Charity Navigator.
�From the President
The class of 2013 shows a promising future
THIS YEAR once again, my
pride in the graduating class is
overflowing. Let me highlight
for you just a few of the new
alumni and their achievements.
Twelve were accepted to
medical and dental schools.
Mark Fealey is headed to
veterinary school at Cornell University; going to
dental schools are Sheldon Rozman at the University of
Pennsylvania, William Rivera at Columbia University,
swim team member Josephine Ieraci at the University
of Connecticut, Student Government Association
President Greg Balaes at Rutgers, and Krey Keller, a
lacrosse team member, at the University of Missouri.
Another 10 are headed to Ph.D. programs. Bujar
Tagani will be attending the top-rated doctoral program
in computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Katie Yoest will enroll in the Ph.D. program in
behavioral neuroscience at the University of Michigan.
KariAnna Eide–Lindsay is entering a Ph.D. program in
Hispanic literature at Rutgers, and Anthony Gambino
in quantitative psychology at Columbia. Physics majors
Vincent Lombardo and Carley Nicoletti will attend the
Stevens Institute of Technology and the New Jersey
Institute of Technology, respectively. Kelly Dennis , an
excellent athlete on the track and cross country team,
will pursue her Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of
Southern California.
Another six are on their way to law school, such as
James Alicea at Cornell University and Adam Nicolais at
Fordham University. Some will enter master’s programs,
such as Katherine Fias at the New York Studio School
for painting, and Mirabai Dougé , a double major in
French and English, at Hunter College for education.
Elise Trudel and Rhea Francani , who were both active
in the Port Richmond Partnership, will begin master’s
programs at Columbia University Teachers College.
A significant number entered the job market. Sutton
Bantle will begin a career with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Catie Grasso and Joseph Jamison both secured positions
with Merrill Lynch; Nicole Arnold with the Securities
and Exchange Commission; Paul Barchitta with Cowen
and Company; Michael Savino with J.P. Morgan; and
Carl Sinagra Jr. with the Bank of New York Mellon.
2
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Ashley Vanger is employed in the
“Their
criminal justice system with the
generation
NYPD. A number have offers
is destined to
in health care, such as Amanda
Diekmann , Eileen Coltrinari , and
usher in a new
Miranda Nicoletti at New Yorktype of leadership.”
Presbyterian Hospital; Keri Pippo
at Mt. Sinai Hospital; and Cicely
Edwards , Naira Feinberg , Nwando
Nzegwu , Elda Ziko , and Clare Brown
at Staten Island University Hospital.
Space does not suffice to mention all of the
outstanding graduates — in the theater program,
athletics, nursing, the physician assistant program, the
Port Richmond Partnership, and in every other major
and program. (Watch my speech at wagner.edu to hear
more about them.) In addition, the class of 2013 made a
record senior gift of $15,000 for a scholarship.
In an age too often marked by hatred, terrorism,
severe environmental stress, widening gulfs of wealth,
literacy, and access to basic healthcare, their generation
is destined to usher in a new type of leadership,
where knowledge and empathy are joined to social
responsibility and effective action. They have my
deepest affection and best wishes.
Richard Guarasci
pr e si de n t
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Anthony Cappadora ’13, a
future physician assistant,
will earn his master’s at
Wagner next year.
�From the Editor
The Art of Instagram
O
NE FRIDAY afternoon toward the end
of the spring semester, I stopped by the
Union gallery to check out the senior art
projects. Francesca Shaw’s Social Silhouettes
series caught my eye, and she gave us
permission to bring you one of her pieces
on the opening spread of this
magazine.
Francesca’s biography
caught my eye as well: She was
born in Talca, Chile; raised
in Providence, Rhode Island,
“where she built sandcastles
and survived off of coffee milk
for 15 years”; and moved to
Salt Lake City, Utah, for
high school.
“All through elementary school,” the
biography goes on, “Francesca gravitated
towards her art classes, which were much
more fun than fractions and spelling tests.”
She was also fascinated with cameras,
and received her first digital camera for
Christmas when she was only 9 years old.
An art major at Wagner, Francesca
studied abroad for a semester of her junior
year at the Queensland College of Art
in Brisbane, Australia. Back at Wagner,
her senior art project developed from a
photo shoot with a friend. She went on to
photograph many more friends, asking for
them “to pose with forms of movement.”
These became her silhouettes. (She herself
is the middle silhouette.) She incorporated
more than 70 photographs into the
Summer 2013 • Volume 11 Number 1
silhouettes, many taken and edited
using Instagram.
“My intention for intermixing the
different kinds of photography was to relate
to how much influence popular social media
has on our society,” she wrote in her artist’s
statement. What I liked about
her pictures was not only the
technological commentary, but
also the joyful and effortless
poses of the silhouetted people.
Speaking of social media,
are you following us? In the
Office of Communications,
we are making more efforts to
integrate our print publications
and our social media channels.
Let’s keep in contact between issues and find
ways to talk about this magazine’s content.
Go to facebook.com/WagnerCollege and hit
the “like” button, and follow us on Twitter,
where we’re @WagnerCollege. You can also
get a regular diet of Wagner College images
through our Instagram account,
@WagnerCollege.
Laura Barlament
e di tor , wag n e r m ag a z i n e
Page 18
Erika Reinhart
gr a ph ic de sig n e r
wr iters
Laura Barlament
Cormac Gordon
Lee Manchester
phot o gr a ph e r s
Vinnie Amessé
Pete Byron
Lee Manchester
Todd Marti
Anna Mulé
Nick Romanenko
produc t ion m a nage r
Donna Sinagra
Wagner Magazine
Advisory Board
Lisa DeRespino Bennett ’85
Susan Bernardo
Jack Irving ’69
Scott Lewers ’97
Lorraine McNeill-Popper ’78
Brian Morris ’65
Hank Murphy ’63 M’69
Andy Needle
Nick Richardson
Friends is published twice a year by Wagner’s
Office of Communications and Marketing.
Wagner Magazine
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
718-390-3147
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
Pat Dugan ’57, an avid reader, has a home library stocked with
hundreds of books. His vision and risk-taking have led him to start
businesses, make money, and found a nonprofit that benefits all of us:
Charity Navigator.
Pat Dugan ’57
used his wealth
to give us all a gift
e di t or
Wagner Magazine: The Link for Alumni and
On the Cover
Question
Everything
Laura Barlament
Photograph: Todd Marti
Working Hard to Succeed • Saving Social Security • Finding a New Home
Page 12
Page 14
Page 26
summer
2013
3
wagner.edu
�From Our Readers
our performance, word reached us that
downstairs in one of the dining rooms,
Lauritz Melchior was celebrating his
birthday. Perhaps it was President
Davidson who arranged it, but the entire
choir was escorted down the back stairs
to the room, where we were introduced
to Melchior. There we sang “Happy
Birthday” to him. He was very grateful
for our singing. At nearly 80, he still
had an eye for the girls and collected a
birthday kiss from each of the sopranos
and altos.
“
Brett Murphy ’71 M’75
W e st Be r l i n , V e r mon t
“
After our
concert, we were
invited to a party
to sing “Happy
Birthday” to the
guest of honor,
who was, in fact,
Lauritz Melchior.
Lelah Carlton Urban ’61 M’65 saved this autographed photo of Melchior
from his concert performance at Wagner in 1958.
Melchior Memories
Editor’s Note: The fall 2012 issue of
Wagner Magazine featured the operatic
tenor Lauritz Melchior as our subject
for “Who in the Wagner World Was
…?” We recounted the story of how he
left his large-game trophy collection
to Wagner College in his will, but
many readers contacted us to say that
there was much more to the history of
Melchior’s relationship with the College.
Donald Kane ’49 recalled that Melchior
received an honorary degree from
Wagner College in 1950. Vivian Seidel
’61 told us about singing with the choir
and performing some scenes from The
Student Prince in a 1958 concert featuring
Melchior at Wagner College. “It’s
something we will always remember,”
she said. “He was jolly, a real nice man.”
Others added more details …
4
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
YOUR ARTICLE on Lauritz Melchior
brought back such wonderful memories.
In 1958 Melchior gave a concert in the
Sutter Gymnasium. As I was a member
of the Varsity Players, our group did
the staging and lighting for the concert.
I think either Al Wagner ’58 or Carl
Westerdahl ’59 was in charge of our crew.
Varsity Players was not the professional
group that it is today, but oh, what
fun it was. Thank you for such a nice
remembrance.
Lelah Carlton Urban ’61 M’65
Stat e n I sl a n d, N e w Yor k
MY MEMORY of a Wagner connection
with Lauritz Melchior is through my
membership in the Wagner Choir.
The Wagner Choir was invited to
give a concert in Manhattan at the
German-American Club. Following
I ALWAYS look forward to receiving
Wagner Magazine, as it’s full of news
about the school and some of my
classmates. The recent edition, featuring
the article about Lauritz Melchior,
jogged a cherished memory from my
three years of singing in the Wagner
College Choir (1968–71). I am guessing
that it would have been March of 1970
when the choir was invited to perform
at the famed Liederkranz Club on East
87th Street in Manhattan, in what was
then still referred to as Germantown.
After our concert, we were invited to a
party to sing “Happy Birthday” to the
guest of honor, who was, in fact, Lauritz
Melchior. He was every bit the large
and imposing man with the white hair
and beard that is portrayed in the photo
you used for the article. It would have
been his 80th birthday that year, and I
recall he was very gracious in thanking
us for our singing. I don’t remember
if President Davidson was there that
evening, but he might well have been.
I was unaware of the trophy collection
that Melchior left to the College, but I
will try to take a look next time I visit
the campus. Thanks again for reminding
me once more of some of the great
experiences that I had as a member of
the choir and a student at Wagner!
Pamela Paul ’71
Stat e n I sl a n d, N e w Yor k
�I JUST wanted to let you know how much
I enjoyed your article about Lauritz
Melchior. I graduated from Wagner in
1972 and was a member of the choir.
I remember one year we traveled to
some kind of European music club
in NYC (my memory is foggy in the
details) to sing “Happy Birthday” (and
a few other songs) to Mr. Melchior.
This was organized by Walter Bock,
who accompanied the choir on a tour
of Germany (which included driving
through East Germany to get to Berlin).
Reading your article brought back
memories of meeting and congratulating
Mr. Melchior, along with the many
wonderful experiences I had while being
a member of the choir.
Susan Okrasinski ’72
K i ng sport, T e n n e s se e
A Poetic Tribute
IT WAS such an interesting
coincidence seeing Marcel
Montane’s letter in the
fall 2012 issue of Wagner
Magazine commemorating
[biology professor] Dr.
Yarns, especially because I
had just finished a poem about him. In
addition to being a great professor, Dr.
Yarns was also a great advisor and friend
to many of his students. I graduated
from Wagner in 1970, and even after
all these years he is still frequently in
my thoughts. Sending along my poem
and also an image of his famous antipollution button. (I wonder how many of
your readers remember that!)
Michael Estabrook ’70
Ac ton , M a s sac h u se t t s
Dr. Dale Yarns,
Professor of Biology
Poor Dr. Yarns —
had a stroke or a massive coronary
(Why are they always massive,
isn’t a run-of-the-mill coronary enough?)
don’t recall which now but
it’s a moot point really
the same result follows —
Over semester break, while back home in Iowa
with his family, Dr. Dale Yarns dropped dead
right there on the restaurant floor.
“What are we going to do?”
Good old Dr. Yarns would ask
the entire Biology class
to get us thinking in practical terms about
protesting the military action in Vietnam,
demonstrating for civil rights
for blacks and women,
and for intensifying the fight against pollution:
“Pollution is Bad for the Gonads”
was his phrase we all wore
on buttons all across campus (and town).
“What,” he’d pause for dramatic effect,
“Are we going to do? What – Are – We –
Going – To – DO?” getting louder
and louder and louder.
Not sure we ever figured it out really,
not to this day, but those buttons were fun to wear,
and Dr. Yarns — his wisdom, good humor,
compassion, and decency —
stays strong still in our memories.
– Michael Estabrook ’70
WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU We welcome letters from readers. Letters should refer
to material published in the magazine and include the writer’s full name, address, and
telephone number. The editor reserves the right to determine the suitability of letters
for publication and to edit them for accuracy and length. Write to:
Laura Barlament, Editor
Office of Communications, Wagner College
One Campus Road, Staten Island, NY 10301
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
summer
2013
5
�A SPIRIT OF “CAN-DO” is what Myrlie Evers-Williams H’13 said she sees at Wagner College.
Fueled by Setbacks
Civil rights leader encourages graduates
to embrace optimism
AN ICON of the civil rights movement inspired
Wagner’s class of 2013 at commencement on May 24.
Myrlie Evers-Williams lost her husband, Medgar Evers,
to an assassin’s bullet in Jackson, Mississippi, 50 years ago.
Yet she soldiered on, continuing her education at Pomona
College, running for office, becoming a public servant in Los
Angeles, serving as chair of the NAACP from 1995 to 1998,
and starting the Medgar Evers Institute to promote education,
training, and economic development.
6
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Recalling her own story and the hatred she had to
overcome, she encouraged the graduates to be positive, seek
the good, and work toward a more just society. “Believe in
yourself. Believe in your goals. Realize that there will be
setbacks, but let those setbacks only serve as fuel to move you
forward,” she said.
Also proudly crossing the Wagner stage with the 419
undergraduate and 147 master’s degree recipients was former
Staten Island Borough President Ralph Lamberti, who
received an honorary degree. Lamberti is chair of Wagner’s
DaVinci Society.
Read more about the class of 2013 in “From the President”
on page 2. To watch a video of Myrlie Evers-Williams’ speech,
visit wagner.edu.
P H O T O G R A P H : N I C K R O M A N E N KO
�Maria
Bartiromo
}
Wa l l St r e e t
r e port e r
s
For m e r
G E C h a ir
“Any manager over 30 is dangerous.”
“Why?”
“Because the world is changing so fast.”
s
Jack
Welch
s
{
Quote
Unquote
spe a k i ng at t h e Pr e si de n t i a l Ec onom ic Su m m i t on A pr i l 25
SHOOTING STAR Léopoldine Despointes’ first film was a Tribeca Film Festival pick.
No Limits
Launching a film career
from a wheelchair
“I HEARD that you are interested
in making your own film,” wrote
Léopoldine Huyghues Despointes ’14
to French actress Laure de Clermont
in September 2011. “I am interested in
acting in a film. Would you be interested
in working with me?”
A scant year and a half later, that film
was finished — and became one of the
select few accepted into the Tribeca Film
Festival.
Despointes accomplished this feat
while also majoring in international
PHOTOGR A PH : A N NA MUL É
business at Wagner and living abroad on
her own; she’s from Paris, France. Because
of a genetic disorder, osteogenesis
imperfecta (commonly known as brittle
bone disease), she uses a wheelchair.
Like the character she plays in her
film, Despointes lets no obstacle keep her
from reaching her goals.
Atlantic Avenue is an 11-minute
narrative film set on a gritty Queens
street near JFK airport. Despointes plays
a young woman whose scarf becomes
entangled in her wheelchair while she is
crossing the street. A scruffy young man
— in fact, he is a prostitute awaiting his
client — comes to her aid. Because of the
determination of Despointes’ character,
this chance encounter turns into an
unlikely and touching romance.
“Breaking taboos” was the goal with
this film, Despointes explains. She and de
Clermont wrote a script that addressed
both disability and sexuality in honest
and atypical ways. The two collaborated
on production and fundraising for the
project as well.
Despointes’ original goal in coming to
the United States was to become a lawyer
focused on the rights of the disabled.
Along with her older sister, who has the
same disease, she was raised without any
limits — they skied and rode horses,
took piano and voice lessons, and went to
school without special accommodations
for the disabled. Despointes also took
acting lessons and appeared in stage
productions. “I saw other handicapped
people, but they were not like me, not
outgoing, no projects going on in their
lives. I wanted to change how people saw
them,” she says.
Working on Atlantic Avenue has
sent her in a new direction. Now she is
starting her own production company
and working on film projects around
various causes, including disability,
rape, and anorexia. Her touchstone is
the 2011 blockbuster French movie The
Intouchables, about a paraplegic man and
his assistant. “I want to make films with
real impact on people,” she says, propping
her feet comfortably on a nearby table in
a Foundation Hall lounge while tossing
her long, brown hair.
With the face of an angel and
the willpower of a general, she will
doubtless succeed.
News about Atlantic Avenue:
www.facebook.com/WheelsTurn
summer
2013
7
�Upon the Hill
{
First the
Facts . . .
10,000
14
40
D ol l a r s d onat e d to
Sa n dy-a f f ec t e d st u de n t s
by Wag n e r C a r e s
st u de n t s r ec e i v e d
awa r d s
Hou r s pe r w e e k
wor k e d by Wag n e r C a r e s
i n t e r n s t h i s su m m e r
LISTEN AND LEARN Chaz Taylor ’15 records children’s experiences of Hurricane Sandy at St. Charles School in Oakwood, Staten Island.
‘Not the
Same World’
Students stay engaged with
Hurricane Sandy recovery
IN THE PAST, Wagner’s Alternative
Spring Break program has sent student
groups to faraway locations such as
Haiti, West Virginia, and Toronto to do
volunteer work.
This year, students had that
experience right here on Staten Island.
And it wasn’t only Wagner spending
spring break here; the College hosted
78 students and staff from six colleges
— four from New York and two from
the Midwest — to help with Hurricane
Sandy relief projects.
Most of the colleges just used
8
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Wagner’s dorms for a home base while
volunteering on the island. But Wagner
developed a partnership with Renssalaer
Polytechnic Institute, located in Troy,
New York, to create an Alternative
Spring Break experience capitalizing
on the insights and inclinations of
engineering and liberal arts students.
Besides helping homeowners renovate
their flooded homes, the students met
with community activists and conducted
interviews with children affected by the
storm.
For Chaz Taylor ’15, a business
marketing major from Princeton, New
Jersey, getting to know the RPI students
was especially enriching, because they
brought a different perspective to the
project. Kellie Griffith ’14, an education
major, treasured the opportunity to
work with children and record their
stories of surviving the hurricane.
All of the Wagner students were
struck by the amount of upheaval that
still exists on Staten Island’s eastern
shore.
“I realized there’s a lot more work
that needs to be done,” said Molly
Delbridge ’14, an anthropology and
Spanish double major. “When we came
back to campus after [evacuating for]
the storm, it didn’t seem like we were
living in the same world. But then we
returned to normalcy. It was good to
be immersed in that feeling again that
it was not the same world. Thousands,
hundreds of thousands lost their homes.”
PHOTOGR A PH : A N NA MUL É
�. . . Then
the Quiz!
When did Wagner
Cares get started?
A n sw e r on Pag e 11
}
AGONY AND ECSTASY From his home’s destruction to his class ring’s reappearance, Sandy took Robert De Vincenzi through
the gamut of emotions.
The Ring’s
Return
After Sandy’s devastation,
one alum regains
a long-lost treasure
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS ago, Robert
De Vincenzi ’76 lost one of his most
precious possessions: his Wagner College
class ring. While he was splashing in the
warm Atlantic waters of the Bahamas,
the ring slipped from his finger and
disappeared in the waves.
Last October, the ocean returned
to steal from him again. This time, it
grabbed not just one prized object, but
everything he owned, as the Atlantic
Ocean drove into the coast of Staten
Island, devouring his home in a 12-foot
surge from Hurricane Sandy.
About a month later, something
magical happened at those very same
waters that took away Robert’s class ring
35 years ago.
A newlywed couple from southeastern
Missouri, Randy and Linda Wilkinson,
were taking a honeymoon cruise of the
Bahamas, when they disembarked on
Nassau and decided to relax for a while
on Junkanoo Beach. They had just
stretched their legs out on the warm sand,
when a nearby object caught their eye.
It was a ring — a large, bulky ring. Its
elaborate engravings were corroded and
encrusted with tiny shells. But, the year
1976 was visible on one side. Clearly, it
was a class ring. The Wilkinsons stashed
it away in their shipboard cabin.
Back home in Cape Girardeau, they
took the ring to their friends Kent and
Vicki Zickfield at Zickfield’s Jewelry.
For about a week, the Zickfields worked
on gently cleaning it, until they could
see a name engraved on the inside:
P H O T O G R A P H S , A B OV E : L E E M A N C H E S T E R ; B E L OW ( R I N G ) : A N N A M U L É
Robert De Vincenzi.
The Wilkinsons contacted the
alumni office at Wagner College and
spoke with Rebecca Colucci ’06, who
went to work on finding Robert De
Vincenzi. It wasn’t easy; the telephone
number in the College’s records didn’t
work because his house had been
destroyed. Finally, Colucci found De
Vincenzi through the business office of
the Fulton Fish Market, where he has
worked for many years.
“Wonderful. Ecstatic. Overwhelmed.
Words can’t describe how I feel,” De
Vincenzi said when he reclaimed his ring
on December 12 at Wagner College’s
Reynolds House. He added that he has
not only regained his ring, but also made
new friends. “The Wilkinsons told me
that I now have friends in Missouri, and
I told them that they now have a friend
in New York,” he said. “God bless them.
I hope to see them soon.”
summer
2013
9
�Upon the Hill
{
Quote
Unquote
IN SEPTEMBER 1918, Wagner College
had
42 boarding students occupying
WINDOW
a
single
dorm, the building we
ON WAGNER
now
call
Reynolds House. By 1921,
The Annex
enrollment had risen to 72 students,
and more housing was desperately
needed. Construction of a new
dormitory was approved, but it
wouldn’t be ready until September 1923.
To bridge the gap, a group of alumni pooled their
resources and, for $18,000, bought the former boarding
house at 86 Glenwood Avenue, a 15-minute walk from
campus. The Annex, as it was called, housed 10 or 11
students and three faculty members for two years.
“The house … is three-storied with a very high and
roomy attic,” said the College newsletter. “It contains 22
rooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, and 2 heating plants.”
This note described life at the Annex in the spring
of 1922:
There are ten jolly good fellows who … certainly enjoy the
life of the Annex. It is not so disturbing as up on the hill, except
when the next door neighbor tries to make the self -commencer
Coursework
WHETHER YOU’RE interpreting political
polls, planning bus routes, or studying
wildlife populations, geomatics and
Geographic Information Software (GIS)
can help you reach your goals. In the
spring 2013 semester, Wagner students
for the first time were able to take a
class introducing them to these powerful
methods of employing data that has a
spatial reference point.
The students learned by developing
projects of their own design. The final
presentations were as diverse as the
students themselves: Keila McCracken
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
}
Professor of
Africana Studies
at Brown University,
at the Black History
Month Symposium
on February 13
on his “flivver” work early in the morning.
This “Lizzie” is not the only thing that disturbs the peace of
the Annex. It is the midnight song [of] … two cats, maybe three
or four, or more, which seem to arouse the professors from their
slumber, but the studes sleep through it all.
Nevertheless, these ten boys claim that life at the Annex
surpasses that of the Dorm.
The College moved all students back to campus when
the new dormitory — now called Parker Hall — was
finished. But the Annex is still standing, and today looks
very much as it did in 1921. — Lee Manchester
THEN AND NOW The Annex in
1923 and today.
Anthropology 306: Methods in GIS and Geomatics
Data Mapping
10
Tricia Rose
“You can’t have a society that operates
on a ‘get mine’ philosophy. … We have to
imagine that our survival is collective.”
’14 used her family’s logbooks about
weather and deer hunting, dating back
to the 1950s, to study the relationship
between snow cover
Elevation map
and the movements
created with GIS
of deer populations in
Minnesota. Nick Gibaldi
’14, who works as a
lifeguard on the beaches
of Suffolk County on
Long Island, mapped
the relationship among ocean depths,
wave height, and tides. Zack Stanley ’15
drew on his experience growing up in
the coal mining country in Kentucky
to look at human health in those areas.
Kevin Ferreira ’13, who has become
an immigrant advocate on Staten
Island through his work with the Port
Richmond Partnership, plotted the
residential patterns of ethnic
groups on Staten Island.
“There’s tons of data out there,”
says Michael Scholl, adjunct
professor of anthropology. Pulling
a grocery card out of his wallet
as an example, he points out
that stores, websites, and social
media are amassing random facts at
an exponential pace. “The hard part is
knowing what question to ask,” Scholl
remarks. This challenge is what his
students are now better equipped
to meet.
�{
The
Answer
QU i Z qu e st ion
on pag e 11
WAGNER CARES (wagnercares.org) got started last November,
days after Hurricane Sandy, by Student Government
officers Greg Balaes ’13 and Kate Schaefer ’15 to mobilize
the Wagner response to the disaster.
A Match Made
at Wagner
When a will is more than
just an estate plan
ARCHIE EDGAR still remembers how
Professor Marie-Emma Bacher would
call on him in his freshman French
course in the fall of 1946: “Mon-SIEUR
Ar-chi-BAL,” she would pronounce, to
his chagrin. (He prefers to go by Archie
rather than his given name, Archibald.)
But this unwanted attention for the
shy Army veteran, who had served in
General Patton’s 14th Armored Division
in Europe, turned out to be a boon when
he met a fellow French student, the lovely
and equally shy Charlotte Pederson. It was
as if they had been made for each other.
Archie left Wagner College after
one year, but he never left Charlotte.
He completed his degree in business
administration at Rutgers in 1949, while
she continued at Wagner as an English
major, graduating in 1950. They were
happily married for 62 years, until her
passing in 2012.
He had a long career with the
National Biscuit Company, retiring as
Senior Purchasing Agent. While making
his estate plan after his wife’s death,
Archie thought not only of his alma
mater, Rutgers, but also of Charlotte’s
— Wagner College, the place that had
brought them together.
With a scholarship in Charlotte’s
name to be left to Wagner College at
his death, Archie Edgar has become
one of the newest members of Wagner’s
Heritage Society.
}
“The
Heritage
Society is a
way to honor
and recognize
people who
have made
one of the
most important decisions in their lives:
to leave part of their assets to the College,
to benefit other young people as they
were benefitted,” says Howard Braren ’50
H’12, the alumnus and Wagner trustee
who founded this group about 13
years ago.
Braren, who has had a long career as
a fundraising consultant for nonprofits,
is delighted with the response to the
Heritage Society. Although some do not
wish to make their estate plans known to
the College, the vast majority “are proud
they’ve done it,” he says.
And their posthumous gifts have
made a huge difference to the College.
For example, estates from Herbert
Vaughan ’34, Erma Rudloff Coutts ’39,
and Leroy N. Houseman ’55 M’57
contributed about $4 million to the
Main Hall restoration effort. Others
provide thousands of dollars in
scholarships annually.
“I know Charlotte would have been
so happy to be remembered for helping
students at Wagner studying English
literature,” says Archie. “We both
thank Wagner College and its splendid
personnel for the opportunity to do so.”
Where Health
and Harm Collide
We all know that
pharmaceutical companies
discover, manufacture, and bring
to market products that help
us and even save our lives. In
The Drug Company Next Door:
Pollution, Jobs, and Community
Health in Puerto Rico (New York
University Press, 2013), Alexa
S. Dietrich, assistant professor
of anthropology at Wagner
College, shows another side of
the industry: Ironically, these
guardians of public health can
also be a significant source of
air and water pollution, toxic to
people and to the environment.
Dietrich explores how this
dynamic plays out in one small
town in Puerto Rico with more
than a dozen drug factories,
the highest concentration per
capita of such factories in the
world. Without demonizing
the companies, she portrays
their interaction with the local
community and the strategies
that have been used to address
the pollution issue.
The Drug Company Next Door
puts a human face on a growing
set of problems for communities
around the world. Accessible and
engaging, the book encourages
readers to think critically about
the role of corporations in
everyday life, health, and culture.
Contact Kristen Krista, director of major
gifts, at 718 -420 -4529 or kristen.krista@
wagner.edu to join the Heritage Society or to
discuss estate planning options.
summer
2013
11
�I
was born in New York,
I Worked Hard
Every Single Day
in Order to Succeed
One student’s story of immigration,
upheaval, and overcoming
By Francis Zuniga ’14, as told to Laura Barlament
12
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
in Far Rockaway, Queens. When
I was 3, my mother decided to
move back to her hometown in El
Salvador. We lived there for eight years
— she and my sister and brother and
I. My mom was a single parent, always
busy working, and my sister took care of
me. She’s seven years older than me, and
she was basically like my mother. But
after a few years, first my brother and
then my sister went back to New York.
When my sister left, it was really hard on
me. I was alone most of the time.
We lived in a town called San
Vincente. Our house was next to the
city jail. We’d open the back door and
say hello to the guards standing in the
doorway. The front of the house faced
the dusty streets. The people across
from us had a big farm with cows, horses,
P H O T O G R A P H : N I C K R O M A N E N KO
�pigs, chickens. We had a finca, like a
backyard, an acre of land to grow fruit
— mangoes, papaya, kiwis, avocado. We
had so many different types of mangoes.
The green ones were the best; we would
cut them in pieces and eat them with
lemon and salt.
I was bullied a lot. Because I was
born in America, the other kids were
kind of jealous. After school I would
get jumped. My mom would say, “Hey,
listen, you have to fight back.” I had to
learn how to protect myself.
I was happy when my mother told
me we were coming back to New York.
It was thanks to my sister that we were
able to go. She was 16 or 17, working
multiple jobs to bring us back. I was 11
years old, and I didn’t speak English,
only Spanish. In El Salvador, I went
to a Seventh Day Adventist school,
a private school with uniforms and
lessons on how to be a good Christian
girl. School there is very strict, and
they expect a lot. So when I came here,
I was a perfectionist. Even if I didn’t
understand what I was doing, I would
do it anyway. I would read the questions
and try to match them up with the
book and copy the answers.
Once I got a grasp of everything, I
became an A student. I learned English
really fast, I think because I was born
here. And I was determined to be
successful. I wanted to help my family
and not be in those living conditions
anymore, so I worked hard every single
day in order to succeed.
My mom is a housekeeper and
doesn’t have a steady job. She would
move constantly, every six months from
one house to another house, from town
to town. And I would always have to
move schools. In middle school, I got fed
up. We moved from Levittown, in Long
Island, to Freeport, and I would wake
up at 4 in the morning to go back to my
middle school in Levittown, until the
school found out I was doing that and
made me go to my local school.
When I finished middle school, my
mom decided to move again, but this
time she was going to Florida. I went
with her for three months. I didn’t like
it, and I came back here.
The court placed me with
my aunt in Levittown.
But life is rough, and my
aunt couldn’t just say,
“Yeah, come for free.” So,
my mom and I paid rent.
I was working at KFC, the
Dollar Store, and I was
tutoring, too. That’s how I was able to
help pay my own rent.
I went to Island Trees High School.
I was on the track and cross country
teams; I was in Student Council,
Environmental Club, Peer Leaders,
Athletes Helping Athletes. I was a top
student in my graduating class.
and field athlete; I am president of
Habitat for Humanity. In 2010 we went
‘It’s the people you meet who
really make the difference.’
I
had no idea how I would be able to
afford college, but God has always
put guiding angels in my life. Mr.
Weber, my guidance counselor, guided
me through every single step. I applied
to 17 schools. Every letter I would get,
I would go talk to him about it. I didn’t
know anything about money. When
I got my financial aid package from
Wagner, Mr. Weber was filled with joy.
He helped me write letters and get a
bigger scholarship. That’s what really
enforced my decision to come here.
Now I’m in my junior year at
Wagner College, a biopsychology major
with a concentration in physical therapy
and a minor in Spanish. These last
three years at Wagner College have
been great for me. I have met wonderful
friends, wonderful faculty and staff,
and many doors have been opened.
One that has impacted me the most
was studying abroad in Spain. Being
an independent student making $200
a month, you might think that there
would be no chance of having this
amazing opportunity, yet that was not
the case. By studying abroad, I learned
that I really can do anything I put my
mind to.
Wagner College keeps me busy. I
have been a cross country and track
to Ecuador, and this year
we have been very busy helping people
affected by Hurricane Sandy. Now
we’re raising money for our next trip.
This spring, I was named the Megerle
Scholar for Achievement in the
Sciences. Recognition like this inspires
me to move forward and reach all of my
goals. I won’t feel satisfied until I get my
doctorate in physical therapy. Then I
want to work internationally and help
unfortunate families throughout the
world.
The life I have had has not been
easy. The obstacles might at first seem
discouraging; but once I overcome
them, I get stronger and become
motivated to strive for more.
For me, God is the main thing, the
key to living. I don’t think I would have
gotten this far without God. He plays
a big part in my sister’s life, too. She’s
always been a role model to me. She
supported me and my mother, and she
completed her degree and is a dental
hygienist and happily married. She
expects me to do well and believes in
me. Without her support, my faith in
God, my family and friends, all the nice
people I have met at Wagner, I might
have given up. Knowing they believe in
me keeps me going. When you get along
with people, the place where you are
doesn’t really matter; it’s the people you
meet who really make the difference.
�See more photos and hear Francis
tell her story in her own voice at
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
summer
2013
13
�Saving
social
security
As America’s retirement
program approaches insolvency,
two Wagner business professors
propose a ‘simple plan’ to
reverse course
By Lee Manchester
14
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�T
wo Wagner College business
professors, Donald Crooks and
Cathyann Tully, are worried about
our future.
“If you ask people — particularly
our students — if they think
Social Security will be around for them as a benefit, they are
assuming that it’s not going to be there,” says Professor Tully.
And they may be right.
In 20 years, when the Social Security trust fund reserve is
exhausted, ongoing contributions will cover only 75 percent of
the system’s costs* — and even the benefits of a fully funded
Social Security system aren’t that great.
“Today, the average annual payout for Social Security
is $18,756,” Professor Tully estimates — not a generous
retirement income in most peoples’ books.
So, what about 401(k)s, the privately owned and managed
pension funds everyone is supposed to be building to bridge
the gap between Social Security (if it still exists) and their
actual living expenses after retirement?
“The last number I read, just last week, is that the average
person has just $30,000 in their 401(k) at the time they retire,”
Tully says, “and $30,000 doesn’t get you very far today.”
“And that’s pre-tax money,” Professor Crooks adds.
“If the 401(k)s aren’t doing well, and we let Social Security
go by the wayside, then what’s going to happen to people in
their retirement years?” Tully asks. “We’ll be back to the way
things were in 1935 when FDR created Social Security. Old
people were starving in the streets, and that was unacceptable.
“I think that to make some changes, to reinvent the whole
program in some simple, no-tax-increase, low-cost ways, will
allow people to eliminate some of the uncertainty that comes
with planning for retirement.”
Tully and Crooks sat down with Wagner Magazine to
explain their program in more detail.
instead of just sitting there, we would invest those funds in
various financial markets.
TULLY: In the first 20 years, you take an aggressive investment
strategy. In the next 10 years, from years 21 to 30 of your
working life, you take an intermediate investment strategy.
And then in the last 10 years of your working life, from
years 31 to 40, you take a conservative investment strategy,
and stick with that conservative investment strategy during
your retirement years. You have 40 years of pay-in, and then
another 30 years of pay-out.
We used historically typical rates of return to figure their
results — 10.5 percent for an aggressive investment strategy,
9.33 percent for an intermediate strategy, and 6 percent for
the remainder.
If you were to follow that scenario through — and I
followed it for someone my age, assuming regular salary
increases over your work life — the payout would be $82,000
a year. The payout that person gets today under the system
that exists in our country for Social Security is $18,756.
That’s a substantial difference.
I also backed the investment returns down a little bit —
I did 9.33, 5 percent and 3.9 percent. Some people might feel
that’s a little more realistic, perhaps, though it’s not consistent
with historical returns. Nevertheless, if you had a 40-year
contribution [with those rates] and a 30-year payout, you
would get an annual benefit of $36,301.
REINVENTING
SOCIAL SECURITY
WAGNER MAGAZINE: Tell us about your program.
We call it STRAP — the Secured
Transparent Retirement Account Program. In some ways,
it would be very similar to what we have today. Each taxpayer
would have their own account to which they would be
contributing, and the employer would be matching that
contribution, very much like what we have now.
CATHYANN TULLY:
DONALD CROOKS: The big difference is that we want to make
it so that your account is your money — very simple. And
* AC
�� C O R D I N G T O T H E S U M M A RY O F T H E 2 01 2 A N N UA L R E P O R T S I S S U E D BY T H E S O C I A L S E C U R I T Y A N D M E D I C A R E B OA R D S O F
T RU S T E E S ( W W W. S S A . G OV/ OAC T/ T R S U M/ ) .
summer
2013
15
�For STRAP to just break even with Social Security, you’d
have to drop investment returns to 3 percent, 2.6 percent, and
2 percent for an $18,000 annual benefit. Now, the likelihood
of the S&P dropping down to 3 percent over a 20-year span
of time is slim to none. Anything a new system can get for
beneficiaries above the current level is a bonus, and it would
be difficult to see how our system couldn’t produce more for the
taxpayer than $18,000 a year.
a share. But if you’re Fidelity or Vanguard, the amount of
money you’re moving is pretty damned good. It’s cheaper for us
to have execution through these intermediaries than it would
be if the government set up its own trading operation.
And you think this would fly with the big investment
firms, just on the basis of trades, no management fees?
WAGNER:
CROOKS: Absolutely. If you went to E-Trade or Charles Schwab
and offered them this, they’d be licking your boots.
ISN’T THIS JUST
PRIVATIZING
SOCIAL SECURITY?
WAGNER: Who does the person managing the investments
work for? The government? A private firm?
TULLY:
These are private firms that would manage the funds.
WAGNER: That the individual picks?
TULLY: No, that the government picks.
CROOKS: They send it out to the lowest-cost provider, whether
it’s Fidelity or Vanguard …
WAGNER:
And the fund manager is paid how? On what basis?
Just his execution fee. That’s it — so many basis
points. Execution is so de minimis now that it’s under a penny
CROOKS:
GETTING FROM
HERE TO THERE
So let’s say that we, as a nation, decide STRAP is
where we want to go with our old-age retirement plan.
How do we get from here to there?
WAGNER:
Right now, although everyone has a Social Security
“account,” the money we each pay in Social Security taxes
doesn’t go into that personal account — it goes into the big
Social Security “pool,” from which all current benefits are
drawn. In order to transition from Social Security to STRAP,
we’ll have to make up the difference between the amount in
the Social Security “pool” today and the total value of what
current Social Security account holders have paid into the
system over the years.
TULLY:
CROOKS:
Our proposal solves everything — but it’s not cheap.
WAGNER:
So, where will the money come from?
Currently, Social Security taxes are withheld only on
the first $106,000 of income. We suggest that the money to
cover the Social Security deficit come from lifting that cap for
a specified period of time — just until the system is completely
charged up.
TULLY:
LIFTING THE CAP
CROOKS: Everybody wants to fix Social Security, but nobody
wants to take the bull by the horns and actually do something.
It’s going to be painful in the short run, but that pain is going to
be borne mostly by those most able to bear it — and now I’m
talking like a socialist!
WAGNER: And, as you said earlier, that pain would go away as
soon as the system was fully funded again. Have you calculated
how long it would take, under your plan, to fully fund the
Social Security system again so that the cap could come back?
In the first paper I did on this, I figured that in the
first four to six years, you would raise half a trillion dollars,
CROOKS:
16
WWAAGGNNE ERR MMAAGGAAZZI INNE E
�Is Anybody Listening?
Over a period of three years, professors Crooks and Tully have presented their thoughts on
Social Security solvency and reform six times at the annual conventions of four scholarly
societies. Their most recent presentation, at the Academy of Business Research conference
last September, won them recognition for Best Session Paper. A mailing last fall to the top
candidates for the two major political parties, however, elicited no response.
and that would go a long way toward covering the shortfall.
If you got a little more efficient in the administration of the
whole thing, the shortfall could be covered more quickly. In the
meantime, you can start phasing in the new system.
POLITICS, POLITICS, POLITICS
Donald Crooks and Cathyann Tully are associate professors
in Wagner College’s Department of Business Administration.
Tully is director of undergraduate business studies, and Crooks
serves as director of business internships and the executive and
accelerated MBA programs.
WAGNER: Have you given any thought about the likelihood
of this kind of plan being passed through Congress and signed
into law?
CROOKS: The Democrats would love it!
WAGNER:
Because it would stabilize Social Security?
TULLY: Without a tax increase!
WAGNER:
Except on the higher income earners.
CROOKS: Only in the intermediate term, until the shortfall
is covered.
TULLY: The battle we’re having right now is, do we cut services
and/or increase taxes? Democrats don’t want to cut services;
Republicans don’t want to raise taxes. What we have is a plan
to bring stability to Social Security without increasing taxes
— except for a very short term — or cutting benefits in some
other entitlement program.
WAGNER: Bipartisan? Nonpartisan? How do you two see this
proposal?
I’d call it bipartisan, because on the one hand you’re
raising revenue, and on the other hand you’re cutting the
program’s deficit.
CROOKS:
summer
2013
17
�VISIONARY
Pat Dugan gets daily
inspiration from his
home’s striking view
of the Hudson River
Valley. His vision led
to an innovative way
to help others.
�QUESTION
EVERYTHING
BY LAURA BARLAMENT
Pat Dugan ’57 has not
merely given to charity.
a
He’s given us all a gift by
creating one of the most
powerful watchdogs in the
world of philanthropy.
P H OTO G R A P H : TO D D M A RT I
In 1969, Harlem resident Clara Hale
took in her first abandoned, drugaddicted baby. That led to another, then
another, until this amazing, caring
woman, known to all as Mother Hale,
became the leader of a major charity,
Hale House. At the height of the AIDS
crisis in 1985, President Reagan praised
her selfless work and gave her the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
T
housands of people were touched by Mother
Hale’s story, and millions of dollars in donations
flowed in to Hale House. Some of those gifts
came from Pat ’57 and Marion Dugan, successful
business owners in the New York City metropolitan area.
Having lost their first-born son at age 13 to a terrible,
wasting genetic disease, they had bigger hearts than most
for helping suffering children.
summer
2013
19
�COASTAL NAVIGATOR
Many years before Pat
Dugan founded Charity
Navigator, he served as a
U.S. Coast Guard officer
from 1957 to 1961.
WAGNER INFLUENCES
Dean Stern and Bacteriology
Professor Kershaw
In 1992, Mother Hale died, and
her daughter, Dr. Lorraine Hale, took
over the organization. Dr. Hale seemed
like the perfect person to continue
her mother’s legacy, and the donations
continued to flow in. The Dugans
remained faithful to Hale House, and
because their financial circumstances
had dramatically changed when Pat’s
business went public in 1998, they were
in a position to do a lot more.
“I became, to be crass, richer by far
than I’d ever been, and I wanted to do
something to pay back,” Pat says. “I’d
always been interested in charitable
stuff, but just didn’t have that much
in the way of resources. Because of the
public offering, my company doubled
in value overnight. This was something
that I benefited greatly from, and I
wanted to do something with it.”
In 2001, however, Lorraine Hale
was fired from Hale House. The New
York Daily News broke the story: The
children were being neglected and kept
in prison-like conditions, while Dr. Hale
collected art, built a luxurious office
suite, and borrowed funds donated for
the children to renovate her own home.
20
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Pat and Marion started looking
more closely at Hale House and other
scandal-plagued organizations, such
as the United Way of America and
Covenant House in New York City.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do
with my money,” Pat says, “but I knew I
didn’t want to throw it down the
rat hole.”
Pat could have hired his own
personal advisors to help him find good,
reliable, well-run charities. But Pat isn’t
known as a visionary for nothing. And
he didn’t forget that many other people
had been duped by unscrupulous
charities. Most people give based on
emotions; Pat wanted people to be able
to give based on facts.
Pat, in other words, had discovered
his own cause: Giving everyday donors
information, so they can make smart
giving decisions. Today, that data is
available to anyone, for free, through
the Charity Navigator website.
P
at and Marion Dugan’s home
in Garrison, New York, lies
secluded up on a ridgeline at the
end of a long, winding dirt driveway,
with inspiring views of the Hudson
River Valley.
Besides the views, what’s striking
about their home are the books:
stacked on tables and lining the
floor-to-ceiling shelves of Pat’s study.
Leather-bound classics rub shoulders
with the latest literary fiction from Ian
McEwan and Richard Ford, and the
British humorist P.G. Wodehouse keeps
company with philosophers, scientists,
and historians. On the day of my
visit to Garrison, Dugan was working
through Jim Holt’s Why Does the World
Exist: An Existential Detective Story, with
a dictionary and an encyclopedia of
philosophy by his side.
In a way, the house is a picture
of Pat Dugan himself: Studious and
thoughtful, while also extroverted and
funny; sometimes cantankerous, but
also deeply caring; a visionary whose
favorite pastimes are taking solitary
walks, reading good books, and driving
his collection of nine bright red and
yellow convertible sports cars (although
he says it’s not a collection, since he does
drive them all).
P H OTO G R A P H S : C O U RT E S Y O F PAT D U GA N
�EARLY ESCAPADES
Marion and Pat Dugan on their wedding day,
March 8, 1958 (right). Known for his humor,
Pat Dugan once modeled for an advertisement
promoting an alternative to the sitz bath
treatment for hemorrhoids (below).
Above all, he’s a person who follows
especially his mother; they borrowed
the charge he heard Wagner College
books from the library and got handPresident David Marion Delo make
me-downs from wealthy cousins. Pat
to his freshman class, 60 years ago:
became a reading addict in the second
“Question
or third grade, when he
everything.”
caught rheumatic fever
At the
and was forced to stay in
time, he was
bed for months. With a
a
more than a
cringe, he admits that his
little skeptical
favorite books were the
‘I didn’t know what I
about the
Bomba the Jungle Boy
wanted to do with my
value of formal
youth series, a take-off
money, but I knew I
education. “You
on Tarzan.
didn’t want to throw it
want me to ask
Despite being such an
down the rat hole.’
questions?” he
avid reader, young Pat was
recalls thinking.
an indifferent student. He
“What a
went to the local Catholic
concept!”
schools, but learning there
Pat Dugan didn’t grow up with a
was all about memorization, “pounding
lot of books in his home — his family
stuff into you,” he says now, with a hint
couldn’t afford them on his dad’s
of lingering resentment. “Spending a lot
salary with the New York City Water
of time memorizing stuff that you give
Department. He knew every plumber
back to your teacher is a waste.”
on Staten Island and the family was
By the time he reached high school,
invited every year to the “plumbers’
at St. Peter’s in West Brighton, he spent
ball” — which, true to his Staten Island
his free time hanging around on street
roots, Dugan pronounces something
corners with a bunch of guys whose
like “plummahs bawl.”
highest ambition was to get out of
But his family did like to read,
school, get a full-time job, and get a car.
“That was all the likes of me and these
guys thought about,” he says.
W
agner College was a major
turning point for Dugan;
he calls it “one of the small
number of great things that happened
to me during my life.” Wagner’s dean
of the college, Adolph Stern, lived
around the corner from the Dugans. Pat
knew him, but they didn’t really have
a relationship. Nevertheless, one day
when Pat was a high school senior, Dean
Stern asked the boy to come and see
him. So, Dugan paid him a visit.
“What are your college plans?”
asked the dean.
“It’s not in the cards,” was Dugan’s
reply. “I had terrible marks in high
school, and I have no money.”
Dean Stern replied, “How would
you like to go to Wagner College?” He
offered him admission and a half-tuition
scholarship on the spot.
“Dr. Stern opened the door for me
and I thought, ‘I’ll give it a shot,’” says
Dugan. “I’ve often thought, ‘How did
he ever think about me, a boy around
summer
2013
21
�for the half of his tuition not covered
by Dr. Sterns’ scholarship. He found his
closest friends among the World War
II veterans studying at Wagner on the
GI Bill. He added his talent and height
to the veterans’ intramural basketball
teams and helped to organize them into
the Circle K, the male counterpart to
the Off Hill Girls Association (better
known, Dugan says, as the “Awful Girls
Association”).
He also found the time to date
Marion, a fellow Staten Islander he had
met while she was still in high school at
Notre Dame Academy, down Howard
Avenue from the Wagner campus. They
got married right after he graduated.
P
TRUST “He’s a risk-taker,” Marion Dugan says of her husband, “but it was
calculated. He knew what he was doing.”
the corner, and do this wonderful thing
for me?’” Years later, Marion Dugan
revealed to him that Pat’s mother had
asked Dr. Stern for his intervention.
Today, Dugan is doing the same sort
of thing for Wagner students through
a $1 million endowed scholarship fund
for students with academic promise and
financial need.
Meanwhile, Dugan came to Wagner
with “no clue” about his career path.
For his first three semesters, he majored
in English. But then he decided that
22
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
he wasn’t sure how he could make a
living through that course of study and
switched to bacteriology, a new major at
the College. He flourished, enjoying the
coursework and professors like Virgil
Markham and Edythe Kershaw.
“Between classes, work, studying,
and drinking a beer every once in a
while, there was no time [for reading],”
he says. He boarded at home and
worked all kinds of part-time jobs,
from stocking supermarket shelves to
installing flagpoles and fences, to pay
at decided to seek work in
pharmaceutical marketing; but
first, to avoid being conscripted
into the Army, he enlisted for a threeyear stint in the Coast Guard. He
quickly qualified as officer of the deck,
putting him in charge of a whole ship
while it was underway and in port; but
when his captain tried to talk him into
“shipping over” — i.e., staying in the
service — he said no thanks. He chafed
at the slow pace of advancement, and he
wanted to make more money.
After leaving the Coast Guard, he
found a sales position with Pfizer, covering
the Boston area. His ambition and
personality distinguished him, says his
longtime business partner, John Farley.
At the time, Farley was a sales rep
for Upjohn, a rival pharmaceutical firm.
He heard about Dugan from a physician
they both knew. “Have you met Pat
Dugan?” the doctor asked Farley. “He’s
a big tall guy, and he’s really funny.”
Dugan had made a sales call on the
doctor, and with great seriousness told
him that he was going to play him a
recording by an expert in contagious
diseases from the University of Palma
in Italy. He put his tape player on the
doctor’s desk, turned it on, and out came
a recording of Dugan warbling a ditty
about Pfizer’s name-brand antibiotic to
P H OTO G R A P H : TO D D M A RT I
�the tune of “Happy Birthday.”
of the business, which he called
“Terramycin is good, Terramycin
Professional Detailing Inc. (now known
is good, …”
as PDI). It represented an innovative
“So I was looking forward to meeting
direction in healthcare services: a
him, even though we were competitors,”
contract sales organization, which
says Farley.
provides an outsourced sales force for
After Dugan completed his MBA
pharmaceutical firms.
at Boston University, he got a job with
At that time, no one else was doing
the advertising agency Dean Burdick
this kind of business, says Nancy
Associates in New York City. Farley
Lurker, PDI’s current chief executive.
followed him there, and they each
“What he’s really good at is
went on to work for other big agencies
looking at trends and being able to
as well, focused on pharmaceuticals.
understand where there is a need in the
But they kept talking about “doing
marketplace,” says Lurker. “The other
something together,” as Farley says. In
thing is that he puts his money where
1971, Dugan took the leap, quitting
his mouth is. He’s a risk-taker.”
his well-paid job with BBDO to start a
After a few years, Dugan proposed
niche business. Farley joined him, and
to his business partners that he spin
it quickly grew into a full-scale firm.
off PDI, exchanging it for his shares in
Within two years, they had surpassed
Dugan Farley. The partners agreed, and
their own first employer,
Dugan became
Dean Burdick Associates.
the sole owner
Their business grew to
of PDI.
encompass four divisions
In 1998,
a
with 70 employees.
Dugan took PDI
‘We don’t need you.
One of Dugan’s major
public. It went
Everyone
is
doing
good
coups was redirecting
on the market
work. There’s no need
Bayer toward what has
for $15 a share
for people poking their
become its primary
and rose to a high
nose in our business.
marketing strategy, as
of $121. Last
So why don’t you just
“The Wonder Drug”
year, PDI had
leave us alone?’
that reduces the risk of
$126.9 million
heart attacks and strokes.
in revenues. But
Dugan did not create the
back in the late
tagline, but he was the
1980s, no one
one who pushed Bayer in that direction,
suspected the business had that much
once he started reading about powerful
potential — no one, that is, except
research findings showing that regular
Pat Dugan.
consumption of aspirin slashed the risk
“He had the vision to take the
of stroke and heart attack.
company public when most people
What made Dugan so successful,
would have thought, ‘I don’t know,’” says
says Farley, is that he has two sides: the
John Farley. “He’s always thought a little
side that relates well to people, and the
outside the box.”
side that sees what no one else is seeing.
On the other hand, when Dugan knows
ugan’s vision, risk-taking talent,
that something is the right thing to
and basic stubbornness were all
do, he will stick by it, no matter what
key ingredients to the creation
opposition he faces.
and growth of Charity Navigator.
So, in the mid-1980s, when Dugan
When www.charitynavigator.org
felt like he and his clients were no
went live on the Internet on April
longer having a meeting of the minds,
15, 2002, it rated an impressive 1,100
he decided to develop another division
public charities with a system of zero to
D
four stars, familiar to users of websites
from Amazon to Yelp. The ratings
were based on financial data publicly
available through IRS 990 forms, the
informational tax returns that charities
are required to file annually.
This did not win it many fans in the
sector it was covering.
“People from charities, from
foundations, anybody involved in the
sector, pretty much said, ‘We don’t
need you. Everyone is doing good work.
There’s no need for people poking their
nose in our business. So why don’t you
just leave us alone?’” Dugan says. “That
was an almost universal feeling amongst
people in the sector.”
Their main argument was that
Charity Navigator’s rating system
reduced a charity’s work to its financial
statements, which wasn’t a fair measure.
According to Trent Stamp, Charity
Navigator’s first chief executive, Dugan
was steadfast in the face of criticism.
Even some of his own friends, who sat
on the boards of charities that may not
have received the highest rating, were
annoyed. “Pat was resolute in the idea
that this was a good thing, and it would
be better for the charitable donor in the
long run,” Stamp says. “He didn’t care
what kind of heat came, as long as we
were being fair in our processes.”
Dugan remains unapologetic about
the rating methodology. “We’ve used
what we’ve had available,” he says. “Up
until fairly recently, our whole rating
was based on these financial things
about how much money they raised,
how the trend was going, how much of
a reserve they had, how much they put
into programs as opposed to fundraising
and overhead. That’s all we had to work
with at that point.”
Charities may not have appreciated
having their dirty financial laundry
exposed, but donors liked the service.
Most of the site’s traffic came via
word of mouth and public relations
efforts, and website usage more than
quadrupled in the first year; in 2012,
it had more than 6.2 million visitors.
summer
2013
23
�a
WORDS TO THE
WISE DONOR
Tips from www.charitynavigator.org
The Top 10 “Super-Sized Charities” (headed by the American
Red Cross at $3.4 billion, Feeding America at $1.5 billion, and the
Smithsonian Institution at $1.1 billion) demonstrate why it’s important
to pay attention to this sector: fiscal power. Each had total expenses
greater than $800 million in its most recent fiscal year. The combined
total expenses of the top 10 are approximately $10 billion. The entire
charitable sector is estimated to be worth as much as $2 trillion.
The Top 10 “Charities Overpaying Their
For-Profit Fundraisers” each spends more than 50 percent
of its budget paying for-profit fundraising professionals to solicit
your hard-earned money.
The 10 Best Practices of Savvy Donors includes,
“Share your intentions and make a long-term commitment.”
Why? Smart donors see themselves as partners in the charity’s
efforts to bring about change.
How to Stop Solicitations by Mail includes, “Refrain from giving
small donations to many charities.” Small donations, such as $25,
barely cover the costs the charity incurred in soliciting the gift. To
recoup those costs, many charities will simply sell the donor’s name
to another charity doing similar work.
DATA AC C E S S E D J U N E 2 8 , 2 0 1 3
24
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Media outlets started promoting it;
Time, Kiplinger’s, Forbes, and many others
endorsed it.
The rating system is not as blunt an
instrument as some critics would lead you
to believe, if you take the time to dig into
the details behind it; and the Charity
Navigator staff is diligent about refining
the site’s methodologies and expanding
its offerings. The first big revision of the
rating system came in 2008, when the
IRS changed the 990 form, responding
to pressure from the public and from
Congress to make sure public charities
used donations responsibly. The new 990
information, plus additional research
performed by the Charity Navigator
staff, allowed the site to add measures
of “transparency and accountability” to
the rating system. These include board
membership, executive salaries, audit
information, and other factors.
And this refining process is far
from over.
I
n January of this year, Pat Dugan was
in the offices of Charity Navigator,
along with the current CEO,
Ken Berger, who has been with the
organization since 2008. A veteran of the
nonprofit service sector, Berger has an
easy rapport with his boss, joking about
how they are both wearing fashionable
sweater vests.
Twelve years into this project,
Dugan’s enthusiasm and commitment
to it are undimmed. “When I bump
into somebody who is educated, wellinformed, and all that good stuff, and
they’ve never heard of Charity Navigator,
it’s like a dagger in my heart,” he says,
holding a fist to his chest.
In this nondescript office building in
Glen Rock, New Jersey, young people are
working in every nook and cranny. They
recently increased the staff to the grand
number of 12 — in double digits for
the first time — ramping up to launch
three huge new features to the website:
increasing the number of public charities
�FREE ONLINE
ADVICE
Charity
Navigator
rates more
than 6,000
charities and
provides loads
of useful tips
for 6 million
plus users.
rated on the site from the current 6,000
to 10,000; adding an informational
page (not a rating) for each one of
the 1.8 million legitimate nonprofits
registered with the IRS; and lastly and
most significantly, incorporating a new
dimension to their rating system, a quest
that Pat likes to call “the Holy Grail.”
“We are now working on something
that is just leading the league, and
everybody admits that we are on the
forefront,” Dugan explains. “That is
evaluating the outcomes and programs.”
In other words, instead of using
indirect measures of a charity’s
effectiveness — its finances,
transparency, and accountability —
Charity Navigator will look at each
charity’s results — what it achieves with
its programming and spending.
To rate charities by how well they
achieve their mission seems like an
obvious choice. But there are two big
problems with moving in this direction:
1. Charities’ outcomes are not always
easy to measure, and 2. Most charities
have made no effort to measure their
outcomes.
It’s a widely acknowledged failing
in nonprofit operations. “A very low
percentage of charities possess any
measurable information about their
results or effectiveness — much
less data that are compiled by an
independent party,” wrote Ben Gose
in the Chronicle of Philanthropy in April
2009. Gose cited Charity Navigator’s
attempts to get at this information
— but a survey sent out to 110
organizations got only 15 replies.
At the same time, the biggest
criticism of Charity Navigator’s rating
system is that it doesn’t take outcomes
into account. “So they’re putting us into
this impossible situation — to measure
something that they don’t provide,”
says Berger.
Warming to the topic, Berger
continues, “So while you’re throwing
stones, the irony is: Back atcha! Now,
own up. You want us to measure results?
A. Start tracking it, and B. Once you
start tracking it, publicly report that
information. And then we’ll talk. Then
we’ll get serious about measuring
results. So the game-changer here is
we’re going to incentivize charities to do
the most important thing about their
work: to share it with the public.”
Dugan nods and chuckles as
Berger’s voice rises with indignity. In
January, Charity Navigator unveiled
its preliminary work on this “third
dimension of intelligent giving,” as
they call it.
I
n the end, Charity Navigator is a
lot like its founder: It may have its
flaws and limitations, but you really
can’t find a chink in its basic sincerity
and integrity.
“The biggest thing that always
impressed me is that [Pat] is
uncompromising in his ethics,” says
Trent Stamp. “He insisted that we do
things the right way. He knew that if we
were going to evaluate charities, people
would be looking at us, and he made
sure we were held to a higher standard.”
But Charity Navigator’s mission
is bigger than providing a fair rating
system. When donors direct their
charitable dollars toward more effective
charities, it will make the whole sector
more effective, and therefore make a
bigger dent in the problems charities
are addressing — hunger, homelessness,
health, or scores of other causes.
The goal is to change the donor
paradigm from charitable giving to
social investing, “to move away from
giving something and just walking
away from it,” explains Berger. “You’re
investing and you want to see some
return, some social value, as a return on
that investment.”
That mission attracts smart and
idealistic staff to the organization,
says Dugan. “We can’t afford to pay
them a lot, and many of them have
advanced degrees,” he says. “They’re
less interested in the money that they
could earn someplace else. They want to
change the world.”
Charity Navigator still takes a lot of
hits from people in the charitable sector.
At the same time, says Trent Stamp,
who is now the CEO of the Eisner
Foundation, “I think we’ve created an
environment where people understand
that there are good charities and there
are bad charities; not every charity is
the same.
“And now major charities are the
first to trumpet their Charity Navigator
four-star rating and tell people, ‘We’re
doing better work than our peers, we’re
a better destination for your charitable
dollars.’
“[Pat Dugan’s] vision will live on for
generations in the nonprofit world, and
he should be very proud of it.”
summer
2013
25
�Inside Sports
The highest-profile recruit in Wagner basketball history
rediscovers his hoop dreams in a new environment
S
ometimes it’s all
about rebounding.
And not just
on the basketball
court.
Dwaun
Anderson ’16
understands
that now.
In the spring of 2011, the soft-spoken
Wagner sophomore was a high school
hoops star in tiny Suttons Bay, Michigan,
one of the villages that dot Lake
Michigan 300 miles north of Detroit.
He had just been named Mr. Basketball,
26
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
an honor awarded to the best senior
high school player each year in that
basketball-crazed state. Even better, the
6-foot-4 teenager was on his way to play
at national powerhouse Michigan State
University, a program coming off backto-back Final Four appearances.
It was, he said, “a dream come true.”
Back then, Anderson allowed himself
to think that he might even become one
of the few Native Americans to make it
to the NBA. Then real life intervened in
the cruelest of ways.
Anderson’s mother, 42-year-old
Mary Lynn Anderson, a full-blooded
By Cormac Gordon
member of the Grand Traverse Band of
Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, died in
May 2011, following a long struggle with
alcoholism. For a boy whose father was
never really a part of his life, the loss was
devastating.
A few weeks after Mary Lynn
Anderson was buried in a modest plot on
the Indian reservation grounds, Dwaun
left the cherry orchards and wooded
trails of Suttons Bay, and traveled
150 miles south for summer classes at
Michigan State.
But Anderson wasn’t ready. Not for
the huge campus, or the study regimen.
PHOTOGR A PH : A N NA MUL É
�Even basketball, his lifetime passion,
had become a chore. “When I got there
I was going through the toughest part
of my life,” he says. “I was angry, and I
started thinking I was losing my love
of the game.”
Out of a sense of desperation as
much as anything else, Anderson made
a difficult personal decision. He walked
away from the Spartans.
In this case, leaving school a couple of
weeks before freshman orientation wasn’t
some unnoticed change of direction by
another confused teenage athlete. This
was the state’s reigning Mr. Basketball
leaving the preeminent program in that
part of the country. It was a big deal,
greeted with the media frenzy that
accompanies such movements.
But it was also something the bruised,
distracted Anderson felt he had to do on
a very personal level.
Dan Hurley, Wagner’s coach at the
time, heard about Anderson’s situation
and reached out to the grief-stricken kid.
Anderson had never heard of Wagner,
but he came for a visit, even while more
marquee basketball programs were
sending out feelers.
Anderson liked what he saw: a small
school with a country-like campus and
a rising basketball program that fit what
he needed at that point in his life. In
December of 2011, Anderson arrived as
the highest-profile basketball recruit in
Wagner history.
It didn’t take long for his personal
life to begin changing for the better.
Anderson was not yet eligible to play,
but he could practice with his new
teammates, living with them in the
dorms and hanging with them in
down time.
“Dwaun started adjusting, I thought,
right away,” says Bashir Mason, a former
Hurley assistant who was named head
coach in April 2012. “He was a kid who
had a lot to figure out, but it was like he’d
been looking for a new environment and
a chance to start over.”
When the season began last
September, two things became clear
immediately: Anderson was an enormous
talent, extraordinarily quick and athletic.
He was also raw and inexperienced,
and not all that confident for someone
of his abilities.
In the early part of the schedule,
Anderson struggled shooting the ball,
and he sometimes missed defensive
rotations. He lacked nothing in effort,
but execution was at times a problem.
“I was nervous,” he admits. “I didn’t
know what to expect, and when I had
a few bad games in a row I began to
lose confidence.”
Mason’s prescription for his new
player? “Coach told me to just keep
playing, not to get down.”
As the weeks progressed, Anderson
was gaining a renewed sense of himself.
“I came to be in a completely different
place from where I’d been,” he says. “I
was back to being comfortable, where
just being happy was a given again.”
In part, he credits being at Wagner
with that change. “This is a good place
for me,” Anderson says. “I have a lot of
friends and not a lot of distractions. It’s
really worked out.”
Toward the end of Wagner’s 19-12
season, Anderson’s game improved
markedly. Over the last 10 games, the
small forward averaged almost seven
points and four rebounds per game in
just 16 minutes of playing time. In a
truly unusual stat for someone his size,
Anderson registered seven explosive
blocks in the final four games.
Mason believes the final weeks were
a small tease of what’s to come. “At
the end of the season, Dwaun was just
beginning to get his feet under him,” he
says. “I believe before it’s over he will be
everything he and everyone else thought
he could be.”
List
the
Water polo won the Metro
Atlantic Athletic Conference
regular season championship
for first time since 2009
and advanced to the MAAC
championship game. They lost
to Iona, but ended the season
with a 26–11 record, the most
wins in school history. Chris
Radmonovich was named
MAAC Coach of the Year
and Jess Lundgren ’16 was
•
dubbed Rookie of the Year.
Football linebacker C. O. Prime
’13 signed an NFL free agent
contract with the Indianapolis
•
Colts.
Zachary Spector ’12
M’13 placed first in the 10K at
the NEC Outdoor Track & Field
Championships, and second in the
5K, while Emily Pereira ’15 won
•
the 800 meters.
Swimming
and diving came in second at
the 2013 NEC championships,
the team’s best finish in 10 years.
Amanda Lucia ’16 won the
200 fly and Sarah Menendez
’14 placed first in the 100 free.
Coach Colin Shannahan was
•
named NEC Coach of the Year.
Women’s lacrosse midfielder
Shea Gegan ’16 capped her
brilliant first season with being
named to the All-NEC Second
Team and the All-NEC Rookie
•
Team.
In baseball, outfielder
Ian Miller ’14 set a record for
stolen bases, was named to the
All-NEC First Team, and was then
selected by the Seattle Mariners
in the MLB First-Year Player Draft.
s u mf m
al
er
l
2 0 1 30
27
�’HAWK TALK
Matthew Alvo
’08, Melanie
Scotto ’08,
Kassandra
Brooks ’84,
and Christian
Miller ’84 M’88
connect at the
Cornell Club.
Wagner
Networks
Alumni pass along words
of wisdom and lend a
helping hand
Alumni spanning class years from
1960 to 2012 shared their experiences
with more than 100 Wagner students
at the Student-Alumni Career
Conversations event on April 30 at
the Cornell Club in Manhattan. The
event was co-hosted by the Alumni
}
Professor Frances Bock, Psychology, 1976
flashback
Frances Bock taught
psychology at Wagner
from 1972 to 1980,
when she had to leave
because of the College’s
“financial exigency,” as
she delicately puts it.
She went on to complete
postdoctoral studies at
the Albert Ellis Institute,
{
28
WA G N E R
Association and the Center for
Academic and Career Engagement.
With résumés and business cards in
hand, the students worked their way
around the room to meet the 50 alumni
volunteers, representing 14 career fields
and organizations including Teachers
College, Merck, Merrill Lynch, Mount
Sinai School of Medicine, New York
state government offices, and the U.S.
Treasury Department.
“Talking to alumni from different
industries was a great opportunity
to learn from other people’s career
choices,” said Kayla Thomas ’13.
For Ellen Huffman ’14, it was “a
unique experience, not just to meet
professionals in my field, but Wagner
professionals with an interest in my
personal success as a fellow Seahawk.”
“It was a great opportunity to meet
both recent and longtime graduates to
pick their brains about how they ended
up in the industry they work in, and
the steps they took to get there,” said
Roger Ricketts, an MBA candidate at
Wagner. “I hope to be able to come back
to Wagner at some point in the future
to share with the students the way the
alumni did with us.”
The Student-Alumni Career
Conversations event will become an
annual tradition. Under new leadership
from Geoffrey Hempill, senior associate
dean and director, the Center for
Academic and Career Engagement
will re-launch the alumni mentoring
program this fall. There are many ways
alumni can participate, such as one-onone conversations, networking events,
and mock interview panels.
�For more information, visit
wagner.edu/cace/career -development/
alumni.
M A G A Z I N E
had a successful private
practice in Manhattan
and Long Island, taught at
Hofstra and St. John’s, and
retired in 2002. A book
she co-authored in 1989,
Coping with Alzheimer’s:
A Caregiver’s Emotional
Survival Guide, is still in
print. “I really enjoyed
teaching at Wagner,”
she recalls. “The students
were fabulous and really
interested in everything.”
She still keeps in touch
with a few of them,
including Hal Theurer ’79,
who put us in touch
with her.
�BARREL TASTING Warren Procci ’68 and
Liz Cardiello ’06 M’07 tap straight into
the source.
Travel with
Wagner Alumni
Sonoma provided exclusive
access; next up: China
BACK HOME
Robert Lawrence M’66
came to Wagner for a
master’s degree and stayed
until 1973 as a full-time
English instructor. He then
returned to his home in
Louisville, Kentucky, where
he had a long career at
Jefferson Community and
Technical College. He now
lives in New York again,
and visited campus in April
to give a painting by Tiia
Pustrom Aarismaa ’65 to
President Guarasci.
Alumni Link
In March, alumni and guests got the
royal treatment during “the Ultimate
Sonoma Wine Country Experience,” a
five-day trip through this picturesque
region. Alumni tasted rare wines, plus
meals by some of the country’s top
chefs, and conversed with winemakers.
Making it possible was our trip advisor,
Stan Bishop ’65, and our sommelier and
guide Sandi Lucchesi, principal with A
Sense of Wine.
The tour started off with a bang, with
a sabered champagne presentation at
the Jean-Charles Boisset Tasting Room.
We sampled 56 wines at eight vineyards,
including wine straight from the barrel at
Stryker Sonoma Winery
and at E. & J. Gallo, and
behind-the-scenes access
to Jordan Winery and
Williams Selyem Winery.
Aficionados like Warren Procci ’68 had
fun blending their own wines at Chateau
St. Jean, and seeing the bottling process at
the Francis Ford Coppola Winery.
Next up in alumni travel? China,
September 2–14, 2014. The Alumni
Association has partnered with
Odysseys Unlimited, a respected tour
operator known for its small-group tours
for alumni associations nationwide.
The trip is limited to 20 travelers to
ensure access to many of the sites,
which include (subject to change) the
Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, the
Summer Palace, the Terra Cotta Army,
the pandas at the Chongqing Zoo, a
cruise along the Yangtze River, the
Ghost City of Fengdu, and the Three
Gorges of the Yangtze River. We will
conclude our trip in Shanghai. We will
also spend time with local residents in
their homes, visit a local school, and
explore open markets and shopping.
At the time of this writing, costs
have not been finalized, but full details
of the trip, including early registration
discounts, are available online at
wagner.edu/alumni-friends, or by
calling the Office of Alumni Relations
at 718-390-3224.
— Kenneth Lam,
Director of Alumni Relations
flashback responses
Thanks to Barbara Bellesi
’99, our mystery caller from
last issue’s “Flashback” photo
was identified as Jedediah “A.
J.” Bila ’00. Perhaps she was
making one of the last calls
ever placed on those now
practically extinct pay phones.
Someone who devoted many
years to their care was Kurt
Schroder M’69, a retiree of the
New York Telephone Company.
“I installed and repaired many
pay phones in Brooklyn and
Staten Island,” he wrote, “as
well as land line phones,
which worked during electrical
outages!” He never serviced
the phones at Wagner College,
but he did spend a few
summers inspecting the many
phone booths along the Coney
Island Boardwalk and repairing
those jammed by sticky, sandy
coins.
Do you have ideas for “Flashback”? Contact us at 718-390-3147 or laura.barlament@wagner.edu.
summer
2013
29
�Alumni Link
Reunion Weekend, June 7–9
Upcoming
Events
Alumni Association
September 28, 10 a.m.
Homecoming Fall Festival
Wagner vs. Bryant kickoff, 1 p.m.
Sutter Oval and Wagner College Stadium
Campus Events
October 25–27
Family Weekend
Music
CAMPUS CHAT Richard and Carin
IT’S BEEN TOO LONG Tinka Harvard ’87
Guarasci spend time with alumni.
and Ernie Jackson ’87 reunite.
September 22, 4 p.m.
Dr. Ronald Cross Memorial
Special Service and Interment.
Music by the Wagner College Choir.
Park Avenue Christian Church,
1010 Park Ave., New York, N.Y.
October 18, 5 p.m.
Italian Idol Singing Contest
Music Performance Center
October 27, 4 p.m.
300th Anniversary Concert
Wagner College Choir at Zion Lutheran
Church, Oldwick, N.J.
November 3, 4 p.m.
CONNECTING Educator Daymon
CATCHING UP Terry and Ruth Healy ’63
Yizar ’82 and Carin Guarasci,
director of New Educators at
Wagner, have a lot to share.
Furhovden greet Phyllis Ekeland ’67 and
George ’63 Dale at the 50th reunion dinner.
Viva Italia! Finale Concert
Faculty, Italian Idol Winners,
Treble Concert Choir.
Music Performance Center
November 10, 4 p.m.
Fall Choral Concert
Trinity Lutheran Church,
309 St. Paul’s Ave., Staten Island
November 17
3 p.m.
Fall Jazz Ensemble Concert
Main Hall Auditorium
8:30 p.m.
Vivaldi’s Gloria
Wagner College Choir at Carnegie Hall
BACK TO SCHOOL Alumni stroll the campus
(above), and children enjoy fun
chemistry lessons (left) in Megerle Science
Building with Professors Joseph
West and Valeria Stepanova (not pictured).
30
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
December 4, 8 p.m.
Vocal Jazz Set
Stretto, Soloists, Strait Ahead Jazz
Quartet. Music Performance Center
PHOTOGR A PHS : V I N NI E A M E S SÉ
�Alumni Association Honors
The 2013 annual awards recognize leaders in serving the
College and the community and in professional achievement
December 8, 3 p.m.
Concert Band’s Fall Concert
Main Hall Auditorium
December 9, 4 p.m.
College Choirs’ Holiday Concert
Trinity Lutheran Church,
309 St. Paul’s Ave., Staten Island
Theatre
October 2–13
Little Shop of Horrors
Wagner College Main Stage
October 8–13
Scab
Wagner College Stage One
Romeo and Juliet
Wagner College Main Stage
November 19–24
Zombie Prom
Wagner College Stage One
of Lange Financial Services,
a money management firm
that he founded in 1972.
Elected to the Wagner
Board of Trustees in 1995, he has generously used
his expertise to help the College address crucial,
long-term money management issues. He was
named a Lifetime Trustee in 2007.
Harold Archinal ’50 is
the 2013 Distinguished
Graduate of Wagner
College. A history major,
he had a successful
34-year career at Walt
Disney’s Buena Vista
International in the area
of international film
distribution. Starting out as a clerk for the Buena
Vista Distribution Company in 1954, he became
president of Buena Vista International in 1972,
a post he held until his retirement in 1988. In
2009, Archinal was named a Disney Legend.
Keith Giglio ’85 was
named a Wagner Alumni
Fellow in English. A
successful writer for
film and television, he
now teaches at the S.
I. Newhouse School of
Public Communications
at Syracuse University and previously taught
screenwriting for the UCLA Writers’ Program. As
president of Laughing Gas Productions, he helps
new screenwriters develop their material.
Jodi Pulice ’78 was named
a Wagner Alumni Fellow
in business. In 1996, she
For more information,
registration, and tickets:
Alumni Relations 718-390-3224
Music Department 718-390-3313
Theatre Box Office 718-390-3259
founded JRT Realty,
the nation’s largest
certified woman-owned
commercial real estate
firm. Her leasing and sales
transactions exceed $2
billion. She is currently responsible for managing
a 13 million-square-foot portfolio for TIAA-CREF,
and is a member of the leasing team for One
World Trade Center.
Lisa Krawciw ’10 M’12
received the Wagner
Alumni Key, which
recognizes alumni of the
last decade. A volunteer
Krawciw’s commitment to civic engagement is an
inspiration to alumni and students.
John Iasparro ’72 M’76
and Henry “Hank” Murphy
’63 M’69 jointly received the
Kevin Sheehy ’67 M’70 M’92
H’99 Alumni Leadership
Medal for their service to
the Alumni Association.
Iasparro helped create
the Wagner Athletics
Hardwood Club and is
co-chair and a longtime
member of the Athletics
Hall of Fame Committee.
Murphy, a retired public
school principal, is a
founding benefactor of
New Educators at Wagner
(NEW) and serves on its
Advisory Board. Both honorees have served on the
Alumni Association Board of Directors and have
led many fundraising drives at the College. In 2011,
Murphy and his wife, Margaret, donated a sports art
and memorabilia collection to the College.
Alumni Link
November 13–24
Fred Lange ’53 H’06 was
named the John “Bunny”
Barbes ’39 and Lila T.
Barbes ’40 Wagner Alumni
Laureate. He is president
Dr. Ruth Qualben received
the Reverend Lyle Guttu
Award for spiritual
contributions to Wagner.
Continuing the legacy
of promoting interfaith
dialogue established
by her late husband,
Paul Qualben ’44,
and his brother, Rev. Dr. Philip Qualben, she
supports Wagner’s Faith in Life series and the
Qualben Seminar: Conversations on Religion and
Spirituality.
Mary Caracappa ’82 and
Anthony Hurtado ’79 were
honored with the 2013
Certificate of Appreciation
for their commitment
to Wagner students.
Caracappa, managing
director in Morgan
Stanley’s Firm Strategy
and Execution Division,
and Hurtado, a healthcare
information technology
entrepreneur, have been
instrumental in helping
students navigate the
career exploration and job
search process.
for Habitat for Humanity,
soup kitchens, and the
rebuilding effort in Haiti,
summer
2013
31
�1942
’43 wrote in
memory of his wife, Bernice
Carl Heilsberg
“Mickey” Mikkelsen Aldrich
Heilsberg ,
who passed away
on November 15, 2012.
He noted that, after he
and Mickey captained the
1941–42 men’s and women’s
fencing teams at Wagner,
he left Wagner to broaden
his horizons at American
University, where he
earned a degree in public
administration. After many
years apart, Carl started a
“postal relationship” with
Mickey, which culminated
in their marriage on April
25, 2010, in Rapid City,
S.D. They lived in Maine,
where Carl had retired as a
superintendent of schools.
1944
Paul G. Alberti
has retired
after 66 years as an
ordained pastor. He served
in New York; New Jersey;
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia;
and a retreat center in
Londonderry, Vt.
1949
was
inducted into the Curtis
High School (Staten Island)
Hall of Fame in April by
the school’s Association of
Alumni and Friends. Mike
is a member of the Curtis
class of 1943. He received
the Purple Heart and the
Bronze Star for his Army
service in Europe after his
high school graduation.
After graduating from
Wagner with a degree in
accounting, he went to work
for Clark Estates, which
manages the personal assets
of descendants of Singer
Sewing Co. co-founder
Edward C. Clark, as well as
Michael Nicolais
the more than $440 million
in assets of the Clark
Foundation in Cooperstown,
N.Y. He retired from the
presidency of Clark Estates
in 1991, and then became
senior managing director of
the investment firm Carret &
Co. At the beginning of this
year, he joined another firm,
Wall Street Access, where he
is managing director.
1950
retired in
1997 after 45 years as a
kindergarten teacher in
the New York City public
school system. She also
earned an M.A. from
Hunter College and a
professional diploma from
Teachers College, Columbia
University. Lou DeLuca ’59
wrote to the Staten Island
Advance about Jim Gilmartin ,
who died in Pocono Pines,
Pa., on December 23, 2012:
Mary Carlucci
“Jim was a true gentleman
and an outstanding
basketball player at Wagner.
… Jim even played on
the football team until a
game where he had a tooth
knocked out. … Gentleman
Jim Gilmartin will be
missed.” Bernice Hanson has
been retired from teaching
since 1998 and lives in
New Hampshire. Florence
T. Capobianco Meade wrote
earlier this year, “I now
have a great-grandson, age
13 months, and a greatgranddaughter on the way.
I’m still in the ‘BoogieDown’ Bronx.”
1951
Emil Cenci and
his wife,
Adeline, celebrated their
60th wedding anniversary.
They live in Marlboro,
N.J., where they celebrated
with their children and 11
grandchildren.
Keep in Touch!
Email: alumni@wagner.edu
Web: wagner.edu/alumni
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Wagner College, One Campus Road,
Staten Island, NY 10301
Deadlines: This issue reflects news
received by June 1. The submission
deadline for the Fall 2013 issue is
October 1.
Content: Wagner welcomes your news
and updates, and we will happily share
32
WWAAGGNNEERR MMAAGGAAZZI INNEE
them with the Wagner family. We ask
that you send us announcements of
weddings, births, and graduations
after the fact.
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner
groups at weddings and other special
events. With the photo, send the names
and class years of all alumni pictured;
birth date, parents’ names, and class
years with photos of children; and dates
and locations of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos
must be clear and of good quality.
Prints should be on glossy paper with
no surface texture; they will be returned
at your request (please attach your
address to the photo). Digital photos
must be jpegs of at least 250 pixels per
inch; low-resolution photos converted to
a higher resolution are not acceptable.
�1960
The Brockmann family outfitted in
Wagner class of 1952 shirts.
is the
co-founder of a medical
device firm, Rimidi. It
has produced a software
application, Rimidi Glucose
Manager, that helps treat
types I and II diabetes.
Robert D. Dehaven
1961
married in
1961 and has two children
and five grandchildren.
She was a missionary to
Elaine A. Dively
1952
& ’53
’54
M’57 read and signed books
at the AWP Convention in
Boston in March, where her
latest book of poetry, Where
the Dead Are (Cavankerry
Press), made its debut. AWP
is the Association of Writers
and Writing Programs, the
largest literary conference
in North America.
been substitute teaching
ever since he retired, 14
years ago. He is also vice
president of the fastest-
Class of 2034
Lee Schriever Brockmann
Wanda Schweizer Praisner
William F. Schmitz has
Crib Notes
Fred J. Brockmann
1954
1962
Alumni Link
’52 and
’53
have been married since the
day after Fred graduated
from Wagner, June 8, 1952.
They celebrated their
60th wedding anniversary
with their children and
grandchildren in California.
Everyone wore a Wagner
class of 1952 T-shirt,
ordered for the occasion
by their daughter Carolee
Gravina. Fred and Lee live
in Sarasota, Fla.
Malaysia in 1968–77, a
hospital social worker
from 1980 to 1999, and a
program director for the
Alzheimer’s Association
from 1991 to 2006. She
lives in Pittsburgh and is a
lay minister.
Some of the newest faces to join the Wagner family
2.
1.
3.
1. Alexandra
Sulton Adinolfi ’06
and her husband,
Paul, announce the
birth of Athan Lau
on May 23.
2. Kara Plant
McEachern ’06
and her husband,
Michael, announce
the birth of Molly
Virginia on March 4.
3. Nicole Filippazzo
Giammarinaro ’07
and her husband,
Matthew, had their
first child, Natalie
Harper, on April 15.
We’d love to see your baby’s face.
Please see opposite page for publication guidelines.
summer
2013
33
�SMALL WORLD Jennifer Wright ’09 and a few of the
children she helps care for in Kenya, May 2013.
growing and largest Sons of
the American Revolution
chapter in New Jersey.
1963
Charles Gravenstine spent
the fall semester of 2012
teaching three courses at the
Lumen Christi Institute in
Arusha, Tanzania. Virginia L.
Scott Llewellyn wrote that she
is retired and “truly enjoying
the freedom to do as I
choose every day!” She lives
in Riverhead, N.Y.
25 Years Old, With 50 Dependents
Jennifer Wright ’09 starts a children’s home in Kenya
“It has taken a long time to get to where we are,” says Jennifer Wright ’09 of the program
she founded to help impoverished children in the developing world, the HEAL Raising Our
World Foundation.
Yet it was only six years ago that she was sitting in her dorm room at Wagner College,
researching how to start a nonprofit. Today, HEAL owns 14 acres of land in the Central
Highlands of Kenya, is halfway through building a children’s home, is already caring for
about 50 orphans aged 3 to 19, and has started a secondary school.
And, Wright says, her vision is to open children’s homes all over the world.
Wright came to Wagner with a heart for African children and for changing the world.
She double majored in international affairs and French studies, and she participated in
Wagner’s civic engagement program. In high school, she had volunteered at an orphanage
in Zimbabwe. As a college student, she saw a flyer on a Main Hall bulletin board, advertising
the Global Volunteer Network. She and her roommate, Christina Lamb ’08 (now Christina
Perez), pursued the opportunity and spent January of 2007 volunteering at a state-run
orphanage in Kenya.
Wright was appalled at the conditions there, where the children were undernourished,
largely unsupervised, and lacking in love. “After I went to Kenya,” she says, “I just felt called
to build an orphanage.”
Several Wagner alumni have helped HEAL get
off the ground — Perez is the board secretary,
Kristie Scherrer ’10 is an active volunteer, and
Seneca Smith ’09 has helped with the website
and marketing.
Wright admits that it hasn’t been easy —
especially with the recession and her unfamiliarity
with Kenyan culture. “There have been times
where it would have been much easier to give it
up,” she says. “But when you’re with those kids
and realize the difference you make in their lives,
that’s the motivating factor.”
You can follow Jennifer Wright’s work at
www.healraisingourworld.org.
34
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
1965
had an aortic
heart valve replacement
and is feeling great. He took
a “fantastic” three-week
trip to Alaska. His wife,
Betsy, is now retired and
loving it. They have five
grandchildren and live in
Pawling, N.Y.
John Brockway
1966
has chaired the
psychology department at
Mercyhurst University in
Erie, Pa., since 1969. He has
also hosted jazz and world
music programs on his area’s
NPR affiliate, WQLN radio,
since 1973. Gordon Reinertsen
retired after 42 years in the
ministry. He was pastor of
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
in Atlanta, Ga., for 38 years.
Rob Hoff
1967
wrote in
December 2012, “With
both a little trepidation
and much joy, I retired in
September from Scripps
Margo Astroth
�WANTED:
Alumni who remember
English Professor Willard Maas
Wagner Magazine is preparing a story about
Professor Maas (1958–63), Wagner Literary
Magazine, and related
topics. If you have
memories you’d be willing
to share, please contact
Lee Manchester at lee.
manchester@wagner.edu
or 718-420-4504.
Harrison, Springsteen,
Buffett, and Mitchell;
and kept it successful for
more than 40 years. Stan
is considered one of the
world’s experts in American
fretted instruments. Russ
Johnson took the gold
medal in the 20th Annual
New England Open
Taekwondo Championship.
A fifth-degree black belt
who once taught selfdefense classes at Wagner,
Russ competed in the men’s
43-and-over forms division.
He continues his career as
a professional watercolor
artist, teaching workshops
throughout the year in
Maine and New Jersey.
His art website is
www.rhjart.com.
1968
’68 M’77 was
featured in the New
York Times on March 29.
The story, “Toyotas and
Torch Songs” by Corey
Kilgannon, begins this
Al Lambert
1970
Peter McClintock retired
after
almost 42 years of federal
service. For the past 13
years, Peter served as the
deputy inspector general
of the U.S. Small Business
Administration. He lives in
Fairfax, Va.
1971
Burton W. Wilcke M’71
was
appointed by Health and
Human Services Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius to serve
on the Clinical Laboratory
Improvement Advisory
Committee.
1972
Joan Macaluso
a teacher of English as a
Second Language after 35
years with the Department
of Education of New York
City. She says her years at
Wagner were the best of her
life. Lexis Nexis featured
Bob Mazur in a series of
podcasts, “Interview with
a Secret Agent: An Insider
View of Money Laundering
and Its Global Effects.” Bob
is a former special agent for
the U.S. Customs Service
and the author of The
Infiltrator: My Secret Life
Inside the Dirty Banks Behind
Pablo Escobar’s Medellin
Cartel (2009). George Films
Ltd. acquired the movie
rights for the book, and a
script is in the works.
Alumni Link
Mercy Hospital in San
Diego, where I headed
up a mental health team
for several years. Just
recently published an
online education course,
ENA: Handling Psychiatric
Emergencies: Suicide
Assessment. I’m going to
hold on to my advanced
nursing license for now.
In the meantime, Dennis
and I are traveling, first
to Japan and Kauai, and
now cross country by car
to see grandchildren in
West Virginia and visit
presidential libraries
along the way.” In January,
Stan Jay M’67, president
of Mandolin Brothers
Ltd., hosted a class of
Wagner students in the
arts administration course
Managing a Non-Profit
Organization in the 21st
Century. The discussion
included how Stan started a
(for-profit) business; made
it world famous among
superstar performers
like Dylan, McCartney,
way: “Al Lambert, Staten
Island’s man of cars and
song, can sell you a used
Toyota by day and give
you ‘Summer Wind’ with
his big band that evening.”
Comparing Al’s look and
sound to Mel Torme,
Kilgannon continues, “For
more than 50 years, he has
held parallel — and equally
successful — careers: car
salesman and nightclub
singer.” Al is with Manfredi
Chevrolet on Hylan
Boulevard in Staten Island.
Phyllis Vogel Schwartz lives
in Frederick, Md., with
her husband, Dr. Gary
Schwartz. Both are retired,
and Phyllis volunteers
at the Literacy Council
of Frederick. She has an
MBA in management and
a supervisory degree in
education.
1973
Along with Lonnie Brandon
Jr. ’72, Toni King Whitlock
returned to the Wagner
campus on April 10 for
a social justice dialogue
focused on the 1970 student
protests at Wagner. Toni
left Wagner and finished
her degree at Adelphi
University. She also earned
a master’s in educational
administration and
supervision at Montclair
State University. A retired
educator, she remains
involved with social justice
issues through her volunteer
and paid educational
consulting work in New
Jersey. Her focus is on
bridging the gaps created
by political, economic, and
educational inequities that
result in achievement gaps.
retired as
summer
2013
35
�UNCOMMON LIVES
Jennifer Ruvolo ’07
With Bloomberg in the Bullpen
CLAIM TO FAME: As senior programs and
communications manager for the Office of the First
Deputy Mayor, Jennifer Ruvolo ’07 reports every
day to the “bullpen” in New York City Hall — a place
of which New York Magazine has said, “Power and
influence in the city stop here.” The bullpen is a large,
high-ceilinged, open room filled with about 50 equally
sized desks, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s in
the center, and Ruvolo’s a couple seats away.
PRO SCRIBBLER: Writing is a big part of Ruvolo’s job.
She works on official correspondence, helps create
publications like annual reports, and is the Mayor’s
Office liaison for written content produced by the
National September 11 Memorial & Museum. She
works on major initiatives, and also writes thank-you
notes to kids who send trophies to the mayor.
ANTHROPOLOGIST AT HEART: Ruvolo’s passion
is anthropology, because it’s about connecting with
people and helping people. She came to Wagner
to study anthropology, influenced by her mentor,
anthropology professor Gordon McEwan. Wagner’s
focus on experiential learning — she interned with
the New-York Historical Society and the American
Museum of Natural History — was key to her future
success. After her graduation, she worked for the
New York City Sports Commission before going into
special event planning for the Mayor’s Office, which
led to her current job.
INSPIRATIONS : “I’m a native Staten Islander, and
the proud daughter of a public school teacher and
a firefighter — two incredible people who have
dedicated their lives to serving New York City,” says
Ruvolo. She also says her coworkers in the bullpen
inspire her every day. “There’s no ‘can’t,’ there’s no
‘That’s not possible.’ It’s, ‘Will it help people?’” Finally,
there are her fellow Wagner alums — people like
her sister, Victoria Ruvolo ’05, a butcher; Eugene
Statnikov ’07, a doctoral student in public health at
Imperial College in London; and Jennifer Macaluso
’07, jewelry creator (look up Hey, Dollface! on Etsy).
Says Ruvolo, “Knowing that Wagner grads are
committing themselves fully to their passions helps
motivate me to go the extra mile and do the best
that I possibly can.”
36
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H : P E T E BY RO N
�on December 21, 2012.
It began, “Back in 1980,
three sisters — Susan,
Carol and Beth Driscoll
— were married in three
separate ceremonies.
Thirty-two years later, they
are all still married.” The
reporter, Samantha Storey,
interviewed the husbands,
the sisters, and their mother
“about their secrets to
making a marriage last.”
Tim LaCroix and Gene Barfield ’75 at their wedding ceremony.
1978
1975
was elected
vice chair of the American
College of Tax Counsel,
a professional association
that recognizes tax lawyers
for their contributions to
the profession. Joan is a
partner and chair of the
Tax Practice Group of
Pepper Hamilton LLP
in Philadelphia. In a
groundbreaking ceremony,
Gene Barfield married
his partner of 30 years,
Tim LaCroix, on March
15 in Harbor Springs,
Mich. They were the
first same-sex couple to
marry legally within the
state of Michigan. The
wedding took place at the
headquarters of the Little
Traverse Bay Bands of
Odawa Indians, just after
the tribal chairman signed
legislation permitting samesex marriage. Tim is a tribal
citizen, and Gene became
his legally wed non-tribal
spouse under the laws of the
tribe. Gene and Tim were
invited by President Obama
Joan Arnold
1977
Carol Driscoll ’77 and Jim
were featured
in a New York Times story
’79 Kagdis
P H OTO G R A P H : B R A N D O N H U B BA R D / P E TO S K Y N E W S
Alumni Link
was inducted
into the Staten Island
Soccer League’s Hall of
Fame in 2012. He started
playing soccer as a child in
Croatia, and he brought
his love of the sport with
him to Staten Island when
he immigrated at age 16.
Nick started his coaching
career while still a student
at Wagner. He has taught
for 30 years at New Dorp
High School on Staten
Island and has coached
the girls’ soccer team since
1982, the inaugural season
of girls’ soccer in the Public
School Athletic League.
He has also coached the
men’s team at the College of
Staten Island, coordinated
numerous soccer camps,
and officiated at two
Northeast Conference
championships, among
many other services to
the sport of soccer. He
was named Official of the
Year in 2011 by the New
York City Soccer Officials’
Association. Edward Nessel
was named by United States
Swimming and the U.S.
Olympic Committee to the
Nick Kvasic
to attend a reception at the
White House on June 13 in
celebration of LGBT Pride
Month. Both are Navy
veterans, and they met
while in the service. Gene
is a graduate of the Navy
Nuclear Power Program
and served aboard a fleet
ballistic missile submarine
and at a Navy air squadron.
After concluding their
military service, the couple
moved to Vermont and
became active in civil rights
for the LGBT community.
Gene earned a degree in
historic preservation and
worked in that field in
both Vermont and Florida.
Gene and Tim moved to
a family farm outside of
Boyne City, in Tim’s home
state of Michigan, 15
years ago. Gene is retired
but continues to work on
preservation projects and on
the farm’s gardens and trees.
2012 elite list of the most
influential swim coaches.
This honor resulted from
his work with American
record holder and Olympic
medalist Cullen Jones,
whom Ed has been coaching
since the age of 13. Steven
Russo visited the Wagner
planetarium in fall 2012
to see the new Spitz SCI
Dome HD system. When
he was a student, he
operated the planetarium
from 1973 to 1978. He has
been teaching astronomy in
planetariums for 39 years,
now serving as director of
the East Kentucky Science
Center and Planetarium in
Prestonsburg, Ky. “It was
great going back to Wagner
and seeing the campus,” he
wrote. “Hadn’t been there
since 1984!”
1979
joined
the U.S. Coast Guard
Auxiliary to volunteer her
time to the community
and to the Coast Guard.
She is an athletic trainer
who lives in North
Cape May, N.J. Angelo
Brisimitzakis , former CEO
of Compass Minerals,
visited the Wagner
campus in April to meet
with science and business
students and present a
seminar.
Lorraine Bianco
1980
& ’81
Daniel ’80 and Joanne Hein
’81 Couture
celebrated the
summer
2013
37
�marriage of their oldest
daughter, Lyndsay, to
Matthew Pess on April 13.
1983
sent in
this tribute to the late
Madelyn Gritz DeStefano ,
who died on March 9,
2012. “Madelyn was born
on December 6, 1961. She
lived in New York all of
her life and was excited to
attend Wagner College in
the fall of 1979. Studying in
the education department,
Madelyn worked hard to
earn her degree. As a freshman, Madelyn joined the
Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.
There she became our sister
in this national organization
and worked on a variety
of charitable projects. She
made lasting friendships
with Faith Miller Duval ’82,
Gail Miller-Shapiro
Jo Ann Moore, Gail MillerShapiro, Belinda Bardes
’84, Nancy Bracco
Coraggio ’86, and Rosemary
Gordon Meagher . Madelyn
worked as a classroom
teacher for many years at
the Child Study Center in
Staten Island. There she
met the love of her life, her
husband Charles DeStefano.
Madelyn continued to look
for opportunities where she
could make a difference
in children’s lives, so she
moved on from the Child
Study Center and became
director of early intervention at Our Place in Staten
Island. Madelyn was the
director of Our Place for
many years. She touched the
lives of so many children,
parents, and staff with her
Kielczewski
38
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
enthusiasm, knowledge, and
nurturing ways. Not only
was Madelyn a wonderful
teacher and director, she
was also a devoted wife, sister to Alice Cassidy, beloved
auntie to her nephew Ryan,
and dear friend to many.
We love her and will miss
her always.”
1986
Ed Nitkewicz was
recognized
for his staunch advocacy for
children with special needs.
This honor was sponsored
by the Huntington Patch and
Grape-Nuts to highlight
those who inspire people
around them to climb
their own mountains, in
commemoration of the
60th anniversary of Sir
Edmund Hillary’s ascent of
Mount Everest. An attorney
and South Huntington
School Board trustee, Ed
coaches TOPSoccer and
Challenger baseball teams,
chairs the Special Needs
Faith Formation class at
St. Elizabeth’s, and is a
corporate fundraiser for
Autism Speaks.
1989
and his
wife, Macie, welcomed a
new addition to the family
with the birth of their
daughter, Violet Lucia, on
June 26, 2011.
Tracy M. Stratton
1992
received a
strong review in the New
York Post in January for his
performance in the tonguein-cheek horror musical
The House of Von Macramé
at the Bushwick Starr in
Brooklyn. “When this
maniacal live-wire proclaims
his love for shiny fabrics
by crowing, ‘Hail Satin!’
you’re ready to sign up for
his cult,” wrote Post reviewer
Elisabeth Vincentelli.
Paul Pecorino
1995
married Ken
Cronck in Edinburgh,
Scotland, on August 9,
2012. Nancy Salgado-Cowan
Stacy Cannon
has joined Ivy Pediatrics
(ivypediatrics.com), a wellestablished practice with
locations in Manalapan,
East Brunswick, and
South Amboy, N.J. Nancy
has 19 years’ experience
working with kids. Besides
her nursing degree from
Wagner, she received an
advanced practice degree
as a pediatric nurse
practitioner from Hunter
Bellevue. She is certified
in pediatric and advanced
trauma life support, and
her special interests include
asthma, allergies, emergency
medicine, and familycentered care. Nancy says
she is ecstatic to be caring
for children in the urgent/
office setting.
1996
is
very pleased to announce
that she completed the
Associate of Science in
Nursing degree at the
College of Central Florida.
Frances-Ann Sciotto Blitch
1988
Richard Negrin ,
deputy
mayor and managing
director of the City of
Philadelphia, was honored
by the Friends of the Free
Library at their BiblioBash
celebration in March, for
his work in branch libraries,
community building, youth
leadership, literacy, and
digital access.
Stacy Cannon ’95 and Ken Cronck were married at Dalhousie Castle.
�At the time of her writing,
she planned to take the
boards and become an RN
in a couple of months. She
previously completed a
master’s in mental health
counseling at the University
of Florida. “I am privileged
to be able to offer my
patients holistic care, as
both a counselor and a
nurse,” she wrote. Anthony
Correnti completed a
master’s in humanities from
California State University,
Dominguez Hills.
