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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
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3
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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.
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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.
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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
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�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
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�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
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�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
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�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
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�Cartagena de Indias is a city so
“
beautiful that it seems to be a lie.”
— Gabriel García Márquez
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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
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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
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�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
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�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.
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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
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�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
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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.”
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�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
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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 .
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�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
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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
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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
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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
�
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Wagner College Alumni Publications
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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.
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Wagner
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Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
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Fall 2010
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Wagner College Digital Collections
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48pp
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eng
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Text