Manhattan Magazine Fall 2009

Volume 35 number 2 fall 2009 Fall09.COVERS.SHIP.indd 1

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CALENDAR

CoNtENts

january

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around the Quad

Treasure Coast Alumni Club Luncheon, Stuart, Fla. Class of 2009 Yearbook Release Celebration De La Salle Medal Dinner Winter Ski & Snow Trip, Lake Placid, N.Y.

Inauguration of Dr. Brennan O’Donnell as Manhattan’s 19th president • Meet the . rst lady • Executive vice president and provost steps down • New trustees join the board • New deans • and more

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College hosts summer literacy institute • Physical plant complex is dedicated • Br. Francis Bowers celebrates 50 years • Branigan scholars make an impact • Lectures • and more

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Mentor Program Dinner Treasure Coast Alumni Club Luncheon, Stuart, Fla. Jaspers of Georgia Annual Brunch

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Teacher Recruitment Fair MAAC Tournament, Albany, N.Y. Alumni Society Meeting Southwest Florida Alumni Club Luncheon, Bonita Springs, Fla. Gulf Coast Club Luncheon, Sarasota, Fla. St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Naples, Fla. St. Patrick’s Day Lunch, Long Island, N.Y. St. Patrick’s Day Lunch, Washington, D.C. St. Patrick’s Day Parade, New York, N.Y. Accepted Students Day I

on campuS

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SportS New basketball recruit Kevin Laue • Jasper academic accomplishments • Sports news • Fall and winter sports roundup • and more

39 adVancement De La Salle Dinner honoree • FSAC event names new chair • and more

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alumni Reunion Weekend • Jasper Open • Alumnotes • Profiles

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obituarieS Br. Luke Salm • Mark Taylor • Louis Uffer • Anthony Scala Sr. • Ernest Stempel • Paul Mazzei • Jack Famularo • John Marchi • Thomas Gilbart

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Feast of St. John Baptist de La Salle Singers’ Spring Concert Accepted Students Day II Not-for-Profit & Public Service Job Fair

Published by the office of college relations, a division of college advancement, Manhattan College, Riverdale, NY 10471

may 1 3 12 20 23 26

Lydia Gray, Director of College Relations Kristen Cuppek, Editor Rose Spaziani, Assistant Editor

Alumni Society Meeting Jasper Open Golf Tournament Block M Dinner Spring Honors Convocation, Gunn Medal Presentation Undergraduate Commencement Spring (Graduate) Commencement

on the coVer june 4-6 11

Reunion Weekend 2010 Athletic Hall of Fame Nominations Due

Brennan O’Donnell, Ph.D., Manhattan College’s newly official president at his installation ceremony.

CONTRIBUTORS Melissa Bekisz Joe Clifford Emily Clyne Dorothy Conigliaro Amy Coppe

Stephen Dombroski Kathy Muskopf Scott Silversten Lonny Unger

PHOTOGRAPHERS Ben Asen Joshua Cuppek Marty Heitner Island Photography Chris Taggart DESIGN Charles Hess, chess design

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Brennan O’Donnell, Ph.D. Manhattan College celebrated the inauguration of Brennan O’Donnell, Ph.D., its nineteenth president, with a series of events that highlighted the College’s dedication to its Lasallian Catholic tradition, excellence in teaching and commitment to service, during the week of October 23-28, 2009.

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The Inauguration of

FrIDaY (Left): Students carrying the banners of the five schools, as well as that of Saint John Baptist de La Salle, process into the Chapel of De La Salle and his Brothers and begin the Opening Mass.

(Below): the rev. Gerald Blaszczak, S.J., university chaplain at Fairfield university, officiates the Opening Mass of the inaugural week celebration.

Friday

Opening Mass Inauguration week for Manhattan’s nineteenth president, Brennan O’Donnell, Ph.D., began with an Opening Mass in the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers on Oct. 23. It was attended by the president’s family and guests, faculty, staff and students, and reinforced the emphasis that the College’s first lay president has put on upholding Lasallian values.

The Rev. Gerald Blaszczak, S.J., university chaplain at Fairfield University, officiated the Mass, along with concelebrants the Rev. George Hill, campus minister at Manhattan College; the Rev. Msgr. John J. Jenik, pastor of Our Lady of Refuge and vicar of the Northwest Bronx; and the Rev. Msgr.

Robert W. Larkin, pastor of Visitation Church.

“Note well that Brennan chose for his inauguration liturgy a votive Mass in honor of St. John Baptist de La Salle,” Blaszczak said. “There could not be a clearer sign that Brennan is, from day forward, putting his presidency under the patronage of his holy founder. He is declaring his desire and firm determination to lead according to the Lasallian charism. Brennan embraces this noble and holy legacy as his road map in these uncertain times. The shape of his discipleship, the contours of his presidency, the direction of

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this College, then, are set by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and by the charism of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.”

The Mass featured music sung by the Manhattan College Singers and Music Ministry, led by choirmaster William Mulligan. It concluded with remarks from O’Donnell and the blessing of the presidential medallion, which would be conferred at his installation ceremony.

“The great gift that we have been given here at Manhattan, as a community, is nothing less than the work of building the future and, ultimately, the kingdom of God,” O’Donnell said. “The image of the arch and star that we’ve chosen as the symbol of the week’s events reminds us that that future to which we encourage our students — the world they pass into through the arch — is one constantly illuminated by faith for those with open eyes. Our work is to open eyes, minds and hearts to that fact, encouraging one another on the journey.”

After the Mass, O’Donnell mingled with guests at a reception, where he continued to get to know the Lasallian community.

Student Inaugural Ball FrIDaY (above): President O’Donnell and first lady angela alaimo O’Donnell take the spotlight for a dance at the student inaugural ball.

Later that evening, students and staff gathered for the student inaugural ball in Smith Auditorium. With its black and white theme, the ball featured a live band and DJ. One of the event’s highlights was when, after introducing his wife, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, the president and first lady took the spotlight for a dance.

Other couples then joined them on the dance floor shortly afterward, and the crowd continued to dance and mingle throughout the evening.

sunday

Alumni Mass and Brunch for Open House Sunday began with a 10 a.m. Mass, celebrated by the Rev. George Hill, campus minister, and brunch for more than 200 alumni and their college-bound children or family members. The annual brunch started with an invocation from Brother William Batt, alumni volunteer, followed by an address from William Harkins ’67, president of the alumni society, who spoke about his own experiences at Manhattan and the evident change in the culture from when he attended the College. O’Donnell then extended a warm invitation to prospective students and described the Manhattan experience and what sets the College apart from other schools, as well as mentioned all the excitement about the upcoming inaugural week festivities.

In a gracious address to prospective students and their parents, guest speaker Damien Germino ’09 reflected on his recent student experience and transition into the alumni world.

“I’ve learned to persevere through tough times and work harder,” he said. “I knew how to have faith in myself with the faith other people here had in me. So in this dark and difficult time of choice, let the Lasallian star brighten the archway as you enter this warm loving community.”

Subsequently, alumni and their future Jaspers continued to explore the campus and learn about Manhattan as they headed over to the open house.

Open House At noon, the admissions office held its annual open house for juniors and seniors in Draddy Gymnasium. Although it’s the largest admissions event of the year, this year was especially big, as more than 1,000 students preregistered and 2,700 people visited the campus. During the program, more than 30 student clubs and organizations, including every academic department and student support services, represented the College.

As part of the inauguration celebration, open house attendees heard greetings from O’Donnell, as well as Daniel Johnson ’10, student body president, William Bisset, vice president for enrollment management, and Brother Robert Berger, vice president for student life. Guests also took tours of the campus and attended a financial aid presentation.

SunDaY (From top to bottom): at open house, prospective students and their families have the opportunity to meet with more than 30 student clubs and organizations, and every academic department, including engineering.

Damien Germino ’09 reflects on his recent student and real-world experiences at the alumni brunch for open house.

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arOunD the quaD MOnDaY (top): O’Donnell and Liam Mulligan, coordinator of performing arts, talk with members of Victoriano, an a cappella ensemble on campus, during the campus revue, Performance Pizzazz.

(Bottom): Students gather under the tent for some pizza and ice cream sundaes in between performances.

monday

Campus Revue One of the busiest days of the inauguration week, Monday began with Performance Pizzazz: Pipers, Pep, Pop, Pirouettes, Pizza and the President, a campus revue. From 12 to 2 p.m., various performing arts groups entertained the College community on the Quadrangle. The Jasper Band, Victoriano, Manhattan College Pipes and Drums, and Jasper Dancers all took turns delighting the guests, who munched on some pizza and ice cream sundaes in between acts.

Dedication of Founders Bridge

Later that afternoon, the campus community gathered before the bridge that leads to the Mary Alice and Tom O’Malley Library for its dedication to the College’s founders.

Six banners featuring the pictures and biographical information of Saint John Baptist de La Salle and Brothers Jasper Brennan, Miguel Febres Cordero, Chrysostom Conlan, C. Thomas Fitzsimmons and Amandus Leo Call adorn the two sides of the bridge, and plaques with the new name of the bridge are set in the walkway.

After a welcome from O’Donnell, Brother Robert Berger, vice president for student life, emceed the ceremony. He explained how the bridge links the College’s past to its present and future, and will remind us of all those who have worked so hard to make the College what it is today.

“What better symbol for the connection of learning to our

heritage than a bridge dedicated to Saint John Baptist de La Salle and five Brothers of the Christian Schools as a walkway from the heart of the campus, the Quadrangle, to the mind of the campus, the library,” Br. Berger said.

As he read the biographies of the founders, Brothers Timothy Murphy, director of the Christian Brothers Center and counselor at the College’s counseling center, Charles Barbush, coordinator of the mentor program, Ray Meagher, assistant professor of education, Augustine Nicoletti, assistant professor of education, Thomas O’Connor, public services librarian, and Henry Chaya, associate professor of electrical engineering, unveiled the banners. Afterward, the Rev. George Hill, campus minister, blessed Founders Bridge.

Formal Opening Exhibition Dedicated to the Work of Brother Luke Salm, F.S.C., et al.

The formal opening of the exhibition dedicated to the work of Brother Luke Salm, F.S.C., et al., directly followed the dedication of Founders Bridge. Guests came together in the entrance of the Mary Alice and Tom O’Malley Library to see the books and photos of Br. Salm, to whom the inauguration’s theme, The Work Is Yours, is attributed, as well as participate in the opening.

Amy Surak, archivist for the College, introduced the exhibit, which she curated, and reminisced a little about what it was like to work alongside Br. Salm, who among his many roles throughout the years, was also the archivist for the Christian Brothers. She then presented the two speakers who offered their personal recollections of Br. Salm. Brother William Batt, alumni volunteer, and Dr. Judith Plaskow, professor of religious studies, talked about their experiences and friendships with Br. Salm, which were at times funny and touching but always true to his character. A reception followed the opening.

Fall Honors Convocation The Fall Honors Convocation marked a memorable occasion during Manhattan’s inaugural week. At the ceremony,

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monday

MOnDaY (Clockwise from left): Brother Joseph Grabenstein, F.S.C., of the De La Salle community in Philadelphia, explores the artifacts at the formal opening of the exhibition dedicated to the work of Brother Luke Salm, F.S.C. Brother thomas O’Connor, F.S.C., public services librarian, pulls down the cover to reveal the banner of Brother C. thomas Fitzsimmons, F.S.C., one of the founders to whom Founders Bridge is dedicated, at the ceremony.

John J. neuhauser ’64, Ph.D., (left) president of Saint Michael’s College, with O’Donnell, is awarded an honorary Doctor of Science at the Fall honors Convocation. a photo of Br. Salm with students taken in 1955 was just one of the photos of the influential Christian Brother on display at the exhibit in his honor.

held in the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers, students were inducted into Epsilon Sigma Pi (ESP), the oldest honor society on campus, while the College’s 19th president was awarded an honorary membership.

As part of the event, John J. Neuhauser ’64, Ph.D., president of Saint Michael’s College, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science. He addressed faculty, students and their guests about the lessons he learned at Manhattan and the career path he chose after graduation.

“I have lived a life which viewed retrospectively may seem to have been planned and well ordered, but it was not that at all,” Neuhauser said. “Instead, I found it important to be well prepared — hence, my grounding here in science, mathematics and the liberal arts — but it was also important to be curious and open to the chance everyday occurrence, not in a whimsical manner, but in a way that enabled me to serve a useful purpose, both for myself and for my companions on this journey.”

Besides his emphasis on finding a useful purpose, he spoke about the randomness of life and how failure made him a better person.

“Unless we deceive ourselves, we will fail on occasion, and

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we will need to go on,” Neuhauser said. “Moreover, accepting that failure is survivable also permits one to accept more personal risk, to be adventuresome in what one explores.”

After Neuhauser’s speech, the deans from the College’s five schools announced their inductees for ESP. All 149 students were first-semester seniors who maintained a 3.5 GPA during their first six semesters at Manhattan without any academic failure. Each student was given a certificate and key to mark his or her entry into the honor society.

The ceremony culminated in the president’s honorary induction into ESP. He directed his closing remarks to students.

“This induction recognizes not just your success in the demanding curriculum of Manhattan College, but your success throughout your lives thus far in keeping focused, setting goals, maintaining priorities, and just plain getting work done,” O’Donnell said. “In a word, it recognizes you as dedicated practitioners of the craft of learning, successful practitioners of a kind of activity that Dr. Neuhauser talked about as ‘an intrinsically valuable good.’”

At the end of the ceremony, students and guests went next door to Dante’s Den, where the celebration continued at a reception.

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tuesday

Lasallian Academic Symposium

On Tuesday afternoon, Dr. Karen Nicholson, associate professor of education and chair of the Lasallian Education Committee, welcomed guests to the Lasallian Academic Symposium. The symposium occurs annually, but this year’s lecture, Lasallian Higher Education Today: A Vision from the Inside Out, fit in perfectly with the inauguration’s theme.

O’Donnell introduced his mentor and friend, Dr. Jane Kelley Rodeheffer, Brother J. Lane Professor of Humanities at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, where she also has served as founding director of both the university-wide Lasallian Core Traditions program and the Lasallian Great Books Honors Program. O’Donnell met her through the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts, a national consortium of church-related colleges and universities, to which Manhattan has just applied and been accepted.

“This to me is a keystone moment in the inaugural week festivities,” O’Donnell said.

Rodeheffer spoke about her experiences with the Lasallian tradition and how it has transformed her from the inside out. She also discussed the shared mission lay educators have with the Christian Brothers and the three aspects of the charism — faith, association and zeal — before offering more insight into the values of De La Salle.

“De La Salle’s founding story involves a number of attributes that inform and shape how we, as his legitimate heirs, approach the work of education and the students entrusted to our care,” she said. “These five attributes are both rooted in the life and work of De La Salle and are dynamic evolving resources that can be continually adapted to meet the emerging needs and challenges we face in 2010 and beyond.”

The five attributes embedded in the philosophy of De La Salle are: educational service to the poor, practicality, innovation, interiority and civility. Rodeheffer then showed examples of how these attributes have played a role in her own “founding story,” especially as they relate to her classroom, students’ projects and honors program.

After her address, the audience broke up into various discussion groups and then joined together again for another discussion with Rodeheffer before the symposium concluded with a reception.

Mentor Meet and Greet for Engineering and Science Students in the schools of engineering and science and their mentors gathered at a meet-and-greet event sponsored by the center for career development that evening. The event is part of the College’s mentor program, which pairs students with alumni who have careers in industries that match their interests.

The highlight of the evening was a talk by guest speaker Peter McGroddy ’71, P.E., senior vice president of HDR Engineering Co. and chair of Manhattan’s Mentor Program Advisory Board. He spoke to a group of nearly 180 students and mentors about investment in the future and emphasized the importance of the mentor program as a resource for students.

“He reminded students that alumni freely give of their time, talents and energy to assist them in gaining insight into their careers and they, too, should be of service to future students when they graduate from Manhattan College,” said Brother Charles Barbush, coordinator of the mentor program.

Clearly, this message is one heeded by Manhattan students time and again, as many of the mentors in attendance were alumni, a sign of the strong connection that Jaspers have with the program and the College, long after graduation.

tueSDaY (From top to bottom): Jane Kelley rodeheffer, Ph.D., Brother J. Lane Professor of humanities at Saint Mary’s university of Minnesota, discusses Lasallian Higher Education Today: A Vision from the Inside Out at the Lasallian academic Symposium. engineering students alex George ’13 and Kathleen Parrish ’13 talk with their mentor, Peter McGroddy ’71, P.e., senior vice president of hDr engineering Co. and chair of Manhattan’s Mentor Program advisory Board, and O’Donnell at the Mentor Meet and Greet for engineering and Science.

Sam Pallickal ’13 and ray Finnegan ’70, vice president of Ferreira Construction, get together at the meet-and-greet event sponsored by the center for career development.

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Manhattan College Installs Brennan O’Donnell as Its nineteenth President

(above): Delegates from nearly 90 colleges and learned societies are among the 1,200 guests, including family, friends and the College community, who attend the ceremony and reception that followed under the tent on the quadrangle and in Smith auditorium. (right): Officially installed, President O’Donnell expresses his gratitude to all those who welcomed and supported him and describes what Lasallian values mean to him.

wednesday

Ma nhat t a n Co lle ge inaugurated Brennan O’Donnell, Ph.D., as its 19th president during an installation ceremony in Draddy Gymnasium on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The event was attended by more than 1,200 people, including visiting presidents and delegates, distinguished guests, alumni, faculty, administrators, staff, friends, family and students. Among the special guests were the Most Rev. Gerald T. Walsh, D.D., bishop, rector and president of St. Joseph’s Seminary, and Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, D.D., Ph.D., archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C. The ceremony began with a procession led by the chief marshal and macebearer, Brother Robert Berger, F.S.C., Ph.D., vice president for student life. He was followed by Karen Nicholson, Ph.D., associate professor of education and chair of the Lasallian Education Committee, who served as the delegates marshal. The deans of Manhattan’s five schools headed the

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faculty group and preceded the College’s vice presidents and the platform party, consisting of the Executive Vice President and Provost Weldon Jackson, Ph.D., the board of trustees and its chairman Thomas D. O’Malley ’63, honored guests and soon-to-be President O’Donnell. Among these groups were student-athletes and their escorts who served as banner bearers for each of the College’s five schools, as well as the Manhattan College Pipers and the Air Force ROTC Color Guard.

Jackson welcomed the audience, and Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J., Ph.D., distinguished professor of theology at Fordham University, delivered the invocation.

“As he [O’Donnell] dons Manhattan College’s colors of Jasper green, literally taking on the mantle of leadership, let him hear in the depth of his spirit the words of John Baptist de La Salle, ‘the work is yours,’ and when the days get hard, let him know, gracious God, that indeed, ‘the work is yours,’” she said.

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arOunD the quaD A presentation of greetings by attendees followed Johnson’s eloquent words. First up was the Most Rev. Walsh, who represented the Archdiocese of New York. He reflected on the College’s legacy and O’Donnell’s future role in preserving it.

“Over the years, the facilities of this admirable seat of learning have greatly expanded,” he said. “This is a sign of the expanding influence and positive effect of Manhattan College on the church and on the general public. At this time in history, we all know that the job market requires dedicated and well-prepared workers in any field. This is your challenge, Dr. O’Donnell, to continue what is already well underway here, and we wish you God-speed in your efforts.”

Expanding on the Most Rev. Walsh’s remarks, Raymond W. Kelly ’63, police commissioner of the City of New York, praised O’Donnell’s academic record as a promising sign of leadership for the College.

“As a Manhattan graduate, I take great pride in addressing you today, and I am honored on behalf of Mayor Bloomberg and the City of New York to extend greetings at this inauguration of our new president, Dr. Brennan O’Donnell,” Kelly said.

“Dr. O’Donnell is an inspired choice to lead this school. A scholar, an administrator of the highest rank. He combines proven academic leadership with the wisdom gained from more than two decades in the classroom as a professor of English.”

In addition, Stephen J. Sweeny ’71, Ph.D., president of the College of New Rochelle and secretary of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, spoke of O’Donnell’s place in Manhattan’s history of revered leaders.

“Now you take your own special place in the long line of leaders of this extraordinary community,” Sweeny said.

“Ahead of you on this line have been 18 sons of De La Salle, each with a rich variety of gifts, laboring in different times and circumstances, but all following as we all must, the star of faith.

Now you take your place in that line — a gifted teacher, scholar, administrator and a new disciple of De La Salle bringing a freshness of the spirit of faith and zeal, which characterizes Lasallian education.”

Sweeny’s remarks were followed by greetings from Laura L. Anglin, president, Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities; Marlene Gottlieb, Ph.D., president, Upsilon of New York Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Manhattan College, and chair, modern foreign languages; Joseph Creech, Ph.D., acting director, Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts; and Brother Michael McGinniss, F.S.C., Ph.D., president, La Salle University, and trustee, Manhattan College, who emphasized the importance of O’Donnell’s new role in Lasallian education.

“Bringing greetings to you Brennan on behalf of Lasallians is a daunting task, but I am not left just to my own words,” Br.

(From top to bottom): Brother Michael McGinniss, F.S.C., Ph.D., president of La Salle university and trustee of Manhattan College, brings greetings on behalf of the Lasallian education community. the Manhattan College Singers perform Choose Something Like a Star for the musical interlude. elizabeth a. Johnson, C.S.J., Ph.D., distinguished professor of theology at Fordham university, delivers the invocation.

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(From top to bottom): raymond W. Kelly ’63, police commissioner of the City of new York, offers greetings on behalf of the city and the mayor’s office.

Brothers robert Berger, timothy Murphy, James Gaffney, Dennis Malloy, thomas Scanlan, Michael McGinniss and William Mann and O’Donnell (fifth from the left) get together at the reception for delegates and special guests. executive Vice President and Provost Weldon Jackson, Ph.D., emcees the installation ceremony.

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McGinniss said. “I can share with you and with this assembly some words from the very heart of the Lasallian world, our general house in Rome, words written by Brother Thomas Johnson, vicar general of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

And I quote Brother Thomas: ‘Congratulations and best wishes on your inauguration as the 19th president of Manhattan College. Your inauguration represents a major change for Manhattan in that you are the first layperson to assume that role. Since you have also been the first layperson to serve as dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, you are experienced in this kind of transition. For the last 20 years, we Brothers have worked to develop the theology and practice of lay Lasallian spirituality and leadership. This movement is essential in carrying out the mission of John Baptist de La Salle in every mission, in every institution and in every nation. As a transformational leader in this regard, the Lasallian mission at Manhattan College is entrusted to your care.’”

A musical interlude by the Manhattan College Singers of the Robert Frost poem Choose Something Like a Star was tuned to the composition of Frostiana by Randall Thompson and segued into a reflection on Lasallian education by Jane Kelley Rodeheffer, Ph.D., the Brother J. Lane Professor of Humanities at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. She discussed the significance of the Lasallian symbols of the arch and star, which has five points that she described as educational service to the poor, practicality, innovation, interiority and civility.

“Our faith in God, in our work, in the complementarity of each others’ gifts and especially in the students entrusted to our care must continually seek shelter in the light, attentive to the mysterious reality of the star whose brightness is ever renewing us and leading us, one commitment at a time, to extend our mission to the needs that it is uniquely designed to address,” she said.

Rodeheffer’s words were followed by the presentation of greetings on behalf of the Jasper community. Brother Timothy Murphy, F.S.C., director of the Christian Brothers Community at Manhattan College, commended O’Donnell for infusing his inauguration week with Lasallian spirit and expressed the Brothers’ faith in his ability to lead the College.

“We, Brothers, congratulate you and extend our sincerest best wishes and, most importantly, our prayers as you build on the best of the past and, with your God-given gifts and talents, lead Manhattan College from the present into the future,” Br. Murphy said.

His sentiments were echoed by faculty, staff, student and alumni presenters, including Katherine Weld, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics and computer science and chair of the council for faculty affairs; Grace Cabrera, office manager in the school of education; Daniel Johnson ’10, a student in

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arOunD the quaD the school of arts and student body president; Dana Medica ’10, a master’s degree student in the school of education; and William Harkins ’67, president of the College’s alumni society.

Harkins added levity to his remarks, alluding to the competition between Manhattan and O’Donnell’s former employer, Fordham University.

“We are happy to have you as a Jasper,” Harkins said. “We understand that you will always have warm feelings for your former employer, which is as it should be. In that regard, we would like to take this opportunity of your inauguration to acknowledge publicly — for the first time — that, yes, we did steal the ram from the Fordham campus in 1957; and, yes, we did paint the ram Kelly green because it seemed like the right thing to do; and, yes, we do recognize that this was not conducive to the ram’s good health. That was an unfortunate undertaking for which we are sincerely repentant. Please accept and convey our feelings to your friends at Fordham. We wish you the best of luck.”

After the greetings, the highlight of the ceremony was the installation of O’Donnell as president. Brother Thomas J. Scanlan, F.S.C., Ph.D., president emeritus of Manhattan College, presented the presidential regalia, a black robe emblazoned with a gold seal on either side of the garment and four gold-trimmed green chevrons on each sleeve to symbolize the presidency.