1997
left Oxygen
Media/NBCU to become
senior vice president
of programming at the
Discovery Channel last
summer. In April, he was
part of the team honored
with the 2013 Sports Emmy
for Outstanding New
Approaches Sports Event
Coverage for the Red Bull
Stratos Space Jump — the
record-setting leap from
space by Felix Baumgartner
in October 2012 — for
which Scott was an associate
Scott Lewers
1999
returned
to Wagner to become an
assistant director, focused
on career services and
employer relations, in the
Center for Academic and
Career Engagement. Over
the past decade, she has
enjoyed a dual career path
as an educator and a writer.
She taught high school
English and theater and
served as an adjunct English
instructor at Wagner, and
wrote articles and blog posts
for a variety of publications.
Jeff Skinner and his wife,
Leigh, welcomed son
Ryan Thomas Skinner on
October 28, 2012. Jeff is
thankful everyone is healthy.
Barbara Bellesi
2001
starred
as Corny Collins in
HAIRSPRAY: In Concert!
with the Indianapolis
and Baltimore symphony
orchestras in January. The
concerts marked the 25th
anniversary of the John
Waters cult comedy film
and brought together an allstar cast, including Waters
as narrator. Bret is also
in the upcoming Martin
Scorsese film, The Wolf of
Wall Street.
Bret Shuford
2002
graduated
from Seton Hall Law
School and worked
as a prosecutor for a
year. He decided that
it was not for him and
went into teaching.
He quickly got a
job at his old high
school, Manasquan
High School in New
Jersey. He runs the
History Club, Mock
Trials, and Model
UN Teams, while
teaching US I and II
Michele Sampson Nelson ’03 and her
and US II Honors.
matron of honor, Gina Noce Bauer ’02
The History Club
was recognized by
radio station, WSIA-88.9,
the National History
featuring the specialized
Club as one of the top 10 in
talents of Lifestyles
the country. He has stayed
community members such
in touch with Wagner, and
as Anthony “Mystery Man”
spoke to pre-law students
DiFato, Chris “Totally ’80s”
at Wagner in the spring.
Bungay, and many others.
Some of his former students
Joel, who is also a stand-up
are attending Wagner. He
comedian known as Soul
received a James Madison
Joel, is the radio show’s host.
Fellowship this year, which
“When you get them on
he will use to pursue
their favorite topics, they’re
master’s degrees in history
great to listen to,” he told
and political science. He
the Times. “I have friends,
has two sons, age 4 and 3.
professional comedians, who
Joel Richardson ’02 M’08
tell me they can’t believe how
was featured in the New
entertaining these guys are
York Times for his work
to listen to.” You can listen to
with Lifestyles for the
Lifestyles Radio at lfdsi.org.
Disabled, a Staten Island
occupational program for
developmentally delayed
adults. The story, “Autistic,
In honor of the 10th
and on the Airwaves” (April
anniversary of the fabulous
13, 2013) and a related
2002–03 basketball team,
video, tells how Joel and
Wagner’s only one to
a co-worker, Burak Uzun,
make it to the NCAA
created a talk show that
tournament, Dedrick Dye
started as a podcast and has
gave us an update about
evolved into a show on the
many of his teammates.
College of Staten Island
Jim Fagen
Alumni Link
Scott Lewers ’97 with Emmy
producer. The Discovery
Channel’s live broadcast of
the space jump produced
the highest rating for a nonprime-time program in the
network’s history, with 7.6
million viewers.
2003
summer
2013
39
�Dedrick himself is an
admissions counselor at
Wagner, and he completed
his master’s in elementary
education this year. Three
are playing professional
basketball abroad: Jermaine
Hall in Israel, Doug Viegas
’05 in Brazil, and Nigel
Wyatte ’05 in France. Jason
Allen ’04 is a teacher and
coach in Long Island,
DeEarnest McLemore ’06
coaches at Fayetteville
State University in North
Carolina, and Corey McCrae
’06 coaches at DeMatha
Catholic High School in
Maryland. Matt Vitale ’06
works for the NYPD and
lives in Brooklyn. In other
class news, Michele Sampson
married Donny Nelson on
October 14, 2012, at St.
John’s Episcopal Church
in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Her matron of honor was
Gina Noce Bauer ’02. Also,
Michele earned her M.S. in
educational leadership from
Fordham University.
2004
Crystal Schloemer Dujowich
received a full scholarship
to complete her Ph.D. in
leadership studies at the
University of San Diego.
She started in 2009 and
plans to complete the
program this year. As
part of the scholarship,
she teaches leadership
and social change courses
for undergraduates at the
University of San Diego,
a designated Ashoka
Changemaker Campus.
Her courses integrate
experiential learning and
40
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
service learning into the
curriculum. A specialist in
global citizenship, she has
taught courses in Ghana,
Guatemala, Costa Rica,
Spain, and Sri Lanka.
2006
Alexandra Sulton Adinolfi
and her husband, Paul,
announce the birth of
Athan Lau Adinolfi on
May 23. They live in
Farmingville, N.Y. See
Crib Notes, page 33, for a
photo. Ashley L. Alexander
joined Wagner’s Office of
Institutional Advancement
in January as executive
director of development
operations and chief
operating officer. She
previously worked as
senior director of strategic
planning and operations
for the Global Resources
Division of the Wildlife
Conservation Society. Laura
Agostino gave a presentation
to Wagner students,
“Spanish in the Business
World: Double Major,
Double Opportunity,” last
October. Since graduating
with a double major in
business administration and
Spanish, she has worked
for HSBC, FINRA, and
a Canadian bank. Michael
Armato , a doctoral candidate
in the Rockefeller College
Department of Political
Science at the University at
Albany–SUNY, has been
studying Congressman
and Republican vice
presidential candidate
Paul Ryan as one of the
subjects of his dissertation,
“Practicing Representation:
The Influence of Political
Competition on the
Home Styles of U.S.
Representatives.” His
research received attention
during the 2012 presidential
campaign. Elisabeth L.
Cardiello ’06 M’07 has
started a business based
on an invention of her late
father’s. Caffe Unimatic
(caffeunimatic.com) markets
her father’s patented drip
percolator coffee pot. A
percentage of proceeds go
to the Sir Peter L. Cardiello
Award for Entrepreneurship
for Wagner students.
Jessica Friswell completed
her M.Sc. in anthropology,
environment, and
development at University
College London in
2011. She is serving as
an AmeriCorps VISTA
member with Ashoka’s
Youth Venture at the
United Way of Tri-County
in Massachusetts. Kara Plant
McEachern and her husband,
Michael, announce the
birth of their daughter
Molly Virginia on March 4.
See Crib Notes, page 33, for
a photo.
2007
M’07 and
M’08 were
married in March. Denielle
Diodato married Joseph
Albanese on May 14, 2011.
She is a teacher at PS 4
in Staten Island. Kimberly
Farrell , DMD, returned
to Wagner in March to
meet with students at the
Pre-Health Society’s annual
reception. Nicole Filippazzo
Giammarinaro and her
Scott Chamberlin
Jackie Poston
husband, Matthew, had
their first child, Natalie
Harper Giammarinaro, on
April 15. See Crib Notes,
page 33, for a photo.
2008
Nadwa Ibrahim ,
MD,
returned to Wagner in
March to meet with
students at the Pre-Health
Society’s annual reception.
Christina Lamb Perez
completed her Ph.D. in
toxicology at the University
of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill, this year. She married
Dr. Alex Perez of Duke
University. Christina
is looking for teaching
positions in North Carolina.
Jackie Poston M’08 and
Scott Chamberlin M’07 were
married in March.
2009
Denise Balacich ,
a fourthyear medical student, and
Michelle D’Amura , a fourthyear optometry student,
both at Salus University,
returned to Wagner in
March to meet with
students at the Pre-Health
Society’s annual reception.
Christina Herrera and Thomas
McCafferty ’09 M’11 were
married on June 9, 2012,
at St. Clare’s Church in
Staten Island. The couple
started dating during their
freshman year at Wagner.
“We loved taking classes
together and enjoyed
everything Wagner and its
campus had to offer,” said
Thomas. Christina chose
her sisters, Deana Walker ’99
and Alyssa Herrera ’10, as
�N.J. Christina and Thomas
live in Long Branch, N.J.
2011
completed a
second Bachelor of Science
at Wagner, in nursing, in
2012; her first degree was in
biopsychology. Rosie Valenti ,
a first-year medical student
at the NYIT College of
Osteopathic Medicine,
returned to Wagner in
March to meet with
students at the Pre-Health
Society’s annual reception.
Aimee Marin
Christina Herrera ’09 and Thomas ’09 M’11 McCafferty
20 Under 40 Award. She
has earned a Master of Arts
in school counseling from
NYU. Thomas received an
award for the highest GPA
in international business
during his MBA studies. He
is a financial advisor with
Merrill Lynch in Red Bank,
2012
Amanda Arcieri plans
to
pursue a Ph.D. in social
psychological research at
the University of Sydney
in Australia under the
supervision of Dr. Fiona
Alumni Link
her matron and maid of
honor; Thomas’s best man
was his brother, Casey
McCafferty ’11. Christina, a
psychology and education
major and summa cum
laude graduate, won the
Staten Island Economic
Development Corporation’s
White, starting next March.
Her research will focus
on understanding the
development of prejudice
and discrimination and
effective ways to reduce
it. Amanda notes that
Wagner’s Dr. Amy
Eshleman inspired her
interest in the field and
guided her throughout her
graduate school application
process. Jennifer Ida received
a three-year National
Science Foundation
Graduate Fellowship. She
will enroll this fall in the
anthropology graduate
program at the University
of Colorado Boulder. Lisa
Nicole Schneider, a first-year
dental student at UMDNJ,
returned to Wagner in
March to meet with
students at the Pre-Health
Society’s annual reception.
WE ARE
WAGNER COLLEGE
To hear these 2013 graduating seniors’
stories in our new video, go to
wagner.edu/annual-fund
Chantya ’13
Kevin ’13
You Are Wagner College, Too
Your gift to the Annual Fund
supports the lifeblood of
Wagner College — our students.
Everyone. Every Year.
MAKE A GIFT.
wagner.edu/give 1-888-231-2252
James ’13
Carley ’13
summer
2013
41
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Alumni
Mr. John D. Barbes ’39
Mrs. Virginia Fensterer ’40
Mrs. Bernice Mikkelsen Aldrich
Heilsberg ’42
Mrs. Marion B. Rappold Dolwick ’44
Dr. George P. Steponkus ’44
Mrs. Muriel Evers Keigher ’48
Mrs. Shirley Sandberg Shannon ’48
Rev. Donald W. Stoughton ’48
Mr. Kenneth E. Laucella ’49
Mr. Thomas J. Lennox ’49
Mr. Robert A. Whitehead ’49
Mr. William Bransfield ’50
Mr. Thor D. Bugge ’50
Mrs. Charlotte G. Pederson Edgar ’50
Mr. James Gilmartin ’50
Mr. Edward S. Gowski ’50
Mr. Perry Grover ’50
Dr. Robert W. Wannemacher ’50
Mrs. Anne Carlucci Willis ’50
Mr. John F. Byron ’51
Mr. Arnold W. Cleveland ’51
Mr. Allen Cohen ’51
Mr. Richard G. Koski ’51
Mr. Walter C. Schoenfeld ’51
Mr. Richard J. Valles ’51
Mr. Joseph J. Di Marco ’52
Mr. Vincent C. Pompa ’52
Mrs. Jane Merrick Shaw ’52
Mr. Walter P. Barry ’53
Mr. Alan W. Cathers ’53
Mrs. Helen Abichandani ’54
Mr. Clifford B. Johnson ’54
Mrs. Gilda Murano Mitri ’54
Mr. Calvin C. Morrell ’54 M’57
Mrs. Marie Sinibaldi Muller ’54
Mr. Leonard Bokert ’55
Rev. Arthur F. Haimerl ’55
Col. John W. Rodgers ’55
Ms. Anna N. Sachse ’55
Dr. Paul H. Stevens ’55
Rev. Paul F. Garrity ’56
Mr. Vincent L. Giacinto M’56
Mrs. Ellen Spalding Kramer ’57
Dr. Janet A. Rodgers ’57
Mr. Alfred F. Rohls ’57
Mr. Rudolph G. Ayoub ’58
Mr. George Blomquist Jr. ’58
Mr. David C. Yorkston ’58 M’64
Mr. Frank S. Barsalona ’59
Ms. Margaret Glueck ’59
Mrs. Diane Borst Manning ’59 M’62
Mr. Carl A. Westerdahl ’59
Dr. W. Scott Andrus ’60
Mr. John J. Campbell ’60
Mr. Bradford G. Corbett ’60
Mr. Anthony F. Donegan ’60
Rev. Peter A. Molnar ’60
Prof. Jean Normandy ’61 M’63
Mr. Henry P. Picciurro ’61
Mr. Robert R. St. John ’61
Mrs. Toni Zucconi ’61
Mr. Rudolph J. Fusco ’62
Rev. Russell C. Gromest ’63
Ms. Suzanne R. Davis ’64 M’78
Mr. Robert L. Lord ’64 M’66
Mr. Stuart L. Smith ’64
Mr. Jorma H. Wakkila ’64
Mr. William V. Parise ’65
Dr. James E. Haley ’67
Mr. John Knutsen ’67
Mrs. Martha I. Stromgren Morris ’67
Mr. Arthur A. Klatt ’68
Mr. William Anderson M’69
Mr. Luke De Mattia M’69
Mrs. Diana L. Gradwell ’69
Mr. Robert M. Murphy ’69
Mrs. Mary Iannucci M’70
Mr. Alexander Eberling ’71
Mr. Paul S. Halamandaris ’71
Mr. Henry Mertens ’72
Mr. David J. Saland ’76
Mrs. Susan C. Vitale Costello ’77
Mrs. Jane M. Lyons ’77
Dr. Meryl J. Efron ’79
Mr. James L. Shand ’79
Mr. Paul A. Mango M’80
Mrs. Madelyn Gritz DeStefano ’83
Mrs. Maureen K. Dixon Peyton ’84
Mr. Stephen S. Slocum ’84
Mr. Matthew Stilwell ’84
Mrs. Mary B. Boody ’86
Mr. Matthew T. Grant ’86
Mrs. Jacqueline E. Noto-Abate ’87
Mr. Robert J. Eadicicco M’89
Mrs. Vanessa Picciotto Perrine ’03
Faculty, Staff,
and Friends
Mr. Steven A. Bivona
Dr. Ronald W. Cross
Mrs. Domenica “Mickey”
Sacca Giovinazzo
Dr. Glenn C. Leach
Diane Borst Manning ’59 M’62 and Carl A. Westerdahl ’59
Classmates and contributors
to a better Wagner
With sadness, we note the passing of Diane Borst
Manning ’59 M’62 on February 2, 2013, and of Carl A.
Westerdahl ’59 on April 3, 2013. Both were leaders in their
class and great supporters of Wagner College, especially of
the Horrmann Library.
Carl Westerdahl mobilized the class of 1959 as its 50th
reunion approached. It became a vibrant group known as
Wagner ’59 and Friends. Diane Borst Manning became active
in that group, and she also volunteered to chair the Friends
of the Library Committee in 2003. One of Diane’s first tasks
as chair was to organize a memorial in the library for Harry
Steeve ’59 and Rosemarie Bade Lasinski ’60.
The Horrmann Library did not exist yet when Diane and
42
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Carl were students at Wagner; but in their senior year, the
Horrmann family made the gift that enabled the College
to build this much-needed facility. Therefore, Carl said,
the class determined to help make the Horrmann Library
into “a tool for education for today’s students.” The result
was the 2011 dedication of the Class of 1959 Learning
Commons, developed with funds raised by the class of 1959
under the leadership of Diane and her husband, Norman
Berg; Carl and his wife, Susan Clarke; and others in the
class. These computer-equipped group study rooms are wildly
popular and a daily reminder of their commitment to Wagner
and the Horrmann Library.
For more information about the Friends of the Library
or to donate in memory of Diane or Carl, go to http://wagner.
libguides.com/friends.
— Dorothy Davison, Dean of the Horrmann Library
Deaths reported to Wagner College, October 10, 2012–June 4, 2013
�Faculty Remembrances
Professor Emeritus John “Bunny” Barbes ’39
Coach, alumni director, and all-around Wagner cheerleader
Professor Emeritus John “Bunny” Barbes ’39 died at home in Sunrise, Florida, on April 1, 2013 — his 96th birthday.
Known to all by his childhood nickname, Bunny was a beloved professor, coach, and administrator at Wagner College
and a tireless supporter of the National Alumni Association. He attended Wagner for two years and graduated from Arnold
College with a B.S. in physical education. He also earned a master’s in education from Columbia University. His long career with
Wagner athletics began in 1946 and included coaching football, track, and squash. He also taught physical education and served
as Wagner’s alumni director for 14 years.
Barbes was inducted into the Wagner Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993. The alumni association’s distinguished service award
was named the John “Bunny” Barbes ’39 and Lila T. Barbes ’40 Alumni Laureate to honor this couple who meant so much to the
College as educators, volunteers, fundraisers, and all-around cheerleaders. Lila Barbes died in 2009.
Survivors include son Allan D. Barbes ’71, daughter Linda A. Barbes Stein ’69, two grandchildren, and five
great-grandchildren.
Professor Emerita Jean Normandy ’61 M’63
Seamstress, actor, and college instructor
Jean Normandy, an instructor in the Wagner English department from 1963 to 1982, died on April 6, 2013,
at the age of 96, in Bridgewater, Virginia.
Born in Italy, raised in Staten Island, Normandy dropped out of school during the Great Depression to work in the
garment industry. During World War II, she performed in theater groups on Broadway as well as abroad for the U.S. Army.
While working in sales at a high-end department store after the war, she returned to the classroom, earning her high school
degree in night school and continuing at Wagner College. She received her bachelor’s in English in 1961 and her master’s in 1963.
She especially loved Renaissance literature as well as the works of Shakespeare and Milton, and retired as a professor emerita
in 1982.
Professor of Music Ronald Cross
Noted scholar, educator, and performer
Ronald Cross, the Kurt and Auguste Riemann Professor of Music at Wagner College, died at home on February 21, 2013,
just a few days after his 84th birthday.
A professor at Wagner from 1968 until the day of his death, Dr. Cross influenced generations of music students. “He had
the wonderful ability to make the complexities of music interesting to the uninitiated, and interspersed theory and analysis
with amusing anecdotes about composers, as well as his personal experiences as a performer,” said Jeff Dailey ’80, president of
the New York City chapter of the American Musicological Society.
Cross was a scholar of many types of music, ranging from the Renaissance to Bach to Romantic opera to American music
to non-Western music. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from New York University. He was a Fulbright
Scholar and authored the definitive catalogue of the works of Flemish composer Matthaeus Pipelare.
He was also, in Dailey’s words, “an amazing performer,” especially on the organ and harpsichord, and on the viola da gamba
and other early instruments as well. During the 1980s, he directed the Collegium Musicum Wagneriensis and its well-known
Halloween concerts, Music from the Court of Vlad the Impaler (Prince Dracula).
He regularly took his students, and also Wagner faculty from other departments, to concerts all over New York City. Biology
Professor Ammini Moorthy remembered him as “a soft-spoken, perfect gentleman with a boyish grin who was a scholar, a
teacher, and a great human being.”
summer
2013
43
�Reflections
How I Became the Water Man
Late in Life, a New Journey By George Lewis ’56
I
n 2006, I went to Guatemala with Rotary International
on my first humanitarian project. The purpose of that trip
was to install stoves in the homes of the Mayan Indians.
While there, I was able to talk with the top Guatemalan
Rotarian. I told him I was about to become president of my
Rotary Club in Florence, Oregon, and I wanted to know
how I could help the poor in his country.
Without hesitating, he told me to supply clean drinking
water, because people were getting sick and children were
dying.
I was apprehensive. My club had never applied for
a Rotary matching grant, I didn’t know how to fill out
the paperwork, and my club didn’t have any money in
our budget. Plus, I was 71 years old — quite old to be
starting on this new journey. But I
remembered seeing the look on the
sick children’s faces.
In order to apply for a Rotary
matching grant, I needed to define
a project, find a host Rotary Club in
Guatemala to be my partner, and
raise seed money for the grant. I was
introduced to a Rotarian from the
largest Rotary Club in Guatemala,
who also was the wholesaler of a
$50 in-house water filter. That
covered the project and the host club. Now, I needed to get
the money. I decided to go for a $25,000 matching grant,
which meant I had to raise $7,000. My district would match
my club donation, and the Rotary Foundation would match
my club at 50 percent and the district at 100 percent. I held
a fundraiser, which netted $3,000. I then contacted the
70 other club presidents in my district and asked for their
support. This was grueling, but I finally was able to get
enough money to proceed. The filters were delivered, and
we were able to help 4,500 people.
After that very rewarding experience, I decided to put
together a $50,000 grant. My club completed a few of those.
I then solicited other clubs in my district to be the primary
partner for their own grants. I went back to Guatemala
to ask Rotary Clubs to be the host partners, and I started
to contact Rotary Clubs from other parts of the U.S. and
Canada. We were doing great, but then Rotary started a
new program which meant I couldn’t serve Guatemala for
three years. I was devastated.
Just then, I received an email from someone I didn’t
know asking me to be their friend. I thought it was spam.
Then I received a second and third request from people
around the country. I looked into it and found out it was
Facebook. I am now back in business.
I started to get Rotary friends from around the world. I
asked them if they wanted to do a water grant, and many
were very excited to have this opportunity. I had them fill
out a form that explained their need and their project. I
then proactively found them a Rotary Club partner outside
of their country, because the Rotary Foundation requires
two partners to fund a
grant. I asked Rotarians
from around the world to
be my Facebook friends,
to the point that I am at
the maximum number
of 5,000 allowed.
It was very easy to
find projects, but not so
easy to find partners.
On Facebook, I posted
projects and told stories
with lots of photos. It then clicked. Last year I helped put
together or participated in 63 grants, and this year I expect
to do more. Some of the earlier clubs are on their second or
third grants.
In order to find Rotary Club partners, I have given
hundreds of Rotary Club programs, talked at district
conferences in all parts of the country, and spoken at
president-elect training conferences that had as many as
500 attendees. My talks are about motivating Rotarians to
take action on their dreams, to get rid of negative thoughts,
so they can also live this life-changing experience.
Of the hundreds of Rotarians who have expressed an
interest in water, very few actually follow through and do a
grant. When I ask them why they haven’t done a grant, the
biggest excuse is that their club doesn’t have any money. In
the past, I just advised them to hold a fundraiser. Most did
theory is that if you
“ My
are doing a good thing
and you ask for support
in a nice way, your
friends can’t resist.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
“
44
�not. I determined that I had to solve this problem, so they
could get rid of this obstacle. I founded Global Run 4 Water
(www.globalrun4water.org) to motivate clubs to take action
and raise the necessary funds in order to complete a grant.
Our website shows many ways to organize an event, whether
it’s a 5K, a 10K, a marathon, or a stroll around the park. I
gathered a passionate group of Rotarians from around the
world to be on my board. Our goal was to raise a million
dollars as soon as possible. One event in India had 9,000
children participating. Each was given a bright yellow hat
with our Global Run logo on it.
I also recently partnered with Pure Charity (www.
purecharity.com), a website that helps charities raise money
for humanitarian projects. It allows me to post projects that
I am working on. The first one was for a water project in
Peru. My campaign was to run a local 5K to raise money.
I’m 78 years old, and this would be my very first race. I sent
an email to everyone on my contact list — about 1,800
people. The donations came pouring in. My theory is that
if you are doing a good thing and you ask for support in a
nice way, your friends can’t resist, mostly because they want
to help you.
When I am finished, most of the world will know about
this terrible water problem, and we will have shown them an
easy way to support us. This is my passion in life. I am not
compensated. I spend hours every day trying to spread the
word, find projects and then find partners. When I started, I
had a goal to supply clean drinking water to one million less
fortunate people. I am now very close to accomplishing this
goal. So, what’s next? I now have a huge support group, and
many are bringing in new supporters every day. This group
will help me get to two million people served and in a lot
shorter period than the first million.
George Lewis ’56, a retired stockbroker and former professional
baseball player, is a member of the Wagner Athletic Hall of Fame
and was named a Wagner College Alumni Fellow in 2009. He now
lives in Florida. Learn more about George Lewis’s work by visiting
Water Team International at www.waterteaminternational.org.
Or, send him a friend request on Facebook!
summer
2013
45
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
Moment of Pride
Brittany McCullough of Fort Hood, Texas, was one
of the 566 graduates of 2013, all congratulated
personally by President Guarasci. McCullough
graduated cum laude from the Honors Program
with a double major in philosophy and Spanish
and a minor in sociology.
P H OTO G R A P H : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Summer 2013
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/792957f6508008d49ae3eab15d5aee68.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=NUL20twyntVyEbSqitJtVJp2VZimbHmT7jUCUBDeZquAsOXzlaWbQ3BKOHwlYl9Qm8KuMGVK2uY4oHM3A1ViE6lwtv9KPSIcnX8WBY2aXAds%7EoFflOv21HFmP17FKgGvUDDchW30tPiaZ6pc6P9Naz9oUdX8ZX3faYf39nCB-3iPb09I8CrX8KtYwE5MT%7EK7XVzb9PlLn1siJ5iR1CZ1bzorkPiz0XEBpLQYoL59Z7xJ1DXp3BLd5rKLQrWTvFJnYuaQbl3cZm2GeEZjfRX7xiyW1HfxV1bi%7EFU2WcjXiDWtig1vnnM7FqU8AF2NojndAGS-aeU30y75AGXUs5rnLQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
1fa96411bd09b7ff2f4a332eb4180094
PDF Text
Text
The Meaning
of Main
What makes our architectural
signature truly valuable?
�Wagner Magazine
Fall 2012
F e a t u r e s
vol.10,no.2
12
The Meaning of Main
An art historian considers what makes
Wagner’s architectural signature truly valuable;
plus, a closer look at the $15 million project to
save the face of the College.
18
Expanded Horizons
Fifty years ago, Wagner opened its campus in
Bregenz, Austria. Since then, the experiences of both
students and the College have greatly broadened.
Plus, profiles of three alumni living abroad.
�departments
2
From the President
3
From the Editor
4
From Our Readers
5
Upon the Hill
30
Sports Roundup
32
Alumni Link
36 Class Notes
26
Wabi: The Beauty of
Imperfection
A Wagner senior encourages ‘everyone to learn
to love that thing that annoys them about
themselves and others, because no one is perfect,
and flaws are nothing but individualistic beauty.’
44
In Memoriam
45
Reflections
Triumphant
Overcoming three season-opening losses and the setbacks of
Hurricane Sandy, the Seahawks won eight straight games and
their first Northeast Conference championship on November 17.
The following week, they defeated Colgate and became the first
NEC team to advance in the NCAA Division I FCS playoffs.
The season ended in Cheney, Washington, in a hard-fought
contest against No. 4-ranked Eastern Washington.
P H OTO G R A P H : DAV I D SA F F R A N / WAG N E R AT H L E T I C S
�From the President
Lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy
Even if you don’t live in the
New York–New Jersey area,
I’m certain you have seen the
coverage of the devastation
that was left here in the wake
of Superstorm Sandy in late
October. At Wagner, it marked
What has
the second consecutive year
touched me most
that Carin and I, along with a
number of our administrators
is the response
and staff members, spent the
from our own students.
night of the storm with some of
our students in Spiro Sports Center. It was an opportunity
to bond with a small group of our students as the winds
howled outside. When we ventured out the next morning, it
was clear that the destruction was much more profound than
anything we’ve encountered here in recent memory. Though
the campus endured the storm with only minimal damage,
the situation was dire for many of our neighbors.
There was clearly much need, and what has touched me
the most is the response from our own students. Even before
most of them were able to return to campus, they were
seeking ways to help. Greg Balaes ’13, our SGA president,
and his peers created Wagner Cares to focus the work of
student volunteers and funnel supplies where they are
needed most. (Read more about it on page 6.)
These efforts are a most meaningful response to this
challenge, because our students have shown that the lessons
they learn in our classrooms and in their fieldwork have
become a part of their internal makeup. The Wagner Plan is,
in large part, about a civic ethos. That ethos is strong on our
campus; it is who we are.
Seeing this also reaffirmed to me how important it is for
us to continue to fight for the kind of education that we are
able to provide here at Wagner, even as American higher
education faces increasing challenges.
Wagner is part of a tradition where exploration of ideas is
critical, as is argument through reason and evidence, and,
2
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
perhaps most importantly,
the promotion of compassion
and empathy.
At the very beginnings of our republic,
Franklin and Jefferson understood that to sustain a
democratic government, a democratic culture would be a
necessity. This culture would nurture independent thinkers,
pragmatic problem solvers, and creative innovators.
They understood that the liberal arts would free people
from becoming prisoners of their own limited experiences.
The world they were building placed high demands on
citizens to understand civic duties and responsibilities and
democratic practice. The republic required engaged citizens
who prized their personal freedom, but who also cherished
and nurtured the welfare of their communities.
In this critical moment when higher learning and
responsible citizenship are needed more than ever, we must
support institutions that stand for the fundamental values of
democracy, an open society, and a reverence for the dignity
of life. This is what we do at Wagner.
richard guarasci, president
�From the Editor
T
his issue of Wagner
Magazine features a genre
that I believe has never been
seen in its pages before: a
comic! As we deal with the
difficulties, frustrations, and
tragedies that Hurricane
Sandy left in its wake (the
lateness of this issue being
one of its minor results), I
thought it might be a good
time to tell the back story on
something that I hope will
inject a welcome moment of
lightheartedness into your day.
Earlier this fall, while I was
thinking about what to do
for the “Reflections” personal
essay in this issue, I had the
Fall 2012 • Volume 10 Number 2
A comic collaboration
brainstorm of trying to bring
together two alumni I’d heard
about: Colleen Venable ’02,
who writes children’s comic
books (see her series Guinea
Pig: Pet Shop Private Eye, with
illustrator Stephanie Yue)
and designs books for the
graphic novel publisher First
Second Books, and Robert
Geronimo ’09, a doctoral
student in art history at the
CUNY Graduate Center and
a comic book illustrator.
Fortunately, they were
both enthusiastic about the
idea. I had no idea how a
comic comes together, but
the two of them are pros.
The three of us met in
September at the Gershwin
Hotel lobby, near Colleen’s
office in the famous Flatiron
Building. Under a giant
screen-print portrait of the
cartoon master Walt Disney
himself, Colleen read us
her draft of a script entitled
“Ode to the Anchor.” Robert
asked her a few questions
about how she envisioned
the graphics and started
sketching.
The process reminds me
a lot of how the magazine
itself comes together: I write
the script (the stories), the
graphic artist (art director
Erika Reinhart) and I
discuss the images that
will accompany them, and
then she puts it all together
into a visual package. The
combination of story and
graphics produces something
that communicates more
fully than I ever could have
imagined.
Now, turn to page 45 and
check out the results. Hope
you enjoy Wagner Magazine’s
very first comic, and may it
bring back fond memories!
Laura Barlament
editor,
wagner magazine
Editorial
Laura Barlament
e d i to r
Erika Reinhart
g r a p h i c
d e s i g n e r
w r i t e r s
Laura Barlament
Cormac Gordon
Sarah J. Scott
Colleen Venable ’02
i l lu s t r ato r
Robert Geronimo ’09
p h oto g r a p h e r s
Vinnie Amessé
Pete Byron
Sasha May ’12
Anna Mulé
David Saffran/Wagner Athletics
Staurt Walls/Woodstock Studio
p r o d u c t i o n
m a n ag e r
Donna Sinagra
Wagner Magazine
Advisory Board
Lisa DeRespino Bennett ’85
Susan Bernardo
Jack Irving ’69
Scott Lewers ’97
Lorraine McNeill-Popper ’78
Brian Morris ’65
Hank Murphy ’63 M’69
Andy Needle
Nick Richardson
wagner magazine: the link
for alumni and friends is published
twice a year by wagner’s office of
communications and marketing.
On the Cover
The Meaning
The Meaning
of Main
of Main
What makes our architectural
signature truly valuable?
Wagner Magazine
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
718-390-3147
email: laura.barlament@wagner.edu
Main Hall reopened for the fall semester after a year-and-ahalf-long, $15 million restoration project. Turn to page 12 to
read art historian Sarah Scott’s views on what makes historic
architecture valuable to a community.
Photograph: Pete Byron
fa l l
2012
3
w w w . w a g n e r. e d u
�From Our Readers
“
What
about
ch us
can tea s resource
ou
a preci
sion
sci’s Mis
ng
• Raisi
: Rich
Philly
Negrin
’88 •
World
iere:
Prem
ara
hard Gu
w: Ric
The Vie
Unforgettable
In Wagner Magazine, I
have read about students
praising their former faculty.
Of all the science faculty, for
me, Dr. Dale Yarns stands
out. I probably took every
course Dr. Yarns taught, but
I was also very fortunate to
have him as my advisor. Like
most of my fellow biology
majors, I started out premed, but then obtained an
M.S. in marine biology and
worked in that field for 20
years. Now I have the best
of both worlds as a biology
faculty member at a small,
rural community college. Dr.
Yarns was old-school, said
what was on his mind, and I
always looked forward to his
classes. I felt that Dr. Yarns
genuinely cared about his
students and I recall having
meaningful conversations not
only about school, but about
life with him. I hope some of
my classmates read this and
4
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
s Wheel
Goddes
I think for anyone who comes to stand
on this hill, surveying the greatest city on
Earth, there is that undeniable belief that
anything is possible.
smile when thinking about Dr.
Dale Yarns.
Marcel Montane ’84
Department Chair and Biology
Instructor, Roanoke-Chowan
Community College
Ahoskie, North Carolina
Editor’s Note: Dale Yarns
taught at Wagner College from
1969 until 1994. He died in the
summer of 1994.
Changing Times,
One Vision
Could my greatgrandfather [Rev. Frederic
Sutter] have imagined a
Sicilian in the Wagner
president’s office? Doubtful.
In fact, when my mother,
“
ny
Nor Ap
Dro k
in
r
D
To Bangladesh
Joan Sutter, brought my dad,
Robert Scialla, home to meet
the family, I doubt there
were many welcoming arms.
Certainly there was a good
amount of critiquing going on
behind furrowed brows (we
Germans are good at that),
stern faces, and pursed lips.
A Sicilian and a German? Say
it isn’t so! they must’ve been
thinking.
But marry they did. And
thankfully so, because here
I am to tell you that Mr.
Manchester’s article, “That’s
Not a View — That’s a
Mission” [Wagner Magazine,
summer 2012], brought me
to tears for the very reasons
it would have read like
science fiction for my greatgrandfather, the Reverend
Sutter. Though he was a
guiding force and a visionary,
Wagner in its inception was
not non-secular, nor a melting
pot. But I am certain he, too,
looked out from that majestic
vantage point of Grymes Hill
and thought, ‘This is the place
where all things are possible, this
is the future home of Wagner.’
And like President Guarasci, I
can assure you, my Germanic
great-grandfather was all
about “the mission.”
The College (as my family
endearingly referred to it —
more as a family member than
a place of work) has proudly
come to embrace and embody
those ideals of community
across cultures under the
leadership of the charismatic,
genuine, and erudite President
Guarasci.
I think for anyone who
comes to stand on this hill,
surveying the greatest city on
Earth, there is that undeniable
belief that anything is possible.
The proof stares back in
affirmation.
Maria Hartmann
Via email
�Sandy’s Aftermath
The superstorm largely spared the Wagner
campus, but life will never be the same
campus, spending the night of the storm
along with the students in the Spiro
Sports Center.
again for many community members
O n Saturday, October 27, Wagner
HOMELESS
Storm surge washed the Breezy
Point home of Allison McKeefrey ’15
off of its foundation.
College hosted a successful Homecoming
Day. Under mostly sunny skies, 500 guests
enjoyed the barbecue, and a stadium full
of fans cheered the Seahawks on to victory
over Robert Morris University — a fifth
straight win. Life looked beautiful, but it
was the calm before the storm — a storm
that has changed life on Staten Island and
in this region.
By Sunday evening, with Hurricane
Sandy bearing straight at New York City,
only about 50 students remained on the
Wagner campus. At the urging of the
College administration, all others had
gone to their homes or to friends’ homes.
President Richard and Carin Guarasci
and other key administrators remained on
I n the days after the storm, it became
clear that the campus could not reopen
for the entire week. It took four days
for full power to be restored on campus;
throughout the area, power outages, blocked
and flooded roads and tunnels, lack of
public transportation, and fuel shortages
brought normal life to a standstill. And then
there were those areas that experienced
devastation from the worst of Sandy’s wrath:
the massive storm surge.
The campus reopened on Sunday,
November 4, and classes resumed that
Monday, but at that point there were at
least 50 students who couldn’t make
it back to campus yet. Most had transportation problems — lack of fuel or
public transportation — but a number
had suffered serious losses to their homes
and property.
Gabriella Maldonado ’14, a math and
education major, lives with her parents
and two sisters in the Oakwood Beach
section of Staten Island, about four blocks
inland from the beach itself. They were
all at home the night of the storm. When
Maldonado’s father saw water in the street,
he told his daughters to go upstairs and
get some things together. Minutes later,
she recalls, he was screaming, “Get out
now!” The house started filling with water.
The refrigerator flipped over, floorboards
started popping up, and the couch was
fa l l
2012
5
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
bumping into the wall. The family went out
into the chest-high, icy water.
Two doors down, they reached a house
that was built up higher than theirs.
Maldonado says they “barged in” and
asked for shelter, and they were able to
wait out the storm there. Their own house
was submerged in eight feet of water. The
family’s cars were flooded as well.
In another part of Oakwood Beach,
Hayley Semo ’16 and her family were
experiencing similar circumstances. After
Semo’s brother noticed a boat floating down
their block, they had minutes to escape
upstairs, where they were able to stay out
of the flood’s reach. Their first floor and the
family’s three cars were flooded.
Allison McKeefrey ’15 and her family
are part of the Breezy Point community
in Queens, where she was living while
commuting to Wagner to study nursing.
Located at the western end of the Rockaway
peninsula, Breezy Point was devastated
by the storm surge and a fire. McKeefrey
evacuated to her boyfriend’s parents’ house
in Long Island before the storm surge hit.
In Breezy Point, the homes of her parents,
‘BUBBLE OF DEVASTATION’
Floodwaters plowed through the Staten Island
neighborhood of Elisabeth Cardiello ’06 M’07,
piling possessions in streets and against homes.
two of her brothers, other relatives, and
her boyfriend’s own home were burned or
destroyed by the flood.
In the Wagner alumni community, many
have suffered great losses as well. The Staten
Island house where Elisabeth Cardiello ’06
M’07 grew up was severely flooded. Cardiello
had been living there with her mother for
the past two years, since the death of her
father, a general contractor who built the
house. Fortunately, they had evacuated
and moved all of their family photos and
important papers to an upper floor that
was not damaged. Neighbors took them in,
and Cardiello is now focused on restoring
the house. “My whole life is sort of on hold
right now,” she says. “I’m in a little bubble of
devastation.”
Maldonado is one of four commuter
students who took Wagner up on the offer
of free room in the residence halls after their
homes were destroyed in the storm. “I feel
a little bit better,” she says. “Living at school
brings some normalcy back to my life. But
it’s a weird feeling not having a home to go
back to.”
Having lost her father two years ago,
Semo was unwilling to leave her mother. She
was living in her house’s second floor with
her mother and brother while they worked
to restore the first floor. As of two weeks
after the storm, they were still without power
and heat. She missed the first week of classes
after they resumed, and she says returning to
school was overwhelming. But, she says, “the
teachers are being pretty flexible with me.”
McKeefrey and her boyfriend, along with
their dog, were staying with an aunt on Staten
Island. “What happened [in Breezy Point] is
devastating, but we are a strong community
and will rebuild,” she wrote in an email.
“Although the new Breezy won’t be like the
old one, filled with so many memories we hold
so close, maybe it can be better.
“I feel lost,” McKeefrey adds. “School,
especially the nursing program, is so tough to
stay focused on with all of these other thoughts
I have. When can we rebuild? When will
Breezy have power? When can I sleep in my
own bed and see my lifelong friends I’ve grown
up with? Everyone is scattered everywhere,
since we are all homeless. Where are my
friends, my support system?”
Recovery Begins
Students take the reins to organize hurricane
relief and volunteer efforts
W aiting out the storm in various safe places,
a few student leaders saw the destruction
Sandy wreaked on Staten Island and in other
areas and had the same impulse: We want
to help.
Within days, a new organization was born:
Wagner Cares. Starting with a $5,000 seed
grant from the College, it had mobilized 187
volunteers to work on 43 projects within two
weeks of the storm. And that’s just the beginning.
Gregory Balaes ’13, Student Government
Association president, and Kate Schaefer ’15,
SGA’s vice president for community service,
started brainstorming about organizing the
�Wagner response to Sandy’s destruction as
soon as they could get in touch with each
other after the storm.
“As a native Staten Islander, it was terrible
seeing places I have known all my life turn to
ruins overnight,” says Balaes.
Since last summer, Schaefer had been
thinking about a way that the SGA could
channel students’ community service efforts
into a single focus. Balaes also knew that
Wagner students would want to help, and
that they could achieve more by working in a
coordinated way.
“We quickly decided that we were going
to take an active role in shaping how Wagner
was going to respond to this,” Schaefer
says. “Greg had the idea of naming it
Wagner Cares, and I agreed that it could all
beautifully work together.”
Judy Betz ’13, president of the Student
Athlete Advisory Committee, quickly joined
the cause. Along with her softball teammates,
she had stayed on campus during the storm.
After seeing news images of the storm’s
destruction on Staten Island, she collected
donations in the residence halls and brought
them to a shelter. As soon as she found out
about Balaes and Schaefer’s work, she joined
the Wagner Cares team.
With the support of the College, they
launched a website where people who are in
need can request help, and where volunteers
can sign up for projects.
Students, faculty, and staff have been
helping with relief work at various sites on
Staten Island. Wagner Cares is collecting
cleaning supplies, food, clothing, and other
items; sending volunteers to sort donations
received by the Salvation Army and
emergency shelters; and distributing goods in
devastated neighborhoods. Sports teams have
helped flooded homeowners with cleanup
and have collected donations at athletic
events; student organizations have raised
funds; and the Wagner College Choir held
a benefit concert.
P H OTO G R A P H , A B OV E : A N NA M U L É
Wagner Cares is accepting donations. Funds raised will be used to facilitate the recovery
and rebuilding efforts, such as purchasing needed supplies and providing transportation for
Wagner Cares volunteers to damaged community sites.
To find more information, volunteer, donate, or request help:
www.wagnercares.org • 718-390-3276 • wagnercares@wagner.edu
{
a w a r d e d
}
A DESIGNATED ROLE MODEL
Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing is one of 17 Centers of Excellence in the nation
T
he National League for Nursing, the top organization for nursing educators in the
U.S., has named Wagner’s Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing a 2012–16 Center of
Excellence in Nursing Education.
Only 17 collegiate nursing programs in the nation are currently designated as NLN
Centers of Excellence.
“There are a thousand or more nursing programs in the United States, a number of
which are attached to major research universities,” says President Guarasci. “This places
the Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing in the top tier of collegiate nursing programs.”
The Spiro School of Nursing was awarded this high distinction in the category of
“creating environments that enhance student learning and professional
development,” based on the school’s ability to demonstrate, in measurable terms,
sustained excellence in these areas, as well as its commitment to
continuous quality improvement.
“The NLN relies on its Centers of Excellence in Nursing Education
to be standard bearers of excellence, role models whose faculty,
deans, and staff are available to share expertise, insight, knowledge,
and experience to lift the entire nursing community to a higher level of
achievement,” notes NLN President Judith A. Halstead.
Wagner’s nursing program was founded in 1943, in response to the
critical wartime need for nurses, under the leadership of visionary educator Mary Burr.
It was granted full accreditation as a baccalaureate program by the NLN in 1951. It offers
the Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Second Degree 15-month Bachelor of Science in
Nursing, Registered Nurse Program, Master of Science in Nursing, and Post-Master’s
Advanced Certificate Program.
fa l l
2012
7
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
WHERE DO YOU LOOK FOR
‘PROGRAMS TO LOOK FOR’?
In U.S. News & World Report ’s “Best Colleges
2013,” Wagner was the only college in New York
State with three or more “programs to look
for” — academic components that significantly
contribute to a high-quality education. The
College’s first-year experience, learning
communities, and service learning gave us this
noteworthy distinction. For more information
on Wagner’s rankings, visit www.wagner.edu/
media/honor_roll.
Welcome Home, ‘Rent’
Wagner College Theatre presents the musical
it discovered 20 years ago
O n February 27, Rent comes home to the
Wagner College Theatre.
Today, Jonathan Larson’s rock opera is a
staple of modern musical theater — but 20
years ago, Rent was still a work in progress
consisting of a developmental script and a
few self-recorded songs on a cassette made
by the playwright–composer himself.
The idea for Rent, a modern adaptation
of Puccini’s opera La Bohème, had been
conceived in 1989, but by 1991 Larson
was still waiting tables at a SoHo diner to
pay the rent on a fifth-floor, cold-water
Hudson Square walkup he shared with two
roommates and a couple of cats.
Fortunately, for him and for us, that’s
8
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
when Larson somehow heard about the
Stanley Drama Award competition for
aspiring playwrights, administered by the
Wagner College Theatre. He sent his script
along with a demo tape to Bill Bly, director
of the Stanley — and waited.
“It just jumped right out,” Bly told Staten
Island Advance arts editor Michael J. Fressola
in 1996. “My impression at the time was
that the script needed a little more work, but
there was no question [as to whether it was
that year’s Stanley Award winner]. It was just
so obvious.”
Fressola himself today recalls listening to
Larson’s Rent cassette in his car in 1992 as
he prepared a story about the Stanley.
“The tape was rough,” Fressola says.
“Nothing about it was polished, and at first
the concept sounded derivative and unwieldy
— but the material proved to be terrific:
smart, young, heartfelt, rousing and
topical.”
According to Fressola, when Billy
Bly told Jonathan Larson he’d won
the competition, “a grateful Larson
told him that the $2,000 Stanley
prize would allow him to avoid
taking a ‘straight’ job for a while and
buy him the luxury of a little time to work
on Rent .”
A year after Rent won the Stanley, it
was given a staged reading at the New
York Theatre Workshop, followed by a
three-week studio production in 1994. A
lengthy editing process, in collaboration with
producers, readied Larson’s masterpiece for
its off-Broadway debut on January 26, 1996
— a debut the composer did not live to see.
Larson died early that very morning in his
walkup flat, killed by an undiagnosed heart
condition. He was 35.
Rest in peace, Jonathan Larson — and
welcome home to your masterpiece.
The Wagner College Theatre will
present Rent , with book, music and lyrics
by Jonathan Larson, on its Main Stage from
February 27 through March 10. Tickets will
go on sale in early January.
F
� or more information, visit the Wagner
College Theatre website: www.wagner.edu/
departments/theatre
�RENEWAL
Board of Trustees Chair Warren
Procci ’68 and President
Guarasci inaugurate Main Hall.
Mother Knows Best?
“Today as much as ever, mothers
and motherhood are categories
to be reckoned with in political
debates,” write Rebecca Jo Plant
and Marian van der Klein in the
introduction to a new collection of
essays, Maternalism Reconsidered:
The Heartbeat of Campus
After a multi-million-dollar restoration,
Main Hall reopens for the fall semester
T rustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and
community members gathered on October 11 to
rededicate Main Hall, which reopened for the fall
semester after a year-and-a-half-long, $15 million
restoration project.
Vice President for Administration David J.
Martin, who oversaw the project, recalled that
a couple of years ago, the College embarked on
what was expected to be a $6 million, four-month
project.
The architects and contractors, however,
“quickly determined that the building was in
more serious need of renovation,” said Martin.
P H OTO G R A P H S : A N NA M U L É
It would require more time, more funds, and the
loss of the building’s use for the entire 2011–12
academic year.
That meant that all Main Hall classes had to
be relocated to other spaces on campus, faculty
offices moved to Harborview Residence Hall,
and all Main Stage shows performed at the Snug
Harbor Theatre a few miles away.
Calling Main Hall “the heartbeat of our
campus,” President Guarasci said, “It’s so
important for us to have saved this building
and restabilized it. It represents everything that
Wagner stands for. … We are rededicating not just
a building, but a commitment to learning and to
liberal education.”
Read more in our feature story on pages 12–17.
Motherhood, Welfare, and Social
Policy in the Twentieth Century
(Berghahn Books, 2012). Lori
Weintrob, associate professor
and chair of the Wagner history
department, co-edited this volume
along with Plant, van der Klein, and
Nichole Sanders.
“Maternalism” is a concept that
scholars use to describe how ideas
about motherhood shaped the social
welfare policies of many nations,
beginning in the late 19th century.
In all kinds of states and among all
kinds of organizations — whether
they were liberal or conservative,
feminist or anti-feminist — the
needs and concerns of mothers
became central issues.
Weintrob writes a chapter about
maternalism in France’s familial
welfare state of 1890–1914, while
other contributors cover the same
movement during different time
periods and in places as diverse as
Argentina, Italy, the Soviet Union,
and the United States.
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
THE FINAL FRONTIER
Wagner’s new HD digital
projector provides vivid
views of space.
Star Trek
Planetarium upgrades make astronomy
lessons bolder than ever
E ver since the Spiro Communications
Center was opened in 1968, thousands of
Staten Island schoolchildren have learned
the basics about astronomy in the Wagner
Planetarium.
Running a good old-fashioned AP3 star
projector, the show was still impressive four
decades later, drawing ohs and ahs from the
College students and staff who attended its
final showing on June 7. But the system was
severely limited by its age and irreparable
damage sustained over the years. “Only about
10 percent of what it should do is actually
operational at this point,” said Planetarium
Director Dennis Anderson at the time.
This fall, after a $250,000 renovation,
the planetarium reopened with new seating,
sound system, and a SCIdome HD digital
projector.
10
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Now, when the show opens with the
sky over Central Park, you see a full-color
display, complete with the New York City
skyline. Light fades as the sun moves across
the sky and sets on the western horizon,
bringing out the constellations in their full
glory, free of real-life light pollution.
The new system allows Anderson to
superimpose drawings of the figures for
which the constellations are named. “This
is going to be a big help, especially with
the kids,” he comments. He can zoom in
on planets, and take his viewers on a trip
around the globe to show the skies over
Tehran or elsewhere, with animations that
make you feel like you’re traveling through
space.
The system includes a few movies that
take viewers on trips around the solar
system and beyond, with beautiful graphics
showing the surfaces of the planets.
“It’s so visual,” Anderson raves. “You have
these things where you can see a planet
coming at you!”
Funding for the planetarium upgrade
came through legwork by David J. Martin,
Wagner vice president for administration
and the College’s government liaison. He
developed a proposal that was funded by
State Senator Martin J. Golden of Brooklyn.
Martin continues to seek funding to replace
the dome, a $100,000 project.
The Wagner planetarium — one of only
two open to the public in New York City
— offers shows for school groups and others,
Monday through Friday at 10 a.m. and 11:30
a.m., by appointment. The planetarium seats
55, and shows cost $3 per child and $4 per
adult. Schedule a group show by contacting
Dennis Anderson at 718-390-3432.
P H OTO G R A P H S : A N NA M U L É
�Twin Peak
Multiple attractions draw sibling pairs
into the class of 2016
W agner College’s new freshman class
includes seven sets of twins.
Now, having 14 students who happen
to be twins out of a first-year class of 450
students would be about average — but all
those twins choosing to come, together, to
the same school? That’s unusual.
“The reason my twin Lexee and I came
to Wagner is because we wanted the small
liberal arts college feel while being close to
New York City,” explains Laynee Viniotis
of suburban Seattle, Washington. “I loved
the small, close-knit feel on campus and
on Staten Island, and Wagner offered great
academic programs for both of our majors
and had plenty of art programs and athletics
that we could participate in.”
Plus, says Lexee Viniotis, “My sister
Laynee and I are best friends and thought it
would be weird to be apart from each other
for long periods of time.”
Emily Bovasso tells a different story. “My
brother and I never planned on coming to
school together,” notes the Cranford, New
Jersey, student.
But it happened anyway, because Wagner
fit the bill for each one. “This was actually
the only school that we were both interested
in,” Emily says. “It just so happened that he
really liked the business program, and I liked
the science department — and we both
loved the location and the size of the school.”
Emily and Robert Bovasso are actually
two members of a set of triplets. Their
brother Anthony “decided to stay home and
attend community college for a couple of
years.”
The five other sets of twins in the class
include Phillip and Matthew Adamo of
Morristown, New Jersey; Peter and Joseph
Romano of Bushkill, Pennsylvania; Patrick
and William McMenamin of Longport, New
Jersey; Griffen and Reed LeClaire of Surrey,
British Columbia, Canada; and Nicole and
Alexandra Dattoli of Staten Island.
THEY BELONG
Nine of Wagner’s 14 freshman
twins: Pat and Bill McMenamin,
Laynee and Lexee Viniotis, Pete
Romano, Phil Adamo, Joe Romano,
and Rob and Emily Bovasso.
{
q u o t e
/
u n q u o t e
}
On life with bacteria:
“They’re
there 24/7
to keep you
alive. The
problem is
that bacteria
are invisible,
so you don’t
get up every
morning and
thank your
bacteria that
you’re alive.
You only
think about
them when
you feel sick.”
— Bonnie Bassler, Squibb
Professor of Molecular Biology
at Princeton University, giving
the 2012 Kaufman Repage
Lecture at Wagner College. Her
groundbreaking research showing
how bacteria communicate with
each other is paving the way for
novel medical therapies.
fa l l
2012
11
�The
Meaning
of
Main
What makes Wagner College’s
architectural signature truly valuable?
By Sarah J. Scott
Orientation barbeque … Songfest …
Lounging … Graduation …
Likely you have fond memories of these
events at Wagner. Upon visualizing these
memories, everyone conjures their own
personal details that color the image.
Perhaps you are there with your family,
your girlfriend or boyfriend, or your
classmate. The weather might be hot and
sunny, or cool and crisp, or even drizzly.
P H OTO G R A P H : P E T E BY RO N
�Your olfactory senses might be picking up whiffs
Architecture is built for a purpose; the study of
of grilling food, dried leaves, or your signature
architecture asks us to analyze the relationship
perfume or cologne. You might be listening to
between form and function. Our phenomenological
other students cheering at a football game, a
impression of a building is related to the function of
professor teaching class, or the B-52s on the radio.
that structure. Main Hall was built initially to function
But it is likely these events took place on Sutter
as the administrative headquarters of Wagner in the
Oval. And if you were on Sutter Oval, Main Hall
late 1920s. It was designed in what is now called the
was there as a backdrop.
“Collegiate Gothic” architectural style, following trends
When I talk with students in my art history
in campus buildings that were embraced across the
classes about ancient architecture, one of the
country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It
Main
Hall
was
challenges is our inability to physically place
was a trend that sought to link the function of
designed to aid us
ourselves not only in the structures, but in the
college campuses with a particular aesthetic.
in succeeding in the
actual place. Experiencing a place or a work of
Gothic architecture, as it developed
mission of higher
architecture is not only about seeing the walls,
in France and spread through Europe in
education.
noticing the sculptural detail, or sighting the
the 12th century, sought to elevate the
filtering of light in and around the structure; it is
spirit and raise the mind to greater
also about other sensory experiences: smell, sound,
heights. The Benedictine Abbot
touch, and even emotion. A tourist who visits the Parthenon today
Suger of St. Denis wrote extensively on the
will be bombarded by sensory experiences built upon sight, smell,
link between physical illumination and the
sound, touch, and particularly upon emotion, which will likely be
broadening of the mind:
affected by the political and economic turmoil in Greece today. And
Thus, when — out of my delight in the
that experience is drastically different than that of the sixth-century
beauty of the house of God — the loveliness of
BCE Athenian citizen, who approached the structure with the goal of
the many-colored gems has called me away from
religious pilgrimage in the newly victorious Athenian polis under the
external cares, and worthy meditation has induced
patronage of Pericles. Hence, the experience of architecture — the
me to reflect, transferring that which is material to
experience of architectural setting — is also dependent on time.
that which is immaterial, on the diversity of the sacred
So, our own experiences of architecture today can help us
virtues: then it seems to me that I see myself dwelling, as
when we are learning about ancient architecture. Understanding
it were, in some strange region of the universe which neither
architecture through this approach of phenomenology is a new trend
exists entirely in the slime of the Earth nor entirely in the purity
in scholarship, asking us to overlay thoughts and experiences
of Heaven; and that, by the grace of God, I can be transported from
going on in an occupant’s mind while approaching and walking
this inferior to that higher world in an anagogical manner.
through a structure.
Story continues on page 16.
fa l l
2012
13
�WATER WOES
Water was the source of all of the
building’s problems. As the wear and
tear of weather eroded the brick and
mortar, water penetrated through
the walls and started corroding the
underlying structural steel, causing
the steel beams to twist. It became
an accelerating cycle as the twisting
caused the bricks to crack, letting in
even more water.
Restoring Main Hall
A closer look at the $15 million project to save the face of Wagner College
RIGHT ON TIME
The clocks on the front
and back of the building
have been restored to
working condition. The
front clock had been
non-operational since
about 1950.
TOP SLATE
All new slate tiles were used to
restore the roof. The roof now
has a uniform look, as previous
patch jobs did not match. No
other roofing material beats
slate, and the new stainless
steel nails will not corrode
like the old ones did. “It will
last forever, probably,” says
StructureTone construction
foreman Mike Calvello.
GABLE TROUBLE
Cracked brick in the building’s
gables had allowed water to
corrode the steel I-beams
beneath. Those portions of the
walls and the corroded ends of
the beams were removed. New
steel was welded to the intact
portion of the old beams, and
then the walls were rebuilt.
BRICK & MORTAR
From about 1990 until 2005, ivy had been
allowed to grow on the building. English ivy
has aerial roots that can penetrate into existing
cracks in weather-worn brick and mortar,
accelerating Main’s water problems. Throughout
the building, cracked bricks were replaced and
the mortar was repointed, matching the color of
the old as closely as possible.
STEPPING UP
The stair towers on either side of the
building were slowly shifting away
from the main structure, causing
them to crack from top to bottom.
With improved water drainage,
new steel fastening the stairs (or
“stringers”) to the landings, and the
addition of expansion joints where the
cracks had been, the stair towers are
now more secure and more flexible.
GRAND ENTRANCE
SPOUTING DOWN
All down spouts, which had
been leaking and only partly
functional, were replaced with
new copper ones.
14
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
New stairs were built and the
wooden doors were refinished.
�TOWER FIX
Originally, only the dome was slated
for replacement. Closer inspection
revealed that the walls of the
octagonal tower had separated;
there wasn’t anything solid for
a new dome to sit on. Workers
deconstructed about 30 feet of each
tower, and rebuilt them using cinder
block and brick with steel rebar
reinforcement.
WISH
LIST
CASTING STONE
Every original cast concrete
piece that could be saved was
saved, after being cleaned and
repaired. Those pieces included
the quoins (the decorative
stones at the exterior angles),
the crosses, and the trees of
knowledge and life on either
side of the front entrance.
Pieces that were irreparably
damaged were replaced with
glass fiber reinforced plastic
molded to exactly match the old
shapes, including the dome on
the west tower, the bay window,
finials, the gargoyles, the coping
stones along the parapets, and
details in the clock area.
NEW VIEWS
All windows in the building
— nearly 300 total — were
replaced.
The College
was not able
to complete all
desired upgrades
to the building,
such as:
• �Adding an
elevator and
improving
wheelchair
access to the
building.
• �Installing central
air conditioning.
• �Further
upgrading the
theater by raking
the seating area
and modernizing
all stage
equipment.
SETTING THE STAGE
A SOUND
FOUNDATION
To eliminate water seepage
into the basement, workers
dug trenches around the entire
building, replaced the pipes and
installed new footing drains,
repaired cracks, and waterproofed
the foundation.
The theater roof was rebuilt, including
the replacement or repair of steel
support beams and reconstruction
of the tops of the walls. Inside the
theater, patrons can enjoy new seats,
refinished flooring, and new curtains.
fa l l
2012
15
�Continued from page 13
Today, the flying buttresses, sculptural tracery, finials, and towers
typical of Collegiate Gothic architecture aid college communities in
reaching new heights in intellectual development, in the same way
the original theories of medieval ecclesiastical mysticism
worked for monks and laypersons. Main Hall was
designed to aid us in succeeding in the mission of
higher education. The building is just as important
to us today (literally, as I see students, faculty, and
staff gather for the re-dedication ceremony outside
my window), as it was when the cornerstone was
ceremonially laid by the Reverend Frederic Sutter
in 1929.
During the fall of 2011, when the work on Main
Hall was going full steam, my Museum Studies
class conducted research on the process of historical
architectural preservation, using Main Hall as a case
study. Through research into a variety of topics such
as the Collegiate Gothic architectural style, brick
and stone conservation, historical landmarking, and
Wagner’s history, the students learned many things. But
the concept they found most engaging was the heritage
cycle. Buildings acquire a social value far above that of
their architectural value. The class and other Wagner
16
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
students that came before them had developed a subconscious
connection to Main Hall. My students came to understand that this
relationship, not necessarily the architectural mastery, was the reason
the building was valuable and worth preserving.
As a class we took multiple trips down
a Wagner memory lane; they remembered
things like orientation, Songfest, and hanging
out with friends on the Oval; they described
people, sounds, smells. But when asked to very
pointedly visualize these memories, they all
realized that Main Hall rose up as their primary
stage set. And as they came to understand
that Main Hall was thus the backbone of their
collective experiences and memory at Wagner,
the building became more than an object. Main
Hall was conjured as a sentient being, a stalwart,
The building
became more than
omniscient presence of the Wagner experience.
an object. Main Hall
Main Hall is forever part of every Wagner
was conjured as a
student’s memory, but Main Hall also is a
sentient being, a
symbol of the Wagner community’s collective
stalwart, omniscient
memory. It is icon and friend to all who
presence of the
experience the place that Wagner is. It embodies
Wagner experience.
the academic and social goals of the institution
perhaps better than any other structure on
�campus. Of that we have all become more aware, now that
it has been rescued from the ivy. So the next time you think
back on your days at Wagner, although your phenomenological
memories of the place might be in the fore, try to visualize the
setting for your memory. Chances are Main Hall will appear in
your mind’s eye; be sure to give your old friend an appreciative
nod of acknowledgement.
About the Author: Sarah J. Scott is an assistant professor of art history. She
specializes in the art and architecture of the ancient Near East, Aegean,
and Egypt, and she has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and on
excavations in Greece, Tunisia, Italy, and Belize.
What Does Main Hall
Mean to Us?
Thoughts from Students in
Art History 221
Understanding Main Hall’s
preservation is essential to
understanding Wagner College’s
deep cultural heritage.
— NEAL FESSLER ’13
The Gothic style “made a college
look like a college,” or what
the American public believed a
proper college should look like. …
The style underpinned the
legitimacy of the American
university and allowed the
American university system
to grow and flourish into the
multifaceted system it is today.
— BLAIRE MASSARONI ’12
Besides acting as a multipurpose
arena for student activities, Main
Hall has become the unofficial
architectural representation of the
school, attracting students from
around the country and the world
to enroll at Wagner College. Its
detailed design and impressive
architecture are worth noting.
— JESSICA MAKWINSKI ’13
In order to increase society’s
interest in historical architecture,
the community must have more
of a say in what is preserved.
Main Hall is an example of just
that. It is not an outstanding
piece of Collegiate Gothic
architecture. But in the hearts
and minds of its community it is
incredibly important and most
assuredly worth preserving.
— JACQUELINE SCANLON ’12
fa l l
2012
17
�Expanded
Jessica Friswell ’06 has traveled to
every continent besides Antarctica.
She did fieldwork for her master’s
degree in Cameroon.
Horizons
Fifty years ago, Wagner College opened its campus in Bregenz, Austria.
Since then, the experiences of both students and the College have greatly broadened
By Laura Barlament
J
ack Denys ’64, from Brooklyn, was an English major headed
for a career in the Lutheran ministry.
Barbara Hittl ’69 had just discovered her love of the
German language and declared it as her major.
George Laszlo ’72 was a biology major who intended to follow
his father’s footsteps into medicine.
Glen Tottser ’71, a sociology major, came from a blue-collar
Philadelphia family who never traveled farther than a summer
vacation at the shore.
Wade Appelman ’86 was a business major looking for adventure.
It may not seem like an obvious choice for people with these
majors, backgrounds, and ambitions, but all of them spent a
semester or a year in an obscure Austrian town, Bregenz, for the
Wagner College Study Program. The program opened its doors 50
18
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
years ago this fall, and operated for more than 25 years.
All of them returned with new experiences and perspectives
that permanently influenced — and in some cases, significantly
changed — their life paths.
Today, we’re living in a world that has shrunk drastically, as
transportation advances and communication technologies have
drawn all parts of the globe into an ever-closer web. On the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the Bregenz Program, once a crown
jewel of the College curriculum, it’s a good time to ask: What effect
did, and does, studying abroad have on people’s lives? And where have
Wagner’s study abroad programs gone in the years since Bregenz?
P H OTO C O U RT E S Y O F J E S S I C A F R I S W E L L ’ 0 6
�F
irst of all, why Bregenz (which, by the way, is pronounced
something like ‘BRAY-genns.’)? Why not a place we all
know — Rome, London, Paris?
According to a 1972 report by Gaspard Pinette, the Wagner
modern languages professor who founded the program and served
for many years as its director, student demand for study abroad
was growing in the late 1950s. Grappling with the difficulties of
assigning credit for courses that Wagner students took through
other colleges’ overseas programs, Dean Adolph Stern proposed
that Pinette look into establishing a Wagner campus abroad.
It so happened that “a young Fulbright assistant” was working at
Wagner at the time, and he came from somewhere near Bregenz.
Pinette, who had earned his Ph.D. in Germany, hit it off with
the town leadership. The mayor offered the use of local facilities
at a reasonable rate; by the program’s ninth year, it occupied two
buildings owned by the local government: A former palace held the
classrooms, and the so-called College House provided space for a
library, recreation and study rooms, and apartments for proctors
and deans. Students lived with local host families. Pinette and local
professors provided instruction in English (except for the required
German coursework) in history, art history, literature, philosophy,
religion, and a few other disciplines.
Students from all majors and many different colleges and
universities flocked to the Bregenz Program: By 1980, it had
enrolled more than 1,000 students from more than 200 American
institutions.
T
he above-mentioned Jack Denys of Brooklyn was there in
the program’s first year. “We were the pioneers,” he says
with a laugh.
That group’s experience set the tone that would define the
program’s success: The emphasis on great European cultural
achievements and sights; the friendliness, charm, and slow pace
of life in Bregenz; the majesty of the surrounding Alpine terrain;
the adventures of independent travel to many different countries,
made accessible through Bregenz’s central European location; and
group bonding that has made the “Bregenzers” a distinct fraternity
of Wagner graduates.
For Denys, the most important part was meeting people —
people whose background, language, and religion may have been
quite different from his, yet with whom he found he shared much.
In Bregenz, he found Austrian guys his age to drink beer with
and discuss anything from everyday life to world politics. He
remembers that one of their families couldn’t afford a phone, yet
he noticed expensive art books in their home. “So you knew what
What Can Students Do to Make
Their Study Abroad Successful?
Tips from Ellen Navarro, Director of the Center for
Intercultural Advancement
U� se the resources of the Center for Intercultural
Advancement and become informed.
Have a plan for what you want to do in the country.
�B e flexible — you can’t expect it to be just like
Wagner College.
Have a sense of adventure.
�R ealize that this experience will
become a distinctive part of
your résumé.
the priorities were,” he recalls.
He still gets goose bumps telling about a
trip “behind the Iron Curtain,” to Hungary,
in the depths of the Cold War — the
Cuban Missile Crisis happened during
his year abroad. In Budapest, Denys and
his travel buddy met a young man about
their age, who took them to his apartment,
where he lived with his mother. The man’s
father had disappeared after being involved in the 1956 uprising,
and his girlfriend had escaped to Switzerland, but the young man
was stuck. Taking the train back to Austria, Denys remembers
discussing with his friend that “we knew we could become free
again, and this guy can’t. It was very powerful.”
For Denys, the year away from home solidified his life goals.
He got married, went to seminary, and became a Lutheran pastor.
But the Bregenz experience lingers. To this day, he goes to Bregenz
reunions. Of the original 55 participants (eight of whom have since
passed away), about 30 members are still in touch and contribute to
an annual newsletter published by Carole Hrubec Chapman ’64.
fa l l
2012
19
��
The Art of Living Abroad
Andy Cortese ’72,
London
It was Andy Cortese’s first week living in Milan, Italy. He was 25 years old and had never
been overseas before, although he had grown up hearing stories about Italy from his immigrant
grandparents. It was the mid-1970s, and Italy was experiencing a severe shortage of coins.
“I walked into a store and bought a newspaper or something like that, and I paid with a lira
bill,” Cortese recalls.
“The cashier returned a telephone token, a tram token, and a piece of candy as change.”
Nonplussed, Cortese walked out of the store. Back at the office, he asked a colleague to
explain. His coworker told him that the tram token was worth 50 lira, the telephone token 25,
Richard and Carin Guarasci
and the piece of candy 5. These could be used in lieu of coins at other merchants — except for
with Andy and Natalie
the candy.
Migliaro Cortese in London.
Going overseas for the first time, Cortese says, “was the most exciting thing that had
happened in my lifetime — apart from marrying my wife [Natalie Migliaro ’92]. … I haven’t stopped traveling since.”
Cortese now lives in London, where he’s spent a total of about 12 years in different stints, during a career that has taken him
from JP Morgan Chase to Goldman Sachs and, since 2007, to the international insurance giant AIG. He has also lived in Geneva,
Switzerland, and now he is the head of AIG’s information technology operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
He didn’t go to college thinking he would work in international business — although he does highly recommend that any
student interested in business take courses in his major, which was accounting. “It’s such a good foundation for investment
banking. It has helped me immensely in my job over the last 35 years,” he says.
However, Cortese did have a desire to travel abroad, inspired by his grandparents’ stories. He started out in the internal
financial audit division, which gave him some exposure to all parts of the business. Learning about overseas locations piqued his
interest. When he heard about an opportunity to apply for the foreign exchange business, he went for it — and ended up in Milan,
using tram tokens for coins.
Since then, he has thoroughly covered Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Far East. He has stood on the Great
Wall of China and Red Square in Moscow, and recently attended the London Olympics and the Queen’s Jubilee.
His advice for young graduates: “If you have an opportunity in your business career to take an assignment overseas, take it.”
He also highly recommends studying abroad. “We’re in a global business and we’re in a global economy. It will only help you.”
Andy’s London
A� history buff, he recommends taking in sights like the Houses of Parliament. “The roots of our government and society come
from here.”
H� is favorite park is Hyde Park, and he’s always impressed with Buckingham Palace.
A� sports fan, he recommends the Lord’s Cricket Ground, although he admits he prefers
to follow the Chelsea Football Club.
H� is favorite restaurant: La Famiglia, where he’s been going since 1983.
20 24 W A WG NA GE RN EMR A MG AA ZG IANZ EI N E
P H OTO, TO P : V I N N I E A M E S S É
�Left: Bregenz students at the
Berchtesgaden, Germany, salt mine
in 1969–70. Right: Barbara Hittl
Garzon ’70 still lives in Austria.
T
he Bregenz group of 1969–70 has also stayed remarkably
close. Celebrating their 40th anniversary a few years ago at
George Laszlo’s home in the Poconos, 35 of the original 52
participants showed up, coming from as far away as Hawaii.
For several members of this class, the year in Bregenz set them
on a new course in life. Laszlo started at Wagner with the class of
’71, majoring in biology and intending to become a doctor, like his
father. But after Bregenz, where he took courses in religion and
philosophy and art history, he switched his major to philosophy
and took an extra year to graduate. In Bregenz, he says, “I had the
time to think about what I was doing. In a foreign environment, I
could be myself. It afforded me the time to grow up.”
Laszlo focused his career on software systems for the biotech
and pharmaceutical industries, and he worked with clients
around the world, especially Switzerland and Germany. “From
my perspective, studying philosophy was the most important
thing I have ever done for my career,” he says. “It teaches you to
apply logic, reasoning, and discipline to everything you do, and to
understand people. For your personal life as well as business, it’s
invaluable.”
Laszlo went to Bregenz with the full support of his parents; as
Hungarian immigrants to the U.S., they came from that cultural
realm. But for Glen Tottser, another 1969–70 Bregenzer, traveling
to Europe was like going to the moon. “I remember my father said,
‘Why should you go when I’ve never gone?’” It was a “pipe dream,”
he says. Yet, because the Bregenz tuition was slightly less than
regular Wagner tuition, he went. For the first time, he was exposed
to art history, classical music, Alpine skiing — a different way of
life. He found a new family in his host family. Since then, they
have stayed in touch and exchanged many visits, and Tottser has
P H OTO S C O U RT E S Y O F BA R BA R A H I T T L GA R Z O N ’ 7 0
traveled all around the world, including Europe, the Middle East,
Asia, and Africa. “I never would have done these things if it weren’t
for Bregenz,” he says.
Pinette’s 1972 report included the factoid that by 1972, eight
Wagner students in the Bregenz Program had married Austrians.
One of them, Barbara Hittl Garzon, another member of the 1969–
70 group, is still living in the Bregenz area. Garzon had transferred
to Wagner College for her junior year, as a German major; she
went to Bregenz as a senior, and never returned to Wagner, having
finished her degree through her Bregenz coursework. She began
teaching English and math in a nearby school, and there she met
her first husband. That marriage ended in divorce, but she married
again, to an Austrian. By now, Garzon has spent more than half
of her life in Austria. “I love Austria and wouldn’t want to move
back to the U.S.,” she says. Still, she stays in touch with her Bregenz
classmates, including her roommate, Patty Flynn Moore, who has
lived in Bangkok for many years.
P
inette retired in 1976, and was succeeded by a few
different directors and coordinators — most notably,
James Mittelstadt, who served as director from 1979
to 1986. During the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the program
suffered enrollment declines. As a result, it started recruiting
and enrolling non-U.S. students, especially from Thailand, where
Mittelstadt had taught previously. Some of those enrolled at
Wagner in Staten Island as well.
Meanwhile, students like Wade Appelman were still greatly
enjoying and profiting from the Bregenz Program. He attended
during the fall of 1984, his junior year, looking to “round out”
his education. He fondly recalls spending at least half of every
fa l l
2012
21
�Study Abroad Today: Reports from Current Students
Alexia Bayer ’15 is one of
Students on athletic teams are also finding
and history, and traveled throughout the
15 Wagner students who
ways to go abroad, despite intensive practice
region. She fell in love with the vibrant culture
are abroad for the fall 2012
schedules. Last summer, biology major and
and is saving her money to return.
semester. Her First-Year
swimmer Lynn Tay ’14 studied in Singapore,
Learning Community in Spanish and business
while football player and international affairs
Biopsychology major Francis Zuniga ’14
influenced her to become an international
major David Lopez ’13
and theater studies major Katie Cawley ’13
business major. Most of her previous foreign-
did an internship with
both said that spending
language training was in French, so as a
the United Nations
last spring semester in
sophomore she took the plunge of enrolling
Global Compact, and
Almería, Spain, on Wagner’s
in Wagner’s exchange program with the
spent a month in
exchange program with
University of Lyon 2 in France, where she is
Brazil for the Rio +20
the local university, was a
taking a full course load, in French. “It’s a good
Corporate Sustainability Forum.
huge growing experience.
Studying at a Spanish
way to become completely fluent,” she says.
“It’s important to know a second language. ..
Arielle Richardson ’14 has taken advantage
It will be an asset in international business.”
of every opportunity to
travel and learn since she
because of the language but also because of
the different university culture. “I
Shelby Schebilski ’14 is on
came to Wagner. Her first
her first trip abroad this
international trip took her
semester, at the St. John’s
to Ecuador with Wagner’s
says. “It’s important to be
University Rome campus. A
chapter of Habitat for
aware that there are many
gained a different perspective
on everything,” Cawley
Humanity. She then took
different people and cultures
planned her schedule carefully to fit in study
the Expanding Your Horizons course on world
out there. I knew it would be different, but I
abroad. With financial aid and scholarships,
religions, traveling to Israel. As a sophomore,
was sheltered.” The students also said they
she only has to pay her additional travel
the international affairs major spent the entire
gained confidence from their semester abroad.
expenses. “I wanted to travel badly,” she
year in Jerusalem through Wagner’s exchange
“If I set my mind to do something, I can do it,”
says. “The chance to be immersed in another
program with the Rothberg International
says Zuniga.
country for four months — when else can you
School of Hebrew University. She studied both
do it? I hope it’s the beginning of me traveling.”
Hebrew and Arabic language, culture, religion,
psychology and sociology double major, she
week traveling all around Europe on cheap train tickets, as classes
were held only Tuesday through Thursday. For him, it became
the perfect preparation for his future career in international
marketing, with frequent world travel. “Even today, the experiences
I got through that semester — especially the travel — being
street-smart and city-smart were the most valuable part,” he
says. And, he acquired a breadth of experience and an ability
to empathize and listen to others that are essential in sales and
marketing.
B
y the late 1980s, the Bregenz Program was becoming
untenable for the College to maintain. It wasn’t as cheap
as it used to be, and Wagner itself was in a financial
crisis that brought it to the verge of closing its doors. Bregenz had
changed, too, and the city was selling the buildings Wagner used
22
university was a big adjustment, not just
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
for the program. In 1989, President Norman Smith made the
decision to close the campus.
But that was far from the end of study abroad at Wagner. A
young, dynamic faculty member had come to Wagner in 1989 to
teach Spanish. Marilyn Kiss, who had been inspired by studying
in Spain as a college student, added study abroad advisor to her
professorial duties in 1991. Over the next 17 years, she influenced
and helped hundreds of students to study around the world,
primarily through Wagner College’s affiliation with an organization
called IES (originally, the Institute for European Studies, later
changed to Institute for the International Education of Students).
Primarily, language majors who wanted to be immersed in the
language and culture they were learning took advantage of study
abroad. But there were also students like Jessica Friswell ’06, an
English major with minors in Spanish and sociology/anthropology.
�The Art of Living Abroad
Mitch Sims ’06,
Vienna
The first time Mitch Sims ’06 traveled to Vienna, for a summer program before his senior year at Wagner, he got lost.
Really lost.
He intended to take the train from the airport into the city; but he took the wrong train, and ended up out in the Czech countryside. Upon getting off the train, however, he explained his dilemma to a friendly gentleman, who rode with him for two hours on
the train back to Vienna.
“At that time, I felt like I was home,” says Sims. “I’m from the South, and that’s how we treat people.”
Sims grew up in a north Florida farming community and came to Wagner for the music and arts administration programs.
Before going to Vienna, his experience with the German language consisted only in the pronunciation skills he learned in an opera
workshop. By now, after six years in Austria, he says that his mother tongue feels awkward because he’s so accustomed to
speaking German.
Taking initiative and learning the language, he says, are the two keys to successfully integrating oneself into a new culture.
Sims decided to pursue graduate studies after completing his B.A. Although he applied to U.S. universities, he chose
the Universität Wien (University of Vienna) because the faculty encouraged him to pursue his interests combining musicology
and math.
Sims received funding through Rotary International and the Fulbright Program, and he has completed the coursework for
two master’s degrees, in mathematics and in musicology. He now works as the business manager of the Danube International
School while continuing his thesis work on Baroque and Early Classical musical instruments.
Living in the seat of so much European musical culture gives him extraordinary opportunities; for example, while perusing
documents at the National Library, he discovered a very rare fragment of medieval Gregorian chant that was written for the
Feast of Fools, when children would playact mock clerical roles. His discovery was published in the journal Codices Manuscripti.
He’s also active in performing (he plays the trumpet), organizing concerts, and composing — opportunities that the Austrian
capital offers him in abundance — and he loves Vienna’s multicultural environment. “Vienna is a gateway between East and West,”
he points out. “I’ve never experienced any other place where there’s a multitude of people speaking different languages and
practicing their distinct cultural traditions.”
Mitch’s Vienna
Everyone needs to experience the Austrian coffeehouse atmosphere, he says.
Vienna is known for its architecture; his favorite example is the National Library.
H� e recommends Austrian restaurants where the menu is not translated into English; he has found the food quality to be
better when they do not cater to tourists. One of his favorites is Steman. “It has a wonderful Austrian wine selection,” he says.
A� hidden treasure is the Augustinerkirche, next to the Hofburg, which offers fine performances
of sacred music.
A� nother is the city waterfront along the Alte Donau — the Old Danube —
which he compares to the riverfront in Boston.
P H OTO C O U RT E S Y O F M I TC H S I M S ’ 0 6
ff aa ll ll
22 00 11 02
27
23
�The Art of Living Abroad
Michele Appello ’98,
Amsterdam
After five successful years in the online advertising business in New York City, moving to the Netherlands was not easy
for Michele Appello ’98.
Appello had been steadily gaining experience and responsibility since starting in online classified sales. By 2003, she
supervised a staff of three and managed online campaigns for nearly 150 websites and newsletters.
Then, she moved to Amsterdam to be with her partner of almost two years. “It was difficult for me, career-wise,” she says.
“I was not a fluent Dutch speaker and thus had to start at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak.”
She initially worked in subscriptions for a start-up English-language newspaper. But her New York City work ethic combined
with her cultural adaptability led her back to the online advertising business. Today, she is director of trading for Omnicom Media
Group Netherlands, overseeing the purchasing of online, mobile, and video media placements for clients like Pepsi and Renault.
She now has permanent residency status and has bought a home with her fiancée, Lee Boonstra, who is Dutch.
A psychology major and journalism minor at Wagner, Appello says that her psychology background helped her adapt to a
new culture. She also credits Professor Meta Townsend, who started the international affairs major at Wagner, for opening her
eyes to the world. “She just had a way of making me see things from a different perspective,” says Appello.
Although her employer is part of an international conglomerate, Appello says that the corporate culture where she works is
“98 percent Dutch,” which brings some interesting differences from U.S. culture. “From my experience, in the Dutch work culture
you work to live, instead of living to work,” she says.
One example of Holland’s more liberal worker protections include unlimited sick days — and a more generous interpretation
of reasons to take them. “To me, taking time off due to stress is very strange,” she notes by way of example. “It’s not something I
would ever do, but this, I think, is because I come from New York City, where work stress is considered normal.”
At the same time, she appreciates benefits such as greater vacation time, which she uses to travel. (Berlin, Brighton,
and Rome are her favorite European destinations.) “Living overseas for me has been and continues to be an amazing experience,”
she adds.
What does it take to be successful in living abroad? “Being open-minded, self-motivated, independent, smart, adventurous,
and possessing a willingness to step outside of your comfort zone — and the strength to be able to stick it out and make that
place your home, no matter how foreign it may be,” Appello says.
Michele’s Amsterdam
Café de Jaren: “Nice outdoor space by the water. Good for a drink and people watching.”
� K� eukenhof garden: “The best trip I had there was when some friends were visiting; I stopped at the Albert Cuypmarket and
picked up some bread and spreads. I brought that along with a bottle of wine, and we sat at a table in the garden and had lunch.”
T� he best street parties are Koninginnedag (Queen’s Day), a national holiday on April 30, and the Amsterdam Gay Pride boat
parade on the first weekend of August.
For more of Michele’s recommendations and links to websites,
visit www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
24
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO C O U RT E S Y O F M I C H E L E A P P E L LO ’ 9 8
�Wagner Around the World
Expanding Your Horizons Program Courses in 2013
Bangladesh: Environmental Pollution and Health
Hawaii: American Business and Culture
K� enya: Service and Politics Abroad:
The AIDS Crisis in Kenya
Amsterdam: Modern Commedia Dell’Arte
Germany and Austria: Music of Germany and Austria*
E� ngland: Medical Clinical Practice IV (for physician
assistants)
Israel: Understanding Different Faiths: Judaism,
Christianity and Islam
* �T his combined Wagner College Choir tour and course will make a stop in
Bregenz in honor of the former Wagner College Study Program.
She struck out on a program called the Semester at Sea — literally,
a ship-based university, which took her to 10 ports on three
continents for study and community service work. She followed
that up with a summer in Peru, devoted to learning Spanish and
volunteering for a nonprofit development organization.
After graduating from Wagner, she completed a master’s
in anthropology, environment, and development at University
College London — and even during that time, she went further
abroad, completing her fieldwork in Cameroon with traditional
hunter-gatherer people. “I’m fortunate that by the time I was
23, I could say that I had been to every continent apart from
Antarctica,” she adds.
Now an AmeriCorps/VISTA volunteer in Boston, she says, “I
encourage every young person I know to study abroad as a way
to expand their horizons, meet new people, learn about a new
culture, and have an opportunity to examine the world from a
non-American perspective.”
ince Friswell graduated in 2006, study abroad at Wagner
has been going through a growth spurt, adding programs,
options, and niches for students with different interests.
Today, about 30 percent of Wagner students have a study-abroad
experience by the time they graduate.
The first new program grew out of Professor Mohammad
S
Alauddin’s work with the water contamination crisis in Bangladesh.
Wanting Wagner students to see and understand this issue,
he created a course, Environmental Pollution and Health, that
included a short trip to Bangladesh. Based on this model, the
College launched Expanding Your Horizons, which offers spring
semester courses with short-term travel to points around the
world, giving students first-hand experience of the course topic.
(See “Wagner Around the World” sidebar.)
“In Expanding Your Horizons, students learn how exciting,
exhilarating, and transformative study abroad is,” says Marilyn
Kiss. “It gives them a nibble, and then they want to bite off
summers or a semester.”
At the same time, the College has increased options for
affordable longer-term study abroad programs. The College has
signed agreements with four foreign universities, in Israel, Spain,
and France, and with St. John’s University’s Rome campus. Wagner
students continue paying Wagner tuition and keep their financial
aid to go to these campuses. More agreements are in the works
with universities in South Korea, Greece, and Slovakia — the last
being very close to Wagner students’ old stomping grounds in
Bregenz.
Wagner’s newest agreement, signed this fall with the Kibbutzim
College of Education in Tel Aviv, Israel, showcases the College’s
goal to create study abroad possibilities for students in various
majors. Physician assistant students also may complete one of their
required rotations abroad, at a psychiatric treatment facility in
England.
The director of Wagner’s Center for Intercultural
Advancement, Ellen Navarro, is expanding the array of
possibilities even further by increasing the number of Wagnerapproved study-abroad consortia whose programs students can
use, while continuing to pay Wagner tuition and keeping their
financial aid packages.
Navarro’s office brims over with brightly colored brochures,
posters, flags, maps, and clocks showing the time at points around
the world. Paris, Tokyo, Morocco, and New Zealand are but a
few of the contenders competing for attention. When students
venture in for advisement, Navarro says, she quizzes them about
their interests and goals. Then, she presents them with an array
of options. In London, for example, three different programs offer
connections to five universities. You can stay on campus, live with
a family, or find your own apartment. You can be part of a small
cohort or a large international group.
“I tell them go shop to see what you want to buy,” Navarro says.
“Because there’s something for everyone.”
fa l l
2012
25
�‘Work in Progress’
Ashley Korbey ’12 covered a part of her head
that made her feel self-conscious (below),
then unveiled her smile to reveal her special
beauty for photographer Sasha May’s
“Wabi” exhibit.
26
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Wabi
The Beauty of Imperfection
This project began as an appreciation of
the “naturally different,” specifically in the
area of self-image. As I began to study selfimage (how people feel about themselves), I
was inspired by a lecture given by our very
own Provost Lily McNair. She spoke of the
Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which is the art
of finding beauty in things that are imperfect,
impermanent, and incomplete.
This caught me, because I felt a lot of
students in my shoes could identify with this
idea of being a beautiful “work in progress.”
We are just starting our lives, and most of us
have no clue where it can go. Thus was sparked
my senior RFT art gallery, where I decided
to combine ideas of negative self-image and
By Sasha May ’12
expression of this concept of wabi-sabi through
wabi specifically — wabi being the kind of
perfect beauty that comes from imperfection.
Each model was asked to cover (using their
hands) a part of their head that they were
self-conscious about or uncomfortable with. …
Models are then shown to be smiling; I’ll leave
the meaning up to you to decide.
My hope is that this show will be
exhilarating and inspiring for all who take the
time to experience it. The idea is to encourage
everyone to learn to love that thing that annoys
them about themselves and others, because
no one is perfect, and flaws are nothing but
individualistic beauty.
Editor’s Note: Sasha May ’12 created “Wabi: The
Beauty of Imperfection” for her Senior Reflective
Tutorial (RFT) in art last spring. It was exhibited in
the Horrmann Library’s Spotlight Gallery in May.
Here, Wagner Magazine brings you a portion of
that exhibit, along with her interpretive note.
fa l l
2012
27
�About Sasha May
26
She graduated from Wagner College as a
chemistry major, with a concentration in
biochemistry, and a minor in art. She was
born in Hartford, Connecticut, and raised
there and in the Washington, D.C., area. She
writes, “I discovered my love for art through photography in my
sophomore year at Wagner College, and I hope to continue to
share that love with others for as long as I can. My hopes are to be
able to use my experiences in art and the sciences to aid pediatric
oncology patients in restorative art therapy.” She is now the artistin-residence at the Alice Austen House on Staten Island.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�{}
SHOWN
Kenny Howard
Sarah Sutliff
Anna Kivela
Sylvain Habersaat
Amanda Padilla
�Wa g n e r
Sports Roundup
The Man Who Hates to Lose
After 32 years, football coach and athletic director Walt Hameline hasn’t lost his fire
By Cormac Gordon
N
ew Hartford High School
had just lost a close game
in the 1970 New York
State basketball sectionals.
And a drained Walt
Hameline, point guard for the Syracuse-area
team, was furious.
In the losing locker room, the squarejawed, five-foot-six teenager raised himself
onto his toes to confront the Spartans’ sixfoot-seven star.
Hameline chewed out the towering
big man.
Competing without enough passion was
the accusation. “How could you do that?”
he challenged his stunned teammate, is his
recollection all these years later, while sitting
in his wide-windowed office on the second
floor of the Spiro Sports Center, overlooking
Wagner’s sycamore-surrounded Oval.
“And he was my next-door neighbor,”
Wagner’s longtime football coach and athletic
director deadpans.
That’s Walt Hameline.
“It just kills me to lose,” he readily
admits, waving a hand over the stacks of
paperwork on his super-sized desk.
The obsession isn’t just about football,
either, in which Hameline has won 213
games at Wagner, ranking him 59th at the
beginning of this season among all-time
college coaches at any level.
Just ask anyone who’s played in one of
the 61-year-old’s impromptu three-on-three
lunchtime basketball games at Spiro. Or who
has joined him on a post-practice run along
the winding streets surrounding campus.
30
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Staff members shake their heads at his
notorious workouts in Spiro, the exercise
equivalent to speed dating.
Hameline admits to being a marginal
golfer. Especially when playing against more
accomplished types like sometime playing
partner Phil Simms.
But the father of two grown daughters,
who married his hometown sweetheart, Debi
McLean, after graduating from Brockport
State in 1975, suffers even after those
inconsequential losses. Winning counts
all the time.
“I really believe that
the fire still burns today
just as hotly as it did the
day he took over,” says
Wagner associate head
coach Tom Masella ’82, who played on
Hameline’s first team in 1981. “Walt’s a great
person, a great guy. But not if you’re playing
against him, even now.”
In his high school days, besides basketball
Hameline was also a 140-pound quarterback
and a catcher in baseball, an unlikely threesport star on winning teams. A classic sports
overachiever.
There is a slice of very personal history
that may explain the trait. Hameline says
his high school coaches were stabilizing
influences, and even inspirations, for
a teenager whose own father had died
suddenly of a heart attack when Hameline
was 12.
“I could have gone in any direction,” he
says of that moment in his life. “And I was
lucky to have good people around me.”
It was those men who, as time passed,
would encourage him to consider the
possibility of coaching.
It has been quite a ride ever since.
After 32 years as head coach and athletic
director, during which time he’s overseen an
expansion of Wagner’s sports programs and
facilities in every way imaginable, Hameline
remains driven.
Not to mention, pragmatic.
The Colts Neck, New Jersey, resident
still cuts his own hair during the football
season to save time.
“And the $15 bucks,”
he adds.
And he keeps a blowup mattress and small
refrigerator stocked with
cold drinks next to the shower in his office
restroom. “I don’t need much to be happy,”
he says, laughing.
Even now, his legacy secured long ago,
Hameline will sometimes spend nights
at Spiro to get in late film work with his
assistants.
“You don’t want to cheat the kids,” is his
explanation. “You want to teach them that in
the real world they’ll be constantly evaluated
on how they perform, and that you have to
work hard to succeed. These days that’s so
more than ever. I believe the only way to
accomplish your goal as a coach is to have
that drive, to stay hungry yourself.”
If it all sounds pretty intense, it is. But
Hameline’s real gift has been an ability to
balance all that competitive thrust with an
understanding of the ever-changing role of
‘Walt’s a great guy.
But not if you’re
playing against him.’
P H OTO G R A P H : DAV I D SA F F R A N / WAG N E R AT H L E T I C S
�WINNING ISN’T EVERYTHING ...…
But it does feel good. With the Seahawks
winning their first NEC Championship this
season, Walt Hameline was named NEC
Coach of the Year.
football and athletics at Wagner.
“Wagner is a better place compared to
when I got here,” he says. “The school has an
elevated academic profile now. There are new
fields, new buildings. I think a lot has been
accomplished.”
Things on the gridiron are not what they
were in 1987, however, when the Seahawks
were a Division III power going 13-1 and
winning a national championship. In his first
eight seasons as head coach, Hameline teams
went a remarkable 68-15-2, advancing to
post-season play six times.
Those numbers alone made September’s
naming of the field at Wagner College
Stadium for Walt Hameline a natural.
“I’ve had good players, good coaches and
great support here,” he says. “You have to
work hard, be lucky, and have people who
support you.”
The current program plays at the
more competitive Football Championship
Subdivision level of the NCAA. Last
season’s Top 25 in the FCS included
much larger, public schools like North
Dakota State, Northern Iowa, and James
Madison universities. The Seahawks went
a disappointing 4–7 in 2011. “Those early
teams dominated,” Masella acknowledges.
“Now it’s a fight on every snap.”
The added challenges of recent years
are part of what made this past football
season on Grymes Hill so magical for its
longtime coach.
Picked to finish seventh in the eightteam Northeast Conference, and beginning
the schedule with three stumbling losses in
the first three games, the Seahawks began
an upward trajectory in week four that
progressed further than anyone could
have hoped.
Coupling a stingy, aggressive defense
with a balanced, mature offense and a
rock-solid special teams unit, Wagner rode
those elements to an unlikely eight-game
win streak, some of the barn-burning variety.
They captured a first-ever NEC title and a
trip to the NCAA FCS tournament.
And after accomplishing all that, the redhot Seahawks pulled the ultimate upset: They
defeated favored Colgate 31–20 at Hameline
Field to advance to the NCAA Round of 16.
In the program’s biggest game of the last
quarter-century, quarterback Nick Doscher
threw for two touchdowns, running back
Dominique Williams ran for 106 yards, and
a swarming, dominating defense forced five
Colgate turnovers.
The Seahawks traveled to No. 4 ranked
Eastern Washington University for the
second round of the NCAAs on Dec. 1,
eventually losing 29–19.
Still, against formidable early odds,
the 2012 season ranks as the school’s best
since that championship year of 1987. “We
really improved as the season progressed,”
Hameline says. “At the end of the day, the
kids have to go out and make plays. They did
that, and they deserve the credit.”
And as for the surprising nature of the
season’s accomplishments?
Hameline is as insistent as ever. “Our
goals haven’t changed,” says the three-decadelong cornerstone of the Seahawk football
program. “We’ll always strive to win.”
fa l l
2012
31
�{
f l a s h b a c k
}
Upcoming Events
Alumni
• ��Winter on the Hill
February 16
Alumni Reception and Basketball
Doubleheader
Wagner vs. Bryant
• ��Reunion Weekend
June 7–9
Campus Events
• ��Commencement
May 24
Music
• ��Tribute to Black Music
College Choirs and Guests
Feb. 26, 9 p.m.
Campus Hall, Music
Performance Center
• ��Sendoff Concert
WHEN PHONES HAD CORDS,
WAG N E R U N I O N , C A . 1 9 9 9 ?
These once-ubiquitous contraptions
have become an endangered species.
New Yorkers were searching for pay
phones again, however, in the wake of
Hurricane Sandy, when many people’s
cell phone service went down. Share
your memories of pay phones, or
of the (to us) unknown person in
this picture, by contacting Wagner
Magazine at laura.barlament@wagner.
College Choir and Fest Chor
March 3, 4 p.m.
Park Ave. Christian Church,
Manhattan
• ��Germany–Austria Tour
College Choir and Fest Chor
March 7–17
• ��Home Concert
College Choir and Fest Chor
March 24, 4 p.m.
Trinity Lutheran Church,
Staten Island
• ��Spring Concert
Treble Concert Choir
April 28, 4 p.m.
Trinity Lutheran Church,
Staten Island
• ��Jazz Ensemble Concert
April 28, 3 p.m.
Main Hall Theatre
• ��Final Choral Concert
College Choir
May 5, 4 p.m.
Trinity Lutheran Church,
Staten Island
• ��Vocal Jazz Set
Stretto/Espresso and Guests
May 7, 8 p.m.
Campus Hall, Music
Performance Center
• �Concert Band Concert
May 11, 3 p.m.
Main Hall Theatre
• �Spring Concert
Vocal Synergy
May 11, 7 p.m.
Campus Hall, Music
Performance Center
Theater
• �Rent
Feb. 27–March 2 &
March 6–10
Wagner College Main Stage
• �Five Women Wearing the
Same Dress
March 5–10
Wagner College Stage One
• �Guys and Dolls
Apr. 24–27 & May 1–5
Wagner College Main Stage
• �The Dance Project
April 30–May 5
Wagner College Stage One
edu, 718-390-3147, or One Campus
Road, Staten Island, NY 10301.
32
32
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
For more information, registration, and tickets:
Alumni Relations 718-390-3224 • Music Department 718-390-3313
Theater Box Office 718-390-3259
Dates are subject to change. Please call or check www.wagner.edu for updates.
�Seahawk Happenings
Gatherings
Wagnerians getting together across the country
Coast to Coast: On July 21 we were on the East Coast for the
annual sell-out event, Alumni Day at the Ballpark, which
brought 48 alumni, friends, and current students to the
Richmond County Bank Ballpark to see the Staten Island
Yankees take on their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Cyclones.
On August 5, we were on the West Coast to join alumni —
including Susan Moan Hardie ’74 and Gayle Snyder ’98 — as
well as parents and current students who live in the Southern
California area for an afternoon at the Del Mar Racetrack.
Alumni Link
In New York: On August 16, Lily McNair, provost and vice
president for academic affairs, welcomed 42 alumni, parents,
and students at a networking reception at the University Club
in New York City. Among the guests were the proud Wagner
family pictured here: Karen, Natassia ’11, Dominique ’14,
and James Miller. One week later, the new academic year got
underway, with 225 new students and their families stopping by
the National Alumni Association table during Orientation.
In Florida: For the football season opener on August 31 at
Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, more than 75
Seahawk fans converged upon Duffy’s Sports Grill for a pregame reception. John “Bunny” Barbes ’39 (in white waving to
the crowd), longtime Wagner coach and director of alumni
relations, came to see many of his former players and friends.
Those who didn’t play for Bunny had the chance to meet the
legend himself. The following week, on September 8, 30 alumni
and parents came out to Washington, D.C., to cheer on the
Seahawks football team as they faced Georgetown University.
On Campus: On September 15, we gathered at Wagner College
Stadium to honor Walt Hameline’s 32 years of service as head
football coach and athletic director, as the field was named Walt
Hameline Field. More than 250 former student-athletes and
Seahawk supporters came together for a post-game reception
to thank and congratulate Coach Hameline. Pictured: Wagner
Trustee Fred Williamson ’64 H’11, Walt and Debi Hameline
with daughters Kristen and Kelly, President Guarasci, and
Wagner Trustee Marc Lebovitz ’91.
To stay informed of upcoming events in your area visit www.wagner.edu/alumni.
fa l l
2012
33
�Wa g n e r
Alumni Link
Who in the Wagner World Was …
Lauritz Melchior?
