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Text
Question
Everything
Pat Dugan ’57
used his wealth
to give us all a gift
Page 18
Working Hard to Succeed • Saving Social Security • Finding a New Home
Page 12
Page 14
Page 26
�Wagner Magazine Summer 2013
vol.11,
no.1
departments
From the President
3
From the Editor
4
From Our Readers
6
Upon the Hill
26
Inside Sports
28
Alumni Link
32
Class Notes
42
In Memoriam
44
Reflections
F e a t u r e s
2
12
‘I Worked Hard Every Single Day
in Order to Succeed’
When Francis Zuniga ’14 returned to the U.S. after eight
years in El Salvador, she had forgotten English. Today
she is a self-supporting top student at Wagner College.
14
�See and Be Scene
Art major Francesca Shaw ’13
created this piece for her
senior project, Social Silhouettes.
Read more about it in “From the
Editor,” page 3.
Saving Social Security
As America’s retirement program approaches
insolvency, two Wagner business professors
propose a ‘simple plan’ to reverse course and
provide a more secure future for today’s workers.
18
Question Everything
When Pat Dugan ’57 became wealthy, he did
not merely give to charity. He gave us all a gift
by creating one of the most powerful watchdogs
in the world of philanthropy: Charity Navigator.
�From the President
The class of 2013 shows a promising future
THIS YEAR once again, my
pride in the graduating class is
overflowing. Let me highlight
for you just a few of the new
alumni and their achievements.
Twelve were accepted to
medical and dental schools.
Mark Fealey is headed to
veterinary school at Cornell University; going to
dental schools are Sheldon Rozman at the University of
Pennsylvania, William Rivera at Columbia University,
swim team member Josephine Ieraci at the University
of Connecticut, Student Government Association
President Greg Balaes at Rutgers, and Krey Keller, a
lacrosse team member, at the University of Missouri.
Another 10 are headed to Ph.D. programs. Bujar
Tagani will be attending the top-rated doctoral program
in computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Katie Yoest will enroll in the Ph.D. program in
behavioral neuroscience at the University of Michigan.
KariAnna Eide–Lindsay is entering a Ph.D. program in
Hispanic literature at Rutgers, and Anthony Gambino
in quantitative psychology at Columbia. Physics majors
Vincent Lombardo and Carley Nicoletti will attend the
Stevens Institute of Technology and the New Jersey
Institute of Technology, respectively. Kelly Dennis , an
excellent athlete on the track and cross country team,
will pursue her Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of
Southern California.
Another six are on their way to law school, such as
James Alicea at Cornell University and Adam Nicolais at
Fordham University. Some will enter master’s programs,
such as Katherine Fias at the New York Studio School
for painting, and Mirabai Dougé , a double major in
French and English, at Hunter College for education.
Elise Trudel and Rhea Francani , who were both active
in the Port Richmond Partnership, will begin master’s
programs at Columbia University Teachers College.
A significant number entered the job market. Sutton
Bantle will begin a career with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Catie Grasso and Joseph Jamison both secured positions
with Merrill Lynch; Nicole Arnold with the Securities
and Exchange Commission; Paul Barchitta with Cowen
and Company; Michael Savino with J.P. Morgan; and
Carl Sinagra Jr. with the Bank of New York Mellon.
2
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Ashley Vanger is employed in the
“Their
criminal justice system with the
generation
NYPD. A number have offers
is destined to
in health care, such as Amanda
Diekmann , Eileen Coltrinari , and
usher in a new
Miranda Nicoletti at New Yorktype of leadership.”
Presbyterian Hospital; Keri Pippo
at Mt. Sinai Hospital; and Cicely
Edwards , Naira Feinberg , Nwando
Nzegwu , Elda Ziko , and Clare Brown
at Staten Island University Hospital.
Space does not suffice to mention all of the
outstanding graduates — in the theater program,
athletics, nursing, the physician assistant program, the
Port Richmond Partnership, and in every other major
and program. (Watch my speech at wagner.edu to hear
more about them.) In addition, the class of 2013 made a
record senior gift of $15,000 for a scholarship.
In an age too often marked by hatred, terrorism,
severe environmental stress, widening gulfs of wealth,
literacy, and access to basic healthcare, their generation
is destined to usher in a new type of leadership,
where knowledge and empathy are joined to social
responsibility and effective action. They have my
deepest affection and best wishes.
Richard Guarasci
pr e si de n t
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Anthony Cappadora ’13, a
future physician assistant,
will earn his master’s at
Wagner next year.
�From the Editor
The Art of Instagram
O
NE FRIDAY afternoon toward the end
of the spring semester, I stopped by the
Union gallery to check out the senior art
projects. Francesca Shaw’s Social Silhouettes
series caught my eye, and she gave us
permission to bring you one of her pieces
on the opening spread of this
magazine.
Francesca’s biography
caught my eye as well: She was
born in Talca, Chile; raised
in Providence, Rhode Island,
“where she built sandcastles
and survived off of coffee milk
for 15 years”; and moved to
Salt Lake City, Utah, for
high school.
“All through elementary school,” the
biography goes on, “Francesca gravitated
towards her art classes, which were much
more fun than fractions and spelling tests.”
She was also fascinated with cameras,
and received her first digital camera for
Christmas when she was only 9 years old.
An art major at Wagner, Francesca
studied abroad for a semester of her junior
year at the Queensland College of Art
in Brisbane, Australia. Back at Wagner,
her senior art project developed from a
photo shoot with a friend. She went on to
photograph many more friends, asking for
them “to pose with forms of movement.”
These became her silhouettes. (She herself
is the middle silhouette.) She incorporated
more than 70 photographs into the
Summer 2013 • Volume 11 Number 1
silhouettes, many taken and edited
using Instagram.
“My intention for intermixing the
different kinds of photography was to relate
to how much influence popular social media
has on our society,” she wrote in her artist’s
statement. What I liked about
her pictures was not only the
technological commentary, but
also the joyful and effortless
poses of the silhouetted people.
Speaking of social media,
are you following us? In the
Office of Communications,
we are making more efforts to
integrate our print publications
and our social media channels.
Let’s keep in contact between issues and find
ways to talk about this magazine’s content.
Go to facebook.com/WagnerCollege and hit
the “like” button, and follow us on Twitter,
where we’re @WagnerCollege. You can also
get a regular diet of Wagner College images
through our Instagram account,
@WagnerCollege.
Laura Barlament
e di tor , wag n e r m ag a z i n e
Page 18
Erika Reinhart
gr a ph ic de sig n e r
wr iters
Laura Barlament
Cormac Gordon
Lee Manchester
phot o gr a ph e r s
Vinnie Amessé
Pete Byron
Lee Manchester
Todd Marti
Anna Mulé
Nick Romanenko
produc t ion m a nage r
Donna Sinagra
Wagner Magazine
Advisory Board
Lisa DeRespino Bennett ’85
Susan Bernardo
Jack Irving ’69
Scott Lewers ’97
Lorraine McNeill-Popper ’78
Brian Morris ’65
Hank Murphy ’63 M’69
Andy Needle
Nick Richardson
Friends is published twice a year by Wagner’s
Office of Communications and Marketing.
Wagner Magazine
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
718-390-3147
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
Pat Dugan ’57, an avid reader, has a home library stocked with
hundreds of books. His vision and risk-taking have led him to start
businesses, make money, and found a nonprofit that benefits all of us:
Charity Navigator.
Pat Dugan ’57
used his wealth
to give us all a gift
e di t or
Wagner Magazine: The Link for Alumni and
On the Cover
Question
Everything
Laura Barlament
Photograph: Todd Marti
Working Hard to Succeed • Saving Social Security • Finding a New Home
Page 12
Page 14
Page 26
summer
2013
3
wagner.edu
�From Our Readers
our performance, word reached us that
downstairs in one of the dining rooms,
Lauritz Melchior was celebrating his
birthday. Perhaps it was President
Davidson who arranged it, but the entire
choir was escorted down the back stairs
to the room, where we were introduced
to Melchior. There we sang “Happy
Birthday” to him. He was very grateful
for our singing. At nearly 80, he still
had an eye for the girls and collected a
birthday kiss from each of the sopranos
and altos.
“
Brett Murphy ’71 M’75
W e st Be r l i n , V e r mon t
“
After our
concert, we were
invited to a party
to sing “Happy
Birthday” to the
guest of honor,
who was, in fact,
Lauritz Melchior.
Lelah Carlton Urban ’61 M’65 saved this autographed photo of Melchior
from his concert performance at Wagner in 1958.
Melchior Memories
Editor’s Note: The fall 2012 issue of
Wagner Magazine featured the operatic
tenor Lauritz Melchior as our subject
for “Who in the Wagner World Was
…?” We recounted the story of how he
left his large-game trophy collection
to Wagner College in his will, but
many readers contacted us to say that
there was much more to the history of
Melchior’s relationship with the College.
Donald Kane ’49 recalled that Melchior
received an honorary degree from
Wagner College in 1950. Vivian Seidel
’61 told us about singing with the choir
and performing some scenes from The
Student Prince in a 1958 concert featuring
Melchior at Wagner College. “It’s
something we will always remember,”
she said. “He was jolly, a real nice man.”
Others added more details …
4
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
YOUR ARTICLE on Lauritz Melchior
brought back such wonderful memories.
In 1958 Melchior gave a concert in the
Sutter Gymnasium. As I was a member
of the Varsity Players, our group did
the staging and lighting for the concert.
I think either Al Wagner ’58 or Carl
Westerdahl ’59 was in charge of our crew.
Varsity Players was not the professional
group that it is today, but oh, what
fun it was. Thank you for such a nice
remembrance.
Lelah Carlton Urban ’61 M’65
Stat e n I sl a n d, N e w Yor k
MY MEMORY of a Wagner connection
with Lauritz Melchior is through my
membership in the Wagner Choir.
The Wagner Choir was invited to
give a concert in Manhattan at the
German-American Club. Following
I ALWAYS look forward to receiving
Wagner Magazine, as it’s full of news
about the school and some of my
classmates. The recent edition, featuring
the article about Lauritz Melchior,
jogged a cherished memory from my
three years of singing in the Wagner
College Choir (1968–71). I am guessing
that it would have been March of 1970
when the choir was invited to perform
at the famed Liederkranz Club on East
87th Street in Manhattan, in what was
then still referred to as Germantown.
After our concert, we were invited to a
party to sing “Happy Birthday” to the
guest of honor, who was, in fact, Lauritz
Melchior. He was every bit the large
and imposing man with the white hair
and beard that is portrayed in the photo
you used for the article. It would have
been his 80th birthday that year, and I
recall he was very gracious in thanking
us for our singing. I don’t remember
if President Davidson was there that
evening, but he might well have been.
I was unaware of the trophy collection
that Melchior left to the College, but I
will try to take a look next time I visit
the campus. Thanks again for reminding
me once more of some of the great
experiences that I had as a member of
the choir and a student at Wagner!
Pamela Paul ’71
Stat e n I sl a n d, N e w Yor k
�I JUST wanted to let you know how much
I enjoyed your article about Lauritz
Melchior. I graduated from Wagner in
1972 and was a member of the choir.
I remember one year we traveled to
some kind of European music club
in NYC (my memory is foggy in the
details) to sing “Happy Birthday” (and
a few other songs) to Mr. Melchior.
This was organized by Walter Bock,
who accompanied the choir on a tour
of Germany (which included driving
through East Germany to get to Berlin).
Reading your article brought back
memories of meeting and congratulating
Mr. Melchior, along with the many
wonderful experiences I had while being
a member of the choir.
Susan Okrasinski ’72
K i ng sport, T e n n e s se e
A Poetic Tribute
IT WAS such an interesting
coincidence seeing Marcel
Montane’s letter in the
fall 2012 issue of Wagner
Magazine commemorating
[biology professor] Dr.
Yarns, especially because I
had just finished a poem about him. In
addition to being a great professor, Dr.
Yarns was also a great advisor and friend
to many of his students. I graduated
from Wagner in 1970, and even after
all these years he is still frequently in
my thoughts. Sending along my poem
and also an image of his famous antipollution button. (I wonder how many of
your readers remember that!)
Michael Estabrook ’70
Ac ton , M a s sac h u se t t s
Dr. Dale Yarns,
Professor of Biology
Poor Dr. Yarns —
had a stroke or a massive coronary
(Why are they always massive,
isn’t a run-of-the-mill coronary enough?)
don’t recall which now but
it’s a moot point really
the same result follows —
Over semester break, while back home in Iowa
with his family, Dr. Dale Yarns dropped dead
right there on the restaurant floor.
“What are we going to do?”
Good old Dr. Yarns would ask
the entire Biology class
to get us thinking in practical terms about
protesting the military action in Vietnam,
demonstrating for civil rights
for blacks and women,
and for intensifying the fight against pollution:
“Pollution is Bad for the Gonads”
was his phrase we all wore
on buttons all across campus (and town).
“What,” he’d pause for dramatic effect,
“Are we going to do? What – Are – We –
Going – To – DO?” getting louder
and louder and louder.
Not sure we ever figured it out really,
not to this day, but those buttons were fun to wear,
and Dr. Yarns — his wisdom, good humor,
compassion, and decency —
stays strong still in our memories.
– Michael Estabrook ’70
WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU We welcome letters from readers. Letters should refer
to material published in the magazine and include the writer’s full name, address, and
telephone number. The editor reserves the right to determine the suitability of letters
for publication and to edit them for accuracy and length. Write to:
Laura Barlament, Editor
Office of Communications, Wagner College
One Campus Road, Staten Island, NY 10301
laura.barlament@wagner.edu
summer
2013
5
�A SPIRIT OF “CAN-DO” is what Myrlie Evers-Williams H’13 said she sees at Wagner College.
Fueled by Setbacks
Civil rights leader encourages graduates
to embrace optimism
AN ICON of the civil rights movement inspired
Wagner’s class of 2013 at commencement on May 24.
Myrlie Evers-Williams lost her husband, Medgar Evers,
to an assassin’s bullet in Jackson, Mississippi, 50 years ago.
Yet she soldiered on, continuing her education at Pomona
College, running for office, becoming a public servant in Los
Angeles, serving as chair of the NAACP from 1995 to 1998,
and starting the Medgar Evers Institute to promote education,
training, and economic development.
6
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Recalling her own story and the hatred she had to
overcome, she encouraged the graduates to be positive, seek
the good, and work toward a more just society. “Believe in
yourself. Believe in your goals. Realize that there will be
setbacks, but let those setbacks only serve as fuel to move you
forward,” she said.
Also proudly crossing the Wagner stage with the 419
undergraduate and 147 master’s degree recipients was former
Staten Island Borough President Ralph Lamberti, who
received an honorary degree. Lamberti is chair of Wagner’s
DaVinci Society.
Read more about the class of 2013 in “From the President”
on page 2. To watch a video of Myrlie Evers-Williams’ speech,
visit wagner.edu.
P H O T O G R A P H : N I C K R O M A N E N KO
�Maria
Bartiromo
}
Wa l l St r e e t
r e port e r
s
For m e r
G E C h a ir
“Any manager over 30 is dangerous.”
“Why?”
“Because the world is changing so fast.”
s
Jack
Welch
s
{
Quote
Unquote
spe a k i ng at t h e Pr e si de n t i a l Ec onom ic Su m m i t on A pr i l 25
SHOOTING STAR Léopoldine Despointes’ first film was a Tribeca Film Festival pick.
No Limits
Launching a film career
from a wheelchair
“I HEARD that you are interested
in making your own film,” wrote
Léopoldine Huyghues Despointes ’14
to French actress Laure de Clermont
in September 2011. “I am interested in
acting in a film. Would you be interested
in working with me?”
A scant year and a half later, that film
was finished — and became one of the
select few accepted into the Tribeca Film
Festival.
Despointes accomplished this feat
while also majoring in international
PHOTOGR A PH : A N NA MUL É
business at Wagner and living abroad on
her own; she’s from Paris, France. Because
of a genetic disorder, osteogenesis
imperfecta (commonly known as brittle
bone disease), she uses a wheelchair.
