Saint Michael's College Magazine, Fall/Winter 2019

Saint Michael’s SAINT MICHAEL’S COLLEGE MAGAZINE | FALL/WINTER 2019

BEYOND THE CLASSROOM: Life Lessons Inside and Outside

“You already know that your classes are going to be a major draw on your time and attention—as they should be— and that you will meet people here who may become a part of your world for the rest of your life. Learning new things, forging new relationships, and figuring out who you are within this seminal rite of passage into your adult years— these are all important reasons why you are here.

“But don’t discount the power of this physical place to transform you in new and wonderful ways… and that’s something that will happen just by being here, gazing out around you, and filling your lungs with the energy of this sweet air.”

—

PROFESSOR JOAN WRY, OF THE ENGLISH FACULT Y ADDRESSING INCOMING STUDENTS AT OPENING CONVOCATION IN THE CHAPEL OF SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL.

26 Outside the Classroom: Life Skills at the Heart of Liberal Arts

by Susan Salter Reynolds

KLEIN HAL L 2 A Letter from President Lorraine Sterritt

30 Getting Outside the Bubble

by Megan Beatty ’20

NE W S H IG H L I G HT S

46 New Faces

by Mark Tarnacki 47 The Legacy of Giving: Carl and Joyce Roof

by Phung Pham 48 Faculty and Alumni Works

4 What’s New?

by Mark Tarnacki

32 Maximum Growth

by Ariel Wish ’20

S TO RIE S 8 Go Baby Go

by Mark Tarnacki

34 Liam Elder-Connors ’14: Reading People

by Susan Salter Reynolds

10 Bringing Out the Best in Our Students

by Susan Salter Reynolds

36 Anna Ste. Marie ’16: A Certain Tone

by Susan Salter Reynolds

15 Never Off Duty: The 50th Anniversary of Fire & Rescue

by Anne Rosello ’94

38 Balancing Act: Katelyn Billings ’10

by Lauren Read

20 Go. Listen. Connect.

by Ariel Wish ’20

40 The Roundup

by Josh Kessler ’04

22 Telling Someone Else’s Story: Rory Doyle ’08

by Susan Salter Reynolds

42 Liturgy, Lectures, and Life Lessons

by Lynn Monty

50 Green Light: Center for Environment Accelerates

by Mark Tarnacki CL AS S N OT E S 52 Letter to the Editor 53 Letter From the Alumni Board President

by George Bowen ’92 54 Class Notes 63 In Memoriam

44 Who Loves Ya? Lou DiMasi

by Mark Tarnacki

SAINT MICHAEL’S COLLEGE MAGAZINE Fall/Winter 2019 Volume 19, No. 2 smcvt.edu/magazine EDITOR Susan Salter Reynolds CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Megan Beatty ’20 Danielle Joubert ’20 Lynn Monty ’07 Phung Pham Lauren Read Anne Rosello ’94 Mark Tarnacki Ariel Wish ’20

PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHER Jerald Swope DESIGN Harp and Company Graphic Design Jennifer Fisher Douglas G. Harp MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD Angela Armour ’99 M’09 Alessandro Bertoni Jennifer R. Conetta ’09 Krystyna Davenport Brown Rev. Raymond Doherty ’51, S.S.E. Michelle Jordan Josh Kessler ’04 Jerald Swope Mark Tarnacki

Saint Michael’s College Magazine (ISSN 0279-3016) is published by the Office of Marketing and Communications twice a year. The views expressed in the Saint Michael’s College Magazine do not necessarily represent the official policies and views of Saint Michael’s College.

EDITORIAL OFFICE Saint Michael’s College One Winooski Park, Box 6 Colchester, VT 05439 802.654.2556 SMCMagazine@smcvt.edu ©2019. All rights reserved.

Cover: Donald “Pappy” Sutton with students from Fire and Rescue in front of the Robert E. POSTMASTER Please send address changes to: Sutton Fire and Rescue Station.

