Speed Racer - Issuu

Worth a Cartwheel

Cedric Burkhardt ’20 is steering toward a lead position in motor sports — just not from behind the wheel.

BY MICHAEL CANDELARIA

Cedric Burkhardt ’20 remembers his first big break in motor sports. Characteristically, he lapped the field, figuratively speaking.

In 2018 while on spring break with his roommate in North Carolina, Burkhardt received an urgent call from his father, who worked at a car dealership in Orlando. Burkhardt was told a Mazda race team was going to be at the dealership for a promotional appearance, but that the event would be tomorrow.

Burkhardt had planned his return home for that next day, but now had to speed up his timing. On his return, he sprinted south to Jacksonville, dropping off his roommate, and made a pit stop at home near Orlando for a quick change of clothes. Then he dashed to the dealership to not only catch the action, but be part of it.

After mingling a bit, Burkhardt walked up to a guy standing by himself in the corner. They talked. In conversation, Burkhardt was asked what his dream job would be. His response: “the business side of motor sports.”

The guy replied, “That was my dream job, too. My name is John Doonan, director of motor sports for Mazda.”

Burkhardt, now a graduate student at Stetson, describes what happened next: “My jaw hits the floor.”

Not long afterward, Burkhardt was offered a chance at an internship. The random meeting marked his official career start and, in typical style, he hasn’t looked back.

“John Doonan has a very, very special place in my heart, because he’s the guy who gave me my start in racing,” Burkhardt says.

Doonan, by the way, is now president of the International Motor Sports Association. In other words, he’s a big, big deal in auto racing.

Burkhardt, meanwhile, is in the driver’s seat (again, figuratively) for a career in the industry — just not behind the wheel.

Both his mother and father are racing enthusiasts, and young Burkhardt fell hard in love with the sport. “I always loved cars. I loved playing with Hot Wheels when I was little; that was my go-to toy,” he says.

Yet, there were limits. “My mom never let me drive even a go-cart [growing up],” he adds. “… I knew very early on in high school that racing was where I wanted to end up. I just needed to figure out where in racing I could end up.

“I realized somebody has to run this whole circus; somebody has to pay for it; somebody

Cedric Burkhardt (on left, wearing black cap) is learning the motor sports industry inside and out, thanks to connections, commitment and drive.

has to market it. I realized there was a whole other side to it — the business side.”

So, when Burkhardt hit the road from Winter Park High School near Orlando to Stetson’s School of Business Administration, he was “really looking for the best way to get into motor sport.”

Burkhardt was attracted to Stetson’s small-school atmosphere. “It just felt right when I was on campus; it just had a feel of this is where I’m supposed to be,” he says about his arrival in 2018.

Truth be told, however, there was something more important about the setting. Although he didn’t tell his parents at the time, Burkhardt knew he wasn’t far from Daytona International Speedway. “If there was anything happening at the track and I wanted to go be a part of it, I could be there in 25 minutes or less,” he openly reveals now.

At Stetson, as a double major in professional sales and marketing, he found his ideal pit crew in the form of a supportive faculty led by professors John Riggs, DBA, and James Fyles, MBA (now at Appalachian State University).

“They really shaped who I am today in terms of how I communicate and how I interact with people,” comments Burkhardt, who will receive his MBA from Stetson in December.

“That was really one of the biggest takeaways. I came through the educational side of Stetson really learning much more than what’s in a textbook. I learned how to interact with people, which I think is far more beneficial than just memorizing some information out of a textbook.”

His work experiences certainly haven’t slowed him. That random dealership introduction with Doonan resulted in a 2018 internship at Mazda Motorsports, putting him on the right track within the company’s operations and business development department. A year later, he returned to Mazda Motorsports and worked for its creative agency, The Garage Team Mazda, where he learned about the advertising and marketing sides.

In June, Burkhardt became the first recipient of the inaugural Rod Campbell Award. Campbell was a motor sports marketing pioneer who passed away in March 2020. The recognition included another paid summer apprenticeship in the industry. So, this summer, Burkhardt worked with entities such as Bryan Herta Autosport and Racer Media & Marketing, among others. His efforts encompassed marketing, sales, promotions, communications and sports business. And he continued to make his mark.

One example: A PowerPoint template created at Stetson in a class taught by Scott Jones, PhD, was used to attract potential sponsors. It worked. “[People] were kind of blown away that somebody coming out of college could create [something] like this, and I give all credit for that to Dr. Jones,” Burkhardt says.

Riggs, also the founding director of Stetson’s Centurion Sales Program, calls Burkhardt’s journey a “model” for leveraging internships and experiences for personal and career growth.

“I have had the opportunity to observe, as well as work with, many individuals in my over 30 years as a business executive and eight years in academia, and can say that Cedric is among the more energetic, driven and committed individuals I have known,” Riggs says. “Through his experiences at Stetson and world travel, Cedric has acquired a uniquely broad understanding of his capabilities and a wise outlook on life, especially for being in his early 20s.”

Not coincidentally, Burkhardt also is a Centurion Sales Program delegate (a representative), and is credited with establishing a collaborative initiative with NASCAR to give Stetson students hands-on experience during race events and opportunities for internships and jobs. The program also allows students to join NASCAR’s Group Sales team during events and receive instruction. The partnership came by virtue of connections made during Burkhardt’s two internships with Mazda Motorsports.

