Oswego Winter 2014

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT OSWEGO n VOL. 40, NO. 1 n WINTER 2014

OSWEGO

Check out our new and improved website!

For more information email: [email protected] or call 315.312.2258

alumni.oswego.edu

Benefits Include:• Upcoming

Events

• Latest News

• Social Media Links

• Volunteer Opportunities

• OSWEGO Alumni Magazine Stories

• Mobile Friendly

Benefits Include:• Job Postings

• Alumni Directory

• Class Notes

sweGonnect

Register for OswegoConnect Go to: alumni.oswego.eduClick on RegisterSearch for your nameEnter your Unique IDYour Unique ID is the 9-digit number located above your name on your OSWEGO Alumni Magazine.

Enjoy even more benefits once you are logged in!

Join the fun and become a Reunion Volunteer!

OswegoConnect_magazine_web.indd 1 12/17/13 11:10 AM

W I N T E R 2 0 1 4

Alumni Association of the State University of New York at OswegoVol. 40, No. 1

OSWEGOOSWEGO

9

32

31

35

25

O N T H E C O V E R :

Students stargazing in the planetarium of the Shineman Center are, from left, front — Jessica Ekert ’14, Megan Maye ’15 and Ethan Gromley ’14; back — Christopher Morley ’15 and Hannah Warriner ’17. Photo by Robert Mescavage Photography.

Transformation and Renewal 16The Oct. 4 dedication of the $118 million Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation celebrated end-less possibilities for learning and research ahead for generations of Oswego students.

Pass It On 22 Mentored by Richard S. Shineman, Ph.D., and Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71, higher education leaders Thomas Dana ‘84, M ’86 and Nancy Fichtman Dana ’86 M ’88, continue the heritage in their work at University of Florida.

Spotlight on Nature 32Rice Creek Field Station, dedicated Oct. 3, highlights the nexus of fieldwork in the natural environment with research and teaching opportunities in its 7640-square-foot facility.

In Remembrance 34We remember former students Colleen Brunner ‘90 and Lynne Hartunian ‘89, whose legacy of open-mindedness, friendship and intellectual curiosity endures a quarter century after their deaths in the Flight 103 bombing.

P L U S

Campus Currents 3Calendar 7 Sports 11Class Notes 35Weddings 44In Memoriam 46

2O SW EG O l Wi n te r 2014

During the fall 2013 semester,

we dedicated the Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation and the Rice Creek Field Station, launching unlimited opportuni-ties for faculty and student explora-

tion, learning and research. In doing so, we expressed gratitude for the foresight and generosity made tangible through the various resources that funded these forward-looking projects, which are part of a decade-long transformation of campus.

That these state-of-the-art facili-ties are available is a testament to the reputation of SUNY Oswego as a premier college, one that attracts various funding sources, including those from the State University Construction Fund. It is also an example of philanthropy in action, a tribute to Oswego’s many faithful private and corporate benefactors.

A shining star in our galaxy of generous supporters is professor emerita Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71, who—in concert with the Richard S. Shineman Foundation—gave a naming gift of $5 million, the largest cash gift in the history of the college, in memory of her husband, who was the founding chair of the chemistry department. I was honored on Oct. 4, 2013 to dedicate our new monument to learning and discovery in the name of Richard S. Shineman, Ph.D.

Rejuvenation of the physical face of SUNY Oswego is a major factor in ensuring this college’s status as a nucleus of excel-lence in higher education. It also reminds us of our role as a major contributor to the economic vigor of Central New York.

With that role in mind, I serve on the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council and chair the board of directors of CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity. With presidents of other SUNY colleges in Central New York, I watch Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inno-

vative business incentive plan, StartUpNY, which is designed to nurture new ventures on or near university campuses, a move that would benefit our students through the establishment of internships and cooperative education programs.

Oswego is already positioned to attract potential entrepreneurs, offering features that include our School of Busi-ness, perennially ranked among the best in the Northeast, and academic special-ties in such growing fields as electrical and computer engineering, software engineering, human-computer interac-tion, health services and biochemistry.

These are exciting times for Oswego, and I see innovation propelling us forward in every facet of our college. One example is the flurry of excitement that swept through the Oswego social media population when, on 11/12/13, alumni benefactors Jim Kaden ’78 and Debbie Adams-Kaden ’78 spearheaded our first 24-hour challenge. They pledged $11,121.30 if, on that date, 100 donors contributed to The Fund for Oswego. Oswego College Foundation Board member Bob Moritz ’85 upped the challenge with a pledge of the same amount if 250 donors signed on. With social media buzzing, another generous alumni couple secured their gift with a challenge of 500 donors. Each challenge was met, with a final tally of 605 donors comprising members of classes from 1940 through 2014, along with current and past staff and faculty members.

Oswego’s course has been set. Students, faculty, alumni and the wider community have already derived benefits from the implementation of our many recent initiatives. We move forward now with deliberate intent as we continue to serve as an economic anchor for our region and to reach for exceptional educational opportunities for Oswego’s faculty scholars, knowledgeable students and valued alumni.

President Deborah F. Stanley

Elizabeth Locke OberstPublisher

Linda Loomis ’90 M ’97 Managing Editor

Jim Russell ’83 Staff Photographer

Kiefer Creative Graphic Design

Lisa Potter Memorials

Jillian Phipps ’14 Intern

Michael BielakDenise Owen Harrigan Brittany Hoffmann ’14

Jason Holder ’05Zachary Jennings ’12Shane M. LieblerKaitlin Provost ’12Jeff Rea ’71Margaret SpillettShannon Stewart ’14Contributing Writers

Jennifer BroderickTyler J. Edic ’13Peter FingerRobert MescavageJeffrey Newell ’12Charles WainwrightContributing Photographers

The Oswego Alumni Association, Inc. Board of DirectorsKeith Chamberlain ’87PresidentNancy Smith Salisbury ’93First Vice President

Donna Goldsmith ’82Second Vice President

Elizabeth Locke OberstExecutive DirectorTim Barnhart ’02Marc Beck ’93Paul Brennan ’93Michael Byrne ’79Mike Caldwell ’70Lisa Court ’83*John Daken ’66**Kerry Casey Dorsey ’81Jerry Esposito ’70Maureen Flynn Kratz ’04Ana Rodriguez King ’94

Don Levine ’78Steve Messina ’91Josh Miller ’08Cathleen Richards ’09Mark Salmon ’93Dan Scaia ’68Lisa Marceau Schnorr ’87*William Schreiner ’92*Jennifer Shropshire ’86Christie Torruella

Smith ’08Jeffrey Sorensen ’92**Deborah F. StanleyAmy Vanderlyke

Dygert ’01Koren Vaughan ’95Rick Yacobush ’77Thomas Yates ’89* At large ** Ex officio

State University of New York at OswegoDeborah F. StanleyPresident

Lorrie Clemo Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Nicholas Lyons Vice President for Administration and Finance

Kerry Casey Dorsey ’81 Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations

OSWEGO Alumni Magazine

OSWEGO alumni magazine is printed on recycled paper with inks that are non-toxic, contain no heavy metals, and are composed of bio-derived renewable resources ranging from 25-40% (as a percentage of total ink weight).

F R O M T H E

President’s Desk

OSWEGO is published three times a year by the Oswego Alumni Association Inc., King Alumni Hall, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY 13126. It is distributed free of charge to alumni, friends, faculty, staff and families of current students, with support from The Fund for Oswego. Printed January 2014

Office of Alumni and Parent RelationsKing Alumni Hall, SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY 13126Phone: 315-312-2258 Fax: 315-312-5570Email: [email protected]: alumni.oswego.edu

facebook.com/oswegoalumni

@oswegoalumni

Correction: We regret having misspelled the name of Professor Emeritus Dr. Anthony Crain in the Faculty Hall of Fame column of OSWEGO, summer 2013. Dr. Luciano Iorizzo, subject of the article, is a veteran of the Korean War.

3 O SW EG O l Wi n te r 2014

C U R R E N T SC A M P U S

SUNY Oswego Secures $1.2M to Draw STEM Students, Workers to TeachingThe National Science Foundation

has awarded SUNY Oswego a five-year, $1.2 million grant for a scholarship program to help create a pipeline of sci-ence, technology, engineering and math teachers for high-needs school districts.

Oswego’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the School of Education worked together on the “Full STEM” grant and will collaborate to launch the science foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Schol-arship Program at Oswego this spring.

Graduate students in master’s teaching programs at SUNY Oswego would receive scholarships worth $16,000 a year. Undergraduate sophomores and juniors recruited for the program would receive $12,000 to complete their STEM degrees and any foundational course-work they need to prepare for Oswego’s graduate programs in STEM education.

The program’s goal is to produce about 30 new STEM graduates with an interest in teaching, and 30 graduate-level STEM teachers with state certifica-tion in adolescence education.

Each undergraduate must commit two years of post-graduate teaching in a high-needs school district for each

year of scholarship assistance; the commit-ment is four years for STEM professionals recruited for an Oswego master’s program in adolescence education.

The program will emphasize retention, including support for new teachers while in the field. Organizers are working on rules for repayment of scholar-ships as financial aid if students renege on the commitment to teach in high-needs schools.

“You have to have the passion for both the science and education ... and truly believe in the social justice that we have a responsibility to educa-tion,” Nichole Karcich Thibado ’03, coor-dinator of the program says. l

—Office of Public Affairs

Discussing the importance of attracting qualified candidates to teach STEM subjects are student worker Vanessa De Los Santos ’16 with co-principals of the National Science Foundation grant, Sofia Windstam, biological sciences (left of De Los Santos) and Jean Hallangan, bottom right, curriculum and instruction. Bottom left, back to camera, is Nichole Karcich Thibado ’03, grant coordinator.

Engineering Programs Receive High Needs GrantOswego has received a SUNY High Needs Program grant of

$183,800 to accelerate development of its engineering programs and recruit and prepare students for high-need jobs in the region.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the latest round of grants June 6, saying, “The High Needs Program helps fulfill SUNY’s original purpose: to be world class institutions that foster cutting edge inno-vation and train the next generation of high tech workers. Coupled with the Tax-Free NY initiative, this program will encourage entre-preneurs to start businesses in New York, keep their business in New York, grow their businesses in New York and, most importantly, hire New Yorkers.”

The three-year grant will enable Oswego to launch two one-week summer robotics camps starting in 2014 for high school science students and freshmen entering area community colleges. It will also enable the college to hire a wireless engineering specialist to staff the

Wireless Solutions Lab in the new Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation.

The teaching and research lab in Oswego will link faculty-mentored student projects to the new Center for Innovation in Wire-less Technology—part of the new SUNY Institute of Environmental Health and Environmental Medicine in Syracuse. A $15 million NYSUNY 2020 grant to the three Syracuse SUNY institutions and SUNY Oswego supports the new institute. (See story page 7).

“Thanks to our productive partnerships with industry in our region, SUNY Oswego is poised to make our mark in innovative applications of wireless technology,” says college President Deborah F. Stanley. “The new funding supports significant research and devel-opment assets that will also help to generate start-ups under Gov. Cuomo’s new Tax-Free NY initiative.” l

— Office of Public Affairs



Find the Founder!

IN THE SUMMER 2013 ISSUE, the Sheldon statue

can be found in the upper-left corner of the image with George Wurtz III ’78 on page 20. Grand prize winner of a College Store gift certificate and Sheldon Hall print is Michael Jargo ’96. Winning Sheldon Hall prints are Frederick V. Mauer ’58, Christine Steinorth Huggler-Wyant ’75, Donna Fry True ’62, Jeanne Lattof Tejada ’78 and Brandi Meier Wojtalewski ’09. A tiny replica of the Sheldon statue pictured here is hidden somewhere in this issue. Find the Founder and send us a letter with the location and page number, your name, class year and address. We will draw one entry at random from all the correct answers and the winner will receive a $25 gift certificate

to the College Store and a print of Sheldon Hall. The next five entries drawn will receive Sheldon Hall prints.

Send your entry to Find the Founder, King Alumni

Hall, 300 Washington Blvd., Oswego, NY 13126. Entries must be postmarked by Feb. 15.

JIM R

USSELL ’83

Visual Artist Jeffrey Newell Prospers in ‘Amazing Learning Environment’Jeffrey Newell ’12 M ’13 shared his talents in photography, vid-eography and the graphic arts for the dedication ceremonies of the Shineman Center and Rice Creek Field Station.

He earned a bachelor’s in broad-casting and in cinema and screen studies, and in December, he com-pleted an M.A. in graphic design.

“SUNY Oswego offers an amaz-ing learning environment,” Newell says. “I call my undergraduate peers and faculty my film family.” He explained that Oswego made his dreams come true. “They wanted me to stay here and supported my work so much that I came back for grad school in the art program. Now I have an art family, and they’ve adopted me.”

As a graduate student, Newell received an assistantship to produce a series of films about Oswego’s sustainability initiatives. He later proposed the series on the most significant design features of the Shineman Center. l


“I call my under graduate peers and faculty my film family . . . [Oswego] wanted me to stay . . . I came back for grad school in the art program. Now I have an art family, and they’ve adopted me.”

— Jeffrey Newell ’12 M ’13



ALANA Week Highlights Fashion Show, Peace Walk, Alumni Inspiration The 27th annual African, Latino, Asian and Native American Student Leadership Conference began Sept. 21, with a multicultural extravaganza — the popular fashion show — before moving on to the Unity Peace Walk, alumni panels, workshops and banquet.

“ALANA week itself is one of the biggest events of the whole semester,” says Justin Brantley ’15, president of the Black Student Union and one of the organizers of ALANA.

This year’s theme, “Nature’s Essence,” featured workshops in the exploration of natural remedies in Latino culture, leading up to the finale, an Alumni Networking Fair along the Campus Center concourse.

The annual banquet and dessert reception featured the rapid-fire spoken-word poetry of entertainer Oveous Maximus and dancing to the music of Rufaro Matombo ’12.

“It’s not just social events,” says Louis Rodriguez ’14, a senior wellness management major and volunteer organizer. “We work at informing people of what ALANA is all about.”

ALANA Week began 27 years ago under the leadership of Tyrone Holmes ’89, a former assistant director of Hewitt Union and Howard Gordon ’74 M ’78, now executive assistant to college President Deborah F. Stanley. The conference seeks to inspire young people of all cultures to develop leadership skills and improve multicultural understanding. l


JIM R

USSELL ’83

JENN

IFER B

RO

DER

ICK

Students from the Image Step Team perform during ALANA week.

Jeffrey Sorensen ’92, Cathleen Richards ’09 and Thomas Yates ’89

New Members, Oswego Alumni Association BoardThree graduates who have already

demonstrated their commitment to SUNY Oswego and its students have been elected to the Oswego Alumni Association Board of Directors, the policy-setting arm of OAA. They attended their initial meeting on campus Oct. 4. Joining the board are:

Cathleen Richards ’09, Washington, D.C., a broadcasting and mass communi-cation major, owns District of Cathleen, LLC, a company leading educational tours on the east coast. She has served as a volunteer for regional alumni events, Alumni-In-Residence and GOLD Leader-ship Council. As a student, Richards was a Johnson Hall resident mentor, admissions tour guide and board member of the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society.

Jeffrey Sorensen ’92, who majored in accounting, is a partner with Pricewater-houseCoopers in Rochester. He has been an Alumni-In-Residence volunteer and, along with his wife, Ginger Bray Sorensen ’93, has established a scholarship at SUNY Oswego. They reside in Pittsford, N.Y.

Thomas Yates ’89 of New York City, is managing director of Wells Fargo Securities in NYC, where he was previ-ously a vice president at J.P. Morgan. He majored in accounting and has been active in SUNY Oswego reunions and a generous supporter of the college’s Possibility Scholars Program. l



Author Timothy Egan Speaks at Two EventsReferring to The Worst Hard Time: The

Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dustbowl, as a modern parable, author Timothy Egan challenged his Oswego audiences to look to the Dust Bowl era as an example of a time when humankind created an environment that changed the climate. The 2006 book docu-ments, often from primary sources such as diaries and first-person interviews, the tri-als of individuals, families and communi-ties through nearly a decade of devastation.

Winner of the National Book Award, The Worst Hard Time is the Oswego Reading Initiative selection for the academic year, read widely by students and used as a textbook in several classes, including Professor Donna Steiner’s “Living Writers” class. Egan spoke to students there Sept. 25, revealing some of the research and writing techniques he used to tell the stories of families who stayed behind when one-third

of the population headed west to California. He spoke again that evening, when local residents were invited to join the campus community for his presentation and book signing.

Egan, a Seattle-based, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist and columnist, is a commentary writer for the New York Times.

“I was working on a series that investi-gated the decline of the American farm,” he said. “People would explain the challenges facing farmers today, and then they’d tell me that it was nothing compared to ‘the worst hard time.’ I thought Steinbeck had already told the definitive story of those years. But I learned he had written about those who left. The trials of the ones who stayed on the land were waiting to be told.” l

—Linda Loomis ’90 M ’99

Timothy Egan discusses his book The Worst Hard Time, the 2013-14 SUNY Oswego Reading Initiative (ORI) selection.

JIM R

USSELL ’83

We don’t know if he will become a researcher, a professor, an international diplomat or a

social economist.

But we do know this:

The sky’s the limit for SUNY Oswego students like

Eyub Yegen ’15, thanks to our 6,521 donors,

in 2012-13.

Eyub Yegen ’15

Major in Finance and Applied Mathematic Economics

Minor in Applied Statistics

See the “Thank You” video by Tyler Edic ’13 at

alumni.oswego.edu/honor_roll

Check out the online 2012-13 Honor Roll of

Appreciation:

alumni.oswego.edu/ honor_roll



EventsVisit alumni.oswego.edu for complete listing.

January 25 Oswego State vs. Buffalo State Men’s Hockey Game & Reception*

February 5 GOLD Success in the City: NYC*

February 8 Reunion 2014 Planning Committee Meeting*

February 12 GOLD Success in the City: Syracuse*

February 19 GOLD Success in the City: Rochester*

February 26 GOLD Success in the City: Boston*

March 9 CNY Family & Friends at the MOST*

March 29 Oswego Alumni Board of Directors and GOLD Leadership Council Meetings*

April 12 Reunion 2014 Planning Committee Meeting*

May 8 NYC Alumni & Friends Event*

May 9 Oswego College Foundation Board of Directors Meeting**

May 16 Commencement Eve Torchlight Ceremony*

June 5-8 Reunion 2014*

June 7 Oswego Alumni Board of Directors Meeting*

August 4 Emeriti Luncheon**

September-October TBD GOLD Welcome to the City Parties*

October 3-4 Soccer Alumni Reunion*

November TBD Men’s Ice Hockey 50th Anniversary Celebration*

* Alumni and Parent Relations, 315-312-2258

** University Development, 315-312-3003

Check Out Our New Website!Bookmark Our New Home Page!

alumni.oswego.edu

SUNY Oswego in Partnership for Environmental Health Institute

Four Central New York SUNY institu-tions—the SUNY College of Environ-

mental Science and Forestry (ESF), SUNY Oswego, SUNY Upstate Medical University and Onondaga Community College—have won $15 million in a competitive grant program to create the SUNY Institute of Environmental Health and Environ-mental Medicine. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the project’s approval June 3.