Saint Michael’s Fire and Saint Michael’s College Rescue celebrates its 50th One Winooski Park, Box 6 anniversary in 2020.

Colchester, VT 05439 SMCMagazine@smcvt.edu

KLEIN HALL

Letter from the President 2

D family:

ear members of the Saint Michael’s College

The campus is an ecosystem, bubbling with ideas, athletics, conversations, and plans for the future. Learning takes place in classrooms, hallways, playing fields, and residence halls; from books, faculty members, staff members, coaches, and, of course, fellow students.

This issue includes shout-outs to beloved people on and off campus: Lou DiMasi, Jerome Monachino, and alumni far and wide: Katelyn Billings, John Kaufman, Rory Doyle, Liam ElderConnors, and Anna Ste. Marie. These alumni have carried the life lessons they learned here into the world.

How is what we learn inside the classroom different from what we learn outside the classroom?

Many of the skills, it turns out, are the same, driven home in different ways, through different pathways—the head, the heart, the body. Teamwork, confidence, perseverance, and preparation are developed inside and outside the classroom.

Students get a different set of tools in each new context. In this issue, we explore several contexts: emergency training at Fire and Rescue, service trips with MOVE, playing on the courts and the playing fields, traveling to South Africa, or helping members of our community.

None of this can happen without connection and engagement. Faculty and staff members, coaches, and trip leaders work hard to make that connection happen.

Engagement happens through trust and respect.

That’s how our coaches, faculty and staff members, and trip leaders bring out the best in our students. In the following articles, you will see how they do it.

The end result is that students know themselves better than when they arrived on campus. They are prepared for the challenges and opportunities life offers every day.

They are able to empathize and tell someone else’s story.

This is not only what the best employers are looking for. It is also the future of higher education.

D. E. Lorraine Sterritt President

How is what you learn inside the classroom different from what you learn outside the classroom?

“Success and failure are more measurable in the classroom. In the real world, we will navigate successes and failures that we can’t always measure.” — ERIN SPENCE ’20

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4

WHAT’S NEW?

by Mark Tarnacki

emphasize in our region there’s a lot of cooperation that goes on under the radar that’s really valuable. I feel comfortable that this election result will not be very disruptive to most people in the region.”

FROM LAWN TO TREE NURSERY

Professor of political science Jeffrey Ayres

PROFESSOR AYRES ON THE CANADIAN ELECTIONS

With a major Canadian federal election in late October, Professor Jeffrey Ayres of the Saint Michael’s political science faculty (also the former dean) was once again in great demand by media far and wide for his expertise on Canadian politics.

In a Vermont Public Radio interview on the challenges liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces in the coming elections, Professor Ayres had this to say on the new trade deal between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada: “What could happen is the Liberals could turn into the Conservatives.” He told Pat Bradley of WAMC Albany Public Radio, “I do want to

An Ecological Restoration class at Saint Michael’s College has brought new life to campus, as students utilized an empty plot of land in front of the Dion Student Center to establish a tree nursery garden. The project’s leader and class instructor, environmental studies instructor Trevian Stanger, explained the purpose of this project and the significance of its location. “As a partnership of the Center for the Environment, Green Up club, and

Students help to plant trees in the new Tree Nursery Garden on campus.

environmental studies program, we are transforming part of this highprofile, heavy-trafficked space from unnoticed lawn into a native tree nursery,” he said. When the trees reach proper maturity, students will dig them from this area and transport them to a 360-acre natural area near the Winooski River. The preceding photo shows Stanger with students as they create the central-campus nursery.

USE THAT DEGREE!

Did you ever wonder what you could do with a Psychology degree? Or Economics, or Pre-law? On October 24, graduates Jay Curley ’02 (global head of integrated marketing at Ben & Jerry’s) and Christine Trombley Marsh ’12 (State of Vermont human resources business partner supporting the Agency of Human Services and Department of Corrections) spoke to students about the value of their Psychology major at St. Mike’s and how it has played into their respective career paths. Equally strong alumni panels presented earlier in the semester in the Farrell Room on careers for Economics and Pre-law majors. The events were organized by Career Education Center staffers Ingrid Peterson,

“Outside the classroom we learn time management.”

