Manhattan Magazine Fall 2007

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Volume 33

Number 2

Fall 2007

CALENDAR

co nt ent s

Dec ember

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A r o u n d t h e Qu a d

N ew residence hall construction, De La Salle Medal honoree, Commencement, Reunion Weekend

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ON CAMPU S

Lectures, faculty/staff accomplishments, freshmen enrollment

1 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 1 National Alumni Council Meeting 2 Annual Christmas Concert, Chapel of De La

Salle and His Brothers 7 Christmas Luncheon, Gulf Coast Club,

Sarasota, Fla.

Ja n u a r y 2008

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Treasure Coast Club Luncheon Meeting, Port St. Lucie, Fla. De La Salle Medal Dinner Class of ’07 Yearbook Party

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SPORT S

Jaspers in the MLB draft, spring sports roundup

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A DVANCEMENT

Febr u a r y

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Mentor Dinner Phys. Ed. Distinguished Service Awards & Phi Epsilon Kappa Induction Ceremony Jaspers of Georgia Annual Brunch

Fund for Manhattan, new scholarship and gift

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ALUMNI

A thletic Hall of Fame, traveling Jaspers, alumnotes, profiles

Ma r c h

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Teacher Recruitment Fair MAAC Tournament National Alumni Council Meeting S.W. Florida Club Luncheon, Bonita Springs, Fla. Treasure Coast Club Luncheon, Port St. Lucie, Fla. St. Patrick’s Day Lunch – Long Island St. Patrick’s Day Lunch – Washington, D.C. Gulf Coast Club Reception & Luncheon, Sarasota, Fla. St. Patrick’s Day Parade – Naples, Fla. St. Patrick’s Day Parade – NYC

A pr il

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Accepted Students Day I Accepted Students Day II NYC Club Reception Not-for-Profit & Public Service Job Fair Alumni-Student Jasper Cup Golf Tournament, Van Cortlandt Park

Ma y

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15 18 21

Stoics Dinner General Meeting, Alumni Society Jasper Open Golf Tournament, Knollwood Country Club Spring Honors Convocation Undergraduate Commencement Spring (Graduate) Commencement

Ju n e

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Reunion Weekend Environmental Engineering Plumbers Club Hall of Fame Nominations Hall of Fame Selection manhattan.edu

29 OBITUARIES

Eleanor Ostrau, Joseph Reynolds

Published by the office of college relations, a division of college advancement, Manhattan College, Riverdale, NY 10471 Lydia Gray, Director of College Relations Kristen Cuppek, Editor Rose Spaziani, Assistant Editor

O n t h e c o ver The women’s soccer team takes on the University at Albany for the first regular season intercollegiate game at the newly renovated Gaelic Park.

Co n t ribu t o rs Michael Antonaccio Patrice Athanasidy Kyle Mack Mary Ellen Malone Thomas McCarthy Kathy Muskopf Scott Silversten Ralph Ventre Susan Woolhandler Ph o t o gra ph ers Ben Asen Joshua Cuppek Marty Heitner Design Charles Hess, chess design

r o u n d th e q u ad a

The recently renovated Gaelic Park facility can compete with the best of them in the MAAC. The installation of light stanchions will allow night games and more time for team practices.

Gaelic Park Gets A Face Lift This September ma r ked a new era In addition to the new surface, light in Manhattan College athletics, when stanchions were installed. These lights the women’s soccer team played the permit night games, give varsity sports University at Albany’s Great Danes in more options for practice times, and the inaugural game of the intercoloffer an additional field for intramural legiate regular season at the newly and recreational sports for the College renovated Gaelic Park. The park’s new community.

FieldTurf, a synthetic, grass-like surface, “This is one of the biggest athletic is part of the College’s proactive camfacility improvements at Manhattan pus enhancement plan.

College since the completion of Draddy The former natural grass surface Gym,” says Bob Byrnes, director of athat Gaelic Park often caused athletic letics. “It will allow us more flexibility to events to be moved or canceled due to practice and play games in the evening unplayable field conditions. The field under the lights.” suffered negligible wear and tear from And the improvements not only overuse and drainage issues during the benefit current Jaspers but also drive fall and spring sports seasons, when the College’s recruitment of prospecthe men’s and women’s soccer teams, tive athletes. the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams, “This new facility will help with and the softball team competed on the our recruitment efforts in men’s and field. Also, practice time was limited women’s soccer, men’s and women’s because the five teams shared the field, lacrosse, and softball,” Byrnes says. and the Gaelic Athletic Association “When you have a great school in a (GAA) hosted other events. great city with a top-notch facility, you To fix these problems, the GAA and have the whole package with which to Manhattan College contracted a comattract Division I student athletes.” pany to lay down the FieldTurf, which The facility at Gaelic Park will rank greatly improves the overall functionamong the best in the MAAC and the ality of the facilities and allows for an region. The 2,000-seat lighted stadium increased number of athletic events to enables Manhattan College to host take place at Gaelic Park. postseason tournaments and the GAA Groundbreaking took place in midto host high-level international matchNovember and was completed in late es in sports, such as Gaelic football, May, just in time for a sold-out internahurling, rugby and soccer. tional match scheduled by the GAA but “In short, it will be a great centerafter the spring season for the Manhatpiece for the College and will help unite tan teams had ended. Their scheduled the entire campus community,” Byrnes home games were moved to alternate says. “Additionally, it will become a recsites in New Jersey and Westchester reational facility that all students can and Rockland counties. enjoy and be proud of.” manhattan.edu

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New Residence Hall To House Growing Number of Jaspers

Construction is underway on East H ill Tower II, Manhattan’s newest state-ofthe-art residence hall.

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The c l a ss o f 2012 has yet to step on campus, but arrangements are well underway for its arrival.

Next year, the College will unveil its new residence hall, East Hill Tower II, which a growing number of Jaspers will call home.

Ground was broken on East Hill Tower II in December 2006, and the state-of-the-art residence hall is on schedule to be completed in July 2008.

The attractive structure that overlooks Van Cortlandt Park will eventually provide a safe home for some 550 students, which brings residential housing for East Hill and its twin, Horan Hall, to 1,270.

The construction of East Hill Tower II came in response to increased demand for on-campus housing, a trend that is consistent with college campuses across the United States. More Manhattan undergraduates are choosing to live on campus, and once the new hall is built, 75 percent will have the opportunity to become residents.

The new building’s design nearly mirrors that of Horan Hall. Even though East Hill Tower II has one floor less than Horan Hall, both buildings will be the same height because the new residence hall is being built on higher ground. Due to its location on a higher piece of the campus’ rock underpinning, the construction of East Hill Tower II has posed logistical challenges in recent months.

“The rock excavation has taken longer than anticipated, which has slowed the north portion of the building,” says Robert Mahan, Manhattan College’s vice president for facilities management.

“But we have accelerated work on the south portion, which will give us time flexibility to catch up on the north portion.”

As with any large construction project, unforeseen issues have attempted to slow the process.

When areas of both hard and soft rock were found,

the soft rock discovery required a redesign of some foundations, as well as the installation of more concrete and enforcing steel than first anticipated.

One issue that has yet to become an obstacle is the weather. A mild winter in 2006-07 proved beneficial and saved some of the “float” or time cushion that is built into the schedule to be carried forward unused.

The exterior of the building is scheduled for completion by December, with interior work to continue through next summer. From December into the spring, workers will install the interior finishes, which are sensitive to temperature and humidity, meaning weather may still be a factor in the upcoming winter, despite the finished exterior.

According to Mahan, the construction process must be completed by July in order to make time for furnishing the rooms and installing phone, cable and Internet lines prior to the students’ arrival in late August.

“The furniture is probably the biggest thing,” Mahan says. “There is a lot of furniture for a building of that size. It takes time to load the furniture in, unpack and set it up; it’s weeks and weeks of just installing furniture. A month is the minimum we want to have.”

With the building’s structure near completion and the rock excavation all but finished, any noise disturbances to the College community from the construction process should be in the past.

However, those on campus will begin to notice an increased presence of trailers that transport the building’s wall panels.

Progress of East Hill Tower II’s construction can be followed via live Web cam on the Manhattan College Web site at www.manhattan.edu.

ar o u n d th e q u ad

The De La Salle Medal Dinner honors executives and corporations that exemplify the principles of excellence, corporate leadership and service to society.

R etired Verizon Vice Chairman and CFO Will Be H onored at the 2008 D e La Salle Medal D inner Frederic Salerno ’65

F r eder ic V. Sa l er n o ’65, retired vice chairman and chief financial officer of Verizon, will receive the 2008 De La Salle Medal at Manhattan College’s annual dinner on Wednesday, Jan. 16. Mario Gabelli, chairman of Gabelli Funds, and Eugene McGrath ’63, retired chairman and CEO of Con Edison and past De La Salle Medal honoree, will both serve as dinner co-chairmen. Returning to the Grand Ballroom of The Waldorf=Astoria, the black-tie dinner is the foremost fundraising event for the College.

The De La Salle Medal Dinner honors executives and corporations that exemplify the principles of excellence, corporate leadership and service to society. Former honorees include: Robert Reynolds, former vice chairman and chief operating officer, Fidelity Investments; Charles Maikish, executive director, Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center; Sy Sternberg, chairman and chief executive officer, New York Life

Insurance Company; and Rudolph Giuliani ’65, former mayor of the City of New York.

Before his retirement from the telecommunications industry in 2002, Salerno spent 37 years in key roles at Verizon and its predecessor companies.

He served as a lead negotiator in three of the most significant mergers in telecommunications history: the 1997 merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX; Bell Atlantic’s merger with GTE; and the combination of the U.S. wireless assets of Bell Atlantic and Vodafone into the country’s largest wireless provider, Verizon Wireless.

Salerno also directed Bell Atlantic’s successful efforts to realize the annual expense savings, capital efficiencies and revenue gains resulting from the merger with NYNEX. An active participant in community and educational issues, Salerno has held numerous leadership positions. Under former Gov. Mario Cuomo, he served as chairman of the

board of trustees of the State University of New York (with its 64 campuses, three hospitals and 400,000 students) for six years. Salerno was chairman of the Archdiocese of New York’s Partnership for Quality Education Campaign and is the former president of the Inner-City Scholarship Fund.

He also has served on the board of trustees of Manhattan College, Xavier High School and New Visions for Public Schools.

In 2006, he was knighted to the Order of St. Gregory the Great

by Cardinal Edward Egan of New York.

Salerno received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Manhattan College and a Master of Business Administration from Adelphi University.

For more information about this gala event and how you or your company might participate, please call Stephen White, director of development, at (718) 8627548 or e-mail stephen.white@ manhattan.edu.

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Chairman of Manhattan College’s board of trustees Thomas O ’Malley, honorary degree recipient Jan Crawford Greenburg and Brother President Thomas Scanlan at Commencement.

Exuding excitement, Jasper graduates congratulate each other during the 165th Commencement ceremony.

Celebrating the Class of 2007 family and friends attended a Baccalaureate A w eek o f ac a demic events that began Mass at 10:00 a.m. Afterward, they brunched with the Spring Honors Convocation and under tents on the Quad, and then headed to culminated in the 165th Manhattan College Draddy Gymnasium for a graduation ceremoCommencement ceremony marked milestone ny emphasizing a seize-the-day spirit and an achievements for the class of 2007. urgent message to change the world.

On May 17, more than 200 of Manhattan’s And seizing the day is something this year’s top achievers gathered in the Chapel of De La honoree, ABC News Legal Correspondent Jan Salle and His Brothers for the annual Spring Crawford Greenburg, does on a regular basis.

Honors Convocation. The ceremony recogBrother President Thomas Scanlan presented nized seniors in 32 honor societies. Faculty her with an honorary doctor of laws degree members awarded 52 medals and prizes to to commemorate the occasion. She then adstudents for high grades, leadership and dressed the audience with vigor and optimism community service. about the future.

Dr. Gary Vena, professor of English, deliv“When you leave here today graduates, you ered the faculty address, reminding students can see what’s over that mountain, or what’s that their honors bring responsibilities. He enbeyond the horizon, or just around the bend couraged them to set goals and strive to make — and make it a better place to be,” said Greenthe world a better place. burg, who celebrated the 20-year anniversary “The honors about to be bestowed on you of her graduation from the University of Alarepresent an enormous range of personal and bama on the same day as Manhattan’s ceremoacademic strengths,” Vena said. “All shining ny.

“Use the things you’ve learned here about testimonies of perseverance and hard work, but all reflective of the support and inspiration right and wrong, honor and faith, compassion and caring for others. Use your energy and you have received from your families, your idealism to make wherever you go from here a teachers, your friends.” better place than when you got there.”

After Vena’s speech, faculty moderators Her eloquent speech drew on personal representing national, international and academic honor societies, recognized students for experiences. Raised on a farm in rural Alabama, where the local high school lacked a school achievement in areas of study ranging from newspaper, Greenburg learned the imporpsychology, to civil engineering, to marketing. tance of hard work, imagination and, most Next, the deans from all five of Manhattan’s importantly, being true to oneself. She said schools awarded students their medals. The she heeded her father’s advice throughout her long medal list also included a new addition, life to “keep a hand on the plow and reach for the Dorothy Nealy Sullivan Medal for Internathe sky.” tional Studies.

In other words, Greenburg translated, The convocation ended in high spirits that “Word hard. Stay grounded. Remember who carried students through the weekend to the you are, and where you came from … Dream commencement ceremony on May 20, where big. Never ever give in.” close to 700 students earned bachelor’s deGreenburg earned a law degree from the grees in all 40 majors in the schools of arts, University of Chicago Law School, which science, engineering, education and business.

At the day’s start, students accompanied by served as a platform for her career in print and

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TV journalism. She started her first job at the Chicago Tribune, where she covered legal affairs. Her résumé also includes Supreme Court correspondent at The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS and legal analyst on the CBS Evening News and Face the Nation. At ABC News, she recently interviewed both Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice John Paul Stevens.

The tenacious, positive message of Greenburg’s speech was echoed by valedictorian Peter Laserna ’07, who earned a B.A. in government and English.

“I look at our graduating class, and I see the catalyst for change,” Laserna said. “We, as the people with the drive and the energy, the will and the desire, and the overall ability to effect transformation, must be committed to the endeavor.”

He encouraged his classmates to implement their knowledge and Lasallian values in the professional world.

“If anything should have been learned before we graduate, it is that one person can motivate others,” Laserna said. “It is up to us as individuals to take what we have learned and become leaders, so we can bring about the change that this world so desperately needs.”

Br. Thomas lauded graduates for their accomplishments and wished them well. The ceremony ended with students just starting to celebrate. A brilliant, sunny afternoon awaited them — a perfect sign full of potential and new beginnings.

ABC News Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg shared her experience in a piece that appeared in her personal column on the ABC News Web site. Go to http://blogs.abcnews. com/legalities/2007/05/perseverance_an.html.

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H onoree Francis J. Lombardi, P.E ., chief engineer for the Port Authority of N ew York and N ew Jersey, addresses graduates at the 165th Spring Commencement ceremony.