The funding comes from the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant program, in which SUNY campuses developed and submitted collaborative economic development projects for funding.

Oswego’s contribution to the Institute of Environmental Health and Environmental Medicine will be the Center for Innovation in Wireless Tech-nology, to be established in Syracuse.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the State University of New York established the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant Program in 2011 to make SUNY a leading catalyst for job growth throughout the state.

“Thanks to the vision of Gov. Cuomo in partnership with SUNY Chancellor

Nancy Zimpher, the power of SUNY is being harnessed to revitalize the economy of Upstate New York. SUNY Oswego is honored to partner with our sister campuses in the Syracuse region in this round of NYSUNY 2020 funding,” says President Deborah F. Stanley.

“We are elated at the approval of this grand collaboration, which aims to improve health care in New York and beyond by applying the concentration of resources in education and medicine that distinguishes our region,” Stanley says. “Technology has tremendous potential to open the door to better public health and, at the same time, to create new, high-paying jobs in Central New York—which our colleges and universities will train students to fill.”

The institute will address issues of global health and expand new research, provide academic and industry collaborations, and offer associate through doctorate degrees with a focus on improving health through understanding the environment’s impact on health and medicine.

Conceived by Oswego’s Engineering Advisory Board, the Center for Innova-tion in Wireless Technology will be the research, product development and testing arm of the Wireless Solutions Lab, opening soon in the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation.

Wireless applications in health care have the potential to vastly improve the mobility and comfort of patients as well as expand access to health services and lower the cost of care. The center will help conduct the research and development to assist industry partners in bringing new medical devices to market. l


“Technology has tremen-dous potential to open the door to better public health and, at the same time, to create new, high-paying jobs in Central New York—which our colleges and universities will train students to fill.”

— President Deborah F. Stanley



SUNY Oswego, OCC Host Visiting Fulbright ScholarOswego and Onondaga

Community College have been selected to host Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Paula Banerjee.

Banerjee is an associate professor of South and Southeast Asian studies at the University of Calcutta. She spent the fall semester at Oswego and will spend the spring 2014 semester at OCC.

Banerjee is an expert in the areas of borders and border conflict, the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons, and women’s efforts as peacemakers. She will contribute to internationalization in Central New

York by teaching and collaborating with faculty, conducting research, and engaging with student and community groups.

An activist-scholar, Banerjee researches and writes about ethnic and religious conflict, reports on disloca-tion and vulnerabilities and organizes conferences to solicit solutions for ending conflict. Her work received international attention and resulted in invitations to present her findings all over the world, including the United Nations. l


Steinkraus Lecture Addresses ‘Ideals for Responsible Science’Dr. Heather Douglas of the University of Waterloo, Ontario, presented the 25th annual Warren Steinkraus Lecture on human ideals titled, “Ideals for Responsible Science in Democratic Societies” on Sept. 28.

Douglas, Waterloo Chair in Science and Society in the University of Waterloo’s philosophy department, has a doctor-ate in history and philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh. She noted that science, when it functions well, “crucially shapes our understanding of ourselves, the world, our policy options for collective decisions and our sense of responsibility.”

The late Warren Steinkraus, who retired from Oswego’s phi-losophy department in 1987 after a distinguished career in teach-ing and scholarship, was committed to a wide array of human ideals such as social justice, equality, peace and nonviolence.

The philosophy department inaugurated the Steinkraus Lecture a quarter-century ago, establishing a permanent fund for the series now managed by the Oswego College Foundation.

Dr. K. Brad Wray, professor of philosophy at Oswego, delivered opening remarks. —Office of Public Affairs

Heather Douglas, Ph.D.

School of Business SymposiumThrough the Alumni-

In-Residence (AIR) program, nine successful alumni returned to campus for a two-day School of Busi-ness Symposium Oct. 10-11. In classes, speakers addressed such topics as college activi-ties, networking, landing the first job, excelling in an orga-nization, job search strategies and current issues in the busi-ness world. Students received additional mentoring, resume critiques and job search strat-egies through one-on-one appointments with alumni.

Participating in the symposium are, from left: Richard Settembre ’70, president, Way Cool Product; Erison Rodriguez ’05, regional sales and marketing director, ProAct Inc. (Kinney Drugs); Tom Varian ’98, president/CEO, Riva Payments Inc.; Kate Wilcox ’11, client services coordi-nator, Manning & Napier Advisors; Richard Skolnik, dean of the School of Business; Sarah Kane ’08, principal account clerk, Broome County Office of Employment and Training; Douglas Cypes ’81, vice president, USI Insurance Services; Diane Malagisi Marcus ’72, owner, Essential Business Etiquette; Jason Lupo ’09, operations management, Target. Participant Charles Hubbard ’70, regional sales manager, Davis Standard LLC, Black Clawson, is not pictured.

TYLER

EDIC

’13

PRO

VID

ED

PRO

VID

ED



More than 100 attendees “eased on down the road” to the Return to Oz Reunion Sept. 27 – 29. Alumni reconnected at more than 15 events and activities throughout the weekend, including a welcome dinner on Friday, a picnic at Fall-brook on Saturday afternoon

and a dinner dance on Saturday night. This was the fourth Alumni of Color Reunion, which began in 1997 and has occurred approximately every five years since.

JIM R

USSELL ’83

JIM R

USSELL ’83

TYLER

EDIC

’13

TYLER

EDIC

’13

TYLER

EDIC

’13



Campus Events Bring Together Alumni, Students and FacultyThrough the Oswego Alumni Association’s Alumni-In-Residence (AIR) program, the college brings accomplished alumni back to campus to share their knowledge and career experiences with students. Last fall, AIR partnered with the Communication Studies Department

and the School of Business (story on page 8) to co-host two events that provided the forum for students, alumni and faculty to network with and learn from each other. The AIR program is funded, in part, by The Fund for Oswego.

JEFFREY

NEW

ELL ’12 M ’13

JEFFREY

NEW

ELL ’12 M ’13

Alumni Stars Shine at Communications Studies Reunion More than 130 students, alumni and faculty gathered Oct. 5, 2013, for networking and sharing during the SUNY Oswego Communications Studies alumni gathering, with Bill Shine ’85 as featured dinner speaker.

The daylong event included a tour of the communications facili-ties, including Campus Center studios and Lanigan Hall, and an inter-active alumni panel moderated by Louis A. Borrelli Jr. ’77, chief marketing officer and investor of nimbleTV.

The following alumni served as panelists: Joan Reinhart Cear ’80, vice president of Kellen Company; Frank DiGioia ’78, president and chief executive officer of Fort Group Inc.; Mike Frazer ’79, afternoon radio personality on WWSW-FM, 3Ws; Lewis Karpel ’12, photojournalist with CNYCentral; and Marie Villa ’11, instructor/media advisor at St. John Fisher College. Their visit was coordinated through the Alumni-In-Residence (AIR) program.

The event concluded with a buffet dinner and keynote address by Shine, executive vice president for programming at the Fox News Network, who attributes his success to a mix of hard work, strong relationships, and his Oswego education.

“Twenty-eight years after leaving, I can tell you this: This institution … absolutely prepared me for my life and my career,” he said. “To this day, I say that 1981 to 1985 were the best four years of my life.”

The next Communication Studies Alumni Reunion will be held in Fall 2016.

Bill Shine ’85, executive vice president for programming at the Fox News Network, shared his experience at Oswego and in his professional career as the keynote speaker during the Oct. 5 Communications Studies Alumni Dinner in the Sheldon Hall Ballroom.

Baseball

The 2013 Oswego State baseball team set a new program record in wins, finishing

the season at 27-15. The previous record was set in 1982 with 26 victories. The Lakers finished second at the SUNYAC Champi-onships, falling to nationally-ranked Cort-land in the championship game. The game was the first SUNYAC Championship game Oswego has appeared in since 2001.

Scott Buniak ’14, Dan Erne ’14 and Brian Hamilton ’15 were all named to First Team All-SUNYAC while Mike McMullen ’14 was named Second Team All-SUNYAC. The American Baseball Coaches Associa-tion and D3baseball.com named Buniak, Erne and McMullen to All-Region teams. Erne and McMullen were named to the ACBA/Rawlings Division III All-New York Region Third Team while Erne and Buniak were selected to the D3baseball.com’s All-New York Region Third Team. Hamilton was named a SUNY Chancellor Scholar-Athlete Award winner because of his on the field accomplishments combined with his 3.56 GPA.

Andrew Lazzaro ’14 led the team with a .394 batting average on the season. McMullen finished with a team high: 50 hits and 26 runs batted in. Hamilton also finished with 26 RBI. Erne anchored


O SW EG O l Wi n te r 2014

Men’s Lacrosse

The 2013 men’s lacrosse team finished over .500 for the second-straight year,

which is the first time the team has had consecutive winning seasons since 1996 and 1997. The Lakers finished 8-7 overall, going 2-4 in SUNYAC play.

Troy Crevier ’16 and Nick Giampaolo ’14 were both named to the All-SUNYAC Second Team as voted on by league coaches. Crevier won 63% of his faceoffs, which allowed the Lakers to post the best faceoff record in the league. He was one of two freshmen to receive All-Conference recog-nition. Giampaolo earned 38 points for Oswego off of 17 goals and 21 assists. He scored eight goals and six assists in confer-ence play.

Cody Hoose ’15 led the team in points for the second-straight season. Hoose scored 24 goals and had 26 assists on the year, ending 2013 with 50 total points. That total was one point higher than the 2012 season, in which he scored 20 goals with 29 assists.

SPORTS SPORTS [Spring 2013 Sports Round-Up]

the pitching staff with a 2.25 earned run average. He had a team best 6-1 record.

Softball

The Oswego State softball team made history twice in 2013, earning the

first SUNYAC post-season win in program history. It also became the first No. 6 seed to knock off a top seed in the SUNYAC tour-nament. The Lakers beat No. 1 Brockport in the first round of the tournament, but then fell to Geneseo and Plattsburgh to end their playoff run. Oswego finished the season

17-20, winning its last five out of seven SUNYAC matchups and headed to the play-offs for the second consecutive season.

Katie Brendin ’14 was named to the SUNYAC All-Tournament Team after batting .375 in three games in the tour-nament. Tori Trovato ’16 was named First Team All-SUNYAC while Sammie Schroeter ’14 was named to the Second Team. Trovato was also named ECAC Upstate Softball All-Star First Team. She led the Lakers in almost every offensive category, and her .415 batting average ranked fourth among SUNYAC players. Trovato also led the team with 49 hits and 35 RBI. Schroeter finished the season with a .360 average, 40 hits and 13 RBI.

Nick Giampaolo ’14

Sammie Schroeter ’14

11

Mike Stark ’13

continued on next page

O SW EG O l Wi n te r 2014 12



Third-year head coach Casey Price was named the SUNYAC Sandra Hollander Coach of the Year.

Men’s Tennis

The Oswego men’s tennis team won back-to-back contests against Daemen

College and Keuka College early in the season as well as Keystone College and Keuka to end the season, finishing 5-8 overall.

The Lakers lost three seniors, leaving seven returners to lead the team this coming year. Among these returners is Sam Carges ’14, who went 4-4 at singles and 5-6 at doubles. Ben Schleider ’13 went 3-2 while partnered with Carges at doubles.

Outdoor Track and Field

The men’s and women’s track and field teams both finished eighth at the

SUNYAC Outdoor Track and Field Champi-onships. The men earned 28 points while the women scored 37.

Matt Wagenhauser ’15 became the first Laker to win the 400-meter dash at a SUNYAC Championship since 2000. His time of 48.16 seconds not only bettered his school record by almost nine-tenths of a

second, but also qualified him for the NCAA Championships. Wagenhauser placed 17th at NCAAs in the preliminary race and fell short of advancing. He placed 14th at the ECAC Championships, finishing his race in 49.51 seconds.

A l o n g s i d e R y a n Brennan ’14, Ben Sweet ’13 and Andrew Baldwin ’14 at the SUNYAC Cham pionship, Wagen-hauser and the squad set a school record of 3:21:06 in the 4x400 relay. The time sent the relay team to ECACs, where they finished 13th out of 29 teams.

K a t i e B o t t ’ 1 4 fin ished second in the 800 meters at SUNYACs with a time of 2:13:58. Bott’s time qualified her for ECACs as well, and also beat the previous school record of 2:18:36 set by Susan McWilliams ’04 in 2004.

Women’s Lacrosse

The women’s lacrosse team finished its season

at an even .500, going 8-8 overall and 4-4 in SUNYAC, but finished just one game short of making the playoffs.

Erannan Shattuck ’16 led the team with 52 points on the season, finishing with 30 goals and 22 assists. Lindsey Eggers ’16 finished the season with 25 points, coming from 16 goals and 9 assists.

Nikki Greco ’14, Mack-enzie Kjerstad ’14 and Megan McNulty ’14 were

all named to All-SUNYAC teams as voted on by conference coaches. Greco received a First Team bid, while Kjerstad and McNulty both earned Second Team honors. —Michael Bielak and Shannon Stewart ’14

SPORTS SPORTS [Sports Round-Up Continued]

continued from page 11

Sam Carges ’14

Candace Tarana ’14

Christina Sakowski ’14


Alumnus Helps Make Oswego a Top School for VeteransL t. Col. Mike Waters ’70 USAF

(Ret.) knows what it is like to be a veteran-student at SUNY Oswego. He served several tours in combat with the Air National Guard before finishing his degree, nine and a half years after his high school graduation.

Waters has been supporting veterans’ initiatives on campus for years, starting the Lt. Col. Mike Waters ’70 USAF (Ret.) Scholarship and a Veterans Emergency Loan Fund. His most recent gift of $1,000 went to the new Veterans Lounge Fund.

Opened in the fall of 2013, the Veterans Lounge, located on the second floor of Hewitt Union in what used to be the non-traditional student lounge, offers a safe and comfortable space for student veterans to hang out, network or do homework.

“These veteran-students make tremendous sacrifices and do it with a smile,” Waters says. “These are fantastic people. Let’s help them along. I like to give back, and I think that’s a great way to do it.”

Waters serves on the committee for services to veterans; comprised of representatives from key constituencies, it finds ways to help campus personnel understand the unique needs of student veterans.

“Everyone pitched in,” Waters says. “The right people were brought together, and one of the things we saw was a need for a veterans lounge.” Most veterans live off campus, so creating a space for them was a priority.

“I spend all of my free time in here,” says Matthew Gordon ’14, Marine Corps veteran and president of the revital-ized veterans club. “Having a place where we could just openly talk was important.”

Oswego enrolls 120 students who are vets or active duty or reserve service

members, according to veterans services coordinator Benjamin Parker, who is academic planning coordinator in the Division of Extended Learning.

The lounge is stocked with informa-tion on health care, benefits, and other things student vets might need. Waters’ generous donation will provide non-budgeted items such as military magazine subscriptions.

The veterans club will sponsor a unit deployed overseas for Christmas, providing them with care packages created from donated goods and money. The club will also host a military appreciation Lakers hockey game Jan. 14, when vets and one guest each will be admitted for free.

“I see these kids that are 18- or 19-years old,” Waters says, “just doing a great job with their responsibilities… and I’d like to see Oswego have the best possible veteran support system for them.”

— Kaitlin Provost ’12

OSWEGO DESIGNATED A MILITARY-FRIENDLY COLLEGE

Military Advanced named Oswego to its annual list in the 2013 Guide to

Military-Friendly Colleges & Universities, noting that schools on the list “go out of

their way to implement military-friendly policies in support of our men and women in uniform.”

“The designation shows the extent to which the campus goes to

provide a welcoming envi-ronment and to give [current service members and those

transitioning to civilian life] the specific support they need,” says Benjamin Parker, academic planning coordinator for Oswego’s Division of Extended Learning.

Gift Targets ‘All Students, Programs’Mark Tryniski ’85

recently made a gift of $50,000 to Oswego to fund unrestricted support. This designation is crucial to Oswego’s success because all students and programs potentially benefit from the gift.

“I chose unrestricted support because of the confidence I have in Presi-dent Stanley and her team to make sound judgments around how to utilize funding in a manner that optimizes the outcome for SUNY Oswego,” he says.

President and CEO of Community Bank System, Inc., Tryniski has volun-teered in a variety of significant roles and supported Oswego through service and philanthropic gifts. He is a member of the Oswego College Foundation Board, which he previously served as chair and vice chair. He was formerly a member of the School of Business Advisory Board and the Alumni Association Board.

“As an alumnus and Central New York resident, I have seen first hand the impact SUNY Oswego has had on the outcomes of individual alumni and on the vitality of our region, Tryniski says.”

Tryniski , an accounting major, joined Coopers & Lybrand in Syracuse after graduation and completed a partner track in three years less than usual. In 2003, he joined the senior management team at Community Bank System, Inc., where he was soon appointed chief operating officer. He has held his current position since 2006.

“I have always been a big believer in the power of the SUNY system,” Tryniski says. “The accessibility, affordability and educational quality make SUNY the tide that lifts all boats.”

— Kaitlin Provost ’12

P H I L A N T H R O P Y I N A C T I O NPR

OV

IDED


Seago Legacy Gift Brings Future Into FocusIn a career that has spanned 46 years in

the Oswego biology department, James Seago, Ph.D., has been recognized twice by the Botanical Society of America. He received an award in 2004 for outstanding contributions to the botanical sciences and another in 2006 for exemplary service to the plant sciences. He is nationally known for plant research, respected by colleagues for his professionalism and revered by students and alumni for his high standards and mentorship.

“I am where I am today because of the excellent students I have taught,” Seago says. “All I have done is give them oppor-tunities to succeed.”

In this year before retirement, Seago has announced plans to ensure oppor-tunities for success for Oswego students and members of the faculty who conduct research using the revolutionary Zeiss LSM700 confocal microscope in the Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation.

Features of the Zeiss include laser confocal scanning, 3D image stacking, fluorescence and differential interference contrast.

“With full support from my wife, Marilyn, I am including a gift to Oswego in my will,” Seago says. “That gift will

support the fund I have established for the maintenance and refurbishment of the microscope.” Annual maintenance amounts to approximately $15,000.

The fund, launched with Seago’s personal gift in the spring of 2013, has already been increased by private giving from an alumna, to honor Seago, and by an anonymous donor. Seago said the purpose of the fund is threefold: 1. To maintain service on the state-of-the-art instrument, 2. To provide funding for

students who use it to prepare research for conference presen-tations, and 3. To provide hono-raria for guest scholars.