Like the character she plays in her
film, Despointes lets no obstacle keep her
from reaching her goals.
Atlantic Avenue is an 11-minute
narrative film set on a gritty Queens
street near JFK airport. Despointes plays
a young woman whose scarf becomes
entangled in her wheelchair while she is
crossing the street. A scruffy young man
— in fact, he is a prostitute awaiting his
client — comes to her aid. Because of the
determination of Despointes’ character,
this chance encounter turns into an
unlikely and touching romance.
“Breaking taboos” was the goal with
this film, Despointes explains. She and de
Clermont wrote a script that addressed
both disability and sexuality in honest
and atypical ways. The two collaborated
on production and fundraising for the
project as well.
Despointes’ original goal in coming to
the United States was to become a lawyer
focused on the rights of the disabled.
Along with her older sister, who has the
same disease, she was raised without any
limits — they skied and rode horses,
took piano and voice lessons, and went to
school without special accommodations
for the disabled. Despointes also took
acting lessons and appeared in stage
productions. “I saw other handicapped
people, but they were not like me, not
outgoing, no projects going on in their
lives. I wanted to change how people saw
them,” she says.
Working on Atlantic Avenue has
sent her in a new direction. Now she is
starting her own production company
and working on film projects around
various causes, including disability,
rape, and anorexia. Her touchstone is
the 2011 blockbuster French movie The
Intouchables, about a paraplegic man and
his assistant. “I want to make films with
real impact on people,” she says, propping
her feet comfortably on a nearby table in
a Foundation Hall lounge while tossing
her long, brown hair.
With the face of an angel and
the willpower of a general, she will
doubtless succeed.
News about Atlantic Avenue:
www.facebook.com/WheelsTurn
summer
2013
7
�Upon the Hill
{
First the
Facts . . .
10,000
14
40
D ol l a r s d onat e d to
Sa n dy-a f f ec t e d st u de n t s
by Wag n e r C a r e s
st u de n t s r ec e i v e d
awa r d s
Hou r s pe r w e e k
wor k e d by Wag n e r C a r e s
i n t e r n s t h i s su m m e r
LISTEN AND LEARN Chaz Taylor ’15 records children’s experiences of Hurricane Sandy at St. Charles School in Oakwood, Staten Island.
‘Not the
Same World’
Students stay engaged with
Hurricane Sandy recovery
IN THE PAST, Wagner’s Alternative
Spring Break program has sent student
groups to faraway locations such as
Haiti, West Virginia, and Toronto to do
volunteer work.
This year, students had that
experience right here on Staten Island.
And it wasn’t only Wagner spending
spring break here; the College hosted
78 students and staff from six colleges
— four from New York and two from
the Midwest — to help with Hurricane
Sandy relief projects.
Most of the colleges just used
8
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Wagner’s dorms for a home base while
volunteering on the island. But Wagner
developed a partnership with Renssalaer
Polytechnic Institute, located in Troy,
New York, to create an Alternative
Spring Break experience capitalizing
on the insights and inclinations of
engineering and liberal arts students.
Besides helping homeowners renovate
their flooded homes, the students met
with community activists and conducted
interviews with children affected by the
storm.
For Chaz Taylor ’15, a business
marketing major from Princeton, New
Jersey, getting to know the RPI students
was especially enriching, because they
brought a different perspective to the
project. Kellie Griffith ’14, an education
major, treasured the opportunity to
work with children and record their
stories of surviving the hurricane.
All of the Wagner students were
struck by the amount of upheaval that
still exists on Staten Island’s eastern
shore.
“I realized there’s a lot more work
that needs to be done,” said Molly
Delbridge ’14, an anthropology and
Spanish double major. “When we came
back to campus after [evacuating for]
the storm, it didn’t seem like we were
living in the same world. But then we
returned to normalcy. It was good to
be immersed in that feeling again that
it was not the same world. Thousands,
hundreds of thousands lost their homes.”
PHOTOGR A PH : A N NA MUL É
�. . . Then
the Quiz!
When did Wagner
Cares get started?
A n sw e r on Pag e 11
}
AGONY AND ECSTASY From his home’s destruction to his class ring’s reappearance, Sandy took Robert De Vincenzi through
the gamut of emotions.
The Ring’s
Return
After Sandy’s devastation,
one alum regains
a long-lost treasure
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS ago, Robert
De Vincenzi ’76 lost one of his most
precious possessions: his Wagner College
class ring. While he was splashing in the
warm Atlantic waters of the Bahamas,
the ring slipped from his finger and
disappeared in the waves.
Last October, the ocean returned
to steal from him again. This time, it
grabbed not just one prized object, but
everything he owned, as the Atlantic
Ocean drove into the coast of Staten
Island, devouring his home in a 12-foot
surge from Hurricane Sandy.
About a month later, something
magical happened at those very same
waters that took away Robert’s class ring
35 years ago.
A newlywed couple from southeastern
Missouri, Randy and Linda Wilkinson,
were taking a honeymoon cruise of the
Bahamas, when they disembarked on
Nassau and decided to relax for a while
on Junkanoo Beach. They had just
stretched their legs out on the warm sand,
when a nearby object caught their eye.
It was a ring — a large, bulky ring. Its
elaborate engravings were corroded and
encrusted with tiny shells. But, the year
1976 was visible on one side. Clearly, it
was a class ring. The Wilkinsons stashed
it away in their shipboard cabin.
Back home in Cape Girardeau, they
took the ring to their friends Kent and
Vicki Zickfield at Zickfield’s Jewelry.
For about a week, the Zickfields worked
on gently cleaning it, until they could
see a name engraved on the inside:
P H O T O G R A P H S , A B OV E : L E E M A N C H E S T E R ; B E L OW ( R I N G ) : A N N A M U L É
Robert De Vincenzi.
The Wilkinsons contacted the
alumni office at Wagner College and
spoke with Rebecca Colucci ’06, who
went to work on finding Robert De
Vincenzi. It wasn’t easy; the telephone
number in the College’s records didn’t
work because his house had been
destroyed. Finally, Colucci found De
Vincenzi through the business office of
the Fulton Fish Market, where he has
worked for many years.
“Wonderful. Ecstatic. Overwhelmed.
Words can’t describe how I feel,” De
Vincenzi said when he reclaimed his ring
on December 12 at Wagner College’s
Reynolds House. He added that he has
not only regained his ring, but also made
new friends. “The Wilkinsons told me
that I now have friends in Missouri, and
I told them that they now have a friend
in New York,” he said. “God bless them.
I hope to see them soon.”
summer
2013
9
�Upon the Hill
{
Quote
Unquote
IN SEPTEMBER 1918, Wagner College
had
42 boarding students occupying
WINDOW
a
single
dorm, the building we
ON WAGNER
now
call
Reynolds House. By 1921,
The Annex
enrollment had risen to 72 students,
and more housing was desperately
needed. Construction of a new
dormitory was approved, but it
wouldn’t be ready until September 1923.
To bridge the gap, a group of alumni pooled their
resources and, for $18,000, bought the former boarding
house at 86 Glenwood Avenue, a 15-minute walk from
campus. The Annex, as it was called, housed 10 or 11
students and three faculty members for two years.
“The house … is three-storied with a very high and
roomy attic,” said the College newsletter. “It contains 22
rooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, and 2 heating plants.”
This note described life at the Annex in the spring
of 1922:
There are ten jolly good fellows who … certainly enjoy the
life of the Annex. It is not so disturbing as up on the hill, except
when the next door neighbor tries to make the self -commencer
Coursework
WHETHER YOU’RE interpreting political
polls, planning bus routes, or studying
wildlife populations, geomatics and
Geographic Information Software (GIS)
can help you reach your goals. In the
spring 2013 semester, Wagner students
for the first time were able to take a
class introducing them to these powerful
methods of employing data that has a
spatial reference point.
The students learned by developing
projects of their own design. The final
presentations were as diverse as the
students themselves: Keila McCracken
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
}
Professor of
Africana Studies
at Brown University,
at the Black History
Month Symposium
on February 13
on his “flivver” work early in the morning.
This “Lizzie” is not the only thing that disturbs the peace of
the Annex. It is the midnight song [of] … two cats, maybe three
or four, or more, which seem to arouse the professors from their
slumber, but the studes sleep through it all.
Nevertheless, these ten boys claim that life at the Annex
surpasses that of the Dorm.
The College moved all students back to campus when
the new dormitory — now called Parker Hall — was
finished. But the Annex is still standing, and today looks
very much as it did in 1921. — Lee Manchester
THEN AND NOW The Annex in
1923 and today.
Anthropology 306: Methods in GIS and Geomatics
Data Mapping
10
Tricia Rose
“You can’t have a society that operates
on a ‘get mine’ philosophy. … We have to
imagine that our survival is collective.”
’14 used her family’s logbooks about
weather and deer hunting, dating back
to the 1950s, to study the relationship
between snow cover
Elevation map
and the movements
created with GIS
of deer populations in
Minnesota. Nick Gibaldi
’14, who works as a
lifeguard on the beaches
of Suffolk County on
Long Island, mapped
the relationship among ocean depths,
wave height, and tides. Zack Stanley ’15
drew on his experience growing up in
the coal mining country in Kentucky
to look at human health in those areas.
Kevin Ferreira ’13, who has become
an immigrant advocate on Staten
Island through his work with the Port
Richmond Partnership, plotted the
residential patterns of ethnic
groups on Staten Island.
“There’s tons of data out there,”
says Michael Scholl, adjunct
professor of anthropology. Pulling
a grocery card out of his wallet
as an example, he points out
that stores, websites, and social
media are amassing random facts at
an exponential pace. “The hard part is
knowing what question to ask,” Scholl
remarks. This challenge is what his
students are now better equipped
to meet.
�{
The
Answer
QU i Z qu e st ion
on pag e 11
WAGNER CARES (wagnercares.org) got started last November,
days after Hurricane Sandy, by Student Government
officers Greg Balaes ’13 and Kate Schaefer ’15 to mobilize
the Wagner response to the disaster.
A Match Made
at Wagner
When a will is more than
just an estate plan
ARCHIE EDGAR still remembers how
Professor Marie-Emma Bacher would
call on him in his freshman French
course in the fall of 1946: “Mon-SIEUR
Ar-chi-BAL,” she would pronounce, to
his chagrin. (He prefers to go by Archie
rather than his given name, Archibald.)
But this unwanted attention for the
shy Army veteran, who had served in
General Patton’s 14th Armored Division
in Europe, turned out to be a boon when
he met a fellow French student, the lovely
and equally shy Charlotte Pederson. It was
as if they had been made for each other.
Archie left Wagner College after
one year, but he never left Charlotte.
He completed his degree in business
administration at Rutgers in 1949, while
she continued at Wagner as an English
major, graduating in 1950. They were
happily married for 62 years, until her
passing in 2012.
He had a long career with the
National Biscuit Company, retiring as
Senior Purchasing Agent. While making
his estate plan after his wife’s death,
Archie thought not only of his alma
mater, Rutgers, but also of Charlotte’s
— Wagner College, the place that had
brought them together.
With a scholarship in Charlotte’s
name to be left to Wagner College at
his death, Archie Edgar has become
one of the newest members of Wagner’s
Heritage Society.
}
“The
Heritage
Society is a
way to honor
and recognize
people who
have made
one of the
most important decisions in their lives:
to leave part of their assets to the College,
to benefit other young people as they
were benefitted,” says Howard Braren ’50
H’12, the alumnus and Wagner trustee
who founded this group about 13
years ago.
Braren, who has had a long career as
a fundraising consultant for nonprofits,
is delighted with the response to the
Heritage Society. Although some do not
wish to make their estate plans known to
the College, the vast majority “are proud
they’ve done it,” he says.
And their posthumous gifts have
made a huge difference to the College.
For example, estates from Herbert
Vaughan ’34, Erma Rudloff Coutts ’39,
and Leroy N. Houseman ’55 M’57
contributed about $4 million to the
Main Hall restoration effort. Others
provide thousands of dollars in
scholarships annually.
“I know Charlotte would have been
so happy to be remembered for helping
students at Wagner studying English
literature,” says Archie. “We both
thank Wagner College and its splendid
personnel for the opportunity to do so.”
Where Health
and Harm Collide
We all know that
pharmaceutical companies
discover, manufacture, and bring
to market products that help
us and even save our lives. In
The Drug Company Next Door:
Pollution, Jobs, and Community
Health in Puerto Rico (New York
University Press, 2013), Alexa
S. Dietrich, assistant professor
of anthropology at Wagner
College, shows another side of
the industry: Ironically, these
guardians of public health can
also be a significant source of
air and water pollution, toxic to
people and to the environment.
Dietrich explores how this
dynamic plays out in one small
town in Puerto Rico with more
than a dozen drug factories,
the highest concentration per
capita of such factories in the
world. Without demonizing
the companies, she portrays
their interaction with the local
community and the strategies
that have been used to address
the pollution issue.
The Drug Company Next Door
puts a human face on a growing
set of problems for communities
around the world. Accessible and
engaging, the book encourages
readers to think critically about
the role of corporations in
everyday life, health, and culture.
Contact Kristen Krista, director of major
gifts, at 718 -420 -4529 or kristen.krista@
wagner.edu to join the Heritage Society or to
discuss estate planning options.
summer
2013
11
�I
was born in New York,
I Worked Hard
Every Single Day
in Order to Succeed
One student’s story of immigration,
upheaval, and overcoming
By Francis Zuniga ’14, as told to Laura Barlament
12
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
in Far Rockaway, Queens. When
I was 3, my mother decided to
move back to her hometown in El
Salvador. We lived there for eight years
— she and my sister and brother and
I. My mom was a single parent, always
busy working, and my sister took care of
me. She’s seven years older than me, and
she was basically like my mother. But
after a few years, first my brother and
then my sister went back to New York.
When my sister left, it was really hard on
me. I was alone most of the time.
We lived in a town called San
Vincente. Our house was next to the
city jail. We’d open the back door and
say hello to the guards standing in the
doorway. The front of the house faced
the dusty streets. The people across
from us had a big farm with cows, horses,
P H O T O G R A P H : N I C K R O M A N E N KO
�pigs, chickens. We had a finca, like a
backyard, an acre of land to grow fruit
— mangoes, papaya, kiwis, avocado. We
had so many different types of mangoes.
The green ones were the best; we would
cut them in pieces and eat them with
lemon and salt.
I was bullied a lot. Because I was
born in America, the other kids were
kind of jealous. After school I would
get jumped. My mom would say, “Hey,
listen, you have to fight back.” I had to
learn how to protect myself.
I was happy when my mother told
me we were coming back to New York.
It was thanks to my sister that we were
able to go. She was 16 or 17, working
multiple jobs to bring us back. I was 11
years old, and I didn’t speak English,
only Spanish. In El Salvador, I went
to a Seventh Day Adventist school,
a private school with uniforms and
lessons on how to be a good Christian
girl. School there is very strict, and
they expect a lot. So when I came here,
I was a perfectionist. Even if I didn’t
understand what I was doing, I would
do it anyway. I would read the questions
and try to match them up with the
book and copy the answers.
Once I got a grasp of everything, I
became an A student. I learned English
really fast, I think because I was born
here. And I was determined to be
successful. I wanted to help my family
and not be in those living conditions
anymore, so I worked hard every single
day in order to succeed.
My mom is a housekeeper and
doesn’t have a steady job. She would
move constantly, every six months from
one house to another house, from town
to town. And I would always have to
move schools. In middle school, I got fed
up. We moved from Levittown, in Long
Island, to Freeport, and I would wake
up at 4 in the morning to go back to my
middle school in Levittown, until the
school found out I was doing that and
made me go to my local school.
When I finished middle school, my
mom decided to move again, but this
time she was going to Florida. I went
with her for three months. I didn’t like
it, and I came back here.
The court placed me with
my aunt in Levittown.
But life is rough, and my
aunt couldn’t just say,
“Yeah, come for free.” So,
my mom and I paid rent.
I was working at KFC, the
Dollar Store, and I was
tutoring, too. That’s how I was able to
help pay my own rent.