Benny Valdes ’07, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in the U ndergraduate Adult D egree Completion program, proudly shows his diploma.

Spring Commencement H ighlights Manhattan’s Future Leaders F o r Ma n hatta n ’s d ed ic ated graduate students, the 165th Spring Commencement ceremony on May 23 laid the way for new and improved careers. To this end, family and friends packed the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers to celebrate more than 200 students in the graduate schools of education and engineering, and the Undergraduate Adult Degree Completion program.

At the ceremony, Francis J. Lombardi, P.E., chief engineer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, received an honorary Doctor of Science. He told Manhattan graduates to use their degrees to improve society and never lose sight of their values.

“You are about to re-enter the world as a new person, redefined by your new knowledge,” Lombardi said. “Knowledge is power. And, like the saying goes, ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’”

Lombardi’s successful career is a model of how to use knowledge wisely. At the Port Authority, he started as an engineering trainee and rose through the ranks to direct the agency’s nearly 800 staff members and consultants, and, along the way, he implemented capital and operation programs. He played an integral role in the recovery of the World Trade Center site, both after the terrorist bombing in 1993 and the Sept. 11 attacks.

He spoke to students about the importance of a professional vow, explaining it as the responsibility of workers in any field to maintain their credibility and that of their chosen profession. In doing so, an ethical code and integrity are essential.

“When you make your professional vow, think about it carefully and treat it with the respect and weight that it deserves,” Lombardi said. “Don’t make it and forget about it … Your vow is your guide, yet you will decide how you approach the course.”

Another seminal moment of the ceremony came when valedictorian James Wallace ’07, who earned a master’s degree in counseling, addressed his peers. As a working professional at IBM and father of three children, Wallace reflected upon his experience at Manhattan and shared his aspirations for the future.

“This graduation is the next step in a career change that takes me from the business world into the academic world,” he said. “For each of my fellow graduates, it may be a similar career change, or it may mean something very different, but for all of us, it is an important milestone.”

Wallace said the warm community on Manhattan’s campus defined his experience. He also thanked professors and mentors on behalf of the graduating class.

“The many classroom discussions were a big part of learning here, always engaging and enlightening,” he said. “I know my classmates often expressed how much they learned from our lively discussions, and I agree with them.”

After the speeches, students walked to the front of the chapel to accept their diplomas. Medals and prizes were awarded to select students for academic merit in education and chemical and environmental engineering.

Brother President Thomas Scanlan congratulated students for their hard work. The beaming graduates continued the day’s festivities at a reception in Thomas Hall. manhattan.edu

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2007 Reunion Weekend Brings Together Alumni

The golden class of 1957 gathers in front of the Chapel of D e La Salle and H is Brothers during R eunion Weekend.

Members of the class of 1982 wear their silver anniversary medals at the dinner dance in Smith Auditorium on Friday.

Golden jubilarians reminisce about their good old times at Manhattan College.

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F if ty yea r s have pa ssed since the class of 1957 graduated from Manhattan College, yet for all the good times and camaraderie celebrated at Reunion Weekend from June 1-3, it could have been yesterday that these golden jubilarians were carefree students hanging out on the Quad.

Along with the ’57 graduates, the class of 1982 celebrated its 25th anniversary, and all classes with years ending in “2” or “7” joined the festivities. They presented the College with anniversary class gifts and pledges totaling $1,769,281.

On Friday, several activities reunited alumni. A cocktail hour and dinner dance brought together the class of 1982 in Smith Auditorium. Former classmates mingled among red martini bars to the tune of pop music spun by a DJ. Before dinner, Thomas Mauriello, vice president for college advancement, awarded silver medals to the class of 1982. Brother President Thomas Scanlan briefly spoke about Manhattan as a “hot school for students” and pinpointed new initiatives, such as the construction of a parking garage and a new student residence, East Hill Tower II. While the class of 1982 gathered on campus, the other classes enjoyed an anniversary dinner cruise on the Atlantica, which departed from pier 17 of the South Street Seaport. The cruise hosted the classes of 1952 through 2002. As the Atlantica circled New York City and passed the Statue of Liberty, the 200 alumni and their guests broke into a rendition of God Bless America. For those who stayed on land, dinner was held at the Riverdale Greentree restaurant.

The next day, sunshine and a blue sky beckoned alumni to a family picnic on the Quad. A magician and balloon-sculpting clown entertained the children.

Meanwhile, the class of 1957 convened for its golden anniversary luncheon in Dante’s Den, during which Br. Thomas presented gold jubilarian medals to its members. He also awarded those attending from the classes of 1947 and 1952. The class of 1957 raised more than $378,000 for the College, thanks in large part to its 10-member reunion committee headed by chairman Otto Obermaier ’57.

Other classes pulled their weight as well. The class of 1967 contributed more than $189,000, plus a bequest of $250,000 from one of its members.

Later in the day, all alumni came together for Mass in the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers. Afterward, they gathered under tents on the Quad for the gala celebration and exchanged memories well into the night.

Marianna Kowalczyk ’07

“The fact that Marianna received this scholarship demonstrates the quality of her education at Manhattan College.”

A s mo r e c o mpa n ies go “green,” environmental engineers are hot commodities. And there’s no better place to find them than at schools, such as Manhattan College, where savvy businesses look for talent. Environmental Engineers of the Future (E2F), a scholarship program backed by prospective employers, aims to train and recruit rising student stars in the field.

One such star, Marianna Kowalczyk ’07, who earned a bachelor’s in environmental engineering with cum laude distinction, was one of only 11 students nationwide that were each awarded E2F’s $20,000 scholarship for graduate school. She entered the University of California at Berkeley’s master’s program in environmental engineering this fall.

“The fact that Marianna received this scholarship demonstrates the quality of her education at Manhattan College,” says Dr. John Mahony, professor of environmental engineering at Manhattan College. “UC Berkeley is one of the highest-ranking schools, showing what an honor it is for a Manhattan student to participate in this program.”

E2F began in 2004 when a group of public agencies and private engineering firms banded together with the idea to create a program that increases the number of skilled environmental engineers in the workforce. To do this, they started a scholarship program that covers graduate tuition and expenses at more than 50 participating universities and colleges, including Manhattan.

In exchange for the scholarship, participants, such as Kowalczyk, will work for three years upon graduation at one of E2F’s sponsor companies. They include Black & Veatch, Carollo Engineers, CH2M Hill, City of Phoenix Water Services Department, King County Washington Wastewater Treatment Division, Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts,

ar o u n d th e q u ad

R ecent Grad Wins Prestigious Engineering Scholarship Malcolm Pirnie, MWH, and Parsons.

Kowalczyk has not yet decided with which sponsor she will work; she plans to decide toward the end of her yearlong master’s program.

“I would love to work on air quality or global warming,” she says.

At Manhattan, Kowalczyk received the prestigious Ciba Specialty Chemicals Foundation Scholarship in her junior and senior years. This scholarship was established in 1993 by the Ciba Geigy Corporation to provide financial aid to undergraduates who excel during their first year or two at the College, and intend to pursue careers in environmental engineering. She also won honorable mention for the Lawrence Eckenfelder Award for excellence in the study of environmental engineering at the Spring Honors Convocation in May. She looks forward to new experiences at UC Berkeley, a school she toured and “fell in love with” on a trip to San Francisco two years ago. Kowalczyk believes her experience in Manhattan’s engineering department has prepared her to do well in graduate school.

“All of my professors — Dr. Mahony, Dr. Carbonaro ’97, Dr. Farley ’75 — were great,” she says. “The Manhattan program was wonderful. I’ve been doing research for four years and have learned a lot about my field in this way.”

Kowalczyk says she may want to pursue a Ph.D. down the line. Whatever her direction, she seems destined to engineer an outstanding future.

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Journalist Bill Moyers Discusses Politics and Social Justice Bill Moyers

Emmy awa r d -w in n in g jo ur na l ist Bill Moyers took on complex issues for last spring’s Christen lecture — the Iraq war, immigration and the gap between rich and poor, to name a few — but the message of his talk, Making a Difference, had a simple theme: Americans need to pursue social justice and love.

“As a journalist, I try to see the world as it is, stripped of its illusions,” Moyers said. “To report it otherwise would be to fail the people who look at a journalist for an honest report of what we see.”

What Moyers sees of late in the United States is injustice. He talked about the nation’s growing debt, materialism and disconnected politicians.

“Your elders are leaving you a mess,” Moyers said. “We are handing you a democracy on the ropes. We’ve turned the earth to toast. Money has made a ruffle in politics.”

Moyers said students have the potential to work for change but tend to be more self-absorbed and cynical about politics, unlike their parents, who came of age in the ’60s and protested the Vietnam War. He compared the Vietnam and Iraq wars, calling them both disasters, and said they raise questions of social justice.

“Only if your generation becomes aroused outrageously and engaged can these moral

issues of social justice be addressed while there is still time,” Moyers said.

Throughout his lecture, Moyers came back to love as an answer to some of the nation’s worst problems. He appealed to his audience to embrace humanity and America’s founding ideals, even if they are lost in the media’s mixed messages of greed, terror and polarized politics. “‘When I speak of love, I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response,’” Moyers said, quoting another role model, Dr. Martin Luther King, who spoke those words in his 1967 speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. “‘I am speaking of that force, which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door, which leads to ultimate reality.’”

Moyers also talked about immigration. He said today’s immigrants from Latin America probably have the same qualifications as Europeans who came to America more than a century ago, but immigration laws have changed.

“We can reconcile our differences on immigration if we are mindful that we are talking about human beings and social justice,” Moyers said. “For the driving force of immigration is as old as Abraham’s decision to get up and

go to the promised land.”

As for the uneven growth of wealth in the United States, Moyers used an example close to home to make his point.

“The gap between the rich and the poor is greater than it had been in 1929,” he said. “One article after another says that New York City’s middle class people can’t live there anymore unless we do something to try to restrain the boundaries of grief and restore a sense of ‘we the people.’”

Moyers’ views on politics come from nearly 40 years of experience as a journalist. Since his early days as publisher of Long Island’s newspaper Newsday, and his 10-year run in the 1970s as host of the PBS show Bill Moyers Journal, to later stints at CBS, NBC and again at PBS, he continues to be on the forefront of news reporting. In 1986, he founded his own production company, Public Affairs Television, with his wife, Judith Davidson Moyers. The pair has produced many programs with PBS. In addressing politics and society, Moyers’ lecture advances the mission of Manhattan’s Robert J. Christen Program in Early American History and Culture. Named for the late professor who worked as an educator at Manhattan for 25 years, the Christen lectures educate students and faculty about current events.

A Life in the Law

Jasper Judge Recounts His Career T he T ho ma s Mo r e L aw So c iet y hosted one of Manhattan’s most distinguished alums, the Hon. John S. Martin Jr. ’57, during the spring semester for the talk A Life in the Law. Martin served as U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York for 13 years and, prior to that, he was an U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. His career has encompassed many of society’s important legal and moral issues, such as insider trading, environmental offenses, copyright protection, asbestos liability, narcotics, gang murders and insurance litigation over the destruction of the World Trade Towers.

When Martin attended Manhattan, he was active in the original Thomas More Law Society. The society recently has been reinstituted on campus with the help of alumni in the legal professions and judiciary, and retains its founding mission to help interested undergraduates prepare for law school and beyond. It will offer a preparatory class for the LSAT, mock law school classes and trials, as well as opportunities for pre-law students to mingle with potential alumni mentors.

The former judge discussed his experiences and how he presided over some “interesting times.” There were Croatian terrorists, Puerto

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Rican separatists and a marijuana case involving 1960s counterculture icon Timothy Leary and a telephone booth.

Martin also spoke out against the mandatory sentencing guidelines imposed on the judiciary by Congress. He explained that these sentencing guidelines also bring up issues of racial and class biases, which he sees as the essence of Christian morality.

“Mandatory sentencing guidelines have aided the establishment of a prison industrial complex where more than two million men and women, 70 percent of whom are minorities and with usually no more than a 10th grade education, spend decades in prison for nonviolent, often victimless crimes,” he said. “Punishments are unfair.”

Martin returned to private practice in 2003, joining Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. In 2006, he and fellow Jasper Otto G. Obermaier ’57, another distinguished lawyer who also served as U.S. district attorney for the Southern District of New York, revived a small legal practice they had formed in the early 1970s, which had lapsed when both senior partners went on to work for the federal government.

Eva n gel ic a l t heo l o gia n Dr. Ron Sider shared his insight on religion and politics at the annual Aquinas Lecture last spring. Sider, who founded the Christian group Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA), discussed how to align political views with religious beliefs and emphasized the similarities between Evangelicals and other Christian groups.

“Even if you’re deeply religious, it doesn’t mean you get your politics right,” Sider said in his opening remarks.

He pointed to Zambia’s former president, Frederick Chiluba, who declared the country a Christian nation but abused human rights by using tear gas on his opposition.

Sider cautioned that a lack of reflection leads to confusion and corruption in religion and politics. He used Hitler’s rise and fall in Germany as a famous example of how political decisions impacted billions of people.

“Politics are simply too important to ignore,” Sider said.

“There’s enormous debate within religious communities about which issues should be supported.”

Sider presented his own methodology for the review of political issues. It applies a normative framework, broad study of society and the world, political philosophy, and analysis of a specific issue. He said that a person’s experiences and background form the normative framework, and the Bible’s story and “biblical paradigm” shape Christian perceptions of political issues and the world. A broad study of society enriches the normative framework, he said, and knowledge, along with the ability to assess history, economics and culture, make for an informed political philosophy.

For the political philosophy, Sider described values, such as the decentralization and democratization of power, religious freedom and strong family structures.

The principles discussed by Sider can be found in his 28 books and more than 100 articles about religion and social change.

Lectures Discuss French Culture in America Ma n hat t a n st ud ent s need not cross the Atlantic for a taste of France. This past April, the College brought it to them with its two-part lecture series, French Presence in America. The lectures discussed France’s legacy of philosophy, history, architecture and literature in the United States.

“We are trying to make the connection that French is not an isolated subject,” says Nevart Wanger, professor of French and Italian at Manhattan College. “It’s linked to our culture and history.”

In light of recent tensions between France and the United States, especially over the Iraq War, the lectures also served as a reminder of the centuries-old friendship of respect and intrigue shared by the two countries.

The first lecture, split between history and philosophy, focused on Frenchmen Le Marquis de Lafayette and Jean Paul Sartre. Dr. Jeff Horn, associate professor of history, began with Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution.

“Lafayette’s main contribution was to make tangible, dashing and romantic the French commitment to defeating the British to win American independence,” Horn says.

When the lecture shifted to philosophy, Dr. David Bollert, assistant professor of philosophy, picked up with Sartre, a pioneer of existentialist philosophy and 20th century author. Existentialism, often linked to the beatnik movement, examines human existence beyond scientific and moral categories.

“The work of American novelists, such as Ralph Ellison and Norman Mailer; filmmakers, such as Woody Allen; and contemporary writers of graphic novels, such as Alan Moore and Frank Miller, all bear the stamp of Sartre’s thought,” Bollert says.

