Saint Michael's College Fall/Winter Magazine 2021 by Saint Michael's College Magazine

Saint Michael’s SAINT MICHAEL’S COLLEGE MAGAZINE | FALL/WINTER 2021

Reflection

Connection Reinvention

SAINT MICHAEL’S COLLEGE MAGAZINE Fall/Winter 2021 Volume 21, No. 1 smcvt.edu/magazine EDITOR Susan Salter Reynolds CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Alessandro Bertoni Rev. Michael Carter, SSE ’12 Laura Hardin ’22 Josh Kessler ’04 Lauren Read Annie Rosello ’94 Mark Tarnacki Ariel Wish ’20 PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHERS Patrick Bohan Jerald Swope DESIGN Harp and Company Graphic Design Jennifer Fisher Douglas G. Harp MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD Alaba Apesin Angela Armour ’99 M’09 Alessandro Bertoni Rev. Michael Carter, SSE ’12 Jen Connetta ’09 Summer Drexel Michelle Jordan P’20 Josh Kessler ’04 Jerald Swope Mark Tarnacki

Saint Michael’s College Magazine (ISSN 0279-3016) is published by the Office of Marketing and Communications twice a year. The views expressed in the Saint Michael’s College Magazine do not necessarily represent the official policies and views of Saint Michael’s College. POSTMASTER Please send address changes to: Saint Michael’s College One Winooski Park, Box 6 Colchester, VT 05439 SMCMagazine@smcvt.edu EDITORIAL OFFICE Saint Michael’s College One Winooski Park, Box 6 Colchester, VT 05439 802.654.2556 SMCMagazine@smcvt.edu ©2021. All rights reserved. Cover photo: Jerald Swope Inside front cover: Jerald Swope

KL E IN H AL L 2 A Letter from President Lorraine Sterritt S TO R IE S 3 Looking Forward: Strategic Initiatives by Alessandro Bertoni 4 What’s New? 8 SGA’s new Secretary for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Alexyah Dethvongsa ’22 by Laura Hardin ’22 9 Before and After: Joel Ribout by Susan Salter Reynolds

10 Reflection by Susan Salter Reynolds 16 Value Added: Diane Corbett by Mark Tarnacki 18 Recruiting in a Pandemic by Lauren Read

34 Empowering Community with Bicycles: Dan Hock ’09 by Ariel Wish ’20

48 Kindness Repaid by Paying It Forward: Ed Mitchell ’84 by Annie Rosello ‘94

38 The Lives He Touched: Marcel LeBlanc ’50 by Annie Rosello ’94

CL AS S N OT E S

20 Connection by Mark Tarnacki

39 The Power of Film: Building the Human Family by Rev. Michael Carter, SSE ’12

26 The Best Laid Plans: Krista Billingsley by Susan Salter Reynolds

40 Academic Action: Patricia Siplon by Susan Salter Reynolds

28 Reinvention by Susan Salter Reynolds

42 Commencement Photos by Jerald Swope 44 The Roundup by Josh Kessler ’04 46 Faculty and Alumni Works

49 Letter from the Alumni Board President by Suzanne Leous ’86 50 Letters to the Editor 51 Class Notes 62 In Memoriam For additional Magazine content, go to www.smcvt.edu/magazine.

KLEIN HALL

Letter from the President 2

or many, the pandemic has been a time for reflection, reinvention, and connection. In this issue, we look back on the last year-and-a-half, framing our experience and gathering insight into the experiences of others. In looking back, we do not dare presume that the

storm is over, but we have met so many challenges with creativity, humility, and resilience. We have changed in ways large and small. Faculty, staff, students, and alumni reveal the ways in which they have reflected on the pandemic and what these reflections have

yielded. Often, that takes the form of gratitude for friends, family, loved ones, colleagues, pets, nature, and daily inperson contact. Sometimes they gave themselves permission to be still, to stop striving. Reflection made space for selfcare and kindness. Others express a renewed allegiance to core values. Many report that from reflection came determination to make the world a better place: to listen better, to act to correct injustice and inequity, and to engage more fully with their communities. They found new ways in which to use their considerable skills and talents to pull us back from the brink. Members of our community represented here also felt isolated, overwhelmed, anxious, and uncertain, but in the midst of that uncertainty about the future, they made brave changes in their careers, relationships, and priorities. They reinvented themselves in brilliant, inspiring, and often very practical ways. In a time of scarce resources, they employed what Professor Peter Harrigan, searching in vain for elastic

to make masks, calls “the shoelace factor.” (Use your imagination, or turn to page 28!) Reading their stories, you will feel the importance of connection bubbling below the surface. Purple Knights reached out across our wide network for advice, mentorship, recommendations, and recipes. They responded to our request for stories with openness and trust. There will be so much more processing, reflecting, reinventing, and connecting ahead. For now, let’s pause, look around, and take the opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate one another.

D. E. Lorraine Sterritt President

Looking Forward: Strategic Initiatives BY ALESSANDRO BERTONI

FORWARD WITH PURPOSE—STRATEGIC PLANNING

On October 22, 2021, the Board of Trustees approved the College’s three-year strategic plan, “Forward with Purpose.” An overview of the plan was presented to employees in a Zoom meeting held on October 29. President Lorraine Sterritt outlined the plan’s areas of focus as Purposeful Learning, Advanced Approaches, and Strengthened Communities. She explained that the College’s mission is foundational to the plan, which puts the promise and value of an integrated student experience at its heart. The plan will prioritize guiding students through a well-structured advising program to define and nurture their purpose, to find ways to make a difference in society, and to prepare for meaningful and successful careers. The College will invest in Centers of Social Impact to provide opportunities for students to learn and engage in applied work in critical areas of global need, including the environment, global engagement, and equity and justice. The plan also outlines specific areas in which the College will innovate and modernize, leveraging data and analyses to improve decision-making and operations. President Sterritt also emphasized that inclusion and advancing diversity and equity are fundamental to who we are as a Catholic, Edmundite community, and are essential to the College’s future. In the coming weeks, the College will share more details and have a website dedicated to Forward with Purpose at smcvt.edu/forwardwithpurpose.

NEW MEDIA CREATION STUDIO IN THE WORKS

The College has approved a plan to develop a new Media Creation Studio (MCS) in Saint Edmund’s Hall for students and faculty from all disciplines. Featuring a state-of-the-art video studio, with a separate audio recording space and instructional editing suite, the MCS will provide students an opportunity to learn, create media for their academic projects, and gain applied experience. Patrick Bohan, the new director of the MCS, said, “Media is integral to so many disciplines today. Whether a student just wants to learn the basics, run their own live-streamed talk show, or get the experience to become a professional

Professor Jeffrey Ayres, left, and Director of International Student and Scholar Services Phil Gadzekpo. videographer, the new Media Creation Studio will be a space for all that and more.” Alumni and friends interested in following its development and possibly helping the College realize the vision for the studio can visit smcvt.edu/MCS.

CENTER FOR GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT

This summer the College named Professor Jeffrey Ayres, of the Political Science and International Relations Department, to lead a new Center for Global Engagement at Saint Michael’s. The center will serve as the collaborative hub of international activity at the College, promoting global learning and literacy and deepening intercultural competency and inclusion. Professor Ayres shared, “While the College has a long and accomplished past connected to its Edmundite founding embracing internationalization, it is even more important today, as we slowly emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, to help students gain global awareness and help foster better relations between cultures and peoples world-wide.” The center is the home to such areas as Study Abroad, International Internships, Undergraduate and Post-Graduate Fellowships, the Peace Corps Prep Program, and the Office of International Student and Scholars Services led by Phil Gadzekpo. To learn more about the initiatives of the Center for Global Engagement, or to make a donation to support campus global engagement, visit smcvt.edu/global.

WHAT’S NEW? LESSONS ON LISTENING

Professor Melissa Vanderkaay Tomasulo shows off virtual reality equipment.

STRESS-BUSTERS

Two Saint Michael’s College professors who believe astronauts might combat stress and reduce health risks in space using virtual reality meditation have spent the past year testing their theories on students and emergency responders at the College, funded by $50,000 in NASA grants and $8,000 in internal funding through the Vermont Biomedical Research Network. Now, more than a year into their study, the researchers— Melissa VanderKaay Tomasulo of the psychology/neuroscience faculty and Dagan Loisel of the biology faculty—recently learned they will receive an additional $50,000 in grants through the Vermont Space Grant.

As a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author of this year’s Saint Michael’s First Year Seminar common text, has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, she shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. The 2021-2022 Common Text for incoming Saint Michael’s College students will be Kimmerer’s 2013 work Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.

Jeffrey Ayres, professor of political science, director of the Center for Global Engagement, and former dean

FINDING A WAY

In recent years, Professor and former Dean Jeffrey Ayres has supervised several cohorts of Saint Michael’s College students who traveled to Asia for life-changing internships in Hong Kong funded by the Freeman Foundation. But when COVID changed everything, it didn’t seem fair to Ayres that this year’s 12 students selected for Freeman Foundation grants might miss out. The solution: virtual internships in Vietnam. These virtual placements will allow participants to build a knowledge base about Asia, deepen global competency and intercultural skills, and attain practical workplace experience.

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experiences like Fire & Rescue, adventure sports, student government, and volunteer service. Wright has developed and will direct a new program for the College called Undergraduate Professional Endorsements (UPE). He will be joined by Catherine Welch ’10 of the College’s Student Life staff in teaching the two-credit academic experiences that bookend the UPE program. Professor Sarah Hastings

USING REFLECTION

Sarah Hastings, PhD, began work July 1 at Saint Michael’s as professor of psychology and director of the Master’s Program in Clinical Psychology, taking the reins of the wellestablished and respected graduate program from longtime director Ron Miller, who recently retired. She said, “I hope to encourage students to practice using reflection as a tool to find meaning and direction throughout their life’s work.”

SPEAKING FOR THE TREES

A surplus from an Arbor Day Foundation tree-giveaway program recently in Colchester and Winooski turned into a timely windfall for Saint Michael’s College. It led to a well-attended tree-planting event for students, sponsored by the campus environmental group Green Up on a near-perfect September afternoon. This year’s surplus—65 trees without a forever home—led to a call from foundation officials to St. Mike’s faculty biologist Declan McCabe. Decisions about possible locations for the trees around campus will come from the facilities team. Trevien Stanger of the environmental studies and science faculty is sponsor and advisor to the group. “I often think of Trevien Stanger as our Lorax,” said McCabe. “He speaks for the trees.”

Maeve Kolb ’22 with fellow members of her program.

STUDYING ABROAD IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC: KISUMU, KENYA

LIFE SKILLS

Todd Johnstone-Wright ’95 is convinced that the professional skills most relevant to today’s global workplace develop best in precisely the environment that Saint Michael’s College offers: liberal arts learning with high-impact co-curricular

Maeve Kolb, Class of 2022, was among the few who were able to study abroad their junior year in the spring of 2021. “Reading and learning about disease in a place far removed from the diseases themselves is a much different experience from learning about disease in a place where you are incredibly vulnerable to them,” said the Saint Michael’s College political science major. Kolb ventured out of the traditional classroom structure of the Saint Michael’s campus to study public health issues in Kenya through a program of the Vermont-based School for International Training.

Sam Calloway ’22 off-loads a tree for planting in the Natural Area as Professor Declan McCabe stands on the truck bed to help.

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NEWS HIGHLIGHTS 6

Fulbright student Yasmine ElShamy

and interesting conversations that expand the life of the mind as part of a well-rounded education. Efforts to do so have a new name and a wider scope than before, through a new initiative called UpLift. This year’s programming lineup resulted from an initiative originating more than a year ago by Dawn Ellinwood, vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

(workers), Susanne Ellicks ’19, Mamava (customers), and Mike Hayes ’08, Ben & Jerry’s (community).

WELCOME FULBRIGHT STUDENTS!

Three international students are at Saint Michael’s College on prestigious Fulbright scholarships this year. Oumar Moussa Djigo from Senegal and Francois Raogo Wemniga from Burkina Faso arrived in August and are studying in a typically two-year program in the Education Department’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program. Yasmine ElShamy from Egypt also began in August and is in the clinical psychology graduate program—the first time that area of study has welcomed an international Fulbright student.

UPLIFT NOW

Saint Michael’s College continually improves and fine-tunes programming outside the classroom to engage students in dynamic

Vice President of Student Affairs Dawn Ellinwood

Director of Public Safety Stanley Valles

OUR NEW DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY

BUSINESS FOR A BETTER WORLD

Businesses formally committed to improving the world can receive certification as “B Corps” companies through an international program of the past 15 years. This fall, a panel of Saint Michael’s graduates working for local B Corps told about 30 students, faculty, and staff what this designation looks like in their daily work and why it matters. Professor Paul Olsen of the Saint Michael’s business administration and accounting faculty organized the panel with Ingrid Peterson, director of the College’s Career Education Center. The alumni panelists (and the general areas they focused upon) were: Colin Gaunt ’19, Burton Snowboards (Environment); Matt Reese ’09, Vermont Creamery

Stanley Valles, the director of public safety at Saint Michael’s College since early August, has over 25 years of experience in law enforcement and public safety. Over those 25 years, Valles has held the roles of police officer, detective, community relations officer, school resource officer, corrections counselor, adjunct instructor, and director of campus safety. He said, “I believe in ‘harm reduction,’ the ‘good Samaritan law,’ community relations, discretion, and compassion. I also believe that I will do whatever it takes to protect my family …. St. Mike’s is now a part of that family.”

SAFE SOLAR SHEEP IN THE SHADE

About 60 sheep spent a week eating, sleeping, and keeping the grass and weeds at manageable heights down around the Saint Michael’s College solar array behind St. Joseph’s Hall by the Winooski River. Lewis Fox, the Vermont-based farmer who is the caretaker of the

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flock that came to St. Mike’s in mid-July, said sheep are a more practical way to manage unwanted grassy growth around solar arrays compared with attempts to mow, since sheep are far better at getting in the nooks and crannies of the equipment. “They spend a lot of time sleeping in the shade,” he said.

CRONOGUE TRIBUTE

“A day that tugs at the heartstrings of thousands” is how Angie Armour, Saint Michael’s College director of alumni and parent relations, described the dedication of the newly named Cronogue

Dancing at Lughnasa program

A CELTIC HARVEST

Dancing at Lughnasa, a bittersweet memory play set in the fictional Irish town of Ballybeg in the summer of 1936—is the fall Mainstage play at Saint Michael’s College, ran November 4 and 15, in the first public

Edmundites help to dedicate the newly-named Cronogue Hall.

theater performance in McCarthy Arts Center since November 2019. Director Peter Harrigan ’83 of the Saint Michael’s fine arts/theatre faculty calls playwright Brian Friel’s 1990 Olivier Award– and Tony Award–winning winning play “a sort of Irish version of The Glass Menagerie.”

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Sheeps graze in the Saint Michael’s College solar array.

Hall on campus to memorialize a beloved late member of the College’s resident founding religious order, the Society of Saint Edmund. The official naming of the handsome modern residence hall on the northeast corner of campus honors the late Fr. Michael Cronogue, who died suddenly in 2016, a moment that stunned and saddened the campus and extended Saint Michael’s community.

ACADEMIC CONVOCATION

At this year’s annual Academic Convocation—a September tradition established in 1986 to honor Saint Michael’s College scholars and scholarship—more than 100 faculty, staff, students, and College leaders came together in the McCarthy Arts Center Recital Hall on Friday, September 24. The event included the presentation of three major faculty awards, which Master of Ceremonies VP for Academic Affairs and Dean Jeffrey Trumbower said were chosen by the Faculty Council. The winners were: Norbert A. Kuntz Service Award, Jeffrey Ayres, political science/international relations; Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Award, William Ellis, fine arts/music; and 2018 Joanne Rathgeb Teaching Award, Carolyn Kukens-Olson, Spanish.

The dais party at this year’ Academic Convocation.

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SGA’s New Secretary for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ALEXYAH DETHVONGSA ’22 BY L AUR A HARDIN ’22

he pandemic has placed unique demands on students serving as secretary for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for the Saint Michael’s College Student Government Association (SGA). Alexyah Dethvongsa ’22, presently serving in that role, is grateful for the support she is receiving from her predecessor, Ashley DeLeon ’23.

“The goal of the DEI secretary is to make sure that all communities on campus are heard, while making sure the campus is promoting an equitable community,” said Dethvongsa. With an outline of her initiatives for this year, Dethvongsa hopes to educate the community and create a master list of connections for staff and students. “We as a community work together to solve problems

related to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” she said. “There are a lot of clubs and individual students on campus that care. We have the resources…. So, really, it’s just about making sure that we create and build those working connections to move forward with what we want our campus to look like,” she said. “I want to give students resources to educate themselves on ideas such as, ‘how do I break down my implicit biases?’ and ‘how do I make an equitable community for people?’” she said. “My main idea is to create a quarterly newsletter to keep up with those constant resources.” Dethvongsa hopes that when people look to move forward next year, these connections will be a foundation for positive things in the future.

Alexyah Dethvongsa ’22, speaking at a community event against bias.

“Thanks to Ashley, that sense of community is so strong,” said Dethvongsa. “So, moving forward, I would like all DEI positions across campus to be able to lean on each other for support. My goal is to create clear and consistent connections to resources.” DeLeon is happy that she found a way to educate the community without contributing to any coronavirus outbreaks outbreaks on campus. For her, the position meant fostering a sense of community at a very difficult time. DeLeon moved on to become the SGA’s secretary for student life. “I can think of no one better than Alexyah to fill this position,” said DeLeon, “and after the pandemic, there is an even bigger opportunity to open up more conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Before and After JOEL RIBOUT, DIRECTOR OF FACILITIES BY SUSAN SALTER REYNOLDS

t is sometimes hard to remember that life went on during the pandemic. Babies were born, people were promoted, couples got married, dogs were acquired. When we talk about “the before times,” a break in the space-time continuum is implied, when, for so many, the pandemic was folded awkwardly into the flow of life.

On the plus side, Ribout found that facilities directors at other Vermont colleges, particularly those in the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium, increased their efforts to share information. “We developed relationships,” he reports, “that were not there before COVID.” At one point, Champlain College shared

be flexible with work schedules during the pandemic. “We didn’t put any pressure on people to come in,” he says. One of Ribout’s first jobs on campus was overseeing the construction of a new residence, now named Cronogue Hall. “That’s my building,”

In February 2020, Joel Ribout became director of facilities—put in charge of a team of 50 people. With extreme equanimity, Ribout remembers that “My responsibilities grew tremendously. Every day brought new challenges.” Students were sent home in March, which gave the staff a bit of breathing room to decide on next steps. Ribout stepped on a rapidly moving learning curve that included HVAC systems, CDC recommendations, cleaning, and a universe of disinfectant products (extended “dwell times,” for example, meant that many of these products had lost their potency—who knew?). In the “before times,” work orders would be placed for, say, clogged toilets. But appointments to fix things now involved protocols. People who work in facilities generally have to appear in person. Major changes were required in the way these work orders were handled. Appointments were increasingly scheduled online. Ribout and his staff met every challenge.

Director of Facilities Joel Ribout a supply of N-95 masks with Saint Michael’s personnel. St. Mike’s later returned the favor. Ribout, who has been with the college since 2015, is extremely proud that the College was able to

he says. Folks around campus jokingly called it “Ribout Hall” because it did not have an official name at the time. His favorite spot on campus? No hesitation: the Overlook. “I go there in fall, winter, spring, and summer, just to see the seasons change around Camel’s Hump.”