The Seagos’ legacy gift is an extension of their contribu-tions to Oswego throughout the years. Marilyn formerly taught science in the Oswego Campus School, then worked for the office of admissions until her retirement.

James came to Oswego from the University of Illinois, where he completed his doctoral thesis and defense after having already begun teaching. His master of arts in botany is from Miami University, Ohio.

As a biology undergratuate at Knox College, Seago was, he says, “sometimes a better athlete than a scholar.” He was a standout on the track team, and he also played basketball in high school and college and ran cross-country in high school, a situ-ation that led to what he calls “the most fortunate incident” of his life.

At Oswego, Seago was recruited to coach cross-country. The athletic director suggested Seago talk to someone in admis-sions to establish recruitment procedures.

“I walked to the admissions office. They assigned me to Marilyn. We started talking. We

kept talking and before I left, I asked her for a date,” Seago says. “That was Sept. 7. We were married that Thanksgiving.”

Seago recalls a host of former students who are making significant contribu-tions to the sciences today. Among them is Joseph Armstrong ’70, professor of botany at Illinois State University, Normal.

“Jim has been my role model since 1968, his first year at Oswego,” Armstrong says. “He gave me challenging, open-ended research projects that assured me I had aptitude for investigation. He guided me with a stern hand into graduate school, recommending me to his mentor, Charles Heimsch at Miami, with whom I then did my master’s degree.”

Seago says Oswego continues to grad-uate outstanding scientists, and the Zeiss LMS700, properly maintained, will serve students for generations.

“Marilyn and I have been lucky in our lives,” Seago says. “We are pleased to know this fund will make certain that amazing opportunities for inquiry will continue at Oswego.” —Linda Loomis ’90 M ’97

LEGACY GIFTTo learn how you can include SUNY Oswego in your estate plans, visit oswego.edu/plannedgiving or call 315-312-3003.

TYLER

EDIC

’13

P H I L A N T H R O P Y I N A C T I O N

James Seago, Ph.D., and Marilyn Seago stand at the Zeiss LSM 700 microscope after viewing a cross section of spearmint stem, one of the slides Seago is creating for his research.

KA

ITLIN PR

OV

OST ’12

Dr. James Seago, standing, and Dr. Richard Edelmann ’86, director of the Center for Advanced Microscopy and Imaging at Miami University, Ohio, watch images on screen as Sarah Blanton ’14 examines a specimen.

Reunion Inspires Alumnus to Create Musco Family ScholarshipAs a youngster, Fred Musco ’73 always

knew he was being guided toward higher education; his parents had made that quite clear. But, as a first-generation college student, he really wasn’t certain how to choose the right college. So, when high school teacher Will Sproat ’62, recognizing Musco’s interest in automotives and other industrial arts, casually mentioned, “Maybe you ought to consider Oswego,” Musco put the lakeside college up on his radar screen.

Then, fast forwarding to 40 years after graduation, Musco attended Reunion 2013, an event that solidified for him an idea he’d been considering off and on for years: the establishment of a scholarship to recognize his parents and pay tribute to the value of his Oswego education by providing financial support for qualifying students from his home region.

Musco, a Lockheed Martin retiree, spoke with members of the Oswego

development team and set out to honor Esther Olivia Butler Musco and Ralph Dominic Musco, in acknowledgment of the high ideals of scholarship and citizenship they personi-fied.

“My parents provided a stable environment for their family for 53 years,” Musco says. “They created an atmo-sphere that cemented for us the certainty that by pursuing

higher education, we could become contributing members of society.”

As a result, during the 2014 – 15 academic year, one upper division tech-nology major, who comes to Oswego from the capital district region of New York and meets the academic criteria, will receive the first Musco Family Scholar-ship award. Preference will be given to a first-generation college student.

“As time passes, the significance of my years in Oswego becomes more patently obvious,” Musco says. “I was fortunate to have supportive parents and caring mentors to point me in the right direction. This scholarship will be one way I can honor them and express grati-tude for all the good things that resulted from my Oswego experience.”


Another Landmark Year for Oswego’s Endowment InvestmentsThe Oswego College Foundation, Inc. Board of Directors and its Investment Committee announce that for the year ended June 30 its endowment invest-ment return was 14.1 percent, once again leading the industry. The endowment continued its trend of outperformance for a seventh consecutive year, and now nine out of the past ten years.

The preliminary results of the 2013 annual National Association of College and University Business Officers – Commonfund Study of Endowments released Nov. 6, noted that the preliminary industry average return for the year ended June 30 was 11.7 percent, 2.7 percent below Oswego’s returns.

Oswego’s endowment assets are nearly 100 percent donor designated in support of student scholarships and student academic experiences. Assets provide critical funding that gives students access and opportunity at SUNY Oswego.

PRO

VID

ED

Fred Musco ’73 poses for Green and Gold Day, wearing his colors and showing his pride.



THE SHINEMAN CENTER FOR SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND INNOVATION

OSWEGO SOARS TO A UNIVERSE OF OPPORTUNITY, A GALAXY OF POSSIBILITY:

Celestial in its reach, the

Richard S. Shineman Center

for Science, Engineering and

Innovation is also practical

to the core — a visionary platform

for launching careers in the physical

sciences while tackling urgent issues

of environmental sustainability.

continued on page 18

B Y D E N I S E O W E N H A R R I G A N

PETER FIN

GER

JIM R

USSELL ’83



continued from page 17From its 35-seat planetarium to its

240 energy-efficient geothermal wells, the complex showcases Oswego’s ever-growing commitment to scholarship and research in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The $118 million Shineman Center is a visionary configuration of laboratories, observatories, and stimulating learning and gathering spaces. Both high-tech and humanistic, it’s the crown jewel of Oswe-go’s recent 10-year capital expansion.

EDWARD AUSTIN SHELDON LEGACYExactly 100 years ago, Oswego unveiled its first future-focused building, the beau-tiful, stately Sheldon Hall, and celebrated its then-progressive approach to teacher training. In architecture and infrastruc-ture, Sheldon Hall and the Shineman

Center have little in common. In spirit, they are one — legacies of Edward Austin Sheldon, who energized American education by replacing memorization with dynamic, hands-on, student-centered learning.

President Deborah F. Stanley, acknowledging the commonalities, said, “Today, Dr. Sheldon would agree that the dedication of the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engi-neering and Innovation has helped meet his stated goal to ‘raise Oswego to its highest degree of usefulness’ in the pursuit of academic excellence as we prepare the next generation of exceptionally trained and globally engaged scientists and engineers in the STEM fields and beyond.”

A testament to Sheldon’s student-minded spirit is the building’s $5 million naming gift — the largest cash gift in college history — from two dedicated

JIM R

USSELL ‘83

JIM R

USSELL ‘83

Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71 and President Deborah F. Stanley at the unveiling of the sign at the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation.

19

former faculty members, Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71 and Dr. Richard S. Shineman, who — before his death in 2010 — created a bequest that established the foundation that bears his name.

“Dick and Barbara have been longtime, generous supporters of our college,” President Stanley said. “They epitomize the loyalty and devotion of the entire SUNY Oswego community. Their gift, moreover, reaches a new dimension and carries Oswego to new heights.”

CHEMIST, PHILANTHROPIST, CATALYSTAt the center’s dedication, professor emeritus Richard Shineman was center stage. His wife, professor emerita of education Dr. Barbara Shineman, said her unpretentious husband, founding chair of the college’s department of chemistry, “would be more than a little embarrassed that we are calling attention to him today. But,” she continued, “while he had no self pride, he was proud of Oswego.

“This is a magnificent structure,” said Dr. Shineman, her eyes sweeping the

atrium’s soaring glass walls and graceful wooden curves.

A signature feature of the Shineman Center is its open and collaborative ambience, captured in the stunning, ground-floor atrium known as “the nucleus.” The Fusion Café, with elec-trical outlets at workstations along the lunch counter and walls, invites students and faculty to relax, exchange ideas and let their imaginations soar.

“Buildings are ephemeral,” Dr. Shineman said. “What we have come to dedicate is more than an artfully constructed complex. It is a philosophy of education.

“Richard didn’t fit the narrow stereotype of a scientist sequestered in his lab. He lived a well-rounded, adventuresome life.”

SHOWCASE FOR SCIENCEThe lake-view complex “puts science on display,” according to chemistry professor Casey Raymond, who helped shepherd the project to realization.

Every element reflects Sheldon’s experiential, interactive approach: the glass-walled observation room, where

meteorology students track lake-effect bands moving across Lake Ontario; the planetarium, offering animated journeys through the universe, including the Milky Way galaxy, and the $320,000 Zeiss Confocal Microscope, rarely found in academic settings. Students are even encouraged to write on walls to temporarily post their ideas, questions and events on transparent acrylic panels lining the halls.

STEM SUPPORTThe Shineman Center showcases Oswego’s strong commitment to providing a work-force proficient in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), disciplines in which researchers must join forces in search of solutions to complex current and future problems.

“Historically, the sciences have had separate labs and separate wings,” said Dr. Raymond. “The Shineman Center is the first comprehensive, truly integrated science facility in SUNY.”

continued on page 20


TYLER

EDIC

‘13


continued from page 19

STUDENT-CENTEREDAt the Shineman Center community open house in September, dozens of students displayed their research posters in the nucleus of the new building. A palpable sense of ownership prevailed as students in white lab coats welcomed visitors, served refreshments and led tours.

“The students are extremely grateful,” Anthony Smith ’14, physics major and president of the Oswego Student Association, said. “This is the most impressive building on campus.”

Oluwakemi Mogaji ’14, a biology major whose Oswego research into diabetes has taken her to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and will help prepare her for medical school, said, “I feel privileged to learn in a building like Shineman.”

EARTH-FRIENDLYThe Shineman Center is designed to make sustainability a priority and to qualify for gold LEED Certification (for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) from the U.S. Green Building Council. Recyclable materials, locally sourced, were used in construction; rooftop solar panels and geothermal wells mean the building will be 21 percent more efficient than a standard science building; it is estimated to use 40 percent of the energy compared to the former buildings (64 percent less natural gas and 23 percent less electricity). It’s designed to generate 38 percent less wastewater than the former buildings.

“Each of the geothermal wells is 499 feet deep. If you drilled any deeper you’d need a mining permit,” explained earth science major Julie Meleski ’13. “In the classroom, it’s hard to get your head around geothermal dynamics. It’s much easier to understand in an actual setting.”

PERFECT ROLE MODEL A highlight of the dedication ceremony was the conferring of a State University of New York honorary doctor of science degree upon Dr. Anthony Cortese, an internationally renowned environmental advocate.

A senior fellow at the Boston advo-cacy agency Second Nature, Dr. Cortese spearheaded the 2007 American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, a national campaign to enlist higher education administrators in reducing carbon footprints. President Stanley is a charter member — Oswego was one of the first five of 677 colleges to commit.

TEAM EFFORTCollege personnel, including approxi-mately 170 faculty members, spent more than a decade envisioning, designing, building and equipping the interdisci-plinary science building.

Dr. Kenneth Hyde, chemistry professor emeritus, said he spoke at the groundbreaking of the Shineman Center, then he intentionally stayed away until the dedication. “The building is everything we dreamed and more,” he said, as he provided historical context. “The Science Planning Committee goes back before 2000. It was 2003 when Sara Varhus, then dean of the Oswego College of Arts and Sciences, invited me

to work half time as her liaison to the committee.”

He credits Varhus with starting the Sciences Today lecture series that was a catalyst to increased collaboration among people from the various disci-plines. “We came out of our individual silos and began the interaction that is now promoted through the design of the Shineman Center.”

Hyde recalls taking science faculty members to visit new complexes on other campuses and to attend confer-ences of Project Kaleidoscope, where they could grasp possibilities for inte-grating the STEM disciplines in modern facilities. Among those who caught the vision are Dr. Jeffrey Schneider, a later chair of the science planning committee, and Casey Raymond, the current chair, who saw the project to completion.

“Early on, we didn’t allow funding issues to constrain our thinking,” explained Dr. Raymond. “We reached for the stars.”

Distinguished Service Professor of earth science Alfred Stamm recalled his department’s initial request: a penthouse observatory, with 360-degree views for meteorlogical forecasting. “At the time, we were tracking lake-effect bands through windows in the geology lab or by running up to the roof,” he said.

Eventually, wants and wishes were narrowed down to needs. The penthouse proposal became a large, glass-walled,

Members of the platform party at the dedication of the Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation are, from left: Marshall A. Lichtman, SUNY Board of Trustees; Dr. Anthony D. Cortese, recipient of the Honorary Doctor of Science degree; Dr. Barbara P. Shineman, ’65 M ’71, president of the Richard S. Shineman Foundation; the Honorable James W. Wright ’71, recipient of the inaugural Trident Award, and Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley.

CH

AR

LES WA

INW

RIG

HT

corner observation room with prime lake views, plus an outdoor observation deck.

A 16-inch telescope, the largest in Oswego’s history, is housed in the observatory at Rice Creek Field Station. Associate professor of astronomy Scott Roby, says excitement over the telescope and planetarium tripled the number of students interested in the college’s astronomy club.

STAMP OF APPROVALWhen college visionaries took the plan for a science building to Albany, SUNY administrators were receptive. “This college had already demonstrated, through projects such as the business school,

Campus Center and Sheldon Hall renova-tions, that it used funding effectively,” said Dr. Raymond.

In 2008, with the promise of $118 million in capital funding bonded through the State University Construc-tion Fund, Oswego moved forward with design and three years of construction. The project included the integration and renovation of Piez Hall, as well as exten-sive focus on instrumentation.

“The final product is testament to planning, patience and open lines of communication,” said Raymond. “We got a lot of work done; what we ended up with is pretty outstanding.”

GRADUATE AND ADVOCATEA big assist, as Oswego made its case for capital funding from SUNY, was the support of former New York State Senator James Wright ’71. At the dedication, President Deborah Stanley recognized his contributions by conferring upon him the inaugural Trident Award, with high praise for Wright’s outstanding — and long-standing — public service and advocacy for the college.

President Stanley explained the new award is a replica of the three-pronged copper finial that topped Sheldon Hall for a century. “The trident is an apt symbol of our college’s strength: Its three prongs represent our storied past, our vibrant present and our promising future; its skyward reach reflects our valiant, ever-striving spirit.”

Expressing appreciation for the award, Wright was quick to turn the spotlight back to the Shinemans. “As a couple,” he said, “the Shinemans repre-sent the spirit of Oswego.”

SENSE OF CELEBRATION At the Oct. 4 dedication, a jubilant President Stanley told 350 guests, “This is a landmark event in the history of our college. It’s a monument to the power of science and the power of education.”

Snygg Hall is scheduled for demoli-tion, and a memory garden is planned to preserve the names of renowned psychologist and former Oswego professor Donald Snygg, Ph.D., for

whom the building was named, and Richard K. Piez, Ph.D., who taught at Oswego from 1893 to 1937, and for whom Piez Hall was named.

Raymond O’Donnell, Ph.D., chemistry professor emeritus, recalls earlier academic days. “People lived their lives in Snygg Hall, including many overnights doing research in their labs,” he said.

Hoangny Nguyen ’14, biochemistry major, who often spends 12 to 15 hours a day in the lab, welcomes the move to Shineman. He can see friends in the Fusion Café, and he’s just a few steps from his resident hall room in Sheldon Hall. Nguyen has a connection to the building’s benefactor: His aunt and uncle were chemistry majors when Dr. Richard Shineman was department chair.

EDUCATION IN ACTIONThe summer move into the Shineman Center, Raymond said, with 10 students and 170 faculty members, was “well coor-dinated but pressured.” He added, “We had contractors going out the back door, and students coming in the front door. We estimated students moved about a million pounds.”

Meleski, one of the students, said she will long remember the heat, heavy loads and tension of moving expensive equipment, but she enjoyed the logistics. “I learned I might be interested in a master’s degree in professional science management,” she said.

UNENDING POSSIBILITIESWith the opening of the 2013–14 academic year, students and faculty members began classes and research in the Shineman Center, launching its infinite trajectory toward the future. The Oct. 4 dedication was a celebration of generous benefactors and all who pursued the stellar vision. It also served as a symbolic compact that the visionary thrust continues to propel Oswego forward through ongoing scien-tific conquests and unlimited discoveries.


WHAT MAKES SHINEMAN GREEN:n Recycled fly ash used in construc-

tion for 13,000 cubic yards of concrete.

n Foam insulation and curtain-wall construction seal the building.

n Materials in windows and shades allow light, but not heat, to enter.

n Largest geothermal wells in New York State.

n Geothermal installation reduces annual energy consumption.

n LED touchscreens monitor the building’s energy use.

n Bike storage and showers on a ground floor encourage alternate forms of transportation.

n Fountains with reusable water bottle filling stations.

n Bank of photovoltaic panels harness solar energy.

n Green roof where plants filter rainwater and provide insulation.


Sometimes, we make choices that lead us to the best possible circumstance among the best possible people we could hope for in our lives. When that happens, we thank our lucky stars, and we align ourselves

with those people, we learn from them, we hold them in our hearts and we emulate them. We call them mentors; we call them friends.

“They are the kind of people you want to keep in your life,” says Thomas Dana ’84 M ’87, Ph.D., of the motivating professors he and his wife, Nancy Fichtman Dana ’86 M ’88, Ph.D., had at Oswego. “You want to honor them by giving to your own students and colleagues the same effective support they gave to you.”

The Danas say they were part of a constellation of Oswego students who were nurtured in the 1980s by “wonderful faculty members.” Former dean Thomas Gooding, Ph.D., and his wife, Shirley, and the late Nathan Swift, Ph.D., and his wife, Patricia, were among them. And, in counting the mentors who became lifelong friends and inspira-tions, the Danas especially treasure their association with Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71, and her late husband Richard S. Shineman, Ph.D., a faculty couple whose lives revolved around the college, its programs and its students. Now, as leaders in higher education themselves, Nancy and Tom say they try to incorporate the Shine-mans’ practices into their own teaching and administration.

Tom, a meteorology and astronomy major at Oswego, is now a professor

and associate dean of academic affairs at the University of Florida College of Education. He recalls Richard Shineman as a professor who connected with each student on an individual level and understood what each student needed.

“Deep down, although he was a marvelous scientist, Dick Shineman was an educator,” Tom says. “He was passionate about having all students acquire science literacy. He found ways to make chemistry accessible to all.”

Tom refused a scholarship to a prestigious private college in favor of choosing Oswego because he had worked in his high school planetarium and was impressed to find a college that had one as well. Nancy followed in the footsteps of her brother, Bruce Fich-tman ’80, who had come to Oswego to study industrial arts.