For the second lecture, architecture and literature were discussed. Robert Kramer, professor emeritus of German, profiled architect Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, who was invited by President George Washington to design the capital city in Washington, D.C. “It was quite natural that a Frenchman should be chosen to design the capital because France was the leading cultural force in the Western world in the 18th century,” Kramer said.

The lecture’s next half surveyed literature. Wanger talked about how images of America shaped the writing of French authors, who wrote with exaggeration and optimism about America, describing its beautiful and wild landscape in vivid detail.

“There was a lot to be said about the New World (America) and how it compared to the Old World (Europe),” Wanger said. “It continues to this day. Whenever you open a French magazine, you always see something about America.”

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Evangelical Speaker Bridges Religion and Politics

N YU A nthropologist Challenges Perceptions of Trash Dr . R o bin Nagl e kn o w s what it’s like to walk in another person’s shoes. As the anthropologist-in-residence for the New York City Department of Sanitation (DOS), she has trailed sanitation crews and performed their daily tasks. For her April lecture Getting It Up and Writing It Down: Fieldwork, Ethnography and New York City’s DOS, she divulged her experiences and offered a new way of looking at trash.

In her introduction, Nagle referred to garbage as “an old melody for me.” She has long held an interest in this subject. At New York University, she teaches the Web-based course Garbage in Gotham: The Anthropology of Trash. Her main question in doing the research was to find out what it’s like to be a sanitation worker.

“I figured the only way to answer it was to hang out with sanitation workers,” she said. “So I started knocking on the door of the department of sanitation.”

Nagle said it took three years to convince the DOS to allow her to infiltrate sanitation crews. When her ethnographic research finally began in 2002, Nagle blended in like any other sanitation worker. She wore the same uniform, hauled trash onto garbage trucks and learned to read the demographics of a city block based on what people threw away.

Despite her effort to fit in, everyone knew about her plans to glean

research from her experience for a book, Picking Up, to be published

by Farrar, Straus & Giroux next year. She admitted the book sometimes made it hard for crew members to confide in her.

“It’s a challenge to take field notes on the job because people are slow to trust you,” Nagle said. She usually filed mental notes to write down later, or jotted quick observations by hand, but never used a tape recorder. She also observed her fellow sanitation workers for book details.

During the talk, Nagle tailored her remarks about writing for Manhattan’s freshman class, which has spent its first year writing about garbage in English classes.

“The work of writing is painful and tedious, but it’s also rewarding,” she said.

Nagle segued from her sanitation work experience and book writing to a discussion of the value of trash and what it says about people. She said the dividing line between trash and personal identity is too starkly drawn. Her lecture closed with a challenge to the common perception of trash as slimy, rotten junk.

“The debris we leave behind is equally worthy of our regard,” Nagle said. “What we throw away tells a lot about us. We may once have loved these objects, so trash isn’t necessarily the dirty stuff we see it as.” manhattan.edu

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Dr. Michael Judge, associate professor of biology at Manhattan College

Faculty/Staff Accomplishments

Biology Professor Awarded Grant To Improve Long Island Sound Ma r in e bio l o gist Dr . Mic ha el J udge has long been fascinated with water flow and animal behavior. For his latest project, Manhattan’s associate professor of biology blends these interests to study if and how fish larvae move in areas of low dissolved oxygen in the Long Island Sound.

Judge’s 16-month project is funded by a grant of nearly $181,000, with more than half of the money from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. He teams with James Fitzpatrick ’71 at HydroQual, an environmental consulting firm that will subcontract his research.

“Dissolved oxygen is one of the measures of environmental health,” Judge says. “The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has certain standards for dissolved oxygen, and the goal is to have the Long Island Sound meet those standards.”

For the study, Judge will work with a graduate engineering assistant and undergraduate research assistant. They will use a computer model developed by HydroQual to simulate data of water currents and oxygen levels. Judge says the twist for his project is to add larvae behavior to the mix of data for the first time.

“We want to include behavior of larvae to see if they can move away from low dissolved oxygen,” Judge says. “This is already being researched by other marine scientists. My job is to be the liaison to get the new data out there that’s not widely published.”

He plans to look at noncommercial and commercial fish and shellfish (flounder, oysters, lobsters and crabs), some of which are strong and weak swimmers.

Because larvae move slowly in early life, past studies have assumed they cannot avoid areas of low oxygen, which can kill fish. Bacteria proliferate as a result of human activities, such as sewage discharge, and consume oxygen in the water.

Yet other factors are likely to affect Judge’s study. Unlike humans, the body temperature of fish matches their environment; so the higher the temperature, the more active they are. Even though fish move faster in high temperatures, bacteria also grow best in warm weather, especially the summer, and siphon dissolved oxygen.

Judge will look at if and how fish behavior changes with the seasons, and where larvae go in water. For example, if flounder larvae stay in shallow water, but low levels of dissolved oxygen exist in deeper parts of the Long Island Sound, then the flounder larvae survive and nothing needs to be done. If the flounder larvae mingle with low oxygen in the deep section, they might die, which proves to be a problem.

Besides having environmental benefits, Judge says his study saves money by identifying critical problem areas within the Long Island Sound. The amount of his grant seems like mere pennies in comparison to the billions of dollars it would cost for an unfocused cleanup of the Long Island Sound. It also unites biologists and engineers to find a solution to a common concern.

“It brings together two different ways of approaching a problem,” Judge says. “It’s a nice synergy of engineering and biology to address environmental problems.”

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Dr. Nada Assaf-Anid, associate professor of chemical engineering, had her preproposal “Development of a Molecular Tracer Technique and Microbiological Sensors for Common Pollutants of Coastal Marine Environments” recommended for submission as a full proposal by the Georgia Sea Grant College Program. The work is a collaboration between AssafAnid and colleagues in biology and environmental sciences at Georgia College and State University. She also recently attended the National American Society of Engineering Education meeting in Hawaii and presented the paper “Teaching a Structured Research Course at the Undergraduate Level” in the session on chemical engineering innovations. In addition, Assaf-Anid co-authored two papers with students John Iarocci ’05, Natalie Ivezaj ’05, Peter Lindner ’05 and Naveen Konduru ’06 in the area of sustainability and carbon dioxide sequestration. The papers, “Curbing the Greenhouse Effect by Carbon Dioxide Adsorption with Zeolite 13X” and “Sustainable Engineering for the Future: A Laboratory Experiment on Carbon Dioxide Adsorption from a Carbon Dioxide-Nitrogen Stream,” have been accepted for publication in the journals AIChE and the International Journal of Chemical Engineering Education.

Dr. Richard Carbonaro, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Dr. Kevin Farley, professor of civil and environmental engineering, received a three-year, $354,000 research grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Brother Henry Chaya, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, presented “Distance Learning with Limited Bandwidth” at the regional meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education on April 14 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Dr. William Merriman, dean of the school of education, and Brother Augustine Nicoletti, F.S.C., assistant professor of education, received a commitment from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) to edit the book Understanding and Teaching Today’s Students. The target date for publication is spring 2008. They also had their article “Teaching Millennial Generation Students” published in the April/May 2007 issue of Momentum, the official journal of the NCEA. In addition, Merriman was interviewed by the radio program

New Director of Residence Life Brother Ralph Bucci, F.S.C., has been appointed director of residence life. Br. Ralph has been an important contributor to the student life division since joining the campus community in 2005. As the coordinator of the mentor program in the center for career development, he was responsible for the cultivation and expansion of this program.

He has an extensive background in educational administration, with experience in both academic and student life programs stemming from his work at George Washington University, Salve Regina University and La Salle Academy.

Br. Ralph also has been actively involved with many other aspects of campus life, especially through his support of the Lasallian Collegians and the weekly discussion groups for students that he co-hosts.

Pathways to Learning about the subject of teaching millennial generation students. He spoke with the program’s host and producer, Sr. Marie Pappas, associate secretary of education for the Archdiocese of New York. The program aired on The Catholic Channel (No. 159) on Sirius Radio.

Dr. Peter Mutarelli, adjunct professor in the graduate school of education, was selected as Italian American Educator of the Year. Mutarelli, who has been associated with Manhattan College for more than 10 years, was honored at a dinner on March 23. During the award ceremony, he was characterized as exemplifying the fine qualities of leadership, service and dedication to excellence.

Dr. Mohammed Naraghi, professor of mechanical engineering, published the paper “VBA/EXCEL: An Alternative Computer Programming Tool for Engineering Freshmen” in the April-June 2007 edition of the Computer in Education Journal.

Dr. Judith Plaskow, professor of religious studies, received two honorary degrees this spring: a D.H.L. from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (the Reform Rabbinical School) in New York in May and a D.H.L. from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia in June.

Dr. Carolyn Predmore, associate professor of management and marketing, co-authored the article “New Challenges to Old Problems: Building Trust in E-Marketing,” which was published in the March 2007 edition of the peer-reviewed Business and Society Review.

Dr. Robert Sharp, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Donald J. O’Connor Endowed Faculty Fellow, was a co-author of the paper “Impact of Switching from Chlorine to Chloramine Disinfection on Biological Regrowth and Corrosion of Distribution Materials.” The paper was presented at the American Water Works Association’s 2007 Research Symposium on Drinking Water Distribution Systems: The Next Frontier, held from March 2-3

On Ca mpu s

Dr. Zella Moore, assistant professor of psychology, published the article “Critical Thinking and the Evidence-based Practice of Sport Psychology” in the peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology.

Dr. Graham Walker, professor of mechanical engineering, was named Lasallian Educator of the Year for 2005-2006 at the faculty recognition convocation in A pril. He was recognized for his many years of dedicated service to the College and the community.

in Reno, Nev. It was co-authored by environmental engineering graduate research assistants Edward Coleman ’09 and Brent Gaylord ’09. Sharp also was the invited seminar speaker at the National Science Foundation’s Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University on April 19. He presented a review of his biofilm research, “A ‘Glowing’ Review of Subsurface Biofilm Research at Manhattan College.”

Drs. Lisa Toscano and Jeffrey Cherubini, assistant professors of physical education and performance, presented “Rehabilitation Adherence in the High School Athlete” at the 2007 High School Sports Medicine Continuing Education seminar at Pascack Valley Hospital in New Jersey on April 16.

Dr. Frederick Zenz, professor emeritus of chemical engineering, was presented with an International Fluidization Award for “dedication to excellence, commitment to education, persistence at research, and service to the profession,” at the May 2007 International Engineering Conference in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia.

Dr. Jacqueline Zubeck, assistant professor of English, has won admission to the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute meeting, Reconsidering Flannery O’Connor, in July at Georgia College & State University.

College N ames N ew VP for Finance and Capital Projects Thomas J. Ryan ’69 has been named Manhattan College’s new vice president for finance and capital projects.

He also will serve as the College’s treasurer.

Ryan’s career began at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and he spent 25 years in the Lakeland Central School District in Shrub Oak, N.Y. In 2000, he moved to the City School District of New Rochelle and served until recently as assistant superintendent for business and administration.

A graduate of the College’s school of business, Ryan obtained a master’s in education from the State University of New York. He is certified as a school district administrator by the New York State Department of Education and has twice served as president of the Putnam/North Westchester School Business Administrators Association.

On A pril 23, five members of the faculty received the Bonus et Fidelis Medal, which commemorates 25 years of commitment and service. This year’s recipients are: (from left to right) Dr. S uzanne Rudnick, professor of chemistry; Brother Henry Chaya, associate professor of electrical engineering; Dr. Winsome Downie, assistant professor of government; Dr. Romeo Pascone, professor of electrical engineering; and Dr. Evriclea Voudouri-Maniati, associate professor of electrical engineering.

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Freshmen Enrollment Is on a Roll Ma n hat t a n Co l l ege co nt in ues t o st r ive toward its goal of becoming the premier Catholic college of New York City, and that vision has become apparent to prospective students both locally and nationally. The College has received an unprecedented number of applications in recent years, and the student body continues to become more diverse.

More than 700 freshmen have joined the Manhattan College community for the 2007-08 academic year, which is the sixth-straight freshmen class to hover around the 700-student plateau. Not only has the College seen a marked increase in applications but also in the percentage of students who choose the schools of science and engineering.

In total, the College received 5,127 applications for enrollment, which is 44 percent more than 2000. With so many high school students interested in attending Manhattan, the admissions department has accepted only 55 percent of its applicants, compared to 68 percent seven years ago.

“For a variety of reasons, we’ve seen a surge in the number of students applying to the College, not just on a regional basis but on a national basis, resulting in the largest applicant pool the College has ever experienced,” says William Bisset, vice president for enrollment management at Manhattan College.

Manhattan accepted 2,818 students in 2007, and nearly one-quarter will make Riverdale their home for at least the next four years.

“Being more selective allows the College to increase the academic profile of the students,” he says.

According to Bisset, the College also is experiencing an increase in the number of prospective students who want to live on campus. Almost 85 percent of the applicants for 2007-08 applied as resident students. Consequently, with all four classes in consideration, the College is now 80 percent residential.

Manhattan College has become an attractive school to students across the United States. With the allure of living on a campus while going to college in New York City, students are coming to Riverdale from all areas of the country. This year’s incoming class includes students from as far away as Oregon, Utah and Colorado, as well as Louisiana and Tennessee.

New York residents still make up the majority of the Manhattan student body, but the number of students coming from nearby states, such as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, has increased this year, as the College’s reach grows outside the tri-state area. Targeted recruitment efforts have led to a much larger representation of students from New England, and about roughly 10 percent of this year’s freshmen class hails from north of Hartford, Conn.

The College also continues to become more diverse. The class of 2011 will have more students of Native-American, Asian and Hispanic descent than in 2006.

That said, Manhattan is on a roll. More applicants and student diversity are features of any successful campus. And just two more reasons why the College is poised to draw the best and brightest Jaspers well into the future.

Book Awards Ma n hat t a n Co l l ege sponsors about a dozen book awards each year at high schools throughout the Northeast. The awards are presented to students who excel both in and out of the classroom and epitomize the Lasallian philosophy of education.

Consideration is given to the students’ academic achievements, as well as any participation in school programs or clubs and contributions to the community.

This year’s winners are: Kelsey Hanley of Rye High School in Rye, N.Y.; Kaitlin Kelly of Fontbonne Academy in Weymouth, Mass.; Jeanette LeBlanc of Maria Regina High School in Hartsdale, N.Y.; Renee Woods of Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Mass.; and Francesco Giammanco of Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, N.J. The recipients are selected by guidance counselors at their respective high schools, and the names are sent to the Manhattan College admissions office, which oversees distribution of the awards. News releases also are distributed to the winners’ hometown newspapers.

Manhattan Marches to First Place

The New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee awarded the Manhattan College Pipes & Drums 1st place for College & High School Pipe Bands for its performance in the 2007 parade.

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The w o men ’s l acr o sse tea m advanced to the MAAC Tournament for the fourth-straight season but then fell to eventual champion Le Moyne in the semifinals. That loss, however, did not detract from a successful season.