Reflecti BY SUSAN SALTER REYNOLDS

B ACK T O THE M IS S IO N Rev. Marcel Rainville, SSE, is proud to have grown up in the Edmundites’ original U.S. parish in Swanton, Vermont. He joined the society in 1962 and first studied Spanish in Puerto Rico between his junior and senior years at Saint Michael’s, where he studied philosophy. After graduating in 1967, he went to Venezuela, and returned to campus in 1993. He has lived a life of reflection; each day contains various habits of reflection. “I was raised on a farm,” Fr. Rainville explains, “so I get up early. As priests, we have a daily routine that includes readings from Scripture and classic Church authors, along with prayers, and psalms from the Old Testament. We pray these prayers three or four times a day, some in community, some on our own. They are an anchor for my day.” After morning prayer, he often stays on to do a prayerful reflection, preparing for Mass and other events. He reflects on spiritual writings that may be helpful with faculty, staff, and students he has interaction with. These daily rituals are both focused

and non-focused. Often, the reflections touch on the importance of our baptism as a source of meaning for life. Lately, Fr. Rainville has been dwelling on the question, “What is really essential?” How might he be of better service to the people who come to him for guidance? “I have been thinking how important it is not to be self-centered about my preaching. Who am I doing this for? For myself? No, for others. I’ve tried to be more sincere, more grounded. I ask myself, ‘Is this sermon really touching people’s lives or does it just make me feel good to deliver it?’ One of the concrete consequences of the pandemic,” he says, “has been a seriousness about who I am and what I do. It has made me slow down, brought me back to the idea of mission, and deepened my understanding, not as an intellectual exercise, but an existential one.” He finds that his homilies are less doctrinaire, showing more compassion, for example, for people who are divorced but want to be faithful to the church. His relationship with people in the LGBTQ community has

“One of the concrete consequences of the pandemic has been a seriousness about who I am and what I do. It has made me slow down, brought me back to the idea of mission, and deepened my understanding, not as an intellectual exercise, but an existential one.”

REFLECTION

“We pivoted to virtual events, and the world, and my working and living space, got a lot smaller.” — ALEX MELILLO ’11

shifted and deepened. “It has made me put myself in that person’s shoes, less like a policeman who simply imposes the law. “I feel strongly that I need to focus on real people, instead of an ideology. Each person is a very special creation, and we need to treat them as such. The pandemic has helped me to see the beauty of each individual. “Academia can be a head game,” he explains. “Students talk about being spiritual, but not religious. Authentic, well-lived religion is existential. Religion developed from existential experiences.” Fr. Rainville worries about the decline in the numbers of students at Mass, especially since the pandemic. He worries about the ways that identity politics, with a focus on individual rights, have threatened community spirit. “We can’t be who we are without the village that raised us.”

to live closer to her family in New Jersey. And she was feeling increasingly isolated. “We used to do 500 in-person events a year; then everything went remote. We pivoted to virtual events, and the world, and my working and living space, got a lot smaller.” She began reflecting more on the idea of home. “My family always hated that I called Japan home,” she laughs. “‘No, no,’ they’d say, ‘New Jersey is your home!’” Japan never implemented a true lockdown, just multiple states of emergencies, and Melillo began to worry about what it would be like to be sick in a country that was not home, speaking another language, trying to navigate the health system. As the number of cases rose, and Japan prepared for the Olympics, Melillo

REF LECTIN G O N THE MEANING O F HO M E Alex Melillo ’11 moved back to the U.S. from Japan in July 2021, after living in Japan for 10 years. As external affairs coordinator for U.S. Government Affairs at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ), she lived a full and exciting life. But by the time the pandemic hit, she had already been feeling that she needed Alex Melillo ’11

prepared to leave. Finding a job during a pandemic was daunting, but when an opportunity opened up as an associate on the Japan team at the Asia Group in Washington, D.C., she applied. And got it. “When I leap, I leap,” she says laughingly. For many in the Saint Michael’s community, reflection was inextricably tied to being outside. Will Coppola ’22’s favorite form of contemplation is running. “I have been running for about eight years” he says, “and it has always been the best way for me to think through any problems I have in my life.” COVID made Coppola take his life goals more seriously. “I had a lot of time to pause and analyze what I wanted to prioritize and was able to act on my goals when life started to normalize again.”

DY NA MI C R E F L ECTI ON Since the pandemic, Amir Barghi, assistant professor of mathematics and Statistics, aspires to be more patient with himself and with others. He also tries “to cherish the connections that I have even more, and I try not to take many things in life for granted.” The future is always uncertain, he notes, but the pandemic has made this uncertainty even more tangible and universal.

Eben Widlund

RIS K FACT O RS Much of the work that Eben Widlund does as the wilderness program assistant at Saint Michael’s is outside, so the pandemic, initially, did not change much about the way he works with students. “Assessing and managing risk is what we do. We are in constant dialogue around the consequences of our actions. And getting 20-year-olds to think about risk,” he admits, “can be challenging.” The trouble with COVID, he explains, was all the unknowns. “If you don’t know what the hazards are, you don’t enter the terrain.” This is where reflection comes in. Before and

after every trip Widlund, instructors, and students gather information and analyze risks. After trips, he talks further with the instructors, asking them to reflect on what they would have done differently. “There’s a feeling of freedom being outdoors—you get to make your own choices. There is the perception that during a health risk, outside is a healthy place to be,” he says. Eventually, the pandemic forced new restrictions on being outside. As more people headed outside, trail systems became more crowded and suffered immense damage. Search and rescue is stretched to the breaking point.

To deal with these difficult times, Barghi engages in passive reflection, but also in active reflection. “I started doing origami again, after more than 10 years. I also started playing music whenever I got a chance. I guess picking up things again where we have left them long ago moves in waves through our lives.” Because much of his focus during the day is on his academic life, Barghi finds that he needs forms of active reflection with a flow, forms that are dynamic, like playing music or folding paper. Although he has not experienced a significant shift in his priorities, he feels a renewed urgency around the importance of paying attention to signs and warnings, like the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the MERS outbreak in 2012. “We didn’t take

REFLECTION

At home, Widlund has had more time with his daughter, age 9. He’s had more time to walk the dog, more time for bike rides. But he has been surprised by how much he misses one-on-one time with students. “I always took that for granted. Now, I’m much more likely to make sure we have that contact in the future.”

REFLECTION 14

Kathryn Dungy, associate professor of history teaching a class in the Word Garden. these outbreaks seriously enough. Fighting a pandemic requires a global effort. To this end, we need to become better collaborators. And at an even deeper level, we need to become better listeners, and to become kinder and more patient with each other,” he says.

A NEW NARRATIV E Kathryn Dungy, associate professor of history, is a self-described “global person.” The pandemic clipped her wings. “I’ve spent more time in my house,” she laughs, “than I have in any one place, ever.” The pros: more time with her husband and her cats. More time noticing the changing seasons. The cons: Netflix. “How is it that everyone has more time for Netflix? I am busier than I was before, 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. I don’t have time for Netflix.”

That said, Dungy did a lot of “soul searching” during the pandemic. She reimagined her courses and her pedagogy in general. Dungy teaches history and colonization of the Americas. Epidemiology is huge in this context, whether settlers were bringing people to the U.S. on ships against their will or spreading diseases that annihilated indigenous populations. Some people say that this is the first global pandemic,” she says. “But that is not true, there have been others.” The difference is that this pandemic has affected everyone. “There will be an interesting reckoning on the other side of this,” Dungy says, speaking like an historian. With so many convergences in the spring of 2020: George Floyd’s murder, the election fallout, and the lockdown, Dungy was grateful to be forced to stay inside. “I don’t know how I would

have handled all this being out,” she says. “So many of these things happened when we were forced to sit and listen.” Listening begins at home. Dungy decided that everything she did had to answer four questions: Is it the path I’m on? Is there an inherent good? Is it hurting anyone? Is it hurting me? In the before times, she admits, she was jumping through other people’s hoops. No more. And yet, she is hopeful about the changes in academia that she has seen. “Voices that were silenced are being heard. Critical race theory, intersectionality— For my entire career, these things have been considered peripheral to the academic mission. The pandemic has given us the space to slow down and listen to these voices. ‘Go on with your narrative,’ I say. ‘All I’m asking is that you hear my voice. Add it to your own experience. Do not subtract it.’”

“Now the changes I tend to make are more internal to me—being attentive to how I think and whether and how I need to change my thinking.” — SHEFALI MISR A, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE T HE P OWER O F REF LECTIO N “I like to think that I used to be pretty good at holding those dearest to me close before COVID,” says Shefali Misra, associate professor of political science. “But since COVID that is much more self-consciously a top priority, especially as I lost both my parents during COVID, though not to it. It has also made me more sensitive, perhaps, to other people’s struggles and attentiveness to their well-being.”

Misra believes that the pandemic increased efforts to make the world a better place. Being in a situation of shared misfortune, she says, heightens compassion. “It is not a coincidence that a lot more people in the country got much more involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. Many of us were paying real attention for the first time to what has gone on forever. The real challenge is not to lose this compassion and the commitment it engendered when the world returns to normalcy and a frantic pace of life.” What will change and what will remain the same? Misra admits that early on in life, change usually came about after some major setback or heartache. “I found it easiest then to make drastic change through a complete change of scene: pace, place, profession, people. Now the changes I tend to make are more internal to me—being attentive to how I think and whether and how I need to change my thinking.” The power of reflection.

Shefali Misra, associate professor of political science

Value Added I Diane Corbett, Director of Student Financial Services BY MARK TARNACKI

“I saw firsthand— in my own case, and then for students at SUNY, Ohio State, and Cornell— how transformative a college education can be.”

n a college financial-aid world complicated by the recent pandemic and government policy changes affecting key issues like affordability, student debt, and the reduction of barriers for low-income families, the timing was ideal for Saint Michael’s to hire a top national veteran leader in the field.

Diane Corbett became the College’s new director of student financial services in July, moving to Vermont to be closer to family after leading the financial aid team most recently at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and before that, at The Ohio State University. Corbett heard of the opening through professional channels after having decided to move nearer her son and grandchildren in Williston, and family and friends in her native region of New York’s Adirondacks. “As a first-generation college student, I well remember being interested in some schools after high school, but I selfselected out because I believed it was going to be a financial stretch for my family,” said Corbett, who as an undergraduate found a good fit at SUNY Oswego, where she majored in communications studies and Spanish and grew to appreciate the value of her liberal arts education as her career moved forward. “I saw firsthand—in my

own case, and then for students at SUNY, Ohio State, and Cornell—how transformative a college education can be. Sometimes families look at sticker price and don’t drill down deeper to see which college is best for them holistically, meaning academically, financially, and socially,” she said. “I would say to them, look at what the college or university offers for financial aid, and also at the full experience that comes with your investment. At St. Mike’s, we’re funding students to make this valuable education affordable. Ask what it’s actually going to cost your family with all the financial support you are offered and consider all the things you will gain from this investment in your future.” Corbett was particularly drawn to the spirit of social justice that is evident in the College’s culture, given her own family’s long commitment, both professionally and as volunteers, to supporting initiatives that serve others. Another big factor in her decision to take the job was the instant rapport she felt with Kristin McAndrew, Saint Michael’s vice president for enrollment and marketing, to whom she will directly report. Corbett said that in their extensive talks during interviews, she appreciated McAndrew’s “strategic vision for enrollment and emphasis on cross-functional collaboration… admissions and financial aid working together to assure we’re providing students with the best possible student service, while working in tandem to achieve the goals of the institution.”

Saint Michael’s College swimming and diving coach Eileen Hall in the Ross Sports Center pool.

Recruiting in a Pandemic BY L AUREN READ

n 2020, Saint Michael’s swimming and diving coach Eileen Hall was heading home from a recruiting trip—meeting with athletes, chatting with families, and watching practices—when the world changed.

“My last recruiting trip, I came home March 8, 2020, and then after that, the doors slammed shut,” .... said Hall who is in her 12th year as head coach. “That was the last time that I traveled for recruiting.” We have heard a lot about how COVID-19 changed the landscape in businesses, classrooms, and restaurants. But here on campus, athletics and athletic recruiting were also profoundly affected. An important part of the recruiting process for prospective students is having in-person meetings with coaches, coming for a campus visit, and meeting potential teammates. COVID-19 shut the door on those opportunities, and coaches had to pivot. Fast. “Saint Michael’s is a school that looks really good on paper—but it looks really, really good in person,” Hall said. “That was my biggest challenge, trying to get kids to pick Saint Michael’s College, even if some of them had never been on campus before.”

“I think that any high school As campus shut down and all tours and open houses went online, Saint Michael’s coaches found themselves going virtual, too. “Student athletes were still reaching out to me and saying, ‘Hey, you know, St. Mike’s looks interesting,’ said Saint Michael’s alpine ski coach Gus MacLeod ’02. “We’d go back and forth, usually a few times on email, and then I would say, ‘Hey, would you like to set up a Zoom meeting?’ The big change was just a lot more Zoom meetings.” Coaches relied on virtual meetings, online campus tours, and maps and virtual admission events to reach their potential student athletes. “There are a lot of great recruiting videos that people have done and a bunch of videos that show prospective students the campus, without [them] having to actually physically come to campus,” said MacLeod, who has coached the alpine ski team for 12 years. “I’ll still use many of these tools with international [students] and our West Coast prospective student athletes who aren’t going to be able to physically come to campus to visit and check it out.” Although technology played a role, Hall explained that the ability to make connections with students, and (equally importantly) with their parents, was the first step in getting the potential Purple Knights to consider St. Mike’s. “My biggest tool—and also my biggest strength in coaching— is the ability to build relationships,” Hall said. “I spent a lot of time talking to these kids and trying to get to know them personally. I think that any high school senior who is looking at leaving home wants to land someplace where they feel seen and where they feel like somebody is interested in more than just their swim time. I really had to pull out all the stops and get to know these kids. I also reached out to their families more than I normally would have.” MacLeod and Hall reported that the efforts to recruit student athletes went fairly well. Both coaches feel good about the Saint Michael’s teams taking the field or ski mountain in 2021. “The athletes are excited that they’re able to work out again in the varsity weight room, and work out as a full team. We’re doing a retreat at the shrine soon, which everybody’s really looking forward to,” MacLeod said. “I’m excited to see what we can do on the hill against other schools. We have a good team and they’re working hard, so hopefully we can have a good season.”

senior who is looking at leaving home wants to land someplace where they feel seen and where they feel like somebody is interested in more than just their swim time. I really had to pull

out all the stops and get to know these kids.”

(left) St. Mike’s sent 5 athletes to the NCAA 2019 Championships. (L-R) Colby Jordan ’20 (Vermont); Guillaume Grand ’19 (France), Anna Willassen ’20 (Norway), Emilia Laffin ’20 (France), Coach Gus MacLeod ’02, Ben Throm ’22 (Colorado) (above) Anna Willassen ’20 charges to the SL finish. Some of the solutions that COVID-19 forced coaches to come up with will carry forward into future recruiting, including using Zoom calls and online tools to reach students who live too far away to come for campus visits. “I definitely think that using technology as part of recruiting is a really great supplement,” Hall said. “There isn’t any substitute for face-to-face meetings, and I fully intend to, if at all possible, take advantage of being able to move around this country a little more freely. I just think technology is an extra, additional piece.”

Saint Michael’s graduates from different eras speak with gratitude—even lyrically

sometimes—about life paths originating in their Vermont college years.

Connection: BY MARK TARNACKI

They describe fellow Purple Knights in business, education, service, or the natural world who have made all the difference for them as mentors in professional careers and life.

MENTORS OFFER GUIDEPOSTS AND SUPPORT FOR PURPLE KNIGHTS NAVIGATING LIFE’S CHALLENGES Meg O’Donnell ’86 joins Kaitlyn Roukey ’20 to celebrate her commencement in September 2021.

The recent and still-present pandemic vivifies how in times of uncommon challenges, the soup boils down to relationships, helpers, and adapting on the fly. To persevere and emerge relatively unscathed past difficulties like the pandemic often means tapping values and strengths cultivated in formative undergraduate years. Four representative mentors among the Saint Michael’s community—two alumni, one faculty, and one staff— shared recently how fellow Purple Knights of younger generations consider them mentors. Some of the mentees, in turn, described what those signature personalized Saint Michael’s connections have meant to them in later life as they strive to “do well and do good.”

ST U D E N T-T E A CH E R SO L D I E RS O N T H RO U G H PA N D E MI C “I’m going to stay—I’m going to keep coming,” Kaitlyn Roukey ’20 told her student-teaching mentor at Shelburne Community School, the veteran middle school educator Meg O’Donnell ’86, when the pandemic began in March of 2020. O’Donnell wasn’t surprised to hear it given what she already knew of her mentee after two months together. From early January until mid-March, Roukey helped lead O’Donnell’s classroom each day and already was soloing and showing great promise—the kids loved her. “She is a remarkable young woman—incredibly funny, very easygoing, really so joyous to work with, she just makes it fun. We had a good time together,” said

CONNECTION 22

Alison Cleary, media studies professor, and Andie Gemme ’16 in India. O’Donnell, who has mentored several Saint Michael’s education students. “She’s wise beyond her years— that exceptional person. When the pandemic came along, I told her ‘you don’t have to continue, you’re not obligated to be here in any way,’ either by Saint Michael’s or Shelburne School, given the circumstances.” But Roukey would hear none of that. All through the improvised and uncharted transition to remote learning in the weeks and months that followed staff’s and students’ abrupt departure from Shelburne’s physical school building, Roukey continued to jump in on most of the class Zooms, endlessly troubleshooting, encouraging and remaining fully present as a student teacher even when formidable obstacles presented themselves. The educators met each obstacle as a team, one by one.

A L U MN I B U SI N E SS ME N T O R PAYS I T F O RWA RD Gerry Gould ’76 embraces the blue-collar roots anchoring the grounded commonsense work ethic that led him into a long and successful career in accounting and finance. It took him all of a few minutes over coffee in Alliot Hall in 2011 to recognize a promising kindred spirit in Garrett Clark ’12, and he gave him a then-much-needed career foot in the door. “At a meeting that year, the Alumni Board asked each trustee to help one student get an internship for the coming summer,” said Gould, who served two years as a Saint Michael’s trustee automatically as an immediate past president of the College Alumni Board. “I’d requested they find somebody trying to make their way in the finance or accounting world where I come from, and luckily for me, they asked me to help a junior student athlete named Garrett Clark,” he said. “Like me, Garrett comes from a very humble background— and right away I realized, here’s this kid with dynamic personality, extremely bright, focused, and grounded since he’s from a blue-collar background—and he’s young and doesn’t realize just how far those characteristics can take him.”

— K AITLYN ROUKEY ’20

CONNECTION

“I’m going to stay—I’m going to keep coming.”

As Clark remembered it, “we instantly hit it off—Gerry has a very high-energy personality and quickly realized my strengths and what I want to do, and in a minute of conversation he was looking for ways to help me out. I come from a single-parent household—my mom is a nurse—and I didn’t really have many role models in the professional world or know where to start.” For Gould, it was a matter of paying it forward. He never has forgotten life-changing guidance he got in his youth from a generous human resources expert for the factory where his father worked in Leominster, Massachusetts: It was Tom Thayer ’64, a former St. Mike’s trustee, who spent an hour pitching to high school–aged Gerry “why St. Mike’s was the choice for me.” Clark, winner of the College’s prestigious Keleher Award as a senior for outstanding student athlete (lacrosse), said by the time he met Gould, he had grown quite confident in his abilities to succeed in the accounting world based on his strong academic performance, competitive drive, and natural personable way with people. Yet he had had trouble getting a foot in the door with no inside connections and was hitting dead ends in his quest to get a chance with a “Big 8” firm. As it happened, Gould had worked with such a firm, Ernst & Young (EY), in Boston 25 years before when he became a partner there, and a fellow partner from those days was still in charge of the Boston office’s summer internship program. Gould made a call, and soon Clark had an interview that led to an internship. He took it from there. The firm took him on for a leadership conference during the first summer, and his next

summer with the firm, he worked for his master’s degree and CPA at Boston College and starting advancing; now eight years later, he has been promoted to senior manager at the EY Boston office, running a team of 14 in the audit practice.