— ZACH BOUCHARD ’20

ment deputy director), Matthew Thompson ’19, John Keating ’17 (rescue unit chief), Alec Guzackas ’20, and Andrew Setchell ’19.

VERMONT’S FINEST EDUCATORS

Jay Curley ’02 and Christine Trombley Marsh ’12 speak to a room full of students about their careers.

Laura Neville, and Angela Irvine in cooperation with academic departments.

Public Safety officers practice during a drill on campus this summer.

From the St. Albans Messenger daily newspaper in northwest Vermont’s Franklin County in October: “Berkshire Elementary School’s Jessica Neill Litchfield ’10 has received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching.

[This is the nation’s highest honor for teachers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math).] She is one of four Vermont teachers and two from Franklin County to receive the award, which includes $10,000 from the National Science Foundation and a trip to Washington, D.C. to attend a series of professional development workshops. Jessica earned a B.A. in elementary education and French from Saint Michael’s College and a master of science in Teaching from the University of Vermont. She is a certified elementary school teacher.”

Marianne Strayton ’98 and Heather Rubenstein Vonada ’03 also received this award.

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Winston Jones II ’19 speaks at commencement ceremony in May of 2019.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR OUR STUDENT-ATHLETES

Saint Michael’s College was among the top three in NCAA Division II in student-athlete graduation rate for the seventh straight year in 2019, as data released by the NCAA in October revealed the College’s student-athletes achieved an academic success rate (ASR) of 97 percent for the most recent cycle. Saint Michael’s was one of the top two in the Northeast-10 Conference for the 13th straight year.

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?

People affiliated with Saint Michael’s College accounted for almost half of those who earned the Vermont emergency management director (EMD) certification this year, Doug Babcock, the College’s director of public safety, reports. The program combines state and federal courses to establish a level of competence and skill in handling the four phases of emergency management: preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Participants included Babcock, Erik Haversang (fire unit chief), Scott Parizo (public safety officer), Chip Deasy (Vermont Emergency Manage-

Students tour campus during a Sample St. Mike’s admission event.

SAMPLE ST. MIKE’S

Jessica Neill Litchfield ’10 received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching.

Mike Stefanowicz, director of admissions, says his crew and a host of participating faculty and administrators were delighted to welcome a large group of prospective students and their families to campus on Saturday, October 12, for a “Sample

“We learn how to listen inside the classroom.”

— MARIAH LEVANGIE ’22

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS 6

St. Mike’s” fall open house. At another event on November 9, more than 70 families pre-registered weeks in advance. Faculty presenters Oct. 12 were Professors Reza Ramazani (economics) and Mark Lubkowitz (biology); Mike said, “The increased advertising capability [supported by trustees] greatly helped us increase these numbers and we are grateful for this trustee and institutional commitment to support the enrollment function of the College.”

was capped off by observing the Feast of Saint Michael in the Chapel on Sunday, with Mass celebrated by Burlington Bishop Christopher Coyne.

Highlights also included a chance on Friday for visitors to join students on “Farm Friday” at the Farm at Saint Michael’s College, either pitching in with work or taking farm tours.

Residence Life hosted a dessert on Friday evening. Besides all the campus activities, the weekend included Alumni Socials in larger cities around the Northeast, and Academic Convocation on Friday.

SCHOLARSHIP HONORS CAPTAIN VANDEVENTER ’63

The Saint Michael’s College Rugby Club team participates in a match on the 300s Field.

MISSING VERMONT?

The weekend of September 27-29, more than 500 alumni, families, and friends enjoyed a beautiful weekend in Vermont. On campus, activities for Alumni and Family Weekend included Fall Fest, organized by the Student Government Association with food trucks and music; Campus Safety Field Day, coordinated by Public Safety; and men’s lacrosse, which alumni played on the 300’s field.