The Lady Jaspers ended the season with a 5-11 overall record (4-3 record in MAAC play) with junior Alicia Psillos placing on the All-MAAC First Team. She paced Manhattan with 49 points and 18 assists and was second on the team in goals with 31.

In addition, many players were named to the MAAC Women’s Lacrosse All-Academic Team, including: seniors Jenny Carman and Pat Karellas, juniors Jillian McGowan and Emilia Ward, and sophomores Heidi Sheffer and Julie Wilson. Seniors Brenna Tinari and Ashley Devins were named to the MAAC All-Tournament Team. Devins, who played goalie, graduated as the program’s all-time leader in career wins and career saves.

Women’s Softball The Ma n hatta n Co l l ege so f tba l l tea m began its season by welcoming Meaghan Asselta as its new head coach. A 2003 graduate of Rutgers University, Asselta was an accomplished player for the Scarlet Knights and started at shortstop from 2001-03. As a coach, Asselta has made a successful transition from the high school level, where she won back-to-back New Jersey State Championships at Montclair Kimberly Academy.

Sophomore Danielle Just had a terrific season for the Lady Jaspers in 2007. Named to the All-MAAC First Team as a designated player in 2006 and a Preseason All-MAAC Player in 2007, Just’s .375 batting average was the highest on the team. She also led the team in hits, runs scored, doubles and total bases.

Third baseman and senior Michelle Gutierrez enjoyed a comeback season in 2007 after she missed most of 2006 due to an injury. Gutierrez finished second on the team in batting average and led the Jaspers in RBIs, all the while playing a steady third base.

As a team, Manhattan’s most impressive win of the season came on March 31 against Marist. Trailing 4-3 in the 11th inning, the team faced MAAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year Megan Rigos. The Lady Jaspers rallied for two runs off the left-hander when Gutierrez’s single up the middle scored Just and senior Stephanie Gozdziewski to win the game.

At season’s end, Just was selected for All-MAAC First Team for the second-straight year, while eight other student athletes were named All-MAAC. Although eight seniors will be lost to graduation, the returning players and a solid recruiting class have poised Manhattan to be a strong contender in the 2008 MAAC.

SPORTS

Women’s Lacrosse

Michelle Gutierrez ’07

Men’s Lacrosse A s a r esul t o f thr ee, one-goal losses during conference play, the men’s lacrosse team came up just short of returning to the MAAC Tournament.

The Jaspers once again finished at .500 in conference play and were only a few favorable bounces away from being the MAAC’s top team.

In fact, the slimmest of margins separated the Jaspers from 2007 MAAC regular season champion Siena College, when the two teams met on March 31. Despite senior Jeremy Marrano’s five goals, the Saints edged a 10-9 victory.

It was the Jaspers’ second, one-goal defeat of the week, after they fell 9-8 in overtime at Saint Joseph’s University.

Marrano finished second on the team in scoring with 16 goals and six assists. Fellow senior teammate Brian Murray earned MAAC Offensive Player of the Week four times for his stellar work on the field with 32 goals and 18 assists. He will graduate among the top five players in Manhattan history in career goals, points and assists.

As Murray dominated offensively, senior cocaptain Tim Clancy made a similar impact on the

defensive end. Clancy, who had the task of shutting down the opponents’ top attackmen, led a Jasper defense that also featured the 2006 MAAC Co-Defensive Player of the Year, junior Corey Dolik, and sophomore goalie John Geagan. The highlight of Clancy’s season came when he held back 2007 MAAC Preseason Player of the Year, Kevin Ross, to a lone transition assist in the regular season finale. Manhattan won this game with a 13-6 victory over Canisius College, and Clancy scored his first career goal that same day.

Despite three heartbreaking defeats, Manhattan managed to win some remarkable victories during the season with the first one in Louisville, Ky. After senior co-captain Chris Oppito scored with 57 seconds left to send the game into overtime, freshman Matt Slane scored in the second extra period to boost Manhattan to an 8-7 win at Bellarmine University on March 3. Soon after, on March 24, Manhattan posted its largest offensive output since 2000 when the Jaspers crushed Virginia Military Institute, 22-10.

Brian Murray ’07

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Three Jaspers Taken in 2007 Major League Baseball Draft

Top to bottom: Nick Derba ’07, Matt Rizzotti ’08, and Jesse Darcy ’07

On e yea r a f t er r eac hin g the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nearly half a century, the Manhattan College baseball program once again scaled new heights in early June when three Jaspers were selected in Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft.

First baseman Matt Rizzotti ’08, catcher Nick Derba ’07 and pitcher Jesse Darcy ’07 were all tabbed by major league franchises to be among the best amateur players in the United States, while a fourth Jasper star, pitcher Josh Santerre ’07, signed a professional contract in the days following the June 7-8 draft.

The selections of Rizzotti, Derba and Darcy marked the most players taken from Manhattan College in one year since the draft’s inception in 1965.

“I think for Manhattan College, it’s a huge accomplishment,” says head coach Kevin Leighton. “For our baseball program and athletic department, it’s great having three guys, really four guys, on one team (play professional baseball). It says a lot about what we are doing here. Hopefully there is more to come.”

The Philadelphia Phillies chose Rizzotti with the 16th selection (203rd overall) of the sixth round, which makes him the second-highest Jasper ever taken in the draft. The St. Louis Cardinals took Bob Chlupsa ’67 in the fifth round in 1967.

Derba, who along with Rizzotti played at Molloy High School in Queens, N.Y., heard his name called in the 30th round, when he was taken by the Cardinals. Darcy was a 38th-round

cumulating 29 homers, 46 doubles, 143 selection by the Tampa Bay Devil RBIs and an astonishing 148 walks.

Rays, and Santerre signed a free agent Derba was also a three-time Allcontract with the Kansas City Royals.

MAAC selection. He joined good friend A left-handed power hitter, Rizzotti Rizzotti with a team-leading 11 home earned first team All-MAAC honors in runs and batted .281 with 30 RBIs each of the past three seasons. In 2007, last season while continuing to excel he batted a team-high .352 with 11 behind the plate. A three-year captain, homers, 43 RBIs, a .588 slugging perDerba threw out 16 attempted base centage and a .502 on-base percentage.

Rizzotti’s conference-leading 56 walks stealers, picked off seven more and broke his own single-season team rehandled a pitching staff that finished cord, established in 2006. with the MAAC’s best earned run This actually marked the second average (ERA). time Rizzotti was drafted. Prior to beIn four seasons, Derba threw out 71 coming a Jasper, he was taken in the runners attempting to steal, had a ca46th round by the Minnesota Twins, but reer batting average of .291 and graduhe turned down the offer to play for ated among the program’s all-time Manhattan College. leaders in RBIs (129), home runs (26), Upon signing with the Phillies, Rizruns (172) and doubles (36). zotti was assigned to the Williamsport Despite his strong statistics, draft Crosscutters of the New York-Penn day remained tense for Derba until his League, which gave him the chance to dream moment arrived. play a few games locally against the “I was very nervous and not sure if I Brooklyn Cyclones and Staten Island was going to be picked up,” Derba says.

Yankees.

“When I saw my name, I went nuts.” “(The Manhattan College coaching Darcy was the Jaspers’ ace on the staff) prepared me well for the next mound in 2007, posting a 9-3 record level, and I owe a lot of my success to and a 2.19 ERA to rank among the nathem,” Rizzotti says. “I am extremely tional leaders in both categories. He excited about being drafted in the was a two-time MAAC Pitcher of the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

Week and the MAAC Co-Pitcher of I think that just getting the opportuthe Year after recording five complete nity to play professional baseball is games and striking out 60 batters in unbelievable.”

107 innings.

Rizzotti became an immediate star A 6-foot-4-inch right-hander, Darcy on the diamond upon arriving in Riverdeparted Manhattan College with a 22dale. He won both the MAAC’s Player of 15 career record and ranked in the top the Year and Rookie of the Year awards, five in program history in wins, strikeouts, innings pitched, appearances, as well as several other All-America honors, after hitting .416 as a freshman. complete games and games started.

He leaves Manhattan College after acSanterre became the ninth Jasper C ontinued on page 15

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Jennifer Fowler ’07

Women’s Tennis

to sign a professional contract in the past four years, when he joined the Royals. The left-hander earned second team All-MAAC honors last season after matching a career high with seven wins to go along with a 3.10 ERA and team-best 76 strikeouts.

He will long be remembered for having won two of the biggest games in program history: defeating Le Moyne College in the 2006 MAAC Tournament Championship game and later that spring clinching a spot in the NCAA Regional Championship with a victory over the University of San Francisco.

Manhattan’s appearance in the 2006 NCAA Tournament was its first since 1957 and gave the Jaspers the chance to play at the University of Nebraska’s 8,500-seat Hawks Field at Haymarket Park, one of the finest venues in collegiate baseball. According to Leighton, just the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament will continue to serve as a benefit to his current and former players.

“This program learned from that experience that we can compete with (marquee programs) teams, and we can win those games,” Leighton says.

“For the guys that are moving on to professional baseball, it’s the same thing.

Our guys won’t be intimidated by the players they will be facing, and that experience is part of their mind-set now.”

A total of eight Jaspers currently are playing professionally, a sign that the Manhattan College baseball program continues to knock ’em out of the park.

The w o men ’s ten n is tea m had a strong finish in the 2006-07 season and will be a team to contend with in the MAAC in years to come, even though it will lose one of its star players.

After a successful fall season that featured a win over MAAC rival Rider, the Lady Jaspers welcomed new head coach Scott Blumberg to the fold. A former tennis pro, Blumberg’s experience and teaching skills were vital to Manhattan’s improved play during the season.

Individually, senior Jennifer Fowler continued her outstanding play with a solid season in No. 1 singles that set her reputation as one of the better players in the MAAC. Although Fowler will graduate, the play of sophomores Lindsay Keeler and Casey Conklin showed the pair can lead Manhattan in the next two years.

As a team, the Lady Jaspers won three of their final six matches and cruised to easy wins over Fairfield and Saint Peter’s as the regular season wound down. Despite Manhattan’s robust play in the MAAC Tournament, the team lost a close 4-3 match to Loyola but quickly recouped with a 6-1 win over Saint Peter’s to finish tied for fifth place with Fairfield.

The Ma n hatta n Co l l ege go l f team won its second tournament in the history of the program in 2006-07: the Yeshiva University Invitational in the fall season. Competing against the hosts Yeshiva, Stevens Institute of Technology, St. Joseph’s College and Centenary College, the Jaspers’ combined score of 326 easily defeated Stevens Tech’s second-place score of 346.

The team had another successful showing at the Peacock Classic this past April. With the five Jasper linksmen combining for a one-day total of 319, Manhattan finished in third place, ahead of Army, Saint Peter’s, Quinnipiac and St. Francis.

New and old team members made an impact for Manhattan in 2007.

Freshman Nicholas LaBanca had a strong finish and played his last six rounds of the season in the 70s. He placed 12th at the MAAC Championships and fifth at the Peacock Invitational. Fellow freshman Brian Burns finished the season with the team’s second-lowest scoring average, while senior George Calvi had the team’s third-lowest scoring average.

At season’s end, Manhattan, which was tied for most selections in the conference, placed four players on the MAAC All-Academic Team: juniors Chris Vieau, Scott Burton and Sean Oroho, and sophomore Steven Rentz.

SPORTS

Men’s Golf

Men’s Tennis Sen io r s Zo l ta n Bus , Diego A l va r a do a n d David A l va r a do have known no other way during their collegiate careers; the trio has been part of an unprecedented run in MAAC men’s tennis, as Manhattan has not lost a conference match in four seasons.

The team won its fourth consecutive MAAC regular season championship with another perfect 7-0 record. The Jaspers earned their fourth-straight MAAC Tournament title and NCAA berth by cruising past Marist, 5-0, on April 22 at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Sophomore Bogdan Borta, who posted a 14-4 dual match record at top singles this season, was named the MAAC Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, as well as the MAAC Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. Before Borta earned these honors the first time around during his rookie campaign, Bus held the titles in 2004 and 2005. Neither Bus, Borta nor any other Jasper lost a singles match during the 2007 MAAC Tournament.

The emergence of freshman Mihai Nichifor as an effective player at second singles made it even easier for the Jaspers to continue their run. After he struggled through an adjustment period last fall, Nichifor finished 10-9 in dual matches, including a 7-3 mark since March 3.

Junior Peter Czink had his best season to date for Manhattan. While he spent time in each of the top three singles slots, Czink posted a 13-8 dual match record.

Diego Alavardo went 19-8 overall in singles play, while also pairing up with his brother, David, as the Jaspers’ most effective doubles tandem. The duo was 14-7 overall.

The season ended at the hands of No. 16 Florida State University in an NCAA first-round match.

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Chris Sole ’08 Diane Torsell ’10

Outdoor Track and Field A f ter in ju r ies prevented Manhattan track and field from reaching its full potential during the indoor season, the Jaspers got healthier as the spring wore on, and the results are there to prove it.

In the field, junior shot putter Milan Jotanovic continued to prove he is the greatest shot putter to don a Manhattan uniform. The three-time NCAA Indoor All-American captured his first ever NCAA Outdoor All-America honors with a third-place finish (19.65m) at June’s NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif. At the NCAA East Regional Championships in Gainesville, Fla., he broke his own school record with a throw of 19.72m to win the men’s shot put title.

Jotanovic was not the only Jasper to compete at the regional championships and perform well. Fellow junior Dexter Jules joined him at the NCAA Championships in June by virtue of his fourth-place performance in the men’s triple jump at the regional meet. Although Jules suffered an injury during the season, he earned an automatic berth into the national championship field by jumping 15.86m. In Sacramento, he ranked 19th overall (15.35m).

Manhattan’s first NCAA regional qualifiers were a trio of hammer throwers. Seniors Zoran Loncar and Paul Peulich, who both represented Manhattan at the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Championships, got return tickets to the NCAA regional meet on the first day of the outdoor season at Arizona State’s Clif Bar Invitational. Freshman rookie thrower Seid Mujanovic joined them in qualifying for the NCAA regional two weeks later. The three earned All-East honors at the IC4A Championships, but only Loncar advanced from the NCAA East Regional into the NCAA Championships field, where he finished 15th (62.56m).

Other standouts included sophomore Kosta Randjic and junior Chris Sole. Randjic, who was a regional qualifier as a triple jumper in 2006, qualified for the NCAA East Regional in the javelin with a throw of 62.76m to win the MAAC title. Sole achieved his season-best at the Mets by clearing 2.10m (6’11”) in the high jump to earn his second-straight berth into the NCAA regional.

For track, senior Darnell Douglas did not earn a ticket to Gainesville, but the 2006 MAAC Outdoor Most Outstanding Track Performer was the Jaspers’ top men’s sprinter this spring. On the distance side, juniors Joe McElhoney and Tom Murphy ran personal bests.

Although numerous Lady Jaspers automatically qualified for the NCAA East Regional Championships by winning an event at the MAAC Championships, only senior Tiina Magi, sophomore Erin Kennedy and freshman Diane Torsell competed in Gainesville. Magi, the school’s indoor and outdoor triple jump record-holder, finished eighth overall at the NCAA regional meet with a season-high triple jump of 12.94m.