The College’s charter and sponsorship covenant were then given to O’Donnell in a green, leather-bound portfolio

by O’Malley and Brother Dennis Malloy, F.S.C., Ph.D., visitor of

(Clockwise from top left): With the help of trustees anthony Scala Jr. ’74 (left) and robert La Blanc ’56 (behind), Brother thomas Scanlan, F.S.C., president emeritus of Manhattan College, assists O’Donnell with donning the presidential regalia.

Stephen Sweeny ’71, Ph.D., president of the College of new rochelle and secretary of the association of Catholic Colleges and universities, which he represents, processes into Draddy Gymnasium to talk about O’Donnell’s place in Manhattan’s history of revered leaders.

Brother Dennis Malloy, F.S.C., visitor of the District of eastern north america and vice chairman of Manhattan’s board of trustees, and chairman thomas O’Malley ’63 present O’Donnell with the presidential medallion, after bestowing the College’s charter and sponsorship covenant.

Daniel Johnson ’10, a student in the school of arts and student body president, is one of two students who give greetings on behalf of the students.

the District of Eastern North America and vice chairman of Manhattan’s board of trustees.

The final component was the presidential medallion, also presented by O’Malley and Malloy, and draped over O’Donnell’s robe. The medallion’s design combines institutional and religious symbols and dates that mark the College’s history. It is composed of a center medallion engraved with the Manhattan seal, which features the shining star with the inscription Signum Fidei, Latin words that mean “sign of faith.” This central piece hangs on a chain of six circular engraved discs, three on each side, that stand for the five schools of the College with their founding dates, and one that honors the founder of the Christian Brothers, St. John Baptist de La Salle. Two embossed cupolas are strung on

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(Left to right): Chief marshal and macebearer Brother robert Berger, F.S.C., vice president for student life, followed by the newly installed president, leads the procession out of Draddy Gymnasium at the conclusion of the ceremony.

O’Donnell with theodore Cardinal McCarrick, D.D., Ph.D., archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C., and the Most rev. Gerald t. Walsh, D.D., bishop, rector and president of St. Joseph’s Seminary, on the platform during the installation ceremony.

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either side to depict the main cupola that rests high on top of the Georgian-style Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers, a familiar symbol of the campus. O’Donnell’s name is inscribed on the reverse side.

O’Malley spoke on behalf of the board of trustees to congratulate Manhattan’s new president.

“This was like replacing Phil Simms, the great quarterback from the Giants, and how do you do that,” said O’Malley, describing how the board saw finding a new leader to fill former president Br. Scanlan’s post. “We had a spectacular leader for 22 years … In very short and in very clear terms, we got Eli Manning. We have a man who has taken over this position in a seamless manner.”

Fully installed, O’Donnell expressed his gratitude to all those who welcomed and supported him and participated in the inaugural activities and planning. He described what Lasallian values mean to him.

“Domine, opus tuum” O’Donnell said. “Lord, the work is yours. I first learned of the importance of these words to Lasallian education through a wonderful book that is given out here at Manhattan to all new faculty, staff and administrators: Brother Luke Salm’s The Work is Yours: the Life of Saint John Baptist de La Salle … Br. Luke’s research into the life of De La Salle was of a piece with the powerful theological movements that underpinned the council, the spirit of “aggiornamento” through which the church sought to look forward while simultaneously regrounding itself in a reinvigorated sense of its past. The work of rediscovering the “charism” of the founder was undertaken not merely for historical reasons, but as a means to inspire a fresh approach to the challenges of the modern world.”

O’Donnell acknowledged that the modern world presents challenges to these values, but he believes that following in the footsteps of De La Salle is a priority now more than ever.

“Questions of the sustainability of our way of life haunt us and challenge us economically, technologically and morally,” said O’Donnell, who mentioned America’s wars in the Middle East and the economic recession.

“As students and their families ask harder and harder questions about the value of what we provide, Manhattan and other schools need to take a hard look at what they value,” he said. “I believe that we should welcome that hard look, that we should encourage it — that we should undertake it ourselves.

And I believe — believe with all my heart or else I would not be

here — that, while we will not find ourselves perfect (far from it), we will find that at our core, at our heart, our tradition and values are strong.”

O’Donnell outlined Manhattan’s future role as he sees it on multiple fronts: continue to develop cutting-edge scientific knowledge and technical expertise, especially in the school of engineering; build Manhattan’s business program to train future leaders; nurture teaching as a career and vocation based on Lasallian charism; and educate marginalized people and the poor in the world.

“We must never turn our back on this aspect of our vocation,” he said. “We must rededicate ourselves to being the archway through which a new generation of intellectually hungry, motivated and idealistic young men and women will pass as they seek to follow the star of their own vocations.”

He emphasized that underlying these themes should be a continued resolve to sustain Manhattan as “a place where young people find themselves inspired with the desire to undertake a lifelong question for meaning.”

Optimistic about the College’s future, O’Donnell asserted that Manhattan is well-positioned for the future.

“The presence of these core disciplines at the heart of the College, by exposing students to critical thinking and to imaginative and multicultural perspectives, provides them with much needed antidotes to bigotry and prejudice, and the means to resist the temptations of group-think,” he said.

The ceremony concluded with a benediction from Cardinal McCarrick.

“Lord, we ask you to make this place always what it has been from its very beginning, a school which teaches all people and teaches them not only to be wonderful in what they learn in secular fields but also teaches them to understand about those great values of which Dr. O’Donnell spoke, that helps them to answer the questions of what life is all about because that way they find you and learn that the work is yours,” Cardinal McCarrick said.

With this final blessing, the alma mater was played, followed by a rendition of Hornpipe from Water Music Suite by George F. Handel as interpreted by the Manhattan College Orchestra and Jazz Band. The music carried guests out to the tent on the Quad and Smith Auditorium, where a reception awaited in continuation of this momentous occasion.

manhattan.edu

12/4/09 12:06:10 PM

arOunD the quaD

9 things you didn’t Know about the new President 1. What is something the students might not guess about you?

I used to play bass guitar professionally — and still play occasionally.

2. What do you like to do in your spare time?

Spare time?!

3. What is your favorite sport?

That’s tough because I like so many. But if I had to choose, it would have to be baseball. My father was a huge baseball fan, so my love for the game is all tied up with that relationship. I also coached baseball for several seasons when my sons were younger.

4. Why did you pursue a career in academia?

I remember sitting in a class in freshman year, listening to a really fascinating professor get very excited about an essay we were reading, and thinking to myself that I hoped I could be that intellectually alive — that open to new perspectives — when I got “that old” (she was probably 50, if that). I thought, “If that’s what being a professor does for you, sign me up!”

5. h ow did you meet your wife?

I was 19 and playing in a band; she had a friend who had a crush on our keyboard player. The friend dragged her one night to the keyboard player’s apartment where we were hanging out. I could tell she (my future wife) wanted nothing to do with all this: she had a look on her face like, “Who would want to hang around with these loser musicians? Get me out of here!” I fell for her immediately.

6. If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be, and what would you eat?

This will sound corny, but I’d have to say my parents. My dad died in 1985, my mother in 1996. I’d have my wife cook Italian! (Sorry, Mom.) 7. Do you have a role model?

Dozens, for every occasion. (I can use all the help I can get.)

8. Do you speak any other languages?

Not fluently, unfortunately. It’s one of my great regrets. I studied several languages on the way to the Ph.D., so I can read other languages, but I never had an immersion experience. My wife and I do frequently correspond in rhymed emails, though — usually in tetrameter couplets or quatrains, sometimes in limericks. Does that count?

9. Is there something special that you and your sons like to do together?

The last few times we’ve been together, I’ve basically been the audience for their (pretty hilarious) banter. They’re 25, 23 and 21. One lives in Minnesota, one in Belgium, and one in New York, so they don’t get together much these days.

When they do, they seem to communicate mostly by reciting dialogue from The Big Lebowski and Monty Python skits, and episodes of Arrested Development and Family Guy. I can’t get a word in edgewise.

manhattan.edu

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12/4/09 12:06:13 PM

President Brennan O’Donnell and his wife, angela alaimo O’Donnell, with their three sons (from left to right), Charles, Patrick and Will, at the reception before the inaugural installation ceremony.

Manhattan’s New First Lady Dr . Br en n a n o ’Do n n el l ’s pr es IDen Cy has ushered in a new era for the College in many ways. But there’s one aspect that stands out more than the others. Not only does Manhattan have a layperson at its helm for the first time in its history, but it also has a first lady, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell.

O’Donnell teaches English Literature and interdisciplinary courses in American Catholic Studies at Fordham University, and serves as associate director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, an interdisciplinary certificate program for gifted undergraduates who are interested in learning about the Catholic intellectual tradition.

She is also an accomplished poet and has been a finalist for the Foley Poetry Prize, the Elixir First Book Award, and the Mulberry Poet’s and Writer’s Association Poetry Award. In August 2007, her chapbook of poems, MINE, was released by Finishing Line Press. Her full-length collection of poems, Moving House, was recently published by Word Press in October 2009, and her chapbook, Waiting for Ecstasy, a collection of poetic saints’ lives, was published in spring 2009 by Franciscan University Press.

In fact, poetry is as much who she is as it is something she does.

“For me, poetry is a way of being in the world,” she says. “Rather than an activity, it is a disposition or an orientation.”

O’Donnell began writing at an early age, initially, out of a love of the sound of words. Throughout the years, her motivations for writing have changed, though the pleasure of language has remained a constant.

“In the course of my life, I’ve continued to write for many reasons — reasons that have tended to change with the circumstances of my life,” she says. “I wrote throughout my childhood to try to say the things ordinary language couldn’t contain. I wrote during my years as an undergraduate and as a graduate student as a way of communicating with the writers of the past I was learning to love. I wrote less during the years when our three boys were very young … But once they became more independent, I enjoyed returning to writing — partly as a means of exploring and communicating this complex experience of love that being a parent had brought me to. Now, at this stage of my life, I write for other reasons. Among these is a spiritual motivation: poetry provides a way of clearing space in my mind and, simultaneously, focusing my perceptions in much the same way that prayer does.”

Her poems have appeared in a number of journals, including: America, Christian Century, Christianity and Literature, The Cresset, The Comstock Review, First Things, Italian Americana, Potomac Review, Riverwind, RUNES: A Review of Poetry, Xavier Review, New Texas and Windhover.

In addition to poetry, O’Donnell writes reviews of and critical essays on contemporary and 20th century poets. She also lectures, gives poetry readings, teaches poetry workshops, offers writing retreats and Days of Reflection, and even performed a series of one-woman dramatic readings of her poetic cycle Melvilliana: A Suite of Poems in New York’s East Village. She participates in a wide variety of university activities, including mentoring students and facilitating academic events,

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such as symposia and lectures, especially at the Curran Center.

Before coming to Fordham four years ago, she taught courses in English and Catholic studies for 18 years at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md., (now Loyola University Maryland).

Similar to her husband, her faith and devotion to Catholic higher education have played a large role in her professional and personal life. O’Donnell has spent her entire professional life teaching at Catholic institutions. It’s a challenge she has enjoyed engaging in for more than two decades.

“I was very happy to become part of a faculty and university community that celebrates the Catholic faith — a place where one could attend Mass and celebrate the sacraments with one’s students and colleagues,” she says. “Many of us share a language, a core of beliefs, and a disposition toward the world — and among the things we share is an understanding of the extremely important responsibility faculty members share in the formation of our students. Catholic educators do not treat their students as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge — instead, we regard our students as complex living souls whom we are privileged to mentor as they engage in the complex and difficult process of developing the gifts they’ve been given and discovering their vocations.”

As religion and service are important to her, she has participated in many community projects and groups, including the New York City Archdiocesan Schools’ strategic planning committee devoted to “Spirituality in the Schools” and Maryland State Boychoir organization.

O’Donnell currently is working on Praying with Flannery O’Connor: A Book of Hours and is nearing completion of a book-length manuscript of poems entitled St. Sinatra. She also has recently edited a chapbook of poems promoting peace, The Art of Peace (2009), and has begun editing an anthology of poems inspired by Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

And she looks forward to serving as the College’s new first lady.

Besides the inauguration festivities, O’Donnell has enjoyed attending liturgies with the Manhattan community and campus events, such as the art installation and lecture recently sponsored by the Holocaust Resource Center. In fact, she serves on the Center’s board and has collaborated with Holocaust survivor and artist Martin Spett in creating a series of poems engaging several of his paintings.

As O’Donnell explores the new territory of being the new president’s wife, a role she never has played before, she eagerly anticipates discovering its pleasures and its challenges.

“I think there is potential for me to make a serious and a salutary contribution to Manhattan College,” she says. “As a longtime educator in Catholic higher education, I recognize Manhattan’s excellence and its enormous potential for growth, and I would like to make available whatever talents I may have to help foster that growth. I look forward with anticipation to discovering ways in which I can make a difference at Manhattan.”

manhattan.edu

12/4/09 12:06:15 PM

around the quad

Executive Vice President and Provost Steps Down On a more personal note, Jackson Af t er m o r e t hAn A d ec Ad e at the has an easy rapport with and the imCollege, Executive Vice President and Provost Weldon Jackson, Ph.D., is leav- measurable respect of the faculty and ing Manhattan to become provost and the campus community as a whole.

“Working with Weldon Jackson has senior vice president for academic affairs at his alma mater, Morehouse Col- been a pleasure,” says Dr. Karen Nicholson, associate professor of education. lege in Atlanta, Ga. He will step down on Dec. 23 and begin his new position “He has always been approachable while being able to comfortably balon Jan. 1, 2010. ance concern for the individual with Jackson joined Manhattan as prohis responsibility to the welfare of the vost in 1996 and also was appointed executive vice president in 2000. He is total institution. Whenever you meet with Weldon, you feel like you have his responsible for the overall academic full attention and that he genuinely management of the College, includcares about the topic being discussed. ing the supervision of the deans of He shows confidence in faculty by bethe five schools, as well as the more ing supportive of their ideas and goals, than 185 full-time and 150 part-time while allowing flexibility in how to faculty members. reach the desired outcome.”

Among his significant accomplishPrior to his role at Manhattan, ments at the College, he facilitated the reorganization plan of Manhattan Jackson served as vice president for academic affairs at Morehouse College College into five schools, which had from 1985-1996. His duties included been developed in 1995, and workthe general direction and manageing with the deans, expanded the ment of all academic matters of the size and improved the quality of the College; management of the academic faculty in all schools. In collaboration advising system designed to improve with the respective deans, he successfully secured accreditation for the retention; development and preparation of proposals to secure funding school of business by the Association to improve pedagogy, technological to Advance Collegiate Schools of literacy and other programs that imBusiness (AACSB) and the school of pacted teaching and learning at the education by the Teacher Education College; and supervision of faculty Accreditation Council (TEAC), as well professional development programs as for the completion of all programs for the school of engineering by ABET and student leadership programs.

From 1984-1985, he was associate (Accreditation Board for Engineering professor of black studies and, from and Technology).

A member of the College’s Strategic 1977-1984, assistant professor and chairman of black studies/political sciPlanning Committee, Jackson also ence at Wellesley College, for which he managed the accreditation applicadesigned and implemented introductions to the Middle States Association. tory level and advanced courses in In addition, he expanded the infusion political science for the black studies of technology; revamped the faculty department. Jackson earned his B.A. workload; implemented a Continufrom Morehouse College in 1972 and ing Education Program at the College Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1978. and ASPECT (International Language “Dr. Weldon Jackson will be sorely Program); and broadened the Summer missed when he makes his transiAdvanced Placement Program.

dr. Weldon Jackson

tion back to his alma mater,” says Dr. Brennan O’Donnell, president of Manhattan College. “He leaves behind an exemplary record of service to Manhattan, and the College is a better place for his 13 years of service. In the short time that I have been privileged to work with Weldon, I have been impressed by the many, many qualities that this community has been so blessed with for 13 years. We will miss his knowledge, tact, sensitivity, wit and wisdom. We will miss his sense of humor and his graciousness. Above all, we will miss his thoughtful presence.”

manhattan.edu

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12/1/09 2:19:11 PM

Manhattan Welcomes New Arts and Business Deans

(top to bottom): dr. Salwa ammar, dean of the school of business, and dr. richard emmerson, dean of the school of arts

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Ammar has a B.S. in elecAt t h e s t Ar t of the fall setronic engineering from the mester, Manhattan’s newest University of Salford in England deans settled into campus life. and an M.S. in industrial engiThe College welcomed Richard neering and Ph.D. in decision Emmerson, Ph.D., dean of the and information sciences from school of arts, and Salwa Amthe University of Florida. She mar, Ph.D., dean of the school also has evaluated the financial of business, who are both lookmanagement of large cities and ing forward to putting their New York state school districts. imprint on the College’s strong “I hope to bring fresh ideas, inacademic programs. spire new strategies and provide “I was attracted to the long direction and support,” she says. tradition of excellence in busi“Mostly, I hope to collaborate ness education and to the Lasallian heritage that provides with faculty, students, administhe framework for business pro- trators and alumni within and outside the school of business, grams at Manhattan College,” says Ammar, who most recently to implement new initiatives that we all embrace and conserved as dean of the school of sistently promote as part of our management at LeMoyne Coloverall educational mission.” lege in Syracuse, N.Y. Equally as impressive are EmAt LeMoyne, Ammar led a merson’s credentials. He comes successful initial accreditation to the College from Florida State by the Association to Advance University, where he was profesCollegiate Schools of Business sor and chair of the department (AACSB), an organization that also has accredited Manhattan’s of art history. He brings diverse school of business. With this ex- experience in and outside of perience, she brings knowledge academia to the deanship.

“Since completing my doctorof learning assessment, faculty ate in medieval studies more scholarship and strategic planthan 30 years ago, I have taught ning to her position. art history, English and religious Prior to her role as dean studies, have chaired two deat LeMoyne, Ammar became partments, worked for a federal a tenured full professor and agency, and directed a nonprofgained versatile experience it professional organization,” by serving as management Emmerson says. “This experiscience program director and ence made me realize that I director of the M.B.A. program. love combining administrative She has published scholarly articles on topics such as Monte responsibilities with teaching Carlo simulation and fuzzy-rule- and mentoring students, which is exactly what I hope to do as based systems, and has strong dean of arts.” knowledge of engineering, a Emmerson graduated sumbasis that should serve well for ma cum laude from Columbia future collaboration between Union College with a B.A. in the business and engineering history. He went on to earn an schools at Manhattan.

M.A. in English and American literature from St. Andrews University and a Ph.D. in English and medieval studies from Stanford University.

He launched his teaching career at Walla Walla College in Washington and also has taught at Georgetown, Harvard, Tufts and Western Washington University, where he served as professor and chair of the English department. He has written numerous articles and five books, including The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (1993) and Antichrist and Judgment Day: The Middle French Jour du Jugement (1998).

Outside of the classroom, Emmerson has worked as executive director of the Medieval Academy of America and editor of its interdisciplinary journal Speculum. From 1987-1990, he served as deputy director of the division of fellowships and seminars at the National Endowment for the Humanities.

With his experience, Emmerson looks forward to continuing to build on the successful programs in the school of arts.

“Over the past few years, the school of arts has developed excellent majors in areas such as communication that take advantage of the College’s location,” he says. “I want to continue to strengthen our already strong majors and develop new majors, for example art history, that will not only contribute further to the liberal arts but also attract students to Manhattan to take advantage of its rich New York City treasures.”

manhattan.edu

12/1/09 2:19:15 PM

around the quad

Manhattan Bids Farewell to two revered deans mAn hAt t An s Aid f Ar ew el l to beloved deans Dr. James Suarez, school of business, and Dr. Mary Ann O’Donnell, school of arts, at a campus celebration on May 5. The event culminated their collective experience as deans and members of the Manhattan College faculty.

Suarez, professor of economics and finance, joined the faculty of the school of business in 1984 and became dean in 1991. Prior to becoming dean, he served as chair of the College’s economics department.

“Jimmy is above all a gentleman in the best sense of the word,” said Dr. Richard FitzPatrick, professor of management. “He is unfailingly courteous and considerate.”

In return, Suarez had only good things to say about the business faculty and staff.

“My faculty members are extraordinary,” Suarez said.

“The recent AACSB Peer Review Team called them ‘accomplished’ teachers and scholars, ‘dedicated to students and student learning.’”

The spirit of solidarity and dedication to learning among those who work at the College were themes that came up throughout the evening. Indeed, Suarez guided his school to receive accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in 2004. As a result, the school of business qualified for the Beta Gamma Sigma school-wide honor society and for a chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, an honor society for students majoring in accounting, computer information systems and finance.

In addition, Suarez spearheaded a unique program for students to earn 150 credits in four years in order to qualify for the New York State CPA exam. His professional activities include active participation at annual meetings of AACSB and memberships in the American Economic Association and the National Tax Association.

On his way to Manhattan College, Suarez earned a B.S.F.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. Some of his past jobs include serving as director of economics and fiscal analysis for the New York City Finance Department, research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and supervising economist at AT&T. With matching fortitude, O’Donnell, professor of English, advanced the school of arts. She joined the College in 1971 as a lecturer in the department of English and world literature. By 1977, she was appointed as a full-time professor and, before being named dean in 1994, she served as chairperson of the department.

Under her leadership, the “next-generation” communication department launched in fall 2008. It features state-

of-the-art facilities, skilled faculty and updated curricula.

The school of arts has grown by nearly 300 students during the past decade, and 17 faculty members earned tenure.

O’Donnell received her bachelor’s degree from the College of Mount Saint Vincent, a Master of Science from Columbia University School of Library Science, a Master of Arts from Manhattan College and a Ph.D. from Fordham University. She is a member of several prestigious organizations, such as Kappa Delta Pi, the international honor society in education, and is the author of several papers and co-editor of the forthcoming Approaches To Teaching, to be published by the Modern Language Association.

Lisa Juncaj, who worked as an academic advisor in the school of arts, recalled O’Donnell’s tenacity.

“Mary Ann is a true leader,” Juncaj said. “[She has] touched the lives of all genders, colors, creeds and all sorts.”

For her part, O’Donnell thanked colleagues and reminisced about her time at Manhattan College.

“A good place to work is a place where folks are happy to go, where they do the job that has to get done, where someone will pick up the heavy end of the stick when you can’t, where you can stop to have a good laugh — or cry, where your colleagues are not afraid to tell you that your thinking is a tad skewed or that you have the best idea since Socrates invented symposia,” O’Donnell said. “Manhattan has been and is a great place to work. Cherish it, keep that spirit going.”

retired deans dr. Mary ann o’donnell, school of arts, and dr.

James Suarez, school of business, commemorate their years of service to the College at a campus party.

manhattan.edu

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12/1/09 2:19:18 PM

College Names Three New Members to Board of Trustees

(Left to right): Gerard Caccappolo ’63 Br. dennis Malloy, F.S.C. George Skau ’59

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t h e mAn hAt t An c o l l eg e Bo Ar d of Trustees recently welcomed three new distinguished members. Gerard J. Caccappolo ’63, Brother Dennis Malloy, F.S.C., and George Skau ’59, Ph.D., join an outstanding group of board members led by chairman Thomas D. O’Malley ’63.

Caccappolo is retired CEO of Ebone, a successful startup network services company, and during his career, he had more than 25 years of executivelevel responsibilities in marketing, product development, sales and business development. In seven years at the helm of Ebone, the company grew into a leading European optical networking corporation with 1,000 employees and revenue exceeding $440 million.

Prior to assuming the role at Ebone, Caccappolo worked for six years at TimePlex, Unisys and ultimately Ascom Timeplex with responsibility for product/marketing strategy and networking. He spent one year managing telecommunications for SRI International in California and was vice president for planning and corporate development at Bell Atlantic from 1983-1988. In that role, he reported to

the corporation’s vice chairman and CFO and was responsible for corporate strategy, business development and implementation, and venture fund management.

Br. Malloy is currently the provincial for the District of Eastern North America of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. From 2007-2009, he served as the provincial for the Baltimore District and prior to that was executive director of St. Gabriel’s System, a division of Catholic Social Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia directed by the De La Salle Christian Brothers.

A graduate of La Salle College, Br. Malloy received a master’s degree in social work from The Catholic University of America and spent 11 years as director of De La Salle Vocational in Bensalem, Pa. He taught religion at West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys from 1980-1983 and was honored with the Distinguished Lasallian Education Award of the Baltimore District in 2001.

Professor emeritus at Bergen Community College in Paramus, N.J., Skau’s tenure at the institution began in 1970.

He has held the positions of associate professor, chairman of the department

of social science and humanities, and director of the honors program. He has also taught at Manhattan College, the State University of New York at New Paltz, as a visiting associate professor, and at Marist College. At Marist, he served as an assistant professor, as well as director, then chairman, of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Studies program.

After his graduation from Manhattan, Skau published the article “Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations” in a Festchrift in honor of Brother C. Gabriel Costello, F.S.C. He served on the National Alumni Council of the Manhattan College Alumni Society from 1999-2009, as vice president of the society from 2004-2007 and as president from 2007-2009.