While pressing on the career accelerator, Burkhardt’s time at Stetson hasn’t been all business. Appropriately enough for sales and marketing, he’s social. “I made a lot of really, really close friends,” he notes.

He met his fiancee on campus, too. Bethany Moore graduated magna cum laude in December 2020 with a major in religious studies and a minor in history.

Fact is, although nothing is guaranteed, most signs for Burkhardt point toward the winner’s circle. Driven by desire, his course is plotted. “You can’t work in racing or really anywhere if you don’t have passion for what you do. And I have an absolute passion for motor sport, every part of it,” he asserts.

And, in particular, there’s one job he’d really love to have, or something close to it. It’s John Doonan’s — that guy he met so fatefully three years ago.

“I’m shooting for the very, very top,” Burkhardt says, “and hopefully I can get there.”

Burkhardt: “I’m shooting for the very, very top, and hopefully I can get there.”

This is Brian Young’s second coaching stint with the Hatters.

LEGACY FORMATION

New coach Brian Young is building his football program with this fundamental belief: “It’s a 40-year decision when you come to a place such as Stetson.”

BY MICHAEL CANDELARIA

Young: “We are going to earn everything.”

Don’t ask first-year head coach Brian Young about wins and losses for his football team, not right now anyway.

He has a bigger picture in mind.

Young wants his

Hatters program to grow the right way — with discipline, determination and grit.

Given his background, he’s certainly on the right path.

This is Young’s second tour of duty in DeLand. He was originally hired in late 2012, just as the Hatters were resuming college football, and served as defensive coordinator for eight years before spending last year as a member of the football staff at Georgia Southern University, his alma mater. He played defensive back there, and in 1997 earned a Bachelor of Science in parks and recreation administration.

Prior to Stetson, the native of Savannah, Georgia, spent two seasons as a defensive backs coach at Cornell University. In all, Young has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a coach at multiple levels, including time in the National Football League.

In other words, there will be few excuses — OK, make that no excuses.

“We’re going to have a blue-collar work ethic. … We are going to earn everything,” he said before the season’s first kickoff. “There are no excuses. We’re straightforward and straight ahead. We’ve got blinders on. Things are going to happen, and when they do, we have to handle adversity and respond in an appropriate manner. Don’t get too high, and don’t get too low. Just stay in the middle.”

The Hatters, of course, do seek to get ahead. That’s why, with great confidence, Young was hired last June to succeed Roger Hughes, PhD, who left coaching to become the president of his alma mater, Doane University.

Yet, as everyone has learned with the COVID-19 pandemic, there are no guarantees.

“With the road to success,” Young continued, “you have to go through some hurdles.”

Just further down the road, he has big plans.

His words: “Stetson is no different than the Ivy League. It’s like the Ivy League of the South. … We have a strong academic reputation, and we will be recruiting high-character student-athletes who understand that college is not a four-year decision. It’s a 40-year decision when you come to a place such as Stetson. … You want to be attached to the name and to the Stetson network. That’s what you get here.”

While victories are cause for celebration, such as his first one this fall against Warner Southern, there’s a bigger goal: a winning culture on and off the field.

GRAND BASEBALL FINALE

Former star catcher Nick Rickles completes his Hatters legacy in Tokyo at the 2020 Olympics.

BY MICHAEL CANDELARIA

Rickles’ new team: fiancee Jessyka Virdell and son Chandler Virdell, and daughter Riley. Nick Rickles ’11

Nick Rickles ’11 had it all under control for his date with history. Well, mostly.

Rickles knew he would be the first Hatter ever to participate in an Olympics — and he was a member of the Israeli baseball team. There was great pride. So, as he prepared for the Tokyo Olympics (July 23-Aug. 8) he vowed to maintain perspective.

“For me, going in, I tried not to set expectations,” Rickles said from his home in Las Vegas, just after returning from play. “So, I went in saying to myself, ‘No matter what happens I’m an Olympian at the end of the day. That’s something to be very proud of.’

“I went into this really wanting to cherish the moment. I knew this was the last baseball thing I was going to do. So, I wanted to make sure I took in the sights, took in the feelings and really appreciated what I was going through.”

The only problem was, in characteristic Rickles style, he ultimately wanted more.

Since grade school, almost the only thing he had ever cared about was baseball. And

he was good. Rickles arrived at Stetson from Palm Beach Gardens in 2008 and immediately became a standout catcher, earning Freshman All-America honors in 2009, recognition on the Johnny Bench Award watch list in 2010 and All-America honors in 2011, as he helped the Hatters to a 48-win season in his junior year.

During his Stetson career, Rickles played in 178 games, starting 173 of them. He posted a .309 career batting average with 50 doubles, 20 home runs and 138 RBI. His junior season included a string of more than 140 at-bats between strikeouts, and he finished the year having been struck out a mere 10 times in 283 plate appearances.

Drafted by the Oakland Athletics in June 2011, Rickles spent seven years in the minor leagues, playing for 12 different teams. He never made it to the Major Leagues, but he came close, reaching as high as AAA in 2015 with Nashville in the Athletics organization, in 2016 with Syracuse in the Washington Nationals system, and again in 2017 and 2018 with Lehigh Valley for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Following perhaps his best year in pro ball, Rickles retired as a player in 2018 after the birth of his daughter, Riley, and coached in the Milwaukee Brewers minor-league system in 2019.