Lauritz Melchior (1890–1973) was the most famous Wagnerian Heldentenor (“heroic
tenor”) of his day. From the 1920s through the 1940s, he sang at all the great opera houses
— Covent Garden, the Festival Theater at Bayreuth, and, most significantly, the Metropolitan
Opera of New York. Also appearing in several Hollywood musicals and on American
television and radio, the Danish-born singer (who became a U.S. citizen in 1947) was a
household name, with a larger-than-life physique and personality.
As a measure of his significance, biographer Shirlee Emmons notes that the National
Park Service asked Melchior “for five or six personal items for their new American Museum
to be housed in the base of the Statue of Liberty.” Universities including Syracuse, Yale, and
Boston sought his memorabilia as well.
In the end, he left all of his possessions to his son, who donated them to Dana College
in Nebraska. Today, that collection is at the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, Iowa.
Except, that is, for a few items – which is where Wagner comes into the story.
Professor Otto Raths likes to tell the tale that in his early years on the Wagner faculty, in the 1960s, then-President Arthur O. Davidson
would often mention his friendship with the elderly Melchior. “He’s going to leave something to Wagner in his will,” Raths remembers the
president saying on more than one occasion.
Melchior died in 1973 — and, as promised, he remembered Wagner College in his will. He left the College his big-game trophy collection.
Melchior was a lifelong, avid hunter. He went on hunting expeditions all around the world; according to Emmons, at the age of 77 he went
on safari in Kenya and bagged a bushbuck “two-and-a-half inches bigger than the world record specimen.” At home, he displayed mounted
heads and other trophies, such as ashtrays made of bison hooves. President Guarasci was able to confirm that Melchior did, indeed, leave his
collection to Wagner College.
Some of the Melchior trophies have not survived the years at Wagner, but the impressive heads of a North American caribou and a Cape
buffalo still hang in Megerle 405, one of the biology labs.
Contact Editor Laura Barlament at laura.barlament@wagner.edu or 718-390-3147 with suggestions for “Who in the Wagner World Was …?”
Robert Hauptman ’64 Authorial Ethics: How Writers Abuse Their Calling
(Lexington Books, 2011) and Grasping for Heaven: Interviews with North American
Mountaineers, with Frederic V. Hartemann (McFarland & Company, 2011)
A professor emeritus at St. Cloud State University, Robert Hauptman demonstrates
the breadth of his interests and knowledge with his two latest books. In Authorial
Ethics , he discusses writers’ lapses from truth in many different fields, including
journalism, history, literature, art, and science. A mountaineer himself as well as
an information science expert, Hauptman (with co-author Frederic V. Hartemann)
presents his interviews with 15 of North America’s premier mountaineers in
Grasping for Heaven.
34
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Homecoming
What a different scene than last year’s blizzard-like conditions! But it was only the calm before the next storm, Hurricane Sandy. In the meantime, on a perfect fall day, 500
alumni and friends returned to campus to enjoy the Homecoming BBQ, seven outstanding former Wagner student-athletes were inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame,
and the Seahawks defeated Robert Morris University. It was the Seahawks’ fifth straight win — their first time to achieve such a record in Northeast Conference (NEC) play
since the league was formed in 1996.
H AW K TA L K Wa gn e r sta ff me m b e rs S ara Kl e i n and Matt H o l l i ngsh ead,
Alumni Link
plus Wag ne r f r i e n d M i c h e l l e N i ko o m ane sh, chat wi th Pre si d e nt G uara sci
at the p re-ga me ba r b e c u e .
H O N O R E D M i ke Ve n e z i a ’ 90 M’9 6, Qui ncy L ewi s ’9 3, Patti W i nte rfeldt
G O , T E A M ! Fans cheered when t he Seahawks made t heir fir st
Sv raka ’9 4 M ’ 96 , Steve S l o c u m ’84, R i ch Ro b i nso n ’9 0, G re g Kovar ’89,
and L ou D e Lu c a ’ 59 we re i n d ucte d i nto the Athl eti c H al l of Fam e .
touchdown on t heir way to a 2 3 –1 3 win over Rober t M or r is Univer si t y
O L D F R I E N D S (L eft to r ig ht) Lo nni e Brand o n ’72, Daym o n Y i zar ’82 ,
B A B Y S E A H AW K Tad Bender ’0 6, president of t he Nat ional A lumn i
Jalek i B rand o n , M a r i l y n W. Ja c kso n ’73, and Caro l Lewi s Be l l amy ’81
sh ared the d ay.
P H OTO G R A P H S : V I N N I E A M E S S É
Associat ion board, wit h his wife, Ashley, and t heir daug hter Adeline,
ag e 1 .
fa l l
2012
35
�1949
& 1952
Trygve ’49 and Ruth Stangeland ’52
Skarsten celebrated their 60th
wedding anniversary on June 28,
together with their four children:
Linda Skarsten Ibsen, Cheryl
Skarsten Alban, Kevin Skarsten,
and Caryn Skarsten Ginter; and
their 12 grandchildren: John,
Sara, Evan, Emily, Austin, Haley,
Matthew, Jenny, Tyler, Jacob,
Logan, and Zachary. Trygve and
Ruth live in Pickerington, Ohio.
1950
& 1951
Margaret ’50 and Palmer ’51 Thompson
celebrated their 60th wedding
anniversary in April. They are working
as travel agents for their daughter at
her own travel agency, Magic Mouse
Travel, in Shawnee, Kans.
1955
is retired and
lives in Mahwah, N.J. She writes,
“Thanks to Wagner’s wonderful
preparation, I was an elementary
Doris Rockefeller Lehmann
teacher for over 31 years, also doing
‘bedside’ instruction while my four
children were small.”
1959
was inducted into
the Wagner College Athletics
Hall of Fame class of 2012 for
his numerous achievements
in fundraising, academics, and
athletics. Lou has been an
ambassador for Wagner athletics for
many years and serves as an adjunct
professor of education.
Lou DeLuca
1962
Editor’s Note: Thanks to “Kallista ’62
Continued,” the 50th reunion
publication of the class of 1962, we
bring you updates from 35 members of
the class, plus this note from a few
people not able to attend reunion at
Wagner in June: George F. Scarpato, John
F. Dwyer , and Robert Sheridan ,
“founding members of the San
Francisco chapter of the Wagner
College Golden Seahawks,” met for
lunch over pizza and wine on June
8, to coincide with the 50th
anniversary class reunion on
Grymes Hill. “We raised a glass,”
they reported, “and resolved to
send our best regards, our fond
remembrances, and best wishes for
a delightful reunion to all of our
esteemed classmates.” The Rev. Clair
Anderson , a retired pastor in
Hanover, Pa., and his wife, Lucinda,
love to travel, and have been to 49
states and several European
countries. Clair has returned to
playing the violin; other hobbies
include model railroads, stamp
collecting, and poetry writing. Brian
Andrew Bates , dean of students
emeritus at the Thunderbird School
of Global Management, is
semi-retired with an education
evaluation company. Brian and his
wife, Ginger, live in Arizona and
love it, “despite its politics,” in his
words. He enjoys traveling, the local
theater, and opera as well as time
spent with his family. Elise Benedict
Browne lives in Tampa, Fla., with her
husband, Vernon, whose Navy
career took them all over the world.
Elise taught school and then
resumed her profession of breeding
and selling thoroughbred horses in
Tampa. She has three sons and two
grandchildren. Georg W. Bohsack
continues to pursue his work in the
field of ophthalmology, which has
taken him and his wife, Anne, to 80
countries. Anne and George have
moved to Marshfield Hills, Mass.,
where he is rebuilding an old New
England stone wall on the property.
Richard Bolstein retired in 2006 as
chair of the statistics department at
George Mason University in
Fairfax, Va. He has a part-time
consulting business in statistical
survey sampling. He enjoys playing
jazz and classical piano, and
working on his very hilly yard and
garden under his wife Sharon’s
direction at their home right off the
Blue Ridge Parkway near
Waynesboro, Va. Ted Caccia retired as
a program manager for a defense
contractor in 2000. He enjoys
tennis and gardening with his wife,
Sue. They split their time between
Cape Coral, Fla., and the South
Shore of Long Island, N.Y. John J.
Campi and his wife, Carol, have lived
and worked in the U.S. and overseas
and enjoy travel and golf. They
spend about half the year at home
in Jupiter, Fla. They enjoy spending
time with their two children and
three grandchildren. Don Cavalli is
retired from many years as a high
school history teacher and
multi-sport coach. He enjoys golf,
skiing, and European travel. He is a
Wagner Athletic Hall of Famer and
has been chair of the selection
committee for 19 years. He lives in
Morris County, N.J., and has three
children and five grandsons. Carol
Gaise Crews retired last year from
managing a large psychiatric
practice. She says that mental
health has become her “passion and
cause.” She and her husband, John
Keep in Touch!
E-mail: alumni@wagner.edu
Publication policies:
class years of all alumni pictured; birth date, parents’ names,
Deadlines: This issue reflects news received by October 1.
and class years with photos of children; and dates and locations
Web: www.wagner.edu/alumni/
The submission deadline for the Summer 2013 issue is June 1.
of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos must be clear and of good
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Content: Wagner welcomes your news and updates, and we
will happily share them with the Wagner family. We ask that you
quality. Prints should be on glossy paper with no surface texture;
send us announcements of weddings, births, and graduations
they will be returned at your request (please attach your address
after the fact.
to the photo). Digital photos must be jpegs of at least 250 pixels
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner groups at weddings
per inch; low-resolution photos converted to a higher resolution
and other special events. With the photo, send the names and
are not acceptable.
Wagner College, 1 Campus Road,
Staten Island, NY 10301
36
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�’64, enjoy traveling, and took a
cruise through the Panama Canal
and to Costa Rica earlier this year.
They live in Port Ewen, N.Y. Eleanor
Warren Derr retired in 2005 from a
career as a nurse, nursing instructor,
and specialist in medical quality. She
lives in Williamsport, Pa., where she
moved with her late husband,
Lester, in 1967. Her passion is her
volunteer work for Yokefellowship
Prison Ministry. Vince Fischetti H’10, a
microbiologist at Rockefeller
University in Manhattan, was
featured in a Q&A in the August
2012 issue of Scientific American.
The interview by Brendan Borrell
was entitled, “Phage Factor: Long
ignored by mainstream researchers,
the viruses that infect bacteria have
a role to play in modern medicine.”
Vince and his wife, Barbara, live in
West Hempstead, N.Y. Bjarne
Gabrielsen retired in 2006 from a
career of university teaching and
research as a chemist at Wagner
College and the University of
Florida, followed by many years of
work in drug discovery for the U.S.
Army Medical Research Institute of
Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick
in Maryland and the National
Cancer Institute at Frederick, Md.
He received the National Institutes
of Health Award of Merit for his
work on preserving the intellectual
property rights of indigenous
peoples and institutions, as he
helped the NCI Natural Products
Branch obtain samples of native
marine life and plants from more
than 30 established and developing
nations. He enjoys music, teaching
in church, fishing, family, and
grandchildren with his wife, Marie.
The couple lives in Punta Gorda,
Fla. Nancy Born Goodwin moved to
Whitefish, Mont., 17 years ago. She
enjoys traveling, specifically bicycle
touring, which has brought her to
several Hawaiian Islands, the
Canadian Rockies, Europe, and
North Africa. She volunteers at the
local library and takes road trips to
the Oregon coast. Her two children
also live in Montana. Richard Granger
became a commercial airline pilot
for United after he stopped flying
jets for the Marine Corps in 1966.
Since retiring, he has taken to golf
quite exceptionally; he is learning to
play bridge with his wife, Karlene;
and he is an avid reader and enjoys
gardening, photography, and
computers. Richard lives in New
Providence, N.J. Judith Cornell Haven
worked primarily as a geriatric and
Crews
Crib Notes
Classes of 2032 and 2033
Some of the newest faces
to join the Wagner family
1.
1.
Christine Pedi
’96 M’98
and her husband,
Andrew, announce
the birth of their
son Andrew on
February 28.
Gise
2.
2. Thomas Koncewicz
’99 and Lauren
Marrone Koncewicz
’00 announce the
birth of their third
child, Christian Paul,
on February 23.
Alumni Link
3. Violetta
Hancock ’05 and
her husband,
Tom Hancock,
welcomed Madison
Elise on June 2.
3.
We’d love to see your baby’s face.
Please see opposite page for publication guidelines.
rehabilitation nurse in Paramus, N.J.
She now lives in Stratford, Conn., in
an active retirement community and
volunteers with the Medical Reserve
Corps of Stratford. She and her
husband, Ronald, have two
daughters and four grandchildren.
Dan Hays has written many articles
from the passionate to the
provocative in his years as a
journalist. He enjoys skiing,
bicycling, kayaking, and sail
boarding. He continues to work on a
freelance basis and does volunteer
publicity work for New Jersey’s
Great Swamp National Wildlife
Refuge. Dan and his wife, Linda, live
in Morristown, N.J. Richard and Heike
are both retired
from Procter and Gamble
Pharmaceuticals. They live in
Norwich, N.Y., and visit daily with
Heike’s mother in a nearby nursing
home, and frequently with their
grandchildren, who all live within a
few hours’ drive. Rita King has taken
to improving her Scottsdale, Ariz.,
home and has become a budding
horticulturist, using only xeriscape
materials — in other words, plants
not requiring irrigation. Many of the
plants and landscaping materials she
used were recycled from neighbors’
castoffs, while the leftover materials
became the perfect medium for a
vegetable garden. Carolyn McCabe Miller
Schander Kilgore
spent 48 years in the medical
laboratory field, working in
hospitals in New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Long Island.
She is very active in her
community, volunteering with
Meals on Wheels and animal
causes. Her two rescued
greyhounds keep her from being
lonely after losing her husband in
2001. Her many friends in North
Charleston, S.C., and children and
grandchildren in Virginia make
her say, “Life is good.” Russell L.
McIntyre retired from the full-time
faculty of the UMDNJ-Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School,
where he was professor of medical
fa l l
2012
37
�Take a Walk Down
Memory Lane…
Wagner College Memories:
A Photographic Remembrance of Grymes Hill
in 99 Images, Past & Present
This 10-by-8-inch hardcover book contains 99 classic scenes,
from a panoramic view of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to the
Collegiate Gothic grandeur of Main Hall to winter’s snow-covered
calm. Available for $39.99 in the Wagner College Bookstore
To view the book online and
download a mail order form, go to
www.wagner.edu/newsroom/node/135
1962 cont.
ethics and health law, in 2007. He
lives in Morristown, N.J., Ocean
City, Md., and Stuart, Fla. He still
teaches a continuing education
course in professional ethics for
physicians under disciplinary
action. He provides lectures in
medical ethics and health care laws
to hospitals and medical societies in
the tri-state area. He enjoys world
travel, golf, boating, sudoku, surf
fishing, and his grandchildren.
Constantine P. Pagonis practiced
internal medicine and cardiology in
Cumberland, R.I., until 2006. He
and his wife, Betty, have been
traveling extensively to Europe,
Central America, and the
Caribbean. They also love to
babysit their two granddaughters,
and Constantine has been studying
Spanish. John W. Palmer served as a
Marine Corps officer and then
pursued a career in law in New
York, serving as assistant DA in
Nassau County and later trying
aviation cases around the nation.
He maintains a law office in
Mineola, N.Y. He and his wife,
Elaine Angelides Palmer ’64, settled in
Oyster Bay, N.Y., and have two
children. Karen Olsen Peterson was the
38
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Dallas Independent School
District’s Teacher of the Year in
1996-97 and has been traveling
around the world since retiring. She
has been to the Taj Mahal, the
Great Barrier Reef, the Great Wall
of China, King Tut’s Tomb, and a
safari in Kenya. She lives in Rock
Hill, S.C., and enjoys her 13
grandchildren. David Petrovits started
a site development company, BTM,
and a couple of auxiliary businesses,
which his two children and
son-in-law help manage. Though
still working, David and his wife,
Randi Joberg Petrovits ’64, find time to
travel and winter in Vero Beach,
Fla. John C. Pfisterer retired in 2003
from active ministry in various
New Jersey towns. He retired to
Southern Pines, N.C., and serves as
part-time interim pastor of a small
Lutheran church in Hamlet, N.C.
He also enjoys gardening, reading,
golf, and overseas travel with his
wife, Susan McClure Pfisterer ’63. Janet
Haffen Rice was a nurse in the New
York area, became a school nurse
and health education teacher in
Westchester County, and finally
became a clinical nurse specialist at
White Plains Hospital and
participated in many HIV/AIDS
outreach programs. She “retired” in
’98 and moved to Watertown, N.Y.,
and works part time at a BonTon
Department store. Janet loves
cruises and went to Hawaii in
September. Richard Charles Rice had a
long career as a school principal
and superintendent in Montvale,
N.J., earning the Distinguished
Service Award from the Bergen
County Superintendents
Association. Richard and his wife,
Barbara Freiberg Rice ’64, live in
Tamiment, Pa., and have enjoyed
extensive traveling, in the U.S. and
abroad. They have three children
and five grandchildren. Karen Murtha
Rosnell worked for many years with
her husband, Ken Rosnell ’60, in their
franchise of Snelling Personnel, in
Cincinnati, Ohio. She also started a
temporary staffing service, which
she retired from about three years
ago, but her son continues to run.
She helped form the local Rotary
Club and became the first female
governor of the southwestern Ohio
district. Besides their volunteer
activities, the couple enjoys time
spent with their children and
grandchildren. Paul Sarkisian worked
in sales and is the president of his
own company, Besada Enterprises.
He is very active in missionary
activities and bringing food and
supplies to areas of need around
the world, works with the Red
Cross, lectures on Biblical
prophecies and health issues, and
assists with local ministries. His
other interests include travel, stamp
collecting, gardening, target
shooting, making stained glass
windows, and riding the subways of
the world (17 so far). Paul and his
wife live in Ormond Beach, Fla. Alan
W. Schlienger worked for the New
Jersey Bureau of Parole, retiring as
district parole supervisor in 1997.
He and his wife, Kathleen, live in
Northfield, N.J. They spent many
vacations in the Florida Keys and
have been on numerous cruises,
including two with the Philadelphia
Eagles. Alan is chair of the financial
management committee of St.
Andrew Lutheran Church in
Atlantic City, where he is a lifelong,
very active member. Linda Dengel
Simpson taught special education in
Plano, Tex., for 20 years. She and
her husband, Charlie Simpson ’59, have
three children and seven
grandchildren. They live in
McKinney, Tex. Beth Kirkwood
Stensrud has lived in Philadelphia for
many years, teaching, raising her
two children, and running her
business selling decorative
accessories for the home (www.
PSOriginalsOnline.com). She has
five grandchildren. Her husband,
Rolf Stensrud ’60, passed away in
March 2011. “We all miss him a
lot,” she says. Robert A. Straniere served
for 24 years as Staten Island’s
assemblyman in the New York
State Legislature. He also practiced
law on Staten Island with his
brother, Philip Straniere ’69, and
worked as the assistant corporation
counsel and assistant legislative
representative for New York City.
He is now an administrative law
judge for New York City, and
spends his leisure time with his
wife, Ruth, visiting their five
grandchildren, commuting between
Manhattan and Los Angeles, and
enjoying the Yankees, the Jets, and
Broadway shows. Karl F. Trachte retired
in 2010 as the deputy commissioner
for the New York City Human
Resources Administration. He is an
adjunct professor of management
and marketing at the College of
Staten Island. Karl is a Free and
Accepted Mason, and was the
Richmond District’s Mason of the
Year in 2012. His special interests
include traveling, golf, and
community service; he and his wife,
Joanne, have three children. Beverly
Hoehne Whipple is a certified sexuality
educator, sexuality counselor, and
sex researcher. She has co-authored
many books and won many awards
for her work on women’s health
issues and the sexual physiology of
women. She is professor emerita at
Rutgers University. She enjoys
traveling with her husband, Jim,
and their children and has been to
all of the continental United States,
the southern provinces of Canada,
and 93 countries. Beverly and Jim
live in Voorhees, N.J. … In other
class news, Wagner Magazine
learned that one class member
recently passed away: Lloyd Sherman , a
professor at the Mt. Sinai School of
Medicine for about 40 years, died
in a car accident in August. A
specialist in science education, he
created Mt. Sinai’s Center for
Excellence in Youth Education,
which served to increase knowledge
in biomedical science, mathematics,
and language arts and to expose
and motivate young people to
pursue careers in biomedical
science, medicine, and health.
�Knot Notes
Wagner Weddings
Celebrating new commitments
Adam Abderrazzaq ’07
and Sarah Shepler ’07 were
married on May 26 in Bedford, N.H. The
Wagner alumni at their wedding included
Becca Gottlieb ’08, Emilia Martin ’07, Erin O’Neil ’08,
Julie Mason ’07, Jake Smith ’07, Robin Steinthal ’07,
Maggie Marino ‘07, Kyle Erickson Hewitt ’07, Lawren
Roulier ’07, Michelle Lehrman ’07, Lauryl TrenholmePihl ’07.
’02 M’04 and Francie Kontominas ’07 were
married on June 16 at St. Teresa of Avila Church in
Summit, N.J. They shared the day with several fellow
alums, including bridesmaids Nathalie Londono ’08,
Dominique Zirino ’07, Lauren Ernst ’07, and Tiffany DiCarlo ’07,
and groomsman Javier Arbelaez ’02.
Christopher Kline
Alumni Link
’05 married Salvatore Fazio on
September 17, 2011. The couple shared the day
with Alpha Delta Pi sisters Erin O’Brien Sheeler ’05, Julia
TenBroeck ’06, Marisa Benigno ’05, Victoria Consentino ’05,
and Jennifer Cordero Bialowarczuk ’05.
Megan Rooney
’04 M’06 married
Vincent Schiavarelli on October 2,
2010, at Blessed Sacrament Roman
Catholic Church in Staten Island,
with photos on campus. Pictured:
Jessica DiLeo Zanfardino ’04, Jamie
Koppel ’03, Adele Agozzino, Maria
Agozzino, Michela, Diana Senese ’03,
Nicole Gaeta Barone ’04, Vanessa Palmiotto
Demma ’03, Kelly Dalton Noto ’03.
Michela Agozzino
Have a wedding photo with “Wagner family”? Please see page 36 for publication guidelines.
fa l l
2012
39
�UNCOMMON LIVES
Jim ’79 & Carol Driscoll ’77 Kagdis
Flying Higher and Faster
CLAIM TO FAME: During a long career
at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Jim Kagdis
was recently part of the team that
created the world’s fastest helicopter. As
Sikorsky’s medical director, Carol Kagdis keeps the
company’s 18,000 employees in good health.
BIG GUY IN THE SKY: Even if you’ve never heard of Sikorsky, you certainly
would know the name of Black Hawk, the company’s famous workhorse
military helicopter. And Marine One, the presidential helicopter — Sikorsky
has held that contract since 1957. Jim started his career at Sikorsky
32 years ago. He has served in the areas of research and engineering,
government business development, and innovations. A Wagner history
major, he says, “I’m proof you can learn by osmosis.”
SUPERFAST: Jim managed the Sikorsky Innovations team that designed
the X2 Technology Demonstrator helicopter. On September 15, 2010,
the X2 set an unofficial world record speed of 263 knots, or almost
300 miles per hour — twice as fast as traditional single main rotor
helicopters. “Seeing the X2 lift off the ground and take flight for the first
time is seared in my memory,” he says. After that, it became a matter
of “systematically, methodically and safely” expanding the aircraft’s
capabilities. The X2 received the National Aeronautics Association’s 2010
Collier Trophy, marking the year’s greatest achievement in aeronautics
or astronautics in America. The X2 technology is now being applied to
prototype light tactical helicopters for the US military, and Jim is now
leading a team “that is competing to win the right to supply the United
States Air Force with a new combat rescue helicopter.”
SMALL STEPS: Carol, a Wagner nursing graduate, joined Sikorsky three
years ago as a nurse practitioner focused on health promotion; when
the medical director position opened up, she was tapped. Skills she
learned at Wagner — “listening intently without judgment, tactfully asking
probing question, and relationship building” — have been key throughout
her career. To help patients quit smoking, for example, she encourages
them to set their own goals, with “modest steps like simply stretching out
intervals between cigarettes.” She may have a big title, but she knows
that in health care, as in aircraft development, “Small changes on an
individual level often result in big impacts to many.”
40
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H : STAU RT WA L L S / WO O D STO C K ST U D I O
�1967
is in her 36th year
as director of the Adirondack
Community Chorus, which gives
three concerts per year and has
performed with the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra and the
Syracuse Symphony.
Peggy Nusplinger
1969
1970
won a blue ribbon at
the Arizona Quilters Guild show in
March for her quilt celebrating the
Arizona centennial.
Christine Mahon
1972 &
1974
Erik ’72 and Jane Waleski ’74 Unhjem were
in a plane crash on Long Island
on August 19. Erik survived, but
Jane and another person in the
plane did not. About a month
after the accident, Erik posted the
following report to the Bregenz
Study Program 50th Anniversary
Reunion on Facebook: “As many
of you know, Jane and I were
involved in a terrible accident in
late August. Sadly, my wife, my
love, the mother of our children,
didn’t survive, though she valiantly
fought to live for about seven hours
before succumbing to her injuries. I
1973
Nancy Riess Freer recently
graduated
from SUNY New Paltz with a
bachelor’s degree in classical voice
performance.
1977
Mindy Reynolds ’77
M’83 was
consecrated as a diaconal minister
at the 25th annual assembly of the
Virginia Synod of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America on
June 9. She was then installed as
the synodical minister for healthy
leadership and wellness.
1978
was featured in the
December 2011 issue of WorkSpan
magazine, a global human
resources publication of the
organization WorldatWork. John is
a WorldatWork faculty member,
seminar developer, and instructor.
Since 1996, he has run his own firm,
Rubino Consulting Services. He
has written two books and many
articles about human resources
issues such as compensation and
management training. He has
traveled to more than 100 countries
doing HR training and consulting.
“I absolutely love what I do,” he
John Rubino
told WorkSpan. “It truly defines
me. I feel so fortunate that I have
embraced an occupation in human
resources.” Last year, he received an
Honorary Lifetime Membership
Award from an HR organization
in South Africa, the South African
Rewards Association. He also
continues to pursue his love of
performing music. He and his wife,
Cindy, have a 20-year-old son.
1986
Edward J. Nitkewicz was
named to the
2012 edition of New York Super
Lawyers for his work representing
personal injury plaintiffs in matters
of general negligence, product
liability, and no-fault litigation.
In addition, Super Lawyers cited
his work as a leader in the field
of education law. Ed is a senior
counsel with the Sanders law firm
in Mineola, N.Y.
1988
and her brother,
Rico, star in “Rosa & Rico’s Italian
Food Truck,” a weekly series that
premiered in September on the
Hungry YouTube channel. Find
episodes at youtube.com/hungry.
Rich Negrin , deputy mayor and
managing director of the city of
Philadelphia, was named the Latino
Lawyer of the Year at the 2012
Hispanic National Bar Association
Annual Convention.
Rosa Graziano
1981
M’83 is working
on a children’s book, A New York
City Tail, with illustrations (see
above) by Taryn LaMorte, daughter
of Greg’s brother, Al LaMorte. “It’s
about a baby pigeon that gets lost,
and he gets help from hawks and
parrots all over the city to find his
mother,” he says, adding, “Wagner is
in the second book I’m writing.” It
is dedicated to the three friends he
lost on 9/11.
1989
1982
Rich Robinson
Greg LaMorte ’81
’82 M’84 received
GAMA International’s Master
Agency Award and the
International Management Award,
at the Diamond Level. The
program recognizes excellence
in traditional and contemporary
field management throughout
the financial services industry.
Dominick is managing director with
Bridge Financial Group, an office of
MetLife, in Staten Island.
Dominick Iorio
1984
was inducted into the
Wagner College Athletics Hall
of Fame, class of 2012. He is
considered to be one of the best
offensive linemen in school history.
Steve Slocum
Alumni Link
created a “silver stain”
that yields an intensely beautiful
yellow-gold color for stained glass
windows — so beautiful, in fact,
that it was chosen for use in a
new window in Westminster Hall,
the oldest building of the English
Parliamentary Estate, in honor of
the Diamond Jubilee of Queen
Elizabeth, which honored her 60
years as monarch. It is called the
Ancient Walpole stain, and it has
been in widespread use since Cliff
developed it in the early 1980s.
Cliff made a trip to England last
year to deliver the stain to the
window designer, British artist John
Reyntiens, who personally chose it
and insisted upon featuring it in the
window, which uses around 1,500
pieces of glass to depict the Queen’s
coat of arms. The window was
unveiled by the Queen in March.
Cliff Oster
already miss her in so many ways. …
I’m happy to report, however, that
my somewhat miraculous recovery
has exceeded all expectations. …
Due to the scope and severity
of my burns, the doctors had
originally estimated that I would
be in the hospital for 60 days. I was
released in 27. They attribute my
relatively speedy recovery to my
good health and condition at the
time of the accident, and while in
the hospital I worked very hard
at getting better.” Jane’s funeral
was held on October 20, and her
life and career were celebrated on
October 21 at Goshen (N.Y.) High
School. Jane was a beloved school
system administrator in Goshen,
known by students, parents, and
colleagues for the dedication
and joy she brought to her work.
Before coming to Goshen to serve
as assistant superintendent for
curriculum and instruction, Jane
was an educator in the MonroeWoodbury School District.
Greg Kovar ,
the starting quarterback
for the Seahawks’ 1987 Division III
National Championship team, was
inducted into the Wagner College
Athletics Hall of Fame, class of 2012.
1990
and Mike Venezia ’90
M’96 were inducted into the
Wagner College Athletics Hall of
Fame, class of 2012. Rich was one
of the top defensive linemen in
Wagner history, and Mike turned in
an amazing career on the baseball
diamond for the Seahawks.
1993
Quincy Lewis ,
noted as Wagner
basketball’s “ultimate playmaker”
and “one of the greatest point
guards in Wagner history,” was
inducted into the Wagner Athletics
Hall of Fame, class of 2012. Pia
Wilson ’s play The Flower Thief ran
from August 2 to 18 at the Red
Room in New York City. The play
explores a young man’s grief over
the loss of his twin brother.
fa l l
2012
41
�a nursing student, and a nurse. We held
10 clinics and treated over 700 patients.
We included a dental clinic for the first
time, staffed by a dental hygienist and a
Dominican dentist whose education had
been funded by a former team member.
Dr. Linda Walsh ’76 examines
a young patient while her
protégé, a Dominican medical
student, watches.
This year, we visited a new
community that was particularly remote
and poor. When we were finishing up our
last clinic, a woman came in carrying
How I Became a Medical Missionary
a naked child with a high fever. He was suffering from
a urinary tract infection. When I told her he needed
I didn’t plan to start doing annual medical mission
trips, but in 2003, two 17-year-old Girl Scouts decided to
antibiotics and a fever reducer, she said, “I know, but I
do their Gold Award projects somewhere with great need.
have no money.” “Don’t worry,” I replied. “We have the
With the assistance of their leaders and our church (St
medicine here for you. It is a gift from God.” She wept
John’s Lutheran Church, Sweet Air, in Phoenix, Maryland),
with relief as we prepared the medication. Several hugs
a team of 20 people went to the Dominican Republic to
were shared. It is hard to convey the joy we all shared in
work with children; we played sports and games, taught
being there at the right time.
basic first aid, added a second floor to a church building,
and fostered relationships. As a family physician, I was
to the Dominican Republic. I started out wanting to give
struck by the immense medical needs of the community.
and to make a difference for people, following Jesus’
I was unable to ignore the malnourishment and rampant
admonition to care for the poor. But now I go because
fungal infections, evidence of the poor access to
I love going. We have made friends who help us in our
health care for many individuals living in the Dominican
work, we have watched many children grow up and
Republic.
start going to college. So it is all about relationships. We
build schools, churches, and playgrounds, and conduct
The next year, I returned to the DR armed with
I guess you could say that I am addicted to going
suitcases containing basic medical supplies and
children’s ministry and medical clinics. They show us how
medications to host our own medical clinic. We treated
to be happy with less, how to be generous with little, and
about 150 patients with the help of two nurses and
how to be grateful. After 10 trips, my hope is strong that I
several lay people. In the following years, the team
will be able to continue for many years to come.
increased in size and scope. Our most recent trip had
19 team members, including a family medicine resident,
four physician assistant students, one medical student,
1994
Patti Winterfeldt Svraka ’94
M’96
earned her place in Wagner’s
Athletics Hall of Fame class of
2012 by her tremendous versatility
on the Seahawks basketball team,
with 1,149 career points, 556
rebounds, 239 assists, and 132
steals.
42
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
1996
Christine Pedi Gise ’96
M’98 and
her husband, Andrew, announce
the birth of their son Andrew on
February 28. (See Crib Notes, page
37, for a photo.)
— Dr. Linda Walsh ’76,
Jarrettsville Family Care, Jarrettsville, Maryland
1997
married Kirk Wright
on September 15 in Roswell, Ga.
Kathleen moved from San Francisco
to Alpharetta, Ga., and works for
GE Capital as a vice president for
strategic investor programs. Kirk,
who was born and raised in Jamaica,
is general manager of a hotel in
midtown Atlanta.
Kathleen Ramirez
1998
M’98 and his terrific
elementary school chorus from
Staten Island’s PS 22 will be
performing in the 57th Presidential
Inaugural Ceremonies. This follows
a string of high-profile successes,
including singing at the White
House Christmas tree lighting in
2009 and performing at the 2011
Academy Awards.
Greg Breinberg
1999
Thomas Koncewicz and Lauren Marrone
Koncewicz ’00 announce the birth of
their third child, Christian Paul, on
February 23. (See Crib Notes, page
37, for a photo.)
2000
Jedediah Bila is
an author, columnist,
and political commentator who has
been frequently featured on Fox
News and Fox Business as well as
several radio shows. Frank Cafasso
’00 M’02 was appointed interim
chief information officer at Wagner
College in October. Lauren Marrone
Koncewicz and Thomas Koncewicz ’99
announce the birth of their third
child, Christian Paul, on February
23. (See Crib Notes, page 37, for a
photo.)
2002
’02 M’06 left his
position as director of media
services at Wagner to join the
New York Police Department in
July. Christopher J. Kline ’02 M’04 and
Francie M. Kontominas ’07 were married
on June 16 in Summit, N.J. (See
Knot Notes, page 39, for a photo.)
Michael Brillante
2003
’03 M’06 has a new
job as a major and planned gifts
officer at the Pratt Institute in
Brooklyn. Gina Ferreri ’03 M’05 was
named director of development and
alumni relations at Saint John Villa
Academy in Staten Island.
Drew Babitts
2004
Michela Agozzino ’04 M’06 married
Vincent Schiavarelli on October 2,
2010, at Blessed Sacrament Roman
�Catholic Church in West Brighton,
Staten Island. (See Knot Notes, page
39, for a photo.) Renée Marino is in the
ensemble for the Broadway musical
Chaplin, which opened at the
Barrymore Theatre this fall.
Mark Intoccia and Amanda Concilio
welcomed Madison Elise on June 2.
(See Crib Notes, page 37, for a photo.)
Mark Intoccia married Amanda Concilio
’08 on October 12 in Staten Island.
Mark is working for a marketing
research firm in New York City
and Amanda works at Bamboo
Salon in Staten Island, where they
live. Megan Rooney married Salvatore
Fazio on September 17, 2011. (See
Knot Notes, page 39, for a photo.)
2007
2005
’05 M’12 has been
named the associate superintendent
for public policy and government
programs in the New York
Archdiocese’s Department of
Education. In the role, which he
began in July, he serves as the
primary liaison between the office
of the superintendent of schools
and all government entities. He
also oversees the archdiocese’s
child nutrition program, as well as
the drug and alcohol prevention
program. He previously served
as chief of staff for New York
State Assemblyman Lou Tobacco
of Staten Island. Violetta Hancock
and her husband, Tom Hancock,
Michael Coppotelli
married Mark Intoccia
’05 on October 12 in Staten Island.
Amanda works at Bamboo Salon in
Staten Island, where they live, and
Mark is working for a marketing
research firm in New York City.
Bill Jock presented a paper, “A
Cross-Cultural Look at Patients’
Perspective of Change,” at the
Society for Psychotherapy Research
annual conference in Virginia
in June. Bill started his doctoral
coursework in the clinical Ph.D.
program at the New School this fall.
Amanda Concilio
2010
spoke at the
Republican National Convention
in August regarding the Florida
educational system and the
opportunities it provided for him.
The sociology major and football
player was called “the finest special
teams player in school history.”
He is coaching at his former high
school and working for Wells Fargo,
while applying to become a New
Jersey state trooper. Salvatore Valenti
visited campus in September to
speak with the Pre-Health Society.
After finishing his bachelor’s in
microbiology, he enrolled in a Ph.D.
Frantz Placide
2011
Patrick Heffernan did
summer stock
at the Mac-Haydn Theatre in
Chatham, N.Y., and then went on
tour with Fiddler on the Roof, in the
role of Perchik. Check the show’s
schedule at www.fiddlerontour.com.
2012
is performing in the
national tour of Beauty and the
Beast. He plays an enchanted
object and a townsperson, and
is also the understudy for both
Gaston and the Beast. Go to www.
beautyandthebeastontour.com for
more information. Julian Stanford
became the first former Seahawk to
make an NFL regular season roster
since 1972 by making the final
53-man roster of the Jacksonville
Jaguars. In the Jaguars’ first season
victory, Julian registered three
tackles and was featured on the
highlight video of the game.
Brian Krinsky
Alumni Link
and Sarah Shepler
were married on May 26 in
Bedford, N.H. The two met at
freshman orientation at Wagner.
Adam is active duty in the U.S.
Army as an explosive ordinance
disposal technician, and he will
be deploying to Afghanistan in
January. Anthony DeMaria presented
a paper, “Rupture Resolution
Training and Its Effect on Patient
and Therapist Interpersonal
Process,” at the Society for
Psychotherapy Research annual
conference in Virginia in June.
Anthony is working on his
dissertation in the New School’s
clinical Ph.D. program. Francie M.
Kontominas and Christopher J. Kline ’02
M’04 were married on June 16 in
Summit, N.J. (See Knot Notes, page
39, for photos of the wedding parties.)
Adam Abderrazzaq
2008
program at New York Medical
College. He left that program to
begin medical studies at the Touro
College of Osteopathic Medicine,
where he is now in his second year.
WE BELONG AT WAGNER … AND, WE BLOG @ WAGNER!
Read about today’s student life at the new student blog, www.wagner.edu/HawkTalk.
Annual Fund gifts help make great student experiences possible.
Please give to the 2012–13 Annual Fund campaign.
Call 1-888-231-2252 • Visit www.wagner.edu/give_now • Or use the envelope enclosed in this issue.
fa l l
2012
43
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Faculty Remembrances
Professor Roy Mosher
Microbiologist was instrumental
in establishing new BS/MS
degree program
Roy Mosher , associate professor of biology and director
of the master’s degree program in microbiology, died
on June 21. He was 50. Born in Montreal, Quebec,
he grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and earned
his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in biology from
Dalhousie University in Halifax. He started teaching
biochemistry and microbiology at Wagner College
in 2002. He was instrumental in establishing Wagner’s five-year BS/MS degree program
in microbiology. Students and colleagues remember him as a humble, kind, and positive
person. He loved music and theater, and became a Mets fan during his time in New
York. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Sonja Mosher, and his
niece Holly of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is also survived by his colleagues and students at
Wagner College, who were like a family to him in the United States. An annual student
award, the Roy H. Mosher Award in Microbiology, has been established in his memory.
Head of Library Barna Csuros
Hungary native headed
then-new Horrmann Library
Barna Csuros , Wagner librarian from 1965 to 1971,
died on August 2 in Dover, New Jersey. He was 88. He
earned a double doctorate in law and political science
from Peter Pazmany University in Budapest, Hungary,
but fled the country during the Hungarian Revolution
of 1956. After receiving a master’s degree in library
science from Columbia University in 1961, he worked
at branches of the New York Public Library in the
Bronx. He played a pivotal role in building Wagner’s
library collection during the 1960s, and was named head librarian in 1967. He completed
his career at Kean College (now University), where he served for 20 years as associate
director of the Nancy Thompson Library. He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Trudi;
his brother, Csaba Csuros; his daughter, Sylvia Csuros Clark; and his former wife, Eva
Lazar Laszlo.
44
Alumni
Mr. Theodore W. Gibson ’42
Mrs. Ruth E. Kriby Schroeder ’42
Mrs. Marie Ohlson Dietrich ’43
Mrs. Joan A. Spiro Hector ’47
Mr. John L. Codomo ’49
Mrs. Josephine Gabriele De Nigris ’50
Mrs. Margrete Hoth ’50
Dr. Andrew A. Mancini ’50
Mr. Hugh McNeil Murphy ’50
Dr. Robert W. Wannemacher Jr. ’50
Mr. Charles A. Allbee ’51
Mr. Michael F. Petosa ’51
Mr. Ralph Carloni ’52
Mr. John D. Silva ’52
Mrs. Clara Niggel Richon ’53
Mr. Howard Berntsen ’54
Mr. James E. Collins ’54
Mrs. Barbara Helmke Henriksen ’54
Mr. Ronald C. Larder ’56
Mr. Stephen R. Alexander ’57
Mr. Anthony D. D’Auria ’60
Mrs. Marian B. Williams M’60
Mr. James J. Krieger ’61
Dr. David C. Blum ’62
Dr. Lloyd R. Sherman ’62
Col. Manfred A. Liebner ’64
Mr. Roger W. Rappe M’64
Mr. Jay J. Abbes ’65
Mr. William S. Steiner M’65
Mr. John O’Hara ’68
Mr. Frank Pisano M’70
Mr. F. A. Kellermann ’71
Mrs. Jane Waleski Unhjem ’74
Mrs. Dianne Anderson Holroyd ’83
Mrs. Dorothy M. Dunaway Gianelli M’88
Mr. Charles H. Lohr ’88
Faculty, Staff,
and Friends
Dr. Barna Csuro
Dr. Don S. Leeds
Dr. Roy H. Mosher
Deaths reported to Wagner College, June 7–October 9, 2012
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�fa l l
2012
Wa g n e r
Reflections
45
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
AN ARMY OF HELP
Wagner students jumped right into
relief efforts in Hurricane Sandyravaged sections of Staten Island.
On November 11, Molly Delbridge ’14,
Harborview Hall Resident Director
Loydes Vasquez, Kylie Tanabe
’14, and Kellie Griffith ’14 worked
with the Salvation Army to deliver
supplies in Midland Beach, while
the National Guard contributed
its manpower as well. Read more
about the student-led Wagner Cares
initiative and find out how you can
contribute, page 6.
P H OTO G R A P H : A N NA M U L É
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Fall 2012
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/f2ed091a437d8a48a8c68a5536467ef6.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=LsLWQNaAdLZJsMwdvNSQXeC6OFow4qiknI-m9YtnltpN2mdyRfFsPL-DjJTj2bTja2aA%7EEeHAAqqVcBhPLV0NvJOySzAZ%7E9xqN7wGPXZd-KEAGoHp6o-yX6fjb32IYDMwYhDM3J97h4KGNrRUOMGp54q7V-Wh-46vKsyVEUDdCoU0hbprx4IOMTeIeC9OP-1V9E1JWiuxaDHcpctXG06EXUuT67gt1XtS3zIgYifZwoNTepCQ0tjyHa1Q-FGxeX9uwLVvz8doN1B%7ElsJIR9TT16AQTlGJw80M7EsmErwB6XO1UHlxuW6KmDo554E4mFgcgdIDdHy0Bm%7EoWu8AKyFMw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
0202bcb695bfc2b79cc313d6bad116dc
PDF Text
Text
Nor Any
Drop
To Drink
What Bangladesh
can teach us about
a precious resource
The View: Richard Guarasci’s Mission • Raising Philly: Rich Negrin ’88 • World Premiere: Goddess Wheel
�Crowning Moment
Topping off the yearlong Main Hall restoration project,
on April 5 a crane lifted a new dome atop the south tower.
This fiberglass reconstruction minutely mimics the shape,
design, color, and texture of the original cast concrete, at
15 percent of the weight.
P H OTO G R A P H : D U ST I N F E N ST E R M AC H E R
�Contents
Wagner Magazine
Summer 2012
vol.10,no.1
departments
F e a t u r e s
2
From the President
3
From the Editor
10
20
4
From Our Readers
6
Upon the Hill
30
Sports Roundup
32
Alumni Link
16
24
36 Class Notes
44
In Memoriam
45
Reflections
‘That’s Not a View’
Family, memory, and story
intertwine to describe how
Richard Guarasci arrived at this
moment in his life, and Wagner’s.
The Good Neighbor
Philadelphia Managing
Director Rich Negrin ’88 turns
loss into a mission to make
others’ lives better.
Beaus and Eros
World premiere musical brings
unexpected groups together for
love, war, and fun.
Nor Any Drop
to Drink
Despite Bangladesh’s riches
of water resources, people are
dying for lack of clean water.
Where does the solution lie?
�From the President
Stellar graduates will make a difference
Now that it’s summer vacation
time, take a few minutes to
bask in the reflected glow of
Wagner’s newest alumni, the
class of 2012, and their legacy
of academic achievement,
leadership, and commitment to
Their
civic engagement.
achievements Twenty-nine members
of this class completed honor
are the building blocks
theses, and several received
of bright futures.
national recognition for their
scholarly research. More than 100 of them studied abroad
in 33 countries, ranging from Argentina to Thailand. While
abroad, many committed themselves to public service, such
as Eileen McPartlan and other nursing students who worked
with refugees in Haiti, and Sierra Marantz, who supported the
Pisgat Ze’ev community center in Jerusalem.
The class strongly participated in Wagner’s broad
tapestry of civic commitments across New York City
and in Staten Island, particularly with our Port Richmond
Partnership. Students like Lisa Imbriano, a Spanish major, spent
hours tutoring Mexican children, and Jennifer Ida, a very
talented anthropology major with minors in microbiology
and Spanish, who worked closely with El Centro del
Inmigrante in Port Richmond. Jennifer Claycombe worked with
Make the Road New York, in Port Richmond, setting
up friendship dinners between Mexican and AfricanAmerican families to help reduce stereotyping and build
mutual understanding.
The many academic, civic, campus, and athletic
achievements of this class are becoming the building blocks
of bright futures. Hugh Gilmore, who majored in Spanish and
minored in French, studied in Argentina and France; he will
pursue a master’s in design in Milan, Italy. Jennie Riverso, an
education student, will head to the Bank Street School in
Manhattan to complete a master’s in literacy. Jessica Verderosa
will attend Fordham University’s graduate program in
2
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
English. Her honors thesis, “Vampires as Home-Wreckers:
Gender Roles in ‘Carmilla,’ Dracula, and Coraline,” could
become the latest film rage in a few years.
Rose Tobiassen, an anthropology major and a member
of Habitat for Humanity, studied in Kenya and Peru.
Next year, Rose will be studying at Durham University
in England, pursuing a master’s in development and
anthropology. Joining her in England will be Lacey Flint, a
history and education double major, who will start her
master’s program in museum and gallery studies at the
University of Leicester. Yet more are headed to excellent
law, dental, and medical schools.
Among those entering professional careers immediately
are graduate students Maria DeSantis, Michael DiTommaso, Alexandra
Ricciardi and Vincent DeLuca with Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
Lauren Pettinato, a Spiro Scholar, exemplifies our spectacular
nursing students, who continue to meet the highest
professional expectations with an ethic of care. She will
begin her career at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center.
These young people face a time of great challenges in
our global economy, in our environment, in issues of justice
and opportunity, and in issues of war and peace. Along with
the faculty and staff of this community, I have confidence
that their commitment to learning and compassion for
others will thaw the chill of these global problems, and set
all of us on a path to a better world. They have my deepest
affection and best wishes.
richard guarasci
president
�From the Editor
Summer 2012 • Volume 10 Number 1
One man’s contribution
O
ver the past few
months, I have had the
privilege of getting to know
an extraordinary man:
Mohammad Alauddin,
professor of chemistry
at Wagner College and
champion of better health for
the poor in Bangladesh, his
native land.
For many years now,
Professor Alauddin has
practically lived on both sides
of the globe at once, teaching
here at Wagner while also
doing research to find
solutions for Bangladesh’s
massive water contamination
problem. He has funded
much of this work himself,
and provided innumerable
life-saving water filters to
needy families.
He told me that when he
was asked by the Bangladeshi
government to test arsenic
levels in water in 1993,
he had no idea about the
urgency of the problem.
A few years later, he started
reading in the international
press about the high levels
of arsenic in the drinking
water. Alarmed, he convened
a conference on the issue
in 1999 at
Wagner, and
he started his
own research
program.
In recent
years, he
added another
focus area — indoor air
pollution, which has made
pneumonia the No. 1 killer
of Bangladeshi children. He
helped develop a project
that uses readily available
materials and methods to
produce more efficient cook
stoves with a ventilation
system. Bangladeshi women
are now making these stoves
for their own communities.
“I started visiting
Bangladesh because of the
arsenic issue, and slowly and
slowly, I felt like I’m thrust
into it now, I have to work
on it,” Alauddin says. “I just
worked on one philosophy:
That is, Bangladesh is a huge
population, and I have seen
so many people with arsenic
skin lesions, you
cannot believe it. …
I saw all this suffering
of these people.
“So every time
I come back, I just
think to myself I
cannot solve the
problem for Bangladesh. No
organization can solve the
problem for Bangladesh. But,
I can at least take care of one
family. Can I take care of one
family? Five families? Ten
families? That I can do. Then
at least I can say, that was my
contribution.”
Editorial
Laura Barlament
e d i to r
Erika Reinhart
g r a p h i c
d e s i g n e r
w r i t e r s
Laura Barlament
John Beisser
Dan Geringer
Lee Manchester
Terry Baker Mulligan ’66
p h oto g r a p h e r s
Alejandro A. Alvarez
Vinnie Amessé
Pete Byron
Dustin Fenstermacher
Bob Handelman
Habibul Haque/Drik
Anna Mulé
Karen O’Donnell
Nick Romanenko
p r o d u c t i o n
m a n ag e r
Donna Sinagra
Wagner Magazine
Advisory Board
Laura Barlament
Lisa DeRespino Bennett ’85
Susan Bernardo
Jack Irving ’69
Scott Lewers ’97
Lorraine McNeill-Popper ’78
Brian Morris ’65
Hank Murphy ’63 M’69
Andy Needle
Nick Richardson
editor,
wagner magazine
wagner magazine: the link
for alumni and friends is published
On the Cover
Nor Any
Drop
To Drink
What Bangladesh
can teach us about
a precious resource
twice a year by wagner’s office of
communications and marketing.
A man plants rice in a field in Bangladesh. Even agricultural products
are contaminated because of the naturally occurring arsenic in the
groundwater, used for drinking and irrigation.
Wagner Magazine
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
718-390-3147
email: laura.barlament@wagner.edu
Photograph: Habibul haque/Drik
The View: Richard Guarasci’s Mission • Raising Philly: Rich Negrin ’88 • World Premiere: Goddess Wheel
s u m m e r
2012
3
w w w . w a g n e r. e d u
�From Our Readers
93
’48 H’
er Fagin an Answer
Mintz
for
Claire Take ‘No’
’t
Doesn
rrmann
Built
e Ho
st: Th
y at 50
Librar
chetti
cent Fis
er: Vin
fight
• Germ
to La
Editor’s Note: In the fall 2011
issue, we ran two letters by alumni
honoring the late Professor Edythe
Kershaw Larson; after that, we
received two more letters from
alumni inspired by professors who
have lately passed away.
The Mild Bunch
We read of Murvel Annan’s
passing in the most recent
Wagner Magazine and decided
to use the opportunity to
make note of four outstanding
faculty members who had
major impact on our lives and
the lives of many others in
and outside of the classroom.
The four are Dr. Annan;
his wife, Helen; and Dr. John
and Dr. Jane Bacher. We met
them sometime between 1962
and 1966.
Murvel Annan
4
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
0
’62 H’1
I thank you now
for that one clear
moment of insight
and encouragement.
The Wagner we knew
during that time was not a
hotbed of civil unrest over race
relations or the war in Vietnam,
as were other campuses in
the country. It was an island
unto itself with a relatively
conservative and ethnically
homogeneous student body
and faculty.
Jane Bacher
Following a week of speakers
on campus drawn from the
leadership of various national
civil rights organizations, a
small group of students and
these four faculty members
began to meet to discuss how
they might positively impact
campus life and the greater
community in relation to racial
equality. Don’t get me wrong,
we were a pretty mild bunch
compared to contemporaries
“
“
less
Fear
four people had an impact
on our lives and those of the
others they touched. When
we see the ethnic diversity
and community connection
that exists at today’s Wagner,
we know that the Bachers and
Annans would be proud. We are.
at places like Berkeley and
Columbia. We called ourselves
the Wagner College Forum for
Individual Freedom, not a very
radical name.
We did a lot of talking, as
the name would imply, but
also participated in a tutoring
program for promising students
in Harlem to help them get into
college and tried to influence
college administration to be
more aggressive in recruiting
minority students.
It was the Bachers and
Annans to whom we went
for help in understanding the
social issues around us and for
solace when President Kennedy
was assassinated. They treated
us as adults but shared the
insights of much more mature
and experienced people. These
were fine people, who lived
their beliefs.
We are not sure what
impact those modest efforts
had on the community or
the campus. We are sure that
our association with these
David G. Pockell ’66 &
Naomi Klc Pockell ’66
Lafayette, California
Magical Words
I am an emeritus professor
from Lehigh University; I
retired after teaching in the
English department for 29
years. I came to Wagner as a
non-traditional student circa
1960; after attending New
Dorp High School in Staten
Island, I worked in downtown
New York City for various
firms in clerical jobs. I had
also been in the Army for two
years and in a Roman Catholic
seminary for one year; and, for
19 or 20 months, I bummed
around Greenwich Village
trying to write fiction and
poetry and taking a course or
two at the New School.
When I met the girl I
would later marry, she urged
me to go to college. So I took
a night course in economics at
Wagner, dreamily planning to
major in economics because
of my paltry experience on
Wall Street. I disliked it as
much as I had in high school.
My next course was a basic
introduction to literature,
taught by a young, lanky
instructor named Brandkamp.
� Midway
through
the
semester, I had to write a paper
for him on Ernest Hemingway.
A few nights after turning it in,
he told me that he wanted to
talk to me after class; my heart
sank; what had I done wrong?
I had thought the paper was
pretty good, but now I worried.
What happened after class
is as clear to me today as it
was that night: “What are you
doing in this class?” he asked.
I replied that I thought I was
doing fairly well. His response
was abrupt and emphatic: “You
should be up here teaching this
stuff,” he said pointedly. They
were magical words, for I had
always loved literature but
never knew I could translate
that into a way of living. And
so the next day, I dismissed
courses in economics from
my mind, declared a major in
English and, after marrying the
young woman in 1961, became
a full-time Wagner College
student.
I graduated in two and a half
years; won a National Defense
Education
Act
(NDEA)
Fellowship to Ohio University,
where I received my M.A. and
Ph.D.; then returned east to
teach for 29 years at Lehigh
University.
Now I have learned that
Herbert Brandkamp died in
2007, and it is too late to thank
him for turning my life around,
for giving me the direction I
needed to pursue a profession
that I have loved for all these
years. But I thank you now,
young Professor Brandkamp,
for that one clear moment of
insight and encouragement.
STUDENT WORK PUBLISHED
In the summer 2010 issue of Wagner Magazine, I
presented a feature about a Wagner urban studies
class in which the students interviewed recent
immigrants in Port Richmond, Staten Island, and
wrote their stories.
Claire Regan ’80, adjunct professor of journalism
and associate managing editor of the Staten Island
Advance, coached the class in interviewing and
writing. This spring, the Advance published the
students’ immigrant profiles in a series entitled,
“Putting a Face on Immigration: Six Profiles of
Latinos in Port Richmond Shed Light and Defy
Stereotypes.”
Robert Harson ’63
Emmaus, Pennsylvania
You can find a link to this fascinating series at
www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
— Laura Barlament, Editor
Herbert Brandkamp
We’d Love to Hear from You
read-
telephone number. The editor reserves
Write to: Laura Barlament, Editor
ers. Letters should refer to material
the right to determine the suitability of
Office of Communications, Wagner College
published in the magazine and include
letters for publication and to edit them
1 Campus Road, Staten Island, NY 10301
the writer’s full name, address, and
for accuracy and length.
email: laura.barlament@wagner.edu
We
welcome
letters
from
s u m m e r
2012
5
�An Offering of Hope
Elie Wiesel challenges the class of 2012 to stand against hatred and despair
E
lie Wiesel, a man who has the moral authority to rebuke U.S. presidents and the United
Nations General Assembly, addressed the 600 Wagner graduates with powerful words
of hope and challenge on May 18.
Recipient of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, the 83-year-old Wiesel spoke for nine spellbinding
minutes at commencement after receiving an honorary doctorate in humane letters.
Also honored were Louise Repage Kaufman ’75 M’78, outgoing chair of the Wagner College
Board of Trustees; and Howard Braren ’50, board member, Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, and
co-founder of the Wagner Heritage Society.
In his address, Wiesel mischievously mentioned his most famous book, his Holocaust memoir
Night: “When I came, some of you stopped me and said, ‘I read your book,’ in singular. The naïf in
me would have asked, ‘Which one?’ But I am generous, and I didn’t.”
He admitted that Night is “special … in [his] life,” because without it, he would not have written
any of his others, which number more than 50.
His main purpose, echoed in his many other speeches around the world, is to challenge his
audience with the question of what the world has learned since the Holocaust. Despite the bleak
evidence of continuing racism, war, anti-Semitism, and extreme poverty, he encouraged the students
to take a stand against hatred and despair.
“The thing not to forget is hope,” he
concluded. “Remember that hope is not a
gift given from God to us; hope is a gift, an
offering, that only we human beings can give
to one another.”
You can find a video of his speech at
www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
International Reach
For the first time this year, Wagner broadcast commencement live on the Internet.
Visitors from 29 countries tuned in; the top five in terms of numbers of visitors were:
1. United States
6
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
2. Ecuador
3. Russia
4. Pakistan
5. Egypt
Remembering R. J.
Nursing student’s tragic death leads
to memorial fund endowment
T he driver who hit and killed
Wagner nursing student Ronald
“R.J.” Tillman while he was bicycling
home from campus on February
12 is still at large. In the meantime,
Tillman’s family and friends,
plus alumni who raised money
decades ago in memory of another
tragically slain Wagner nursing
student, are coming together to
create something good out of their
heartbreak and sorrow.
Tillman was struck on Howard
Avenue while heading toward
Clove Road at about 9 p.m. on
that Sunday evening. He had
been studying in the library with
his fellow students in Wagner’s
accelerated bachelor’s degree
program in nursing.
The 29-year-old from Syracuse,
New York, had graduated from
Brooklyn College with a degree in
film production and worked in that
field, but he found it was neither
as steady nor as satisfying as he
expected, says his mother, Nancy
P H OTO G R A P H , L E F T: N I C K RO M A N E N KO
�Tillman. Influenced by a former
roommate who was a nurse, he
came to Wagner to complete
a second bachelor’s degree in
nursing.
“He loved it,” says Nancy
Tillman. “I can’t tell you the
phone calls we had where he
told me how happy he was. He
said, ‘Finally I found something
I love. It’s something I know I
want to do.’”
His fellow students and
professors testified to his gifts
as a nurse and his commitment
to patient care. They raised
$14,000 toward a memorial
fund for R. J. Tillman at Wagner
College. The money will be used
for the R. J. Tillman Award,
given annually to seconddegree nursing students who
exhibit deep caring, sensitivity,
and concern for classmates and
patients. The first award will be
made in December.
In combination with another
memorial fund for a Wagner
nursing student, the Tillman
Fund will reach the endowment
level, allowing these annual
awards to be given in perpetuity.
That fund memorialized
Helen Surgan ’76, who was
murdered on campus on
November 7, 1974. In 1975, Pete
Knudsen ’75, Bill Rehm ’76, and
Howard Graeffe ’75 organized
a walkathon in which hundreds
of Wagner students participated,
raising $10,000 in Surgan’s
memory.
Knudsen, who is both a trustee
of the Helen Surgan fund and a
member of the Wagner College
Board of Trustees, endorses the
addition of the Surgan fund to
the Tillman fund. “I think it’s
going to be more effective for
the College and honor Helen’s
memory,” he says, noting that
only one scholarship was given
from the Surgan fund.
Knudsen hopes that now more
donors will designate their gifts to
the Surgan or Tillman funds. “This
is a perpetual fund,” Knudsen
says. “I think this is a really good
target for those who appreciate
the history and excellence of our
nursing program.”
told them that Intro to Acting
was my favorite class, and they
thought that was fantastic,”
says Seling, a Spanish major
and a football player. Firms
are looking for well-rounded,
team-oriented workers.
2. �“Don’t fret about not going to
a top-tier school,” but make
sure you graduate at the top
of your class.
3. �Secure summer apprenticeships
and make yourself
indispensable.
• �Kellie Griffith ’14, interning
for Wagner admissions
and working for the Port
Richmond Partnership.
• �Trey Nicosia ’15, playing
in the Midwest Collegiate
Baseball League for the
Rockford Foresters.
• �Lynn Tay ’15, a biology major
with minors in chemistry and
English, spending seven weeks
in Singapore.
Find Hawk Talk at www.wagner.edu.
Legal Appeal
Top executives share advice for
aspiring attorneys
I n an environment where
some law schools have slashed
their enrollment, and some
law graduates have sued their
alma maters for allegedly
misrepresenting
their
job
prospects, what’s a liberal arts
graduate talented in argument
and skilled in analysis to do?
Aspiring attorneys at Wagner
got some solid advice this spring
from executives of prominent
law firm Buchanan Ingersoll &
Rooney: Laurie Lenigan, director
of legal recruiting, and Richard
Morgan, managing director (and
parent of Ricky Morgan ’12).
The panel’s organizer, Tyler
Seling ’12, summarized Lenigan
and Morgan’s key tips:
1. �Be diverse in your coursework
and extracurricular activities. “I
Hawks Talk
Follow these summer adventures
on the new Wagner student blog
T he Hawk Talk blog gives
Wagner students a voice on
the College’s website. Summer
reporters include:
• �Erik Arntzen ’13, taking art
and business courses at the
Lorenzo de Medici Institute
in Florence, Italy.
• �Vanessa Ayllon ’14, a double
major in nursing and Spanish,
improving her Spanish in
Cuzco, Peru.
• �Chris DeFilippi ’14, planning
Wagner Orientation.
• �Anthropology professor
Celeste Gagnon, three
students, and one alumna
are doing archaeology,
ethnography, and community
service in Huanchaco, Peru.
In Memoriam
Wagner mourns after
microbiology professor’s
unexpected passing
We learned on June 21 that
Roy Mosher, associate professor
and director of the master’s
program in microbiology, passed
away at his home in Staten
Island. He was an inspiration to
his students and a driving force
behind the success of Wagner’s
microbiology program (see “The
Next Generation: Microbiology
Is Still Serious Fun for Wagner
Students,” fall 2011). The next
issue of Wagner Magazine will
include a full memorial to this
remarkable professor.
s u m m e r
2012
7
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
RENEW YOUR PURPOSE AT WORK
Tips for successful internships
Natrina Roper, intern program associate for the William J. Clinton Foundation, talked about how to be a
great intern and how an organization benefits from interns, at the second annual Wagner Internship Initiative
on April 16, held at Scholastic Inc. in Manhattan.
• A great intern is “low maintenance” and willing to do any task with pleasure.
• A great intern takes advantage of all opportunities to speak with staff and learn more.
• A great intern has to be kicked out of the office at the end of the day.
• A great intern brings freshness, youth, and energy to the organization.
“� Because they come in so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, it reminds us as staff members
why we are there and why the work we do is important,” Roper concluded.
WINDOW
ON WAGNER:
Stoughton Cottage
After the College settled into its new
Stoughton’s experience at
home on Grymes Hill in 1918, the first
Wagner made him a firm believer in
buildings added to the campus were two
liberal arts colleges. In his inaugural
cottages for faculty housing. Constructed
address he declared, “While we
around 1922, one was torn down in 1960
do not need more universities, we
to make way for the Horrmann Library;
do need more small liberal arts
but the other still stands, and today
colleges, where personality remains
sacred, where the student is always an individual, where
individuality is developed and emphasized.”
The cottages were designed in the popular Craftsman
style, similar to the President’s House (called Kairos House
today), built in 1917–18 in advance of the College’s move,
stewardship office of the United Lutheran Church in
as well as the Stapleton home of early College leader Pastor
America, later became president of Wittenberg University in
Frederic Sutter, class of 1894.
Springfield, Ohio. He died on August 31, 1975.
— Lee Manchester
The surviving faculty cottage was built for Professor
Stoughton, who left Wagner in 1945 to serve in the
Clarence C. Stoughton, a high school history teacher
and devoted churchman who came to Wagner Memorial
Lutheran College from suburban Rochester in 1919. He
served as the principal of our high school program from
1923 to 1927 before joining a real estate firm on Staten
Island for several years. He returned to the College in 1932
as registrar, andWindow
the following year was named acting dean.
In 1935, Stoughton
was elected president of Wagner
On Wagner
College, the first layman named to that position. He was
beloved by the student body, who dedicated the first Kallista
of his presidency “to ‘Prof’ Stoughton ... as a testimony of our
appreciation.”
WA G N E R
President Clarence
C. Stoughton
contains the public safety and human resources offices.
8
Contact the Center for Career
Development at 718-390-3181
for more information about
Wagner Interns.
M A G A Z I N E
Stoughton Cottage, ca. 1922
�ILC 8: Global Justice and Leadership
What Confucius
Says Today
Wagner’s Shaohua Hu, associate
professor of government and
politics, answers the question of
Confucius’s relevance to modern
China in “Confucianism and
Contemporary Chinese Politics.”
This spring, Wagner students planted a living
symbol on campus.
The students were taking an Intermediate
Learning Community (ILC), part of the Wagner
Plan curriculum for students in their sophomore
and junior years, which integrated a history course
about leadership in twentieth-century conflicts
and a government course about civil liberties and
human rights.
This ILC included a special project, the Global
Leadership Garden, inspired by renowned South
African leader Nelson Mandela, who cultivated a
garden during his long imprisonment. “I saw the
garden as a metaphor for certain aspects of my life,”
Mandela said. “A leader must also tend his garden.
He too plants seeds, and then watches, cultivates,
and harvests the result.”
The garden became a means of outreach to
seventh-grade students from Port Richmond, Staten
Island, who helped research quotes from leaders
worldwide. Located between Parker and Foundation
halls, the Global Leadership Garden includes plants
from five continents, along with plaques displaying
inspiring words from sources ranging from Vince
Lombardi to Pericles to Benazir Bhutto.
“This experience will be one that I will never
forget,” wrote Chanez Robinson ’13 in an essay
reflecting on the project. “I gave something back
to Wagner College, and it is and will become
something beautiful and great.”
Originally published in 2007 in the
journal Politics & Policy , the article
was rereleased in April 2012, for the
journal’s 40th anniversary issue,
as one of the top 10 articles of the
past decade.
“As China has become more
powerful, prosperous, and selfreliant,” Hu writes, “many Chinese
take comfort from and pride in
Confucianism as an expression
of Chinese values, traditions,
and culture.” On the other hand,
Flying High
Recapping an amazing 2011–12 season of men’s basketball, by the numbers
he concludes, “in today’s China,
25-6 win-loss record: The best. Ever.
59-54 victory over #15 Pitt: First Seahawk defeat of a nationally ranked
influential than Confucianism.”
team since 1978–79.
15 NEC wins: Matching the school record.
12 true road wins: Leading the nation during the regular season.
20 wins by February 8: Earliest an NEC team ever hit this mark.
11th nationally: 80.6 winning percentage at season’s end.
1.3 million: YouTube views of Kenny Ortiz’s game-winning shot against Santa Clara in the Cable
Car Championship.
P H OTO G R A P H : RO B E RT K U P F E R B E RG
capitalism and communism are more
Find a link to the article at
www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
�‘THAT’S NOT A VIEW
THAT’S A
10
MISSION
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
’
P H OTO G R A P H : A N NA M U L É
�WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
The East River carries deep-seated
memories and motivations for
President Richard Guarasci.
THIS IS A YEAR of many anniversaries for Richard Guarasci. • It has been 10 years
since the trustees elected him president of Wagner College, and 15 years since he was
named provost.
• It has also been a full century since the arrival in America of the first
Guarasci, Richard’s grandfather, Louis.
• Family, memory, and story intertwine to describe
how Richard Guarasci arrived at this moment in his life, and ours. By Lee Manchester
s u m m e r
2012
11
�W
hen Richard Guarasci
was growing up in
Flatbush, Brooklyn,
his father usually got
home from work well
after the children’s dinner time. Richard’s
mother let the boy sit with his dad while
she served his meal in their small,
second-floor kitchen.
After he finished eating, Frank Guarasci,
a production manager in a ladies garment
factory, “loved to tell me stories, almost
parables, from his childhood,” Richard
recalls. “One story he told me many times
involved his swimming with friends near
their house by the Brooklyn Bridge, in the
oil-slicked waters of the East River.”
Although his parents, Louis and
Brigida, had repeatedly told him to stay
out of the river, thick with New York City’s
commercial traffic, 14-year-old Frank came
home one day, black with East River oil.
Frank’s father was a gentle man, but Brigida
ordered her husband to “teach the boy a
lesson” so that he would stay out of the
dangerous waters for good. Father and son
went into the bedroom — there was only
one — and closed the door.
Standing in front of Frank, belt in hand,
Louis broke down and cried.
Louis had survived the sulfur mines
of Sicily as a boy and worked seven hard
years in the quarries of Tunisia. He had
celebrated his 25th birthday, alone, aboard
the S.S. La Provence en route from Le
Havre to New York, seeking a better life
for himself. Entering the harbor, his ship
had crossed the mouth of the very river
in which his son now tempted fate on a
daily basis.
How ironic would it be for this river to
rise up and swallow his boy, after all that?
THREE GENERATIONS
Top left: The first generation of
Guarascis in New York, Louis and
Brigida, circa 1915.
Top right: Frank and Joan Guarasci’s
1938 wedding photo.
Bottom left: Carin Tomasuolo and
Richard Guarasci in 1964, when
Carin was a senior in high school
and Richard was a Fordham
freshman.
Bottom right: Richard and Carin
Guarasci today in Brooklyn, where
both of their families have their
American roots.
12
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H S , B OT TO M R I G H T: A N NA M U L É ; OT H E R S C O U RT E S Y R I C H A R D & C A R I N G UA R A S C I
� “My father Frank never swam in the
East River after that,” Richard Guarasci
says. “That encounter seemed to move him
beyond anything else that passed between
him and his dad, before or since.”
And to this day, that story — and that
river — continue to have deep significance
for Guarasci. Their symbolic power
eventually drew him to Wagner College,
and it has continued to inform his vision
of leadership.
RICHARD GUARASCI’S GRANDFATHER
was born Luigi Guarasci in 1887 in Enna,
then known as Castrogiovanni, a small
city in the middle of Sicily. As a boy, Luigi
worked in slave-like conditions in Sicily’s
sulfur mines. At the age of 13, he fled
across the Mediterranean to the French
protectorate of Tunisia, working for seven
years in the quarries of Bizerte before
embarking upon the electrician’s trade in
Tunis. Finally, in late 1911, Luigi — now
using the French version of his name, Louis
— started preparing for his next great leap:
the journey to America. His ship docked
at Ellis Island just over a century ago, on
March 10, 1912.
The next year, Brigida Viggiani
emigrated from Enna to New York, and
she and Louis were married. Their first
child, Frank, was born a year later — and
thus began the Guarascis’ American family.
Between 1917 and 1932, Louis and Brigida
had three more children, all girls.
“My grandfather Louis spoke five
languages,” Richard Guarasci says. “Though
unschooled, he had an incredible thirst for
knowledge. He bought the Encyclopedia
Britannica on an installment plan from a
traveling salesman. He believed that if he
could read the encyclopedia from beginning
to end, he would be a fully educated human
being — so that’s what he did.”
The Depression was hard on the
Guarascis, forcing them to pull together.
Though Louis worked as a mechanic on the
Brooklyn trolley line, his pay was meager.
Son Frank had to quit school before he
could graduate, finding a job in the garment
trade; a few years later, his sister Angela
followed him, securing work in a dress shop.
In 1939, Louis died unexpectedly — just a
year after Frank married Joan Minardi.
Frank and Joan had to combine finances
with Joan’s parents to buy the house in
Flatbush where they raised their children,
Patricia and Richard. That house on
Westminster Road was packed with family,
from the grandparents on the ground floor
to two of Joan’s younger sisters in the attic.
It was also a place that started to shape
Richard’s educational ideals. “Every Sunday,
we had a huge family dinner,” he says.
“Like any big family, we had a tremendous
diversity of personalities, and Sunday meals
at that table felt a little like Grand Central
Station — there was always a lot being said,
with conflict, laughter, jealousies, affinities
going on simultaneously.
“Without even realizing it, you learn
a lot of skills in that environment: how to
deal with different personalities, when to
speak and when to be silent, when to be
funny and when to be serious, who to listen
to and who to ignore.
“I’ve always used that as a metaphor for
education. The institution is like the table;
it’s the sacred place — and learning is the
food. And out of the cacophony of voices
around that table, you have to make a
concert.”
BUT FOR YOUNG RICHARD, formal
schooling did not always feel like a banquet.
His first school was St. Rose of Lima, 10
blocks away from home. It was there that he
first met Carin Marie Tomasuolo, a girl a
‘Now it was on me,
my father said,
to live up to
Louis’s promise
of what America
would mean for
the Guarascis.’
year behind him. Their romance blossomed
after they entered high school — just as
Guarasci’s education was stalling out. He
was attending Brooklyn Preparatory School,
a Jesuit school with a strong academic
reputation.
“I loved learning — but I hated school,”
Guarasci recalls. “I lasted there about two
and a half years.
“One day my father said, ‘We’re taking
a trip upstate to look at schools.’ We got to
Cardinal Farley Military Academy, right
outside of Rhinebeck — and he dropped
me off.” But not without a lecture.
“‘You’re flunking out of school,’ he said.
‘You’re out of control, you’re 16 years old,
and your life is going nowhere.’
“He explained that what little money he
had was invested in me because I was the
last son with the Guarasci name. He told
me, in vivid detail, what his father Louis’s
struggles had been like, going from Sicily
to Tunisia to America to carve out a life
for himself. Louis had wanted my father to
become a doctor, but when Louis died, my
father was left with the responsibility of
taking care of the family.
“So now it was on me, my father said, to
live up to Louis’s promise of what America
would mean for the Guarascis.
“I’m telling you, I changed my
personality on the spot. That gave me, as
s u m m e r
2012
13
�a youngster, a sense of history and destiny
and proportion and responsibility. I began
to take school seriously.”
In 1963, Guarasci enrolled in the
business school at Fordham University,
majoring in economics and minoring in
philosophy. It was there that he really fell in
love with learning.
“I was living at home and going to
school in the Bronx,” he remembers. “I was
on the subway an hour and 45 minutes each
way, so I had a lot of time to read and study.
I learned how to fold the newspaper so I
could hold it with one hand while hanging
onto a strap with the other. I absorbed
everything I could about world events and
culture, and I just took off from there.”
Guarasci enrolled in Indiana University
for graduate study in economics in 1967.
He had continued dating Carin Tomasuolo
throughout his college years; on June 9,
1968, the day after she received her degree
in education from Fordham, they married
at St. Rose of Lima Church, right next
door to the elementary school where they
had met.
Halfway through his second year at
Indiana, Guarasci kept thinking about
his commencement speaker at Fordham,
Robert F. Kennedy, who had been
terrifically inspiring — and he realized that
he wasn’t finding any inspiration at all in the
study of economics.
As one of his professors put it, “We
don’t do policy here, we just do numbers.
It’s up to the politicians to make policy.”
“I didn’t want to just do math,”
Guarasci says.
He only needed nine more hours for
his master’s degree. He could either do
a master’s thesis, or he could take three
electives outside the field of economics.
“I’m going to take these nine credits in
political science, and I’m probably going
to terminate with the master’s,” he recalls
14
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
thinking. “I’ll go back to New York, get a
job at the Fed, and do something interesting
with my life.”
The chair of Indiana’s political science
department, Elinor Ostrom, helped him
pick his electives, including a course
in political methodology taught by her
husband, Vincent Ostrom.
“I ended up acing the course and
winning a full fellowship for the Ph.D. in
political science,” Guarasci recalls.
Much later, in 2009, Elinor Ostrom
became the first woman — and the first
political scientist — to win the Nobel Prize
in Economics.
One faculty member
pointed toward the window
and said,
“All we have
is that damned view.”
“I happened to be in Oslo that summer,
speaking at a conference sponsored by the
Council of Europe on civic engagement and
democracy’s future,” Guarasci adds, “and who
should be on the plane with me on the way
back but Elinor Ostrom. I got a chance to tell
her that I wouldn’t be here today had she not
walked me through registration that semester.
“Serendipity is a huge part of life.”
A YEAR AFTER Guarasci completed
the coursework for his Ph.D., in 1972, he
was asked to interview for a position at St.
Lawrence University, a highly respected
liberal arts college in Canton, New York.
The political science department had an
opening; they had called the Ostroms for
recommendations, and Guarasci’s name had
come up.
“I thought upstate New York was just
slightly north of Westchester,” he recalls. A
long, long trip of multiple short, connecting
flights demonstrated to him just how
remote Canton was, less than 20 miles from
the Canadian border.
The Guarascis moved to Canton later
that summer, ready to put down roots. It
was a great place to start a family — both
of their children, Bridget and Patrick, were
born there — and SLU is where Guarasci
put down the roots of his career, too. With
a group of about 12 faculty innovators
determined to bust up what was perceived
as a “country club culture” at St. Lawrence,
Guarasci led in the development of the
university’s now famous First-Year Program
in 1987.
Five years later, Guarasci was a
full professor and associate dean at St.
Lawrence, and a reporter was writing a
feature article for the Chronicle of Higher
Education about the First-Year Program.
“At that point, I figured I could spend
another 20 years at St. Lawrence to go
another inch, or I could look elsewhere for
new challenges,” he recalls.
He was “being wooed” by Hobart and
William Smith Colleges, in New York’s
Finger Lakes region, to become the dean
of Hobart College. The president, Richard
Hersh, was known for his “entrepreneurial,
very aggressive management style,” says
Guarasci. “He’s like the Bobby Knight of
college presidents.”
At first, Hersh’s argumentative approach
during the interview process put Guarasci
off — badly.
“But after a few days, I realized that he
was exactly the kind of guy I wanted to
work for,” Guarasci says. “So, he liked to
argue; I liked to argue.
“I took the job.”
FIVE YEARS LATER, Guarasci says,
he was ready for his next step. Having
�published his first book, served on national
higher education councils, and been
mentored by Dick Hersh, “I was ready to
run a college. I had the skill, the ability, the
experience, the temperament, the love of
learning, the appreciation for the dignity of
the faculty, the admiration of students —
and I was battle tough, so I knew nothing
was going to knock me off my pins in
terms of criticism.” He started looking for a
position as provost.
“I got a lot of calls from different
places,” Guarasci says. “One of them was
from Wagner College. Quite frankly, I
didn’t know where Wagner was and whether
it was public or private.”
Despite his initial resistance, he was
eventually persuaded to take a look. After
all, his mother still lived in Brooklyn at the
old family home, so the trip would offer a
chance to spend some time with her as well.
“I got to campus, and I have to tell you
it was a place with a lot of challenges,” he
recalls. “But when we were driving up to
the gate, and I saw that view of New York
Harbor — what immediately came to mind
was my dad, who used to swim in those
waters. It was like an instant connection to
my heritage; it was such an identity thing for
me, it just stopped me in my tracks.”
The location struck him, not only on
a deeply personal level but also for the
potential it offered to a small liberal arts
college — but Guarasci had never heard of
the school, and that troubled him.
“I came back to Carin a day later and
said, ‘You know, I’ve got to think about this
one,’” he remembers.
Carin was not encouraging, nor was
Dick Hersh — yet something about
Wagner intrigued Guarasci.
A few weeks later, he scheduled a
second visit.
“It was a crisp January day in 1997,”
he remembers of his next visit to Grymes
P H OTO G R A P H : A N NA M U L É
PAST AND PRESENT
President Guarasci’s office overlooks New
York Harbor. The Rev. Frederic Sutter (bust
seen in foreground) brought the fledgling
college to this inspiring location in 1918.
Hill, this time to meet with the search
committee. “You could see all the way to
the Twin Towers.”
Guarasci asked the committee members
why he would want to send his children to
Wagner College.
“Highly dedicated faculty,” one said.
“Small classes,” said another.
“Personal attention to students.”
According to Guarasci, “They all boiled
down to, ‘Nurture, nurture, nurture.’
“So I ticked off the names of eight of
Wagner’s competitors, and I said, ‘All of
those schools say exactly the same thing.
What do you have that distinguishes you
from them?’”
One faculty member pointed glumly
toward the window looking out upon
the harbor and said, “All we have is that
damned view.”
For Guarasci, something clicked.
“I looked at him and replied, ‘That’s not
a view — that’s a mission,’” Guarasci recalls.
“On that waterway is written the
promise and the pitfalls of the American
democratic experiment,” Guarasci told
them. “You are in New York City, and those
other eight institutions aren’t.”
Pointing toward Manhattan, he continued,
“If you can find a way to make that other
borough over there an intimate part of the
way Wagner students learn and Wagner
professors teach, you will have something
those other eight institutions can never have.”
“The Wagner Plan was born that
day,” Guarasci says, referring to the
curriculum overhaul he spearheaded the
following year as the College’s new provost.
The Wagner Plan connects interdisciplinary
learning communities with service-learning
projects in the community, linking college
education to Wagner’s special place at
the crossroads of the world — a place
laden with generations of meaning for
Richard Guarasci, now celebrating 15
years at Wagner and 10 years as
Wagner College’s president.
•
Don’t Miss These Web Extras
VIDEO: A day in the life of Richard Guarasci MORE STORIES: Including how Richard and Carin fell in love
www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
s u m m e r
2012
15
�STREETWISE Rich Negrin meets with
community members Keith Jackson,
Richard Elliott, and Vincent Kennedy
in North Philadelphia, where the
PhillyRising program began.
The Good Neighbor
Philadelphia’s managing director Rich Negrin ’88 turns loss of dad, daughter
into mission to make others’ lives better
By Dan Geringer
When he was 13, Rich Negrin saw his Cuban-activist father gunned down by anti-Castro
terrorists. He held him as he died, kneeling in the street covered with his father’s blood. After
he became a father himself, Negrin watched his 5-year-old daughter die in 2006 after a
lifelong battle with an incurable neuromuscular disease that devastated her ability to breathe.
• Every day, the memory of his father and his daughter inspires Philadelphia’s powerful
managing director to reach out to its least powerful residents, and try to help.
16
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H : A L E JA N D RO A . A LVA R E Z
�S
ince cleaning up the patronage-infested Board of
Revision of Taxes and being named managing director
in 2010, Negrin has trained 300 community leaders
to access city services directly through the 3-1-1
nonemergency system, taken PhillyRising neighborhood rejuvenation
from a pilot program to a citywide movement, and trained 1,000 city
employees in customer-service delivery.
And after a week of 16-hour days, Negrin, 45, spends his
weekends on the city’s most troubled streets, clearing trash from
vacant lots in Swampoodle and alleys in Point Breeze, painting with
both hands in Hartranft.
“The roller’s for the walls; the brush is for the nooks and
crannies,” he says casually, as if every managing director is a twofisted painter.
Slain in front of him
Negrin — who spent years as a lawyer for the District Attorney’s
Office, Morgan Lewis, and Aramark before becoming the mayor’s
right-hand man — has the mind of a mega-manager and the heart
of a block captain.
He gets that heart from his father, Eulalio Jose Negrin, who met
with Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1978 to help negotiate the
release of 3,000 political prisoners. The next year — on Thanksgiving
Day 1979 — Negrin’s dad was gunned down by anti-Castro terrorists
from the Omega 7 group in Union City, New Jersey, while getting into
his car to drive son Rich, then 13, to a Pop Warner football game.
“My parents divorced when I was 5, so this was the first time my
father was going to see me play football,” Negrin said. “He never
made it into the car.”
One of the few details Negrin remembers clearly about that day
is his father lying in the street, mortally wounded. “He had a look
of shock and horror on his face, but when he saw that I was alive, I
could tell he was relieved,” Negrin said.
“I kneeled down and held him. I tried to get the
blood to stop. It was pouring out of his mouth. I
was covered in blood. That’s what I remember
most. The blood.”
Both of Negrin’s parents were among
the thousands who fled communist Cuba
and came to America in the 1960s. “My
dad came from a place where people weren’t
allowed to say certain things, and if you did,
you disappeared,” Negrin said. “So he loved
and understood how special it is to live here.”
P H OTO G R A P H S : C O U RT E S Y O F R I C H N E G R I N
PASSING THE TORCH Negrin lost his father, Cuban activist Eulalio
Jose Negrin, at age 13; the elder Negrin, who helped to gain release
for Castro’s political prisoners, was gunned down by terrorists.
ABBY’S ARMY Negrin lost the battle to save his daughter Abigail’s life,
but her memory inspires him to help others in need. “It’s hard for folks
to fathom the depth of the anguish when you lose a child,” he says.
Negrin grew up in a tough North Jersey neighborhood
sandwiched between the Port Newark-Elizabeth marine terminals,
an oil refinery and a junkyard.
“I hung out with black kids, Latino kids, and a tough Polish kid
named Stanley who lived behind my house,” Negrin said. “We’d wake
up, eat sugar cereal, then go out all day and play football. We heard
about gangs, about races fighting each other — something I didn’t
want any part of.”
s u m m e r
2012
17
�BORN LEADER Negrin celebrates (left) as the Seahawk team he co-captained became the NCAA Division III National Champions in 1987.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (speaking to Negrin in the right photograph) appointed him the city’s managing director after he successfully
reformed the Board of Revision of Taxes.
Helping those in need
in Elizabeth, New Jersey, nurtured his deeply spiritual side, held
McGuire’s hand while he and his wife prayed together. A few hours
Negrin said that witnessing his father’s murder — and testifying at
after he left, the doctor she’d asked for walked in.
the federal trial during which the hit’s mastermind, Omega 7 leader
“Mike recovered,” Angelique said. “Our family will forever be
Eduardo Arocena, was sentenced to two life prison terms — drives his
grateful to Rich Negrin. I believe God had our paths cross.”
intense focus on helping people in desperate need, as his father did.
Negrin spends so much time in the neighborhoods — personally
Angelique Darcy McGuire didn’t know Negrin or his history
helping everyday Philadelphians, and responding to their messages
as she waited in an intensive-care unit last March, praying for her
sent via Twitter — that he shatters the
husband, Mike, a Philadelphia firefighter
who had rushed up 11 flights of stairs to
“Our family will forever image of a managing director as a beancounter who leaves his office only to walk to
rescue residents from a burning high-rise,
be
grateful
to
Rich
another office.
run out of oxygen, and collapsed from
He is a big bear of a man — a former
Negrin.
I
believe
God
carbon-monoxide poisoning.
All-American lineman who co-captained
Four days after the fire at the
had our paths cross.”
the Wagner College Seahawks to the 1987
Norman Blumberg Apartments in North
Division III National Championship — so
Philadelphia, McGuire was at the Hospital
when Negrin shows up in a neighborhood, people notice.
of the University of Pennsylvania, fighting for his life. “He had
After a Daily News story described a blighted block of Dakota
developed pneumonia,” Angelique told the Daily News recently. “I
Street in Strawberry Mansion that had been long-neglected by city
was terrified.”
services, Negrin took a walk with its 77-year-old captain, Willie
As she prayed, Negrin walked in, told her his personal story,
McRae, and promised to clean the trashed vacant lots and demolish
asked if he could help. “I want the best for my husband because he’s
the dangerous vacant buildings. He kept his promises.
in zombie land and I need him out of zombie land,” said Angelique,
a teacher at J.H. Brown Elementary School.
“We’re both cancer survivors. We need
each other very much, and so does our
8-year-old daughter, our treasure of a
little girl.”
Angelique asked Negrin if he could
get the head of HUP’s pulmonary
care to check in on Mike. Negrin,
whose stepfather, Raul Cordero, a pastor
18 24 W A GWNA EG RN EMRA GM AA ZG IANZEI N E
Making a difference
While Negrin’s father gave him the determination to touch
people’s lives, his late daughter, Abigail, gave him a heartfelt
empathy with anyone who has suffered, or is in danger of suffering,
a devastating loss.
“It’s hard for folks to fathom the depth of the anguish when you
lose a child,” said Negrin, a father of four.
From early childhood, Abigail’s genetic disease, spinal muscular
�atrophy, left her struggling to breathe and swallow. “My wife left the
D.A.’s Office, where she was a child-abuse prosecutor, to manage
Abigail’s care full time,” Negrin said. “We were Abby’s Army. Our
mission was to keep her alive until there was a cure. Unfortunately,
we lost that race.”
Abigail’s daily fight to survive fueled Negrin’s need to make a
meaningful difference in other people’s daily struggles.
Last year, he expanded PhillyRising from its pilot Hartranft
neighborhood in North Philadelphia to five more communities.
PhillyRising created resident-run computer labs, reopened a longshuttered indoor swimming pool, started a Police Athletic League
program for hundreds of kids, and cleaned up vacant lots that were
carpeted with dangerous trash.
“In neighborhoods that have been under siege for so long, people
go, ‘Wow, the managing director is coming down to our little church
basement,’” said John Farrell, who supervises PhillyRising.
“To people who have lived in a community for 30 years and seen
tons of city officials come and go, how do we prove we’re not just
some other guy in a suit? Rich shows up, builds trust quickly, gives
us credibility. That is huge.”
This year, Negrin will expand PhillyRising to 20 neighborhoods,
which means more personal moments like this:
While revisiting the site of a PhillyRising cleanup recently,
Negrin was told that a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting had
traveled through a bedroom window, narrowly missing two sleeping
children.
He felt compelled to visit the family to assure them that
PhillyRising would stick around until shootouts and stray bullets
were ancient history.
“This little 4-year-old boy, one of the kids that the bullet just
missed, sprints across the living room and leaps into my arms,”
Negrin said, his voice thickening with emotion.
“Huge smile. Adorable spirit. Just a lovely, lovely kid. I’m this
big, giant guy. You’d think little kids would be afraid of me. But this
kid thinks I’m a playground.”
Negrin paused to collect his thoughts. “I see his face before I go
to bed every night,” he said. “Making life safer and better for that
kid is what I’m all about. I love this job.”
Story and photo on page 16 reprinted with permission from the
Philadelphia Daily News, Feb. 3, 2012. Photo on page 16 by
Alejandro A. Alvarez, Philadelphia Daily News.
About PhillyRising
The PhillyRising Collaborative
targets neighborhoods throughout
Philadelphia that are plagued by chronic
crime and quality of life concerns, and
establishes partnerships with community
members to address these issues.
Since his appointment as Philadelphia’s
managing director in 2010, Rich Negrin
has led the PhillyRising program. It began
in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of
Hartranft, where its achievements include
demolishing unsafe buildings, cleaning up
vacant lots and graffiti-marred walls, opening
a pool and a community computer lab,
training community leaders, and bringing in
volunteers and partner organizations. As a
result, said Mayor Michael Nutter in a March
2011 speech, “from February to December
2010 crime in Hartranft dropped by 16
percent from the year before.”
PhillyRising now operates in
nine neighborhoods and has seven
staff members in the Managing Director’s
Office. Learn more about it and hear
comments from Rich Negrin at
www.phila.gov/mdo/phillyrising.
s u m m e r
2012
19
�Fighting
with Beaus
and Eros
World premiere musical brings
unexpected groups together for
love, war, and fun
By Laura Barlament
�I
t’s sexy and funny, earnest and mystical. It’s Sex and the
City meets Touched by an Angel meets Gladiator meets the
Keystone Kops.
Goddess Wheel, a new musical by Tony Award-winning
Hair composer Galt MacDermot and lyricist Matty
Selman, was given its world premiere by Wagner College Theatre at
Snug Harbor Music Center (WCT’s home away from home during
the Main Hall renovations) in April.
With a huge cast of 44 actors, the play mystified, challenged,
delighted, and excited. It bridged seemingly unbridgeable gaps;
it unfolded its essence in student voices, while also shaping those
student actors in new ways.
But the most important thing, according to co-creator Galt
MacDermot, is that it was fun: “The first thing you notice with any
kind of show is, ‘Am I being entertained? Do I like this?’ And that’s
what I was noticing, that I really was enjoying the show. … I mean,
it’s a cast of 22 women, and then they bring in the football team!
There’s no way that can fail.”
Act One: Goddesses and Whores
Loud, urgent music erupts from the pit as six voluptuous women,
draped in flowing, nude-colored chiffon gowns, enter the stage and
start a whirling dance. Astrological symbols and sparkling lights
swirl around them, while they chant a mysterious invocation in
tight harmonies:
When chickens shelter safe indoors
And shun the roosters’ cry,
Then Zeus will put an end to wars
And set the low on high …
But when chickens fly the coop
And make the cock their friend,
Then all of Greece will loop de loop
And war will never end …
What does it mean? They aren’t really talking about domestic
fowl. These are the title characters, the goddesses of the wheel, and
their riddle captures the central premise of this musical, and of its
ancient source: Lysistrata, a comedy written in 411 bc by the Greek
playwright Aristophanes. The women of Athens want an end to
the Peloponnesian War, which raged between Athens and Sparta
from 431 to 404 bc. Their solution: a sex strike. As Aristophanes’
Lysistrata puts it, “If we want to force the men to make peace, we
must renounce … sex.” As Selman’s Lysistrata puts it, “Shun the
rooster’s cry … means … stop making love?”
But this congruence spells the end of similarities between
P H OTO G R A P H S : K A R E N O ’ D O N N E L L
the ancient and modern plays. Goddess Wheel explodes the tight
boundaries of Aristophanes’ one-act romp: The musical veers from
raunchy comedy to ragged grief to tender intimacy to historical
commentary. Selman and MacDermot morphed Aristophanes’
housewives into prostitutes, adding an incisive economic motivation
to the sex-strike concept (no soldiers, no business). They added a
panoply of otherworldly characters: the goddesses of the title, plus
the Oracle of Delphi, plus a Woody-Allen-esque Hades. They
sent the Athenian ladies through a trippy dream sequence and on
a mission to the underworld. They put the Athenian and Spartan
armies on stage, and they turned Aristophanes’ idyllic ending on its
head — all to the infectious beat of MacDermot’s signature rockfunk-Afro-Caribbean musical style.
In Goddess Wheel, MacDermot and Selman created a world of
entertaining opportunities — and working with Wagner students led
them there.
Interlude: Backstory
It all started last fall, when the Wagner actors did their first readthrough of the play. It had a lot of good tunes, clever lyrics, and a
bare-bones script.
“It was vague,” director Rusty Curcio, head of dance at
Wagner, says diplomatically of the show at that stage. It didn’t have
much dialogue connecting the songs. Despite the title, it had no
goddesses. It had no Spartan army. But Curcio was unfazed. Coming
from a background in dance (he was a longtime member of the
Trockaderos dance troupe), Curcio says, he’s accustomed to “starting
with a seed and building a story out of it.”
And he chose the cast accordingly. He selected them for the
creativity and range they demonstrated in audition, rather than how
well they fit a certain character. “On this kind of show, they needed
to have versatility,” he says.
CREATIVE TEAM Matty Selman (left) adapted his Goddess Wheel book and
lyrics for the student actors. Composer Galt MacDermot (right) attended two
performances and signed programs for fans.
s u mf a
m le lr
22 00 11 02
27
21
� At that point, Curcio had already been involved with the workin-progress for years. The connection was made back in the spring
of 2006, when he directed MacDermot’s renowned rock musical Hair
at Wagner. MacDermot, a longtime Staten Island resident, came to see
the show and loved the production, so he reached out to Curcio and
showed him the Goddess Wheel project he had underway with Matty
Selman (who, by the way, grew up in Staten Island’s West Brighton).
It’s highly unusual for a college theater to premiere a show, and
the students approached it with anticipation and trepidation.
“The reason why I wanted to do the piece is because it was new,
fresh, and exciting,” says Robert Keir ’14, who played an Athenian
soldier, Thanassis. (At Curcio’s prompting, Selman gave names to
all of the soldiers, who ended up with such colorful monikers as
Buttious, Bulgious, and Erectius.) “This was something that we had
to create. Almost like giving someone a coloring book, and you have
to fill the shades you choose.”
Act 2: The Athenians and the Athletes
ONE TWO THREE FOUR ONE TWO THREE FOUR!
bellows the Athenian army as they march down the aisle and up
to the stage. They face the audience in unison with a bare-armed
salute, resplendent in white chaps, holding tiny white shields bearing
the male symbol, and white épées thrust out from their enormous
white codpieces, emblazoned with the female symbol.
It’s a sight gag guaranteed to earn laughter.
Fast forward to late in Act 2: The stage is set for peace to be
made; the Athenian women have lured the army, on leave from war,
into an amphitheater, and have them on their knees in a trance;
when down the aisles, carrying enormous spears and wearing little
more than black boots and helmets, creep a troop of the biggest
men ever seen on a Wagner stage, looking ready to kill.
Curcio always knew the show needed a Spartan army — and
TRUST Director Rusty Curcio (right) allowed his student actors to
develop their characters.
22
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
that idea not only proved what MacDermot calls Curcio’s “comic
genius,” but also opened doors on the Wagner campus where walls
had once existed.
Curcio’s idea was to recruit student-athletes to play the Spartans
— “a stroke of brilliance,” he calls it with a laugh. “I just thought it
would be fun. There’s also the size difference,” he adds — referring
to the build of a 250-pound football player or a 6’5” basketball player
versus the typical theater guy. Aristophanes’ Lysistrata derives some of
its humor by playing up class differences between the Athenians and
Spartans. Curcio knew that the equivalent at Wagner would be the
social gap between student-athletes and student actors on campus.
Besides, work was already being done to mend that gap. Led by a
football and track athlete, John Garrish ’12, the theater and athletic
student advisory boards had started a program they called “Bridging
the Gap” to bring the two socially estranged groups together.
Garrish had a small role in Wagner’s spring semester production
of Jesus Christ Superstar. He started talking to his fellow athletes
about being a part of the new play. “He told us about it during the
[football] season, and at first everyone was like, ‘No, I’m not doing
the play, bro,’” recounts Derrick Forrest ’12, a 250-pound defensive
lineman who had last acted in a play in the eighth grade.
“And then when I came back from winter break, I was like,
‘Man, you only live once,’” Forrest continues. “Let me see what it’s
like.” He and seven other football, basketball, and lacrosse players
joined Goddess Wheel ’s Spartan army, helping to create a hilarious
fight sequence and jamming along in the final dance number.
As it turned out, Forrest and his fellow athletes loved the experience
and were inspired by the actors’ hard work. “Every time before we’d
go out to walk the aisles, we would just sit there, hyping each other up,
saying, ‘Showtime, let’s go,’” he says. Their pre-show rituals were to do
pushups and curls with a weightlifting bar in the back of the auditorium.
“I think it relaxed us. It relaxed us and gave us a little pump.”
MIXING IT UP Student-athletes (in black helmets) as well as student actors made up the huge
cast of Goddess Wheel.
P H OTO G R A P H S : K A R E N O ’ D O N N E L L
�Finale: Finding Their Song
“For me, the writing experience takes on a whole new dimension
when you’re in rehearsal,” says Matty Selman. “Because you can see
the people, you can write for them, everything’s coming alive, you
have the songs, so it’s just a magical time.”
Much of the magic that audiences saw on the stage came from
the alchemy of a writer shaping his words to life, and students
accepting a very different kind of rehearsal process: one where you
had to “live in the unknown,” in Curcio’s words, “to be ready for
whatever happens.”
Often, the students would come into rehearsal with one script
and walk out with another. “The most amazing part for me was
being able to write on the spot,” says Selman. “I would say, ‘OK, wait.