Skau is also a member of the Manhattan College Athletic Hall of Fame committee, for which he was chairman from 2003-2007.

manhattan.edu

12/1/09 2:19:20 PM

around the quad

Former President Brother thomas Scanlan, dr. Charles Geisst, professor of economics and finance at Manhattan College, and ambassador Charles Gargano ’79, emeritus chairman and commissioner of empire State development, attend the annual school of business honors award ceremony.

School of Business announces Gargano Chair in Global economics t h e AmBAssAd o r Charles A. Gargano ’79 Endowed Chair in Global Economics was announced at the annual school of business honors award ceremony for students this past April. The chair is named in honor of Ambassador Gargano, the emeritus chairman and commissioner of Empire State Development (ESD). At this time, Dr. Charles Geisst, professor of economics and finance at Manhattan College, was named the first recipient of the Gargano Chair. During the event, students were inducted into six business honor societies, most notably Beta Gamma Sigma.

At the ceremony, Gargano reminisced about his time at the College as a graduate student in pursuit of a master’s degree in civil engineering.

“I gained so much more at Manhattan than a graduate degree,” Gargano said. “I gained the lifelong friendship of fellow students and our professors. We came to this remarkable institution from different backgrounds, different places. But we left it united by a love of learning.”

After reflecting on his time at the College, Gargano discussed the challenges that lay ahead and the ever-changing landscape of world powers across the globe.

“As an engineer and a businessman, I have learned the importance of thinking creatively and analytically, acting objectively and, most importantly, understanding the world we live in, discarding old ideas and ideologies when their time has run out,” he said. “We live in a dynamic, unstable and globalizing world. The 20th century was dominated by the West — its power, ideas and culture. But power is now shifting to the East, to countries like India and China that want to remake world order.”

The establishment of the endowed chair comes at a critical time for those students in

the field of economics who face the ongoing challenges of the financial crisis and current recession. For them, Gargano’s career maps an example of how to succeed at challenges through dedication to public service.

“Charles has succeeded at so many things because he has vision coupled with honed listening skills that enable him to build consensus and win collaboration in the execution of highly complex plans,” said former President Brother Thomas Scanlan.

During the course of his career, Gargano served as ambassador to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for two U.S. presidents. He worked closely with former Gov. George Pataki starting in 1995, when he was appointed chairman and commissioner of ESD and vice chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. His work at ESD brought important capital investments for New York state, such as the revitalization of Times Square. For the Port Authority, he was the governor’s key aide in carrying out interstate shipping and transportation policies, including the $9 billion investment to redevelop John F. Kennedy International Airport to its rightful place as the premier gateway to the United States. He also has served on Manhattan’s board of trustees.

Geisst, who is the first faculty member to be named endowed chair in global economics, has written 18 books on his area of expertise, many of which have climbed to the top of notable best-seller book lists. Wall Street: A History (1997) was on the New York Times Business Best-seller List for three months and was a selection of the History Book Club and the Book of the Month Club International. It has been translated into German, Japanese, Bulgarian, Chinese, Hebrew and Russian. Other

notable titles include Monopolies in America: Empire Builders and Their Enemies from Jay Gould to Bill Gates (2000), Wheels of Fortune: The History of Speculation from Scandal to Respectability (2002) and his latest book, Collateral Damaged: The Marketing of Consumer Debt to America (2009).

In addition to his books, he has published professional and trade articles in magazines and journals, such as the Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Newsday and Euromoney.

He came to the College in 1985 to teach finance and has since become a consultant to businesses, such as J.P. Morgan & Co., and a respected voice on radio and TV talk shows.

He was named the College’s first Louis F. Capalbo Chair in Business in 1993.

Prior to Manhattan, Geisst earned his doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1972. For the next three years, he taught political science in an open admissions environment in the City University of New York before taking a job on Wall Street. He also worked as a capital markets analyst and investment banker at several investment banks in the City of London.

Geisst, who delivered a thoughtful speech after being installed as the first recipient of the Gargano Chair, advised students to read about the economic crisis and understand it.

He offered wisdom based on his many years of experience and gave insight on how all can learn from the mistakes of an unregulated financial system and improve on it in the future.

Following the speech, students were inducted into the business honor societies and congratulated by Dr. James Suarez, departing dean of the school of business.

manhattan.edu

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12/1/09 2:19:24 PM

2009 Commencement Honors Former President Brother Thomas Scanlan

(top): honorary degree recipient and former President Brother thomas Scanlan joins Manhattan graduates on Walsh Plaza at the 2009 Commencement ceremony.

(Middle): Guest speaker raymond Kelly ’63, police commissioner of the City of new York, congratulates damien Germino ’09, who earned a Bachelor of Science in the school of arts.

(Bottom): Br. Scanlan presents an award to Mary Morgan ’09, a senior in the school of business, who earned three medals for academics and community service at the Spring honors Convocation.

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“I remember the day when I stood in your s t u d en t s i n mAn hAt t An ’s c l Ass of 2009 shoes,” he said. “Under my cap and gown, I wore joined the ranks of the College’s alumni and a Marine Corps uniform. I was commissioned professional workforce as they graduated at the as an officer the same day and went on active 167th commencement ceremony on Sunday, duty one month later. Ultimately, I was deployed May 17. Three days prior to this event, seniors to Vietnam. Everything I learned at Manhattan attended the Spring Honors Convocation to be came with me and blended with the principles of inducted into various honor societies. leadership I was taught in the Marines. Among At the Spring Honors Convocation, departing them: integrity, knowledge, courage, decisivedeans Dr. Mary Ann O’Donnell, school of arts, ness, dependability, initiative. It turned out that and Dr. James Suarez, school of business, each Marine Corps values fit remarkably well with addressed the audience. They have been an those of the Christian Brothers.” integral part of this event during their years of The world that Kelly graduated into 46 years service to the College. O’Donnell served the Colago faced many challenges, not unlike the one lege for 32 years, while Suarez devoted 25 years today’s Jaspers will enter. The class valedictorian to Manhattan.

Michael Lawler ’09, who earned a business de“For me, it has been a major rollercoaster ride,” gree, mentioned these challenges with optimism O’Donnell said. “The speed sometimes broke the as he addressed his peers. sound barrier. The climbs were slow and some“In these turbulent times of war and economic times tough. The downhill runs at breakneck peril, we may wonder what our futures hold,” speed were dizzying. We have seen the school of Lawler said. “Whom do we trust? What do we arts almost double in size and take a giant leap in quality. The faculty has been so innovative and stand for? Where do we go from here? These are hard questions to answer, but with challenge, productive in their teaching and research.”

Indeed, many arts students were among Man- comes opportunity. Over the past four years, we have all been given the privilege of a Lasallian hattan’s brightest seniors, who, along with faculty and guests, celebrated their accomplishments. education here at Manhattan College. By graduating today, we inherit the significant responsiDuring the ceremony, students were inducted bility of carrying out the values of that tradition into 32 honor societies and awarded 50 medals — faith, service and community.” and prizes. These honors spanned the College’s The ceremony concluded with an uplifting five schools and recognized accomplishments in speech by Br. Scanlan. areas as diverse as environmental engineering, “I thank you graduates for letting me share communication, finance, education, chemistry this day with you in a special way and note that and community service. it has taken me 22 years to do what you have Suarez concluded the ceremony by encouragaccomplished in four — earn that most valuable ing the seniors to use the skills and lessons that recognition, a Manhattan College degree,” Br. they learned on campus to improve the world Scanlan said. around them.

With parting words, he inspired the graduates “With your degree from Manhattan College, to embrace their future careers. especially your membership in one of our honor “The goal and focus of all of our work is to ensocieties, you are well-prepared for your careers able you to earn your graduation, having become in business, education, engineering, law, mediproficient in both your discipline and our broad cine or wherever life takes you,” Suarez said. liberal curriculum that has helped nurture your Spring Honors was followed by Commencematuration into young adults ready to take your ment, a bittersweet day because it also marked place in society and to contribute to making a the last graduating class presided over by outbetter world for all men and women with whom going President Brother Thomas Scanlan, who we share this planet,” Br. Scanlan said. stepped down after 22 years of leading the ColPhotos and video for the 2009 Commencement lege. He received an honorary Doctor of Education during the ceremony attended by nearly 700 ceremony are available on the College’s Web site students who gathered in Draddy Gymnasium to at www.manhattan.edu/commencement. Spring Commencement photos also can be downloaded be awarded undergraduate degrees. at this link.

Guest speaker Raymond W. Kelly ’63, police commissioner of the City of New York, addressed the audience.

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Manhattan Students Graduate at Spring Commencement mAnhAt t An ’s 167t h Spring (Graduate) Commencement ceremony on May 20 marked the graduation of more than 200 students from the graduate schools of education and engineering, as well as the Undergraduate Adult Degree Completion Program.

At the ceremony, Vincent DeSimone ’59, P.E., was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering on behalf of Manhattan College by former President Brother Thomas Scanlan. DeSimone, who is the founder and chairman of the international structural engineering firm DeSimone Consulting Engineers, addressed the audience.

“Manhattan gave me the key that unlocked the door to the world,” DeSimone said.

He credits the College’s strong educational and spiritual foundations for his success.

“Fifty years later, I am standing 20 feet away from the source of the spiritual gift given to me by Manhattan,” DeSimone said. “Close your eyes and you can see the dark, crisp nights that occur in October in Riverdale. It was on such a night in 1955 that, out of curiosity, I went to the Chapel, where there was an all-night vigil of the Blessed Sacrament. That evening, my moral compass course was set.”

During the course of his career, DeSimone has built a large portfolio of work at home and abroad. His firm, which opened in 1969, has won awards for hotels, resorts, residence buildings and gaming facilities up and down the East Coast. As senior principal-in-charge of development and strategic planner, his efforts have spread the firm’s international presence, with projects in China, India and Saudi Arabia.

In addition, DeSimone is a community leader. He has a lifetime membership in the American Society of Civil

Engineers and has previously taught classes at Princeton University’s School of Architecture.

Another leader primed for success, valedictorian Kelly McCracken ’09, spoke at the ceremony, as well. She talked about how Manhattan College produces well-rounded students who value community service and lauded the personal approach taken within each discipline to prepare students for success. She also spoke about her own experiences in volunteering and the impact they have had on her life.

“I also had the opportunity to volunteer in Mexico through the Lasallian Outreach Volunteer Experience,” McCracken said. “Twelve of us arrived on a dirt plane, shovels in hand, to lay a foundation for a new school. It was amazing to see 50 members of the Tijuana community, waiting there to help us. Not only did we lay a founda-

tion for a new school, we discovered the true foundation of this College. I know through service and educating others, a difference can be made.”

After the speeches, graduate students streamed to the front of the Chapel to accept their diplomas. Four medals and prizes were also distributed for academic excellence in education and engineering.

The celebration continued after the ceremony with a reception in Thomas Hall, where students and their guests toasted to success and a new start in their professions.

(Left): Valedictorian Kelly McCracken ’09, who earned a professional diploma in counseling, spoke at the 2009 Spring (Graduate) Commencement. (right): Former President Brother thomas Scanlan and Vincent deSimone ’59, P.e., founder and chairman of the international structural engineering firm deSimone Consulting engineers, display his honorary degree on campus.

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around the quad

A Degree of Inspiration:

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12/1/09 2:19:33 PM

NYSE Euronext CEO Speaks at Horan Lecture

duncan niederauer, chief executive officer of nYSe euronext

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He referred to his 2007 apt h e Jo h n J. h o r An Endowed pointment at NYSE Euronext, Lecture Series has managed the holding company created to engage top-level executives by the combination of NYSE in their respective fields for Group, Inc. and Euronext N.V., the past 20 years. On April 14, as an unbelievably important guests at the University Club position for which even he were treated to an informative and timely speech by Duncan L. doubted his qualification, with Niederauer, chief executive offi- the tremendous problems that cer of NYSE Euronext. The topic, lay ahead.

“It’s been a very interesting fittingly enough, was Where do time to have this job,” he said. we go from here?

“I’ve never been prouder to be Former President Brother an American and even prouder Thomas Scanlan introduced of the people in D.C., who are Niederauer, whose unique perspectives on the economy have doing such an excellent job and who are trying hard to figure been gleaned from more than out how to get it right.”

20 years at Goldman Sachs & Niederauer explained that Co., where he served as managbecause of the media, everying director and co-head of the Equities Division Execution Ser- one had been led to believe that this crisis was unprecvices. In 2000, he joined Spear, edented. He said it might have Leeds & Kellogg and managed seemed this way because of its the firm’s global clearing and breadth and depth, but finanexecution business, as well as cial problems have happened the equities e-commerce efin the past. The American fort and was the global head of free-market philosophy, selfportfolio trading. He also spent regulated financial services time in Tokyo working in derivindustry and inexperienced atives and with Japanese prodregulators have contributed to ucts. Niederauer earned an such failures.

M.B.A. from Emory University He also spoke of the connecand a B.A. from Colgate Univertion between Wall Street and sity, for which he is a trustee.

Main Street and how the two “At this time last year, it did are as intertwined as the global not seem like all of this was economies and global markets. around the corner,” Niederauer He recalled a meeting of world said, as he addressed the leaders in Switzerland, and economic downturn. “But now, while there was a lot of fingerin 2009, we have weathered a pointing as to who was responturbulent last 12 months trysible for the financial mess, in ing to find out where do we go the end, the result was positive. from here?”

“The collective stimulus that the world has thrown at this problem is unprecedented,” he said. “There is reason to be optimistic. I think we are past the point of financial meltdown.”

Niederauer described the effects that more government involvement will have on the economy but urged that we must “resist the temptation to over-regulate.”

“Clearly, we are in for a bigger dose of regulation, which is good for America,” Niederauer said. “The country has had a tough time competing because some of the world’s economies have not had burdensome regulations.”

But he also warned against localization and stressed that we can’t give up globalization.

Before taking questions, Niederauer cautioned that the economy’s recovery will take time, capital and confidence, and that social responsibility will be part of the solution.

The John J. Horan Endowed Lecture series is named in honor of John J. Horan ’40, former chairman and chief executive officer of Merck & Co., Inc. It was established through a generous endowment from Merck with the purpose of expanding the personal and professional development of Manhattan’s faculty by bringing groups of educators together with leaders of the business, scientific, engineering and educational communities.

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Ma n hat t a n Co l l eg e and the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center’s (KHCC) College Directions Program hosted a Summer Literacy Institute from July 9-12. It was the opening event in a multiyear collaboration between the Bronx institutions, a partnership made possible by a major grant from the Teagle Foundation for $240,000 during three years to be shared by both organizations.

The four-day program, held on Manhattan’s campus and at the community center, provided 15 selected Bronx high school juniors with intensive pre-college academic experiences. It featured three dynamic, college-level discussions led by Manhattan faculty that were designed to introduce the students to different academic disciplines.

Following the discussions, students worked in a group led by a writing coach and a student mentor to produce a finished draft of their college applications.

Students were able to experience aspects of campus life, including dorm rooms, the dining hall, a movie and a barbecue on the Quadrangle, as well as learn about college services, such as the counseling center and student financial aid. Their parents also attended a closing event on Sunday, during which the students’ achievements were recognized. The whole experience was designed to help young people envision themselves as college students and become better prepared for college life.

Co-directors of the Summer Literacy Institute Deanna Peralta, director of the KHCC College Directions Program, and Dr. Daniel Collins, associate professor of English, agreed that the inaugural run of the Institute was a big success.

“Listening to the students read from their completed essays, engaging them in discussions based on their time spent with faculty and staff from Manhattan College, I saw that they saw themselves capable of college-level work, and that is the goal of the Summer Institute,” says Collins.

Alyssa Getzel ’09, who served as one of the program’s writing coaches, also highlighted the positive benefits of such a program.

“Working as a writing coach for the Summer Literacy Institute was by far one of my most memorable and rewarding experiences,” Getzel says. “I felt as if I was able to significantly impact not only the writing of the students in my small group but also leave a positive imprint on their lives that they can carry with them into the future.”

The weekend was the start of a program to immerse the students in a challenging yearlong process as they prepare for college.

They will maintain contact with Manhattan during their

senior year of high school, as two visits to KHCC are being planned for the fall semester. In addition, the participants will be invited to a Manhattan campus lecture by Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for You. The College’s Common Text Program is an innovative effort in which college faculty members select one outstanding book by a contemporary author, and all first-year Manhattan students read it during their freshman writing course.

The students in the program were selected by the College Directions Program, which began recruiting and screening motivated youth during the winter. Each student participated in the program free of charge and will be supported and tracked by College Directions through college acceptance and four years of higher education.

College Directions works to increase the number of Bronx youth who are well-informed about the benefits of a college education and to support them as they move through the application process and into college. The majority of its participants are from low-income households and many are first-generation college students.

Mahattan College has historically advocated for college access for disadvantaged and minority students. Today, approximately 35 percent of Manhattan’s undergraduates are first-generation college students.

on campus

college partners with Kingsbridge Heights community center on summer Literacy program

Dr. Daniel collins (center), associate professor of English, and the students in the summer Literacy Institute held at manhattan college in July.

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12/1/09 2:18:21 PM

Branigan scholars ace Their professions

Tony azios ’06 wears a traditional hanbok as he and young students are taught Korean etiquette. christopher Rizzo ’97

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Fr o M r u r a l a r iz o n a to Seoul, South Korea, Jaspers in fields as disparate as teaching English, practicing environmental law and researching German Romantic culture, share a common thread: they all pursued independent study projects through the Branigan Scholars Grant as students at Manhattan College.

Established in 1976 by Edward Branigan ’40, the grants support students with an interest in humanities and enable them to pursue a creative or traditional research project outside of their coursework. They are paired with a Manhattan faculty member who serves as an advisor to help develop their scholarly interests.

“In keeping with our mission to provide a person-centered Lasallian education, the Branigan Scholars Grant has afforded our students a singular opportunity to explore their individual scholarly interests and goals,” says Dr. Joan Cammarata, professor of Spanish and chair of the Branigan Scholars Committee. “Their weeks of intense research and writing, in collaboration with faculty mentors, have resulted in substantive and original humanities studies.”

Of the students who have received these grants in recent years, many credit the Branigan program for providing invaluable experience and launching their careers.

“No wonder the Branigan scholars have met with success in graduate school, law schools and business,” says Mary Ann O’Donnell, former dean of the school of arts. “They clearly demonstrated to a tough committee that they had mastered the art of focused thinking, solid research, clear writing.

And the projects have all been so different from one another — from Hannah Kaplan’s study of African American art to Michael Brady’s exploration of Shelley to Tony Azios’s examination of the fate of Mexican sea turtles to Chris Rizzo’s multidisciplinary analysis of the ecology of New York Harbor.”

For one, there is Elizabeth Harris ’08, who teaches English at Agua Fria High School in rural Avondale, Ariz., near Phoenix. Harris was placed in this lowperforming high school by Teach for

America. Many of her students come from tough family situations and are in gangs, involved with drugs or have faced trouble with the law.

“What’s really hard is that there’s a very steep learning curve in the classroom,” Harris says. “I have 10th graders reading on levels ranging from second to 12th grade.”

Yet Harris says the Branigan Grant, for which she wrote “Lighting Out for the Territory: Ecocritical Perspectives on American Road Trip Narratives,” has made a big impact on her career path.

“I feel as though I’m actually living out the ideas I put down on paper,” she says. “I’m actually experiencing what feels like a road trip right now. I literally think about ecocriticism every day as I drive to school in the morning … I’m about 20 minutes away from Agua Fria and, in order to get there, I need to drive my car on I-10 West, a major freeway that cuts right through the west valley and is sometimes full of traffic. Parts of the freeway are pretty desolate — there’s nothing but desert on either side of the road, and the sky is really big and beautiful.”

Harris is not the only recent Branigan scholar to embark on a challenging career. In fact, another goal shared by these students is their desire to pave career paths that improve society.

This usually means taking on obscure work in a third-world country for little pay or joining a law firm that has an urgent mission.

Take Todd Kranock ’97, whose Branigan project was “A Permanent Revolution: Reflections on Research, Interviews and Experience at the Highbridge Community Life Center.”

Kranock works for Oxfam, a group of NGOs from three continents that work worldwide to fight poverty and injustice. He started out at several law firms as a legal assistant and analyst before joining the American Red Cross as part of the Sept. 11 Recovery Program in 2001. The next year, he moved to England to earn a Master of Arts in conflict resolution from the University of Bradford. He returned to the United States in 2004 and later rejoined the Red Cross to help train

2,500 new volunteers in 100 days as part of the disaster relief effort following Hurricane Katrina. In June 2006, he served on his first overseas mission in the Nonviolent Peaceforce and was posted in Sri Lanka, where conflict between the government and Tamil Tigers had escalated.

“Many times we accompanied persons under threat to self-determined safe locations,” says Kranock, who recounted his two years stationed in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, as a child protection coordinator. “We also accompanied human rights activists into the field so they could continue their invaluable and dangerous work.”

Closer to home and in an entirely different field, Christopher Rizzo ’97 pursues environmental matters. He is a lawyer at Carter Ledyard and Milburn, where he litigates energy issues, climate change, historic preservation, land use and other critical areas.

“I consider my Branigan research on the problems surrounding the dredging of New York Harbor to be my first concrete work product as an environmental lawyer, pre-law degree, of course,” Rizzo says. “I’ve even relied on the contacts that I made during that research from time to time.”

And for some Branigan scholars, their paths have looped through different fields. Tony Azios ’06 graduated from Manhattan with a bachelor’s degree in international studies and took a job at the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, for which he investigated allegations of police misconduct within the New York Police Department. Around this time, he also freelanced a few magazine articles, which made him realize his interest in journalism. This prompted him to move to Boston, where he interned as an environmental reporter for the Christian Science Monitor (CSM).

“There, I had the opportunity to write several news articles, features and book reviews, as well as dabble in photojournalism,” he says. “I was told that my Branigan Grant research concerning the socioeconomic implications of sea turtle conservation in Mexico played a major part in my be-

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studied Austrian draftsman Alfred Kueval Art,” a subject of interest to Brian bin, took art history classes and worked Haman ’03, who is now a Ph.D. student as an English teaching assistant. in German studies on full scholarship “My Branigan research grant was at the University of Warwick in England.

His thesis details representations of the instrumental in both my personal and academic development,” Haman says. journey in German Romantic culture.

This sentiment has been echoed by “Shortly after graduating from Mannumerous Branigan scholars, regardhattan College, I worked at the Neue less of their area of study. All of these Galerie New York, and the strength of alums compose a lasting legacy — my application was in no small part due to my Branigan Grant in art history, one that began with a thirst for knowledge engaged by a special resource among other things,” Haman says.

He went on to travel to Vienna, Aus- — the Branigan Scholars Grant, which tapped their career interest and protria, where he lived for two years as a pelled them into the future.

Fulbright scholar. During this time, he

on campus

ing selected as an intern.”

He made yet another career change when he decided to spend a year teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) to elementary school students in Seoul, South Korea. He presently teaches EFL speech and writing to high school seniors on the equatorial Pacific island of Pohnpei, capital of the Federated States of Micronesia, and continues to freelance for CSM. Sea turtle conservation and ecocriticism are only a few of the topics that Branigan scholars have studied.

Among others is “St. Joseph in Medi-

Who’s Who among Branigan scholars Jose Batista ’94, who specializes in Latin American poetry and Caribbean literature, has been an assistant professor of Spanish at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte since 2003. His work can be traced back to his time as a Branigan scholar when he studied Russian author Alexander Pushkin’s classic novel Eugene Onegin. “In retrospect, the Branigan experience gave me a taste of what scholarship meant and entailed,” he says. “Later on in life, before considering graduate school, my experience as a Branigan scholar cemented my decision to embark on a life of letters.”

Michael Brady ’05, who wrote “The Unspoken Masses: Gender and Class in The Mask of Anarchy” for his Branigan Grant, heads the consulting firm Brady & Company, which deals in state, federal and international government relations and development.

Monica Cabarcas ’01, who used her Branigan Grant to research AIDS activism, was recently hired as a literacy specialist at Albermarle County Schools in Virginia.

Since studying “Joyce’s Dublin: Fiction and Fact” for her Branigan Grant, Maureen Curtin ’91 has become a tenured associate professor of English at the State University of New York-Oswego. “I believe that more than anything, the Branigan was an apprenticeship in ideas that I could not have imagined otherwise,” she says.

John easterbrook ’04 says, “My Branigan project gave me my first real glimpse into what life as an academic could be like.” After studying portrayals of men and women in Ernest Hemingway’s writing for his project, he completed his M.A. in English from New York University in May 2008 and taught a class in Manhattan’s English department this past spring. Easterbrook is currently working toward his Ph.D. Michael Fahey ’92 used his Branigan Grant to attend an intensive weeklong seminar on Law and Society at the Washington Center.

“The experience fed my hunger for knowledge in the field of law and further fueled my desired career path,” he says. He currently lives in London and is the senior vice president, general counsel and company secretary at Affinion International, a leading global provider of marketing services and loyalty programs.