I went to Island Trees High School.
I was on the track and cross country
teams; I was in Student Council,
Environmental Club, Peer Leaders,
Athletes Helping Athletes. I was a top
student in my graduating class.
and field athlete; I am president of
Habitat for Humanity. In 2010 we went
‘It’s the people you meet who
really make the difference.’
I
had no idea how I would be able to
afford college, but God has always
put guiding angels in my life. Mr.
Weber, my guidance counselor, guided
me through every single step. I applied
to 17 schools. Every letter I would get,
I would go talk to him about it. I didn’t
know anything about money. When
I got my financial aid package from
Wagner, Mr. Weber was filled with joy.
He helped me write letters and get a
bigger scholarship. That’s what really
enforced my decision to come here.
Now I’m in my junior year at
Wagner College, a biopsychology major
with a concentration in physical therapy
and a minor in Spanish. These last
three years at Wagner College have
been great for me. I have met wonderful
friends, wonderful faculty and staff,
and many doors have been opened.
One that has impacted me the most
was studying abroad in Spain. Being
an independent student making $200
a month, you might think that there
would be no chance of having this
amazing opportunity, yet that was not
the case. By studying abroad, I learned
that I really can do anything I put my
mind to.
Wagner College keeps me busy. I
have been a cross country and track
to Ecuador, and this year
we have been very busy helping people
affected by Hurricane Sandy. Now
we’re raising money for our next trip.
This spring, I was named the Megerle
Scholar for Achievement in the
Sciences. Recognition like this inspires
me to move forward and reach all of my
goals. I won’t feel satisfied until I get my
doctorate in physical therapy. Then I
want to work internationally and help
unfortunate families throughout the
world.
The life I have had has not been
easy. The obstacles might at first seem
discouraging; but once I overcome
them, I get stronger and become
motivated to strive for more.
For me, God is the main thing, the
key to living. I don’t think I would have
gotten this far without God. He plays
a big part in my sister’s life, too. She’s
always been a role model to me. She
supported me and my mother, and she
completed her degree and is a dental
hygienist and happily married. She
expects me to do well and believes in
me. Without her support, my faith in
God, my family and friends, all the nice
people I have met at Wagner, I might
have given up. Knowing they believe in
me keeps me going. When you get along
with people, the place where you are
doesn’t really matter; it’s the people you
meet who really make the difference.
�See more photos and hear Francis
tell her story in her own voice at
wagner.edu/wagnermagazine
summer
2013
13
�Saving
social
security
As America’s retirement
program approaches insolvency,
two Wagner business professors
propose a ‘simple plan’ to
reverse course
By Lee Manchester
14
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
�T
wo Wagner College business
professors, Donald Crooks and
Cathyann Tully, are worried about
our future.
“If you ask people — particularly
our students — if they think
Social Security will be around for them as a benefit, they are
assuming that it’s not going to be there,” says Professor Tully.
And they may be right.
In 20 years, when the Social Security trust fund reserve is
exhausted, ongoing contributions will cover only 75 percent of
the system’s costs* — and even the benefits of a fully funded
Social Security system aren’t that great.
“Today, the average annual payout for Social Security
is $18,756,” Professor Tully estimates — not a generous
retirement income in most peoples’ books.
So, what about 401(k)s, the privately owned and managed
pension funds everyone is supposed to be building to bridge
the gap between Social Security (if it still exists) and their
actual living expenses after retirement?
“The last number I read, just last week, is that the average
person has just $30,000 in their 401(k) at the time they retire,”
Tully says, “and $30,000 doesn’t get you very far today.”
“And that’s pre-tax money,” Professor Crooks adds.
“If the 401(k)s aren’t doing well, and we let Social Security
go by the wayside, then what’s going to happen to people in
their retirement years?” Tully asks. “We’ll be back to the way
things were in 1935 when FDR created Social Security. Old
people were starving in the streets, and that was unacceptable.
“I think that to make some changes, to reinvent the whole
program in some simple, no-tax-increase, low-cost ways, will
allow people to eliminate some of the uncertainty that comes
with planning for retirement.”
Tully and Crooks sat down with Wagner Magazine to
explain their program in more detail.
instead of just sitting there, we would invest those funds in
various financial markets.
TULLY: In the first 20 years, you take an aggressive investment
strategy. In the next 10 years, from years 21 to 30 of your
working life, you take an intermediate investment strategy.
And then in the last 10 years of your working life, from
years 31 to 40, you take a conservative investment strategy,
and stick with that conservative investment strategy during
your retirement years. You have 40 years of pay-in, and then
another 30 years of pay-out.
We used historically typical rates of return to figure their
results — 10.5 percent for an aggressive investment strategy,
9.33 percent for an intermediate strategy, and 6 percent for
the remainder.
If you were to follow that scenario through — and I
followed it for someone my age, assuming regular salary
increases over your work life — the payout would be $82,000
a year. The payout that person gets today under the system
that exists in our country for Social Security is $18,756.
That’s a substantial difference.
I also backed the investment returns down a little bit —
I did 9.33, 5 percent and 3.9 percent. Some people might feel
that’s a little more realistic, perhaps, though it’s not consistent
with historical returns. Nevertheless, if you had a 40-year
contribution [with those rates] and a 30-year payout, you
would get an annual benefit of $36,301.
REINVENTING
SOCIAL SECURITY
WAGNER MAGAZINE: Tell us about your program.
We call it STRAP — the Secured
Transparent Retirement Account Program. In some ways,
it would be very similar to what we have today. Each taxpayer
would have their own account to which they would be
contributing, and the employer would be matching that
contribution, very much like what we have now.
CATHYANN TULLY:
DONALD CROOKS: The big difference is that we want to make
it so that your account is your money — very simple. And
* AC
�� C O R D I N G T O T H E S U M M A RY O F T H E 2 01 2 A N N UA L R E P O R T S I S S U E D BY T H E S O C I A L S E C U R I T Y A N D M E D I C A R E B OA R D S O F
T RU S T E E S ( W W W. S S A . G OV/ OAC T/ T R S U M/ ) .
summer
2013
15
�For STRAP to just break even with Social Security, you’d
have to drop investment returns to 3 percent, 2.6 percent, and
2 percent for an $18,000 annual benefit. Now, the likelihood
of the S&P dropping down to 3 percent over a 20-year span
of time is slim to none. Anything a new system can get for
beneficiaries above the current level is a bonus, and it would
be difficult to see how our system couldn’t produce more for the
taxpayer than $18,000 a year.
a share. But if you’re Fidelity or Vanguard, the amount of
money you’re moving is pretty damned good. It’s cheaper for us
to have execution through these intermediaries than it would
be if the government set up its own trading operation.
And you think this would fly with the big investment
firms, just on the basis of trades, no management fees?
WAGNER:
CROOKS: Absolutely. If you went to E-Trade or Charles Schwab
and offered them this, they’d be licking your boots.
ISN’T THIS JUST
PRIVATIZING
SOCIAL SECURITY?
WAGNER: Who does the person managing the investments
work for? The government? A private firm?
TULLY:
These are private firms that would manage the funds.
WAGNER: That the individual picks?
TULLY: No, that the government picks.
CROOKS: They send it out to the lowest-cost provider, whether
it’s Fidelity or Vanguard …
WAGNER:
And the fund manager is paid how? On what basis?
Just his execution fee. That’s it — so many basis
points. Execution is so de minimis now that it’s under a penny
CROOKS:
GETTING FROM
HERE TO THERE
So let’s say that we, as a nation, decide STRAP is
where we want to go with our old-age retirement plan.
How do we get from here to there?
WAGNER:
Right now, although everyone has a Social Security
“account,” the money we each pay in Social Security taxes
doesn’t go into that personal account — it goes into the big
Social Security “pool,” from which all current benefits are
drawn. In order to transition from Social Security to STRAP,
we’ll have to make up the difference between the amount in
the Social Security “pool” today and the total value of what
current Social Security account holders have paid into the
system over the years.
TULLY:
CROOKS:
Our proposal solves everything — but it’s not cheap.
WAGNER:
So, where will the money come from?
Currently, Social Security taxes are withheld only on
the first $106,000 of income. We suggest that the money to
cover the Social Security deficit come from lifting that cap for
a specified period of time — just until the system is completely
charged up.
TULLY:
LIFTING THE CAP
CROOKS: Everybody wants to fix Social Security, but nobody
wants to take the bull by the horns and actually do something.
It’s going to be painful in the short run, but that pain is going to
be borne mostly by those most able to bear it — and now I’m
talking like a socialist!
WAGNER: And, as you said earlier, that pain would go away as
soon as the system was fully funded again. Have you calculated
how long it would take, under your plan, to fully fund the
Social Security system again so that the cap could come back?
In the first paper I did on this, I figured that in the
first four to six years, you would raise half a trillion dollars,
CROOKS:
16
WWAAGGNNE ERR MMAAGGAAZZI INNE E
�Is Anybody Listening?
Over a period of three years, professors Crooks and Tully have presented their thoughts on
Social Security solvency and reform six times at the annual conventions of four scholarly
societies. Their most recent presentation, at the Academy of Business Research conference
last September, won them recognition for Best Session Paper. A mailing last fall to the top
candidates for the two major political parties, however, elicited no response.
and that would go a long way toward covering the shortfall.
If you got a little more efficient in the administration of the
whole thing, the shortfall could be covered more quickly. In the
meantime, you can start phasing in the new system.
POLITICS, POLITICS, POLITICS
Donald Crooks and Cathyann Tully are associate professors
in Wagner College’s Department of Business Administration.
Tully is director of undergraduate business studies, and Crooks
serves as director of business internships and the executive and
accelerated MBA programs.
WAGNER: Have you given any thought about the likelihood
of this kind of plan being passed through Congress and signed
into law?
CROOKS: The Democrats would love it!
WAGNER:
Because it would stabilize Social Security?
TULLY: Without a tax increase!
WAGNER:
Except on the higher income earners.
CROOKS: Only in the intermediate term, until the shortfall
is covered.
TULLY: The battle we’re having right now is, do we cut services
and/or increase taxes? Democrats don’t want to cut services;
Republicans don’t want to raise taxes. What we have is a plan
to bring stability to Social Security without increasing taxes
— except for a very short term — or cutting benefits in some
other entitlement program.
WAGNER: Bipartisan? Nonpartisan? How do you two see this
proposal?
I’d call it bipartisan, because on the one hand you’re
raising revenue, and on the other hand you’re cutting the
program’s deficit.
CROOKS:
summer
2013
17
�VISIONARY
Pat Dugan gets daily
inspiration from his
home’s striking view
of the Hudson River
Valley. His vision led
to an innovative way
to help others.
�QUESTION
EVERYTHING
BY LAURA BARLAMENT
Pat Dugan ’57 has not
merely given to charity.
a
He’s given us all a gift by
creating one of the most
powerful watchdogs in the
world of philanthropy.
P H OTO G R A P H : TO D D M A RT I
In 1969, Harlem resident Clara Hale
took in her first abandoned, drugaddicted baby. That led to another, then
another, until this amazing, caring
woman, known to all as Mother Hale,
became the leader of a major charity,
Hale House. At the height of the AIDS
crisis in 1985, President Reagan praised
her selfless work and gave her the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
T
housands of people were touched by Mother
Hale’s story, and millions of dollars in donations
flowed in to Hale House. Some of those gifts
came from Pat ’57 and Marion Dugan, successful
business owners in the New York City metropolitan area.
Having lost their first-born son at age 13 to a terrible,
wasting genetic disease, they had bigger hearts than most
for helping suffering children.
summer
2013
19
�COASTAL NAVIGATOR
Many years before Pat
Dugan founded Charity
Navigator, he served as a
U.S. Coast Guard officer
from 1957 to 1961.
WAGNER INFLUENCES
Dean Stern and Bacteriology
Professor Kershaw
In 1992, Mother Hale died, and
her daughter, Dr. Lorraine Hale, took
over the organization. Dr. Hale seemed
like the perfect person to continue
her mother’s legacy, and the donations
continued to flow in. The Dugans
remained faithful to Hale House, and
because their financial circumstances
had dramatically changed when Pat’s
business went public in 1998, they were
in a position to do a lot more.
“I became, to be crass, richer by far
than I’d ever been, and I wanted to do
something to pay back,” Pat says. “I’d
always been interested in charitable
stuff, but just didn’t have that much
in the way of resources. Because of the
public offering, my company doubled
in value overnight. This was something
that I benefited greatly from, and I
wanted to do something with it.”
In 2001, however, Lorraine Hale
was fired from Hale House. The New
York Daily News broke the story: The
children were being neglected and kept
in prison-like conditions, while Dr. Hale
collected art, built a luxurious office
suite, and borrowed funds donated for
the children to renovate her own home.
20
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Pat and Marion started looking
more closely at Hale House and other
scandal-plagued organizations, such
as the United Way of America and
Covenant House in New York City.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do
with my money,” Pat says, “but I knew I
didn’t want to throw it down the
rat hole.”
Pat could have hired his own
personal advisors to help him find good,
reliable, well-run charities. But Pat isn’t
known as a visionary for nothing. And
he didn’t forget that many other people
had been duped by unscrupulous
charities. Most people give based on
emotions; Pat wanted people to be able
to give based on facts.
Pat, in other words, had discovered
his own cause: Giving everyday donors
information, so they can make smart
giving decisions. Today, that data is
available to anyone, for free, through
the Charity Navigator website.
P
at and Marion Dugan’s home
in Garrison, New York, lies
secluded up on a ridgeline at the
end of a long, winding dirt driveway,
with inspiring views of the Hudson
River Valley.
Besides the views, what’s striking
about their home are the books:
stacked on tables and lining the
floor-to-ceiling shelves of Pat’s study.
Leather-bound classics rub shoulders
with the latest literary fiction from Ian
McEwan and Richard Ford, and the
British humorist P.G. Wodehouse keeps
company with philosophers, scientists,
and historians. On the day of my
visit to Garrison, Dugan was working
through Jim Holt’s Why Does the World
Exist: An Existential Detective Story, with
a dictionary and an encyclopedia of
philosophy by his side.
In a way, the house is a picture
of Pat Dugan himself: Studious and
thoughtful, while also extroverted and
funny; sometimes cantankerous, but
also deeply caring; a visionary whose
favorite pastimes are taking solitary
walks, reading good books, and driving
his collection of nine bright red and
yellow convertible sports cars (although
he says it’s not a collection, since he does
drive them all).
P H OTO G R A P H S : C O U RT E S Y O F PAT D U GA N
�EARLY ESCAPADES
Marion and Pat Dugan on their wedding day,
March 8, 1958 (right). Known for his humor,
Pat Dugan once modeled for an advertisement
promoting an alternative to the sitz bath
treatment for hemorrhoids (below).
Above all, he’s a person who follows
especially his mother; they borrowed
the charge he heard Wagner College
books from the library and got handPresident David Marion Delo make
me-downs from wealthy cousins. Pat
to his freshman class, 60 years ago:
became a reading addict in the second
“Question
or third grade, when he
everything.”
caught rheumatic fever
At the
and was forced to stay in
time, he was
bed for months. With a
a
more than a
cringe, he admits that his
little skeptical
favorite books were the
‘I didn’t know what I
about the
Bomba the Jungle Boy
wanted to do with my
value of formal
youth series, a take-off
money, but I knew I
education. “You
on Tarzan.
didn’t want to throw it
want me to ask
Despite being such an
down the rat hole.’
questions?” he
avid reader, young Pat was
recalls thinking.
an indifferent student. He
“What a
went to the local Catholic
concept!”
schools, but learning there
Pat Dugan didn’t grow up with a
was all about memorization, “pounding
lot of books in his home — his family
stuff into you,” he says now, with a hint
couldn’t afford them on his dad’s
of lingering resentment. “Spending a lot
salary with the New York City Water
of time memorizing stuff that you give
Department. He knew every plumber
back to your teacher is a waste.”
on Staten Island and the family was
By the time he reached high school,
invited every year to the “plumbers’
at St. Peter’s in West Brighton, he spent
ball” — which, true to his Staten Island
his free time hanging around on street
roots, Dugan pronounces something
corners with a bunch of guys whose
like “plummahs bawl.”
highest ambition was to get out of
But his family did like to read,
school, get a full-time job, and get a car.