We’re not going to say that anymore. Danielle, can you say this?’ And
I’d write it and hand her a piece of paper. And I’d say, ‘Rusty, is that
ok?’ Rusty would say, ‘Yeah, it’s your show.’ And suddenly we’d do it.”
The Danielle whom Selman mentions is Danielle Dallacco ’12,
who starred as Lysistrata, the heart and soul of the entire show. She
admits that she had her moments of frustration during rehearsals.
But, she says, she grew to love it. “I feel completely connected to
my character because I breathed life into her,” she says. “Because
this show is a premier work, she only ever existed on paper. I was
honored to be the first to ever bring her to life.”
Her fellow actors echoed this thought: It was scary, exciting,
and ultimately extremely self-fulfilling to help create their roles.
Caroline LaTorre ’12, for example, is proud that she took the
goddess character of Hera, who speaks the play’s opening words,
from non-existent to “a driving force.”
“I loved that from this experience I got to learn about the process
a new musical undergoes upon production,” she says. “My takeaways
from this experience are: be open-minded, open to change.”
IN THE BLUE Danielle Dallacco ’12 created the character Lysistrata, seen here in a
dream sequence.
As the goddess Afro-dite (Aphrodite in an Afro … get it?),
Heather Kirschenbauer ’12 of course played a central role in a
play pitting love against war. She says she found in an initially
uncomfortable situation a liberating power. “After months of
rehearsal, I feel that this role has helped me find my own self,” she
says. “I had to connect and be confident in my own sensuality.
“Also the level of teamwork was more heightened than in other
productions,” she continues. “It was definitely a more organic
experience, and the level of trust that was given to us was truly
remarkable. Rusty trusted us to make a lot of our own decisions.”
“My sense of it is that this Wagner world premiere was as much
of a critical help to me as a writer, as I think it was an invaluable
experience for the students in their education,” says playwright
Selman. “No matter what they do in their lives going forward, to have
something like this come off the page and see how integral they are to
the outcome, it can’t be anything other than empowering to them.”
Selman plans to work toward publishing Goddess Wheel, with a
dedication page acknowledging Wagner College Theatre and all of
the student actors who brought the show to life.
The show ends with everyone on stage and up and down the
aisles, actors and athletes, Athenians and Spartans, mortals and
goddesses, singing and dancing together:
It’s the end song
And the notes we bring
Are freedom’s slaves.
Go on, sweet notes, escape your staves
And find your song.
“When you hear 40 people or so singing on stage, it’s thrilling,”
says MacDermot. “I loved it!”
PERSPECTIVE Projections by multimedia artist Tony Brown created varied
atmospheres and dynamic scenery.
C H R I ST I NA A N G E L I ’ 1 1 C O N T R I BU T E D TO T H E R E P O RT I N G O F T H I S STO RY.
s u m m e r
2012
23
�24
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�WATER
WATER
EVERYWHERE,
Nor Any
DROP TO
DRINK
For almost 20 years, Wagner Professor
Mohammad Alauddin has been working
to solve the drinking water contamination
problem in one of the world’s most
populous and water-rich nations. What
is the solution for Bangladesh — and
what can we learn from it?
By Laura Barlament
Photographs by Habibul Haque/Drik
The Hotel Golden
Deer in Dhaka,
the capital city
of Bangladesh, is
located on Gulshan
Lake, in a district
of embassies with
manicured lawns,
spacious homes
behind guarded
gates, and shiny,
chauffeur-driven
Mercedes Benzes.
Across Gulshan
Lake from the hotel,
a row of spindly
shacks made of
bamboo, tarp, and
sheet metal occupies
a narrow dirt bank.
s u m m e r
2012
25
�MARKED MAN A farmer displays a keratosis-scarred palm, a result of
long-term arsenic poisoning.
Laundry hangs on lines,
and thick green vines
hide some of the trash
that flows down the
bank into the grayishgreen water, emerging
farther out to make
trash islands. Around the lake, it smells like a convocation of 100
overflowing New York City garbage trucks.
Nestled in India’s eastern armpit on the Bay of Bengal,
Bangladesh is a nation awash in water. Water-related disasters
— floods, tsunamis, cyclones — frequently bring it into the
international spotlight. Its main food crop is rice, one of the world’s
most water-gobbling plants. Thanks to new irrigation systems,
Bangladesh produces rice year-round.
So, it is an irony of cosmic proportions that Bangladesh’s water is
slowly poisoning vast swaths of the population.
Earlier this year, Professor Mohammad Alauddin brought
another group of students here, his sixth trip for the Wagner shortterm study abroad program called Expanding Your Horizons. The
goal: to gain insight into the water problem in Bangladesh, and also
to gain a glimpse of the world’s future if we don’t take care of that
precious resource we often take for granted — water.
T
he lesson starts at the Hotel Golden Deer, where we
sip water from sealed plastic bottles, and each room has
a private bath. But Dipankar Chakraborti, longtime
director of the School of Environmental Studies at
Jadavpur University in India, is here to talk about water realities
for many more people in the world. “If you listen to him, you don’t
have to listen to anybody,” says Alauddin, calling his guest an “elder
brother” and “mentor.”
With a white shawl wrapped around his trim body and glasses
precariously hooked into his long hair, Chakraborti launches into a
PowerPoint with pictures of misery: two girls walking across parched
earth, a six-hour journey, to fetch water in Rajasthan, India; naked
children drinking water from a cattle trough in Sudan; another
African child drinking cow’s urine. “You can’t believe this — and
this is the truth,” he says. “And it will keep increasing, and increasing
and increasing.”
Chakraborti speaks science from the heart — because he speaks
from personal experience. He’s not afraid to shock, cajole, even
offend to get his point across.
In 1988, Chakraborti tells us, he started his work at Jadavpur
26
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
University in West Bengal, on the western border of Bangladesh.
That’s when he became aware of nearby villagers who had a
mysterious set of symptoms: blackened skin, dark lines on
fingernails, black spots on the tongue, crusty lesions on their palms
and the soles of their feet. They were suffering social exclusion,
because people believed their strange looks were a contagion or a
curse of the gods. They were losing their families and livelihoods,
and dying of cancers of the skin, lungs, bladder, and kidney.
From his previous studies, Chakraborti knew they were suffering
the tell-tale signs of arsenicosis — chronic arsenic poisoning. He
also suspected its source. Throughout the world, groundwater
can contain naturally occurring arsenic at high enough levels to
harm human health. It doesn’t take much: The World Health
AS IT TURNS OUT, THERE
WAS A DEVIL LURKING IN
THE DEPTHS: ARSENIC.
Organization prescribes a limit of 10 parts per billion (ppb) in
drinking water — the equivalent of 10 drops in 500 barrels of water.
Beginning in the late 1950s in West Bengal, and in the 1970s in
Bangladesh, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) funded
projects to provide clean drinking water for the poor. Because waterborne diseases like diarrhea and cholera were rampant, tapping
into shallow underground aquifers presented the perfect solution:
hand-pumped “tube wells” allowed the people to access bacteriafree drinking water easily and cheaply.
At first, Chakraborti told us, the locals refused to drink from
an underground source, calling it “devil’s water.” But in time the
government’s promotions and the tube wells’ benefits allayed their
fears. Tube well water reduced the incidence of diarrhea, which
claimed the lives of so many children. It made water available to
grow crops when the rains didn’t fall. It was cold and refreshing. The
public attitude reversed. Having one’s own tube well became the
pride of every family man. There are now 9 to 12 million tube wells
in Bangladesh alone.
But as it turns out, there was a devil lurking in the depths:
arsenic.
Colorless, odorless, and tasteless, it’s the perfect poison, as
many an Agatha Christie reader knows. Washed down from the
Himalayas, the massive mountain chain where Bangladesh’s rivers
originate, it was hidden and harmless in shallow aquifers until the
people started sticking tube wells 30 to 100 feet into the sediments
�of the flatlands. And slowly drinking death.
Chakraborti was not the first to demonstrate the dangers of
arsenic-laden groundwater in poor populations, but he was perhaps
the most persistent. In West Bengal and then in Bangladesh, he and
his students walked from village to village to village, from well to
well, documenting the symptoms and testing the water. They found
the very worst of the problem in Bangladesh, which had the highest
concentrations of arsenic contamination paired with the greatest
population density: In a country about the size of New York State
live about 160 million people, eight times New York’s population.
He notified government officials, but was frustrated at the
lack of response. “They gave me the name of a madman who
speaks rubbish,” he said. But he did not give up. As Barry Bearak
wrote in the New York Times, “In 1994, he began sending letters
to the Bangladeshi government, UNICEF and the World Health
Organization — to no effect. Soon he was calling reporters,
organizing conferences and generally becoming one of science’s
great gadflies.”
Chakraborti’s efforts, though hard-won, have been successful.
The Bangladeshi government and UNICEF started coming to grips
with the arsenic problem in the late 1990s and working to mitigate
it. But Chakraborti does not dwell on that. “No one’s denying it. It’s
the truth,” he exclaims. “But this truth is like a fire!”
For many reasons, technical and economic and social and
bureaucratic, the water problem is far from being solved, and the
threat to the next generation of Bangladeshis looms. What frustrates
Chakraborti the most is that water itself has not gained the respect
it deserves. He points out that while the world population grows
exponentially, the Earth’s water resources remain constant. No
one can afford to waste or pollute water. Showing us a slide of a
mushroom cloud, Chakraborti compares the coming water crisis to
an atomic explosion in slow motion.
T
he next day, we pile into a van and get a good sense of
what the phrase “population explosion” means. We are
headed to the villages of Laksham and Sharasti, about
70 miles southeast of Dhaka. We will be in this van for
the next five hours, dodging through streets and highways clogged
with every form of transportation imaginable — other cars; women
on foot, wrapped in saris and head scarves, carrying children and
bags of rice; men wearing the wrap-around skirts known as lungis,
pedaling rickshaws loaded with passengers, or flat-bed tricycles
piled high with vegetables; tiny three-wheeled autorickshaws; cargo
trucks brightly painted with birds and flowers; long-distance busses,
scraped all along the sides as if they had been driven through narrow
canyons, with passengers riding on the roof. Five hours — 70 miles.
One way.
We cross the mighty Meghna River, which fans out into the
largest river delta on Earth, the Ganges. Beneath the bridge, the river’s
dirt banks are lined with long, narrow boats and flat-bed trucks, and
bright green fields of rice lie between the river’s branches.
Sharasti and Laksham themselves, however, are not on any
river. Tube wells must have seemed like a godsend to these people
who lacked easy access to water. But their heavy use of the highly
arsenic-contaminated well water, combined with poverty and
poor nutrition, made the problem “a double whammy for them,”
Alauddin says.
Those factors are why Columbia University researchers
TO DRINK OR NOT TO DRINK
The Bangladeshi government
tested tube well water for
excessive arsenic levels and
painted red those wells they
found to be unsafe.
s u m m e r
2012
27
�EXPANDING HORIZONS In January 2012, Professor Mohammad Alauddin brought a
Wagner group to Bangladesh to visit villages and learn about their water systems:
Kelly Edmonds ’13, Krey Keller ’13, Melanie Garces ’12, Nahama Paul ’14, Nicolette
Faison ’13, and Wagner Magazine editor Laura Barlament.
chose this area for a long-term study of nutritional supplements’
effectiveness in combating arsenicosis. There are about 7,000
patients in the study, which started in 2008. Alauddin helps to
monitor the work.
Finally we come to a group of ramshackle houses, corrugated
metal sides attached to bamboo frames, on a narrow dirt road.
Minutes after we extract ourselves from the van, we are surrounded
by a large crowd of curious onlookers.
The local staff of the Columbia project — including a young
doctor named Shamim Ahmed, the project director, and a female
field worker — assembles five women of a range of ages. Wrapped
in rumpled cotton saris of purple, red, yellow, and green, they stand
in a line before Professor Alauddin. They look submissive and
28
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
shy as he gently questions them about their diet, water, and skin
conditions. They are taking either a combination of selenium and
vitamin E, or vitamin E alone, and are drinking clean water. They
also receive treatment for any medical needs that arise while they
are part of the study. Every two years, they give samples of their
urine, toenails, and blood for arsenic testing.
One of the younger women opens the top of her bright
yellow sari to reveal her collarbone area. Dark brown spots like
moles mar her latte-colored skin — melanosis, the first stage of
arsenicosis. The women say they eat meat about once a month.
Nutrition is a critical factor in the arsenic threat: The human
body is able to detoxify itself of harmful elements like arsenic,
if it is able to replenish key nutrients, especially those found in
green, leafy vegetables and white meat, milk, and eggs. Yet many
villagers, especially in a very impoverished area like this, eat almost
exclusively rice — they grow vegetables mostly for sale in the
markets. And the vegetables they do eat are stewed, losing many
nutrients.
“Villagers say, ‘Raw vegetables are not tasty, I cannot eat it,’”
Alauddin tells us. “I wish I could live with them and eat with them
and show them how to prepare the food.” Alauddin is part of
another research group, also testing selenium supplements. “If these
patients are treated in the early stage, if they are given selenium
tablets, and we provide safe drinking water, it’s reversing skin
lesions, symptoms of arsenicosis,” he says. “It’s a very promising and
encouraging result.”
For others, these treatments are too late to reverse years of
drinking arsenic-laden water.
A little farther down the road, we pass through a wooden gate
into a courtyard surrounded by another a set of corrugated metal
buildings. In the yard, a calf lows loudly, chickens peck the ground,
and brightly colored laundry hangs on the line. Again, many curious
faces appear.
A small man with a short, grizzled beard removes his shirt to
show his chest. Dark spots cover his skin. Alauddin gently touches
his palms, which look scabby, burned, and blistered — advanced
symptoms known as keratosis — while speaking with him quietly.
“From what I can tell he has been drinking water with arsenic at
least 20 years,” Alauddin says. He has squamous cell carcinoma on
his hands and feet, and is undergoing chemotherapy treatments
through the Columbia program, says Dr. Ahmed. No longer able to
farm, he ekes out a living by operating a tea stall in the local market.
Alauddin pulls a Toshiba laptop out of his bag and sets it up on
an old wooden chair. He fills a tiny vial with water pumped from a
�nearby tube well and attaches it to the computer. Flies alight on his
hands as he stares at the screen and murmurs numbers, while the
computer graphs the water’s arsenic content. “This is quick and very
sensitive,” Alauddin says. “Even if it’s 10 ppb, I can tell.”
An analytical chemist, Alauddin started testing tube well
water for arsenic as early as 1993. Seeing the ineffectiveness of the
government’s efforts, he has run his own lab in Dhaka, using mostly
his own funds, since the late 1990s.
One of his big frustrations is the tube-well testing program
sponsored by the Bangladesh government. Field workers were sent to
the hardest-hit areas to test tube well water for arsenic. Wells they
found unsafe were painted red, and safe wells were painted green.
However, the simple field kits they used were not sufficiently
sensitive to detect trace amounts of the killer element. Professor
Alauddin’s laboratory tests showed that the field workers’ results
were correct only half of the time. “Fifty percent of the data can
go either way, which means 50 percent of the data is bad,” he says.
“Which 50 percent is good, that is the question.”
Meanwhile, of course, people need water. “Many of them, they
don’t have any other option,” says Alauddin. “The pond water
is contaminated with microorganisms, and the tube well water
condemned with arsenic. They have no choice. After 10 to 12 years
of painting the tube wells red and green, that paint is faded, and
people are totally disregarding it and drinking.”
We walk back to the van along the rice fields, followed by a small
pack of barefoot boys in oversized clothes. Men in hiked-up lungis
bend to plant bright-green sprigs into the ankle-deep water. Where
does this water come from? Tube wells. Years ago, the government
helped farmers acquire irrigation systems to promote greater rice
harvests and combat hunger. Yet, since they are using arsenic-laced
water to irrigate, even these healthy-looking plants carry a slow
death. In fact, the prevalence of arsenic-contaminated water makes
it likely that the element is spreading throughout the food chain.
I
n this land of plenteous water, it seems unbelievable that the
people could be dying for lack of water — lack of safe water,
that is. The science and technology to provide clean water exist.
Walking down the road in Sharasti, we see a prime example:
Behind a blue fence, there’s an impressive-looking set of shiny silver
tanks. A big sign announces “Continuous Arsenic Removal Plant,”
and in larger print, “DPHE / UNICEF Project.” DPHE is the
Department of Public Health Engineering, the national agency in
charge of drinking water supply in rural areas. It looks impressive —
but, Alauddin says, it is non-functional. It costs too much to maintain,
and the know-how doesn’t exist in the local community.
Social and cultural factors cannot be ignored in providing
solutions. Alauddin is a big believer in systems that use more basic
technology and are accepted, implemented, and operated by the
users themselves. Like a river water purification system that he
shows us the next day, in a village in the district of Munshiganj, 15
miles south of Dhaka. We take a ride down the smooth, calm river
in a boat they call a “stroller,” something like a long canoe with a
motor attached.
After about 25 minutes, we stop at a small settlement along
the river. Clambering up the mud bank, we come to a concrete
structure about one story tall, with a water tank above it. This river
sand filtration system pumps water out of the river and filters it
through layers of sand, brick chips, and gravel. Built nine years ago
for $20,000 (funded by UNICEF and a local nonprofit, Dhaka
Community Hospital), it provides sufficient daily drinking water for
this community of about 500 people. A community board runs the
system, and each family pays about 50 cents per month.
This village exemplifies a new attitude toward water in
Bangladesh, Alauddin notes. “The mindset has been, ‘Water is free,
it’s natural!’ That has changed,” he says. These people have come
to understand that water is not to be taken for granted, but is a
precious resource.
“This is very nice water,” Alauddin says, standing atop the
structure surrounded by his students. “I have also checked it.” He
accepts a cut-glass tumbler — evidently the town’s finest in honor
of their special guests — and takes a deep drink.
ALL CLEAR
Professor Alauddin
has spent years
researching
water issues and
creating solutions
for Bangladeshi
villagers.
s u m m e r
2012
29
�Wa g n e r
Sports Roundup
30
the
List
It was déjà vu all over again for water
polo during the 2012 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championship:
Mirroring the 2011 finale, Wagner finished as the runner-up when top-seeded
Iona College rallied for an overtime victory. Under second-year coach Chris
Radmonovich, the Seahawks notched
high-profile wins over West Coast powers Hawaii, Cal State Northridge, and
Pacific; Laura Karbach ’13 was named
MAAC Defensive Player of the Year.
• Under new head coach Jim Carone,
Wagner baseball was named College
Baseball Insider Northeast Regional
Team of the Week in March after winning
a series against Jacksonville University;
they ended the season with a 22–33 record, and team MVP Ryan Van Spronsen
’12 was named to the All-NEC Second
Team. • In track and field, Seahawks
set new school benchmarks: for the
women, the 400-meter (Francyna Evins
’12) and 800-meter (Kelly Pereira ’15);
and for the men, the 800-meter (Dan
Zaccariello ’14), 5,000-meter (Zachary Spector ’12), and 110 hurdles (Alan
Kopeloff ’13). • Under first-year men’s
lacrosse head coach Matt Poskay, an
All-Star for the Boston Cannons of the
Major Lacrosse League, the Seahawks
snapped a 26-game losing streak on
April 14 with a victory over Sacred
Heart. • Julie Vigliotti ’13 was named
NEC Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year,
and women’s soccer set a school record with nine victories. • Three seniors
graduated to free-agent opportunities in
the NFL: linebacker Julian Stanford and
defensive back Jeremiah Brown with
the Jacksonville Jaguars, and defensive
end Quintin Anderson with the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Two Ways
of Driving
to the Basket
Mason and Cermignano tip off promising head coach careers
T
By John Beisser
wo distinct paths took Bashir Mason and
Lisa Cermignano to the same place this spring:
The VIP room in the Spiro Sports Center, where
they were inaugurated as Wagner College head
basketball coaches at press conferences held a mere 15 days apart.
Mason’s appointment at age 28 made him the youngest Division I men’s head basketball
coach in the nation. Cermignano, 36, traveled a more traditional route to her desired goal, as
she notched her way up the coaching ladder, rung by rung and state by state.
Only 10 years ago and 16 miles away, Mason graduated from St. Benedict’s Prep in
Newark, where he played for the man he has replaced at Wagner, Dan Hurley, now head coach
at the University of Rhode Island. Mason moved on to Philadelphia’s Drexel University, where
he was a four-year starter for the Dragons at point guard and a four-time member of the
Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) All-Defensive Team. After graduation, Mason spent two
seasons as an assistant coach at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, before returning to
St. Benedict’s. He served as an assistant to his former coach there for two seasons, until Hurley
brought him along to Wagner in 2010.
While Mason has stayed close to home, Cermignano’s move to Wagner represents a
return to her roots. Raised in the small town of Mantua Township, some 15 miles south of
Philadelphia, Cermignano developed into the 1993 New Jersey High School Player of the Year
before going on to enjoy a Hall of Fame playing career down in DC at George Washington.
Cermignano’s assistant coaching odyssey, encompassing five college campuses over 14 years,
began with one season at Maryland, followed by two seasons at Monmouth. Her next stop
was a five-year stint back at her alma mater, where she helped guide the Colonials to a pair
of NCAA Sweet 16 appearances. This work led her to Nashville, Tennessee, where she spent
three seasons at Vanderbilt, the most academically renowned school in the SEC, one of the
nation’s power conferences. She then coached for three seasons at Illinois, another academic
giant that competes in an elite conference, the Big 10.
The teams Mason and Cermignano take over at Wagner are as disparate as their
backgrounds.
P H OTO G R A P H : D U ST I N F E N ST E R M AC H E R
� Known as an impeccable dresser, Mason arrived
at the March 27 press conference resplendent in
a charcoal suit. As he strode down the center aisle,
the Seahawk players seated in the front row rose
as one and began clapping in a salute to their new
leader, soon joined by the rest of the audience.
To the players, Mason is a trusted mentor who
has helped transform Wagner from a program
that won just five games the year before he arrived
into one that achieved a school-record 25 victories
last season, including a monumental 59–54 defeat
of No. 15 Pittsburgh. Mason was particularly
instrumental in developing the Seahawk guards
into one of the top units in the conference. Tyler
Murray ’12 and Latif Rivers ’14 were named to
the NEC Second Team, while Kenneth Ortiz ’14
garnered Defensive Player of the Year honors.
“We’ve started something here for the past two
years with this team, raising young men and building
them to be good student-athletes,” said Mason.
{
“That job isn’t done yet. Wagner basketball is here to
stay. It is on the rise for many years to come.”
While Mason’s charge is to expand on a rapidly
built foundation, Cermignano’s task is similar to the
one the men’s coaching staff inherited in 2010. The
women’s team is coming off nine straight losing
seasons, including a 2–27 mark last season.
Cermignano will look to follow the men’s
blueprint for success, which includes getting the
veteran players to buy in to a new vision, while at
the same time recruiting talented student-athletes
and melding the mix into a cohesive unit. Like
Mason, Cermignano is confident.
“I think Wagner College is a beautiful place and
a great opportunity for female student-athletes,”
Cermignano said. “Everyone I met on my interview,
everybody that’s a part of Wagner College and
Wagner athletics, wants to win and create a winning
tradition. And that excites me because that’s what
I’ve been about. That’s what attracted me when I
went to George Washington University as a player
and all of my different steps as a coach. To get my
first head coaching job back East, near my family,
close to all of the people who are important to me,
it’s like a dream come true.”
READY TO SOAR
After assisting with the
Seahawks’ turnaround
of the past two
seasons, Bashir Mason
is now the men’s head
coach. Lisa Cermignano
brings deep experience
at top universities to
the women’s team.
s u m m e r
2012
31
�{
f l a s h b a c k
}
T H E L A N D O F FA I RY TA L E S , C A . 1 9 7 0
From 1962 until 1988, Wagner College maintained a very popular study abroad program in Bregenz, Austria. Students
traveled widely during their time abroad, including destinations like Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany (pictured
above). Bringing a piece of Alpine culture home, they acquired traditional dress: Dolly Hamlin Luwisch ’73 and Karen Resetar
Minogue ’72 are shown above, inspecting a Dirndl. This year’s Reunion Weekend included a celebration of the program’s
50th anniversary. Read more about the Bregenz experience in “Reflections,” page 45.
Terry Baker Mulligan ’66 Sugar Hill: Where the Sun Rose Over Harlem (Impulse Press, 2012)
Terry Baker Mulligan writes joyously about weathering adolescence while history unfolds around her in midcentury Harlem. Evangelists, curly-haired doo-wop boys, and interracial couples populate her memorable cast of
characters, while she also chronicles Thursday matinées at the Apollo, Sunday mornings at Smalls Paradise and
the Hot Cha, as well as encounters with Willie Mays in the shoeshine parlor and with Minniejean Brown, one of the
Little Rock Nine, in the Dreamland luncheonette.
32
32
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Upcoming Events
Admissions
• ��Campus Visit Day
Aug. 9
• �Overview Visit Days
July 9, 13, 20 & 27; Aug. 3, 13, 17 & 20
Alumni Events
• �Alumni Day at Del Mar Racetrack
Aug. 5
Del Mar, California
• �Gala in Honor of President Guarasci’s
Tenth Anniversary
Oct. 12
New York, New York
• �Homecoming
Oct. 27
Campus Events
• �Family Weekend
Sept. 28–30
Lecture
Featuring Bonnie Bassler, Squibb Professor
of Molecular Biology at Princeton
University: “Tiny Conspiracies:
How Bacteria Talk to Each Other”
Oct. 10, 7 p.m., Spiro Hall, Room 2
• �Main Hall Rededication
Oct. 11, 12:15 p.m.
• �Commencement
May 24, 2013
Music
• I� talian Idol Singing Competition
Oct. 19, 5 p.m.
Wagner College Music Performance Center
• �Viva Italia Finale Concert
Oct. 28, 4 p.m.
Wagner College Music Performance Center
• F� all Choral Concert
Nov. 4, 4 p.m.
Trinity Lutheran Church, Staten Island
Nov. 11 & 18, 7 p.m.
Wagner College Music Performance Center
Who in the Wagner
World Was …
Jonathan Acierno
• �Jazz Ensemble Fall Concert
Nov. 18, 3 p.m.
Main Hall Theater
• �Holiday Choral Concert
Dec. 2, 4 p.m.
Trinity Lutheran Church, Staten Island
• �Vocal Jazz Set
Dec. 4, 8 p.m.
Wagner College Music Performance Center
• �Fall Concert, Concert Band
Dec. 9, 3 p.m.
Main Hall Theater
Theater
• �Putting It Together
Oct. 3–6 & 10–14
Wagner College Main Stage
• �Spring Awakening
Oct. 9–14
Wagner College Stage One
• �Legally Blonde
Nov. 14–17 & Nov. 28–Dec. 2
Wagner College Main Stage
• �The School for Lies
Nov. 27–Dec. 2
Wagner College Stage One
• �Rent
Feb. 27–March 2 & March 6–10, 2013
Wagner College Main Stage
• �Five Women Wearing the Same Dress
March 5–10, 2013
Wagner College Stage One
• �Guys and Dolls
Apr. 24–27 & May 1–5, 2013
Wagner College Main Stage
• �The Dance Project
April 30–May 5, 2013
Wagner College Stage One
Please note that dates are subject to change.
For more information, registration, and tickets:
Admissions 800-221-1010 or 718-390-3411 • Alumni Relations 718-390-3224
Music Department 718-390-3313 • Theater Box Office 718-390-3259
A quiet, tree-lined lane that ends at
a peaceful lake now bears the memory
of the late Jonathan Acierno ’02. In
May, the Staten Island street where he
grew up, Overlook Terrace, was named
Jonathan M. Acierno Way in his memory.
Acierno died on January 18, 2010.
Alumni Link
• �Founders Day and Kaufman-Repage
• �Opera Workshop
He packed a lot of life into his short 29
years, despite suffering from epilepsy
and myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular
disorder. He was an inveterate volunteer
since childhood; organizations he
supported included the March of Dimes,
Habitat for Humanity, and the Knights
of Columbus. He taught children for
many years at his parish church, St.
Joseph’s, and helped organize a local
epilepsy support group. During his
Wagner student years, he was very active
on campus in the Newman Club, Club
Diversity, Student Ambassadors, and more.
According to his mother, Angela
Acierno, “If anyone would ask him for
help, his answer was always yes.” She
adds, “His life’s motto was, ‘It’s not
about disabilities, but our abilities and
what we do with them.’”
Contact Editor Laura Barlament at
laura.barlament@wagner.edu or 718390-3147 with suggestions for “Who
in the Wagner World Was …?”
s u m m e r
2012
33
�Wa g n e r
Alumni Link
Alumni Honors
The 2012 National Alumni Association Awards, given at Reunion Weekend
Evelyn Lindfors Spiro ’49 H’92
was named the John “Bunny”
Barbes ’39 and Lila T. Barbes
’40 Wagner Alumni Laureate.
A nursing graduate and
the namesake of Wagner’s
Evelyn L. Spiro School of
Nursing, she also helped establish the Wagner–
Johns Hopkins–Spiro internship program, which
allows Wagner nursing and science students to
spend summers at Johns Hopkins for research
and clinical education. The generous support
of Evelyn and her husband, Don Spiro ’49
H’88, has played a central role in the College’s
advancement.
Andy Cortese ’72 was named
Distinguished Graduate. An
accounting major, he is now
managing director and head
of global investment services
operations and technology
for AIG. His career path has also included
such prominent firms as Spectrum Investment
Group, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and
Chase Manhattan Bank. He is a member of the
Wagner Board of Trustees and a great supporter
of Wagner athletics.
Rosa Graziano ’88 was named
a Wagner Alumni Fellow in arts
administration. Inspired by
her Italian heritage and her
family’s Italian delicatessen
and catering business in
New Jersey, she launched
34
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Rosa’s Bella Cucina gourmet food truck in Los
Angeles nine years ago. Its success is highlighted
by high praise from the Food Network and
celebrities such as Jimmy Kimmel.
Mary Ellen Peters O’Brien ’54
was named a Wagner Alumni
Fellow in nursing. Having
earned a doctorate in
educational leadership, she
became a leader in nursing
education at Dekalb College
in Georgia, where she spent a total of 25 years,
included 10 as head of the nursing department.
Wanda Schweizer Praisner
’54 M’57 was named a Wagner
Alumni Fellow in education,
in honor of her 29 years as
a teacher. She is also an
accomplished poet, serving
as poet in residence for the
New Jersey State Council on the Arts; her third
book, Where the Dead Are, is forthcoming from
CavanKerry Press.
Kinsey Casey ’02 received
the Alumni Key, which
recognizes young alumni
of high achievement. She
currently serves as national
security director for the
White House’s Office of
Presidential Personnel, and previously she
provided advance travel support for Secretary of
Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
Rev. Richard Michael, former
Wagner chaplain, received
the Rev. Lyle Guttu Award.
He stepped into spiritual
leadership at Wagner after
the untimely death of
Chaplain Guttu. He has
also served congregations in Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, and Staten Island, and is committed to
Middle East peace and interfaith dialogue.
Rita B. King ’62 received the
Dr. Kevin Sheehy ’67 M’70 M’92
H’99 Alumni Leadership Medal.
She served six years on
the NAA board, including
two as president, and also
assists with Wagner’s career
development efforts for students.
Paul Hansen received the
Certificate of Appreciation
for his service on the Wagner
Planned Giving Advisory
Committee. The son of the
late Mary Louise Hansen,
longtime chair of Wagner’s
music department, he has helped Wagner
alumni make sound financial planning decisions
and helped build the Heritage Society, which
consists of individuals who have included
Wagner in their estate plans.
�Make a nomination for the
2013 NAA awards! Go to
www.wagner.edu/alumni/naa_awards
Deadline: October 26, 2012
�Reunion 2012
L I F E T I M E F R I E N D S H I P S Kimberly Simek ’07, Alexandra Jacobs ’07,
C O N T I N U I N G E D U C AT I O N Provost Lily D. M cNair, speakin g
A WA R M WA G N E R W E L C O M E Bi l l S o nstro m , Bi l l We hrl i ’53, and
C O U L D H AV E D A N C E D A L L N I G H T Ivonne Beauchamp ’ 05 a n d
F I F T Y Y E A R S O F C AT C H I N G U P Paul S arki si an ’62, Do nal d ’6 2 and
S P E C I A L S U P P O R T E R S K im Spiro (left), daug hter of 2 0 1 2
a nd Alison H ay ’ 0 7.
about t he M ain Hall restorat ion wor k.
Alumni Link
M elv in Hoo p e r ’ 7 2.
M aureen H u tc h i s o n ’ 6 1 M c L o u ghl i n.
P H OTO G R A P H S : V I N N I E A M E S S É
J oaquin Gonzalez-Nieves, Rober t and Bet sy E ber s ’5 8 Press.
Bar bes A lumni Laureate E velyn L. Spiro ’4 9 H’92 , and E velyn’s
g randson J onat han Spiro (c enter) wit h his wife, M eg an, wit h
President Richard and Car in Guarasci.
s u m m e r
2012
35
�1942
recently wrote
to Wagner Magazine to say that she
enjoyed the fall 2011 issue. She
lives in Pleasant Hill, Calif.
Edith Rayner Morison
1943
’45 sent us
the sad news that her husband, Dr.
David Annunziato, died on November
29, 2011, at the age of 90. She
writes, “He did a great deal during
his life to benefit children,” as a
pediatric physician on Long Island.
After graduating from Wagner
(where he met Ruth), earning his
medical degree at the Long Island
College of Medicine, and serving
in the Navy, he had a large private
practice in Massapequa Park until
1973. Then he started teaching full
time at Nassau County Medical
Center as director of ambulatory
pediatrics and director of pediatric
education. He was also a leader
with the American Academy of
Pediatrics on the local and national
levels. He received many awards,
including several from the Nassau
County March of Dimes and the
AAP’s prestigious Clifford G.
Grulee Award. Ruth was quoted
in the Amityville Record as saying,
Ruth Teichmann Annunziato
“He was a wonderful husband and
father. We always knew his patients
came first, but we lived with that
and appreciated it.”
1952
Thanks to Rev. George Handley ,
Wagner has heard that Rev.
George Guba died on March 1,
2011. George Handley noted,
“He and his wife, Anne, lived in
retirement in Binghamton, N.Y.
He was a 1955 graduate of the
Lutheran Theological Seminary
at Philadelphia and had served
parishes in Upstate New York
(Mohawk Valley, suburban Buffalo,
and Binghamton).”
1953
died on November 20,
2011; but before that, he wrote
a compilation of his Wagner
memories. They included the “pure
poetry” of Sonny Bosley ’s ’54 set shot,
running back Neil Leonard ’s “elusive
and magical explosiveness,” the
unforgettable performance of Joan
Campion as Lady Macbeth, singing
“On a Chinese Honeymoon” at
the Clover Club, and a few more
items. (The editor will send you the
manuscript upon request.) “The
Ted Klemens
’50s have been dubbed the dullest
decade,” he concluded. “Ho, ho,
that’s rich.” In his author’s note,
he wrote, “Ted Klemens ’53, a.k.a.
Théo Klemens, was a journalist
for 35 years; he now lives in South
Florida, concentrating, he says,
‘on doing as little as possible.’”
Rest in peace. Frank O’Leary sent
this update last November: “As I
approach my 85th year, I recall all
the classes I have taken in colleges
and universities throughout the
US and ask myself: Which class
gave me the most bang for the
buck? The answer has to be Solid
Analytical Geometry (SAG) taught
by Professor Weldon at Wagner
College in 1952. The Good Lord
must have known I would spend 15
years preparing Orbital Support
Plans, called OSPs, for military
spacecraft utilizing the Air Force
global tracking net. With SAG, a
National Geographic world globe,
wax pencil, compass, and a piece of
string, I could calculate most orbital
problems before the computers had
that capability in the 1960–70 time
frame.”
1960
published it in
March through
CreateSpace.
It is available
through Amazon
in print and
e-reader versions.
The novel deals
with US combat
infantrymen’s experiences in Korea
in 1950–51, a desperate period
when Chinese forces and the
harsh winter inflicted devastating
losses. The book’s characters are
composites of veterans Norman
knew when he served in the Navy
in the mid-1950s. Norman had
a career first in journalism, and
later in corporate public and
governmental relations. He lives
in Georgia.
1963
spent part of the
fall semester of 2010 teaching a
course in clinical pastoral education
in Hildesheim, Germany.
Charles Gravenstine
1964
retired from dentistry
at the end of 2011. He also
celebrated 20 years as organist at
Union Baptist Church in Mystic,
John E. Dreslin
’60 M’73 has written
his first novel, Ice, Fire, and Blood:
A Story of the Korean War, and he
Norman Black
Keep in Touch!
E-mail: alumni@wagner.edu
Publication policies:
class years of all alumni pictured; birth date, parents’ names,
Deadlines: This issue reflects news received by June 1.
and class years with photos of children; and dates and locations
Web: www.wagner.edu/alumni/
The submission deadline for the Fall 2012 issue is October 1.
of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos must be clear and of good
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Content: Wagner welcomes your news and updates, and we
will happily share them with the Wagner family. We ask that you
quality. Prints should be on glossy paper with no surface texture;
send us announcements of weddings, births, and graduations
they will be returned at your request (please attach your address
after the fact.
to the photo). Digital photos must be jpegs of at least 250 pixels
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner groups at weddings
per inch; low-resolution photos converted to a higher resolution
and other special events. With the photo, send the names and
are not acceptable.
Wagner College, 1 Campus Road,
Staten Island, NY 10301
36
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Conn. Joyce Holland Jauch , who received
her DDS at SUNY Buffalo in ’69,
sends this update: “After many
years in private practice with my
husband and raising four kids, Dave
passed away in October of 2010.
Our youngest, Bob, took over the
dental practice, managed by our
daughter, Mary. Jenna is a physician
assistant at Roswell Park, our local
cancer hospital, and David Jr. is a
chiropractor; we’re a very healthoriented family. While I occasionally
keep my finger on the pulse of
‘my’ dental practice and do Cone
Beam CAT scans for dental implant
patients, mostly I just enjoy life and
my kids and eight grandkids! (I love
to travel, as well!)” She lives in
Buffalo, N.Y.
Crib Notes
Classes of 2032 and 2033
Some of the newest faces
to join the Wagner family
1. Andy DiOrio ’95
and Natina Saitta
DiOrio ’96 M’98
1.
announce the birth
of their fourth
child, Carmela, on
August 12, 2011.
2. Connie-Jo Saitta
O’Neill ’98 M’00 and
1965
her husband, Fred,
welcomed Lily on
May 10, 2011.
Clifford Lish ,
who was a starting
running back for Wagner College,
was inducted into the Ramapo High
School Athletic Hall of Fame at a
dinner held in March. In high school,
he was a three-sport athlete (football,
basketball, and track). A halfback in
football, he led the Northern Bergen
Interscholastic League in scoring with
105 points in the 1960 season.
welcomed Alaina
Ruth on July 28,
2011.
3.
4. Melissa FerrariSantlofer ’99 M’02
and her husband,
Nathan, announce
the birth of
Caroline Rose on
January 11.
1968
has retired from public
health nursing and is “enjoying every
minute” of being the grandmother
of Zachary and Melena Rose Byars
in Boulder, Colo. Harold Kozak , an
adjunct professor in Wagner’s physics
department, and his wife, Robin,
celebrated the marriage of their son,
Alexander, to Megan Haggerty in
Baiting Hollow, N.Y., on May 5.
Alumni Link
3. Chad Moran ’99
M’01 and Pamela
Abrams Moran M’02
Christine M. Byars
5. Daniel Higgins ’05
2.
and his wife,
Regan, welcomed
Declan Rhys on
February 1.
4.
5.
1970
notes that
October 29, 2011, was the 100th
anniversary of the birth of her late
father, Rudolf Fridolin Ludwig ’34, who
passed away in 1993. Rudolf not only
graduated from college at Wagner, but
also from its high school division, in
1930, and he left Rebekah with many
great memories of Wagner as well as
stories about influential professors
and even a copy of the “Graduation
Song” he wrote in 1930. Rebekah
earned a BSN from the University
of Washington in 1988 and lives in
Everett, Wash.
Rebekah Ludwig Gibbons
We’d love to see your baby’s face.
Please see opposite page for publication guidelines.
s u m m e r
2012
37
�1972
was honored
at a special event on March 18
in his hometown of Montclair,
N.J., for his 22 years of organizing
the annual Montclair AfricanAmerican Heritage Parade
& Festival. Lonnie worked in
Montclair’s Department of Parks
and Recreation for many years,
serving as superintendant for 12
years and as director of parks,
recreation, and cultural affairs
from 1992 until his retirement.
Tom Houser returned to campus in
October 2011 for the reunion
of the 1971 football team. “We
had a great turnout,” he wrote,
“and raised $900 for the stadium
lighting fund.” He reported on a
few classmates who had long been
out of touch: “Mike Mazzarino ’73,
who played fullback and had not
been back to campus since May
of 1972, came up from Florida.
James Roper had not been back in
25 years. He drove five hours from
Rome, N.Y. John Toto ’73, who lives
in Staten Island, had not been on
campus in many years. He came
and had a ball.” Sharing this group
photo, he wrote, “The event was
a great success, and I encourage
other teams and groups to organize
an event.” Richard McMahon worked
with Wagner theater students to
stage a reading of his new play, 1.
White Wins?!?!, at Wagner’s Stage
One. The play explores science,
philosophy, religion, technology,
creativity, chess, and destiny. The
production featured eight student
actors and was directed by Paige
Strothmann ’12.
Alonzo “Lonnie” Brandon Jr.
Take a Walk Down
Memory Lane…
Wagner College Memories:
A Photographic Remembrance of Grymes Hill
in 99 Images, Past & Present
This 10-by-8-inch hardcover book contains 99 classic scenes,
from a panoramic view of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to the
Collegiate Gothic grandeur of Main Hall to winter’s snow-covered
calm. Available for $39.99 in the Wagner College Bookstore
To view the book online and
download a mail order form, go to
www.wagner.edu/newsroom/node/135
1971
We are sad to announce the
passing of Michele Connors Tellefsen ’71
M’74 on January 29. She served
as president of Alpha Delta Pi
at Wagner and of the sorority’s
Staten Island alumnae group for
many years. Fellow Alpha Delta Pi
sister Jean Gaise Swedberg ’64 spoke
at Michele’s funeral, noting that
the two became friends when Jean
1971 Football Team
Reunion,
October 2011
38
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
returned to Wagner as dean of
women. “Michele loved life and
loved people and she was a loyal
person,” said Jean. “Two of the
organizations she cared about were
Wagner College and Alpha Delta
Pi.” The Michele Connors Tellefsen
– Alpha Delta Pi Leadership
Award will be given annually in her
memory.
1975
Pete Knudsen wrote
of former
National Alumni Association board
member Howard Graeffe , who died on
February 8, “At Wagner, Howard
was the consummate organizer. He
conceived of and led the formation
of the Helen Surgan / Project
Hope Walk-a-Thon, which raised
over $10,000 to benefit Wagner and
Project Hope. These skills carried
over to his career as a business
leader. After acquiring a small
division of a real estate development
company, he grew the business into
a major force in the Greater Lehigh
Valley real estate industry. He was an
active participant in civic, political,
and religious organizations. Howard is
a perfect example of how you can live
both a good life and a successful life.”
1979
Helen Hunter Voysey sent
this update:
“After a nice tenure as a biology
teacher in New Rochelle, N.Y.,
I decided to move to Arizona to
finish off my years as a teacher in
relative peace. Little did I know
that I would become the chair of
the science department at Rincon
High School in Tucson. My two sons
are grown and leading academic lives
at their respective universities, and
I am thoroughly enjoying my life in
the desert. Who would have thought
the Peace Corps would ultimate lead
to this!” Helen says that Tucson’s
topography reminds her of West
Africa’s; she did her Peace Corps
service in Togo, where she taught
biosciences, geology, agriculture, and
art. Speaking about her move from
New Rochelle’s schools to Arizona’s,
she says, “Hopefully I’ll be able to
make a difference here as well!”
1980
was given the Award of
Excellence in September 2011 by
the Society for News Design for
her July 4, 2010, front-page design
of the Staten Island Advance, where
she is the associate managing editor.
Claire also continues to teach
journalism at Wagner College.
Claire Regan
1981
and her daughter,
Kristen, are part of the Angelic
Ensemble, which provides vocal and
instrumental music for weddings,
funerals, and special events. They
were featured in the Staten Island
Advance on April 25. Learn more at
their website, Angelicensemble.com.
Sally Kaelber
�Knot Notes
Wagner Weddings
Celebrating new commitments
Rose Moser ’05 and Edward Mackel
’05 married on November 5,
2011, at the Swan Club in Long
Island, N.Y. Pictured are fellow
Wagner alumni who celebrated
with them: Peri Anderson ’04,
Bridget Herrmann ’05, Tea Saiti ’05,
Arlene Pierret ’06, Venus Roman ’05,
Jamie Parreco ’04, Christine Frost
’05, John Parreco ’05, John Monahan
’07, Alex Moore ’05, Pat Greaney
’05, Cole Williams-Ficarra ’05, and
Joshua Elmore ’06 M’07.
Alumni Link
At her wedding to Matthew
Giammarinaro last September,
Nicole Filippazzo ’07 celebrated
with Dana Kennedy ’07, Erin Stoms
Fenton ’07, Kimberly Simek ’07,
and Jenn Lemoncelli Gitto ’07
M’08.
At her wedding to Michael
McEachern last November, Kara
Plant ’06 celebrated with Susan
Schobel ’06, Allison Baucom Figley
’06, Justin DiSanto ’06, and Sarah
Shaker ’06.
Have a wedding photo with “Wagner family”? Please see page 36 for publication guidelines.
s u m m e r
2012
39
�UNCOMMON LIVES
Tiana Kalba Kostic ’06
She Can Tell If You’re Lying
CLAIM TO FAME: In Connecticut, convicted sex offenders are on
probation for at least 10 years after serving time. Tiana Kalba Kostic
’06 is one of the people making sure these ex-cons comply with the
terms of their probation. A certified forensic psychophysiologist and
polygraph examiner, she questions them about their past crimes, sexual
history, and current behavior — while a polygraph machine records blood
pressure, breathing, sweating, and other physical reactions that indicate
the truthfulness of their responses.
TV BECOMES REALITY: When she was about 14 years old, Kostic
discovered a Court TV show about Dayle Hinman, an FBI criminal
profiler. She was hooked. She studied psychology at Wagner, then
earned her master’s in forensic psychology at the John Jay College of
Criminal Justice, followed by certification in the psychophysiology of the
detection of deception.
LIAR LIAR: How can the layperson, who does not have the advantage of
using a polygraph (a machine, Kostic notes, that is 98 percent accurate),
detect deception in everyday life? Kostic offers two easy tips: Women
tend to touch the back of their neck if they are feeling tension; men
often touch their nose if they’re trying to hide something.
EVERYDAY PEOPLE: Kostic confronts a lot of very tough stuff on her job,
but she loves it. “Every day I get to hear a story,” she says — all kinds
of stories. “You wouldn’t be able to pick a sex offender out of a crowd.
They’re just everyday people. I test 18-year-old boys, I test 65-yearold men, I test poor people, I test millionaires who live in a mansion in
Fairfield. There’s no one set characteristic of a sex offender.”
FACING THE DARKNESS: The key, she says, is not taking what she hears
personally. And it can get very personal: “One time an offender told me
I was just his type, because he went after 25-year-old women, brown
hair, blue eyes. ... But I can’t get offended by that. He was just making a
statement.” Her job is to keep listening, keep watching — and to ask the
next question.
40
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H : B O B H A N D E L M A N
�1982
returned to Wagner as
associate head coach for Seahawks
football. He was a star defensive back at
Wagner, and went on to coach at nine
institutions, most recently Fordham.
Tom Masella
1990
has come a long way, from
coaching high school junior varsity
on Staten Island to coaching full-time
football pros. He left Purdue University
in February after eight years as the
defensive backs coach, to perform
the same role for the NFL’s Miami
Dolphins. Robert Rams , a band director
at Staten Island Technical High School,
will lead the Wagner College concert
band starting in the fall. The ensemble
includes Wagner students and alumni as
well as community members of all ages.
Lou Anarumo
and Natina Saitta DiOrio ’96 M’98
welcomed their fourth child, Carmela
DiOrio, on August 12, 2011. See Crib
Notes, page 37, for a photo. Steven Lowell
shared his professional expertise with
Wagner theater students in April by
holding a workshop about the voiceover
business. Steven has a blog for the
voiceover community, voicethedream.
com, and is community manager of the
voice casting service Voice123.
Andy DiOrio
1996
Natina Saitta DiOrio ’96 M’98 and Andy
DiOrio ’95 welcomed their fourth child,
Carmela, on August 12, 2011. See Crib
Notes, page 37, for a photo.
1997
was honored for her tireless
work for the LGBT community by
Staten Island Pride Events at the Gay
St. Patrick’s dinner dance on March
10. Gail has served on the board
of Community Health Action of
Staten Island and volunteered for the
Seaman’s Society for Children. The
former director of alumni relations at
Wagner, she is currently the director
of development at the Alice Austen
House on Staten Island. Kelley Mitchell
received accolades for being makeup
department head of the TV show
Glee. In an interview with Allure.com’s
beauty trends blog in January, she said,
Gail Kelley
Alumni Events
Wagnerians getting together across the country
Winter on the Hill, on February 11,
brought together 125 alumni and friends
— including Beth Cruz ’71 and Lorraine
McNeill-Popper ’78, pictured here — for
an afternoon of men’s and women’s
basketball. On March 1 and 4, 150 alumni
and friends returned to Spiro Sports
Center to watch the men’s basketball team
in the quarterfinals and semifinals of the
Northeast Conference Tournament.
On April 19, 15 graduates of the last
decade joined Joel Richardson ’02 M’07
at the Staten Island Comedy Festival for
an evening of laughing, networking, and
brainstorming for future events geared
toward 2001–11 graduates.
Lily McNair, provost and vice president
for academic affairs, met with 19 alumni
and friends on April 11 for a reception at
the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek
in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. She also
hosted an event for African-American
alumni at her home on May 5, attended
by 17 alumni who graduated between 1970
and 2005. Pictured here: Rodd Murphy ’81,
Marilyn Jackson ’73, Daymon Yizar ’82 and
Wendy DeShong-Neuhalfen ’83, with Lily
McNair front and center.
Alumni Link
1995
Seahawk Happenings
Thanks to the hospitality of Neil and
Alyce Robertson, parents of Katherine
Robertson ’15, we hosted an event on
February 21 in Miami, attended by
18 alumni, parents, and friends. We
then headed to Longboat Key, Florida,
on February 24 for a reception with
75 alumni and friends, welcomed by
President Richard and Carin Guarasci,
Lily McNair, and members of the
Board of Trustees and National Alumni
Association Board.
On May 18, some of our newest Golden
Seahawks — Janet Haffin Rice ’62, William
Schmitz ’62, Cynthia de Heyman Spry ’62 ’78
M’82, and Robert Straniere ’62 — led the
academic procession at Commencement.
More than 100 legacy graduates, along
with their families, gathered prior to
Commencement for a celebration in
Reynolds House (formerly North Hall).
To stay informed of upcoming events in your area visit www.wagner.edu/alumni.
s u m m e r
2012
41
�his certification in teaching English as
a foreign language, in preparation for
teaching abroad or rejoining the Peace
Corps to volunteer in a different country.
Moskaluk served in the Republic of
Albania from March 2009 until May 2011.
Alex Moskaluk (right)
with an Albanian student,
Natasha Lushi; their shirts
say, “I am the change.”
small community of 5,000 north of the
capital city, Tirana; and another year
in Durres (population 220,000) on the
The Toughest Job They Ever Loved
Adriatic coast.
Kevin Burke ’09 and Alexandra Moskaluk ’08 both
In Fushë-Krujë, she organized a Girls Critical
returned to Wagner during the past academic year to
Thinking Club with high school students and helped a
speak about their experiences as recent Peace Corps
women’s artisan group learn marketing skills. In Durres,
volunteers.
she helped a local group conduct campaigns against
Burke served in Stepnogorsk, Kazakhstan, a town
domestic violence, human rights awareness activities,
several hours’ drive north of the new capital of Astana,
youth development projects, and other social services.
from August 2010 until late November 2011. “My primary
She was also a part of the Peace Corps’ Anti-Trafficking
assignment was working at a youth center,” he reports.
in Persons Committee and the Outdoor Ambassadors
“I also worked at a center for disabled young adults,
Committee.
worked in local schools developing volunteer projects for
the schools and town, taught English at a local college,
opportunities she had to travel around the Balkans,
and coached basketball.” His time in Kazakhstan ended
Turkey, and Southeast Asia. In addition, she says, “My
early when the Peace Corps decided to withdraw from
Peace Corps experience allowed me to clarify my
its operations there.
interests and goals.” After returning home to Boston,
she began a second bachelor’s degree to become a
Kevin’s presentation at Wagner included historical
She loved her Peace Corps work and the
tidbits (the apple and the domesticated horse originated
registered nurse. She also serves on the board of Friends
in Kazakhstan), cultural tips (don’t mention the movie
of Albania (friendsofalbania.net), a nonprofit that
Borat in association with Kazakhstan), and a description
provides small grants to Albanian organizations working
of bathing in a traditional sauna, or banya. On his Peace
with Peace Corps volunteers.
Corps service, he commented, “I can’t imagine anything
more difficult than this, but I can’t imagine anything
Peace Corps; reach her by emailing laura.barlament@
I’ll love more.” For the future, he is planning to work on
wagner.edu.
“It’s probably the best job I’ve ever
had. I’ve been here since the pilot,
so I knew all these guys before they
were famous. I just adore them all.”
1998
Connie-Jo Saitta O’Neill ’98
M’00 and
Fred O’Neill announce the birth of
Lily O’Neill on May 10, 2011. See
Crib Notes, page 37, for a photo.
42
She lived for one year in Fushë-Krujë, a
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
1999
Moskaluk welcomes questions about the
Melissa Ferrari-Santlofer ’99 M’02
and
Nathan Santlofer announce the
birth of their first child, Caroline
Rose, on January 11, 2012. Chad
Moran ’99 M’01 and Pamela Abrams
Moran M’02 welcomed Alaina Ruth
on July 28, 2011; her big brother,
Logan, was born on November 12,
2008. See Crib Notes, page 37, for
pictures of Caroline Rose and Alaina
Ruth.
2002
Pamela Abrams Moran M’02 and Chad
Moran ’99 M’01 welcomed Alaina
Ruth on July 28, 2011. See Crib
Notes, page 37, for a photo. Christina
DeCicco Sisko is the alternate for
the starring role of Eva Perón in
the Broadway revival of Tim Rice
and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita
at the Marquis Theatre, which
began previews on March 12
and officially opened on April 5.
Christina performs on Wednesday
evenings and Saturday matinees.
Daryn Plummer was named the head
basketball coach at Franklin High
School in Franklin Township, N.J.,
last fall. He spent the previous two
seasons as Franklin’s junior varsity
coach. Daryn was a two-time AllAmerican for Seahawks football and
played two years of basketball as
well. Joel Richardson ’02 M’08, a.k.a.
“Soul Joel,” and his business partner,
Scott Chamberlin M’07, organized the
fifth annual Staten Island comedy
festival in April. Last year, Joel
even got a mayoral proclamation
for Staten Island Comedy Festival
Week.
2005
Nicholas Fernandez ,
who has
completed his third year at St.
Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers,
N.Y., went on a pilgrimage last
summer to the Holy Land and
then to Rome, a trip sponsored by
the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher.
The experience made him “more
conscious of faith,” Nick told
the Dunwoodian, the seminary
newsletter. Daniel Higgins is happy
to announce that he and his wife,
Regan, welcomed their second child
on February 1, 2012. “His name
is Declan Rhys Higgins,” Daniel
writes, “and is tied for the cutest
kid ever with his older brother,
Liam.” Daniel suggests saving a
spot for him in the class of 2034.
See Crib Notes, page 37, for a photo.
Alex Lojo ’05 M’07 left his job with
the Office of External Programs
at Wagner, where he managed
Wagner’s film appearances among
other duties, in April to become
events manager for the Office of
Community Affairs and Patient
Relations at Maimonides Hospital
in Brooklyn. Rose Moser and Edward
Mackel married on November 5,
2011, at the Swan Club in Long
Island, N.Y. They met at Wagner
during their freshman year,
developed a friendship, and started
dating in their senior year. Rose and
Edward live in Sunnyside, Queens,
and both work in Manhattan.
Thirteen other Wagner alumni
participated in their wedding; see Knot
Notes, page 39, for a photo. Ashley Voss
’05 M’07 married Robert J. Miller
�on July 1, 2011, at Our Lady Help
of Christians Church in Tottenville,
Staten Island. Her wedding party
included matron of honor Tina
DeMeo DiGrigoli ’05 M’06, maid of
honor Kerry Jaeger , and bridesmaids
Denielle Diodato Albanese ’06 M’07 and
Katherine Strafer ’03. Ashley teaches
third-grade special education at
Public School 4 in Arden Heights,
Staten Island.
sound,” she told the Staten Island
Advance. “It still has that old-school
feeling, but it’s more radio-friendly
pop with an intellectual folk twist.”
It is available through all online
outlets. Timothy Marino and Christine
Statile ’06 M’08 married at Our
Lady Queen of Peace Roman
Catholic Church in Staten Island
on November 11, 2011. Kara Plant
married Michael McEachern
on November 12, 2011, at the
Taunton Holiday Inn in Taunton,
Mass. See a photo with fellow
Wagnerians on page 39.
2007
Chris Allen earned
2006
Domenic Reno M’08,
who served as
Wagner’s strength and conditioning
coach from 2004 to 2009,
became the assistant strength and
conditioning coach for the New
York Giants in July 2011. That
brought him to the 2012 Super
Bowl opposite another former
Wagner athletic staff member,
Patrick Graham M’03; he was an
assistant coach at Wagner from
2002 to 2003, and now is the
linebackers coach for the New
England Patriots.
2009
Robert Geronimo was
featured in the
Staten Island Advance in February
for his excellence in comic book
art. He is pursuing a classical art
education, earning a master’s in
art history from Brooklyn College,
and also working on comic book
assignments for Moonstone Books
and Boulevard Books. He also
established Ascalon Press and is
working on Tales from the Grim
for that imprint, and he teaches
two popular classes for children
and teens at the Snug Harbor
Cultural Center on Staten Island.
Johanna Sambucini ’09 M’12 was
crowned Miss New York 2012 on
January 15 at the Purchase College
Performing Arts Center, and on
June 3 she represented New York
in the Miss USA 2012 pageant. She
has promoted many philanthropic
causes such as Autism Speaks, an
organization dedicated to increasing
the quality of life for individuals
living with autism.
2010
Amy L. Blaszkow joined
the firm
CMJ, LLP, in Queensbury, N.Y.,
as an associate in the accounting,
assurance, and advisory department.
She lives in Lake Luzerne, N.Y.
Nicole Malliotakis M’10, Republican
New York Assemblywoman
representing parts of Staten Island
and Brooklyn, was named one of
the “40 Under 40 Rising Latino
Stars” by the Hispanic Coalition of
New York. Nicole is the first person
of Hispanic descent to be elected
on Staten Island and, at age 31, is
the borough’s youngest elected
official. Meeghan Rogers is working
for Clear Channel Outdoor, New
York Division’s finance team. Harry
Coghlan ’87 is president and general
manager of this division.
2011
Christina Angeli is
a new program
manager in Wagner’s Office of
External and Summer Programs.
She previously worked part time
in Wagner’s development office as
the phone program coordinator. Kyle
Glover was featured in the Whyalla
News of Whyalla, Australia, in
January, while he did a threemonth internship with the Centre
for Rural Health and Community
Development at the University
of South Australia. Carly Lyster was
named the coach of the new girls’
lacrosse team at St. Joseph-by-theSea High School in Staten Island.
Marcie Klebanow M’11 was named
assistant soccer coach at Ball State
University in Muncie, Ind.
Alumni Link
was traded from the
Oakland A’s to the Boston Red Sox
as a closing pitcher, but surgery
for a thumb ligament in April
was expected to keep him out of
the game for much of the season.
Philip John DePaul and Janine Lynn Psillos
married on August 13 at Our
Lady of Mercy Roman Catholic
Church in Hicksville, Long Island.
Janine earned an M.S. in counselor
education from Queens College
and is a special education teacher
at Public School 165 in Queens.
Philip is the director of operations
with Coastal Plumbing Supply in
Staten Island. The couple lives in
Massapequa, Long Island. Christina
LaRocca released her solo album,
I Stand Tall With My Eyes Wide
Open, last fall. “It’s Rihanna meets
KT Tunstall with a heavier R&B
Andrew Bailey
his tenure and
is in his fourth year of teaching
special education at P.S. 57 in Park
Hill, Staten Island. He also works
for a DJ/production company and
provided services for Wagner’s
Songfest 2012. Nicole Filippazzo
married Matthew Giammarinaro
on September 30, 2011, at the
Smithtown Landing Country Club
in Smithtown, N.Y. See a photo of
Wagnerians celebrating on page 39.
Justyna Czekaj (she changed her name
from Surowiec to her mother’s
maiden name) spoke at Wagner last
fall in an alumni panel about living
and working abroad. She worked in
Sydney, Australia, for a year and a
half, in investment real estate and
venture funding. She returned to
New York City last summer and
works as a social media marketing
strategist for a human resources
consulting firm, Partners in Human
Resources International. She also
received her real estate license and
started working as a real estate
agent with Keller Williams NYC.
“It’s something I love and am so
passionate about,” she says.
2008
AN OLD FRIEND NEEDS YOUR HELP
W
agner’s multi-million-dollar restoration of Main Hall
will secure this historic building, so that it can
continue to provide generations of Wagner students with
memories to cherish and learning to last a lifetime.
You can be a part of it. Give to the Main Hall restoration
project, to Wagner’s most urgent needs, or to another area
of your choice through the 2011–12 Annual Fund.
1-888-231-2252 • www.wagner.edu/give_now
s u m m e r
2012
43
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Alumni
Mrs. Elaine Comeforo Iaciofoli ’38
Mr. George C. Rapport ’39
Mrs. Eunice King Jackson ’40
Mrs. Evelyn Ohr Phelan ’41
Mrs. Eleanore Schmidt Schweppe ’41
Rev. Kenneth G. Drescher ’42
Mr. Harry Hustedt ’42
Mrs. Minnette L. Waters Kundtz ’42
Mr. Charles A. McCarthy ’42
Dr. David Annunziato ’43
Chaplain Theodore C. Herrmann ’44
Ms. Isabelle J. Maiorano ’44
Mrs. Caroline Muller Reissig ’44
Mr. Robert Borstel ’45
Rev. Walter Kortrey ’45
Mrs. Catherine Yarger Messersmith ’45
Mr. John W. Mentha ’46
Mrs. Winifred DeNyse Mueller ’47
Mrs. Faye Reiman Ferretti ’48 M’60
Mrs. Elisabeth Hintermeister Johnson ’48
Dr. John R. Randall ’48
Mr. Bert H. Castens ’49
Mrs. Harriet Steinberg Grover ’49
Mr. Arthur H. Michel ’49
Mr. Edmond A. DeSantis ’50
Mr. Glenn Macdonald ’50
Mr. Philip D. Pflaum ’50 M’54
Mrs. Dorothy A. Bothwell Hahn ’51
Mr. Charles W. Keller ’51
Mr. Charles E. Klaus ’51
Mr. George Hamilton Oberle Sr. ’51
Dr. Alfred E. Birkelund ’52
Rev. George Guba ’52
Mr. Harold L. Kajellen ’52
Mr. Gerard P. Reagan ’52
Mr. Robert Bensen ’53
Mr. Ted Klemens ’53
Mr. Jerome Levine ’53
Mr. Sylvester Barricella ’54
Mrs. Alice Passano Graves ’54
Mr. Bernard M. Katz ’55
Mr. Richard C. Stevens ’55
Mr. George P. Prill ’56
Mrs. Dorothy Hoeppner Reardon ’56
Mr. William F. Weiszmiller ’56
Mrs. Nordelle Robinson Kelly ’57
Mr. Ronald E. Corey ’58
Mrs. Doris Fry-Corbin ’58 M’63
Mr. Burbridge J. Harden M’58
Ms. Patricia Durrwang ’60
Mr. William E. O’Mara ’60
Mr. Joseph A. Caterina M’61
Mr. Robert J. Meehan ’61
Mr. Harry A. Russell ’61
Mr. Bert W. Samuelson ’61 M’71
Mr. Leon E. Molokie ’62
Mrs. Mae Newton-Davis ’62
Ms. Judith S. Kampmeyer Zanger ’63 M’75
Mr. James W. Morio ’64
Mr. Vincent T. Riccordella ’64
Mr. H. Leonhart Beyfuss ’65 M’67
Rev. George B. Brunjes ’65
Mrs. Edna R. Cositore ’66 M’71
Mr. Paul W. Manzini ’67
Mr. Raymond Goldfinger M’68
Mr. Benjamin Lambert ’69
Mr. Paul Polifrone ’69
Mr. Ugo F. Caruso M’70
Mr. Hampton R. Hill ’70
Mrs. Michele Connors Tellefsen ’71 M’74
Mr. Wayne R. Hengstenberg ’72
Mr. Rudolph Skvorec M’72
Mrs. Shirley Sinkler Bowman ’73
Rev. Richard A. Scheu ’73
Mr. Howard G. Graeffe ’75
Mrs. Mary O’Connor Harris ’76 M’80
Mr. Donald D. Hancox ’77
Mrs. Louise D. Petosa M’77
Dr. Alfred W. Murdock III ’78
Mrs. Karen Zmoos Griffin ’79
Mr. Matthew Falco Jr. ’80
Ms. Lynn-Rachel Ary ’81
Ms. Diane Pillersdorf M’84
Mr. Ronald J. Tillman ’12
Faculty, Staff,
and Friends
Mr. Larry Geracioti
Dr. David E. Long
Dr. Marguerite B. White
Faculty Remembrance
Professor Marguerite B. White
Former nursing professor was an expert in
nursing education
Marguerite B. White , Wagner professor of nursing from 1957 to 1970, died on November 28,
2011, at her home in Heritage Village, Connecticut. She was 96. She earned her B.S. in nursing
from Skidmore College, her M.S. in nursing education from Syracuse University, and her Ed.D.
in nursing education from Columbia Teachers College. After teaching at Wagner, she became
an associate dean of the University of Connecticut School of Nursing. Her published work
included Curriculum Development from a Nursing Model: The Crisis Theory Framework (1983).
She was predeceased by her husband, Willard White, and is survived by her daughters, Ellen White Jeffrey ’63 and Elizabeth White Fox ’69, as well as
three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
44
Deaths reported to Wagner College, October 18, 2011–June 6, 2012
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Beyond the Storm
A year in Bregenz By Terry Baker Mulligan ’66
Wa g n e r
Reflections
I
t was September 24, 1964, as I stepped onto the gangway of
the Queen Elizabeth to begin my journey to Wagner College’s
campus in Bregenz, Austria. I was ambivalent about going. No
one I knew well had applied to the program, and I didn’t want
to leave my boyfriend; plus, I was nagged by the knowledge that
my Jewish friends from high school wouldn’t go anywhere near
Germany — or Austria.
Like me, the world was in turmoil that year. The American
South was exploding over civil rights, Vietnam was on the verge
of disintegrating into a bloody quagmire, we were locked in a Cold
War with the Soviets, and Castro had a firm grip on Cuba. So, as
I boarded the ship, I vowed to come home in a few weeks if this
turned out to be a mistake.
But, like my fellow students, I
was immediately intrigued. After the
lifeboat drill, we raced around the ship.
On our first night at sea, we ran into a
storm that packed a wallop. Around 2
a.m., as the ship pitched and rolled, a
china cabinet down the hall from our stateroom tipped over and
crashed. At breakfast, my roommate and I were among the few
to appear — amazingly, we weren’t seasick. Around the empty
dining room, waiters doused the tablecloths with pitchers of water
to keep the dishes and silverware from sliding off.
Four days later, the ship sailed into Cherbourg. After two
nights in Paris, we headed on to Bregenz. Motoring past snowcapped mountains and soaring emerald hillsides where billy goats
magically clung to the earth at 45-degree angles, I was enthralled.
Bregenz is a picture-postcard town, nestled between the Alps and
the Bodensee, one of world’s largest lakes. The old part of town
dates back to the 14th century. Like all of Europe, Bregenz had
endured hardships during World War II, so residents were used to
doing without central heating, or using shredded newspaper when
toilet paper ran out. People called me “die Schwarze” — “the black
girl” — but not unkindly. Old ladies shook their heads disgustedly
at the knee socks we wore with our skirts — not warm enough.
P H OTO G R A P H : E R I K U N H J E M
My world and its
worries receded as I
opened my eyes on a new
world. I traveled all over
Europe, often hitchhiking.
I went to Fasching (Mardi
Gras) parties on Pfander Mountain; skied at St. Moritz, staying in
a youth hostel; and hung out in Biergärten.
Before going abroad, I remember telling my Wagner music
professor that the readings in his class complemented my world
history text. He responded, “You’re seeing the interconnections of
an education; you’ll make those associations again and again.”
What he said came true during my year abroad. I stood two
feet from the Mona Lisa, saw where Michelangelo painted, and
was encircled by pigeons on St. Mark’s Square, an inspiration for
Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. What was there not to like about
Bregenz? I happily stayed the year. And as for that boyfriend I
didn’t want to leave — today I couldn’t even tell you his name.
Like me, the world was
in turmoil that year.
“
“
Terry Baker Mulligan ’66 is the author of a memoir, Sugar Hill:
Where the Sun Rose Over Harlem (Impulse Press, 2012). She lives
in St. Louis, Missouri.
s u m m e r
2012
45
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
OH, THE PLACES THEY’LL GO
Alpha Sigma Alpha won third place in this year’s Songfest
for their routine, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go ‘In Toyland.’” The
annual contest, a longtime Wagner student tradition, pits
Greek organizations and other student groups against each
other in a much-anticipated dance spectacular. What are
your favorite Songfest memories?
P H OTO G R A P H : A N NA M U L É
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Summer 2012
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/04f8f8641c297341859085aa0dc1fcca.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=D0YkvCzvs82QeJdufkTewcUix3OCsEwPkbIaYFl9Ziomzcpkg1QvJfJcQkDeVcrOWvmWnApuMM1XQex28fUQlYyl8AEmADyvzE0jQqwS3MOxvRfdVZGpOEu4CDYPWVLlM1P%7EE849iXa42ocZAcqE-XxEyNs4tqJaTlVbdeqGiMqY70Ags5tkEcNAcq7clcrFNAHkH11cTFFwboI0ATw9YGyBAtAi2NKttyJz605VcKJ8lNyb-dHdIvzKJ4shjSBGYs02n2o2gJZQhhfzSZrfYs7IBQrjJG3vYVJNifITlaCIJ9srMLVCL-c1c2fP9yT5svAaFzCgewOyNq-m%7EKrx9A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
abc1d527a81c8e8a57219d15ef53358c
PDF Text
Text
Fearless
Claire Mintzer Fagin ’48 H’93
Doesn’t Take ‘No’ for an Answer
Built to Last: The Horrmann Library at 50 • Germfighter: Vincent Fischetti ’62 H’10
�Contents
Wagner Magazine Fall 2011
vol.9,no.2
departments
2
From the President
3
From the Editor
4
From Our Readers
6
Upon the Hill
32
Sports Roundup
34
Alumni Link
44
In Memoriam
45
Reflection
Sight Unseen
For the first time in more than 80 years, Main Hall (or, to
an earlier generation, the Ad Building) is offline this year
while undergoing a major exterior restoration. A new roof,
windows, mortar, brickwork, and ornamentation promise
to secure this architectural landmark for 80 years to come.
P H OTO G R A P H : P E T E BY RO N
F e a t u r e s
38 Class Notes
12
Built to Last
How the Horrmann Library
came to be 50 years ago, and
how it keeps thriving in the
information technology age.
�18
Fearless
A lifetime of nursing, caring,
and defying authority led
Claire Mintzer Fagin ’48 H’93
to Ivy League leadership.
24
Germfighter
In the war on microbes, Vincent
Fischetti ’62 H’10 points the
way forward, with potentially
life-saving discoveries.
�From the President
Restoring a campus icon, celebrating student success
It is late fall on Grymes Hill,
and soon many of us will be
headed to holiday celebrations
with family and friends. As I
prepare to do the same, I have
been spending much time
tending to the many renovation
A national
and repair projects that we are
survey reveals the
undertaking here on campus.
None of these is more visible
effectiveness of the
than the work we are doing
Wagner Plan.
on Main Hall. The beloved
architectural icon of Wagner College, Main Hall has served
our students, faculty, and staff for
more than eight decades. But, for
some time, it has been in need of
care and attention. Earlier this year,
I gave the approval to begin the
work to restore this campus symbol
to its former elegance, security, and
soundness. Once we have restored
the integrity of the building, and it
is again weather- and waterproof,
we can begin in earnest to consider
the restoration of the interior.
I think we will all be pleased with the result of the work
once it is complete. Please consider participating in this
year’s annual fund, which will be used, in part, to support
this project. (Read more, page 7.)
Securing a building like Main Hall helps us to continue
the most important work that we do here: providing a solid
start to the young men and women who come to Wagner.
Recently, I received more evidence that the Wagner Plan,
our innovative curriculum, equips our students with just
that kind of preparation.
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
2
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
collects information about student learning and personal
development at hundreds of colleges and universities.
What we have found most useful about NSSE is the
opportunity to compare our students’ performance with
those in peer groups. Not surprisingly, Wagner students
placed significantly higher than other students in the
comparison groups.
Wagner students outperformed national averages
in four NSSE benchmark categories: level of academic
challenge, active and collaborative learning, studentfaculty interaction, and enriching educational experiences.
Drilling down into these benchmarks, we see that our
students outscored comparison groups in areas that
include participation in community projects, working on
research with a faculty member outside of a course (by a
large margin), performing community service or volunteer
work, and completing a practicum, internship, or clinical
assignment.
Such results are not only gratifying and encouraging,
but additional proof that the Wagner Plan is an effective
curriculum that prepares students for the world.
I invite you back to campus to visit with our incredible
students, and to see the work we are doing. I wish you
the best for a wonderful holiday season and a very happy,
healthy, and productive new year.
richard guarasci
president
�From the Editor
L
Wagner’s part in a ‘rare success story’
ast year in The New
Yorker magazine, James
Surowiecki wrote about several
recent national crises that were
“abetted by inept regulation.”
Failure of oversight by the
Minerals Management Service,
for example, contributed to the
BP oil disaster in the Gulf of
Mexico, and the Securities and
Exchange Commission failed
to spot the frauds committed
by Enron, WorldCom, and
Bernie Madoff.
In contrast, Surowiecki
wrote, the Food and Drug
Administration is “a rare
success story.” The FDA’s
pristine reputation has not
only enhanced its authority
with industries it regulates, but
also has helped those industries
prosper. “The pharmaceutical
industry, for instance, would
be much smaller if people
were seriously worried that
they might be poisoned every
time they took a new drug,”
Surowiecki noted.
This article caught my
eye because I had recently
heard a Wagner alumnus
speak with heartfelt passion
about his work for the FDA.
Pharmaceutical microbiologist
Dennis Guilfoyle M’82 is an
International
FDA Expert,
working out
of the agency’s
Northeast
Regional
Laboratory.
He has done
more than 150 inspections of
pharmaceutical and medicaldevice manufacturing plants.
“On an inspection, I start
from a very visceral spot. I
visualize that [the product] is
going to be used by someone
that I love,” he said. “To find
a pathogen before it hurts
someone is very satisfying.”
Guilfoyle is part of a
Wagner tradition at the
Northeast Regional Lab. Many
alumni have worked there;
currently, Kent Hermann
’95 M’98 is the lab’s deputy
director, and Jennifer Tantillo
Canale ’96 and Laura
Schankweiler Howard ’92
work there as microbiologists.
They are all helping to detect
various harmful pollutants
and microbes in foods,
drugs, cosmetics, and
other products sold
to Americans, and
to verify that these
products do and are
what the manufacturers
say they do and are.
Wagnerians should
be proud that so many of
its graduates have found
professional success in this
important arena of public
service. You can also be proud
of the College’s program in
microbiology (read more, page
27), which gives students a
solid knowledge base — and,
just as importantly, the ethical
commitments that our country
sorely needs.
Laura Barlament
editor,
wagner magazine
On the Cover
Claire Mintzer Fagin ’48 H’93 defied her parents’ wishes to attend
Wagner College and become a nurse, then upended common hospital
practices, reshaped nursing education, and became the first woman to
serve as president of an Ivy League university.
Photograph: DEBORAH FEINGOLD
fa l l
2011
3
fa l l
2010
3
�From Our Readers
“
Professor Kershaw
believed in me and gave
me the opportunity
to prove myself.
In the last issue of Wagner
Magazine, there was a piece in
the Class Notes about a publication that I
am editing which
will focus on
laboratory-based
communicable disease surveillance globally. I am very proud
of this work and look forward
to its completion. It was with
sadness that I learned in the
same issue of Wagner Magazine
about the passing of Professor
Edythe Kershaw Larson. Professor Kershaw was chair of the
Department of Bacteriology
and Public Health at Wagner
in 1969. When I applied to
Wagner that year, my undergraduate academic record was
less than stellar, but Professor
Kershaw believed in me and
gave me the opportunity to
4
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Burton W. Wilcke Jr. M’71
Associate Professor and Chair,
Department of Medical Laboratory
and Radiation Sciences,
University of Vermont
It is with heartfelt sadness that I read of the passing
of Professor Edythe Kershaw
Larson. I first met Dr. Kershaw
when I enrolled at Wagner
College in 1966, when she and
“
Tributes to a
Professor Who
Changed Lives
prove myself. It was her decision to accept me into the MS
program at Wagner that lead to
my further pursuit of a Ph.D.,
followed by a postdoctoral
fellowship, 25 years working
in public health at the state,
national, and international level,
and now nine years at the University of Vermont chairing the
Department of Medical Laboratory and Radiation Sciences.
Although I had lost touch with
Professor Kershaw over the
years and never adequately
thanked her for her faith in
me, I felt it was still important
and appropriate to do so now.
Thank you, Professor Kershaw.
Dr. Natale Colosi were initiating a program in bacteriology
and public health.
My enrollment in Wagner
College was the result of my
being dismissed from Long
Island University (Brooklyn
campus) by the dean, who
stated in writing that I would
never be a success in graduate studies. During my two
years at Wagner College, Dr.
Colosi and Dr. Kershaw literally
embraced me and guided me to
the completion of my master’s
degree in 1968. At the time, I
was a supervisor of the microbiology laboratory at Elmhurst
Hospital, an affiliate of Mount
Sinai Hospital. Drs. Colosi and
Kershaw augmented my evolving academic and professional
skills in clinical microbiology
by having me give discussions
to my classmates, who enjoyed
the interactions.
Upon graduating from
Wagner College, I was accepted
into the Ph.D. program at St.
John’s University in Queens,
New York. During an early
episode, I encountered some
academic difficulties in one of
my science courses. I was fortunate to cross paths with Dr.
Kershaw at a meeting of the
New York City branch of the
American Society for Microbiology. She inquired as to how
I was doing at St. John’s, and I
explained to her my difficulties. She responded, “Make it
work,” words that to this day I
pass on to students engaged in
academic endeavors.
Drs. Kershaw and Colosi
gave me a second chance,
which enabled me to earn my
doctorate at St. John’s University under the mentoring of
the late Dr. Michael A. Pisano.
This achievement inaugurated a fabled career in clinical
microbiology at the Mount
Sinai Hospital and School of
Medicine and enabled me to
receive Mount Sinai’s highest accolades as well as induction into Alpha Omega Alpha
Honor Medical Society.
In retrospect, both Dr.
Kershaw and Dr. Colosi are
among the special individuals who entered my life and
through their wisdom brought
me to my present status. All
are remembered with fondness.
Edward J. Bottone M’68
Professor Emeritus of Medicine
and Infectious Disease,
Mount Sinai School of Medicine,
New York, New York
An Addition to the
Haas House Story
Regarding the “Haas House”
�Hinmon House, ca. 1935
(“Window on Wagner,” Summer
2011): In 1927 my parents (the
Rev. Dr. Willis Stuart and Erma
Hinmon) and I moved in; my
father taught Greek and Latin.
My brother was born in 1930,
and we lived there until 1945.
Dad retired in the early ’60s.
Erma Hinmon Colin ’43
Springfield, New Jersey
Magazine Inspires
Memories
I just want to mention a few
items from Wagner Magazine
that have pleased me.
One, the beautiful twopage photo leading into your
[2011] summer edition. I remember well that view à la
1946, because it’s the same as
in 1942–43, when I was one
of the aircraft spotters who
staffed a turret at the back of
the Ad Building [Main Hall]
during the first years of World
War II. We were dedicated to
trying to keep New York City
safe by scouring the skies for all
aircraft which approached up
the Narrows and identifying
all planes, because one might,
just might, be an enemy with
bombs attached ready to attack
the city.
I left college in 1943 to join
the U.S. Marine Corps. My
dad, Professor Theodore W.
Gibson, was head of Wagner’s
math department; both he and
my brother, Ted Jr. ’42, were
also meteorologists. Ted Jr., an
Air Force veteran, helped chase
Rommel across the desert of
northern Africa, and then went
into Sicily and Italy. I helped
teach celestial navigation to
Marine Corps pilots on their
way to the South Pacific, where,
of course, during the war there
were no landing lights on carriers nor landing strips on small
islands, let alone a GPS system. You probably heard the
saying, “Once a Marine, always a
Marine,” so I’m still a Marine
and proud of it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the
feature “Just Right for Each
Other” [summer 2011] regarding Mike ’49 and Margaret
Christie ’49 Nicolais. I also
appreciate, for us oldsters,
the identification of different
buildings, and where located
on campus, because when I
was there from ’41 to ’43, we
didn’t have but the first, basic
buildings. All the classrooms,
library, auditorium, etc. were in
the Ad Building; plus Cunard
Hall, the athletic field for our
football games, plus a men’s
and a women’s dorm and faculty houses. Times have changed,
eh? Wonderful!
I also deeply appreciate the
article “My Most Important
Lesson” by Claire Regan ’80
in the fall 2010 issue. I was the
New Dorp High School reporter
to the Staten Island Advance,
with guidance by Les Trautmann ’40, in 1939-41, earning
a whole 10 cents a published
inch, and maybe padding it a
little so I’d cover my bus fares.
But it always ran full length as
submitted to Mr. Trautmann.
Like Claire, I knew I belonged
on newspapers, and did, for
almost 35 years, including the
Littleton (CO) Independent, Orlando (FL) Sentinel, Hickory
(NC) Daily Record, Yuma (AZ)
Daily Sun, and Portsmouth
(NH) Record. My varied length
of stay with each were because
a husband’s job meant a move
across country or, as in the
Arizona stint, it was too hot for
this northeastern gal.
Keep up the good work,
and know that it is appreciated.
Margaret Gibson Fish ’45
Reno, Nevada
Lower Manhattan, ca. 1946
We’d Love to Hear from You
read-
telephone number. The editor reserves
Write to: Laura Barlament, Editor
ers. Letters should refer to material
the right to determine the suitability of
Office of Communications, Wagner College
published in the magazine and include
letters for publication and to edit them
1 Campus Road, Staten Island, NY 10301
the writer’s full name, address, and
for accuracy and length.
email: laura.barlament@wagner.edu
We
welcome
letters
from
fa l l
2011
5
�Signs of the Times
Alumnus gives students a behind-the-scenes view of Times Square
W
hat makes Manhattan’s Times Square so spectacular? Some of the credit goes
to a Wagner alumnus: Harry Coghlan ’87, president and general manager of
ClearChannel Outdoor, New York Division. This summer, thanks to Coghlan,
Wagner students spent a day seeing firsthand the work of this international leader in outdoor
advertising.
The meeting took place in the heart of Manhattan at ClearChannel’s Spectacolor Division,
which produces many of the displays that make Times Square and Las Vegas sparkle. Coghlan and
other company executives led an interactive presentation, answering students’ questions and sharing
their career stories.
Two other Wagner alumni at the meeting — Bart Chinnici ’86 M’01, vice president for strategic
projects and initiatives, and Dennis McCaffery ’06 M’07, financial analyst — demonstrate how the
alumni network benefits Wagner students: McCaffery is one of dozens of Wagner interns Chinnici
has hired during his career.
Following the meeting, Coghlan had a surprise for the students: Wagner College and the Wagner
College Seahawks were featured on ClearChannel’s Spectacolor HD screen on Times Square.
Wagner’s connection to New York City is a “beautiful thing,” said Coghlan. “At Wagner, you’re a
part of the city, yet you feel like you’re away from the city. There’s that deep connection to it, where
you can see it and be a part of it.”
To see a video about the experience, go to www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
WE ARE A PART OF IT
Harry Coghlan ’87, president and general
manager of ClearChannel Outdoor New
York Division, arranged for a Wagner
College display on the ClearChannel
Spectacolor HD screen on Times Square.
Pictured: Victoria Crispo ’00 M’02, Bart
Chinnici ’86 M’01, Jason Hyland ’13,
Matthew McGuiness ’13, Edgar Sheppard
’12, Tulin Aldas M’06, David Lopez ’13,
Melissa Speranza ’12, Kenny Howard
’12, Dennis McCaffery ’06 M’07, Quintin
Anderson ’12, Coghlan, Adams Issaka ’12,
and Mike Sheridan M’12.
Leader in Learning
Guidebooks highlight programs
linked to student success
A s the new academic year began,
annual college guidebooks again
heaped accolades on Wagner
College.
In U.S. News & World Report’s
“Best Colleges 2012,” Wagner
was again recognized on four lists
of “programs to look for”: FirstYear Experience, Internships,
Learning Communities, and
Service Learning. Only six colleges
and universities nationwide were
recognized for four or more of
their high-impact programs.
“It is no coincidence that these
four program areas are precisely
those given greatest emphasis by
the Wagner Plan for the Practical
Liberal Arts,” said President
Guarasci. “Since 1998, the Wagner
Plan has combined a very strong
first-year program with practical
internships, multiple servicelearning experiences, and three
learning communities placed at the
beginning, middle and end of our
students’ undergraduate careers.”
Wagner also appeared for the
third year in a row on the Northern
regional universities “Up-andComers” list, and it jumped from
#25 to #21 in the overall regional
universities rankings.
P H OTO G R A P H : A N NA M U L É
� In addition, Wagner is listed,
once again, in the Princeton
Review’s annual Best 376 Colleges
guide. Only about 15 percent of
U.S. colleges are profiled in the
book. Wagner also appeared on
several of the book’s Top 20 lists,
including “Best College Theater”
and “Class Discussions Are
Encouraged,” as well as the roster
of “Great Schools for Education
Majors.”
Beauty Takes Time
For the first time in 81 years,
a semester without Main Hall
I mmediately
after
commencement on May 20,
work began in earnest on the
restoration of Main Hall. After
years of leaking classrooms and
temporary patch jobs, Wagner
College was in the position to
attack the root of the problem:
The 80-plus-year-old building
needed a new roof, new windows,
repointing of the brickwork,
and restoration of concrete
ornaments, which had been
degraded by acid rain.
{
profile
{
As so often happens in life
and construction, it took starting
the job to see how extensive
the necessary repairs were. Not
only would it cost more than
originally projected, but it would
take more time. Much more
time. Main Hall would not be
available for the fall semester,
perhaps not even the spring.
Staff members quickly
huddled to find solutions: more
than a dozen classrooms, art and
dance studios, faculty offices,
and the Main Stage Theatre
would be inaccessible for the
fall — but at a college, no matter
what, the show must go on.
Bringing temporary classrooms to campus was not
feasible. The space had to
be found in existing campus
buildings, and found it was: From
Reynolds House to Harborview
Hall to the Union, the Spiro
Sports Center, and more, every
available space on campus has
been transformed, for a time,
into a classroom or office. The
theatre program is producing
its Main Stage shows nearby on
Staten Island, at the Snug Harbor
Cultural Center’s Music Hall.
“These solutions may cause
inconveniences by making some
spaces, which will be pressed into
use as classrooms, less available
for other uses,” said President
Guarasci in a message to campus.
“But, these are necessary
inconveniences, because I cannot
permit further deterioration of
Main Hall.”
A CLOSER LOOK
President Guarasci keeps
tabs on the Main Hall
restoration work.
The work on Main Hall is
proceeding well, and the current
estimated cost is $12 million.
This year’s Annual Fund is
dedicated to raising money to
defray the expenses of restoring
this Wagner icon.
Where Stars Are Born
Wagner Theatre recognized for
developing young artists’ careers
W agner
College Theatre
received the Emerging Young
Artist Award from the Council
on the Arts and Humanities for
Staten Island in October.
Melanie Franklin Cohn,
COAHSI’s executive director, said
that Wagner Theatre was singled
out “for being a great community
asset, for its achievement of
being the most highly recognized
theater program in New York
City, and for encouraging and
helping young artists achieve their
career goals.”
Exemplifying Wagner Theatre’s
success are the four alumni in
Broadway shows this year: Scott
Barnhardt ’01 in The Book of
Mormon, Monette McKay ’07 in
Memphis, Christina DeCicco ’02
in Sister Act, and Katie O’Toole
’10 in Jersey Boys.
Who Is the Class of 2015? Fun facts about Wagner’s newest students
Our Name Is For 20 of us, Matthew or Emily — the class’s most popular names. We Come From 34 states (including Alaska) and nine
countries (Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Poland, and Vietnam). To Reach Grymes Hill, We Traveled
260,124 miles — enough to circumnavigate the globe more than 10 times. We Will Blow Out Lots of Candles in March — 50 of us were
born in that month in 1993. Our Ethnicity Is White (71.2%), Hispanic (9.6%), Black (8.5%), Asian (2.7%), American Indian/Alaska Native
(0.4%), more than two races/ethnicities (3.6%). We Plan to Major in For 30 percent of us, the answer is business, nursing, education, or
theater; 50 percent of us picked other majors, like biology, English, and psychology; and 20 percent are undecided. We Are Involved in
Community service (34%), intramural sports (22%), national honor societies (21%), performing arts (17%), student government (8%),
and Habitat for Humanity (8%) are our biggest activities.Our First Big Experience as Wagner College Freshmen For about 200 of us, being
evacuated to the gym on August 27 as Hurricane Irene approached New York City.
P H OTO G R A P H : J O E RO M A N O
fa l l
2011
7
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
Faith Matters
James Smith ’05 appointed as Wagner’s new full-time chaplain
There’s a new face in the chaplain’s office at Wagner College. New to
the chaplain’s office, that is, but not new to Wagner.
Some may remember James Smith ’05 as manager of the
men’s basketball team, a member of the Wagner College
choir, and a resident assistant in Harborview Hall. Today,
he is the Reverend James Smith, having graduated from the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia last year.
Returning to Wagner completes the homecoming cycle
that drew him into the ministry. For his first two years of
higher education, Smith majored in radio and television production at a
community college. But as the son of a longtime pastor — Mack Smith
of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wyandanch, New York, in
central Long Island — James Smith says the call eventually proved
irresistible.
“No P.K. (preacher’s kid) wants to acknowledge ‘the call’ right away,
but it’s always there,” he says. “I finally stopped fighting it.” Following in
the footsteps of his sister, Juli Smith ’04 M’08, he came to Wagner. He
was a part of the Upsala scholarship program for ministerial candidates.
Succeeding Rev. Richard Michael, Smith is serving in a full-time
capacity as the lead chaplain.
“Our call to Pastor Smith indicates our commitment to Wagner’s
historic heritage as a Lutheran institution and our recognition of
the special relationship we have with the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, as well as our desire to serve those of all
faiths, including those who would identify their spirituality in
humanistic rather than theistic terms,” says President Guarasci.
“With Pastor Smith now on board, Wagner College is
prepared to take the next step in developing its capacity to
nurture the growth of the whole student — mind, body and
faith — into a more complete picture of the educated global citizen,”
he continues.
The cottage which had formerly served as the chaplain’s on-campus
residence is being refurbished as the Wagner College Center for
Spirituality, with offices for Pastor Smith and the College’s associate
chaplains, informal meeting spaces, and a chapel for all the faith
communities served by the College.
LC 21: Connecting with Gotham through Literature, Learning, and “Knowing” the Community
This fall, the first-year learning
community taught by Professors
Mary Zanfini and David Gordon
includes two different sets of
students, both new to Wagner.
Although much divides them,
by coming together they have
discovered more commonalities
than you might expect.
The first set of students
are some of this nation’s top
high school graduates. They
can boast of stellar grades and
extracurricular leadership. In
other words, they are Wagner
freshmen. Many of them want
to major in education, and are
taking this LC, which includes
an introduction to literature and
a multidisciplinary course in
8
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
“Ways of Knowing,” as their first
step toward that goal.
The second set are a group
who never expected to be a
part of a college course, who
struggle to find meaningful
work and a place in society.
They are program participants
in Lifestyles for the Disabled, a
Staten Island organization (led
by Richard Salinardi ’69) that
provides enriching learning
experiences for intellectually
disabled people.
The interaction is focused
on writing poetry. The Wagner
students have developed lesson
plans to teach simple poetic
forms to the Lifestyles program
participants, who are visiting the
P H OTO G R A P H : B E LOW, P E T E BY RO N
�Wagner campus several times
during the semester.
Each side is giving and
receiving new experiences and
knowledge that could not be
taught through a textbook.
“It took me a while to
understand concrete poetry,”
confesses Trevor Krafnick ’15,
who is himself an experienced
creative writer. But he says
that his Lifestyles student
immediately grasped this poetic
form, which uses visual layout
to help convey meaning. “He
jumped all over it and was really
excited,” says Krafnick. “It’s
really cool to teach someone
something that you love.”
Professor Gordon remarks
that the Wagner students are
experiencing a great diversity
of learning styles. “Here’s how
I know it’s going well,” he says,
while watching a room humming
with organized activity. “The fact
that we instructors aren’t having
to do a lot of hands-on shows
that the students are taking
responsibility.”
The smiles seen around
the classroom show that real
connections have been made
between these diverse groups of
learners as well.
THE WIND BENEATH HIS WINGS
What makes one man’s slam dunk rise
above the rest? The secret ingredient: Mom.
Forward Josh Thompson ’13 stole the show
at the first official men’s basketball practice
of the season, a “Madness Before Midnight”
extravaganza at the Spiro Sports Center on
October 14, thanks to his longsuffering mother,
Diane. Competing in the slam dunk contest,
Thompson garnered a perfect score with a
flying leap over her head. Soon afterward, the
video of the dunk went viral on the Internet.
As of press time, it has been viewed about
450,000 times. It was named “Top Play of the
Day” on ESPN’s SportsCenter, and it was also
featured on ABC’s Good Morning America.
You can find a link to it at www.wagner.edu/
wagnermagazine.
Greening Wagner
Late alumnus’s planned gift promotes
environmental studies
An alumnus known for his organic garden is now
THE NATURAL ARTS
In retirement, John Deane ’53
created wood sculptures and a
large organic garden at his Staten
Island home.
helping to grow the next generation of environmental
scientists at Wagner College.
The late John Deane ’53 (1923–2009) created the
John ’53 and Gloria Deane Fund to Support Teaching
and Learning in the Environmental Sciences, making
gifts during his lifetime and in his will.
Now fully funded, the Deane Endowment will offer
three programs to boost environmental studies at
Wagner: a scholarship, an annual student award, and a
fund to support teaching and learning.
A business major, Deane was a CPA and spent most
of his career as an auditor and controller in the film
industry. In retirement, he pursued his passions for
nature and art. His wife, Gloria, was a noted artist and
founder of the Staten Island Artists’ Federation; she
died in 2006.
P H OTO G R A P H S : A B OV E , DAV I D SA F F R A N ; B OT TO M L E F T, P E T E BY RO N ; B OT TO M R I G H T, L E E M A N C H E ST E R
fa l l
2011
9
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
The building we know today as
On Dec. 26, 1941 — during winter break — a fire broke out
WINDOW
ON WAGNER:
Reynolds House has been called
in the North Hall women’s dormitory, causing $18,000 in
Reynolds House
by several names: North Hall, the
damages. Residents were housed for the remainder of the
Women’s Dormitory, and the Music
year in Cunard Hall, the faculty cottages on campus, and
Building.
several private homes on Grymes Hill.
But when it was first built, it was called the Hotel Bellevue.
In 1970, Reynolds House was the scene of a historic
Amzi Lorenzo Barber bought the Cunard estate in 1889
event in the life of Wagner College. On April 23, 27 African-
and started leasing it out in 1894 as a resort hotel for New
American students occupied the office of the dean of the
Yorkers escaping the city’s summer heat. The hotel became
college, which was located in what is now the Reynolds
so successful that its managers started using the main
House library. The students were pressing the College to take
house on the adjacent Jacob Vanderbilt estate, also owned by
specific steps to become more racially inclusive. Forty years
Barber, for overflow housing — until the Vanderbilt house was
later, those students returned to campus to recount their
destroyed in an August 1904 fire. College records indicate
efforts at a widely celebrated 2010 alumni seminar.
— Lee Manchester
that Reynolds House was probably built the following year to
Pictured below: Reynolds House from a 1919 postcard
make up for the lost guest rooms.
Its architectural style is eclectic. When first built, it had
the hipped dormers, second-story shingling and first-floor
clapboard siding typical
of the Shingle style, popular in the
Window
Wagnerseaside resorts — but
late 19th century in On
Northeastern
its most prominent architectural feature was a two-tiered,
full-height entry porch with two-story columns that was
emblematic of the Folk Victorian style. That distinctive
feature was removed in the building’s most recent renovation.
Piecing Together the Past
Anthropology professor Celeste Gagnon
took Rose Tobiassen ’12 and Violeta
Capric ’12 to Peru’s Moche River Valley
this summer to conduct bioarchaeological
research — the study of human remains
to understand peoples of the past. They
spent five weeks combing through boxes
of bones at the Museo de Huacas Moche
(shown at left). Through visual observation,
they analyzed the sex, age, and many
health factors of the deceased, allowing
10
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
them to create a picture of everyday life in
Huacas de Moche, a major city in 300–700
A.D. (shown below). “It was such a learning
experience to take a box of skull fragments
and piece them together like a puzzle,”
says Tobiassen. “The [bioarchaeology]
class we took [at Wagner] was great, but I
learned way more from this.”
P H OTO G R A P H S : C O U RT E S Y O F C E L E ST E GAG N O N
�Living History
Lecture by bestselling author
sparks campus discussion
of Henrietta Lacks, a young
black woman who died of
cervical cancer in 1951 in
Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Doctors took a sample of
her cancer cells for research
purposes, and these “HeLa”
cells became the first to be
successfully kept alive in the
lab. Still used in scientific
research to this day, HeLa
cells have contributed to
medical advancements
such as the polio vaccine,
cancer treatments, and in
vitro fertilization. Ethical
questions surrounding the
use of Lacks’s cells have
also given rise to patient
safeguards such as consent
procedures and institutional
review boards.
But, ethical and legal
questions still swirl around
ownership of body tissues
used for scientific purposes,
provoking debate at Wagner
College, as well.
For the first time this fall,
three key campus programs
came together to create a
wide-ranging discussion
about health, science, race,
and ethics.
Wagner’s annual summer
reading for new students
was the New York Times
bestseller The Immortal
Life of Henrietta Lacks by
Rebecca Skloot. On October
12, Skloot came to campus
to deliver the sixth annual
Kaufman-Repage Lecture.
The lecture was part of the
Founders Day Convocation,
a Wagner tradition revived
in 2008. About 250 people
attended, and the event was
broadcast on campus over
the Internet.
Skloot’s lecture focused
on the extraordinary story
Pre-med
student
Melanie
Valencia ’12, who
participated
in a summer
research
internship in
the oncology department
of Mount Sinai School
of Medicine, was reading
Skloot’s book when she was
asked to work with HeLa
cells.
“When I was handed
the tubes, I trembled,”
she recalls. “Objectivity
should not be put at
stake, but I believe that an
understanding of where the
samples are coming from
is important, especially the
fact that they are coming
from human beings. I believe
more emphasis should be
put on the ethical education
of young scientists.”