Chris Farley ’99 teaches history at Valhalla High School in Westchester County, N.Y. Previously, he attended Fordham University to earn a master’s degree in political science with a concentration in American politics. “I read differently, analyze differently and think differently because of the Branigan experience,” says Farley, who focused on capital punishment in the United States while at Manhattan. “I strive to pass some of what I have gained on to my students.”

John Mark ’00 is captain in the U.S. Army JAG Corps stationed at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. He is a U.S. Army prosecutor and special assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Arizona. He was selected to be an instructor at the U.S. Army Military Intelligence School, where he will teach the Law of War and Interrogation. After graduating from St. John’s University School of Law in 2003, Mark returned to Manhattan to become director of residence life. The research on Cardinal Spellman that he did as part of his Branigan Grant helped him to learn about the interplay of religion and politics in New York. “Because of my involvement with the Branigan Grant, many other opportunities have opened for me,” he says. a ltagracia Pierre ’02, an attorney working on a double M.B.A. in taxation and accounting, has this to say about her Branigan research: “On a personal note, the project whose topic was ‘Oppression and the Struggle for Emancipation in Feminist Caribbean Literature’ helped me delve into many questions about my ethnicity. This journey into race and ethnicity for me has not ended, but the project was certainly a worthy beginning.”

Courtney r oy ’08, who wrote “The Politics of Anger: A Study of Kinship in the Selected Plays of John Osborne and Tennessee Williams” from her comprehensive Branigan research, works at Oxford University Press.

James Vreeland ’94 is associate professor of international relations in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. “My research has taken me around the world — by the end of this year (2008), I will have presented my work in over a dozen countries on six continents,” he says. “And to think it all started with a Branigan Scholars Grant to do research in the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean!”

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The main objective of MillionTreesNYC is to increase the tree canopy coverage of New York City for the sake of improving air quality and reducing energy costs.

Landscapers from millionTreesnYc planted 24 trees around campus, including this one on the side of smith auditorium, in may.

MillionTreesNYC Takes Root at the College Ma n hat t a n Co l l eg e ha s Pa r t n er ed with MillionTreesNYC, an ambitious initiative established by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office to plant 1 million new trees in the city by 2017.

On Thursday, May 21, just days after the class of 2009 had bid goodbye to Riverdale, MillionTreesNYC moved 24 trees closer to its goal when an assortment of dogwoods, red oaks, zelkovas, black locusts and other species were planted on the Manhattan campus.

A prime location for the new trees was the area surrounding East Hill Hall, which opened in August 2008. Three zelkovas, three littleleaf lindens and a pair of red oaks were scattered around the site. Other locations around campus that received new trees include Hayden Hall (along Manhattan College Parkway) and two spots near the Quadrangle on either side of Smith Auditorium. Representatives of MillionTreesNYC originally scouted the campus in early March, and the College is responsible for

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caring for the trees in the future.

The main objective of MillionTreesNYC is to increase the tree canopy coverage of New York City for the sake of improving air quality and reducing energy costs.

The partnership grew out of former President Brother Thomas Scanlan’s Dec. 5 presidential proclamation, which declared the College’s intent to take all feasible steps to increase its sustainability while ensuring that green issues are a factor in all future major decisions, policies and contracts.

In his proclamation, Br. Scanlan wrote: “I hereby declare that Manhattan College shall strive to take all feasible steps to increase its sustainability and to decrease its ecofootprint. Further, I request every member of our College community to review his/her own eco-habits and make appropriate improvements. And lastly, I request that environmental stewardship be an important component of each student’s education. Striving to be a

green campus is our common goal.”

The College has implemented numerous green measures in recent years, including the installation of motion sensors to turn on and off classroom and public space lighting; increased energy efficiency of College vehicles; and reset thermostat controls to be higher in summer, during unoccupied periods.

In the past year, Manhattan also has become a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and signed on to New York City’s 30-in-10 initiative, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases by 30 percent during the next two decades.

Bloomberg’s 30-in-10 challenge is part of PlaNYC, a sustainability plan launched on Earth Day 2007 that strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions citywide by 30 percent by 2030. Many leading New York universities and colleges have joined the more aggressive 30-in-10 commitment.

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12/1/09 2:18:27 PM

on campus

Robert Mahan Memorialized on Physical Plant Complex o n a Pr il 2 4, the College dedicated the physical plant complex in honor of Robert Mahan, P.E., vice president for facilities management.

Mahan has served the College for almost 20 years and has stewarded many of Manhattan’s construction projects, including the physical plant complex.

After welcome remarks from Dr. Weldon Jackson, executive vice president and provost, Brother Kenneth Fitzgerald, F.S.C., associate professor emeritus of mathematics and computer science, gave the opening prayer.

A series of tributes, from various constituents of the campus community, then followed.

Speaking on behalf of the administration, Dr. Mary Ann O’Donnell, former dean of the school of arts, praised Mahan’s spatial perception skills and his ability to transform the College’s spaces. One such space, with which she credits his vision, is the new communication studio.

“He knew exactly what we needed to teach our students with — and we have the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art facility in the area,” she said. “So Bob to me is the master builder. But he is also the master teacher — both in helping me understand what we were doing with the facility but also understanding the pedagogical use of that facility.”

Representing the staff, Richard McKeown, director of the physical plant, described his first interview with Mahan and, with some jesting, the extremely detailed tour of the campus that served as his second interview. He also told the story of how Mahan made his plans of turning a former Con Edison sub-station into the new physical plant building become a reality.

“We are all here today because the plans came together, thanks to you,” he said.

Following a tribute by Dr. John Mahony, professor of environmental engineering, Anthony Scala Jr. ’74, College trustee, humorously spoke about all that Mahan has contributed to Manhattan’s campus, including the building of a new residence hall and parking garage and a renovated library, as well as his capable restoration proficiency.

“Bob, I would like to thank you for all you have done and continue to do for Manhattan College and especially for making my job as a trustee such a pleasure — and, you, for being such a friend,” he said.

Carol Mahan King, Mahan’s sister, concluded the speeches and noted that her brother always had an inclination for engineering and architecture.

“At a very early age, Bob loved to take things apart to figure out how they worked and then improvise to make them better,” she said. “Here at Manhattan, I doubt if there is a building on this campus that has not been touched by his determination to make it better.”

The bronze plaque that adorns the wall inside the entrance of the physical plant complex was subsequently unveiled, which was followed by a blessing from Fr. George Hill, campus minister, as well as a reading by Donald Semon ’11.

Humbled by the dedication, Mahan acknowledged his family and colleagues. He also emphasized that while people have given him credit for the work that was done at Manhattan, it was all a team effort.

From former President Brother Thomas Scanlan to the architects and builders, to the physical plant staff that make it all look good, everyone has played a role in the successful transformation of the campus.

Mahan also was grateful to the College for allowing him to do what he loves most and for this great honor.

“I express my appreciation to Br. Thomas and to Manhattan College for giving me the opportunity to play in this environment, to do those things I love to do,” he said. “I have so much enjoyment, work with great people who give me a lot of satisfaction and put their hearts equally into what we do here, as I do. So I say thank you to everyone for this acknowledgement. I will through the rest of my life have pride over what has been put on this building.”

Br. Scanlan then closed the ceremony with an appreciative mention of Mahan’s accomplishments. He noted that Mahan has transformed a somewhat aging campus into one that elicits compliments and, in doing so, has left his imprint on virtually everything.

“Bob’s impact has reached every cellar, every roof, every room, every machine, literally, every corner of the campus,” he said. “And he has not only left his handprint on everything that one can see, I can attest it’s also behind every wall and under every floor.”

After the ceremony, guests gathered for a tour of the complex and a reception in the Leo Hall cafeteria.

Robert mahan, vice president for facilities management, and Brother Thomas scanlan, former president of the college, unveil the plaque that dedicates the physical plant complex to mahan.

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50 Years and Counting: Br. Francis Bowers marks His Legacy at manhattan a Fa Mil ia r FaCe a r o und Ca MPus, Brother Francis Bowers, F.S.C., celebrated his 50th anniversary at Manhattan this year. For some, this might mean retirement, but not for Br. Bowers, who became an advisor for at-risk students in the school of arts nearly four years ago.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute at Manhattan,” Br. Bowers says.

He began teaching English and literature full time at the College in 1959.

“I love teaching,” he says. “I was only here three years when I became chair of the undergraduate and graduate divisions of the English department.”

In 1970, Br. Bowers became dean of the school of arts and sciences, a position that he held for the next decade before deciding to go back to teaching. He applied for a leave of study and traveled to Oxford University in England, where he stayed for six months to research literary criticism and prepare for upcoming courses.

Around this time, a sad turn of events took place. Brother Patrick McGarry, F.S.C., the College’s executive vice president and provost, passed away in May 1980. Upon returning to Riverdale, Br. Bowers agreed to put off teaching and become acting provost, a position that turned into an unexpected five-year role.

He finally did return to the classroom in 1985, and not long after, he became the first coordinator of academic advisement for athletics and scholarships. In the 16 years that he spent in this role, at least 50 percent of Jasper athletes scored a 3.0 or better GPA each year.

“I was always interested in athletics,” Br. Bowers says. “I ran the hills in Riverdale for 30 years and played baseball and basketball.”

A natural athlete, Br. Bowers played both sports as a student at Cathedral Boys High School in New York City. Before coming to Manhattan, he had taught in various area high schools and coached their track teams. His devotion to athletics continued at the College. Early in his career, he helped to improve the athletics program by increasing financial aid, creating the position of sports information officer, and helping to level the playing field for men and women in the early 1970s when Manhattan became coed. In 1973, the Jaspers took the Indoor National Championship in track and field, in large part due to Br. Bowers’ efforts on the faculty committee on athletics.

All of this earned him a spot in the College’s 2004 Athletic Hall of Fame.

Whether as a teacher in the classroom, a member of the College’s administration or an advocate for student-athletes, Br. Bowers’ work has touched and united the farthest corners of campus and will continue to do so well into the future.

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Br. Bowers’ work has touched and united the farthest corners of campus and will continue to do so well into the future.

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on campus Dr. pamela chasek (far right), associate professor of government and director of the international studies program, and the distinguished manhattan college delegation at the model united nations conference in new York city.

shawn Ladda Goes to Washington s haw n l a d da , associate professor of physical education and human performance, participated in a roundtable event sponsored by the newly formed White House Office of Women and Girls on June 23. The panel, held in celebration of the 37th anniversary of Title IX legislation, featured both political and sports leaders, including Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and tennis legend Billie Jean King. Ladda currently serves as president of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport, an organization dedicated to addressing issues and promoting opportunities for all girls and women in sport. The roundtable was streamed live on the Web on the official White House site, as well as part of an innovative Facebook application that allows users to simultaneously watch the live stream and be part of an online chat about the roundtable.

Model UN Delegation Earns Honors Man h at t an Co l l eg e’s delegation won five awards at the 2009 National Model United Nations conference in New York in April. Representing the Islamic Republic of Iran, Manhattan received the distinguished delegation award, one of the most prestigious and highest honors at the conference. The College’s chapter also won the outstanding position papers award, and six Manhattan student participants received “peer” awards for outstanding work: Irfan Ahmed ’10 and Dan Maher ’09 in the General Assembly Plenary, Matt Spano ’09 and Andrew Tratner ’11 in General Assembly First Committee (security and disarmament affairs), and Jaclyn Ambriscoe ’09 and Amanda Scott ’10 in UNAIDS. Other members of the delegation included Grace Zawol ’12, Dominika Wilk ’11, Chris Shemanski ’11, Chris Tucci ’11, Mansoor Ahmed ’10, Kelly Dantuono ’10, Britney Hayes ’10, Caitlin Boucher ’09, Emily Kouterick ’11, Valbona Sokoli ’12, Maria Thomas ’11, Amanda Connolly ’10, Megan McCarthy ’12, Elise Rae ’09, Rudylexis Nunez ’09 and Emily Atwater ’10.

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Alpha Phi Delta Returns to Manhattan

members of alpha phi Delta convene at the college.

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Co MMu n it y, s o Cia l o u t r ea Ch and Italian heritage are just a few of the values that link members of Alpha Phi Delta on campus. The fraternity, which grew out of an oath taken in 1914 by seven men at Syracuse University who faced discrimination for their Italian-American roots, has a fresh purpose in 2009.

“Since we reactivated, we welcome everyone,” says Jeffrey Sidoti ’11, president of Alpha Phi Delta. “You don’t have to be Italian. We’re gentlemen.

We’re respectful. It’s about helping the community.”

For the past few years, the fraternity had been inactive at Manhattan until the group reconvened in fall 2008. They already have 15 brothers and counting, a mix of mostly sophomores and juniors, not all of whom are Italian.

“We’re looking to grow and do bigger things,” Sidoti says. Already the group has volunteered for service activities such as Relay for Life and, in April, will host the Rose Dance, a fraternity tradition and formal dance celebrating the chapter’s 80th anniversary on Manhattan’s campus, for which more than 100 students and alumni are expected to attend.

Since 1929, when a chapter of the fraternity was founded at the College, nearly 600 brothers have joined.

During the years, the fraternity has expanded to include 100 chapters nationwide. The Manhattan chapter has been named outstanding chapter on a couple of occasions. In the 1980s, the group was especially popular on campus. It was one of the alumni who was part of the fraternity back then — Joseph Rahtelli ’85 — who served as national president of Alpha Phi Delta in 1990-92 and reached out to Sidoti about starting it up again.

Over the years, the brothers have kept in touch and passed down the fraternity’s values to their loved ones.

Besides Rahtelli, other Jasper brothers helped to revive the fraternity, including Anthony Barbieri ’62, Rick Trieste ’84 and Joe Carcione ’81. Both Rahtelli’s son, Joseph II, at Marist, and Carcione’s son, Michael ’11, at Manhattan, pledged Alpha Phi Delta.

During the six-week pledge period that precedes induction, the young men are given three objectives. They have to learn the history of Alpha Phi Delta, get to know the brothers who have been part of the chapter in the past, and also build friendships with fellow pledging students.

“We have a very good group of undergrads here,” Rahtelli says. “I think they will become one of the outstanding chapters in the fraternity.”

Engineering programs Reaccredited Man h at t an Co l l eg e’s six undergraduate engineering programs — chemical, civil, computer, electrical, environmental and mechanical — have been reaccredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET, Inc., the recognized accreditor for college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering and technology.

In addition to the continued accreditation of the undergraduate programs, the College has received accreditation for its Master of Engineering in environmental engineering. The accreditation of the master’s degree is retroactive to Oct. 1, 2007.

“I am very pleased that the Manhattan College engineering programs have earned reaccreditation and that we will now be able to offer an accredited master’s of engineering degree in environmental engineering,” says Dr. Tim Ward, dean of the school of engineering.

“It is through the hard work of the engineering faculty, staff and students that we have been able to demonstrate the quality of our programs.”

Accreditation by ABET, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, is considered the gold standard for engineering programs and is based on numerous factors, including faculty quality, facilities and success of students in achieving stated program outcomes.

The evaluations of the programs are based on substantive self-studies and an on-campus visit by an ABET team, which consists of subject matter experts, and took place in October 2008 at Manhattan. Since each program is accredited individually, the school of engineering itself does not receive accreditation.

ABET is a federation of 30 professional and technical societies representing the fields of applied science, computing, engineering and technology. Among the most respected accreditation organizations in the United States, ABET has provided leadership and quality assurance in higher education for more than 75 years.

It currently accredits some 2,800 programs at more than 600 colleges and universities nationwide. More than 1,500 dedicated volunteers participate annually in ABET activities.

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t h o Ma s M a ssa r o , s .J., professor of theology at Boston College, presented For God and Country: Patriotism and Religious Identity Today at the 2009 Aquinas Lecture in February.

During the lecture, he discussed the good and bad sides of patriotism and how religion factors into this dichotomy.

“Patriotism presents something of a dilemma for Christians and requires careful discernment on the part of all religious people,” Massaro said.

He detailed the experience of Catholics in the United States who he said face a dilemma due to their distinct history. As described by Massaro, early Catholic experiences in America often were wrought with discrimination, suspicion and violence, which prompted followers to respond with “super-patriotism” to prove their loyalty.

“The ardent desire to achieve a dual identity as at once loyal Catholics and patriotic Americans came at a price and contained an implicit irony ... in seeking to demonstrate that their loyalty to America was above reproach, they found themselves putting on the shelf many of the teachings of the man they acknowledged as their Lord and Savior,” he said.

Massaro’s answer to this contradiction is for Christians to find balance in their values.

He said that, today, the “true patriots balance their love of country with enough cosmopolitan regard that they reject a narrow agenda of self-aggrandizement in favor of the universal common good of all humankind.”

on campus

Aquinas Lecture Examines Patriotism

Historian Discusses First Ladies d r . Bet t y Bo yd C a r o l i, historian and biographer of first ladies in the United States, spoke on campus this past March as part of the celebration of Women’s History Month. In Writing First Ladies, she discussed the role of the first ladies and their influence on the White House throughout history.

Caroli has written numerous books, including First Ladies: From Martha Washington to Laura Bush, The Roosevelt Women and Inside the White House: America’s Most Famous Home. In 2008, she was among a select group of historians invited to meet with former first lady Laura Bush.

A regular guest on national television and the BBC, Caroli often appears to discuss the role of presidents’ wives in American politics. She has been on Today, The O’Reilly Factor, PBS’ NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and C-SPAN’s Booknotes. martha Washington (1731-1802), wife of u.s. president George Washington.

Journalist Talks About the Paradox of Modern Iran ir a n ia n -a Mer iCa n Jo u r n a l is t h o o Ma n M a Jd recently spoke on campus about his book The Ayatollah Begs To Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran, which he describes as a collection of anecdotes that he hopes will allow Americans to view Iranians as the people they are today.

“I’ve been accused of humanizing the regime [in Iran],” he said. “But the image we have of Iran is not an accurate one.”

Although he said, as a journalist, “I don’t like to blame the media,” he noted some obstacles to accurate reporting.

One is the fact that sensational stories sell papers and magazines, so naturally there is a bent toward printing them.

Second, he said, “All the American journalists stay in a

certain part of town, and they don’t get to do what I do,” which includes interviewing high-ranking officials, such as the previous president of Iran, and interacting with all sorts of Iranian people. Majd also has connections; he is related to an ayatollah.

Majd, who considers himself “100 percent American and 100 percent Iranian,” dispelled the myth that all Iranians are diehard Islamic fanatics. He acknowledged that while some do exist, many others feel that extreme religion is not relevant.

“Iranians,” he said, “view [their country] as a shining beacon, an independent nation-state.”

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Genocide Expert Speaks at Manhattan t h e h o l o Ca us t r es o u r Ce Cen t er sponsored the lecture The History of Genocide on Feb. 24, given by Dr. Ben Kiernan, professor of international and area studies and director of the genocide studies program at Yale University. Kiernan drew information from his book Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur to discuss the common themes of genocides that transcend time and place and have spanned multiple centuries.

According to Kiernan, all genocides throughout human history share key themes, regardless of the culture perpetrating the crime.

These themes — racial and religious hatred, an idealization of agriculture, cults of antiquity, genocidal ideology and expansionist tendencies — are evident despite the fact that genocides throughout

music memorializes Holocaust prisoners Fo r h o l o Ca us t r eMeMBr a n Ce day, the Holocaust Resource Center and Manhattan’s department of fine arts presented Music Out of Oppression, featuring composer and lecturer Dr. Ronald Senator, his wife, awardwinning pianist Miriam Brickman, and soprano Marni Nixon. The trio paid tribute to the music written and performed by prisoners in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. “Being a musician [during the Holocaust] could save your life,” Senator said. All six extermination camps had orchestras, which the Nazis called upon to play as prisoners disembarked trains at arrival, “to calm the new arrivals and allay suspicions.” The musicians also had to play as fellow prisoners marched to work and execution. For this reason, the suicide rate of musicians, forced to play while they watched family members go to their death, was high.

Nevertheless, in many cases, Senator said, “The music kept [the musicians alive]. It gave them a reason to live.” Other concentration camps also had musicians and performances in the genres of chamber, opera and cabaret music. Often, the musicians had to perform for the Nazi SS, especially in Terezin, a camp that imprisoned many artists, composers and actors whose works survive to this day.

Playing excerpts from his classical composition Holocaust Requiem, Senator explained how his work memorializes these experiences. The centerpiece is a collection of compositions written by children from Terezin.

In the final part of the presentation, Brickman played many of the musical compositions of the Terezin prisoners; and Nixon, the singing voice of Deborah Kerr and Audrey Hepburn in filmed musicals, performed the heart-wrenching lyrics.

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history have emerged from certain social conditions and individual human decisions.

He traced the history of genocides from the double-decade massacre of the native Hispaniola population by the Spanish, who reduced the number of inhabitants from 500,000 to 32,000 starting in 1492, to the 20th century, which he called “the century of genocide.” He drew examples from the Holocaust, pointing out how Hitler’s ideology revered the peasant, idealized the past, agrarian toil and pastoral pleasures, and demonized Jews as an anti-peasant, racially inferior breed.

Among others, he also referenced the genocides caused by the Khmer Rouge and those in East Timor, Rwanda and Darfur.

History and the Hudson Discussed at Christen Lecture Co in Cid in g w it h t h e h u ds o n r iVer ’s 4 00t h a n n iVer sa r y Cel eBr at io n , the Robert J. Christen Program in Early American History’s lecture, The Hudson River: The Key to America in the American Revolution, discussed the strategic significance of the river during the Revolutionary War, in April.

Dressed as a revolutionary continental, Col. James M. Johnson, Ph.D., executive director of the Hudson River Valley Institute, is an expert in the American War of Independence at the Hudson River and explained how the river helped to determine the outcome of the war.

“It was understood by George Washington as a war of posts,” he said. “The river was the key to commerce and a lifeline of this colony and the Northeast.”

The roads during this time period were not good, Johnson noted, so the Hudson River functioned both as a river and an avenue between the states, Canada and the Atlantic Ocean.

“If controlled, the river could be made into a barrier,” he said. “It was a major pivot point.”

Johnson went on to describe how the Hudson River Valley produced some of the major turning-point battles of the war, including those at Saratoga, Bennington and Forts Montgomery and Clinton.

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.

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on campus

Heavy Metal as a Refuge d r . Ma r k l eVin e, a professor at the Levine described one Lebanese man University of California and author of who said he turned to the music to Heavy Metal Islam, delivered a talk in “drown out the bombs.” Levine showed April about how Middle Eastern youth clips from an Iron Maiden heavy metal use heavy metal music to foster their concert that he attended in the Middle own individuality in response to an East. The band performed to a full oppressive government that strives crowd of head-banging Muslim men to create a collective identity for the and women wearing headscarves. He nation. For his lecture, From Persepolis explained that in a culture that forbids to Tangier: Youth Culture and Resistance men and women to sing together, Across the Muslim World, Levine drew these concerts spark controversy. on his travel experiences in the Middle As part of the College’s curriculum, East as a scholar, musician and activist the freshman class read Persepolis, working for peace and democracy. one woman’s account of her personal According to Levine, Middle Eastexperience and resistance growing ern youth are trying to “carve out a up in Iran during the 1980s. Levine space of freedom.” He said this space described how the woman found her is sometimes a subculture in which identity by leaving the Middle East, they feel safe, however, their represbut many others find identity through sive governments view these subculmusic and by remaining in the region. tures as threats and will arrest, kill or torture members.

Heavy metal is a crucial political outlet for many Middle Easterners, and

Giving a Voice to the Homeless t h e n at io n a l C o a l it io n for are goaded to fight each other the Homeless (NCH) was on cam- or do risky stunts in exchange for pus April 8 to tell students about small amounts of cash or large the realities of homelessness. The amounts of alcohol. The segment presentation, Faces of the Homelinked the DVDs to an increase in less, was sponsored by Manhatteenage violence against hometan’s office of campus ministry less people and focused on four and social action. teens in jail for beating a homeThe discussion began with less man to death. video news excerpts about a rise Following the video, a forin violence against homeless merly homeless man named people. A 60 Minutes segment Steve spoke about growing up in exposed a DVD series called Bum “the hood” in Washington, D.C. He Fights, in which homeless people described doing drugs at the age

of 12, and how it slowly poisoned his relationships and job prospects until finally, after having lost 13 jobs and his home, he was reduced to living on a bench on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Steve spent some time talking about how dehumanizing life on the street was but pointed out that going to a homeless shelter was, in fact, even worse than life on the streets. His redemption came when he asked God to let him die. Shortly thereafter, a

doctor approached Steve and helped to place him in a recovery program.

The timeliness of this presentation is evident by statistics offered by the NCH, which estimates that around 50 percent of homeless people have a substance abuse problem and about 30 percent have a mental illness. Furthermore, the coalition asserts that the foreclosure crisis has forced more families into homelessness.

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Kevin Laue ’13 Courts Success

CBS Interviews Laue CBS The Early Show anchor Harry Smith visited the Manhattan College campus in October to speak with head men’s basketball coach Barry Rohrssen and freshman center Kevin Laue ’13. Smith and the CBS camera crew shadowed Laue around campus as part of a feature on the inspirational 6-foot-11-inch, onehanded young man who earned a scholarship to play basketball for the Jaspers. The piece aired nationally on CBS. In case you missed it, visit GoJaspers.com and click on the Manhattan In The News button on the top right corner of the home page to view the video.