She placed third overall at the ECAC Championships but won both the MAAC and Metropolitan titles.

Rookie sprinter Diane Torsell won the 100m and 200m titles at the MAAC Championships, smashing a seven-year-old meet record in the 100m by clocking in at 11.94s. She headed south to Florida, where she set a new personal record in the 200m. Steeplechaser Kennedy, another MAAC champion, also ran at the NCAA East Regional Championships. In distance running, a number of Jaspers posted personal bests, including freshman Lindsay Southard and sophomore Ellen Dobbin.

Baseball Stel l a r r eco r ds a n d cha mpio nship ga me a ppea r a n ces are becoming commonplace for the Manhattan College baseball program.

Behind the strong play of three eventual draft picks, the Jaspers held an outstanding 35-19 record this past season and reached the title game of the MAAC Tournament before falling to LeMoyne.

One season after Manhattan defeated LeMoyne for the MAAC title to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1957, the Jaspers raced to a 17-0 league record before finishing the regular season conference schedule at 21-5. The team added a pair of wins over Marist College in the MAAC tournament before falling, 9-7, in the season finale.

The title game appearance was Manhattan’s third in the last four years.

However, the season’s high point arguably did not arrive until June.

For the first time, three Manhattan players, junior Matt Rizzotti, and seniors Nick Derba and Jesse Darcy, were picked in the Major League Baseball Draft. A fourth player, senior Josh Santerre, signed a professional contract. (See story on page 14).

Rizzotti, the MAAC Preseason Player of the Year, paced the Jasper

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offense with a .352 batting average and team-leading totals of 11 home runs and 43 RBIs. Derba, a slick-fielding catcher, matched Rizzotti with a career-high 11 homers and became just the fifth member of the Jaspers’ 200 hit club. Senior Mike Garcia was second on the team with 37 RBIs, and the Nieto brothers, freshman Kevin and junior Eric, were the team’s top base stealers with 24 and 20, respectively.

The right-handed Darcy led the pitching staff and earned MAAC Co-Pitcher of the Year honors after going 9-3 with a 2.19 ERA. Santerre accumulated a team-high 76 strikeouts, while posting a 7-5 record to garner All-MAAC Second Team honors.

The pitching staff also received significant contributions from its rookies. After a season-ending injury to sophomore Mike Gazzola left a hole in the starting rotation, freshman Tom Costigan stepped into a weekend starting role and excelled with an 8-3 record and 3.84 ERA. Freshman Brian Pendergast posted an 8-1 record, mainly in a relief role.

He joined Costigan in being named as a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

The Fund for Manhattan Yo ur gif t t o t he F un d f o r Ma n hat t a n is what helps make the difference at Manhattan College. This is evident by the College’s tangible 21st century projects and student services, all in the name of the Lasallian tradition of education.

Fund for Manhattan gifts support student scholarships, technological initiatives, student career services, various athletic programs and a campus that provides a strong learning environment. John Vincent Faviano, a senior marketing major, is among many students who receive aid through programs partially funded

by Fund for Manhattan gifts. He is grateful for the financial aid that enables him to attend Manhattan and eases the pressure from student loans.

“The financial aid I receive allows me and my family to better afford a Manhattan College education,” he says.

This extraordinary College is thriving because of all the people who care. Alumni donors want to continue the legacy of opportunity — opportunities many have experienced because of their education at Manhattan College. The Center for Career Development is one area supported by the Fund for Manhattan, which, in turn, helps students prepare for their futures. Résumé assistance and career advice, in addition to an annual career fair on campus, are some of the resources offered to students. David Stefanini, a junior in the school of engineering, looks forward to a career in computer technology and appreciates the

services and events offered by the Center for Career Development.

“I attend the career fairs and think they are a great thing,” he says. “I’ve already made some connections that will hopefully land me an internship or job when I graduate.”

Alumni direct their philanthropy where they know it will do the most good; they invest in the futures of those Jaspers who have and will come after them.

College advancement looks forward to working with alumni class leaders and committees as it plans upcoming events that celebrate anniversary graduation years. Alumni are responsible for many of the improvements throughout the years at Manhattan, due in part to their generous response to the anniversary class gift program. As a component of the Fund for Manhattan, anniversary gifts help the College maintain and enhance facilities and resources.

“Manhattan is and always has been a beautifully maintained campus. My four years at Manhattan were years of big changes,” says Tom McCarthy ’06, assistant director for alumni relations. “When my class came in, the library was brand new, so we got to utilize that whole facility. It excites me to see Manhattan changing for the better, and now as an alumnus, I’m able to be a part of it on a different level.”

All anniversary class members are invited to join the College in its activities during the year. Reunion weekend and other alumni and special events enable former classmates, fac-

ulty and Brothers to reconnect and reexamine the experiences that helped form who they are today.

Manhattan College also is grateful to all the parents who generously support the institution they have entrusted to educate their children. They know affordable tuition alone cannot provide enough revenue for necessary state-of-the-art learning resources. That’s why so many parents of former and current students generously support the Fund for Manhattan. They actively partner with Manhattan College and help maintain this strong educational institution.

Many of the College’s contributors did not have the privilege of a Manhattan education.

Yet, they support the College with a gift because they know this mission makes a difference in the lives of the young people enrolled here.

This collective investment in our students helps preserve the values of Catholic education envisioned by St. John Baptist de La Salle, a vision rooted in an educational mission as relevant today as it was more than a century and a half ago.

Gifts, especially those from alumni, are a continued vote of confidence in the Lasallian mission. Support of the Fund for Manhattan allows the College legacy of successful young men and women to continue. Thank you for making the difference!

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A Legacy of Opportunity

New Director of Development Named St ephen L. Whit e became director of development for college advancement this past May. He brings more than 15 years of experience in all aspects of development at educational institutions, including: annual fund, major gifts, planned giving, corporate and foundation relations, event planning and alumni relations.

Before joining the Jasper team, White served as director of development at New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y. He also has worked at Saint Peter’s College, Xavier High School, Fordham University and St. Francis College.

“I am very excited to be joining Manhattan College as we conclude a very successful campaign and look to continue to grow our outreach efforts and our levels of philanthropic support,” White says.

“Judging from all the dedicated and enthusiastic alumni, colleagues and trustees that I have met, Manhattan is assured of a future as bright as its illustrious history.”

He received his B.A. from New York University and his M.S. from Fordham University. White grew up in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn and now lives in the Crestwood section of Yonkers, N.Y., with his wife, Helen, and their five children. He invites you to call him at (718) 862-7548 or e-mail him at stephen.white@manhattan.edu to discuss the many opportunities to invest in Manhattan College.

Stephen L. White

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A Gift of C onfidence in the Future

John Edmund Hogan ’40

When engin eer Jo hn Edmun d Ho ga n ’40 established a charitable remainder trust with Manhattan College in 1997, he had his eye on the future. Ten years later, his gift plays a role in maintaining the College’s vitality for years to come.

Hogan passed away on May 17, 2007, but his gift continues to make an impact. He recognized that scholarship aid, new construction, refurbishment of buildings and upgrading of playing fields are all necessary elements for a highquality education.

His great admiration for the Christian Brothers translated into action when he decided to leave the gift unrestricted.

Uncertain of where the most urgent or specific needs of future students might be, he entrusted the College with deciding how to use the gift. His financial gift is dwarfed only by his gift of confidence in Manhattan and in those who vow to enhance the values of a Lasallian education.

Born in 1918, Hogan grew up in Teaneck, N.J. After graduating from St. Cecilia’s High School in nearby Englewood, N.J., he enrolled in Manhattan College and received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.

Hogan worked as a cable and wiring engineer for 44 years at the Okonite Company, except for a period during World War II when he was employed by the U.S. Naval Bureau of Ships and reported to Admiral Hyman Rickover in Washington, D.C. In 1953, he married Margaret (“Pat”) Wulkow.

After his retirement in 1982, he and Pat moved to Hilton Head, S.C., where they lived in the Palmetto Dunes plantation. They enjoyed many good friendships, frequent visitors and daily walks on the beach. Pat preceded him in death in 1989.

In 2003, Hogan relocated to Issaquah, Wash., to be near family. He lived at University House in Issaquah, where he was an avid reader, bridge player and Jasper sports enthusiast. His legacy to Manhattan College is not just a financial gift, but, most importantly, the sum of his selfless love for the future of all Jaspers.

The Professor Joseph P. Reynolds Scholarship for Chemical Engineering T o ma ny, Dr . Jo seph P. R eyn o lds, the late professor of chemical engineering and former chairman of the department of chemical engineering, seemed to be an ever-present figure at Manhattan. From the time he joined the College’s school of engineering in 1964, Reynolds firmly and faithfully upheld the Lasallian tradition of excellence in education.

Early in the 2006-07 academic year, when his health began to fail, Reynolds felt his 43 years on the job were not enough service to the school he loved.

As always, he needed to do more. In that spirit, he and his family established an endowed scholarship for chemical engineering at Manhattan College. For Reynolds, it was all about his students, and this gift will perpetually assist Jaspers pursuing a degree in chemical engineering.

Through his teaching and dedication to the chemical engineering field, he lived to give back to the Manhattan community. When Reynolds discerned his call to teach, there was never a question in his mind about how he would answer that call or with what zeal he would do it. Hundreds of students were fortunate to know him and receive his constant and unwavering support. With the help of his scholarship, many more will go on into the future carrying a piece of Reynolds’ spirit, as they move forward with their lives.

For more information about this scholarship and how you can support it, please call the office of planned giving at (718) 862-7976.

Advancement Appoints New Director of Annual and Anniversary Giving

Kathy Muskopf

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Kat hy Musko pf jo in ed Manhattan College’s advancement office as director of annual and anniversary giving in June.

Prior to this, she served as director of advancement for 12 years at Mother Cabrini High School, an all-girls Catholic school in the Washington Heights section of New York City.

Muskopf expressed enthusiasm for seeing old friends — the College is a popular destination for Cabrini alumnae — and making new ones, as well as assisting in sustaining Manhattan’s mission.

“The mission of Mother Cabrini High School is very similar to that of Manhattan College,” she says. “My experience in a mission-driven high school will help me to support the Lasallian mission here at the College.”

She has taught public relations as an adjunct professor at her alma mater, St. John’s University in Queens, for more than four years. Muskopf also is a founding and current member of the Archdiocesan Association of School Development Professionals, which provides services and mentoring to development professionals at elementary and secondary Catholic schools.

Earlier, she did a stint in broadcasting and was a news writer at the NBC Westwood One Radio Network.

Muskopf grew up in Ozone Park, Queens, and resides in Bayside, N.Y., with her husband, Mike, and their three children, Christopher, Steven and Kelly. She can be reached by phone at (718) 862-7434 or by e-mail at kathleen.muskopf@manhattan.edu.

George Skau ’59

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“Manhattan alumni share happy memories of their years at the College. For many of us, these formative years paved the way for successful and rewarding careers.”

National Alumni Society Welcomes New President, George Skau ’59 It is a n ho n o r and a privilege for me to be president of the Manhattan College Alumni Society. For almost a decade, I have served on the National Alumni Council, most recently as its vice president. During the past two years, Jim Smith ’60 worked tirelessly to enhance the chapters and clubs of the Alumni Society. His energy and support of our alma mater was exemplary, and his leadership inspired numerous initiatives and successful activities.

This year is a transitional one for the alumni office. Joe Dillon ’62, director of alumni relations, has retired. Joe has served Manhattan for 10 years, the past five as director of alumni relations. All alumni owe Joe a debt of gratitude for his outstanding service and leadership in directing and supervising the myriad events sponsored by the alumni office. We wish Joe many happy years in a well-deserved retirement. I look forward to working with his successor, Ellen Kiernan, and the other members of the alumni office, Grace Feeney and Tom McCarthy ’06.

Manhattan alumni share happy memories of their years at the College. For many of us, these formative years paved the way for successful and rewarding careers. Brothers and lay faculty alike touched our lives in meaningful ways. I was encouraged to consider a teaching career in history by Brother Casimir Gabriel Costello, Brother Alban Dooley, Brother Patrick McGarry ’51 and Dr. Robert Christen. After an enjoyable and professionally satisfying collegiate teaching career spanning more than 40 years, I am grateful for such caring professors and mentors. My historyteaching career still continues as professor emeritus.

My first official task as alumni president was awarding the Joseph J. Gunn Alumni Medal to Paul Avvento ’07 at the Spring Honors Convocation. Paul, who served as president of student government, was described at the convocation as having “demonstrated outstanding leadership, academic achievement and service qualities that are the ultimate goals of the Lasallian Catholic education.”

During the summer months, we had several successful golf outings supporting student scholarships. Many joined us for a spirited alumni gathering at the sports cathedral of the Bronx — Yankee Stadium — and at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s performance of Richard III in Garrison, N.Y. Other social events during the summer included our days at the races with alumni rooting for their favorites at Saratoga and Monmouth. In late September, many of us gathered for our annual men’s retreat at the Passionist Spiritual Center on the Hudson in Riverdale. The retreat, planned by Ed McEneney ’59 and other alumni, provided energetic and engaging speakers on the theme “Living Life.”

In October, the annual Career Fair, ably coordinated by Ken Kelly ’54,

was held in Draddy Gymnasium for undergraduates and young alums.

At the College’s Open House for prospective students, the Alumni Society sponsored a communion breakfast for alumni and their high school sons, daughters and grandchildren. The Westchester Club organized a basketball preview dinner. The Western New York State Chapter (Buffalo and Rochester area), organized by Br. William Batt ’79, held a tailgate party before a Buffalo Bills football game. Br. Bill has done a yeoman job in revitalizing many area clubs.

The New York City Club reception took place on Nov. 8 at the New York Life Building and featured noted author Peter Quinn ’69. The Black Alumni Club (MCBAC), chaired by Charles Ntamere ’96, held a meeting on Nov. 14, and Manhattan’s Executive Vice President and Provost Dr. Weldon Jackson was the keynote speaker. Other fall events are planned by the Alumnae Club, chaired by Meg Walsh ’79; the Manhattan College Latino Alumni Club (MCLAC), chaired by Maria Khury ’77; and the newly formed Boston and Rhode Island Clubs, chaired by Doug Emond ’84 and Bob Mattis ’64.

Plans are ongoing with the alumni/student/faculty initiative chaired

by Tom Delaney ’71, a plan through which we hope to get further alumni participation in on-campus programs and activities.

On Dec. 1, 2007, the Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Dinner will be held in Smith Auditorium. For more information on this year’s inductees, please see the article on page 20. In January 2008, Hall of Fame member Lisa Toscano ’79 will become the first female chair of the College’s Athletic Hall of Fame Committee, and Peter Sweeney ’64 will take over as vice chair. Congratulations to all of the new inductees, their sponsors and the teams. For more details, check out the McKit or go to www.manhattan.edu/alumni_friends.

Be sure to visit our online community at www.alum.manhattan.edu.

Registration and payment for events, current news, announcements and a searchable directory of alumni with customizable profile pages are a few of its features.