“That was all the likes of me and these
guys thought about,” he says.
W
agner College was a major
turning point for Dugan;
he calls it “one of the small
number of great things that happened
to me during my life.” Wagner’s dean
of the college, Adolph Stern, lived
around the corner from the Dugans. Pat
knew him, but they didn’t really have
a relationship. Nevertheless, one day
when Pat was a high school senior, Dean
Stern asked the boy to come and see
him. So, Dugan paid him a visit.
“What are your college plans?”
asked the dean.
“It’s not in the cards,” was Dugan’s
reply. “I had terrible marks in high
school, and I have no money.”
Dean Stern replied, “How would
you like to go to Wagner College?” He
offered him admission and a half-tuition
scholarship on the spot.
“Dr. Stern opened the door for me
and I thought, ‘I’ll give it a shot,’” says
Dugan. “I’ve often thought, ‘How did
he ever think about me, a boy around
summer
2013
21
�for the half of his tuition not covered
by Dr. Sterns’ scholarship. He found his
closest friends among the World War
II veterans studying at Wagner on the
GI Bill. He added his talent and height
to the veterans’ intramural basketball
teams and helped to organize them into
the Circle K, the male counterpart to
the Off Hill Girls Association (better
known, Dugan says, as the “Awful Girls
Association”).
He also found the time to date
Marion, a fellow Staten Islander he had
met while she was still in high school at
Notre Dame Academy, down Howard
Avenue from the Wagner campus. They
got married right after he graduated.
P
TRUST “He’s a risk-taker,” Marion Dugan says of her husband, “but it was
calculated. He knew what he was doing.”
the corner, and do this wonderful thing
for me?’” Years later, Marion Dugan
revealed to him that Pat’s mother had
asked Dr. Stern for his intervention.
Today, Dugan is doing the same sort
of thing for Wagner students through
a $1 million endowed scholarship fund
for students with academic promise and
financial need.
Meanwhile, Dugan came to Wagner
with “no clue” about his career path.
For his first three semesters, he majored
in English. But then he decided that
22
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
he wasn’t sure how he could make a
living through that course of study and
switched to bacteriology, a new major at
the College. He flourished, enjoying the
coursework and professors like Virgil
Markham and Edythe Kershaw.
“Between classes, work, studying,
and drinking a beer every once in a
while, there was no time [for reading],”
he says. He boarded at home and
worked all kinds of part-time jobs,
from stocking supermarket shelves to
installing flagpoles and fences, to pay
at decided to seek work in
pharmaceutical marketing; but
first, to avoid being conscripted
into the Army, he enlisted for a threeyear stint in the Coast Guard. He
quickly qualified as officer of the deck,
putting him in charge of a whole ship
while it was underway and in port; but
when his captain tried to talk him into
“shipping over” — i.e., staying in the
service — he said no thanks. He chafed
at the slow pace of advancement, and he
wanted to make more money.
After leaving the Coast Guard, he
found a sales position with Pfizer, covering
the Boston area. His ambition and
personality distinguished him, says his
longtime business partner, John Farley.
At the time, Farley was a sales rep
for Upjohn, a rival pharmaceutical firm.
He heard about Dugan from a physician
they both knew. “Have you met Pat
Dugan?” the doctor asked Farley. “He’s
a big tall guy, and he’s really funny.”
Dugan had made a sales call on the
doctor, and with great seriousness told
him that he was going to play him a
recording by an expert in contagious
diseases from the University of Palma
in Italy. He put his tape player on the
doctor’s desk, turned it on, and out came
a recording of Dugan warbling a ditty
about Pfizer’s name-brand antibiotic to
P H OTO G R A P H : TO D D M A RT I
�the tune of “Happy Birthday.”
of the business, which he called
“Terramycin is good, Terramycin
Professional Detailing Inc. (now known
is good, …”
as PDI). It represented an innovative
“So I was looking forward to meeting
direction in healthcare services: a
him, even though we were competitors,”
contract sales organization, which
says Farley.
provides an outsourced sales force for
After Dugan completed his MBA
pharmaceutical firms.
at Boston University, he got a job with
At that time, no one else was doing
the advertising agency Dean Burdick
this kind of business, says Nancy
Associates in New York City. Farley
Lurker, PDI’s current chief executive.
followed him there, and they each
“What he’s really good at is
went on to work for other big agencies
looking at trends and being able to
as well, focused on pharmaceuticals.
understand where there is a need in the
But they kept talking about “doing
marketplace,” says Lurker. “The other
something together,” as Farley says. In
thing is that he puts his money where
1971, Dugan took the leap, quitting
his mouth is. He’s a risk-taker.”
his well-paid job with BBDO to start a
After a few years, Dugan proposed
niche business. Farley joined him, and
to his business partners that he spin
it quickly grew into a full-scale firm.
off PDI, exchanging it for his shares in
Within two years, they had surpassed
Dugan Farley. The partners agreed, and
their own first employer,
Dugan became
Dean Burdick Associates.
the sole owner
Their business grew to
of PDI.
encompass four divisions
In 1998,
a
with 70 employees.
Dugan took PDI
‘We don’t need you.
One of Dugan’s major
public. It went
Everyone
is
doing
good
coups was redirecting
on the market
work. There’s no need
Bayer toward what has
for $15 a share
for people poking their
become its primary
and rose to a high
nose in our business.
marketing strategy, as
of $121. Last
So why don’t you just
“The Wonder Drug”
year, PDI had
leave us alone?’
that reduces the risk of
$126.9 million
heart attacks and strokes.
in revenues. But
Dugan did not create the
back in the late
tagline, but he was the
1980s, no one
one who pushed Bayer in that direction,
suspected the business had that much
once he started reading about powerful
potential — no one, that is, except
research findings showing that regular
Pat Dugan.
consumption of aspirin slashed the risk
“He had the vision to take the
of stroke and heart attack.
company public when most people
What made Dugan so successful,
would have thought, ‘I don’t know,’” says
says Farley, is that he has two sides: the
John Farley. “He’s always thought a little
side that relates well to people, and the
outside the box.”
side that sees what no one else is seeing.
On the other hand, when Dugan knows
ugan’s vision, risk-taking talent,
that something is the right thing to
and basic stubbornness were all
do, he will stick by it, no matter what
key ingredients to the creation
opposition he faces.
and growth of Charity Navigator.
So, in the mid-1980s, when Dugan
When www.charitynavigator.org
felt like he and his clients were no
went live on the Internet on April
longer having a meeting of the minds,
15, 2002, it rated an impressive 1,100
he decided to develop another division
public charities with a system of zero to
D
four stars, familiar to users of websites
from Amazon to Yelp. The ratings
were based on financial data publicly
available through IRS 990 forms, the
informational tax returns that charities
are required to file annually.
This did not win it many fans in the
sector it was covering.
“People from charities, from
foundations, anybody involved in the
sector, pretty much said, ‘We don’t
need you. Everyone is doing good work.
There’s no need for people poking their
nose in our business. So why don’t you
just leave us alone?’” Dugan says. “That
was an almost universal feeling amongst
people in the sector.”
Their main argument was that
Charity Navigator’s rating system
reduced a charity’s work to its financial
statements, which wasn’t a fair measure.
According to Trent Stamp, Charity
Navigator’s first chief executive, Dugan
was steadfast in the face of criticism.
Even some of his own friends, who sat
on the boards of charities that may not
have received the highest rating, were
annoyed. “Pat was resolute in the idea
that this was a good thing, and it would
be better for the charitable donor in the
long run,” Stamp says. “He didn’t care
what kind of heat came, as long as we
were being fair in our processes.”
Dugan remains unapologetic about
the rating methodology. “We’ve used
what we’ve had available,” he says. “Up
until fairly recently, our whole rating
was based on these financial things
about how much money they raised,
how the trend was going, how much of
a reserve they had, how much they put
into programs as opposed to fundraising
and overhead. That’s all we had to work
with at that point.”
Charities may not have appreciated
having their dirty financial laundry
exposed, but donors liked the service.
Most of the site’s traffic came via
word of mouth and public relations
efforts, and website usage more than
quadrupled in the first year; in 2012,
it had more than 6.2 million visitors.
summer
2013
23
�a
WORDS TO THE
WISE DONOR
Tips from www.charitynavigator.org
The Top 10 “Super-Sized Charities” (headed by the American
Red Cross at $3.4 billion, Feeding America at $1.5 billion, and the
Smithsonian Institution at $1.1 billion) demonstrate why it’s important
to pay attention to this sector: fiscal power. Each had total expenses
greater than $800 million in its most recent fiscal year. The combined
total expenses of the top 10 are approximately $10 billion. The entire
charitable sector is estimated to be worth as much as $2 trillion.
The Top 10 “Charities Overpaying Their
For-Profit Fundraisers” each spends more than 50 percent
of its budget paying for-profit fundraising professionals to solicit
your hard-earned money.
The 10 Best Practices of Savvy Donors includes,
“Share your intentions and make a long-term commitment.”
Why? Smart donors see themselves as partners in the charity’s
efforts to bring about change.
How to Stop Solicitations by Mail includes, “Refrain from giving
small donations to many charities.” Small donations, such as $25,
barely cover the costs the charity incurred in soliciting the gift. To
recoup those costs, many charities will simply sell the donor’s name
to another charity doing similar work.
DATA AC C E S S E D J U N E 2 8 , 2 0 1 3
24
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Media outlets started promoting it;
Time, Kiplinger’s, Forbes, and many others
endorsed it.
The rating system is not as blunt an
instrument as some critics would lead you
to believe, if you take the time to dig into
the details behind it; and the Charity
Navigator staff is diligent about refining
the site’s methodologies and expanding
its offerings. The first big revision of the
rating system came in 2008, when the
IRS changed the 990 form, responding
to pressure from the public and from
Congress to make sure public charities
used donations responsibly. The new 990
information, plus additional research
performed by the Charity Navigator
staff, allowed the site to add measures
of “transparency and accountability” to
the rating system. These include board
membership, executive salaries, audit
information, and other factors.
And this refining process is far
from over.
I
n January of this year, Pat Dugan was
in the offices of Charity Navigator,
along with the current CEO,
Ken Berger, who has been with the
organization since 2008. A veteran of the
nonprofit service sector, Berger has an
easy rapport with his boss, joking about
how they are both wearing fashionable
sweater vests.
Twelve years into this project,
Dugan’s enthusiasm and commitment
to it are undimmed. “When I bump
into somebody who is educated, wellinformed, and all that good stuff, and
they’ve never heard of Charity Navigator,
it’s like a dagger in my heart,” he says,
holding a fist to his chest.
In this nondescript office building in
Glen Rock, New Jersey, young people are
working in every nook and cranny. They
recently increased the staff to the grand
number of 12 — in double digits for
the first time — ramping up to launch
three huge new features to the website:
increasing the number of public charities
�FREE ONLINE
ADVICE
Charity
Navigator
rates more
than 6,000
charities and
provides loads
of useful tips
for 6 million
plus users.
rated on the site from the current 6,000
to 10,000; adding an informational
page (not a rating) for each one of
the 1.8 million legitimate nonprofits
registered with the IRS; and lastly and
most significantly, incorporating a new
dimension to their rating system, a quest
that Pat likes to call “the Holy Grail.”
“We are now working on something
that is just leading the league, and
everybody admits that we are on the
forefront,” Dugan explains. “That is
evaluating the outcomes and programs.”
In other words, instead of using
indirect measures of a charity’s
effectiveness — its finances,
transparency, and accountability —
Charity Navigator will look at each
charity’s results — what it achieves with
its programming and spending.
To rate charities by how well they
achieve their mission seems like an
obvious choice. But there are two big
problems with moving in this direction:
1. Charities’ outcomes are not always
easy to measure, and 2. Most charities
have made no effort to measure their
outcomes.
It’s a widely acknowledged failing
in nonprofit operations. “A very low
percentage of charities possess any
measurable information about their
results or effectiveness — much
less data that are compiled by an
independent party,” wrote Ben Gose
in the Chronicle of Philanthropy in April
2009. Gose cited Charity Navigator’s
attempts to get at this information
— but a survey sent out to 110
organizations got only 15 replies.
At the same time, the biggest
criticism of Charity Navigator’s rating
system is that it doesn’t take outcomes
into account. “So they’re putting us into
this impossible situation — to measure
something that they don’t provide,”
says Berger.
Warming to the topic, Berger
continues, “So while you’re throwing
stones, the irony is: Back atcha! Now,
own up. You want us to measure results?
A. Start tracking it, and B. Once you
start tracking it, publicly report that
information. And then we’ll talk. Then
we’ll get serious about measuring
results. So the game-changer here is
we’re going to incentivize charities to do
the most important thing about their
work: to share it with the public.”
Dugan nods and chuckles as
Berger’s voice rises with indignity. In
January, Charity Navigator unveiled
its preliminary work on this “third
dimension of intelligent giving,” as
they call it.
I
n the end, Charity Navigator is a
lot like its founder: It may have its
flaws and limitations, but you really
can’t find a chink in its basic sincerity
and integrity.
“The biggest thing that always
impressed me is that [Pat] is
uncompromising in his ethics,” says
Trent Stamp. “He insisted that we do
things the right way. He knew that if we
were going to evaluate charities, people
would be looking at us, and he made
sure we were held to a higher standard.”
But Charity Navigator’s mission
is bigger than providing a fair rating
system. When donors direct their
charitable dollars toward more effective
charities, it will make the whole sector
more effective, and therefore make a
bigger dent in the problems charities
are addressing — hunger, homelessness,
health, or scores of other causes.
The goal is to change the donor
paradigm from charitable giving to
social investing, “to move away from
giving something and just walking
away from it,” explains Berger. “You’re
investing and you want to see some
return, some social value, as a return on
that investment.”
That mission attracts smart and
idealistic staff to the organization,
says Dugan. “We can’t afford to pay
them a lot, and many of them have
advanced degrees,” he says. “They’re
less interested in the money that they
could earn someplace else. They want to
change the world.”
Charity Navigator still takes a lot of
hits from people in the charitable sector.
At the same time, says Trent Stamp,
who is now the CEO of the Eisner
Foundation, “I think we’ve created an
environment where people understand
that there are good charities and there
are bad charities; not every charity is
the same.
“And now major charities are the
first to trumpet their Charity Navigator
four-star rating and tell people, ‘We’re
doing better work than our peers, we’re
a better destination for your charitable
dollars.’
“[Pat Dugan’s] vision will live on for
generations in the nonprofit world, and
he should be very proud of it.”
summer
2013
25
�Inside Sports
The highest-profile recruit in Wagner basketball history
rediscovers his hoop dreams in a new environment
S
ometimes it’s all
about rebounding.
And not just
on the basketball
court.
Dwaun
Anderson ’16
understands
that now.
In the spring of 2011, the soft-spoken
Wagner sophomore was a high school
hoops star in tiny Suttons Bay, Michigan,
one of the villages that dot Lake
Michigan 300 miles north of Detroit.
He had just been named Mr. Basketball,
26
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
an honor awarded to the best senior
high school player each year in that
basketball-crazed state. Even better, the
6-foot-4 teenager was on his way to play
at national powerhouse Michigan State
University, a program coming off backto-back Final Four appearances.
It was, he said, “a dream come true.”
Back then, Anderson allowed himself
to think that he might even become one
of the few Native Americans to make it
to the NBA. Then real life intervened in
the cruelest of ways.
Anderson’s mother, 42-year-old
Mary Lynn Anderson, a full-blooded
By Cormac Gordon
member of the Grand Traverse Band of
Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, died in
May 2011, following a long struggle with
alcoholism. For a boy whose father was
never really a part of his life, the loss was
devastating.
A few weeks after Mary Lynn
Anderson was buried in a modest plot on
the Indian reservation grounds, Dwaun
left the cherry orchards and wooded
trails of Suttons Bay, and traveled
150 miles south for summer classes at
Michigan State.
