Eight veteran employees who contributed a combined 200 years to Mercyhurst retired at the end of June. In addition to Executive Vice President Tom Billingsley (see story below), they include faculty secretary Mary Jeanne Weiser (36 years); Mercyhurst North East Registrar Bonnie Hall (35 years); academic counselor Betty Damper (27 years); Marion Nies, assistant to Vice President Billingsley (20 years); Ed Hess, director of sponsored research (16 years); Police Chief Ken Sidun (14 years); and PC support specialist Bernie McGallis (13 years).
Four new trustees will join the 34-member college board of trustees at its meeting Oct. 28, 2010. They are: Sister Mary Ann Bader, RSM ’73, Patrick J. Weschler, Esq. ’78, Counting those two early years, Tom was part of Mercyhurst for 42 years – half its history. And, at one time or another, he was responsible for virtually every function except academic affairs. Tiring of life on the road as a recruiter, he became the college’s registrar. He moved into McAuley Hall the first year that men lived there. In the late ’70s, when Mercyhurst attracted federal grant money earmarked to help smaller colleges become more effective, Tom supervised the program. During the ’80s, he handled enrollment services, admissions and financial aid. As the college grew, Tom was a
senior Santina B. Sgro and Matthew J. Robaszkiewicz ’88. Bader, who has been president of Mercyhurst Preparatory School since August 2002, will complete the tenure of retiring Trustee Sister Maria O’Connor, RSM. Weschler, a partner in the law firm of Buckingham, Doolittle and Burroughs, LLP, Akron, Ohio, will complete the trustee term of the late Helen F. Mullen. Robaszkiewicz becomes president of the Mercyhurst College National Alumni Association Sept. 1. He is affiliated with the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministries, Washington, D.C. Sgro, of Valley View, Ohio, is the current president of Mercyhurst Student Government. She is an intelligence studies major.
Brittany Prischak ’09 has returned to Mercyhurst as the college’s sustainability officer. A 2009 graduate, she compiled the college’s first greenhouse gas emissions inventory as her senior project. Besides updating that inventory, she’ll coordinate campus recycling and energy conservations efforts and other programs designed to promote a sustainable future. Dr. Helen Fabian Mullen ’47, former academic dean of Mercyhurst (Erie Campus) and the McAuley Division, died Monday, Feb. 8, 2010. She had served on Mercyhurst’s Board of Trustees since 1991. In 1978, Mercyhurst named her its Distinguished Alumna of the Year.
Four Mercyhurst alumni were recently elected officers of the college board of trustees for Fiscal Year 2011: Marlene D. Mosco ’68, chair of the board; Richard A. Lanzillo, Esq. ’83, vice chair; Sister JoAnne K. Courneen, RSM ’64, vice chair; and Mary Ellen Dahlkemper ’73, assistant secretary. Other officers are Robert S. Miller, secretary, and Owen J. McCormick, second assistant secretary.
key part of four self-study teams, in 1975, 1982, 1992 and 2002. He became director of administrative services in 1984. At the peak of his 25 years in that role, he was responsible for the physical plant, athletics, budget and student life. He was the face of Mercyhurst for town-gown relationships. He was even acting president on occasion. He supervised other areas, too, from auxiliary services and police and safety to ROTC and the Sullivan Conservatory. Officially, his final title was executive vice president but he laughingly called himself the “director of stuff.”
In retirement, he hopes to travel the country, like John Steinbeck and his faithful poodle, Charley, did a half-century ago. He’d like to find out what the American experience has been like for different people and how America came to be the country it is today. He’ll also have more time to spend with his wife, Lupé; daughters Ashley and her husband, Todd, and Brooke and her husband, Matt; and grandchildren Logan and Aidan.
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