“I was the little sister, coming along for family visits and seeing the campus as a place where I could feel comfortable,” Nancy says. “I always knew I wanted to teach.”

Maybe it was cosmic forces that brought Nancy and Tom together as co-resident assistants on the first floor of Oneida Hall. Maybe it was simply the end result of a series of wise choices.

“We realized we worked together really well,” Nancy says.

“And the residents seemed to enjoy seeing our relationship develop,” Tom adds. The working relationship turned personal, and it led to marriage, career and family.

The Danas are established now in Gainsville, successful in their professions in higher education at the University of Florida and enjoying life with their son,

Greg, a sophomore at UF, and daughter, Kirsten, a high school senior.

They resist occasional urges to move north again, but they say they are constantly aware of the excellent founda-tion they received at Oswego, and they often recall their student days, when professors provided the resources and advantages they needed to excel.

“We valued that sense of collegiality and the fact that we were inspired to seek our best selves,” Nancy says. “Barbara Shineman was a huge influence in my life. She constantly encouraged me. To hear, from an educator you admire on every level, the words, ‘You can do this,’ meant everything.”

Nancy became a colleague of her mentor when she joined Barbara Shineman in directing the Sheldon Institute, an Oswego summer program of enrichment, designed originally for gifted and talented pupils.

As a professor in UF’s School of Teaching and Learning, with credits for extensive research and publication in areas of new and continuing teacher development, Nancy carries on the best practices and techniques she acquired from Barbara.

“I constantly want to create the same qualities of mentorship and the same environment of positive reinforcement that Dr. Shineman gave to me,” she says.

As for Barbara Shineman, she says the connections she and Richard made with “brilliant young people like Nancy and Tom” enriched their lives.

“The college was the nucleus around which we planned our days. We were both passionate about higher education, specifically about Oswego where we felt

A HERITAGE OF MENTORSHIP CONTINUES FROM THE SHINEMANS TO THE DANAS Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. —HARRIET TUBMAN

JIM R

USSELL ’83


blessed to be teaching and learning,” she says.

“Dick and I both took such delight in seeing students blossom and fulfill all their potential. And, of course, Dick — given his philanthropic principles — demonstrated his allegiance by making generous gifts for scholarships and programs and by establishing the foun-dation that bears his name.”

A teacher at the Oswego Campus School and later a member of the faculty in the School of Education until her 1989 retirement, Barbara has had a lasting influence that reaches far beyond the immediate interaction in the classroom. To Nancy, she was not only a professor, but also a light, a source of illumination.

“Barbara guided me and nurtured me — in the classroom, as my student teaching supervisor and again, later, when she was director of the Sheldon Institute,” Nancy says. “It was a tremen-dous opportunity to work with her in those situations, to learn from her and to receive her wise counsel.”

The Danas credit the Shinemans with persuading them to pursue doctoral degrees. “It was quite a leap,” Nancy says. “We were quite comfortable. We owned a home and were becoming settled in Central New York. But, with the affirma-tion we received from Dick and Barbara — and largely, it was Barbara’s influence — we sold everything and went back to being students.”

Tom had a connection to Florida State through the work he had done on the NSF grant with professors Swift and Gooding, so they applied and were accepted there. The Danas say they have been fortunate, after completing their degrees, to receive academic appoint-ments at universities where they can both pursue their individual passions for education. First at Pennsylvania State University, now at UF, they have helped create and sustain an academic environment like that they saw modeled at Oswego, where they say they were part of “a learning community.”

Coming together for the Oct. 4, 2013, dedication of the Richard S.

Shineman Center for Science, Engi-neering and Innovation was, for Tom and Nancy Dana and Barbara Shineman, like gathering as a family once more.

“They have become as close as any beloved relatives,” Barbara says. “Dick and I watched their careers develop, and before he died, we all enjoyed vacations and visits together. He would have been delighted that they were here for the dedication.”

Barbara says the Danas are among those alumni who are the pride of Oswego. “They are graduates who embody all the best qualities we hope to engender in our students so that when they go on to their careers, they take with them the values we hold so dear.”

Spending time on campus after several years prompted Tom and Nancy to reminisce about their student days. As they reflected upon their life journey and thought about the people who helped launch their careers, Nancy and Tom said they continued to be filled with gratitude.

“It all started here,” Tom said, as he and Nancy held hands walking toward the new building that bears the name of one of their cherished Oswego mentors. He and Nancy smiled at one another, hurried to go inside for the landmark celebration. “It all started right here.”


Nancy Fichtman Dana ’86 M ’88 and Thomas Dana ’84 M ’87 traveled from Gainesville, where they are both administrators at the University of Florida, to celebrate with their friend and mentor Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71, center, at the dedication of the Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation.

From the archives: Richard S. Shineman at the start of his career. A dedicated teacher and generous philanthropist, he established the trust before his death that, along with a personal gift from his wife, Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71, provided funding to name the Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation.


Visibility: An observation room has been designed to allow people to view the ever-changing weather conditions outside the building. Labs have large windows so students can see advanced technologies and instrumentation, such as the human-sized, programmable robot in the engineering labs.

Engagement: The Shineman Center houses a 35-seat planetarium that offers astronomical shows for people on campus and in the larger community. Faculty members plan to offer a course in planetarium operation, a unique academic benefit for Oswego students.

RO

BERT M

ESCAVA

GE

TYLER

EDIC

‘13


Student-Centered Solutions: The building promotes learning inside classrooms and laboratories as well as in informal set-tings. Outdoor kiosks situated at the storm water detention planting beds present the sustainability elements of the build-ing to visitors. The many writing surfaces promote impromptu learning among students and between students and faculty. Modern laboratories encourage active learning. The entire environment provides students with tools they need to develop skills in scientific inquiry and resources to discover solutions to the challenges facing current and future scientists.

Intellectual Rigor: This mathematics

teaching classroom, with its highly visible techno-logical features and its creative use of space, provides a resource for training innovative future teachers of mathematics and science.

PETER FIN

GER

JIM R

USSELL ’83

JIM R

USSELL ’83

PETER FIN

GER


A CHEMIST ABROAD At the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Stacy Trey ’02 collaborates on projects to make lightweight, anti-static building materials; she also works at SP Wood Technology and Process Development to formulate commodity chemicals from pulp and paper industry residual streams.

Trey is a chemist, who says she was encouraged by Oswego professors to participate in summer programs at other American universities, resulting in experiences that led to graduate school at the University of Southern Mississippi and post-doctoral studies at Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology.

“Oswego’s program provided a baseline understanding of chemistry and taught me how to work through problems,” she says. “The quality of teaching and individual guidance — profes-sors’ approachability and openness — meant I was not afraid to ask questions in grad school.” Following post-doctoral work involving radiation-curable polymers, Trey was hired at Stock-

holm’s Technical Research Institute as an investigator and project leader.

She says Oswego classes generated “a broad base of knowledge” in natural, inor-ganic, biological and organic chemistry and skills in computer simulation.

“Exposure to different disciplines made it difficult to decide which specialization to follow,” she jokes. “The research and labo-ratory experiences and excellent professors contributed to my sense that I belonged to a group that made chemistry exciting, inter-esting and even fun.”

— Linda Loomis ’90 M ’97

PRO

VID

ED

Stacy Trey ’02

ALUMNI SOARIN THE SCIENCESLaunched from Oswego’s lakeside laboratories and classrooms, mentored by Oswego’s dedicated faculty and inspired by a culture of inquiry, Oswego alumni soar in research, discovery, innovation and design. They lead the way in a variety of groundbreaking missions; their work is a testimony to the vigor of the Oswego experience and the value of an Oswego degree.


PRO

VID

ED

VARIED OSWEGO PROGRAM PREPARES SCIENCE GRAD FOR MULTIPLE CAREERSUniversity of North Texas Health and Science Center Professor John V. Planz ’84, Ph.D., offers this advice to students: “Don’t have blinders on. You never know what opportunities might come up.” This wisdom, shared by one of America’s leading forensic scientists, represents what Planz has learned from his own journey.

“Forensics?” he asks. “Never even on my radar.”

But today, Planz, who earned degrees in biology and zoology at Oswego, is the associate director of the UNT Health Science Center DNA Identity Laboratory, the largest in the country and home to the DNA database used by Texas law enforcement and the FBI to identify missing persons and victims of crime. It’s one of few laboratories in the country to test for mitochondrial DNA, a forensic casework procedure that can be critical in helping investigators evaluate all associ-ated case information.

Working with law enforcement officials, Planz and his colleagues oversee the maintenance of a DNA database of samples of unidentified human remains and high-risk missing persons submitted from around the country. Comparative data are collected from missing persons’ effects or from close relatives. The DNA data are entered into CODIS (the Combined DNA Index System), which is available to crime laboratories nationally.

“Without this database, a body found far from home might remain unidentified,” Planz says. “Our efforts might bring closure to unsolved cases from Texas and the rest of the country.” Planz’s work on international forensic mysteries includes the identification of victims of political violence found in mass graves in Chile and cases that iden-tify the remains of individuals enslaved by human trafficking.

PROTECTING CHILDRENThe UNTHSC administers DNA-Prokids, an international humanitarian program to identify and return abducted

individuals, especially young people and children, to their families or other safe environments. DNA-Prokids provides law enforcement agencies a scientific methodology to help deter the human trafficking and illegal adoptions of children.

A case that illustrates Planz’s forensic work took place a few years ago, when human remains were located in an illegal dump in Travis County, Texas. Dr. Planz conducted statistical evaluations on the DNA extraction from a section of bone taken from the femur; then, he entered the results into the UNT Center for Human Identification database. A series of clues indicated a probable match to sisters in California, who had reported their brother missing. So, Planz and his staff analyzed the mitochondrial DNA and confirmed the identity of the missing man. He testified in court to the validity of the work done, and his contributions to the investigation helped confirm the subject as the victim of a drug-related murder.

CAMPUS EXPERIENCEPlanz, who transferred into Oswego, recalls arriving in January, opening the car door, grabbing his suitcase and having it blow away in the lakeside winds. Once settled, he worked with profes-sors Peter Weber, Ph.D., in behavioral ecology, studying how organisms respond and react to their environment, and Al Lackey, Ph.D., a mammalogist.

He says Rice Creek Field Station was “home away from home” during his college years.

“It was the field station that really drew me to Oswego,” Planz says. “I was a teaching assistant and worked closely with ornithologist Dr. George Maxwell and Al Lackey. I learned taxidermy and helped preserve species found on the grounds or brought in by residents.”

Diann Jackson M ’77, Ph.D., assis-tant director at Rice Creek, recalls, “John worked with me as a student assistant. His interests were a natural fit, especially

with the collections. It is personally and professionally gratifying to know that the Rice Creek involvement helped John achieve his academic and professional goals.”

Finishing requirements in December, he went on to complete a master’s degree at Shippensburg University, a Ph.D. in molecular systematics and population genetics at the University of North Texas, and post-doctoral studies at the Carnegie Museum, where collections from his doctoral work are still housed.

Planz credits his varied Oswego experience with providing him a reliable base of knowledge. “My doctoral adviser was impressed that I had such a broad background in the sciences,” he says.

After post-doc studies, Planz married, settled in Texas and accepted a forensic analyst position at the South-western Institute of Forensic Sciences. After several years as a director in private laboratories, he joined the team at UNTHSC, serving in a variety of roles, including teaching, curriculum design, academic advisement and distance learning administration. He conducts research in molecular evolutionary genetics of cellular energetics pathways and mentors doctoral students working on Alzheimer’s disease.

From that windy arrival in Oswego, Planz has traveled a challenging and some-times surprising route to prominence in forensics and investigative genetics.

“I always wanted to learn everything I could and be open to possibilities,” he says. “You never know how circumstances are going to change.”


John Planz ’84, Ph.D., conducts research at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, where he is associate direc-tor of the Center for Human Identification.


PROFESSOR MODELS HER TECHNIQUES ON OSWEGO MENTORSIn her teaching, Dae Ri Park Tenery ’02 looks to her former Oswego professors as role models. “They were extraordinary in their attention to students,” says the tenured chemistry professor. “They encouraged and supported each of us according to our strengths and our needs.”

Chemistry instructional support specialist Kristin Gublo ’92 M ’98, recalls Tenery as a student worker with an “amazing work ethic,” even walking to campus through a major snowstorm to maintain the labs and learning areas over a winter break one year.

“We could always count on her,” Gublo says. “Her teaching abilities were evident to me when I saw her mentoring the other student workers.”

Following graduation, Tenery moved to Florida, where she taught high school chemistry before returning to school to complete doctoral studies at University of Central Florida in 2009. Now, at Valencia College, Tenery teaches a full range of classes, from introductory to organic chemistry. She lives in Orlando with her husband and 2-year-old and 3-month-old sons.

“All these things in my life are possible because of the support I had at Oswego,” says Tenery, who, as an undergraduate, received a Presidential Scholarship and other awards that paid tuition, a

steady job in the dining halls to cover food expenses, and a paid internship at Bristol Myers, which she says would not have come to her without the sponsorship of her Oswego professors.


Dae Ri Park Tenery ’02 works on nano chemistry research in the laboratory at Valencia College, Orlando, where she is a tenured member of the chemistry department faculty.

NSF GRANT FUNDS BRAIN AND HEALTH MONITORING RESEARCH Mirroring the support he received as an undergraduate chem-istry major at SUNY Oswego, Jason Bennett ’01, Ph.D., mentors students at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College. A three-year National Science Foundation award of $243,462 that began July 2013 will advance their research.

The NSF grant will help fund development of a material that can selectively oxidize hydrogen sulfide over both nitric oxide and carbon monoxide, three chemicals produced in the body, Bennett explains on his website. Seven undergraduate chemistry majors will work with Bennett on the project, which may lead to new methods for monitoring brain and heart health.

At Oswego, Bennett was inspired by Professor Emeritus, Raymond O’Donnell, Ph.D., to “think and not just memorize.” He credits Martha Bruch, Ph.D., who engaged him to help reno-vate a donated spectrofluorimeter, with showing him the allure of instrumentation.

“They encouraged me to pursue graduate studies and inspired my interest in the field of electrochemistry,” Bennett says.

While working to complete his doctorate at Michigan State, Bennett met his wife, Sarah. He says his time away from the university is now spent “being a dad” to two preschoolers and playing hockey.


Jason A. Bennett ’01, standing, works in a chemistry lab at Penn State, Erie, with student James E. Pander.

PRO

VID

ED


HARVARD PROFESSOR SOLVES MYSTERIES THROUGH DNA ANALYSIS

Frederick Bieber’s career revolves around science. But, his life has a lot more to do with serendipity.

Chance meetings. Chance phone calls. The things you can’t measure in a lab or inspect under a microscope.

A recognized leader in the field of forensic pathology, Bieber has a list of credits that includes working with families in the aftermath of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

“What’s amazing to me is that you never know what chance you have of running into someone and the impact that can have on the rest of your life,” says Bieber ’72, associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School.

That moment came in the middle of a classic Oswego snowstorm in 1968. While finding his way through the academic quad, Bieber quite literally bumped into English Professor Anthony Annunziata.

“We got chatting on the way to Hewitt Union, and he asked what I was reading,” recalls Bieber, who replied he was reading books for class and not

much else. “He said, ‘You should be reading something outside of your school work. Here, take this. I just finished it and it was excellent.’”

The volume Annunziata Bieber — The Double Helix by DNA discoverer and Nobel Prize winner James Watson — changed Bieber’s academic trajectory immediately.

Bieber devoured the volume and enrolled the following semester in a genetics course taught by Harold O. Powers.

He considers his junior year intern-ship with Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, an essential career development experience. Bieber went on to grad school at the University of Roch-ester School of Medicine and earned his Ph.D. in human genetics at the Medical College of Virginia.

He joined the Harvard Medical School faculty in 1983. Bieber has worked in diagnostics of genetic disor-ders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston since the mid-1980s.

In 1989, he received a phone call from a district attorney investigating a case of recent sexual assaults. It was his first foray into forensics, something he’s been involved with ever since.

“This is the magic for me of genetics — it plays a huge role in human health,” Bieber says. “It also has impact on everything from immigration disputes to people who were convicted before the advent of DNA testing.

“You have a chance with genetics to unlock the secrets that eluded us in the past,” he says.

His kinship method of DNA analysis helped nab a serial killer dubbed the “Grim Sleeper” who had eluded Los Angeles authorities for more than 20 years. When an exact match could not be made with DNA found at the murder scenes, investigators put Bieber’s process of finding close matches to work and eventually linked the crimes to a man whose son was a suspect.

Once authorities had a hunch, they were able to collect DNA from a discarded pizza crust and make the match to the serial killer.

“The intersection of science, law and public policy are what interests me the most,” says Bieber, who became integral in identifying victims of two historic U.S. disasters.

He received awards for outstanding service for his work surrounding 9/11 from the U.S. Department of Justice and for his investigations after Katrina from the Louisiana governor. In both instances, Bieber was a part of a panel that linked family DNA to unidentifiable remains.

It was grim, but important work that inspired Bieber to join the U.S. Army Reserve, where he also worked to ID soldiers.

“It’s such a privilege to have this education,” says Bieber. “I really feel strongly that I have to spend much of my life giving that back.”

Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Bieber joined his parents in emigrating to Rochester, where his father worked for Kodak.

“I wanted a college with a good science program that was conveniently located,” Bieber says. “I was looking for professors who were focused on teaching, but I also wanted professors who were able to guide me in terms of career post-college.”

The interaction of students and their professors at Oswego had a profound impact. He recalls visiting professors in their homes and working with them on projects. Sherret Chase, professor emeritus, took his class to Harvard in Bieber’s senior year.

“I tell my students that they’ll have lots of experiences in college. You never know which one will change your life,” Bieber says.

— Shane Liebler

HA

RVA

RD

PUB

LIC A

FFAIR

S & C

OM

MU

NICA

TION

S

Frederick Bieber ’72

PRO

VID

ED


PRO

VID

ED

OSWEGO EXPERIENCE HELPED LAUNCH CAREERThe sky’s the limit for SUNY Chancellor Award winner Earl Bellinger ’12. A Sche-nectady native, he is a Ph.D. student and research assistant at Indiana University’s School of Informatics and Computing.

Upon graduating from Oswego, Bellinger flew to Southern California to develop software at the NASA Jet Propul-sion Laboratory for the Cassini Mission to Saturn. He is involved in a wide variety of interdisciplinary research projects, helping develop software on some of the world’s fastest supercomputers for analyzing and visualizing large scientific datasets.

“I was always satisfied with the resources my professors would provide to help me find an answer,” Bellinger said.

“I felt that I was assigned very interesting tasks that really helped me gain mastery in my field.” He said he was encouraged to participate in research, which gave him a jumpstart on graduate school and helped him to decide early in life what profession he wanted to pursue.