FA CU LT Y: A L L I SO N CL E A RY CU LT I VATES SE RVI CE , PRO F E SSI O N A L S Allison Cleary doesn’t think the key lessons she transmits to student journalists and charitable volunteers are really so different at the core. “In each case it was about helping them navigate a new culture and try to understand the shared human dignity,” she said. The success stories of Elisabeth O’Donnell ’19 and Andie Gemme ’16 could hardly look more different on the surface. O’Donnell works in public relations and journalism in Boston after two years as editor of The Defender— Saint Michael’s student newspaper. Gemme, after two extended service trips to India as a student with Cleary to work alongside Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity, with deep involvement in the Adventure Sports Center back in Vermont, is now a researcher for Energy Efficiency at TRC in Washington state as a passionate environmentalist. Yet these women share a vital common denominator in Cleary, an instructor on the Saint Michael’s media studies, journalism and digital arts faculty. Recently named director of the College’s Writing Center, where mentoring still is central to her work, Cleary was the College’s international service coordinator from 2011 to 2017, with two trips each year except one—13 adventures in all, to destinations such as India, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. It was on one such trip to Kolkata, India,

“One of the many things that we instilled CONNECTION

in Adventure Sports Center students was the ability to adapt and overcome, the perseverance to keep working the problem.” — TODD JOHNSTONE -WRIGHT ’95 24

that Gemme grew close to Cleary as they joined the Sisters’ demanding charitable work among the most destitute—in 2014 and again in 2016, for two months each time.

Wright said. “In addition, I would often tell students that when [you] need help, ask for help, and when someone offers you help, accept it.”

“It is hard to find the words for Allison’s impact on my life,” Gemme said. “Allison had this warm and special way of pushing me out of my comfort zone, while praising and encouraging the parts of myself that I didn’t quite know existed or trusted as leadership skills yet. I feel like a good mentor can know and understand our strengths and weaknesses before we do.”

Wright said most of the work that ASC student staff engaged in “was consequence-based, meaning that they always had to consider the potential outcomes of their actions. In other words, their actions and decisions have a direct impact on others. I think this notion is missing among many in society as we continue to grind through this pandemic.”

O’Donnell said working with Cleary as a professional journalism mentor “was so different from relationships with other professors—it felt more like a real partnership than a teacher-student situation. The way she works with students gives you so much confidence in yourself and how you’re able to contribute to a team, something that propelled me forward after St. Mike’s.” Today O’Donnell says she uses most of the skills from her Defender days on the content marketing team of Walker Sands (formerly March) Communications in Boston, which specializes in tech clients.

Regarding mentors, Wright’s mind turns most immediately not to himself but to the Saint Michael’s faculty and staff who helped set his life’s course when he began as a student in 1991 directly out of combat duty in the Army: Carey Kaplan and Bob Niemi in his major of English, the late Rev. Michael Cronogue, SSE, and Jennie Cernosia of the Student Life staff then.

S TA FF: TO DD J OHNS T ONE - W R IGHT It is common for Todd Johnstone-Wright ’95 to hear from former students like Andie Gemme of the impact he or his program had on their lives when he led the Adventure Sports program before taking on a new mentoring role this year developing Undergraduate Professional Endorsements for meaningful out-of-class experiences. “One of the many things that we instilled in Adventure Sports Center students was the ability to adapt and overcome, the perseverance to keep working the problem,”

Cernosia said Wright “already knew much about leadership, discipline, and duty to oneself and others from the Army. He jumped right in ready to serve in this new community. He joined the Outing Club and never looked back.” In retrospect, she sees herself less as a mentor and more as “a provider of a safe space to help him explore a very different adult world. Students looked up to Todd. I looked up to Todd.” She recalled commenting once to a student “that if anything happened to me on campus, call Todd before anyone else. He will know what to do.”

To learn about Wright’s newest initiative visit smcvt.edu/upe

CONNECTION 25

BY SUSAN SALTER REYNOLDS

“I 26

used to think that I could plan for things,” Professor Krista Billingsley says ruefully. She was pregnant when the pandemic first made landfall in Vermont, and by June, when their daughter was born, she and her husband were “really isolated.” Her husband’s father was taken by COVID, and the couple, both from rural Tennessee, focused even more on taking care of their family. “We started really living in the now,” she says. Billingsley’s research was also at a critical point. Her work on transitional justice in Nepal, or justice processes implemented after Nepal’s armed conflict, had her interviewing people who had experienced gross human rights violations as children. With the aid of a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship and Wenner-Gren Grant, she spent 14 months conducting research in Nepal. After the state-led truth commissions stopped accepting victims’ statements describing their experiences of human rights violations, victims’ statements were hidden away in filing cabinets. The work became increasingly urgent. While much of her research was conducted pre-pandemic in person, post-pandemic Billingsley received a Wenner-Gren Engaged Anthropology Grant to conduct an engaged research project with children of the disap-

peared in Bardiya District, Nepal. Through the project, victims told their stories to memorialize their loved ones who remain missing more than a decade after the cessation of Nepal’s armed conflict. The research has taken the form of a film project, which Billingsley is now editing. Pre-COVID, she says, she would not have done a film, but in the remote, virtual world, she has found a whole new way to present her work. “I am proud of this film,” she says, “and there is something powerful about being able to produce something in the midst of chaos.” Visual anthropologist can now be added to her considerable resume. Although she had to work harder to keep her students engaged, Billingsley enjoyed remote teaching. She appreciated the additional context and insight into students’ lives. “I’ve had to be more flexible to accommodate student absences.” On the plus side, she has found that student projects have become more introspective; there has been more sharing, perhaps inspired by the lived realities of COVID. “It’s like my home life,” she laughs. “I can make a plan, but it doesn’t always work out.”

The Best Laid Krista Billingsley, director of criminology and assistant professor of anthropology and criminology

“I am proud of this film, and there is something powerful about being able to produce something in the midst of chaos.”

Plans….

Reinvention BY SUSAN SALTER REYNOLDS

The Shoelace Factor In late March 2020, Peter Harrigan, professor of fine arts: theatre, was sewing. Sewing has always been a part of his career, but this time it was different. He began by making 75 masks for family and friends. “You really had to use what you had,” he says. And suddenly, a national shortage of elastic! Harrigan went to the drugstore. He found plenty of shoelaces. They worked fine. He calls this form of reinvention “the shoelace factor.” On March 15, Harrigan’s father passed away. His mother delivered his father’s clothing, five contractor bags, to Harrigan. “He had bright blue eyes, and he always wore these blue plaid shirts.” Harrigan began sewing. He made a quilt of the blue plaid shirts and gave it to his mother.

“It was lovely therapy, ” he says. More reinvention: When campus shut down in March, students performed the play they had been working on via Zoom. The following fall, they decided to make a video project, a “theatrical video,” which they are still editing. “It’s humbling,” Harrigan says. “As the director, I’m used to being in control. But I don’t have video editing skills, so I have to convey what I want to other people.” This “letting go” has been another form of reinvention for Harrigan. The pandemic also inspired a new relationship with his students. He’s moving away from tests, creating new options for projects, and sensing students’ greater willingness to reveal more about their lives in their classwork. “Those gates were closing,” he says of work/ life boundaries pre-COVID. Finding humor during the pandemic has been challenging, but imperative. Running the Faculty Assembly, Harrigan tried to introduce a bit of levity to the online meetings. “I have a doll collection,” he says, “and I tried to do puppet shows, with the dolls in the meetings. I had a President Sterritt doll—when you pulled the string, she said, “do well, do good.”

Professor Peter Harrigan

REINVENTION

“Student well-being is always the priority.”

Permission to Be Still Krystyna Davenport Brown, vice president for institutional advancement, was used to traveling; institutional advancement is hightouch work. “In my field, so much is based on personal relationships, on bringing the St. Mike’s experience to friends and alumni. People crave that reconnection with their alma mater,” she says. How to recreate that personal relationship? During the pandemic, Davenport Brown has discovered that the telephone works much better than email. “I pick up the phone a lot more, and I find it is possible to have really meaningful conversations.” She has discovered just how important the human voice can be, especially when it comes to nostalgia. “I took a lot of pictures and had many meaningful conversations about Founders Hall before it came down,” she reports. She also rediscovered the art of the handwritten note. “In many ways, these relationships have gotten more personal, more individualized.” That goes for the traditional work/ home divide as well. “Working from home has really humanized people. We get snapshots of their lives. And when my 6-year-old wanders into the room while I’m in a meeting and says ‘Mom, I’m hungry,’ well, I’m going to get her a snack!” Davenport Brown says she has a renewed understanding of what really matters. “In my line of work, you are always trying to prove you can go 24/7. I’ve given myself permission to be still.”

Renewed Social Justice in the Library

Director of Library and Information Services Laura Crain and her dog, Mel.

In the spring of 2020, Laura Crain, director of library and information services, adopted a 4-year-old lapdog, named Mel, a “bringer of joy.” The library closed that spring,

REINVENTION 31

Marlon Hyde ’21 (left) at a Vermont Lake Monster’s baseball game for a VPR story. and reopened in the fall, but for Crain, home life in the pandemic has been framed by her relationship with Mel. “Student well-being is always the priority,” she says of her professional obligations. “In the library, we found ourselves connecting more with students. We offered books and cookie deliveries to quarantined students.” The library, Crain reminds her listener, has always been a social space. Technology has changed library spaces, but that change was on its way well before the pandemic. Libraries have been on the forefront of what Crain calls change management, including the rapidly evolving ways people find information and the ways information is produced and accessed. But the library ethos hasn’t changed. “Libraries are welcoming spaces,” she says. In regular meetings with the Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries, library directors discussed how to keep that ethos alive, despite mask-wearing and social distancing. The pandemic has also renewed Crain’s interest in fighting misinformation. She sees helping students question bias in the media and adopt a balanced “information diet” as one of the fundamental goals of academic libraries, and she has been giving more time to advocacy on this and various

social justice issues. “We have to ensure that our collections are diverse,” she says. At St. Mike’s, library staff have reviewed areas of the collection to make sure representation in fiction and nonfiction is balanced.

The Earth Will Outlast Us For Marlon Hyde ’21, news fellow at Vermont Public Radio, the stress of the pandemic forced a new chapter with an interesting reinvention: increased self-care. Exercising, eating, product choices all came under fresh scrutiny. Hyde, who majored in Media Studies, Journalism, and Digital Arts, found that the flexibility enabled by remote work inspired an increase in his creativity. Finding ways to be calm, to de-stress, and to relax proved critical in helping ideas “to flow easier.” Sometimes that involves music, sometimes it just means wearing the right hoodie. And sometimes it means connecting with friends. Like Crain, Hyde believes the pandemic sped up the advancement of media technology in ways that were altogether too slow in coming in the before times. YouTube channels, podcasts, and social media content “bloomed and blossomed because of the number of people that now had time to view what they were producing.”

During the pandemic, Hyde has become more interested in health and climate change, subjects that prepandemic, he felt drawn to but didn’t have time to pursue. Traveling in Morocco before March 2020, Hyde found himself in conversations about how climate change was affecting the way viruses travel. Once the pandemic hit, the urgency around these subjects for Hyde, and many others, increased. “We are running out of time to address many of the human-made issues that this planet unfortunately must suffer through. What I’ve learned is, the earth will outlast us,” he says.

Finding Her Place For Misha D’Andrea ’15, the pandemic caused a tectonic shift in priorities and goals. “Early in the pandemic, we were forced to pay attention to various cultural events. After the murder of George Floyd I had to stop. I could no longer claim to be too busy to pay attention. Those of us with privilege had to pay attention.” D’Andrea made the leap from her job in higher education in employer relations at Tufts University to a position as an inclusion coach and facilitator in the diversity, equality, and inclusion department of Cloudera, a tech company.

REINVENTION 32

While at Tufts, D’Andrea participated in an “Unpacking Whiteness Dialogue,” in which participants meet for 1.5 hours a week for six weeks to have a dialogue on systemic inequities in the U.S. She became a facilitator for the series and then went to the University of Southern Florida for a certificate in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. When the opportunity arose at Cloudera, she jumped. “Tech moves a lot faster than higher ed,” she explains. “In tech, if you have an idea, most of the time you can run with it. There’s much more autonomy.”

Urgency Makes the Heart Grow Fonder? Ashley DeLeon ’23 was overwhelmed in the fall of 2020. She had just started editing for the Defender, and by spring term she had become its executive editor. With only half of the staff available to work on stories, DeLeon was keenly aware of how much the student body depended on the Defender for information. “People were getting laid off at the College, there were tensions between students and Public Safety, COVID guidelines

outbreak at Saint Michael’s demanded attention and response. DeLeon, forced to cover all sides of many stories, felt a renewed sense of community. “I think the mood on campus today is, well, grateful,” she says, a note of relief in her voice. “Being sent home was a bummer. The confusion around COVID regulations was a bummer. People have started paying attention in ways they weren’t in the beginning of the pandemic. They seem much happier.”

Ashley DeLeon ’23 D’Andrea has experienced profound changes in her life since the pandemic. She experienced a lot of guilt for what she calls her “complacency.” The pause necessitated by the pandemic gave her the breathing room she needed. “I had to figure out how I could be part of the solution. My passion is now my full-time job and the pandemic was a catalyst for making that happen.”

were changing. People were looking to us for information.” When DeLeon started writing for the Defender in her first year, there was much less urgency, less hunger for information. “COVID made me love journalism even more,” she says. “My sense of obligation to my audience only grew.” During the pandemic, the stories DeLeon worked on involved more investigative journalism. Stories in the national news about students not following restrictions and the

The Visible Profession One of the bittersweet consequences of the pandemic, for Candas Pinar, assistant professor of sociology, is that there’s been a remarkable growth in interest in the field of public health among Saint Michael’s College students. “I’ve found a lot of meaning in sharing my research interests with them. One of the most significant challenges that public health professionals face is that public health

is an ‘invisible profession.’ You may not really know what public health is or what public health professionals do until there’s a disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic has, unfortunately, brought to light the significance of public health, disease prevention, and the social determinants of health.” Pinar’s teaching has changed postpandemic. “I have always erred on the side of teaching with empathy and care, and I think the pandemic has only affirmed my commitment to this approach. Last year, I began carving out time in my classes to build connection and community among students, and I’ve held onto this in my teaching,” she says. “I’ve also come to embrace flexibility more than ever before so that I can better serve the needs of students. Last year, that meant diving deep into the world of digital pedagogy to learn about how to create a meaningful learning experience for students online. This year, perhaps in response to more than a year of teaching through digital platforms, I’ve gone in the opposite direction, bringing classes outdoors as much as possible so that we can simply sit with a text and with each other.” Pinar’s work habits and research methods have largely stayed the same, but her commitment to collaboration has deepened. “I’m a big believer in team science. Especially as someone who does research that lies at the intersection of multiple disciplines, I have always enjoyed collaborating with scholars from different corners of the academic universe. The social isolation brought about by the pandemic has only reaffirmed my enthusiasm for co-authorship and collaborative research. Like so many other parents of young children, I have had to change the way I work in response to waves of school closures and quarantines. It has meant that the lines between work and family have been blurred in ways that I previously never would have imagined.”

“I have always erred on the side of teaching with empathy and care, and I think the pandemic has only affirmed my commitment to this approach.”

Candas Pinar, assistant professor of sociology, enjoys a stroll along a Vermont stream close to her home.

Empowering Community with Bicycles DAN HOCK ’09 BY ARIEL WISH ’20

ince graduating from St. Mike’s, former political science major and campus activist Dan Hock ’09 has worked with Old Spokes Home to build, empower, and inform his community. More than a retail bike shop, Old Spokes Home “uses the bicycle and the culture that surrounds it as a tool to promote connection among people,” said Hock. He noted that providing affordable full-service repairs, conducting job trainings through partnerships with adult learning centers, and even offering free bikes and parts to young children are only a few of the ways in which the organization serves the Burlington area.

“My professional journey is both directly and philosophically linked to my St. Mike’s experiences,” said Hock, explaining that this work grew from a nonprofit organization, Bike Recycle Vermont, which he founded through the College during his sophomore year. “As a student of political science amid the post-9/11 war in Iraq, I was spending a lot of time learning about devastating international conflict,” he said. Feeling helpless on the global level, Hock took to Bike Recycle and quickly saw how he could use his passion for bicycles to make change in the local community.

“I’M BEYOND GRATEFUL FOR THE LENSES THAT THE FACULTY AND STAFF HELPED ME DEVELOP WHEN I WAS A STUDENT AT THE COLLEGE.”

Dan Hock ’09 ready to lead The Old Spokes Home Fall Fundo Ride celebrating Vermont’s fall foliage while fundraising for his non-profit.

Hock predicts that the bicycle industry will be affected by COVID for another year. However, Old Spokes Home “continues to service any costumer or client who needs it.”

Years later, Hock would be responsible for driving the effort to combine Bike Recycle Vermont with Old Spokes Home, which was then a for-profit business. A large success, this merger not only earned Hock the 2019 VBSR Young Changemaker Award but provided him and his colleagues the means to implement the social justice initiatives they’re known for today.

“I’m beyond grateful for the lenses that the faculty and staff helped me develop when I was a student at the College. I learned how to approach complex problems, make connections between global problems and local issues, and create local solutions,” said Hock. These invaluable skills continue to serve him well.

COVID-19 marked yet another international crisis for Hock to ride through. Like many other businesses and organizations in the country and around the globe, Old Spokes Home had to adapt to new regulations and unfortunate circumstances. “The pandemic hit Burlington in March, which is typically the time that bike shops build their staff, in preparation for the busiest season. We were faced with not even being able to have the employees we had at present in the same space at the same time,” Hock said. COVID fueled a renaissance in bicycle use as a safe and healthy form of getting outside. “We saw a huge surge of customers coming into the shop,” Hock said. However, at the same time, supply chain issues limited—and continue to limit—the numbers of new bicycles and bike parts available. As part of a naturally innovative organization, Hock and his team began renovating old bike parts to continue serving the community.

Dan Hock ’09 is hard at work in the Old Spokes Home shop.