But Anderson wasn’t ready. Not for
the huge campus, or the study regimen.
PHOTOGR A PH : A N NA MUL É
�Even basketball, his lifetime passion,
had become a chore. “When I got there
I was going through the toughest part
of my life,” he says. “I was angry, and I
started thinking I was losing my love
of the game.”
Out of a sense of desperation as
much as anything else, Anderson made
a difficult personal decision. He walked
away from the Spartans.
In this case, leaving school a couple of
weeks before freshman orientation wasn’t
some unnoticed change of direction by
another confused teenage athlete. This
was the state’s reigning Mr. Basketball
leaving the preeminent program in that
part of the country. It was a big deal,
greeted with the media frenzy that
accompanies such movements.
But it was also something the bruised,
distracted Anderson felt he had to do on
a very personal level.
Dan Hurley, Wagner’s coach at the
time, heard about Anderson’s situation
and reached out to the grief-stricken kid.
Anderson had never heard of Wagner,
but he came for a visit, even while more
marquee basketball programs were
sending out feelers.
Anderson liked what he saw: a small
school with a country-like campus and
a rising basketball program that fit what
he needed at that point in his life. In
December of 2011, Anderson arrived as
the highest-profile basketball recruit in
Wagner history.
It didn’t take long for his personal
life to begin changing for the better.
Anderson was not yet eligible to play,
but he could practice with his new
teammates, living with them in the
dorms and hanging with them in
down time.
“Dwaun started adjusting, I thought,
right away,” says Bashir Mason, a former
Hurley assistant who was named head
coach in April 2012. “He was a kid who
had a lot to figure out, but it was like he’d
been looking for a new environment and
a chance to start over.”
When the season began last
September, two things became clear
immediately: Anderson was an enormous
talent, extraordinarily quick and athletic.
He was also raw and inexperienced,
and not all that confident for someone
of his abilities.
In the early part of the schedule,
Anderson struggled shooting the ball,
and he sometimes missed defensive
rotations. He lacked nothing in effort,
but execution was at times a problem.
“I was nervous,” he admits. “I didn’t
know what to expect, and when I had
a few bad games in a row I began to
lose confidence.”
Mason’s prescription for his new
player? “Coach told me to just keep
playing, not to get down.”
As the weeks progressed, Anderson
was gaining a renewed sense of himself.
“I came to be in a completely different
place from where I’d been,” he says. “I
was back to being comfortable, where
just being happy was a given again.”
In part, he credits being at Wagner
with that change. “This is a good place
for me,” Anderson says. “I have a lot of
friends and not a lot of distractions. It’s
really worked out.”
Toward the end of Wagner’s 19-12
season, Anderson’s game improved
markedly. Over the last 10 games, the
small forward averaged almost seven
points and four rebounds per game in
just 16 minutes of playing time. In a
truly unusual stat for someone his size,
Anderson registered seven explosive
blocks in the final four games.
Mason believes the final weeks were
a small tease of what’s to come. “At
the end of the season, Dwaun was just
beginning to get his feet under him,” he
says. “I believe before it’s over he will be
everything he and everyone else thought
he could be.”
List
the
Water polo won the Metro
Atlantic Athletic Conference
regular season championship
for first time since 2009
and advanced to the MAAC
championship game. They lost
to Iona, but ended the season
with a 26–11 record, the most
wins in school history. Chris
Radmonovich was named
MAAC Coach of the Year
and Jess Lundgren ’16 was
•
dubbed Rookie of the Year.
Football linebacker C. O. Prime
’13 signed an NFL free agent
contract with the Indianapolis
•
Colts.
Zachary Spector ’12
M’13 placed first in the 10K at
the NEC Outdoor Track & Field
Championships, and second in the
5K, while Emily Pereira ’15 won
•
the 800 meters.
Swimming
and diving came in second at
the 2013 NEC championships,
the team’s best finish in 10 years.
Amanda Lucia ’16 won the
200 fly and Sarah Menendez
’14 placed first in the 100 free.
Coach Colin Shannahan was
•
named NEC Coach of the Year.
Women’s lacrosse midfielder
Shea Gegan ’16 capped her
brilliant first season with being
named to the All-NEC Second
Team and the All-NEC Rookie
•
Team.
In baseball, outfielder
Ian Miller ’14 set a record for
stolen bases, was named to the
All-NEC First Team, and was then
selected by the Seattle Mariners
in the MLB First-Year Player Draft.
s u mf m
al
er
l
2 0 1 30
27
�’HAWK TALK
Matthew Alvo
’08, Melanie
Scotto ’08,
Kassandra
Brooks ’84,
and Christian
Miller ’84 M’88
connect at the
Cornell Club.
Wagner
Networks
Alumni pass along words
of wisdom and lend a
helping hand
Alumni spanning class years from
1960 to 2012 shared their experiences
with more than 100 Wagner students
at the Student-Alumni Career
Conversations event on April 30 at
the Cornell Club in Manhattan. The
event was co-hosted by the Alumni
}
Professor Frances Bock, Psychology, 1976
flashback
Frances Bock taught
psychology at Wagner
from 1972 to 1980,
when she had to leave
because of the College’s
“financial exigency,” as
she delicately puts it.
She went on to complete
postdoctoral studies at
the Albert Ellis Institute,
{
28
WA G N E R
Association and the Center for
Academic and Career Engagement.
With résumés and business cards in
hand, the students worked their way
around the room to meet the 50 alumni
volunteers, representing 14 career fields
and organizations including Teachers
College, Merck, Merrill Lynch, Mount
Sinai School of Medicine, New York
state government offices, and the U.S.
Treasury Department.
“Talking to alumni from different
industries was a great opportunity
to learn from other people’s career
choices,” said Kayla Thomas ’13.
For Ellen Huffman ’14, it was “a
unique experience, not just to meet
professionals in my field, but Wagner
professionals with an interest in my
personal success as a fellow Seahawk.”
“It was a great opportunity to meet
both recent and longtime graduates to
pick their brains about how they ended
up in the industry they work in, and
the steps they took to get there,” said
Roger Ricketts, an MBA candidate at
Wagner. “I hope to be able to come back
to Wagner at some point in the future
to share with the students the way the
alumni did with us.”
The Student-Alumni Career
Conversations event will become an
annual tradition. Under new leadership
from Geoffrey Hempill, senior associate
dean and director, the Center for
Academic and Career Engagement
will re-launch the alumni mentoring
program this fall. There are many ways
alumni can participate, such as one-onone conversations, networking events,
and mock interview panels.
�For more information, visit
wagner.edu/cace/career -development/
alumni.
M A G A Z I N E
had a successful private
practice in Manhattan
and Long Island, taught at
Hofstra and St. John’s, and
retired in 2002. A book
she co-authored in 1989,
Coping with Alzheimer’s:
A Caregiver’s Emotional
Survival Guide, is still in
print. “I really enjoyed
teaching at Wagner,”
she recalls. “The students
were fabulous and really
interested in everything.”
She still keeps in touch
with a few of them,
including Hal Theurer ’79,
who put us in touch
with her.
�BARREL TASTING Warren Procci ’68 and
Liz Cardiello ’06 M’07 tap straight into
the source.
Travel with
Wagner Alumni
Sonoma provided exclusive
access; next up: China
BACK HOME
Robert Lawrence M’66
came to Wagner for a
master’s degree and stayed
until 1973 as a full-time
English instructor. He then
returned to his home in
Louisville, Kentucky, where
he had a long career at
Jefferson Community and
Technical College. He now
lives in New York again,
and visited campus in April
to give a painting by Tiia
Pustrom Aarismaa ’65 to
President Guarasci.
Alumni Link
In March, alumni and guests got the
royal treatment during “the Ultimate
Sonoma Wine Country Experience,” a
five-day trip through this picturesque
region. Alumni tasted rare wines, plus
meals by some of the country’s top
chefs, and conversed with winemakers.
Making it possible was our trip advisor,
Stan Bishop ’65, and our sommelier and
guide Sandi Lucchesi, principal with A
Sense of Wine.
The tour started off with a bang, with
a sabered champagne presentation at
the Jean-Charles Boisset Tasting Room.
We sampled 56 wines at eight vineyards,
including wine straight from the barrel at
Stryker Sonoma Winery
and at E. & J. Gallo, and
behind-the-scenes access
to Jordan Winery and
Williams Selyem Winery.
Aficionados like Warren Procci ’68 had
fun blending their own wines at Chateau
St. Jean, and seeing the bottling process at
the Francis Ford Coppola Winery.
Next up in alumni travel? China,
September 2–14, 2014. The Alumni
Association has partnered with
Odysseys Unlimited, a respected tour
operator known for its small-group tours
for alumni associations nationwide.
The trip is limited to 20 travelers to
ensure access to many of the sites,
which include (subject to change) the
Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, the
Summer Palace, the Terra Cotta Army,
the pandas at the Chongqing Zoo, a
cruise along the Yangtze River, the
Ghost City of Fengdu, and the Three
Gorges of the Yangtze River. We will
conclude our trip in Shanghai. We will
also spend time with local residents in
their homes, visit a local school, and
explore open markets and shopping.
At the time of this writing, costs
have not been finalized, but full details
of the trip, including early registration
discounts, are available online at
wagner.edu/alumni-friends, or by
calling the Office of Alumni Relations
at 718-390-3224.
— Kenneth Lam,
Director of Alumni Relations
flashback responses
Thanks to Barbara Bellesi
’99, our mystery caller from
last issue’s “Flashback” photo
was identified as Jedediah “A.
J.” Bila ’00. Perhaps she was
making one of the last calls
ever placed on those now
practically extinct pay phones.
Someone who devoted many
years to their care was Kurt
Schroder M’69, a retiree of the
New York Telephone Company.
“I installed and repaired many
pay phones in Brooklyn and
Staten Island,” he wrote, “as
well as land line phones,
which worked during electrical
outages!” He never serviced
the phones at Wagner College,
but he did spend a few
summers inspecting the many
phone booths along the Coney
Island Boardwalk and repairing
those jammed by sticky, sandy
coins.
Do you have ideas for “Flashback”? Contact us at 718-390-3147 or laura.barlament@wagner.edu.
summer
2013
29
�Alumni Link
Reunion Weekend, June 7–9
Upcoming
Events
Alumni Association
September 28, 10 a.m.
Homecoming Fall Festival
Wagner vs. Bryant kickoff, 1 p.m.
Sutter Oval and Wagner College Stadium
Campus Events
October 25–27
Family Weekend
Music
CAMPUS CHAT Richard and Carin
IT’S BEEN TOO LONG Tinka Harvard ’87
Guarasci spend time with alumni.
and Ernie Jackson ’87 reunite.
September 22, 4 p.m.
Dr. Ronald Cross Memorial
Special Service and Interment.
Music by the Wagner College Choir.
Park Avenue Christian Church,
1010 Park Ave., New York, N.Y.
October 18, 5 p.m.
Italian Idol Singing Contest
Music Performance Center
October 27, 4 p.m.
300th Anniversary Concert
Wagner College Choir at Zion Lutheran
Church, Oldwick, N.J.
November 3, 4 p.m.
CONNECTING Educator Daymon
CATCHING UP Terry and Ruth Healy ’63
Yizar ’82 and Carin Guarasci,
director of New Educators at
Wagner, have a lot to share.
Furhovden greet Phyllis Ekeland ’67 and
George ’63 Dale at the 50th reunion dinner.
Viva Italia! Finale Concert
Faculty, Italian Idol Winners,
Treble Concert Choir.
Music Performance Center
November 10, 4 p.m.
Fall Choral Concert
Trinity Lutheran Church,
309 St. Paul’s Ave., Staten Island
November 17
3 p.m.
Fall Jazz Ensemble Concert
Main Hall Auditorium
8:30 p.m.
Vivaldi’s Gloria
Wagner College Choir at Carnegie Hall
BACK TO SCHOOL Alumni stroll the campus
(above), and children enjoy fun
chemistry lessons (left) in Megerle Science
Building with Professors Joseph
West and Valeria Stepanova (not pictured).
30
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
December 4, 8 p.m.
Vocal Jazz Set
Stretto, Soloists, Strait Ahead Jazz
Quartet. Music Performance Center
PHOTOGR A PHS : V I N NI E A M E S SÉ
�Alumni Association Honors
The 2013 annual awards recognize leaders in serving the
College and the community and in professional achievement
December 8, 3 p.m.
Concert Band’s Fall Concert
Main Hall Auditorium
December 9, 4 p.m.
College Choirs’ Holiday Concert
Trinity Lutheran Church,
309 St. Paul’s Ave., Staten Island
Theatre
October 2–13
Little Shop of Horrors
Wagner College Main Stage
October 8–13
Scab
Wagner College Stage One
Romeo and Juliet
Wagner College Main Stage
November 19–24
Zombie Prom
Wagner College Stage One
of Lange Financial Services,
a money management firm
that he founded in 1972.
Elected to the Wagner
Board of Trustees in 1995, he has generously used
his expertise to help the College address crucial,
long-term money management issues. He was
named a Lifetime Trustee in 2007.
Harold Archinal ’50 is
the 2013 Distinguished
Graduate of Wagner
College. A history major,
he had a successful
34-year career at Walt
Disney’s Buena Vista
International in the area
of international film
distribution. Starting out as a clerk for the Buena
Vista Distribution Company in 1954, he became
president of Buena Vista International in 1972,
a post he held until his retirement in 1988. In
2009, Archinal was named a Disney Legend.
Keith Giglio ’85 was
named a Wagner Alumni
Fellow in English. A
successful writer for
film and television, he
now teaches at the S.
I. Newhouse School of
Public Communications
at Syracuse University and previously taught
screenwriting for the UCLA Writers’ Program. As
president of Laughing Gas Productions, he helps
new screenwriters develop their material.
Jodi Pulice ’78 was named
a Wagner Alumni Fellow
in business. In 1996, she
For more information,
registration, and tickets:
Alumni Relations 718-390-3224
Music Department 718-390-3313
Theatre Box Office 718-390-3259
founded JRT Realty,
the nation’s largest
certified woman-owned
commercial real estate
firm. Her leasing and sales
transactions exceed $2
billion. She is currently responsible for managing
a 13 million-square-foot portfolio for TIAA-CREF,
and is a member of the leasing team for One
World Trade Center.
Lisa Krawciw ’10 M’12
received the Wagner
Alumni Key, which
recognizes alumni of the
last decade. A volunteer
Krawciw’s commitment to civic engagement is an
inspiration to alumni and students.
John Iasparro ’72 M’76
and Henry “Hank” Murphy
’63 M’69 jointly received the
Kevin Sheehy ’67 M’70 M’92
H’99 Alumni Leadership
Medal for their service to
the Alumni Association.
Iasparro helped create
the Wagner Athletics
Hardwood Club and is
co-chair and a longtime
member of the Athletics
Hall of Fame Committee.
Murphy, a retired public
school principal, is a
founding benefactor of
New Educators at Wagner
(NEW) and serves on its
Advisory Board. Both honorees have served on the
Alumni Association Board of Directors and have
led many fundraising drives at the College. In 2011,
Murphy and his wife, Margaret, donated a sports art
and memorabilia collection to the College.
Alumni Link
November 13–24
Fred Lange ’53 H’06 was
named the John “Bunny”
Barbes ’39 and Lila T.
Barbes ’40 Wagner Alumni
Laureate. He is president
Dr. Ruth Qualben received
the Reverend Lyle Guttu
Award for spiritual
contributions to Wagner.
Continuing the legacy
of promoting interfaith
dialogue established
by her late husband,
Paul Qualben ’44,
and his brother, Rev. Dr. Philip Qualben, she
supports Wagner’s Faith in Life series and the
Qualben Seminar: Conversations on Religion and
Spirituality.
Mary Caracappa ’82 and
Anthony Hurtado ’79 were
honored with the 2013
Certificate of Appreciation
for their commitment
to Wagner students.