Bellinger was accepted into the National Institute of Informatics Interna-tional Internship Program, providing him the opportunity to develop scientific soft-ware at the National Center of Sciences in Toyko. He still collaborates with Oswego scientists and is proud of the number of Oswego students accepting internships to NASA.

— Brittany Hoffmann ’14

ON A ROLLER COASTER RIDEKatharyn Christiana ’13 would like to put you on a ride that flips you around 32 times in a minute. Sound like fun? Not if your eyeballs pop out of your head.

Roller coasters grow more and more extreme, but to make them safe — or even feasible — designers have to consider physics.

“I was always interested in roller coasters,” says Christiana. Her senior thesis as a physics major at Oswego may have turned that interest into a career. “Whatever you want to do, just do it, professors told me.”

That thesis earned her coverage in the Washington Post when she traveled to Baltimore in spring 2013 to give a presentation at the American Physical Science Conference.

“You’re walking as much on the edge as you can be, but still feel safe to some degree,” she says of the amusement’s allure. Her love of envelope-pushing roller coasters developed with a childhood attraction to Disney theme parks.

Is she a thrill-seeker? Not necessarily. But, she’s never said “no” to a ride.The industry is predominantly about safety, and that’s what she is focused on now.

After years of studying trajectory and G forces, she says it’s time to explore design, a key motivator behind her plan to pursue a mechanical engineering master’s degree.

She’ll keep looking for ways to expand the limits and, thanks to Oswego, it looks like Christiana’s in for quite a ride.

— Shane M. Liebler

JIM R

USSELL ’83

Showing her senior project at Quest 2013, Katharyn Christiana ’13 demonstrates the place of physics in amusement rides. She works in industrial safety at M&E Manufacturing, Kingston, N.Y.

PRO

VID

ED

Earl Bellinger ’12

THE WEATHER: ALUMNA IS DOING SOMETHING ABOUT ITEveryone talks about the weather, but when the comments and complaints become watches and warn-ings, Judith Levan ’81 hopes everyone’s listening.

“We’re the ones that set off the tones on the radio. We’re the ones who send out those crawlers when you’re watching your favorite TV show,” says Levan, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Buffalo.

Her region covers the western third of New York and reaches up into the Thousand Islands, so her team’s warnings affect a lot of people.

“We really try to discern between a severe storm and a nuisance,” she says. “Things aren’t always black and white.”

Perhaps the tougher part of the job is determining the best ways to reach people. Judy preaches preparedness as a liaison to media, law enforce-ment, other officials and the general public in the form of outreach campaigns.

Her journey with the NWS started some 30 years ago as an intern. She credits

the connections fostered by Oswego’s strong meteorology program, which has produced so many professionals. In fact, many of Levan’s colleagues and peers are alumni.

She’s stayed connected to the college by hosting the Oswego Weather Club in Buffalo for several years.

“I think the overall culture of the school is one of inclusion,” says Levan, one of only a few females in the meteorology program during her college experience. “In my four years at Oswego, it was like home to me.”

—Shane M. Liebler

Judith Levan ’81


PRO

VID

ED

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE FOR METEOROLOGY GRADUATEOswego weather is one of the things meteorology major Matthew Kelsch ’83 appreciated most as an undergraduate.

By diving head first into his program at Oswego, Kelsch says he discovered exactly what he wanted to do with his future.

He is a hydrometeorologist in the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, or UCAR’s, cooperative program for operational meteorology, education and training. The program, known as COMET, offers courses and computer-based learning to professional meteorologists and students.

Kelsch spends a lot of time developing training materials for professionals in the natural sciences. As a hydrometeorologist, his expertise is in water related weather events such as floods, droughts and precipitation. One of his tasks is to take measure-ments of precipitation and temperature for the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colo. He also takes the measurements for the Boulder Daily Camera, whose reporters often interview him for stories about drought or snowfall. He was widely quoted during Boulder’s record-breaking flood in September 2013.

“Given that I have worked on these issues for nearly 20 years, it was very interesting to see it happen in my backyard,” Kelsch says. Most of the floods he studies are in various far-flung places throughout the world.

As a coordinator for the Colorado Climate Center’s Commu-nity Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow study, known as CoCo-RaHs, Kelsch also trains volunteers from the community to take measurements of rain, hail and snow throughout the state to help gather data for research purposes. Kelsch said Oswego’s meteo-rology program enhanced by Oswego’s weather, was the perfect launching pad for his career.

—Brittany Hoffmann ’14

Matthew Kelsch ’83

TYLER

EDIC

’13


President Deborah F. Stanley, speaking at the Landmark Celebration of Rice Creek Field Station Oct. 3, 2013, said, “We gather at beautiful Rice Creek to rededicate

our long-standing commitment to the environment on this 400-acre woodland site and to emphasize our increased commitment to research.”

Celebrating the dedication, with a crowd of current and former faculty members, alumni, community residents and students, the president noted that the original field station had been implemented nearly half a century ago. The dream, design and planning stages for the new Rice Creek lasted almost a decade, culminating with the reopening in the fall 2013 semester.

The president emphasized the varied uses of the field station, saying, “This is a place where the wild things are. It is embedded in the community.” She highlighted the important nexus of fieldwork in the natural environment with the research and teaching opportu-nities availabile in the 7,640-square-foot facility, which is designed to achieve LEED Gold Certification.

With its energy-efficient building, comprising well-equipped laboratories and classrooms, an observatory that houses a 16” Ritchey-Chretien-type reflecting telescope, and miles of trails providing access to varied terrain and habitats, Rice Creek Field Station is, Stanley says, “A place that brings the heavens and earth together.”


President Deborah F. Stanley planted a Northern White Oak tree to commemo-rate the dedication of Rice Creek Field Station. Visible in the background is the astronomical observatory, housing a new telescope that is available for pub-lic stargazing events and will be used for research projects conducted by stu-dents and faculty.

Rejuvenated Rice Creek Field StationDedicating

JIM R

USSELL ’83

Former professor of biology and first director of the Rice Creek Field Station John Weeks said he “had the itch that needed scratching” to establish a field station and nature center as part of the SUNY Oswego teach-ing/learning experience. He and other faculty members worked with students and Boy Scouts to forge trails on land acquired in the late 1950s, when Foster Brown was president. The facility opened in 1966. Weeks says when he was leading hikes, he wore a trademark hat with a long feather in it. “I’m not very tall,” he said, “so I always told people just to follow the feather.”

TYLER

EDIC

’13


Rejuvenated Rice Creek Field Station

JIM R

USSELL ’83


A Legacy of Life, Learning and Love: A Tribute to Colleen and Lynne

Imani Gary ’15 wasn’t born when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, killing the 259 passengers aboard and 11 people on the

ground. She didn’t know the two SUNY Oswego students who perished in the bombing: Colleen Brunner ’90 and Lynne Hartunian ’89. Yet, Gary said her life has been profoundly affected by them.

As the 2013 recipient of the Colleen Brunner Memorial Scholarship, Gary received $1,800 to support a fall semester in London—where Colleen and Lynne studied 25 years ago.

“Taking class and living in London have been quite the experience,” says Gary, an English and creative writing major. “I’ve learned so much about the country and myself. Traveling abroad has changed me for the better.”

That was the sentiment Colleen and Lynne—two vibrant, curious, efferves-cent and beloved friends—shared about their fall 1989 travel abroad experiences.

“They were really enjoying their lives,” says Janette Hausler ’89, who roomed with Lynne in London and backpacked around Europe with Colleen, Lynne and Kristin Usaitis ’89 until Colleen and Lynne left for home on Dec. 21.

“They were experiencing new cultures, traveling and soaking in all that the study abroad program offered,” Hausler says. “I hope that their legacy will inspire people to have a global mindset.”

Since her friends’ deaths, Hausler says she has traveled almost with a vengeance, visiting every continent but Antarctica.

“It propelled me to travel, and to live my life to the fullest,” she says.

Picking Up The PiecesRed socks, a dime, Mr. Potato Head, London’s Bryanston Square, the Alpha Sigma Chi sorority house, the memorial plaque on campus or the one at Penfield Library—each triggers memories of Colleen and Lynne for those who knew and loved them.

“I can’t believe it’s been 25 years,” says Patti Brunner Collins, Colleen’s sister. “I want people to remember her amazing smile, her love of life and her incredible personality.”

Lynne’s mother, Joanne Hartunian, says the 25 years since her daughter’s death haven’t eased her pain, nor dimin-ished the vibrant memories—that final goodbye after a visit in London, as she and her husband bid farewell to their daughter, who stood in the rain waving beneath her floppy hat.

But, like others whose lives were touched by the two women, she has worked to find meaning from the death of her child.

“The victims group lobbied for changes at airports and made people more aware of terrorism,” Hartunian says. “Today, we live in an age of terrorism, but back then, no one knew much about it.”

Throughout the years, the act of remembering Colleen and Lynne has brought together classmates, family and friends, and united them in a closer bond.

“She lives on in the memories of the many people she touched,” Hartunian says.

“There’s a pact among all of us,” says Kristin Usaitis ’89, who roomed with Colleen in London. “When we see each other or the little things that remind us of them, we can snap back in time.”

The Pieces Take New ShapeColleen and Lynne’s spirit will forever live on in the Oswego family through their friends, classmates, families and the scholars who have embraced education as they did.

A scholarship in Lynne’s name at Niskayuna High School has sent 25 graduating seniors to a SUNY school, including three to Oswego. Colleen’s scholarship has enabled 38 Oswego students to travel abroad, including Tess Bierl ’13 who lived across the street from Colleen’s sister, Patti, in Hamburg, N.Y.

“I was drawing Eiffel Towers in elementary school with hopes to someday travel to Paris, and this scholar-ship helped me immensely,” says Bierl, a biology major who studied French language at La Sorbonne. “It was the highlight of college and is one of my greatest memories. The scholarship is a marvelous gift from the Brunner Family, and I am forever thankful.”

Family and friends said the young women’s lives, while too short, were lived to the fullest.

“You can honor their memory by remembering that we’re only here for whatever time is allowed us,” Mrs. Hartunian says. “Make the most of it.”

—Margaret Spillett

Lynne Hartunian ’89, Colleen Brunner ’90

Gary Fuller ’64 was the Fore-Word Review’s 2012 Silver Award winner in the popular culture cat-egory at the American Library Asso-

ciation convention in Chicago. Perry Zirkel ’66 recently won

the Edwin M. Bridges Award by the University Council for Educational

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

C L A S S N O T E S


C L A S S N O T E SC L A S S N O T E S

Call us at: 315-312-2258Email us at: [email protected] us at: 315-312-5570Visit our website at:alumni.oswego.eduClass Notes

John M. Canale ’50 is the author of Life’s Journey, Battle of the Bulge and Youth and Participa-tion in Government, Oswego Politics 2012. He was an alderman for the city of Oswego and is an Oswego State Athletic Hall of Famer. John is a World War II veteran and former school teacher residing in Oswego.

Bernard Farrow ’61 is lead counselor at Craggy Correctional Facility in Asheville, N.C. He grad-uated from Oswego with his wife, Arlene Mendelson Farrow ’61. They celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary. They live in Asheville and have four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Kenneth Auletta ’63, Pulit-zer Prize-winning author and staff writer at The New Yorker, has been a team captain for the past two decades in the annual Artist and Writers Softball Game in East Hampton that raises money for sev-eral Long Island organizations. He was a member of Sigma Tau Chi fra-ternity at Oswego.

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

Memorial Bench Honors Class of ’64 Alumna When friends remember the late Patricia Russell Secrest ’64, they speak of her laugh, her propensity for good times and her kind-ness. Friends remember how much she enjoyed Oswego — the campus, professors and class-mates. Friends remember, above all, how much she loved the lake, walking along the shoreline, catching a sunset or gazing over the water.

That’s why, with the Dec. 21, 2012, passing of Secrest, her friends initiated a memorial fund to install a bench overlooking Lake Ontario.

“She wanted a bench for a long, long time,” Gileen Widmer French ’65 says. “She would be pleased with the idea of people finding moments of calm and beauty there.”

French transferred into Oswego mid-year as a freshman. “A mutual friend, who had worked with Patty at Lake Placid the summer before, told me to find her at Hart Hall. I taped a note to Patty’s door on move-in day, and within two hours she was wel-coming me to campus.”

When French did her student teach-ing at Liverpool Elementary School, Secrest was already teaching there. They shared an apartment in Syracuse and com-muted to the suburban school together. “I can still hear her laugh,” French says. “We had such good times.”

The Patty Russell Secrest memorial bench will be dedicated during the Class of 1964 Golden Reunion June 5 through 8. On hand will be a circle of women who lived, studied, socialized and graduated together, a group who dubbed themselves “Friends Forever ’64” and who have sustained their relationship by being present for one another’s graduations, weddings, births of children and grandchildren, vacations, celebrations and sorrows.

Explaining the decision to donate a bench, Betsy Gehrig Reeder ’64 says, “Patty loved

Oswego more than any of us did. And that’s saying something!”

“It’s going to be hard for us,” Judy Hamilton Powell ’64 says. “Patty would have had this gathering organized. She was the one who planned everything.”

“When my daughter graduated from Oswego,” Vivian Dallek Sayer ’64 recalls, “Friends Forever ‘64 arrived with food and dec-orations and made her party. Who would have known that I would come to college to get a degree and wind up with a family.”

Friendship as dear as family, kindness beyond measure and memories to cher-ish a lifetime — those are the qualities of Patty Secrest’s life that will be celebrated on the campus she loved. To make a gift in her memory, contact the Office of University

Development at 315-312-3003 or make your gift online at alumni.oswego.edu/giving.


Patricia Russell Secrest ’64, far right on bench, is surrounded by friends from the class of 1964 at one of their many outings.

PRO

VID

ED

36

C L A S S N O T E S


Administrations. He has published several books about how the law affects people with learning disabili-ties, and writes a regular column for Principal magazine.

James DeOrio ’69 lives in Chit-tenango with his wife, Linda. He recently restored the ’69 Chevelle

convertible that he got as a gift after graduating from Oswego.

John Bulina ’72 is helping New Jersey communities and schools recover after Superstorm Sandy. As a member of the board of trustees of Sustainable Jersey, John met with Minister Stephen Shu-Hung Shen of the Taiwan Environmental Pro-tection Administration and his del-egation during a tour of New Jersey shore communities affected by the storm. John is the president of the New Jersey School Boards Associa-tion, a long-term member of the

Tabernacle Township (N.J.) Board of Education and an adjunct profes-sor at Burlington County College.

William Roberts ’72 has been named president and chief oper-ating officer for GEICO. He also serves on the board of directors of the National Capital Area Coun-cil of the Boy Scouts of America in Washington, D.C.

Bar r y Kur ’74 has been appointed professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University, retir-ing his position at Penn State’s School of Theatre. As a master teacher of Lessac Voice and Body Training, Barry leads workshops and master classes throughout the United States and abroad. He con-tinues to coach voice, speech and dialects in the professional theater and private practice.

Linda Shumaker ’77 is the new chair of the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York. She is also the president and managing principal of Shumaker Consulting Engineering & Land Surveying.

Barry Thompson ’77 is a certified regulatory compliance manager and fraud educator for his firm, Thompson Consulting Group, LLC. He resides in Oswego with his wife, Melanie Harrington Thompson ’90.

Shirley Miles-Savva ’78 has been living in the south of France for seven years. She received her B.A. in French at Oswego.

Mark J. Sullivan ’78 has been appointed as the Hydraulic Insti-tute’s director of education and training. He has served as a com-mittee member within the Ameri-can Association for Higher Educa-tion. Mark lives in Morristown, N.J.

Daniel Stedman ’79 joined Pre-ferred Mutual Insurance Company as director of commercial lines. During his time at Oswego Daniel was a member of TKE/Delta Chi Omega fraternity.

Kenneth Fund ’80 is president and CEO of Quayside Publishing Group. He enjoys sports and per-formance cars and has attended the Skip Barber Racing School.

Mark Baum ’81 has been appointed senior vice president of industry relations and chief collab-oration officer by the Food Market-ing Institute. His career in the food, beverage and consumer packaged goods industry spans more than 25 years. Mark resides in Virginia with his wife, Catherine.

Joseph Coughlin ’82 teaches policy and systems innovation at MIT. He is the director and driving force behind MIT AgeLab.

Retired Alumni Taught STEM Subjects at Same SchoolFrederick Walker ’64 and Edward Currier ’68, retired science teachers, visited campus Sept. 30 for open house at Rice Creek Field Station and the Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation.

Although they didn’t know each other as students, they have been best friends since 1971, when Walker completed a six-year stint in the U.S. Air Force and joined Currier at Wayne Central Middle School, later moving to high school. They formed an immediate bond, based on their Oswego experiences and respect for Oswego professors.

“We had wonderful, collegial relationships with the science faculty,” Currier says. Walker adds, “They believed in students as individu-als, and they encouraged us to build on our strengths.”

For Currier, “strength” meant biology and environment. “The field station at Rice Creek had just been built, and I was there for ecol-ogy and field biology courses, doing the initial stream study with Dr. Ronald Engel and observ-ing the mating ritual of the woodcock with Dr. Carlita Georgia,” he says.

He remembers Dr. Richard S. Shineman as a professor who had a true calling. “He just loved chemistry,” says Currier, “and he was so helpful to me — to all students.”

Walker was lab assistant to John Weeks, emeritus biology professor, and worked in the animal lab, a post that Currier later filled. “I spent so many hours at the lab,” Walker says, “I’d usually be late to dinner.” He ate at a boarding house for $10 a week. After leaving the USAF and before he began to teach, Walker bought a piece of woodland, where he and his wife, Carol Gould Walker ’65, built a camp they still enjoy. (A daughter, Christie Walker Sweder ’92, is also an Oswego graduate.)

Both teachers adopted their education philosophies from Oswego professors, and both have passed it along to student teachers and, as mentors after retirement, to new faculty. Currier teaches one course a year at St. John Fisher and serves as a consultant, helping implement science curricula in elementary schools.

Open house gave these alumni a chance to reminisce and to project. “I’m so proud to have been part of the history of this college,” Currier says. “Looks as if Oswego is headed toward a great future.”


Fred Walker ’64, left, and Ed Currier ’68

TYLER

EDIC

’13

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

C L A S S N O T E S


Michael Durney ’83 was recently named the president and CEO of Dice Holdings, Inc. He pre-viously worked as the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Charles Giardino ’84 has been married to his wife, Christine, for

24 years. Both of their sons have graduated from SUNY Cortland, and his daughter is a sophomore at SUNY New Paltz. The family lives in Williston Park. Charles has fond memories with classmates Marc Saban ’86, Richard Drake ’86 and Peter Wasserman ’87 during his time at Oswego.