The Lives He Touched

MARCEL LEBLANC ’50

BY ANNIE ROSELLO ’94

Marcel LeBlanc ’50

ost of us fondly rememFrench from Middlebury in 1957, as ber the best teacher well as undertaking additional we ever had. Perhaps it post-graduate studies at UVM and was their academic Saint Lawrence. brilliance, energetic style of teaching, or gentle encouragement. This His students remember him fondly: teacher may have been a role model “He was an educational icon with or mentor, had a memorable greeting, amazing intelligence,” recalled one or told fascinating stories of travel, former student. “To say he was adventure, and the wide world an inspiration is putting it mildly,” beyond the schoolyard. remembered another. “Marcel was an outstanding person, a gifted To generations of students at teacher, and a gentleman always.” New York’s Harrisville Central School, Another stated plainly, “Our world Marcel LeBlanc was all of those was certainly better for knowing him.” things, and more. Upon his death in The impression LeBlanc made on late 2020, LeBlanc put a beautiful the tiny hamlet of Harrisville, New final coda on his career as an York, is beautiful and lasting. And his educator by bequeathing $100,000 to legacy at Saint Michael’s is one to Saint Michael’s, a gift that will be cherished, as well. educate and inspire generations of Purple Knights, including those “Marcel was really proud of graduatfollowing in his footsteps. ing from Saint Michael’s, back when there were only two buildings—one for Born in Winooski in 1928, LeBlanc administration, the other for classgraduated summa cum laude rooms,” explains Jean Paul LeBlanc, from Saint Michael’s in 1950, at the who was glad to carry out his uncle’s head of his class. He majored in wishes of leaving such a meaningful classical languages and minored in gift to Saint Michael’s. “I know he French and philosophy. After wanted to help both the College and graduation, he began teaching in Saint Michael’s students.” New York, but in 1951 undertook a tour of duty in the U.S. Army that Saint Michael’s core mission, included service in the counterintelliDo Well and Do Good, was a natural gence corps and Korea. part of LeBlanc’s life’s work. “He didn’t believe teaching was a career, LeBlanc returned to New York in he believed it was a calling,” Jean 1953 and resumed his teaching career Paul remembers. Thanks to the as department head and instructor generosity of the Marcel J. LeBlanc of French and Latin in the Harrisville ‘50 Endowed Scholarship, future Central School, a position he held for Purple Knights may strive to leave 36 years until his retirement. While such a profound impression. educating Harrisville’s students, LeBlanc continued his own studies, earning a master’s degree in

The Power of Film: Building the Human Family BY REV. MICHAEL CARTER, SSE ’12

round age 12 or so I first began to see myself as an actual person. That was the magic age when I was beginning to understand what moved me, what my interests and desires were, what was calling to me and entering into my heart. That was the age when I first felt the pull toward something larger that would eventually lead me to the priesthood. A major part of this era of rapid spiritual growth was a stray gift my sister Sarah gave me. She had rented and left lying around a VHS copy of an old German film called The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Curiosity compelled me to pop the tape into the VCR and I found myself transported to a world that I had never dreamed existed, sights I had never imagined, a story I never knew could be told. I had never experienced anything like this before, and I was dazzled. From that moment on, I knew I would always be chasing that same feeling of surprise, that intensity of emotion and connection. I knew from that moment that I was a fan of film. There is something about being Catholic that translates well into an appreciation of film. Catholicism at its best is a full sensory experience, visually, audibly. There is an element of undeniable theatricality that can feed a cinematic imagination. Religion and film are both manifestations of

communication: They sum up a whole world of experience and emotion in a powerfully symbolic way that is more eloquent than mere words. Perhaps only a film fan understands the power that comes from sharing a new movie with total strangers in a theater. When

the right movie comes along, you are all moved into a new world, brought to the heights and depths of emotion. You emerge from the experience perhaps never having spoken to one another, but now sharing the unity, connection, and communion that comes from being let into a unified vision. There is nothing else like it. In matters of religion as well as cinema, the pandemic has arisen as a particular challenge. More so than any

other event I have ever experienced, it keeps people apart from one another. The sensation I am blessed to have as a priest and as a preacher, of sharing the Word with people, sharing a common experience of the Divine, was taken away. Preaching to an empty chapel and a camera loses the whole power of the experience. Encountering film alone, in a tiny room, using headphones… it simply isn’t meant to be this way! The power of connection, that shared language, that shared experience; so much is stripped away when it can’t be shared together. The slow re-emergence we are experiencing here in Vermont has helped me reflect on how important both of those elements are. The continual theme that shines forth so clearly is how we are all called to be together and communicate in the truest sense. As an Edmundite priest, my ministerial life is based on trying to communicate the goodness of God to others, trying in my very small way to help build the human family. The power of cinema refreshes me to the possibility and reality that a powerful vision will transcend culture, language, space, and time. My hope is that in ways cinematic and spiritual, emergence from the pandemic will only increase our need to connect and deepen our appreciation for the ways in which we bring it about. Until then, I’ll see you at the movies.

ACA DE M I C Patricia Siplon, professor of political science; director, public health BY SUSAN SALTER REYNOLDS 40

Trish Siplon stepped into the role of director of public health in the summer of 2020. The spotlight was on. She immediately felt the pressure—members of the community, students, faculty, staff, all thought she might have some answers. She did not, but, as a well-trained social scientist, she knew she had the skills to find them.

n the classroom, Siplon learned about the pandemic alongside her students, using social science methodologies—asking questions, testing answers, analyzing studies as they appeared.

As an international health expert, Siplon sees the pandemic from both global and local perspectives. The focus on individual rights in the U.S. is jarring, especially when much of the world’s underserved populations still have no access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Professor Trish Siplon takes a lap on the ice.

Together with Allison Cleary, an instructor in media studies, journalism, and digital arts, Siplon became a founding co-director of the COVID Action Network (CAN) to mobilize students, do prevention work, and support students dealing with the social impacts of the pandemic. Depression, anxiety, and feelings of isolation have all increased since the start of 2020. “Finding ways to strengthen our community and increase inclusivity without shortchanging other communities went straight to the top of the pile,” she says. “I was very grateful to be in Vermont,” Siplon admits, a state with an ethos that resonates with her personal and professional goals. And she felt fortunate to be teaching. “I’ve never felt that higher education was more relevant. There are two institutions/professions in the U.S. that are given free rein to seek the truth:

AC T I ON “Maybe COVID has taught us that we don’t have to Professor Patricia Siplon Higher ed and journalism. In these professions, information is derived from processes that we all agree on. And I teach one of those processes— scientific inquiry—to my students.” That said, Siplon’s focus has shifted since the pandemic. Although she has always wanted to do widely applicable research, she is no longer doing scholarship for her peers, but for her community. Siplon has been an academic but also an organizer for most of her life. “You have to be able to talk to the people next door,” she explains. “Most professional fields need to refocus now, speak less to each other.”

Other things have changed, too. “As an academic, I’ve always been goal-oriented. But that shifted a bit. It’s also important to get outside, watch the seasons change, go skating.” Siplon loves figure skating, and she’s done more of it once pandemic restrictions eased to allow it. “Maybe COVID has taught us that we don’t have to be on 100 percent all the time,” she muses. “Maybe taking a mental health day now and then isn’t a bad idea.”

be on 100 percent all the time. Maybe taking a mental health day now and then isn’t a bad idea.”

n a perfect day for its first outdoor Commencement since 1979, the College on May 13 welcomed vaccinated and distanced graduates and families as nearly 300 members of the 437-member Class of 2021 attended separate morning and afternoon ceremonies to meet state COVID safety guidelines. The ceremonies were livestreamed so families or graduates at home could watch. Honorary degrees went to Trustee Patrick Brown and, posthumously, Rev. Michael Cronogue, SSE.

ollowing the same winning ceremonial formula, President Lorraine Sterritt on September 18, 2021, welcomed 206 members from the Class of 2020 and their families to their long-awaited “In-Person Celebration of the 113th Commencement” outside Durick Library. Nearly half of the 2020 class of 501 (including those earning graduate degrees) attended with families. A majority of the class had joined a virtual Commencement during the height of the pandemic in May 2020.

ROUNDUP

THE

The Athletic Hall of Fame Welcomes New Members BY JOSH KESSLER ’04, DIRECTOR OF ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

Each year, our Athletic Hall of Fame inducts new members. Due to COVID, the last banquet welcoming new members was held two years ago. This year, on September 17, we welcomed five new members during a ceremony in the Dion Family Student Center’s Roy Room. The induction Class of 2021 featured STEVE DOWD ’73, cross-country standout and champion coach; MARY (DAVIS) STANTON ’81, field hockey star and women’s lacrosse program founder; BRIAN YOUNG ’89, all-conference basketball player; GREG CLUFF, legendary women’s tennis coach; and PROFESSOR DAVE LANDERS, long-time faculty athletics representative. A native of Harwichport, Mass., Dowd was a key member of early cross-country teams at the College, consistently finishing among the Purple Knights’ top two between 1969 and 1971, winning five races. Dowd later taught English and coached cross-country and track & field at nearby Essex High School, claiming 25 state titles and numerous New England crowns in 20 years of coaching. He returned to his alma mater as a men’s crosscountry assistant in the early 1990s before heading the women’s squad for six seasons, from 1995 to 2000. The Purple Knights placed fourth at the Northeast-10 Conference Championship three times under Dowd’s guidance.

Steve Dowd ’73, back row, third from the left with his arms folded, is captured in this old black & white team photo. Stanton, a native of Purchase, New York, was an early field hockey star at Saint Michael’s and a driving force behind the foundation of the women’s lacrosse program. She totaled eight goals and one assist as a field hockey rookie in 1977, kicking off a career that saw her graduate second in program history in both goals (16) and points (37). During that first fall on campus, Stanton also worked with MARY CULLEN ’79 to organize the school’s first club women’s lacrosse team. She was a multiyear captain, including when the team debuted in spring 1978, and later served as player-head coach her junior year. After she graduated, the program went varsity in 1983 en route to two decades of greatness, as the Purple and Gold was 113-59 between 1984 and 2000 while never finishing below .500.

Young was a versatile hardwood presence, as the New York City native graduated ninth at Saint

Mary Cullen ’79 showcasing her field hockey prowess.

initiatives that helped improve academic performance by Purple Knight student athletes. His significance was recognized on the national stage in January 2015, when Landers received the second annual Dr. Dave Pariser Faculty Mentor Award from the NCAA Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee during the NCAA Convention in Washington, D.C. By the time he retired, the Saint Michael’s and NE10 SAACs had renamed their faculty mentor awards in Landers’ honor. It’s an illustrious group; each one is an inspiration for the entire Saint Michael’s College community.

Brian Young ’89 in action. Michael’s in scoring (1,330) while adding 657 rebounds, 262 assists, and 148 steals. Over his four years, the Purple Knights were 74-42 overall, including 36-20 during league play. Young was the 1986-87 team’s second-leading scorer (13.6), helping Saint Michael’s qualify for its first NCAA tournament in 13 years. He peaked as a junior, emerging as the team leader in scoring (19.9) and rebounding (8.4), before serving as a captain his senior year, again pacing the squad in scoring (18.8) and rebounding (9.1). He earned NE10 All-Conference, All-Vermont, and ECAC All-Star status that season. Cluff joins Saint Michael’s legend

GEORGE “DOC” JACOBS as the

only coaches in College history to lead a varsity program to the NCAA tournament at least three times.

A two-time NE10 Coach of the Year, Cluff lifted the Purple Knights to a 124-65 record between 2003-04 and 2012-13, including 95-27 in league play. Women’s tennis qualified for its first three NCAA tournaments between 2008 and 2010, and advanced to the semifinal round of the NE10 tournament all 10 of his seasons at the helm. Cluff previously served three years as an assistant coach under head coach STEVE LATULIPPE ’72. A liaison between student athletes and faculty members, Landers redefined the role of the faculty athletics representative in the NE10 during his 13 years (2005-18). As a professor at the College for more than three decades, Landers played an integral role in a number of

Dr. Dave Landers poses for a quick photo before a game.

To read more visit smcathletics.com

WORKS

Engaged Research in a Hurry: The Case for and Complications of Immediate Anthropology By Krista Billingsley and Dillon Mahoney (Journal of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Vol. 80, Issue 2).

Billingsley and Mahoney argue for what they have termed “immediate anthropology,” or innovative ways to provide solutions that are immediately applicable to the communities with which researchers work. They describe how they applied their anthropological research methods to address the stated needs of Congo War refugees facing harassment and discrimination in Florida.

Administrative Records for Survey Methodology Edited by Michael Larsen, Asaph Young Chun, Gabriele Durrant, and Jerome P. Reiter (John Wiley and Sons) This book addresses issues involved in utilizing administrative and other data sources for improving surveys. It addresses population coverage, data quality, statistical estimation, record linkage, and confidentiality, among other topics, and applies methods to studying problems in demography, economics, agriculture, education, and health.

Theory of Computation By Jim Hefferon Hefferon’s latest version of his undergraduate text covers Turing Machines, the Halting problem, and P versus NP, which addresses what computers can and cannot do. The text also makes many connections with other things a student will learn—emphasizing the underlying ideas, while not sacrificing the technical material that students need for mastery. Available Free at https://hefferon.net.

Delanty offers a celebration of the natural environment that also bemoans its mistreatment at the hands of humans. By stressing the deep underlying connections within and between the natural world and humankind, No More Time presents a vital view of what remains at stake in the 21st century.

WORKS

FA C U LT Y A N D A L U M N I

No More Time By Greg Delanty (Louisiana State University Press)

Apathy is Out By Seán Ó Ríordáin Translated by Greg Delanty (Bloodaxe Books) Seán Ó Ríordáin (1916-77), the most important and most influential Irish-language poet of modern times, renewed poetry in Irish by writing out of the modernist sense of isolation, fragmentation, and identity, but he also saw beyond Modernism’s confines to the connective matrix of our world. Delanty’s translation captures the poetry’s verve, playfulness, and range.

Our Basin of Relations: The Art & Science of Living with Water! By M E Sipe & Trevien Stanger (Louisiana State University Press) Water does not lie. Here in the Champlain Basin— a flowing landscape of mountains and rivers, forests and farms, towns and cities—it is the water that whispers difficult truths. From erosion, pollution, and habitat loss, to the toxic algae blooms that close Champlain’s beaches every summer, this once vital ecosystem is coming undone. Featuring the fine art photography of M.E. Sipe, the curating vision of Trevien Stanger, and over a dozen essays written by thinkers, academics, poets, farmers, and activists who call this region home. They provide ways to see, hear, feel, and understand what the water is telling us.

Kindness Repaid by Paying It Forward ED MITCHELL ’84 BY ANNIE ROSELLO ‘94 48

From first-year roommates on the third floor of Joyce in 1980 to today—these friendships for life were made at St. Mike’s. Left to right: Jim Lamorticelli ’84, Ed Mitchell ’84, and Joe Kenney ’84

d Mitchell loves St. Mike’s. You can hear it in his voice, the way he fondly remembers professors and mentors. The way he laughs when recalling friends and roommates, reunions, and Rasputins. And the way he wants today’s students to have the same great liberal arts education and college experience he had. Better, even.

After graduating from St. Mike’s in 1984, Ed earned a master’s degree in public administration from Suffolk University in 1986 and got a job offer in Florida. “I said I’d try Florida for a year, and 30-something years later I’m still here,” he laughs. Ed and his wife Suzan, an interior designer, live in Clearwater, Florida. Ed’s career in city administration, management, and vital resources has brought him great success over the years, but he’s never forgotten where he came from and who helped him get where he is today. “I started to give annually to St. Mike’s when I graduated, in the $250 range, then built up to gifts of $500, then $1,000 or more. As I had more success in life, I was glad to have the opportunity to increase my giving,” he says. Ed knew that he wanted to do something significant, so he worked with Institutional Advancement staff at Saint Michael’s to create an endowed scholarship with an initial gift of $50,000, and an additional $50,000 through a stock transfer. “I wanted to set the parameters so that the scholarship would benefit a student from Worcester

County, Massachusetts, where I grew up, or Barnstable County, where I own a house and loved spending summers as a kid.” As a member of the All in for St. Mike’s capital campaign committee, Ed sets an extraordinary example of generosity. He enjoys coming back to campus, volunteering at events like the Career Symposium and organizing class reunions. “St. Mike’s has that personal touch to it, which is important. It’s what sets it apart from other places,” he explains. Ed thinks back to his own student days, and the friends, professors, and mentors who supported him along the way. “You can be who you want to be at St. Mike’s, yet they also help you be the person you want to become,” he says. Now, it’s Ed’s time to be that positive influence in the life of current students through the endowed $100,000 Edward R. Mitchell Family Scholarship. “I’m fortunate enough to pay forward some of the kindness that I received along the way,” he says. “I wouldn’t trade my St. Mike’s education for anything.”

For a more in-depth profile of Ed Mitchell, his endowed scholarship, and St. Mike’s memories, please visit https://www.smcvt.edu/ all-in-for-st-mikes/campaign-updates

Letter from the Alumni Board President

aint Michael’s College invited the Class of 2020 back to celebrate its graduation in person on the beautiful campus grounds on September 17. I had the honor and privilege of attending and officially welcoming this group of graduates into the Saint Michael’s College Alumni Association. It was a beautiful time of year to be on campus with a hint of fall and the feeling of excitement in the air, celebrating the return to campus for both current students and recent graduates. As I sat up front waiting for the graduates to make their way to their seats, I listened to the traditional skirl from the St. Andrews Pipeband of Vermont leading the way amid the presence of students who lined the pathway and cheered these former students on, welcoming them back to campus to celebrate their amazing accomplishment. It was such a beautiful reminder of the sense of community that is Saint Michael’s College.

And in thinking about my own experience as a student and now as an alumna, I am reminded of a wonderful Wendell Berry quote shared with me by my political science advisor, Bill Wilson: “Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone.” We all discovered different classes, events, professors, and friends while at St. Mike’s which led us on different career paths after we graduated, yet it is that common bond—the community of Saint Michael’s College—that grounds us and keeps us close. As we continue on our journey through life, make new discoveries, and become part of new communities, it is my hope that our appreciation for the Saint Michael’s College community always stays near and dear to our hearts. Staying connected to the Saint Michael’s College community is easy to do: attend and/or volunteer for alumni events in your own community, nominate a future knight and/or represent the College at a

local college fair, make a gift, participate in virtual events sponsored by the College, and go back for Reunion. For those of you whose reunions were canceled because of the pandemic, make plans

with your roommates and other St. Mike’s friends and head back to Burlington. Trust me, you will feel rejuvenated and refreshed by beautiful Vermont and that awesome Saint Michael’s community we call home.

Suzanne Leous ’86

L E T T E R TO T H E EDITOR To the Editor, I just received my Purple & Gold Gazette. I am very glad that you were able to send it and look forward to receiving the St Mike’s full magazine in the future. I am an [alumna], the Class of 1978. Three things struck me in the publication: the note of 50 years of women at St. Mike’s, the recognition of Ed Markey as an outstanding individual, and most recently, the passing of Ray Doherty. While a student at St. Mike’s, I served as a resident assistant. Over the summers of 1977 and 1978, I worked in the Ross Sports Center in a program Ed Markey ran. It was called NYSP (National Youth Sports Program). Until this Gazette, I did not

realize that the two men graduated in the same year, 1951. For a woman back in the 1970s, college was still a man’s domain. I was in the Crown and Sword and sponsored a Saturday a.m. pool day for local children. The Ross Sports Center was Mr. Markey’s pride and joy and I learned quickly to respect it. (Back in that day, someone with his name was running for political office in Massachusetts. We all believed that he could have won!) But it was the notice of Father Ray Doherty’s death on June 7 that inspired this note. It is a unique experience for young people to attend

college. Much transpires. As an R.A., I was often tested more as an adult than as a student. Father Doherty was always there. He enjoyed XC skiing behind the dorms when there were trails there. He also ate many of his meals in the school cafeteria. As someone who was often in both places, I had many opportunities to chat with him. Seeing his smiling face on page 20 just reinforced the memory of his role in my college stay. His extensive list of accomplishments only serves to support my deepest regard for him. He was devoted to his faith and to his alma mater. It is perhaps odd for me to remember him with such affection, but he influenced many lives in the Campus Ministry. I have lost an old

and dear friend from my college days at St Mike’s. I just wanted to say something about it. Sincerely, Monica A. Joyal Class of 1978

C ALL F OR LE T T ERS TO T H E EDITOR Send us your thoughts, reactions to stories, memories, dreams, and reflections. We will include your letter in the next issue of the magazine, space permitting. Email: SMCmagazine@smcvt.edu

1961 KEVIN BERGEN, Alexandria, VA, recently shared a photo of when he and other freshmen (as they were known in that era) gathered on the second floor of Old Hall in 1957. (See photo.) U.S. SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, D-VT, Middlesex, VT, is

writing a memoir titled The Road Taken, according to a recent news release from his publisher, Simon & Schuster. The release date is set for April 2022. The memoir will take readers “inside the room” for key moments in the nation’s modern history, from post-Watergate reform to Congress’s role in “greenlighting a disastrous war in Iraq,” the release states.