Caracappa, managing
director in Morgan
Stanley’s Firm Strategy
and Execution Division,
and Hurtado, a healthcare
information technology
entrepreneur, have been
instrumental in helping
students navigate the
career exploration and job
search process.
for Habitat for Humanity,
soup kitchens, and the
rebuilding effort in Haiti,
summer
2013
31
�1942
’43 wrote in
memory of his wife, Bernice
Carl Heilsberg
“Mickey” Mikkelsen Aldrich
Heilsberg ,
who passed away
on November 15, 2012.
He noted that, after he
and Mickey captained the
1941–42 men’s and women’s
fencing teams at Wagner,
he left Wagner to broaden
his horizons at American
University, where he
earned a degree in public
administration. After many
years apart, Carl started a
“postal relationship” with
Mickey, which culminated
in their marriage on April
25, 2010, in Rapid City,
S.D. They lived in Maine,
where Carl had retired as a
superintendent of schools.
1944
Paul G. Alberti
has retired
after 66 years as an
ordained pastor. He served
in New York; New Jersey;
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia;
and a retreat center in
Londonderry, Vt.
1949
was
inducted into the Curtis
High School (Staten Island)
Hall of Fame in April by
the school’s Association of
Alumni and Friends. Mike
is a member of the Curtis
class of 1943. He received
the Purple Heart and the
Bronze Star for his Army
service in Europe after his
high school graduation.
After graduating from
Wagner with a degree in
accounting, he went to work
for Clark Estates, which
manages the personal assets
of descendants of Singer
Sewing Co. co-founder
Edward C. Clark, as well as
Michael Nicolais
the more than $440 million
in assets of the Clark
Foundation in Cooperstown,
N.Y. He retired from the
presidency of Clark Estates
in 1991, and then became
senior managing director of
the investment firm Carret &
Co. At the beginning of this
year, he joined another firm,
Wall Street Access, where he
is managing director.
1950
retired in
1997 after 45 years as a
kindergarten teacher in
the New York City public
school system. She also
earned an M.A. from
Hunter College and a
professional diploma from
Teachers College, Columbia
University. Lou DeLuca ’59
wrote to the Staten Island
Advance about Jim Gilmartin ,
who died in Pocono Pines,
Pa., on December 23, 2012:
Mary Carlucci
“Jim was a true gentleman
and an outstanding
basketball player at Wagner.
… Jim even played on
the football team until a
game where he had a tooth
knocked out. … Gentleman
Jim Gilmartin will be
missed.” Bernice Hanson has
been retired from teaching
since 1998 and lives in
New Hampshire. Florence
T. Capobianco Meade wrote
earlier this year, “I now
have a great-grandson, age
13 months, and a greatgranddaughter on the way.
I’m still in the ‘BoogieDown’ Bronx.”
1951
Emil Cenci and
his wife,
Adeline, celebrated their
60th wedding anniversary.
They live in Marlboro,
N.J., where they celebrated
with their children and 11
grandchildren.
Keep in Touch!
Email: alumni@wagner.edu
Web: wagner.edu/alumni
Mail: Alumni Office, Reynolds House,
Wagner College, One Campus Road,
Staten Island, NY 10301
Deadlines: This issue reflects news
received by June 1. The submission
deadline for the Fall 2013 issue is
October 1.
Content: Wagner welcomes your news
and updates, and we will happily share
32
WWAAGGNNEERR MMAAGGAAZZI INNEE
them with the Wagner family. We ask
that you send us announcements of
weddings, births, and graduations
after the fact.
Photos: We accept photos of Wagner
groups at weddings and other special
events. With the photo, send the names
and class years of all alumni pictured;
birth date, parents’ names, and class
years with photos of children; and dates
and locations of all events.
Photo Quality: Digital and print photos
must be clear and of good quality.
Prints should be on glossy paper with
no surface texture; they will be returned
at your request (please attach your
address to the photo). Digital photos
must be jpegs of at least 250 pixels per
inch; low-resolution photos converted to
a higher resolution are not acceptable.
�1960
The Brockmann family outfitted in
Wagner class of 1952 shirts.
is the
co-founder of a medical
device firm, Rimidi. It
has produced a software
application, Rimidi Glucose
Manager, that helps treat
types I and II diabetes.
Robert D. Dehaven
1961
married in
1961 and has two children
and five grandchildren.
She was a missionary to
Elaine A. Dively
1952
& ’53
’54
M’57 read and signed books
at the AWP Convention in
Boston in March, where her
latest book of poetry, Where
the Dead Are (Cavankerry
Press), made its debut. AWP
is the Association of Writers
and Writing Programs, the
largest literary conference
in North America.
been substitute teaching
ever since he retired, 14
years ago. He is also vice
president of the fastest-
Class of 2034
Lee Schriever Brockmann
Wanda Schweizer Praisner
William F. Schmitz has
Crib Notes
Fred J. Brockmann
1954
1962
Alumni Link
’52 and
’53
have been married since the
day after Fred graduated
from Wagner, June 8, 1952.
They celebrated their
60th wedding anniversary
with their children and
grandchildren in California.
Everyone wore a Wagner
class of 1952 T-shirt,
ordered for the occasion
by their daughter Carolee
Gravina. Fred and Lee live
in Sarasota, Fla.
Malaysia in 1968–77, a
hospital social worker
from 1980 to 1999, and a
program director for the
Alzheimer’s Association
from 1991 to 2006. She
lives in Pittsburgh and is a
lay minister.
Some of the newest faces to join the Wagner family
2.
1.
3.
1. Alexandra
Sulton Adinolfi ’06
and her husband,
Paul, announce the
birth of Athan Lau
on May 23.
2. Kara Plant
McEachern ’06
and her husband,
Michael, announce
the birth of Molly
Virginia on March 4.
3. Nicole Filippazzo
Giammarinaro ’07
and her husband,
Matthew, had their
first child, Natalie
Harper, on April 15.
We’d love to see your baby’s face.
Please see opposite page for publication guidelines.
summer
2013
33
�SMALL WORLD Jennifer Wright ’09 and a few of the
children she helps care for in Kenya, May 2013.
growing and largest Sons of
the American Revolution
chapter in New Jersey.
1963
Charles Gravenstine spent
the fall semester of 2012
teaching three courses at the
Lumen Christi Institute in
Arusha, Tanzania. Virginia L.
Scott Llewellyn wrote that she
is retired and “truly enjoying
the freedom to do as I
choose every day!” She lives
in Riverhead, N.Y.
25 Years Old, With 50 Dependents
Jennifer Wright ’09 starts a children’s home in Kenya
“It has taken a long time to get to where we are,” says Jennifer Wright ’09 of the program
she founded to help impoverished children in the developing world, the HEAL Raising Our
World Foundation.
Yet it was only six years ago that she was sitting in her dorm room at Wagner College,
researching how to start a nonprofit. Today, HEAL owns 14 acres of land in the Central
Highlands of Kenya, is halfway through building a children’s home, is already caring for
about 50 orphans aged 3 to 19, and has started a secondary school.
And, Wright says, her vision is to open children’s homes all over the world.
Wright came to Wagner with a heart for African children and for changing the world.
She double majored in international affairs and French studies, and she participated in
Wagner’s civic engagement program. In high school, she had volunteered at an orphanage
in Zimbabwe. As a college student, she saw a flyer on a Main Hall bulletin board, advertising
the Global Volunteer Network. She and her roommate, Christina Lamb ’08 (now Christina
Perez), pursued the opportunity and spent January of 2007 volunteering at a state-run
orphanage in Kenya.
Wright was appalled at the conditions there, where the children were undernourished,
largely unsupervised, and lacking in love. “After I went to Kenya,” she says, “I just felt called
to build an orphanage.”
Several Wagner alumni have helped HEAL get
off the ground — Perez is the board secretary,
Kristie Scherrer ’10 is an active volunteer, and
Seneca Smith ’09 has helped with the website
and marketing.
Wright admits that it hasn’t been easy —
especially with the recession and her unfamiliarity
with Kenyan culture. “There have been times
where it would have been much easier to give it
up,” she says. “But when you’re with those kids
and realize the difference you make in their lives,
that’s the motivating factor.”
You can follow Jennifer Wright’s work at
www.healraisingourworld.org.
34
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
1965
had an aortic
heart valve replacement
and is feeling great. He took
a “fantastic” three-week
trip to Alaska. His wife,
Betsy, is now retired and
loving it. They have five
grandchildren and live in
Pawling, N.Y.
John Brockway
1966
has chaired the
psychology department at
Mercyhurst University in
Erie, Pa., since 1969. He has
also hosted jazz and world
music programs on his area’s
NPR affiliate, WQLN radio,
since 1973. Gordon Reinertsen
retired after 42 years in the
ministry. He was pastor of
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
in Atlanta, Ga., for 38 years.
Rob Hoff
1967
wrote in
December 2012, “With
both a little trepidation
and much joy, I retired in
September from Scripps
Margo Astroth
�WANTED:
Alumni who remember
English Professor Willard Maas
Wagner Magazine is preparing a story about
Professor Maas (1958–63), Wagner Literary
Magazine, and related
topics. If you have
memories you’d be willing
to share, please contact
Lee Manchester at lee.
manchester@wagner.edu
or 718-420-4504.
Harrison, Springsteen,
Buffett, and Mitchell;
and kept it successful for
more than 40 years. Stan
is considered one of the
world’s experts in American
fretted instruments. Russ
Johnson took the gold
medal in the 20th Annual
New England Open
Taekwondo Championship.
A fifth-degree black belt
who once taught selfdefense classes at Wagner,
Russ competed in the men’s
43-and-over forms division.
He continues his career as
a professional watercolor
artist, teaching workshops
throughout the year in
Maine and New Jersey.
His art website is
www.rhjart.com.
1968
’68 M’77 was
featured in the New
York Times on March 29.
The story, “Toyotas and
Torch Songs” by Corey
Kilgannon, begins this
Al Lambert
1970
Peter McClintock retired
after
almost 42 years of federal
service. For the past 13
years, Peter served as the
deputy inspector general
of the U.S. Small Business
Administration. He lives in
Fairfax, Va.
1971
Burton W. Wilcke M’71
was
appointed by Health and
Human Services Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius to serve
on the Clinical Laboratory
Improvement Advisory
Committee.
1972
Joan Macaluso
a teacher of English as a
Second Language after 35
years with the Department
of Education of New York
City. She says her years at
Wagner were the best of her
life. Lexis Nexis featured
Bob Mazur in a series of
podcasts, “Interview with
a Secret Agent: An Insider
View of Money Laundering
and Its Global Effects.” Bob
is a former special agent for
the U.S. Customs Service
and the author of The
Infiltrator: My Secret Life
Inside the Dirty Banks Behind
Pablo Escobar’s Medellin
Cartel (2009). George Films
Ltd. acquired the movie
rights for the book, and a
script is in the works.
Alumni Link
Mercy Hospital in San
Diego, where I headed
up a mental health team
for several years. Just
recently published an
online education course,
ENA: Handling Psychiatric
Emergencies: Suicide
Assessment. I’m going to
hold on to my advanced
nursing license for now.
In the meantime, Dennis
and I are traveling, first
to Japan and Kauai, and
now cross country by car
to see grandchildren in
West Virginia and visit
presidential libraries
along the way.” In January,
Stan Jay M’67, president
of Mandolin Brothers
Ltd., hosted a class of
Wagner students in the
arts administration course
Managing a Non-Profit
Organization in the 21st
Century. The discussion
included how Stan started a
(for-profit) business; made
it world famous among
superstar performers
like Dylan, McCartney,
way: “Al Lambert, Staten
Island’s man of cars and
song, can sell you a used
Toyota by day and give
you ‘Summer Wind’ with
his big band that evening.”
Comparing Al’s look and
sound to Mel Torme,
Kilgannon continues, “For
more than 50 years, he has
held parallel — and equally
successful — careers: car
salesman and nightclub
singer.” Al is with Manfredi
Chevrolet on Hylan
Boulevard in Staten Island.
Phyllis Vogel Schwartz lives
in Frederick, Md., with
her husband, Dr. Gary
Schwartz. Both are retired,
and Phyllis volunteers
at the Literacy Council
of Frederick. She has an
MBA in management and
a supervisory degree in
education.
1973
Along with Lonnie Brandon
Jr. ’72, Toni King Whitlock
returned to the Wagner
campus on April 10 for
a social justice dialogue
focused on the 1970 student
protests at Wagner. Toni
left Wagner and finished
her degree at Adelphi
University. She also earned
a master’s in educational
administration and
supervision at Montclair
State University. A retired
educator, she remains
involved with social justice
issues through her volunteer
and paid educational
consulting work in New
Jersey. Her focus is on
bridging the gaps created
by political, economic, and
educational inequities that
result in achievement gaps.
retired as
summer
2013
35
�UNCOMMON LIVES
Jennifer Ruvolo ’07
With Bloomberg in the Bullpen
CLAIM TO FAME: As senior programs and
communications manager for the Office of the First
Deputy Mayor, Jennifer Ruvolo ’07 reports every
day to the “bullpen” in New York City Hall — a place
of which New York Magazine has said, “Power and
influence in the city stop here.” The bullpen is a large,
high-ceilinged, open room filled with about 50 equally
sized desks, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s in
the center, and Ruvolo’s a couple seats away.
PRO SCRIBBLER: Writing is a big part of Ruvolo’s job.
She works on official correspondence, helps create
publications like annual reports, and is the Mayor’s
Office liaison for written content produced by the
National September 11 Memorial & Museum. She
works on major initiatives, and also writes thank-you
notes to kids who send trophies to the mayor.
ANTHROPOLOGIST AT HEART: Ruvolo’s passion
is anthropology, because it’s about connecting with
people and helping people. She came to Wagner
to study anthropology, influenced by her mentor,
anthropology professor Gordon McEwan. Wagner’s
focus on experiential learning — she interned with
the New-York Historical Society and the American
Museum of Natural History — was key to her future
success. After her graduation, she worked for the
New York City Sports Commission before going into
special event planning for the Mayor’s Office, which
led to her current job.
INSPIRATIONS : “I’m a native Staten Islander, and
the proud daughter of a public school teacher and
a firefighter — two incredible people who have
dedicated their lives to serving New York City,” says
Ruvolo. She also says her coworkers in the bullpen
inspire her every day. “There’s no ‘can’t,’ there’s no
‘That’s not possible.’ It’s, ‘Will it help people?’” Finally,
there are her fellow Wagner alums — people like
her sister, Victoria Ruvolo ’05, a butcher; Eugene
Statnikov ’07, a doctoral student in public health at
Imperial College in London; and Jennifer Macaluso
’07, jewelry creator (look up Hey, Dollface! on Etsy).
Says Ruvolo, “Knowing that Wagner grads are
committing themselves fully to their passions helps
motivate me to go the extra mile and do the best
that I possibly can.”
36
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
P H OTO G R A P H : P E T E BY RO N
�on December 21, 2012.
It began, “Back in 1980,
three sisters — Susan,
Carol and Beth Driscoll
— were married in three
separate ceremonies.
Thirty-two years later, they
are all still married.” The
reporter, Samantha Storey,
interviewed the husbands,
the sisters, and their mother
“about their secrets to
making a marriage last.”
Tim LaCroix and Gene Barfield ’75 at their wedding ceremony.
1978
1975
was elected
vice chair of the American
College of Tax Counsel,
a professional association
that recognizes tax lawyers
for their contributions to
the profession. Joan is a
partner and chair of the
Tax Practice Group of
Pepper Hamilton LLP
in Philadelphia. In a
groundbreaking ceremony,
Gene Barfield married
his partner of 30 years,
Tim LaCroix, on March
15 in Harbor Springs,
Mich. They were the
first same-sex couple to
marry legally within the
state of Michigan. The
wedding took place at the
headquarters of the Little
Traverse Bay Bands of
Odawa Indians, just after
the tribal chairman signed
legislation permitting samesex marriage. Tim is a tribal
citizen, and Gene became
his legally wed non-tribal
spouse under the laws of the
tribe. Gene and Tim were
invited by President Obama
Joan Arnold
1977
Carol Driscoll ’77 and Jim
were featured
in a New York Times story
’79 Kagdis
P H OTO G R A P H : B R A N D O N H U B BA R D / P E TO S K Y N E W S
Alumni Link
was inducted
into the Staten Island
Soccer League’s Hall of
Fame in 2012. He started
playing soccer as a child in
Croatia, and he brought
his love of the sport with
him to Staten Island when
he immigrated at age 16.