James Cullinan ’85 celebrated his 23rd wedding anniversary with his wife, Judy. Their son is in col-lege, and their daughter is a senior in high school. James is an associ-

ate professor at the University of Alabama.

William Shine ’85 is the exec-utive vice president for program-ming at FOX News Channel. He has also worked as a producer, director and production manager at WLIW-TV (PBS) in New York where he received an Emmy nomination for best health documentary in 1994. A loyal alumnus, his most recent support of Oswego students was in October, when he was featured speaker at the SUNY Oswego Com-

munication Department alumni dinner.

James Bulkowski ’86 was pro-moted to colonel in the United States Army Reserve. He is also a senior manager at the account-ing firm of Ernst & Young. James recently celebrated his 25th anni-versary with his wife, Elizabeth Perez Bulkowski ’88, who he met at Oswego. The couple has three children.

Cindy Crean ’86 helped to found True North Building, a com-

Alumni BookshelfWe celebrate and share the success of Oswego alumni authors, illustrators and recording artists, who may ask their publisher/distributor to send a copy of the work to the Oswego alumni office to be considered for this column and our website, alumni.oswego.edu, where cover photos of all works in this column will be displayed.

Amy Benevento ’80 Jackel Island. Aquabook Publishing, 2012.

Sent by their pharmaceutical employer to an island paradise, a team of biological researchers become suspicious of the com-pany, the government and each other as they realize they have likely become human test sub-jects themselves.

Nancy Fichtman Dana ’86 Digging Deeper Into Action Research. Corwin, 2013.

This guidebook offers teachers an inquiry-based professional development model for the Common Core standards for teaching.

Elie Fleurant ’76 Eyes of the Night, Les Yeux de la Nuit. Trafford Publishing, 2013

An authentic work of diapha-nous poetry, these poems are enhanced with maturity and inspiration. The author reveals his love for nature, humanity and unequivocal devotion for the quest of happiness and collective well-being.

Rosalie M. Gabbert ’46 Mr. Bee Man. Outskirts Press, 2013. A picture book biography, this book details the career and accomplishments of naturalist Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, the father of American beekeeping.

Anthony F. Gero ’70 Boots: A Novella of the Civil War. Camp Pope Publishing, 2013.

In this work of historical fiction, a son’s soul is transformed as he learns of his dying father’s com-

bat experiences at Gettysburg in the 111th New Volunteers and of the legacy of a dog called Boots, whose loyalty to the soldiers that day affected them for years to come.

George McGowan ’70 Newfoundland Slogan Cancels. McGowan, 2012.

The author’s philately research explores the postal history of Newfoundland’s series of 17 “postmark messages” used by the British Colony in St. John’s and St. John’s East until 1949.

Rick Mitchell ’70 M ’77 Before Every Other Fall. Aldrich Press, 2013.

The poet’s second collection, this book highlights all the sensory richness and emotional rewards of human nature and the natural world.

Kay Benedict Sgarlata ’65 Adirondack August. Sgarlata, 2013.

A debut novel, this work of women’s fiction is moving, reflective and ultimately uplift-ing, casting a searching eye on the transgressions that haunt us all and the healing that may emerge if our sins are brought into light. l

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8


Alice McDermott ’75 paints a lyrical portrait of one woman’s life in all its complexity in Someone: A Novel. An ordinary life — its sharp pains and unexpected joys, its bursts of clarity and moments of confusion — lived by Marie, an ordinary woman, is the subject of this graceful narrative. A realistic view of the Irish-American experience at a discrete point in history, it is set in Brooklyn

in the years surrounding World War II. McDermott, a 2013 inductee of the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, is the author of seven novels, including After This, Child of My Heart and Charming Billy, winner of the 1998 National Book Award. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.

38

C L A S S N O T E S


pany that offers a wide array of experiential team building, team recreation and learning/develop-ment workshops. Cindy has almost 20 years of corporate strategy and learning development experience from her time spent working in con-sumer products goods companies.

Jill Lacey Griffin ’86 was recently named the director of workforce, supplier and diversity development with the Massachu-setts Gaming Commission.

William Morrison ’87 and Audrey Dreier-Morrison ’88 met after William became a resident assistant in Oneida Hall where Audrey was a dorming student. The couple are committed donors and volunteers.

Corinna Johnson ’89 cannot choose just one favorite memory of her time at Oswego. She loved the sunset, watching movies with the residents on her floor and bak-ing goodies in the dorm kitchen. While at Oswego Corrina belonged to the Del Sarte Dance Club and the Transfer Student Association.

Lisa Tamilia ’89 has created a

‘Top Rated Lawyer’ Credits Influence of Oswego Professors

From first grade through law school, Lois Carter Schlissel ’72 is a product of public education, including SUNY Oswego, where she earned a degree in English

and Secondary Education before going on to law school at University of Buffalo.

Recognized by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbel as a 2013 Top Rated Lawyer in labor and employment law, Schlissel serves as man-aging attorney of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, headquartered in Garden City. She heads the firm’s employment law practice and is a member of the commercial litigation and dis-pute resolution department. She serves on U.S. Senator Charles Schumer’s judicial screening committee and the board of directors of several charitable and professional organizations.

At Oswego, Schlissel says, she “was privileged” to participate in the English Honors program, where she wrote her thesis on “The Narrative Voice of Jonathan Swift.” She recalls

the “extraordinary” teaching and mentoring she and her classmates received from English fac-ulty members; she also values the contributions of the late Kathleen Pendergast, theatre profes-sor, who taught her to speak with confidence.

Schlissel’s appreciation extends beyond her favorite humanities subjects. “I’m not a science person,” she says, “but Dr. Edward Fisher made physics interesting even to me.”

A member of debate team, which won top state ranking during her junior year, Schlissel not only gained motivation for classical argu-mentation and strengthened her oratorical skills there, she also met her future husband, Elliot S. Schlissel ’72.

After law school, Lois accepted a position in the State Court of Appeals, Albany, and Elliot, who had a year at Hofstra before com-pleting his jurisprudence degree at U.B., began to practice law on Long Island.

“I was the first lawyer in my family, but now there are seven, including one of our two daughters and a son-in-law,” Schlissel says. She pauses, then jokes: “Holiday conversations around the dinner table can get kind of boring.”


1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

Long-Reaching Effects of a Close College CommunityLife as Doug Purdy ’85 M ’86 knows it has flourished from his roots in the SUNY Oswego Technology Education Program, where he did his first teaching as a graduate student. An inno-vative robotics, computer and technology education teacher at Queensbury Middle School since 1986, he credits his success to his college mentors.

At Oswego, Purdy advanced from the “C” student he had been at community college to a gradu-ate who could add “honors” to his credentials. “Instructors cared personally about my success,” he says. “The long reach of their

influence on my life has been incredible.”

Here are examples: Wes Boydston taught him residential construction. Purdy has built his own house. Norwood (Woody) Baughman taught him design and took him sailing. Purdy has been involved in sailing for more than 20 years and recently passed the Coast Guard exam to become a professional captain. Carl Salvagin taught him graduate-level energy courses. Purdy incorporated ener-gy efficiency into his home.

“In the Oswego technology department, I connected with my teachers in a way that I had

never done before. It felt like family and, although I have mentioned only a few, all my instructors were outstanding and cared deeply about their students’ success,” Purdy says.

After teaching at Oswego part-time during graduate school, Purdy applied his learn-ing to middle school tech-ed instruction, where he continues to introduce the latest teaching tools—from using Google Docs, to give parents access to daily plans and worksheets, to creating a cell phone app for students. His sixth graders all get a course on responsible computer use.

C L A S S N O T E S


scholarship to be awarded to busi-ness students who have overcome obstacles in their lives and gotten involved in their community. She hopes the scholarship offers sup-port and help to students who in turn will give back to someone down the road.

Mark Vinciguerra ’89 assumed the position of publisher/gen-eral manager of Columbia-Greene Media. He lives in Clifton Park with his wife, Kathleen Otis Vin-ciguerra ’91.

Jennifer Arnold Terry ’91 graduated from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division last year and has now established her own organizing and e-design business. Among her favorite Oswego mem-ories is performing with the Shaun Cassidy Fan Club and being pro-posed to by Mark Terry ’91 out of her third-story Scales Hall window. The couple resides in Oxford, Pa., with their three sons.

Philomena Bronson Goss ’91 has been chosen by the Lowville Academy and Central School Dis-trict Board as South Lewis Middle School’s new principal. She lives in Lowville with her husband, Robert Goss ’02, and their son.

Thomas Hansen ’91 is starting his 21st year teaching in the South Glens Falls Central School District. His daughter will graduate this year,

while his son is in the 8th grade. Tom’s wife, Carrie Mcbride Hansen ’90 is in real estate.

Christopher Bengis ’92 over-sees national sales, field sales and business development for Front Flip. He recently moved to Kansas City from Frisco, Texas, with his family.

Marie Conklin-Malloy ’92 is the executive director for the national Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Foun-dation, Inc. She moved to the non-profit field in 2006 after spending many years working in journal-ism and marketing. Marie resides in northeast Connecticut with her hus-band, Patrick, and their son.

Kevin Donath ’92 married his hometown sweetheart, Enisa, in October. Alumni and good pals in attendance included Darren Davis ’92 and Lawrence Cennamo ’92.

Michael Jackson ’92 was named the recipient of the 2013 David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award by the American Association of Physics Teachers for his extraor-dinary accomplishments in com-municating the excitement of phys-ics to students, through undergrad-uate research, community outreach and innovative teaching.

Karen Mocbeichel Quinker ’92 is the marketing director for Connected Logistics and the pub-lic affairs officer for Program Man-ager Power Projection Enablers. Her writing has been published in the army publication, ALT Army Logis-tics and Technology.

Robert Roamer ’92 has been promoted to the rank of credit offi-cer for Middlesex Savings Bank. He is a resident of Lowell, Mass., and serves as a volunteer in the commu-nity table ministry at St. Mary Par-ish of Chelmsford. He enjoys golf and cycling.

Karen Blumer ’93 is the proj-ect manager for government trans-lations at CTS LanguageLink. She resides in Austin, Texas.

Jerrell Robinson ’94 is the director of first year programs at Long Island University. He and his wife, Shanelle, have two chil-dren. Jerrell belonged to Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., Black Student Union and Gospel Choir during his time at Oswego.

Daniel Weiss ’94 competed in the Ironman Triathlon in Septem-

ber. The triathlon consisted of a 2.4- mile swim and a 112-mile bike ride, topped off with a 26.2-mile mara-thon run. Daniel is a proud sup-porter of the Sunrise Day Camp in Long Island.

Aaron Mentkowski ’96 was promoted to chief meteorologist at WKBW in Buffalo. He resides in Amherst with his wife, Sharon, and their three sons.

Patrick M. Ryan ’97 was elected chairman of Printing Industries Alli-ance, a printing trade association. He was a recipient of the Business Review’s 2009 40 under 40 award and previously served on the board of managers for the Albany YMCA.

Jonathan Fargo ’98 recently moved to Syracuse after accepting a

position with the networking team at Campus Technology Services at Oswego. Coming back to Oswego has brought back a flood of great memories for Jonathan, who lived in Riggs Hall as a student.

Sabrina SchutzSmith ’99 and her husband, Daniel SchutzSmith ’00, have been married since 2002. The couple owns their own business called Mark & Phil, making mar-keting and fundraising easier for nonprofits of all sizes. Daniel and Sabrina reside in Poughkeepsie with their three children.

Timothy Barnhart ’02 earned the OARS award and Lives Leaders Summit from Northwestern Mutual for his outstanding year of helping clients achieve financial security.

Purdy says he enjoys pass-ing along the Oswego legacy. His eldest daughter, Brienne Purdy ’11, earned degrees in studio art and creative writing. And he’s lost track of the num-ber of education majors he has mentored.

“One of the greatest plea-sures of my career has been to take student teachers from Oswego and help them experi-ence teaching firsthand,” he says. “It’s one way I can honor the professors who shaped my professional life.”


Senior Media Director Pitches the Milwaukee Brewers

Mike Vassallo ’97 could be in any one of 28 major U.S. cities at any given time, representing Major League Baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers as the franchise’s senior director of media relations.

As the primary connection between the media and the

team’s players and managers, Vassallo rarely has downtime during the long, grinding season. Before each season begins, he serves as the lead writer in creating the team’s media guide, a 350-page book that includes players’ bios and his-torical information about the team. He keeps the team’s daily stats, writes press releases and maintains an active Twitter profile that provides glimpses into everyday life within the Brewers’ organization (@MikeVassallo13).

Originally from Long Island, Vassallo says that SUNY Oswego appealed to him because of its size and program.

“It was a smaller school, and I could get more experience in the field I was pursuing, which was broadcasting,” he says. “I was able to get involved in activities as a freshman, where at a big school I might not have had opportunities like that.”

Vassallo served as a sportscaster for WTOP and, as a junior, he became the station’s sports director.

“I took a public speaking class,” he says. “That helped a lot because I do a lot of public speaking now. Being with WTOP helped because that’s what I deal with now every day — TV stations and media. Those are the things Oswego offered that really helped prepare me for what I do now.”

—Zachary Jennings ’12

40

C L A S S N O T E S


C L A S S N O T E S

TV Personality Trades Hard Hat for Lapel MikeIn the year following graduation, Sean McAllister ’02 would grab a few hours sleep after working construction all day, then show up at 4:30 a.m. as a volunteer script writer/teleprompter operator for CBS-affiliate WROC Rochester. By 8 a.m., he’d be back on the job site. He kept that grueling schedule until a pro-ducer position opened at the station.

“I think they realized I was not going to leave until I got a job, so they hired me,” McAllister says. “I’m glad now for that first work-force experience. I learned early that if I wanted something, I had to work for it. It’s a principle that has stayed with me throughout my career.”

From his initial overnight producer posi-tion, McAllister was recruited to FOX5-TV Vegas, first as a producer of “FOX5 News This Morning” and now as executive producer and on-air personality. He launched the Emmy-nominated morning lifestyle show, “MORE” in 2006 and was given free rein over content. “At that time there were no other stations covering the entertainment scene, so in seven years, we’ve developed and grown as Las Vegas’s local entertainment station.”

“MORE” was so successful that FOX5 spawned an evening entertainment show, “MORE Access,” and tapped McAllister as executive producer and co-host.

“I’m still learning every day,” McAllister says. “Each position I have had in this career, starting with my overnight shifts as a pro-ducer at WROC-TV Rochester, has given me opportunities to grow and has helped me gain a well-rounded perspective on television broad-casting.”

McAllister values his Oswego degree and what it has meant for him professionally. “My most significant memory is my graduation,” he says. “In that moment, I knew that what I had learned at Oswego had given me what I needed to make something of myself. I left Oswego feeling confident that I could accom-plish anything I set my mind to.”

—Linda Loomis ’90 M’97

Stacy Trey ’02, a chemist work-ing in Stockholm, recalls her years at Oswego with appreciation, espe-cially for the encouragement and mentorship of her aunt, Sharon Kane of the Oswego School of Edu-cation. “She was a big source of per-sonal support for me and encour-aged me in reaching my academic goals,” Trey says. “I was always stop-ping by her office across the street from Snygg.”

Carole Estabrook ’03 of Union Springs works with the Trout Group, an investor relations firm in New York City.

Darci Hosier ’03 has been pro-moted to senior executive assistant

and office manager at Synacor, Inc. She is working to open Synacor’s fourth office in Boston while man-aging others in Buffalo, New York City and Toronto.

Michael Porter ’03 was mar-ried in 2012. The couple resides in North Carolina.

Sarah Tarquinio Youngman ’03 and Ryan Youngman are proud to announce the birth of their son, James Ryan Youngman, born Jan. 23, 2013, at Crouse Hospital in Syra-cuse. He joins a big sister, Grace.

Daniel Joslin ’04 has joined Ravenglass Technologies, Inc., as a program manager. He earned his bachelor’s degree in computer sci-ence from Oswego.

Erin Cole ’05 was appointed chair of the employment committee for the Insurance Women of Buf-falo, Inc. She is currently an associ-ate at Cohen and Lombardo P.C., in Buffalo and volunteers with the Erie County SPCA and Hospice Buffalo. Erin graduated magna cum laude from Oswego.

Jason Holder ’05 has been named the producer of the 11 p.m. newscast at WABC in New York City. He completed the 2013 Boston Marathon and is registered to run

again in 2014. See “The Last Word” in this magazine for his memories of the experience.

Aaron Thrope ’05 was selected for Oswego County Business Maga-zine’s Forty Under 40 class of 2013. He is a business development spe-cialist with Vanguard Research & Title Services.

Matthew Turner ’05 is a finan-cial advisor for AXA Advisors in Syracuse. He graduated from Oswego with a degree in business administration.

Melanie Doherty McComb ’06 was promoted to solution engi-neer at Pontoon. She was part of the Shaun Cassidy Fan Club and the Student Association during her time at Oswego.

Ryan Sprague ’06 is having his Syracuse Area Live Theater Award-nominated play, “Reach,” adopted into a feature film called Reverie Lane. Ryan plans to submit the film to New York and international film festivals and host a screening in his hometown of Syracuse. Reverie Lane is expected to be released sum-mer 2014.

Jeremy Magnan ’08 teaches cinema and screen studies courses along with composition and rhet-oric courses at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Ill. He is also nearing the completion of his Ph.D. in media, cinema and digital studies at the University of Wisconsin-Mil-waukee, where he is a research assis-tant of the digital arts and culture undergraduate certificate program.

April McLean-McCoy ’08 is completing her master’s degree in urban planning at the University of Buffalo. She is a child enrollment match coordinator with Big Broth-ers Big Sisters of Greater Rochester.

Margaret Russell-Sheppard ’08 is an associate to the Atlan-tic City law firm of Levine, Staller, Sklar, Chan and Brown, P.A. She received her B.A. in public justice and psychology while attending Oswego before obtaining her law degree from the University at Buf-falo Law School. Margaret resides

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

Sean McAllister ’02, far right, with the “MORE” team, interviews American Idol fifth-season-winner Taylor Hicks.

1944 70th

JUNE 5-8

1949 65th

1954 60th

1959 55th

1964 50th

1969 45th

1974 40th

1989 25th

’83, ’84, ’85 30th Reunion

2004 10th

’98, ’99, ’00 15th Reunion

’08, ’09, ’10 5th Reunion

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

JUNE 5-8

C L A S S N O T E S


C L A S S N O T E S

in Mays Landing, N.J., and coaches mock trial for a local high school.

Lindsay Marie Stronz ’08 graduated from Western University of Health and Sciences College of Optometry. She is currently com-pleting a residency at Hudson Valley Veterans Association in Montrose. Lindsay is a member of Beta Sigma Kappa, the Optometric Honor Soci-ety and the Lions Club.