Still, he held out hope for one last baseball chance with the Israeli team, where as an Israeli American he had been a member since 2013. Through the years, he played in various world tournaments, including the 2020 Olympic qualifier tournament, where his team advanced to the Olympics’ six-team field.

Yet, his grand baseball finale was delayed by the pandemic, which postponed those 2020 Olympics until this year.

So, upon arrival at Yokohama Stadium in July, the fact that Rickles was one of only about 11,000 Summer Olympians worldwide was good, sure — but it wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to go out a winner.

“Being the competitor I am, once I got there, I was like, ‘You know what, just being there is not good enough for me. I wanted to leave with a medal or at least having the opportunity to play for a medal,” he explained.

Rickles and his teammates didn’t quite make it to the medal round. Nonetheless, despite losing four of five games in Tokyo, they battled, including an underdog victory against Mexico, 12-5. It was Israel’s first-ever win in Olympics baseball. Rickles had two hits that drove in three runs in the game, which eliminated Mexico from the competition.

That, no doubt, was a highlight.

“Even the Mexico coach came out [in the media] and said, I think the exact quote was, ‘In his worse nightmare he didn’t see himself in that position [losing the game].’ That felt good, with somebody leaving there remembering you and your team that way,” Rickles commented.

The big crusher, however, was a following loss to the Dominican Republic, 7-6, in the bottom of the ninth inning, ending Israel’s hopes for a medal. A win would have guaranteed playing in the medal round. It didn’t happen.

“I don’t want to say ‘disappointing,’ but … ,” said Rickles about that game.

“That’s probably the first game in my life that I felt sick to my stomach and felt like we deserved to win that game. Unfortunately, you know how baseball goes. It doesn’t always go the way you expect it to go. The best team doesn’t always win.”

In the end, the Dominican Republic won the bronze medal, the United States finished second for silver, and Japan captured gold.

Ultimately, Rickles headed back home, yes, without a medal, but with Olympic-sized memories from his 14 days in Tokyo.

While there were no fans in the stands, and he was unable to watch other Olympic events because of COVID-19 protocols, he became the first Israeli baseball player to get a hit in the Olympics — a double in his first at-bat against Korea. “As far as history books go, that was pretty good,” he said.

Also, the playing of Israel’s national anthem prompted great emotion, and the Japanese citizens who helped their host country as Olympic volunteers brought amazement. Rickles described those volunteers as “probably the nicest people I’ve ever come across,” adding, “It was awesome.”

In the days immediately following his return home, Rickles wrestled with mixed feelings about the end, both of baseball and the Olympics. “I go back and forth with that every day,” he said.

At the same time, Rickles insisted there is much to look forward to in his life. He is getting married in January, and charting pitches during a game has been replaced by charting patients for a Las Vegas-area skilled nursing facility. He is a hospital liaison — “kind of like a nurse, but not hands-on.”

Plus, there is Riley.

In the real end, above all, young Riley has made his career as a dad worth putting everything else behind him. Baseball. Even the Olympics.

Before the Olympics began, Rickles had said, “I can’t think of a better way to end it than with the Olympics.”

After the Olympics, he modified his view slightly.

“The Olympics,” Rickles concluded, “was a once-in-a-lifetime experience — second only to my daughter being born.”

Israel’s win against Mexico was the team’s first in Olympic competition. Rickles was a big part of the victory.

‘WE ALL HAVE STETSON IN COMMON’

SCOTT BOORE ’76, THE ALUMNI BOARD’S NEW PRESIDENT-ELECT, TALKS ABOUT HIS STUDENT PAST AND HIS PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.

When Scott Boore returned to the Stetson campus in 2014 — for the first time since he had graduated in 1976 with his marketing degree — he had “a nostalgic moment” as he gazed at the Lynn Business Center.

President-elect Scott Boore ‘76

“The Lynn Business Center used to be a bank,” said Boore, the new president-elect of Stetson’s Alumni Board. “I’m intimately familiar with it because while I was on hiatus [from classes] for a year, I started out as a laborer moving stuff around and ended up being the labor foreman on the job, building that bank, until I put the money together and went back to school.”

Stetson acquired and renovated the building in 2002 to house its School of Business Administration, and so Boore can now say that he literally helped build the university.

As president-elect of the Alumni Board, a role that will lead to his becoming board president on July 1, 2022, Boore will be building up the university in a different way.

“The Alumni Board’s mission, in essence, is to get alums engaged with the university on some level,” Boore continued by phone from his home in Lincoln, California, near Sacramento, where he works as a business, sales and marketing consultant.

“We want to get them engaged with the university, whether that’s attending a social event where they reacquaint themselves with alums that maybe they’ve lost track of, or with newer alums, younger alums, because we all have Stetson in common. As president, the job is to guide that and to help grow those relationships.”

Boore has many fond memories of his time at Stetson in the early 1970s.

“I was on the six-year plan — I was having such a good time that I decided to stretch it out,” he joked.

He recalled seeing bands on fraternity row in an area called The Pit, and they put a platform in there and held concerts. “I kid you not,” he noted. “We were sitting on the edge of this sinkhole and watching them play.”

Still, Boore was detached from Stetson life for 38 years after his graduation, until the reintroduction of football in 2013. Then-head football coach Roger Hughes and Trustee Bob Pocica ’75 met with alumni in the San Francisco area, and “I got reengaged,” Boore said. “I found Bob and Roger to be really genuine people. We got talking, and I left thinking, ‘Well, maybe my wife and I will catch a football game at some point. That will be great.’”