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Pl ayin g Divis io n i college basketball is a common childhood dream, one to which Kevin Laue ’13 aspired. In Laue’s case, this goal was loftier given the fact the 6-foot-11-inch center from Pleasanton, Calif., was born with one hand. So this past May, when Manhattan head men’s basketball coach Barry Rohrssen offered the young man a scholarship to play for the Jaspers beginning this fall, it was the culmination of a journey Laue set out on several years ago, as he finally achieved his ultimate goal.

“It’s unbelievable,” Laue says. “It’s just unreal that once you get a dream, you achieve it.

I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Due to a complication at birth, Laue’s left arm stops just below his elbow. He is believed to be the first student-athlete with a disability of this nature to receive a Division I basketball scholarship.

“I am very excited to be coming to Manhattan,” Laue says. “It’s a huge step for me, coming to New York. But it’s a great school and a great conference. I’m very happy and very blessed.”

Laue’s journey to play Division I basketball was postponed his senior year in high school at Amador Valley in Pleasanton when he broke his leg early in the season. Hoping to still earn a Division I scholarship, Laue traveled east to Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, where he averaged 10 points and five boards per game last season. It was at Fork Union where he was recognized by Manhattan College former President Brother Thomas Scanlan, who brought a New York Times article on Laue to the attention of Rohrssen and asked the coach if he would consider recruiting him.

Rohrssen confirmed his interest in Laue, a big man who he had known about and someone he felt would help the Jaspers. Rohrssen was willing to give Laue an opportunity.

“Many times coaches take chances on kids who have poor academic histories, or who

have disciplinary problems both on and off the court,” Rohrssen says. “Oftentimes players are given opportunities and don’t appreciate them. They take them for granted.

For all the right reasons, Kevin deserves this chance. He is someone who should make the most of this opportunity.”

Rohrssen and Laue have always shared a commonality: their admiration of former New York Yankees pitcher Jim Abbott. Laue idolized Abbott, who proved it was possible to overcome such a disability, as he pitched 10 seasons in the major leagues without a right hand.

“As a child, he was always my inspiration,” Laue says. “He was the only guy to ever do it, the only guy who I could talk to and relate on getting to the next level.”

Abbott, also an inspiration to Rohrssen, gave the Brooklyn-born coach a fond memory that he vividly remembers on Sept. 4, 1993 at Yankee Stadium when the left-handed fireballer tossed a no-hitter. Rohrssen always thought highly of the coach at the University of Michigan who gave Abbott an opportunity to begin his career, one that would inspire thousands, especially those who witnessed the ninth no-hitter in Yankees history.

“Years later, here I was in a position also to help someone achieve their goal of getting a college scholarship and realize their dreams of playing Division I basketball,” he says. “In doing this, it gives Kevin the opportunity to inspire many others.”

Laue already has begun inspiring others and plans to continue this effort during his time in Riverdale by visiting local hospitals and schools to provide encouragement.

“I have already met a lot of individuals who have one arm or have a disability, and they tell me I am inspiring to them because I have made it to this level, especially in a two-handed sport. It makes me feel amazing,” Laue says.

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Man hat t an Co lleg e studentathletes not only shined in athletic competition during the 2008-09 academic year, but they also found much success in the classroom. According to the annual Athletics Academic Report, 14 of the Jaspers’ 19 Division I programs held a team grade point average (GPA) above 3.0 last year, while 55.6 percent of the 302 studentathletes maintained a cumulative index above 3.0.

“I am pleased our studentathletes continue to maintain our high academic tradition,” says Robert Byrnes, director of athletics. “This success in the classroom is a testament to the dedication and hard work of our studentathletes, coaches and academic support staff.”

A total of 104 Manhattan College student-athletes were selected to the 2008-09 MAAC Academic Honor Roll, which recognizes student-athletes who have completed at least two years at their institution with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher. Additionally, 131 student-athletes were selected to the MAAC All-Academic Team for their respective sports.

The women’s basketball team maintained the highest cumulative GPA with 3.4, a mark that earned the squad special recognition as the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association honored the squad in its Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll. The Lady Jaspers finished seventh among all Division I schools and was the only MAAC institution to earn this

accolade. Additionally, the golf team topped all men’s programs with a 3.2 cumulative index.

The women’s soccer team was honored by the NCAA for the second consecutive year and earned a Public Recognition Award for its academic success.

The Lady Jaspers ranked in the top 10 percent of all Division I women’s soccer programs in Academic Progress Rate (APR), the only MAAC women’s soccer program to receive this accolade.

The APR provides a real-time look at a team’s academic success by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete.

Individually, three studentathletes were selected to the prestigious ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team, as

announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Women’s soccer midfielder senior Courtney McMahon was selected following a successful junior campaign, when she became the program’s career assist leader.

Junior Malin Marmbrandt and sophomore Jackie Hargrove, representing women’s track and field, also earned this honor.

The United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) also honored Marmbrandt, along with junior Alexandra MacDougall and sophomore Megan Tice, on its 2009 All-Academic Track & Field Team.

On the men’s side, senior Kelton Cumberbatch and freshman standout Albert Johnson III also garnered this USTFCCCA award.

sports

Manhattan student-Athletes Excel in the Classroom

Courtney McMahon Named Top 30 Candidate for Senior CLASS Award Ma n hat t a n Co l l eg e MiDf iel Der Courtney McMahon was tabbed one of the 30 Division I women’s soccer seniors who are candidates for the 2009 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, as announced in August. McMahon was labeled a top student-athlete in her sport because of her achievements in four areas of excellence throughout her collegiate career as a Lady Jasper: classroom, character, community and competition. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School™, the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

McMahon, a two-year team captain from Bethel, Conn., earned All-MAAC First Team honors and was selected to ESPN The Magazine All-America Academic Team last season. She enters her final season in Riverdale as the program’s career assist leader (19). During her career, she has played in all 55 games for the Lady Jaspers and posted 35 points, which ranks ninth on the career list.

Off the field, McMahon carries a 3.8 grade point average in civil engineering and aspires to specialize in structural engineering after graduation. She has been named to the Dean’s List each semester at Manhattan, while also earning MAAC All-Academic Team and MAAC Honor Roll recognition the last two years. McMahon was inducted into Manhattan’s prestigious Pen & Sword Society, along with her acceptance to engineering honor societies Tau Beta Pi and Chi Epsilon.

An active member in the community, she has participated in several goodwill initiatives, including organizing her team’s participation in the Tunnel to Towers Run, a charitable run dedicated to firefighters who passed away during Sept. 11.

She has volunteered with a program that helps revitalize New York City parks, gardens, playgrounds, community centers and schools by planting trees in the five boroughs. In addition, McMahon has donated her time to charities that provide respite, joy and hope to children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

The 30-candidate class was narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and though she was not selected as one of the 10 names placed on the official ballot, McMahon certainly exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of classroom, character, community and competition.

Courtney McMahon ’10

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Sport Shorts

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Tr a c k No Tes Manhattan College graduate Aliann Pompey ’99 broke her own Guyana national record in the 400-meter dash in August at the World Track & Field Championships in Berlin, Germany. Pompey cruised to a fourth-place finish in her semifinal heat and 11th place overall in 50.71 seconds. Earlier in the summer, she won the gold medal in the 400 at the Cork City Sports international meet held in Mardyke, Cork, Ireland, and took fourth place at the Athens Grand Prix in Greece, clocking in at 50.90.

Fellow Jasper alumnus Thomas Jacob Freeman ’04 represented the United States in August at the World Track & Field Championships in Berlin, Germany. Freeman recorded the longest throw in the hammer for the United States, as he tossed 74.19 meters.

Lisa Daley ’93 also excelled at an international meet this summer when she won the women’s 200-meter dash event at the World Masters Athletic Track & Field Championship for athletes 35 years and older in Lahti, Finland. Daley finished the 200 in 25.83 seconds, and earned second in the 400 in a time of 57.14.

In addition, Daley was a member of the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relay teams, which won gold and set new American records in the women’s 35-39 age group.

organization in early June. Former Jasper teammate Nick Derba ’07 was called up in June to St. Louis Cardinals’ Double-A affiliate, the Springfield Cardinals. Jesse Darcy ’07 spent the 2009 season with the Class-A Charlotte Stone Crabs of the Tampa Bay Rays organization, while Matt Rizzotti played with the Class-A Clearwater Threshers of the Philadelphia Phillies. Former Manhattan College standout Mike Parisi remained within the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system.

Ja s per s i N Th e MiNo r L ea g u es Manhattan College baseball alumnus Chris Cody ’07 was promoted to the Nashville Sounds, the Triple-A affiliate of Major League Baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers

Th e c LiNic To eNd a LL c LiNic s ii For the second-straight year, Manhattan College played host to The Clinic to End All Clinics on Oct. 3 in Draddy Gymnasium, an annual basketball coaches work-

New Fa c es i N aTh LeTic s Manhattan College named John Olenowski the seventh head women’s basketball coach in program history. He brings more than 19 years of coaching experience from both the collegiate and high school ranks to Riverdale. Mark Jones was appointed head women’s volleyball coach.

He comes to Manhattan after serving as an assistant coach at Maine for the past two years.

He previously held Division I assistant coaching roles at Pac-10 power Washington State, Tennessee State and Northwestern State.

The Jaspers named Tom Pardalis as head softball coach. With 37 years of coaching experience, Pardalis has been a collegiate assistant for the past six years at Western Connecticut State and previously at Marist.

shop orchestrated by Howard Garfinkel, the founder of Five-Star Basketball camp. This year’s clinic featured sessions instructed by college basketball’s winningest coach Bob Knight (ESPN), Roy Williams (University of North Carolina) and Leonard Hamilton (Florida State University), along with former NBA coaches Don Casey and Mike Fratello.

Ma Nha TTa N aTh LeTic s expa Nds M u LTiMed ia pLaTFo r Ms Fo r 20 09-10 The Manhattan College Athletic Department has expanded its multimedia platforms for the 2009-10 academic year. In addition to a comprehensive live video streaming package for home competitions on JasperVision at GoJaspers.com, fans can now follow all the happenings of Manhattan’s Division I teams via Twitter and Facebook. All men’s and women’s basketball home games will be available for fans to watch live and on-demand with commentary from the College’s broadcast team.

For more information on JasperVision, visit GoJaspers. com and click the More Info box in the top right corner of the home page. To follow Manhattan Athletics on Twitter, go to www.

Twitter.com/GoJaspers, and on Facebook.com, search Official Manhattan Jaspers Page.

Th o Ma s r o Ma No ’ 11 Br ea ks 37-Yea r -o Ld s c h o o L g o LF r ec o r d Junior Thomas Romano broke a 37-year-old school record for the lowest competitive round on

Sept. 23, when he posted a sixunder par 66 to lead the Jaspers golf team to a dual-match win over Yeshiva University. Manhattan posted a team score of 292, which also broke the school record for the lowest dual-match team score. On the par 72, 6,229yard layout at Glenwood Country Club in Old Bridge, N.J., Romano shot a scorching 31 on the front nine and followed that up with a 35 on the back for his recordbreaking 66. The score broke the record set in 1972 by George Fisher at the Leewood Country Club in Eastchester, N.Y. La dY Ja s per r a N Ma r aTh o N To r a is e Mo NeY Fo r Mu LTipLe s c Ler o s is a Nd LYMph o Ma r es ea r c h Junior Ashley McHale, a member of the women’s lacrosse team, completed the grueling 26.2-mile course at the Hamptons Marathon on Sept. 26 to help raise money and awareness for Multiple Sclerosis and Lymphoma. c u r r eNT a Nd Fo r Mer Ja s per s r eu NiTe aT a NNua L Ba s eBa LL a LuMNi g a Me The Manhattan baseball program welcomed back several alumni on Sept. 19 for its annual alumni game and reception at Van Cortlandt Park. Former slugger Dom Lombardi ’08 earned the 2009 Home Run Derby crown, and the varsity team prevailed in an 11-1 victory over the alumni before a crowd of family and friends.

Among those in attendance were current minor league players Chris Cody ’07, Jesse Darcy ’07, Mike Parisi and Matt Rizzotti.

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sUMMer i s traditionally the time of year when college basketball coaches do the bulk of their recruiting, an activity that entails significant travel and time demands. For Manhattan men’s basketball head coach Barry Rohrssen, a trip to the Persian Gulf with the United Service OrganizaCoach Barry rohrssen tions (USO) was added again to his hectic summer itinerary.

In early June, for the second-straight year, Rohrssen joined a group of Division I coaches for nine days in the goodwill mission Operation Hoop Talk. The goal of the initiative was to boost the spirits of our wounded soldiers here in the United States and bring a touch of home to the military personnel serving overseas.

“It is so special to represent our fine College in lands so far away during this difficult time,” Rohrssen says. “It was a privilege when they asked me to fly across the globe again to partake in another goodwill mission, after visiting U.S. troops in Iraq last August.”

Rohrssen was joined this summer by colleagues Jeff Jones (American University), Gary Steward (UC Davis), Reggie Minton (National Association of Basketball Coaches), Pete Gillen (former Virginia coach and current television analyst), Dave Odom (former South Carolina and Wake Forest coach and current television analyst) and Dennis Wolff (former Boston University coach). The group began the tour at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., and the National Naval Medi-

cal Center in Bethesda, Md., where the coaches met some amazing people, including a local hero from Staten Island who lost all four limbs in combat.

“Having visited the hospitals last year, it heightened my awareness of what to expect, but it certainly did not diminish the emotion and sympathy within me when experiencing firsthand the cruelty of war,” Rohrssen says.

After the emotional, but memorable, visits in the nation’s capital, the group boarded a 12-hour flight to Kuwait and eventually made their way to Afghanistan, where they spent the majority of the nineday mission. During their time abroad, the coaches visited several military bases, enjoyed the company of thousands of soldiers, talked hoops and held clinics, which provided an outlet to their daily jobs.

“To be able to spend such precious time with our brave soldiers was such a rewarding endeavor and worthy cause,” Rohrssen says. “We visited bases and hospitals in Kabul, Kandahar and Bagram.”

Fully equipped during the mission with body armor and helmets, while traveling in Black Hawk helicopters and cargo planes, Rohrssen and his colleagues got a full taste of the military life. The group bunked in wooden huts, lodging which featured a 100-yard walk to the bathroom decorated with Beware of Snakes signs.

An amazing, life-changing experience, Operation Hoop Talk benefited Rohrssen just as much as the numerous troops with whom he visited.

“We used basketball as a common denominator to help make the troops who are so far from home feel good,” he says. “It is an honor to be selected for this mission and to do something good and worthwhile for our great country.”

sports

Operation Hoop Talk

Women’s tennis UnDer t he Dir eCt io n of head coach Scott Blumberg, the women’s tennis team posted seven dual-match victories during the 2008-09 season, its most since the 2001-02 campaign. Senior Casey Conklin led the team with 10 match wins during the season, while freshmen Christine Krasinski, Christina Ton and Hilary Valenzuela each played significant roles in the Lady Jaspers’ lineup.

Conklin posted a 10-10 singles record, including a 4-3 mark in MAAC play, and teamed with Valenzuela to go 4-3 in the MAAC in doubles.

Valenzuela was equally successful in singles play; notching nine wins and going 4-3 against conference competition. She was responsible for both Manhattan match victories in a 6-1 MAAC quarterfinal loss to Loyola, and won her singles match 6-2, 6-2, teaming with Conklin for a 9-8 doubles win.

Senior Lindsey Keeler, Manhattan’s No. 1 singles player, enjoyed a successful season that was highlighted by a three-set win over Fairfield’s Dana Postupack, in which Keeler won the thirdset tie-break 13-11. She and Ton went 10-5 as a

doubles tandem, including 5-2 in MAAC play. The pair reached the finals at the Sergio Tacchini Collegiate Invitational in October.

The Lady Jaspers went 4-2 during the fall season and posted match victories over Fordham, Wagner, Monmouth and Saint Joseph’s. Manhattan opened the spring season with an impressive 5-2 win at St. Bonaventure and fought hard in road matches against Buffalo and Army, two teams that reached last season’s NCAA Tournament. In MAAC action, the Lady Jaspers posted an easy 5-2 win against Saint Peter’s and cruised to a 6-1 victory over Rider. Manhattan earned the No. 6 seed for the MAAC Tournament but was eliminated in the first round, 6-1, by Loyola.

In addition to their on-court success, a leaguehigh four Lady Jaspers were recognized for their work in the classroom. Conklin and Keeler each earned a place on the MAAC All-Academic Team for the third consecutive year. They were joined on the squad by junior Nicole Mazza and sophomore Nora Hulton Sacchi.

Hilary Valenzuela ’12

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Baseball f o Ur t h -yea r h ea D Co a Ch Kevin Leighton, the 2009 MAAC Coach of the Year, guided the Manhattan College baseball team through another memorable campaign, as the program secured its second consecutive MAAC RegularSeason Championship and reached the 30-win plateau for the fourth-straight year. One of the hottest offensive teams in the country, the Jaspers achieved several MAAC and school milestones, which propelled the squad to a programrecord 35 wins, including the nation’s longest home-winning streak, and notched 21 straight at Van Cortlandt Park.

Junior lefthander Mike Gazzola was named the MAAC Pitcher of the Year and became just the third Jasper to earn this honor and the first since former standout Jesse Darcy ’07 in 2007.

Gazzola, who posted a 7-1 record with 54 strikeouts, saved his best performance of the year for the MAAC Championships, where he twirled his fourth complete game of the season en route to a 2-1 victory over Rider in the opening round.

Sophomore first baseman Austin Sheffield launched his seventh home run of the season in the contest, and senior shortstop Ryan Masters delivered the game-winning RBI. Manhattan advanced to the winners’ bracket of the tournament but would eventually suffer a heartbreaking 4-3 loss in the 11th inning to Marist, only to be eliminated after being edged 3-2 by Canisius in the ensuing contest.

Despite the premature exit from the MAAC Tournament, Manhattan enjoyed a successful season. April proved to be the strongest month, during which the Jaspers won 18 of 21 contests.

The team also showed resilience several times by notching comeback victories, including back-

to-back late inning rallies at Delaware (March 8) and a nine-run, come-from-behind triumph at Army (April 8). Manhattan also picked up key nonconference wins over Brigham Young University (Feb. 21) and local Big East institution Seton Hall (March 18).

Along the journey, Manhattan rewrote the conference record book with team records in batting average (.349), hits (657) and doubles (130). The Jaspers’ high-octane offense also ranked in the top 25 nationally for batting average (5th at .349), scoring (12th at 9.1 runs per game), doubles (22nd at 2.45 per game) and slugging percentage (24th at .529). Individually, junior Kevin Nieto set the league record by scoring 72 runs and completed the season tied for first in Division I by averaging 1.57 runs per game. For his efforts, Nieto was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association All-America Third Team.

The Jaspers also shattered the program’s offensive records, notching all-time team highs in batting average (.349), runs scored (480), hits (657), RBIs (439), doubles (130) and home runs (61). In addition, six Jaspers exceeded the singleseason hits mark as sophomore Mike McCann led the way with 85, surpassing Matt Rizzotti who had 72 in 2005. McCann’s hit parade included a 21-game streak.

Eight Jaspers received All-MAAC recognition, a list highlighted by First Team recipients Gazzola, Nieto, McCann and junior Anthony Armenio. Senior co-captain Ruben Perez, along with sophomores Chad Salem, Mark Onorati and Sheffield were all named to the Second Team. Junior pitchers Tom Costigan and Tom Moran represented Manhattan on the MAAC All-Academic squad.

Kevin Nieto ’10

Women’s Lacrosse t h e w o Men ’s l a Cr o ss e t ea M made it to the MAAC Championships after a one-year hiatus and fell to Fairfield University in the semifinal.

The team finished strong and won its last three games of the season and four out of the last five on the way to an 11-win season, which tied for most wins in a season for Manhattan. It also was the most wins in a season during the five-year coaching tenure of head coach Jim Drivas.

One of the season’s highlights was the emergence of freshman Chrissy Gutenberger as one of the top players in the conference and in the region. Gutenberger, who was named MAAC Rookie of the Year, was also selected as the MAAC Rookie of the Week four times this season. She scored 65 regular season points on 51 goals and 14 assists and blew by the record for most points and goals in a season by a freshman.

In addition to Gutenberger’s Rookie of the Year Award and All-MAAC First Team honors, juniors Caralyn Hickey and Keri Morrison and freshman Breana Leonard were named to the All-MAAC Second Team.

The Lady Jaspers also received top performances during the season from sophomores Phelicia VanOverbeke (32 goals and 13 assists for 45 points) and Julia Lavelle (31 goals and 7 assists for 38 points). Lavelle was the conference’s co-leader with four game-winning goals.

In addition, nine players were among the 66 student-athletes on the 2009 MAAC Women’s Lacrosse All-Academic Team.

Chrissy Gutenberger ’12

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t h e Men ’s l a Cr o ss e t ea M earned its second straight MAAC Tournament berth in 2009, which marked the second time in program history that the Jaspers qualified for the postseason in consecutive years. In addition to securing the program’s sixth MAAC Tournament appearance, Manhattan finished above .500 for the first time since 2005 and only the fourth time in program history.

Playing a program-record 16 games during the regular season, Manhattan’s nine regular season wins were the second-most in program history, and the team went a perfect 4-0 on the road in MAAC play. The Jaspers won four of their last five games of the regular season and lost the fifth in overtime.

After an overtime loss to Canisius, Manhattan made back-to-back one-goal victories, 5-4 over Providence and 10-9 over Marist, in the last week of the season to earn the postseason bid.

After going 5-3 in conference play during the regular season, the Jaspers entered the MAAC Tournament as the No. 3 seed. In the semifinals, Manhattan knocked off Mount St. Mary’s by a 5-3 score to move into the MAAC Championship Game for the first time since 2004. Unfortunately, the team fell shy of the NCAA Tournament, as Siena claimed its first MAAC Championship with a 9-5 victory. Seniors John Geagan and Angelo Marrano, as well as sophomore Sal Perrotto, were selected for the MAAC AllTournament Team.

Junior James Synowiez joined Manhattan as a transfer from Onondaga Community College and was named MAAC Offensive Player of the Year after leading the conference in scoring. His 43 goals and 55 points were the second-highest single-season totals in Manhattan history. He was named MAAC Offensive Player of the Week on March 3 after scoring four goals in back-to-back games against Robert Morris University and University of Detroit, and had at least one point in every game.

Synowiez was named to the All-MAAC First Team, while Marrano was selected to the All-MAAC Second Team. Marrano led the Jaspers with 100 ground balls and won 55 percent of the face-offs that he took. He was named MAAC Defensive Player of the Week on April 20. Junior Steve Sternberg joined Marrano on the All-MAAC Second Team. He collected 51 ground balls and caused 28 turnovers, while often marking the opponent’s top offensive player.

Freshman goalkeeper Troy Orzech went 2-0 in three appearances and earned MAAC Rookie of the Week honors on March 3 after notching his first collegiate win against Detroit.

In addition to their success on the field, eight Jaspers were named to the MAAC All-Academic Team: Geagan; Perrotto; junior Daniel Buser; and sophomores Connor Dougherty, Mike Llewellyn, Justin Jensen, Chris Kaiser and Brett Miranda.

sports

Men’s Lacrosse

James synowiez ’10

Softball

Ashley rampino ’11

en jo ying a hist o r iC Ca MPa ign in 2009, Manhattan posted an 11-5 conference record, the best mark in program history, and earned a share of its first MAAC Regular Season Championship title with an extra-inning victory at Fairfield in the final game of the regular season. The team qualified for the MAAC Tournament for the first time in four seasons.

After dropping their first MAAC Tournament game to Canisius, the Lady Jaspers faced a win-or-go-home situation against fellow regular season co-champion Fairfield. After 16 innings and four and a half hours, Manhattan won the longest contest in MAAC history (and 15th-longest in NCAA history), by a score of 6-3. Sophomore Ashley Rampino pitched all 16 innings and threw more than 200 pitches in the marathon. The Lady Jaspers were eliminated by Niagara in their next game, but Rampino and sophomore center fielder Kristina Walraven, who had six hits in the Fairfield game, were named to the MAAC All-Tournament Team.

Starting with a doubleheader sweep at Columbia on April 16, Manhattan went 11-3 over the final 14 games of the regular season, including a seven-game winning streak from April 18-May 2. The winning streak featured a number of dramatic victories, including a walk-off home run by sophomore Melissa Donnelly against Marist on April 17. The next day, Donnelly hit another game-winning homer to beat Siena. Rampino had six RBIs, including the game-winning grand slam, and earned the save in a come-from-behind 8-5 win at Iona.

Rampino was named MAAC Player of the Week for her effort against Iona. Walraven took home MAAC Player of the Week honors on April 6 after collecting six hits and four RBIs in a doubleheader sweep at Niagara (April 5). Sophomore Erika Sullivan claimed MAAC Pitcher of the Week honors in back-to-back weeks on April 20 and 27. She earned both wins in a doubleheader sweep of Siena (April 16) and tossed a three-hit shutout against Saint Peter’s (April 24).