Christine Hernandez ’09 plans to graduate with a master’s in bio-medical sciences from the Uni-versity of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio. She will be employed at the University of Texas as a research assistant in stem cell research.

Jennifer Cymbala ’10 received her master’s degree in healthcare and public administration from Long Island University in May.

Nathaniel Hart ’11 is the sports information director at SUNY Can-ton. He spent the past two years at Elmira College, where he acted as a sports information graduate assis-tant.

Maura Koenig ’11 has been appointed by the Scarsdale Syna-gogue as director of youth engage-ment programs. She was deeply involved in temple youth group activities in Syracuse, including leading a National Federation of Temple Youth trip to Israel.

Gwendolyn Girsdansky ’12 was selected as a “Top Ten” front page designer by Newseum after design-ing the front page of The Missourian. She created the dramatic page to foreground the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.

Daniel Myers ’12 was hired at YNN in Albany as a producer, put-ting shows together for various markets in New York State.

Ryan Schultz ’12 is the video producer/multimedia specialist at Binghamton University. He gradu-ated from Oswego with a degree in broadcasting and graphic design.

Tyler Cameron ’13 and Chris-topher Daniel ’13 both joined Dannible & McKee, LLP’s tax department based in Syracuse. Tyler earned a B.S. in finance from Le Moyne College and a B.S. in accounting from Oswego. Christo-pher graduated from Oswego with a B.S. in accounting and an M.B.A.

Mike Muller ’13 has recently achieved his goal of becoming a police officer in Port Jervis.

Mark Quakenbush ’13 of Fort Edwards recently started a posi-tion as an auditor with Marvin and Company, P.C., after earning a bach-elor’s in accounting from Oswego.

Thomas Small ’13 is a junior analyst for Merrill Lynch in West Nyack. He earned a B.S. from Oswego.

Extended Learning Division was His ‘Guiding Light’When Russ Johnson ’05 embarked on a journey to earn a bachelor’s degree as an adult learner, the Oswego Division of Extended Learning was his “guiding light.” He says the staff at what was then called “continuing education” shepherded him through the process that led to a degree in public justice.

Already successful at that time as a major crimes investi-gator for the Fulton Police Department and as an elected official, serving on the Oswego County Legislature from 1994 through 2007 and chairing that body for his final four years, Johnson sought a degree to enrich his life and secure his family’s future.

“The advocacy offered to non-traditional students was amazing. I experienced an entire culture of support that was respectful of my professional needs and sensitive to my per-sonal demands,” he says.

Two life events prompted Johnson’s quest: first, after 21 years in law enforcement he was looking at retirement and, second, he received a diagnosis of stage 2C testicular cancer.

“It was the most humbling time of my life,” Johnson says. “Chemo changed my world view. It put all those smaller, irritating things into perspective.” In order to raise awareness about his disease, Johnson allowed the local newspaper to chronicle his medical journey: Six months of daily treatment. Surgery. Three more months of chemotherapy.

His personal medical history ignited Johnson’s interest in what chemo does to and for the body. He became interested in health care and, with his Oswego degree, he joined Pfizer, then Walgreens, where today his busi-ness card reads: Strategic Account Manager of Managed Market Sales for the Employer Segment.

“In an ever evolving health care landscape, beyond the bricks and mortar of the Walgreens retail pharmacies, my role is to strategi-cally work directly with large employ-ers in both the private and public sectors by helping them achieve their

employee population health goals,” Johnson says. “I assist clients in obtaining affordable, quality health care services and solutions through pharmacy, health and wellness we offer employers on a national scale.”

Johnson says that with his wife, Susanne Lansing Johnson ’87, and 12-year-old daugh-ter, Susanne, “a miracle of in vitro fertiliza-tion,” life is good. He is vocal about the need to promote self-examination and early treat-ment, saying, “No man should die from testi-cular cancer.”

Russ Johnson openly expresses gratitude — for a family he adores, a job he relishes, and an Oswego program he appreciates for sup-porting him as he reached his personal goals.


Kyle Wodzicki ’13 has accepted a research graduate assistantship at Texas A&M, College Station, Texas. He will be working on his mas-ter’s degree in atmospheric science. Kyle graduated with a bachelor’s in meteorology and minors in mathe-matics and in audio design/produc-tion. He spent the summer of 2013 as audio engineer for Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pa.

42

C L A S S N O T E S


1) How you wound up in D.C.: When I got out of grad school, the

job market was poor, but D.C. was insulated from the slump. When I got a job at a trade association magazine, my best friend from Oswego, Danielle Dills ’07, let me sleep on her couch.

2) How you moved up: My first job, writing about the

printing press industry, helped me build a resume, and from there I was hired to write about aerospace and defense technology for Gannett Government Media.

3) What you learned traveling for that job:

I was a lot more independent than I thought. In 2011, I covered a confer-ence in Germany. I had never been overseas, so it was pretty scary. But it’s empowering to look back and real-ize I did that all on my own.

4) Now you interview high profile people:

I was excited recently to write about Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. But after years of interviewing people from all walks of life, I have become less intimidated by status. We are all the same, all trying to do our best.

5) Where we read that article: In the 2013 Issue 3 of Trajectory. I’m

managing editor of the magazine.

6) Why you volunteer for ALS research:

First, ALS runs in my family. It took my grandfather and my aunt, and it is now affecting my mom. Beyond the personal, though, is just to let people know more about this fatal disease.

7) When you testified about ALS before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration:

Those running the hearings were concerned I would get emotional, so I switched into professional mode. It’s important to raise awareness that a cure is needed, and I wanted to give an articulate account of my experience.

8) Those at risk for ALS: ALS can affect anyone, anywhere, at

any age. Chances are there is someone living with ALS in every community.

9) What people can do: Get involved with fundraisers that

help support research for a cure or that help patients with the high expenses of living with the disease.

10) Best Oswego memory: Working into the wee hours of the

morning at the Oswegonian down in the dungeon of Hewitt. We had a great team from the Class of 2008, and we always had a good time reporting campus news.

For testimony and video extras, visit oswego.edu/magazine.

-

Kristin Quinn ’08, accustomed to conduct-ing interviews, said it felt “weird” to be on the response side, talking about her two passions: 1. advocating for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis research and 2. writing.

A resident of Arlington, Va., Kristin is com-munications and publications director for the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation. After earning an Oswego degree with a double major in journalism and creative writing, she completed a master’s in newspaper and online journalism at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and moved to Washington, D.C.

PRO

VID

ED

Kristin Quinn ’08

C L A S S N O T E S


Oswego Pride filled my fall. As you can see in our cover feature, we

dedicated our fabulous new state-of-the-art Richard S. Shineman Center for Science, Engineering and Innovation in October.

There was great pride in honoring my long-time friend, Dr. Barbara Palmer Shineman ’65 M ’71 and her late husband, Dick, (along with the Richard S. Shineman Foundation), for their transforming philanthropy for our college.

I shared the tremendous pride among all of our campus facilities and technology staff who readied the building for its opening, the faculty who will reap the rewards of its cutting-edge research and teaching facilities and our STEM students who will benefit from the innovative and sustain-able features of the building.

In November we held the ninth Annual Dr. Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit, founded by Louis A. Borrelli Jr. ’77 and named for a beloved mentor by Lou and fellow alumnus Al Roker ’76. For the first time, the all-star panel featured an all-alumni “cast.” We have such an incredibly talented, accomplished and generous alumni constituency. That day I was also incredibly proud of our students — professionally dressed in business attire — filling a capacity room at 8 a.m. for “Breakfast with Lou and Steve” (Levy ’87). If you know college students, 8 a.m. is typically not a time of day when we see many of them — and excited and awake to boot!

And then, on 11/12/13, we held our first ever 24-Hour Giving Challenge, with substantial funds pledged by generous alumni Jim ’78 and Debbie Adams-Kaden ’78, a former Alumni Board member, along with Oswego College Foundation Board member, Bob Moritz ’85 and another generous alumni couple. We initially had a goal of 100 donors in a 24-hour period. Well, we not only met and exceeded our first goal, when we increased it, your response helped us exceed our second goal of 250 donors, and then a third goal of 500 donors. When all gifts were tallied, we knocked it out of the park with 605 donors!

I was awestruck to watch the flurry of activity of Oswego alumni and faculty and staff that “blew up” on social media. The excitement and pride was palpable as you encouraged your friends to participate. There were the recent grad first-time donors, the donors who made small gifts because they are currently unemployed but wanted to show their pride and be a part of something “big” and those who made gifts in honor or memory of someone important in their Oswego experience — all helping to push us over the top.

And always a source of my Oswego pride is the dedicated, hard-working team in alumni and development who I am gratified to work side-by-side with every day. At the pinnacle of my pride is you, our loyal and generous alumni.

So, show your Oswego Pride every day in your community…. sport Oswego gear, make a gift to support our students, refer a prospective student, attend a regional event, return to campus for a reunion and join the conversation on our social media networks.

By Executive Director Betsy Oberst

MattersOswegoPatterson Wins

Long-Sought TitleThe same independence and drive that Jessica Wilkinson Patterson ’09 used to trudge her wheelchair through Oswego’s snow-covered campus helped her achieve a long-sought goal.

Patterson was crowned Ms. Wheelchair New York in August, winning the title after giving a speech on surmounting the challenges of physical disability.

“I came across the Ms. Wheelchair pageant online when I was in college,” Patterson says. “I thought it would be empowering and fun.”

Because she did not meet the program’s minimum age of 21, Patterson put her dreams on hold.

Years later, the coordinator of the New York pageant contacted Patterson and asked if she was still interested in competing. “I entered, and to my surprise I won,” she says.

Patterson has used a wheelchair since she sustained injuries in an automobile accident in 2003 when she was 15. She graduated from Weedsport High School, earned an asso-ciate’s degree at Morrisville State College and a B.A. in soci-ology at Oswego. She works as a client representative for Key Bank and aspires to have a career as a child life special-ist, helping children cope with the trials of hospitalization.

It was her time at Oswego that prepared Patterson for the challenges and expectations that come along with being Ms. Wheelchair New York, including a round of appearances and motivational talks.

“The professors at SUNY Oswego taught me to push myself to be the best person I can be,” she says. “They always encouraged me to put forth my best effort in any-thing I do in life.”

Patterson explained that one of her biggest supporters is her husband, Jason.

“He attends all of my appearances, interviews and public speeches,” Patterson says. “He is my biggest supporter and continues to be my partner and rock in life.”

The couple has been married for four years. They live in Weedsport with their three dogs in the house they built. Patterson is excited for their future and is looking forward to competing in the Ms. Wheelchair America pageant set for August 2014 in Long Beach, Calif.

—Jillian Phipps ’14


]Album

W E D D I N G

Lindsay Gauthier ’05 and T. J. Manastersky ’06 were married in June 2011 at Belhurst Castle, Geneva. Lindsay earned a master’s degree in education from Medaille College, and T. J., head men’s ice hockey coach at Curry College in Milton, Mass. earned a master’s in education from Canisius College. Alumni at their wedding are, from left, back row, Rick Varone ’08, John Duco, the bridegroom, Rose Grayson ’05, the bride, Brooke Craft ’05, Leila Ertel ’05, Mark Lozzi ’08, Tyler Rivers, Donald “Jessie” Lang ’79, Bernie Gauthier ’79 and Shelly Gould ’79; center row, Lilia See and Alyssa Schwartz ’05; front row, Trevor Gilligan ’08, Tony Dinunzio ’08 and Ryan Scott ’08.

Two generations of Oswego alumni gath-ered for the Sept. 15, 2012, wedding of Morgan Kalbach ’09 and Jordan Greeno ’08 M ’10. The bride was a member of Alpha Sigma Chi and the bridegroom was a member of Psi Phi Gamma. In the wed-ding party were Kate Runyan ’09, Courtney Delo ’09, Mandi Gorenflo ’10 and Katie Lew ’10, all members of Alpha Sigma Chi; John Greeno ’08, Steve Connolly ’08, Rob Gardner ’10, all members of Psi Phi Gamma, and Eric Zenzel ’11. Parents of the bride are Sandy Rosenberger Kalbach ’80, Alpha Sigma Chi, and Jeff Kalbach ’79, Zeta Chi Zeta.

Joseph Wegman ’09 and Rosanne Luis ’09 M ’11 requested we run the joke shot of their June 15, 2013, wedding in the Bronx. Pictured from left are alumni Carrie Hobaica Luis ’06, Adam Luis ’05, Jennifer Marks ’09, Christina Faraone ’11, Amanda Webb ’09, Michael Lanphier ’09, Michelle Hamann ’11, Alicia Henry ’07, Sara D’Addesio ’10 M ’11, Thomas Rozelle ’08 M ’10, Yolanda Lee ’09, Richard Holbrook ’08 and MaryEllen Murphy Holbrook ’09. Rosanne works as a substitute teacher, and Joseph is a meteorologist for FleetWeather in Hopewell Junction. The couple resides in Wappingers Falls.


Pamela Lubowsky ’06 and Larry Clever ’06 were married Aug. 25, 2012, at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury. Alumni in attendance are Shane Hogan ’06, Ryan Braden ’06, Christopher Dunnigan ’06, William Gannon ’06, Ian Cella ’07, Nicholas Lotito ’06, Erin Jacobsen ’06, Kevin Pytel ’06, Stephanie Foreman Lotito ’06, Monica Kinner ’05, Jamie Leigh Hogan ’07, Elizabeth Farrell Dunnigan ’05, Crystal Jean Theiss ’06, Aimee Perrin ’06, Rebecca Crane ’06, Jennifer Labella ’06, Jennifer Kepler ’06, Timothy Kepler ’06. Pamela earned a degree in graphic design at Oswego while Larry studied accounting.

Jonathan Hitchcock ’02 and Carrie Coughlin ’03 were married July 23, 2011, at Casa Larga Vineyards in Fairport. Alumni are, from left, front row: Tom Niziol ’77, Judy Levan ’81, Rebekah Thompson Heden ’03, Darlene Beherns Poirier ’04, Lisa Fortuna Yankevich ’02 and Catherine Bruchhauser Coughlin ’73; back row: Glenn Lader ’01, Erik Heden ’02, Nathaniel Wise ’02, Gloria Toso ’02, Benjamin Wise ’02, Melissa Tillson ’03, Joshua Norton ’06 and Holly Sabocinski Norton ’06. Carrie and Jonathan live in Le Roy.

Richard Holbrook ’08 and MaryEllen Murphy Holbrook ’09 were married on May 4, 2013. Alumni are, from left, Joseph Wegman ’09, Rosanne Luis-Wegman ’09, Roseann Panzica ’09, Robert Inzalaco ’09, Tracy Bray ’09, Kyle Stephenson ’09, Melissa Schumacher ’08, Jennifer Marks ’09, Michael Lanphier ’09, Liam Flood ’09, Amanda Webb ’09, Andrew Rohlin ’09 and Madeline Phillips ’09. The couple resides in Schenectady.

Allison Rent ’10 and Brian Boura ’10 were married June 8, 2013, at St. John’s Church in Johnson City. Alumni are, from left, Timothy Rent ’78, Brad Anderson ’78, Nicholas Sobiech ’10, Michelle West ’09, Lindsay Norton ’11, Nicole Richardson ’12, Dianka LeRoux ’12, Austin Byrd ’10, Melissa Warner ’12, Jessica Finch ’11 and Colleen Czajak ’12. The high school sweet-hearts graduated from Maine-Endwell High School and Oswego together.


I N M E M O R I A M

Stuart Allen ’29 of Bradenton, Fla., died Oct. 19, 2011. He is survived by a daughter-in-law, three granddaughters, and seven great-grandchil-dren.

Werner Beer ’39 of Rochester passed away Sept. 5, 2012. He was employed at Taylor Instru-ment during World War II, and later was in sales for Diversy and White Haven Memorial Park.

Raymond Green ’41 of Stockbridge passed away July 28, 2012. Ray served with the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He taught indus-trial arts in Alexandria Bay before moving back to Stockbridge to run the family dairy farm. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn; a son; a daugh-ter; nine grandchildren; and three great-grand-children.

Eleanor Scanlon Notarpole ’43 of Amherst died June 23, 2013. She taught for 40 years, 30 at Willow Ridge Elementary in Amherst. Eleanor is survived by a daughter, and five sisters, Elizabeth Scanlon, Marge Kuno, Martha Devine ’44, Gerry Jones ’48 and Pat O’Toole.

Richard Bootier ’48 of Lake Placid, Fla., passed away Oct. 4, 2012. He served with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He taught in Middletown, until his retirement. After retir-ing, Richard taught driver’s education part time in Washingtonville. Surviving are his wife, Emily; three daughters; four grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren.

Donald Cassavant ’48 of Hyde Park died May 15, 2013. He was an industrial arts technol-ogy teacher at Poughkeepsie High School for 30 years. Donald is survived by his wife, Janette; a daughter; and a son.

August “Bob” Roth ’50 of Bradenton, Fla.died June 23, 2013. He served with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Bob later earned a master’s degree at Syracuse University. He was recalled to active duty by the Air Force during the Korean War, serving with the State Selective Ser-vice System. He retired after 21 years of service and joined the Prudential Insurance Company, where he spent 15 years. Surviving are his wife, Betty; a daughter; two sons; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Alfred Ihrig ’51 of Reno, Nev., passed away June 24, 2011.

Erich Bohn ’52 of East Norwich passed away Oct. 7, 2012. He is survived by a daughter and four grandchildren.

Nancy Kelly Joyce ’53 of Williamsburg, Va., died Oct. 6, 2013. She earned a master’s degree at James Madison University. Nancy was a teacher in New Mexico, New York and Virginia. She was pre-deceased by her husband, George ’49. Surviving are two daughters and five grandchildren.

Barbara Horton Harrington ’53 of Lexing-ton, S.C., passed away July 12, 2013. She taught at Knox Memorial Central School in Russell for 33 years. Barb is survived by a son, a daughter, and three grandsons.

George Cristiano ’54 of Somerville, N.J., passed away. He received his master’s degree from Hofstra University and his EdD from Rut-gers University. He was a teacher and administra-tor for many years. George served as principal in the Matawan School District and as the assistant to the Commissioner of Education for the State of New Jersey. He is survived by his wife, Jeanne Favara ’52; three children and four grandchil-dren.

Wyatt Anthony ’55 of Spring Hill, Fla., died Feb. 2, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Thelma.

Paul Chapin ’55 of Sanford, Fla., died Feb. 17, 2013.

Richard Niemetz ’55 of Forestport passed away April 13, 2013. He served with the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Richard was an industrial arts teacher at Whitesboro Central School and the founder of Niemetz Cabinet and Millwork, Inc. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; three chil-dren; seven grandchildren; and nine great-grand-children.