Soon after that, Boore was invited to attend Leadership Stetson, a program presented by the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement in which Stetson alumni can interact with their alma mater and university leaders on an in-depth, personal level. Boore was then invited to become a member of the Alumni Board in July 2014, and the rest is history.

“Throughout his time on the board, he’s been able to engage alumni locally in his city, help with admissions events, work on recruiting new members for the board and has helped guide the board to its current structure and vision. His charisma and passion for Stetson are contagious,” commented Amy Dedes ’04, director of Alumni and Parent Engagement.

In this role, Boore will be more involved in upper-level decisions and interactions with current President Ranell Tinsley Mason ’00, who will use this final year in her term as president to help mentor Scott before officially handing over the reins.

Mason’s time as president, beginning in July 2019, certainly hasn’t been normal, given COVID-19, but it has been successful.

Most recently, Mason and members of the board nominated and approved four new members to join as district chairs for their local areas. The new members had been involved as volunteers in their local areas, as well as guest speakers for the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement.

Two of the new members are representatives in Miami and Boston, where a “presence has been needed for years,” Dedes cited, adding, “We’re excited to get the opportunity to engage more alumni.”

Dedes, who became director of the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement last March, is hoping the new energy on the board will help to connect alumni, even while most in-person gatherings still aren’t happening.

“Having some new people as partners and collaborators,” said Dedes, “will bring new ideas and opportunities.”

‘WE ALL HAVE STETSON IN COMMON’

THE NEW ALUMNI BOARD MEMBERS

DANNY HUMPHREY ’16

District Chair for Miami Employment: attorney at Brodsky Fotiu-Wojtowicz Law Firm

DARASH DESAI ’08

District Chair for Boston, Massachusetts Employment: senior research scientist and part-time lecturer at Boston University

JENNIFER LONG ’92

District Chair for Fort Lauderdale Employment: alumni association coordinator for Broward Technical Colleges

JOSEF MCNEAL ’04

District Chair for Dallas, Texas Employment: national sales director for Abbott Nutrition

Stetson Law Professor Emeritus Robert Bickel (left) with the late Ernest “Rip” Patton Jr., PhD

REMEMBERING RIP PATTON

(1940-2021)

A Stetson hero of the 1960s’ Civil Rights Movement taught students beyond the classroom.

In 2006, Stetson Law Professor Robert Bickel (now Emeritus) believed the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s could reveal lessons to students that would develop their emotional intelligence regarding the social justice issues they have inherited. He also hoped those lessons would help them understand their role in sustaining and advancing the promise of the democracy, which in turn would shape their professional and personal lives.

Bickel’s vision was that, unlike other watershed moments in history, the lessons and thus the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement — which produced America’s two greatest civil rights laws — was a living history. So, his idea was to take Stetson students to the places where the watershed events of the Movement transformed America, enabling students to learn by visiting with the very people who were at the center of the Movement.

Enter Ernest “Rip” Patton Jr., PhD.

As the students met those Movement heroes in 2006, Bickel quickly determined this experiential learning would be at its best if an original Movement veteran could mentor them throughout their journey — and that this veteran should be someone who was in college when he was a part of those watershed events.

That special person was Rip, as he was popularly known.

Rip Patton was a gifted storyteller who had helped create the Nashville Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (the college student cohort of the Civil Rights Movement). Also, he was a prominent member of the first 1960 Nashville sit-ins, and he was a 1961 Freedom Rider.

As a Freedom Rider, he was a part of the legendary group of college students arrested and imprisoned in Mississippi’s infamous Parchman Penitentiary — merely for entering the all-white section of a Greyhound bus station, which the Freedom Riders had a legal right to do under the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Boynton v. Virginia. Patton spent 40 days in that penitentiary, also called Parchman Prison Farm for its brutal conditions.

Patton spent 11 years traveling each summer with Stetson students and with professors Bickel, Greg Sapp, PhD (religious studies), and Tammy Briant (law). Patton provided students the opportunity to have ongoing conversations about the places they were visiting and the events that had occurred there, as well as to process the experiences they had and the stories they heard. Also, he visited Stetson’s campuses during those years, speaking to hundreds of students about the Movement and its legacy.

Patton was a true teacher. He contributed directly to Stetson’s belief in the Liberal Arts tradition by developing the emotional intelligence of students, their sense of empathy, and their ability to serve the public interest and common good in any profession to which they aspire.

Time with him was learning at its best, and the Stetson students who came to know him will never forget him as a teacher, and as a friend who cared for each and every one of them. He passed away on Aug. 24.

Julie Farricker ’04 (left) with Lindsey White and Ed White ’06

Fruitful DETOUR

What do you do when your brand-new travel company gets sidelined by a global pandemic? You drink wine, of course!

When Ed White ’06 and Julie Farricker ’04 met at Stetson, they had no idea that 15 years later their friendship would take them across the ocean countless times to their favorite destination: Italy. Due to their love for the country, its history and culture, they started The Italian Tour — a travel agency focused on bespoke Italian travel.

The Italian Tour was created during summer 2020. Now, as the saying goes, here’s the rest of the story.