Nick started his coaching
career while still a student
at Wagner. He has taught
for 30 years at New Dorp
High School on Staten
Island and has coached
the girls’ soccer team since
1982, the inaugural season
of girls’ soccer in the Public
School Athletic League.
He has also coached the
men’s team at the College of
Staten Island, coordinated
numerous soccer camps,
and officiated at two
Northeast Conference
championships, among
many other services to
the sport of soccer. He
was named Official of the
Year in 2011 by the New
York City Soccer Officials’
Association. Edward Nessel
was named by United States
Swimming and the U.S.
Olympic Committee to the
Nick Kvasic
to attend a reception at the
White House on June 13 in
celebration of LGBT Pride
Month. Both are Navy
veterans, and they met
while in the service. Gene
is a graduate of the Navy
Nuclear Power Program
and served aboard a fleet
ballistic missile submarine
and at a Navy air squadron.
After concluding their
military service, the couple
moved to Vermont and
became active in civil rights
for the LGBT community.
Gene earned a degree in
historic preservation and
worked in that field in
both Vermont and Florida.
Gene and Tim moved to
a family farm outside of
Boyne City, in Tim’s home
state of Michigan, 15
years ago. Gene is retired
but continues to work on
preservation projects and on
the farm’s gardens and trees.
2012 elite list of the most
influential swim coaches.
This honor resulted from
his work with American
record holder and Olympic
medalist Cullen Jones,
whom Ed has been coaching
since the age of 13. Steven
Russo visited the Wagner
planetarium in fall 2012
to see the new Spitz SCI
Dome HD system. When
he was a student, he
operated the planetarium
from 1973 to 1978. He has
been teaching astronomy in
planetariums for 39 years,
now serving as director of
the East Kentucky Science
Center and Planetarium in
Prestonsburg, Ky. “It was
great going back to Wagner
and seeing the campus,” he
wrote. “Hadn’t been there
since 1984!”
1979
joined
the U.S. Coast Guard
Auxiliary to volunteer her
time to the community
and to the Coast Guard.
She is an athletic trainer
who lives in North
Cape May, N.J. Angelo
Brisimitzakis , former CEO
of Compass Minerals,
visited the Wagner
campus in April to meet
with science and business
students and present a
seminar.
Lorraine Bianco
1980
& ’81
Daniel ’80 and Joanne Hein
’81 Couture
celebrated the
summer
2013
37
�marriage of their oldest
daughter, Lyndsay, to
Matthew Pess on April 13.
1983
sent in
this tribute to the late
Madelyn Gritz DeStefano ,
who died on March 9,
2012. “Madelyn was born
on December 6, 1961. She
lived in New York all of
her life and was excited to
attend Wagner College in
the fall of 1979. Studying in
the education department,
Madelyn worked hard to
earn her degree. As a freshman, Madelyn joined the
Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.
There she became our sister
in this national organization
and worked on a variety
of charitable projects. She
made lasting friendships
with Faith Miller Duval ’82,
Gail Miller-Shapiro
Jo Ann Moore, Gail MillerShapiro, Belinda Bardes
’84, Nancy Bracco
Coraggio ’86, and Rosemary
Gordon Meagher . Madelyn
worked as a classroom
teacher for many years at
the Child Study Center in
Staten Island. There she
met the love of her life, her
husband Charles DeStefano.
Madelyn continued to look
for opportunities where she
could make a difference
in children’s lives, so she
moved on from the Child
Study Center and became
director of early intervention at Our Place in Staten
Island. Madelyn was the
director of Our Place for
many years. She touched the
lives of so many children,
parents, and staff with her
Kielczewski
38
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
enthusiasm, knowledge, and
nurturing ways. Not only
was Madelyn a wonderful
teacher and director, she
was also a devoted wife, sister to Alice Cassidy, beloved
auntie to her nephew Ryan,
and dear friend to many.
We love her and will miss
her always.”
1986
Ed Nitkewicz was
recognized
for his staunch advocacy for
children with special needs.
This honor was sponsored
by the Huntington Patch and
Grape-Nuts to highlight
those who inspire people
around them to climb
their own mountains, in
commemoration of the
60th anniversary of Sir
Edmund Hillary’s ascent of
Mount Everest. An attorney
and South Huntington
School Board trustee, Ed
coaches TOPSoccer and
Challenger baseball teams,
chairs the Special Needs
Faith Formation class at
St. Elizabeth’s, and is a
corporate fundraiser for
Autism Speaks.
1989
and his
wife, Macie, welcomed a
new addition to the family
with the birth of their
daughter, Violet Lucia, on
June 26, 2011.
Tracy M. Stratton
1992
received a
strong review in the New
York Post in January for his
performance in the tonguein-cheek horror musical
The House of Von Macramé
at the Bushwick Starr in
Brooklyn. “When this
maniacal live-wire proclaims
his love for shiny fabrics
by crowing, ‘Hail Satin!’
you’re ready to sign up for
his cult,” wrote Post reviewer
Elisabeth Vincentelli.
Paul Pecorino
1995
married Ken
Cronck in Edinburgh,
Scotland, on August 9,
2012. Nancy Salgado-Cowan
Stacy Cannon
has joined Ivy Pediatrics
(ivypediatrics.com), a wellestablished practice with
locations in Manalapan,
East Brunswick, and
South Amboy, N.J. Nancy
has 19 years’ experience
working with kids. Besides
her nursing degree from
Wagner, she received an
advanced practice degree
as a pediatric nurse
practitioner from Hunter
Bellevue. She is certified
in pediatric and advanced
trauma life support, and
her special interests include
asthma, allergies, emergency
medicine, and familycentered care. Nancy says
she is ecstatic to be caring
for children in the urgent/
office setting.
1996
is
very pleased to announce
that she completed the
Associate of Science in
Nursing degree at the
College of Central Florida.
Frances-Ann Sciotto Blitch
1988
Richard Negrin ,
deputy
mayor and managing
director of the City of
Philadelphia, was honored
by the Friends of the Free
Library at their BiblioBash
celebration in March, for
his work in branch libraries,
community building, youth
leadership, literacy, and
digital access.
Stacy Cannon ’95 and Ken Cronck were married at Dalhousie Castle.
�At the time of her writing,
she planned to take the
boards and become an RN
in a couple of months. She
previously completed a
master’s in mental health
counseling at the University
of Florida. “I am privileged
to be able to offer my
patients holistic care, as
both a counselor and a
nurse,” she wrote. Anthony
Correnti completed a
master’s in humanities from
California State University,
Dominguez Hills.
1997
left Oxygen
Media/NBCU to become
senior vice president
of programming at the
Discovery Channel last
summer. In April, he was
part of the team honored
with the 2013 Sports Emmy
for Outstanding New
Approaches Sports Event
Coverage for the Red Bull
Stratos Space Jump — the
record-setting leap from
space by Felix Baumgartner
in October 2012 — for
which Scott was an associate
Scott Lewers
1999
returned
to Wagner to become an
assistant director, focused
on career services and
employer relations, in the
Center for Academic and
Career Engagement. Over
the past decade, she has
enjoyed a dual career path
as an educator and a writer.
She taught high school
English and theater and
served as an adjunct English
instructor at Wagner, and
wrote articles and blog posts
for a variety of publications.
Jeff Skinner and his wife,
Leigh, welcomed son
Ryan Thomas Skinner on
October 28, 2012. Jeff is
thankful everyone is healthy.
Barbara Bellesi
2001
starred
as Corny Collins in
HAIRSPRAY: In Concert!
with the Indianapolis
and Baltimore symphony
orchestras in January. The
concerts marked the 25th
anniversary of the John
Waters cult comedy film
and brought together an allstar cast, including Waters
as narrator. Bret is also
in the upcoming Martin
Scorsese film, The Wolf of
Wall Street.
Bret Shuford
2002
graduated
from Seton Hall Law
School and worked
as a prosecutor for a
year. He decided that
it was not for him and
went into teaching.
He quickly got a
job at his old high
school, Manasquan
High School in New
Jersey. He runs the
History Club, Mock
Trials, and Model
UN Teams, while
teaching US I and II
Michele Sampson Nelson ’03 and her
and US II Honors.
matron of honor, Gina Noce Bauer ’02
The History Club
was recognized by
radio station, WSIA-88.9,
the National History
featuring the specialized
Club as one of the top 10 in
talents of Lifestyles
the country. He has stayed
community members such
in touch with Wagner, and
as Anthony “Mystery Man”
spoke to pre-law students
DiFato, Chris “Totally ’80s”
at Wagner in the spring.
Bungay, and many others.
Some of his former students
Joel, who is also a stand-up
are attending Wagner. He
comedian known as Soul
received a James Madison
Joel, is the radio show’s host.
Fellowship this year, which
“When you get them on
he will use to pursue
their favorite topics, they’re
master’s degrees in history
great to listen to,” he told
and political science. He
the Times. “I have friends,
has two sons, age 4 and 3.
professional comedians, who
Joel Richardson ’02 M’08
tell me they can’t believe how
was featured in the New
entertaining these guys are
York Times for his work
to listen to.” You can listen to
with Lifestyles for the
Lifestyles Radio at lfdsi.org.
Disabled, a Staten Island
occupational program for
developmentally delayed
adults. The story, “Autistic,
In honor of the 10th
and on the Airwaves” (April
anniversary of the fabulous
13, 2013) and a related
2002–03 basketball team,
video, tells how Joel and
Wagner’s only one to
a co-worker, Burak Uzun,
make it to the NCAA
created a talk show that
tournament, Dedrick Dye
started as a podcast and has
gave us an update about
evolved into a show on the
many of his teammates.
College of Staten Island
Jim Fagen
Alumni Link
Scott Lewers ’97 with Emmy
producer. The Discovery
Channel’s live broadcast of
the space jump produced
the highest rating for a nonprime-time program in the
network’s history, with 7.6
million viewers.
2003
summer
2013
39
�Dedrick himself is an
admissions counselor at
Wagner, and he completed
his master’s in elementary
education this year. Three
are playing professional
basketball abroad: Jermaine
Hall in Israel, Doug Viegas
’05 in Brazil, and Nigel
Wyatte ’05 in France. Jason
Allen ’04 is a teacher and
coach in Long Island,
DeEarnest McLemore ’06
coaches at Fayetteville
State University in North
Carolina, and Corey McCrae
’06 coaches at DeMatha
Catholic High School in
Maryland. Matt Vitale ’06
works for the NYPD and
lives in Brooklyn. In other
class news, Michele Sampson
married Donny Nelson on
October 14, 2012, at St.
John’s Episcopal Church
in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Her matron of honor was
Gina Noce Bauer ’02. Also,
Michele earned her M.S. in
educational leadership from
Fordham University.
2004
Crystal Schloemer Dujowich
received a full scholarship
to complete her Ph.D. in
leadership studies at the
University of San Diego.
She started in 2009 and
plans to complete the
program this year. As
part of the scholarship,
she teaches leadership
and social change courses
for undergraduates at the
University of San Diego,
a designated Ashoka
Changemaker Campus.
Her courses integrate
experiential learning and
40
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
service learning into the
curriculum. A specialist in
global citizenship, she has
taught courses in Ghana,
Guatemala, Costa Rica,
Spain, and Sri Lanka.
2006
Alexandra Sulton Adinolfi
and her husband, Paul,
announce the birth of
Athan Lau Adinolfi on
May 23. They live in
Farmingville, N.Y. See
Crib Notes, page 33, for a
photo. Ashley L. Alexander
joined Wagner’s Office of
Institutional Advancement
in January as executive
director of development
operations and chief
operating officer. She
previously worked as
senior director of strategic
planning and operations
for the Global Resources
Division of the Wildlife
Conservation Society. Laura
Agostino gave a presentation
to Wagner students,
“Spanish in the Business
World: Double Major,
Double Opportunity,” last
October. Since graduating
with a double major in
business administration and
Spanish, she has worked
for HSBC, FINRA, and
a Canadian bank. Michael
Armato , a doctoral candidate
in the Rockefeller College
Department of Political
Science at the University at
Albany–SUNY, has been
studying Congressman
and Republican vice
presidential candidate
Paul Ryan as one of the
subjects of his dissertation,
“Practicing Representation:
The Influence of Political
Competition on the
Home Styles of U.S.
Representatives.” His
research received attention
during the 2012 presidential
campaign. Elisabeth L.
Cardiello ’06 M’07 has
started a business based
on an invention of her late
father’s. Caffe Unimatic
(caffeunimatic.com) markets
her father’s patented drip
percolator coffee pot. A
percentage of proceeds go
to the Sir Peter L. Cardiello
Award for Entrepreneurship
for Wagner students.
Jessica Friswell completed
her M.Sc. in anthropology,
environment, and
development at University
College London in
2011. She is serving as
an AmeriCorps VISTA
member with Ashoka’s
Youth Venture at the
United Way of Tri-County
in Massachusetts. Kara Plant
McEachern and her husband,
Michael, announce the
birth of their daughter
Molly Virginia on March 4.
See Crib Notes, page 33, for
a photo.
2007
M’07 and
M’08 were
married in March. Denielle
Diodato married Joseph
Albanese on May 14, 2011.
She is a teacher at PS 4
in Staten Island. Kimberly
Farrell , DMD, returned
to Wagner in March to
meet with students at the
Pre-Health Society’s annual
reception. Nicole Filippazzo
Giammarinaro and her
Scott Chamberlin
Jackie Poston
husband, Matthew, had
their first child, Natalie
Harper Giammarinaro, on
April 15. See Crib Notes,
page 33, for a photo.
2008
Nadwa Ibrahim ,
MD,
returned to Wagner in
March to meet with
students at the Pre-Health
Society’s annual reception.
Christina Lamb Perez
completed her Ph.D. in
toxicology at the University
of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill, this year. She married
Dr. Alex Perez of Duke
University. Christina
is looking for teaching
positions in North Carolina.
Jackie Poston M’08 and
Scott Chamberlin M’07 were
married in March.
2009
Denise Balacich ,
a fourthyear medical student, and
Michelle D’Amura , a fourthyear optometry student,
both at Salus University,
returned to Wagner in
March to meet with
students at the Pre-Health
Society’s annual reception.
Christina Herrera and Thomas
McCafferty ’09 M’11 were
married on June 9, 2012,
at St. Clare’s Church in
Staten Island. The couple
started dating during their
freshman year at Wagner.
“We loved taking classes
together and enjoyed
everything Wagner and its
campus had to offer,” said
Thomas. Christina chose
her sisters, Deana Walker ’99
and Alyssa Herrera ’10, as
�N.J. Christina and Thomas
live in Long Branch, N.J.
2011
completed a
second Bachelor of Science
at Wagner, in nursing, in
2012; her first degree was in
biopsychology. Rosie Valenti ,
a first-year medical student
at the NYIT College of
Osteopathic Medicine,
returned to Wagner in
March to meet with
students at the Pre-Health
Society’s annual reception.
Aimee Marin
Christina Herrera ’09 and Thomas ’09 M’11 McCafferty
20 Under 40 Award. She
has earned a Master of Arts
in school counseling from
NYU. Thomas received an
award for the highest GPA
in international business
during his MBA studies. He
is a financial advisor with
Merrill Lynch in Red Bank,
2012
Amanda Arcieri plans
to
pursue a Ph.D. in social
psychological research at
the University of Sydney
in Australia under the
supervision of Dr. Fiona
Alumni Link
her matron and maid of
honor; Thomas’s best man
was his brother, Casey
McCafferty ’11. Christina, a
psychology and education
major and summa cum
laude graduate, won the
Staten Island Economic
Development Corporation’s
White, starting next March.