1967 REV. CHARLES RANGES, SSE, Essex Junction, VT,

was featured recently in a story by writer Mary Regina

Morrell in Vermont Catholic magazine, a publication of the Diocese of Burlington, for his ministry as pastor of the Essex Catholic Community at Holy Family St. Lawrence and St. Pius X parishes.

1969 JACK T. SCULLY, Colchester,

VT, has news about his ongoing writing enterprises: “Mianus Village, my collection of poems about a boy growing up in a low-rent housing development beside a ‘tinsel-glistening river’ in the years after WWII, is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere. The publisher is Antrim House Books.” Read more about it at the publisher’s website: https://antrimhousebooks. com/scully.html.

1972 BILL BRIDGEO, Augusta, ME, announced his retire-

ment in April. According to an article in a Maine newspaper this summer, Bill’s retirement comes after 23 years as the City of Augusta’s manager and 43 years in municipal management. From the article: “The 71-year-old Maine native said he still loves his job, but the time is right for someone new to take on the job and for him to join his wife, Janice, who retired six months ago after two decades as an elementary school teacher in Winthrop. He submitted his resignation to city councilors Monday, one day before completing his 23rd year as Augusta’s manager, with his last day on the job to be Sept. 10. He started on the job in Augusta in 1998, after serving as manager in Canandaigua, New York, for 11 years. He is Augusta’s longest-tenured city manager.” Bill and fellow St. Mike’s alumnus ROBERT DEVLIN ’73 had a long, friendly, and productive work connection through

Annie Rosello ’94 of the Institutional Advancement staff (development and admissions officer for the mid-Atlantic region) shared a photo she received this summer from Kevin Bergen ’61, who offered this caption: “Freshmen gather on the second floor of Old Hall in 1957. This is their 60th reunion year. You might want to see if people can identify themselves or friends. Kevin is third row, sixth from left in horizontal striped shirt.” Writes Annie, “Kevin’s wife Patsy found it in a box recently, and he was kind enough to send it to me … Even though the date on the photo is 1958, he said it’s from the fall of 1957. Maybe he didn’t get his film developed till he got home for the summer!” Thanks to Kevin for sharing the memory.

their related jobs in the same area, though they did not know each other during their college years. 51

1973 ROBERT DEVLIN, Gardiner, ME, has announced he will retire at the end of the year and leave the job he essentially created as the administrator of Kennebec County in Maine, according to an article this summer in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel. The article states Bob said he had initially planned to retire about four years ago, but committed to commissioners to stay four more years. Before Bob came to Kennebec County, he was the deputy county manager for Cumberland County and lobbyist for the Maine Municipal Association. He also served as the director of the Medical Crisis Unit in Portland, and through his job, he spent a great deal of time in Augusta. Bob has

CL ASS NOTES

Sixteen members of the Class of 1965 and their spouses gathered on the shores of Lake Champlain on Tuesday, September 14, to celebrate their 55th Reunion after the pandemic caused the 2020 Reunion to be canceled. In this photo are (all members of the Class of ’65): Front row, left to right: Gerry Loftus, Jim Geier, John Cunningham, Greg Tocci, Kirk Weixel, Frank Geier; back row, left to right: Joe Seremeth, Bill Troy, Frank Stratford, Kevin Slane, Mike Ryan, Ned O’Brien, Jim Cahill, Gene LaBombard, Jim Whitman, Larry Dugan.

The Saint Michael’s alumni office hosted a double Golden Knights Reunion Weekend August 19–22 for the Class of 1970, top, and the Class of 1971, bottom, a momentous 50th anniversary celebration for each. (For the 1970 group, it was a year late thanks to COVID-19.) A popular activity for the weekend was a boat cruise of Lake Champlain on the Spirit of Ethan Allen for many Golden Knights and their spouses. Owing to the pandemic, the Class of 1970 had the longest-serving Reunion committee in history, nearly two years. The Class of 1971 committee was the second-longest-serving (one year) for the same reason. Said Carla Francis, development and gift planning officer in Institutional Advancement, “These guys are super volunteers. The big highlights to me were seeing guys reconnect who hadn’t seen each other in years, and who were making plans to get together in the future. Also, both classes raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the College and had high participation in the class gift. It was a once-in-history fusion of two Golden Knight classes, which they seemed to really enjoy given how many friendships spanned class years.”

Mary Alice Ruggiero Conner ’04 shared, via email with her Edmundite Campus Ministry friends, Rev. Brian Cummings, SSE ’86, and Jerome Monachino ’91, these old photos of interest to earlier generations at St. Mike’s. Mary Alice writes of the photos: “It was Parents’ Weekend 1969. In the picture with the red car, my dad, Anthony Ruggiero, Class of 1969, is on the right. My grandfather, also Anthony Ruggiero, is on the left. In the stadium pic, my dad is the one with the gray sweater, standing next to my grandfather with the beige-ish sweater. They weren’t quite as dressed up as their friends, which would have been typical of them! I don’t know who the other people in the picture are, unfortunately; I wish I did. I found these pics in my grandfather’s stuff, long after both he and my dad had passed away, so there is no one to ask.” Can anybody out there help with more IDs?

been the chief administrator for Kennebec County, overseeing the administrative responsibilities of the county, preparing and maintaining oversight of the county’s annual spending plan, and appearing before legislative committees and state agencies on county matters.

1976 JOHN O’HERN, Fairfield, CT, an author, actor, and storyteller, writes that he has put his latest book (Not the Kennedys: An Irish-American Family Experience: Less Like the Brady Bunch, More like Lord of the Flies) up on Amazon. An excerpt from the Amazon description: “This is a true story of intense love matched by intense hatred and fear, of growing up Irish Catholic in a family of eight children

in the era of the Kennedys, where families of this magnitude were looked upon as a grand achievement, a joyous celebration of fertility, fellowship, and life.”

1978 PAUL GALBRAITH,

Highland Falls, NY, shares that he will be filming Part II of the Cupcake Chronicles during Halloween. (See photo.)

1979 GEORGE KEADY,

Longmeadow, MA, attended the wedding of two alumni, his daughter and son-in-law, in Stowe, VT, this June. (See photo.)

1981 KEVIN LOSO, Rutland, VT, earned recognition this summer from the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) as NACD directorship certified. According to NACD publicity, this recognition “signals to boards, investors, and other stakeholders that they possess the highest commitment to continuing director education available in the United States.” Kevin serves as the executive director for the Rutland Housing Authority and as a consultant to Housing Initiatives Inc. He is the chairman of the board at Heritage Family Credit Union and serves on the board of directors of HAI Group, an insurer of the public and affordable housing industry.

JACKIE KIRBY KEADY, Longmeadow, MA, attended the wedding of her alumni daughter and son-in-law in Stowe this June. (See photo.)

1982 GARRY HARRINGTON,

Tucson, AZ, had another amazing challenging adventure, this one on Mount Denali in Alaska. (See photos for the full story.)

1986 REV. BRIAN CUMMINGS, SSE, Colchester, VT,

attended the dedication of the Col. Donald Cook ’56 Library at Xavier High School in Manhattan on September 15. (See photo with fuller account.)

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Paul Galbraith ’78 of Highland Falls, NY, shares that he will be filming Part II of the Cupcake Chronicles during Halloween. He writes: “In Part II, the former bakery owner, a ghost who has not attained her wings to become an angel, tries in vain to get a bell and a character named Clarence helps her out. Get the picture?”

Rev. Brian Cummings, SSE ’86 attended the dedication of the Col. Donald Cook ’56 Library at Xavier High School in Manhattan on September 15. Col. Cook, a Xavier alumnus, was a Congressional Medal of Honor winner and Saint Michael’s graduate who died as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War after making great sacrifices for his fellow prisoners. Fr. Brian presided at a Mass in the Church of St. Francis Xavier on West 16th Street in New York City. In his homily, he said, “My connection with this celebration today is with Col. Cook, as he went on after Xavier to a small Catholic school in Winooski Park, Vermont, just outside of Burlington, called Saint Michael’s College, graduating in 1956. I too left a Jesuit high school and ventured north and graduated from Saint Michael’s, 30 years later, in 1986. After some time working as an accountant here in the New York City area, I entered the Society of St. Edmund, and was ordained at St. Mike’s, and have been working there as an Edmundite priest for the last 25 years.” He then linked the experiences of the Cook family to Our Lady of Sorrows, since that was the feast for the day, and further noted Col. Cook’s great devotion to Mary and the rosary, cultivated while a Saint Michael’s student, which sustained him through the trials of his life.

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Garry Harrington ’82 is an intrepid adventurer—in the last Class Notes we told of his bikepacking adventure on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Garry is also an accomplished “peak bagger,” having summited the highest points in 49 of the 50 United States. In 2016, he made an unsuccessful attempt to climb Denali in Alaska, the most challenging state high point, and recently he set out with a team of friends and fellow adventurers to try again. After the trip, Garry posted on social media the gripping extended tale of what happened this time around, with unforeseen complexities and extreme challenges. He recounts how ultimately, his best judgment and an injury led him to descend Denali again without bagging it. Here’s the end of the report from this onetime Saint Michael’s cross-country team runner: “Do I have regrets? Yes and no. I certainly had great hopes of summiting this time after failing in 2016, as it would have put me in great company among the 150 or so climbers who have ever completed the 50 state high points. But I have to admit that the rib injury created a snowball effect that derailed those hopes. My ribs kept me from being able to shovel snow and build walls, keeping me from protecting the tent from the winds, keeping me from sleeping, which kept me from having the energy and the clearheadedness to continue a strenuous climb in dangerous conditions. I feel I made the only logical choice, which was to descend while I was still coherent enough to do so. I congratulate the three members of [my climbing team] the Denali Dirty Half Dozen who made it to the summit. Will I go back to Denali again someday? That’s too early to tell. It certainly was not a pleasant experience once again under the circumstances. Perhaps I can be satisfied to just be a 49-state high-pointer. Or, perhaps not. We shall see.” The photos show a cold Garry on his adventure, and low-hanging clouds below the 11,000-foot-elevation camp.

St. Mike’s Class of ’88 RI reunion

Steve Flynn ’93 and his wife Amy were on a getaway to St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands this past year when they decided to head to Lime Out, a floating bar and taco boat in Coral Bay. “Flynny” reports to his friend Annie Rosello ’94, development and admissions officer for the College, “Amy and I were talking with our waitress, who mentioned that she went to college in Vermont, so of course I asked where. When she (Corey Thomas ’12) said St. Mike’s, I said ‘No way, me too!’ And the woman sitting near me (Laura Provost Martin ’88) chimed in and said that she went to St. Mike’s as well. Such a crazy small world! Purple Knights are always glad to meet—anytime, anywhere!” The photo shows, from left, Corey, Laura and Flynny.

DIANE LEBLANC,

FLORIAN MENNINGER,

New York, NY, a St. Mike’s ice hockey alumnus, was featured in the Times Leader newspaper of Wilkes-Barre, PA, this summer. It was a story of Florian and his son Eric making a 150-mile rollerblade journey between New York City and WilkesBarre to raise money for prostate cancer research, relating to Florian’s diagnosis with the disease in January 2020.

1988 LAURA PROVOST MARTIN,

Vienna, VA, enjoyed a chance St. Mike’s alumni encounter at a floating bar in the Caribbean this spring. (See photo.)

1989 MARIE COLBERT, Walpole, MA, was a (virtual) guest speaker for the Sigma Beta Delta academic honor society for business students at Saint Michael’s on International Women’s Day in March. She told of helping to build and run a software company where she was president/CEO for 20 years before a brief retirement that preceded starting a new software

1993 STEVE FLYNN, Hingham, MA, enjoyed a chance St. Mike’s alumni encounter at a floating bar in the Caribbean this spring. (See photo.) Steve also helped organize a major golf/50th birthday reunion on Cape Cod for alumni from the mid-1990s. (See photos.) GEORGE GOLDSWORTHY,

Cambridge, VT, the College’s manager of print and mail, was unanimously elected to serve an unprecedented fifth term as president of the Association of College and University Mail Services (ACUMS), which remotely celebrated its 43rd anniversary during the pandemic. The organization serves the professional development of collegiate mailroom managers throughout the Northeast; members represent SUNY Schools, Harvard, and many other colleges and universities.

1994 LAURA COUNTER MCKENNA , Hanson, MA,

recently had a joyful reunion with a fellow Saint Michael’s Theater graduate from the 1990s. (See photo.)

In late September, 30 Saint Michael’s College alumni came together from all across the country and as far away as London for an epic reunion on the Cape. In celebration of their 50th birthdays, the friends spent the weekend teeing off at Bayberry Hills golf course in a Ryder Cup format, split up into their early 1990s intramural softball teams, the Diamond Dusters and the ’Batters. “We had a great weekend with awesome turnout,” said Steve Flynn ’93. “Bill McCarthy did a lot of the organizing but managed to hand the ’Batters the Cup due to a scoring error on his part.” This crew proves just how rock-solid St. Mike’s friendships are. “Although it was a competitive weekend,” Steve said, “it was all about great friends—and we laughed a lot!” The group of four, left to right: Brian Murphy, Derek Rynne, Steve Flynn, Bill MCarthy.

The attendees: Class of ’92: Jay Mauro; Class of ’93: Ben Ardito, Steve Barlock, Jim Barten, Dave Berry, Dave Bierwirth, Eric Breemen, Tony Ciraulo, Greg Doherty, Greg Eibell, Steve Flynn, Derek Glynn, Topher Johnson, Jim Kuczo, Carlos Martin, Bill McCarthy, Sean McDaniel, Scott Mosher, Brian Murphy, Andy Northup, Chris Phillips, Brian Rayder, Derek Rynne, Matt Salamone, Jeff Stebbins, Brad Sweeney, Pete Watson, Rob Woodman; Class of ’94: Kevin Kiley; Class of ’95: Kevin Leddy.

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Northfield, MN, published a new collection of poems, The Feast Delayed (Terrapin Books, 2021). Diane is a professor of writing at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.

company, Masterly Logistics Systems, where she is presently chief commercial officer.

1995 CL ASS NOTES

G. RICHARD AMES, Burlington, VT, recently had a joyful reunion with a fellow Saint Michael’s Theater graduate from the 1990s. (See photo.)

1996 56

Two Saint Michael’s theater pals from the 1990s reunited at the site of a Vermont performance by one of them in September. G. Richard Ames ’95, who recently performed in his one-man show as Mark Twain at QuarryWorks Theatre in Adamant, posted on social media about encountering and appreciating a fellow Saint Michael’s graduate at a show, writing: “Before I went to hit all my Marks yesterday afternoon, I saw a young woman waiting for the show who looked familiar ... but I couldn’t positively identify her. After the show, she reminded this old man that she was Laura Counter McKenna ’94, a dear college friend whom I hadn’t seen since she graduated! She’d driven up with her son Matt in the morning from south of Boston just to see my show! I was floored, honored, and so very touched. (I know some of you are saying, ‘But, Rick, you’ve been ‘touched’ for as long as I’ve known you.’ Stifle!) What an awesome mini-reunion! Thanks again, Laura (and Matt), for making the journey.”

MARY BRODSKY, Essex Junction, VT, will join the Community College of Vermont (CCV) as its first executive director of human resources, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Mary currently serves as associate chief human resource officer at the University of Vermont. Prior to her work at UVM, she was acting director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Employee Relations Division. She also held positions within the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, working in congressional and public affairs, equal employment opportunity, and labor and employee relations. She was appointed by Governors Jim Douglas and Peter Shumlin to serve as a member of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, a post she held for nine years. She was to step into her new role beginning October 4. She is married to BRENDAN KINNEY ’93, formerly of the Saint Michael’s Institutional Advancement staff. ERIC WILBUR, Norton, MA, released his first book, Thirty Years in a White Haze, this summer. His pub-

licist, Sammy Blair, writes, “The book made the Boston Globe Summer 2021 reading list and is on several top 10 charts on Amazon. Eric co-wrote the book with extreme skiing pioneer Dan Egan, and the story has taken the skiing world by storm. Eric is doing a book tour through Vermont during September and October.”

1997 MATTHEW WEST, Canterbury, CT, was a finalist this spring in the selection of West Hartford Teacher of the Year. Matthew joined West Hartford Public Schools in 2007. He teaches English to grades 9–12 at Hall High School. He led a statewide professional development session on implicit bias, organized and moderated Hall’s Human Rights Day panel, cochaired the Safe School Climate Committee, and coordinated the National Walkout Day advisory response. He has a master’s degree from the University of New Haven and an advanced certification in educational leadership from Sacred Heart University.

1998 CATHERINE “KATE” PALOPOLI, Burlington, VT,

started work at Saint Michael’s as the College’s controller on April 26, 2021. Kate earned her St. Mike’s degree in Accounting and moved to Vermont with her

family from Massachusetts in late June, when she started working from a campus office rather than remotely. She had most recently worked for nearly three years as director of financial planning, analysis, and reporting for Richelieu Foods in Braintree, MA.

1999 HEATHER LASHWAY, Orchard Park, NY, this spring earned a promotion to senior vice president, director of retail banking for Berkshire Bank. Prior to joining Berkshire, Heather spent 11 years with Citizens Bank in senior retail banking roles, including director of sales, division training manager, and regional sales manager. She was previously an Albany Business Review “40 under 40” honoree.

2000 KRISTIN MARTINSON ZAWATSKI, Framingham,

MA, recently graduated from the Rabb School of Professional Studies at Brandeis University with an M.S. in project and program management. “Due to COVID, our ceremony was virtual, but it was still a great way to see and connect with my classmates and celebrate our accomplishments,” Kristin writes.

MARIA RINALDI, Jericho, VT, has been deeply involved in choral music

2001 MELISSA GUERRETTE, Norway, ME, a teacher at Oxford Elementary School in Maine, has been named Oxford County’s 2021 Teacher of the Year. The honor puts her in the running with 16 other educators for Maine’s Teacher of the Year, to be announced later in 2021. This is the third time she has been nominated. Melissa has spent her entire career teaching at OES. In 2005 she earned a master’s degree in education with a mathematics specialty from Walden University.

2004 Read news about SHELLEY OUELLETTE WILCOX, Bolton, CT, as cofounder of a new business with her alumna sister, under 2007 class notes. Shelley moved to Connecticut recently from South Carolina.

JOSH KESSLER, Essex Junction, VT, the director of Athletic Communications for St. Mike’s, this summer achieved a milestone goal that has been a long time coming—visiting all of Vermont’s 251 towns (and a few extra locations just for kicks). Says Josh, “Hopefully the road-tripping adventures won’t end. There’s still so much to see out there.”

Ashley Terwilliger ’05 shared this photo from her wedding, September 18, 2021. From left: Jeffrey Pollard ’01, Hartley (Flagg) Pollard ’02, Jono Pollard (groom), Ashley Terwilliger ’05 (bride), Carly (Rencsko) Lemire ’05, Benjamin Lemire ’04, Lauren Breedlove ’04.

MARY ALICE RUGGIERO CONNER, West Bridgewa-

ter, CT, shared via email this summer with her Edmundite Campus Ministry friends, Rev. Brian Cummings, SSE ’86 and Jerome Monachino ’91, some great images that will be of interest to earlier generations at St. Mike’s. (See photos.)

2005 ASHLEY TERWILLIGER,

Glens Falls, NY, married Jono Pollard on September 18, 2021. (See photo.)