As COVID-19 spread and all travel came to a screeching halt, The Italian Tour, well, had to detour. White and Farricker, along with White’s sister Lindsey, continued to research and explore Italy in other ways. Eventually, their efforts became fruitful — with grapes. Voila, vino. They formed The Italian Cellar to keep the spirit of Italy alive in people’s hearts, minds and glasses.

Today, with Farricker as a Vinitaly Italian Wine Ambassador and White as the corporate mastermind, they work with small vineyards in Italy to bring Italian wine to their customers in the States via virtual tastings, their “Wine Passport” program or being a “personal wine adviser.”

Recently, the Hatter duo hosted a trio of Immersive Wine Tastings for Stetson alumni, each focused on a particular region of Italy, with wines that can be found in that region.

The plan for the future — although one never truly knows, right? — is to host more events, public and private, while also looking to possibly plant new seeds of enterprise. You can keep up with their latest moves on the web (www.theitaliancellar.com), Instagram (theitaliancellarllc) and Facebook (The Italian Cellar).

“Each class inherits the obligation to make the Stetson of Tomorrow an even better place to meet the challenge of new generations.” – J. Ollie Edmunds

On Nov. 5, the Stetson community is coming together for the Stetson of Tomorrow. We will be celebrating what has made Stetson great for the past 138 years and looking forward to the future as we inaugurate our 10th president, Dr. Christopher Roellke.

Thanks to the generosity of several alumni and various foundations, this year your gift of any size to any fund will be matched with a gift to the Stetson Fund. Be sure to stay tuned, as we announce challenge donors and share updates, by following us on Facebook and Instagram, @StetsonAlumni.

Save the Date: Nov. 5, 2021

Send Us Your Class Note

STETSON UNIVERSITY is proud of its alumni and their accomplishments. We would love to hear about your achievements. If you are a graduate from the DeLand campus, please send your class note to Stetson University, Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement, 421 N. Woodland Blvd., Unit 8257, DeLand, FL 32723, or email your news to alumni@ stetson.edu.

If you are a graduate of the College of Law, send your class note to Stetson University College of Law, Office of Development and Alumni Engagement, 1401 61st St. South, Gulfport, FL 33707, or email your class note to alumni@law.stetson. edu. College of Law graduates also can fill out the online form at Stetson.edu/ lawalumninews. We can only use photos that are high-resolution, and because of space limitations, we cannot guarantee use of all photographs.

Allen W. Groves ’82,

Charlottesville, Virginia, became vice president of student experience at Syracuse University. He had been dean of students at the University of Virginia for more than 14 years.

Joseph T. O’Leary ’83,

North Grafton, Massachusetts, joined Brookline Bank as senior vice president. He will lead a growing team of Brookline Bank’s commercial bankers, as well as support-related strategies.

Jaime Clark-Soles ’89,

Richardson, Texas, is professor of New Testament and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor, and director of the Baptist House of Studies, at Perkins School of Theology. She also has authored two books in the past year.

1960s

Lorna Jean Hagstrom,

MA ’64, DeLand, was honored as a Distinguished Alumna for 2020 by Florida Southern College, where she received her bachelor’s degree in 1961. She also was named the DeLand Woman Leader of the Year 2020 by the DeLand Junior Service League.

Adrian P. Bambini Jr.,

’65, Owensboro, Kentucky, was inducted into the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame. Bambini spent more than 20 years in the U.S. Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel before his retirement. Following, he has dedicated most of his life to volunteer work, including 20 years on the Radcliff Forestry and Conservation Board.

Diana Verdun Smartt

Braddom ’68, The Villages, has published a children’s book, “Margot’s Missing Scrunchie,” inspired by her granddaughter. Braddom is an alumna of Pi Beta Phi Sorority and president of P.E.O. Chapter IF in The Villages, a philanthropic group.

1970s

Jon E. Soskis ’71,

Havana, created a NetCE continuing-education course, Pit Viper Snakebite Assessment and Treatment. NetCE offers nationally accredited certificates for health care professionals. Soskis has spent more than 30 years helping medical staff become familiar with snakebite treatments. Soskis’ course is the only one available in the United States for pit viper snakebites.

1980s

L. Dean Barley ’80,

Westfield, North Carolina, had his first book published by Zondervan Press, “The Vineyard Book of Devotions, A Daily Devotional.”

1990s

Andrew P. Daire ’91, MS

’93, Moseley, Virginia, was selected as the 2021 Academic and Administrative Leadership recipient of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Presidential Awards for Community Multicultural Enrichment. Daire is dean and the Ruth Harris Professor in VCU’s School of Education.

D. Wayne Olson, JD ’91,

Sandy, Utah, had his latest book, “Fundraising for Nonprofit Board Members,” published. The book, available on Amazon, gives board members the tools they need to be effective and efficient fundraisers.

Brian D. Ray ’91,

Gainesville, was appointed as an adjunct faculty member for the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. In that role, he will teach the ethics course for the Master of International Policy and Practice program.

Cindy Lovell ’94, MA

’96, Edgewater, co-edited the fourth edition of “Preparing the Way: Teaching ELs in the Pre-K-12 Classroom” and coauthored “Linguistics for K-12 Classroom Application,” both published by Kendall Hunt. She also received the University of South Florida’s Excellence in Undergraduate Education Award.

Joseph Clay Meux Jr.,

JD ’94, Jacksonville, was elected to the firm of Rogers Towers as chairman of the board, managing director and president. He has served on the firm’s board of directors since 2017 and is a shareholder in the Estates and Trusts Department.