Joseph Butera ’58 of Middlesex, N.J., passed away Dec. 21, 2012. He served with the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. Joseph earned his master’s degree at Rutgers University. He taught for 35 years for the Roselle Board of Education, retiring in 1993. Surviving are his wife, Anna; five children; and 11 grandchildren.

Frank Galletti ’58 of North Baldwin passed away Nov. 12, 2012. He is survived by his wife, Marcia Jacobs ’58; and two children.

Vincent Oliver ’58 of Dexter passed away May 21, 2013. He served with the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He was a teacher and administra-tor in the Watertown City School District, retiring in 1987. Vincent is survived by his wife, Jan; a son; a daughter; and five grandchildren.

Joseph Carroll ’59 of Palisades died May 15, 2013. He received a master’s degree from Seton Hall University. Joe served in the U.S. Army from 1953-1955. He taught industrial arts and was a guidance counselor at Spring Valley and Ramapo high schools. He is survived by a daughter and a grandson.

Joan Fowler D’Ambrosio ’60 of Oswego passed away Oct. 1, 2013. She taught in Cato and Red Creek, and was a substitute teacher in the Oswego City School District while raising her family. Joan is survived by her husband, Vincent ’60, three children, Laurel Artz ’83, Patricia Key-del ’91, M’96, and David ’90 and five grandchil-dren, David and Anthony Artz ’14, and Gregory, Andrew, Kaitlyn and Stephanie Keydel ’09 M’12.

Frances Bilello Doyle ’61 of Canton, Ohio, died March 31, 2013. She had been an elementary teacher on Long Island before raising her family. She eventually went back to school and became a special education teacher in the North Canton School District. In retirement, she was a real estate agent with Cutler Real Estate. Frances is survived by two children and five grandchildren.

Peter Dankelman ’62 of New Braunfels, Texas, passed away June 27, 2013. He earned a master’s degree at the University of Georgia and was a math teacher. He is survived by his wife, Joyce; and three daughters.

William Young ’63 of Minoa died Sept. 20, 2013. He earned a master’s degree at Syracuse University. William was a technology teacher in the Chittenango Central School District for 32 years. He is survived by his wife, Margaret Froio ’63; a son; two daughters; and eight grandchil-dren.

Roger Fransecky ’64 of Omaha, Neb., passed away July 5, 2013. He earned his master’s degree at Oswego and his doctoral degree at the University of Cincinnati. Roger founded the Apogee Group, Inc. in 1995; he was an executive coach and CEO adviser. Roger previously taught at the Univer-sity of Rochester, the University of Cincinnati and New York University and had directed NYU’s Video Management and Technology Program. He also was senior vice president of HBO/Time, Inc. and Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable; and chairman/CEO of Family Partners, Inc. and the National Television Workshop. He is survived by two stepsons and a grandson.

Robert Sherman ’64 of Liverpool passed away June 21, 2013. He served with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1956 to 1958. Bob earned his master’s degree and certificate of advanced study at Oswego. He began his teaching career at Roosevelt Junior High School in Syracuse, and was a teacher and administrator for many years in the West Genesee Central School District. He retired from Paul V. Moore High School in Cen-tral Square. In his retirement, Bob held numer-ous interim appointments in school districts throughout Central New York. He is survived by his wife, Barbara Cahill ’64; two daughters; and five grandchildren.

Charles Wirtenson ’64 of Verona died July 5, 2012. He was an industrial arts teacher at the Oneida Junior High/Middle School for 31 years, retiring in 1996. Surviving are his wife, Janet; a daughter and two granddaughters.

Sandra Kelly Mincher ’65 of Palm Coast, Fla., passed away June 19, 2013. She earned her master’s degree at Oswego in 1982. Prior to her retirement, she was an elementary teacher. Sandy is survived by her husband, John, professor emeritus of theatre at Oswego.

Leslie Flinn ’67 of Camden passed away May 24, 2013.

Louis Magnarelli ’67 of Durham, Conn., died July 11, 2013. He earned his Ph.D. from Cor-nell University and had been the director of CT Agricultural Experimental Station since 1975. Louis is survived by his wife, Sharon Dishaw ’68.

Edward Wagner ’70 of Camillus passed away June 30, 2013. He was a veteran of World War II. After the war, Edward worked as a tool and die maker for 20 years at Camillus Cutlery. He then


O SW EG O l Wi n te r 2014O SW EG O l Wi n te r 201447

taught vocational education for the Syracuse City School District for 25 years. Surviving are his wife, Violet; two children and three grandchildren.

Dominic Canestra ’72 of Plymouth died June 24, 2012. He was a veteran of World War II. Dom was a master carpenter and cabinet-maker and taught carpentry at Northern Westchester BOCES. He is survived by three daughters, two stepchildren, his companion, and many grand-children, step-grandchildren, and great-grand-children.

Jean Carrese Goodsell Angell ’73 of Knox-ville, Tenn., passed away Sept. 20, 2012. She had retired from the Knoxville Public Building Authority as a project coordinator. Surviving are her husband, Ivan; two children; and five sisters, including Renee Elwell ’86.

Denise Palumbo ’73 of Ballston Spa died Feb. 13, 2013. She retired after 29 years with Gen-eral Electric Power Turbine Division, and had most recently been a technical instructor. Surviv-ing are her life partner, Bernadine Peterson; and a son.

Larry Beshaw ’76 of Glendale, Ariz., passed away April 6, 2013.

Clara Fadden Coniff ’77 of Wilmington, N.C., died June 8, 2013. She received an associate’s degree from SUNY Alfred, and a master’s of social work from East Carolina State University. She was a clinical therapist, specializing in children and families, and worked in crisis counseling. Clara is survived by seven siblings, three stepsons, and a step-granddaughter.

Stephen “Hank” Donohue ’81 of Albany passed away Nov. 4, 2011. He had been a manager at Showtime/TMC during his time in New York City. He is survived by a sister and two brothers.

William Runeari M ’81 of Oswego died Aug. 17, 2013. He earned his bachelor’s degree at LeMoyne College. Bill was an English teacher at Oswego High School for more than 25 years. Sur-viving are his wife, Patricia “Sis” Wilber ’79; two daughters; and his parents.

Janet Holmes Rennspies ’83 of Oro Valley, Ariz., died Nov. 21, 2012.

Mary Boysman ’84 of Oswego passed away Oct. 6, 2013. She earned her MBA at LeMoyne College. Mary was vice president of marketing and advertising for Aspen Dental Management. She had previously been vice president of mar-keting at Harden Furniture, and senior market-ing manager at Niagara Mohawk and Plum Street Energy. Mary is survived by her parents, Rob-ert and Betty Boysman; her son, Jesse McWain; her daughter, Chelsea Oughterson; a grandson, Gavin; two sisters, Susan Sweet, and Sally Van Buren, a staff member at SUNY Oswego.

Lawrence Kushnick ’84 of Huntington passed away June 3, 2013. He earned his law degree from Touro Law School. He founded the

law firm Kushnick Pallaci PLLC, specializing in construction, commercial and real estate litiga-tion and arbitration. Surviving are his parents, a son, and three siblings.

Joyce Smolak Bocian ’86, M ’87 of Weed-sport passed away June 9, 2013. She earned an associate’s degree from Cayuga Community Col-lege. Joyce was a kindergarten teacher for the Port Byron Central School District for 24 years. She is survived by her husband, Donald; two children; her mother; and two brothers.

Phillip Isaman ’86 of Hannawa Falls passed away June 7, 2013. He worked for Radio Shack. Phil is survived by his wife, Robin; a son; his mother; and two sisters.

Joseph Te’Ketch ’92 of Scranton, Pa., died June 14, 2013. He served with the Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean War. He was a grad-uate of Johnson Trade School and was an engineer with Babcock and Wilcox Engineering. Before his retirement, he had been on the faculty of Johnson College. Surviving are his wife, Audrey; a daugh-ter; and three grandsons.

Lori Moseley ’94 of Deferiet, passed away Sept. 12, 2013. She earned her master’s degree from SUNY Potsdam in 1997. Lori was a sec-ond grade teacher at West Carthage Elementary School. She is survived by two daughters, a grand-daughter, her parents and two brothers.

Susan Bitz M’01 of Pulaski died July 27, 2013. She earned a bachelor’s degree at LeMoyne College. She had been an English teacher at Sandy Creek Central School since 1997. Sue is survived by a brother and a sister.

Elizabeth Paternoster Ponzi ’03 of Oswego passed away Oct. 6, 2013. Liz worked as an in-service coordinator and CNA instructor at St. Luke’s Health Services for many years, and had previously worked as a registered nurse at Pontiac Nursing Home. She is survived by three children, two grandchildren, a great-granddaughter and five siblings.

Jennifer Hamlin ’04 of North Syracuse passed away June 23, 2013. She was a professional pet groomer at Pet Express. Surviving are her par-ents, Raymond and Sandra; and a sister.

Martin Campbell ’05 of Liverpool died May 17, 2012. He was a teacher in the North Syracuse School District. He is survived by his fiancé, Jay-son Steere; his father, James Campbell; his mother, Mary Leahy; two brothers; a step-brother; and a step-sister.

Teresa Lanterman Becker M’06 of Union Springs passed away June 13, 2013. She was Direc-tor of Youth Development for Cornell Coopera-tive Extension prior to retiring in 2012. Terri is survived by her husband, David; a daughter; a son; a stepson; and four grandchildren.

Katielyn Aubertine ’12 of New Haven passed away June 6, 2013. She had just completed her

first year as a law student at the University of Buf-falo Law School. Surviving are her parents, David and Susan; two sisters; and her grandmothers.

Otilia Cortez, associate professor of Spanish passed away in the summer of 2013. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Nicaragua’s National University and earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Syracuse University. Otilia joined the Oswego faculty in 1999.

Jean Grant, former director of the Mary Walker Health Center, passed away Aug. 15, 2013. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing at SUNY Plattsburgh, became a nurse practitio-ner at Community General Hospital, and earned her master’s degree in nursing at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Jean retired in 2011 after a 38-year career at Oswego. She is survived by her husband, Joseph, former vice president for Stu-dent Affairs and Enrollment Management at Oswego; two daughters, Allison Grant and Kath-erine Tschudy; and her grandson, Gabriel.

Joseph Lipsig, Associate Professor Emeritus of Chemistry died June 20, 2013. He served with the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Joe is sur-vived by his wife, Roberta ’78; a son, Chuck; and two grandchildren, Derek and Shannon.

Pat Mouton, former adjunct instructor at Oswego, passed away March 15, 2010.

Berthram Needelman, Associate Professor Emeritus of Sociology died March 8, 2013. He was a graduate of Temple University. Bert is sur-vived by his wife, Cecelia Vining, and three step-sons.

Willard Schum, Associate Dean of Profes-sional Studies of Venice, Fla., passed away Sept. 29, 2013. Will served with the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He earned his Ph.D. at the Uni-versity of Buffalo. He was also the principal of the Swetman Learning Center on the Oswego cam-pus. He was the founder of Safe Haven Museum in Oswego, which holds the history of the 182 refugees housed at Fort Ontario under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. Will is survived by his wife, Joan; and two sons, Joseph and Michael ’86.

Lucina Hernandez Laundre, director of Rice Creek Biological Field Station and an asso-ciate professor of biological sciences, passed away Oct. 10, 2013. She earned her doctoral and master’s degrees from the National Polytechnic Institute in Durango, Mexico, and her bachelor’s degree in biology from Mexico’s National Uni-versity. Lucina is survived by her husband, John Laundre, a biological sciences faculty member at Oswego, and a daughter.


T H E L A S T

TV Reporter Determined to Run Boston Marathon AgainBy Jason Holder ’05

When I crossed the finish line of the 2013 Boston Mara-

thon, the first thing I said audibly and to no one in particular was: “That’s enough of that for a while.” Then, as I do at the conclusion of every marathon, I began thinking about how I would summarize the most important race of the year. It’s a thought process that, for me, continues through the post-race Epsom salt or ice bath; through the beers and burgers; through the train or plane ride home, and cul-minates in a long, often rambling recap the next day.

I thought I would talk about my time—a new personal best, but not my goal. I thought I would talk about the health hurdles I cleared to get to the starting line. I thought I would

talk about how Pandora’s Sleep and Relaxation Station blasts ads every two to three songs that jolt me out of a trance just as my mind begins to surrender to sleep the night before the big race. I thought I would talk about toeing the line and running most of the race with one of my best friends, the guy whose running I admired so much I decided to try it myself 12 years ago. I thought about splits. I thought about Heartbreak Hill. I thought about the next race.

But, within hours, all that became inconsequential. As I was changing into clean clothes in our rented apartment on the Boston Common, a friend called from the finish line. I could hear panic in his voice as he asked me if I knew what was happening. He was the first to tell me of two loud explo-

sions, a lot of blood and people in tears. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew it was my job to find out. Legs sore from the long run, I jogged toward down-town Boston, stopping people to ask what they had seen.

Along the way, the story evolved. With cell service spotty, I frantically attempted to call updates to WABC-TV news desk in New York City as stunned witnesses described the scene and shared tearful stories of their close calls. I contacted our chief meteo-rologist, who was in town to see his brother run. We coordinated a spot where we would meet to produce a live report. With nothing more than my iPhone, we were the first New York City television station to report from Boston.

Over the next several hours, resources from New York arrived: reporters, live trucks and cameras to cover every angle of this story. My job became coordinating who went where and when and acting as a liaison between our makeshift bureau in Boston and our news-room in New York. I spent the next three days immersed in the story, working from well before sunrise to well after sunset as the investigation unfolded and the stunned community mourned.

After running across the finish line early Monday after-noon, the next time I saw it was Wednesday morning, when some of the barricades and police tape had been removed from the crime scene. People had already placed flowers and messages at the site. Some left their finisher’s medals behind. I stared at the line that

runners prepare for years to cross. We train for separate marathons just to qualify, many of us having to make multiple attempts. “I finally BQ’ed!” we proclaim. And when we do, we spend months getting ready for the Big One. So, to see something that represents so much hard work, so much accomplishment and so many tears of joy turned into something that represents so much pain, so much shock and so many tears of sadness is overwhelming.

I’ve stopped trying to comprehend what happened and started planning for next year’s race. My intention to take a couple of years off from running Boston have been abandoned. As long as I’m physically able, I’ll be on the starting line in April. As runners, we won’t let this attack ruin a tradition that dates back to 1897. Tens of thousands will run. Tens of thousands more will cheer. Boston will come together and celebrate at the very event where two deranged terror-ists tried to tear it apart. I love reporting the news, but I think after this year’s race, I’ll just take that burger and beer.

Jason Holder ’05 is the producer of Eyewitness News at 11 for WABC-TV in New York. While at SUNY Oswego, he was the news director at WTOP and ran cross-country and track. He continues to run competitively and completed the 2013 Boston Marathon in 2:37:55. On Sept. 9, the first day of registration, he signed up for Boston 2014. l

48

PRO

VID

ED

Jason Holder ’05, in yellow.

When we talk, I’ll share with

you the many ways your gifts

to The Fund for Oswego benefit

me and the other 8,000 students

studying in more than 60

challenging majors. Your

generosity enriches our

Oswego experiences

and adds to the value

of our Oswego degrees.

Please answer the call, and

allow me to express how

grateful I am for your support.

Please answer the call . . .

Thank you.

CA

ND

ICE V

. ’15 | MA

JOR

: PUB

LIC R

ELATIO

NS | H

OM

ETOW

N: M

ASSA

PEQU

A, N

Y

2 1 5 S H E L D O N H A L L n O S W E G O N Y 1 3 1 2 6 n 3 1 5 - 3 1 2 - 3 0 0 3 n A L U M N I . O S W E G O . E D U / G I V E N O W


KING ALUMNI HALLOSWEGO, NY 13126If Oswego is addressed to a son or daughter who has graduated and no longer maintains a permanent address at your home, please clip the address label and return it with the correct address to the Oswego Alumni Associa tion, SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY 13126, or email the updated address to [email protected]

Nonprofit

US Postage

P A I D

Oswego Alumni

Association

Please recycle this magazine.

E M I LY OA K S , P H . D .

Emily Oaks, Ph.D., plunges a well-used shovel into sandy dirt behind her

Sterling farmhouse to lift a Monarda Didyma from the earth. She cradles its tangled roots in her hands and slides them, dirt and all, into a bag to be given to a friend. The friend will replant, relish the beauty of the fringed red flower and use the tender, aromatic leaves to brew pungent Oswego tea, another name for the native plant.

Retired after 21 years in the biology department, Dr. Oaks is on a mission to restore her property to its natural state. In the high summer days of August, the meadows emit a spiced floral scent and brandish an array of colors and textures. While the effect is that of a free growing wildflower garden, the fields represent years of deliberate restoration, replacing imports with indigenous plants.

“Not only do I want my little piece of the planet to reflect New York and not Europe,” Oaks says, “but I also know that everything in the environment functions better when we work with native species.” That philosophy explains her willingness to spend hours of back-numbing labor pulling invasive plants such as bishop’s weed. “It’s a useless plant,” she says. “Nothing lives on it.”

Oaks knows every living thing on her property by name and location — even three resident garden spiders. She knows the native violets and ferns that grew up spontane-ously after she cleared non-native trees from

a woodlot, and she knows the trillium purchased from a nursery and the yellow

Coraopolis that grew from seeds given to her by Harry Shock, emeritus

assistant dean of students. Beyond the garden,

in a fading red barn, Oaks is restoring a Model A Ford, employing skills she learned in an engine tune up course in

1978. She also enjoys traveling and, in the autumn, completed a camping

excursion to the mid-west.“In my family, there was never anything

I was told I couldn’t do,” says the only female in a flock of five. She grew up near woodlands north of Pittsburg, the oldest child of a research chemist father and a biologist mother.

Valedictorian of her high school class, Oaks attended Rice University in Houston. “I intended to study math, something different from my parents.” But a junior-year biology course inspired her to add the major, and she went on to graduate studies at Yale under renowned ecologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson.

After beginning her career in northern Utah, Oaks joined the biology faculty at Oswego in 1984. She served as department chair from 1998 to 2005, and she continues to teach one course a year. Oaks says she loves comparative anatomy. “If you don’t appreciate the function, anatomy doesn’t make any sense.”

Commensurate with her love of discipline, is the value Oaks places on interaction with

students, those who grasp the material with ease and those who require encouragement and extra time. Among her teaching strategies, Oaks explains evolution with the prompt “From Fish to Philosopher.”

Two recent teaching assistants used that slogan when they gave Oaks a custom-printed mug with illustrations that proceed from fish to amphibian and through the ascending vertebrates to humankind. It was their way to say thanks for an unforgettable experience and an unforgettable mnemonic from an unforget-table professor.


JIM R

USSELL ’83

Documents

Oswego Winter 2014