Rampino, Walraven and Donnelly were selected to the All-MAAC First Team. Rampino was chosen as a designated player after belting five home runs and leading the team with 28 RBIs. She also led the pitching staff with eight wins.

Walraven, the Lady Jaspers’ center fielder and leadoff hitter, had a team-best .359 batting average and led the squad with 52 hits and 27 runs scored. Donnelly, the only Manhattan player to start all 47 games, was selected to the team as a utility player. She made starts at pitcher, second base and shortstop, and tied for the team lead with five home runs. Donnelly led the Lady Jaspers with eight doubles and recorded seven wins in the circle. Head coach Meaghan Asselta was also recognized by the conference and earned MAAC Coach of the Year honors.

A league-high seven Jaspers were selected to the MAAC All-Academic Team. Walraven and Sullivan were joined by seniors Devon Gustafson and Danielle Just, and sophomores Melissa Cascio, Gianna Cirilli and Kaitlin Rodriguez. manhattan.edu

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outdoor track and Field it w a s Co l D. It was rainy. But that did little to stop the Manhattan men’s and women’s track and field teams from winning again at the MAAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

The Jasper men’s team dominated its conference competitors and topped the next closest opponents, Rider University and Saint Peter’s College, by 106 points. The women found the competition a bit closer but also won another championship and topped second-place Rider by a score of 215 to 207.5.

It was the 12th consecutive win for the men’s team; the women’s team has only failed to win twice in the past 12 years. And for Manhattan track and field head coach Dan Mecca, it was his 51st MAAC Championship (men’s, women’s, indoor, outdoor and cross country) in the past 12 years.

On the women’s side at the MAAC Championships, sophomore Siri Fagerlund was the star of the meet and grabbed a total of five gold medals on a day that found Manhattan’s female sprinters and jumpers providing most of the points that led the team to victory. On the men’s side, the star was freshman Albert Johnson III, who collected four gold medals during a weekend that found the men gaining many points in the sprints, middle distances, jumps and throws.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an outdoor season during the past few years without senior Milan Jotanovic dominating his competitors in the shot put. He again won the MAAC and went on to win the gold medal at the IC4A Outdoor Championships with a throw of 19.44 meters. He concluded his collegiate career by earning his fifth NCAA All-American honor at the 2009 NCAA Track and Field Outdoor National Championships held in Fayetteville, Ark. Jotanovic finished in fourth place at the NCAA with a throw of 19.28.

Earlier in the spring, he won the shot put event at the prestigious Penn Relays and on May 5 set the school record in the shot with a toss of 20.07 at the Broadmead Invitational held at Princeton University.

“Milan has earned more individual All-American honors than almost any other athlete in the history of track and field at Manhattan, except for eight-time All-American Jake Freeman,” Mecca says.

Also excelling in the spring season was junior Seid Mujanovic, who made it to the finals of the hammer throws at the NCAA, was the hammer throw champ at the MAAC and took a silver medal at the IC4A. Making a huge name for himself during the spring was Johnson (known as AJ), who, in

siri Fagerlund ’11

addition to his stellar performance at the MAAC, took two gold medals in as many days at the IC4A Outdoor Track and Field Championships and led the Jasper men’s track and field team to a fourth-place overall finish. On the first day of the meet, he took gold in the long jump and on the second day, earned the triple jump championship with a leap of 15.86 meters, which proved to

increase his NCAA qualifying and USA Junior qualifying marks.

Johnson participated in the 2009 USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the University of Oregon in late spring and qualified for the USA Junior National Team in the triple jump with a second-place finish on the final day of competition.

He grabbed the silver medal with a jump of 15.65.

Golf j Un io r n iCh o l a s l a Ba n Ca was the standout for the Jasper linksmen at the MAAC Golf Championships and finished fifth overall with a three-round total of 226 at the Celebration Country Club in Florida. The team ranked as high as sixth during the tournament but ended by placing ninth at the event.

In addition to LaBanca, sophomore Matt Baney tied for 22nd overall with a three-round score of 235. Freshman Robert Kehoe tied for 39th with a score of 246, while fellow freshman Chris Critelli tied for 41st with a score of 248. Sophomore Thomas Romano tied for 45th overall with 253.

During the regular season, the dual match against Saint Peter’s on April 7 proved to be a good one.

The Jaspers posted a combined score of 297, which shattered the Manhattan dual-match team scoring record. The previous record of 304 was set last year versus Yeshiva at Glenwood Country Club in Old Bridge, N.J. Another highlight of the year: the team shot a two-round total of 638 and finished eighth at the two-day Hawk Invitational in Lakewood, N.J. Romano had the lowest two-round score at the tournament, shooting 155 (79-76). On the second day, the Jaspers’ team round of 310 was one of the lowest team rounds in a tournament in the past three years.

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Nicholas LaBanca ’10

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advancement

Xerox Chairman Will Be Honored at the 2010 De La Salle Medal Dinner anne mulcahy

An n e M. Mu l c Ah y, chairman of Xerox Corporation, will receive the 2010 De La Salle Medal at Manhattan College’s annual dinner on Wednesday, Jan. 20 at The Waldorf=Astoria.

The De La Salle Medal Dinner honors executives and corporations who exemplify the principles of excellence, corporate leadership and service to society. Former honorees include: John Magliano ’66, chairman emeritus, Syska Hennessy Group, Inc.; 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; Rudolph Giuliani ’65, former mayor of the City of New York; and Eugene McGrath ’63, former chairman and chief executive officer, Con Edison.

From August 2001 through June 2009, Mulcahy was chief executive officer of the corporation. She retired from the CEO post as of July 1 but retains the position of chairman.

Prior to serving as CEO, Mulcahy was president and chief operating officer of Xerox from May 2000 through July 2001. She has also served as president of Xerox’s General Markets Operations, which created and sold products for reseller, dealer and retail channels.

She began her Xerox career as a field sales representative in 1976 and took on increasingly

responsible sales and senior management positions. From 1992 through 1995, Mulcahy was vice president for human resources and responsible for compensation, benefits, human resource strategy, labor relations, management development and employee training.

In 1997, she became chief staff officer and in 1998, corporate senior vice president. Prior to that, she served as vice president and staff officer for customer operations and covered South America and Central America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and China.

Mulcahy earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and journalism from Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y. In addition to the Xerox board, she is a board director of Catalyst, Citigroup Inc., Fuji Xerox Company, Ltd., Target Corporation, and The Washington Post Company.

Proceeds from the dinner provide discretionary resources for the College and are applied to a wide variety of needs. For more information about this event and how you or your company can participate, please call Susan Bronson, director of corporate and foundation relations, at (718) 862-7837 or e-mail susan.bronson@manhattan.edu.

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FSAC Celebrates Dean Suarez Dr . JAMes M . suAr ez , former dean of the school of business, was the guest speaker at the seventh annual Financial Services Advisory Council (FSAC) reception, held at the New York Yacht Club in May. The Council, which exists to serve as a resource for Manhattan alumni in the financial services field, offers a networking forum for its members and provides opportunities for deserving students through its mentoring program.

Members turned out in force to hear Suarez, who proved to be an energetic lecturer. With a flip chart and markers, just as if he were in the classroom, he encouraged a lively debate; stating his views and reacting to disagreement with thoughtful remarks and questions.

After the lecture, James A. Kosch ’77, Esq., spoke passionately about the FSAC’s leadership role in the Col-

lege’s mentoring program, which pairs the program by announcing the status of the project: members already students with alumni. The students have committed more than $1 million and business professionals develop to the endowed chair. Brooks’ next one-on-one relationships that allow the alumni mentors to advise students announcement culminated the evening’s celebration: the post is to be on appropriate next steps as they plan named the James M. Suarez Endowed their careers.

Chair in the School of Business.

To a large extent, the evening was “The impact that Dean Suarez had a celebration of the contributions of on the Manhattan College school of Suarez during his quarter-century business during his 18-year tenure was at Manhattan College. During his 18 monumental,” said Brooks, who was years as dean, he guided the school appreciative of Suarez’s contributions. of business to accreditation by the AACSB International – The Association “He guided the school to full accreditation while simultaneously continuing to Advance Collegiate Schools of Busithe focus on Lasallian principles. His ness in 2004 and oversaw reaccreditation last year. Previously, he served the students admired and respected him, College as an economics professor and and it is totally fitting that the endowed chair be named in his honor.” chair of the economics department.

Anyone interested in supporting His career includes experience as dithe James M. Suarez Endowed Chair in rector of economics and fiscal analysis the school of business should contact for the New York City Finance DepartStephen White, director of development, professor at CUNY’s Hunter ment, at (718) 862-7548 or via e-mail at College, research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and stephen.white@manhattan.edu. supervising economist at AT&T. During the Sesquicentennial Capital Campaign, the FSAC initiated a drive to fund a $1.5 million endowed chair at the school of business, and members of the council have been working toward that goal. Kevin Brooks ’66, chair of the FSAC, closed

Kevin Brooks ’66 (right), chair of the Financial Services advisory council, introduced dr. James Suarez, former dean of the school of business, at the reception at the new York Yacht club.

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advancement John J. Witmer Jr. ’42

Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Legacy Jo h n J. Wit Mer J r . ’42 was an ordinary man. An engineer with an adequate résumé, a churchgoer who loved puzzles, reading, dancing and going out to eat, Witmer was like many others, he didn’t particularly stand out. Yet, this ordinary man left a remarkable legacy: a $2.3 million bequest. “[John Witmer] was down-to-earth, ordinary, true to his word, a simple man who did simple things, which amounted to great deeds,” says Witmer’s good friend and executor Jerry Steele.

Born of German immigrant parents on Sept. 27, 1920 in Paterson, N.J., Witmer was an only child whose parents made sure he had a Catholic education from grade school and up. For a young man with a Catholic background and an interest in engineering, Manhattan College was the obvious choice. Outside of class, Witmer was involved in engineering and religious clubs, such as the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Knights of the Divine Child and the Newton Math Society.

He ended up graduating a year later because he contracted tuberculosis in his sophomore year. According to Steele, Witmer often said the Brothers were very kind to him during this time and reinstated him as a student when he fully recovered.

Witmer’s nearly 50-year engineering career took him to five companies in four states. He ended up in Plano, Texas,

Please note the following correction to the 2009 Honor Roll of Donors: Frances Broderick, Raymond Broderick, James G. Houlihan ’47, and James J. Houlihan should have been listed in the Chairman’s Circle ($25,000+). We apologize for these errors.

Fall09ManAdvance-SHIP.indd 3

but being so far away from Riverdale didn’t stop him from keeping tabs on his beloved Jaspers. He followed the athletic teams’ successes and often called the College to get the latest updates.

“I heard about Manhattan College all the time,” Steele says. “The college meant a great deal to him.”

Witmer’s first planned gift to Manhattan was the establishment of a scholarship in his parents’ names, the John and Anna Witmer Scholarship, which benefits students of Catholic high schools from Northern New Jersey who attend the College.

“He deeply appreciated the thank-you letters students sent him,” says Mary Ellen Malone, director of planned giving for the College.

Realizing he could do more, he arranged to leave Manhattan a bequest. When Witmer passed away in September 2008 after a brief illness, his extremely generous bequest was already established. He more extensively funded the John and Anna Witmer Scholarship and left the remainder to enhance the College’s building fund.

“Generations of students will be impacted by Mr. Witmer’s generosity — students who will receive help in paying for college and students who will benefit from the improved infrastructure his gift provides,” Malone says.

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Fund for Manhattan Stays the Course o n sept . 15, 2008, still early in the 2008-2009 technology upgrades — all these essential academic year, Lehman Brothers failed, a signal aspects of college life are not fully covered by event that made the global recession immedituition, yet it would be unthinkable to deny stuate and concrete, and the news that followed dents these important formative experiences. week after week was filled with even more So it was really very gratifying to see that our tremors. Recession had come to New York, and alumni and friends recognized how important the economic downturn has not been easily it was to continue to support the College.” shaken in the intervening time.

According to Muskopf, the donor rolls Even so, Manhattan alumni and friends actually expanded during the academic year, pulled together to support the Fund for Maneven while the economy was contracting. hattan in a trying season — and they did so in And though some people had to give less a very big way. than they had the year before, they still gave.

“The Fund for Manhattan makes a ManhatAmong one of the groups that expanded its tan College education the expansive experigiving was the College’s senior class. Forty-two ence it is,” says Kathleen Muskopf, director of percent of the class of 2009 gave a senior gift the annual fund.

— a nine percent rise over the previous year — “Cocurricular clubs and activities, pre-profesand the size of the gift doubled, as well. sional programs, campus ministry programs, “In a very real way, these students were

expressing their satisfaction with their education, and they were giving back to the students that follow them,” Muskopf says.

Unfortunately, the economic forecast isn’t clear yet.

“While we are encouraged by the supportive spirit that animates Manhattan alumni and friends, we also have to be realistic about the economic challenge many of our constituents face,” she says. “We are cautiously optimistic about a quick economic turnaround and hope this will be a less difficult year for those whose support we count on.”

To that end, the entire advancement team is constantly working to provide a giving program that fits the philanthropic needs of its alumni and friends through the Fund for Manhattan, major gifts, planned giving and events.

Yo u r Fu n d Fo r MAn h ATTAn d o l l Ar S AT Wo r k Academic Excellence

With an emphasis on enhancement of teaching and learning resources

Spirituality & Social Action

Empowering students to learn and serve others and embrace the Lasallian Catholic tradition

Scholarships & Financial Aid

To ensure diversity, excellence and educational opportunity access

Mentoring & Career Services

To secure self-sufficiency and independence

Current Technology

Commitment to provide state-of-the-art tools and experiences

Athletics

School spirit and pride flow from strong and competitive interscholastic programs

Student Activities

Essential for personal growth and for exposure to resources in New York City and the metro area

The Campus

Providing a welcoming, safe, well-cared-for learning and living environment

METh o dS o F Giv in G Gifts by c heck & c redit/Debit c ard: Please make checks payable to Manhattan College.

Online or by mail, we also accept contributions made via Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.

Monthly Giving: Consider a monthly gift by joining the Cornerstone Guild. For more information, contact the office of advancement.

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pledges: Gifts may be pledged and spread over several months. Pledge payments also can be made with a credit/debit card.

Gifts of s ecurities: A gift of appreciated stock may provide you with special tax advantages.

To arrange this type of gift, please contact the College’s office of advancement.

Matching Gifts: Many companies match gifts

made by current and retired employees. Inquire at your and/or your spouse’s company personnel or human resources office for forms. h onor and Memorial Gifts: Make your gift in honor of or in memory of a loved one in your family or a special member of the Manhattan College community.

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12/1/09 2:29:57 PM

alumni

Reunion Weekend Mo r e t ha n 4 00 Ja s per s arrived on campus for Reunion Weekend 2009, held June 5-7. Manhattan College welcomed home alumni from classes spanning the past 65 years to celebrate the 140th alumni event.

Members of the class of 1984, celebrating their silver anniversary, danced the night away at the dinner dance in Smith Auditorium following an awards reception in their honor on Friday night. Young alumni partygoers from the past 10 years gathered at the same time at the Bar at Gaelic Park, while the 50th anniversary class enjoyed a cruise around New York City.

An Arthur Avenue tasting tour, wine tasting and cabaret performance by the Manhattan College Players highlighted Saturday’s events, followed by Mass, which celebrated the silver and golden anniversary classes, and the evening’s clambake. Jaspers were offered one last chance to get together during a tour and lunch at the New York Botanical Garden on Sunday.

Jim Connors ’59 enjoyed his 50th anniversary reunion so much that he detailed his experience in his local newspaper. He praised the weekend’s activities and the organization of the events.

“Manhattan College had done themselves proud,” he wrote. “It created a true feel-good reaction for both my wife and I. It reaffirmed our belief that we had chosen the right school and would have no problem in referring our alma mater to future generations.”

Please save the date for next year’s reunion, June 4-6, 2010. The weekend will feature many of the same events with some surprises for the classes ending in 5 or 0. If you would like to join your class committee, please call the alumni relations office at (718) 862-7977 or e-mail alumni@ manhattan.edu.

(Clockwise from top left): a Jasper from the class of 1959 enjoys Saturday evening’s clambake. Young alums gathered at the Bar at Gaelic Park for a special party for graduates from the past 10 years. The silver jubilarians assemble for their reunion class photo on the steps inside Smith auditorium.

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In MeMo r Ia M

Manhattan College records with sorrow the deaths of the following alumni:

1931 Charles A. O’Connor Jr., 3/1/09 1932 Stephen LaPorte, 7/15/09 1937 James Kirwan, 7/10/09 1938 S. Philip Gandolfo, 2/15/09 John J. McCartney, 8/22/09 Francis V. Wagner, 4/15/09 1939 Charles E. St. Onge, 7/26/09 1940 Maurice J. Cleary, 9/14/09 John Foley, 9/7/09 Fred J. Leuper, 4/25/09 Joseph John Micceri, 5/14/09 Lloyd J. Nolan, 9/25/09 Robert Pucci, 6/30/09 1941 Guster Chagaris, 2/14/09 1942 Juan J. del Castillo, 7/26/09 Sen. John Marchi, 4/25/09 John Matthew Vasta, 10/23/08 1943 Robert J. Pryor, 9/17/09 Chester A. Zdrodowski, 3/24/09 1944 Richard P. Lesko, 5/15/09 1945 James J. Dervin, 1/2/09 Gerald Donohue, 7/10/09 1948 Kevin P. O’Brien, 5/24/09 William L. Vesce, 5/10/09

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1949 Peter J. Dolan, 8/14/09 Christopher Foley, 4/27/09 John M. O’Rourke, 10/18/08 Joseph F. Spades, 7/24/09 Sr. Miriam Dolores Veale, 7/18/09 1950 Thomas M. Comerford, 7/5/09 William J. Ferrary, 12/18/08 William Gerard Gregg, 3/29/09 Randolph Shields, 5/19/09 1951 Victor A. Cocozziello, 5/28/09 Lawrence Gannon, 7/20/09 Francis X. Geissler, 6/18/09 Mario V. Morreale, 5/15/09 Terrence Patrick O’Brien, 8/8/09 Nicholas Joseph Zauner, 6/2/09 1952 Kenneth D. Casey, 8/5/09 Jerry Crispino, 3/20/09 Daniel Garvey, 12/7/08 Raymond Pickett, 7/31/09 1953 Daniel Joseph Moylan, 5/19/09 John O’Leary, 8/3/09 Peter Michael Palermo, 5/20/09 James T. St. John, 9/24/09 1954 John Herman DeJong, 5/25/09 Jack Foley, 9/14/09 Frederick A. Hamm, 4/20/09 John F. McKenna, 8/19/09 1955 Joseph William Felock Jr., 3/23/09 George C. Schmidt, 4/13/09

1957 William J. Duane Jr., 5/6/09 Albert J. Murphy, 7/13/09 1958 Samuel J. Greene, 4/13/09 Placido A. Milone, 8/27/09 1959 Daniel M. Hahn, 4/17/09 1960 Edward J. Mahoney, 7/18/09 1961 John Patrick Curry, 5/27/09 Terrence J. Fitzsimons, 5/15/09 Richard C. Shea, 7/20/09 1962 Barry Michael Berger, 4/2/09 Anthony Mauro, 1/30/08 1963 John J. Bart, 8/18/09 1964 Gerald J. Golinski, 7/9/09 Stephen J. Kerins, 6/21/09 James W. O’Callaghan, 5/8/09 1965 George C. Schmidt, 4/13/09 1967 Kenneth R. Smith, 5/4/09 1968 Br. Daniel T. Goeddeke, 7/25/09 Thomas Killip, 8/1/09 Sr. Mary James Morgan, 5/2/09 Arthur C. Sandiford, 5/9/09 Frederick P. Szostek, 7/1/09 1969 Sr. Mary Loretta Conroy, 8/30/09 William B. James II, 8/21/09

Sr. Regina Johnson, 8/2/09 Bob Sorbello, 7/15/09 1970 Alice Cross, 5/20/09 Robert Pflug, 4/24/09 Vincent J. Zuzzolo, 12/17/08 1971 John G. Bierfeldt, 4/4/09 Fr. Thomas M. Mulvanerty, 4/2/09 1972 Edward V. Price, 11/26/08 1973 Sr. Virginia Bertschi, 9/25/09 1974 James F. Dunne, 3/25/09 1979 John Del Bene, 5/15/09 John J. Finnerty III, 7/30/09 Veronica Provenzano, 9/7/09 1981 Joseph M. Cowell Jr., 4/26/09 Kenneth Michael Petrow, 6/25/09 1983 Mike Rush, 4/10/09 1986 Mason Grey Levine, 7/25/09 1996 Jennifer Dugan, 4/11/09

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alumni

a LUMno TeS 1941 a ndy n eidnig, a two-time New York Road Runners Club golden age award winner and Manhattan College Hall of Famer, who has run in 30 marathons, celebrated his 90th birthday on July 3.

1949 a ndrew Barone was the Orange County honoree at the Senior Citizen’s Month Reception Honoring Outstanding Older New Yorkers held at the Governor’s Mansion on Senior Citizens’ Day 2009.

He was awarded a proclamation from the New York State Office for the Aging. r ay r adzivila, a three-year varsity swimmer at Manhattan College and captain of the squad in 1949, participated in the 2009 Empire State Senior Games in Cortland, N.Y., on June 3. He won four events in the 85-89 age group, including the breaststroke for distances of 50, 100 and 200 yards, and the 100-yard individual medley.

1951 Hon. John Keenan has served as a federal court judge for more than 25 years. He was appointed to the bench in 1983 by former president Ronald Reagan and gained senior status in 1996. He currently serves as the United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. On April 21, he was a guest speaker for the St. Thomas More Lecture on Manhattan’s campus.

1954 Mary Ellen McDonnell O’Connor, the wife of Thomas o ’Connor for 51 years, passed away on Jan. 29, 2009. Besides her husband, she is survived by four children and seven grandchildren.

1956 David Wixted, a retired teacher, was one of three recipients of the 2009 Newport Daily News Community Service Award. Since his move to Newport, R.I., 10 years ago, Wixted has been an active voice in the community, from campaigning for a bond issue to rebuild a local middle school, to volunteering at a reading program for children. eugene Sweeney, M.D., associate clinical professor of dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center, was elected Teacher of the Year for 2008-09 by the residents.

1957 George Delaney was co-chairman of the 2009 Father’s Day Council in Westchester County, N.Y., a group that hosts the annual Father of the Year Awards Dinner, which benefits the American Diabetes Association.

1960 William Flynn recently retired from his position as managing director of the National Council for Continuing Education and Training.

1961 Joseph Jevcak is manager of IT security at the Department of Homeland Security Headquarters.

He built the first OTH radar in the South Pacific, which is the longest-distance radar in the world, and also built the first defense system in the country of Oman.

1964 r ichard Claps, M.D., who has been a practicing physician in Morris County, N.J., since 1983, is board certified in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine, and works as an attending physician

at St. Clare’s Health Systems, Denville and Dover. He was recently appointed the 166th president of the Morris County Medical Society.

1967 Lt. Col. r hoderick Holliday celebrated 36 years of marriage to his wife, Patricia, who is an elementary school principal in South Brunswick, N.J. He is retired from the Jersey City school system, for which he was the AFJROTC department head at Dickinson High School.

Thomas n ipper’s daughter Karen is an ophthalmologist and oculoplastic surgeon.

Stephen Laruccia, Ph.D., director of principal gifts at Manhattan College, is listed in the 2010 editions of Who’s Who in the World and Who’s Who in America.

1968 David Fleury was appointed to

the Forestport Planning Board.

He and his wife, Ingrid, have lived in Forestport, N.Y., since 2003.

James Malone, the former vice president, nuclear fuels, for Exelon Generation, was appointed to the nuclear fuels advisory board of IBC Advanced Alloys, a company that manufactures and distributes beryllium-based alloys and related products to industries that include nuclear energy, automotive, telecommunications and various industrial applications. r obert Kenny, CPA, was elected president of the Mercer Chapter of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants for a one-year term that began on June 1.

James r ispoli was selected as the 2009 recipient of the Presidents’ Award given by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Peter Dans ’57 a n ew b o o k by Peter Dans ’57, Christians in the Movies: A Century of Saints and Sinners, examines the shift in how Christians are portrayed in the cinema, from virtuous in the first half of the 20th century to the mocked and villainous characters that have marked the 1970s and later. Dans also has written Life on the Lower East Side (2006), Doctors in the Movies (2000) and the children’s book Perry’s Baltimore Adventure (2003). He is a retired professor from Johns Hopkins Medical School, a former member of Manhattan’s Arts, Education and Science Consultors Board, and funds the College’s Colette Dans Memorial Scholarship, named for his wife. Manhattan awarded Dans an honorary Doctor of Science at the 2003 Fall Honors Convocation.