Music worth rediscovering
Flutist-composer Johann
Joachim Quantz (1697–1773) wrote
500 pieces for the flute. He had a
demanding patron: King Frederick the
Great of Prussia, a major historical
figure whose many talents included
composing and playing the flute
himself.
In two new CDs of never-before-
recorded works by Quantz and King
Frederick, Wagner music department
chair David Schulenberg helps to bring
this richly varied music back to life.
Johann Joachim Quantz: Seven
Flute Sonatas and Seven Flute
Sonatas by King Frederick “The Great”
of Prussia showcase these composers’
lively Baroque counterpoint and
elegant, expressive melodies.
Accompanying Mary Oleskiewicz on
transverse flute, Schulenberg plays
harpsichord and fortepiano, along with
Stephanie Vial and Balázs Máté on
cello.
King Frederick’s sonatas were
even recorded in the music room of
his palace, Sanssouci in Potsdam,
Germany, using recreations of his
original instruments.
{
awa r d e d
{
Schulenberg is an international
authority on the music of the Bach
family and a highly respected
Remembering Our Roots
On Founders Day, the College honors outstanding student groups for
community service and academic achievement. A new award with special
historical meaning was presented this year: the Rev. Dr. Frederic Sutter Kevin Ferreira ’13
Founders Day Award for Service. Maria Hartmann created the award to honor her great-grandfather,
the founder of Wagner’s Staten Island campus, and she attended the convocation to present the award
to Kevin Ferreira ’13 for his work with the immigrant community in Port Richmond, Staten Island.
performer on early keyboard
instruments. The CDs are available
from Qualiton.com.
fa l l
2011
11
�12
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
The Horrmann Library in 1961. Its flexible design has allowed it to adapt to changing times.
�to
Built
Last
&
By Norman E. Berg
Laura Barlament
“Nowhere more sharply
than through a library
does the whole world
confront a man. Nowhere,
perhaps, can a man better
develop his capacity to
confront the world.”
– Richard Heindel, president of Wagner
College (1958–1961), Horrmann Library
dedication address, September 30, 1961
What factors drove the
construction of Horrmann
Library? Fifty years later,
what keeps it vital and
thriving in a radically
changed world of
information technology?
W
hen Wagner College decamped
from Rochester to Staten
Island in 1918, it brought
along 16 students, one professor, and 2,000
books. Along with the students, the books
were installed in North Hall (now Reynolds
House), which mainly served as the college
dormitory. After the construction of South
Hall (now Parker Hall) in 1922–23, the
library briefly acquired a larger room there,
before finding a more permanent location on
the top floor of the brand-new Administration
Building (now Main Hall) in 1930.
The early 1930s also marked the
point in Wagner College history when
the institution transitioned from its roots
as a combined high school and seminary
prep school into a true liberal arts college.
Between 1932 and 1933, Wagner’s first
The Horrmann
Library’s main
entrance
year as an accredited college and as a co-ed
institution, the enrollment nearly doubled,
from 117 to 203. By 1942, the student body
exceeded 500. Nevertheless, the library in
Main Hall’s attic remained adequate.
Then came the end of World War II and
the GI Bill-fueled student boom, beginning
in 1946.
fa l l
2011
13
�B
y 1950, enrollment had reached
around 2,000, and the College
had added graduate programs
to its curriculum. The Wagner College
Bulletin of April 1948 bragged of the
Main Hall library, “The spacious reading
rooms and the volumes on the shelves
foster thoughtfulness and study”; but
accompanying photographs showing jampacked tables belie those words. After
all, the library had seating for only 100
students at a time, and a collection of only
about 40,000 volumes. To most observers, it
was plain to see that Wagner needed a more
functional, spacious, and up-to-date library.
Pressure for a new library came from
all directions — beginning with the
students. A headline in the December
2, 1953, issue of the Wagnerian reads,
“Financial Drive for New Library Opened;
Campaign Planned by Student Committee.”
The College administration voiced its
support for the students’ ambitious goal
to raise $5,000 to pay start-up planning
costs for a new library. The next year,
more official pressure came to bear on
the issue. The New York Education
Department, in its 1954 “Evaluation of
Wagner Lutheran College,” stated: “There
is no use belaboring the point that Wagner
College needs a library building. It does,
and the matter is urgent. The collection
cannot now be expanded; the student
body cannot logically be
increased; and the library
program cannot be
given those refinements
which contribute to its
maximum effectiveness.”
The Middle States
Association of Colleges and Secondary
Schools, Wagner’s accrediting agency, put
the College on notice during its review in
1957 as well: “The complete inadequacy
14
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
of these facilities restricts all aspects of the
library program.”
According to the December 1957
Wagner College Bulletin, “Criticism of the
situation by the Middle States Association
was tempered by the fact that the College
has already taken steps to provide a library
building.” Indeed, about 85 benefactors
had contributed more than $58,000 toward
the effort, and architectural plans had been
drawn up for a 200,000-volume library
building in the Greek Revival style .
As the winter of 1957 melted into the
spring of 1958, so came the turning point
in Wagner College’s quest for a new library:
a gift of $100,000 from the Horrmann
Foundation. The gift announcement was
timed to coordinate with the College’s
75th anniversary campaign kick-off
meeting. Accepting the gift from
Horrmann Foundation President Walter E.
Badenhausen, the Rev. Dr. Frederic Sutter
of Wagner College’s Board of Trustees
announced that the new library would be
named the Horrmann Library. This naming
honored not only the 1958 gift, but 40
years of philanthropy and support shown
by the Horrmann family toward Wagner
College. (See sidebar.)
Throughout 1959, screaming headlines
in the Wagner College Bulletin pleaded for
additional support for the Horrmann
Library’s construction. New architectural
sketches revealed a building plan that
closely resembles the one we know today
— not a Greek Revival temple, as pictured
a couple years earlier, but a modern-looking
facility with large, plate-glass windows.
Finally, groundbreaking took place on May
7, 1960.
One thousand guests cheered the
Horrmann Library’s dedication on
September 30, 1961. In the end, the project
cost about $1 million and provided space
Building Horrmann Library, 1961
I had the unenviable job of vacuuming
the entire library on the third floor of
Main Hall. The salary was $20 a week.
By the time I finished, I went back to
where I had started and realized the
dust had returned and the library was
back to normal. I clearly remember
looking out of the library window as
the construction site of the Horrmann
Library was underway. There were
three huge boulders in the middle of
the project that had to be dynamited in
order to be removed.
Hank Murphy ’63 M’69
Staten Island, New York
Cushions, Ice Cream, and
Calculus, 1961–64
I remember the “eccentric” designer
who wanted the green cushions on the
blue chairs and the blue cushions on
the green chairs. For some time in the
early days, the designer would return
and make this color change, for everyone else put green with green and blue
with blue. We always had fun rearranging them after the designer visit.
I remember walking in the front
door one time with an ice cream cone
and the librarian chiding me with, “You
can’t bring ice cream in here.” In a
precursor of the “attitude” of the later
sixties, I recall saying, “You don’t have
a sign that says that.” I was summarily
thrown out of the library!
One day I was in the stacks, and
a little 12-year-old fellow was looking
high (well, as high as he could) and low,
when I asked him what he was looking
for. He said he wanted to know what
the long “Ess” meant in a mathematics
book he had. It was the integral sign
— the main symbol of half the calculus
sequence taught at Wagner. As I was a
mathematics major, I sat right down and
began to explain it all to him. This was
the beginning of my college-level teaching of mathematics, pre-Ph.D. I believe
his presence was an example of how
open the library was to the community
beyond the college.
Brian Winkel ’64
Professor Emeritus,
Department of Mathematical Sciences,
United States Military Academy,
West Point, New York
�Getting (Too) Comfy on a
Horrmann Couch, 1968
In the fall of 1968, I attended a
particularly onerous wrestling practice.
Back then Wagner College sponsored
the great sport of wrestling under
Bill Lied. Bill had wrestled in the Pan
American Games, had coached 18
national wrestling champions, and had
been a referee in the Tokyo Olympics.
He knew his stuff and was a tough-love
coach. Three hours of practice could
be exhausting.
There was a physics test the next
day and I needed to study. After wrestling practice, I went to the Horrmann
Library, where many of us studied
while stretching out on the long, blue
couches. Getting comfy on a couch
with class notes, a yellow pad, and a
pencil in hand, I proceeded to review
everything that might be on the test.
The next thing I knew, I was waking
from a deep sleep and all of the lights
in the library were out!
The library had closed, and it was
midnight. Using a librarian’s desk
phone, I called campus security. They
ordered me to stay where I was. They
didn’t want the alarm set off, which
would call NYPD, and nobody wanted
that headache.
A few minutes later, two security
guards unlocked the front door. While
facing their high-intensity flashlights, I
was asked with even higher intensity,
“How did you get in here?” I said,
“Well, I never left. The librarian locked
me in.” I’m not sure they really believed
me, but I presented my student ID and
was finally allowed to leave.
I passed the next day’s test, and
many others after that. In June 1969,
I graduated from Wagner College with
a bachelor’s in physics, which started
me on a successful 40-year career in
design engineering. Maybe I owe it all
to the good sleep I had on that long,
soft couch in the Horrmann Library?
of tables and print-drenched students,
beyond the smirking precipice [sic] of
our former President Arthur O., now
hanging between the library’s two bathrooms, around and down to the lower
floor’s office door between the books.
Through the red curtains in John
Auh’s office, the office of Horrmann’s
chief librarian, one can watch the
square fill then empty then fill again
with students. …The reporter nervously
looks around the office for an ashtray.
Not finding one, he sticks his hands in
his pockets and attempts to divert his
attention by reading the book titles on
the shelf. Finding this activity to be as
equally unsuccessful as the last, he
finally turns his eyes toward the square
to watch a group of female students
pass by.
“I wonder if they can see in here?”
John Bradley ’76, from “Librarian Chief
Visited,” The Wagnerian, January 26, 1976
Horrmann in Wagnerian
Personal Ads, 1985–1986
To Dr. Pepper in the library,
You owe me dinner
The Aid
(November 25, 1986)
My name is Cliff. I am looking for a girl
who will share the same interests as
me. They include: quiet evenings in
the school library, a nice movie rated
PG13, reading Shakespeare books
and of course long walks in the park.
(December 10, 1985)
Leigh Ramsay ’69
Poway, California
Visiting the Horrmann
Library, 1976
A young butcher journalist, scraggly
from a beard he’s been trying to grow
for two years, fought the Grymes Hill
winter wind as he climbed the steps
between the Union and North Hall on
his way to the Horrmann Library. After
finding the set of double doors that
open, he proceeded, ID in hand, past
the desk librarian, past the quiet rows
P H OTO G R A P H : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
The Class of 1959 Learning
Commons includes multimedia
rooms for group study and
collaboration on the library’s
main floor.
The Horrmann Family and
Wagner College
As if we needed any more
proof that beer and books are not
incompatible: the Horrmann Library
could be said to owe its existence to
the frothy favorite of college students
everywhere.
The Horrmann Foundation’s
$100,000 gift to build Wagner’s library
was the culmination of a 40-year
relationship between the Horrmann
family and Wagner College. The
story begins with German immigrant
businessman August Horrmann Sr.,
who settled on Staten Island in 1870
and opened a successful brewery that
came to be known as Rubsam and
Horrmann. It continued to thrive under
his children’s leadership after his
death in 1900.
When the Rev. Frederic Sutter,
Wagner class of 1894 and longtime
trustee, sought to bring the College
to Staten Island in 1918, August’s
eldest son, William, provided key
support. William’s sister Minnie
married Adolph Badenhausen, and
that family also became an important
Wagner benefactor. The Horrmanns
and the Badenhausens participated
in every Wagner fundraising
campaign in the early part of the 20th
century, contributing to the College’s
endowment, Guild Hall, and the
gymnasium. Family members played
key roles on the Board of Trustees, on
fundraising committees, and with the
School of Nursing.
Sadly, Rubsam and Horrmann beer
is no more, although it was the only
one of several German breweries on
Staten Island to survive Prohibition.
In 1953, Piels Brothers took it over. It
closed for good in 1963.
Sources: Wagner College Bulletin, April
1958; and Discovering Staten Island: A
350th Anniversary Commemorative History,
co-edited by Kenneth M. Gold and Lori R.
Weintrob, Wagner associate professor of
history (History Press, 2011).
fa l l
2011
15
�Codes of
Conduct
Dress Standards for Women
Library: Regular classroom
attire [a skirt and blouse or
sweater, or a dress] is worn
except on Saturdays and days
when classes are not held. At
these times Bermudas and
slacks may be worn. Source:
Wagner College Women’s Dormitory
Booklet, ca. 1962
Smoking and Talking
Katherine Haskell Tyler
Browsing Area: This area,
furnished with comfortable
couches and chairs, is located
on the north side of the first
floor overlooking the Narrows.
New books of general interest
are shelved here, and smoking
is permitted in this one area
only. Smoking is to be confined
to this area, and lighted
cigarettes are not to be carried
either to other areas or to the
adjacent stacks. Since this is an
open area next to the general
study area, please refrain from
conversation here as well as in
other parts of the library. Source:
Horrmann Library Handbook, 1961
First Book: The first book
published by a Wagner
administrator was Bibliographies
of Twelve Victorian Authors (H.W.
Wilson Company, 1936) by
librarian Robert Deily. Source:
The Wagnerian, March 5, 1936
Special
Collections
• �The Edwin Markham Archive:
correspondence, personal
ephemera, and book collection
of American poet Edwin
Markham.
• �The Wagner College Archive:
materials related to the history
and campus publications of
Wagner College.
• �The Sutter Memorial Archive:
collection of the Metropolitan
New York Synod of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America.
Student
Meeting
Rooms
Smoking
In accordance with city
ordinance, smoking is
prohibited in all Wagner College
facilities.
Overdue
Book
Fines
Then
5 cents per day (1962)
Now
10 cents per day (2011)
16
WWAAGGNNE ERR MMAAGGAAZZI INNE E
150
Then
In 1987, the Hornung Student
Discussion/World War II
Collection Room was opened.
“Student groups preparing for
class presentations or exams
are especially welcome to use
the new room,” the Wagnerian
said.
Now
In 2011, the Class of 1959
Learning Commons was
opened, providing work space
equipped with the latest
computer technology for student
groups.
151
100
90
83
50
0
Now
Cell Phones
Talking on cell phones is
prohibited in the library. Cell
phones should be turned off
upon entering the building.
200
HOURS PER WEEK
Then
Weekly
hours of
operation
Firsts
1961
1971
74.5
1976
20082011
YEAR
#
1918
Volumes
in the
collection
2,000
1924
2,500
1940
15,000
1948
40,000
1959
50,000
1965
65,000
1966
75,000
1967
100,000
1969
120,000
1970
140,000
1971
150,000
1972
190,000
1982
250,000*
2006
161,231
2011
141,000**
• �Access to more than 30
research databases; 20,600
magazines, journals, and
newspapers; and 30,000
e-books
• �41 general-use computer
workstations and 10 laptops
for library use
88.5
1990
Digital
Assets and
Technology
* �Includes bound periodicals. To
meet accrediting standards, the
library added all book donations
to the collection.
** �The collection was purged to
include only current and relevant
books beginning in the late 1990s
to make space for computer
workstations. Now the library also
offers digital access to more than
20,600 magazine, journals, and
newspapers and 30,000 ebooks.
• �The Class of 1959
Learning Commons with
multimedia technology and
SmartBoards
• �SmartLab with 30 student
workstations and one
teacher’s station with
SmartBoard
• �Assistive technology
computer workstations
with tools such as text
magnification software,
voice recognition software,
and a hands-free mouse.
Horrmann
Access
To learn about
access to the
Horrmann Library
for alumni and
community
members, visit
www.wagner.edu/
library/policies.
�T
Fast Forward
his year, the Horrmann Library
celebrates its 50th anniversary.
And what a different world
it is! Seismic shifts in what we now call
“information technology” have affected
libraries as sharply as any other human
institution.
Fortunately, the library’s original
planners built in the possibility of change,
even if they could not have foreseen the
particular changes that would occur. “From
an architectural point of view, the building
is designed to have complete flexibility for
interchange of bookstacks, furniture, and
partitions,” the Wagner College Alumni News
pointed out in October 1961.
Indeed, the library’s leaders have taken
advantage of this flexibility over the years
— especially within the last decade, as a
library’s utility has come to be measured
less in terms of volumes, and more in
terms of electronic resources. Computers,
databases, and e-books have proliferated,
displacing stacks, bound periodicals,
and desks. Librarians are accessible not
only at the reference desk, but via social
P H OTO G R A P H S : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
media tools, from the
Horrmann Library blog,
to real-time online chat,
to Twitter feeds (@
HorrmannLibrary), to
Facebook, to the newly
redesigned website (www.
wagner.edu/library).
Library Dean Dorothy
Davison says that these
changes have been driven
not only by technology, but
also by Wagner College’s
educational goals. “Information literacy
is one of the pedagogical pillars of the
Wagner Plan,” she says. “Wagner students
need to be educated in the effective use of
technology and information to meet the
challenges of the future.
“The ideal enhanced learning
environment brings together a
comprehensive, integrated set of academic
resources for today’s student to explore
digital resources and technology,” she
continues. This vision led to a major
renovation of Horrmann Library’s main
floor, unveiled this spring: the Class of 1959
Learning Commons.
“The concept of the Learning Commons
is rooted in both the traditional service
model offered at Horrmann Library and
the new paradigm of active learning,” says
Davison. Its major feature is a set of new
multimedia study rooms on the main floor.
These glass-enclosed, soundproofed spaces
allow students to collaborate on group
assignments and practice their presentation
techniques with computerized whiteboards
and other technology. Since opening, these
rooms have been in constant use.
The Learning Commons also includes
new offices for the reference librarians,
where they may meet with students and
faculty for research assistance. The library
also doubled the number of fixed computer
workstations on the main floor, provided a
bank of laptop computers for use anywhere
in the library, and carved out more types of
spaces for study and meetings. The central
reading room remains open space for quiet
study. But one corner was enclosed for
individuals who want to escape the busy
hum of the main room.
The Learning Commons was made
possible by generous funding from alumni,
the Friends of the Library, and a special gift
from the class of 1959. The class of 2011
also dedicated their senior class gift to the
library for technology enhancements.
The way in which students use the
library to get information has changed
significantly over the past 50 years, and will
continue to do so well into the future. As
the academic heart of Wagner College, the
Horrmann Library has adapted well to these
changing needs and will remain a vital part
of the College for many years to come.
About the Authors: Norman E. Berg is a
member of the Friends of the Library and
husband of Diane Borst-Manning,’59, chair
of the Friends of the Library. His two books,
Regret to Inform You and My Carrier War,
are available in the Horrmann Library. Laura
Barlament is editor of Wagner Magazine.
Thanks to Dorothy Davison, dean of the
Horrmann Library, and Archivist Lisa
Holland for their assistance.
fa l l
2011
The Horrmann Library provides 41 general-use computer workstations.
for 90,000 volumes and seating for more
than 400 students. Recently inaugurated
Wagner College President Arthur O.
Davidson, plus four former Wagner
presidents, attended the ceremony, which
also featured the awarding of honorary
degrees to the heads of three major
publishing houses.
“It is uniquely appropriate that this
Lutheran institution should dramatize …
the role of the Library and of the Publisher
as part of the higher learning of mankind,”
said Victor Weybright of the New
American Library of World Literature.
“You are creating a college that adorns not
only our great metropolis, but our country
and the world beyond.”
17
�FEARLESS
CLAIRE MINTZER FAGIN ’48 H’93,
one of Wagner’s first nursing graduates,
proves no challenge is too great for a ‘real nurse’
C
By Lee Manchester
laire Fagin showed from an
early age that she had a mind of her
own. In 1943, she was 16 years old,
the daughter of immigrants in New
York City. Her parents had decided
that she was going to become a
physician like her aunt, Dr. Ida
Mintzer, the director of dermatology
at Queens General Hospital. They
had even taken to calling their
daughter “Clarence” to steel her for
the very male world of medicine.
18
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
A
fter enrolling at
Hunter College,
however, something
became clear to Claire.
“I had a vision of myself, and
that vision did not include going
to medical school,” she recalls.
“It was not a role model I could
accept.”
With the help of a friend,
behind her parents’ backs,
Fagin conducted her own
research on nursing careers.
After determining that she
wanted a baccalaureate nursing
program, not
just hospital
training, there
were only
three choices
open to her —
one of which was Wagner. The
dean of the College’s brand-new
nursing program was Mary Burr.
“She was teaching in the
evenings at Hunter, and I made
an appointment to see her,”
Fagin says. “I fell in love with
her right away; she was so warm
and motherly. … She told us she
would take us at the beginning of
the term in January, and that was
wonderful to us; I wanted to get
out of Hunter in the worst way.”
Claire enrolled at Wagner
College.
Then, she went home and
told her mother.
“She went berserk,” Fagin
recalls. “She telephoned my father
at his grocery store across the
street, and for the first time ever
P H OTO G R A P H : D E B O R A H F E I N G O L D
�fa l l
2011
19
�DEFYING
DOCTOR’S ORDERS
A
FAMILY TIES Harry Mintzer, pictured with Claire,
wanted his daughter to become a doctor like
his sister. They all attended Claire’s Wagner
graduation in 1948; pictured are her mother, Mae
Slatin Mintzer; aunt Dr. Ida Mintzer; and another
aunt, Jessie.
he closed the store in the middle of the day
and came home.”
Not knowing what else to do, Harry
Mintzer called his sister Ida, the doctor,
for advice.
“Ida said, ‘Harry, stop worrying. When
she goes through the nursing program at
Wagner College, she’ll get her bachelor’s
degree. After that, she’ll be able to decide
whether to become a doctor.’
“That calmed my father down,” Fagin
says. “I was so grateful five years later when
everyone, including Aunt Ida, came to my
graduation.”
For all of her long and productive life,
Claire Mintzer Fagin ’48 H’93 has made
up her own mind and led by her own lights,
no matter what others have thought. That
fearlessness helped her spearhead reforms in
healthcare, change the direction of nurses’
training, build the top-rated nursing school
in America, and become the first woman
to lead an Ivy League university. All along
the way, she drew on her early decision to
become an R.N. — which, as she once told
a reporter, to her means “real nurse.”
20
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
fter all of the family turmoil, Fagin’s
defiant choice turned out to have
been a good one. “The picture that I have
of Wagner College during that time is very
fine,” she recalls. “And the gorgeous alma
mater — I’ve remembered the words to
this day: ‘Beautiful upon a hill, looking out
to sea.’ It was so perfect; the place and the
song went together so wonderfully.”
She began her nursing career at Sea
View, a tuberculosis hospital on Staten
Island, but her real passion was for
psychiatric nursing. After about a year,
she joined the staff at New York’s famous
Bellevue Hospital, and she soon discovered
that she needed to deepen the theoretical
side of her education. She enrolled in the
graduate nursing program at Columbia
University’s Teachers College, earning her
master’s degree in 1951.
Her next step took her farther away —
to Bethesda, Maryland. “I don’t know that
I would ever have left New York, because
I was very, very homebound,” Fagin says,
“except that I had met this incredible
woman while I was getting my master’s,
Gwen Tudor, and she was going to start up
the Clinical Center at NIH,” the National
Institutes of Health, one of the world’s
foremost medical research centers.
Fagin joined her mentor at the NIH
Clinical Center. It was during this period
that she met Sam Fagin, an engineer living
in suburban D.C. The two were married in
1952.
At Clinical Center, an important seed was
planted for her professional future as well.
“Everybody came through Clinical
Center — and I mean everybody, from all
over the world,” Fagin recalls. One of those
people was filmmaker James Robertson,
who screened a documentary on the
common practice of separating parents
from their children in hospitals. Robertson’s
film touched a special chord with Fagin.
As an infant, Fagin’s mother had
been quite ill. “I was taken care of by
my darling aunt and uncle,” Fagin says.
“Then my mother came back when I was
11 months old.” Fagin believes that the
separation from her mother, followed by
the separation from her aunt and uncle,
traumatized her, creating psychological
challenges for her as she grew up.
That’s why, when Robertson showed his
film at Clinical Center, “naturally, it went
‘splung,’” she says, like an arrow piercing
her heart.
A few years later, Fagin had an
encounter of her own with parent-child
separation in hospitals. The Fagins had
returned to New York and adopted
their first son, Joshua. When Josh
underwent surgery for a hernia, Claire
and Sam wanted to stay with him while he
recovered.
“They tried to get rid of us, but we
refused to leave, because by that time I had
seen that film [by James Robertson], had
read everything there was to read about
separation, had read Anna Freud [the
prominent child psychologist], had read
everything imaginable, and they were not
getting us to leave,” she says.
A hospital guard threatened to remove
the Fagins by force. “All you’re going to
be doing is exacerbating his separation,”
warned the pediatrician.
“Doctor, you obviously don’t read the
literature,” was Claire’s reply. “And I left
her and that hospital.”
Shortly thereafter, Fagin enrolled
in the Ph.D. program at New York
University, where she chose for her
dissertation topic the issue of “rooming
in” versus separating children from
P H OTO G R A P H S : C O U RT E S Y O F C L A I R E FAG I N
�parents during
hospitalization.
It was that
dissertation,
completed
in 1964 and
published in
1966, that
first brought
Fagin into
PERFECT CHOICE Claire
Mintzer graduated from
the national
Wagner in 1948.
limelight.
According to biographer Susan M.
Reverby, “[Fagin’s] groundbreaking study
… demonstrated the critical importance
to patients and nurses of allowing parents
of hospitalized children to room together.
Her published monograph and articles in
the mid-1960s, as well as her television
appearances and media visibility, were
highly influential in transforming hospital
practices across the country.”
INNOVATOR
T
he next stage of Claire Fagin’s career
involved a series of administrative
appointments where she made big waves
that lifted each program to a new level of
excellence.
Fagin joined the faculty at NYU,
directing the graduate program in
psychiatric nursing. In 1969, when NYU
nursing moved to eliminate specialty
programs like hers, she made her own
move, to lead the Department of Nursing
at Herbert Lehman College in the Bronx.
There, she developed a new
baccalaureate program that prepared
nurses for primary care practice, a new
concept at the time.
“Nobody else was doing this then,” she
says, “and all I had was a concept. I had
to gather people around me who could
put meat on the bare bones I gave them.
I loved my faculty — I called them ‘my
jewels,’ and I brought some of them with
me to Penn.”
The University of Pennsylvania
recruited Claire Fagin in 1977 to become
dean of its troubled School of Nursing —
and, because they had sought her out as a
known innovator, she was well positioned
to institute the changes necessary to build
the school up.
“I would always throw out challenges,”
she says. “I would meet with one group
and tell them that we had to double the
master’s program, that we couldn’t survive
with a master’s program that size. A faculty
member looked at me and said, ‘How on
earth do you expect us to do that?’ I said, ‘I
expect it — and we’re going to do it.’”
Under Fagin’s leadership, the entire
nursing faculty at Penn had to get
doctorates. To go along with the extra
training, Fagin secured grant funding to
support their work, and she saw through
the completion of a new building and the
creation of a new doctoral program for
the school.
By the time Fagin left
the dean’s office at the end
of 1991, Penn had the toprated nursing program in the
country — and her faculty
loved her for what she’d done
to pull them into the top tier.
IVY LEAGUE PRESIDENT
C
laire Fagin stayed on at Penn Nursing
as the Leadership Professor, an
endowed seat. The next spring, taking
a break in Paris with her husband, they
read the news that Sheldon Hackney,
Penn’s president, had been nominated by
newly inaugurated President Bill Clinton
to head the National Endowment for
the Humanities. Until that moment,
Fagin says, she hadn’t given a thought
to becoming the next president of the
University of Pennsylvania — but,
suddenly, the idea intrigued her.
When she and her husband returned
to Philadelphia a few days later, they saw a
front-page article in the Daily Pennsylvanian
‘REAL NURSES’ The 1947 Wagner R.N. graduates, with Dean Mary Burr,
front and center, and Claire Mintzer, second row, second from left.
fa l l
2011
21
�pitch would be unnecessary and that I was
being offered the position then and there.”
Fagin says that she was “thrilled … to
be the first woman chief executive officer
of Penn. I knew that the success or failure
of my presidency would cast a long shadow
on the future, but despite the possible
outcomes, the appointment sent a message
that Penn was ready for a non-traditional
appointment. For this 254-year-old
university, the message for women was
hailed with enthusiasm.”
DEAN FAGIN As dean from 1977 to 1992, Fagin
led Penn Nursing to become the nation’s toprated program.
that listed her name toward the bottom of
a roster of possible candidates for acting
president.
As she was soon to learn, however, Fagin
was anything but a long shot for the job.
She received a call that night asking her to
meet with Allen Shoemaker, the chair of
Penn’s board of trustees, later in the week.
“When I met with Al, I came prepared
to convince him that I was the right
person for the job,” Fagin recalled in an
autobiographical essay. “From the beginning
of the interview, it was clear that my ‘sales’
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
C
laire Fagin took over the interim
presidency of the University of
Pennsylvania on April 14, 1993.
The very next day, nine members of the
Black Student League confiscated an entire
issue of the Daily Pennsylvanian, which had
been running a conservative column they
considered inflammatory. Racial tensions
immediately rose.
The following week, another race-related
story hit the papers, adding to the tensions
at Penn.
“It dealt with an event that had occurred
in January involving a group of black women
PRESIDENT FAGIN At Penn’s 1994 commencement, interim president Fagin
celebrates the end of an eventful year at the famous “Ben on the Bench” statue.
22
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
students and a white male freshman,” Fagin
recalls. “Close to midnight on a school night,
the women were celebrating the founding of
their sorority with traditional chants outside
a high-rise dormitory. Many students yelled
out of the windows, and one student was
identified who allegedly called the women
‘black water buffalos’ and told them to go to
the zoo if they were looking for a party.”
News stories about the Daily Penn
confiscation and the “water buffalo”
incident drew national interest because
of former president Sheldon Hackney’s
upcoming NIH confirmation hearings.
“I had dealt with issues of diversity,
race relations and political correctness
before,” Fagin says, “but never at the level
of intensity that we were experiencing at
Penn. … After I was in that job for two
weeks, I was walking around with tears
behind my eyes, it was so horrible.”
To deal with the immediate crises, Fagin
found herself doing double duty as both
president and press representative, making
connections with editors at the Philadelphia
Inquirer and the Washington Post. And it
helped. “They toned down a bit,” she says.
HEALER
B
ut Fagin’s real agenda for her year as
interim president was not to improve
Penn’s media relations — it was to rebuild
the university community itself.
“I had been at Penn 17 years by the
time I became president, and I had seen
the sense of community erode. To me, it
had been the most warm and embracing
campus you could possibly be on, and
somehow it had lost that,” she says. “What
I wanted to do was rebuild that sense of
community. It wasn’t like some kind of
myth I was trying to recreate — I was
there, I know what happened. I don’t
know why, but I had that capability.”
P H OTO G R A P H S : C O U RT E S Y O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F P E N N S Y LVA N I A A N D C L A I R E FAG I N
�MUCH HONORED Left, Fagin received an honorary doctorate from Wagner at commencement 1993. Pictured with her husband, Sam, and sister, Sylvia Snyder. Right: Penn’s
Nursing Education Building was renamed in Fagin’s honor in 2006.
Throughout her presidency, she focused
on the work of a special Commission on
Strengthening the Community, completing
its goals before she left office.
Fagin believes that the challenges of that
time in the university’s history called for the
unique strengths associated with a female
approach to leadership.
In an autobiographical essay, she cited
several studies of the differences between
male and female leadership styles that
had “focused on the more interpersonal
strategies women are comfortable with
and use, on the reduction in hierarchical
methods of administration and
management, on the increased focus on
communication-listening as well as speaking
and sharing information, and on consensus
building. Those strategies and styles
describe much of my own management. …
The climate at Penn when I became interim
president called for this interpersonal style.”
“At that time, nobody could have handled
it but me, and I knew it,” Fagin says. “I’m a
nurse, and I’m a healer — so I healed.”
WORKING LIKE A DOG
T
hough Fagin’s term as interim
president of the University of
Pennsylvania ended on June 30, 1994, she
by no means retired from her career as a
scholar and leader in the nursing profession.
She continued her study of nursing home
reform, examined the economic pressures
that were forcing the healthcare system
to abandon patients, and developed a
nationwide program to build nursing
capacity for geriatric care.
In 2006, the former dean was given a
rare honor: The building that housed the
Penn Nursing program she had led for 15
years was renamed Claire M. Fagin Hall.
Today, Fagin consults for several nursing
schools and research projects, serves on
corporate boards, and “works like a dog”
with her fellow board members of the
Visiting Nurse Service of New York to
improve home nursing care in New York
City. And she continues to provide career
advice to colleagues in the fields of nursing
practice, research and education.
She has been widely recognized and
much honored: former president of the
National League for Nursing, winner of
the American Nurses Foundation’s First
Distinguished Scholar Award and the
Lillian D. Wald Spirit of Nursing Award,
a Fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Fellow
of the (U.K.) Royal College of Nursing, a
Living Legend in the American Academy
of Nursing, and recipient of 15 honorary
doctoral degrees and counting — including
one from Wagner College in 1993.
“Whatever I have achieved, the awards I
have gotten, the personal rewards I have felt,
would not have come my way were I not a
nurse,” Fagin says. “I feel I have given a lot
to the profession, but I am not even near to
repaying what it has given me. I shall always
be grateful for the stroke of fortune that
brought me to choose this wonderful field.”
fa l l
2011
23
�In the war on microbes,
Vincent Fischetti ’62 H’10
points the way forward.
Through ups and downs,
successes and setbacks,
he is making discoveries
that just may, one day,
save your life.
24
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�By Laura Barlament
Photos by Pete Byron
ack in the 1960s, many
medical experts thought
they had harmful
microbes licked. The
previous 20 years had
been a “golden age of
antibiotic discovery” that
would eradicate diseases
like polio, typhoid,
cholera, and measles
in Western societies.
In 1962, Nobel
Prize-winning medical
microbiologist Macfarlane
Burnet wrote, “At times
one feels that to write about
infectious diseases is almost
to write of something that has
passed into history.”
In that same year, one of the
happy graduates who crossed
the stage to receive his diploma
on Grymes Hill was Vincent
Fischetti. He had completed
his Bachelor of Science in
bacteriology and public health,
and already had a job lined up
as a laboratory technician at
Rockefeller University, a storied
biomedical research institution in
Manhattan.
But first, he was getting
married to his longtime
sweetheart, Barbara. Thanks
to his father, the owner and
operator of a Long Island
landscaping business, they
were headed to Paris for their
honeymoon, and staying at
a hotel overlooking the Paris
Opera. One of those magical
evenings in Paris, Vince looked
out the hotel room window and
saw a stately figure walking on a
red carpet into the opera house:
It was Charles de Gaulle, the
great World War II general, then
president of France.
Twenty-five years later,
Fischetti looked up at that same
hotel room window as he walked
into the Paris Opera House on
the red carpet. The occasion
was the 100th anniversary of
the Pasteur Institute, one of the
world’s great scientific research
centers focused on infectious
diseases, and Fischetti was an
honored guest. Over the years,
the optimistic pronouncements
of Macfarlane Burnet and others
had not proven true. The fight
against infectious diseases had
not ended; if anything, it had
become even more intense.
Fischetti had become something
of a general himself: a leader in
the ongoing war against harmful
bacterial infections.
In fact, in many ways,
Vincent Fischetti ’62 H’10 is
changing the nature of the war
itself, opening new fronts in the
fight against man’s smallest and
deadliest enemies.
fa l l
2011
25
�Total Immersion
— more than 70 of them at this
point, all focused on different
hen you step off of aspects of biological and
a charmless stretch biomedical research.
of York Avenue in Manhattan
To the young Vince Fischetti,
onto the campus of Rockefeller
this place was, indeed, a
University, it feels like you are
microbiologist’s paradise. As a
entering an enchanted garden.
young boy, growing up in West
Behind an ornate wrought-iron
Hempstead, Long Island, he
fence, you glimpse tree-lined
had spent many happy hours
paths, brick facades, and a
engrossed in his microscope,
geodesic dome, like a giant white watching things move in the
egg laid in the greenery.
water he took from a pond near
This wondrous place has been his home, and teaching himself
Vince Fischetti’s professional
how to preserve the microscopic
home ever since he first came to creatures on slides.
work here in August 1962, and
But young Vince was not just
was immediately immersed into
a nerdy bookworm — he started
the struggle to understand and
mowing lawns on his father’s
outwit the microbial world.
work crews at age 10, and he also
Rockefeller University is not
showed a gift for athletics. He
what most people think of when was small but quick and strong,
they hear the word “university.”
and he excelled in high school
It has no undergraduate students; as a sprinter and a halfback.
it awards only Ph.D.s, and it is
That took him away from the
structured around laboratories
microscope for a while — but
‘This is what I love to do,’
he thought, peering
through microscopes.
26
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
when it came time to go to
college, he was steered by science.
Turning down college football
scholarships (at 140 pounds,
he says, “I knew I would have
gotten killed”), he chose Wagner
College and enrolled as a predental student. When he took
his first microbiology course,
though, he was smitten. “This is
what I love to do,” he thought,
peering through microscopes and
studying those tiny worlds. He
declared a major in bacteriology
and public health, the highly
unusual undergraduate program
founded by Edythe Kershaw and
Natale Colosi just a few years
prior (see story, opposite page),
and never looked back.
His roommate, Ted Caccia
’62, remembers Fischetti studying
in their room every night,
while Caccia was out playing
intramural basketball. They both
belonged to Delta Nu fraternity,
as did Frank Catalfumo ’62, a
fellow bacteriology major and
boyhood friend of Fischetti’s.
“He was a very organized
studier,” says Catalfumo. “He
took magnificent notes. I would
study for exams the night before.
Vinnie would be sleeping, and I’d
review his notes.”
Catalfumo, now a successful
plastic surgeon in Florida, tried
to persuade Fischetti to go to
medical school with him — to
no avail. Fischetti knew that his
calling was in the laboratory. In
December of his senior year, he
attended a seminar on virology
at Rockefeller University and
afterward wrote to all of the
speakers to ask if they had
openings in their labs. His
letter was forwarded to Maclyn
McCarty, head of the Laboratory
of Bacterial Pathogenesis and
Immunology.
With this connection, Vince
Fischetti had found his place.
One member of the McCarty
lab, John Zabriskie, needed
an assistant. A physicianscientist, he was interested in
understanding the microbial
chain of events that triggers
scarlet fever. Every morning,
Zabriskie met with Fischetti
to discuss what needed to be
done in the lab that day. Then
Zabriskie went to the hospital
to work with patients, leaving
his assistant to figure things out
mostly on his own.
“I cannot believe they pay
me for this,” Fischetti thought. “I
was in the lab doing experiments,
�THE NEXT
GENERATION
MICROBIOLOGY IS STILL SERIOUS FUN FOR
WAGNER STUDENTS
Although decades have passed and the name has changed, Wagner
College’s program in bacteriology — today known as microbiology —
vice president, Corey Gaylets ’13, discovered the major through his First-
continues to flourish. Lately, in fact, it’s been spreading like bacterial
Year Learning Community, which combined introductory microbiology
colonies on a petri dish.
with a course in experimental design. Although Gaylets originally
harbored ambitions of becoming a doctor, he says, “Now I think I want to
The program that launched Vince Fischetti’s career (and many
others’) coalesced into a major, bacteriology and public health, in the
be a microbiologist and do lab work.”
early 1950s. Its name was updated to microbiology — reflecting its
focus on all microbes, not just bacteria — in 2000.
“making [students] aware that they can major in this subject is the key.”
“Wagner’s microbiology program provides an in-depth, hands-on
Including microbiology in the First-Year Program during the past few
education in the manipulation, identification, and characterization
years was a deliberate move to attract student interest in the major —
of clinically and industrially important microorganisms,” says Roy
and it has worked. Every year, says Mosher, around five students from
Mosher, associate professor and director of the master’s program
the first-year LC declare microbiology majors.
in microbiology. This type of undergraduate program at a liberal arts
college is “extremely unusual,” he says; there are none others like it in
B.S./M.S. program, which started in fall 2009. Most students are signing
the Tristate area, and perhaps not in the entire Northeast.
on for this option now, says Mosher.
The creation of a Microbiology Club this fall demonstrates Wagner
Since microbiology is not taught in high school, Mosher says,
Another factor boosting microbiology is the new five-year combined
Microbiology has become a close-knit and enthusiastic subculture
students’ enthusiasm for the study of organisms too small to see with
at Wagner, say Mullins and Gaylets. They enjoy their professors, crack
the naked eye. On a chilly, wet October afternoon, the club held a party in
nerdy science jokes, take pride in their spotless labs and research
the Coffeehouse to celebrate its founding, and 500 people showed up.
displays on the third floor of Megerle Science Building, and look
“I’m very persuasive,” says the bubbly, gregarious club president,
forward to excellent post-graduate job prospects as microbiologists in
Julia Mullins ’12, to explain how her 40-member group created one of
government agencies and industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to
the fall’s biggest campus events. Plus, the club has caught their fellow
cosmetics to foods.
students’ attention with creative educational endeavors, such as hand
sanitizer giveaways, handouts with “Fun Facts About Microbes,” and a
renovation of the microbiology laboratories with state-of-the-art
raffle of colorful, plush educational toys shaped like microbes.
equipment. “It’s been nice to show prospective students around the
lab,” Mosher says. “That has enhanced our ability to impress students.
Mullins came to Wagner thinking she would major in biology, but
switched to microbiology after hearing about it from friends. The club’s
being on my own, making
decisions. … I was like a pig in shit.
That’s when you love what you’re
doing, you’re immersed in it.”
A Perennial Problem
C
oincidentally, it was
one grandfather’s tragic
experience with scarlet fever
that inspired the founding of
Rockefeller University itself.
In January 1901, a young
boy fell ill with scarlet fever.
He died days later. Neither
the disease nor its outcome
were unusual in those days. But
this boy’s grandfather was John
In 2008, funds from an anonymous donor made possible the
It shows that the College takes the program seriously.”
D. Rockefeller Sr., one of the
wealthiest men ever to walk this
earth. Later that year, pushed by
this family tragedy, he founded
the Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Research. It was the first
of its kind in the United States.
At that time, no one even
knew what caused scarlet fever,
much less how to treat it. Today
in the United States and other
developed nations, scarlet fever
is easily treatable by a course of
antibiotics. The groundwork for
this medical triumph was laid by
a woman whose black-and-white
photo hangs in Vince Fischetti’s
office: Rebecca Lancefield.
fa l l
2 0 1 10
27
� “She’s called ‘The Mother
of Streptococci,’” Fischetti says.
Lancefield discovered that
certain streptococcus bacteria,
Streptococcus pyogenes or group
A, were the culprit behind
not only scarlet fever, but also
other common diseases such
as strep throat. Because of her
work, therapies and tests were
developed that enable doctors
to quickly detect and treat strep
throat, making its potentially
lethal complications, like scarlet
fever and rheumatic fever, almost
unknown in developed countries
today.
But, Fischetti points out, the
solution is not perfect. Strep
throat and its more dangerous
relatives are the only common
childhood diseases for which
there is no vaccine. Outbreaks
of rheumatic fever still occur
periodically in the United States.
And in the developing world,
where rapid strep detection and
antibiotic treatment are not
available, rheumatic fever is still
a significant public health
problem. Every year, rheumatic
fever outbreaks leave surviving
victims with permanent heart
damage, unable to work.
That’s only one of the
problems that has impelled
Fischetti’s work. While the
antibiotics developed over the
past century have markedly
improved human health,
infectious bacteria have evolved
along with them, developing
new defenses against attack.
Antibacterial resistant strains
have multiplied, especially in
hospitals, outpacing scientists’
ability to develop new drugs.
Biological terrorism, such as the
TEST
YOURSELF
Wagner’s Microbiology Club prepared this educational quiz.
How many can you answer correctly? Answers are at the
bottom of page 31.
1. Name the different types of microbes.
2. True or False: Most microbes cause disease.
3. What are some foods that microbes help make?
4. �True or False: Microbes help to create most of the
oxygen in the atmosphere.
5. True or False: Antibiotics come from bacteria.
6. True or False: There are 100 million microbes in your saliva.
7. �How much of your body weight is made up of bacteria:
0.5%, 1%, or 2%?
8. True or False: Viruses are living.
9. The common cold is caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi?
10. What bacteria are responsible for food poisoning?
28
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
anthrax attacks of the fall of
2001, have raised new concerns
and needs for protection.
Plenty of work for
microbiologists like Vincent
Fischetti.
A Virulent Cast
of Characters
O
n every front of the war
against infectious disease,
Fischetti is developing tactics that
have never been tried before.
Primarily, his tactic is
prevention — rather than
developing treatments for
infections, he is focusing on
how to prevent infection from
happening at all. And preventing
infection requires understanding
how bacteria work — really
understanding how bacteria work.
“This whole lab has always
been interested in understanding
the very earliest events in
infection,” Fischetti says.
“Because if you understand
what’s happening during those
earliest events, hopefully you
can stop it. Then you prevent
infection, rather than waiting for
the infection to happen, and then
treating the infection.”
His first project at Rockefeller
University, the scarlet fever
study with John Zabriskie,
introduced him to key microbial
characters that have loomed
large in his work ever since. They
knew that group A streptococci
released a toxin that caused
scarlet fever. But what was it in
the bacteria that produced the
toxin? Zabriskie had a suspect:
bacteriophages (also known as
phages), a type of virus that
attacks bacteria. With Fischetti’s
help, he proved he was right. “It
was a major finding at the time,”
says Fischetti.
While working full-time on
this project, Fischetti earned his
master’s in microbiology at Long
Island University. It took him
four years to finish, working on
it at night. Then, his Rockefeller
mentors told him, “That’s nice,
but if you really want to advance
in this field, you need a doctorate.”
“So,” Fischetti says, “I applied
for Ph.D. programs.” He already
knew exactly what he wanted
to study: bacteriophages. He
was accepted by New York
University, and continued
working in the lab at Rockefeller
University. His study of the
phage enzyme called lysin, which
allows a phage to burst open
the bacterium it has infected
and release its progeny into the
environment, was published
in the Journal of Experimental
Medicine in 1971.
Meanwhile, he had become
a postdoctoral researcher at
Rockefeller and started to work
on another project: Defining
the structure of the M protein,
a molecule on the surface of
group A streptococci. The long,
thin strands of M protein all
over the bacteria’s surface make
them look like fuzzy little tennis
balls. This “fuzz” surrounding
the bacteria is what makes strep
infectious to humans, defusing
�our immune system’s defenses
and allowing the bacteria to
become active.
Over decades of work,
Fischetti became the first
scientist to clone the gene of
the M protein, the first to
determine its structure, and the
first to completely characterize
any surface protein on this class
of bacterium. He also became
convinced that the M protein
was the most promising target for
developing his holy grail: a strep
vaccine.
In fact, Science magazine
published one of his approaches
for an M-protein-based strep
vaccine in 1989. He tested it
and found it effective in mice.
But so far, no pharmaceutical
company has stepped forward to
fund its development for human
use. There are multiple reasons
for this lack of interest, with the
financial calculus standing at
the top of the list. Nevertheless,
Fischetti has confidence that
one day, the strep vaccine will
be made. Rheumatic fever is a
significant problem in developing
countries, he says, and he is
working with the World Health
Organization to solve this public
health concern.
with a colleague. “We were just
talking about lysins in general,
and things like that,” he recalls.
A Eureka Moment
Because he was working on his
eanwhile, his work
strep vaccine at the time, he had
on bacteriophages
mice infected with strep throat
and the enzyme lysin was far
for one of his vaccine studies.
from forgotten. One day about
The conversation about lysins,
10 years ago, he says, he was
though, gave him a different idea.
having a phone conversation
The function of lysins, after
M
Fischetti’s lysin
treatments use
‘nature against
nature,’ he says.
‘It’s always the
best way.’
all, is to burst open bacteria,
killing them. And that’s exactly
the goal of antibiotics: to kill
bacteria. If it works for phages,
Fischetti suddenly realized, might
it not work for him?
He went back to the strep
throat-infected mice and added
lysin to their oral cavities. He
waited about an hour, then
swabbed the mice’s throats and
tested the results: They were
clean. No more strep. No more
infection.
“It was a eureka moment, no
question about it,” he says with
a grin. “And that was what really
started this whole process of
using lysins as a therapeutic.”
The novelty of this approach
fa l l
2011
29
�Fischetti’s antibodies
are the envy of
many an ill person.
These scouts of
the bloodstream
latch onto harmful
bacteria, so that the
white blood cells, or
phagocytes, recognize
them as enemies and
‘gobble them up.’
to bacteria-busting also struck
the U.S. patent office, which
issued him a patent in record
time. Since then, he has
accumulated about 40 patents
for lysins and other treatments
targeted at different organisms.
This specificity speaks to
one of the benefits of the lysin
technology: As opposed to
conventional antibiotics, which
can kill everything in their path
— including bacteria that are
30
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
essential to human health —
lysins target specific bacteria:
only group A streptococcus, or
only pneumococcus, or only
Bacillus anthracis (which causes
anthrax), which are all bacteria
against which lysin has been
shown to be effective.
Furthermore, lysin acts very
fast, killing bacteria within
seconds of contact. And to top it
all off, Fischetti’s lab has shown
that bacteria will not be able
to easily develop resistance to
lysin-based drugs, as they do to
conventional antibiotics. For a
billion years before any other
life appeared on earth, bacteria
and phages, the source of lysin,
evolved in tandem with one
another, learning to exploit each
other’s strengths and weaknesses.
A phage actually drills into a
bacterium to reproduce, and
then produces lysin to get back
out, exploding its host in the
process. Therefore, Fischetti was
able to follow phages to bacteria’s
Achilles heels: Molecular
targets that are consistently and
unavoidably lethal to bacteria. In
other words, he’s using “nature
against nature,” he says. “It’s
always the best way.”
A startup biotech company,
Contrafect, has licensed the
technology to produce a lysin
drug to treat staph, skin, and soft
tissue infections; the first stage
of human trials is expected to
begin next spring. And many
other uses for lysin are under
development, ranging from an
agent that can decontaminate an
environment of anthrax spores
without using harsh chemicals,
to a lysin drug that could treat
battlefield wounds infected with
MRSA (methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus).
Defensive Measures
V
ince Fischetti became
an assistant professor
at Rockefeller in 1973, an
associate professor in 1978, and
a full professor in 1990. He
served for 10 years as editorin-chief of a major scientific
journal, Infection and Immunity,
and he has published well over
200 papers and book chapters.
Under his leadership for the
past two decades, the Laboratory
of Bacterial Pathogenesis and
Immunology — the most historic
lab at Rockefeller University —
shows no sign of losing its vitality,
relevance, and productivity.
The lysin technology,
especially with its applications to
anthrax, is the most attention-
�grabbing development in the
Fischetti lab right now, but it’s far
from the only promising project
underway.
Visiting his laboratory
on the eighth floor of the
Bronk Building at Rockefeller
University, you’ll find lab benches
crammed with equipment and
petri dishes; old filing cabinets
and handwritten signs (“If you
spill buffer over counter can u
please clean it up”); and graduate
students and postdocs who are
dressed, like college students
anywhere, in T-shirts and jeans.
It doesn’t look imposing, but
Vince Fischetti and his longtime
lab tech, Clara Wetzel Eastby ’69,
who has worked with him ever
since she graduated from Wagner
with a bachelor’s in bacteriology,
make sure that everything runs
with razor-sharp precision. This
team has a feel for microbes
that is unparalleled; you could
even say that it’s in the blood —
literally.
At one of those crowded
benches, postdoctoral researcher
June Wang picks up a petri dish.
Its contents are a translucent rosy
color, irregularly speckled with
clear circles. Inside each circle is
one tiny dot. That, Wang says,
is a streptococcus bacterium
colony, sitting on agar gel that
contains human blood. Each
colony ruptured the red blood
cells around it, creating the
cleared zones.
“This is Vince’s blood,
actually,” she says.
“She bled me yesterday,” he
adds with a shrug. He points
out a second dish, which has the
same rosy color, but no clear
circles. “I have antibodies to this
strep, because I’ve been working
with it for so long.”
Fischetti’s antibodies are the
envy of many an ill person. These
scouts of the bloodstream latch
onto harmful bacteria, so that the
white blood cells, or phagocytes,
recognize them as enemies and,
as Fischetti says, “gobble up
the organisms.” The difference
between the two dishes was that
the first had been kept still, and
the second one rotated. That
motion allowed the phagocytes to
“find” the bacteria and eliminate
them.
Wang’s experiment on her
boss’s blood is a preparatory
stage for her work on developing
an antibody therapy for staph
infections. “They’re really nasty
bugs,” Fischetti says, noting
that about 700,000 people are
hospitalized each year in the US
with staph infections, and about
20 percent of those infections
are lethal. While Fischetti’s lysin
technology has the potential to
clear up staph much faster than
current treatments, the antibody
approach would help susceptible
patients stave off infection in the
first place.
In the meanwhile, his best
advice to keep yourself healthy
is simple: drink a lot of water.
“Drinking water is healthy, and it
makes you go to the bathroom,”
he says. “You go to the bathroom,
you wash your hands. That’s your
best protection. Unless someone
sneezes on you. There’s nothing
you can do about that.”
No matter how complicated
life gets for Fischetti — traveling
from New York to Boston to
Nevada to Italy to give lectures,
writing and revising major
papers, advising and managing
dozens of graduate students
and postdocs, raising millions
of dollars in grant money — in
a way, it’s still the playground it
always was.
“I always look at it as climbing
Mount Everest,” he says. “Every
time you get a result, you see
something no one’s ever seen
before. And that’s what keeps me
excited, is a finding that is new,
and a finding that no one has
ever discovered before.”
A finding that just may,
one day, save your life.
Page 28 Quiz Answers:
1. Bacteria, viruses, fungi, and
protozoa. 2. False. 3. Cheese, bread,
beer, pickles, sauerkraut, etc.
‘You need a feel for the cell work. Other people can look at the same
cells, and not see what I’m seeing.’ — Clara Wetzel Eastby ’69
4. True. 5. True. 6. True. 7. 1%.
8. False. 9. Viruses. 10. Salmonella,
E. coli, staph, and shigella.
fa l l
2011
31
�Wa g n e r
Sports Roundup
Part-Time Job,
Full-Time
Commitment
Coach Stasi guides his teams with humor,
high expectations, and heart
By Laura Barlament
J
uggling three stopwatches, a pen,
and a well-worn composition
notebook filled with names and
numbers, Coach Joe Stasi calls
out the time as eight men and 10
women pound around the track.
“91. Perfect. … 96, 99. Let’s go,
ladies, look good.”
Zach Spector ’11 cruises past effortlessly.
“He’s a machine,” Stasi (pronounced “Stacy”)
comments of Wagner’s top contender in men’s
cross country, a four-time All-NEC pick. “Stay
smooth, keep them in contact,” he encourages
the next panting passerby, who has fallen
behind his pack.
It’s a cool, cloudy day. Stasi, his stubbly dark
beard beginning to fleck with gray, wears a
black Seahawks T-shirt with black shorts and
gray Nikes, a green Wagner hat shading a face
that often seems on the verge of breaking into
a grin — except for right now. This requires
concentration, monitoring essentially six
different workouts simultaneously.
This scene epitomizes Stasi’s complicated
life, juggling a full-time high school teaching
job with part-time coaching at Wagner. That
is to say, on the books it’s a part-time job, but
what he does at Wagner actually makes him the
equivalent of several full-time coaches: Head
coach for indoor track, outdoor track, and cross
country for both the men’s and women’s teams.
32
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
� This kind of multitasking doesn’t phase
Joe Stasi. After all, he’s been doing it for 15
years and shows no signs of slowing down.
And the results show, both on the scoreboard
and in the lives and the loyalty of his
student-athletes.
“I don’t like cross country personally, but
I enjoy it because of Coach,” says Cameo
Kirk ’14 after she finishes her run. Kirk
specializes in 400 to 1600-meter distances in
track, and was a member of several recordsetting distance relay teams last year.
Before running, Kirk’s neon pink top had
caught Stasi’s eye. “What is that color, PeptoBismol?” he teased.
Humor is an endearing hallmark of
Stasi’s coaching style, says Kevin Kearney ’10.
“Coach possesses a special ability to connect
with his team on a personal level that I’ve
rarely seen from other coaches around
Wagner and even collegiate athletics in
general,” Kearney says. “It’s everything from
his lighthearted, joking demeanor at practice
to the mid-winter dinner he hosts at his
own home.”
According to his runners, past and
present, Stasi strikes the perfect balance
between being demanding and being
understanding, welcoming, and encouraging.
Kearney’s story exemplifies this dynamic.
According to Kearney, he was a “decent high
school runner,” but not one who was being
recruited by Division I college coaches. Then
he found Wagner College and Coach Stasi.
“I could tell he was genuinely interested in
me as a runner,” says Kearney. “After I had
meets, he would call my house and ask how
my races were going.”
Stasi saw Kearney’s potential and pushed
him to achieve it — and he did, becoming
an NEC Championship qualifier, Academic
All American, Wagner College record
holder, and team captain.
Brecken Drager ’10, a 2010 NEC
Champion in the 10,000-meter and
5,000-meter, confirms this assessment of Stasi.
“Coach has high expectations and says
it like it is,” she notes. “He sees the true
potential in each of his athletes and doesn’t
let them settle for less.”
But while Stasi’s runners are being
pushed, they also know they are being cared
for. “Coach caters to each athlete as an
individual,” says Drager. “He often had three
or more available practice times in a day,
and it wasn’t uncommon for him to make a
different workout for every single runner.
“Running track for four years under
Coach Stasi were the best years of my whole
life,” Drager continues. “Classes and New
York City and parties are all secondary
memories. Running track was what defined
my college years, and I attribute those great
memories to Coach Stasi.”
{
in the news
{
It was a challenging football season
for the Seahawks. One freshman,
however, came to the team unusually
well prepared to face life’s hurdles. In a
sequence of events that bears striking
similarities to the story of Baltimore
Ravens offensive tackle Michael Oher,
portrayed in the book and feature film
The Blind Side, Josh Talbott (an African
American) was adopted as an older
teenager by a white family. Josh and his
brother, Austin, played football together
at Jupiter Christian High School in
Jupiter, Florida. You can find a link to
videos and stories about Josh and the
Talbott family at www.wagner.
edu/wagnermagazine.
Great Expectations
Dan Hurley’s Seahawks poised for Northeast
Conference men’s basketball dominance
What a difference a year makes. Last
season, Dan Hurley’s Wagner Seahawks
were coming off a five-win campaign and
pegged to finish near the bottom of the
Northeast Conference. Following an eightwin improvement, the rapid maturation of
a young team, and an influx of five highly
touted newcomers, the Green & White are
this year expected to challenge for NEC
supremacy. Coach Hurley’s squad returns
all five starters from a year ago, led by
senior guard and reigning First Team AllConference selection Tyler Murray ’12. The
Canadian playmaker led the team in scoring
at just under 17 points per game, while also
serving as one of the top three-point threats
in the league. Also returning is sophomore
guard Latif Rivers ’14, a member of the
NEC’s All-Rookie Team, who averaged just
under 14 points a game and led the league
with an 89.1 percent conversion rate from
the free throw line. The season also features
exciting play outside of the NEC, with
Wagner making an appearance in the 45th
annual Cable Car Classic in Santa Clara,
California, December 29–30. Don’t miss any
of the action: All Wagner home games will be
streamed online.Visit www.wagnerathletics.com
for complete information.
fa l l
2011
33
�Share Your Expertise
Volunteer opportunities allow
alumni and friends to give back
Alumni Awards
Honor a fellow Wagner graduate with a 2012 National Alumni
Association Award for achievement or service. The deadline for
nominations is January 13, 2012.
A nomination form and details
about the award categories are
available at www.wagner.edu/
alumni. Winners will be honored
during Reunion Weekend,
June 8–10.
Alumni Board
Applications for the Board of Directors of the Wagner College
National Alumni Association are being accepted for the next
three-year term, 2012–15. The deadline for nominations is
February 12, 2012. Learn about the duties of the position and
print out an application at www.wagner.edu/alumni.
For more information about NAA awards and board:
Office of Alumni Relations 718-390-3224 / alumni@wagner.edu
Mock Interviews
Prepare students for the most important hour of their career:
The job interview. Mock interviews can be conducted on campus,
on the phone, or using Skype. February 13, March 22, and
April 25 at 7 p.m.
Ask the Interviewer
Do you have experience interviewing entry-level applicants?
What have you seen that makes a candidate stand out? Share
your perspectives by serving on the “Ask the Interviewer” panel.
February 29 and April 3 at 7 p.m.
34
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Living and Working Abroad
Share your experiences, in person or
through Skype, with navigating life outside
the United States. March 6 at 7 p.m.
The Graduate’s Guide to Successful Networking
Student-Alumni Networking Reception
Join Amy Jensen ’07, author of The Graduate’s Guide to Networking,
for a one-hour workshop on effective networking. Immediately
following Amy’s presentation, students will test their skills with
alumni and employers. March 21 at 7 p.m.
Career Cabaret: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Employment
Every successful person has a humorous anecdote about a
mistake they made as they started their professional career. We
are collecting these stories and offering them to the class of 2012
as an opportunity to listen, laugh, and learn from our successful
Wagner alumni. If you have a story to contribute, submit your
anecdote by February 22. Include your name, class year, major,
what you learned from this mistake, current employer, and job
title. Please indicate if you would prefer to remain anonymous.
To volunteer or submit a cabaret entry:
Victoria Crispo, assistant director for career development, email
vcrispo@wagner.edu / phone 718-420-4269 / fax 718-420-4012.
�{
flashback
{
Take a Walk Down Memory Lane
Wagner College Memories: A Photographic Remembrance
of Grymes Hill in 99 Images, Past & Present
P H YS I C S L A B , M A I N H A L L 2 2 , M AY 1 9 6 8
AVAILABLE FOR $39.99 IN THE WAGNER COLLEGE BOOKSTORE
Professor E. Thomas Henkel oversees a student conduct-
Alumni Link
This 10-by-8-inch hardcover book contains 99 classic
scenes, from a panoramic view of the VerrazanoNarrows Bridge to the Collegiate Gothic grandeur of
Main Hall to winter’s snow-covered calm.
ing an experiment with an electromagnet in the Main Hall
To view the book online
and download a mail
order form, go to
www.wagner.edu/
newsroom/node/135
physics lab. The following fall, this lab was relocated to
Megerle Hall, the new home for the science departments.
The photo was taken by Leigh Ramsay ’69, who graduated
with a bachelor’s degree in physics. As Main Hall (previously known as the Ad Building) undergoes renovations
AN OLD FRIEND NEEDS YOUR HELP
W
agner’s $12 million restoration of Main Hall will
secure this historic building, so that it can continue
to provide generations of Wagner students with memories to
cherish and learning to last a lifetime.
You can be a part of it. Give to the Main Hall restoration
project, to Wagner’s most urgent needs, or to another area
of your choice through the 2011–12 Annual Fund.
this fall, we are preparing a Wagner Magazine feature on
its place in campus history. Please share your Main Hall
photos and memories by contacting Laura Barlament, Editor, Wagner Magazine, at the Communications Office, One
Campus Road, Staten Island, New York 10301; 718-3903147; or laura.barlament@wagner.edu.
1-888-231-2252 • www.wagner.edu/give_now
fa l l
2011
35
�Wa g n e r
Alumni Link
Snowcoming
Upcoming Events
A ‘WINTRY MIX’ DEFINED THIS YEAR’S HOMECOMING FESTIVITIES
National Alumni Association
On October 29, Homecoming 2011 was turned into Snowcoming 2011 by a completely unexpected snowstorm, the
• �Winter on the Hill
earliest and heaviest such storm in New York City history. Conditions outdoors, both on and off the field, were brutal
— only a few hearty souls were in the stands to watch Albany shut out the Seahawks in the driving wind and heavy,
wet snow. A large crowd of nearly 400 alumni and friends huddled inside the Homecoming tent, where it was warm
and relatively dry, to enjoy food, drinks, and fellowship.
February 11
Alumni Reception and
Basketball Doubleheader
Wagner v. Mount St. Mary’s
• �National Alumni Day of
Community Service
April 21
• �Reunion Weekend
June 8–10
• �Alumni Day at Saratoga
Race Course
July 21
Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
• �Alumni Day at Del Mar Race Track
August 4
Del Mar, Calif.
W H I T E O U T T h e G re e n & W hi te gave f i rst- p l ace Al b any a fig ht before t he Great Danes pulled away
fo r a 24 –0 v i c to r y, i n a No rthe ast Co nfe re nce b attl e p l ayed in blizzard-like condit ions.
• �Alumni Alaskan Discovery Cruise
August 15–22
Lectures
• �Presidential Economic Symposium
April 26, 7 p.m.
Guest Speaker: Ken Langone,
co-founder of Home Depot
Spiro Hall, Room 2
Music
• �Choir: Tribute to Black Music
H O N O R E E S John Chaney ’88 (fo otb al l ; wi th hi s so n, Jar rell), A ndy
Fe l l o u r i s ’ 8 6 ( fo ot b al l ), and Frank G unthe r ’64 (go l f ) we re inducted
i n to t h e Wa gn e r Co l l e ge Athl eti cs H al l of Fam e , al o ng wit h J ennifer
A l br i z i o ’ 8 5 ( s oft b al l ) and Mi l an R i ki c ’9 5 (b asketb al l ).
A WA R M W E L C O M E
Ticket taker Sier ra M arant z ’1 2
g reeted a slim crowd at t he
stadium.
Feb. 28, 9 p.m.
Campus Hall
Music Performance Center
• �Choir: Send-Off Concert
March 4, 3 p.m.
Christ Lutheran Church, Staten Island
• �Choir: Spring Mini-Tour
March 8, Southern Connecticut
March 9, Trinity Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Rocky Point, N.Y.
March 10, 7 p.m., Zion Lutheran
Church,Wilmington, Del.
March 11, 4 p.m., Trinity Lutheran
Church, Staten Island, N.Y.
D I E - H A R D A few we l l - p re-
p a re d fa n s b raved the we athe r
i n t h e sta n d s .
36
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
S E A H AW K S P I R I T President Guarasci and Wag ner fr iends A llan
We i ssgl ass and Bo b Diamond display t heir Seahawk pr ide. Request
yo ur own b anne r by emailing your name, address, and class year to
se ahawksp i ri t@wagn er.edu. Take your photo wit h t he banner at an
al um ni eve nt o r yo ur own advent ure and email it back, so t hat we can
ad d i t to Wagne r’s Fac ebook photo album.
• �Treble Concert Choir:
Spring Mini-Tour
April 20–21, locations TBD
P H OTO G R A P H S : V I N N I E A M E S S É
�• �Jazz Band
Who in the Wagner World Was …
Friedrich Katz?
April 22, 3 p.m.
Staten Island, location TBD
• �Treble Concert Choir:
Spring Concert
April 22, 4 p.m.
Trinity Lutheran Church,
Staten Island, N.Y.
• �Choir: Final Concert
April 29, 4 p.m.
Brahms’ German Requiem
Trinity Lutheran Church,
Staten Island, N.Y.
• �Vocal Jazz Set
May 2, 8 p.m.
Campus Hall
Music Performance Center
• �Concert Band
May 6, 3 p.m.
Staten Island, location TBD
During a long scholarly career, Friedrich Katz ’49
became “the most eminent historian of modern
Mexico working in the second half of the
20th century,” according to the University of
Chicago Magazine. “His October 2010 death
at 83 was front-page news in newspapers
throughout Mexico.” Wagner College was an
important way station for the budding young
scholar in an early life unsettled by the tides
of history.
Katz was born in 1927 in Vienna, into a prominent intellectual Jewish and
Communist family. They moved to Berlin, but had to flee in 1933 as Nazism
took hold, first to France, then to the U.S., and finally to Mexico. Katz, who
was then 13 years old, completed his secondary schooling in Mexico City.
“Fred” Katz (as registrar’s records have him) came to Wagner through
Theatre
family friends in New York City. He completed his B.A. degree in less than
• ���Urinetown the Musical
three years. His son, Penn Law Professor Leo Katz, says that this short time
Feb. 22–25, Feb. 29–March 4
Snug Harbor Cultural Center*
• ���The Dance Project
Feb. 28–March 4
Stage One
• ���Goddess Wheel
April 18–21, 25–29
Snug Harbor Cultural Center*
• ���An Evening with Tennessee Williams
April 24–29
Stage One
Alumni Link
was very significant to his father. He roomed with Peter Berger ’49 H’73, a
fellow Austrian émigré who also became an eminent scholar. “It was this stay
that solidified his connection with America, as well as his love of American
academic life,” says Leo Katz.
Friedrich Katz went on to earn his doctorate at the University of Vienna,
writing a groundbreaking dissertation on Aztec society. He continued his
career in East Berlin and Texas before going to the University of Chicago in
1971, where he remained on the faculty for nearly 40 years and was named
the Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus. His magisterial
books The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican
Revolution (1981) and The Life and Times of Pancho Villa (1998) made a huge
impact by placing the Mexican Revolution in an international context and
* �During the renovation of Main Hall, Wagner
Theatre’s Main Stage shows are being
performed at the Music Hall of Snug Harbor
Cultural Center, 1000 Richmond Terrace,
Staten Island.
Dates are subject to change. Please call or check
www.wagner.edu/calendar for updates.
bringing to life one of its key figures.
The University of Chicago honored his scholarship and teaching by
establishing the Katz Center for Mexican Studies. The Mexican government
also bestowed on him its highest honor for a non-citizen, the Order of the
Aztec Eagle. “Friedrich was not just respected, he was revered here and in
Mexico and indeed anywhere in the world where Mexico’s revolution was
For more information,
registration, and tickets:
Admissions 800-221-1010 or 718-390-3411
Alumni Relations 718-390-3224
Music Department 718-390-3313
Theatre Box Office 718-390-3259
studied,” says John H. Coatsworth, dean of Columbia University’s School of
International and Public Affairs.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Trygve Skarsten ’49 for sending us the
University of Chicago Magazine story about Friedrich Katz.
fa l l
2011
37
�1942
Class Agent: Theodore W. Gibson
2017 Pine Knoll Road #2, Walnut
Creek, CA 94595, 925-588-9691
1948
Nelda and Ronald H. Reynier moved
from Pennsylvania to Hood River,
Oreg., 16 years ago. He retired in
2005 from a 58-year career in law.
1950
Class Agent: Robert S. Peirano
67 Meisner Ave., Staten Island,
NY 10306, 718-351-8535
attended Wagner
Reunion Weekend in June and
shared some of her story. She was in
Wagner’s third nursing class, and she
went on to work as a nurse at several
different locations, including the
University of Pennsylvania, a doctor’s
office in Florida, and a school in West
Chester, Pa. She retired in 1990. Her
first husband had died, when some
years ago, she reconnected with Martin
Andersen ’51, whose first spouse had
died as well. Alice and Martin married, and they live in Pennsylvania.
Alice Patterson Andersen
1953
Class Agent: Albert Tosi
70 Woodcliff Lake Road,
Saddle River, NJ 07458
1954
Class Agent: Manfred W. Lichtmann
568 Harbor Watch Loop, Myrtle
Beach, SC 29579, lichtmann@
sccoast.net
’54 M’57
and her husband, Robert J. Praisner,
of Bedminster, N.J., celebrated
their 50th wedding anniversary on
July 8, with a trip to the Reefs in
Bermuda, where they spent their
honeymoon, and with a family trip
to Germany to visit the birthplaces
of great-great-grandparents. Dorothy
Rausch Randall writes, “Un-retired
yet again and just managed another
successful theater benefit for the
Art Omi International Arts Center
in Ghent, N.Y. Topped last year
by 25 percent. Living in Hoboken,
N.J., with three daughters and six
grandchildren. Life is good!”
Wanda Schweizer Praisner
1955
Class Agent: Allan K. Brier
67 Round Cove Road, Chatham,
MA 02633, 508-945-3729
1956
Class Agent: George E. Lewis
5043 Kelsie Court, Florence, OR
97439, mrclor@charter.net
1957
Class Agents: Marie Attonito Alberti
109 Patio Drive, Endwell, NY
13760, 607-754-3400 Ewald Forsbrey
1096 Augusta Falls Way, Naples,
FL 34119, 239-353-6240
and Herbert Marx
celebrated the fourth birthday of
their great-grandson. They live in
Scottsdale, Ariz.
Pauline Pape Marx
1958
Class Agent: H. Milton Keen
10581 Lees Mill Road, Warrenton,
VA 20186, mk10581@gmail.com
and John Burke ’60
M’66 celebrated their 50th wedding
anniversary this year. They were
married on July 8, 1961, at Sacred
Heart Church in Staten Island. Alice
is a retired elementary school teacher
who taught in Staten Island and in
Dallas and Plano, Tex. John is retired
from the Fire Department of New
York and the United States Air Force
Reserve. He also worked as a substiAlice Campbell Burke
Class Agent: Fred Brockmann
3949 Wilshire Court, Sarasota,
FL 34238, 941-922-1879,
fredleebrock@comcast.net
Bob and Wanda Praisner (left) with family
1960
Class Agent: Peter Welker
P.O. Box 485, Caroga Lake, NY
12032, 518-835-3198, pwelker@
nycap.rr.com
John Burke ’60 M’66 and Alice Campbell
Burke ’59 celebrated their 50th
1959
1952
tute teacher at schools in New York
City, Dallas, and Plano. They live in
New Port Richey, Fla., and have three
children and five grandchildren.
wedding anniversary this year. They
were married on July 8, 1961, at
Sacred Heart Church in Staten
Island. John is retired from the Fire
Department of New York and the
United States Air Force Reserve.
He also worked as a substitute
teacher at schools in New York
City and in Dallas and Plano, Tex.
Alice is a retired elementary school
teacher who taught in Staten Island,
Dallas, and Plano. They live in New
Port Richey, Fla., and have three
children and five grandchildren.
Dorothea Waters Whitton retired in
2006 from teaching as well as from
her full-time work as a secretary at
Palisades Medical Center in North
Bergen, N.J. She continues working
part time at Palisades.
1961
Class Agent: Alma Costie Vincent
3115 Stowe Lane, Mahwah, NJ
07430, 201-760-2703
JoAnn Benkert Campanelli worked
at
Staten Island University Hospital
as an RN for 31 years, going on
disability in 1995 before retiring.
She writes, “I love to read, and I
Keep in Touch!
E-mail: alumni@wagner.edu
Publication policies:
class years of all alumni pictured; birth date, parents’ names,
Deadlines: This issue reflects news received by October 6.
and class years with photos of children; and dates and locations
Web: www.wagner.edu/alumni/
The submission deadline for the summer 2012 issue is June 1.
of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos must be clear and of good
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Content: Wagner welcomes your news and updates, and we
will happily share them with the Wagner family. We ask that you
quality. Prints should be on glossy paper with no surface texture;
send us announcements of weddings, births, and graduations
they will be returned at your request (please attach your address
after the fact.
to the photo). Digital photos must be jpegs of at least 250 pixels
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner groups at weddings
per inch; low-resolution photos converted to a higher resolution
and other special events. With the photo, send the names and
are not acceptable.
Wagner College, 1 Campus Road,
Staten Island, NY 10301
38
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�keep myself busy with the clubs I
belong to — the Richmond Travelers, Creative Travel, the Big Apple
Gals Red Hats, and the South
Shore Grandmothers Club. I have
also attended the Wagner College
Theatre program for many years.”
Her husband, Chris Campanelli,
died in 1989 after 27 years of
marriage. She has two children,
Christopher and Lisa; a granddaughter, Christina; and two grandsons, Michael and David (DJ).
1962
Class Agent: Rita King
5801 East Edgemont Ave., Scottsdale,
AZ 85257, rita.king@wagner.edu
1966
Elizabeth “Lissa” Dawson Barker was
elected a Fellow of the American
Academy of Nursing (FAAN), and
she assumed the presidency of the
Fellows of the American Academy of
Nurse Practitioners (FAANP) in June.
“These are two high honors in nursing,
and I’m proud that Wagner prepared
me so well for my career,” she writes.
She spent 36 years in the Navy, working in many different fields of nursing
and serving as a commanding officer.
Now she is an associate professor and
director of the master’s program in the
College of Nursing at The Ohio State
University.
1967
Class Agent: Maureen L. Robinson
160 Jockey Hollow Road, Bernardsville, NJ 07924-1312, 908-9532939, mrobidwolf@aol.com
has been a full-time
artist and workshop leader since
2001, and he is offering three workshops in 2012: “Painting Maine,”
June 24–26, in Kennebunk, Maine;
“Painting the Masters of Watercolor,” July 12–14, in Princeton, N.J.;
and “Painting Maine Colors,” October 11–13, in Kennebunk, Maine.
For complete information, contact
Russ at rjworkshops@gmail.com.
Russ Johnson
1968
Class Agent: Richard W. Ball 13 Jeffro
Drive, Ridgefield, CT 06877, 203431-6062, richard.ball@ubs.com
1964
Class Agent: Jack Felver
Class Agent: Philip Straniere
3 St. Austins Place, Staten Island,
NY 10310, 718-447-4717,
judgephil96@aol.com
Marilyn Dobbin Kinelski announces
that her first children’s book, Am
I Important?, was published in July
by AuthorHouse (www.authorhouse.
com). This story introduces young
children to the importance of
proper punctuation. Marilyn is a
former elementary and secondary
school educator, as well as a certified substance abuse and violence
prevention specialist and a courtappointed volunteer member of the
Monmouth County Juvenile Conference Committee. She is also very
involved in her church, and in July
she was appointed district lay leader
for the Northern Shore District
of the Greater New Jersey Annual
Conference of the United Methodist Church. She lives in Howell, N.J.,
with her husband, Ken, and one
lovable Boston terrier, Fozzie. Her
son, Rob, lives in California.
1970
was recognized
in July 2011 as one of the top 25
female business leaders in Philadelphia, receiving the SmartCEO
BRAVA 2011 Women’s Business
Achievement Award. She is the executive director of Comprehensive
Cancer and Hematology Specialists,
with offices in Voorhees, Sewell, and
Woodbury, N.J.
Judith Hall-Laughlin
Class Agent: John Donovan
141-A Main Street, Tuckahoe,
NY 10707
1965
1969
Class Agent: Gregory Gulbrandsen
2184 NE Meadow Lane, Bend,
OR 97701, 541-280-3035, greg@
cascadecreative.com
1963
Class Agent: Donald T. Savage
1130 Morningside Ave., Schenectady, NY 12309, 518-372-9422,
bsavage@prudentialmanor.com
the Order of the British Empire for
“meritorious civilian service to the
Crown.” Specifically, Conchita was honored for her leadership of the 400th
anniversary celebrations of Bermuda in
2009 and for her work as a choreographer and co-founder of the National
Dance Theater of Bermuda. Conchita
is pictured below at the Investiture
with her husband, Henry; son, Ari;
and daughter, Alana. Dana Miller Mochel
retired from the University of North
Carolina Hospitals in 2006 and started
a new career at Orange County Animal Service as an animal health care
tech. She lives in Carrboro, N.C.
The Ming Family
At a formal ceremony at Buckingham Palace on June 28, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II invested
Conchita Williams Ming as an officer of
1971
Class Agents: Pamela Broderick
P.O. Box 564, Winter Harbor, ME
04693 Kathy Chinnici O’Donnell 3322
Woodland Drive, Tobyhanna, PA
18466, 570-894-4731,
katcod0221@yahoo.com
Carol Rabbitt Barth presented
a violin
and piano recital to benefit St.
John’s Community Services in
Washington, D.C., on September 18.
Carol is a member of the D.C. board
of directors and the founders board
of St. John’s, which has provided
wonderful services to her son, Alex,
for several years. Carol accompanied
violinist Holly Hamilton of the National Symphony Orchestra in this
recital. She wrote, “I am very excited
to present this recital. This is the
best way that I know to give back
to an organization that functions so
well, but can function better with
extra support. It is a wonderful musical experience for me to accompany
someone of the performance caliber
of Holly Hamilton, and has been a
musical growth opportunity for me.”
1972
presented a paper entitled
“Institutional Will — The Organized Crime Remedy” at an international symposium on economic
crime, held at the University of
Cambridge, England, in September.
He also reports progress toward
making a movie of his 2009 book,
The Infiltrator (featured in Wagner
Magazine’s summer 2010 issue).
He signed a deal with director Brad
Furman, whose latest movie was
The Lincoln Lawyer.
Bob Mazur
Alumni Link
We sadly note that Richard Petrella
passed away on August 25, 2011, of
cancer. His sister, Elaine Petrella ’59,
contributed the following remembrance: “He studied under Charles
Kramer, graduating as a business
major. He went on to build his own
successful book fair business and
promoted reading programs for
40 years. … He was a member of
Delta Nu, and is remembered for
his laughter, stories, and leadership abilities.” Beverly Hoehne Whipple
received the Gold Medal from the
World Congress for Sexual Health
for her lifetime contributions
to the congress, held in June in
Glasgow, Scotland. She gave two
talks at the congress, as well as
at the University of Glasgow and
in Warsaw, Poland. “I had a long,
long standing ovation after my
Gold Medal talk,” she writes. “In
addition, many people from all
parts of the world came to the
microphones to praise me and
my work and talk about how I had
helped them or their students. I was
overwhelmed.” She also noted that
her husband, Jim, was honored with
a lifetime membership in the World
Association for Sexual Health.
84 North Smith Street, Palatine, IL
60067; 25244 Pelican Creek Circle,
Unit 201, Bonita Springs, FL 34134;
239-495-8861, jrfelver@aol.com
1973
Class Agent: Henry E. Gemino
5 Strickland Place, Manhasset,
NY 11030, 516-467-4191,
henryedmund@aol.com
1974
Class Agent: Diane “Nina” R. Recio
11 Holly Place, Larchmont, NY
10538, 914-833-0202, nrc917@
gmail.com
was named chief
financial officer of Project Freedom
Inc., located in Robbinsville, N.J. This
non-profit organization is dedicated to
developing, supporting, and advocating
for opportunities for independent living for persons with disabilities. Learn
more at www.projectfreedom.org.
Stephen J. Schaefer
1975
Class Agents: Richard G. DePaul
8 McKay Drive, Bridgewater, NJ
fa l l
2011
39
�UNCOMMON LIVES
Maggie Breville ’82
Environmental Science
for Human Health
CLAIM TO FAME: As an environmental scientist and project officer
for the EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research, Maggie
Breville ’82 oversees millions of dollars in federal grants. During her
quarter-century in public service, she has monitored New York City’s
drinking water, worked on cleanup of a Superfund site, and pioneered
the EPA’s process of peer review for research grant proposals.
NOT YOUR TYPICAL ‘TREE HUGGER’: Some environmentalists focus
more on protecting nature, Breville says, and others on protecting
human health. She leans toward the latter. A native Haitian who
moved to the U.S. at age 5, she was pushed toward a medical career
by her mother. Breville gives credit to Wagner College, where she
majored in biology, for awakening her interest in the environment.
Her favorite professor was biology department chair Dale Yarns,
who took his students to locations ranging from upstate New York to
Bermuda so that they could study biology in the field. Later, Breville
earned a master’s in environmental science from Tufts University.
PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: “In the early ’80s,” Breville
explains, “some groups began to look at the fact that some of the
most contaminating, most polluting industries and facilities were
located in areas more heavily populated by people of color.” This
idea became known as environmental justice, and Breville took an
early interest in it. Today she oversees research on environmental
pollutants’ effects on Native American communities. “The tribal work
is my favorite,” she says, “because these communities are so close
to the earth, they’re basically one with the earth, more so than any
other community.”
CREATIVITY AT PLAY: “It’s amazing,” says Breville of her work
overseeing scientific projects. “You’re seeing cutting-edge research
when they don’t even have results yet and they’re trying different
things, so you see innovation and creativity at play.”
40
W A GwNa Eg Rn eMr A m
G aA gZaI zNi En e
P H OTO G R A P H : M AT T H E W WO R D E N
�08807, 908-218-1418 Patricia Martin
1341 NE Market Dr., Apt. 355,
Fairview, OR 97024, pattym.phd@
comcast.net
1976
Class Agent: John M. Zawisny
56 Howard Ave., Staten Island, NY
10301, 718-447-4290, jzawisny@
aol.com
1977
Class Agent: Jeanne Delaney-Malikian
6 Walden Street, Somers, NY 10589
1978
Class Agent: Maria Lind Jenkins
31 Gower Road, New Canaan,
CT 06840, 203-966-5999
1979
Dr. Victor Dolan served at the central
medical clinic of the Pan American Games, held in October in
Guadalajara, Mexico. He says he
is the first doctor selected from
Staten Island to serve at the Pan
Am Games, and this year is the first
time that the Pan Am Games had
chiropractic doctors on staff. Six
thousand athletes from 45 countries
participated, making the Pan Am
Games second only to the Summer
Olympics in size. Phil Nuzzo, artistic
director of Brooklyn’s Metro Chamber Orchestra, led the ensemble in
the world premiere of a work commissioned in honor of Ron Cross,
the Kurt and Auguste Riemann
Professor of Music at Wagner.
The composition, “Time Is on My
Side” by Jay Vilnai, is “a piece with
a Balkan flair on the Dracula theme,”
says Phil, and honors the annual
Halloween concerts, “Music from the
Court of Vlad the Impaler (Prince
Dracula),” staged in the 1980s by
Collegium Musicum Wagneriensis,
directed by Professor Cross.
1980
Class Agents: Edward L. Garlock
132 Highland Drive, Bedford, PA
15522, 814-623-1124 Billy K. Tyler
1807 North Gramercy Place,
Apt. 5, Los Angeles, CA 90028,
323-462-7111, billyktyler@aol.com
Class Agents: Joan Sutera 23 Lake
Shore Drive, Rockaway, NY 07866,
908-901-8382, joansutera@
hotmail.com Lauretta Zitano 2129
Locust Road, Sea Girt, NJ 08750,
732-449-4883
1986
Julie Miller had
1987
a 26-year career in
pediatric and school nursing in
Maine, including working in rural
pediatrics in Indian reservations.
In 2000, she came down with a
rare and debilitating neurological
disease, which changed her course.
She is pursuing Native Studies at the
University of Maine and has begun
painting. Her art is on view at
http://julie-miller.artistwebsites.com.
1982
Class Agent: John Spadaro
117 Old Town Road, Staten Island,
NY 10304, 718-987-5073
received GAMA International’s International Management Award and Master Agency
Award in July. Dom is the managing
director of Bridge Financial Group,
an office of MetLife in Staten
Island. The GAMA International
Awards Program recognizes excellence in traditional and contemporary field management throughout
the financial services industry.
Class Agent: Wade C. Appelman
6 Aaron Road, Lexington, MA
02421, 781-274-8575, wadeapp@
yahoo.com
Class Agents: Meredith Lynch Acacia
5 Aspen Court, Jackson, NJ 08527,
732-928-8452 Karen McNeice 54
Schley Ave., Staten Island, NY 10308,
718-356-7631, kbm1017@aol.com
was appointed executive
director of the Staten Island Zoo
in October. He had been serving
as interim executive director since
March 2010. He previously served
on the New York City Council repreKen Mitchell
senting Staten Island’s North Shore.
1988
Class Agents: Melissa Sorensen Faherty
12 Chesebrough Street, Staten
Island, NY 10312, 718-227-2099,
m337j@aol.com Kenneth Nilsen 807
Castlepoint Terrace, Hoboken, NJ
07030, 201-222-0182, knilsen@
stevens.edu
1989
Class Agent: Peter Ottaviano
2 Calder Court, Marlboro, NJ 07746,
732-851-6052, pottav89@aol.com
Joe Isola was
featured in the Howell
Patch of Howell, N.J., as he began
the academic year in a new job:
district assistant superintendent
of curriculum and personnel. For
the previous seven years, he was
Knot Notes
Dominick Iorio
Wagner Weddings
Alumni Link
Class Agent: Frank Valenti
71 North Lakeside Ave., Jackson,
NJ 08527, 732-942-0044,
favalenti@msn.com
1981
been on a medical mission and has
taught nurses as a preceptor.
Celebrating new commitments
1983
Class Agents: Donald T. Browne
31 Tannery Hill Drive,
Hamburg, NJ 07419, 973-827-4584,
dbrowne100@aol.com Linda Appignani
Romani 40008 N. Integrity Trail,
Anthem, AZ 85086, 623-5519136, momofdm@qwest.net
1985
Class Agents: Annmarie Lambiasi
One Campus Road, Staten Island,
NY 10301, 718-420-4163,
alambias@wagner.edu Andrew G.
Williams 30 Roberta Street, Apt. G,
Key West, FL 33040
Christine Dimino Postiglione wrote
a note
of gratitude to the Evelyn L. Spiro
School of Nursing, which they
shared with us. She has worked in
many different fields of medicine,
and is currently enjoying emergency room nursing. After raising
her seven children, she is back to
nursing full time. She writes, “I love
to nurse. I enjoy healing the wound,
heart and the soul.” She has also
’07 and Laura Woodruff ’07 married on May 21 at
the Sand Castle in Franklin Square, Long Island. They met as
Wagner College freshmen, and they celebrated their marriage
with 19 other Wagner alumni. Back row: Gregory Avola ’07, Jeffrey
Grenier ’07, Kate Spare Maceda ’07 M’08, Elizabeth Grabowski ’07, Mark
Magro ’07 M’08, Christina Longo DiChino ’07, Laurel Corbin ’07 M’08,
Abby Albair Storiale ’09, Christina Martingano ’06, Erin McFarland Scattergood ’07. Middle/Front Rows: Danielle DeSantis ’07 M’08, Matthew
Hedge ’07, Lauren Smith ’07, Becca Wells ’06 M’07, Molly McLeod ’08,
James Steele ’07, Ashley D’Angiolini Chalmers ’07, Michael Storiale ’09,
Benjamin Hegel ’07.
Christopher Duni
Have a wedding photo with “Wagner family”?
Please see page 38 for publication guidelines.
fa l l
2011
41
�Cheers on the Hudson
air this fall, speakeasy-type settings have been in demand.
Class Agent: Vinnie S. Potestivo
2600 Palisade Ave., Apt. 3,
Weehawken, NJ 07086,
vinnie.p@wagner.edu
Chris Ryan ’86 made his acting debut as a mouthy bootleg-
Robert and Kara Laureno Asciutto
With Ken Burns’ new PBS documentary Prohibition on the
Chris Ryan ’86, center , appears in a PBS documentary about the
Prohibition Era. The scene was filmed in his bar in Troy, New York.
ger in a related project, William Kennedy’s Prohibition Story,
and his picturesque establishment, Ryan’s Wake Public
House in Troy, New York, served as a filming location. In this 30-minute documentary, actors including Ryan recreated
scenes from the life and times of the infamous East Coast gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond. Ryan’s true calling, however,
is not acting, but entrepreneurship with a civic bent. “A true pub is more than a bar,” says Ryan. “It’s a community
space, where people of all walks of life relax and congregate after work. It’s often the first setting for important civic
conversations that lead to real change in a small community like ours.” The Wagner business major got his start in the
hospitality industry by working at the Union and the Hawk’s Nest. In Troy, he has helped turn the Hudson River waterfront into a bustling entertainment district through his work with Brown’s Brewing Co. and its adjacent performance
space, Revolution Hall. In 2005, he opened Ryan’s Wake Public House on the same block, naming it in homage to the
Ryan family funeral business and the tradition of celebrating life at an Irish wake.
principal of Middle School North in
Howell. The article reports that he
was an accounting major at Wagner
College, but he found his way to education while helping to coach football
at his high school alma mater, Susan
Wagner High School in Staten Island.
He previously taught and served as an
assistant principal in Brooklyn.
1990
Class Agent: Levent Bayrasli
72 Kyle Drive, Phillipsburg, NJ
08865, 908-213-9598, sonicbros@
verizon.net
received the NAACP
Staten Island Chapter William
A. Morris Humanitarian Award
in September. She is the host,
founder, and executive producer
of Elderview Talkshow (www.
elderviewtalkshow.org) on Staten
Island Community TV, which allows
seniors to voice their opinions about
topics that affect their daily lives.
Elena Anarumo Gallo was promoted to
the position of senior vice president
and treasury management sales
consultant with Wells Fargo. She
lives in Eastchester, N.Y. Maria Giura
completed her first half-marathon
in October 2010. Her finish time,
2:09:41, placed her second for the
Staten Island chapter of Team in
Training, which raises money for
blood cancers. She also reports
on her literary accomplishments,
which include a reading from her
book in progress at the fall 2011
American Italian Historical AssociaPatricia Amis
42
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
tion conference, along with novelist
Rita Ciresi.
1991
Class Agent: Jennifer Norton Mantegna
802 Schley Ave., Toms River, NJ
08755, 732-458-1412
1992
Class Agent: Natalie Migliaro
510 Col. DB Kelley Way, South
Amboy, NJ 08879, 732-721-6170,
natmig@rci.rutgers.edu
1993
Class Agent: Stuart Plotkin
80 Knightsbridge Road #3F,
Great Neck, NY 11021,
SPlotkin@pclient.ml.com
1994
Class Agent: James Hickey
4209 Route 516, Matawan, NJ
07747, 732-290-3900,
james.hickey@wagner.edu
1995
Class Agent: Nancy L. Salgado-Cowan
451 Walnut Street, Yonkers, NY
10701, nursenancy1@hotmail.com
was honored by the
Seamen’s Society for Children and
Families, a Staten Island charitable
Laura Graham
1999
organization, at its annual gala
in October. Her boss, President
Bill Clinton, was the event’s guest
speaker. Laura is President Clinton’s
chief of staff and chief operating
officer of the Clinton Foundation.
She is also a foster mother, and the
Seamen’s Society honored her as
one of its most dedicated and exemplary foster parents. Founded in
1846, the Seamen’s Society was one
of the first U.S. organizations to care
for abused or abandoned children in
foster homes rather than in institutions. Laura was also featured by
NY1 News as Staten Islander of the
Week in September.
1996
Class Agent: Rebecca Ann Wallo Rose
41481 NYS Rt. 180, Clayton,
NY 13624, 315-778-8419,
harrypotter71674@yahoo.com
1997
Class Agent: Alison N. Boyd
14 Essex Drive, Ronkonkoma, NY
11779, 631-732-4032
1998
Class Agents: Tara Yeo Lagana
11 Quimby Road, Turner,
ME 04282, 207-713-4757,
TLLagana@hotmail.com Darren
L. Greco 24 Daniella Court, Staten
Island, NY 10314, 718-761-6069,
dgreco25@mac.com
announce the birth of Christian
Robert on March 9. They live in
Hoboken, N.J. See Crib Notes, page
43, for a photo. John Carrescia ’99 M’06
and his wife, Teresa, announce the
birth of twins, Jenna Ann and John
Anthony III, on July 22. They were
welcomed by their older sister,
Isabella Nicole, who was born on
February 11, 2009. John is assistant
vice president and controller at
Wagner College. Jo Ann Esposito
Panzella and her husband, Danny, announce the birth of their first child,
Xander, on February 27. Jo Ann
returned to Wagner in July 2010 to
serve as bursar. See Crib Notes, page
43, for a photo.
2000
Class Agent: Erin K. Donahue
5 Inverness Court, Wading River, NY
11792, edonahue45@optonline.net
2001
Class Agents: Simone Diaz
1655 N. Colony Road, Unit 19,
Meriden, CT 06450, 203-639-4855,
simoneamcbride@yahoo.com
Michael E. Poole 405 Pinkster Lane,
Slingerlands, NY 12159,
716-764-2835
2002
Class Agents: Peter J. Herbst
24 Bethke Road, Killingworth, CT
06419 Cindy M. Sforza Maley 54 Webster
Ave., Ronkonkoma, NY 11779,
631-676-4757, smallwonder124@
hotmail.com Renee M. Nadal 634
Monmouth Ave., Port Monmouth,
NJ 07758, 732-787-3294, nay537@
yahoo.com
and her husband, Peter
Caras, welcomed Bryn Noelle Caras
on December 27, 2010. See Crib
Notes, page 43, for a photo. Christina
DeCicco Sisko, an ensemble member in
the cast of the Broadway production of Sister Act, was tapped to
play Sister Mary Robert for several
performances in September.
Katie McAvoy
2003
Class Agents: Cari A. Christopher
145 Tomb Street, Tiffin, OH
�44883, cchristo@wagner.edu Robert
J. Hamm 14 College Ave., Staten
Island, NY 10314, 718-981-0515,
bobby7770@yahoo.com Nicole Lopes
Steed 2218 2nd Ave., Toms River, NJ
08753, 732-270-3660, nlopes55@
yahoo.com
2004
Class Agent: Alexis D. Hernandez-Hons
5252 Orange Ave., Apt. 335, San
Diego, CA 92103, lex382@aol.com
’04 M’06 married
Patrick Vento on August 20 in
Staten Island. She is a mathematics
teacher and National Honor Society
advisor at Susan Wagner High
School in Staten Island. Carlo Rivieccio
was featured in a play in the 2011
New York International Fringe
Festival, held in August. He played
the role of Marco in Craig Clary’s
The Classroom, which deals with a
group of paralegals in a Manhattan
law firm.
Carolyn Palinkas
Class Agents: Melissa D. Powers 313
Vesta Court, Ridgewood, NJ 07450,
201-394-2408, powers.mel@gmail.
com Matthew L. Sheehan 114 Gray
Ave., Apt. 3B, Syracuse, NY 13203,
315-437-5430, msheehan05@gmail.
com
married Hope
Elizabeth Tuchman on August 7 at
The Palace at Somerset Park in New
Jersey. Both work at Susan Wagner
High School in Staten Island, where
he is a music teacher and band director, and she is a Spanish teacher
and advisor of the dance team.
Christopher Cipollo
2006
Class Agents: Leandra Aguirre
2521 14th Street, Apt. 2, Astoria,
NY 11102, 617-645-4859 Michael
A. Armato michael.a.armato@gmail.
com Charles Bender 18 Klondike Ave.,
Stamford, CT 06907, 603-7597439, charles.bender@credit-suisse.
com Derek Lightcap 33 First Ave.,
Pottstown, PA 19464, 610-5702954, dlightcap@hotmail.com
was part of a volunteer group that cleaned up Staten
Island’s Boy Scout Pouch Camp in
honor of National Public Lands
Day in September. The group was
featured by NY1 News, calling attention to this beautiful natural area
under threat of development. Christopher DellaUniversita ’06 M’11 married
Angela Rose DeMaio ’07 on June 3 in
Rebecca Colucci
Crib Notes
Classes of 2031 and 2032
Some of the newest faces
to join the Wagner family
1. Robert ’99 and Kara
Laureno ’99 Asciutto
1.
3.
2007
Class Agents: Jeff Logan
912 Garden Street, Apt. 2,
Hoboken, NJ 07030, 908-625-8281
Christopher Silvestri 1730 E. 31st,
Brooklyn, NY 11234, csilvest227@
gmail.com
was part of the ensemble of an award-winning production
of The Drowsy Chaperone. Produced
by the Gallery Players in Brooklyn,
the show won several New York
Innovative Theatre Awards in
September: Outstanding Ensemble,
Production of a Musical, Costume
Design, and Choreography. Whitney
reports that many members of the
original Broadway cast came out to
Brooklyn to see the Gallery Players
show. The New York Innovative
Theatre Awards honor artistic excellence in off-off-Broadway theater.
Angela Rose DeMaio married Christopher
DellaUniversita ’06 M’11 on June 3 in
Our Lady of Pity Catholic Church
in Staten Island. She is pursuing
a master’s degree in accounting at
Baruch College and is a senior examiner with the Financial Industry
Regulatory Authority in Manhattan.
He is an operations specialist with
Fidelity Investments, Jersey City,
N.J. They live in Annadale, Staten
Island. Christopher Duni and Laura Woodruff married on May 21 at the Sand
Castle in Franklin Square, Long
Island. They met as Wagner College
freshmen, and they celebrated their
marriage with 19 other Wagner
alumni (see photo, page 41). They
live in Queens, N.Y. Daniel Giordano
was in a photo feature in ESPN
The Magazine in August. Daniel
demonstrates a workout called “the
pillar” with a teammate from the
Whitney Branan
announce the
birth of Christian
Robert on March
9. 2. Jo Ann Esposito
Panzella ’99 and her
husband, Danny,
announce the
birth of Xander
on February 27.