2006 JONAH KESSEL , Maplewood, NJ, left the newsroom of the New York Times in May and joined the New York Times opinion section as the deputy director of opinion video. Previously he was in the Times’s newsroom as director of cinematography and as an international video correspondent. From 2011 to 2016 he covered Asia for the video desk, working out of the Beijing and Hong Kong

Erin Mooney Martin ’08, of Manchester, NH, shares some career news: “In May of this year, I was able to attend commencement to celebrate earning my Ed.D. (doctorate in education) back in 2020. My research was centered [on] teacher empowerment and retention in high-poverty, urban middle schools.” The photo shows Erin being honored at the ceremony at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, NH, where she earned her doctoral degree. Matt Jordan ’11 of Camp LeJeune, NC, an emergency medicine physician assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, recently returned from a seven-month deployment, which included providing emergent and urgent medical care to American citizens and Afghans during the evacuation operation in Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2021. Matt earned a degree in biology at Saint Michael’s College. Matt shared this photo of him proudly showing off the Purple Knight colors on a Saint Michael’s pennant when he was in Kabul.

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since her days as a Saint Michael’s student, and she still sings regularly with the Liturgical Ensemble in the Chapel for Sunday Mass. In recent years, she founded a new local chorus that was revived this summer after a pause during the pandemic: Vermont’s Freedom & Unity, which returned to rehearsing in the College Chapel in late June. “We strive to become one of the most diverse and inclusive choruses in the state of Vermont,” says Maria.

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Megan (Flynn) Manning ’12, her husband Luke Manning ’12, and their alumni guests at their wedding brunch. They were married on September 10, 2021, in Newburyport, MA. Left to right: Brian Bailey ’12, Caitlin Quinn ’12, Ethan Madden ’15, Joseph Rhodes ’12, Graham Madden ’12, Michael Cracchiola ’12. That’s Megan and Luke in front with the banner, of course.

bureaus. He has reported on the ground from over 25 countries for the Times. In 2013, Jonah was the field video journalist on the team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, and he is a two-time World Press Photo winner. He has four times been named a Multimedia Journalist of the Year from Pictures of the Year International, and has been awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Justice and Human Rights Reporting and the Innovative Storytelling Award from the National Press Foundation.

2007 KELLEY OUELLETTE KHOURY, Louisville, CO,

recently started a nonprofit organization, Operation Birthday, with her sister,

SHELLEY OUELLETTE WILCOX ’04. Operation

Birthday is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is founded on the principle that all children deserve a birthday celebration. Its mission is to ensure that each child feels special on his or her birthday by providing parents in need with birthday items they are not able to afford. Kelley has been doing this on a very small scale with her niece (Shelley’s daughter Shelby-Ann) for four years and is hopeful that through this nonprofit she can increase her impact so more children can have the birthday they deserve. To learn more, visit www. operationbirthday.org.

2008 RORY DOYLE, Cleveland, MS, is a working photographer based in the rural Mississippi Delta. In 2009, the Maine native moved to Mississippi to pursue a master’s degree at Delta State University. Rory has remained committed to photographing Mississippi and the South and has a particular focus on sharing stories from the Delta. His most recent featured work appeared on the newsletter/ website called The Bitter Southerner, supported by the National Geographic Society’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists. JOHN KUNKEL , M.D., Katy, TX, completed his five-year residency in orthopedic surgery in Philadelphia, PA, in July. He is currently completing a fellowship in sports medicine orthopedic surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas. This has given him the opportunity to serve as an assistant team physician for the Houston Texans, the Houston Astros, and Rice University Athletics, as well as the NASA Astronaut Core. He lives just outside Houston with his wife (NOELLE KUNKEL ’10) and their two daughters (Adeline, 4, and Roselind, 3). ERIN MOONEY MARTIN, Manchester, NH, earned her doctorate in education in 2020 and recently was able to attend a delayed commencement to note the

occasion at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. (See photo.)

MALLORY WOOD WILLSEA,

Saratoga Springs, NY, was promoted to executive vice president of strategy and operations at PlatformQ Education in July 2021. “My husband and I moved back to the East Coast (Saratoga Springs) this spring from California and I’m hoping to make a trip to Burlington and a visit to Saint Michael’s soon,” says Mallory.

2010 NICHOLAS RIZZO and SARAH MASLAK RIZZO,

Peabody, MA, write, “We welcomed our twins Sophia Elizabeth and Michael David on May 26, 2020 (on mommy’s birthday), and they joined our daughter Isabella Maria, born April 10, 2019.”

RYAN LAROCHELLE, Orono, ME, shares career news: “Excited and honored to be part of the inaugural group of Racial Equity Fellows Learning Community on Teaching (REFLeCT) at the University of Maine. Some important and difficult work ahead.” Ryan’s faculty profile reads, “Ryan LaRochelle is a lecturer at the Cohen Institute for Leadership and Public Service at the University of Maine, where he teaches courses in both leadership studies and political science. Prior to coming to the University of Maine, he was a visiting lecturer of political science

Michael wrote a review of a new album by the popular singer Billie Eilish.

MEGAN FLYNN MANNING and LUKE MANNING, Roslindale, MA,

gathered with alumni guests at their wedding brunch this fall. They were married on September 10 in Newburyport, MA. (See photo.)

COREY THOMAS, Trenton,

NJ, enjoyed a chance St. Mike’s alumni encounter at a floating bar in the Caribbean this spring. (See photo.)

2011

2014

MATT JORDAN, Camp LeJeune, NC, an emergency medicine physician assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, recently returned from a seven-month deployment. (See photo.)

ALEX IERONIMO,

2012 REV. MICHAEL CARTER, SSE, Colchester, VT, has

had his work appear in recent months in the national publication U.S. Catholic. He posted on social media in July that a video reflection he did for this website of wide circulation reflects on the Mass readings for July 4, 2021—the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B), tying the readings into thoughts about the American Independence Day holiday and its meaning for him. More recently in a fall edition of U.S. Catholic, Fr.

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at Brandeis University and a fellow at the Gordon Center for American Public Policy. LaRochelle’s paper ‘The Great Society and American Political Development’ was awarded the New England Political Science Association’s John C. Donovan Prize for the best paper written by a faculty member in 2019. As a graduate student, he also received the New England Political Science Association’s Robert C. Wood prize for the best paper written by a graduate student.”

Katie McNally ’14 recently made an alumni connection in her work as an archivist for the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston: William Edwards ’17, now a graduate student at Simmons University, interned with Katie. William spent the past summer processing paper and photograph collections from the Sisters of Saint Joseph archives as a way to gain professional experience in pursuit of his graduate degree. Both William and Katie credit Saint Michael’s as inspiring them to pursue careers in the field of history and archives.

Haverhill, MA, got married. (See MORGAN PETERSON ’15 note and photo.)

BEN LINDEMER, Brooklyn,

NY, has an awesome job with the world’s biggest live streaming platform for gamers. He explains: “My role with Twitch & Amazon Advertising is within the Brand Partnerships Studio (BPS). My team, Influencer Relations, is responsible for identifying, recommending, and contracting influencers that execute sponsored broadcasts/streams on the platform. We evaluate the creative concepts that are pitched to brands and advertisers that are looking to activate with streamers on Twitch. We ensure the ideas are feasible, interesting, and fun for the brands, influencers, and their audience. Our team then decides which influencers across all of Twitch would

The alumni parents of new bride Tara Keady ’15 shared about Tara’s recent wedding to Matthew Nault ’14. Jackie Kirby Keady ’81 of Longmeadow, MA, writes of this photo: “Celebrating the marriage of our daughter with immediate family in Stowe, Vermont, on June 5, 2021. The beautiful ceremony took place on a perfect Vermont day and included from left to right: father of the bride George Keady ’79, mother of the bride Jackie Kirby Keady ’81, the bride, Tara Keady ’15, the groom, Matthew Nault ’14, the groom’s sister-in-law, Nicole Bielak Nault ’11, and the groom’s brother, Andrew Nault ’11.”

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Morgan Peterson ’15 married Alex Ieronimo ’14 on July 30, 2021, in New Hampshire surrounded by many St. Mike’s alumni, including Colin Ellis ’13, Patrick Bousquet ’13, Tim Dennis ’14, Brianne Conlon ’15, Emily Goodwin ’15, Elaine Ezerins ’15, Tarryn Bartkus ’15, Danika Gallup ’15, Lauren Kilmister ’15, Monique Poisson ’15, Shawna McGowan ’15, Misha D’Andrea ’15, Gabby Milano ’15, Peter Charrette ’14, Shelby Knudsen-Sarno ’15, Nick Sarno ’15.

be best fit to bring the campaign creative to life for the brand partner.”

Hampshire, surrounded by many St. Mike’s alumni.

KATIE MCNALLY, Dedham, MA, recently made an alumni connection in her work as an archivist for the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston. (See photo.)

2016

MATTHEW NAULT, Boston,

MA, got married. (See

TARA KEADY ’15 note and photo).

2015 TARA KEADY, Boston, MA, married MATTHEW NAULT ’14 on June 5, 2021, in Stowe. (See photo.)

LAURA BETH KUJAWA ,

South Burlington, VT, recently had her poem titled “To Serve, To Taste” published on the website Empty House Press. According to the posting, Laura “is a cross-genre writer living in Burlington, Vermont. She received an MFA in writing and publishing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is the founding editor of Canned magazine. Find her @laura_kujawa.”

MORGAN PETERSON, Dedham, MA, married ALEX IERONIMO ’14 on July 30, 2021, in New

JAMES DeVOURSNEY, Bayonne, NY, won a role in a New Jersey theater production earlier this year. The website Broadway World carries news of the theater, and James got a mention in an item about a New Jersey production by Progressive Theater of the Max Vernon play, The View Upstairs: “His previous work includes Todd in The UVX by Luxury Universal Experience, the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz at Saint Michael’s Playhouse, and Warren in Ordinary Days. James also toured as a tour actor/director with Missoula Children’s Theatre.… When not performing, James is working towards his EMT certification,” the item states.

2017 WILLIAM EDWARDS, Granby, CT, now a graduate student at Simmons University, made an unexpected and helpful alumni connection in the course of his studies during an internship. (See photo.)

TAYLOR TEIXEIRA , Henrico, VA, has joined SIMA Financial Group in Henrico, VA, as a senior accountant, according to a business brief from the website Richmond Bizsense in Virginia. A certified public accountant, Taylor is originally from Maine.

2018 JULIA COLASANTI, Burlington, VT, got a mention in the August 4 issue of the Burlington weekly newspaper and website Seven Days, which mentioned chances to see comedy performances in the area. It told of her moving from Chicago, where she was trying her hand at comedy, to living with her parents in Michigan, to returning to Vermont in 2020 and starting the “Pop-Up Stand-Up” event in Burlington’s City Hall Park on August 7. Noted the article, “The event is Colasanti’s brainchild.… ‘The idea actually began during COVID,’ Colasanti explains.… She missed real audiences and shows.... As she dreamed of organizing a show, she realized she wanted it to be more than just a simple comedy event. ‘For me, mental health and comedy go hand in hand,’ Colasanti says.”

2019 EMILY CHABOT, Williston, VT, a Saint Michael’s Psychology graduate, started work July 12 as the College’s assistant director of special events. Previously Emily worked at the University of Vermont Medical Center in the nephrology and transplant department as a patient service specialist. JEREMY MIKAELSON (WEIGUO YU), Kissimmee,

FL, a professional magician, recently performed and lectured at a magic convention in Cherry Hill, NJ—the 2021 Magician’s Alliance of Eastern States Convention. Says Jeremy, “It was a superb experience performing and lecturing on my approach to the art of magic with over 100 fellow magicians on the East Coast! This is one of the oldest magic conventions in the country as the first convention was dated back in 1938! This feels like a dream come true! It’s also my first time judging stage magic competition. I still can’t believe it! Great to see some up-andcoming talent.”

2020

VICTORIA CASTILLO, Williston, VT, began work August 16 as the new assistant director of MOVE, the volunteer service arm of Edmundite Campus Ministry at Saint Michael’s. STEPHEN HIGGINS,

Sharon, MA, received recognition for his videography this spring. A May 12 announcement on the website of the School for

2021 PATRICK BARRETT, Longmeadow, MA, was commissioned during a ceremony in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel after the 2021 Commencement in May. He will serve as a medical service officer for the Vermont National Guard. MARLON HYDE, Burlington, VT, is the Vermont Public Radio (VPR) news fellow, joining VPR in the spring of 2021 after graduating from Saint Michael’s with a degree in Media Studies, Journalism, and Digital Arts. Originally from Queens, NY, he comes from a family of storytellers. In the summer of 2021 he covered a wide variety of events, including a block party and mural painting event in Burlington’s Old North End

and features about this year’s sensational Vermont Lake Monsters baseball team, which is playing in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League for the first year.

ASHLEY PARKER, Bowdoin,

ME, was commissioned during a ceremony in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel after the 2021 Commencement in May. She will serve as an active-duty chemist for the U.S. Air Force.

HANNAH ROQUE, Burlington, VT, started work July 6 as an admission counselor in the Saint Michael’s College Admission Office. She is a recent graduate of the College with a bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education.

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DINA ALSAFFAR, South Burlington, VT, started work on August 16 as an academic support services specialist at Saint Michael’s College. After graduating from St. Mike’s in 2020, Dina went on to pursue higher education at McGill University, where she completed a master’s degree in sociology.

International Training, based in Brattleboro, VT, notes that Stephen, who studied abroad through an SIT program while a Saint Michael’s student, is SIT Study Abroad’s 2019 video contest winner. A release states: “SIT’s Morocco: Field Studies in Journalism and New Media Program by Stephen Higgins was selected as a finalist for the Innovative Student Video category. Higgins’ video showcases the highlights of his study abroad experience that semester and conveyed the authenticity of the environment with a deeper understanding of the Moroccan culture in which he was immersed. The winner of the Innovative Student Video category is selected by popular vote.”

In Memoriam 1943 62

J. ROBERT LEAHY, Seymour, IN, died September 5, 2021, at the age of 100. After Saint Michael’s, he enlisted in the Air Force during World War II and served both as an enlisted man and as a commissioned officer from 1942 to 1946. He spent 34 years in the beverage business and retired in 1984 from the G. Heileman Brewing Company, where his positions included director of marketing services. J. Robert’s wife of 71 years, Mary, died in 2016. He is survived by two daughters, three sons, and extended family.

1948 JOHN F. GRIFFIN, M.D., Peabody, MA, died September 13, 2021. Jack enrolled at Saint Michael’s in 1943 and left after his junior year to serve in World War II, enlisting in the Navy. He returned to the College after the war to graduate before going on to earn his M.D. from Georgetown University Medical School in Washington, D.C., where he graduated summa cum laude in 1950. He then interned at North Carolina Baptist Hospital before completing his residency at Boston City Hospital. Thereafter, he completed a

fellowship in cardiology at Georgetown before returning to his hometown of Springfield, MA, where he established a private medical practice and had a distinguished career focusing on internal medicine and cardiology. He founded Springfield Cardiology Associates, now known as Pioneer Valley Cardiology Associates. He was devoted to his Catholic faith and supported charitable endeavors relating to his faith, his calling, and his alma mater without fanfare, and was a President’s Medallion supporter of the College, establishing the Dr. & Mrs. John F. Griffin Medical Studies Award Foundation with Saint Michael’s. He was an avid fan of the Red Sox and Patriots. His wife of 69 years, Janice, died in 2020, and a son also predeceased him. Jack is survived by four sons, a daughter, and extended family.

1951 HAROLD B. “CHUBBY” MORAN, Shelburne, VT,

died September 1, 2021. He was the first baby born in the then-new DeGoesbriand Hospital in Burlington after his mother refused to cross the Winooski River on a pontoon bridge after the

1927 flood to reach Fanny Allen Hospital. “Chub” was a Navy veteran (fire controlman third class) who had a long career as a financial administrator for Burlington hospitals, housing entities, local businesses, and benevolent organizations. He and his wife were avid antique collectors and attended weekend auctions frequently. He enjoyed hunting, ice fishing, golf, and his camp in North Duxbury, as well as the mountains, lakes, and back roads of Vermont, and was active in supporting the Red Cross and K of C. Chub’s late sister, Lorraine, worked for the College for 41 years in various capacities. His wife of 68 years, Flo, died in 2018, and his youngest son died this year. He is survived by two sons, a daughter, and extended family.

1953 LEO PAUL MCGREEVY,

Shelburne, VT, died September 19, 2021. Paul was an accomplished entrepreneur, supporting both community and friends. He was proud of his French Canadian and Irish heritage. His wife Harriet died in 1967 at age 36 when their six children ranged in age from 4 to 13, and the family formed an

unbreakable bond from then on. Annual gatherings at the family camp were the highlights of Paul’s year. Predeceased by his wife and by a daughter, Paul is survived by his partner, Annetta Barrett; two sons; three daughters; two brothers; a sister; and extended family.

LEO O’BRIEN JR., South

Burlington, VT, and Deerfield Beach, FL, died September 18, 2021. With his late brother, Daniel O’Brien P’91, P’95, Leo established the Dan & Leo O’Brien Family Scholarship at Saint Michael’s, and he was a longtime President’s Medallion supporter of the College. He grew up on the family farm in South Burlington and came to Saint Michael’s from Cathedral High School, attending (with the Class of 1953) from 1949 to 1950, and later earned his political science degree from the University of Vermont (1957). Leo served in the Navy from 1950 to 1954 as a sonar-man in the Atlantic Fleet. In the late 1950s, Leo, like his father and grandfather before him, became deeply involved in government and politics, serving on the South Burlington Planning Commission (1960–68), and as a South Burlington state representative

in-law Milissa O’Brien ’95 and nieces Molly Gregory ’91 and Katie O’Brien ’95.

1954 ROBERT J. MANCINI, West Palm Beach, FL, died April 19, 2021, some years after his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease. After earning his Saint Michael’s undergraduate education degree, he served active duty in the Air Force in 1955 before returning to the College to receive his education master’s degree in 1956. He later earned an MLA from SUNY at Stony Brook. He started his teaching career at Winooski High School before moving to Long Island, NY, where he continued to teach while starting a family. A longtime resident of Port Jefferson, NY, Robert was a social studies teacher at Comsewogue High School in Port Jefferson Station until his retirement in 1986. He loved history and travel, and toured Europe with his family during a sabbatical from teaching in 1973. He enjoyed fishing, golf, reading, and sports, and was a lifelong Red Sox fan, seeing his first game in 1943. He also was a Celtics and Jets fan. Robert is survived by his wife of 65 years, Claire; a sister; two sons; a daughter; and extended family.

1955 JOSEPH P. MCCANN SR.,

Caldwell, NJ, died May 7,

2021. Joseph was the College’s 1965 Alumnus of the Year, deeply active in alumni activities and leadership, and served on the Alumni Board of Directors in 1978–79. After Saint Michael’s he served in the Navy from 1955 to 1958 and then was a sales manager for Peerless Tube Company in Bloomfield, NJ, for over 30 years, retiring in 1996. He lived in North Arlington and Verona, NJ, before moving to Caldwell in 2006. Joseph was a President’s Medallion supporter of the College. He was predeceased by his wife, and is survived by three sons including Andrew McCann ’90; a daughter, Jenn McGinley ’85; and extended family.

FRANCIS J. O’HANDLEY, Babylon, NY, died March 21, 2019, the College learned recently. While at Saint Michael’s he was an editor of the Michaelman student newspaper. His wife, Patricia, and a daughter predeceased him. He is survived by two sons, three daughters, two sisters, a brother, and extended family. JOSEPH C. TILDEN, Rutland, VT, died August 28, 2021. After Saint Michael’s he did further studies in philosophy at the Seminary of Philosophy in Montreal, and in education at Castleton State College and at the University of Vermont. He was a law enforcement officer for over 20 years and a driver education teacher at

Poultney High School, West Rutland High School, Bellows Falls High School, and Burr & Burton Academy. He was president of the Windham Northeast Education Association and a member of Vermont Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association. He also was chair of the Rockingham Democratic Party, vice chair of the Rutland City Democratic Party, justice of the peace, lay minister of St. Peter Church, and a 10-year member of Rutland City Board of Aldermen. Further, he was a member of Rutland County Agricultural Society, Rutland County Humane Society, and Rutland City Historical Society, as well as host/writer of PEGTV Big Joe’s Journal. His wife, Mary, died in 1994. He is survived by extended family.