Patricia Koen

Babischkin ’95, Lakewood, Illinois, was elected trustee for the Village of Lakewood, a suburb of Chicago, where she looks forward to serving her community by bringing positive, strategic planning.

Nirupa Netram ’95, JD

’98, Cape Coral, launched Lotus Solutions LLC, a Florida certified woman- and minority-owned enterprise, to help businesses create workplace diversity and inclusion. Also, Netram was appointed to serve on the Florida Bar’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She co-chairs the Immigration Law Practice Section of the Lee County Bar Association and serves on numerous other committees.

Stephanie Friese Aron

’96, Atlanta, Georgia, was named co-managing shareholder of Chamberlain Hrdlicka’s Atlanta office. Aron chairs Chamberlain’s Real Estate Practice and is a member of the firm’s board of directors. She is a past president of the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers and CREW, and a former board member of the Atlanta Women’s Foundation and the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors.

Jason Gilliam-

Alexander ’97, Miami Gardens, assistant men’s basketball coach at Florida Memorial University, was selected to the USA East Coast Basketball coaching staff. USA East Coast is composed of top college players and participates in international competitions, becoming college basketball’s unofficial study abroad program.

Lee M. Morrison ’99,

Hialeah, is an investment adviser with Cornerstone Private Advisors. Also, he continues to be involved in the Miami music community, serving as the principal saxophonist of Miami Wind Symphony, as a guest conductor and clinician to bands throughout South Florida, and on the board of directors of Music Mentor Network. In addition, Morrison serves on the board of directors of Boy Scouts of America - South Florida Council.

2000s

Reneé Goble ’02,

Denver, Colorado, was appointed to the Denver County Court. Previously, she was a senior assistant city attorney in the Denver City Attorney’s Office, serving as the senior litigator for the Municipal Operations Section, representing and advocating for various city agencies and departments.

Nicholas DeLucia ’03,

Boca Raton, received his master’s degree from American College of Education in Educational Leadership.

Jordan Witson Fronk

’03, Austin, Texas, was featured in Tribeza, Austin Curated, a local online showcase of products and services. She is the owner and creator of Fronks, a producer of fresh organic nut milks. She began making her own nut milks in 2015 and launched Fresh Fronks a year later.

Dionne Fajardo, JD ’06,

Miami, was promoted to chief compliance officer and general counsel at Element Pointe Advisors LLC.

William P. Perry Jr. ’06,

Garland, Texas, was named as the first president of the Georgia College LGBTQ+ Alumni Group.

Dana Schumacher-

Schmidt ’06, Tecumseh, Michigan, an associate professor of English at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan, appeared on the television show Jeopardy! in April.

MARRIAGES

1 Theresa Moreau ’02 to Jose Rodriguez, Jan. 18, 2021.

2 Ashley Maisel ’11 to Gerson Zerpa, March 20, 2021.

3 Cole Walters ’12 to Nikki Hamm, Nov. 14, 2020.

4 Victoria Aldea ’16 to Terrin Smith ’15, July 14, 2021.

5 Jordan Ewud ’18 to Tatum Carroll ’19, June 26, 2021.

1 2 3

4 5

Anna Torres, MS ’07,

Palm Coast, is the founder of Trauma and Recovery Therapy LLC, which provides specialized therapy for clients with significant history of trauma, depression and anxiety. In 2017, she was named the Clinician of the Year by the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association.

Carlos Betancourt ’08,

MBA ’09, Los Angeles, California, is a founding principal of BKCoin Capital LP. He oversees the firm’s daily operations, including legal and compliance, and manages the research staff.

Gabriel-Maroun T. Shibly ’08, MAcc ’09,

Oviedo, was promoted to chief financial officer at Hillpointe LLC, a fully integrated real estate development firm. Shibly leads the firm’s accounting, financial reporting and human resource functions.

Stephanie Champagne

Parks ’09, Deltona, of FUTURES Foundation for Volusia County Schools, was named Nonprofit Young Professional of the Year by The Daytona Beach News-Journal in its “40 Under Forty.”

Kyle M. Schmitt ’09,

New Orleans, Louisiana, has completed his General Surgery Residency at Louisiana State University Health Science Center, and he’s accepted a trauma and surgical critical care fellowship at University of Illinois Advocate Illinois Masonic Center in Chicago.

2010s

Bernie LeFils, MAcc ’12,

Deltona, of LeFils & Co. LLC, was named Young Small Business Professional of the Year by The Daytona Beach News-Journal in “40 Under Forty.”

Kallie Ricker ’14, St. Petersburg, is one of the founders of recently launched company Faux Fan, which manufactures a bathroom noise-masking device of that same name.

Alexandrina Andre ’14,

Los Angeles, California, has written and directed two short films, “Flora” and “Reversed,” and has worked on numerous other projects in the industry. Andre production-managed “The Endless,” a feature film that premiered in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. She recently premiered her first feature documentary, “One Life to Blossom,” about trans-activist Blossom C. Brown, at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival. That documentary is currently streaming on multiple platforms.

Warren H. Campbell ’15,

Richmond, Virginia, is singer-songwriter and

guitarist of the Dead Billionaires, a power pop-and-punk rock band. In June, the band self-released its debut album and music video, available on YouTube, and is planning a tour in the South.