3. Katie McAvoy ’02
and her husband,
Peter Caras,
welcomed Bryn
Noelle Caras on
December 27, 2010.
2.
Alumni Link
2005
Our Lady of Pity Catholic Church
in Staten Island. He is an operations
specialist with Fidelity Investments,
Jersey City, N.J. She is pursuing a
master’s degree in accounting at
Baruch College and is a senior examiner with the Financial Industry
Regulatory Authority in Manhattan. They live in Annadale, Staten
Island. Dana Guariglia ’06 M’07 M’10
married John Baranello on August
6. She completed a second master’s
degree in educational leadership
in August 2010. She is a performing arts director and teacher with
the New York City Department
of Education. Tiana Kalba Kostic is a
certified forensic psychophysiologist
and polygraph examiner with sex
offenders for the state of Connecticut. “I love my job and have the
opportunities I received at Wagner
to thank for it,” she writes.
We’d love to see your baby’s face.
Please see page 38 for publication guidelines.
Old Blue Rugby Football Club of
New York. Amy Jensen wrote a book,
The Graduate’s Guide to Networking,
which is available on Amazon.com.
Amy completed her J.D. at Seton
Hall and now works as director
for programs and publications at
Marc Garfinkle Seminars, a national
provider of continuing education
programs for attorneys and police,
and publisher of how-to books for
professionals. Julie Mason accepted
a production manager position at
Radio City Music Hall. She reports
to the senior vice president of productions for MSG Entertainment.
She is primarily working on the
Christmas Spectacular and future
planning for the MSG brands.
T. J. Tauriello reports that his senior
internship as an arts administration
major at Wagner has turned into
his dream job. He is manager for
publicity at Warner Bros Records
in Los Angeles, working with artists
ranging from Green Day to Josh
Groban.
2008
Class Agent: Stephanie Savoia-Pearl
403 Elm Street, Cranford, NJ
07016, stephanie.savoiapearl@
gmail.com
2009
Class Agent: Jacob Shoesmith-Fox
570-765-5022, jacob.shoesmithfox@wagner.edu
2010
Class Agent: Spencer Taylor
4 Sheridan Drive, Tobyhanna, PA
18466, 570-839-8139, spencer.
taylor@wagner.edu
2011
began his law
studies at Tulane University in
New Orleans this fall. Peter Westwood
appeared in the first four episodes
of the Country Music Television
reality show Sweet Home Alabama
this summer. It featured “10 city
slickers and 10 southern gents vying
for the affections of Devin Grissom,
a southern girl from Alabama,”
according to the Staten Island
Advance. On a one-day trip to New
York City, Pete took Devin on a
walking tour and bought her a hot
dog, but failed to win her heart. Pete
told the Advance the show was a
good learning experience.
Christopher Valletta
fa l l
2011
43
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Alumni
Mrs. Edna N. Mondelli Fraine ’40
Mrs. Shirley Macdonald Wigren ’41
Mr. Joseph G. Streble ’45
Mrs. Phyllis Ludwig Zillmann ’46
Dr. Hans G. Engel ’48
Mr. Jerome Giovinazzo ’49
Mr. Frank V. Silva ’50
Dr. Leonard E. Brady ’51
Mr. Francis T. Dolen ’51
Mr. George L. Ehrhardt ’51
Mrs. Lillian A. Noren Posey ’51
Mrs. Marilyn Peterson O’Rourke ’53
Mr. Robert E. McNamara ’54
Mrs. Jeanne Rylance Elliott ’55
Mr. Edward J. Rutmayer ’55
Dr. Henry Hergenhan ’56
Ms. Elizabeth V. Hollenbeck Schoonmaker ’56
Mrs. Irene Lueders Cunningham ’57
Mr. Eustace Fotiu ’57
Mr. Robert L. O’Donnell ’57
Mr. Thomas J. O’Neill ’57
Rev. Henry R. Gureck ’58
Mr. Lawrence D. Seligman ’58
Mrs. Bette Jean Huot Orange ’60
Mr. Thomas P. De Simone ’62
Mr. E. Richard Petrella ’62
Mr. George P. Trivelas ’62
Rev. Arvo E. Beck ’63
Mr. Louis Subashi ’64
Mrs. Pamela Edwards Mondragon-Petrova ’66
Mr. Ward W. Westerberg ’67
Mr. Robert Sarzillo ’69
Mr. Gregory Ingenito ’70
Mr. Glenn Frank Laughlin ’70
Mr. Peter Wiggberg ’71
Rev. Leigh F. Koerbel ’72
Mrs. Maureen Miller Sprague M’72
Mr. Peter L. Krinitsky ’75
Mr. Gregory Lindsey ’76
Mr. Mark B. Citron M’78
Mrs. Lyle L’Hommedieu Cavanaugh M’80
Ms. Verna L. Willis ’95
Dr. Hugh L. Carey H’07
Faculty, Staff,
and Friends
Dr. Murvel Annan
Ms. Sylvia Breitberg
Mr. William J. Hodge
Mrs. Ellie Jacobsen
Prof. Stanley Lapidow
Mrs. Janet B. Miller
Mr. Joseph Saia
remembrances
Dr. Hugh L. Carey H’07
Former New York governor was patron
of government reform institute at Wagner
Hugh Leo Carey (April 11, 1919–August 7, 2011) was an American
attorney, the 51st governor of New York from 1975 to 1982, and a seventerm United States Representative (1961–1974).
Governor Carey was also the recipient of an honorary doctorate
from Wagner College, given in 2007; the patron of Wagner College’s
Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform, directed by Seymour
P. Lachman; and the subject of Professor Lachman’s most recent book,
The Man Who Saved New York: Hugh Carey and the Fiscal Crisis of 1975
Carey spoke at the 2007 Wagner commencement.
(SUNY Press, 2010).
When Governor Carey passed away, Lachman was called upon to remind New Yorkers of what
had made this man one of the Empire State’s truly great statesmen.
In an op-ed column for the Syracuse Post-Standard, Lachman wrote, “Hugh Carey … was one of New York’s greatest governors.
Not only did he save New York City from bankruptcy, but the way in which he did it provided a powerful example for today’s
government leaders. He brought together Republicans and Democrats, labor leaders and bankers, working people and business people
to address a crisis facing all of them. He asked everyone to give up something, for the common good — but no one was asked to give
more than their fair share.”
44
Deaths reported to Wagner College, June 21–October 17, 2011.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Will the Earth Heal Itself?
A chemist’s perspective By Maria Gelabert
Wa g n e r
Reflections
O
n a recent shopping trip to Target, I brought along my
reusable cloth bags. When I remember them, I feel proud that
I’m doing something small to help the environment. During
checkout I lay them on the conveyor belt in front of my items,
in hopes that the cashier doesn’t blindly default to plastic bags.
This particular day, the cashier noticed my bags. With my
usual polite procession of words, I kindly asked that he place
my items in the cloth bags first. After all, I do recognize the
additional effort required to use them.
The cashier, a seasoned, talkative gentleman, was perfectly
agreeable to my request, but he said something that gave me
pause. “The earth will heal itself,” he remarked. His tone was not
arrogant or critical, but it made me wonder what he intended.
Was he implying that I shouldn’t bother
going to the extra effort of using cloth
bags, because the earth can handle
anything humanity throws at it? That
we bear no responsibility for its care?
As a chemist, I see major problems
with that line of reasoning. Earth will heal itself? Sure, on the
millennial time scale, the earth will be where it was meant to be.
But what are we doing to ourselves in the meantime?
Chemically speaking, there is no distinction between us
and our environment. Virtually every molecule of oxygen we
breathe comes from a plant, and some of the carbon dioxide
absorbed by plants comes from us. That other molecule we
need, water, makes up most of our bodies and of the earth.
Planetary scientists use it as a marker for evidence of life. We
are not only responsible for the earth; we’re part of it. Caring for
the environment has two beneficiaries: the earth and ourselves.
The main issue with our excess of plastic bags is also related
to chemistry: compared to paper, plastics
never fully break down. When placed in
water, paper will eventually disintegrate into
something similar to its wood pulp origins.
Plastic bags, however, do not. Scientists have
even documented a “plastic island” about 500
nautical miles from California, nestled between Pacific Ocean
vortices. It is estimated to
contain 7 billion pounds
of plastic waste. (And I’m
worried about the bolus of
plastic bags in my house,
waiting for recycling!)
In my first-year learning community with molecular biologist
Dr. Heather Cook, we’re studying the plethora of evidence
supporting anthropogenic — human-made — global warming.
Hundreds of scientists working on the problem — people who
are experts in ice core samples, ocean temperature, and many
other markers — have contributed to the overwhelming big
picture: that it’s time to take care of the earth, globally.
I believe that with the acknowledgement that humanity and
the earth are inseparable, Earth really will heal itself. But the
responsibility falls on humanity to correct previous activity that
has endangered the one habitat we all share. And I would argue
that, in the immediate here and now, each of us can make a
difference with a small change in lifestyle and a modest startup
investment: reusable cloth bags.
not only
“ We are
responsible for the
“
earth; we’re part of it.
Maria Gelabert is an associate professor of chemistry at Wagner College.
fa l l
2011
45
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
SLAM DUNK
Seahawk basketball season tipped off with a bang at Madness
Before Midnight on October 14. Highlight of the evening was a
dunk contest featuring Naofall Folahan ’14, Kenneth Ortiz ’14,
Mario Moody ’15, and above all, Josh Thompson ’13. Turn to
page 9 to see what he did to make celebrity judges (right to
left) President Guarasci, former NBA star Darryl “Chocolate
Thunder” Dawkins, Wagner dean and former women’s
basketball student-athlete Pat Tooker ’79 M’95, and 2003 NEC
Championship squad member Dedrick Dye ’03 award perfect
scores — and to launch a viral YouTube video.
P H OTO G R A P H : DAV I D SA F F R A N
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Fall 2011
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/7a3af3ba872efda3266a151ea886d031.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=Vi0UU2%7ELhXWNAy%7E7PsxNcNmIUr5VbH8SCKS9CISuC%7EGM0FV11BJZ0G2qElAPARigjhu0BsBe5uVk-adxPDNXcStgg3T2Oql3xhNPOh%7ElFy9TWj6KiZz%7Eh3TppMaI4-k6v%7EGdV24ZECCPFIUq1Tp7ME-g-OZJkNmPVydEa9ykPr9kxvICS5WFER8ryM44bUsyJp-o63%7EVBKk0lGwGWhXlpYBip-Mo4WrE-XZfl5c4YMK%7E-o30zO5wePIA3coo2TKbRn4J3nUI1taQdNYXKrdzEESNAxo-gee2mNXQ7SInA%7EKNecqoDIR3R5e4aGmlxPhN1ifcd1tLFR9MDnWnB5FrCw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
8e4cb77a3d4a51e44d6ffbed7b4d8285
PDF Text
Text
The Big
Leap
Preparing to graduate, seniors name
their top campus spots, favorite profs,
biggest challenges, and more
Rookie of the Year: Andrew Bailey ’06 • Just Right: The Nicolaises • Below the Surface: 9/11
�Contents
Wagner Magazine Summer 2011
Lower Manhattan, ca. 1946
Generations of Wagner students have seen versions of this view
from the Staten Island ferry. Mike ’49 and Margaret Christie ’49
Nicolais had this one, 20 years before ground was broken on the
original World Trade Center, destroyed on September 11, 2001,
and now being rebuilt.
P H OTO G R A P H : H A L C A R ST E N S ’ 5 0
F e a t u r e s
vol.9,no.1
10
The Perfect Closer
An unlikely road takes Andrew
Bailey ’06 to a major league
bullpen — and ROY honors.
�departments
2
From the President
3
From the Editor
4
From Our Readers
5
Upon the Hill
30
Sports Roundup
32
Alumni Link
36 Class Notes
14
The Big Leap:
Year Four
Seniors reveal lessons learned,
challenges faced, favorite profs,
campus sweet spots, and more.
20
Just Right for
Each Other
Mike ’49 and Margaret Christie
’49 Nicolais return to the place
where it all started.
44
In Memoriam
45
Reflection
24
Below the Surface
Members of the Wagner community
reflect on the continuing ripples of
September 11.
�From the President
In Praise of Our Outstanding Graduates
With the commencement of
the class of 2011 just past, I am
again proud to share with you
some of the accomplishments
of Wagner’s newest alumni,
who are defined by their
academic excellence, remarkable
Particularly
leadership, and commitment to
impressive is their
public service.
Particularly impressive
acceptance into top
is their acceptance into top
graduate programs.
graduate programs nationwide.
In the sciences, Joanna Ciavarella received a full scholarship
to Brown University for a Ph.D. program in chemistry.
Derek Rammelkamp will study for a Ph.D. in material science
and engineering at SUNY Stony Brook. Peter Pisano also is
headed to SUNY Stony Brook for dental school. Victor Stora
will enroll in a joint DVM-Ph.D. program at Iowa State
University College of Veterinary Medicine, while Medije
Mashkulli will study medicine at Johns Hopkins University.
In the humanities, Charisse Willis of Olympia Fields, Illinois,
will study for a Ph.D. in English at the University
of Michigan. Yirmeyah Beckles from Toledo, Ohio, will study
journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
English majors Anne Blum and Nancy Aravecz will study for
master’s degrees at New York University.
JP Messina will be enrolled in graduate
studies in philosophy at Georgia
State University, and Sarah Nehm will
attend Yale University’s School
of Divinity on a full-tuition
scholarship.
In the social sciences,
Student Government President Sophie Tripp
from San Jose, California, will study for a Ph.D.
in economics at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York
2
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
City. Gabrielle Gill from Salisbury, Maryland, majored
in anthropology and minored in Italian studies,
and she will pursue a Ph.D. at the University
of Hawaii after teaching for a year in the
Federated States of Micronesia as a WorldTeach
volunteer. Sociology major Niya Branham is headed
for a career in public health by studying for a master’s at
Brown University. And Peter Blackmer, a history major, will
study for a Ph.D. in African studies at the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst.
In the arts, graduates are entering the workforce at
exciting sites, such as art history major Sara Simmons at
Rachael Ray’s magazine, or theater major Kendra Stockton
at Cirque Du Soleil in Las Vegas. Among business
administration graduates, Avery Miller will be pursuing
a master’s in sports management at Louisiana State
University, while Joe Sorrentino will begin his career with
the Frontier Group, a global private equity firm. Brothers
Philip and Thomas Ewald from Walchwil, Switzerland, will study
international marketing and management at King’s College
London. Emily Pierce of Phoenix, Arizona, Christopher Goetz of
Staten Island, and Danielle Diodati of Haverhill, Massachusetts,
will start their careers in finance, accounting, and auditing
with outstanding organizations.
In an age marked by hatred, terrorism, severe
environmental stress, widening gulfs of wealth, literacy,
and access to basic healthcare, this generation is destined
to usher in a new type of leadership, where knowledge and
empathy are joined to social responsibility and effective
action. I have no doubt that they are prepared to meet
these challenges.
richard guarasci
president
�From the Editor
Where September 11 Has Led Us
S
eptember 11 is the
primary reason I came to
work in Staten Island,” says
Professor Abraham Unger.
A Brooklyn native, Unger
was in a Ph.D. program
at Fordham in the fall of
2001, while also working
with a Jewish community
organization and a synagogue
in Tribeca. His parents had
recently moved to Lower
Manhattan.
“So 9/11 was particularly
immediate to me on
a personal level and a
professional level,” he says.
“When it became evident that
Staten Island had suffered
the most in New York City,
it seemed clear that there is
where one had to pastor.” In
late 2001, he heard about
an open rabbinical position
in Tottenville, Staten Island.
He took it as his call to serve.
This move also led him to
Wagner College, where he
now serves as campus rabbi
and assistant professor of
government and politics. This
year, the National Alumni
Association recognized his
spiritual contributions by
giving him the Rev. Lyle
Guttu Award.
Roz Noonan ’80, on the
other hand, made the difficult
decision to leave New York
City after September 11. In
2001, she lived in
Queens with her
husband, Mike,
a police sergeant,
and their two
children, Carly,
6, and Alex, 4.
Despite Noonan’s
efforts to shelter the children,
they felt the fright of 9/11
deeply. Three years later,
Carly was still having frequent
nightmares about terrorists
chasing her. Life in New York
was too stressful, and Mike
was ready to retire from the
police department. The family
moved to Oregon in 2004.
A freelance writer who has
authored scores of juvenile
and “chick-lit” titles, Noonan
released her first novel under
her own name in 2009.
Loosely based on the story
of Pat Tillman, the NFL star
who enlisted in the Army and
was killed in Afghanistan,
One September Morning
features a scene in which
Wagner students see the
World Trade
Center attacks
from Harborview
Hall. It was
September 11,
Noonan says, that
first got her to
thinking about
“writing something more
substantial.”
Ten years later, September
11 continues to affect us in
innumerable ways. Read more
in “Below the Surface,” pages
24–29. And write back to us
with your thoughts and stories.
Laura Barlament
editor,
wagner magazine
On the Cover
The Big
Leap
their top campuss spots, favorrite profs,
biggest cha
allenges, and more
Rookie of the Year: Andrew Bailey ’06 • Just Right: The Nicolaises • Below the Surface: 9/11
Patrick Heffernan ’11, theater major and dance minor, is ready to leap
into the future. Starting on page 14, read reflections from him and
other Wagner seniors in the final part of our series following students
through the Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts.
Photograph: john emerson
s u m m e r
2011
3
fa l l
2010
3
�From Our Readers
played their game first, after
which Jimmy joined myself and
my friends a couple of times to
watch the varsity team play. My
friend Ginny and I had made
a big banner, which we hung
across the top of the doorway
to the gym to help cheer on the
teams (especially Jimmy’s team).
I remember cheering for Ollie
Featherston ’69 as he helped
lead the Seahawks varsity team
to a very successful season.
[Jimmy’s] team didn’t really
do too well, but we cheered
wildly anyway.
After classes on a fairly regular basis, Jimmy would just kind
of show up and walk me back to
the new dorm [i.e., Harborview].
Something so nice about those
walks.
Throughout the semester, I
got teased a lot about Jimmy because he was always showing up
around me. I liked him; he was
very young and very cute, and I
loved his nickname, Jimmy Rabbit. Sometime in December, we
had a fairly large misunderstand-
Setting the
Record Straight
Last summer, Wagner Magazine
published a short article about the
late Jim Carroll, author of The
Basketball Diaries, who attended
Wagner College in fall 1968. The
article quoted a high school friend
of Carroll’s that he left Wagner after only a few weeks. Caryl Black
Colgan, who attended Wagner fall
1968–fall 1969, called to correct
that assertion, and she contributed
the following personal memoir of
Jim Carroll at Wagner.
Jimmy Carroll was the first
boy I met at Wagner in the fall
of 1968. At the freshman mixer,
he asked me if I would like to
see his friend’s gerbils, and sure
enough, there were actually little gerbils in a cage in the dorm
room. He only bear hugged me
a couple of times before we went
back to the mixer. Jimmy was on
one of the basketball teams that
played for Wagner. His team
ing, as often happens in life, and
after Christmas break, I no
longer saw him at school. I only
saw him one more time, and that
was down at the Jersey Shore the
following summer. However, he
left an indelible imprint on my
Wagner College experience.
Caryl Black Colgan ’72
Toms River, New Jersey
Horrmann Memories
In the fall 2010 issue, we asked
for your memories of Horrmann
Library as we prepare a feature on
the library in honor of its 50th anniversary. Here is an excerpt from one
letter we received; there’s still time
for you to share your memories, too!
As a member of the Wagner
College class of 1964, I remember two building projects: (1) the
library and (2) the bridge. Quite
frankly, as I roomed in New
Dorm [now called Campus Hall],
my views of the Narrows and
the emerging bridge were more
memorable. However, when the
library was done, its views of the
“
“
He left an indelible imprint
on my Wagner College experience.
harbor were spectacular. …
One day I was in the stacks,
and a little 12-year-old fellow was
looking high (well, as high as he
could) and low, when I asked him
what he was looking for. He said
he wanted to know what the long
“Ess” meant in a mathematics
book he had. It was the integral
sign — the main symbol of half
the calculus sequence taught at
Wagner. As I was a mathematics
major, I sat right down and began to explain it all to him. This
was the beginning of my collegelevel teaching of mathematics.
I believe his presence was an
example of how open the library
was to the community beyond
the College.
Libraries are very special, as
we recently found out with our
own Thomas Jefferson Library
here at West Point. Come on up
the river and visit it some time!
Brian Winkel ’64
Professor, Department
of Mathematical Sciences
United States Military Academy
West Point, New York
We’d Love to Hear from You
4
Write to: Laura Barlament, Editor
We welcome letters from readers.
telephone number. The editor reserves
Letters
material
the right to determine the suitability
Reynolds House, Wagner College
published in the magazine and include
of letters for publication and to edit
1 Campus Road, Staten Island, NY 10301
the writer’s full name, address, and
them for accuracy and length.
WA G N E R
should
refer
M A G A Z I N E
to
email:
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
�UpontheHill
Learning, teaching, giving and achieving on Grymes Hill and beyond
PROUD MOMENTS
Columbia University
historian Kenneth
T. Jackson (far left) gave
the commencement
address. Elisia Francani
and Stefen Gage (left)
show off their new
diplomas. SGA president
Sophie Tripp (below)
used her mortar board
to give props.
Lessons in
Leadership
Historian, 1964 alumnus,
and borough president join
Wagner’s newest graduates
A t Wagner’s commencement
on May 20, historian Kenneth T.
Jackson of Columbia University
gave Wagner’s 608 newest alumni
three inspiring examples of
“ordinary people who have done
extraordinary things.”
“You, too, can overcome
obstacles to achieve great things,”
he added, as he shared the
stories of Union officer Joshua
Chamberlain’s service in the
Civil War, Oseola McCarty’s
gift of a scholarship fund benefiting African-American students
at the University of Southern
Mississippi, and New York City
firefighter Stephen Siller’s heroic
actions on September 11.
THOUGHTFUL
Sarah Donovan,
associate professor
of philosophy
P H OTO G R A P H S : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
Jackson received an honorary
doctorate from Wagner College
for his groundbreaking work
in urban, social, and military
history. One of his best-known
books is The Encyclopedia of
New York City (2nd edition,
2010). The College also honored
Staten Island Borough President
James P. Molinaro and Frederick
C. Williamson Jr. ’64, who has
served as a Wagner trustee for
22 years. Williamson is vice
president of operations for
Starnet Commercial Flooring
Inc., a Marine Corps veteran,
and a leader in carpet recycling
through efforts like the Carpet
America Recovery Effort.
For more about Wagner’s
outstanding 2011 graduates,
please see President Guarasci’s
letter on page 2 and our cover
story, page 14.
HONORED GUESTS
Staten Island Borough President
James P. Molinaro (above left)
and Wagner Trustee Frederick
C. Williamson Jr. ’64 (above right)
received honorary degrees for
their service to the community
and the College.
s u m m e r
2011
5
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
{
{
“We took [the Seahawks] from five to 13
wins this year. To see them learn how to win
and feel like all their hard work has paid off
assures me we are on the right track. We’re
going to be that Cinderella soon.”
POVERTY AND POTENTIAL
Many Haitians have been living in tents
— “Bobby Hurley Talks Fab Five, Jalen Rose, March Madness and
since the earthquake of January 2010.
More,” March 27, BleacherReport.com
Below: Wagner nurses Eileen McPartlan,
Nicole Quinzi, Casey Grillo, and Jessica
Carbone sort and clean surgical tools.
A Real Challenge
Wagner nurses spend spring break
working in Haitian clinics and villages
I n March, 10 graduate-level nursing
students at Wagner College headed to the
Caribbean for spring break — not to bask
on a beach, but to work in some of the
toughest conditions in the world today.
These students taking Comparative
Health Care Practices with Paula Tropello,
chair of the Evelyn L. Spiro School of
Nursing, spent five days in Haiti, mostly in
the town of Fond Parisien near the capital,
Port-au-Prince.
The trip was organized in partnership
with the non-governmental organization
Foundation for Peace, which provides
services for earthquake refugees living at a
large camp in Fond Parisien.
Wagner’s nursing students worked in
a general health clinic and an obstetric
hospital, and also visited a nearby village
to distribute chlorine tablets and help
educate people about preventing the
spread of cholera, a waterborne bacterial
disease. The recent cholera outbreak hit
that area particularly hard.
As professional nurses from New York
City, they were shocked by some of the
6
in the news
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
conditions they saw, and quickly pitched in
to help patients and organize the hospital’s
resources.
The students and their professor saw
the experience primarily as an opportunity
for them to learn on many different levels.
Not only did they acquire new medical
knowledge about treating tropical diseases,
but they also expanded their skills in
thinking quickly and responding effectively
under challenging circumstances.
Tropello is planning future trips so that
the Wagner-Haiti connection can become
a sustainable relationship. Casey Grillo
supports her professor’s plans. “No place
has taught me social awareness like Haiti,”
she wrote in a reflection paper after the
trip. “Although our cultures and language
are different, our health care needs remain
the same, and the power of caring is infinite
and universal. I look forward to my next
mission trip.”
Head coach Dan Hurley and his assistant
and brother, Bobby, were media darlings
in their inaugural year with the Seahawks.
The sons of Hall of Fame Coach Bob
Hurley Sr., they appeared on 60 Minutes
and in an ESPN special, and Bobby was
featured in Dove soap commercials.
“I’m a fiscal sanity advocate. I think we’re
going to have to say, ‘Yes, we will sacrifice.’
But we’re not going to let this great country
go the way many have before. This [nation]
can’t be allowed to expire, because it sets the
tone for the rest of the world. We have an
opportunity to reinvent ourselves.”
— “Richard Grasso, NYSE Ex-Boss, Tells Wagner College Audience
He Might Run for Mayor,” April 15, SILive.com
Richard Grasso grabbed headlines in the
Staten Island Advance and the New York
Times when he spoke at Wagner College’s
Presidential Economic Symposium on
April 14 and announced that he would
run for New York City mayor in 2013
— if Police Commissioner Ray Kelly did
not run and former New York Attorney
General and Governor Eliot Spitzer did.
Link to the full articles and videos at
www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
�RESTORING A WAGNER ICON
The $7 million renovation of Main Hall’s exterior began in earnest in May, immediately
after commencement. The building will receive a new roof, windows, mortar, and brickwork, and its exterior ornaments will be restored. Read more about Main Hall’s history
and its renovation by clicking on the “Main Hall Renovation” link at www.wagner.edu.
New Leadership
Provost and CFO bring experience,
energy, and fresh perspectives
A fter more than seven years as provost and
vice president for academic affairs, Devorah
Lieberman left Wagner College this summer
to become president of the University of
La Verne in eastern Los Angeles County.
Taking her
place is Lily D.
McNair, who
most recently
served as as-sociate provost of
research at Spelman College in
Atlanta.
Provost Lily D. McNair
P H OTO G R A P H S : V I N N I E A M E S S É
A former associate professor of psychology at the University of Georgia,
McNair is a clinical psychologist
who specializes in community-based interventions targeting substance use and early
sexual behavior in African-American youth.
She is co-editor of the textbook Women:
Images and Realities.
“I look forward to the opportunities
my new role will offer,” said McNair.
“These are challenging times for higher
education, but such times can serve
as fertile ground for the emergence of
creative, innovative, and immensely
promising ideas.”
A New Jersey native, McNair earned
her bachelor’s degree at Princeton and her
Ph.D. at SUNY Stony Brook.
In May, Bill Mea
joined Wagner as
vice president for
business and finance,
replacing the late
Thomas Carroll.
Mea came to
Wagner from the
CFO Bill Mea
University of the
Arts in Philadelphia, where he was
vice president for finance and administration. He previously worked as
a financial officer at Philadelphia
University and as an auditor for Ernst &
Young. He holds a bachelor’s in business
administration from Widener University and an MBA from Philadelphia
University.
s u m m e r
2011
7
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
WINDOW
ON WAGNER:
Many an alumnus from the late 1970s
style house — but no shingles! The exterior surface of the
‘Lyle’s House’
through the end of 2007 remembers the
house is stucco, like the other cottages built or renovated on
cottage that served as the late Rev. Lyle
the Grymes Hill campus during that period.
Guttu’s home.
Few, however, know the story behind
original design was a porch with the trellised roof typical of
The only feature that may have been added to the
that oddly attractive architectural anomaly, located next to
the Craftsman-style homes popular between 1905 and the
Horrmann Library.
early 1920s. That porch was later enclosed; Rev. Guttu used
it as his study.
“Lyle’s house,” as many know it, was built in 1922 for
Professor George Haas. It was copied from an earlier
building on the site, a gatehouse built around 1900, when
the future to serve as a center for spiritual development,
the property was used as a summer resort.
housing a multifaith chapel and offices for the various
religious faiths represented on campus.
The original gatehouse was a very simple example of
President Guarasci envisions renovating this house in
— Lee Manchester
shingle style architecture, popular in northeastern seaside
resort towns between 1880 and the early 1900s. It was
Pictured below: Haas Cottage, ca. 1935
situated just off the campus entrance on Howard Avenue,
and the trustees planned to move it about 50 feet back
from the road; they
even built a new foundation for it.
Window
The more they
at the old gatehouse, however, the
Onlooked
Wagner
more renovation work it seemed to need. In the end, they
decided to copy its design for an entirely new building that
was constructed over the summer of 1922.
That’s why the Haas Cottage has the distinctive roof
lines, doorways, and windows of a late 19th-century shingle
Studying Staten Island
Faculty contribute to borough’s 350th
anniversary celebration
Wagner faculty are contributing their
expertise to this year’s celebration of Staten
Island’s 350th anniversary.
In March, the College of Staten Island
hosted a conference, Staten Island in
American History and 21st-Century
Education, at which 16 Wagner professors
presented papers and chaired sessions
8
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
alongside local historians, curators, archivists,
and faculty from Cornell, Harvard, and
many other institutions.
Several Wagner faculty members
highlighted Staten Island’s connections to
U.S. history, such as history professor Rita
Reynolds, who spoke about the Civil Rights
Movement, and education department chair
Stephen Preskill, who addressed Staten
Island in the life of the Catholic social
activist Dorothy Day.
In addition, Wagner history professor
Lori Weintrob, co-chair of Staten Island
350, is co-editor of a 350th anniversary
commemorative history, Discovering Staten
Island (History Press, 2011). This volume
collects descriptions and photos of hundreds
of
history-rich
Staten
Island
locations. For an
excerpt about a
famous Wagner
alumnus, see page
�Grade A
Evaluation team finds much to admire at Wagner
Wagner College recently completed a selfstudy for the Middle States Commission on
Higher Education, part of the accreditation
renewal process that occurs every 10 years.
A team of evaluators from Wagner’s
peer institutions, led by University of
Scranton President Scott Pilarz, reviewed
the self-study and visited the College in
March. Their report found Wagner to
be in compliance with all 14 standards of
excellence set by the commission. They
also offered quite a few commendations,
highlighting these areas for special notice:
• �The Wagner Plan for the Practical
Liberal Arts.
• �The College’s strengthened financial
position.
• �Inclusion of students in institutional
governing bodies.
• �Effective administrative reorganization.
• �Co-curricular programs supporting the
Wagner Plan.
• �Academic departments’ clearly stated
learning outcomes and assessment
procedures.
• �The College’s multi-disciplinary
approach to learning.
• �Its focus on ethics and values in
learning communities.
• �Its emphasis on communication skills
throughout the curriculum.
• �Its culture of academic assessment.
“In all my years in higher education, I
have never seen such an encouraging and
positive review,” says President Guarasci.
“This report is a strong confirmation of the
good work our faculty, staff, and students
have been doing and of the College’s
direction as a leader in higher education.”
Exploring and explaining
ancient Incan secrets
Halfway between Machu Picchu
and the city of Cuzco, Peru, lies a
civil engineering wonder that has
captivated and puzzled researchers
and travelers since it was first
photographed in 1931. In Moray:
Inca Engineering Mystery (American
Society of Civil Engineers Press,
2011), anthropology professor
Gordon McEwan and his co-authors
take readers on a tour of the
mysterious site, with its terraced
A copy of the entire report is available upon
request. Wagner’s self-study is available at
www.wagner.edu/provost/accreditation.
{ T RU ST E E N E W S }
circular depressions reaching
almost 100 feet into the earth. In
collaboration with water engineer
Ken Wright, travel writer Ruth
Wright, and Peruvian archaeologist
Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, McEwan
resolves decades of speculation
about the construction and
purpose of Moray. McEwan has led
archaeological research projects
I
n May, the Wagner Board of Trustees elected three new members who
at Pikillacta and Chokepukio, Peru,
for more than 30 years, and is the
bring diverse areas of expertise to the College’s oversight. Marc Lebovitz
author of many books on Inca and
’91 has worked in his family’s New Jersey-based transportation and ware-
Wari culture. This spring, the Wright
housing companies for 25 years, currently serving as president. He is also a
generous supporter of Wagner athletics. Bill Renshaw, the founder and managing director of Renwood Consultants, has decades of management experi-
Family Foundation endowed an
annual award in McEwan’s name for
Wagner undergraduates to undertake
fieldwork in archaeology.
ence and has consulted with senior executives and boards in major global
organizations and regional enterprises. Since 2008, the Rev. Robert A. Rimbo
has served as bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, to which Wagner has historical ties.
s u m m e r
2011
9
�P H OTO G R A P H : M I C H A E L Z AGA R I S
1100
PITCH PERFECT
No one expected Andrew
Bailey to be a “phenom,”
says his mother, Lori.
Yet now, says A’s
teammate Jerry Blevins,
“He’s the perfect closer.
His intensity, the way he
approaches the game,
it’s incredible.”
W
W AA GG N
N EE RR M
M AA GG AA ZZ II N
N EE
�The Perfect
Closer
An unlikely road takes Andrew Bailey ’06 from
I
baseball backwaters to a major league bullpen
— and ROY honors By Jordan Conn
n the spring of 2009, Andrew Bailey ’06 and his father, Bill, took a crosscountry road trip from their New Jersey home to Phoenix, Arizona. There,
the younger Bailey would be participating in the Oakland Athletics’ spring
training, the pre-season practices and scrimmages that help the established
major leaguers prepare for the season and give upstart wannabes a shot to
compete with stars. • Bailey belonged to the latter group.
A 24-year-old pitcher less than three years removed
from his Wagner College graduation, Bailey had
been honored to even get invited to spring training.
For the past three years, he’d been working his way
up through the Athletics’ minor league system, and
was beginning to draw attention from the big league
club; but, as he drove to Arizona, his only goal
was to prove himself worthy of making the AAA
Sacramento River Cats, the Athletics’ minor league
affiliate that sat just one rung below the majors. So
together Bill and Andrew drove, having decided that
making the trek would be cheaper than paying for
Andrew’s car to be shipped.
When they passed
through St. Louis,
Bill made an
unwelcome
remark.
s u m m e r
2011
11
�“Y
ou know, the all-star
game is going to be
here in St. Louis this
year,” he said. Yes, Andrew was aware. But
that would be the major league all-star game.
Andrew was just trying to keep working his
way up the minors. Bill continued: “I could
be coming out here to watch you play.”
“Come on, Dad,” Andrew fired back,
angry over the excess expectations. He grew
silent as the drive continued.
Turns out, Bill was right.
As cuts were announced each Sunday
of spring training, Andrew’s name never
appeared on the list. Soon enough, the final
cuts were released, and the Baileys were
left stunned. Andrew had made it. He’d be
going to the major leagues after all. And not
only did he go on to make the first of two
consecutive Major League Baseball All-Star
teams that summer — by the end of 2009,
he had also been named American League
Rookie of the Year.
The journey to that point was an unlikely
one, winding from South Jersey to Staten
Island to ballparks all over Texas, Arizona,
and California. Bailey had been pitching
since the day he graduated from T-ball to
baseball. He’d always been a good player
— typically a little league all-star — but
he never struck anyone as a “phenom,” says
his mother, Lori. He’d gone on to attend
Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, New
Jersey, a Catholic school without much of a
baseball program. “Most games they won, it
was because Andrew was pitching,” Bill says.
He never signed up for showcases, the payto-play events that put high school players
in front of scouts. With no powerhouse
programs recruiting him, Bailey reached out
to Wagner coach Joe Litterio, who quickly
offered him a spot on the team. “He had the
body to become a good pitcher,” Litterio
says. “He had the talent. He had the attitude.
12
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
He had everything we would want.”
Litterio offered Bailey a chance to join
the starting rotation right away, due to both
Bailey’s talent and the team’s lack thereof.
The Seahawks struggled through that 2003
season, going 11-36 overall and 10-16 in the
conference. Bailey posted a paltry 2-7 record
with a 6.79 ERA, but he showed flashes
of his potential, like in his six-strikeout
performance in an 8-3 win over Monmouth
that April. “That game was when I realized
he could really turn into something,” Litterio
says. “That showed what he could do.”
‘He had the body to
become a good pitcher.
He had the talent.
He had the attitude.
He had everything
we would want.’
Bailey asserted himself as the pitching
staff ’s ace in his sophomore season, leading
the team with a 3.18 ERA and holding
opposing hitters to a .209 batting average.
He continued to perform well in his junior
year, but suffered a serious elbow injury that
cut his season short. The injury required
Tommy John surgery, a procedure that
replaces a ligament in the elbow with a
tendon from another part of the body. The
surgery is common among pitchers, and
although it’s often restorative, it can ruin
athletes’ careers. “A lot of people never come
back from Tommy John surgery,” Litterio
says. “You can start to lose command of your
pitches, and then you get that fear factor in
your head. There are plenty of kids who are
not themselves afterwards.”
While recovering from the injury and
ensuing surgery, Bailey was selected by the
Milwaukee Brewers in the 16th round of the
2005 MLB draft. Faced with a chance to move
closer to his big-league dreams, Bailey made
a decision Litterio calls “a little crazy.” He
decided to come back to Wagner. “I wanted to
finish my degree,” he says. “I wanted to move
up in the draft. I had a lot of goals. And with
the friends I’d made and the education I’d
receive, I knew I wanted to be there.”
Bailey also wanted to continue
rehabilitating his injury with Wagner’s
trainers, rather than adjusting to a new staff.
“The way Andrew handled the surgery and
rehab was incredible,” Litterio says. “He just
attacked the rehab every single day. There
would be a lot of days where I was showing
up for work and he was already walking off
the field, already done with his morning
workout.” The work paid off. Bailey returned
to the mound ahead of schedule — about
eight months after he underwent surgery —
and pitched better than he had in his life.
With his fastball now routinely topping 95
miles per hour, Bailey posted a 2.03 ERA
and held opponents to a .146 batting average
in the 2006 season. He led the Seahawks to
a 15-9 conference record, their best mark
since Bailey had arrived.
So the year could be called a success.
Bailey improved his draft stock, becoming
the Athletics’ sixth-round pick, he earned
his degree in business administration, and
most importantly, he met his future wife, a
Seahawks lacrosse player named Amanda
Scalzo ’07. “He was definitely on the fence
about whether or not to come back to
college,” says Amanda, who married Andrew
last fall. “Luckily for me, he did. We always
joke that the decision worked out well for
both of us.”
Bailey began his professional baseball
career shortly after graduation, moving his
way up through the Athletics organization
over the next two years. After a promising
start, Bailey began to struggle when playing
for the franchise’s AA affiliate in Midland,
�1
Texas. Rather than sending him back
down to a lower level, coaches decided
to move him from the starting rotation
to the bullpen, meaning he would pitch
more frequently, but for shorter periods of
time. “I never really thought of myself as a
relief pitcher, but switching to the bullpen
completely changed my mentality,” he says.
“Before, I felt like I had to hold something
back, pace myself, kind of be picky. But as a
reliever I knew that I could just go with my
instincts.”
The switch served him well, as
Bailey dominated the second half of the
2008 season, setting himself up for the
opportunity to make the big-league squad
in the spring of 2009. Now one of the game’s
best relievers, Bailey shows no signs that
he’ll be slowing down anytime soon. “He’s
the perfect closer,” says A’s teammate Jerry
Blevins. “His intensity, the way he approaches
the game, it’s incredible.” While Bailey insists
that he’ll work as hard to maintain his all-star
form as he did to achieve it, the luxury of life
in the big leagues has allowed him to pursue
other interests. He serves as director of
development for the Strike 3 Foundation, an
organization dedicated to childhood cancer
research, founded by Athletics pitcher
Craig Breslow.
Five years removed from his last Wagner
class, Bailey remains thankful for each
moment in the process that led him to this
point. “This is everything I dreamed of,” he
says. “I’m right where I want to be.”
Jordan Conn is a freelance writer based in
San Francisco. His work has appeared in the
New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and
the San Francisco Chronicle.
3
2
5
4
A BIG YEAR
1. At the A’s v. Mets game at Citi
Field on June 23, Wagner baseball
head coach Joe Litterio meets the
promising pitcher he recruited to the
Seahawks in 2002. 2. Andrew Bailey
was named American League Rookie
of the Year in 2009. 3. Bailey is only
the fourth former Seahawk whose
Wagner number has been retired.
4. Bailey married former Seahawks
lacrosse player Amanda Scalzo ’07
last fall. 5. Bailey-autographed
baseballs are among the memorabilia
of his ROY year.
P H OTO G R A P H S : C O U RT E S Y O F T H E OA K L A N D AT H L E T I C S A N D WAG N E R AT H L E T I C S
s u m m e r
2011
13
�YEAR
FOUR
THE WAGNER PLAN
Big
Leap
the
Story by Laura Barlament
Photographs by John Emerson
In the final installment of our four-year series following a group of students
through the Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts, Wagner Magazine talks
with those students, now seniors, who began college together in fall 2007
with Learning Community 5: Perception, Illusion, and the Social Construction
of the Self. On the cusp of commencement, the seniors told us about their most
memorable professors and classes; favorite places on campus and in New York City;
immediate plans and dream jobs; challenges faced and lessons learned;
and what they will miss the most when they leave Wagner.
14
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�PATRICK HEFFERNAN
Hometown Rolling Hills, California
Major Theater Performance,
Dance Minor
The professor who made the biggest
impression on me is Rusty Curcio, head
of dance, my advisor. I came to Wagner
unfamiliar with the craft of dance, and
with no self-assurance, and I wanted to
get better at it. He saw that in me. He
opened my eyes to new ways of looking
at movement and how it applied to
acting and to being a person in general.
What we study with Rusty is a system
that analyzes movement. Everything
in life is movement, everything. Being
aware of that is really beautiful.
My dream job is to be on Broadway.
If I could be that song and dance guy,
you know, leading man. Especially in a
classic, like Billy Bigelow in Carousel,
or Tommy in Brigadoon. Amazing stories
with great music. That’s the stuff, I
feel like.
When I leave Wagner, I’m going to miss
the intimacy of campus. Being able to
walk from Harborview to Foundation or
Main Hall or Guild, and be with my best
friends in the entire world. We’re all
interested in the same thing, and we all
love the same thing. It’s just a creative
hotbed for art.
A change I would like to see at
Wagner is higher participation in
co-curricular activities. Students don’t
always take the time for them, not realizing
that we’re not always going to have these
opportunities. Also, the theater facilities
don’t nearly match the level of the faculty
that we have in the theater department,
or the standard they’re training their
students to be at. We have a joke we tell
prospective students: “It’s the worst place
you’ll ever work.” Still, it’s worth it to be in
New York City.
My next step will be doing summer
stock theater at the Arundel Barn
Playhouse near Kennebunkport, Maine.
�YEAR
FOUR
THE WAGNER PLAN
KYLA KNIGHT
HOPE CLARKE
My favorite place on campus
is outside of the admissions
building. I love to sit there at
night, listening to music. It
looks like my dream house —
a yellow house with a porch.
Hometown Levittown, New York
Dual Major Theater and
Elementary Education
The professor who made the
biggest impression on me
is Stephen Preskill, chair of
the education department. He
taught my intermediate learning
community, and he’s brilliant. I
wrote down quotes by him in the
front of my notebook. One was,
“An educator is a convenor of
great minds.” I love that! Teaching
is a humbling job. Dr. Preskill
taught us that a teacher is one
who does not stand above the
students, lecturing and passing
down knowledge, but one who
gives the students tools to create
their own learning.
is a quote from Seussical. It’s a
cliché, but I believe it’s true.
I believe that the energy you put
out will be returned to you. The
universe works like that.
A challenge I faced at Wagner
was trying to win a part in a
Wagner Theater show. I started
auditioning as a freshman. After I
realized how competitive it was, I
decided to keep doing it at least
for the auditioning experience,
which is always valuable. And this
year, for the very last Main Stage
show, I got a part in the Seussical
ensemble. “Anything’s possible”
My dream job is to perform and
to work with kids in the realm of
theater. When you give a child an
outlet to express themselves in
a positive way, it’s very fulfilling.
After graduation, I have an
internship with the Rose Theater
in Omaha, Nebraska, which will
allow me to do both of these
things — perform and work with
children. I’m very excited about it!
“What I learned at Wagner is that you can never have enough questions, and there are an infinite
number of answers to every question. Life is so much more interesting if you understand that you
should continuously learn, and continuously question, and seek out different answers and solutions
to problems. I learned to be comfortable with not knowing. There aren’t black and white answers,
and that’s awesome.”
– Samantha Siegel, Dual Major in Psychology and Education
16
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Major International Affairs,
Concentration in Economics, Italian Minor
do research on my own, understand
information and analyze it objectively. I
haven’t had another teacher make me
want to try as hard.
The professor who made the biggest
impression on me is Mary Rose Leacy
in economics. I love Dr. Leacy’s passion
in the classroom every day, how she
explains economics in a lively fashion,
and gets to know her students. She
would take me aside if she saw me
missing classes or not doing well, and
say, “You’re better than this.” She
got me reading Internet blogs and
publications like the BBC and The
Economist. She taught me how to
A challenge I faced at Wagner was the
unexpected passing of my father during
my first semester. I felt like I forgot how
to breathe. I left for a month, but I did
complete my classes that semester
and continued on. Wagner was the right
choice for me because of how personal
it is. Because when life hits, it hits hard.
Wagner’s support systems allotted
me enough time to work through that
struggle. Without Wagner, I wouldn’t be
the person I am today.
Hometown Orangeville, California
Five years from now, I’d like
to be living abroad and starting
a business. I would love to go back
to Italy, where I studied abroad for
a semester through the St. John’s
program in Rome. I’ll always carry a
bit of Rome in my heart. But first, I’m
going back to California to work for a
grassroots political organization.
My dream job is to own my own
business. I have written a business plan
for a consulting firm that helps small
and medium-sized businesses expand
their profits by reducing their costs and
expanding their markets.
My favorite places on campus
are the library — it’s quiet, and
I love quiet — and this year also
my room in Towers, which has a
view of the Verrazano-Narrows
Bridge. Seeing the sun rise over
the water helps me get up early
for my student teaching.
“Wagner
has given me
a new love of
learning. Before,
my education seemed
forced and contrived,
but at Wagner I came
out of classes with a new
perspective and could
connect my knowledge
from one class to the next.
My dream job would be
something like art therapy
or communications that
combines my interests in
creativity and psychology.”
– Kate Daniels
Psychology Major,
Art Minor
Photo: Snug Harbor,
Staten Island
s u m m e r
2011
17
�YEAR
FOUR
THE WAGNER PLAN
ALEX MALLILO
My favorite place on campus is the
Oval. It’s the place you hang out when
the fall semester has just started,
when I’m always happy to be back, or
the spring semester is about to end,
and I’m ready for a break. It’s the
spot on campus where everyone’s the
most relaxed. We have the children’s
Reading Carnival out there, and it’s
such a pretty view of campus.
KATIE JO YOUNKINS
My favorite place on campus
is the war memorial in front
of Spiro Sports Center. It’s
near the center of things,
but most don’t realize the
benches are there, and it is
very quiet. I love it when the
sun is out!
Hometown Lisbon, New Hampshire
Major International Affairs,
History Minor
When I was a freshman, I wish I’d
known that you are never too old
for Disney movies. I didn’t bring
mine to campus with me freshman
year, but that’s all we watch! I really
didn’t expect it.
My favorite place in New York City
is S’MAC in the East Village. Best
gourmet macaroni and cheese place
ever! I love the walk there from
Union Square.
The class that made the biggest
impression on me was Economics
of Genocide. Learning about
multinational corporations’ role in
exploiting underprivileged countries
completely changed my perspective.
It made me want to go into human
rights in international law.
My next steps are to work as a
graduate assistant for the assistant
dean of campus life, Curtis
Wright, while pursuing my MBA in
18
wa g n e r
m a g a z i n e
international business. Dean
Wright offered me the position
because of my work as the Student
Government Association’s vice
president for finance. I think an
understanding of the business
perspective will be helpful with
my future law studies.
My dream job is to advocate
for those less fortunate in other
countries regarding human rights
violations, or advocate for the
State Department.
One of the best things about
Wagner is Student Government
Association town hall meetings.
How many schools have their
president come to meet with the
students, and you can ask him any
question you want?
�Hometown Sayville, New York
Dual Major Anthropology/Sociology
and Elementary Education
The classes that made the biggest
impression on me were anthropology
classes, like Comparative Cultures,
taught by Professor Alexa Dietrich. I
learned how to read critically and apply
theories to real life. Dr. Dietrich was
great about helping her students connect
anthropology to any discipline or career
field they were involved in.
After four years in the Wagner Plan,
I would say it worked really well for my
major. I’ve been in classrooms every
semester, observing and teaching. In my
senior learning community, we focused
on diverse student populations and
developed experiential lesson plans, while
we were also student teaching. So, we
were applying experiential learning while
also participating in it ourselves.
My dream job is teaching, ideally in a
classroom where I would have enough money
to give the kids everything I could possibly
give them, and take them on field trips and
do projects with them, and where I didn’t
have to do the paperwork and worry about
the political end of it, and lawsuits and
everything that’s going on in classrooms.
KYLE GLOVER
Hometown Ridgefield, Connecticut
Self-Designed Interdisciplinary Major
Philosophy and Psychology
My favorite place in New York City is
anywhere there’s great food. New York
is the first place I had Indian food, which
I love. I ate so much the other day I
thought I was going to puke.
The professors who made the biggest
impression on me are Walter Kaelber
in religion and Miles Groth in psychology.
They let me bloom as a thinker and
learner. It’s been scary and fun.
My dream job is to be a psychologist. I’d
like to do something like the men’s group
I led at Wagner. It was a group of about
10 guys who met weekly to talk about
our experiences
as males. It was a
challenge, because it
isn’t easy to get guys
to talk about feelings
My next step will be teaching social
skills at an international rugby camp
in Barcelona, Spain, this summer. I’ve
been teaching a program called SARA —
Students Against Relational Aggression —
in Staten Island elementary schools during
my four years at Wagner, so it’s a good fit
for me.
and emotions. Also, it got me involved in
political conflicts and power struggles
on campus and in larger academic
circles as well. But my real aim was
to try and understand if there are any
differences between males and females,
and to improve the relationship and
communications. I want to understand
myself better as a male. And, I want to
continue to learn.
At Wagner, I received the gift of
not thinking normally, like in Platonic
academies, where they said you hadn’t
been educated if you hadn’t gone crazy,
meaning that you’ve become so filled
with the enthusiasm of life that you go a
little cuckoo.
When I leave Wagner, I’m going to
miss an environment where people
are learning and living close together
and growing up together, with all the
trials and tribulations that brings.
That’s such a cool environment for
anyone who’s trying to learn about life.
My favorite place on campus is
outside Cunard Hall when the
cherry trees are blooming. I love
walking through there. I started
dating my current girlfriend
last spring, and we would walk
through there together. I love
flowers and plants.
�FULL CIRCLE
Mike Nicolais and Margaret Christie met at
Wagner College in the 1940s in a classroom
like the one pictured above, in Main Hall,
pictured below ca. 1946, when it was known
as the Ad (Administration) Building.
20
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H S , A B OV E : A N NA M U L É , B E L OW : H A L C A R ST E N S ’ 5 0
�Just
Right
for
Each
Other
Wagner supporters
Mike ’49 and Margaret
Christie ’49 Nicolais
return to the place
where it all started
By Lee Manchester
s u m m e r
2011
21
�W
hen Mike Nicolais and Margaret Christie
enrolled in Wagner College in 1945, they
came from Staten Island families of modest
means. Their financial situation was like the
College’s — adequate, but humble. Most of
the buildings that make up today’s campus did not exist, and more
students were housed in temporary war-surplus buildings than in
permanent residence halls.
W
agner College’s fortunes have ridden a rising tide over the
past six decades, and so have the Nicolaises’. While Mike
and Margaret married and built a healthy family, a prosperous
philanthropic fund, and a strong record of community service, the
College built its campus, its faculty and curriculum, and its public
esteem, rising from a tiny commuter college to become a Top 25
regional university.
In recent years, Mike and Margaret have
become a big part of Wagner’s success. In
2004, their $2.5 million gift made possible the
renovation and expansion of the president’s
house as a site for important meetings with
College supporters. And they continue to play
an integral role in Wagner’s future. In 2007, the
couple made the single largest contribution in
Wagner College history — $10 million — as a
down payment on our next major building project: the Center for
Global Learning, to be constructed on the site of the old Augustinian
Academy. They are also serving as co-chairs of the campaign to raise
the rest of the money needed for the new building.
Earlier this year, we asked the Nicolaises to come back to
Grymes Hill, walk the campus, and tell us about the place where
their life together began, and where so much of the wealth they
have built is being invested in the future. This walk down memory
lane reminds us of where Wagner has come from, what it has
achieved, and where it can go in the future.
“I used to play basketball in here,” said Margaret when we
walked into the darkened theater. In the late 1940s, today’s Main
Stage served as the gym, chapel, and banquet hall.
One floor down, in the basement, Mike recalled the Guilden,
the snack bar once located there.
“It was run by a German couple,” Mike said, “Mr. and Mrs. Viohl.”
“Such nice people,” Margaret said.
“He was a good guy; I liked him. He was tough,” Mike said.
Upstairs, on the north end of the third floor, was another
hangout: the library. Looking up at the open beams and steeply
sloping ceilings, Mike said, “I remember this.”
“But I don’t remember ever opening a book up here,” admitted
Margaret. “This was where we did our homework.”
“[Business professor] Charlie Kraemer used to pile it on,”
Mike explained — he and Margaret had both studied business at
Wagner. “You had to work in his classes. … We spent a fair amount
of time up here in the library, working
on accounting, adding up the figures for
our spreadsheets.”
That led us to Professor Kraemer’s
classroom, on the south end of the
first floor.
“This was it!” Margaret exclaimed
when we found the classroom door. “We
were in here for a lot of classes with Dr.
Kraemer. He was one that I loved.”
He was also tough. “At the beginning of each term, he would
explain the rules,” recalled Margaret. “‘You’re going to get 11 pop
quizzes, and I don’t care if your mother or father died and you went
to the funeral.’ … There were absolutely no excuses.”
The Nicolaises’ friendship with Charles Kraemer continued for
many years after their graduation.
“We had lunch with him just a few months before he died [in
March 2002],” Mike said. “He was a remarkable teacher in many
ways. … He was probably a bigger influence on my life than anyone
except my parents.”
‘The first 57 years
are the tough ones.
It gets easy after that.’
T
he center of campus life in the post-war years, especially
for commuter students like Margaret and Mike, was the
Ad Building, known today as Main Hall. From the basement to
the attic, it housed the snack bar, the gym, most of the College’s
classrooms, many faculty and administrative offices, the library —
almost everything that made Wagner College a college.
Since our tour took place on the day after commencement, all
was quiet, and it was easy to imagine the ghosts of the past as we
walked the empty hallways.
22
wa g n e r
m a g a z i n e
R
ight next door, where today’s Megerle Science Building stands,
was another hangout for Mike and Margaret: the so-called
Veterans Village, consisting of half a dozen one-story Army
barracks and a two-story war surplus dormitory. These had been
hastily erected to house the flood of young men returning from
the war with G.I. Bill college funding. During that period, Wagner’s
enrollment soared from 440 students in 1945 to more than 2,000
in 1949.
�Putting Wagner First: The Center for Global Learning
Phase II of the Putting Wagner First capital campaign is focused on
raising money to build a 21st-century academic facility for Wagner
College, the Center for Global Learning. It will feature the latest
teaching technology and will house the Evelyn L. Spiro School of
Nursing and the departments of business, education, government
and politics, and modern languages. The campaign goal is $35
FUTURE HOME
The Center for Global
Learning will be built on this
site along Campus Road.
Mike himself was an Army infantry veteran of the Battle of the
Bulge, and he and Margaret were pals with several Veterans Village
residents — especially Frank ’50 and Janet Mann ’50 McCormick. Both
the McCormicks were Navy veterans; he served as a fighter pilot and she
was a member of the women’s reserve corps, known as the WAVES.
“They had a couple of children, and they were both taking
classes,” Mike recalled. “Their course schedules were arranged so
that one of them was home all the time with the kids, who were
pre-schoolers. We used to go over there when we had a free period,
have a cup of coffee. Whether Janet was home or Frank was home,
it didn’t make any difference, we just walked in.”
“And tell them what happened on that hot, hot day we
graduated,” Margaret said.
“Geryle, the little guy, he was maybe three years old, and he had
a beret on,” Mike replied. “I said to him, ‘Geryle, you’re wearing a
hat today?’
“He said, ‘My daddy gave me a haircut, and my mom’s trying to
hide it!’”
M
ike and Margaret’s first date was, not surprisingly, a Wagner
College affair.
The two had known one another for a couple of years before
that date, having shared many of the same business classes. But it
took a (more or less) blind date to bring them together as a couple.
Mike’s classmate and boyhood buddy, Sam Antico ’49, had
arranged the date with Renee Richard ’50 (later Renee Snyder)
and her friend, Margaret Christie. They needed a fourth, and Sam
suggested that Mike come along.
million, with $13 million already in hand. Volunteer co-chairs of the
campaign are Mike ’49 and Margaret Christie ’49 Nicolais as well
as Dianne M. Powers, a Wagner trustee and alumni parent.
“On our way down to pick up the girls at Renee’s house, on the
other side of Silver Lake,” Mike recalled, “Sam said to me, ‘You
know, I don’t really know Renee any more than you do. How do
you want to pair off?’
“We decided that when we got to the house we would open both
the front and back doors, and whoever got in the front would be his
date, and whoever got in the back would be mine.
“Margaret got in the back seat — and the rest is history.
“We did a very daring thing on that first date,” Mike added.
“It must have been late October, because we went to a Halloween
party at a local church and bobbed for apples.
“We were wild, I tell you!”
F
ollowing their graduation in 1949, Mike went to work as a
junior accountant at the Clark Estates, which manages the
investment funds of the Clark Foundation of Cooperstown.
“They gave me a job on a trial basis for $225 a month,” Mike
said. “When I retired 42 years later [having served for 26 years as
president] I said, ‘I guess I’m still on trial — nobody told me I was
off !’”
Meanwhile, Margaret left New York City for two years of
nursing school in Chicago. Neither of them can recall exactly when
they decided to marry, but at some point after her return to Staten
Island, they both knew that “we were just right for each other,” as
Margaret said.
They were married on June 7, 1953.
“The first 57 years are the tough ones,” Mike added. “It gets
easy after that.”
SEE MORE: Photos of Wagner in the 1940s, with audio of Mike and Margaret’s reminiscences, at www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
P H OTO G R A P H : A N NA M U L É
s u m m e r
2011
23
�LOSS
Michael Fiore ’78, a Wagner
business major, joined the New
York City Fire Department in
1982. He died in the line of duty
on September 11, 2001, one of
343 firefighters lost, including
fellow alumni Michael Cammarata
’00 and Michael J. Clarke ’96.
MEMORY
“Postcards,” the
September 11 memorial
in St. George, Staten
Island, frames the view
of Lower Manhattan,
where the World Trade
Center stood.
Reflections on the continuing ripples
of September 11
By Laura Barlament
HOPE
The Wagner College class of
2005 made this peace pole their
senior class gift. “We wanted to
end with good things and people
getting along, and people moving
forward despite tragedy,” says
Mel Powers ’05. “This is what we
feel strongly about.”
24
WA G N E R
O
n the morning of
September 11, 2001,
Courtney Fry was waking
up in Harborview Hall. In
her first semester of college,
she was getting ready to go
to her 9:40 a.m. history
class, part of her first-year
learning community (LC),
“Cities and Civilization,”
taught by history professor
Alison Smith and English
M A G A Z I N E
professor Anne Schotter.
Courtney felt so lucky
to have been placed into
this LC, which focused on
great cities of history as
well as contemporary New
York City. She had come to
Wagner all the way from
Orange County, California,
with big dreams about life
in the Big Apple.
P H OTO G R A P H S : TO P L E F T, RU S S E L L K I R K ;
TO P R I G H T , DAV I D B L A I K I E ; B OT TO M , PAU L O ’ M A R A ;
O P P O S I T E , C O U RT E S Y C O U RT N E Y F RY
�hough far away from
her home, Courtney
had family nearby: her
father’s brother, Peter Fry, lived
with his wife and children in Wilton,
Connecticut. Courtney had just spent Labor
Day weekend with them, and she planned
to see her uncle again soon. One of her best
friends from home was visiting, and Courtney
planned to take her to visit Peter’s office,
located in one of New York City’s must-see
tourist sites: the World Trade Center.
Courtney was in the shower when
she heard a commotion in the hallways.
Someone was yelling, “A plane hit the
tower!” Courtney’s first thought was of
Towers residence hall on the Wagner
campus, but then she started watching
television. She sat in her room, riveted to
the unfolding events — until she realized it
was time to go to class. She jumped up and
ran to Main Hall in flip flops and with wet
hair, afraid she’d be in trouble for being late.
Classmate Jake Browne ’05 M’08
remembers having a similar reaction that
morning; he now laughs at the incongruity
of the situation: “I went into a friend’s room
[with a Manhattan view], saw the second
plane hit the second tower — and then, like
very good freshmen, we still went to our
9:40 class.”
So began the day that redirected
Courtney’s life, reshaped Professor Smith’s
and Schotter’s approach to teaching history
and literature, and did so much more to
change our world.
“The 9/11 attacks were a boulder thrown
in the water, creating ripples that moved
out wider and wider,” writes the Rev. Dr.
Stephen Paul Bouman H’08 in Grace All
Around Us, his 2006 book of memories and
reflections on September 11. At that time,
he was bishop of the Metropolitan New
York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, and a Wagner trustee.
“Everything changes; nothing changes
— as with all tragedies,” Bouman continues.
“But there is more going on than meets the
eye. … Percussive waves beneath the surface
ripple, still emanate from the boulder in the
water and connect wider and deeper than
what is visible. The analogy is imperfect[,]
but come with me to the deep.”
As the 10th anniversary of September
11 approaches, let’s go to those deep
places with a few members of the Wagner
community. Hearing their personal stories,
we feel the “percussive waves” still emanating
from the boulder of September 11.
CALLED TO D.C.
September 11 motivated
Courtney Fry ’05 ‘to want to
make a positive change.’
For Courtney Fry and her
family, September 11 meant, first of all,
loss of a beloved uncle, husband, father,
son, and brother.
At Wagner College, classes were canceled
for the remainder of the week, and the
administration encouraged all students to
calls “one of the coolest things I’ve done
go home if possible. Courtney, however,
in my entire life.” She became a leader
remained on campus. She couldn’t stay away in the history and political science clubs,
from Manhattan. It was helpful, she recalls,
organizing a trip to Washington, D.C.
to share in the city’s collective pain, as she
Finally, although she loved Wagner
and her friend walked around and looked at College, she decided she had to be in
the pictures of the missing.
Washington. “I got the overwhelming sense
While dealing with her own grief and
to want to make a positive change in the
loss, she also began an intellectual journey.
world, so something like this wouldn’t
And the two combined to give her a new
happen again, as naïve as that sounds,” she
direction in life.
says. She transferred to American University.
“I grew up very sheltered in Orange
After graduation in 2005, she began working
County. September 11 opened my eyes,”
in politics, first doing campaign fieldwork
she says. “This sounds a little trite, but I
for the organization Emily’s List. In 2007,
was 18 years old, and I was thinking, ‘How
she joined the staff of Congressman Steny
could something like this
Hoyer, currently
happen in America?’”
House Democratic
She attended the special
Whip.
‘Everything
seminars Wagner offered
“The recent news
for students hungry
changes;
of [the death of
to learn more about
Osama] Bin Laden
nothing changes.
historical and cultural
reminded me of
… But there is
factors that had led to
why I’m here,” she
more going on
the attacks. She plunged
says. “September 11
than meets
into her studies and
affected everyone, but
the eye.’
explorations of New York
for me it was really
City with her learning
life-changing.”
community, which she
s u m m e r
2011
25
�faculty member that I remember thinking
PLACE OF REFLECTION
Art professor Andy Needle designed the Wagner
9/11 memorial, a gift of the class of 2002.
September 11 is commemorated here each year.
“It is heartening to see that tradition continue,”
says Needle. “People are still thinking about 9/11
and what it means.”
“Cross from shore to
shore, countless crowds of passengers!”
rhapsodizes Walt Whitman in “Crossing
Brooklyn Ferry,” an ode to New York
and New Yorkers, present and future. It
just so happened that this poem was the
reading assigned for the day that Courtney’s
learning community returned to class
after September 11. Wall Street had just
reopened, with the workers taking ferries
from Brooklyn and New Jersey because the
subways and trains to Lower Manhattan
were shut down.
“It’s been one of those few times as a
‘Be a Part of That
Coming Together’
For more information about
the Michael De Rienzo ’87
Golf Outing, the Stephen
Siller Tunnel to Towers
Run, and the World Trade
Center Run to Remember,
go to www.wagner.edu/
wagnermagazine.
I was going to cry while I was teaching
something, and having to get it under
control,” recalls Alison Smith, history
professor for the LC.
In the light of what had just happened in
New York City, Smith and Schotter recall,
every history lesson, every reading rang with
fresh resonance.
“Our study of New York became painfully
relevant as the city, which before had seemed
invulnerable and even cruel, became a
wounded creature, whose pulse was taken
daily,” they wrote in a proposal for a conference
about 9/11 and the college curriculum.
“I had the feeling for the rest of that
semester that I was sort of improvising,” says
Smith. She captioned her midterm exam
with the saying, “May you live in interesting
times.” “We had such an intense feeling that
we were living through such a historical,
terribly important moment, and that in fact
it was not a good idea to be living through
interesting times,” she says.
Ten years later, Smith and Schotter have
transformed their approach to this learning
community. Instead of using great cities
of Western civilization as their lens for
studying medieval and early modern history
and literature, they look at cross-cultural
connections around the Mediterranean and
across the Atlantic. They give increased
attention to the great religious traditions of
Christianity, Judaism, and especially Islam.
Global immigration has risen from a minor
to the major theme of the course. It’s all
part of giving students a better view of the
historical and cultural evolution that has led
to our post-9/11 world.
“We are having to forge new and quite
‘cutting-edge’ ideas about what and how to
teach the material to American undergrads,”
says Smith. “There are few if any models to
fall back on.”
well of September 11, often repeated in the
Wagner community, is an increased level
of civic commitment, and a greater love for
New York City.
Professor Smith’s children had just started
attending school on Manhattan’s Upper East
Side in the fall of 2001. After September 11,
she and her husband discussed whether they
should be sending their children to school
in Manhattan, whether they should even be
living in this city. “But it got to a point where
I just became fiercely loyal to the city,” Smith
says.
Professor Schotter agrees. “There was
a tremendous sense of tenderness toward
New York, that it was vulnerable for the first
time in a while.” Adds Smith, “We needed to
protect it and resurrect it somehow.”
President Guarasci, a native New Yorker,
was Wagner’s provost in the fall of 2001.
One of his most vivid memories from that
time was going door to door in Harborview
to check on students in the days following
September 11.
He expected to find students overcome
with fear and anxiety, and eager to leave
the city. Instead, in room after room, the
students wanted to know how they could get
to Ground Zero, how they could give blood
— how they could help. “I was so pleasantly
stunned by the remarkable big hearts and
civic commitment of our students,” he says.
Seeing how New Yorkers came together
in a new way in the aftermath of September
11 had a profound effect on him, Guarasci
says, causing him to rethink his own
relationship to patriotism and to citizenship.
“I mean patriotism not in the sense that
Americans are better, but appreciating the
special privileges we fought to gain, and that
— in our best moments — uplift humanity
and human dignity. It’s something to cherish
— that became more embedded in my heart
after 9/11.”
It wasn’t easy to awaken John
One great theme from the deep Orecchia ’04 to reality on September 11 —
26
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
�literally. As a “born and bred New Yorker”
from Bath Beach, Brooklyn, he was blasé
when his roommate, Drew Babitts ’03, who’s
from suburban Boston, told him the city had
been attacked by terrorists. “Drew, you are
in NYC now, there is some sort of terrorist
attack every other month,” he said.
John had spent the previous evening at
a local bar, drowning his frustration in beer
and karaoke after an argument with one of
his fraternity brothers. “The argument we
were having was very important to me at
the time,” John says. “Basically, he wanted to
be inactive in our fraternity, Kappa Sigma
Alpha, and I was all about being involved.”
Finally, Drew turned up the television
volume and yelled, “Look!” Outside, John
and Drew saw the smoke billowing across the
water. “At that point, it just came to me how
minuscule my stupid argument was,” says John.
Later, he learned that his parents’
neighbor, a firefighter, was missing. It turned
out that he was one of the 343 firefighters
who died that day. “All of it made me realize
how at the time what I thought was so
important to me really wasn’t important at
all,” says John. “It put a lot of things in my
life in their proper priority.”
John noticed that this, the worst of times,
brought out the best in his community. “As
terrible as those attacks were, it was equally
amazing to see a city severed by this incident
TUNNEL TO TOWERS
Christine Pagano ’04 M’09 (pictured below) is one
of the thousands who participate in the annual
Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers run, honoring
fallen firefighters like Siller and raising money for
charitable causes.
come together,” he says. “All I wanted was
to be a part of that coming together.” He
switched his major from theater to sociology.
He joined the New York Police Department
immediately after graduation, in June 2004.
After six years as a Manhattan street officer,
he is now a sergeant in Crown Heights,
Brooklyn.
“If it wasn’t for 9/11, I don’t think I
would have the life I have now, nor be the
person I am now,” John adds.
Drew’s goals changed as well. A
business major, he wanted to go into sports
marketing; he even had an internship with
NASCAR’s Manhattan offices that semester.
As he watched the destruction unfold in
Lower Manhattan, he realized that the
day before, at the time the planes hit the
buildings, he had been walking just a few
blocks away.
“The whole thing changed me,” Drew says.
“It gave me a better perspective on life. That
things can change in a moment’s notice. That
my internship was just a small piece in the
bigger picture of the world.” His interest in
sports marketing waned. He started to take
education courses along with his business
track. Today, he works in fundraising for
Wagner College. “I raise money for education
at Wagner because I believe in what I do,”
he says. “I feel that education is the way to
prevent events like 9/11 from continuing to
happen. Through education comes a better
understanding of other people and other
cultures. Hopefully it will bring an end to the
hatred that led to 9/11.”
Life After
KIMBERLY LITTO
REX ’04
Staten Islander Vincent
Litto was one of the many who
were at work at Cantor Fitzgerald on September 11.
His youngest daughter, Kimberly Litto Rex ’04, was a
Wagner College sophomore.
Kimberly took a leave of absence for the fall
2001 semester, but she picked up her studies again
in the spring and finished her degree in August
2004. “The school was very good to me,” she
says, adjusting some coursework requirements so
that she could accept a job offer from St. Joseph
Hill Academy on Staten Island. She also received
financial assistance from the Staten Island Chamber
of Commerce, benefiting Wagner students whose
parents died on September 11.
When she thinks of September 11 now, she says
the initial confusion, fear, and pain have faded into
“just sadness.” “I never had an anger phase like some
people. I feel sad and bad for my father, for what he
had to go through, for how he died,” she says. She
doesn’t pay attention to politics, which before 9/11
was an intense interest that she had shared with
her father. Instead, she says, “I just want to focus
on good things” — things like teaching English and
coaching cheerleading, her marriage to Anthony
Rex in 2008, her puppy, her sisters and nieces and
nephews. She is working on a 9/11 memoir. “I’m
forever piece by piece writing it,” she says.
Her father continues to exercise a positive
influence in her life. “I’ve never met a person who
didn’t like him, who wasn’t inspired by him. He was
The sudden and
traumatic loss of life on
selfless and humble. He wanted to make other
September 11 left permanent wounds in the
hearts of those who lost their loved ones.
Yet it also left a legacy of compassion and
generosity that shows no signs of abating.
One of the biggest examples is the annual
Tunnel to Towers run, inspired by Staten
Island firefighter Stephen Siller. Although his
shift had ended, Siller returned to duty when
is right, and he taught that to us.
people happy. He was driven by the desire to do what
“Now, when I have to make a decision, I will ask
myself what my father would do in that situation,
and do what he would have done, which is the kind
and selfless thing to do.”
TOP: Vincent Litto with daughter Kimberly
s u mf m
a l
e r
l
2 0 1 10
27
�Life After
LINDA FIORE ’73
While thousands were trying to escape the
burning towers, Michael Fiore ’78 was one of the
New York City firefighters rushing to the scene. The
Wagner business major was a 20-year veteran of the
FDNY with three commendations for extraordinary
service already to his credit. “His death,” says his
older sister Linda Fiore ’73, “was a terrible loss. It left
a big hole in my heart, and in my parents’ heart. To
this day, it’s a wound that just won’t come together,
just won’t heal.”
Yet Linda, a Wagner nursing graduate who had
a long career with the New York City Department of
Health, has made her peace with her brother’s death.
She remembers going to Ground Zero on the first
anniversary of September 11, being with thousands of
other grieving survivors in the pit. It was a beautiful
morning, as it had been the previous year, and the air
was completely still. Then, she says, “All of a sudden,
the dust started swirling. It was like the spirits of
those lost on that day were surrounding us. Everyone
who was there felt it, because the stillness became
this energy.
“[Ground Zero is] my brother’s burial ground,”
she continues. “It’s not morbid to go there, not sad.
Speaking for myself, it’s a fulfilling experience to be
down there and just reflect.”
TOP: Siblings Michael and Linda Fiore in 1955
28
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
he heard of the attack on the World Trade
Center, running through the BrooklynBattery Tunnel to reach Ground Zero.
The annual run in his memory follows his
route through the tunnel to Ground Zero.
Around 25,000 people participate each year,
including a busload from Wagner College.
Firefighters line the route, holding banners
with the names and pictures of those who
were lost on 9/11. Because of the special
spirit of the event, “[it] beats every race you
can do,” says Christine Pagano ’04 M’09, who
was the top female finisher in 2009. The
event has raised millions of dollars for the
Stephen Siller Children’s Foundation, which
benefits orphaned and neglected children.
Stephen Siller’s large and loving family
includes nephew and godson Dan Scullin
’07, a Wagner theater graduate who was a
senior at Staten Island’s Curtis High School
on September 11.
Dan still struggles with hurt, anger,
and disbelief at his uncle’s death. But the
race gives him hope. “If you’re going to
have to lose somebody, it’s good that it
turns into something that gives back to the
community,” he says. “It almost makes you
feel like there’s a purpose to it. It wasn’t
just death for death’s sake. Something good
has come from it.”
Dan says that September 11 helped
to inspire him to go for his dream career
of acting in musical theater. He has
been working steadily in theater since
graduation; this summer, he will earn his
membership in Actors’ Equity.
Lisa De Rienzo ’87, twin sister
of Michael De Rienzo ’87, a Cantor
Fitzgerald employee who perished in the
North Tower, says that this year’s 10th
annual golf outing to raise money for her
brother’s charitable fund will be the last.
But the thousands of dollars that she and
Michael’s friends have raised will keep on
giving. At Wagner, they created a $100,000
endowed scholarship that has already
helped one student, Alexander Smith ’11,
through four years of a Wagner education.
As a permanent fund, it will continue to
provide scholarships for Wagner students
in perpetuity. The charitable foundation
has provided scholarships to students at St.
Joseph by-the-Sea High School as well.
Despite being twins, Michael and Lisa
were two quite different personalities. Lisa, a
police officer who left Wagner College after
her junior year to join the NYPD, was always
outgoing and loud. Michael tended to be
more quiet and bookish, majoring in business
and going into the financial services field.
Whereas Lisa thrived in team sports, earning
a Wagner softball scholarship, Michael
enjoyed running — he even ran the New
York City Marathon in 1996 — and golf.
Michael always tried to interest Lisa in golf,
but she says she found it boring and resisted
him “tooth and nail” on that topic.
A SPECIAL BOND
Twins Michael ’87 and Lisa ’87 DeRienzo had
quite different personalities; but no matter what,
says Lisa, “You always knew you had each other.”
Michael died on September 11 in the North Tower.
�Ironically, after Michael’s death, golf has
become an important part of Lisa’s life, a
key way of remembering and celebrating
Michael’s life. When she and friends like
Steve Mehler ’87 were thinking about how to
establish a lasting memorial for Michael, Lisa
observed that golf tournaments were a good
way to raise a lot of money with relatively
little effort. So, despite her distaste for
golf, she started attending golf outings and
learning how they worked.
Not only did she become an expert in
golf fundraisers, but she also fell in love with
the game. Since then, she commemorates
September 11 on the golf course. For her, it
provides a place of peace and respite, away
from the crowds and the public memorials.
As a police officer on duty on September
11, she experienced the trauma of seeing the
horror first-hand — the fire, the smoke, the
falling bodies, the building collapses. “[The
golf course is] the safest place to be, sanitywise,” she says.
The memorial golf outings have provided a
good outlet for dealing with her brother’s death,
Lisa says, and the joy of giving has given her
much hope. But now, she has another Michael
in her life. In another extraordinary twist of fate,
a year ago, Lisa and her partner, Kerri, had twin
boys. Their names are Cooper and Michael.
“sadly, something was missing,” she says. “It
brought back feelings of sorrow and anger.”
Fast forward to September 2009, and
that “something missing” again becomes a
force capable of bringing people together for
good. Christopher is a financial controller
for Morgan Stanley; Francie works as
an operating room nurse at NewYorkPresbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical
Center. One of Francie’s Alpha Delta Pi
sorority sisters, Dominique Zirino ’07,
asks if she would be interested in running
with her in the first annual World Trade
Center Run to Remember on Governor’s
Island. Dominique and her friends were
participating in memory of Joseph A.
Mascali, a Staten Island firefighter who died
in the line of duty on September 11.
Francie thought it was a great idea. At
the race, she met Joseph’s son, Chris Mascali
— and also Chris’s roommate, Christopher
Kline. Francie and Christopher hit it off
immediately. They started dating, and late
last year they became engaged to be married.
The wedding is planned for June 16, 2012.
“We will continue to participate in the
WTC Run to Remember annually,” Francie
says. “This year it falls on September 4. We’ll
run in loving memory of our friend Chris’s
father, Joseph A. Mascali, and honor the lives
of those lost on September 11, 2001.”
The ripples of September
11 also continue to manifest themselves
in stories like that of Francie
Kontominas ’07 and Christopher
Kline ’02 M’04.
On September 11, Francie was
a junior at Parsippany Hills High
School, about 30 miles west of
Manhattan, and Christopher was
a senior business major at Wagner
College. Francie first visited the
College in fall 2002, a few months
after Christopher’s graduation.
She noted the unique skyline view
from campus — and the fact that
Life After
CRAIG JANTZ ’73
On September 11, Craig Jantz ’73 was working
for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the North
Tower. In what he calls a “bittersweet” confluence of
events, he is alive today.
In the days before September 11, Craig’s mother,
Winnie Jantz, was hovering near death. She had had
surgery the previous year to remove a brain tumor
and had never fully recovered. She lived with Craig’s
brother, Stephen, who had decided to retire after
20 years with the FDNY and devote himself to his
mother’s care at his home on Staten Island. Craig
spent most of Sunday and Monday with her, returning
home to Holmdel, New Jersey, late in the evening.
On Tuesday, September 11, Craig got up at
about 5:30 a.m. to go to work, when he noticed the
answering machine light blinking. He listened as his
brother said, “Craig, you know why I’m calling you.”
Steve had left his message at 12:59 a.m. Their mother
had passed away.
Craig knew he couldn’t work that day; he
didn’t know it would save his life. Cantor Fitzgerald,
which occupied floors 101–105 of 1 World Trade
Center, lost a total of 658 employees, making it the
single organization with the greatest loss of life on
September 11. No one from Craig’s division who was
in the office that morning survived.
“I don’t know why I’m still here,” he says. He
points out that his mother gave him life twice.
“Through some divine intervention, I was saved from
this. I’m still trying to figure it all out, and I probably
will till the day I die.”
A FORCE FOR GOOD
Christopher Kline ’02 M’04 and Francie Kontominas ’07 met at
the World Trade Center Run to Remember on Governor’s Island.
TOP: Winnie Jantz with her sons and daughters-in-law,
Kay Lynn and Craig (top), and Stephen and Coleen.
s u m m e r
2011
29
�Wa g n e r
Sports Roundup
BRAIN DRAIN
“[The season] takes a toll on your body,” says
Breanne Sweeney ’12 (pictured here). “You’re
exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally.”
o matter what the meet schedule
says, two opponents in swimming
stay the same every day.
One, the stopwatch, gives no ground,
measuring progress in hundredths of seconds.
And that’s why the other, the swimmer’s
brain, requires so much care and feeding.
“It’s an endurance-based sport,” says
[former] Wagner College women’s swimming
coach Mark Sowa. “It can be lonely. It can be
hard mentally when all you are staring at is
the black line (on the pool floor).”
Indeed, they stare for months on end,
and that is why Sowa devotes so much time
to helping his swimmers cope with the often
mind-numbing drudgery of training.
“It’s a long season and it’s extremely taxing,”
said Wagner junior Breanne Sweeney, a threetime Advance All Star from Notre Dame
Academy. “It takes a toll on your body. You’re
exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally.”
“You can’t make it less monotonous, so
mentally you have to keep yourself engaged,”
30
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Mental
LAPS
In the pool, it’s mind
over matter for
Seahawk swimmers
By Carmine Angioli,
Staten Island Advance
said Seahawk senior Sarah Plucinsky. “You
can’t allow yourself to fall into a rut.”
“I am no innovator,” says Sowa. “I am a
listener. I try to listen to people who have
been successful.”
Bag of Tricks
All that listening has helped the thirdyear head coach assemble a healthy bag of
tricks. On a good day at Wagner’s pool, you’ll
see swimmers tethered to rubber tubes,
or shadowboxing with their pink boxing
gloves, or tied to a metal pulley-and-barrel
contraption that could be ripped from a
Rube Goldberg sketch book.
The rubber tubes pull swimmers back
toward the starting block, forcing them to
keep pace. The barrels on the “power tower”
provide resistance as the athlete, wearing a
belt connected to the pulleys, tries to swim
away and raise the barrels.
“(Tubing) simulates speeds that are faster
than or as fast as race pace, which is hard to
P H OTO G R A P H : DAV I D SA F F R A N
�simulate because we don’t get to top
speed until the end of the season,”
Sowa explained. “The barrels are
just basic power training. It’s similar to
running with a parachute behind you.
It’s a lot of fun. Kids like to play with toys.”
As for the boxing gloves, Sowa explained
that aspects of the punching movement
transfer physiologically to an effective
freestyle stroke.
“The more creative we can be with our
approach, the better,” Sowa said. “These are
bright kids. You appeal to their intellect.”
But adding variety to the training is the
easy part. The swimming season is among
the longest in college sports. The workload
is daunting, with a typical athlete logging
anywhere from 50,000 to 70,000 yards a
week during peak training, topped off with
dry-land activity like running and weight
work. Maintaining a mental edge for the
duration is as hard as the toughest workout.
Long Season
“It’s very difficult in November and
December, when you’re in the grind,” said
Sweeney, a backstroker. “(In February), the
hard part is over and the fun stuff (the NEC
meet) begins. The most important thing is
the other girls. We’re all in the same situation
and it’s nice to have the other girls to go to. If
you come to our practices, you hear a lot of
encouraging.”
“(Sowa) is very good at making the
(workouts) have a purpose,” said Plucinsky,
a freestyler from Whitehall, Pennsylvania.
“It’s never just, ‘Go swim.’ He’ll say, ‘Swim 16
100s, but focus on the middle 50.’ He keeps
you engaged and makes you think, and that
helps.”
“We talk about (the mental challenges)
from Day 1,” Sowa said. “In one of our first
meetings, we’ll ask them, ‘When are the
potential challenges of the season going to
occur?’
“Near the end of October, beginning
of November,” Sowa said, answering his
P H OTO G R A P H S : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
the
own question. “The weather gets cold, the
training gets harder, school gets harder, and
we haven’t started to race yet. So there’s a lot
of work, but no reward.
“Then in January, you’re still six weeks
from the conference meet, we’re doing our
heaviest training. They’re on campus by
themselves.”
As he said, it can get lonely.
“We eliminate the drama by talking
about it,” Sowa said, “sometimes incessantly.
The easiest thing is to just be open and
honest about it. Don’t deny the emotions,
but treat them objectively.”
“You train 10 months for 10 minutes (of
races). But the only way to get better is to
put in the time,” said Plucinsky. “Everybody
else is doing the same work you are. You
have to find your edge someplace else.”
List
The water polo team finished the season as the
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) runner-up.
It was the first time the Seahawks had reached the
championship game since 2007. • Women’s golf coach
Christopher Fourman was named NEC Coach of the
Year, after guiding the Seahawks to a fifth-place finish at the 2011 NEC Championship. • In men’s and
women’s track and field, the Seahawks set new
school records in more than a dozen events over
the course of the indoor and outdoor seasons. • The
Wagner College ice hockey club team captured the
Metropolitan Collegiate Hockey Conference Championship with a 6-3 win over top-seeded Fordham
University on February 20. The second-seeded Seahawks finished the season with a 20-6 record under
the direction of first-year coach George Cherubini, an
adjunct business professor at Wagner.
This story first appeared in the Staten Island Advance
on February 15, 2011. Reprinted with permission.
Payoff Time
Seahawks smash 11
school records at NEC
championship
The swimming and diving
team’s hard work paid off big
at the Northeast Conference
championship, held February
17–19 at MIT in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. The Seahawks
broke 11 school records and
brought home a third place
finish, trailing only Central
Connecticut State and backto-back champion Saint
Francis of Pennsylvania. The
Seahawks had 25 individual
championship finalists, with
15 of them coming from
members of the freshman class.
Also, the diving team capped
off its inaugural season with
impressive results, and the
team placed first among all
NEC schools on the winter
Academic Honor Roll and on
the Commissioner’s Honor
Roll, based on grade point
average and distinguished
participation in varsity
athletics.
Mark Sowa, who after three
seasons at Wagner has coached
every Seahawk swimmer in
the College’s record books,
announced on June 28 that he
is leaving Wagner to become
head coach at the University
of Idaho. Sowa led the Green
and White to three straight
top-three finishes at the NEC
championships, including
a second-place finish in
2008–09. Sowa’s studentathletes set 23 school records
and two NEC records, and
they garnered 12 All-NEC
honors as well as Wagner’s first
ever NEC Swimmer of the
Year, Jessica Hart ’10.
s u m m e r
2011
31
�A Reunion Just Waiting to Happen
Long-lost friends reconnect at neighborhood alumni reception
I t had been more than 40 years since Christine Fleming Mahon
’70 had seen her dear friend and big sister from Alpha Omega Pi,
Carol Hulnick Woodruff ’68. The two had managed to keep up a
Christmas card exchange for a while after graduating, but as “life
goes, we lost touch,” says Chris.
Unbeknownst to Chris and Carol, both had relocated to the
Phoenix, Arizona, area about 10 years ago. The two went on with
their lives, never imagining that just a few minutes down the road
there was a Wagner reunion just waiting to happen, 2,000 miles
away from Grymes Hill.
Then, earlier this year, Carol received an invitation in the mail
from Wagner College. She hesitated to open it, thinking it was for
an event on campus. But “something just made me open it,” she
said. “I saw it was an alumni brunch being hosted by Chris! I knew
I had to go no matter what.”
S E E ’ H AW K S I N Y O U R C I T Y Mo re than 200 Wagner alumni and
f r i e n d s , i n c l u d i n g the se i n the Pho e ni x are a, gathe re d for Neig hbor hood
A l u m n i Re c e pt i o n s thro ugho ut the co untry d uri ng the past year.
W O N D E R F U L S U R P R I S E Thanks to a Neig hborh ood Al u m n i
Recept ion, soror it y sister s Chr ist ine Fleming M ahon ’ 7 0 a n d C a rol
Hulnick Woodr uff ’68 met for t he fir st t ime in 4 0 yea r s at C h r i s ’ s h om e
in Phoenix . P ictured left to rig ht: Chuck and Chr ist in e M a h on w i t h C a rol
and David Woodr uff
“I am still amazed that I looked up from the table in the
backyard, and there Carol was in the doorway,” says Chris, who
hosted the Neighborhood Alumni Reception with her husband,
Chuck. “And to think we have been so close to each other. Wow,
what a wonderful surprise.”
The Neighborhood Alumni Receptions hosted by alumni,
in conjunction with the Wagner College Alumni Association,
bring together alumni and friends of the College to reconnect,
network, and learn about what is happening with the College. In
the past year, more than 225 alumni and friends have attended
neighborhood events from coast to coast, including California,
Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York.
Next time you receive an invitation from Wagner College,
open it — you never know what wonderful surprises might be in
store for you.
Allen F. O’Connell ’76 Camera Traps in Animal Ecology (Springer, 2011)
Allen O’Connell, a research ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, was
senior editor and co-author of this book on a new field of ecological research: the use of remote photography
and infrared sensors to study animal populations in the wild. This research may contribute to the conservation
of such endangered and elusive animals as tigers and jaguars as well as many others.
32
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Upcoming Events
• �College Choirs Holiday Concert
Dec. 4, 4 p.m., location TBA
Admissions
• �Summer and Fall Campus Visit Days
Aug. 11, Oct. 2, Oct. 23, and Nov. 12
Lectures
• �Founders Day and Kaufman-
Repage Lecture
Speaker: Rebecca Skloot, author of
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Oct. 12, 7 p.m., Spiro Hall, Room 2
{
f l a s h b a c k
}
• �Vocal Jazz Set
Dec. 6, 8 p.m., Performance Center,
Campus Hall
• �Concert Band
Dec. 11, 3 p.m., Main Hall
National Alumni Association
• �Homecoming
Music
• �Italian Idol Singing Contest
October 29
Oct. 14, 5 p.m., Performance
Center, Campus Hall
• �College Choirs Fall Concert
Nov. 6, 4 p.m., Trinity Lutheran Church,
Staten Island
• �Jazz Ensemble
Nov. 20, 3 p.m., Main Hall
Who in the Wagner World Was … Paul Zindel?
Alumni Link
For more information, registration, and tickets:
Admissions 800-221-1010 or 718-390-3411 • Alumni Relations 718-390-3224
Music Department 718-390-3313 • Theater Box Office 718-390-3259
N U R S E ’ S CA P A N D CA P E ,
1 9 4 6 V I N TAG E
Muriel Schweer Wood ’46, one of
Wagner’s first nursing graduates,
Paul Zindel [1936–2003] ... earned the [Pulitzer Prize] in 1971
for one of his eight plays, The Effect of Gamma Rays on
Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds . He also authored 39 novels,
including My Darling, My Hamburger and The Pigman , which
are still widely read in high schools across the country.
As a child, he moved frequently from place to place on
Staten Island with his mother and sisters after his father
abandoned them, an experience that profoundly shaped
his later writings. He graduated [from] Port Richmond High
School. At Wagner College, he majored in chemistry, while studying
creative writing with playwright Edward Albee. [Zindel earned his bachelor’s in 1958 and
master’s in 1962, and received an honorary doctorate in 1971.] He briefly worked for Allied
Chemical and taught science at Tottenville High School until 1969. His “zany stories” and
performances kept teenage audiences “screaming with delight.”
— An excerpt from Discovering Staten Island: A 350th Anniversary Commemorative
History (History Press, 2011), edited by Kenneth M. Gold and Lori Weintrob,
professor of history at Wagner College. Reprinted with permission.
P H OTO G R A P H S : V I N N I E A M E S S É
donated her original nurse’s cap
and wool cape to the Evelyn L.
Spiro School of Nursing. Wagner’s
nursing program was founded in
1943 in cooperation with the U.S.
Cadet Nurse Corps to address
wartime medical needs. The
nursing program was celebrated
at Reunion in June, marking
the 65th anniversary of Wood’s
class’s graduation.
s u m m e r
2011
33
�Wa g n e r
Alumni Link
Alumni Honors
At Reunion in June, the National Alumni Association recognized significant achievements and
contributions by members of the Wagner community.
John “Johnny K” Knudson ’57 was
named the John “Bunny” Barbes
’39 and Lila T. Barbes ’40 Wagner
Alumni Laureate. He dedicated
his professional life to
Wagner College, especially
through its athletic
programs, as coach, trainer, and administrator.
Since retiring, he has continued to support
Wagner athletics as a volunteer, including
chairing the Athletic Hall of Fame for many
years. He has touched the lives of innumerable
students and alumni during his more than 50
years of service to Wagner College.
Two Distinguished Graduates
of Wagner were chosen this
year: Carl R. Fischer ’64 and
Laura Graham ’95. Carl
Fischer, Wagner’s first
male nursing graduate,
became a distinguished
hospital administrator at
Yale-New Haven and the
university system hospitals
in Cincinnati, Arkansas, and
Virginia. Laura Graham has
been part of President Bill
Clinton’s staff since his White House days, and
she now serves as his chief of staff and as chief
operating officer of his foundation.
Maureen L. Robinson ’67 H’03
received the Dr. Kevin Sheehy
’67 M’70 M’92 H’99 Alumni
Leadership Medal. A retired
English teacher, she has
served for many years as
34
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
a member of the National Alumni Association
Board of Directors and of Wagner College’s Board
of Trustees. With her husband, Derish Wolff,
she established a fellowship program supporting
the research activities of junior faculty members
at Wagner.
Carmine C. Carullo ’71 M’74 was
named Wagner Alumni Fellow
in Business. In his 40-year
career with ExxonMobil
Corporation, he has
combined his business
expertise with civic
engagement locally and worldwide. Currently, as
planning manager of medicine and occupational
health worldwide, he is charged with the wellbeing of 80,000 employees in 50 countries.
Lorraine McNeill-Popper
’78 was named Wagner
Alumni Fellow in Marketing.
She has contributed her
creative skills to many
award-winning advertising
campaigns, including Pepsi’s
music platform; healthcare clients such as
AstraZeneca, Glaxo, Colgate, and Pfizer; the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America; and
the U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations
Command.
Alonzo “Lonnie” Brandon ’72
received the Certificate of
Appreciation for his leadership
in last year’s commemoration
of the 40th anniversary
of the student takeover
of Cunard Hall, a milestone in the history of
Wagner College. His efforts brought many
African-American alumni back to campus for
the first time in decades, and it helped Wagner
College renew its commitment to inclusiveness.
The Reverend Lyle Guttu Award
went to Rabbi Dr. Abraham Unger,
Wagner’s Jewish chaplain,
advisor to the Hillel student
organization, assistant
professor of government
and politics, and director
of Wagner’s City Studies Program. He helped
create the Office of Jewish Community Affairs
on Staten Island and was founding co-chair of
the Faith and Public Policy Roundtable of New
York City.
Andrew Bailey ’06 received
the Wagner Alumni Key,
newly defined this year to
recognize graduates of the
last decade who have made
extraordinary achievements
in their personal and
professional endeavors. The star Seahawks
pitcher was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in
2006. He developed into a top-notch closer, and
was named the American League’s Rookie of the
Year in 2009. He also represented the A’s in the
2009 and 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star
Game. Read more about him on pages 10–13.
Find out more about the award winners
at www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
P H OTO G R A P H S , A B OV E : ST E V E J O R DA N ; B E L OW : V I N N I E A M E S S É
�Guest Lecturers
Alumni bring diverse areas of expertise to campus
Many alumni returned to campus during the 2010–11 academic
year to share their expertise with Wagner students preparing for
life after college.
Richard Barratta ’73, for instance, took time off in November from
producing HBO’s movie Too Big to Fail to visit Professor Todd
Price’s arts administration class, The Business of Film. Barratta has
served as production manager and producer for many blockbuster
movies, including all three Spider-Man films and this summer’s The
Smurfs. As a movie project’s top manager, he told the class that
when he reads a script, he thinks, “This is 108 pages of problems.
Everything’s a problem, and you’ve got to solve them.”
Beverly Hoehne Whipple ’62 was on campus to give a public lecture
and speak to classes in February. A Wagner nurse with a Ph.D.
in psychobiology, she is a Rutgers professor emerita best known
as co-author of The G Spot and Other Discoveries About Human
Sexuality. She gave a frank
and inspiring talk on
“Sensuality and Sexuality:
Enhancing Intimacy” to
a large group of students
and faculty.
Allan F. O’Connell ’76 visited
Wagner on March 28 to
speak to biology students
P R AC T I CA L L E S S O N S
on his area of expertise:
Bever ly Hoehne Whipple ’62 incor porate d
ames and g roup wor k into her onwildlife management. He gcampus
presentat ion.
is a research ecologist at
the internationally renowned Patuxent Wildlife Research Center of
the U.S. Geological Survey, part of the Department of the Interior,
and author of a new book on using camera traps to estimate the
abundance and health of wildlife populations (see page 32 for more
on the book). He cited his experience with animals ranging from
rainforest frogs to kangaroos to the Florida panther.
Alumni Link
If you’re interested in helping with career development events for Wagner students, please contact Victoria Crispo ’00 M’02, assistant director of career
development, at vcrispo@wagner.edu or 718-420-4016.
Reunion 2011
G O L D E N M E M O R I E S I n gr i d Are nd Buswe l l ’61 and Nancy Luq ue r
Wallich ’6 1 , fe l l ow n u r s i n g gra d uate s, we re d e l i ghte d to se e e ach other
ag ain at the 50 t h re u n i o n d i n ne r.
C O N G R AT S P re s i d e n t G u a rasci
ap p lauds L o n n i e B ra n d o n ’ 7 2 fo r hi s
l e ader s hip .
P H OTO G R A P H S : V I N N I E A M E S S É
B A C K T O C L A S S Facult y and st udent s g ave a demo in t he Nu r s i n g
Resource Center. Wag ner ’s fir st class of nur ses g raduated 65 yea r s a go.
S C R E E N S , N O T S TA C K S In t he Hor r mann Librar y’s Class
of 19 59 L e arni ng Co mmons, dedicated at Reunion, technolog y
e nhance s gro up stud y spaces.
F O R E V E R YO U N G Georg B oh s a c k
’62 spor ted his vintag e Sea h aw k
soccer let ter at t he Kappa Si gm a
A lpha v. Theta Chi kickball g a m e .
s u m m e r
2011
35
�1940
We are sad to report that Gloria
Lorenz Volland died on July 11, 2010,
in Tucson, Ariz. A note from her
daughter-in-law, Mary B. Volland,
described her as a former teacher in
Lawrenceburg, Ind. Surviving are her
three children, Lawrence Volland,
Kay McAndrew, and Fred Volland,
as well as five grandchildren and one
great-grandchild.
1941
College with a great deal of
warmth and pleasure. They were
my happiest days with the most
welcoming people to study with
and many great professors. I follow
with interest the great strides
Wagner has made.” Diana lives in
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
1950
Class Agent: Robert S. Peirano
67 Meisner Ave., Staten Island,
NY 10306, 718-351-8535
Class Agent: Theodore W. Gibson
2017 Pine Knoll Road #2, Walnut
Creek, CA 94595, 925-588-9691
Rev. David Greer began serving as
interim rector for Christ Episcopal
Church of Nacogdoches, Tex., in
October 2010. He will serve in
this “John the Baptist” ministry, as
he calls it, until the church’s new,
permanent rector comes on board.
Located directly across from Stephen
F. Austin State University with
11,000 students, Christ Church has
an active college ministry as well as a
school. David also reports that he was
honored last year by St. James Chuch
in Warrenton, Va. He served there
for 16 years, from 1964 to 1980, the
second-longest term for a rector in
that church’s history. In his honor, the
church dedicated a portrait of him,
painted in the 1960s by the famous
illustrator Wesley Dennis.