Her research will focus
on understanding the
development of prejudice
and discrimination and
effective ways to reduce
it. Amanda notes that
Wagner’s Dr. Amy
Eshleman inspired her
interest in the field and
guided her throughout her
graduate school application
process. Jennifer Ida received
a three-year National
Science Foundation
Graduate Fellowship. She
will enroll this fall in the
anthropology graduate
program at the University
of Colorado Boulder. Lisa
Nicole Schneider, a first-year
dental student at UMDNJ,
returned to Wagner in
March to meet with
students at the Pre-Health
Society’s annual reception.
WE ARE
WAGNER COLLEGE
To hear these 2013 graduating seniors’
stories in our new video, go to
wagner.edu/annual-fund
Chantya ’13
Kevin ’13
You Are Wagner College, Too
Your gift to the Annual Fund
supports the lifeblood of
Wagner College — our students.
Everyone. Every Year.
MAKE A GIFT.
wagner.edu/give 1-888-231-2252
James ’13
Carley ’13
summer
2013
41
�Celebrating lives that enriched the Wagner family
Alumni
Mr. John D. Barbes ’39
Mrs. Virginia Fensterer ’40
Mrs. Bernice Mikkelsen Aldrich
Heilsberg ’42
Mrs. Marion B. Rappold Dolwick ’44
Dr. George P. Steponkus ’44
Mrs. Muriel Evers Keigher ’48
Mrs. Shirley Sandberg Shannon ’48
Rev. Donald W. Stoughton ’48
Mr. Kenneth E. Laucella ’49
Mr. Thomas J. Lennox ’49
Mr. Robert A. Whitehead ’49
Mr. William Bransfield ’50
Mr. Thor D. Bugge ’50
Mrs. Charlotte G. Pederson Edgar ’50
Mr. James Gilmartin ’50
Mr. Edward S. Gowski ’50
Mr. Perry Grover ’50
Dr. Robert W. Wannemacher ’50
Mrs. Anne Carlucci Willis ’50
Mr. John F. Byron ’51
Mr. Arnold W. Cleveland ’51
Mr. Allen Cohen ’51
Mr. Richard G. Koski ’51
Mr. Walter C. Schoenfeld ’51
Mr. Richard J. Valles ’51
Mr. Joseph J. Di Marco ’52
Mr. Vincent C. Pompa ’52
Mrs. Jane Merrick Shaw ’52
Mr. Walter P. Barry ’53
Mr. Alan W. Cathers ’53
Mrs. Helen Abichandani ’54
Mr. Clifford B. Johnson ’54
Mrs. Gilda Murano Mitri ’54
Mr. Calvin C. Morrell ’54 M’57
Mrs. Marie Sinibaldi Muller ’54
Mr. Leonard Bokert ’55
Rev. Arthur F. Haimerl ’55
Col. John W. Rodgers ’55
Ms. Anna N. Sachse ’55
Dr. Paul H. Stevens ’55
Rev. Paul F. Garrity ’56
Mr. Vincent L. Giacinto M’56
Mrs. Ellen Spalding Kramer ’57
Dr. Janet A. Rodgers ’57
Mr. Alfred F. Rohls ’57
Mr. Rudolph G. Ayoub ’58
Mr. George Blomquist Jr. ’58
Mr. David C. Yorkston ’58 M’64
Mr. Frank S. Barsalona ’59
Ms. Margaret Glueck ’59
Mrs. Diane Borst Manning ’59 M’62
Mr. Carl A. Westerdahl ’59
Dr. W. Scott Andrus ’60
Mr. John J. Campbell ’60
Mr. Bradford G. Corbett ’60
Mr. Anthony F. Donegan ’60
Rev. Peter A. Molnar ’60
Prof. Jean Normandy ’61 M’63
Mr. Henry P. Picciurro ’61
Mr. Robert R. St. John ’61
Mrs. Toni Zucconi ’61
Mr. Rudolph J. Fusco ’62
Rev. Russell C. Gromest ’63
Ms. Suzanne R. Davis ’64 M’78
Mr. Robert L. Lord ’64 M’66
Mr. Stuart L. Smith ’64
Mr. Jorma H. Wakkila ’64
Mr. William V. Parise ’65
Dr. James E. Haley ’67
Mr. John Knutsen ’67
Mrs. Martha I. Stromgren Morris ’67
Mr. Arthur A. Klatt ’68
Mr. William Anderson M’69
Mr. Luke De Mattia M’69
Mrs. Diana L. Gradwell ’69
Mr. Robert M. Murphy ’69
Mrs. Mary Iannucci M’70
Mr. Alexander Eberling ’71
Mr. Paul S. Halamandaris ’71
Mr. Henry Mertens ’72
Mr. David J. Saland ’76
Mrs. Susan C. Vitale Costello ’77
Mrs. Jane M. Lyons ’77
Dr. Meryl J. Efron ’79
Mr. James L. Shand ’79
Mr. Paul A. Mango M’80
Mrs. Madelyn Gritz DeStefano ’83
Mrs. Maureen K. Dixon Peyton ’84
Mr. Stephen S. Slocum ’84
Mr. Matthew Stilwell ’84
Mrs. Mary B. Boody ’86
Mr. Matthew T. Grant ’86
Mrs. Jacqueline E. Noto-Abate ’87
Mr. Robert J. Eadicicco M’89
Mrs. Vanessa Picciotto Perrine ’03
Faculty, Staff,
and Friends
Mr. Steven A. Bivona
Dr. Ronald W. Cross
Mrs. Domenica “Mickey”
Sacca Giovinazzo
Dr. Glenn C. Leach
Diane Borst Manning ’59 M’62 and Carl A. Westerdahl ’59
Classmates and contributors
to a better Wagner
With sadness, we note the passing of Diane Borst
Manning ’59 M’62 on February 2, 2013, and of Carl A.
Westerdahl ’59 on April 3, 2013. Both were leaders in their
class and great supporters of Wagner College, especially of
the Horrmann Library.
Carl Westerdahl mobilized the class of 1959 as its 50th
reunion approached. It became a vibrant group known as
Wagner ’59 and Friends. Diane Borst Manning became active
in that group, and she also volunteered to chair the Friends
of the Library Committee in 2003. One of Diane’s first tasks
as chair was to organize a memorial in the library for Harry
Steeve ’59 and Rosemarie Bade Lasinski ’60.
The Horrmann Library did not exist yet when Diane and
42
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
Carl were students at Wagner; but in their senior year, the
Horrmann family made the gift that enabled the College
to build this much-needed facility. Therefore, Carl said,
the class determined to help make the Horrmann Library
into “a tool for education for today’s students.” The result
was the 2011 dedication of the Class of 1959 Learning
Commons, developed with funds raised by the class of 1959
under the leadership of Diane and her husband, Norman
Berg; Carl and his wife, Susan Clarke; and others in the
class. These computer-equipped group study rooms are wildly
popular and a daily reminder of their commitment to Wagner
and the Horrmann Library.
For more information about the Friends of the Library
or to donate in memory of Diane or Carl, go to http://wagner.
libguides.com/friends.
— Dorothy Davison, Dean of the Horrmann Library
Deaths reported to Wagner College, October 10, 2012–June 4, 2013
�Faculty Remembrances
Professor Emeritus John “Bunny” Barbes ’39
Coach, alumni director, and all-around Wagner cheerleader
Professor Emeritus John “Bunny” Barbes ’39 died at home in Sunrise, Florida, on April 1, 2013 — his 96th birthday.
Known to all by his childhood nickname, Bunny was a beloved professor, coach, and administrator at Wagner College
and a tireless supporter of the National Alumni Association. He attended Wagner for two years and graduated from Arnold
College with a B.S. in physical education. He also earned a master’s in education from Columbia University. His long career with
Wagner athletics began in 1946 and included coaching football, track, and squash. He also taught physical education and served
as Wagner’s alumni director for 14 years.
Barbes was inducted into the Wagner Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993. The alumni association’s distinguished service award
was named the John “Bunny” Barbes ’39 and Lila T. Barbes ’40 Alumni Laureate to honor this couple who meant so much to the
College as educators, volunteers, fundraisers, and all-around cheerleaders. Lila Barbes died in 2009.
Survivors include son Allan D. Barbes ’71, daughter Linda A. Barbes Stein ’69, two grandchildren, and five
great-grandchildren.
Professor Emerita Jean Normandy ’61 M’63
Seamstress, actor, and college instructor
Jean Normandy, an instructor in the Wagner English department from 1963 to 1982, died on April 6, 2013,
at the age of 96, in Bridgewater, Virginia.
Born in Italy, raised in Staten Island, Normandy dropped out of school during the Great Depression to work in the
garment industry. During World War II, she performed in theater groups on Broadway as well as abroad for the U.S. Army.
While working in sales at a high-end department store after the war, she returned to the classroom, earning her high school
degree in night school and continuing at Wagner College. She received her bachelor’s in English in 1961 and her master’s in 1963.
She especially loved Renaissance literature as well as the works of Shakespeare and Milton, and retired as a professor emerita
in 1982.
Professor of Music Ronald Cross
Noted scholar, educator, and performer
Ronald Cross, the Kurt and Auguste Riemann Professor of Music at Wagner College, died at home on February 21, 2013,
just a few days after his 84th birthday.
A professor at Wagner from 1968 until the day of his death, Dr. Cross influenced generations of music students. “He had
the wonderful ability to make the complexities of music interesting to the uninitiated, and interspersed theory and analysis
with amusing anecdotes about composers, as well as his personal experiences as a performer,” said Jeff Dailey ’80, president of
the New York City chapter of the American Musicological Society.
Cross was a scholar of many types of music, ranging from the Renaissance to Bach to Romantic opera to American music
to non-Western music. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from New York University. He was a Fulbright
Scholar and authored the definitive catalogue of the works of Flemish composer Matthaeus Pipelare.
He was also, in Dailey’s words, “an amazing performer,” especially on the organ and harpsichord, and on the viola da gamba
and other early instruments as well. During the 1980s, he directed the Collegium Musicum Wagneriensis and its well-known
Halloween concerts, Music from the Court of Vlad the Impaler (Prince Dracula).
He regularly took his students, and also Wagner faculty from other departments, to concerts all over New York City. Biology
Professor Ammini Moorthy remembered him as “a soft-spoken, perfect gentleman with a boyish grin who was a scholar, a
teacher, and a great human being.”
summer
2013
43
�Reflections
How I Became the Water Man
Late in Life, a New Journey By George Lewis ’56
I
n 2006, I went to Guatemala with Rotary International
on my first humanitarian project. The purpose of that trip
was to install stoves in the homes of the Mayan Indians.
While there, I was able to talk with the top Guatemalan
Rotarian. I told him I was about to become president of my
Rotary Club in Florence, Oregon, and I wanted to know
how I could help the poor in his country.
Without hesitating, he told me to supply clean drinking
water, because people were getting sick and children were
dying.
I was apprehensive. My club had never applied for
a Rotary matching grant, I didn’t know how to fill out
the paperwork, and my club didn’t have any money in
our budget. Plus, I was 71 years old — quite old to be
starting on this new journey. But I
remembered seeing the look on the
sick children’s faces.
In order to apply for a Rotary
matching grant, I needed to define
a project, find a host Rotary Club in
Guatemala to be my partner, and
raise seed money for the grant. I was
introduced to a Rotarian from the
largest Rotary Club in Guatemala,
who also was the wholesaler of a
$50 in-house water filter. That
covered the project and the host club. Now, I needed to get
the money. I decided to go for a $25,000 matching grant,
which meant I had to raise $7,000. My district would match
my club donation, and the Rotary Foundation would match
my club at 50 percent and the district at 100 percent. I held
a fundraiser, which netted $3,000. I then contacted the
70 other club presidents in my district and asked for their
support. This was grueling, but I finally was able to get
enough money to proceed. The filters were delivered, and
we were able to help 4,500 people.
After that very rewarding experience, I decided to put
together a $50,000 grant. My club completed a few of those.
I then solicited other clubs in my district to be the primary
partner for their own grants. I went back to Guatemala
to ask Rotary Clubs to be the host partners, and I started
to contact Rotary Clubs from other parts of the U.S. and
Canada. We were doing great, but then Rotary started a
new program which meant I couldn’t serve Guatemala for
three years. I was devastated.
Just then, I received an email from someone I didn’t
know asking me to be their friend. I thought it was spam.
Then I received a second and third request from people
around the country. I looked into it and found out it was
Facebook. I am now back in business.
I started to get Rotary friends from around the world. I
asked them if they wanted to do a water grant, and many
were very excited to have this opportunity. I had them fill
out a form that explained their need and their project. I
then proactively found them a Rotary Club partner outside
of their country, because the Rotary Foundation requires
two partners to fund a
grant. I asked Rotarians
from around the world to
be my Facebook friends,
to the point that I am at
the maximum number
of 5,000 allowed.
It was very easy to
find projects, but not so
easy to find partners.
On Facebook, I posted
projects and told stories
with lots of photos. It then clicked. Last year I helped put
together or participated in 63 grants, and this year I expect
to do more. Some of the earlier clubs are on their second or
third grants.
In order to find Rotary Club partners, I have given
hundreds of Rotary Club programs, talked at district
conferences in all parts of the country, and spoken at
president-elect training conferences that had as many as
500 attendees. My talks are about motivating Rotarians to
take action on their dreams, to get rid of negative thoughts,
so they can also live this life-changing experience.
Of the hundreds of Rotarians who have expressed an
interest in water, very few actually follow through and do a
grant. When I ask them why they haven’t done a grant, the
biggest excuse is that their club doesn’t have any money. In
the past, I just advised them to hold a fundraiser. Most did
theory is that if you
“ My
are doing a good thing
and you ask for support
in a nice way, your
friends can’t resist.
WA G N E R
M A G A Z I N E
“
44
�not. I determined that I had to solve this problem, so they
could get rid of this obstacle. I founded Global Run 4 Water
(www.globalrun4water.org) to motivate clubs to take action
and raise the necessary funds in order to complete a grant.
Our website shows many ways to organize an event, whether
it’s a 5K, a 10K, a marathon, or a stroll around the park. I
gathered a passionate group of Rotarians from around the
world to be on my board. Our goal was to raise a million
dollars as soon as possible. One event in India had 9,000
children participating. Each was given a bright yellow hat
with our Global Run logo on it.
I also recently partnered with Pure Charity (www.
purecharity.com), a website that helps charities raise money
for humanitarian projects. It allows me to post projects that
I am working on. The first one was for a water project in
Peru. My campaign was to run a local 5K to raise money.
I’m 78 years old, and this would be my very first race. I sent
an email to everyone on my contact list — about 1,800
people. The donations came pouring in. My theory is that
if you are doing a good thing and you ask for support in a
nice way, your friends can’t resist, mostly because they want
to help you.
When I am finished, most of the world will know about
this terrible water problem, and we will have shown them an
easy way to support us. This is my passion in life. I am not
compensated. I spend hours every day trying to spread the
word, find projects and then find partners. When I started, I
had a goal to supply clean drinking water to one million less
fortunate people. I am now very close to accomplishing this
goal. So, what’s next? I now have a huge support group, and
many are bringing in new supporters every day. This group
will help me get to two million people served and in a lot
shorter period than the first million.
George Lewis ’56, a retired stockbroker and former professional
baseball player, is a member of the Wagner Athletic Hall of Fame
and was named a Wagner College Alumni Fellow in 2009. He now
lives in Florida. Learn more about George Lewis’s work by visiting
Water Team International at www.waterteaminternational.org.
Or, send him a friend request on Facebook!
summer
2013
45
�Office of Communications and Marketing
Wagner College
One Campus Road
Staten Island, NY 10301
Moment of Pride
Brittany McCullough of Fort Hood, Texas, was one
of the 566 graduates of 2013, all congratulated
personally by President Guarasci. McCullough
graduated cum laude from the Honors Program
with a double major in philosophy and Spanish
and a minor in sociology.
P H OTO G R A P H : N I C K RO M A N E N KO
�
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Wagner College Alumni Publications
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Wagner
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Wagner College, Staten Island, NY
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Summer 2013
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Wagner College Digital Collections
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48pp
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eng
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Text