1956 ROBERT R. DesROCHES SR., Kansas City, KS, died

December 26, 2020. He served 22 years as an Air Force radar navigator, and had a second career as a structure claims adjuster for Safeco. Bob volunteered for Habitat for Humanity blitz-builds and for the Corbin Senior Center for 18 years as a receptionist. He was devoted to serving at the Fairchild Air Force Base Catholic chapel as a Eucharistic Minister, lector, parish council president, and presenter for Marriage Encounter retreats, and would take Communion to the homebound. Bob and

IN MEMORIAM

(1963–69). In addition, he served as House minority leader for the Democrats (1966–68); was a state senator from the Chittenden–Grand Isle District (1969), and ran as the Democratic candidate for governor of Vermont in 1970. He served as a special assistant to Gov. Thomas Salmon in 1973; Vermont commissioner of agriculture (1973–75), and special assistant to U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (1975–83). He also was assistant trustee of Saint Michael’s (1966–67), UVM trustee (1965–71), and Medical Center Hospital of Vermont trustee (1976–77). From 1969 to 2002, he was a director of the Merchants Bank in Burlington, becoming chairman of the board in 1995. From 1987 to 1993 he was a member of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board. He also was a longstanding member of the Vermont Cattlemen’s Association, Vermont Farm Bureau, Vermont Grange, Elks, Ethan Allen Club, and American Legion. He retired to Deerfield Beach, FL, and enjoyed golf and dining out. He also enjoyed trips cruising to six continents and attending Notre Dame football games and 18 Super Bowls. He was devoted to his Catholic faith. Leo’s first wife, Stella, died in 1978, and in 1992 he married his wife of the past 29 years, Bonnie Lee McGregor, who survives. He also is survived by two sons, including Patrick O’Brien ’89, four daughters, and extended family including daughter-

IN MEMORIAM 64

his wife also were foster parents for 10 children, and he welcomed any and all to his home, especially young people. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Marian; a son; three daughters; and extended family.

RUSS GANGI, Beaufort, SC, died January 18 from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. “Rusty,” as he was known in his youth, was a talented acrobat and tap dancer and performed as “Uncle Sam” for President Franklin Roosevelt and Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. He also was a talented athlete, excelling at baseball, and was catcher on a Catholic high school team that played for the New York City Catholic High School Championship at Ebbets Field in 1953. He was captain of the Saint Michael’s baseball team during his college years. Russ once played against Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson. After college he was a bartender at two of Greenwich Village’s most storied saloons, Julius’ and Chumley’s. He went on to earn his law degree at the University of Kansas and became a practicing attorney in New York City, where he helped clients open numerous restaurants and bars over five decades. Russ moved to Westport, CT, in 1973 and remained there with his family most of his life. He coached youth baseball and played in softball leagues. Russ was a Heritage Circle supporter of

the College. He is survived by his wife, Tina; two sons; a daughter; a sister; two brothers; and extended family.

HENRY O’CONNOR JR., Yarmouth Port, MA, died January 1, 2021. At Saint Michael’s he was president of his senior class and on the Dean’s List. He became a commissioned Navy officer from 1956 until 1959, and after the service attended Georgetown Law School (1960–63) to earn his J.D. degree. He returned to his hometown of Holyoke, where he started his law practice in 1964. He was very active in the community: board member of Holyoke YMCA, Mount Tom Human Services Corporation, and the South City Congress, and chair of the 1969 St. Jude Hospital Drive. In 1968, the mayor appointed him interim director of the Model Cities program, a position he held for six years. In 1969, Henry became special state assistant attorney general, a position he held until 1978. After 17 years at his Holyoke law practice, Henry was confirmed in 1981 as probate judge to the Franklin County Probate and Family Court. After retiring, he moved to Yarmouth Port. An avid skier, he also enjoyed birdwatching and vacationing in Florida. He was a Fellows Club supporter of the College. Henry is survived by his wife, Sandra; a sister; and extended family.

1957

1960

GEORGE C. LITTLE, New York, NY, died in November 2020. After Saint Michael’s, George served in the Air Force, stationed at Hondo Air Base in Texas, and learned to fly. After the Air Force, he joined the Iowa Writers Workshop residency program where he earned a fine arts master’s degree and worked on a novel. During his career as an English professor, he lived in Buffalo while teaching at Canisius College, attended the University of Aix-en-Provence (France), and taught at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY. He loved reading, writing, carpentry, and painting. George is survived by his wife, Beatrice; a daughter; and extended family.

BROTHER GEORGE DONAT POIRIER, Pascoag,

1959 PAUL C. STAFFIER, M.D., Mendon, MA, died May 29, 2021. After Saint Michael’s he received his M.D. degree from Creighton University School of Medicine. He was a well-known obstetrician in the Milford, MA, area for many years and was the elected chairman of the OB-GYN Department at Milford Regional Hospital for a time. Paul was a major in the Army National Guard, a Lions Club member, and a Fellows Club supporter of Saint Michael’s. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Linda; four sons; four daughters; three brothers; and extended family.

RI, died August 28, 2021. He was a religious Brother of the Sacred Heart, entering the order in 1953, pronouncing his first vows in 1955, and professing his final vows in 1961. In 1960, he received his history degree from Saint Michael’s, and in 1964, his English degree from the University of South Africa. He later earned a diploma in theology and spirituality in 1966 and a guidance and counseling diploma in 1971, both from the University of South Africa. He also received a diploma in theology from St. Paul University, Ottawa, Canada, in 1975; and a master’s degree in teaching religious education and a special advanced religious education certificate, both from Saint Michael’s, in 1979 and 1991, respectively. His early teaching career took him from Rhode Island to Massachusetts to Canada. For the next 55 years of his career, Brother George served as a missionary in southern Africa as teacher, school leader, and regional superior. He influenced thousands of young African lives at the Charles Lwanga School and St. Francis School in Zambia, and as the senior lecturer and founder of religious education at the Brothers’ school in Kabwe, Zambia. He also served as master of novices and postulants in Zambia, was director of the Rural Project Development

1961 JAMES F. MARTIN, Georgia, VT, died June 23, 2021, of cancer. Jim was a star high school athlete and the first in Burlington’s Cathedral High school history to earn four letters in one year. As a senior he won the state mile run. He then spent three years in the Army and traveled through Europe, stationed mostly in Heidelberg, Germany. He went on to study history at Saint Michael’s before earning a history master’s degree at the University of Vermont in 1966. Through graduate school, he coached football at Rice High School, and after graduation began teaching social studies at Burlington High School, remaining there for 30 years and retiring in 1995. In 1997, he was enshrined into the Rice High School Athletic Hall of Fame, joining his brother Bert. He moved to Georgia (VT) in 1967 after buying a former sheep farm there. For many

years as a hobby, he raised beef cattle, pigs, and sheep. In 1981, he and his wife built a new house there using wood from the property. Jim coached his sons’ Little League baseball team, and became president of the Georgia Town Beach Association. After retiring in 1995, Jim continued to teach driver education part-time. In the mid2000s, he began tapping trees on his property and eventually built a maple sugaring operation involving 2,500 trees. In late 2011, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, yet until the last two years he was able to run his sugaring operation, and until his final weeks, would attend Rice High School sports events. His wife, Monique, predeceased Jim. He is survived by his sons, a brother, three sisters, and extended family including niece Jill Messineo ’95.

1962 REGINALD L. CURRIER JR.,

Houston, TX, died August 5, 2021. Reg joined the Navy in 1956 and spent his service stationed in Istanbul, Turkey, where he served as a Russian translator and Turkish interpreter for several years. After his discharge from the Navy, he completed his college education at Saint Michael’s. He spent most of his career in insurance sales and moved his family to Texas in 1977, spending the rest of his life there. He enjoyed time at Lake Champlain

camp in Vermont with his sisters and their families. He was active in the American Turkish Association in Houston, attending galas and working Turkish festivals, and belonged to professional groups in his field. Reg is survived by a son, two daughters, two sisters, and extended family.

1963 GIULIO S. GIUFFRIDA ,

Middletown, CT, died August 12, 2021. Giulio was an owner of Giuffrida Electric Co., along with his brother Cos and son Giulio III. He was active in his community as a corporator for Middlesex Health and Liberty Bank and co-president of the Trustees of Indian Hill Cemetery (where he was key in restoration of the chapel). He was president of Clearwater Condominiums and loved to spend summers there on his boat or fishing with family. He also enjoyed playing cards. He was a President’s Medallion supporter of the College. Giulio is survived by his wife of 47 years, Susan; a son; a daughter; two brothers; a sister; and extended family.

DAVID A. LADIZKI, Aga-

wam, MA, died October 5, 2021. A longtime generous benefactor of the College, he and his wife established the Attorney David A. & Beverly M. Ladizki Scholarship to support students at the College from the Springfield, MA, area. While still in high

school in Springfield, he worked part-time at the Springfield Safe Deposit and Trust Company as a messenger, and at Bassett Boat Company. At Saint Michael’s he was in Air Force ROTC and was accepted to become a fighter navigator. He then attended Union University Albany School of Law and graduated in 1966 with his law degree, passing the bar and becoming a lawyer in 1967. He joined the 104th Air National Guard in 1966 with basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and then attended technical school in Amarillo, TX. David joined the law firm of Lyman and Godfrey in Springfield, and subsequently opened his own law office in Agawam that had several locations in town through the years. At that time he also was the town prosecutor of Agawam and supported many community organizations. He was involved in real estate development in Agawam and belonged to the Rotary there as a charter member, as well as the Masons, K of C, Odd Fellows, Grange, Elks, Shriners, and Bela Grotto, where he was past monarch. He also belonged to the Italian Culture Center of Western Massachusetts and the Colony Club in the former Baystate West in Springfield. He was attorney for the Jericho Bureau of Exceptional Children & Adults for many years, was honored by the Shriners with a major award, and was active in his Catholic parishes. He belonged to

IN MEMORIAM

and Economic Act in part of Zambia from 1998 to 2006; taught at the International Formation Center in Lusaka from 2007 to 2008, and was director and finance controller of Shitima Hope Center for street kids in Zambia (2009–16). Medical issues forced him to return to the U.S., first to Mount St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket in 2017, then to the Brothers’ Retirement Center in Pascoag soon after. No information was available about survivors.

IN MEMORIAM 66

many professional organizations for lawyers in his region and was on the Springfield Board of Realtors. He was a notary public in Massachusetts and Connecticut. David supported a variety of charities financially and with his time, with special dedication to schools for those with special needs. He and his wife also funded a swimming pool renovation, playground improvements, accessibility ramps, and other community projects, and long supported charities of the Catholic dioceses of Springfield and Hartford. David’s wife of 41 years, Beverly, died in May 2020. He survived by a sister and extended family.

VINCENT S. ZICCOLELLA ,

Stuart, FL, died September 30, 2021. At Saint Michael’s, Vinnie earned a history degree, made friends for life, and met his bride. They raised their family in Pleasantville, NY. When appointed superintendent of Greenberg-Graham School in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, he was the youngest superintendent ever selected to that role in the state of New York. He retired from Graham after 23 years, and in 1998, the elementary school and middle school was renamed in his honor. Through his career, Vinnie taught thousands of hopeful teachers, administrators, and psychologists at several colleges in the greater New York area. He invested abundant time in supporting Beacon College, which

is dedicated to those with learning differences, and he was a trustee there for 25-plus years. He was a cook, a storyteller, and a big boxing fan, and loved playing racquetball, tennis, and pickleball. His son predeceased him. Vinnie is survived by his wife of 57 years, Judy; three daughters; and extended family.

1965 JOHN F. LEMON, Sarasota, FL, died June 6, 2021. After Saint Michael’s he received his master’s degree in mathematics from Oregon State University. John had a 39-year teaching career at Rice High School in Burlington, VT, primarily in mathematics, while also serving many years as assistant principal and athletic director. After retiring, he enjoyed cooking fine meals and playing card games with friends. He moved to Sarasota in 2016 to enjoy warmer weather. John is survived by his wife, Gloria; two sons; a brother; and extended family.

1967 PAUL V. CONNORS, Falls Church, VA, died May 26, 2021, from complications of COVID-19. He was a career employee of the FDIC in Washington, D.C., starting in the research division and moving to call reports, until his retirement 10 years ago. He was devoted to his Catholic faith and sang in church choirs, especially at

parishes with Latin Masses since he enjoyed singing Gregorian chant. He loved opera singing, especially Pavarotti, and attended performances at the Met in New York City. He also was a regular at concerts of rock, folk, alternative country, and bluegrass music, and would commonly invite family members to accompany him for an evening of music. Some of his favorites were Van Morrison, Neil Young, the Kinks, the Byrds, and the Band. He also loved travel, especially to Ireland and the United Kingdom. His moustache was a trademark, as was his sense of humor. He enjoyed time at the family beach home in Maine. Paul enjoyed writing about and discussing politics—he was an intense, serious man with a conservative opinion on every topic. He is survived by four sisters and extended family.

THOMAS J. HYLAND,

Mystic, CT, died March 22, 2020. He earned a theology master’s degree at Notre Dame and worked for a time as a parish facilitator/ pastoral associate at St. Patrick’s Church in Mystic, CT. Tom was founder and former executive director of Martin House and Thames River Program and Community Service in Norwich, serving both for nearly 40 years after their inception in 1982. He retired in 2016. Tom was a strong voice in the Norwich community for those who endured poverty and homelessness. He was a member of Stonington’s Housing Authority and the

Affordable Housing Committee. He enjoyed travel, exploration, and learning. His late mother, Esther Moriarty Hyland, who died in 2006, was the sister of former Saint Michael’s president Rev. Francis Moriarty ’40. Tom is survived by his wife, Vickie; a son; a daughter; a stepson and stepdaughter; two brothers, Robert Hyland ’72 and James Hyland ’75; and extended family.

DENNIS M. KELLY, Jensen Beach, FL, died August 14, 2021. He was a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. After Saint Michael’s he received his master’s degree in accounting from Northeastern University in Boston. Dennis was a certified public accountant, and after serving as the director of internal auditing for Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel, he moved his family to Florida and opened a private practice, becoming the second CPA in Port St. Lucie, FL. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Joanne; two sons; a brother; and extended family.

1969 PAUL J. CARROLL , Binghamton, NY, died August 25, 2021. In addition to Saint Michael’s, he attended Loyola University in Rome, Italy, and earned his master’s degree from Xavier University in healthcare administration in 1974. Paul worked for the State of New York for many years, retiring in 2003; he then

1970 MICHAEL F. MADDEN, Lake Placid, NY, died May 30, 2021. His professional career was centered in New York City for 42 years as he worked his way through operational roles in American Insurance Group and Zurich Insurance, and retiring from Odyssey/Re Insurance Group in 2011. In 2011, he moved from Brooklyn to Lake Placid, the hometown of his youth. Mike was a fan of the football Giants and University of Connecticut women’s basketball. He enjoyed dabbling in the stock market while listening to Jim Kramer, and had a fondness for old Westerns, good scotch, and Bob Dylan. Mike is survived by three sisters, three brothers, and extended family.

1971 PATRICK F. MCKENNA , Olney, MD, died September 9, 2021. Pat played club football at Saint Michael’s, and after graduating, served in the Air Force stationed at Minot, ND, where he was the youngest squadron commander. After the service, he returned to Saint Michael’s for his master’s degree in psychology and coached college football. While in Vermont he started his rugby career as a player and coach, including for Saint Michael’s clubs from 1975 to 1978. Pat became a guidance counselor at Twinfield High School in central Vermont and coached the girls’ basketball team to a state championship. In 1980, he returned to the D.C. area where he had grown up, launching his career in the school fundraising business. In 2009, Pat started his own company called McKenna Fundraising, which he continued until his death. Through his career, he raised millions of dollars for schools. He gave up playing and coaching rugby for a time in the early ’90s to coach his daughter in basketball and softball; in 2004 he started coaching Georgetown University’s rugby team, and the team went to two Final Fours. In 2014, he officially retired from coaching. He enjoyed hosting the team for barbecues, and cooking was among his favorite activities. He was a Fellows Club supporter of Saint Michael’s. He is survived by his wife,

Leanne; a daughter; and extended family.

JONATHAN T. PERRY,

Colchester, VT, died June 17, 2021, of COPD. He was an outstanding high school athlete in Connecticut in five sports, even setting state records. After Saint Michael’s he moved to Massachusetts and worked for many years as a pharmaceutical representative for Johnson & Johnson. In 1994, he moved to Vermont and worked as an interior plantscaper and sales rep for Mother Nature’s Helper, then part-time with Sodexo at UVM before retiring due to health issues. Jonathan was a lifelong lover and fan of all sports and a faithful follower of the Celtics, Red Sox, and Patriots. He became an avid dart player in Massachusetts and Vermont and was on several teams, participating in many championships. In earlier years, he enjoyed camping, fishing, and especially grilling. He is survived by his wife, Paulette Malaney; a daughter and her mother; two stepsons; a brother; two sisters; and extended family.

1973 DANIEL M. DALY, Man-

chester, CT, died May 22 after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer complicated by a recent heart attack. He struggled with auto-immune encephalitis over the last few years. He enjoyed an early retirement from Metro North Railroad

where he worked as a conductor, and soon discovered biking and kayaking, which became daily activities for years. Danny loved music, and his knowledge of it was encyclopedic—he enjoyed creating playlists for parties and events. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Suzette; a daughter and son; a sister; a brother; and extended family.

1976 KERN R. MCCARTY, New Port Richey, FL, died July 3, 2021. After earning his Saint Michael’s business degree, he graduated from the PGA business schools. Kern traveled the country and world during his golf career, and from 1976 to 1988 was director of golf at the Lake Morey Inn & Resort in Fairlee, VT, where he became the youngest head golf professional at a certified 18-hole golf course in the country. Following his long golf career, he worked in the insurance industry, independently and for several large firms including John Hancock. Kern raised his family on Lake Morey, where he enjoyed swimming, boating, skating, camping, and grilling on the deck. He was an avid sports fan, loved dogs, and most enjoyed teaching golf to his children and coaching them in sports or taking them to games. He is survived by two sons, a daughter, a sister, and extended family.

IN MEMORIAM

taught computer science for Broome Community College and became a consultant/ instructor for home energy improvements. He volunteered for the Red Cross and Salvation Army, helping people affected by local and national disasters. He enjoyed travel throughout the U.S. and to Italy, Ireland, Europe, Germany, and South Korea, and was adventurous in learning about other cultures and experiencing different foods. Paul is survived by his wife of 43 years, Denise; two sons; two brothers; and extended family.

IN MEMORIAM

1980

STEVEN W. CRONIN, Dalton, MA, died July 7, 2021. He was the vice president of Berkshire Insurance Group and prior to that a partner at McCormick Smith & Curry. He was heavily involved in his community, serving many years on the boards of the Pittsfield Anti-Tuberculosis Association and Big Brothers Big Sisters. He also coached numerous youth and high school soccer teams, and, with his brother-in-law, coached the St. Joseph High School ski team from 1999 through 2009, including the 2000 state championship team. He was active in his parish. He was an avid skier and enjoyed golf and running. Steven is survived by his wife, Sharon; a son, Christopher Cronin ’06; a daughter, Caitlin Osantowski ’09; a brother; two sisters; and extended family including daughter-in-law Amy Powers Cronin ’06. His late father was John Cronin ’47.