Ben Sorrell, JD ’16,

Ellenton, an associate attorney with the Sarasota law firm of Syprett Meshad, was selected by Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, to its 2021 Florida “Rising Stars” list in the Civil Litigation category.

Nickolas Saffan ’17, St. Petersburg, joined The Washington Post as a multiplatform editor on the Emerging News Products Stories team. He previously was with The Seattle Times, where he worked since 2019, managing the homepage, creating social media content and crafting push notifications.

Alyssa Soto ’18,

Orlando, is the animal nutritionist assistant at the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Sanford.

Michael A. Rodriguez

’18, Houston, Texas, is a resident artist with the Houston Grand Opera for its 2021-2022 season. While completing his graduate studies at Louisiana State University, Rodriguez came to national attention as a district winner and regional encouragement winner of the Met’s National Council Auditions in 2021. He also has performed as a featured soloist and ensemble member with several other regional operas.

Rachel Noble ’19,

Tampa, was named one of the 2021 AVCA Thirty Under 30 Beach Award winners. The award was created in 2021 to honor up-andcoming beach coaching talent at all levels of the sport.

ANNIVERSARIES

Richard Layer ’57, MEd

’70 and Barbara Layer, celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary in June 2021. Barbara is a former secretary to George Hood, PhD, then-Stetson dean of men. Richard was elected to Stetson’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 as a basketball player.

ENGAGEMENTS

Harrison Watkins ’19 to

Lauren O’Toole ’19

BIRTHS

1 Sidney Jackson ’04 and Sonel Jackson, a daughter, Sloane, May 2021.

2 Heather Cobb ’07, MAcc ’08 and Derek Cobb, a son, Tennyson Brooks, February 2019.

3 Catherine Kuchar Moats ’07 and Brian Moats, a daughter, Claire Copeland, June 2021.

4 Daniel Roscoe ’09 and Haley Roscoe, a son, Johnathon Louis, December 2020. 5 Meg Ferrell Young, MBA ’11 and Chassidy Ferrell Young, a son, Sebastian Lafayette, February 2021.

6 Cathleen Vogelgesang Neiser ’14 and Raymond Neiser, a son, Raymond Joshua, December 2020.

7 Dana Dolbow, MBA ’17 and Rusty Bragg, a son, Otto Pierce, April 2021.

8 Tyler Nelson ’19 and Samantha Fink ’19 a daughter, Hadlee Lyn, January 2021.

9 Matthew Casterline ’21 and Aubrianna Hall-Casterline ’18 a son, Theodore William, February 2021.

7 2

8 3

Spirit of Advocacy

William A. “Bill” Watson Jr. ’59, the 1981 president of Florida Realtors and a member of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors, was recognized as the 2021 winner of the Spirit of Advocacy Award.

The award honors a member of Florida Realtors who has demonstrated excellence in advocacy at the local board, state association, national association and community within the governmental or political arena over their lifetime. At the local level, Watson has been an active voice for real estate and the profession since the late 1970s. He has voted in every related election since 1961. Florida’s 10-mill limitation on school taxes exists because Watson and a colleague introduced legislation to the Florida speaker of the House in 1968. He served on the Board of Governors Multiple Listing Service 1967-1975. He was president of the Jacksonville Area Mortgage Brokers in 1966 and president of Jacksonville Association of Realtors in 1968. His local association named him its Realtor of the Year in 1972.

At the state level, Watson organized the largest Legislative Days in history, with 2,500 Realtors attending in 1981. The event is now called Great American Realtor Days and continues to serve as a dedicated forum, enabling Realtors to meet their legislators and share their voice on issues of importance to all Floridians.

Over the years, Watson has chaired or been a member of numerous committees for Florida Realtors, and he was the District 1 vice president in 1973, in addition to serving as Florida Realtors president in 1981. He has been a member of the state association’s Board of Directors since 1962 — and, since 1961, has only missed the Florida Realtors convention twice.

At the national level, through the National Association of Realtors, Watson was one of 20 Realtors in 2003 who met with Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and made a presentation to the board.

In the Jacksonville-area community, the list of committees and local organizations that Watson has chaired or been a member of is lengthy, dating back to the 1960s, and it includes being a past member of the Mayor’s Economic Council for Jacksonville and a director of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce for many years.

Watson received Stetson’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1981 and was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma business honorary society as a Stetson Chapter honoree in April 2015.

Also, he has been recognized for his charitable giving to Stetson. In 2017, Watson and son William A. Watson III were honored with the university’s permanent naming of Watson Field, a football practice field on campus.

Describing his support of Stetson Athletics as an “honor and privilege,” Watson pointed to the university’s influence on the success of his family. “My four years at Stetson University was a turning point in the development of my goals and objectives,” he said. “I am grateful to the many outstanding individuals who contributed to my growth at Stetson University.”

Watson Realty Corp. and Watson Mortgage Corp. sponsored the first sales lab at Stetson’s School of Business Administration, called the Watson Sales Lab.

Additionally, he and his wife, Janelle Watson ‘59, were presented Stetson’s Doyle E. Carlton Award in recognition of devotion to Christian higher education and in appreciation for his/ her extraordinary contribution to the life and development of the university, the city of DeLand and the state of Florida. William A. “Bill” Watson Jr. ’59

The practice field on campus was named in 2017.

‘One of the Best Jobs in Sports’

How does one get from Stetson to Kansas City and become director of business development/corporate sponsorships for the Chiefs of the National Football League?