Thank you to all the alumni who chair and organize alumni events, clubs and committees. Also, special thanks to the members of the National Alumni Council. Their advice and counsel are appreciated. I encourage all alumni to participate in Manhattan events, and I welcome your suggestions. You can contact the alumni office or me directly at skaujasper59@yahoo.com. I hope to see you at future Jasper events!

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Eight To Be Honored

by Athletic Hall of Fame Eight n ew a l umni will be inducted into the Manhattan College Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, Dec. 1. The honorees are: Luis Castro, 1900, (posthumously), baseball; John Corry ’62, track; David Frazier ’94, track and field (long jump, triple jump); Danielle Gelsomino ’95, swimming and track; Jamal Marshall ’95, basketball; Paul Mazzei, softball coach from 1989-1996; V. Grady O’Malley ’69, basketball; and Ignatius Rienzo ’50, track. Special awards also will be presented to the 1957-58 basketball team and 1977-78 swim team.

L uis Ca st r o , 1900, (posthumously) is considered one of the first Hispanics to play baseball in the major leagues and is the first Jasper to go pro in the sport. Hailing from Medellin, Columbia, Castro was considered a consistent, all-around athlete who played everything from shortstop to left field to pitcher. (See profile on the following page.)

Jo hn Co r r y ’62 was part of one of the most storied Jasper relay teams in history and set two different world records for the twomile indoor relay in 1961. The team members all ran their personal bests. Corry’s leadoff leg (1:55.1) gave the Jaspers such a big lead that the last relay leg streaked across the finish line 40 yards ahead of the next runner and shattered a 19-year record. As a walk-on freshman, he established himself as a key to victory and earned a scholarship for the rest of his career.

Coach George Eastment called him “the finest leadoff runner in the country.” Corry led the two-mile relay team to 15 victories in 17 races, and placed in the other two. Respected by his teammates, he was awarded the Spiked Shoe Achievement Award.

David Fr a z ier ’94 is the only Jasper to win every triple jump competition in both the indoor and outdoor Metropolitan Championships during a four-year span. Upon graduation, he held the indoor records in the triple jump (53’ 3/4”) and the long jump (24’ 11”), which broke two long-standing records. Frazier helped bring the College another IC4A Championship in 1992, for which he scored 18 of the Jaspers’ 64 points, won the long jump and

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placed second in the triple jump. He nabbed victories in all the top competitions, including the IC4As, Mets and Penn Relays. He also was a member of the 1993 All-American (Indoor) Team, and his 3.324 GPA earned him a spot on the MAAC All-Academic Team.

Da n iel l e Gel so min o ’95 found her way onto the swim team by accident, while healing from track injuries, and never looked back.

She was named MVP four times (twice each for swimming and cross country) and holds nine individual records and three relay records. Two of these records, the 500 freestyle (5:31.58) and the 1,000 freestyle (11:27.69) still stand. Gelsomino had already set a record on the track when she ran 17:29 at the 1992 ECAC Championship.

She was named to the GTE CoSIDEA Academic All-American at Large Division I Team in 1995, and was a four-time honoree of the MAAC AllAcademic Team (three for swimming and one for cross country). In 1993, Gelsomino was the Met Champion in the 500 freestyle. Coach Jack Carey ’56 credits her for playing a big part in putting the women’s swim team on the map.

Ja ma l Ma r sha l l ’95 helped the Jaspers secure postseason berths (two NIT and two NCAA) in each of his four years. As a senior, Marshall played 32 minutes in the historic Jasper victory over Oklahoma in the NCAA 1st Round, during which he contributed a team high of six rebounds and scored eight points.

Known for his solid, consistent play, he scored 1,291 points and was named one of the top 20 basketball players in the first 100 years of Manhattan College basketball. Marshall was a member of the MAAC All-Rookie Team, as well as a selection for the MAAC All-Tournament Team and All-MAAC Second Team in his junior and senior years. He shot more than 54 percent from the field all four years and held top-tier rankings for defense in the MAAC. Paul Ma z z ei coached the Lady Jaspers softball team to three straight years of more than 30 victories. Their wins totaled 94, a record that is unmatched by another Manhattan coach. Mazzei, who retired in 1996 as Manhattan’s coach with the most wins, re-

cruited standout players, such as Stacy Cowen ’93, Danielle Yearick ’94 and Jennifer Drum ’95, who are all already in the Hall of Fame. His players racked up honors and broke NCAA records. One year’s stats give an idea of how far the Lady J’s had come. In 1992, the team finished in the nation’s top 20 in four offensive categories: ranking first in triples, seventh in scoring, 12th in slugging percentage and 17th in batting average. Mazzei’s teams were successful in the classroom, too, and ranked first in the country among Division I softball teams for scholastic achievement (3.24 GPA) in 1993.

V. Gr a dy O ’Ma l l ey ’69 played in the NBA for Atlanta in 1969-70 after a strong Manhattan College career with 1,158 points. Fierce on the boards, O’Malley pulled down more than 20 rebounds in several games. Captain of both his freshman team and the varsity team as a senior, he was voted team MVP in 1969.

O’Malley led the Met Conference in rebounds and was a 1969 Met Conference All-Star, selected with powerhouse Luther Green (LIU).

When O’Malley played against Luther, he outrebounded the All-American player 20-11 and scored 18 points. He also was selected to the ECAC All-East Team.

Ignat ius R ienzo ’50 won 45 medals, both individual and relay, for indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country. Known for his versatility, Rienzo ran the 440, 600, 880 and 1,000-yard races; one-, two- and four-mile relays; and three and five miles in cross country.

He was leadoff man for the NYAC two-mile relay victory in 1946 and won the Met IC4A indoor two-mile relay that same year. In 1947, Rienzo set a school record at the IC4A Championships in the Varsity five miles for his time of 26:54, which placed him ninth overall. Those points helped Manhattan win both the Freshman and Varsity Championships, a feat that had not happened since 1930. This also gave coach George Eastment his first IC4A Championship and started the Jasper track renaissance. Known for his leadership and team spirit, he served as captain of the cross country team in his senior year.

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L uis Castro ’00 and the Manhattan College baseball team in 1899.

L uis Castro, a Pioneer in Major L eague Baseball History Ever y ba seba l l fa n can tell the story of Jackie Robinson, who became the first black to play in the major leagues as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. The story of Luis Castro, 1900, is not as well known, but given the current state of America’s pastime, maybe it’s time for that to change.

A trailblazer in his own right, more than four decades before Robinson famously broke baseball’s color barrier, Castro is widely regarded to have been the first Hispanic to play in the major leagues with the 1902 Philadelphia Athletics. In December, he will be among the eight inductees into Manhattan College’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

An infielder, Castro played in 43 games, positing a .245 batting average with 15 RBIs in 1902. Under the guidance of legendary manager Connie Mack, the Athletics captured the American League pennant.

To put Castro’s accomplishment in historical perspective, his debut in the majors came in the pre-World Series era. The first Fall Classic would not be played for another year, and many of his teammates would appear in the 1905 World Series.

While the game of baseball was vastly different around the turn of the century, the biggest similarity between Castro and Robinson were the off-the-field challenges faced by both men. At the time of Castro’s debut, the best Hispanic players aspired to play in the United States but could only do so if their skin passed the “color test” set forth by racist policies.

His ease in joining the Manhattan College team broke down cultural and ethnic barriers, and facilitated his acceptance into the professional leagues.

According to a study published in April 2006, approximately 30 percent of all players on Major League Baseball (MLB) rosters during the 2005 season were Hispanics. Only about 10 percent were black. This marks a drastic change in the “face” of baseball in recent years. One decade earlier, Hispanics and blacks both represented 19 percent of major leaguers, while in 1991, blacks made up 18 percent with Hispanics accounting for just 14 percent.

It wasn’t until 2002 that baseball had its first general manager of Hispanic descent, when Omar Minaya was named to that position by the MLB-owned Montreal Expos. He is currently the only Hispanic general manager, and vice president

for baseball operations, for the New York Mets.

Although records kept in the early 1900s are sometimes sketchy, Castro spent five years (1895-1900) as a member of the Jaspers baseball team, primarily as a shortstop but also as pitcher and left fielder. He pitched for Manhattan in a 9-3 victory over Columbia University that gave the Jaspers the 1898 Greater New York College Championship.

In a The New York Times article about an 1897 exhibition game between Manhattan College and the professional New York Giants, the paper said, “The Manhattan team has a splendid infield, the work of Castro at short being especially clean and fast.”

During his collegiate career, Castro and his fellow Jaspers competed against college and university teams, as well as squads comprised of amateurs and professionals. While still a student at the College in 1898, Castro signed with a minor league team from Utica, N.Y., in the New York State League.

“Louis Castro … has done some excellent work for the Manhattan College team. He is said to be a very clever pitcher and a fast infielder,” reported Sporting Life magazine upon the signing.

Castro spent only a short time with Utica, and three years later he landed on the Norwich-New London team of the Connecticut League. From 1901-1912, he also would play for teams in the International League, Pacific Coast League, American Association, Southern Association and South Atlantic League. His baseball career ended as manager of the 1912 Portsmouth squad of the Virginia League.

Overall, on-field success was limited for Castro, but he did bat .328 with 65 runs scored in 111 combined games for the 1903 Rochester and Baltimore teams in the International League.

According to the Rochester Democrat Chronicle in 1903: “Castro has not only made the greatest number of hits, but he has made more long hits than anyone on the team. He has obtained 35 hits, 11 of which were for extra bases.”

After concluding his baseball career, Castro moved to New York in the 1920s and, along with his wife, Margaret, eventually lived in the shadow of Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens.

He died on Sept. 24, 1941. Major League Baseball would remain segregated until April 1947. manhattan.edu

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Golfing With a Goal Mo r n in g r a in sho w er s did not prevent the Jaspers from holding the 10th annual Construction Industry Golf Open this past August at the Lake Isle Country Club in Eastchester, N.Y. More than 100 industry professionals gathered at this growing signature event for alumni and friends of the College.

This was a special year for the Construction Open as it marked the inception of a civil engineering scholarship established in name of the tournament’s founder Joe Van Etten ’57. Funds raised this year have reached more than $20,000 and counting!

“Joe Van Etten continues to be the driving force behind the outing and really makes it what it is,” says tournament chairperson Milo Riverso ’81. “His enthusiasm for the College and for what we’re doing here is tremendous.”

The success of this event is due in large part to a great committee. It includes vice chairman Mike McHugh ’80 and members Charlie Manning ’73, Christine Valenti-Oates ’95, Tom Hoban ’80, Vinny Mangiere ’75, Vince Riverso ’74, Tom Cassidy ’95, Martin Garcia ’84 and Kevin and Tony O’Callaghan.

“From tee off to dinner, we’re able to network with colleagues and classmates,” McHugh says. “Now, with a scholarship in Joe’s name, we’re able to do something really great for the College and for its students.”

The Joseph E. Van Etten ’57 Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund will provide support for the College’s traditional and distinctive mission: to offer a Lasallian Catholic education to students who would otherwise be unable to afford it. The scholarship will be awarded each year to a full-time undergraduate student in need of tuition assistance in the school of engineering’s civil engineering program.

Your support and participation in this event is much appreciated, and we look forward to next year’s outing. For more information about this or any other alumni golf tournament, please call Tom McCarthy ‘06, assistant director of alumni relations, at (718) 8627454 or e-mail thomas.mccarthy@manhattan.edu.

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The traveling Jaspers tour Portofino, Italy, during a trip to the Italian Riviera this past April.

Jaspers Visit the Italian Riviera A mid t he spl en do r of curvaceous beaches, pastel fishing villages and hilltop churches, a group of Jaspers traveled to the Italian Riviera in April. Draped along cliffs and hills etched with vineyards, the riviera nestles the coast of northwestern Italy. Its seaside towns are known just as much for their lush beauty, as for their architecture and natural resources.

Upon arrival, the Jaspers checked into the Hotel Vis a Vis in Sestri Levante, a small town on a peninsula hugged by two bays, one of which is named the Baia delle Favole (Bay of Fairy Tales) in honor of one-time resident, Hans Christian Andersen. With this hotel as their home base, they spent eight days exploring Italian towns from Santa Margherita to Lucca.

The first stops on the itinerary were tours in Santa Margherita and Portofino.

The group took a bus ride along the breathtaking coastal road to Santa Margherita. Later in the day, the Jaspers went on a cruise to Portofino, where they saw the Church of San Giorgio and the medieval fortress of Castello di San Giorgio.

The next day, the group traveled to Genoa, the home of Christopher Columbus.

During the tour, they saw the Renaissance palazzi (palaces) and the pillared, neoclassical Palazzo Ducale that dates back to the 14th century.

Day three brought one of the trip’s highlights — a cruise along Cinque Terre, five connected fishing villages of pink, yellow and orange homes, strung through the hills and vineyards facing the sea. The tour also included a visit to another town, Portovenere, where the Jaspers hiked the paved trail La Via dell’Amore to the fishing village Manarola. In the evening, the group enjoyed a reception.

Other highlights included trips to Carrara and Lucca. High atop Italy’s ancient hills, Carrara is famed for its marble quarries. In fact, the artist Michelangelo used prized marble from Carrara to sculpt David. The Jaspers were treated to a local sculptor’s demonstration and visited a nearby quarry and museum.

In Lucca, the historic walled city where the opera composer Puccini was born, they saw the Romanesque cathedral Duomo di San Martino and the Church of San Michele. The group also took a private tour of Villa Torrigiani, a 16th century mansion.

The traveling Jaspers followed up their trip to Italy with a river cruise of Russia from Moscow to St. Petersburg in September. There are two trips coming up in 2008: a tour of Chianti, Italy, and the region of Tuscany (May 16-26), and a voyage to southern Spain (Sept. 18-27). For more information, please call Bob Fink ’57 at (770) 431-7070 or e-mail rmfink@mindspring.com.