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a LUMno TeS Ma r r IaGeS

1980 Susan Moore & Kevin Moore, 10/12/08 1986 Lisa Hirsch & Kevin Mulligan, 5/22/09 2003 Christine Hilla & Michael Savino, 4/25/09 2004 Shannon Stevens & r ichard r inelli ’06, 8/22/09 2005 Samantha (Sabatos) Fogliano & Michael Fogliano ’04, 5/2/09

BIr THS

1985 Jessica Greaney & Kevin Greaney son Harrison Edward Greaney, 6/24/09 1989 Marya nn McCarra-Fitzpatrick & Mark Fitzpatrick son Brendan Walsh Fitzpatrick, 4/20/09 1996 Kristin Momrow Darby & Brian Darby sons Brian Liam and Owen Patrick, 6/24/09 2000 Laura (r ienti) Bisceglia & Kevin Bisceglia ’01 son Patrick Joseph Rienti Bisceglia, 4/6/09

a Dva n CeD DeGr eeS

1968 r obert Padian received a master’s degree in liberal arts in mathematics for teaching from Harvard University this past June. He now teaches algebra at Hesser College in Manchester, N.H. 1972 Dr. r ichard Pesce, intensive care specialist at Memorial Hospital, received a master’s degree in bioethics from Alden March Bioethics Institute of Albany Medical College in Albany, N.Y. 1974 Lt. Col. Joe Bassi completed his Ph.D. in history of science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

1994 Kerry Lynn McCole graduated from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, N.J., with a Doctor of Physical Therapy. She currently works as a physical therapy supervisor at the Early Intervention Center of St. Vincent’s Hospital.

2006 George Finn Jr. completed his juris doctorate from Touro Law School in New York.

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Retired Navy Captain Hugh McCullom received the Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his organized efficiency, management skills and leadership as deputy director of Navy Networks, for which he was part of the staff of the deputy chief of naval operations.

1969 After 38 years at ExxonMobil, John Wilkinson has retired. He is currently working on a new project that involves a major drilling program on the North Slope of Alaska.

Thomas r owley, CEO of Truviso Inc., a data analytics company based in California, specializes in building startup technology companies. For nearly 30 years, he has helped to launch a dozen startups.

John Loase expects his eighth book, The Sigfluence Generation — Our Young People’s Potential to Transform America, to be published in 2010. He is chair and professor of mathematics at Concordia College in New York and coined the term sigfluence 25 years ago to define significant, longterm positive influence.

1971 After 30 years of service in the FBI, Mark Codd has retired from his government position. He is now chief security officer for Siemens Corporation in New York City.

Burton r yan delivered the lecture Life as a Prosecutor: A Career in Public Service at an event sponsored by the Thomas More Law Society on Manhattan’s campus this past March. He has worked as a prosecutor on the local, state and federal levels for more than 30 years and also is an adjunct professor at St. John’s University Law School, where he teaches trial advocacy.

1972 Kenneth Wiegand, senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, recently completed his 25th year with the firm.

After leading its national security business, he has now been asked to build its systems engineering and integration business.

The March Group, a leading private mergers and acquisitions firm with a specialty in the sale of middle-market businesses, announced that Daniel

Parrett will be senior managing director of capital markets at its newly opened U.S. Eastern Regional office in Connecticut.

1973 Since 1988, John o ’Brien has served as dean of New England Law Boston.

In this position, he has raised the school’s profile and attracted visits from Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.

Kevin Campbell, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Iowa and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, was a co-recipient of the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology for identifying genetic and molecular causes of muscular dystrophies.

The biopharmaceutical company XenoPort appointed Dennis Fenton, Ph.D., to its board of directors. Fenton has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields, including more than 25 years at Amgen Inc., a biotechnology company.

1974 Steven Fangmann, P.E., the executive vice president at Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers headquartered on Long Island, has more than 32 years of experience in planning, design and management of public works projects.

1975 Trustees of Montgomery Academy, a special education school in Gladstone, N.J., voted unanimously to appoint Thomas Costabile to its board.

Sister r osemarie Greco, administrator of Wisdom House Retreat and Conference Center, led a sunrise labyrinth walk to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Wisdom this past June.

Daniel Leone was appointed vice president of business development for Laureate Pharma, a full-service biopharmaceutical development and protein production company.

Mark Brown, M.D., joined the staff of the Pittsburgh-based Foundation Radiology Group, the premier provider of diagnostic imaging professional services.

Dave Delany has been promoted from senior electrical engineer to associate at FreemanWhite, an

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Worldwide Holdings, Inc., an air cargo carrier in Purchase, N.Y. Joe r eilly was named vice president of Reality Check Program in Brevard, Fla. Shaun Coyne is the chief information officer for State Compensation Insurance Fund, California’s largest provider of workers’ compensation insurance and a vital asset to the state’s businesses.

1980 Mark Pfaff was elected executive vice president by the board of directors of New York Life, the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States. In this position, Pfaff oversees U.S. Life Insurance and Agency, which includes the company’s life insurance manufacturing, marketing and career agency distribution.

James Coleman has worked in the commercial real estate business since 1982. In June 1990, he became vice president of Houlihan-Parnes Realtors, Inc. He also is a partner in Metro Property Group LLC, a full service management company affiliated with HoulihanParnes. He serves on the board of

governors of the Bronx-Manhattan Board of Realtors.

Br. Jack Curran is vice president for development at Bethlehem University in the Holy Land. He gave a talk Education Under Occupation at the Albany Public Library in Albany, N.Y., on July 13.

1981 Carl Williams, who works as lead engineer in distributed generation services for National Grid, was recently appointed to a oneyear term on the Baldwin Board of Education in Baldwin, N.Y. 1982 Rev. r obert Kinnally was appointed vocation director for the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn.

1984 Michael Burton joined LiRo Group as senior vice president and national operations manager.

LiRo Group, which is based in New York, is an architectural, engineering, program management and construction management corporation.

William Motherway is vice president on the Kings Park School Board of Education in Long Island.

1985 David n aranjo, who works at Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, has more than 15 years of experience in the consumer and commercial electronics industry.

Geri Gregor is partner-in-charge of Grassi Consulting, the business advisory and consulting practice of Grassi & Co., CPAs, which has offices in Long Island, New York City and North Carolina. She is the first woman partner to join the group.

Chris Keaveney, an associate professor of Japanese at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., was recently honored as the Edith Green Distinguished Professor.

This award recognizes a senior faculty member who shows sustained excellence in the classroom and stimulates the growth and academic success of his students.

Br. Thomas Zoppo, F.S.C., recently became president of Calvert Hall College High School, a private Catholic preparatory school for boys in Maryland.

1986 Distance runner Tommy Downes, the track and field coach at

alumni

architectural, engineering, interior design and consulting services firm in North Carolina.

1976 Mark Phelan is managing principal in the Columbus, Ohio, office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker Co., a commercial real estate brokerage firm.

1977 Joseph Grabowski has joined McGuire Sponsel, a specialty tax group, as a marketing manager in the Dallas area.

1978 a lbert St. Jacques Jr. has been married for 28 years. He has four children: three boys aged 21, 16 and 10, and a daughter who is seven years old. He has worked at UBS Financial Services Inc. for 10 years and is currently director of options strategy and trading.

Dr. Joe Webb discussed the topic Entrepreneurs Welcome: Opportunities in the New Printing Industry at the WhatTheyThink educational event at the Print/Graph Expo on Sept. 14 in Chicago.

1979 edward McGarvey is vice president and treasurer of Atlas Air

Jasper Open n ea r l y 150 go l f er s participated in this year’s 21st annual Jasper Open Golf Tournament held on May 4, 2009 at the Knollwood Country Club in Elmsford, N.Y. The outing, which draws support from alumni, family, business partners and friends, raised more than $100,000 for the College’s annual fund and athletic programs. Despite lessthan-desirable weather conditions, it continued to be an enjoyable affair. The evening’s dinner also included a special celebration of former President Brother Thomas Scanlan’s participation in the event throughout his tenure.

Each year, the alumni office asks for volunteers to serve as committee members who recruit sponsors and golfers. The 2010 Jasper Open will be held on Monday, May 3, at the Knollwood Country Club. For more information on how to participate, support or attend the event, call the alumni relations office at (718) 862-7454 or e-mail alumni@ manhattan.edu.

P. Joseph Corless ’59, Robert Semple ’59, George Fisher ’74 and michael Bette ’59 team up at the Jasper Open in may.

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a LUMno TeS County Prep in Jersey City, N.J., was one of 19 honorees inducted into the Hudson County Sports Hall of Fame.

Sean Healy is the owner of Donoghue, Healy & O’Sullivan Travel Agency on Katonah Avenue in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx.

1987 Lawyer Kara Conway Love was honored for her professional achievements and community service in June with the 2009 Women of Excellence Award from the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce.

James Keelan was recently honored with the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service for his work as team leader in support equipment for the F-35 program at the Naval Air Engineering Station in Lakehurst, N.J., from 2003-2008.

Currently, he works as the participating acquisition resource manager and coordinates equipment for aircraft launch and recovery systems on new-construction Navy ships.

Joseph Heaney III, P.E., is principal at Walden Associates, an environmental engineering firm with offices in Long Island, N.Y. Steven r igolosi’s third mystery book Androgynous Murder House Party has been published.

1988 Best Textiles named Paul Tantillo as senior vice president, operations and customer service. In this position, he oversees warehousing, logistics, as well as customer service.

1989 Hon. Liliana Dea vila-Silebi is judge of the superior court of New Jersey. She has two sons, 12-year-old George and 5-yearold Christopher.

Karen Soika, who recently graduated from medical school, started her residency in general surgery at Lenox Hill HospitalNYU this past July.

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1992 Colleen Tracy has been named managing partner at Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto, a premier intellectual property law firm. r uss Williams, a former basketball player for Manhattan College who currently works for Jostens Inc., paid $1,200 of his own money to make championship rings for the 10-year-old boys on the CYO basketball team at Vincent Ferrer School in Brooklyn, N.Y. He took action after reading in the New York Daily News that they had been disqualified from the season playoffs because team officials failed to file the correct paperwork, even though the team finished the season with a 10-0 record.

William Tobin, radiology director at East Texas Medical Center, celebrates his 25th wedding anniversary to his wife, Stephanie, this year. They have two children: Will, 19, and Melissa, 17.

1993 Michele Walsh has been promoted to vice president in group shared services in the markets group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

1994 r ichard n ewman joined the intellectual property group of Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC this past April. He practices from the firm’s Las Vegas office. r ichard Zapolski, P.E., is senior project manager and site engineering team leader at P.W. Grosser Consulting in Bohemia, N.Y. Kevin McKenna was promoted to managing director, sales trading, in the New York office of financial firm FBR Capital Markets.

Brett van Zandt is acting director of the effort to bring a botanical garden to Saratoga Spa State Park as part of the master plan that is currently being designed for the park’s future.

1997 John Wiley and Sons Ltd. has published the new book Fluid

Flow for the Practicing Chemical Engineer by Drs. J. Patrick a bulencia, assistant professor of chemical engineering, and Louis Theodore, professor of chemical engineering, at the College.

1999 West Virginia professor Chris Coyne published Media, Development and Institutional Change, a book about the media’s critical role in institutional change and economic development.

2000 Sen. Jeffrey Klein recently chose outstanding educator r oseann Pignatelli Carotenuto to be honored at the New York State Senate’s annual Women of Distinction Awards and Ceremony.

In May, Lt. n athan Strang returned from a seven-month deployment with Navy Patrol Squadron FOUR to Ali Air Base in Iraq, where he flew combat missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He currently lives in Kapolei, Hawaii, with his wife, Katherine (Foster), and their two children, William (3) and Patricia (1).

2004 Michael Dea ngelis, who works for McLaren Engineering in West Nyack, N.Y., has become a fully licensed professional engineer.

Stephen Perrotta announced his engagement to Katherine Assante. A July 2010 wedding is planned. a lexandra Skuthan was hired as a social studies teacher for Hillside Avenue School in New Jersey.

2005 Drew Berweger graduated from law school at Syracuse University in 2008 and now practices intellectual property law for a firm in Garden City, N.Y. 2006 Mary Beth Kolakowski, a fifth grade teacher at Maria Regina School in Seaford, N.Y., and Chris Pietrangelo, a product engineer for Turner Construction in Hawthorne, N.Y., are engaged. They plan to wed in February 2010.

2007 Brady Fox, who works in the Foreign Exchange Department at Credit Suisse in New York City, announced his engagement to Jessica Cates, who is employed in human resources at Bayer HealthCare in Montville, N.J. 2008 Genevieve o ’r eilly represented New Jersey in the Rose of Tralee Festival in Ireland this past August. During the festival, she competed with 49 other contestants for the title of 2009 Rose of Tralee in a competition that selects a winner based on personality and social awareness.

2009 emily Plante was hired as a customer service representative at Alliance Relocations Services, a third-party service provider for the relocation industry, in Fayetteville, N.Y. Colleen Schilling is pursuing a graduate degree in the school of education at the University at Albany.

Scott DePhillis, who earned a bachelor’s degree in government, has enrolled in law school.

Michael Heaton works as a payroll supervisor in a home healthcare agency in White Plains, N.Y. Stephen Collins, who graduated from the school of engineering this past May, served in the New York Police Department for 20 years until his retirement in October 2004.

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alumni

Judge Ronald Ellis ’72

The Benchmark of Reason: Judge Ronald Ellis ’72 Presides f o r t h o s e w h o followed the Bernie Madoff proceedings, the name Hon. Ronald L. Ellis ’72 likely sounds familiar. The U.S. Magistrate Judge ruled to allow bail of $10 million at the Madoff hearing. The decision triggered a deluge of media coverage, to which he paid little attention.

“I like to think it doesn’t affect me,” says Ellis, who wrote a meticulous 22-page opinion on why he decided not to revoke bail for Madoff.

“I try in all cases to apply the law as it is written.”

The Madoff bail hearing is just one of many that Ellis hears on a regular basis. He has presided over other high-profile hearings, including ones for John Gotti and alleged terrorism suspects, such as Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist charged with attempting to kill American soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan.

As a trial-level judge in the federal system, Ellis handles aspects of both civil and criminal cases, such as bail and detention hearings, arrest and search warrants, settlements, and discovery disputes.

“The biggest aspect of it involves the parties preparing for trial,” Ellis says. “For these disputes, you mediate and determine the appropriate outcome.”

Before his appointment in 1993 as Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York, Ellis spent 17 years as a lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). His association with LDF began as an internship while at New York University School of Law. As a lawyer for LDF, he worked on federal cases at the trial level. He focused on employment discrimination class action suits from around the country, as well as cases in voting rights, health care, housing, education and environmental justice. From 1984-90, he served as director of the Fund’s national litigation program in fair employment, followed by three years as the director of its poverty and justice program, prior to his judicial appointment.

“You had the opportunity to help people,” says Ellis, referring to what he liked most about his work at LDF. “What we did with these cases was demonstrate that people had been victims of discrimination … We changed the structure of a number of companies, so that they allowed those individuals to get better jobs.”

For Ellis, employment discrimination hit especially close to home. His father moved the family north from Louisiana to find better job opportunities.

“My father used to be in that situation,” Ellis says. “As it said on my birth certificate, he was a ‘common laborer.’ I met a lot of people who were in my father’s position who couldn’t move up and that resonated for me.”

It is this sensitivity and steadfast belief in the fairness of the court system that has guided Ellis’ career.

“It’s important that people have access to the courts,” he says. “Many of the people I have met were happy to make their case whether or not they won or lost.”

He traces his ability to reason efficiently to his time as a student studying chemical engineering at Manhattan College.

“Engineering allows you to think logically,” Ellis says. “That has been very helpful.”

His interest in law began during his junior year at Manhattan, when he took a course on American Legal History at the College of Mount Saint Vincent. His professor told him about a law school scholarship in public service at NYU. Ellis applied for and received the scholarship. He graduated with his J.D. from NYU in 1975.

In addition to his work as a judge, Ellis believes in the importance of education and has made his mark in the classroom. He is a lecturer-inlaw at Columbia University and has been an adjunct professor of law at NYU, where he taught the undergraduate class Racism and American Law and the graduate class Employment Law. He also has co-authored the chapter on Achieving Race and Gender Fairness in the Courtroom in the second edition of The Judge’s Book.

Although Ellis takes making legal decisions seriously, there is a lighter, artistic side to the judge. He sings in the Brooklyn Community Chorus in Park Slope, calls himself the court’s unofficial photographer and, for the past five years, has appeared in “courthouse follies,” a satirical musical comedy staged by law personnel inside the courthouse each December. As part of the quartet that performs the “judges’ number,” Ellis and his colleagues act out a story about what’s going on in the courts set to funny lyrics and popular music.

Such antics show that Ellis is not afraid to poke fun at himself. Yet, at the end of the day, his priority remains to make balanced judgments.

“I like to make sure that any person who appears before me has a fair chance to present their case,” Ellis says.

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Alumna Lawyer Makes Case for Disability Rights

Jennifer Frankola ’02

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w h en t h e U.s . sUpr eMe Co Ur t issued its deci- and statistics that may not have been heard the first time around in the initial brief. sion on the case Forest Grove School District v.

Although Frankola was only a recent law T.A. this past June, Jennifer Frankola ’02 awaited school graduate at the time of taking on such an the news with anticipation. She had spent the important role in the Forest Grove case, she was preceding months delving into the heart of the case as a lawyer for Mayerson & Associates, a firm no stranger to the inner workings of Mayerson’s firm. She had interned there as a student at CUNY dedicated to representing children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and related School of Law and then accepted a full-time position after graduation. disabilities. She knew her work would affect While her dedication to civil rights law is evicountless students; hope and fear ran high. dent, Frankola’s path to this career was not always The verdict was a 6-3 win for Mayerson and so clear-cut. At Manhattan, she began as an engithe nonprofit group Autism Speaks. The case neering major, but by the start of her sophomore has been hailed as a victory for students with year, she doubted this path. Then, looking for a disabilities, many of whom suffer from autism. change of pace, she took the class Urban America The court ruled that parents of children with Crisis and Opportunity taught by Lois Harr, direcdisabilities have standing to seek due process if tor of campus ministry and social action. their public schools do not offer suitable IEPs or “It was a real eye-opener for me,” Frankola says. individualized education programs. This means that their children are eligible for free education “This class changed my focus at Manhattan College.”

She changed her major to English, applied in private schools, without first testing the public to law school and was accepted. But an ad for school IEP. Prior to this decision, disabled students were required to first test the public school a New York City Teaching Fellowship caught her attention. program, even if it was obviously inadequate.

“It was a total fluke,” she says. “I tried out for Then, only after the program failed, could parthe teaching fellowship as a backup plan, and I ents sue to put their children in better private totally fell in love with it.” school programs and receive reimbursement. All Frankola delayed law school and accepted the that changed with the Forest Grove case.

“The whole point of special education is to give two-year teaching fellowship. She chose to teach in the Bronx at a tough school that has since humanity and dignity to children, so they can closed down. During this time, she also studied learn,” says Frankola, who has noticed the states urban education and children’s disabilities at chipping away at disability laws.

For children with autism, early action is critical. New York University.

Law school came next. While at CUNY, she “Any day outside their program sets them won the Joseph Doherty Civil Rights Fellowship, back two to three days, sometimes two to three which enabled her to spend a few months in weeks,” she says. “If the case had turned against South Africa, where she helped to coordinate us, there was no cap for how long a child would various nonprofit organizations to participate in have had to try out the [public school] program.” one of the country’s first AIDS law conferences.

For her part, Frankola says she worked closely Participants discussed education, health care, with the firm’s founder, Gary Mayerson, who, as clean water and vaccines, among other topics. director of the Federal Legal Appeals Project, garShe also clerked for the Hon. Ronald Ellis ’72 ners a large federal practice through the nation’s special education law, the Individuals with Disabili- (see story on p. 45), a federal Magistrate Judge.

And she continued to nurture her ties to speties Education Improvement Act. Working on a high-impact federal case has appealed to Frankola. cial education issues as a project equity fellow through Advocates for Children in New York City.

“When you litigate in federal court versus state Since the Forest Grove case, Frankola has court, it packs a more powerful punch,” she says. decided to take time off to write and travel. On On the case, Frankola was the pro-bono her agenda is a trip to Eastern Europe, where she liaison between Autism Speaks and the larger plans to visit orphanages that house children firm Akin Gump, which Mayerson teamed with with disabilities. to have access to more resources. The attorneys Down the line, Frankola says she wants to from Akin Gump wrote an amicus curiae brief “practice law but with a teacher’s hat,” possibly with research and facts provided by Frankola, on an international scale. Whether in New York who oversaw the process. Amicus curiae, which or abroad, her ambition is sure to leave a lastmeans “friend of the court,” is a document used ing imprint. to educate the court. It includes voices, stories

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a Med iCa l b r ea k t h r o Ug h that changed the world, thrust into the spotlight by one sensational Pulitzer Prize-winning story, has all the trappings and suspense of a Hollywood movie. Set in New York and read by an anxious American public during World War II, this story is actually true to the life of Dr. Dante Colitti ’36, an Italian-American doctor raised on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, one mile from the College. Colitti is the subject of a chapter in Canadian historian Michael Marshall’s upcoming book Dancing Over Stone, to be published in October 2010, on the history of the medical breakthrough otherwise known as penicillin.

Colitti’s story begins in 1943, when he is a 32-year-old medical resident at Lutheran Hospital, a small 150-bed building at Convent Avenue and 145th Street in Harlem. It is a few weeks before his wedding to future wife, Lillian Hunter, and the country is in the midst of World War II. At the time, doctors faced a daunting challenge to cure illnesses. Penicillin had not yet reached the masses because the U.S. government reserved it to treat venereal disease-infected American troops fighting in Italy. Despite this situation, a Canadian Dr. Dawson, who practiced at nearby Presbyterian Hospital, had made progress with using penicillin to treat people with endocarditis, a disease caused by rheumatic fever and thought to be incurable. Word had spread in New York medical circles. Even the government knew of Dawson’s progress, an even greater feat because he had no funding.

His research was eventually stopped due to government pressure, but not before Colitti learned of his success.

It was with this knowledge that Colitti helped the Malones, a young couple who came to the hospital one August day with their sick two-year-old girl, Patty. He advised them to appeal to the popular Hearst newspaper New York Journal-American for penicillin. The strategy worked. The story spread to newswires around the world and seem-

ingly overnight, penicillin became a national phenomenon with Baby Patty as its human face. On Aug. 11, 1943, the Journal-American staged a Page 1 media blitz for Colitti, who was driven by radio car to Bristol-Myers Squibb in New Jersey and met by state troopers to be handed a little package of penicillin for Baby Patty.

In the aftermath of these events, a number of things happened. “Dr. Mom,” the every mom who wants the best for her children, wrote to her local Congressman to demand penicillin. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer quickly converted an ice factory into a penicillin plant, and by March 1944, the company was producing most penicillin. On June 6, 1944, the first major mass trial of penicillin occurred when it was dropped on D-Day beaches for Allied troops. The Hearst desk editor who ran the Baby Patty story won a Pulitzer for spot news. And for awhile, Colitti and Baby Patty were media darlings. But eventually, they both faded into obscurity, only to be brought back by Marshall more than 60 years later.

“Dante was an amazing man,” he says. “He lived a total hospital life. I was determined to track down Dante because he seemed to disappear from the records. It shouldn’t be this way. I thought some of the quiet reserved people should be reclaimed.”

Marshall’s research led him to discover that Colitti had four sons. His son Chris still has the three-inch-thick scrapbook of newspaper clippings about his father that his mother started back in the 1940s. Until his father’s death in 1993, the scrapbook was kept in a drawer in the family’s dining room.

“For me, as his son, it was a great story to be aware of,” says Chris, who remembers being a high school student when his father showed him the scrapbook for the first time. “I knew all along growing up that he was a special person. I knew from his peers that no one had ever died on the operating table with him.”

In fact, Colitti’s prosperous career as an

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Alum Plays Role in Bringing Penicillin to the Public

Dante Colitti ’36

anesthesiologist was somewhat of a miracle.

During the first eight years of his life, he suffered from tuberculosis of the spine and lived in constant pain in a sanatorium. He emerged as a hunchback with fused bones all over his body but was more determined than ever to become a doctor.

“There was so much more to know about my Dad,” Chris says. “He was given two weeks to live, and he lived for 82 years.”

Colitti earned his M.D. from Middlesex Medical College in Waltham, Mass., in 1941.

He left New York City for Westwood, Mass., where he founded Rosindale General with four partners in 1951 and worked until his retirement in 1975. In his spare time, he sculpted, painted and played hours of tennis with his sons.

“He was a doctor who really cared about taking care of people,” Chris says.

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The Move of a Lifetime

By Emily Clyne ’07

Emily Clyne ’07

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i’ve o nl y ever Mo ved once in my life. Just once. And it was to college.

Just 30 minutes from where I grew up. I physically moved there, but I’m not sure if you can count that as actually moving-moving, as in starting your life all over again. But it’s the closest thing I had to that until now — now that I’ve started my life over. And to be honest, I never saw myself living like this. When I applied to the Peace Corps, I imagined myself pumping water from a well in sub-Saharan Africa surrounded by hippopotami and zebras, living in a mud hut and learning a language of which my friends never heard. Instead, I turn on a faucet for my water, am surrounded by chickens and cows, live in a blue cement house, and speak a language some of my friends already know. No, it’s not as exciting as I had originally imagined, but it is better.