Anthony Cangelosi ’09 will tell you the route goes from DeLand to Germany to California to Australia to Cleveland to New York. Then, finally, it was Kansas City here we come. And those were only the major stops of his circuitous journey.

Cangelosi joined the Chiefs in July 2019, just as the team was beginning its summer training camp to begin a new season, which culminated in a Super Bowl championship.

Coincidental? Yes, absolutely — but Cangelosi’s sales team did make marked improvement after he began suiting up to “help business grow through football.”

That’s because Cangelosi already had become a veteran of the sponsorship game in pro sports.

The highlights: From Stetson’s School of Business Administration, where he majored in marketing and family business, there first was an internship with Adidas in Germany, following a dogged pursuit of job opportunities. When Nike passed on his repeated applications, he turned to Adidas, leaving before a semester was over (with the blessing of professors).

Cangelosi could have remained in Germany, but with one semester still remaining before graduation, he returned to get his degree before leaving again. In Germany, he had fallen in love with soccer — its business side, of course — leading to a job in Los Angeles by way of Minnesota, where he was a National Sales Center trainee for Major League Soccer.

After a year in LA, it was on to San Diego as a manager of brand marketing and operations. In essence, he spent a year (2011-2012) traveling the country, attending games, acting like a fan and reporting on the overall fan experience. His description: “being a secret shopper on steroids.”

After briefly returning to metro Orlando, where the native New Yorker grew up, Cangelosi’s industry connections in ticket sales and sponsorships quickly landed him a job in Australia as the assistant general manager of a baseball Anthony Cangelosi ’09 team. That was 2012-2014.

While loving the Aussie life, he came back to the States and wound up in Cleveland and the NFL’s Browns, simply noting, “They wanted to take a shot on a kid that was in Australia.”

Never mind the Browns didn’t win many games. That stint from 2014 to 2017 as manager of partnership activation wound up being invaluable. “I learned that sponsorship was where I belonged,” says Cangelosi, who added an MBA in 2016 from the University of Findlay.

From there, he was recruited to New York City and mega advertising agency Horizon Media as the director of Scout Sports & Entertainment, this time learning from a buyer’s perspective.

Then, he made the move to Kansas City, where a certain young quarterback was emerging as a star, Patrick Mahomes.

With the Chiefs, Super Bowl champs in 2020, while the “winning helps … it’s kind of my [business-development] team — to make sure that we’re doing really creative and forward-thinking initiatives with these brands.” “We have to put together partnerships that are still groundbreaking and transformational,” Cangelosi continues. “It doesn’t really matter what we do on the field.” Not coincidentally, iconic Arrowhead Stadium is now GEHA Field at Arrowhead. For the first time in 50 years, the stadium gained a naming-rights partner. “That took a lot of blocking and tackling to get that over the line,” Cangelosi says about the partnership with GEHA, a health-plan company that exclusively serves federal employees, federal retirees, military retirees and their families. Cangelosi credits his success to having an “opportunity obsession,” as well as taking risks, and he looks back on Stetson professors fondly. “They gave me some tools and the foundation to understand what I needed to know,” he says, also citing that they “forced me to have a hard discussion with myself” about his future “early versus after you graduate.” Ultimately, with that knowledge, Cangelosi took the ball and ran with it. —Michael Candelaria

Cangelosi arrived just before the Chiefs’ Super Bowl season.

In Memoriam

1950s

Arlia Frink Almond ’50 Seaward F. Bartholf ’50 Anne Ward Cork ’50 Donald H. Dillard ’50 Jean Clark Fullerton ’50 Thad T. George ’50 James H. “Booty” Nance ’53 Robert M. Newby ’50, MA ’53 Richard G. Pumphrey ’50 Jay C. Rotan ’50 Jayne Weitzel Spieker ’50 Janice Osteen Taylor ’50 John H. Toggweiler ’50 Mary Phillips Wollam ’50 Gloria Solbrig Altemus ’51 Marilyn Nelson Birnbaum ’51 George I. Chassey ’51, MA ’55 Jennings B. Joye Jr. ’51 Wayne M. Lamb ’51 Robert D. May ’51 Joseph P. Meriwether Jr. ’51 Walter F. Pinder ’51 Frances Hall Crisp ’52 Anita Edenfield Ferris ’52 Roger Larson ’52 Barbara Cross Leemis ’52 Louise Joyner Barrington ’53 Jack H. Coldiron ’53 Estelle Minton Horton ’53 Betty Lund Welch ’53 Mary West Bagwell ’54 Edwin G. Townsend ’54 Jane Miller Feezell ’55 Frank K. Creech Jr. ’55 Lewis T. Jacobs ’55 John E. Akers, MA ’56 Vivian Kemp Cate ’56 Bernice Kohlmeyer Endsley ’56 Chester W. Plank ’56 Troas D. Williams Sr. ’56 John L. DuRant ’57 Robert R. Yates ’57 Carol Belcher Abernathy ’58, JD ’82 Mollie Parrish Barrow ’58 Joseph C. Crankshaw III ’58 James E. Hodge ’58 Gwendolyn Kelly James ’58 Joanne Bolton Knight ’58 Charles R. Woodward ’58 Stanley L. Brumley ’59 Arthur L. Dasher ’59 Peggy Etheridge Dennard ’59 David M. Wahlstad ’59 Mary Dorsett Waller ’59 Donald L. Wood ’59