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In Memo r ia m Manhattan College records with sorrow the deaths of the following alumni: 1932 James P. Kenny 8/22/07 1935 John T. McKee 5/14/07 1936 Salvatore Resignolo 7/31/02 1939 Daniel C. Furst 12/29/05 1940 Paul J. Barry 4/27/07 John E. Hogan 5/15/07 Francis A. Koellner 3/24/07 James V. McNulty, M.D. 5/13/07 Michael R. Nadurak 1/8/06 1941 Louis J. Acierno, M.D. 8/9/07 Edward Caterson III 6/6/07 Joseph A. Conway 6/5/07 Herbert J. Edwards 4/10/07 Peter F. Markey 3/23/07 1943 Edwin J. Callan 4/19/05 1944 Roy E. Blewitt Jr. 8/8/07 1948 Walter H. Elliott 9/10/01 Edward Murphy 3/15/07 Joseph Spillane 8/9/07 1949 Kenneth S. Foley 7/4/07 Victor M. Pagano 3/13/07 James P. Quinn 4/22/07 William Donovan Ryan, M.D. 4/24/07 Paul J. Tiernan 8/3/07 1950 Ernest J. Bontya 4/10/07 John J. Lynch 2/23/06 1951 Theodore E. Brenner 8/5/07 Eugene F. Dix 6/27/07 Charles A. Gallagher 7/1/07 Frank Goodwin 4/23/07 Br. Joseph F. Griffin, F.S.C. 7/3/07

Thomas J. Hogan 4/3/07 James T. Kelly 3/23/07 John D. McCarthy 11/11/04 Francis Pasquale 8/17/07 1952 George F. Coughlin 4/24/07 Paul Cuomo 3/15/07 Frank J. Millner 3/8/02 James P. Noonan 4/27/07 John C. Sparkman 5/13/07 1953 Richard J. Farrelly 3/24/07 John J. Giblin 3/6/06 Frank Pace 4/3/07 1954 Jack K. Daly 5/9/07 John J. Goodwin 7/22/07 Michael O’Connell 7/30/07 1956 Cornelius P. Ahearn 5/11/07 Raymond H. Alleman 6/29/07 John W. Cahill 2/5/07 William K. Finn 3/31/01 John J. Rayna 7/20/07 Edward G. Verderber 3/19/07 1957 Louis Kliewe 8/28/07 1958 John J. Crawford 2/14/06 1959 Philip A. Tully 6/16/07 1960 Leo J. Koonmen 3/11/99 Joseph A. Zipparo, M.D. 5/11/07 1961 Francis X. McKelvey 1/27/06 1962 John D. Kaberle Jr. 3/9/07 Donald Murray 3/23/07 1963 John Dralus 8/24/04 1964 Martin J. Capdevilla 8/9/07

Thomas J. Manning 3/21/05 Thomas J. Tortoriello Sr. 5/10/07 1965 Charles T. Flechaus 9/24/05 1966 James M. McCarthy 5/26/07 Joseph O’Donnell 6/8/07 1967 Paul Menick 6/4/07 1968 John D. Grant 3/22/07 Anthony L. Witz 4/1/07 1969 Sr. Susanne M. Gebrian 8/19/07 1970 Thomas G. Acunzo 3/8/07 Lorraine C. Bonnell 2/12/07 Brian T. Murphy 4/4/07 1971 William Weisgerber 4/14/07 1972 Cecilia B. Langlieb 5/23/07 Peter W. Ucker 4/19/07 Raymond S. Vagge 8/8/07 1973 Peter M. Caddell 4/12/07 Roger Czaikowski 4/14/07 Peter Garczynski 6/8/07 Carol A. Martin 4/18/05 1974 Allen C. Frank 5/10/07 1975 Marie C. Kohl 8/28/06 1977 Robert E. Marshall 6/6/07 1978 Leonard Revellese 3/12/07 1979 Kenneth Ginty 7/7/07 1993 Karen A. Fallon 10/13/03

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Ma r r iages 1997 Stella Mellas & Scott Hadfield 5/6/07 2001 Carla Allocca & Christopher DeMartini 11/25/05 2004 Nicole Carney & Kevin Roemer ’00 7/14/07

Bir ths 1993 Josephine (Talamo) Coscia & Anthony Coscia, son Dante 10/05 1994 Jennifer (Daly) Bruton & Anthony Bruton, daughter Maeve Ellen 3/7/07

1998 Genevieve (Savino) Echavarria & John Echavarria ’99, daughters Julia Isabel and Adriana Mary 4/21/07 1999 Sara Jane (Haubert) Carr & Patrick Carr, son Timothy Liam 1/25/07 Maureen (Lynch) Splonskowski & James Splonskowski, son Brendan James 1/9/07

Adva nced Degr ees 1968 T homas D. W hite received his M.A. in theatre arts from Hunter College of the City University of New York in December 2005.

1986 John Fossaceca earned his M.B.A. from Virginia Tech in March 2007.

1991 Maggie N erz completed her M.A. in education from Temple University in May 2007.

2001 Christopher DeMartini received a master’s degree from Pace University in 2003.

2003 L isa G . Uglialoro finished her D.D.S. degree from New York University College of Dentistry.

2005 Kristin Barone completed her master’s degree from Teachers College of Columbia University in May 2007.

A LUMNO TES 1937 John J. McCourt and his wife of 65 years, Virginia, attended the graduation of their granddaughter, Shannon McCourt ’07, from Manhattan College’s school of education this past May. 1951 Francis Maurer retired after 36 years of service, 20 of which he spent at Hercules Inc. In his spare time, he and his wife of more than 55 years, Shirley, play golf and spend time with their grandchildren.

Daniel O ’R ourke recently had quadruple bypass heart surgery and feels better with each passing day.

1952 Ann and Jerry Vier celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Aug. 24, 2007.

1956 John Santorelli and his wife, Rosalie, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on July 28, 2007.

1958 Mathematics professor Thomas Joyce has taught at Hostos Community College in the Bronx for 40 years.

1962 Ohio State University’s (OSU) board of trustees named Joseph A lutto interim president of the university as of July 1, 2007. Alutto, the former dean of OSU’s Max M. Fisher College of Business, has worked as a faculty member and administrator at the university since 1991.

1963 Philip Minardo serves as the first administrative judge of the New York State Supreme Court in Richmond County, Staten Island. He also was recently appointed to president of the city of New York’s Association of Supreme Court Justices, the first Staten Island justice to hold this title in nearly 20 years.

1967 Who’s Who in American Education listed Stephen Laruccia, director of principal gifts at Manhattan College, in its 200708 edition.

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1968 Thomas White’s Loose Moon Productions, Inc. recently produced a short film based on the poem To Paint the Portrait of a Bird by Jacques Prevert.

R obert Kenny, Esq., CFE, CPA, was awarded the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) designation by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the world’s leading provider of antifraud training and education. He is a lawyer and adjunct professor at Rider University and The College of New Jersey.

1969 R affaello Mazza, who teaches in the School of Film and Video at the California Institute of Arts, is currently working on two feature films.

Jim A lwell was appointed to assistant superintendent of Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute in Chattanooga, Tenn.

1970 Tom R eynolds, a partner in the accounting firm Reynolds and Rowella, is the newest police commissioner in Ridgefield, Conn.

1971 The U.S. Air Force chief of staff promoted Lt. G en. A rthur J. Lichte to four-star general and assigned him as commander of the Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force base in Illinois.

An accomplished author and associate professor of French and English at Centenary College in New Jersey, R obert Frail recently published A Singular Duality: Literary Relations between France and England in the Eighteenth Century.

R ichard E. Kessel, president and CEO of Environmental Power Corporation in Portsmouth, N.H., was elected to the board of directors of ISO New England, a company that operates the region’s power system and wholesale electricity markets.

Jerome Casey is a physician’s assistant for internal medicine in Portland, Ore. He is interested in reconnecting with Jaspers living in the Portland area. To reach him, e-mail jcasey101@msn.com.

1972 The American Diabetes Association honored its Fathers of

attended the New York State Trial Lawyers Dinner this past May at the Grand Hyatt in New York City, where he rubbed elbows with former President Bill Clinton, who congratulated him on his judicial service.

G lenn Leone co-founded the Leone Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization in North Bergen, N.J., that provides financial assistance to local families coping with childhood illness. To read more, go to TheLeoneFoundation.com for the whole story.

1983 Michael Bischoff is information technology director for Madison County, N.Y. After 18 years at AT&T, H elen McLaughlin has time off to ski, play tennis and travel to exotic locales, such as St. Maarten.

1987 Bill Farrell, managing partner at Ernst & Young, lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife, Jane, and two children, Loch (9) and Grace (6).

1989 R obert Mazzella served a term on a Bronx grand jury panel.

1991 William Scully was promoted to principal in recognition of his significant contributions to CDM, a consulting, engineering, construction and operations firm in Cambridge, Mass.

Maggie N erz teaches English at The Charter High School for Architecture and Design in Philadelphia.

1992 Brian G atens is the new principal of Harrington Park School in New Jersey.

1993 Chris Velenovsky obtained his New York State Professional Engineering License.

1994 John N eves was promoted to assistant athletic director for athletics and sports information at Baruch College.

Adjunct professor of education Tara Guth-Ficarra teaches at William Paterson University in New Jersey. She and her husband, Louis Ficarra ’93, expect their third child in fall 2007.

1998 David DeLuccia, an Ohio licensed and American Board certified orthotist/prosthetist, works on the staff of American Orthopedics in Columbus, Ohio. He is a frequent presenter for students in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Program at Ohio State University and a consultant to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

1999 Dr. Jody Peter McA leer joined Dr. William Duke in practice at Jefferson City Medical Group in Jefferson City, Mo. Both podiatrists studied together at Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago.

2000 A nthony Burgio was recently promoted to sergeant in the New York Police Department in Manhattan.

2001 James Minton is assistant vice president of global credit port management at Bank of America in New York.

2003 Caitlin Dunne will participate in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange for the 2007-08 school year in England.

2004 Megan Solin and John G rillo announced their engagement. The pair will wed in the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers at Manhattan College in July 2008.

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the Year, including Matt McCrosson, a partner at O’Connor Davies Munns & Dobbins, LLP, a regional accounting and consulting firm with offices in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

New York Water Environment Association President Tom Lauro was named acting commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities (DEF). He brings 27 years of experience in working for the county to his new job, for which he will supervise DEF’s divisions of solid waste, water agency and wastewater.

Ken Wiegand, senior vice president and partner at Booz Allen Hamilton, leads the firm’s work for clients in U.S. national security, homeland security and law enforcement.

Prior to his 24 years at the firm, he served for nearly a decade in the U.S. Air Force.

1973 Patrick Tedaldi recently celebrated his 25th class anniversary from Pace University’s graduate program in the Lubin School of Business.

1974 Joe Bassi, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, is now a Ph.D. candidate in the history of science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He recently completed a Guggenheim predoctoral fellowship in space history at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. SUNY Research Foundation honored William Massano with its Research and Scholarship award on May 2, 2007. He is a professor of physics and astronomy in the science department of SUNY Maritime College.

John McCullough, P.E., has joined STV, a leading architectural, engineering, planning and construction firm, as vice president. He also will serve as Northeast regional manager of the firm’s construction management division in New York City.

1976 Capt. John Farrell, former harbormaster of Newport, R.I., for 12 years, is now a civilian captain aboard a 120-foot, torpedo weapons retrieving vessel.

1977 William H oulihan joined UBS as managing director in the Financial Institutions Group within the UBS Investment Bank in New York.

1978 Kevin M. Leyden, a solution executive at IBM Corporation in Albany, N.Y., was named president of the board of directors of Parsons Child and Family Center, the region’s largest family services agency.

1979 King & Spalding, a leading international law firm, appointed R obert Perry as managing partner of its New York office.

Dr. Mark Maiello, Ph.D., is contributing editor of Health Physics News, the official newsletter of radiation safety professionals. Since Sept. 11, he has written many editorials and articles on radiation safety, dirty bombs and nuclear attacks.

He has published nearly 50 articles, many of which have been printed in peer-reviewed journals. Currently, he is co-editing the book Radioactive Air Sampling, due out in 2008-09.

1980 Pier G uidugli is CEO of Milano Brothers International, a private company that specializes in the export of U.S. telemetry for the avionics industry of Italy.

Joseph Vitulli Jr. was recently appointed CEO of Magnetic Analysis Corporation in Mount Vernon, N.Y. 1982 N eil Doherty, a New York state family court magistrate,

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Teaching Hope L eading Educator Inspires Deaf Community

Angel Ramos ’71

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Fr o m New Yo r k Cit y, to Arizona, to Colombia, Angel Ramos ’71 has had one simple goal: to inspire, educate and change lives in the deaf community. Ramos, who lost his hearing at nine years old, has spent the past three decades breaking ground as an educator, philanthropist, lecturer and author.

His latest venture, OptiSchool, developed on behalf of the Angel Ramos Foundation, provides lessons in English and American Sign Language on the Internet at no cost to schools, parents and libraries. Ramos retired from his job as superintendent of the Sequoia School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Arizona to work on OptiSchool. He debuted the program this fall and plans to release a Spanish version next year.

“The advantage of this program is that parents who do not know sign language (90 percent of parents with deaf children) can learn at the same time their children are learning,” says Ramos, who has lectured on deaf education and leadership in the United States, Asia and the Middle East.

In addition to OptiSchool, Ramos, who is president of R&R Publishers, is writing a new chapter called Unfinished Business for his book Triumph of the Spirit: The DPN Chronicle that first came out in 2003. The book details the 1988 student protest Deaf President Now that pushed Gallaudet University to elect its first deaf president in the school’s then 124-year history. His new chapter compares a 2006 protest to the 1988 student movement, of which Ramos took part as a doctoral student at Gallaudet in Washington, D.C. In fact, Ramos was the first and only deaf Hispanic person to earn a doctorate in special education from Gallaudet.

While there, he won a Fulbright scholarship to teach deaf students in Colombia, where he also started a master’s program in deaf education at a university in the capital city of Bogotá.

He graduated from Gallaudet in 1997, after working toward his degree for 13 years.

“Most people would have given up, but I was determined not to let anyone stop me from getting my doctorate,” Ramos says.

Determination has been his key to success. The son of Puerto Rican immigrants who split up after his birth, Ramos grew up poor in New York City. He may have missed college if not for the support of his mother and Rentaro Hashimoto, associate professor of philosophy at Manhattan College.

“When I was 16 years old, Mr. Hashimoto took me under his wing as a Catholic Big Brother,” Ramos says. “He took me bowling, took me to baseball games, and showed me there were better things in life.”

In this way, Ramos found Manhattan College. But academics at Manhattan did not come easily. As a student and the first person in his family to attend college, Ramos struggled through his classes. He had trouble understanding all subjects except math, which he majored in for that reason.

Despite his struggle, Ramos says Manhattan changed his life. He credits the College with keeping him off the streets in a safe environment and teaching him religious values.

“I took religious classes every semester I was at Manhattan, and this provided me with a strong foundation in the Catholic faith,” Ramos says.

When he graduated from Manhattan with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, his job hunt stalled. Because of being deaf, Ramos says no one wanted to hire him. He finally found a job as a taxi driver and later worked day and night shifts at two different schools for the deaf and hard of hearing in Queens and the Bronx.

Before long, Ramos changed his destiny again. He quit both jobs to pursue an M.S. in education of the deaf at SUNY Geneseo (1975) and an M.A. in educational administration from California State University (1980).

“I learned sign language after graduating from Manhattan College,” he says. “Thanks to learning sign language, I was able to obtain two master’s degrees and a doctorate at universities where the teachers signed or provided interpreters.”

Ramos has come a long way since his school days. As one of the most prolific educators of the deaf, he has taught middle school, high school and college in Texas, Idaho, New York, Arizona and Washington, D.C. He founded the National Hispanic Council of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in 1991 and sits on various advisory boards. Most recently, he was appointed to the National Advisory Group for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology.

“I’ve always been good at multitasking,” says Ramos, who lives with his wife in Arizona and has a 22-year-old daughter at San Diego State University. “I break my day into time periods — time for school, time for the foundation, time for the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, time for the Arizona Association of the Deaf, time for my wife, time to exercise.”