1982 DANIEL CLANCY, Maui, HI, died April 7, 2021. After earning his Saint Michael’s degrees in political science and Russian/German, Dan learned to speak almost nine languages. He found his way to California working with Intercontinental Hotels, which finally landed him in Hawaii. Dan enjoyed chess, collecting stamps and coins, debating, cooking, and spending time

with his dog. He is survived by his mother, two brothers, two sisters, and extended family.

1985 LOUISE BETH ROBERTS KEEFE, Baldwinsville, NY,

died June 15, 2021 after a long illness. A talented high school athlete in soccer and gymnastics, Beth continued to play soccer at Saint Michael’s while earning her business degree. She did graduate studies in education at the University of Massachusetts. Her earlier work career included serving as a senior accountant for Boston Financial Data Services; later she was an accountant for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse. She loved to read, particularly while sitting on the beach on Cape Cod, ran 5Ks and half-marathons, and was very involved in her daughters activities. She loved her dog, Leia. Beth is survived by her husband of 33 years, Thomas Keefe ’85; three daughters; her mother; two sisters; a brother, Christopher Roberts ’90; and extended family including sister-in-law Maura Allen ’83 and brother-in-law Peter Keefe ’75.

1987 KELLY ANN FULLER, Flowery Branch, GA, died May 8, 2021. Kelly worked for a time as manager of event planning for Fidelity Investments in Boston, and before that as a franchise

administrator for Sheraton Corporation in Boston. She attended high school in Rutland, VT, before coming to Saint Michael’s. Kelly is survived by her husband of 28 years, Richard; a son; a daughter; two brothers; and extended family.

1991 GREGORY V. LAURIA ,

Cheshire, CT, died May 21, 2021, of cancer. After Saint Michael’s Greg received his MBA from Western New England College in Springfield, MA. He worked his way through college painting houses, was part owner and operator of a car reconditioning business, and was a paint salesman for Sherwin Williams. Most recently, he was director of insurance sales for AAA Mid-Atlantic, and he worked for AAA for 23 years. He was an active community volunteer, serving on the board of finance in East Haddam, CT, and becoming a volunteer firefighter after 9/11 for the Middlefield Volunteer Fire Department. He also taught adaptive skiing and was passionate about coaching youth baseball for East Haddam Little League. An avid skier, he skied the Green, White and Rocky Mountains and ultimately fulfilled a dream of heli-skiing in Telluride, CO. He also enjoyed concerts, and loved being on the water, fishing, waterskiing, and tubing. He also had an avid interest in Corvettes and owned many models over the years. Greg

is survived by his wife, Kerin; two sons; a sister; a brother; and extended family.

1992 JONATHAN BRETT NEWBURN, Haleiwa, HI, died

April 25, 2021, about a year after diagnosis of a Stage IV glioblastoma brain tumor. Brett was a top soccer player and artist in high school, and at Saint Michael’s majored in English and art. He also took up skiing in those years, and moved to Aspen, CO, after graduation, undertaking a range of coming-of-age jobs: mixing music for clubs, illustrating flyers and menus, managing a pool hall and grog shop, and learning how to lay tile for a high-end tile company. He refined that tile craft and made it his core livelihood for more than 20 years. After several years in Aspen, he settled in Maine. He won a Maine Municipal Project Art Grant for a new middle school in Kennebunk installing a multi-panel mural at the school’s center. He always worked independently, among residential, commercial and architectural projects, in the practice of his tile craft. He enjoyed riding motorcycles, camping, traveling, and bicycling, including in Alaska, in Newfoundland, and through the West. He also enjoyed books, fine cuisine, and humor. Though spending most of his adult life in Maine, Brett also lived and worked at times in Jost Van Dyke, British

1993 CHRISTOPHER J. LEE, Louisville, CO, died June 7, 2021, of a heart attack. He found one of his life’s passions volunteering in Selma, AL, with the Edmundite Mission Corps, and continued to be very involved with that good work as vice-chair of the Board of the Edmundite Southern Missions. He settled in Colorado in 2000. Chris began a professional career in healthcare with IDX Healthcare Solutions in Vermont, which led him to his tenure at SCL Health, which included opening the Medical Imaging Department at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette, CO. For five years, he led the Colorado Visiting Nurse Association as president and CEO, which led him to create his business, Pro Solution Health, as an independent healthcare consultant. He was a serious and gifted athlete and excelled in rigorous cycling challenges. He also enjoyed family trips. In 1994, he received the Service Award from Selma Habitat for Humanity for his work with the Missions, and in 1999,

he received a Service Award from the Society of St. Edmund. Chris is survived by his wife, Katie; two sons; a daughter; his parents; a brother; and extended family.

1997 KENNETH STORMS KUNISCH, Manchester

Center, VT, died of cancer on June 14, 2021. He would tell people that after Saint Michael’s he went on to get his “master’s in skiing, hiking, and outdoorsmanship” in Squaw Valley, CA. Kenny’s career was spent in hospitality. He grew up working in his family’s restaurants in New Jersey, the Allendale Bar & Grill and Mahwah Bar & Grill, then moved to Vermont to own and operate the Manchester Bar & Grill and went on to work for Stratton Mountain, most recently as director of food and beverage. He was a devoted youth baseball coach and dedicated time to the Stratton Foundation, a community-based nonprofit devoted to the health and well-being of children and families in southern Vermont. Even after cancer treatments began, Kenny still skied powder, attended Yankees games, enjoyed an epic journey to the Bahamas, road-tripped to the Jersey shore, and watched his boys’ baseball games. Kenny is survived by his wife, Jamie; three sons; a brother; a sister; and extended family.

1998 JOANN HELEN HURST, Greenville, SC, died August 29, 2021, from complications associated with COVID-19. JoAnn spent her early life in Illinois and Indiana. After raising her 10 children, she went back to college and graduated from Saint Michael’s to become a hospital chaplain and spiritual director at Bon Secours Hospital in Greenville, SC, where she was a member of the Widowed Persons Organization and active in her Catholic parish as a Eucharistic Minister. She enjoyed painting, knitting and crocheting, essential oils, jewelry making, cooking, and debating on any topic. JoAnn is survived by five sons, five daughters, and extended family.

1999 MICHAEL M. MCALEER,

Largo, FL, died August 25, 2021, of a heart attack. Mike began college at Kent State University in his native Ohio before coming to Saint Michael’s in 1995 to join the Class of ’99, though he did not complete his degree. He was an expert in the trades of plumbing, carpentry, landscaping, and construction management. He also was an artist, reader, and poet. He lived all over the U.S., including in Chapel Hill, NC; Snohomish, WA; and Bloomington, IN. He enjoyed the outdoors, especially swimming, snow skiing, and sailing. For the

past few years, Mike was the project manager for a large condominium complex near St. Petersburg, FL. He is survived by his parents, two brothers, and extended family.

2019 JORDAN M. GABREE,

Sheldon, VT, died August 9, 2021. Before coming to Saint Michael’s he was an honor student at Missisquoi Valley Union High School and later earned his master’s degree from Champlain College. He was known for his sense of humor and big heart, and he loved his dog. Jordan is survived by his parents and grandparents, two brothers, two sisters, and extended family.

M1973 GERALDINE JOAN RENAUD, Ramona, CA, died April 17, 2021. She attended Indiana University and the University of Vermont, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. At Saint Michael’s she achieved her master’s degree in education. She was active in her parishes, in California and later in Dallas, TX. She loved singing and music and was a longtime member of her church choirs. Geraldine also was very active in theater, stage and music. Her husband, Clement, predeceased her. She is survived by three sons, a sister, two brothers, and extended family.

IN MEMORIAM

Virgin Islands, California, and Florida, applying his skills to furniture-making, molding, boat-building and repair, plane restoration, and pen and ink drawing. He is survived by his longtime partner, Sarah; his father; a brother; his stepmother; and extended family.

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SISTER MAUREEN BOYLE, O.P., Bethpage, NY, died August 30, 2021. The daughter of Irish immigrants, she was a member of the Order of St. Dominic in Amityville, and lived and loved Dominican life for almost 70 years. She entered the novitiate at Amityville in 1951, and in 1952, she was clothed in the Dominican habit and received her religious name, Sister Daniel Marie. She pronounced first vows in 1953 and final vows in 1957. In 1953, Maureen began her 27 years of ministry in elementary education at many schools on Long Island, NY. She earned a bachelor’s degree at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, before achieving her Saint Michael’s master’s degree, and later earned a master’s degree in social work at Fordham University. She also earned certificates in spiritual direction and addiction counseling. Deaf since her early 20s, Sister Maureen did not allow deafness to inhibit her in life. In 1998, she joined the Motherhouse Office of Health and Retirement and volunteered helping to facilitate free healthcare for the relief of pain and suffering to those with the most need and least access to medical care. As her own health declined, she moved to the Motherhouse in Amityville. Sister Maureen is survived by extended family.

SISTER COLETTE KRAEMER, O.S.U., Louisville, KY, died May 3, 2021. She entered the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville, her hometown, in 1950 and celebrated her 70th jubilee in 2020. A graduate of Ursuline College, Sister Colette also held a master’s degree in English from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. She later earned her Saint Michael’s master’s degree in theology as well as a certificate from the Berkeley School of Theology in California. Her teaching ministry extended over 30 years at elementary and high schools, and she led the drama club in 14 plays at Angela Merici High School. From 1997 to 2007, she was the director of mission effectiveness for the Sacred Heart Schools on the Ursuline campus. She served on two consecutive Ursuline Sisters leadership teams (1988–96), and directed other programs for the sisters while serving as a trustee of several religious high schools. She earned numerous honors for her service in education. Sister Colette is survived by extended family. ELEANOR N. MCQUILLEN, M.D., Burlington, VT, Vermont’s chief medical examiner from 1978 to 1990, died May 30, 2021. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1956 and from Boston University School of Medicine in 1960 as one of three women in the gradu-

ating class. Later she earned her MSA from Saint Michael’s, completing coursework on healthcare business models and practices that brought added efficiencies to the Medical Examiner’s Office. She and her husband interned together at Boston City Hospital after meeting at Boston University, and continued in their respective medical careers—Eleanor in pathology and Jim in neurology, in Sayre, PA. Consulting on a well-publicized case of a mysterious death there drew her into the field, and she did a residency in forensic pathology at the University of Rochester, after which she moved with the family to Vermont, where she served first as deputy medical examiner and then chief medical examiner. She developed a regional pathology system for the state that lasted for some years, and a regional medical examiner system that endured longer. In retirement, she and her husband established a private neuropathology and forensic consulting business based in Hardwick, VT. She also pursued her Realtor’s license in the Northeast Kingdom, and restored two historic schoolhouses in Hardwick and Craftsbury, all while practicing early American decorative arts. She was devoted to her Catholic faith. Dr. McQuillen and her husband had five children. No further information was available about survivors.

M1995 G. CARL ROBERTS,

Newtown, CT, died June 22, 2021, of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He lived most of his life in Vermont. He earned an ROTC scholarship to attend RPI in Troy, NY, to pursue an English degree but first served in the Navy on the USS Boston in the Middle East. After the service he enrolled instead at Boston University and earned an English degree before starting his 28-year career at IBM in 1965, in Poughkeepsie, NY, until 1970 when he transferred to IBM’s Essex, VT, location. He lived with his family in Shelburne. After his 1982 divorce and move to Burlington, Carl took an early retirement from IBM to pursue a second career. He earned two master’s degrees in counseling, one from UVM in the 1970s and the other at Saint Michael’s in 1995. He became a substance abuse counselor at Howard Human Services. Carl also completed many geology and archeology courses and worked on several digs in Vermont. When not out in nature he enjoyed movies, reading about American history and the World Wars, studying genealogy, and listening to classical music. He was an avid hiker, skier, snowshoer, and bicyclist. He completed the Long Trail at age 63 after hiking sections over a 10-year period. He rode the Burlington bike path well into his 70s. He volunteered at RETN (local cable TV)

FAC ULT Y, S TA F F A ND FRIENDS PAUL D. ALBRO, Pittsfield,

MA, died September 20, 2021. Paul was an adjunct professor in the Saint Michael’s graduate business program for a time. He earned his engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in 1970 and played varsity basketball there. Upon graduation, he was drafted into the Army and served during the Vietnam War. After the service, he earned a business master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1975 and later worked for several plastics manufacturing companies. He had a chance to fill in as an adjunct instructor at Castleton State College in Vermont in 1977 and found his passion for teaching, soon joining the Castleton faculty full-time. He remained there for 33 years until retiring in 2010. At Castleton he was business chair three times and both president and vice president of the faculty assembly. He

also helped establish a writing standards committee and wrote a book on operational management and quantitative business decision-making. He received many honors for his teaching, including Teacher of the Year three times and Outstanding Faculty four times. In 2002, he received a faculty fellowship to research the Irish Potato Famine and presented his findings to the college and local communities. Castleton established a scholarship in his name. He was an active community volunteer: a town moderator, volunteer firefighter, and Meals on Wheels driver; he also spearheaded a shelter for homeless veterans. He was a big Red Sox, Patriots, and Duke basketball fan. Paul is survived by his wife of 19 years, Paula; a daughter; a brother; a stepson and stepdaughter; and extended family.

STEPHEN M.E. KELLNER, Underhill, VT, died May 20, 2021. He taught chemistry at Saint Michael’s for 40 years, retiring in 1999. Stephen was born in Germany and spent his early years between there and boarding school in England. Returning to Germany just before World War II, he attended private school and learned to play the violin, beginning a lifelong love of music and singing. He attended school next in Augsburg, Germany, with Benedictines, though interrupted by bombing. An uncle homeschooled him

and his siblings after the war. In 1949 Stephen sailed from France to New York City and immigrated to Rochester, NY, and in 1949 he entered Catholic high school there and graduated third in his class. He entered the University of Rochester in 1951 with a full scholarship and graduated with honors in 1955 with dual bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and physics. He earned a fellowship at the University of Rochester as an assistant instructor while earning his doctorate in physical chemistry in 1959. He moved to Essex Junction that year and started teaching chemistry at Saint Michael’s, where he met his wife, who was working for the registrar. They married in 1960 and had 13 children together. During his 40 years as a professor he occasionally invited “orphan” students home for dinner during long holidays if they could not go home. After retiring he got a license to drive a school bus for special needs students and did that for five years. His hobbies included sailing, camping, travel, glassblowing, and gardening (providing vegetables to his local food pantry). He was active in his parish for 60 years as a Eucharistic Minister, lector, Catechism teacher, and music minister. His wife, Jane, predeceased him. Stephen is survived by five sons, including Theodore Kellner ’87, Paul Kellner ’88, and Mark Kellner P’15; six daughters; three brothers; three sisters; and extended family including grand-

daughter Amanda Kellner ’15 and daughter-in-law Penny Kellner P’15.

RICHARD MacKENZIE, Burlington, VT, died May 6, 2021. Well-known in Vermont and greater Burlington for decades as a leading basketball official, Dick parlayed his 36 years as a floor official into his longtime role as a courtside official at Saint Michael’s games (and for UVM men’s basketball). Dick served in the Navy during the Korean War as a flight navigator on the USS Boxer. He returned to Vermont and received his degree from Champlain College. His work career began at General Electric, first in Burlington and later in Erie, PA. Eventually he returned to Vermont and became owner with his wife of Halls Card & Gifts on Church Street in Burlington. He was a founding member of the Downtown Business Association. He also worked in commercial lending and commercial real estate, and was a longtime member of Burlington Rotary, serving as president in 1981. Basketball officiating was his real passion and he was active in the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials, serving over 50 years in many capacities including president in 2002. He also belonged to the College Basketball Association and earned a life membership for his commitment. In 2006, the Vermont Principals Association recognized Dick “as one of the most respected and recognized basketball

IN MEMORIAM

and the Burlington International Film Festival, as well as for local and state political campaigns. He traveled extensively, including to England, the beaches of Normandy, Scotland, the Yucatan Peninsula, Italy, Spain, Alaska, and Switzerland. He is survived by a son, a daughter, a sister, and extended family.

IN MEMORIAM 72

officials in the state” and inducted him into VPA’s Hall of Fame. In 2009 he was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame for his work as an official. Dick volunteered at UVM Medical Center’s oncology unit for over five years in retirement, and enjoyed walks, cribbage, and golf. He was also very active in Burlington Country Club for 56 years, including as president in 1981–82. He was a fierce competitor in golf. His wife of 40 years, Marilyn, predeceased him. Dick is survived by a daughter, two sisters, and extended family.

MARGARET M. O’BRIEN,

Shelburne, VT, died September 24, 2021. She took flying lessons in her early 20s. She loved teaching and theater. She taught English and theater at Burlington High School for 28 years, retiring in 1990. Her interest in theater drew her to Saint Michael’s Playhouse as a college freshman, and she met and worked with Donald and Joanne Rathgeb. Over the years, they made the Playhouse a nationally recognized Equity theater and worked with actors Bela Lugosi, Jon Voight, Henry Gibson, Kenneth Kimmins, and many others. After retiring, she moved to Ireland for a year, living in Dublin and touring the Emerald Isle to meet relatives and make friends. In recent years, her health began to fail and she developed dementia. She is survived by extended family.

CAROLE PARKER, Annapolis, MD, died May 9, 2021. “Kahrolie” taught business at Saint Michael’s for a time. She graduated from Morgan State University in Baltimore with a sociology/anthropology degree. She worked as a social worker in Pittsburgh while earning a master’s degree in social work at the University of Pittsburgh, then went on to earn a Ph.D. in organizational behavior in 1988 from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. She worked for two years at the Heinz Endowment Foundation in Pittsburgh before starting her career as an educator on the “management of difference,” the topic of her dissertation. In addition to Saint Michael’s, she taught at Clarkson University, Frostburg State in Maryland, and Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania. She enjoyed shopping, decorating, movies, reading, horses, music (gospel and classical especially), and travel. She visited every U.S. state and over 30 countries, and had a strong affection for Ghana. Her adventures included skydiving, camel riding in Egypt, and parasailing. No information was available about survivors. DENNIS E. WOLCOTT,

Swanton, VT, died July 15, 2021. He worked as a Saint Michael’s custodian at the time of his death and was known for his hard work and effort. Previously,

Dennis worked for Wyeth Nutritionals and in construction for many years. He enjoyed coin collecting and chatting and visiting with people. Dennis is survived by a son, a daughter, two brothers, two sisters, his mother, and extended family.

1930 – 2021 “Father Ray.... a comforting voice when you needed one.... a moving fastball when you were at the plate.... Father Ray could do it all, be all things that a young student-athlete needed him to be in the late 60s and early ‘70s.... If ANYONE is with the Lord for eternal rest, it is most assuredly Father Ray.”

— MIKE SHEA ’71

No n-Pro f i t O rg. US Po s t age PAI D Per mi t No . 154 B ur l ., VT 05401

Saint Michael’s College One Winooski Park, Box 6 Colchester, VT 05439 Change Service Requested

Saint Michael's College Fall/Winter Magazine 2021

Articles inside

Class Notes

In Memoriam

Letters to the Editor

Faculty and Alumni Works

Letter from the Alumni Board President

Kindness Repaid by Paying It Forward: Ed Mitchell ’84

The Roundup

The Lives He Touched Marcel LeBlanc ’50

Commencement

Reinvention

The Power of Film Building the Human Family

Before and After: Joel Ribout

Looking Forward Strategic Initiatives

A Letter from President Lorraine Sterritt

Reflection

Value Added: Diane Corbett

The Best Laid Plans Krista Billingsley

What’s New?

SGA’s new Secretary for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Alexyah Dethvongsa ’22