1947
1951
lost her
husband, Rev. Frederick Bryant, on
April 15. He was pastor of Trinity
Lutheran Church in Jersey City,
N.J., and a member of the Wagner
College chaplain’s office as well as
liaison for Wagner’s Upsala program
for Lutheran ministerial candidates.
The entire Wagner community
extends condolences to Dorothee.
Dorothee Heins Holmstrup Bryant
1942
Diana V. Marsh Holland wrote
a note
about her time at Wagner: “I
look back on my days at Wagner
Lt. Col. Miton J. Grosz and Margaret
“Peggy” Jerlin Grosz think back
affectionately to the place where
they met each other in 1948–49.
“We have been married for nearly
60 years,” they write. “Thank you,
Wagner College!” They live in Palm
Harbor, Fla., and are both retired.
Margaret Manrodt keeps active in her
retirement through the American
Red Cross Disaster Health Service,
Redeemer Lutheran Church in
Penndel, Penn., and the Briot Senior
Center. She lives in Levittown,
Penn. Charles Sokolowsky is serving
as president of the Wagner Guild,
and he and his wife, Gertrude, are
working very hard to promote this
fundraising organization. They
want to update the group and
set new goals, while keeping the
focus on raising money for student
scholarships. Yvonne Rodriguez
(yvonne.rodriguez@wagner.edu,
718-420-4551) is the staff contact
for the Guild.
1952
Class Agent: Fred Brockmann
3949 Wilshire Court, Sarasota,
FL 34238, 941-922-1879,
fredleebrock@comcast.net
Fred Brockmann writes
with the latest
book news from his daughter,
Suzanne Brockmann, a New York
Times best-selling author. Her
50th novel, Breaking the Rules, was
published in March by Ballantine
Books. Sam Polk has retired from the
advertising business and lives in
Hallandale Beach, Fla.
1953
Class Agent: Albert Tosi 70 Woodcliff
Lake Road, Saddle River, NJ 07458
attended the
Wagner Choir concert in March
in Naples, Fla., where she lives.
She wrote a note saying that she
sang with the Wagner choir under
Dr. Steen, and the current choir’s
performance made her “proud
and happy.” Her husband, Rev.
William R. Belury, passed away on
June 21, 2009. Wagner also offers
condolences to Bill Wehrli, who lost
his wife, Caroline, in May.
Ann Strickland Belury
1954
Class Agent: Manfred W. Lichtmann
568 Harbor Watch Loop, Myrtle Beach,
SC 29579, lichtmann@sccoast.net
Dr. Manfred W. Lichtmann, who is retired
and living in Myrtle Beach, S.C., is
enjoying golf and bowling and is very
active in community activities and
reading. He has gone on several cruises
and is planning a trip that will follow
Leif Ericson’s route. Wanda Schweizer
Praisner won the 2010 Princemere
poetry prize from Gordon College.
1955
Class Agent: Allan K. Brier 67 Round
Cove Road, Chatham, MA 02633,
508-945-3729
Keep in Touch!
E-mail: alumni@wagner.edu
Publication policies:
class years of all alumni pictured; birth date, parents’ names,
Deadlines: This issue reflects news received by June 20.
and class years with photos of children; and dates and locations
Web: www.wagner.edu/alumni/
The submission deadline for the fall 2011 issue is September 15.
of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos must be clear and of good
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Content: Wagner welcomes your news and updates, and we
will happily share them with the Wagner family. We ask that you
quality. Prints should be on glossy paper with no surface texture;
send us announcements of weddings, births, and graduations
they will be returned at your request (please attach your address
after the fact.
to the photo). Digital photos must be jpegs of at least 250 pixels
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner groups at weddings
per inch; low-resolution photos converted to a higher resolution
and other special events. With the photo, send the names and
are not acceptable.
Wagner College, 1 Campus Road,
Staten Island, NY 10301
36
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Doris Rockefeller Lehmann looks
1956
Class Agent: George E. Lewis 5043
Kelsie Court, Florence, OR 97439,
mrclor@charter.net
1957
Class Agents: Marie Attonito Alberti 109
Patio Drive, Endwell, NY 13760,
607-754-3400 Ewald Forsbrey 1096
Augusta Falls Way, Naples, FL
34119, 239-353-6240
Mike Azzara was
honored at the
January 2011 kickoff event of
SI 350, Staten Island’s 350th
anniversary celebration committee.
Mike retired after a long career
as a reporter for the Staten Island
Advance, where he created the
“Memories” column and the
longrunning “Strictly Political”
column. Beverly Bettinger Collins is
retired; in her last position, she
served as school nurse with the
Liverpool (N.Y.) Central School
District for 23 years. She lives in
North Syracuse, N.Y. John H.
Cunningham writes about his
wife, Irene Lueders Cunningham. “Due
to rheumatoid arthritis, Irene is
now in the skilled nursing section
of our continuing care retirement
community, Seabrook Village
[Tinton, N.J.].” Although she is
a very active person, the disease
has managed to slow her down
significantly. LuAnn Steinhauer shared
a photo from September 2010 and
caption: “Almost 57 years after we
first met as roommates in Guild
Hall in 1953, Pat Swanson Costie, Kate
Tracy Forsbrey, and LuAnn Steinhauer took
a trip together. We spent a great
time in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., then
we went for a relaxing few days to
a lake house in Stanardsville, Va.
It was so much fun to reminisce,
catch up on our families, and
just be in awe that so much time
had passed since our graduation
in 1957!”
1958
Class Agent: H. Milton Keen 10581
Lees Mill Road, Warrenton, VA
20186, mk10581@gmail.com
1960
Class Agent: Peter Welker P.O. Box
485, Caroga Lake, NY 12032, 518835-3198, pwelker@nycap.rr.com
1961
Class Agent: Alma Costie Vincent 3115
Stowe Lane, Mahwah, NJ 07430,
201-760-2703
Constance Lord,
looking forward to
the class’s 50th reunion, wrote,
“Seems like yesterday I was
walking the Hill and planning my
life. Thank you Wagner — and
Mom and Dad, who encouraged
me.” Retired, Constance lives in
Floral Park, N.Y.
1962
received a 2010
Saint Benedict Award from the
Benedictine Health Foundation
in Kingston, N.Y. The award was
conferred at the 41st Annual
Winter’s Eve Gala on December
10 in New Paltz, N.Y. The award
honors members of the Benedictine
community who consistently
exhibit the hospital’s core values of
hospitality, community, stewardship,
respect, peace, and excellence.
Carol served as a member of the
Benedictine hospital board for
17 years. In 2002, she became
the first woman to be named
board chair. She now serves as a
member of the board of directors
for HealthAlliance of the Hudson
Valley. A volunteer for many
community organizations, she is
executive director of Hudson Valley
Psychiatric Associates. She lives in
Port Ewan with her husband, John.
William F. Schmitz retired from the U.S.
Air Force as a major, and from the
Boy Scouts of America, where he
worked on the professional staff
for 13 years. In his retirement, he
continued to work as a substitute
teacher. He has been married for
47 years and has two children and
two grandchildren.
Ottati, Johnson, Meyer, Chapman, and Minch
Carol Gaise Crews
1963
Class Agent: John Donovan 141-A
Main Street, Tuckahoe, NY 10707
Charles Gravenstine spent
the fall of
2010 teaching courses in clinical
pastoral education to Indian clergy
in Guwahati, Assam, India.
1964
Class Agent: Donald T. Savage
1130 Morningside Ave.,
Schenectady, NY 12309, 518-3729422, bsavage@prudentialmanor.com
received an Award of
Recognition from the University
of Nebraska Husker Relay Club
in Lincoln on February 5 for his
years of coaching service, 1972–78.
His teams won two Big 8 track
championships during those years.
He spoke after Football Hall of
Fame Coach Tom Osborne on the
importance of academics after a
track career. John earned his Ph.D.
in zoology in 1977 and is a full
professor in the Department of
John Korky
Biology and Molecular Biology
at Montclair State University
in New Jersey. In February, Irene
Goetz Nelson played the lead in And
Miss Reardon Drinks a Little at the
Chatham Drama Guild in Cape
Cod, Mass. The play’s author is a
fellow alum, the late Paul Zindel ’58
M’62 H’71. On October 10, 2010,
five Wagner 1964 grads — Nancy
Welter Ottati, Susan Johnsen Johnson,
Liz Schweikhardt Meyer, Carole Hurbec
Chapman , and Linda Grace Minch —
reunited at the Horizon Diner in
Ramsey, N.J. All members of Zeta
Tau Alpha fraternity, they still
look fabulous, and had a wonderful
afternoon reconnecting. Linda
drove down from New Hyde Park,
N.Y., meeting Liz at the Turkey
Hill Inn in Summit, N.J., and from
there on to Ramsey to pick up
Carole, whom they had not seen
since graduation. Sue and Nancy
drove down from upstate New
York. Linda also sent in an update
about her work as school lunch aide
and librarian, which she is enjoying
very much.
Alumni Link
back
fondly at her experiences at
Wagner. “My great joy in attending
Wagner from 1951 to 1955
was being able to sing with the
Wagner College Choir and to go
to Germany with them in 1952 for
the Lutheran World Federation.”
Doris retired from the Board of
Education in Upper Saddle River,
N.J. She lives in Mahwah, N.J. Leonia
Mroczkowski exhibited her art as part
of a group show at the Middletown
Township (N.J.) Public Library
in May and June. She majored in
nursing at Wagner and had a career
as a nurse, but she also studied
art after graduation. Upon her
retirement, she decided she would
give all the proceeds from the sale
of her art to the Medical Mission
Sisters. “I so believe in their work,”
she told the Middletown Patch.
“They were founded in 1925. Today
they continue their special mission
in 17 nations on five continents
helping the poor and oppressed.”
Leonia paints natural landscapes
in watercolors and oils, and is a
member of the New Jersey American
Artists Professional League and an
elected member of the New Jersey
Watercolor Society and the Garden
State Watercolor Society.
1965
Class Agent: Jack Felver 84 North
Smith Street, Palatine, IL 60067;
25244 Pelican Creek Circle, Unit
201, Bonita Springs, FL 34134;
239-495-8861, jrfelver@aol.com
Karen L. Dawkins retired
as vice
president of planning and
assessment and dean of students at
Bucks County Community College
on January 1. She had worked at
Bucks for 37 years. Previously, she
worked at Douglass College in New
Brunswick, N.J., and Eckerd College
in St. Petersburg, Fla. She lives in
Doylestown, Penn. Carl F. Wilfrid joined
the ranks of the grandparents when
Samuel Wallace Sykes was born on
November 5, 2010, to Tom and
Alissa Wilfrid Sykes. Carl lives in
Reno, Nev., where he is lead pastor
for the Lutheran Church of the
Good Shepherd.
Costie, Forsbrey and Steinhauer
s u m m e r
2011
37
�UNCOMMON LIVES
Bridget Herrmann ’05
Music Maven
CLAIM TO FAME: With a passion for music and a knack for marketing,
Bridget Herrmann ’05 has found her niche as an executive assistant
to the general manager at A&M/Octone Records. At this small label
that represents multiple Grammy-winner Maroon 5, as well as seven
other artists and bands, Herrmann wears many hats, from marketing
to promotions to sales.
CREATING THE NEXT BIG THING: Recently Herrmann has been traveling across the country, working with radio stations to get A&M’s
artists heard. “We are focused on artist development, so we have
virtually unknown bands that we work to the top,” Herrmann says.
“It’s an amazing experience when you have artists that you believe in
so much and you witness someone else’s eyes open up and believe in
them too.”
FINDING HER CALLING: Herrmann has always had an ear for talent.
As a college student, she cut her teeth in music marketing by working
on a “street team” for then-unknown, now Hollywood heartthrob John
Mayer. It was real grassroots publicity, handing out buttons and stickers on the street. Her stint with him was brief, because soon Mayer
was signed to Columbia Records. But the experience convinced her
to study arts administration. Now at A&M, she works with up-andcoming artists such as Hollywood Undead, K’naan, and Paper Tongues.
LANDING HER DREAM JOB: “It’s not who you know, but who knows
you,” is Herrmann’s mantra. She began building relationships with
A&M/Octone as an intern during her senior year at Wagner. “Internships give you the opportunity to make connections and showcase
your abilities,” she says. After graduation, she went to work for music
giants Sony and Warner Elektra Atlantic, but kept in touch with her
boss at A&M/Octone. When they had an opening, she was at the top
of their list of people to call.
38
wa g n e r
m a g a z i n e
P H OTO G R A P H : P E T E BY RO N
�1969
1971
Carolyn Haas Henry retired
more than
five years ago and lives in an active
adult community in Rochdale,
Mass., along with her husband of
almost 45 years, Paul. Their two
dogs, a German shepherd and a
cavalier spaniel/bichon mix, are
“fondly known as the ‘odd couple.’”
Their three children live nearby,
as does her father, Harold Haas, a
former Wagner dean of students
in the 1960s, and her sister. They
have nine grandchildren ranging
from ages 6 to 15. Robert Lawrence
M’66 earned his Ed.D. at Teachers
College, Columbia University, in
student personnel administration. He
taught English at Wagner, 1964–73,
and then began working at Jefferson
Community and Technical College
in Louisville, Ky., where he taught
English, philosophy, and introduction
to college from 1976 to 2005. He
also worked in the advising center
and served as the center’s director,
as well as serving briefly as chair of
the humanities division. After his
retirement, he returned to New York,
and lives in Jackson Heights.
Class Agent: Philip Straniere 3 St.
Austins Place, Staten Island,
NY 10310, 718-447-4717,
judgephil96@aol.com
Class Agents: Pamela Broderick
P.O. Box 564, Winter Harbor, ME
04693 Kathy Chinnici O’Donnell 3322
Woodland Drive, Tobyhanna,
PA 18466, 570-894-4731,
katcod0221@yahoo.com
1967
Class Agent: Gregory Gulbrandsen
2184 NE Meadow Lane, Bend,
OR 97701, 541-280-3035, greg@
cascadecreative.com
Class Agent: Maureen L. Robinson
160 Jockey Hollow Road,
Bernardsville, NJ 07924-1312,
908-953-2939, mrobidwolf@aol.com
Peggy Nuspliger lives
in Lyons Falls,
N.Y. She retired in 2000 from a 32year career teaching music. She has
been director of the Adirondack
Community Chorus since 1976,
performing three concerts a year,
sometimes accompanied by the
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
and Syracuse Symphony.
1968
Class Agent: Richard W. Ball 13 Jeffro
Drive, Ridgefield, CT 06877, 203431-6062, richard.ball@ubs.com
Ray Burgos is
retired after 35 years of
teaching with the New York City
Board of Education. He lives in Sun
City Center, Fla. Joseph Kelly M’68 is
running as the Republican candidate
for Franklin Lakes (N.J.) Borough
Council. He is retired, having
worked for IBM for more than four
decades as a computer programmer
and brand manager. He is active in
volunteer work in his community.
Nick Rossos ,
M.D., was featured in
the Register-News of Central New
Jersey on January 20 in an article
entitled, “A Doctor by Day, a
Musician by Night.” He fell in
love with music as a junior high
school student and acquired his
first keyboard after seeing The
Doors play in Manhattan in 1967.
He describes his first CD, Listen to
the Music (1995) as “a lot of little
melodies” and “relaxation, go-tosleep, meditation music.” It helps
his patients in his day job who have
problems relaxing. He released his
fourth CD, Improvisations: Dr. Nick
and the Wah Wah Boys, in January.
He was also on the Grammy Voting
Committee and attended the
Grammys in February.
1970
wrote to us
about the passing of classmate
Ellen Loche Mohn on November 8,
2010. “Due to Ellen’s nudging, 20
sisters of Alpha Omicron Pi from
nearby graduating classes joined
the class of ’70 at Wagner for their
40th reunion [in June 2010],” Beth
wrote. “Little did we know that five
months later, one of us would be
gone. We had a great time being
back on campus! Our memories of
that great weekend are even sweeter
now.” By reconnecting at Wagner,
Ellen’s sorority sisters were able
to rally around her as she battled
cancer. They joined Ellen, her
family, and colleagues from Sultan
Healthcare in the American Cancer
Society’s Making Strides Against
Breast Cancer walk in Paramus,
N.J., on October 25. Ellen lost her
battle with cancer two weeks later.
Nancy Langman was named program
director of Island Counseling, the
community mental health center
for Martha’s Vineyard. She is only
18 credits shy of completing a
doctorate in public health. She lives
in Vineyard Haven, Mass., with her
husband, Gary, a dog and cats.
Beth Linsenmaier Hoffman
Leland Jacob was
promoted to senior
import specialist with Customs and
Border Protection in June 2009. He
lives in East Rockaway, N.Y. Burton
Wilcke M’71, associate professor and
chair of the Department of Medical
Laboratory and Radiation Sciences
at the University of Vermont,
wrote to us about his work while
on sabbatical in fall 2010: “The
project on which I am working
is a publication by the American
Public Health Association.
This publication addresses the
laboratory’s role in communicable
disease control and surveillance. I
am the senior editor, working with
an editorial board that includes
representation from the Centers for
Disease Control, the World Health
Organization, the Pan American
Health Organization, and other
national and international health
agencies. The publication is intended
to fill a need globally. As a result
of disease outbreaks like SARS and
influenza, the WHO has called for
the development of basic laboratory
infrastructure in every county in the
world. This publication will help to
fulfill that goal.”
1975
Class Agent: Richard G. DePaul
8 McKay Drive, Bridgewater, NJ
08807, 908-218-1418 Patricia Martin
1341 NE Market Dr., Apt. 355,
Fairview, OR 97024, pattym.phd@
comcast.net
Joanna Di Mango-Orr ’75
M’77 was
elected vice president of the Tinton
Falls Education Association. She is a
teacher who lives in Manalapan, N.J.
1976
Class Agent: John M. Zawisny
56 Howard Ave., Staten Island,
NY 10301, 718-447-4290,
jzawisny@aol.com
M’76 was named
president and chief executive
officer of the Deborah Hospital
Foundation in Browns Mills, N.J.,
as of January 1. The foundation
supports the Deborah Heart and
Lung Center. Joseph has worked
at the hospital for more than 30
years, most recently serving as vice
president for operations.
Joseph P. Chirichella
1972
1977
Rev. James R. Bocchino began serving
as the interim rector of Christ
Church (Episcopal) in Westerly,
R.I., in October 2010. Fred W. Curtis Jr.
is a licensed charter boat captain,
providing fishing trips to Everglades
National Park and the Ten
Thousand Islands of Florida. He
lives in Bay Harbor Islands, Fla.
1978
1973
Class Agent: Henry E. Gemino
5 Strickland Place, Manhasset,
NY 11030, 516-467-4191,
henryedmund@aol.com
1974
Class Agent: Diane “Nina” R. Recio 11
Holly Place, Larchmont, NY 10538,
914-833-0202, nrc917@gmail.com
Alumni Link
1966
is the director of
Stuart House in Santa Monica,
Calif., a multidisciplinary
investigation and treatment center
for sexually abused children.
Susan Moan Hardie
Class Agent: Jeanne Delaney-Malikian
6 Walden Street, Somers, NY 10589
Class Agent: Maria Lind Jenkins
31 Gower Road, New Canaan,
CT 06840, 203-966-5999
Lorraine McNeill-Popper started
her
own ad agency in January, called
Attention! Agency. It uses the
talents of both advertising veterans
and military veterans to promote
products and causes with creativity
and passion. Augie Melendez was named
chief diversity officer and director
for community affairs at Kodak.
Melendez has more than 32 years
of human resources experience,
having previously served at Kodak
as HR director for Kodak Park, HR
director for global manufacturing,
and most recently HR director for
s u m m e r
2011
39
�worldwide regional operations. He
is also active within the community,
having served on many volunteer
boards, including the Diversity
and Inclusion Task Force at the
University of Rochester.
1979
Class Agent: Frank Valenti 71 North
Lakeside Ave., Jackson, NJ 08527,
732-942-0044, favalenti@msn.com
released a video based
on his 2007 children’s book, Hey,
Dad! Let’s Have a Catch. The video
features psychologists and parents —
including Wagner College psychology
professors Miles Groth and Carolyn
Oglio ’97 — talking about what it
means to “have a catch” with their
children. The video can be viewed at
www.wagner.edu/news/node/1536.
Harold Theurer
1980
Class Agents: Edward L. Garlock
132 Highland Drive, Bedford, PA
15522, 814-623-1124 Billy K. Tyler
1807 North Gramercy Place,
Apt. 5, Los Angeles, CA 90028,
323-462-7111, billyktyler@aol.com
1981
Class Agents: Joan Sutera 23 Lake
Shore Drive, Rockaway, NY 07866,
908-901-8382, joan.sutera@pfizer.
com Lauretta Zitano 2129 Locust Road,
Sea Girt, NJ 08750, 732-449-4883
1982
Class Agent: John Spadaro 117 Old
Town Road, Staten Island, NY
10304, 718-987-5073
1983
Class Agents: Donald T. Browne
31 Tannery Hill Drive, Hamburg,
NJ 07419, 973-827-4584,
dbrowne100@aol.com Linda Appignani
Romani 40008 N. Integrity Trail,
Anthem, AZ 85086, 623-551-9136,
momofdm@qwest.net
1985
Class Agents: Annmarie Lambiasi
1551 Arden Ave., Staten Island,
40
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
NY 10312, 718-420-4163,
alambias@wagner.edu Andrew G.
Williams 30 Roberta Street, Apt. G,
Key West, FL 33040
is performing in
two productions at the Tuacahn
Performing Arts Center in Ivins,
Utah: The regional premiere of
Disney’s Broadway production of
The Little Mermaid, in which he
plays Scuttle; and Grease, in which
he plays Vince Fontaine/Teen
Angel. Those shows are onstage
now through October. Previously
at Tuacahn, he played Bela Zangler
in Crazy for You, in June through
October 2010.
Vincent D’Elia
1986
Class Agent: Wade C. Appelman 6 Aaron
Road, Lexington, MA 02421, 781274-8575, wadeapp@yahoo.com
an attorney with the
Sanders Law Firm in Mineola, N.Y.,
published two essays in connection
with his work in the special needs
community. “Today I Bought a Mitt”
was originally published in February
2010 at www.aweinautism.org, and
you may read a version of it in this
issue of Wagner Magazine, page 45.
“God and the Special Needs Child:
A Father’s Journey of Faith,” detailing
the creation of a religious instruction
program at St. Elizabeth’s Parish,
was published on the Diocese of
Rockville Centre website, www.drvcfaith.org/specialNeedsResources.
html. Furthermore, the American
Dance Theatre of Long Island
honored Ed at its 10th anniversary
gala on October 1, 2010. He
received the ADTLI Director’s
Award for supporting charitable
causes benefiting children, families,
communities, and society.
Ed Nitkewicz,
1987
Class Agents: Meredith Lynch Acacia
5 Aspen Court, Jackson, NJ 08527,
732-928-8452 Karen McNeice 54
Schley Ave., Staten Island, NY
10308, 718-356-7631, kbm1017@
aol.com
1988
Class Agents: Melissa Sorensen Faherty
12 Chesebrough Street, Staten
Island, NY 10312, 718-227-2099,
m337j@aol.com Kenneth Nilsen 807
Castlepoint Terrace, Hoboken, NJ
07030, 201-222-0182, knilsen@
stevens.edu
1989
Class Agent: Peter Ottaviano 2 Calder
Court, Marlboro, NJ 07746, 732851-6052, pottav89@aol.com
Natalie Burkley and
her husband,
Michael LoPrete, announce the
birth of Madison Anna on March
18, 2010. See Crib Notes, page 41,
for a photo. Frank Miceli’s daughter,
Kristi Miceli, took second place
in the country in the Aquafina
Pitch/Hit/Run competition in the
13–14-year-old softball division
in the summer of 2010. The event
took place in Anaheim, Calif.,
during the Major League Baseball
All-Star Game festivities. One
of her prizes was an autographed
baseball from Andrew Bailey ’06, who
pitched for the Oakland Athletics
in the All-Star Game. Frank lives
in Middletown, N.J., with his wife,
Dina, and his two daughters, Briana
and Kristi. Frank is a director
at Telcordia Technologies. Peter
Ottaviano ’89 M’95 has worked as a
football coach for the past 13 years,
employed by the New York City
Board of Education. He lives in
Marlboro, N.J.
1990
Class Agent: Levent Bayrasli 72 Kyle
Drive, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865, 908213-9598, sonicbros@verizon.net
was recognized
by U.S. Congressman Bill Pascrell
Jr. for his efforts to coordinate the
American African Asian Chamber
of Commerce’s Benin-US-China
Conference. The conference
allowed citizens of other countries
to see firsthand the inner workings
of the U.S., and Emmanuel was
applauded for his hard work to
promote American ideals such
as the freedom of speech, press,
and religion. Rebekah Eid Burton and
Gregory Burton announce the birth
of Elijah Paul on May 18, 2010,
in Lake Forest, Ill. Benjamin, 3,
is thrilled to be a big brother! See
Crib Notes, page 41, for a photo. Dr.
Anthony Pannone was featured in the
Staten Island Advance on December
16, 2010, along with his dental
practice partners, including Dr. Mark
Ruggeri ’01. Their thriving six-yearold Staten Island practice is named
Oakwood Dental Arts, and they
have opened a branch in Freehold,
Emmanuel Agbejemisin
N.J., as well. Monica L. Passante just
passed the 20-year milestone of her
teaching career. She teaches language
arts and drama at I.S. 2 in Staten
Island. Her son, Philip, receieved a full
scholarship in music to Xaverian High
School, which he will attend in the fall.
1991
Class Agent: Jennifer Norton Mantegna
802 Schley Ave., Toms River, NJ
08755, 732-458-1412
Joseph Percoco was
named executive
deputy secretary to New York
Governor Andrew Cuomo in
January. A longtime aide to the
Cuomo family, Joe was campaign
manager for Andrew Cuomo’s 2010
run for governor, and he served
under Cuomo during his terms as
New York state attorney general
and as the U.S. secretary of housing
and urban development. He also
served as director of advance under
former Gov. Mario Cuomo in the
1990s. Buddy Thomas’s play Devil
Boys from Beyond was picked up by
producer David Foster and opened
off-Broadway in November 2010
for a commercial run at New World
Stages in Manhattan.
1992
Class Agent: Natalie Migliaro 510 Col.
DB Kelley Way, South Amboy, NJ
08879, 732-721-6170, natmig@rci.
rutgers.edu
1993
Class Agent: Stuart Plotkin
80 Knightsbridge Road #3F,
Great Neck, NY 11021,
SPlotkin@pclient.ml.com
Dr. Christina Klein and Dr. Diane Klein
’99 are sisters who operate a team
dental practice, Dynamic Dental, in
Staten Island. Last fall, they donated
over 1,400 dental care packages to
Wagner to promote proper oral care
as well as the overall well-being of
students. The sisters were featured
in the Staten Island Advance on
October 7 in an article titled, “An
Office Where D.D.S. Stands for
Dynamic Dental Sisters.”
1994
Class Agent: James Hickey
4209 Route 516, Matawan, NJ
�07747, 732-290-3900, james.
hickey@wagner.edu
Crib Notes
1995
Classes of 2031 and 2032
Some of the newest faces to join the Wagner family
Class Agent: Nancy L. Salgado-Cowan
451 Walnut Street, Yonkers, NY
10701, nursenancy1@hotmail.com
1996
Class Agent: Rebecca Ann Wallo Rose
41481 NYS Rt. 180, Clayton,
NY 13624, 315-778-8419,
harrypotter71674@yahoo.com
and her
husband, Bill, announce the birth
of twins Aiden Scott and Ella Rose
on December 11, 2009. They live
in Massapequa, N.Y. See Crib Notes
for a photo.
Rosemary Gioia Van Nostrand
1.
1. Natalie Burkley ’89 and Michael LoPrete announce the birth of Madison
Anna on March 18, 2010. 2. Rebekah Eid Burton ’90 and Gregory Burton
announce the birth of Elijah Paul on May 18, 2010. Benjamin, 3, is thrilled to
be a big brother! 3. Jenny Ludvigsen Madden ’04 and Matthew “Brooks” Madden
’05 welcomed Kali Marie on March 29, 2010. 4. Nicole Holczinger Moore ’01
and William Moore announce the birth of Brayden Cole on April 12, 2010.
5. Kathryn Cannizzaro Morgan ’02 and Shane Morgan ’01 welcomed Annabel
Margaret on September 7, 2010. 6. Rosemary Gioia Van Nostrand ’96 and her
husband, Bill, announce the birth of twins Aiden Scott and Ella Rose on
December 11, 2009. They are shown here on their first birthday. 7. Anne
Marie Daiuto Bruck ’01 M’03 and Dennis Bruck M’03 announce the birth of Jake
Donato on March 17, 2011. 8. Michael Ponzo ’00 M’04 and Leslie Schechter
Ponzo ’01 announce the birth of Abigail on November 16, 2010.
4.
Alumni Link
1997
Class Agent: Alison N. Boyd 14 Essex
Drive, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779,
631-732-4032
1998
Class Agents: Tara Yeo Lagana
11 Quimby Road, Turner, ME 04282,
207-713-4757, TLLagana@hotmail.
com Darren L. Greco 24 Daniella Court,
Staten Island, NY 10314, 718-7616069, dgreco25@mac.com
2.
5.
3.
6.
1999
Class Agent: Vinnie S. Potestivo 2600
Palisade Ave., Apt. 3, Weehawken,
NJ 07086, vinnie.p@wagner.edu
Dr. Thomas Bottiglieri was featured on
northjersey.com (“Specialist Knows
Dangers Firsthand,” September
27, 2010) as “one of the most
respected concussion experts in
northern New Jersey.” Thomas
suffered from concussions while
playing football in high school and
at Wagner. After being diagnosed
with post-concussion syndrome, he
decided to stop playing the sport
he loved and focus on becoming
a doctor. Thomas is praised for
using his personal experience to
help children and teens. Ian Inverno is
working both as a police officer and
7.
We’d love to see your baby’s face.
Please see page 36 for publication guidelines.
8.
s u m m e r
2011
41
�in the performing arts. He lives in
South Plainfield, N.J. Dr. Diane Klein
and Dr. Christina Klein ’93 are sisters
who operate a team dental practice,
Dynamic Dental, in Staten Island.
Last fall, they donated over 1,400
dental care packages to Wagner to
promote proper oral care as well as
the overall well-being of students.
Both sisters were featured in the
Staten Island Advance on October
7 in an article titled, “An Office
Where D.D.S. Stands for Dynamic
Dental Sisters.” Craig Laurie, who
played the role of Guido in the musical
Nine at Wagner under the direction
of the late Professor Christopher Catt,
reprised the role at the Phoenix Theatre
in Arizona this spring. He dedicated
his performance to Catt’s memory,
writing, “I remember the spring of my
junior year, Chris called me into his
office and talked to me about Nine and
how it was one of his favorite shows.
He was pushing the department to do
the show, and had me in mind for the
role of Guido. I was flattered. It was
so inspiring to work with him on the
show, as he was so passionate. … He
often spoke of it as one of his proudest
moments at the school.” Amanda Young
graduated in June 2010 with a Ph.D. in
clinical psychology from the Institute
of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo
Alto, Calif. She had completed her
master’s in transpersonal psychology in
2007, as well as a master’s in business/
industry consulting in 2002 from Kean
University. She lives in California,
where she is completing a postdoctoral
fellowship for clinical licensure in
addiction and pain management for
athletes.
2000
Class Agent: Erin K. Donahue
5 Inverness Court, Wading River, NY
11792, edonahue45@optonline.net
has written a book,
Outnumbered: Chronicles of a
Manhattan Conservative (2011). She
is a conservative columnist and
a regular on Fox News and Fox
Business. Go to www.jedediahbila.
com for more information. Michael
Ponzo ’00 M’04 and Leslie Schechter
Ponzo ’01 announce the birth of
Abigail on November 16, 2010.
They live in Somerset, N.J. See Crib
Notes, page 41, for a photo.
Jedediah Bila
2001
Class Agent: Simone Diaz 1655 N.
Colony Road, Unit 19, Meriden,
42
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
CT 06450, 203-639-4855,
simoneamcbride@yahoo.com
Michael E. Poole 405 Pinkster Lane,
Slingerlands, NY 12159,
716-764-2835
Scott Barnhardt is
part of the ensemble
of the Broadway show The Book of
Mormon, which opened in February
at the Eugene O’Neill Theater and
won multiple Tony Awards in June,
including Best Musical. Created by
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Emmy
Award-winning creators of South Park,
The Book of Mormon is a musical
about a pair of mismatched Mormon
missionaries sent to Africa. Anne Marie
Daiuto Bruck ’01 M’03 and Dennis Bruck
M’03 have two children, DJ Bruck,
born on August 30, 2008, and Jake
Donato Bruck, born on March 17,
2011. They live in Belford, N.J. Dennis
teaches at Colts Neck High School,
and Anne Marie teaches second
grade at P.S. 3 in Staten Island. Nicole
Holczinger Moore and her husband,
William Moore, announce the birth
of their second child, Brayden Cole,
on April 12, 2010. Shane Morgan and
Kathryn Cannizzaro Morgan ’02 welcomed
Annabel Margaret on September 7,
2010. Leslie Schechter Ponzo and Michael
Ponzo ’00 M’04 announce the birth
of Abigail on November 16, 2010.
They live in Somerset, N.J. See Crib
Notes, page 41, for photos of the Bruck,
Moore, Morgan, and Ponzo babies.
Dr. Mark Ruggeri was featured in the
Staten Island Advance on December
16, 2010, along with his dental
practice partners, including Dr.
Anthony Pannone ’90. Their thriving
six-year-old Staten Island practice
is named Oakwood Dental Arts,
and they have opened a branch in
Freehold, N.J., as well.
2002
Class Agents: Peter J. Herbst 24 Bethke
Road, Killingworth, CT 06419
Cindy M. Sforza Maley 54 Webster Ave.,
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779, 631-6764757, smallwonder124@hotmail.
com Renee M. Nadal 634 Monmouth
Ave., Port Monmouth, NJ 07758,
732-787-3294, nay537@yahoo.com
married Nikos Vasilatos
on July 3, 2010, in Athens, Greece.
After completing a B.S. in finance
at Wagner, Jackeline earned an
MBA in strategy and marketing
from the University of Chicago
Booth School of Business. She is
currently a corporate strategy and
business development professional
at a global beauty company. Nikos
is a vice president at a private
equity firm. The couple lives
Jackeline Anca
in Manhattan. Christina DeCicco is
performing in the ensemble of the
new, Tony-nominated Broadway
show Sister Act The Musical. The
show began previews on March
24 and opened on April 20. Dana
Marano is development coordinator
at Harpo Studios, the home of
Oprah Winfrey’s company, Harpo
Productions Inc. Dana is responsible
for keeping track of all of the
pitches that Harpo receives and
brainstorming new ideas, working
closely with the EVP of creative
development in New York. On May
24, 2008, she married Sean Connery,
an attorney with Pryor Cashman in
New York. They live in Manhattan.
Kathryn Cannizzaro Morgan and Shane
Morgan ’01 welcomed Annabel
Margaret on September 7, 2010. See
Crib Notes, page 41, for a photo.
2003
Class Agents: Cari A. Christopher
145 Tomb Street, Tiffin, OH
44883, cchristo@wagner.edu
Robert J. Hamm 14 College Ave., Staten
Island, NY 10314, 718-981-0515,
bobby7770@yahoo.com Nicole Lopes
Steed 2218 2nd Ave., Toms River, NJ
08753, 732-270-3660, nlopes55@
yahoo.com
married Joseph
Columbia on September 18 in
Our Lady Star of the Sea Roman
Catholic Church in Staten Island.
Pamela is president and owner
of Statewide Fire Corp. in Staten
Island, and Joseph is a New York
City firefighter. They live in New
Springville, Staten Island. Jacqueline
Ajello Fury and her family, owners of
Brooklyn-based Pastosa Ravioli,
were featured in The Brooklyn Ink
in November 2010. Jacqueline’s
grandfather, Anthony G. Ajello,
founded Pastosa Ravioli, and now
she and her brothers and her father
run the successful wholesaler of
Italian cuisine. Jacqueline is the
business’s shipping manager and
has been with the company for
five years. An arts administration
major, “she has brought her artistic
sensibility and flair to the business,”
the article said. Alyssa Gibaldi M’03
and George Fricke announce the
birth of Michael Harold Fricke on
September 3, 2010, in Singapore.
Justin Knudsen married Elisabeth
Weber on March 5 in Bethlehem
Lutheran Church, Brooklyn.
Elisabeth is a registered nurse,
and Justin is a police officer, both
working in Brooklyn. The couple
lives in Staten Island.
Pamela Coppola
2004
Class Agent: Alexis D. Hernandez-Hons
5252 Orange Ave., Apt. 335, San
Diego, CA 92103, lex382@aol.com
Mike Checklick,
a hip-hop artist who
goes by the stage name of Mike
Check, was featured in the Suffolk
Times for making it to the final
round of Hip Hop Unplugged,
a showcase and competition for
undiscovered hip-hop artists, held
in the East Village of Manhattan
in December 2010. He has also
launched a record label, Kinetic
Music Group. Jenny Ludvigsen Madden
and Matthew “Brooks” Madden ’05
welcomed Kali Marie into the
world on March 29, 2010. See Crib
Notes, page 41, for a photo. Morgan
McLean, interim minister of the
Unitarian Universalist Church
in Rockford, Ill., was featured on
the Rockford Register Star website,
rrstar.com, in December 2010. The
article reports that she received
her M. Div. from Andover Newton
Theological School in Newton
Centre, Mass. She felt called to
ministry after several years of
working for Amnesty International
in Washington, D.C. “Ministry
offers something new every day,”
she said. “It is both the best part
and the most difficult. … Each day,
I am honored and humbled to share
the joys and the sorrows of people’s
lives.”
2005
Class Agents: Melissa D. Powers 313
Vesta Court, Ridgewood, NJ 07450,
201-394-2408, powers.mel@gmail.
com Matthew L. Sheehan 114 Gray Ave.,
Apt. 3B, Syracuse, NY 13203, 315437-5430, msheehan05@gmail.com
Matthew “Brooks” Madden and Jenny
Ludvigsen Madden ’04 welcomed Kali
Marie into the world on March 29,
2010. See Crib Notes, page 41, for a
photo.
2006
Class Agents: Leandra Aguirre
2521 14th Street, Apt. 2, Astoria,
NY 11102, 617-645-4859 Michael
A. Armato michael.a.armato@gmail.
com Charles Bender 18 Klondike Ave.,
Stamford, CT 06907, 603-7597439, charles.bender@credit-suisse.
com Dana Guariglia 312 Tysens Lane,
Staten Island, NY 10306, 718-
�980-1848, daynez74@aol.com Derek
Lightcap 33 First Ave., Pottstown, PA
19464, 610-570-2954, dlightcap@
hotmail.com
Cherisse Brandefine and Alex Wilk were
2007
Class Agents: Jeff Logan 912 Garden
Street, Apt. 2, Hoboken, NJ 07030,
908-625-8281 Christopher Silvestri
1730 E. 31st, Brooklyn, NY 11234,
csilvest227@gmail.com
Cori Curylo,
a first-grade special
education teacher, organized the
second annual Math-A-Thon
for kindergarteners and first
graders from her school, P.S. 55
in Eltingville, Staten Island. Held
in June on the Wagner Oval, the
Math-A-Thon entertained children
while teaching them through mathcentered games. Jennifer Lemoncelli
’07 M’08 married Joshua Gitto on
September 25, 2010, in Peckville,
Penn. After graduation, Jenn lived
in Manhattan for three years while
working for the New York branch
of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP.
Jenn now works for the Albany
branch as an audit associate. Jenn
and Josh live in Saratoga Springs,
N.Y. Daniel McCartney ran the 2010
New York City Marathon. He
finished in 3:27:28, besting his
previous personal record of 3:59:40,
set in the 2009 Chicago Marathon.
Daniel, who works in advertising
sales and lives in Staten Island, ran
cross country and track and field at
Xaverian High School in Brooklyn
and at Wagner. In a feature about
him in the November 6 Staten Island
Advance, Daniel mentioned that
part of his inspiration to run came
from his father, a legendary coach
at Xaverian, and part from Mo Halwani
’08, a former teammate in high
school and college.
2008
Class Agent: Stephanie Savoia-Pearl
403 Elm Street, Cranford, NJ 07016,
stephanie.savoiapearl@gmail.com
Danielle Bennett married Andrew Hunton
’06 in October 2010. Brian McCartney
became the head coach for cross
country and track at Xaverian
High School in Brooklyn in fall
2010. He follows in the footsteps
of his father, Frank, who coached at
Xaverian for 40 years. Christina Lamb,
a doctoral student in biomedical
science at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, fulfilled a
longtime dream by traveling to
India earlier this year to visit her
beloved Wagner biology professor,
Ammini Moorthy, who was back
in her native Kerala on a yearlong
sabbatical. Christina wrote us a
glowing report describing Indian
feasts, tropical plants, elephant
rides, and more. Best of all,
Christina wrote, was being a part
of the Moorthy family. “It is rare
to have the opportunity to live and
experience someone’s homeland,
and I was honored to see India
through Dr. Moorthy’s eyes,” she
wrote. Her full report with more
photos is posted at www.wagner.
edu/wagnermagazine. Gwendolyn
Moore held her first photo exhibit
in October 2010 at Lounge Zen
in Teaneck, N.J. Stephanie Williams
competed as Miss District of
Columbia in the 2011 Miss
America Pageant, and she was
selected to receive the pageant’s
fourpoints Scholarship Award.
Stephanie is a medical student at
George Washington University.
2009
Class Agent: Jacob Shoesmith-Fox 570765-5022, jacob.shoesmith-fox@
wagner.edu
directed a benefit
performance of Cy Coleman’s
Wildcat at the Julia Miles Theatre
in Manhattan in December 2010,
featuring Broadway favorites such as
Robert Cuccioli and Luba Mason
as well as alumni Kenneth Kasch ’07,
Spencer Andrew Taylor ’10, Michael Puglia
’08, Erin O’Neil ’08, and Christopher
DeRosa ’10. This performance was
a production of Theatrical Gems,
which Jacob co-founded last year
with Jonathan G. Galvez ’06. Learn
more about Theatrical Gems at
www.theatricalgems.org. Yuliya Seldina
was accepted into two doctoral
programs: SUNY at Albany (Ph.D.
Jacob Shoesmith-Fox
program in biomedical sciences
in the School of Public Health)
and the Uniformed Services
University (Ph.D. program in
emerging infectious diseases in
the Department of Microbiology
and Immunology). Jennifer Wright
traveled to Kenya again this summer
as she continues her work with
the Rehema Girls Rescue Center
through the HEAL the Children
Foundation. Over the past year, the
foundation provided the Rehema
girls with new shoes and beds and a
new gate for their home.
2010
Class Agent: Spencer Taylor 4 Sheridan
Drive, Tobyhanna, PA 18466,
570-839-8139, spencer.taylor@
wagner.edu
plays the lead role of
Sandy in the 2010–11 national tour
of the new production of Grease.
It launched in Denver, Colo., at
the Buell Theatre on October 12.
Nicole Malliotakis M’10 won her first
bid for public office in November
2010. The Republican beat
two-term incumbent Democratic
Assemblywoman Janele HyerSpencer to represent New York’s
60th Assembly district in Albany.
The district includes parts of Staten
Island and Brooklyn. A former
community relations aide for Staten
Island and Brooklyn under Gov.
George Pataki, she most recently
worked in the public affairs office at
Consolidated Edison. Taking office
on January 1, she joined fellow
Wagner alum Donna Lupardo ’76 in the
Assembly. Lupardo, a Democrat
representing the Binghamton
area since 2004, easily won her
re-election bid. Michelle Rossman has
been teaching English as a Second
Language in Oyama, Tochigi, Japan,
since December 2010. Her report
on experiencing the massive March
earthquake there was published in
the Staten Island Advance on March
13. “The same panic and questions
from September 11th rushed
through my mind,” she wrote.
“‘What’s going on, and what should
I do?’” Electricity, Internet, and cell
phones were knocked out in her
area, but there was no significant
structural damage. She continues
to blog about her experiences at
garrulousgaijin.wordpress.com.
Alyssa Herrera
s u m m e r
2011
43
Alumni Link
married on October 16 in Our
Lady Star of the Sea Roman
Catholic Church in Staten Island.
Cherisse works in Staten Island
as assistant director of Brandy’s
Dance Unique and a second-grade
teacher at Our Lady of Good
Counsel School. Alex is a loan
trade closer with J.P. Morgan in
Manhattan. They live in Oakwood,
Staten Island. Andrew Hunton married
Danielle Bennett ’08 in October 2010.
Leandra Aguirre, Stefanie Shuman, and Erin
O’Brien wrote this remembrance of
Kira Marshall, who died on April 4,
2011: “Friend to many, loved by
all, Kira Marshall was everything to
everyone. She was one of those rare
people who
not only
found the
time, but
made the
time to stay
involved in
everyone’s
lives,
whether
Kira Marshall
near or far.
No matter
the moment, big or small, she’d be
there. From engagement parties and
weddings, to family gatherings and
spending time with her nephew,
to regular happy hours and shoe
shopping excursions, she would go
the distance if it meant five more
minutes of memories. She was the
shoulder to cry on. The rock to lean
on. The one who always knew what
to say. She defined what it meant
to be a friend. We are fortunate
to have been one of hers. From
her passing, we learn that time is
precious. Our everyday moments
are filled with thoughts of her. We
approach each day the way Kira
would — full of possibilities. We
take time every day to remember
her. We keep her with us in
everything we do. We cherish the
memories we made and embrace
new traditions in her honor. She was
— and forever will be — amazing.
And as Kira would say, ‘Life is short.
Buy the shoes.’” Alan Pagano stars as
the late comedian Chris Farley in a
show he developed with Carlo Rivieccio
’04, actor and writer, and Charles
Messina, director. The show, The
Fatman Cometh: The Life and Death
of Chris Farley, received a private
industry reading on February 28.
Pagano and the show were featured
in a blog on WSJ.com, which said,
“Pagano’s take on Farley aims to go
Moorthy and Lamb
beyond mere impersonation. He
strives to inhabit Farley down to the
last detail.”
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Alumni
Mr. Ernst P. Rittershausen ’37
Mrs. Norma Brandkamp Holmes ’42
Mr. Leon J. Miller ’42
Mr. Wilbur H. Sterner ’42
Mr. James La Hart ’43
Dr. Edythe Kershaw Larson ’44
Mrs. Mildred Stutzman Ahrend ’47
Mr. Benjamin A. Certo ’48
Mr. Olaf Bredholt ’49
Mrs. Betty Bondesen Gardner ’49
Mr. Wesley E. Geigel ’49
Prof. Victor G. Wightman ’49 M’57
Mrs. Alyce Crocco Ferretti ’50
Mr. Christopher Kartalis ’50
Mrs. Patricia Weidknecht Blomquist ’51
Mr. Francis T. Dolen ’51
Mrs. Marion Agnes Juchtern Goebbert ’51
Mr. Norman G. Heil ’51
Mrs. Mary Ann Nelson Tankleff ’51
Mr. Wilbert L. Corbin ’52
Mr. Emil Polk ’52
Rev. Louis J. Roder ’52
Mr. Burton H. Helgeson ’53
Mrs. Beatrice Arnold M’54
Rev. O. Robert Oberkehr ’54
Mr. Leroy N. Houseman ’55
Mrs. Joan Anne Santangelo Jaeger ’56
Rev. Harry O. Lysgaard ’56
Ms. Nancy A. Glusker ’57
Mr. Walter J. Pezzei ’57
Mr. Frank E. Wille ’57
Mr. Henry S. Melofchik ’58
Mr. Harold C. Wilkening ’58
Mr. Joseph A. Casucci ’59
Mr. Kenneth A. Kruser ’59
Mr. James Ledford ’59
Mrs. Kathryn Wahlers Reisch ’59
Mr. Claus Schwarzkopf ’59
Mr. Ellsworth D. Foggin ’60
Mr. Ralph Perosi ’60
Mr. Rolf A. Stensrud ’60
Mrs. Priscilla Rylance Preuss ’61
Ms. Lillian Filipowicz-Boesch ’62
Mr. Ralph A. Daiuto ’63
Mrs. Linda Molnar Musto ’63
Mrs. Jacquilyn Gardiner Rubin ’63
Mrs. Paulette Tholen ’64
Cdr. Lance H. Borman Sr. ’66
Mrs. Lena La Caff M’66
Mrs. Jeanette Christ Loken ’66
Mrs. Veronica Cattani Basker ’67
Mr. John Brunda ’67
Mrs. Nancy Wheeler Martiny ’67
Mr. Ward W. Westerberg ’67
Mrs. Patricia Cushing Osmundsen ’69
Mrs. Susan Jane Heap Robinson ’69
Mrs. Ellen Loche Mohn ’70
Mr. Nicholas La Porte Jr. ’71
Mrs. Sandra Skwiercz ’71
Mr. Leigh F. Koerbel ’72
Mr. Kevin McCarthy ’72 M’74
Mrs. Shirley Sager M’72
Mr. Michael J. Bale ’73
Dr. Vincent Andreano ’75
Mrs. Concetta D’Angelo M’76
Mrs. Pamela Kaminsky Sydorko ’76
Miss Susan Johnson ’78
Mr. William Conroy M’80
Mr. Jeremy Champe ’82
Miss Sandra Smolka M’83
Mr. Peter Feiner M’90
Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes H’04
Ms. Kira Marshall ’06
Faculty, Staff,
and Friends
Rev. Frederick Bryant
Mr. Stanley Grant
Mr. Bill Hodge
Mrs. Mary Kane
Ms. Christine McIntyre
Ms. Frances Rubens
faculty remembrances
Professor Edythe Kershaw Larson ’44
Alumna taught bacteriology and health science for nearly 30 years
Edythe Kershaw Larson , professor emerita of bacteriology and health science at Wagner College,
died on December 22, 2010, in Palm Beach County, Florida.
She earned her Bachelor of Science from Wagner in 1944 and her master’s and doctoral degrees from New
York University. She began teaching bacteriology and health sciences at Wagner in the mid-1950s and later
became chair of the bacteriology department. She retired in 1984 and relocated to Florida. Active in her community, she
volunteered as a hospital dispatcher and was an avid golfer and gardener.
“You have no idea how bright she was. She was an exceptional lady and a brilliant scholar,” said her nephew, Jacques Jacobsen Jr., who
studied at Wagner under his aunt’s tutelage, according to the Staten Island Advance.
She was predeceased by her husband of 30 years, Dr. Carl Larson, and by her sister, Anita Kershaw Jacobsen ’63 M’68. She is survived by her
brother, George Kershaw Jr., as well as 18 nieces and nephews, including Jacques Noel Jacobsen Jr . ’54 M’63 and Jill Jacobsen Smith ’55.
44
Deaths reported to Wagner College September 18, 2010–June 20, 2011
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�A Dream Reformed
Lessons in fatherhood By Edward J. Nitkewicz ’86
I
fell in love at the age of seven.
It was 1971, and in June of that year my father brought me to
my very first professional baseball game at Shea Stadium. A few
weeks later, my uncle took me and my two cousins to a double
header at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. I saw Tom Seaver pitch,
Duffy Dyer catch, and Willie Mays bat. I witnessed Thurman
Munsun block a runner trying to score from second base and
Bobby Murcer hit a home run into the bleachers. Never before
had I laid my eyes upon grass so green or skies so blue. Soon, no
white T-shirt in my wardrobe was safe. A black marker helped
me convert every one into a Mets jersey.
Years came and went. In high school, I accepted the reality
that I was not a very good baseball player. But I never lost my
love of the game. I could not wait to
share my passion for baseball with my
children.
It is said that people plan and God
laughs, not at us or our misfortune, but at
our adherence to the notion of what we believe will make us happy.
My beautiful son was born in 1998. My wife and I were on
our way to building the family we dreamed about, but there
were signs that things would not always be as planned. In the
delivery room, Edward was not immediately responsive. After
he reached 18 months, his verbal skills began to decrease. By
the time Edward reached age 2, we were advised that he suffered
from autism.
As I learned more about autism, I accepted that my son may
not have friends. I understood that Edward would probably not
go to college. And my dream of buying my son a baseball mitt
I grieved the loss of the
father I planned to be.
“
“
Wa g n e r
Reflections
was dashed. I grieved the
loss of the child I planned
to raise and the father I
planned to be.
In 2007, I learned that a group of parents had organized a
baseball program for children with special needs. On the field, I
saw children with Down syndrome and autism wearing baseball
uniforms and holding baseball gloves. Parents stood by to keep
their children on task. And miraculously, the task was playing
baseball. Edward participated for the remainder of the season.
Since then, I have become Coach Ed for a group of wonderful
athletes in South Huntington. There are no outs. There are
no errors. The last batter of each inning hits a home run and
victoriously does their own unique home run trot. The joy in their
eyes is surpassed only by the tears of joy in their parents’ eyes.
I love my son and I love baseball. I learned a valuable lesson
these past few years. Sometimes dreams aren’t dashed. They
are merely delayed and reformed. I will never forget the day I
shopped for a baseball glove for my son. I said then, with tears
in my eyes, “Today, I bought a mitt.” I trust that God laughed.
Edward J. Nitkewicz ’86 is a senior attorney at the Sanders Law
Firm in New York City, where he specializes in personal injury cases.
He is also an education law attorney and parent advocate for families
with children who have special needs.
s u m m e r
2011
45
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
READY … SET …
Wagner seniors including Niya
Branham and Emily Burkhardt
(in white stoles) and Hope
Clarke (holding beach ball)
watch with anticipation as
commencement concludes
on May 20. Read about Hope
and other seniors in “The Big
Leap,” pages 14–19.
P H OTO G R A P H : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Summer 2011
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/76f12a2223c865594f4b856be8196a43.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=PAr69Cum3VmbSd6hnwHwxH8em%7EWJ1ut2rk1CyOx4LVCxlhysHdkN%7Ed3tQ4WxGU%7E1fcIwvZuw1loTV10azcUuD9pvmUSdZHHZef8xpZNcX6ji9n8GwaTNFYv7ZiKooY5NKm3txKxlxm7enEschrRnCBpAUdVYt0jK%7E5dII1dNbjM3DQuAOMBnD0K2iO722y%7E48KhCaaFLmaQECMM9qJgP3maj8L05LGRQxuKzImbVwlMAObBbl6uGh4dtCV3cMn%7EiRt8AHkulOi3S3VTKLNrTrVDBevuQU8YZnjZbJ2%7E33IrOcPay7dmxWsXXUl%7EC5GVR4OHiVae2ThL0w8elPnl35g__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
b68102442777f501d85c64a255dd5ad1
PDF Text
Text
PROFILE:
Humble
Honcho
Clinton’s chief of staff,
Laura Graham ’95
Dream Job on the River
The Man Who Saved New York
Magical Reality
�Wagner
Magazine
Fall 2010
10
Behind the Scenes
Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, Laura Graham ’95,
leads with quiet effectiveness.
14
Contents
Magical Reality
Wagner students explore the world of
Gabriel García Márquez’s fiction.
departments
Features
2 From the President
18
3 From the Editor
4 From Our Readers
5 Upon the Hill
30 Sports Roundup
33 Alumni Link
vol.8,no.2
Dream Job
Walter Kristiansen ’63 runs a tugboat
company at the nexus of global commerce.
24
The Man Who Saved New York
A new book shows there’s much to learn from an
unsung hero of the 1970s.
36 Class Notes
44 In Memoriam
45 Reflections
P H OTO G R A P H : JAC K S O N H I L L
�Global Highway
Under the leadership of
Walter Kristiansen ’63,
E. N Bisso & Sons’ tugboats
keep commodities like grain
and oil moving through the
Lower Mississippi, the Gulf
of Mexico, and beyond.
�From the President
Meeting Today’s Challenges
As I write this letter, our fall
semester is more than half
over, and I am again pleased
to support our students and
faculty in their scholarly
pursuits. Wagner is rich, indeed,
in outstanding young men and
Kiplinger’s
women, who are engaged in
named us one of the 100 challenging courses along with
equally challenging professional
best values in private
field work and community
higher education.
service. If you were to spend
some time on our campus, you would realize that these
young people are tomorrow’s responsible leaders
in medicine, science, business, the arts, education and
public service.
We make every effort to ensure that our students receive
the very best, but that is a challenge in today’s environment.
Let me take a moment, then, to update you on the state of
the college.
Finances undergird all that we do at Wagner, and I’m
pleased that since June 2002, when our audited financial
statements listed our endowment at $4 million, the total
today has grown to more than $60 million. This helps to
secure the College’s future. Unlike many institutions during
this Great Recession, Wagner has not had to respond to the
crisis by chasing enrollments and lowering standards. We
have maintained our quality and balanced our
budget. Kiplinger’s, in fact, just named us
one of the 100 best values in private
higher education.
It is also worth mentioning
that, as previously announced, we
successfully met our capital campaign
goal of $50 million through an effort
that included 20 gifts of $1 million or
2
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
more, including $10 million from
Michael and Margaret Nicolais, both
of the class of ’49, and $5 million from
the Richmond County Savings Foundation,
shepherded by Trustee Michael Manzulli.
Among other accomplishments, the successful
campaign enabled the construction of Foundation Hall,
which houses 200 seniors. Other capital improvements to
campus include the installation of sprinklers in all residence
halls, renovation of two laboratories, installation of a new
modern scoreboard on the football field, and plans to
revitalize Main Hall through a $6 million renovation.
As our finances grow stronger, so has our reputation.
We have become recognized as a leader, nationally,
for providing an education that emphasizes student
involvement in community and public service.
I’m particularly proud of our Civic Innovations program
that links specific academic departments to community
partners in our region. The Port Richmond Partnership
connects 18 community organizations with our students
to focus on issues of economic development, community
health, education, literacy, and teacher education. Our
study abroad programs continue to grow in number and
enrollment as we prepare to launch new programs in India
and China in coming months.
Together the Wagner family has accomplished a great
deal in recent years, and we have an even more promising
future — one that will realize the vision of Wagner’s first
lay president, Clarence Stoughton, who challenged us to
become a truly national leader in higher education.
richard guarasci
president
�From the Editor
Reading Room
I
n September 1961,
Wagner moved its library
out of the Main Hall attic
and into the new Horrmann
Library building. Next year,
Wagner Magazine will mark
the library’s 50th anniversary
with articles, photos, and
reminiscences. In that
connection, we’d like to hear
what the library has meant to
the people who have used it
through the years. What role
has it played in campus life?
To get the ball rolling,
I contacted Carol Gaise
Crews ’62.
The sociology and
anthropology major from
Kingston, New York, was a
senior at Wagner when the
library first opened its doors.
As she put it, “we watched it
being built” on the hillside
known to students as
Chapel Knoll.
Crews painted a vivid
picture of Wagner student life
a beautiful luxury car.” It was
before and after Horrmann.
bright, it was spacious, it had
“Facilities in the ’50s were
a brand-new climate control
marginal,” she said, especially
system, and it was pleasant,
in light of the postwar student
with its large windows looking
boom that had swelled
out to the harbor (the view
enrollment fourfold. The
now taken over by the
campus lacked public space
Union).
for student life, especially for
“It was a tremendous boon
quiet study. There
to campus,” she
was no Union.
said. “A lot of
The Hawk’s Nest,
students went
in the basement
there to study. It
of Main Hall, was
was a really busy
always crowded.
place.”
The lounges in
What do you
Horrmann Library, 2009
the dorms were
remember about
for socializing and watching
Horrmann Library’s role at
television. The library in
Wagner College? Please share
Main Hall was a cramped
your stories, and look for
and shabby space that was
next year’s 50th anniversary
always hot, both in the winter
celebrations of the Horrmann
and the summer.
Library.
When the Horrmann
Library opened, Crews said,
Laura Barlament
it was like the difference
editor,
between “an old clunker and
wagner magazine
On the Cover
Former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, Laura Graham ’95,
accompanied her boss back to her home turf on September 3, when
Clinton spoke at a campaign rally for U.S. Rep. Mike McMahon,
held at Wagner’s Spiro Sports Center. It was Wagner’s first visit by
a current or former U.S. president.
Photograph: Nick Romanenko
fa l l
2010
3
fa l l
2010
3
�From Our Readers
“
“
so much, and often
stayed on campus
until 2 or 3 a.m.
He felt like Wagner was his home
away from home.
Jonathan Acierno ’02
Jonathan was the
reason my brother Michael and
I went to Wagner, because he
felt it would help shape us into
learn about another activity that
wonderful people. Jonathan was
he was involved in. It appeared
part of so many organizations
as if Jonathan spent every waking
and clubs on campus, and when
hour on campus from early
I came to Wagner, I joined most
morning until late at night, and
of the same things he did. He
it is no wonder he seemed to
encouraged me to get involved
know everyone there.
so I would not be so afraid of
Even after leaving Wagner,
Wagner. He told me what to
Jonathan remained a part of
join and why. One of his favorits community as he regularly
ite clubs was Club Diversity.
attended alumni and other
This club did not exist when
campus events. His passing is
I came to Wagner, but it did
not only a loss to his friends
encourage me to take part in
and family, but also to the
Diversity Day. My brother was
Wagner community and beyond.
a mentor to students outside
Wagner meant so much to him. It
the Wagner community, which
inspired him to grow and
inspired me to not only become
in turn inspire others. I am
a teacher but to tutor young stuprivileged to have known
dents with special needs.
Jonathan, and I am honored that
I remember him at my 2008
he called me his friend.
graduation ceremony, so proud
Melissa Travostino ’05
and happy for me. When I
Brooklyn, New York
finally made it into ODK, he
was so excited and thrilled for
A brother is someone that
me. He helped me aspire to go
many people have but often
to graduate school and to further
take for granted. Jonathan stuck
inspire others. My brother was a
by me through thick and thin
mentor to me. He lives on, and
and always made me put my
will never be forgotten.
best foot forward.
Erica Acierno ’08 M’10
Jon was extremely happy that
Staten Island, New York
he got to attend Wagner. He did
I am excited about
these activities at Wagner.
later headed the bacteriology
department. My brother
(Jacques Jacobsen Jr. ’54 M’63)
and my nephew (Jacques Jacobsen
III ’83) are Wagner grads, too.
Jill Jacobsen Smith ’55
Dallas, Texas
Port Richmond
Connections
In Memoriam
Jonathan Acierno ’02
I have been reading the very
interesting article that lets all of
us “far-flung grads” know about
the work of Cass Freedland,
director of the Center for
Leadership and Service at
Wagner (“Conversations That
Count,” summer 2010). I do
not always read the alumni
magazine. I am so very glad
that I did read it this time. I am
excited about these activities at
Wagner. I lived in Port Richmond
(on Castleton Avenue) when
I attended Wagner. My father
had an antique shop, and we
lived in a house from the late
1700s (next to his shop). My
mother (Anita Kershaw Jacobsen
’63 M’68) was a Wagner grad.
My aunt, Edythe Kershaw
Larson ’44, was a grad, and she
Editor’s Note: Friends of Jonathan
Acierno ’02, who passed away on
January 18, sent us remembrances
of him, excerpts of which are printed here. For the full versions, go to
www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
Jonathan Acierno and I met
on one of my first few days at
Wagner as I was walking along
Trautmann Square. I, a lonely,
nervous, visually impaired
freshman from Pennsylvania.
He, a friendly, knowledgeable
senior from Staten Island. Our
close friendship began instantaneously, and we spent every
possible minute together, both
on and off campus.
It quickly became clear to
me that Jonathan was a unique
individual. Each day I would
We’d Love to Hear from You
4
Write to: Laura Barlament, Editor
We welcome letters from readers.
telephone number. The editor reserves
Letters
material
the right to determine the suitability
Reynolds House, Wagner College
published in the magazine and include
of letters for publication and to edit
1 Campus Road, Staten Island, NY 10301
the writer’s full name, address, and
them for accuracy and length.
WA G N E R
should
refer
M A G A Z I N E
to
e-mail:
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
�UpontheHill
Learning, teaching, giving and achieving on Grymes Hill and beyond
A Signature
Eighty years later, Wagner’s
New York bar in 1937. Vaughan
invested wisely, and gave generously.
Renovation
signature building is still a real
served as an attorney for the
Vaughan was a loyal supporter of
Main Hall facelift begins thanks
workhorse,
engineering divi-
Wagner College throughout his
to $2.8 million estate gift
faculty offices, art and dance
sion of Proct-
life, becoming a member of the
studios, and the main stage
er & Gam-
Inner Circle giving society and
of Wagner’s celebrated
ble in Staten
securing matching gifts from his
theater program.
Is-land for
employer as well. While Herb
President of the student
30 years, re-
passed away in 1998, Jo outlived
tiring in 1969.
him until this year. Their entire
A mong the first class of students to benefit from Wagner
College’s sparkling new Administration Building (known today
as Main Hall) for all four years
of their education was Herbert
Vaughan ’34.
Thanks in large part to a
$2.8 million gift received from
Vaughan’s estate this fall, the
building will receive a muchneeded overhaul. This project
with
classrooms,
body, football team manager, Kallista staff member,
He and his wife, Jo-
estate was left to charities.
and Alpha Kappa Pi fraternity
sephine Taylor Vaughan, moved
“He was a really cool guy,” says
brother, Vaughan was known
from Staten Island to Lincroft,
Vaughan’s lawyer and friend, Jeri
as “Boss” by his senior year of
New Jersey, in 1959, and to Lake-
Sayer. “He was physically handi-
college. After Wagner, he earned
wood, New Jersey, in 1972.
capped — he had polio and used
a law degree from Brooklyn Law
Children of the Depres-
crutches — but was full of life
School and was admitted to the
sion, the couple lived frugally,
and excited about everything.”
will include a new roof, repointed brickwork, new windows, and
restoration of exterior ornamental features.
A
Staten
Island
native,
Vaughan enrolled at Wagner
College a few months after Main
Hall opened on February 28,
1930. At that time, the building
was a whole campus under one
roof, with classrooms, laboratories, offices, the library, the president’s office, and a combined
gymnasium and auditorium.
P H OTO G R A P H , B E L OW : V I N N I E A M E S S É
TO BE PRESERVED
Main Hall and its
benefactor (pictured
above, in the 1934
Kallista), Herbert
Vaughan ’34.
fa l l
2010
5
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
president for institutional ad-
Liberal Arts, are strongly linked
vancement, at 718-390-3225, if
to student success.
you would like to find out more.
Another influential annual
college guide, The Best 373
Leading the Pack
Colleges by the Princeton Review,
Wagner retains No. 1 spot
again ranked Wagner among the
in U.S. News, adds kudos for
best Northeastern colleges and
BIG PLANS Wagner’s new academic hall will foster international education.
civic engagement
Wagner’s theater program among
Global Vision
building facilitating a learning
For the second year in a
Concept for new academic
style that is based on research
row, Wagner College made the
building expands
and problem-solving, with flex-
No. 1 spot in U.S. News & World
President Guarasci has ann-
ible spaces that foster collabora-
Report’s ranking of “Up-and-
tive work. Technology connect-
Comers”
ing Grymes Hill to other parts
regional universities — schools
of the world will be pervasive
that have “recently made the
throughout the building, which
most promising and innovative
will
changes in the areas of academ-
ounced that Wagner’s planned
new academic building — which
he often refers to as “the Main
Hall of the 21st century” — will
be called the Center for Global
feature
environmentally
among
Northern
Learning.
friendly construction practices.
ics, faculty, student life, campus
To be constructed on the site
The project received a lead
or facilities.”
of the former Augustinian Acad-
commitment of $10 million
The magazine’s 2011 “Best
emy, the building will house
from Michael ’49 and Margaret
Colleges” issue also ranked
Wagner’s business, education,
Christie ’49 Nicolais in 2007.
Wagner among the overall top
and nursing departments, plus
The $25 million extension of the
25 Northern regional universi-
other disciplines with a strong
Putting Wagner First campaign,
ties, and recognized the College
international element.
which has already achieved its
in four national lists of “Programs
The global focus, Guarasci
original $50 million goal, will
to Look For”: first-year experi-
says, reflects “where Wagner
provide the remainder of the
ence, internships, learning com-
is
education
funds needed to construct the
munities, and service learning.
is going, and where the world
Center for Global Learning.
All of these programs, integral to
is going.” He envisions the
Contact Myra Garcia, vice
the Wagner Plan for the Practical
going,
where
the top in the nation. Wagner is
No. 5 on this year’s “Best College
Theaters” list.
A new feather in Wagner’s cap
is the 2010 Higher Education
Civic Engagement Award, given by the Washington Center
for Internships and Academic
Seminars. This award recognizes
colleges that serve as models
of how to foster learning and
involvement in the community.
“Wagner College is a true
role model for civic engagement
in the academic community,”
said Mike Smith, president of
the Washington Center. “The
College is teaching students a
quality that can’t be learned in the
classroom alone: the importance of
getting involved, giving back, and
making a difference.”
FIRST ON GRYMES HILL
On September 3, former President Bill Clinton spoke at a campaign rally
for U.S. Rep. Mike McMahon, held at the Spiro Sports Center. The first U.S.
president ever to visit the Wagner campus, Clinton began his speech with a
shout-out to Wagner, which he recognized for its Port Richmond Partnership
at the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative University, and to his chief of staff, Wagner
alumna Laura Graham ’95 (profiled in this issue, starting on page 10).
6
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H S : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
�{ BY T H E N U M B E R S }
Keeping It Personal
Wagner eliminates SAT/ACT
requirement for admission
The Class of 2014
Fun facts about Wagner’s newest students
490
First-Year Students Enrolled
33
States of Origin
11
Foreign Countries of Origin
160,519
Total Miles the Class Traveled
to Come to Wagner
9,439
Longest Distance Traveled, in Miles
(from Kurrajong, Australia)
Beginning this fall, students applying for admission to Wagner College
will no longer be required to provide
SAT or ACT scores as part of their
application package.
According to Angelo Araimo,
vice president for enrollment and
(Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Morocco, South Africa, Turkey, Vietnam)
0.8
Shortest Distance Traveled, in Miles
4
Sets of Twins
173
Students Undecided About Their Major
country have dropped the requirement
6
Students Born on January 23, 1992
1
Student Who Starred in a Major Motion
Picture Filmed at Wagner College
“We believe that the best predic-
148
Students in a
National Honor Society
(Brian Falduto ’14 played Billy, a.k.a.
“Fancy Pants,” in the 2003 Jack Black
comedy School of Rock)
planning at Wagner, more than 800
colleges and universities across the
for standardized testing.
tor of a student’s potential to succeed at Wagner is his or her high
school transcript,” Araimo says. “Our
process is very personal. I want
our counselors to get to know the
applicants. Doing that gives us
a great deal of confidence in the
admissions
decisions
we
make.”
The application essay and campus
interviews will therefore continue to be
integral to the admissions process.
Students may still submit their
standardized test scores if they
so choose.
The new policy will apply to
applicants for the class of 2015
and beyond. Learn more about
EXCITING START
Born the year Bill Clinton was elected president, three of Wagner’s newest students —
the Wagner admissions process at
www.wagner.edu/admissions.
Sarah Rosen ’14, Doug Hanson ’14, and Brittany Berke ’14 — were thrilled to see him in
the Spiro Sports Center during their first week of college.
fa l l
2010
7
�Wa g n e r
Upon the Hill
WINDOW
ON WAGNER:
Kairos House,
Wagner’s
‘First Home’
Wagner College was little more than
College meal with her own hands, on her own stove, in her
a combination high school and junior
own kitchen at Kairos House.
college when it moved from Rochester,
New York, to rural Staten Island in 1918.
must find more room,” President Holthusen wrote in an early
The Grymes Hill property included six
bulletin to the school’s supporters. “We are taking care of
buildings that would serve the small
72 persons without a pantry and with an ice box built for a
school well. All that was lacking was a home for Wagner’s
family of five.”
new president, Adolf Holthusen, his wife, Clara, and their
three young children, Ave, John, and Peggy.
Wagner’s chapel and offices — and so are some of Clara
Holthusen’s cookie recipes, keeping alive in the 21st century
That home, completed in time for Wagner’s Staten
the aromas and tastes that fed and comforted the hearty
Kairos House.
young collegians who helped establish our alma mater on
Staten Island.
Times were tough those first few years. World War I had
not yet ended, and commodities like coal and fuel oil were
hard to get. To keep the furnaces going that first winter,
very delicious and old-fashioned — great with coffee or milk,”
Wagner students and faculty members formed work gangs
writes Clara’s granddaughter. “These are the baked goods I
to cut down trees on the school grounds.
remember the most, and I helped my grandmother (Oma)
Gelt was alsoWindow
short in the young college’s coffers. Just 42
On Wagner
students had enrolled
for the 1918-19 school year, many of
them on scholarships, and little cash had come along with
the college from Rochester.
To survive its hardships, the college community banded
together. The women of Trinity Lutheran Church in Stapleton,
Staten Island, donated much of the students’ food, and
the campus’s unofficial cook and chief comforter was
Clara Holthusen. According to her granddaughter, Cynthia
Holthusen Sanford ’65, Clara prepared many a Wagner
NOTES FROM THE PAST
Clara Holthusen’s recipes in her
handwriting (left and above); Clara
Holthusen in 1916 (left); and the
Kairos House ca. 1920.
WA G N E R
Today, the Holthusen home is still among us — holding
Island re-launch in September 1918, is known today as
8
That tiny kitchen sometimes got a little crowded. “We
M A G A Z I N E
“They are not for the beginner or faint-hearted, but are
cut them out when I was a small child. Part of the challenge
is that the cookies are rolled quite thin, and the rolling and
the cutting seem to go on forever.”
— Lee Manchester
TRY IT YOURSELF Find the recipes for
Oma’s ginger cookies and Oma’s oatmeal
cookies at www.wagner.edu/wagnermagazine.
�A Dynamic History
road tycoon; and visits to
New views come to light on
the island by the likes
history trails.
Staten Island’s 350th anniversary
of Benjamin Franklin,
Another major event
Susan
Anthony,
will be an academic
Langston Hughes, and
conference, co-sponsored
Dynamic. Diverse. Historymaking. International.
People often use words like
those to describe New York City
— but usually not Staten Island.
During a yearlong celebration of Staten Island’s 350th
anniversary, Wagner Professor
Lori Weintrob and the rest of
the festivities’ organizers are
aiming to upend inaccurate
Staten Island stereotypes.
“History shows that Staten
Island was a very dynamic place
that changed again and again,”
Weintrob says. “Every 25 years,
it was a different place. Whatever
important historical event you
pick, you’ll find a Staten Island
connection.”
Examples Weintrob cites
include Staten Island’s important role in the abolitionist and
women’s
rights
nationally
movements;
influential
Staten
Islanders such as Cornelius
Vanderbilt,
the
nineteenth-
century shipping and rail-
B.
the Dalai Lama.
Associate professor
of history at Wagner,
guidebook based on the
HISTORY
MAKER
Staten Islander
Cornelius
men than women are enrolling in
college these days — especially at
Island
in
American History and
liberal arts colleges like Wagner,
where men currently make up 37
21st-Century Educa-
the SI350 committee,
a world-famous
tion.”
It
held
March
of volunteers who are
empire.
It’s a well-known fact that fewer
“Staten
Vanderbilt built
shipping
by Wagner and entitled
Weintrob is co-chair of
a wide-ranging group
Helping men find their
roles in college and in life
20,
2011,
will
at
be
19–
the
percent of the student body.
Additional research has also
shown that college men tend to be
less involved in campus life (except
organizing the festivities, which
College of Staten Island. Contests
for athletics) than the women are.
began on August 22, 2010. On
for schoolchildren and teach-
August 22, 1661, the govern-
ers to incorporate local history
psychology at Wagner and director
ment of New Netherland autho-
into the classroom are occurring
of the new Wagner Men’s Center,
rized Staten Island land grants
throughout the year as well.
has been working to address this
for a group of Dutch, French,
“It’s about getting people
and Belgian immigrants.
interested in their local history,
One focus of the anniver-
wherever they’re from,” says
sary year is the identification of
Weintrob. “Places in your com-
of vocation and purpose in life. In a
350 important historical sites
munity have significance.”
new book co-edited by Groth and Gar
on Staten Island. History trails
Visit www.si350.org for com-
Kellom, former executive director
organized around 12 different
plete information, interactive
of the Center for Men’s Leadership
themes, from military history to
timelines, photo sharing, and
food and drink to the environ-
fun activities like a Staten Island
ment, will showcase these sites,
history quiz. Do you have me-
which represent turning points
mo-ries of Staten Island’s 300th
Discovering What Works and Why
in Staten Island’s history with
anniversary
in
(Men’s Studies Press, 2010) includes
local, national, and global sig-
1961? SI350 would like to hear
a chapter by Groth and students who
nificance. Plans are underway
about them. E-mail info@si350.
to publish an encyclopedia and
org.
celebrations
Miles Groth, professor of
imbalance. Funded by the Lilly
Endowment, Wagner and 13 other
colleges conducted programs to
engage men in discerning their sense
and Service at St. John’s University
in Minnesota, all of the participating
colleges report on their programs
and findings . Engaging College Men:
participated in
Wagner’s men’s
project, William
Jock ’08,
{ RECOMMENDED READING }
Andrew Hager
’10, and Kyle
DIG IN TO STATEN ISLAND HISTORY
Glover ’11.
Professor Weintrob recommends these sources on Staten Island history:
• “Staten Island” in The Encyclopedia of New York City, edited by Kenneth Jackson
• That Ever Loyal Island: Staten Island and the American Revolution, by Phillip Papas
fa l l
2010
9
�CLINTON’S CHIEF OF STAFF KEEPS HIS WHEELS ROLLING
By Laura Barlament
L
aura Graham ’95 remembers well the first time she conducted
a briefing for the president of the United States in the
Oval Office.
It was in 2000, Bill Clinton’s final year in office. Graham
was serving as deputy director of White House scheduling. At age 27,
she was one of the youngest people ever to hold a deputy assistant
position in the White House, reporting directly to one of the president’s
senior staff members.
Usually these 10-minute, rapid-fire briefings
would be given by Graham’s boss, Stephanie Streett, a veteran White
House staffer who had taken Graham under her wing. “Sometimes these
were tense meetings, because the president was always very busy and
always running behind,” Graham recalls. Graham had often attended,
and had even briefed him as Streett’s deputy — but Streett was always
in charge.
But now Graham’s mentor was out for two weeks for her
wedding. Graham was on her own. She was nervous.
10
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�O
n the agenda was an upcoming meeting with the prime minister
her chin tucked down and reading her speech at the speed of an
of Israel, Ehud Barak, who was often on the president’s schedule
auctioneer.
as he tried to broker peace in the Middle East before leaving office.
Graham was born and raised on Staten Island, to parents she
Somehow Graham managed to mispronounce the prime minister’s
describes as hard-working, blue-collar folks. Her father, Claude
name. Clinton — whom Graham describes as “always smarter than
Graham, who passed away in 2007, often held down several jobs to
anyone in the room” — immediately corrected her. Inside, she wilted.
make ends meet. Her family never owned their own home, never
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to get fired.’
traveled. “Shopping trips to New Jersey were considered journeys that
“And of course I wasn’t.”
required weeks of planning,” recalls the woman who made a career of
These days, Graham is on a first-name basis not only with Bill
presidential travel scheduling.
Clinton, but with many world leaders. When the prime minister of
It was an inauspicious beginning for someone on her career track,
Haiti comes into her office at the Clinton Foundation, he greets her
she admits. But she was a hard worker and a high achiever. After
with kisses on both cheeks. During her years as a White House staffer,
graduating from Susan E. Wagner High School, Graham attended
she traveled to well over 50 countries and witnessed world-shaping
Wagner College, commuting from home, her tuition paid for by
events in person. Clinton’s chief of staff since 2005, she’s a figure you
academic and athletic scholarships. (She played softball, first and
may have seen hovering at his elbow in television footage of his visits
third base.)
to disaster sites such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, or
Politics was a new interest for Graham in college. As Graham tells
Haiti after the January earthquake. She manages his schedule and
it, her family was politically disengaged until Bill Clinton entered the
his staff, keeps him focused and informed as he travels from event
national political scene during the 1992 presidential campaign. His
to event, and is chief of operations of his foundation, an organization
focus on working-class concerns caught Claude Graham’s eye; and his
of 1,400 employees in more than 40 countries around the world.
daughter, who wanted to go to law school and become a prosecutor,
Besides helping to build that organization from the ground up, she
took notice as well, even attending a Clinton rally at the Meadowlands
was intimately involved in the international aid effort following the
just before the November 1992 election.
2004 Southeast Asian tsunami, served as co-chair of the Bush-Clinton
Graham became increasingly interested and involved in politics,
Katrina Fund, and now is a key figure in the rebuilding of Haiti.
declaring a major in political science, joining the political science club,
In the words of Jeff Kraus, a Wagner political science professor who
and helping to start a chapter of the College Democrats on campus in
was one of Graham’s first mentors, “She’s the one in the background,
the fall of 1993.
making things happen while others are taking pictures.”
She was looking for an internship with the state government in
The Road to Politics
L
Albany when fate intervened to send her to D.C. instead. In March
1994, the Wagner College Democrats
aura Graham is not an effusive person. Unlike her famously
were invited to help with a
charismatic boss, she does not have to shake hands with everyone
presidential visit to New York
in the room, and her smiles are rare and brief.
City, and Graham ended
It’s a contrast Graham readily acknowledges. “I work for one of the
up driving the NBC news
most eloquent speakers of his generation, so it’s a hard act to live up
crew in the presidential
to,” she said in a talk at Wagner last November. “Whenever I tell him
motorcade. They suggested
I am going to make a speech, his one request is that I not embarrass
that she pursue a White
him.” It’s a great line, but she barely stops for the laugh, keeping
House internship, and even
fa l l
2010
11
�introduced her to the White House press assistant. “I smiled politely,
departments and pieces of the executive branch, and so it gave me a
took his business card, never intending to follow up,” she recalls. “I
great seat to see how [the president’s] day came together, how they put
remember my father telling me that I had little chance because it was
together a schedule strategy, a political strategy, a message strategy, a
probably only for kids who knew someone important in Washington.”
policy strategy. I had access and got to see at a very young age how a
lot of things worked, in addition to the planes, trains, and automobiles
“I never got intimidated or became a shrinking
violet if I got yelled at, criticized, or cut off”
aspect of it, by working with the military offices and the Secret
Service. So that was a really fascinating job.”
In 1997, she was promoted to the scheduling desk, at the level of
She gives Professor Kraus much of the credit for what happened
special assistant to the president. (In the White House staff hierarchy,
next. He was not going to let this self-effacing yet brilliant student
that’s the third level away from the president.) Now she wasn’t just
miss this opportunity. “She was very bright but also very quiet,” he
coordinating information, but actually coordinating the president’s
says. “If you knew her, you knew she had great potential. That’s why I
travel, both domestically and abroad. On any given day, she might be
encouraged her to apply for the internship.” At his urging, she applied;
managing on-site teams in up to eight different locations preparing for
and when her first application was rejected, he kept on her to apply
the president’s arrival; or she might be flying out to Asia, or Russia, or
again. From August to December 1994, she interned in the White
wherever the president planned to go in coming months, to meet with
House’s scheduling office.
government officials there; or she might be flying with the president
The White House Years
T
12
to oversee the execution of every detail of the trip — “all the way
down to what steps the president was going to take, and which way
he White House Office of Scheduling and Advance is not exactly
he would enter, and what the photo would look like.”
one of those areas that are in the media limelight. But those are
“So I’ve been on Air Force One a lot,” she says, and to so many
the people who keep the wheels of the presidency running — literally
countries that sometimes she forgets where she’s been. “It was amazing,
and figuratively. “Without them, nothing would happen,” Graham says.
because I was a kid who had never flown before my experience at the
After her internship, Graham returned to Wagner and completed
White House, and my family had never flown,” she says.
college. Then she went right back to D.C. Sleeping on friends’ couches
In 2000, she received yet another promotion, to serve as deputy
and living off credit cards, she worked as a volunteer in the White House
director of the White House scheduling office. “It was a pretty
scheduling office until she was offered a job a couple months later. She
significant jump from special assistant to deputy assistant,” Graham
promptly dropped the graduate program she had begun at Catholic
notes — it even required an interview with Chief of Staff John
University and began more-than-full-time work as a staff assistant.
Podesta. “I look back at that as a really important moment. … He
Graham’s job was to type the president’s daily schedule and
made me sweat it out and gave me a really difficult interview, but then
distribute it to everyone who needed it — and it wasn’t uncommon
he gave me the job and offered me some advice.”
for his schedule to be finalized very late in the day. “I spent many a
Graham gives much credit to Stephanie Streett, director of
night sleeping on an old, beat-up couch by the copier,” she recalls.
scheduling for most of Clinton’s White House tenure (and current
“To this day, I have an aversion to copiers. But I was happy to do it.
executive director of the Clinton Foundation), with giving her even
It was an honor to me.” And she was back at work the next morning
greater opportunities than might have normally been associated with
for her 10 o’clock daily briefing meeting with the White House
her job. Streett took Graham to the daily 7:45 a.m. senior staff meetings
military team and the Secret Service.
attended by cabinet members and the other most senior White House
“It was a great job,” she adds. “I interacted with all the agencies and
officials. “I was always the youngest and most junior person in the room,”
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Graham says. “So she gave me an incredible opportunity.”
But it wasn’t just that opportunities were given to her; Graham
made the most of them with her hard work and mental toughness.
“You’d have to prove yourself in meetings,” she explains. “Like in
meetings with the national security adviser, Sandy Berger, who now
is a very close friend of mine, but also would not necessarily take
the word of a young staff member. … He would put me through the
wringer, too.”
But, she says, she put her mind to learning from these situations.
“I never got intimidated or became a shrinking violet if I got yelled
at, criticized, or cut off. I sort of said, ‘He’s the national security
ON THE HAITIAN CRISIS Leaving a March 23 meeting with Haitian camp leaders
in Port-au-Prince, Laura Graham walks with Bill Clinton and Edmond Mulet
(far left), head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
adviser, and I’m the deputy director of scheduling, so I’m going to
learn from this, and I’m going to learn from him, because he has a
only 12 staffers. Since then, it has been on a phenomenal growth
helluva lot more experience than I do, and I’m going to turn this into
curve — it’s now up to 1,400 staff members who work around the
a positive.’”
globe. The foundation’s 2009 annual report boasts achievements such
as drastically reducing the price of antiretroviral drugs, thus giving
The Post-Presidency
I
2.6 million HIV/AIDS patients access to these life-saving medicines;
t’s not just when she’s giving speeches that listening to Laura
starting health and fitness programs in 9,000 American schools; and,
Graham talk feels like drinking from a fire hose.
through the Clinton Global Initiative, producing more than $57
“I always fit the stereotype of a New Yorker — loud — and I’ve
billion of commitments that have improved the lives of 220 million
never been accused of talking slow at any time in my life,” she says,
people in 170 countries.
“but I have definitely mastered the art of the quick briefing — the art
As Peter Baker wrote in a New York Times story about Clinton
of getting to things as quickly as possible, so that you can move on to
and his foundation, “The claimed successes at times sound grandiose.
the next thing.
… [Yet,] whatever the details, the foundation’s work clearly has yielded
“I don’t know if you’d call it a skill I’m proud of,” she adds ruefully,
tangible results.”
“but it’s definitely a skill.”
And much credit for these results goes to Graham.
And it’s a useful one. In her current dual role as Clinton’s chief
“I can’t say enough good things about her,” says Doug Band,
of staff and as chief of operations for the Clinton Foundation, she
Clinton’s chief counsel and longtime aide, who began his career as a
doesn’t have any time to waste. As she explains it, “I’m just managing
White House intern at the same time Graham did. “She’s the glue that
everything.” Clinton’s office and the Clinton Foundation are two
holds it all together. She does a tremendous job as President Clinton’s
legally different entities, tied together by one larger-than-life man
chief of staff. She is very principled, ethical, loyal, and hard-working,
who likes to take on as much as several normal guys.
and she has given her life to this endeavor. The president’s success in
“If [Clinton] thinks he can make a difference, he’s going to do
the post-presidency is due to her and her gifts. And she gives herself
it, no matter the time commitment,” she says. And when he gets
in an incredibly unfettered and unselfish way.”
involved, she does, too.
Since January, most of that unselfish giving has gone toward Haiti.
Back in 2001, when Graham returned to New York at Clinton’s
In fact, at her last speaking engagement at Wagner, on November 12,
request to serve as his director of scheduling, the organization had
2009, she named it as one of her favorite areas of involvement.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 43
P H OTO G R A P H : A DA M S C H U LT Z / C L I N TO N F O U N DAT I O N
fa l l
2010
13
�Cartagena de Indias is a city so
“
beautiful that it seems to be a lie.”
— Gabriel García Márquez
14
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H : L AU R E N C E N O L A N
�Magical
Reality
Exploring the World of Gabriel García Márquez
I
n the preface to Gabriel García
group of Wagner students not only studied
contemporary Latin American literature, but
Márquez’s 1994 novel Of Love and
García Márquez’s writings in a Grymes Hill
she also grew up in Cartagena, Colombia, the
Other Demons, the author writes
classroom, but also visited his real-life world
coastal city García Márquez used as a setting
that he was working as a newspaper
on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, in one of
for some of his best-known fiction. Because
reporter back in 1949, when his editor sent
the short-term study-abroad trips offered
of her depth of knowledge and connection
him to investigate the emptying of the burial
by Wagner’s Expanding Your Horizons
to this region, the students were able to stay
crypts in the old Convent of Santa Clara.
program.
with local families, spend time with experts
The human remains were being moved
Their travels took them to sites such
and friends of García Márquez, and visit the
because a new five-star hotel was to be built
as the Sofitel Santa Clara in Cartagena,
new García Márquez museum house in his
on the site of the neglected historic building.
the five-star hotel built from the ruins of
hometown, Aracataca, before it opened to
Most of the crypts yielded dusty piles of
the Santa Clara Convent; the crypt is still
the public.
bones, along with some gold and jewels; but
accessible from the middle of the hotel’s
For all those who have read and loved
when one tomb was opened, he reports, out
luxurious lounge.
— or been puzzled by — Love in the Time
poured “a stream of living hair the intense
“Before the trip, we had the problem of
of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Of
color of copper. … [T]he more of it they
trying to comprehend what was real in his
Love and Other Demons, or other works, we
brought out, the longer and more abundant
stories and what was — um — magic,” says
here offer a snapshot into Gabo’s magically
it seemed, until at last the final strands
KariAnna Eide-Lindsay ’13. “After the trip,
real world, courtesy of the photos and
appeared still attached to the skull of a
we had a greater understanding of how real
impressions students and faculty gathered on
young girl.” The hair measured 70 feet long.
the works were, and how many things are
the trip.
With scenes like these, blending the real
actually inspired by reality in his novels.”
And if you haven’t yet read the works of
and the fantastical, the Nobel-Prize-winning
The students’ guide into this magically
a writer Sánchez calls “the Shakespeare of
Colombian writer fondly known as “Gabo”
real world was Margarita Sánchez,
Latin America,” we hope you’ll be inspired
has fascinated and mystified readers around
associate professor of Spanish and chair
to give them a try.
the world.
of the Department of Modern Languages
During the 2010 spring semester, one
at Wagner. Not only is she a scholar of
— Laura Barlament
fa l l
2010
15
�1
2
3
4
F
“
our days before coming back to New York, and thanks to Jaime
Abello Bonfi, we went inside the restaurant where Gabriel García Márquez
was having dinner with his friends. Since he is always besieged by people, we
saw him from a close distance. It was a magic moment for all of us.
”
16
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�5
6
A
“
fter we went
to Gabo’s house, after
speaking with his
brother, and, finally,
after seeing the reality
of his stories, I
understood the fusion
between reality and
fiction. It is to believe
in the incredible.”
6
7
1
A� house in Cartagena, the model
for the home of Fermina in Love
in the Time of Cholera.
2
T� he replica of García Márquez’s
childhood home in Aracataca,
model for the Buendía home in
One Hundred Years of Solitude.
“The spirit of Gabo still lives
in this little cottage, in the
dirt roads of Aracataca, and
especially in the hearts of
his people,” wrote one of the
student travelers.
3
T� he old burial crypt of the Santa
Clara Convent in Cartagena,
featured in Of Love and Other
Demons.
4
I�n Cartagena, the “Arcade of the
Scribes” from Love in the Time
of Cholera.
5
“� More than a house, our home
was a village” (from García
Márquez’s autobiography, Living
To Tell the Tale), on the museum
home in Aracataca.
6�
� �The Aracataca train station;
the yellow butterflies are a
prominent motif in One Hundred
Years of Solitude. “Before we
started our tour around the
town, our guide inspired us to
look around and find inspiration
for Gabo’s novels, and if we
happened to see an older man
sitting on his front porch, taking
his siesta in the midday sun,
perhaps we might stop and think,
‘Ah sí, es el Coronel Buendía.’”
7
J� aime García Márquez, brother
of Gabriel, spent a morning with
Professor Sánchez and students
in Cartagena. “[He] demonstrated
with his stories that magical
realism is part of daily life in the
Colombian Caribbean.”
PHOTOGRAPHS: 1, 3, 6, 7. Laurence
Nolan; 2, 4, 5. Angela Willis ’12
fa l l
2010
17
�MY FAVORITE THINGS
Walter Kristiansen ’63 oversaw the unique
design of the tugboat Vera Bisso. E. N.
Bisso & Sons tugs help dry bulk cargo
ships (like those pictured below at a
Cargill grain facility) navigate the Lower
Mississippi River.
18
wa g n e r
m a g a z i n e
�D
D
ream
Job
on the Mississippi River
Walter Kristiansen ’63
runs a tugboat company
at the nexus of
global commerce
Story by Laura Barlament
Photographs by Jackson Hill
At 8 a.m. on a sunny, warm
Thursday in September, Walter
Kristiansen ’63 leaves his home
in Covington, Louisiana, to
make the 40-mile drive into
New Orleans. For 24 miles, he
is on the Lake Pontchartrain
Causeway — the world’s
longest bridge over water.
The vast flat expanse of lake
sparkles, spreading from
horizon to horizon.
fa l l
2010
19
�T
he headquarters of E. N. Bisso & Sons, the century-old
School on Staten Island. After graduating from Wagner, he served as
tugboat company over which Kristiansen presides, sits at the
an officer aboard a U.S. Navy ocean tug. He worked for one of the
causeway’s end in Metairie, just north of New Orleans itself. This has
nation’s biggest towboat companies, McAllister, and for many years
been Kristiansen’s daily commute for the past 15 years. Although
was a vice president for Amoco, in charge of
he’s pushing 70, he doesn’t have plans to give it up any time soon.
domestic marine transportation.
“I just love what I do,” he says in his deep smoker’s growl.
But being president and CEO of
“People ask me when I’m going to retire, and I say, ‘When it’s not
E. N. Bisso & Sons Inc., he says, is “in
fun anymore.’”
many ways a dream job.”
Kristiansen was an English major at Wagner College, and he
exercised his passion for the stage through his participation in the
Varsity Players student theater group. He jokes constantly, flashing a
manic grin reminiscent of actor Jack Nicholson: sly and sideways, with
E.
N. Bisso & Sons is one of the three
major tugboat companies
operating on the Lower Mississippi — the world’s busiest port
eyebrows pointing upward. His first job after graduating from college
complex, according to the Port of New Orleans, with more than
was with a summer stock theater company.
6,000 ocean vessels moving through the area annually. About 15
But life on the sea was in his blood. His father was a tugboat
years ago, the Bisso family decided to hire “professional management”
captain on the New York Harbor, and Walter made his first trip
(Kristiansen puts the phrase into self-deprecating quotation marks)
on a tug at age 2. He took his first job as a tugboat deckhand in
instead of running the company themselves. That’s when Kristiansen
1958, when he was a student at Tottenville High
came on board. He and his wife, Gail Jantz
Kristiansen ’67, recently retired from an awardwinning teaching career, moved to southern
CONTROL CENTER
E. N. Bisso’s dispatching room
features high-tech tools that
display ship locations and other
real-time data along the Lower
Mississippi and beyond. Below,
the controls of the Vera Bisso.
Louisiana and became, in his words, “bornagain New Orleanians.”
The company headquarters is located in a
four-story gray office building shared with a
dentist, an insurance broker, and other runof-the-mill businesses. When you cross E. N.
Bisso’s threshold, however, there’s no doubt
about where you are: Every room is neat as a
pin, and ornamented with boat models, boat
photographs, boat paintings, and nautical
paraphernalia. Large windows look out on
Lake Pontchartrain, flat and glistening as far as
the eye can see.
Five years ago at this time, this tidy world
was turned upside down. The offices were
heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina; they
finally returned to them about six months later,
20
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�when they were still stripped down to the studs (a tornado had hit
the water level in the Panama
their temporary office space).
Canal, and thus its accessibility
Nevertheless, the company never stopped operations throughout
to ships moving in from the
the chaos. Proudly, Kristiansen remarks that every tugboat crew
Pacific.
stayed with the ships they were assisting and successfully kept them
He watches weather patterns
afloat. Almost every company employee showed up for work, whether
throughout the Gulf and the Atlantic.
they were scheduled for duty or not, so that the boats actually had
While most of Bisso’s business is conducted
extra crew on hand. Even Bisso’s general counsel, Mike Vitt, who
along the 230 miles of the Mississippi that
had given up a tugboat captain’s career to go into law, piloted one
ocean-going ships can navigate, sometimes Bisso’s crews
of the tugs throughout the storm so that more boats could be on
range much farther afield. In early September, one Bisso tugboat
hand to help. During the storm and its aftermath, each tug operated
is en route to Tampico, Mexico, where it will pick up a barge, to
independently, doing whatever they saw that needed to be done. They
be loaded with parts for an oil refinery, and then take it all the
distributed food, water, and fuel; they put out fires; they evacuated
way up the Atlantic Coast and through the St. Lawrence Seaway,
about 90 people. The Kristiansens were housing up to 10 flooded-
to Detroit.
out employees; others found temporary quarters on the tugboats
But all of that is just normal shipping business. What also
themselves.
makes the job fun are the calls that really come from out of the
“The time leading up to the storm, during the storm, and in
blue. For example, Kristiansen recently heard from a producer
the weeks and months after the storm showed me the dedication of
at the History Channel developing a new reality show in which
employees to each other, and therefore to the company,” Kristiansen
comedian Daniel Lawrence Whitney, better known as Larry the
wrote in his company newsletter at the end of August. “I personally
Cable Guy, travels the country trying out various jobs. They were
learned some lessons, the most important being to stay out of the way,
interested in an episode set on a tugboat. In January, the TV
let the highly qualified, professional and caring employees do what has
medical drama House will shoot an episode on a Bisso tugboat.
to be done, and just make sure they get what they need.”
The producers of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button looked at
WORLD
TRADE
A worker on
a Panamanian
cargo ship,
loaded with
U.S. grain,
readies the
vessel to begin
its journey
down the
Mississippi
into the Gulf
of Mexico.
shooting that movie’s tugboat scene on a Bisso boat. They ended
A
t his desktop computer, Kristiansen tracks a wide variety of
up choosing another company, but Bisso’s executive vice president
daily statistics that impact upon the business.
and chief salesman, Bill McDonald, had lunch with Hollywood
The factors he watches range from the numbers and types of ships
power couple Brad Pitt (Benjamin Button’s star) and Angelina Jolie
entering the Mississippi River, to the price of fuel, to the river level.
in the process.
Why the river level? It affects the speed of the current, which affects
“You never know what kind of a call you’ll get,”
the number of tugboats needed to perform a given job.
Kristiansen comments.
It’s not enough, however, for Kristiansen to keep his eye on the
local scene. Bisso sits at a critical point in the global trade nexus. The
Lower Mississippi is the access point for the 14,500-mile MidAmerica inland waterway system, leading to the enormous grain fields
J
ust about 8 miles south of the Metairie office,
just upriver from New Orleans’s Audubon
Zoo, lies E. N. Bisso’s waterfront property.
of the Midwest. That means Kristiansen is watching factors such as
At this linchpin of international trade, a bright
the wheat harvest in Australia, which affects U.S. wheat exports, and
blue sky smiles down on a quiet, almost sleepy scene
the amount of business he can expect to receive from dry bulk cargo
along the wide, brown Mississippi River. The old and the new, the
ships. He watches rainfall levels in Central America. They determine
homey and the high-tech have achieved a pleasant blend here: an
fa l l
2010
21
�older building with a welcoming front porch
for extra maneuverability, and automatic winches controlled from the
and wood-paneled rooms hosts the crew
wheelhouse so that the deckhand doesn’t have to do dangerous
lunchroom, named “Jimmy’s Place” for
rope handling.
the recently retired cook who put in 50
Today, however, the Vera Bisso is out for repairs to its generator,
years with Bisso. The new cook, a young
woman named Dee, enthusiastically greets “Mr.
and the Susan W. is on tap for a quick job assisting an outgoing ship at
the Cargill grain facility just upriver.