That’s the great thing about the Peace Corps. You don’t get to choose where you are going, so it takes away any disappointment in the expectations you have for a certain location and leaves an element of surprise.

When I found out that I was going to be moving to El Salvador, I didn’t know what to think — I barely knew anything about it. But now that I’m here, and have been here for a year and a half, it’s hard to believe that this tiny house, this tiny town, this tiny country wasn’t my first choice, and that I didn’t have an instinct in knowing where to go to be the happiest I could possibly be. There should be some sort of gravitational pull that matches up people with places so everybody in the world could fall in love with a place like I have.

But it wasn’t like this at first. To be honest, during my first couple of months in El Salvador, I didn’t know if I would make it to the Peace Corps’ required two-year commitment. Training was in a different part of the country, and it just wasn’t a perfect fit for me. It was beautiful, and the people were nice, and I was even living close to other volunteer friends, but it just wasn’t the place for me. Training lasted for only two months, and then, yet again, we were all dispersed to different parts of the country without a choice.

By some stroke of fate, I was assigned to my town, the town for which I was intended. My town is located in the country’s most northwestern region. Scattered throughout the rolling hills and mountain peaks are quaint adobe houses, small dirt roads, and people happily going about their day.

It’s amazing the affect other people can have on somebody. Coming straight from New York, I would never have dreamed of greeting strangers, but here not one person is passed on the road without happily being asked how they are and what is new. I never even knew any of my neighbors back home, but after a short time in this rural community, I could confidently say that I knew everybody, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Because of my “gringo” status, people want to get to know me, but a lot of it can be credited to the Peace Corps program, complete immersion into a new community and the hands-on work that comes with it. Our job pretty much guarantees that a volunteer will meet and gain trust with most, if not all, community members. A five-minute walk home may take up to an hour because people always want to know how I am and what I’m doing.

My job is a rural health and sanitation facilitator. This means that I work with the community to teach about water treatment, HIV/AIDS education, women’s health and basic hygiene. Much of this is from house visits or giving talks in the tiny school in hopes that the children will bring the information back to their parents. Also, the Peace Corps gives us the option and support to implement side projects. So I’m currently teaching open English classes for anybody interested and working with an American NGO to get computers for the local school, though my biggest project is raising money for a casa comunal. In Latin America, most communities, including small towns, have casa comunales, or community centers. Basically they are just locations where all communal rites of passage can take place: weddings, birthday parties, funerals, town meetings, quinceañeras, etc. Casa comunales are really important in Latin culture, and I’m really proud to be working with people so motivated, eager to learn, and hardworking for something about which they feel so passionately. Moreover, it feels amazing to know that I will have aided this community with this project, something for which they had hoped for such a long time.

This makes most of my time and effort go toward fundraising projects, and whether they are selling food, soccer tournaments or dances, they are always enjoyable. Also, the Peace Corps has set up a Web page to help out with this project, where family and friends can donate to the efforts in constructing the casa comunal. As of now, half of our needed $10,000 has been reached. It’s really exciting to be so close to realizing our goal!

It is always great to do workshops and lectures with the help of other volunteers, and because El Salvador is such a small country, it really promotes us to do this. In July, all of the female health volunteers planned two girls’ camps, one on the East side of the country and one on the West. The camps were for three days each and focused on gender issues, self-esteem, sexual health, stereotypes and body image, but the overall goal was to have fun. Fun because the young girls in rural El Salvador do not get to hang out the way we did when we were young. There are no sleepovers with friends, no playing truth or dare, no birthday parties, no Girl Scouts. There is, however, taking care of younger siblings and cousins, feeding the chickens and milking the cows, cleaning the house, and washing clothes by hand. For every single girl that attended the camp, this was the first time she slept away from her house without parental figures present. It was a huge bonding experience for everybody and one of the projects I am most proud of to date. Some of the activities included a self-defense class, dance lessons, making s’mores over a fire, playing mafia, jewelry-making and yoga. Because the 14 female health volunteers worked together, we were able to affect more than 40 young girls.

When I first arrived, two years seemed like a long time, too long even. But as it goes by, there is never too much time in a place you love. I still have to remind myself every day to open my eyes wider and take in what’s around me, not only the beautiful scenery but also the view of children excitedly running down the street to my house, holding my host-sister’s hand as she gave birth to a baby boy, or just my neighbor Checho waving as he walks by on his way to work in the field.

So this is life as a Peace Corps volunteer; exciting, uncomfortable sometimes, but always warm, genuine. Now I can’t picture myself anywhere else and am so thankful to have been placed where I am. With less than one year left of my service, it’s hard to believe that I will be moving for the second time in my life — this will surely be the hardest move of all. When I left home for El Salvador, not one tear was shed.

But just thinking of leaving here now, I can’t hold the tears back.

If you are interested in more information about my projects or life here in El Salvador, please visit www.emilyclyne.com.

manhattan.edu

12/1/09 2:32:48 PM

Br o t h er L u ke Sa Lm, F.S.C., professor emeritus of theology and religious studies and archivist of the De La Salle Christian Brothers Archives of the New York District, passed away on Aug. 31, 2009. He was 88.

He was remembered at a campus memorial service, during which Brother William Mann, F.S.C., president of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, described Br. Salm and his accomplishments.

“A man for the ages who attempted to help the Brothers around the world revision and recapture the passion of the Lasallian origins so that ‘our world so secular and broken’ might glimpse Christ alive in us and, hopefully, ‘fall in love with God again,’” Br. Mann said.

John Francis Salm was born in Albany, N.Y., on April 26, 1921, the first of eight children to John and Elizabeth Salm. Born into a loving, musical family (his parents met when they were both hired to play at the same party), Br. Salm learned to play the piano from his mother. Later in life, he often played the piano and organ for the Brothers’ Masses.

He received his elementary education at St. Teresa’s School in Albany, where he was taught by the Sisters of Mercy, and his high school education at Christian Brothers Academy (CBA).

After graduating from CBA in 1938, Br. Salm decided to enter the Christian Brothers.

However, his entry was postponed for a few years in order to work to support his family during the Depression and to earn the money charged for room and board at the novitiate in Barrytown, N.Y. In September 1940, together with 35 classmates, John F. Salm was invested with the Brothers’ habit and became Brother Celestine Luke. After spending only one year in the novitiate, the class was called to Washington, D.C., to attend the Scholasticate at The Catholic University of America, where Br. Salm majored in Latin and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in 1945.

His first teaching assignment was at La Salle Academy, on Second Street in New York

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Brother Luke Salm, F.S.C. “His personality attracted everyone from the City, where he taught Latin and geometry scholar to the person who was the life of the and moderated the band. Three years later, party and everyone inbetween. His dedicahe returned to Washington to pursue a doction to the community was based on his toral degree in theology. He became the first Brother and first noncleric to receive a doctor- belief that we are made in the image of a very generous God who calls educators ‘together ate in theology. and by association’ to make that good news After receiving his doctorate in 1955, Br. available to all.”

Salm was sent to Manhattan College to reWith his esteemed status as the ranking organize the religion department. Teaching within the new liberal arts program, he inject- Brother theologian in a time of change in the Church and Institute, Br. Salm was elected to ed theology into the religion program and represent the New York Province at the 39th developed new courses on dogmatic theology. During this time, he also became an active General Chapter, the “renewal” chapter, called for by Vatican II and held in Rome in 1966 member and eventual leader in the Catholic and 1967. He was re-elected again to the 1976, Theological Society of America. He helped form the Society of Catholic College Teachers 1986 and 1993 chapters.

As a prominent lecturer on theology and of Religion as a forum for exchanging ideas. religious life, Br. Salm taught at St. Mary’s ColThis enabled Br. Salm to introduce new and lege in California in 1972 and 1980 and at the current courses to the religious studies curMaryknoll Seminary from 1973-1983. When riculum. He went on to serve as chairman of the Buttimer Institute of Lasallian Studies the theology/religious studies department formed in 1986, he was asked to be the main from 1962-1970 and as director of the gradupresenter for Buttimer I. He was frequently ate theology program from 1970-1978. called onto the lecture circuit and traveled As a revered teacher, students often the world. praised his wit and stand-up comedic style of

“Br. Luke’s life as a Brother of the Christian Schools and his service to Manhattan College were one and the same.” lecturing that, indeed, held their interest. In addition to teaching at the College, Br. Salm also served as a prefect in the residence halls.

He earned the respect of the student residents for his openness and tenacity, and was admired by colleagues for his work ethic.

“Br. Luke’s life as a Brother of the Christian Schools and his service to Manhattan College were one and the same,” says Brother Robert Berger, F.S.C., assistant professor of religious studies and vice president for student life.

In addition to lecturing, Br. Salm was a prominent and prolific author. His first book was aptly named Beginnings: De La Salle and his Brothers (1980), which was a collection of translations of Institute writings that focused on its formation and foundation. He wrote several other books and countless articles on the history of De La Salle and the Brothers, the Institute, theology and spirituality to name just a few topics. Such books include: Continued on page 50 manhattan.edu

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Mark taylor Encounters: De La Salle at Parmenie (1983), Brother Miguel Febres Cordero: Teacher, Scholar, Saint (1984), Brother Scubilion Rousseau: Apostle of Reconciliation (1986), Brother Arnold Reche: Apostolic Ascetic (1986), Brother Benilde Romancon: Teacher Saint (1988), John Baptist de La Salle: The Formative Years (1989), Brother Mutien Marie Wiaux: Sanctity in Simplicity (1989), The Work is Yours: The Life of Saint John Baptist de La Salle (1989), The Martyrs of Turon and Tarragona: The De La Salle Brothers in Spain 1934-1939 (1990), and A Religious Institute in Transition: The Story of Three General Chapters (1992). As a result of his lecturing and writings, Br. Salm’s name became recognized and celebrated at the Institute. His research on Lasallian studies and his writings also created the foundation for the vast Lasallian studies collection at Manhattan College.

For his work, Br. Salm received a number of honors and distinctions, including Phi Beta Kappa (CUA 1945), an honorary L.L.D. from La Salle University in 1977, a Manhattan College Trustees Teacher-Scholar Award in 1983, a National Association of Religious Brothers “Proclaimer” Award in 1986, an honorary L.H.D. from St. Mary’s College in 1988, and an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Lewis University in 1990. He also was a trustee emeritus of Manhattan College’s board of trustees.

In the early 1990s, Br. Salm retired from teaching and was appointed the archivist of the De La Salle Christian Brothers Archives of the New York District. He collected, preserved and made available the history of the Christian Brothers of the New York District. Although he occasionally spoke or wrote about the history of the Institute, he focused on helping other scholars in their research.

He is survived by his sisters Teresa “Tess” Austin, Alice Moore and Cecilia “Honey” O’Leary; and a brother, Marcus Salm.

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ma r k t ayLo r , Ph.D., professor of English, passed away on April 14, 2009. He was 70.

During his time at Manhattan, Taylor taught the classes Shakespeare I and II, Creative Writing: Fiction, and Literature and War, a course he designed for the peace studies program.

He wrote numerous scholarly essays and two books about William Shakespeare, including Shakespeare’s Darker Purpose (1982) and, most recently, Shakespeare’s Imitations, which garnered a number of reviews and was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2003. He also devoted much of his scholarship to poetry.

His first book, The Soul in Paraphrase (1974), examined the work of 17th century metaphysical and religious poet George Herbert.

Revered among faculty, Taylor was remembered at a campus memorial service in his memory this past spring. Dr. Stephen Kaplan, professor of religious studies, spoke at the service and referred to Taylor as a generous mentor.

“Mark took me under his wing, as I have seen him do countless times with other junior faculty, teaching by example what the life of scholarship and the dedication to teaching are all about,” said Kaplan, recalling when he first arrived to teach at Manhattan, straight out of graduate school. “He read, studied and published, and so I wanted to do the same. He regularly burst into my office inquiring about some arcane reference, and in so doing, gently demonstrated to me that the scholar-teacher’s job was to look out not just for oneself but for others.”

Taylor spent 40 years crafting this example.

Before embarking on his teaching career at Manhattan College, he earned an A.B. from Yale University in 1961 and an M.A. in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1969 from City University of New York Graduate Center.

In addition, he served as chairman of the English and world literature department at the College from 1978-82. He was a founding member and program director of Manhattan’s Dante Seminar, a forum for the exchange of ideas in the humanities among faculty, students and staff.

For his dedication, Taylor received the Bonus et Fidelis Medal in 1994 for outstanding service to the College.

His work touched many students, and he is fondly remembered around campus for his caring personality as much as for his scholarship.

“As an English major, I had the wonderful experience of taking Mark Taylor for numerous classes,” says Darcy Lis-Beglane ’92, academic advisor in the school of science. “He was the consummate professor and simply brilliant as a Shakespearean scholar, but he was also a wonderful friend who had a wicked sense of humor.

Mark was always genuinely interested in what was going on in your life. He had an engaging personality — you always knew when Mark was in the room — and his untimely loss reverberates far beyond the confines of Manhattan College.

He touched innumerable lives with his teaching; Mark loved what he did, and it showed.”

He will be remembered for years to come with the Mark Taylor Scholarship, named in his honor for promising English students. He is survived by his wife, Anya, of 46 years; their sons, Andrew and Nicholas; and five grandchildren, Dustin, Courtney, Jack, Luke and Daniel.

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12/1/09 2:41:18 PM

Lo u iS u f f er , Ph .D., associate professor of physics, passed away on July 15, 2009. He was 72.

From the moment he set foot on campus, Uffer became an important presence in the physics department. He was often consulted on topics large and small and was fondly known by his colleagues as a “dynamo of energy.”

His contributions to the physics department were many. Uffer maintained the instructional and research laboratories in modern physics. He pioneered, developed and taught the first Physics for Poets course at Manhattan, choosing to explore the challenging topic of quantum electrodynamics.

“Louis Uffer embodied the best of Manhattan College,” says Dr. Bruce Liby, associate professor of physics and chair of the department. “His dedication to the College and the physics department was total … To this end, he labored long hours in the laboratory, developing state-of-the-art experiments for our majors. Lou rewrote his courses’ notes and syllabi every year, even for introductory courses that he had taught many dozens of times.”

Outside of the classroom, Uffer was active on many of Manhattan’s committees. He chaired the Council for Faculty Affairs for some time and the Faculty Welfare Committee. He was also a chair on the Senate Committee for Budget Review and Financial Aid. Uffer’s interest in physics can be traced back to his formative years as a student at Bronx High School of Science. He earned a B.S. from City College of New York in 1965 and his M.S. in 1967 and Ph.D. in 1978 from New York University. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on Magneto-thermal Properties of Cubic Rare Earth Compounds.

In addition to teaching, he worked as a circuit designer for Bell Tel Labs, Inc. from 1961-66 and as a systems analyst at Systems Consultants, Inc., from 1976-77.

Uffer joined the College in 1979 as an adjunct assistant professor. During his career, he also taught at Queensborough Community College and the New York Institute of Technology. He was a member of the American Physical Society, Sigma Xi and the New York Academy of Sciences.

In 2004, he was awarded the Bonus et Fidelis Medal, an honor bestowed on outstanding faculty who serve the College for at least 25 years. Dr. Sezar Fesjian, associate professor of physics, honored Uffer with a speech on that special occasion, one whose words hold true to this day and show how much he will be missed.

“In the classroom, his impact on each student is intense,” Fesjian said. “One does not take a course with Dr. Uffer without being greatly influenced by his unique personality and style in teaching physics that is both passionate and tough. I believe his teaching is his lifeblood, not merely his profession.”

Anthony J. Scala Sr. ’44 a n t h o n y J. Sc a La S r . ’44, P.e., former president of Lowy & Donnath, Inc., an electrical engineering construction firm, passed away on April 22, 2009.

He was 85. Scala was a generous and longtime supporter of Manhattan and was deeply appreciative of the Christian Brothers.

Since childhood, when he helped his father in the family business on 231st Street and Broadway, he had always dreamed of owning a business.

After graduating from Manhattan with an electrical engineering degree, Scala served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II. In 1947, he joined a small electrical contracting firm named Lowy & Donnath as an estimator and worked his way up to president and partner and made the firm one of the most respected electrical contractors in New York City.

He sent his five sons to Manhattan; three of whom (James ’75, Anthony Jr. ’74 and Christopher J. ’89) and two of his grandsons (Anthony III ’03 and Christopher W. ’05) graduated from the school of engineering. His granddaughter Victoria is a senior in the school, and son Anthony Jr. is currently president of Lowy & Donnath and a Manhattan College trustee.

Scala established two charitable remainder trusts that named Manhattan College as the recipient of each.

With the establishment of the first trust, in 1997, he also gave a $1 million gift to the Ascend Manhattan Capital Campaign.

“I made the gift for one reason,” Scala said at the time. “It is my way of thanking all past, present and future Christian Brothers who staff Manhattan College. I want to say thank you for their devotion to teaching young people and for setting examples of honesty and integrity.”

Scala set a tremendous example himself, through his willingness to support the College and its students.

“His generosity through two campaigns helped transform the Manhattan College campus into a modern facility, equipped for the students of the 21st century,” says Thomas Mauri-

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Louis Uffer

ello, vice president for advancement at Manhattan College. “We are most grateful for the devotion and support he showed to the College.”

He showed the same devotion to the other aspects of his life as he did toward his alma mater.

“Anthony Scala Sr. was a faithful Catholic, devoted to his family, an involved alumnus, a valued advisor and good friend,” says Brother Thomas Scanlan, former president of Manhattan College.

Among his significant contributions to Manhattan are the establishment of the William J. Scala Academy Room in Leo Hall and the carillon in the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers. Named in memory of his son William, a former student, the William J. Scala Academy Room is an auditorium equipped with audiovisual equipment and Internet access. Plaques lining the walls pay tribute to the 15 Manhattan College engineers who have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. In 2004, Scala also dedicated the carillon tower, which chimes above the chapel, to his wife Helen, who had passed away.

Scala is survived by four sons, Anthony Jr., James, Peter and Christopher; their wives, Mary Ellen, Deborah, Joyce and Kerry, respectively; 13 grandchildren; and his wife Jadwiga.

He was predeceased by his wife Helen and his son William.

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Ernest E. Stempel ’38 er n eSt e. St emPeL ’38, former vice chairman and director of American International Group, Inc. (AIG), former member of Manhattan’s board of trustees and a leading supporter of the College, passed away April 14, 2009. He was 92.

Stempel was widely regarded as a pioneer in the insurance industry. Long in leadership at AIG, he was close to the company’s founder, C.V. Starr, and was a principal player in the expansion of the unusual firm, which was divided into more than 200 companies and spread throughout the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, former AIG CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg said that Stempel was one of “a small group of senior people that built AIG, like a band of brothers.”

Stempel started at the company that would become AIG right after graduation from Manhattan College in 1938. He worked as a clerk in fire insurance and attended Fordham Law School at night.

During World War II, he joined the Navy and the war in the Pacific as a lieutenant and then returned to the company after the war.

In 1953, C.V. Starr sent Stempel to Bermuda, where he managed American International Reinsurance Company Inc.’s (AIRCO) non-life insurance product growth and developed markets in Asia, particularly in the Philippines. He was instrumental in bringing C.V. Starr insurance to Asia and often traveled there during a period of 40 years — he even knew many of those nations’ leaders.

He became president and director of AIRCO in 1963, was named a senior advisor of AIG in 1982, and became vice chairman of the life insurance interests of the sprawling organization in 1989. In the meantime, he had also earned LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees from New York University. In 1986, Manhattan College awarded Stempel an honorary LL.D. C.V. Starr tapped Stempel to serve as a director of his charitable foundation, the Starr Foundation, and Stempel also created his own charitable foundation, the Ernest E. Stempel Foundation, to support worthy causes. Through the foundations, Stempel supported Manhattan College, as well as a number of educational and environmental causes. At Manhattan, he established the Ernest E. Stempel Foundation Scholarship and the C.V. Starr Foundation Scholarship, both of which provide funds for students who need financial aid.

Students have expressed appreciation for the help these scholarships offered. John Donodeo ’06 was one such student who received the Ernest E. Stempel Scholarship for two years.

“I cannot express in words how grateful I am … I will always be grateful for [Stempel’s] assistance,” Donodeo wrote.

Brother Thomas Scanlan, F.S.C., former Manhattan College president, wrote in a letter to Stempel’s widow: “I consider myself privileged to have known him. We first met 22 years ago when I became president of Manhattan College. Many students at Manhattan have benefited from [Ernie’s] great generosity to alma mater, and many, many more will benefit in the future from the Starr Endowment that he was so instrumental in establishing and funding.”

Stempel is survived by his wife Brendalyn; his children Diana, Calvin and Neil; and his brother Lionel ’41. He was predeceased by his first wife Phyllis, and his son Robert.

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thomas E. Gilbart t h o ma S e. GiLBa r t , Ph .D., associate professor emeritus of psychology and retired director of the counseling center, died in April. He was 73.

Gilbart received a B.S. in education from Mount St. Mary’s College in 1961, and an M.S. in education in 1962 and a Ph.D. from St. John’s University.

He served in the Marine Corps and spent a year as a teaching fellow at St. John’s before coming to Manhattan in 1963. Gilbart started as assistant director of the counseling center and also worked as an instructor in the psychology department. He retired in 1995.

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Jack Famularo

Paul Mazzei Pa u L ma z z ei, former women’s softball coach and a 2007 inductee into Manhattan’s Athletic Hall of Fame, passed away on June 22, 2009.

He came to the College in 1989 and coached the team for eight years. Mazzei’s team posted a 34-17 program record in 1993 and tallied three straight years of 30 or more wins, the best run of any coach in sports played at Manhattan. His team tied for the MAAC Regular Season Championship title in 1994, a first for Lady Jaspers softball. Besides NCAA season and career records, his teams also ranked high in scholastic achievement.

ical engineering class of 1982. Mark Mangone ’77 remembers how the department chairman personally gave him a campus tour that sealed his decision to come to the College.

“When I came to Manhattan, I met with Dr. Famularo, and he talked to me for a bit and then said ‘let’s see the campus,’” Mangone says. “It was just a completely different atmosphere and attitude. It was clear at Manhattan that the faculty were warmer and friendlier with the students.”

Prior to arriving at Manhattan, Famularo served at the Army Medical Center in Maryland during the Korean War and later taught at NYU during the early 1960s. He worked at the College for 27 years, until retiring in 1993.

He is survived by his wife, Jeanne; their three daughters, Lisa Famularo, Donna Troop and her husband, Michael, and Gina Springer and her husband, Chris; and four grandchildren: Jennifer, Melissa, Kristen and Kyle.

obits

Ja c k f a mu La r o , Ph.D., retired associate professor emeritus of chemical engineering, passed away on April 13, 2009. He was 77.

“He was dedicated and absolutely respected and loved by the students,” says Dr. Louis Theodore, professor of chemical engineering. “He was a model faculty member.”

The pair pursued graduate degrees at the same time from New York University (NYU), where Famularo earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Doctor of Engineering Science.

Famularo chaired the chemical engineering department during the 1970s, as it emerged from recently accredited to one of the most respected programs in the country. Theodore recalls that shortly after his friend and colleague stepped down, the department received a No. 2 ranking from U.S. News & World Report, a sign of how it flourished under his leadership.

A favorite among students, Famularo was named Teacher of the Year by Manhattan’s chem-

John Marchi ’42 f o r mer r ePu BLic a n Sen. John Marchi ’42, the longestserving lawmaker in New York, died on April 25. He was 87.

Marchi served in the U.S. Senate from 1957 until 2006.

He headed the Senate’s Finance Committee for some decades and helped to push through legislation on education and state financial oversight. In the 1970s, he assisted in drafting the financial package that would save the city from bankruptcy. Known as “the Father of Secession,” Marchi led the movement for Staten Island to separate from New York City in the 1990s, though his bill never passed.

Born and raised on Staten Island, Marchi was a World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Coast Guard. After Manhattan College, he earned a law degree from St. John’s University School of Law in 1950 and a doctorate in juridical science from Brooklyn Law School in 1953.

Manhattan has recognized his exemplary career on a number of occasions. Marchi was awarded a Doctor of Laws at the College’s commencement ceremony in 1973 and was again honored at the St. Thomas More Law Society Awards Dinner in 1977, an occasion that marked his 21st year of service as a New York state senator.

He is survived by his wife, Maria; his two daughters, Aline Balbas and Joan Migliori; two grandchildren; and two great grandchildren.

manhattan.edu

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A LASALLIAN CAthOLIC COLLege SINCe 1853

Published by the office of College Relations Manhattan College 4513 Manhattan College Parkway Riverdale, NY 10471

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage paid Pewaukee, WI Permit No. 564

Brennan O’Donnell, Ph.D., Manhattan College’s new 19th president, and the Most Rev. Gerald T. Walsh, D.D., bishop, rector and president of St. Joseph’s Seminary, process through the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers up to the installation ceremony in Draddy Gymnasium.

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