This educator shows few signs of slowing down. Through his many projects, he hopes to spread the message that the deaf are just as capable as hearing people to have a good life.

“Success in life is not determined by a person’s ability to hear or not,” Ramos says. “Life is about being happy and successful.”

Dr. James Powers ’65, M.D.

A Career of Decoding Brain Disease T he w hit e a n d gr ey t w ist s and turns of the human brain are a familiar maze for Dr. James Powers ’65, M.D. As professor of neuropathology at University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), he probes the darkest corners of the brain ravaged by disease. Through his work, he seeks to understand brain diseases and improve the prospects of patients affected by these illnesses.

This year, Powers received the annual lifetime achievement award from the American Association of Neuropathologists (AANP), the most prestigious group of its kind with members from around the world. An expert on white matter diseases and peroxisomal disorders, he was director of neuropathology at URMC from 1992-2006.

Powers sums up the work of a neuropathologist as a three-part job: making diagnoses from autopsies and biopsies, teaching and research.

“For me, research and writing papers are the icing on the cake,” he says.

In fact, that’s what brought him to URMC in 1992, after spending five years at Columbia University as director of neuropathology and vice chairman of the department of pathology. During the late 1980s, New York City’s support services in medical centers, such as Columbia Presbyterian, were depleted by the spread of AIDS. Powers was mostly making diagnoses with little time for research.

Now he has more time for research and examines cases of rare diseases passed on from doctors across the United States. For example, last year, Powers did an autopsy of the brain of a woman who had suffered from a disease that afflicted her central nervous system. He found that her white matter was grey and realized she had a leukodystrophy, a different disease than her doctor had thought.

Powers knows about leukodystrophies, having spent much of his career examining these genetic diseases. They damage the brain’s white matter, an area composed of myelin-coated axons that link grey matter areas to each other. The axons carry nerve impulses to neurons, enabling people to kick their legs and wave their hands.

One leukodystrophy in particular, ALD, has garnered much of Powers’ attention. He began studying ALD during his residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the early 1970s. This illness, which affects

young boys and is the subject of the film Lorenzo’s Oil, was thought to be an immune disease at the time. Powers’ work proved it is a metabolic disease with an immune component.

“We improved our understanding of ALD through a simple light microscopic observation from an autopsy sample of the adrenal gland,” says Powers, who considers this breakthrough his greatest accomplishment.

Despite his success at Albert Einstein, Powers’ path to this residency was not always certain. During his freshman year at Manhattan, he says his advisor, Brother C. Edward Quinn, asked what he would do if not accepted into medical school. The question jolted him, but, ultimately, he says the competitive honesty at Manhattan College, along with its strong curriculum, prepared him for anything.

“The science education I got at Manhattan College was really the reason for my success at Albert Einstein seven years later,” Powers says.

After he graduated from Manhattan, Powers earned his M.D. at Medical University of South Carolina, where he also completed a pathology residency before departing for Albert Einstein. In 1973, he returned to Medical University to teach neuropathology for several years until he left to work at Columbia.

Lately, Powers has been working to crack yet another rare case of brain disease. He came across the unknown disease nearly two decades ago, when a retired neuropathologist in Madison, Wisc., asked him to look at some microscopic slides and thought they might be a peroxisomal disorder.

Intrigued by the disease, Powers has seen it in two more cases since then. He says the disease appears to be a mycoplasma, or small bacteria that feed on brain cells. This past April, he and the neuropathologist who first contacted him about the slides won honorable mention for best clinical/pathological paper for their presentation of the disease at the annual meeting of the AANP in Washington, D.C. His next move is to publish his paper in a medical journal. But, in the meantime, he continues to decipher new diseases, help ALD patients and unlock the mysteries of the brain — all in a day’s work.

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Neuropathologist Earns Lifetime Achievement Award

Neil Lucey ’70 Wins Civil Engineer of the Year Award If yo u l ive in t h e t r i-s t at e a r ea , Neil Lucey ’70, P.E., has likely paved the way for your commute. As senior vice president and department manager for transportation operations in New York for HDR, an architectural, engineering and consulting firm, he works to improve roadways and bridges. This past spring, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Metropolitan Section for New York named him civil engineer of the year, its highest honor for industry professionals.

Since 1979, Lucey has worked at HDR, a firm with nearly 6,000 employees in 140 locations worldwide. Before HDR acquired the engineering firm Daniel Frankfurt, PC last year, he served as president of the latter company for eight years, during which it tripled in size.

Throughout his career, Lucey has planned, designed and con-

structed public and private projects that total more than $4 billion in metro New York. They include the BQE connector ramp to the Williamsburg Bridge, New York City Transit’s Jay-Lawrence Complex and rehabilitation of the FDR Drive. His projects have won awards for engineering and design.

Lucey’s support for the ASCE precedes his award. In the past, he participated in ASCE activities, such as National Engineering Week’s Future Cities Competition and scholarship luncheons.

In addition, he serves on the New York State Board of the American Council of Engineering Companies. He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Manhattan, and a master’s degree in transportation and engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York. Lucey is licensed to practice in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

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John Donahue Jr. ’42 pictured at home in the hobby room with his Washington hand press.

Making an Imprint John Donahue Jr. ’42 Revives Hometown Newspaper At 87, Jo h n Do n ah u e Jr . ’42 is always game for a new challenge.

When he purchased his 129-year-old Vermont hometown weekly The Northfield News and Transcript this past January, it was one of many times he was lured out of retirement by the prospect of revitalizing a lagging newspaper.

“As a consumer, I didn’t like it,” says Donahue, a veteran newspaperman who is now the editor and publisher of The Northfield News and Transcript. “When it came on the market again, I couldn’t resist and bought it.”

Because turning around underdog newspapers is just what makes Donahue thrive. For him, they are the American dream.

“I can run them,” he says. “It’s more fun being a big fish in a small puddle than a minnow in an ocean.”

At The Northfield News and Transcript, there are only three people on the payroll and a web of stringers who report most of the articles.

Donahue’s wife, Christiane, is the paper’s chief photographer. He writes the paper’s editorials and consults with his managing editor to select pictures and finalize headlines for Page 1.

Donahue, who admires publications such as the now defunct Boston Evening Transcript, as well as Adolph Ochs, the former publisher of The New York Times, has always been at home knee-deep in newsprint. He has never strayed far from a press; he even has his own hobby room, complete with a Washington hand press that Christiane bought for him at an auction in Braintree, Mass.

His success is tied to an unwavering passion for journalism and a knack for turning around troubled newspapers.

“I haven’t done it for fame or glory,” Donahue says. “I’ve done it because I love it. I’ve made my hobby a way of living.”

As a 13-year-old teenager whose family often spent summers in Northfield, Vt., he started his first newspaper, The Falls News. The paper folded upon his departure for Manhattan College, whereupon he recalls his parents advised: “No more fooling around. Get a real job!”

However, Donahue couldn’t quite give up newspapers. At Manhattan, he joined the Quadrangle right away as a drama critic. By junior year, he was the paper’s managing editor.

“I saw almost every show on Broadway for three years,” he says. “We turned out a pretty good paper if you look back in the files. The last year we were there we had a superb staff.”

After college, Donahue worked for the United Press as a foreign correspondent in Paris, where he broke a story about the Franco-German Saar territory dispute that landed on the front page of The New York Times.

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From there, he went on to work as managing editor of the Burlington Daily News and Vermont Sunday News in 1954 and then left three years later for Washington, D.C., where he joined the staff of The Washington Post.

For the next six years, Donahue mastered a string of slots at The Washington Post, including national editor, world editor and foreign editor. He remembers one of the best perks at the paper was getting front row seats for John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, which he says was a memorable, freezing cold day.

Yet, before long, Donahue was ready to run his own enterprise. In 1963, he signed on as editor and publisher of The Braintree Sunday Forum, a 5,000-circulation paper in Braintree, Mass., which he sold five years later when it went too far into the red.

Although disappointed, Donahue never gave up. Armed with valuable lessons about budgets and management, he plunged into another editor and publisher position at Suburban Trends. This larger, New Jersey-based newspaper was losing money when Donahue took over.

One decade later, the newspaper was thriving, thanks to Donahue’s leadership.

“I had learned you can’t spend more money than you take in,” he says. “That’s why I was able to run the paper and even improve it. I had already gone through that. We tightened up the budget. We turned it into a nice, fat enterprise.”

After Suburban Trends, Donahue worked at other East Coast papers and even completed a teaching stint at Purdue University in Indiana.

He eventually returned to New Jersey in 1983 to edit the Daily Record, where he stayed until retiring nine years later.

His retirement did not last long. In the late 1990s, he snapped up The Northfield Transcript, a small Vermont paper back in his hometown. He published it until 2001, when his myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disorder that affects the eyes, forced him to close the paper. The Northfield News and Transcript is both the paper’s second reincarnation and Donahue’s comeback.

While some may say that newspapers are a thing of the past, Donahue staunchly defends community newspapers.

“It’s a niche market,” he says. “There’s not enough money for a large chain to come and knock you off. People do want to read about their neighbors and community.”

And for as long as Donahue sees to it, his community will be served.

As Christiane puts it: “John feels that people should be fully informed.

That’s been his mission, to fully inform people with the truth.”

Dr. Eleanor T. O strau, associate professor emeritus of government and former chair of the government department

Dr . El ea n o r T . O st r au, retired associate professor emeritus of government and former chair of the government department, died on May 20. She was 80 years old.

A beloved professor and revered colleague, Ostrau continued to serve the Manhattan community after her retirement in 1991. She volunteered as college historian and documented Manhattan’s histories of Phi Beta Kappa, coeducation and the school of education.

“Her contributions were above and beyond,” says Dr. Mary Ann O’Donnell, dean of the school of arts. “She was a remarkable faculty member and leader. She was one of the women at this institution who made it good for women to be here.”

For Ostrau, no issue was too small. While the College discussed coeducation in the 1970s (Manhattan would adopt its coed policy in 1973), Ostrau was a member of the student environment committee of Manhattan’s Senate.

Her colleague Dr. Judith Plaskow, professor of religious studies, recalls how Ostrau lobbied for adequate facilities for women, among other things. She participated in Committee W, a group of Manhattan faculty and staff who addressed women’s issues at the College.

“She was smart, outspoken, sharp and funny,” Plaskow says. “She insisted on quality work from her students and wanted them to think critically and write well.”

A Bronx native, Ostrau attended Cornell University, where she earned a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in government and political theory.

At Cornell, she was an Andrew D. White Fellow in Political Economy and did her doctoral research in Rome, Italy.

Newly graduated in the early 1950s, Ostrau took her first job as a researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations. She quickly

moved on to a position as intelligence analyst at the U.S. Department of State.

Ostrau’s career in education began at Hunter College in 1954, where she taught government and political science. She later joined Yeshiva University’s Stern College in the 1960s, as an associate professor.

In 1971, Ostrau joined the College’s faculty and became chair of the government department in 1978, a position she held until her retirement 13 years later.

She wrote articles about political issues, such as low voter turnout, for The Riverdale Press, and participated in symposiums, including a panel discussion on violence in the Middle East. The Bronx Society of Science and Letters appointed her as a member of its committee to oversee the recognition of local professionals who contribute to science and the arts. Her memberships also included Phi Beta Kappa, the American Political Science Association and the American Association of University Professors.

Ostrau’s expertise and strong teaching style impacted Manhattan graduates who took her classes. James Kosch ’77, now a lawyer at the firm Reed Smith in New Jersey, says he took every class he could with Ostrau, including American Political Thought I and II, Introduction to Government, and Political Theory I and II. “After a full year of Political Theory in a seminar setting, law school was a breeze,” Kosch says. “The Lasallian tradition is one of great teachers. Everyone should have a great teacher, and she was mine.”

Ostrau is survived by her husband of more than 50 years, Hon. Stanley Ostrau, and their daughters, Amy and Gail (Ostrau) Young.

Joseph Reynolds

Dr. Joseph P. Reynolds, professor of chemical engineering and former chair of the department of chemical engineering

Dr . Jo s eph P. Reyn o l ds, professor of chemical engineering and former chairman of the department of chemical engineering, died on May 1. He was 71.

A lifelong educator, Reynolds spent 43 years teaching at Manhattan College. He continued to teach for the last three years despite being diagnosed with melanoma.

“He never let his disease get in the way,” says his wife, Barbara Reynolds ’72 and ’80. “He would go to the oncologist and proudly tell her that he was still working full time.”

Reynolds joined Manhattan College in 1964 as an assistant professor of chemical engineering. Since then, he had taught nearly every course offered by this department with a preference for undergraduate classes, including Engineering Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics.

By 1976, he became chairman of the chemical engineering department, a position he held for nearly a decade. Fellow professor of chemical engineering Dr. Louis Theodore fondly recalls working with Reynolds during that time to secure National Science Foundation grants, which brought educators from all over the country to Manhattan to develop state-of-the-art engineering classes.

“During his tenure, the department really gained national recognition,” says Theodore, who also collaborated with Reynolds on books about air pollution and hazardous waste, such as Accident and Emergency Management, Introduction to Hazardous Waste Incineration and Handbook of Chemical and Environmental Engineering Calculations.

Students dearly remember Reynolds, recalls Edward Kirkpatrick ’02, a consultant for Nexant, a leading provider of technical and management consulting for chemical, electric, gas and oil companies.

“He really played a fundamental role in making me who I am in regard to chemical engineering,” Kirkpatrick says. “I know he had

that role for many of the students that came through Manhattan College. For many of us, he was the guiding father that introduced us to this wonderful world of engineering that we now work in.”

Astute and intelligent, Reynolds graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in chemistry from The Catholic University of America and earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His distinguished academic career includes multiple honor society memberships; he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Lambda Upsilon and Sigma Xi. For his 25th teaching anniversary at the College, he was awarded the Bonus et Fidelis Medal for outstanding achievement. In honor of his contributions to the Manhattan community, the Professor Joseph P. Reynolds Scholarship for Chemical Engineering was recently established. For more information about the scholarship, go to page 18.

Reynolds also was in demand as a consultant for private companies and the government, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For example, he developed commercially available computer software to simulate hazardous waste incinerator performance, currently used in the EPA’s training program.

Outside of the classroom, he enjoyed skiing. He and his wife also raised two daughters, Megan ’96 and Marybeth ’98, who, following in their father’s footsteps, have degrees in chemical engineering.

They are not the only ones. Manhattan’s current chair of the chemical engineering department, Dr. Ann Marie Flynn ’81, had Reynolds as a teacher when she attended Manhattan College. She says his dedication to students is the gold standard for teachers.

“He was the quintessential teacher,” says Flynn, who inherited his smooth, old office key and thinks of him every time she unlocks the door. “He lived to teach his students. He’s going to be missed for a really long time.”

manhattan.edu

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Eleanor O strau

Brother President Thomas Scanlan, with Athletics Director Robert Byrnes ’68, cuts the ribbon at the ceremony held to reopen the recently renovated Gaelic Park on Sept. 5.

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