Walter” and declares that she hopes to be working there for 50 years, too.
Kristiansen fought for Cargill’s business a few years ago and earned
In another room, lined with books and maps and wooden cabinets,
a contract with the multinational agricultural giant, giving E. N. Bisso
Vice President Bill Summers oversees maintenance and repair of
about a quarter of the grain business on the river. Besides oil, grain
the company’s 16 boats. These range from the Captain Albert, a
transportation is the biggest part of the shipping business on the
meticulously maintained 1931 beauty with teak decks, to three
Lower Mississippi. Barges bring the grain down the river from the
brand-new “z-drive” tugboats — the latest in tugboat propulsion
Midwest. Daily, Bisso tugboats assist the giant ocean-going cargo ships
technology, each coming with an $8.5 million price tag. Over the past
arriving at and departing from the Cargill dock and taking that grain
15 years, Kristiansen has led the company to invest $30 million in new
around the world.
equipment — largely paid for in cash, he notes.
Across the driveway, in a plain, metal-sided building, high-tech
meets tradition in the dispatching room. An array of monitors and
computers gives the dispatcher real-time data about all of the traffic
B
usiness is pretty good for a small player in the midst of the
global trading nexus, especially considering all of the forces
arrayed against them over the past five years: the nation’s costliest
along the Mississippi.
natural disaster, the Great Recession, and the new man-made disaster
Outside, an array of shiny red boats sits at the dock. Kristiansen
affecting this area, the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20 and
proudly points out the Vera Bisso, which stands out because of its
massive oil spill in the Gulf. This event — ruinous for industries like
unusual wheelhouse shape, with huge windows angling up and down.
fishing and tourism — has not negatively affected shipping operations
The 1999 vintage boat is the company’s own unique design, with
on the Mississippi, Kristiansen says, praising the Coast Guard’s
every care taken for crew comfort and safety,
including extra width for stability, a
square front end that prevents
damage to ships the tug
is assisting, extra
decision to keep shipping up and running. “The fact that we kept
shipping going helped to minimize the [economic] damage,” he says.
In fact, his company gained some business cleaning the oil off ocean
vessels before they entered the shipping channels.
But in general, Kristiansen says his biggest worries are neither
head space in the
weather nor other large-scale disasters. Currently, his main challenges
mechanical
are finding enough qualified personnel to operate the tugs, and dealing
rooms, larger-
with what he sees as unreasonable government regulations — such
than-average
as being required to submit to the EPA a regular report of “incidental
portholes,
discharges,” which even includes rainwater that hits a tugboat’s deck.
six rudders
At E. N. Bisso, Kristiansen has found a place where he can put
TUG TECHNOLOGY
A tugboat with “z-drive” propulsion heads over to the Cargill facility. This boat is
owned by E. N. Bisso’s cousin company, Bisso Towing; the two companies often
work together. E. N. Bisso has acquired three tugs with z-drive propulsion, which
offers increased maneuverability over a traditional propeller system.
22
wa g n e r
m a g a z i n e
�a lifetime’s worth of skills, experience, and talents into
practice in a constantly changing, challenging environment.
“These crazy people,” he says, referring to the owners,
“put a company into my hands and let me run it, without
any interference. I got to hire all of the staff. I get to set all
of the salaries. … They might say, ‘Well, how are you going
to pay for it?’ If I can pay for it, I can do it. I’m pursuing
what I consider noble goals. We don’t have a ‘safety officer.’
We have a safety culture. Our record speaks for itself. Our
liability insurance premiums have not been raised in 16
years, because we have such a clean record. I got to build
a boat like the Vera Bisso. They said, ‘Will it increase our
business?’ I said, ‘No. But I’m looking to the future of this
company.’”
That future, he hopes, will include him for a long
time to come.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
On board the Susan W., Kristiansen emphasizes that all employees
are responsible for the company’s safety regulations.
SPILL
STRATEGY
David Martin
(left) speaks
with Rear
Admiral Tim
Sullivan at the
Coast Guard’s
Incident
Command
Post in Mobile,
Alabama.
Wagner administrator
and USCG reservist
serves in the Gulf
I
t’s not surprising that David
Martin, Wagner’s vice president
for administration and a
captain in the U.S. Coast Guard
Reserves, didn’t notice that
one of E. N. Bisso’s tugboats was
under his command as it cleaned oily
vessels entering the shipping channel
in Gulfport, Mississippi.
It was only one of 3,000 boats,
300 aircraft, and 15,000 workers
he was overseeing while recalled
to active duty in the Gulf of Mexico
from July through September, in
response to the BP oil spill.
Martin served as deputy
commander of the Incident Command
Post in Mobile, Alabama, which was
responsible for cleanup operations in
Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.
As the oil flow was stopped shortly
after his arrival, he was dealing
entirely with the cleanup. He was
pleased with the results, saying that
he walked the beaches often and ate
as much shrimp as possible. He was
also amazed at the Gulf’s resilience
P H OTO G R A P H : C O U RT E S Y O F DAV I D M A RT I N
Fighting the Oil
and at the large quantity of marine
life he saw while flying over the
water and inspecting the cleanup
efforts.
“It was a lot of hard work, but it
was a great experience,” Martin says.
“I was lucky Dr. Guarasci gave me the
opportunity to serve.”
fa l l
2010
23
�The Man
Who Saved
New York
A new book shows there’s
much to learn about
effective government
from an unsung hero
of the 1970s
24
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H S O F H U G H C A R E Y A R E C O U RT E S Y O F T H E N E W YO R K STAT E A RC H I V E S .
�I
n January, a new chief executive will move into the governor’s
mansion in Albany. Immediately, he will have to address New York
State’s deep fiscal crisis. If the new governor fails to find a solution,
the Empire State may be forced to default on its debt — a frightening
prospect in the home of the nation’s financial capital, Wall Street.
35
years ago, another incoming New
York governor faced eerily similar
circumstances: former Brooklyn
Congressman Hugh L. Carey. Governor Carey and
his team of advisers managed to put together a
package of remedies that saved the City of New
York from bankruptcy, a catastrophe that would
have had a devastating impact on the state and the
national economy.
That particularly timely tale is the one that
is told in a new book co-authored by Seymour
Lachman, director of Wagner College’s Hugh
L. Carey Institute for Government Reform, and
Robert Polner, a public affairs officer at New York
University. The Man Who Saved New York: Hugh
Carey and the Great Fiscal Crisis of 1975 was
published this summer by Excelsior Editions, an
imprint of the State University of New York Press.
Already in its second printing, The Man Who
Saved New York has been highly praised in the
New York media.
“At a time when New York’s state government
seems more dysfunctional than ever, this new book
recalls an era when Albany actually worked,”
wrote conservative pundit E. J. McMahon in a fullpage New York Post review.
“Hopefully, Andrew Cuomo already has a copy
of The Man Who Saved New York,” Tom Robbins
wrote in a review for the Village Voice during the
2010 gubernatorial campaign. “The likely future
governor will appreciate this dramatic saga of
what it’s like to be a brand-new occupant of the
executive mansion who opens the cabinets
to find they’ve been stripped bare.”
Indeed, Cuomo took Robbins’ advice,
praising the book in a Labor Day op-ed published
in the New York Daily News.
“Intellectually, academically, and politically, The
Man Who Saved New York couldn’t be more timely
and vital for New York as the state slides toward its
own rendezvous with insolvency,” wrote Giuliani
biographer Fred Siegel.
Author Seymour Lachman came to Wagner
College in the fall of 1996, just when the New
Press was publishing his earlier collaboration with
Robert Polner, Three Men in a Room: The Inside
Story of Power and Betrayal in an American
Statehouse. That book, based on Lachman’s
17 years in the New York State Senate, was an
indictment of the way things work in Albany: Only
if the governor and the majority leaders of the
Senate and the Assembly agree can anything get
done in the state government. Over the last four
years, Three Men in a Room has become one of the
most often cited books among good-government
advocates in New York state.
The following excerpts from chapter 5 of The
Man Who Saved New York begin with Hugh Carey
recruiting an indispensable member of his fiscal
team, financier Felix Rohatyn, and end with
Carey’s insistence, despite opposition from several
key advisers, that a New York City bankruptcy was
“unthinkable.”
— Lee Manchester
fa l l
2010
25
�From ‘The Man Who Saved New York’
Building the Team
his own sons, as “Felix the Savior” rather
Carey pressed:
On an early spring afternoon in 1975, as
than “Felix the Fixer.”
Would he
New York City’s problems with its lenders
“It’s up to you,” Carey said. “Fixer
or wouldn’t
mounted, Hugh Carey traveled to Felix
or Savior.”
he help save
Rohatyn’s vacation house, perched on dunes
Around the time Carey made his sales
the city from
at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, in Long
pitch, Rohatyn got a call from a bond
possible
Island’s East Hampton. Accompanying
broker he didn’t know, offering to sell him
bankruptcy?
the governor was Peter Maas, the author
New York City notes paying an unusually
Burke had already worked on Rohatyn,
of Serpico, a best-selling book about a
high 9.5 percent interest. Rohatyn declined,
reminding the Viennese-born finance man
whistle-blower cop who nearly brought
saying, “If you’re paying 9.5 percent for a
of his public declarations that he owed
down the New York Police Department in
triple-tax-free notes of the city, they can’t
his life to the United States, as his family
the Lindsay years. Maas was friendly with
be a very good risk.”
had escaped to America from the Nazi
Rohatyn, a player in the world of securities
It was becoming
evident that the city
could easily default
on short-term debt
payments any time
now.
occupiers in France, and wanted to repay
though he had never met Carey before. …
He also heard from the Democratic
types, both Republicans and Democrats,
[Rohatyn was then] a senior partner at the
National Chairman, Bob Strauss, who told
I’d be happy to be one of them.”
international investment firm Lazard Freres.
him he’d recommended him to Carey.
Over the next ten minutes or so, Carey
Detractors tagged him “Felix the Fixer,” but
“Well, it would have been nice if you
and Burke made a list.
Carey was impressed by Rohatyn’s excellent
had asked me before you went and did it,”
reputation in the financial world. He took
Rohatyn responded. “[I] had never heard of
Default Looms
Rohatyn aside and popped the question
a bankruptcy of a city; but, certainly for a
… By the time [Carey] headed out to
he’d come to ask: Would he be willing
city like New York, I thought it would be a
see Rohatyn on the dunes, it was becoming
to turn his full attention away from his
devastating thing, even global.”
evident that the city could easily default on
successful career and serve instead in the
In Rohatyn’s remembrance, the most
short-term debt payments any time now,
less lofty world of state government?
pivotal encounter with Carey occurred later,
with its monthly payments to bondholders
In return, Carey told Rohatyn, he’d
in the governor’s “kind of shabby” midtown
totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. At
receive all the credit he would be due for
Manhattan office. The governor and David
the same time, some editorial writers and
helping to save the city, and would become
Burke began that meeting by presenting
budget watchdog groups began faulting
known by his fellow citizens, not to mention
Rohatyn with some grim facts and figures.
Carey for keeping his distance from the
and corporate reorganizations, and Carey
was planning to ask for Rohatyn’s help
placating and winning the cooperation of
the financial community.
With his puckish grin and flecks of gray
hair, Rohatyn, forty-six, was no stranger
to the ways of prominent politicians,
26
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
the debt to his adopted country.
Now was that day, Burke urged.
Rohatyn laid down conditions
to Carey.
“I don’t know enough and I can’t do
it alone,” he said. “But if you would put
together a responsible group of business
�city’s problems, as he continued to make
entire international banking system, would
Staying out of it, therefore, could be
trips upstate and resolutely focused on
be disrupted.
suicidal for the state.
many other things. But his attempt to be
So Carey and his financial advisers
Other aides noted that in their upstate
governor of the entire state, and not just
worried at the time. But the implications
travels, they regularly met people who
one part of it, was growing more challenging
of a city bankruptcy were less than agreed
made no secret of their distaste for the
by the day.
upon or clear to the public at large.
big city — a drain on the rest of the
For he was also aware that if the city
Meanwhile, his staff debated how deeply he
state, in their eyes — and who felt just
defaulted and filed for bankruptcy, there
should involve himself and the state in the
as adamantly that Carey should force its
would be hell to pay — possible walkouts
mounting series of New York City payment
leaders to finally feel the consequences of
by police, firefighters, sanitation workers,
problems that were, after all, not of his
years of financial profligacy. John Dyson,
and teachers, and perhaps even outbreaks
making, and perhaps beyond his powers to
the state’s agriculture commissioner,
of looting, arson, and violence. In an
contain or control.
noted dutifully that Carey might alienate
atmosphere of civic breakdown, a federal
Republicans like Senate leader Warren
judge would be empowered to take the
Moment of Decision
Anderson if he intervened too forcefully
entire city government and its day-to-day
In the spring of 1975, around the time
on the city’s behalf, especially since
affairs under receivership, superseding
Rohatyn was recruited, some aides to
communities across the state were also
all elected officials, labor agreements,
the governor, including [budget director]
experiencing hard times.
and existing rules and regulations. The
Peter Goldmark, warned that if the Big
At one such staff discussion at the
judge would seek to create immediate
Apple failed to pay its obligations, the state
Executive Mansion, the issue reached a
mechanisms for continuing public
government would follow, so interwoven
boiling point. Having listened to the back-
services and running the city’s many
and interdependent were their finances.
and-forth for nearly an hour, Carey finally
departments down to the most minute
levels — deploying police, regulating
schools, ordering supplies, dispatching
child protective workers, all the while
beginning the possibly decade-long process
of sorting through the claims of perhaps
TOUGH TIMES
Flanked by New York City Mayor Ed Koch, Governor Carey holds a press conference in
Manhattan in 1980. Financier Felix Rohatyn, one of Carey’s key advisers, is on the far left.
Richard Ravitch, another businessman Carey recruited for his governing team, is on the right.
tens of thousands of creditors-bondholders
and their lawyers, city employees, welfare
clients, and suppliers.
In the wake of such dislocations, some
argued, fear and loathing would roil the
municipal bond market. The borrowing
costs of cities and states might spike,
causing service cutbacks and job losses,
if not additional governmental defaults.
If large or small banks tottered or closed,
the troubled national economy, if not the
fa l l
2010
27
�Solid Commitment
Always influencing
his judgment, Carey
recalled years later, was
his late father’s view
that bankruptcy was an
irreversible stigma and
what he had most sought
to avoid for [his business,]
the once-soaring Eagle
Petroleum, during the
years of the Depression.
After Carey articulated
his position to his staff, he
TEAM LEADER
Governor Carey converses with Peter Goldmark, director of the budget
(left), and Howard Clark, deputy press secretary, at the economic
summit held at Topridge, Marjorie Meriweather Post’s Adirondack
Great Camp, in October 1977.
never really looked back,
or veered. Soon, in fact,
he unilaterally advanced
the city $400 million
in state aid, directly
involving the state in the
“[Carey’s] force of will was
the most important feature
in keeping the city out of
bankruptcy.” — Paul Gioia
stood and jammed his hands deep into his
28
city’s quest for survival
the street; I’m going to do
and thereby putting the state’s own credit in
what’s best. I’m not going
potential harm’s way. This was money raised
to leave him out in the
from the sale of state short-term notes and
cold. We’re stopping this
technically requiring voter approval for its
right now,” he said.
use. The cash narrowly allowed the city to
New York City, the
avoid default on notes that had to be repaid
governor added, was legally
at the end of April 1975. And Carey would
pants pockets — the telltale sign that his
a child of the state — it existed only because
advance the city a total of $400 million
fuse might blow.
the state granted it jurisdiction.
more in the months ahead.
He would not, he said, even consider
He sat down at his desk. No one spoke.
“His force of will,” said Paul Gioia, who
standing idly by as the city sank. He
The staff shot glances around the room. And
was an assistant counsel to the governor,
rendered the case for assistance in the most
then for good measure Carey added that if
“was the most important feature in keeping
personal terms. “I have a big family. If one
any or all of his aides strongly disagreed, he
the city out of bankruptcy. When someone
of my children came to me and said he’s
would be more than happy to accept their
at the top makes a solid commitment like
broke, I’m not going to put him out on
letters of resignation immediately.
that, people working for him respond,
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�‘We’ve got to figure out how to get it done’
— and that’s what happened.”
The word Carey would elect to
describe a New York City bankruptcy was
“unthinkable.”
Unthinkable, yes. But whether the
collapse of the city was avoidable was
another question completely, as was the
continuously delicate matter of how far the
“parent” could safely stick its neck out, and
get involved, to protect its troubled “child.”
READ MORE about the book and
watch interviews with Lachman and
Polner at www.wagner.edu/carey_
center. The Man Who Saved New
York: Hugh Carey and the Great
Fiscal Crisis of 1975 is available
through the Wagner College book
store (718-390-3469).
IN CRISIS
Governor Carey and Abraham Beame,
New York City’s mayor from 1974 to 1977 (shown
here with the governor in 1975), joined forces
to appeal to President Ford to help the city
during its financial crisis. Ford never used the
words “drop dead,” as the New York Daily News ’s
famous headline of October 30, 1975, had it, but
he did vow to veto any bill intended to keep New
York from defaulting on its obligations.
E XC E R P T F RO M T H E M A N W H O
S AV E D N E W YO R K : H U G H C A R E Y
A N D T H E G R E AT F I S C A L C R I S I S O F
1 9 7 5 , BY S E Y M O U R P. L AC H M A N
A N D RO B E RT P O L N E R ( STAT E
U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W YO R K P R E S S ,
2010). REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION
O F S U N Y P R E S S . N E W S PA P E R I M AG E
U S E D BY P E R M I S S I O N O F T H E
N E W YO R K DA I LY N E W S .
fa l l
2010
29
�Wa g n e r
Sports Roundup
Second Chance
At Wagner, player has
college football career
after pro baseball
By Dave Caldwell
[Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on Friday,
September 17, 2010, in the New York Times.]
ick Doscher has returned to Staten
Island, his home, and he has settled in
as the 23-year-old starting sophomore
quarterback at Wagner College, whose leafy
campus sits like a tiara atop Grymes Hill.
Until two years ago — June 8, 2008, to be
precise — Doscher was a catcher in the Kansas
City Royals’ farm system. He remembers the
date because the Royals cut him three years to
the day after taking him in the eighth round of
the amateur draft.
Doscher turned 18 about three weeks before
he was drafted, in 2005. The day after the draft,
he slugged a home run and pitched five no-hit
innings to lead Moore Catholic to the Catholic
city high school championship. The next day, he
signed with the Royals. Life could not have been
much better.
But he batted only .208 in 298 at-bats with
three Royals farm teams. Doscher landed on the
disabled list twice even though he was not hurt,
and finally, Brian Rupp, his manager with the
Burlington Bees in Iowa, called him into his office
‘Tough as Nails’
Seahawks quarterback Nick Doscher ’13, who
came to Wagner after playing pro baseball, passed
for 1,330 yards and 8 touchdowns last season as
a 22-year-old freshman and was named to the
Northeast Conference first team.
and told him the Royals were letting him go.
“It’s kind of a shock when it happens,”
Doscher said.
P H OTO G R A P H : P E T E BY RO N
� He hoped to keep his baseball career
sometimes his teammates will tease him by
for 13 touchdowns and 769 yards, with 144
alive. No such luck. His father, also named
calling him an old man. But he is thrilled to
in a game against St. Francis of Pennsylvania.
Nick, who describes himself as a baseball
be on campus.
Hameline calls him a coach on the field.
lifer, was his coach at Moore Catholic and
Baseball might have been his first choice,
Crawford said being the centerpiece of the
had insisted that the Royals pay for his son’s
but he always thought he could play
team did not seem to affect
college education as part of his contract.
college football. After four years
Doscher at all, perhaps because
The younger Nick Doscher was also
away from the sport, he is playing his
he was used to performing
a quarterback when he was at Moore
position well. He may pursue a career
under pressure as a minor
Catholic, tall and sturdy and with a strong
in coaching, but he does not hide the
league baseball player. His
right arm. He passed for 1,507 yards and 20
fact that he might like to play pro
teammates are thrilled to have
touchdowns as a senior and was named the
football someday.
him around.
best high school football player on
“The story’s not over yet,” said his
Staten Island.
father, who coached a team from Staten
understand it,” Hameline said. “He has
After leaving baseball, he considered
Island to the Little League World Series in
a knack. He knows what to do and when to
playing football at a few other colleges, but
Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 2006.
do it.”
he ended up at Wagner, no more than a five-
Like Doscher, another quarterback came
Doscher is making the most of what has
minute drive from where he grew up. He
out of the minor leagues; Chris Weinke
amounted to a second chance. His father
had not played football in a while when he
spent six years as a first baseman in the
said that when Doscher came home from
got to Wagner, and Walt Hameline, Wagner’s
Toronto Blue Jays’ system before he enrolled
Iowa two years ago, he tried as hard as he
football coach for 30 years, thought Doscher
at Florida State. He led the Seminoles to the
could to be stoic, joining sandlot baseball
might help the team — as a 220-pound
1999 national championship and won the
games on Staten Island, but that he felt sorry
fullback.
Heisman Trophy a year later at the age
for himself for a little while.
When Wagner wide receiver David
of 28.
But only a little while. Although he is
Crawford, a junior, heard that a former
Weinke played seven years in the N.F.L.
not that far from home, Doscher moved into
professional baseball player was trying out
Doscher smiled when Weinke’s name was
a dormitory on campus and jumped into
for the team as a quarterback, he said he
brought up because he is a Florida fan,
college life. He wore a Cincinnati Reds cap
thought the whole idea was “kind of crazy.”
which, he said, means that he’s no fan of
to practice on Thursday, but he said with a
Throwing a football, after all, is nothing like
Weinke. But Weinke’s story can serve as an
smile that it was only because it matched his
throwing a baseball.
inspiration to Doscher — not that he needs
red T-shirt.
But Doscher won the starting quarterback
much to get going.
“I think I appreciate it more,” he said of
job as a freshman.
“We’re all football players — we’re focusing
being at Wagner. “I had the experience of
“He shocked everyone here,” Crawford
on one sport at a time,” said Cleveland
going away.”
said. “He came in and took the job right
Green, Wagner’s 24-year-old center.
That experience ended too soon for
away.”
Doscher passed for 1,330 yards and 8
him, but it did have its highlights. He
The coaches at Wagner like him, too.
touchdowns last season as a 22-year-old
caught Royals pitcher Zack Greinke on a
“He’s tough as nails,” Hameline said.
freshman and was named to the Northeast
rehabilitation assignment once. And how
“You know what a catcher is like.”
Conference first team. As he directed an
many college quarterbacks can say they
Doscher has grown a thick beard, and
option-oriented offense, Doscher also rushed
caught a Cy Young Award winner?
From The New York Times, September 17, 2010, © 2010 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission
and protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of the material
without express written permission is prohibited.
“Some kids, they can just
fa l l
2010
31
�Wa g n e r
Sports Roundup
A Gifted Program
New training facilities and scoreboard advance
Seahawk athletics
T
he love of sport, family, friends, and Wagner
College have inspired several gifts over the
past year, resulting in significant additions to College
athletic facilities.
BUILDING STRENGTH
Men’s lacrosse player R. J.
DeRosa ’13 trains in the Dr.
Gregory P. Knapp ’66 H’00
Strength Room, built and
equipped with a leadership
gift from Thomas G. Moles ’65
H’00. While serving as Wagner
trustees, Knapp and Moles
also helped to fund the Wagner
Stadium in 1997 and the Spiro
Sports Center in 1999.
Late last year, a fully equipped, 3,000-square-foot
strength room for Wagner athletic teams was added
to the Spiro Sports Center. It was named in memory
of Gregory P. Knapp ’66 H’00, who died in July 2009,
with a lead gift from his lifelong friend, Thomas G.
Moles ’65 H’00. The two men played football together
in high school and college, served in the Marines in
Vietnam, and became Wagner lifetime trustees.
In August of this year, the baseball team unveiled
renovated batting cages, made possible through the
Richard “Rusty” McGivney ’95 memorial fund and
named in memory of the former Seahawk baseball
POWER HITTING
Senior baseball team member
Joe Conforti was the first to
try out the new ATEC pitching
machine after it was set up on
October 5. Previously, a rainstorm
would have scrapped days of
batting practice. The McGivney
gift provided new concrete floors
and a pitching machine that will
fire 600 balls at up to 92 miles
per hour before it needs to be
reloaded.
player and coach, who died in 1999. The McGivney
family, who count several Wagner alumni among their
members (Rusty’s mother, Cecelia McGivney ’82,
his sister, Ellen DeMarco ’78 M’85 M’99, and his
nephew, John DeMarco ’04), also donated a stateof-the-art pitching machine.
Finally, at this season’s first home football
game on September 18, Wagner unveiled a video
scoreboard, made possible by a former Wagner
IMPRESSIVE DISPLAY
Marc Lebovitz ’91 and his sons,
Zachary and Jeremy, admire the
new Lebovitz Family Scoreboard
on Homecoming, October 23. The
scoreboard measures almost 30
feet high and 32 feet wide, and
displays color video as well as
game statistics.
offensive lineman, and current successful business
owner, Marc Lebovitz ’91.
“I have watched, with great pride, Wagner
College continue to develop and transform
its position as a top-tier private college in the
Northeast,” says Lebovitz. “Donating a brand-new,
state-of-the-art video scoreboard was a way for me
to help make a difference in the College and its
first-class athletic department. Go Seahawks!”
32
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H S , TO P A N D M I D D L E : P E T E BY RO N , B OT TO M : V I N N I E A M E S S É
�Upcoming Events
National Alumni Association
• �Winter on the Hill
February 19, 2011
Basketball Doubleheader:
Wagner v. Long Island University
• �Reunion Weekend
June 3–5, 2011
Special celebrations for class years
ending in 1 and 6; the newest
Golden Seahawks, the class of
1961; the Horrmann Library’s
50th anniversary; the nursing,
business, and education programs’
65th anniversaries; and more.
Visit www.wagner.edu/alumni/
events for the latest information.
Wagner College Choirs
• �Holiday Choral Concert
Dec. 5, 4 p.m., Trinity Lutheran
Church, Staten Island
Wagner College Jazz Ensemble
• �Big Band Tunes and Dinner
Theatre
Main Stage Season
• �The 25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee
Nov. 17–Dec. 5
• �Smokey Joe’s Café: The Songs
of Leiber and Stoller
Feb. 23–March 6
• �Seussical, The Musical
April 13–May 1
Stage One Season
• �Spring Tour of Florida
• �Loose Knit
Wagner College Concert Band
• �The Dance Project
Dec. 12, 3 p.m., Main Hall
• S� pring Concert
May 8, 3 p.m., Main Hall
}
April 17, 3 p.m., Main Hall
• �A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• �Holiday Concert
FL ASH BACK
• �Spring Concert
• V� ocal Jazz Set
Dec. 7, 8 p.m., Campus Hall
March 3–11 (details TBA)
{
Dec. 2, 8:30 p.m., Lorenzo’s
Cabaret, Hilton Garden Inn,
Staten Island (Reservations
required: 718-447-2400, ext. 4)
Nov. 30–Dec. 5
March 1–6
April 26–May 1
Dates are subject to change.
Please call or check www.wagner.
edu/calendar for updates.
H O R R M A N N L I B R A RY,
ca.
1993
When this picture was taken, the card catalogue’s
days were numbered. By 1995, computer terminals
with digital databases had replaced the paper files.
Since it opened in 1961, the Horrmann Library has
seen many changes. Next year, look for a feature
in these pages celebrating Horrmann’s 50th
birthday. Please contribute by sharing
your memories and pictures of
Horrmann Library. Write to
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
For more information,
registration, and tickets:
Alumni Relations 718-390-3224
Music Department 718-390-3313
Theater Box Office 718-390-3259
or Wagner Magazine, 1 Campus
Road, Staten Island, NY 10301.
fa l l
2010
33
�Wa g n e r
Alumni Link
Milestones
Alumni remember a year abroad and a perfect season
A lumni reunited this summer and fall to celebrate two unforgettable experiences.
In July, 34 alumni of the 1969–70 Wagner College Bregenz Program gathered in the
Poconos at the home of George Laszlo ’72 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their year
studying abroad in Bregenz, Austria. Wagner offered a study abroad program in Bregenz
from the early ’60s until the ’80s. Using Facebook as a networking and organizing tool,
the class located almost all of its 63 members, who now live around the world. The
Skype Internet-based video call program enabled some to connect from afar.
“The group is still basking in a warm afterglow from a truly memorable event, and
exchanging even more pictures and stories through the Facebook group,” says Erik
Unhjem ’72.
JUST LIKE OLD TIMES
More than 30 alumni of Wagner’s 1969–70 Bregenz Program gathered in the Poconos in July.
In September, another group of alumni gathered to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of a Wagner athletic milestone: the first unblemished football
season in school history. In 1960, Wagner set a then-school record of 256
points while rolling to a 9-0 record. At the Seahawks’ 2010 home opener
against Cornell, 1960 team captains Wally Pagan ’61 and Charlie Jopp ’61
served as honorary game captains, and all returning team members were
honored at halftime.
UNDEFEATED
Members of the undefeated 1960 footall team, Neil Johnston ’62, John
Knudson ’57 (head athletic trainer), Art Penchansky ’64, Tony Franchina ’61,
Frank Melos ’62, and Al Palladino ’61 walk on the field for halftime honors.
The Link
Version 2.0 coming soon — watch for more
The exclusive online community information and exciting opportunities to
for Wagner alumni.
reconnect. www.wagner.edu/alumni
34
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Michelle Cliff ’69 Into the Interior
(University of Minnesota Press, 2010)
Rosalind Noonan ’80 In a Heartbeat
(Kensington, 2010) and Snow Angels (Zebra, 2009)
In poetic prose, Michelle Cliff spins the
story of an unnamed narrator, a bisexual
Caribbean woman of color, who travels from
Jamaica to New York to London. To read
reviews and an interview with Cliff, visit
www.upress.umn.edu/Books/C/cliff_into.html.
In a Heartbeat , Noonan’s second novel under her
own name, explores one family’s journey in the
wake of a horrific crime and its unexpected aftermath. Snow Angels is an anthology of Christmasthemed novellas; Noonan’s contribution, Miracle
on Main Street , draws on her experience as the
wife of a former New York City cop. Learn more at
www.rosalindnoonan.com.
�Homecoming 2010
IT WAS A GREAT DAY for friends, food, and football on October 23, Wagner Homecoming, with 325 alumni and friends there to share in the fun. On this perfect fall day,
more than 100 people attended the 20th annual induction ceremony of the Wagner College Athletics Hall of Fame, at which the College recognized the accomplishments
of Peter Demeropoulos ’83 (football), Artie DiMella ’88 (football), Mayuko Koshiba Perpetua ’94, (tennis), Billy Kurisko ’91 (basketball), Brenda Milano ’95 (basketball), and
Rich Negrin ’88 (football). Just before the football game pitting Wagner against Duquesne, the Lebovitz Family Scoreboard was dedicated and the Lebovitz family honored
for their gift to the College. Duquesne snapped Wagner’s three-game winning streak in the final minutes of the game. See more photos at www.flickr.com/wagneralumni.
T O U C H D O W N I n a n exc i t i n g gam e ve rsus Duq ue sne U ni ve rsi ty, the
F I R S T T I M E R S Br ianne Whalen, Sara Bandur ian, and Lauren M oore ,
FA M I LY F U N M i c h a e l ’ 90 a n d Je nni fe r De Vi tto e nj oy the d ay wi th
S E A H AW K S TA R A r nold Obey ’68 , pict ured wit h his wife, Cher y l , i s a
R OYA LT Y L i s a S c h n e i d e r ’ 12 , Jo anna Ci avare l l a ’11, Jo e S ci o rti no ’11 ,
H O N O R E D President Guarasci awards Hall of Fame t rophies to Ar t i e
their childre n , L a u re n , A n t h o ny, and Matthew, and wi th Mi chae l ’s si ster,
Mar ie D iTomm a s o .
C our tney S ow i n s k i ’ 11, S h a n e Co urtney ’11, S asha May ’12, and Tyri k
Miller ’1 2 we re i n t h e h o m e c o m i ng co urt.
P H OTO G R A P H S : V I N N I E A M E S S É
all of t he class of 2 0 1 4 , enjoy t he BBQ in t he A lumni Tent .
Alumni Link
stands were p a c ke d w i t h S e a h awk fans.
Wag ner At hlet ic Hall of Fame member who set mult iple school rec ord s i n
basket ball and t rack and field.
DiM ella ’8 8 , Rich Neg r in ’8 8 , and ot her s at halft ime. Hall of Fame c h a i r
J ohn K nudson ’5 7 looks on.
fa l l
2010
35
�1939
sold his house
in Staten Island. He now lives in
Sunrise, Fla., with his daughter,
Linda Barbes Stein ’69.
John “Bunny” Barbes
1942
Class Agent: Theodore W. Gibson
2017 Pine Knoll Road #2, Walnut
Creek, CA 94595, 925-588-9691
1943
wrote in about
the death of his wife, Lois Reisch
Weber , on March 30. “She and I
graduated [in 1943] after four happy
years on campus,” he wrote. “Our
marriage of 67 years, including four
children, nine grandchildren, and 13
great-grandchildren, continued our
happiness. Lois was a strong support
in my 61 years of active ministry.”
Reinhold “Dutch” Weber
1950
Class Agent: Robert S. Peirano
67 Meisner Ave., Staten Island, NY
10306, 718-351-8535
1951
Palmer Thompson has
moved to
Olathe, Kans., after spending 40
years in Los Angeles and San
Diego. Palmer’s daughter, Maralee
Striker, is president of the family’s
travel agency, Magic Mouse Travel
Inc. (www.magicmousetravel.com).
A division of A&P Cruises and
Tours, the agency specializes in
Disney resorts, parks, and cruises.
Palmer is an authorized Disney
Planner and serves with his wife,
Marge, as vice president of the
family business. Having been in the
retail travel industry for 20 years
now, the Thompsons have been on
39 cruises. Their favorite? Alaska!
1952
Class Agent: Fred Brockmann
3949 Wilshire Court, Sarasota,
FL 34238, 941-922-1879,
fredleebrock@comcast.net
lives in
Bellerose, N.Y., near her children
and grandchildren, all of whom
reside in Nassau County and
Queens. Her daughter Jean is an
English teacher at Francis Lewis
High School in Fresh Meadows,
Queens. Evelyn Pedersen Gordon
is still living in Baldwin, Long
Island, N.Y., where she ended her
teaching career to start a family
of three girls: Suzannah, Diana,
and Laura Gordon Conlon ’79. Wagner
has been an important part of her
family’s life; alumni include her
late husband, Bill Gordon , who was
a school administrator at Baldwin
Public Schools, as well as her
brother, sister, brother-in-law, and
a niece. She has fond memories
of an 8 a.m. class in Cunard Hall
with Professor Morse, where
she first met her husband-to-be
when he came in late and sat at
the desk next to her. Dr. Morton
Kurland was named a Distinguished
Life Fellow of the American
Dorothy Srabian Corell
Psychiatric Association. He has
been practicing medicine at the
Eisenhower Medical Center in
Rancho Mirage, Calif., in the
Coachella Valley near Palm
Springs, for the past 40 years.
His four daughters have provided
him with 10 grandchildren. He
reports, “Wagner was a great
link in the progress of our
success and, in fact, one of our
grandchildren, Jessica Bear ’08,
graduated from Wagner summa
cum laude and is now at the
University of Southern California
medical school doing extremely
well and loving it.” Several of
his grandchildren are college
graduates, including one who
graduated from law school. “We
revel in our family’s successes,”
says Morton.
1953
Class Agent: Albert Tosi
70 Woodcliff Lake Road,
Saddle River, NJ 07458
1954
Class Agent: Manfred W. Lichtmann
568 Harbor Watch Loop,
Myrtle Beach, SC 29579,
lichtmann@sccoast.net
Ingeborg Skarsten Hofrenning ,
a retired
nurse, moderated a health care
panel at Becketwood Cooperative
in Minneapolis in September 2009.
Four physicians from a variety
of medical specialties composed
the panel.
1955
Class Agent: Allan K. Brier
67 Round Cove Road, Chatham,
MA 02633, 508-945-3729
is a successful,
longtime educator focused on
the needs of children and adults
with learning disabilities. In
1974, she established the Smith
Clinic in Dallas, which offers
diagnostics, tutoring, and school
consultations. She also develops
textbooks and teaching materials
for people with learning disabilities
through Read Well Publishing
(readwellpublishing.net). She
recently completed a computer
version of the phonics-based
reading program that she originally
developed almost 50 years ago. It is
delivered via the Internet, and she
believes it is the only computerbased reading program that is
phonetic. She has used it with great
success in various Dallas schools.
Jill Jacobsen Smith
1956
Class Agent: George E. Lewis
5043 Kelsie Court, Florence,
OR 97439, mrclor@charter.net
1957
Class Agents: Marie Attonito Alberti
109 Patio Drive, Endwell, NY
13760, 607-754-3400 Ewald Forsbrey
1096 Augusta Falls Way, Naples, FL
34119, 239-353-6240
Keep in Touch!
E-mail: alumni@wagner.edu
Publication policies:
class years of all alumni pictured; birth date, parents’ names,
Deadlines: This issue reflects news received by September 15.
and class years with photos of children; and dates and locations
Web: www.wagner.edu/alumni/
The submission deadline for the summer 2011 issue is May 1.
of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos must be clear and of good
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Content: Wagner welcomes your news and updates, and we
will happily share them with the Wagner family. We ask that you
quality. Prints should be on glossy paper with no surface texture;
send us announcements of weddings, births, and graduations
they will be returned at your request (please attach your address
after the fact.
to the photo). Digital photos must be jpegs of at least 250 pixels
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner groups at weddings
per inch; low-resolution photos converted to a higher resolution
and other special events. With the photo, send the names and
are not acceptable.
Wagner College, 1 Campus Road,
Staten Island, NY 10301
36
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Knot Notes
Wagner Weddings
Celebrating new commitments
Jacob Browne ’05 M’08 and Darby Biggart ’06 were married
Britni Orcutt ’05 and Scott Morley
married on April 7, 2010. Professional
magicians with their own entertainment
company and shop (read more about
that under the class of 2005), they were
photographed in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Christine Pedi ’96 M’98 and
Have a wedding photo with “Wagner family”?
Please see page 36 for publication guidelines.
1958
Class Agent: H. Milton Keen
10581 Lees Mill Road, Warrenton,
VA 20186, mk10581@gmail.com
1960
Class Agent: Peter Welker
P.O. Box 485, Caroga Lake,
NY 12032, 518-835-3198,
pwelker@nycap.rr.com
1961
Class Agent: Alma Costie Vincent
3115 Stowe Lane, Mahwah, NJ
07430, 201-760-2703
Constance Lange Lord enjoys
“substitute
teaching and grandparenting. …
Two months a year in Florida has
reconnected us with high school
friends,” she adds. Her main
residence is in Floral Park, N.Y.
Lelah Carlton Urban ’61 M’65 and
her husband, Kenneth, celebrated
their 50th wedding anniversary
this year. Married on June 4, 1960,
the couple renewed their vows on
the SS Oosterdam while cruising to
Alaska. Lelah taught kindergarten
and first grade at St. John’s
Lutheran School, Port Richmond,
Staten Island, for more than 20
years. The couple is active in the
Staten Island Multiple Sclerosis
Self-Help Group, and they love to
travel.
1962
reports that he
has put his home in Marshfield
Hills, Mass., on the market in
anticipation of eventually living
full time at his home on Siesta
Key, Fla. Three of his fraternity
brothers are near there: Carl
Jensen ’61, Duke Stewart , and Manfred
Liebner ’64. He is still working and
traveling frequently around the
world, selling medical products
(see www.gwbinternational.com
for more information). This
fall he is attending his 33rd
consecutive American Academy of
Ophthalmology meeting, this time
in Chicago. Whenever he travels, he
looks for alumni in the area, and he
believes he may hold the record for
the number of Wagner graduates
visited. In September, during a trip
to Munich, Germany, he looked up
Adalbert Koetter but was told that Bert
Georg Bohsack
had died years ago. In recent years,
Georg visited Bob Gerber , who is still
in great shape and lives in Germany.
1963
Class Agent: John Donovan
141-A Main Street, Tuckahoe,
NY 10707
1964
Class Agent: Donald T. Savage 1130
Morningside Ave., Schenectady,
NY 12309, 518-372-9422,
bsavage@prudentialmanor.com
Dr. Bruce Barnhard was featured in the
July issue of New Jersey Monthly
magazine as one of the top dentists
in New Jersey. Bruce has been
practicing for 35 years and is a
diplomate of the American Board
of Prosthodontics. He graduated
from the St. Louis University
School of Dentistry and earned his
prosthodontic certification at New
York University. Bruce also works
as an assistant clinical professor
at the University of Medicine
and Dentistry of New Jersey. A
former president of the New
Jersey Section of the American
Alumni Link
Andrew Gise were married
on April 10, 2010, in St.
Rita’s Church on Staten
Island. Their wedding photo
was taken at Wagner, on the
Sutter Oval.
on May 8, 2010, at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club
in Stevensville, Md. Pictured here: Kristina Muller
of Wagner’s admissions office; John Carrescia ’99 M’06
and his wife, Teresa; President and Mrs. Guarasci;
Heather George Krueger ’06; Leigh-Ann DePascale Nowicki ’96
M’08; Jake Browne; Christopher Perlongo M’03; Darby
Biggart Browne; Christine Bell, former Wagner staff;
Christine Venturella D’Arbanville ’93; Patrick Shanahan,
former Wagner staff; Kristen Pettis ’05; Jacqueline Sarkies
’05 M’08; Angelo Araimo, Wagner vice president for
enrollment and planning; and Michael D’Arbanville ’93.
College of Prosthodontics, Bruce
is an attending staff member and
lecturer at Mountainside Hospital,
Saint Barnabas Medical Center,
and Newark Beth Israel Medical
Center, all in New Jersey. His
practice, Oral Reconstructive
Associates, is located in West
Orange, N.J. Learn more at
oralreconstructive.com.
1965
Class Agent: Jack Felver
84 North Smith Street, Palatine, IL
60067; 25244 Pelican Creek Circle,
Unit 201, Bonita Springs, FL 34134;
239-495-8861, jrfelver@aol.com
1966
Jean Christ Loken ’s
sister, Sue
Brown, wrote to us about the
passing of Jean on July 17, and
included information about her
extraordinary life experiences. Jean
worked as a reference librarian at
the Dakota County Libraries in
Minnesota. “In 1995,” Sue wrote,
“Jean made medical history by
becoming the first Minnesotan to
receive a Left Ventricular Assist
Device after a massive heart attack,
fa l l
2010
37
�UNCOMMON LIVES
Jerel Gade ’77
The Sledding Pastor
CLAIM TO FAME: The Rev. Jerel Gade ’77 has a great day job: For nearly
30 years, he’s been a pastor to multi-denominational Christian congregations around Allentown, Pennsylvania — but during his off hours, he’s a
highly trained official in the high-speed world of international luge racing.
TOO LATE FOR LUGE? While studying at Philadelphia Lutheran Seminary
in 1980, the Saugerties, New York, native volunteered at the XIII Olympic
Winter Games in Lake Placid. Luge sledding caught his attention, but it
wasn’t until he attended a winter sports camp in 1993 that he rode one
himself. Sliding down an icy, mile-long track at speeds averaging 65 miles
per hour hooked his imagination, he says — but not his body. “I loved the sport,
but I realized that the time when I could take up something like luge had
passed me by.”
FINDING HIS NICHE: A few years later, Gade took his son
Joshua to Philadelphia for a U.S. luge team “slider search”
clinic. Soon, father and son were taking every opportunity
to visit Lake Placid, where Joshua could train and compete
at the Olympic facility. “I was up here so often,” Gade said
during an October interview in Lake Placid, “that it seemed
silly to be just standing around.” That’s when he started
learning how to be a luge judge, keeping competition
fair by enforcing equipment and timing rules.
WORLD CLASS: Jerel Gade is now in his sixth year
as a luge official. He has judged at three World Cup
competitions and one World Championship. His
most exciting meet, he says, was the 2009 World
Championship, held right before the 2010 Winter
Olympics. While Gade was officiating, Erin
Hamlin became the first American woman to
win a world luge title. “My congregation knows
that, come vacation time, I’m going either south
or north,” he says — south to visit Joshua, now
a senior at the University of Central Florida,
or north to judge yet another world-class
sledding competition.
38
PwHaOTO
H : aB g
R EaTzT iSn
I MeI S O N
g n GeRrA P m
�which sustained her for three
months until she received a heart
transplant.” Jean was an awardwinning quilter who used her talents
to serve those in need, including
children in crisis and the families
of fallen U.S. soldiers. “Jean had
an amazing life and accomplished
so much after enduring so much,”
wrote Sue. Jean’s survivors include
her husband, Steven; two children
and two grandchildren; and her
mother and four siblings, including
Dorothy Lagerroos ’65. Find out more
at www.sjloken.com.
1967
Class Agent: Maureen L. Robinson
160 Jockey Hollow Road,
Bernardsville, NJ 07924-1312,
908-953-2939, mrobidwolf@aol.com
1968
Class Agent: Richard W. Ball
13 Jeffro Drive, Ridgefield,
CT 06877, 203-431-6062,
richard.ball@ubs.com
1969
Class Agent: Philip Straniere
3 St. Austins Place, Staten Island,
Michelle Cliff has
a new book out.
See “New & Noteworthy” on page
34 for more information.
1970
Class Agent: Gregory Gulbrandsen
2184 NE Meadow Lane, Bend,
OR 97701, 541-280-3035,
greg@cascadecreative.com
1971
Class Agents: Pamela Broderick
P.O. Box 564, Winter Harbor, ME
04693 Kathy Chinnici O’Donnell 3322
Woodland Drive, Tobyhanna,
PA 18466, 570-894-4731,
katcod0221@yahoo.com
was invited
to become a member of the
Washington, D.C., board of St.
John’s Community Services. This
nonprofit, community-based
organization supports children
and adults with intellectual,
developmental, physical, and other
disabilities. The organization’s
“support without walls” activist
approach enables people with
disabilities to fully participate in
and become contributors to their
communities. Gene Guerriero ’71 M’80
wants his classmates to know that
he is alive and well, despite the fact
that he was listed in the summer
2010 issue’s “In Memoriam”
section. That was an error for which
the editor sincerely apologizes.
Gene wrote the following report to
us in July: “I recently retired from
Merck Pharmaceuticals, where I
was executive director of hospital
sales. My wife, Donna (who was our
Alpha Sigma Phi sweetheart), and
I have two sons and have recently
become first-time grandparents
(Avery Irene, born June 6 to Brian
and Erin). We maintain a home in
Doylestown, Pa., where we have
lived for the last 20 years. We
spend the winters at our home
in The Villages, Fla. I stay active,
golf several times a week, and play
senior softball. I work part time
for a pharmaceutical consulting
company. We enjoy traveling,
having spent three weeks in Central
Europe last fall (Prague, Vienna,
Budapest, as well as several cities on
the Rhine). Donna and I recently
returned from a trip to China and
have booked a Mediterranean
cruise during October with seven
other couples.” He adds that his
son Brian is in marketing at Merck,
while his other son, Michael, has
numerous business interests in
Carol Rabbitt Barth
Fort Collins, Colo. Michael wrote
a successful book, Party Across
America, and a pilot for a reality
TV show was shot in September
based on the book. “The chances
of it being picked up are not
good, but we are excited by the
prospect,” Gene notes. “As you can
see, we have a lot to live for, and
to quote Mark Twain, ‘The report
of my death was an exaggeration.’”
Sandra Logan O’Connor has retired
from teaching after 37 years. She
taught third grade for 10 years,
then earned her master’s degree
in special education from Russell
Sage College in Troy, N.Y., and
taught for 27 years in that field. In
retirement, Sandra plans to relax,
read, and travel with her husband,
Neil. She wrote in July that their
son, Neil III, would be getting
married in October. She also noted
that if she misses teaching, she
can help in the classroom of her
daughter, Betsey.
1972
Frank Thomas was
featured on
PressOfAtlanticCity.com on
July 28. The article, “Brief Case:
Financial planning suits Richard
Stockton College professor
well,” highlighted his teaching,
his financial planning business,
and his integration of those two
career tracks. Frank has been a
professor of accounting and finance
at Richard Stockton College in
Pomona, N.J., for 33 years. He
is also the owner of Francis C.
Thomas, CPA, in Port Republic,
N.J. “Stockton is a unique place,
with good students hungry for
learning,” he told the Press. “I
get unsolicited comments from
parents of past students that
are enormously satisfying. For
example, a couple of months ago
a farmer from Vineland saw me
at Home Depot and said, ‘You
really changed my son’s life.’ A big
percentage of people practicing in
public accounting around here were
people in my classes.”
1973
Class Agent: Henry E. Gemino
5 Strickland Place, Manhasset,
NY 11030, 516-467-4191,
pipe.ny@prodigy.net
1974
Class Agent: Diane “Nina” R. Recio
11 Holly Place, Larchmont, NY
10538, 914-833-0202, nrc917@
gmail.com
David Burke ,
a labor and employment
attorney with Robinson & Cole
LLP in Stamford, Conn., received
his firm’s Pro Bono Award this
summer. David was recognized
for representing organizations
such as Latino Community
Services in Hartford, Conn.,
which helps promote healthy
lives and communities for people
affected by HIV or AIDS. He also
worked with Stamford Emergency
Medical Services, a nonprofit
that serves emergency medical
response needs in Stamford and
Darien, Conn. Debra Lee Schinkel
Newell achieved national teaching
board certification. This rigorous
certification process by the
National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards requires
intensive study, expert evaluation,
self-assessment, peer review,
portfolios, and a written exam. Deb
is the library media coordinator
for Urbana School District 116 in
Urbana, Ill.
1975
Alumni Link
was named an
Officer of the Order of the British
Empire (OBE) in June. She received
this honor for her contributions
to Bermuda’s 400th anniversary
celebrations in 2009; as chair of
the celebration committee, she
coordinated dozens of events and
activities to mark this milestone.
The OBE is an order of chivalry
given to people who have played
an eminent role in their region or
country. Conchita is well known
as the co-founder of the National
Dance Theatre of Bermuda and as a
key figure in establishing Bermuda’s
Child Development Program. Dr.
Warren R. Procci took office as the
64th president of the American
Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA)
on June 11. A longtime resident of
Los Angeles, he maintains a private
practice in Pasadena, Calif., while
teaching as a clinical professor of
psychiatry at the David Geffen School
of Medicine at Harbor/UCLA
Medical Center. Warren has served on
the Wagner Board of Trustees since
1999 and is currently the vice chair. As
APsaA’s president until 2012, he will
preside over the organization’s 100th
anniversary in 2011. A first-generation
American, he plans to focus on
promoting diversity and inclusion in
the association’s training institutes and
affiliated societies.
Conchita Williams Ming
NY 10310, 718-447-4717,
judgephil96@aol.com
Class Agents: Richard G. DePaul
8 McKay Drive, Bridgewater, NJ
08807, 908-218-1418 Patricia Martin
1341 NE Market Dr., Apt. 355,
Fairview, OR 97024,
pattym.phd@comcast.net
was honored at the
November 12 recognition dinner of
St. Joseph Hill Academy in Staten
Island. The music director of both
the St. Joseph’s Singers and the
Drama Club, Donna has taught
English literature, introduction to
drama, creative writing, writing lab,
music appreciation, and fine arts
at St. Joseph Hill. An experienced
on-stage performer, music director,
and conductor, she has also taught a
musical theater seminar at Wagner.
This year, she also received the
Distinguished Woman Award
from the Business and Professional
Women’s Club of Staten Island.
Dr. Maryellen Romano ’75 M’98
was featured in the Staten Island
Advance on August 12. Following
in the footsteps of her father, Dr.
Francis Romano, Maryellen went
to New York Medical College
and began practicing obstetrics
and gynecology on Staten Island
in 1985. Currently, she has a
large private gynecology practice
in Bloomfield, Staten Island.
She has two sons, William and
Matthew; her husband, William
Pezzolo, owns a heating and
air-conditioning company. Learn
more about her practice at www.
maryellenromanomd.com.
Donna D’Ermilio
fa l l
2010
39
�Crib Notes
Classes of 2031 and 2032
Some of the newest faces to join the Wagner family
Amy Prezyna Allen ’01 and her
husband, David Allen, welcomed
twins Gillian Claire and Griffin
Conner on July 2, 2010.
Dr. Carol M. Russell ’96 and her
husband, Bert Barry, announce
the birth of Emmett Albert on
New Year’s Day 2010.
We’d love to see your baby’s face. Please see page 36 for publication guidelines.
1976
Class Agent: John M. Zawisny
56 Howard Ave., Staten Island,
NY 10301, 718-447-4290,
jzawisny@aol.com
1977
Class Agent: Jeanne Delaney-Malikian
6 Walden Street, Somers, NY 10589
1978
Class Agent: Maria Lind Jenkins
31 Gower Road, New Canaan,
CT 06840, 203-966-5999
1979
Class Agent: Frank Valenti
71 North Lakeside Ave., Jackson,
NJ 08527, 732-942-0044,
favalenti@msn.com
is proud that her
creative writing appeared in three
2009 prize-winning publications:
Her story “Memento Mori” was
published in Unspeakable Horror:
From the Shadows of the Closet, which
won a Bram Stoker Award from
the Horror Writers Association;
“Hermit Crabs” appeared in issue
14 of Electric Velocipede, which
received a Hugo Award at the
World Science Fiction Convention;
and “Arachne” appeared in Riffing
on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired
by String Theory, which won an
IPPY Silver Medal, given by
Independent Publishers. “Hermit
Crabs” also made the recommended
reading list in The Year’s Best
Elissa Malcohn
40
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Science Fiction, 26th Annual Edition
(2009). She has been published
in many journals and books in
2009 and 2010, and her work is
forthcoming in A Sea of Alone:
Poems for Alfred Hitchcock (Dark
Scribe Press), Mythic Delirium,
Dreams and Nightmares, and
Star*Line. She also self-published
a chapbook, 30 Science Sonnets, and
you can download her Deviations
novel series for free at her website
(home.earthlink.net/~deviations/
index.html).
1980
Class Agents: Edward L. Garlock
132 Highland Drive, Bedford, PA
15522, 814-623-1124 Billy K. Tyler
1807 North Gramercy Place, Apt.
5, Los Angeles, CA 90028, 323462-7111, billyktyler@aol.com
has two new books
out. See “New & Noteworthy” on
page 34 for more information. Billy Tyler
wrote in about the passing of two
former Wagner staff members that
his classmates might remember.
Luke Piscitelli, who served as
resident director of Parker Towers
Hall for more than 10 years and
was a mentor to many students,
died on March 13. He is survived
by his mother, brothers Joe and
Bruce, and his soul mate, Elaine
Capano. Also, Theresia Schlachter
died on April 14, five months
before her 90th birthday. For many
years, Frau Schlachter housed
Wagner students in Bregenz,
Austria, when they were studying
abroad as part of the Wagner
program there. “Countless Wagner
students spent time at the beautiful
Rosalind Noonan
Schlachter home at Reichstrasse 9
overlooking the Bodensee [Lake
Constance],” says Billy. “She will
live forever in our hearts!” She is
survived by her five children, their
spouses, nine grandchildren, and
two great-grandchildren.
1981
Class Agents: Joan Sutera
23 Lake Shore Drive, Rockaway,
NY 07866, 908-901-8382,
joan.sutera@pfizer.com Lauretta Zitano
2129 Locust Road, Sea Girt, NJ
08750, 732-449-4883
works for the New
York Department of Education as a
speech-language pathologist at two
Staten Island schools: P.S. 38, the
George Cromwell School, in Midland
Beach; and P.S. 55, the Henry M.
Boehm School, in Eltingville. She
has been singing as a cantor during
Mass at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic
Church in Richmond Town, Staten
Island, for more than 25 years.
Cheryl Gucwa
1982
Class Agent: John Spadaro
117 Old Town Road, Staten Island,
NY 10304, 718-987-5073
announces that her
first grandchild, Ella Ava, was born
on May 26. “She brought a lot of
joy and happiness into our lives,”
Sandra notes.
Sandra Kastner
1983
Class Agents: Donald T. Browne
31 Tannery Hill Drive, Hamburg,
NJ 07419, 973-827-4584,
dbrowne100@aol.com Linda Appignani
Romani 40008 N. Integrity Trail,
Anthem, AZ 85086, 623-5519136, momofdm@qwest.net
Rich Wilner,
the Sunday business
editor at the New York Post, was
named the paper’s business editor
in June. Rich had been the Sunday
business editor for the previous
two years. An employee at the Post
since 1996, Rich also worked as a
reporter for Fairchild Publications
in Manhattan for seven years. He
is the treasurer of the New York
Financial Writers Association.
1985
Class Agents: Annmarie Lambiasi
1551 Arden Ave., Staten Island,
NY 10312, 718-420-4163,
alambias@wagner.edu Andrew G.
Williams 30 Roberta Street, Apt. G,
Key West, FL 33040
announces that her
stepdaughter, Danielle Bennett Hunton,
completed a second degree in
nursing at Wagner and passed
her boards in February 2009.
Danielle is employed at Richmond
University Medical Center, West
New Brighton, Staten Island. Lisa’s
younger stepdaughter, Tara Bennett,
graduated from Wagner in May, and
passed her nursing boards as well.
Lisa Bennett
1986
Class Agent: Wade C. Appelman
6 Aaron Road, Lexington, MA
02421, 781-274-8575, wadeapp@
yahoo.com
�1987
Class Agents: Meredith Lynch Acacia
5 Aspen Court, Jackson, NJ 08527,
732-928-8452 Karen McNeice
54 Schley Ave., Staten Island,
NY 10308, 718-356-7631,
kbm1017@aol.com
1988
Class Agents: Melissa Sorensen Faherty
12 Chesebrough Street, Staten
Island, NY 10312, 718-227-2099,
m337j@aol.com Kenneth Nilsen
807 Castlepoint Terrace, Hoboken,
NJ 07030, 201-222-0182,
knilsen@stevens.edu
1990
Class Agent: Levent Bayrasli
72 Kyle Drive, Phillipsburg, NJ
08865, 908-213-9598, sonicbros@
verizon.net
is a teacher
at I.S. 2, George L. Egbert Middle
School, in Midland Beach, Staten
Island. She has been married to
Richard Passante for 17 years, and
they have two children who attend
I.S. 7 in Prince’s Bay, Staten Island.
Alexa Rose, 10, is in sixth grade, and
Philip Richard, 13, is in eighth grade.
Monica Lyn Ursillo Passante
1991
Class Agent: Jennifer Norton Mantegna
802 Schley Ave., Toms River, NJ
08755, 732-458-1412
1992
Class Agent: Natalie Migliaro
510 Col. DB Kelley Way, South
Amboy, NJ 08879, 732-721-6170,
natmig@rci.rutgers.edu
Class Agent: Stuart Plotkin
80 Knightsbridge Road #3F, Great
Neck, NY 11021, SPlotkin@
pclient.ml.com
1994
Class Agent: James Hickey
4209 Route 516, Matawan, NJ
07747, 732-290-3900, james.
hickey@wagner.edu
M’94 retired
in September after working in the
human resources field in health
care for over 30 years. “I have been
blessed to have enjoyed a wonderful
career as a human resources
professional,” she said. “Most of
my career was spent working at
St. Vincent’s Medical Center (now
Richmond University Hospital) and
St. Elizabeth Ann’s Health Care
and Rehabilitation Center, both on
Staten Island.” Additionally, for the
past five years Anne Marie worked
with a team of managers to start
up the Trinitas Comprehensive
Cancer Center in Elizabeth, N.J. In
retirement, she plans to give back
to the community by volunteering.
Anne Marie Rautenstrauch
1995
Class Agent: Nancy L. Salgado-Cowan
451 Walnut Street, Yonkers, NY
10701, nursenancy1@hotmail.com
1996
1998
Class Agents: Tara Yeo Lagana
11 Quimby Road, Turner,
ME 04282, 207-713-4757,
TLLagana@hotmail.com
Darren L. Greco 24 Daniella Court,
Staten Island, NY 10314,
718-761-6069, dgreco25@mac.com
Gise were married on April 10 in
St. Rita’s Church on Staten Island.
Christine is a home-based early
intervention teacher and educational
evaluator for Early Start. Andrew
is an operating engineer. They live
in Meiers Corners, Staten Island.
Turn to Knot Notes, page 37, to see
their wedding picture, taken on the
Sutter Oval on the Wagner campus.
Dr. Carol M. Russell and her husband,
Bert Barry, announce the birth of
Emmett Albert Barry on New Year’s
Day. She notes that Emmett’s birth
date — 01/01/10 — makes him a
“binary baby.” See Crib Notes, page 40,
for a photo.
and Marianne Doyle
announce the birth of Bryan Gerard
McKinnon-Doyle on May 10 in
Brooklyn. His big brother, Owen,
is excited to have a new playmate!
Kathleen O’Keefe ’98 M’03 married
Kenneth Burke on August 14, 2009.
The couple lives in Bay Ridge,
Brooklyn, and both are members
of the Breezy Point Pipe & Drum
Band. Kathy has been a bagpiper
since graduating, while Kenny has
been a drummer for over 15 years.
A total of 54 pipers and drummers
played at their reception. Other
alumni who attended from Alpha
Sigma Omega co-ed fraternity were
Laura Stafford Kochon, Mark Pryce ’96,
Kevin Moran ’96, Jeff Gallagher, Mike Murphy
’95, and Tom Koncewicz ’99. “It was an
amazing thrill to have our friends
and family see us do exactly what
brought us together and what we
love to do with our free time!” says
Kathy.
1997
1999
Class Agent: Rebecca Ann Wallo Rose
41481 NYS Rt. 180, Clayton,
NY 13624, 315-778-8419,
harrypotter71674@yahoo.com
Christine Pedi ’96 M’98 and Andrew
Class Agent: Alison N. Boyd
14 Essex Drive, Ronkonkoma, NY
11779, 631-732-4032
Jennifer McKinnon
Class Agent: Vinnie S. Potestivo
2600 Palisade Ave., Apt. 3, Weehawken,
NJ 07086, vinnie.p@wagner.edu
Dan Seigle,
who began playing
professional basketball for the men’s
national basketball team of the
Philippines a year after graduating
from Wagner, is continuing to
perform at a high level. According
to a Staten Island Advance article
of July 3, “He was a standout on
seven league championship teams,
a two-time national team member,
and four-time league playoff
finals MVP.” Dan lives in Makati
City, the financial center of the
Philippines. He has also begun
working on a master’s degree in
sports psychology. Robert Toscanini
and his wife, Christina, announce
the birth of their first child,
Nicholas Robert, on September 5,
2009, in Staten Island.
2000
Class Agent: Erin K. Donahue
5 Inverness Court, Wading River, NY
11792, edonahue45@optonline.net
and Philip Michael
announce the birth of Joshua Philip
on February 11. His big sister,
Kayla, was very excited about the
new arrival, Karen reports.
Karen Robinson
Alumni Link
was appointed
deputy mayor for administration
and coordination of the City of
Philadelphia on June 3 by Mayor
Michael Nutter. This cabinet
position has direct management
responsibility over the city’s key
infrastructure departments and
coordinates across all of city
government to provide oversight
and support, according to the
mayor’s office. “I appreciate this
opportunity to serve the City of
Philadelphia and look forward to
working with Mayor Nutter and
the other deputy mayors to help
lead this city in the right direction,”
said Richard. He previously served
as vice chair of the Philadelphia
Board of Ethics and as executive
director of the city’s Board of
Revision of Taxes.
Richard Negrin
1993
was hired as a clinical
nurse at St. John’s Mercy Medical
Center in St. Louis, Mo. He started
in the hospital’s Critical Care
Fellowship program on February
8, 2009. James received a B.S. in
nursing, magna cum laude, from
the University of Missouri in St.
Louis on December 19, 2009. Scott
Lewers was named vice president of
multiplatform program planning
and acquisitions for Oxygen Media.
He has been with the company for
seven years, previously serving as
vice president for program planning
and acquisition. In his new position,
he has increased responsibility
for program planning and is in
charge of acquisition strategy for
all program purchases. Alison Penna
Maniscalco and her husband, Joseph
Maniscalco, announce the birth
of Elizabeth RoseMary on July 28
in Richmond University Hospital,
West New Brighton, Staten Island.
Elizabeth was named after her
great-grandmother Elizabeth and
her grandmother RoseMary. Alison
and Joseph were married on April 2
and live on Staten Island.
James Haran
2001
Class Agent: Simone Diaz
1655 N. Colony Road, Unit 19,
Meriden, CT 06450, 203-639-4855,
simoneamcbride@yahoo.com
Michael E. Poole 405 Pinkster Lane,
Slingerlands, NY 12159,
716-764-2835
and her husband,
David Allen, welcomed twins
Gillian Claire and Griffin
Conner on July 2. Griffin’s proud
godmother is fellow alumna Allison
Hynes ’01. See Crib Notes, page 40,
for a photo. Bret Shuford is on tour
with the Lincoln Center production
of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
South Pacific. Bret plays the roles
of Lt. Eustis Carmichael and Petty
Officer Hamilton Steeves. For
tickets and tour schedule, visit
www.southpacificontour.com.
Amy Prezyna Allen
2002
Class Agents: Peter J. Herbst
24 Bethke Road, Killingworth,
CT 06419 Cindy M. Sforza Maley
54 Webster Ave., Ronkonkoma,
NY 11779, 631-676-4757,
smallwonder124@hotmail.com
Renee M. Nadal 634 Monmouth Ave.,
Port Monmouth, NJ 07758,
732-787-3294, nay537@yahoo.com
married Peter Nicholas
Caras of Sayreville, N.J., on June
Katie McAvoy
fa l l
2010
41
�26. The wedding was held on the
beaches of Aruba. Katie is a fifthgrade teacher in Hillsborough, N.J.,
as well as the head cheerleading
coach at Hillsborough High
School. Our condolences go out
to the Acierno family on the loss
of Jonathan Acierno on January 18. A
career counselor at Kingsborough
Community College in Brooklyn,
he suffered from epilepsy and
myasthenia gravis. Nevertheless, he
was very involved in life at Wagner
and beyond, serving as president
of the College’s Commuter Club,
presenting papers at conferences,
and publishing books, among other
activities. His survivors include his
parents and grandmother, and his
siblings, Erica Acierno ’08 M’10 and
Michael Acierno ’04 M’06.
2003
Class Agents: Cari A. Christopher
145 Tomb Street, Tiffin, OH
44883, cchristo@wagner.edu
Robert J. Hamm 14 College Ave., Staten
Island, NY 10314, 718-981-0515,
bobby7770@yahoo.com Nicole Lopes
Steed 2218 2nd Ave., Toms River, NJ
08753, 732-270-3660, nlopes55@
yahoo.com
obtained her
Ph.D. in clinical psychology. She
works at McLean Hospital in
Belmont, Mass., and holds a faculty
appointment at Harvard University.
Jessica Biren Caverly
2004
Class Agent: Alexis D. Hernandez-Hons
5252 Orange Ave., Apt. 335, San
Diego, CA 92103, lex382@aol.com
married Glenn
Turnbull on July 2 at the Hyatt
Regency in Jersey City, N.J. The
couple lives in Brooklyn. Jaime
Sommella was the maid of honor
and Jennifer DiBella was bridesmaid
for the ceremony. Alumni in
attendance were Michael Alas, Nicole
Colonna ’03, Christine Colonna ’05,
and Kyle McGinley. John Desantis M’04
published a non-fiction work of
political commentary, A View of
the Republic (AuthorHouse.com,
October 2010). In the book, he
deals with several topics, including
government, media, family, the
justice system, the economy,
Hollywood, and education. John
earned undergraduate degrees in
political science and economics
at Fordham University before
earning his MBA at Wagner. He
is an engineering designer who has
traveled throughout Europe. John
also served in the US Navy and the
US Army Reserves in a combat role.
Michelle Bingham
42
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
“I decided to write about this topic
about four years ago because of the
frustration and disappointment the
current state of affairs within our
country has caused me,” he says. “I
decided to put pen to paper instead
of complaining about it.” Renée Marino
joined the cast of West Side Story
on Broadway as a swing. She also
danced with the Spangles Dance
Company on the TV show America’s
Got Talent, broadcast on June 15,
and advanced to the next round of
competition in Las Vegas.
2005
Class Agents: Melissa D. Powers
313 Vesta Court, Ridgewood, NJ
07450, 201-394-2408, powers.
mel@gmail.com Matthew L. Sheehan
114 Gray Ave., Apt. 3B, Syracuse, NY
13203, 315-437-5430, msheehan05@
gmail.com
Jacob Browne ’05
M’08 and Darby Biggart
’06 were married on May 8 at the
Chesapeake Bay Beach Club in
Stevensville, Md. They both work
at Wagner, Jake in admissions and
Darby in the business office. Britni
Orcutt married Scott Morley on April
7. The couple met while performing
in a wizard-themed illusion
show. They formed Wonderfun
Productions in 2006, a company
that provides entertainment for
private parties and corporate events.
They are very proud of their newest
show, “Houdini: Master Mystifier,”
which has been performed at
many magic conventions in the
Northeast. Scott and Britni also own
the Wonderfun Magic & Costume
Shop in Pompton Lakes, N.J. The
store has become Wonderfun
headquarters, where they offer
magic lessons, host parties, and
serve the local theater community
with hundreds of costume rentals.
Visit www.WonderfunProductions.
com for more information. See Knot
Notes, page 37, for wedding photos of
the Brownes and the Orcutts.
2006
Class Agents: Leandra Aguirre
2521 14th Street, Apt. 2, Astoria,
NY 11102, 617-645-4859 Michael
A. Armato michael.a.armato@gmail.
com Charles Bender 18 Klondike Ave.,
Stamford, CT 06907, 603-7597439, charles.bender@credit-suisse.
com Dana Guariglia 312 Tysens Lane,
Staten Island, NY 10306, 718980-1848, daynez74@aol.com Derek
Lightcap 33 First Ave., Pottstown, PA
19464, 610-570-2954, dlightcap@
hotmail.com
of the Oakland A’s
pitched in the MLB All-Star Game
on July 13. Bailey entered the
contest in the top of the seventh
inning. This was his second straight
All-Star selection, but the first in
which he saw action. Darby Biggart and
Jacob Browne ’05 M’08 were married
on May 8 at the Chesapeake Bay
Beach Club in Stevensville, Md. See
Knot Notes, page 37, for their wedding
photo.
Andrew Bailey
2007
Class Agent: Christopher Silvestri
1730 E. 31st, Brooklyn, NY 11234,
csilvest227@gmail.com
Alex Jacobs won
a major writing
award from the New York State
Associated Press Association in
August. Her November 2009 story
for the Watertown [N.Y.] Daily
Times, “In Search of Timbucto,”
placed second in the features
category for newspapers in the
25,000 to 50,000 circulation
division. Alex, who is now a media
spokesperson for SUNY Potsdam,
covered higher education for the
paper from 2007 until 2010. Her
award-winning story is about a
summer archaeological dig by
SUNY Potsdam students at the
site of a pre-Civil War AfricanAmerican colony located just
outside Lake Placid. You can find
a link to the article at www.wagner.
edu/news/node/1487.
2008
Class Agent: Stephanie Savoia-Pearl
403 Elm Street, Cranford, NJ 07016,
stephanie.savoiapearl@gmail.com
was named interim head
coach of the University of Central
Missouri’s wrestling program for
the 2010-11 season. He has been
an assistant coach there for the
past two years, during which the
Mules twice finished in the top 25
at the National Championships.
Justin is also working on his master’s
in sports administration. Joe Testa,
who was a part of the Minnesota
Twins organization for the past
two seasons, was sent in July to the
Washington Nationals in a deal for
Major League Baseball closer Matt
Capps. Testa, who was packaged
with catcher Wilson Ramos, will
now be pitching for the Potomac
Nationals of the Carolina League.
Stephanie Williams won the Miss D.C.
pageant on June 20. A medical
student at George Washington
University, she will compete in the
Miss America pageant in Las Vegas
on January 15, 2011.
Justin Ensign
2009
Class Agent: Jacob Shoesmith-Fox
570-765-5022, jacob.shoesmithfox@wagner.edu
is part of the year-long
North American tour of Monty
Python’s Spamalot. He is playing
Sir Bedevere and is the understudy
for King Arthur. This has been a
busy year for Matt. From April 30
to May 15, he played the role of
Harold in The Full Monty at the
Palace Theater in Manchester, N.H.
He went on to secure a role
as Adolpho in The Drowsy
Chaperone at the Broward Stage
Door Theater in Coral Springs,
Fla., June 11 to July 25. To see
Matt in his latest role, visit www.
montypythonsspamalot.com.
Josephine Guglielmino Marcantonio M’09
received an award for mentoring
at the annual Nursing Spectrum
Nursing Excellence Awards on June
2. She is a clinical nurse specialist
at Morgan Stanley Children’s
Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian
in Manhattan, and she teaches
as a clinical adjunct for Wagner’s
pediatrics course. Andrew Minucci
completed his master’s degree in
sports management at Georgetown
University this year. He is now
working for Major League Soccer’s
D.C. United, where he had been an
intern since August 2009.
Matt Ban
2010
Class Agent: Spencer Taylor
4 Sheridan Drive, Tobyhanna, PA
18466, 570-839-8139, spencer.
taylor@wagner.edu
Peter Marinaro made
his professional
debut, only a month after
graduation, in Spaghetti and Matzo
Balls Fuhggeddaboudit! at the
Baruch Performing Arts Center in
Manhattan. This new play is by
David Lamb, who also authored
the long-running off-Broadway
hit Platanos & Collard Greens
about the blending of Latino and
African-American cultures. Spaghetti
and Matzo Balls is a romantic
comedy about the culture clash
that occurs when a nice Italian
boy (Marinaro) falls in love with
a sweet Jewish girl (Jennifer Leigh
Cohen). For more information, visit
www.spaghettionstage.com. Andy
Wells became the seventh former
Seahawk in the last six years to sign
a professional baseball contract.
A pitcher, he is now a part of the
independent Evansville Otters of
the Frontier League. The team is
based in Evansville, Ind.
�CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
Since Clinton was appointed the U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti in May
Just before leaving, Clinton spoke personally about his chief of
2009, Graham has overseen his work there. Typical of the Clinton
staff. “I’ll tell ya, there’s one reason why Laura is where she is today,”
Foundation’s methods, her efforts were aimed at bringing together the
he said with a mischievous look and a long pause. “It was all Wagner!”
government, business, and NGOs to create sustainable solutions by
With a big laugh, he gave Graham an affectionate side hug. Looking
creating jobs and improving health — not administering hand-outs.
chagrined, she retorted, “It was all you!”
Little did anyone know that exactly two months later, the Haitian
More seriously, Clinton said that what makes Laura so good at
situation would become unimaginably more acute. The massive
what she does is not just her speed and not just her hard work — it
earthquake that hit on January 12 killed more than 222,000 people,
is all those things combined with keen intelligence. “She works hard,
left 1.3 million homeless, and decimated the government. The Clinton
and she’s smart enough to know what to work hard at,” he said.
Foundation not only mobilized immediate help, raising millions of
“And she gets stuff done!” Listing the Clinton Foundation’s slate of
dollars and serving as a clearinghouse for information, supplies, and
global projects, with a special mention of the work in Haiti, Clinton
volunteers, but is committed to Haiti for the long term. Clinton
said, “It wouldn’t be possible without her.” With Clinton’s hand on
himself serves as co-chair of the Interim Haiti Reconstruction
her shoulder making her stay put, Graham looked more and more
Commission, which the Haitian government established to guide
embarrassed. “She’ll never take any credit for it,” he remarked. (“I’m
the country’s recovery process. Graham is the one behind the scenes,
reserved, and I don’t like to take credit,” she later admitted. “So it was
making sure his vision for Haiti’s future is realized.
an uncomfortable posture for me.”)
“She’s singlehandedly running [Clinton’s] Haiti efforts,” says Doug
Band. “The people of Haiti owe her a huge debt of gratitude, although
making them mad,” Clinton added — a comment that made
they’ll never know that.”
Graham smile.
Behind the Scenes with Bill Clinton
L
“Also, she has the gift of disagreeing with someone without
“Clinton has been like a second father to me,” says Graham. “And
I don’t say that lightly, because I had a very good relationship with my
istening is the first thing Graham names when asked what she has
father.” Claude Graham was enormously proud of his daughter’s work,
learned from working with Bill Clinton all of these years. “He’s
too, and he wasn’t shy about bragging about her, or the phone calls he
taught me to listen a lot closer to people,” she says. “He’s a wonderful
received from Clinton himself during his final illness. Family members
listener. That’s why he’s a great communicator.”
were shocked and delighted when Clinton appeared at Claude’s
These famous communication skills were in evidence at a recent
funeral on Staten Island. “My father would have thought that was the
event that brought Graham back to familiar ground: Wagner’s
coolest thing,” she says wryly.
Spiro Sports Center, where Clinton campaigned for Staten Island
Graham calls Clinton “the hardest-working, most dedicated
Congressman Michael McMahon at a September 3 rally.
public servant I have ever seen,” but she matches him step for step.
While Clinton gave a rousing 30-minute speech and afterward
Her reward and satisfaction come not from public recognition, but
shook every hand, signed every autograph, and smiled for endless
from sticking with things for the long term. “Seeing it through is very
photos, Graham hung out with her extended family and played with her
important,” she observes. “Any time you can leave your work and say
15-month-old foster son, Matthew, in between working her Blackberry.
I played a tiny part in helping, it’s worthwhile. I sometimes remind
(She has foster parented five children and is looking to adopt.)
the staff of this: If you can contribute in some small way to helping
someone, somewhere, it’s a good day.”
fa l l
2010
43
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Alumni
Mr. Louis Whiteside Balmer ’38
Mrs. Erma Rudloff Coutts ’39
Mrs. Gloria K. Lorenz Volland ’40
Mrs. Ruth M. Zoll Pecan ’41
Mr. James Henry LaHart ’43
Mrs. Lois Reisch Weber ’43
Mr. Richard A. Erickson ’50
Mr. Raymond C. Smith ’51
Mrs. Jane Lee Joseph Sylvester ’51
Mr. Roger N. Bissell ’52
Dr. Michael G. Kobasky ’52
Rev. William H. Rittberger ’52
Mrs. Helen Kiloh McCarthy McCullough ’53
Mrs. Barbara Blumoehr Ogren ’53
Ms. Helen Wenkert Charpentier ’54
Mr. William Francis Luce Jr. ’54
Mrs. Dorothy McKnight McHale ’54
Rev. Richard C. Pankow ’54
Dr. Anthony J. Polomene ’55
Mr. Paul Charm ’57
Mr. Edward W. Monkman ’58
Mr. Alan S. Engelberg ’63
Mr. Howard G. Meyers Jr. ’63
Mrs. Joanne Wisnefski Durkin ’65
Ms. Marsha Waitekunas Francis ’66
Mrs. Jean Christ Loken ’66
Correction: In the summer 2010 issue of Wagner Magazine, Gene Guerriero ’71
was mistakenly listed as deceased. We apologize for this error.
Thomas C. Carroll
Vice president and professor
exemplified integrity
Thomas C. Carroll, Wagner’s vice president
for finance and administration, died on July
17, 2010, after battling cancer for more than
a year.
Carroll came to Wagner in 2004. A certified
public accountant and a certified financial manager,
he was a graduate of Rutgers University, Vanderbilt
University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he
earned his doctorate in education. He was also an esteemed
professor at Wagner, teaching graduate business courses.
An avid cyclist, runner, and triathlete, he was known for
his personal integrity and his devotion to his wife, Cheryl,
and his daughters, Rebecca and Erin. “In my nearly 40 years
in higher education, I have never met a man with greater
personal character, a sharper mind, or a more gracious
manner,” said President Guarasci. “All of these virtues were
packed inside a personality keen on heightened achievement
and personal responsibility.”
44
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Mr. Robert J. Ricca ’66
Dr. James Landry ’68
Mr. Thomas Kovolka ’69
Mrs. A. Louise Finegan Cain ’73
Mr. J. Mark Pearson ’74
Faculty, Staff,
and Friends
Dr. Thomas C. Carroll
Ms. Bergljot “Belle” Johnson
Mrs. Theresia Schlachter
Deaths reported to Wagner College, May 15 – September 17, 2010.
Howard G. Meyers Jr. ’63
Trustee and attorney was active
in his community
Wagner Trustee Howard G. Meyers Jr. ’63 died on
August 28, 2010.
A practicing attorney for over 40 years, Meyers
graduated from the Columbia University School of Law in
1966. Most recently, he was a partner in the Manhattan
law firm of Meyers, Meyers & Tonachio. He was also active
in his community, serving not only on the Wagner College
Board of Trustees twice but also as chairman of Eger
Lutheran Home and Services on Staten Island,
a board member of RSVP/SERVE, a senior
volunteer agency on Staten Island, and
a member of Staten Island Community
Board 1. In addition, he had been an
adjunct professor at Wagner College
and St. John’s University, lecturing on
constitutional law, securities regulation,
and business law.
Survivors include his wife, Fran, as well as
his two children and four grandchildren.
�My Most Important Lesson
Finding your way By Claire Regan ’80
W
“
I realized a newsroom
was where I belonged.
“
henever I introduce myself to a Wagner journalism class,
I break the ice with a few biographical facts. Associate managing
editor of the Staten Island Advance. Faculty adviser to the
Wagnerian newspaper and Kallista yearbook. Assistant professor
of journalism at Wagner for 25 years.
Then I write the most significant fact on the board: Wagner
College graduate, class of 1980.
Wagner bonds last a lifetime and Wagner connections go a
long way. This may very well be the most important lesson I teach
at my alma mater each semester.
Today, the journalism program is thriving at Wagner. Students
pursue it as a minor and complete required internships at sites
including the Advance. But back in my day, there weren’t any
journalism classes at Wagner. I majored
in education, expecting to follow in my
parents’ footsteps. Without realizing it
at the time, I was learning how to be a
journalist on the staffs of the Wagnerian
and Kallista.
Wagner connections helped me land my first journalism job
soon after graduation.
During my junior and senior years, I was a student worker in
the registrar’s office in Cunard Hall. Longtime Registrar Barney
Jensen knew of my interest in journalism, and when his friend at
the Advance, lifestyle editor Larry Miraldi ’68, mentioned he was
looking to fill a job, Mr. Jensen contacted me.
I interviewed with Les Trautmann ’40, editor of the Advance.
I don’t remember much about that meeting because I was so
nervous, but I do remember that Wagner came up.
“So you’re a Wagner grad,” I recall him saying as he leaned
back in his chair and took a puff from his pipe.
Mr. Trautmann hired me as the wedding and engagement
writer. It was a part-time, entry-level job, but I loved it. Spelling
all those names of bridesmaids, ushers, rabbis, and priests
established a useful obsession with accuracy. The job helped me
realize that a newsroom was where I belonged.
In the two journalism courses I teach each semester at Wagner,
I make sure my students hear how Wagner bonds are threaded
through my life. Some of my closest friendships were forged in
the Wagnerian office, where long hours and relentless deadlines
Wa g n e r
Reflections
are still required to get
the paper out. There’s Ed
Burke ’80, Staten Island
deputy borough president;
Rich Wilner ’83, a business writer for the New York Post; Rob
Weening ’80, a financial executive in California; Debra Bennett
’80, an Episcopal minister on Long Island.
Teaching at Wagner has established another layer of bonds —
former students who have become fellow alumni. There’s Abby
Albair ’09, an editor at the Valley Press in Hartford, Connecticut;
Andrew Minucci ’09, who just earned a master’s in sports
management from Georgetown University; Jeannine Morris
’05, entrepreneur of a successful beauty and style website; Jill
Higgins ’05, marketing manager for an arts organization in
Boston; Alexandra Anastasio ’95, programming coordinator at
ABC Daytime.
Looking out of my office in the Advance newsroom, I see a
dozen colleagues who are my former students — whose Wagner
connection landed them their first journalism job, too.
For this alum, teaching at Wagner is a privilege. It’s exhilarating
to grow young journalists and watch them thrive on the Wagnerian
and in internships at New York City news outlets. I use the
opportunity to empower students, teach them how to advocate
for themselves, and use their Wagner relationships as they find
their way. Because that’s exactly what Wagner did for me.
fa l l
2010
45
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
SWEET VICTORY
The Seahawks celebrate head coach Walt Hameline’s 200th career win after
defeating Monmouth on November 6. In his 30th season at Wagner, Hameline
is the 66th head coach in NCAA history to join the 200-win club.
PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID SAFFRAN
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Fall 2010
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/2c09833dc51278c8bf331dec07a35a7b.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=RKCOjKV%7ERn5YJcVrZpbNicEOlEOcRu36qRCgGy7T8LET3EUC%7EO-knvQYZWyer5kAp-qHg6zUj8B10FwmshlD5g4vlYQuR6GUp2dyivesifySSNuF-vzmSLjAqqiTsG8OSVGtW9fg7m1PDyvRBtDkgHrAmW5Pq-BnrJa8Uhx1l4zblePEoxIIA%7ETt8nfJTjFT5ueyLhcq0wjJ575l%7EQZwrvxsRn1WHvp3LlxezWfBe1laiho83NzyR6JpJH3lsSAirTaKbqehZ-0tMcGlBq3-g9uDz6Ak-s0P-jP8NLANS400Ag2BFs%7EDTknPEG3lAiWiWlYLDD3Y7X58AzzpeJwu%7Eg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
ccfee6eeb8d238808f4dba721408fb0c
PDF Text
Text
������������������������������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Summer 2010
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/3aa16bbfa2634844522fe128203a2210.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=meSqSCu-YtD50ClDYpPhHbmn3kB870Px9-qUH6VSAfZQXPYeCRcNnL394a21MA5VtLVHiKTA19PFFynCk68TnRLsgFH6ljs8CBTEVsIMA1tOiGFjhYQG47DDZhaDMp5EEa3agAIuPc5hG9pGM2EnI3mUSkOG8n1fpM0y0Echb4vpSQjCyjKspQhO2wdPYO6k91wVJs6H3xqCGfa9qZ6BxhVqtTgSstBSzBRpGxZV4kS06aKHwxsKeFs8B%7EYjZ%7EvKBV%7EWgsAEI9Fjjn7Tf6J5rQpH861w7y3QoL9OrNjYRoEVBbe9KvmaRHfrOC6juQtgyxupNuun-OlQJOhv7PRttQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
3784e9eab42aa7512fda6c3669743669
PDF Text
Text
Magazine FINAL:Layout 1
7/14/10
8:31 AM
Page 1
FA L L 2 0 0 9
WAGNER
the link for Alumni and Friends
PROFILE:
Compassionate
Command
Sharon Richie-Melvan ’71
continues making history
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A LEADER?
•
UNDERCOVER IN EAST BERLIN
���������������Magazine FINAL:Layout 1
7/14/10
8:31 AM
Page 16
She Never Sits Still
Sharon Richie-Melvan feeds the ducks near her home in
Inverness, Florida. She begins her days at 3 o’clock to
pray, meditate, and write.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�Magazine FINAL:Layout 1
7/14/10
8:31 AM
Page 17
C O MPA SS IO N AT E
COMMAND
g
Since making history at Wagner 40
years ago, Sharon Richie-Melvan ’71
has lived up to her life’s promise.
By Lee Manchester
W
agnerians first came to know a hard-working Philadelphia girl
named Sharon Richie in 1967, when she matriculated as a
nursing student. Two years later — 40 years ago this fall — she
made College history as Wagner’s first African-American homecoming
queen. s “I learned early on that I was never going to get the assignment
I asked for,” she says. “I always got something better.” s This is the story
of the remarkable life — the “something better” — that Sharon RichieMelvan has found since leaving Grymes Hill in 1971.
PHOTOGRAPH
:
JENSEN LARSON PHOTOGRAPHY
F A L L
2009
�Magazine FINAL:Layout 1
7/14/10
8:31 AM
Page 18
GROWING UP RICHIE
William Richie Sr. and Helen Lucille Richie raised their seven
children — four girls, three boys — in the projects of South Philly.
Bill worked in a sporting goods store; Helen stayed home with
the kids.
“My dad instilled in us the belief that no one was better than
you,” Sharon Richie-Melvan says.
“Our family had a drive to excel, to rise above our
circumstances,” adds her younger sister, Marsha Richie Williams.
“Even when we were living in the projects, we had a plaque on the
wall. A man was sitting in a boat, fishing, and the caption read, ‘If
you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?’ We changed it to read, ‘If you’re
so smart, why ain’t you a Richie?’
“She always had that drive; there’s
always been a moving force about her,”
Williams says. “Sharon was always ‘The
General,’ was always encouraging us, and
when I looked at her, I knew I could achieve
anything.”
Sharon and her brother, Bill Jr., were
chosen to attend Philadelphia’s highly
selective public magnet schools, which at the
time had a mostly Caucasian student body.
“It was a revelation for me to learn that most people didn’t live
in the projects,” Richie-Melvan says.
When the time came for Sharon to find a college, her school’s
first-ever African-American guidance counselor steered her in the
right direction, with help from the NAACP.
“They sent out a list of colleges who needed black students,”
Richie-Melvan recalls. “I wanted a liberal arts college with a nursing
program located close to Philadelphia, and Wagner offered a very
tight financial package of scholarships and work-study — just
enough to make it possible for me to enroll.”
QUEEN SHARON THE FIRST
“In the fall of 1967, when I first enrolled, the College had eight
or nine black students,” Richie-Melvan says. “By the time I was a
junior, in 1969, there were 83.”
Though most of her energies went into her studies, RichieMelvan was also an active member of Black Concern, an AfricanAmerican student group. In the fall of 1969, as homecoming
approached, Black Concern decided to take an unprecedented step:
It would put forward a candidate for homecoming queen in the
contest previously reserved for Greek organizations.
As one of the few female upperclassmen in Black Concern,
Richie-Melvan was drafted for the role.
Lonnie Brandon ’78, the group’s president, recalls the astute
electioneering that probably won Sharon her crown.
“There were 83 black students out of a student body of 2,400,”
Brandon says. “We couldn’t win with just the black students’ votes.
We enlisted a group of white students who otherwise wouldn’t have
voted for anyone. You’d probably call them ‘hippies.’”
On the night of October 30, 1969, when the votes were
counted, Sharon Richie had won.
“I was shocked!” she says. “I couldn’t believe it!”
But one of Richie-Melvan’s roommates, Mary Ann Murphy
Pekaar ’71, wasn’t surprised at all.
“There was a lot of excitement generated around that,” Pekaar
says, “but I don’t think it was any surprise that Sharon won. She was
vivacious — just a real person.”
FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE ARMY
Historic Moment
“I don’t think it was any surprise that
Sharon won” the 1969 homecoming queen
contest, says her college roommate, Mary
Ann Murphy Pekaar ’71. “She was vivacious
— just a real person.”
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
While she was still in college, Richie-Melvan had signed up for
a three-year tour of duty in the Army, more out of financial
desperation than anything else. It proved to be a fateful decision on
more than one count.
�Magazine FINAL:Layout 1
7/14/10
8:31 AM
Page 19
First of all, the Army’s scholarship and
stipend allowed her to quit her part-time jobs
and focus on her studies. “For the first time, I
made the Dean’s List,” she says. “Before, I had
been a B or C student.”
The summer after her graduation from
Wagner College, Second Lieutenant Sharon
Richie reported to Fort Sam Houston in San
Antonio, Texas, for basic training in the Army Nurse Corps.
“After just one week in basic, I told them, ‘I want to sign up for
that 20-year program.’ There was something about the camaraderie
of the Army that grabbed me right away,” Richie-Melvan says. “We’d
go to class from 7:30 to 4 and the instructors, all lieutenant colonels,
were so tough on us — but at 5 o’clock, we’d all go over to the
officers’ club, and you’d be dancing with your instructors. Then we’d
go back to the barracks, study, sleep, get up and do it all over again.
I loved it!”
And the Army loved her back.
For 11 years, Richie-Melvan cultivated her career as a military
nurse, starting in an orthopedic ward with Vietnam amputees at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. After
taking a year off active duty, with pay, to finish her M.S. in psychiatric
nursing at the University of Texas at San Antonio, she helped break
ground for the Army’s first residential drug and alcohol treatment
program in Stuttgart, Germany, before returning to the States for a
tour in the Pentagon’s Office for Drug and Alcohol Abuse.
A bulletin-board flyer, however, sent Major Richie on a detour
— to the White House.
LEADERSHIP AT A HIGHER LEVEL
It was her husband, Richie-Melvan says, who saw a flyer on a
bulletin board advertising the White House Fellows program while
the couple was living in Germany. He thought the prestigious
leadership program, which allows young men and women to work for
a year at the highest levels of the federal government, sounded like
something Richie-Melvan would enjoy.
In 1981, the Army personnel office rejected her application,
claiming that she was too young for the fellowship. When she shared
that information with the head of her office at the Pentagon,
Brigadier General William Louisell, he said, “I want that application.”
The following year, Richie-Melvan was one of the 14 young
professionals selected from among 1,200 applicants nationwide to
become a White House Fellow. She spent her fellowship year
working with Richard Williamson, President Reagan’s assistant for
intergovernmental affairs.
For some Army White House Fellows — like a young
lieutenant colonel named Colin Powell, who had made his first foray
into the wider world of government service as a White House Fellow
10 years earlier — the experience changed their careers.
“As White House Fellows, we were taught that government is
here to serve everyone,” Richie-Melvan says. “An ordinary person
ought to be able to write a letter to the president and get an answer.
That’s the kind of government we were reaching for.”
A SERVICE ETHIC
That service ethic guided Richie-Melvan
through the next stage of her military career.
In 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Richie
returned to active duty in the Army Nurse
Corps, serving in various positions at several
duty stations. At San Francisco’s Letterman
Army Medical Center, Richie-Melvan was chief
of staff for more than 500 Army nurses. As
Charles P. Garcia writes in a recent book,
Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows:
Learn How To Inspire Others, Achieve Greatness
Like Richie-Melvan, retired General and
and Find Success in Any Organization, she was
former Secretary of State Colin Powell
was a White House Fellow.
known for her personal touch: meeting every
nurse, helping them achieve their personal and
professional goals, and sending congratulatory
notes to individuals celebrating their promotions, birthdays,
anniversaries, and births.
“The bottom line was they knew they could always call me to
help them if they needed it,” Richie-Melvan told Garcia. “At their
exit briefings, when they were changing duty stations, many staff
members shared that they knew I cared about them and that I made
a difference in their lives.”
Later, as chief nurse for the Army Recruiting Command,
she visited nursing schools around America, offering students
the same opportunity that had started her on a military career at
Wagner College.
“I felt like I had birthed these hundreds of nurses,” RichieMelvan says. Fifteen of those Army nurses, now stationed across the
globe, made her the godmother of their children.
In 1986, at the age of 36, Richie-Melvan was promoted to
full colonel — at that time, the youngest officer of that rank in the
entire Army.
“She had the ‘colonel stance,’ the command attitude, and she
knew what she was doing,” says sister Marsha Williams, “but there was
always that compassion in the middle of it.
“As long as she has something to give, she’ll find a way to give it.”
‘Here to Serve’
F A L L
2009
�Magazine FINAL:Layout 1
7/14/10
8:32 AM
Page 20
REACHING OUT
Since Richie-Melvan’s retirement from the Army in 1996, her
giving has in no way slowed down.
During her first year of retirement, she completed a Ph.D. in
organizational behavior and development at George Washington
University and began working as a consultant. For several years, she
lived in the United Arab Emirates while working on a project to
upgrade military health services for Emirate soldiers and dependents.
She has also stayed intimately connected to what she calls her
“forever family” in the Army Nurse Corps. Several years ago, RichieMelvan was attending the annual convention of the Army Nurse
Corps Association when the group’s president announced that she
wanted ANCA members to reach out to nurses coming back from
combat hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I had already written about the experiences of combat nurses
returning from Vietnam,” Richie-Melvan says. “That was the subject
of my big paper for the Army War College. At the convention, I
decided to do phone interviews with Iraq and Afghanistan nurses
around the country.”
In August 2006, the ANCA newsletter
started publishing Richie-Melvan’s interviews
in a column entitled “Lean On Me.” Later this
year, Arnica Creative Services will publish her
book, Angel Walk: Nurses at War, based on
these columns and her previous research.
For Richie-Melvan, combat nurses are, indeed, angels. “I want
you to know that you could meet one of these angels of the
battlefield today in your church, at a school board meeting, or while
shopping for groceries,” she writes in the book’s introduction.
For many, Richie-Melvan herself embodies this spirit of
strength and service, whether she is providing for the needs of
nervous employees whose company is being reorganized, checking in
on her fellow church members as their prayer chaplain, or
contributing to the local or national boards of the 370,000-member
Military Officers Association of America.
“When she retired,” Marsha Williams says, “we gave her a
rocking chair about two inches high, because we knew she’d never
sit still.” g
‘Angel Walk’ reveals untold stories of combat nurses
W ith White House Fellows classmate Diane Vines, Sharon Richie-Melvan is co-authoring Angel Walk: Nurses at War in Iraq. The project
shares the oftentimes untold stories of combat nurses, which she gleaned from those who served in Vietnam, 40 years ago; and from
those who have served since 9/11 in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has been publishing those recent stories in a column,
“Lean On Me,” in the Army Nurse Corps Association’s newsletter. The following is an excerpt from one of those
columns:
He’d lost 29 pounds by the time he returned home from Iraq. ... Perhaps more important, he hadn’t slept well
while stationed in Iraq, given his nightmares about incoming mortar rounds, worry about his critically wounded
patients, and concern over numerous stateside family problems. “When you work night shift, you’re not
sleeping well and this goes on for days; I was falling asleep over my patients.” He kept his fears at bay and hid
his sleep deprivation until about one week prior to his departure, when he confided in a psychiatrist. The
doctor prescribed Ativan and valium. The day he left, he described himself as “an emotional wreck. I had
such good friends over there, I felt like I was deserting them because they had to stay. It crushed me and I
would be crying, just crying for no reason.” For privacy and confidentiality, I call him CPT Bob. ... CPT Bob is the second ANC [Army
Nurse Corps] officer I have met who was diagnosed with and received treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
���������������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Fall 2009
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
52pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/1909/archive/files/9295e70bf6a3d7ea730ad5a7b0dbe167.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=C1ov-68A-Kc1wQvag8MpPgmNgfDaeL6OA3q4Bai2eq5Z2WdsrxYbJafZAqyBnZb3iS9LWh1aurx7VNv4wpPKS1555gwu-QOyFNskUhQpcGitqlRBZA2Sj1paZg5pfeIzjlnDRg6DHA26y-GOEs9p4E5kg97gq3jehJSFCJUx0gCIwTx2I3Q2ACksaysjIpE9ZlZUUjMmP83YXVYSoZhyi5l6GkJzAj0dpc3ALwaf9kEiP8gH4SoPOqSLe%7Eut1R2r9aIi4qzEyBlUISdwRDmR3oBJsuKnbyAvBKI49NZ8RK%7Ev2mCtdk6WDO1ztWwox9AcsxYaVV%7E8NcOW%7EOUkDYr1gA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
164276c6ea9ff8c5d1bdceda4c171289
PDF Text
Text
������������������������������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner College Alumni Publications
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains the publications created for the alumni of Wagner College. Starting in 1948 and known as the Link, this series has gone through a variety of name and format changes and is currently known as Wagner Magazine.
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Wagner
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Summer 2009
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this work. It is provided by Wagner College for scholarly or research purposes only. Commercial use or distribution is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Wagner College Digital Collections
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
48pp
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text