Several current Purple Knight varsity teams also had home games, as did the men’s rugby club. Former students of Donald and Joanne Rathgeb gathered to pay tribute in McCarthy to their former mentors.

Six alumni were inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame. The weekend

Saint Michael’s President Lorraine Sterritt said during a moving September campus ceremony, “We were so very honored and touched to host the dedication of the Captain John W. Vandeventer ’63 Memorial Scholarship.” Cpt. Vandeventer served in Vietnam and died at just age 25 on a risky mission as an Air Force Nile Forward Air Controller. His family members, classmates, and College officials turned out at the Pomerleau Alumni Center on September 10 to honor Vandeventer with a ceremony announcing the memorial scholarship in his name. Cpt. Vandeventer was awarded the Distinguished Flying

Cross, the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart. The Scholarship Endowment Fund was created during the Class of ’63’s 50th Reunion in 2013.

New Durick Library Director Laura Crain.

DURICK LIBRARY’S NEW BRIDGE BUILDER

Libraries and librarians “introduce students to the concept that scholarship is a conversation,” says Laura Crain, who became Saint Michael’s College’s new director of library and information services in Durick Library starting August 1 with the departure of longtime director John Payne. Crain feels confident at the Durick helm—she was the College’s collection manager from 1996 until her recent promotion. “I see myself as a bridge builder,” says Crain. “I’m building bridges by connecting faculty, students, staff, and administrators to the library.”

A NEW MAJOR: CRIMINOLOGY

Friends and family of Captain John W. Vandeventer ’63 gather together for the dedication of a scholarship in his name.

With the recent approval by trustees at Saint Michael’s College of a new major in Criminology, students aspiring to criminal justice careers will sit alongside classmates whose primary focus is social justice, encouraging a dialogue critical for today’s society, says sociologist Robert Brenneman, chief faculty

“Some classrooms are more interactive, but often we are taking notes, which can feel more passive.

— COLBY JORDAN ’20

Professor of sociology Robert Brenneman proponent of the new major. This sensibility of social justice and service long has been central to the mission and programs of Saint Michael’s and its founding Catholic religious order, the Society of Saint Edmund, says Brenneman, who feels Vermont, a pioneer in restorative justice, is “a perfect lab for studying crime and justice” when many states are seeking alternatives to mass incarceration.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS FROM 20 NATIONS

New international students arrived on campus Sunday, August 18, and International Student Orientation (ISO) ran from Monday, August 19, through Sunday, August 25. The new international student cohort includes approximately 60 students representing just under 20 countries and will be spread across all academic programs: Intensive English Program (IEP), Academic English Program (AEP), undergraduate, and graduate.

Included in these figures are two new Fulbright scholars from Ivory Coast and Panama, and groups from Tamagawa University, Tokyo Women’s Christian University and the International College of Technology – Kanazawa (all based in Japan). In addition, a student from Shandong University in China is participating in

President Lorraine Sterritt addresses the crowd at event honoring international students.

Support from the Freeman Foundation helped 11 Saint Michael’s students participate in internships in Hong Kong in June and July. “This is becoming a very vibrant and successful program, providing students with the opportunity to engage in experiential learning and to develop skills that students really need in the 21st century beyond just classroom work,” said Jeffrey Ayres, professor of political science/international relations.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

FREEMAN SCHOLARS ARE GLOBAL CITIZENS

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the newly formed joint MATESOL degree program between Saint Michael’s and that institution.

FATHER RAY RECEIVES ST. EDMUND’S MEDAL OF HONOR

The Saint Edmund’s Medal of Honor was presented to Rev. Ray Doherty, SSE ’51 at Enders Island in Mystic, Connecticut, this October for his lifetime of dedicated service to others.

This event celebrates the lives of those who reflect the legacy of Saint Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury and patron of Enders Island and Saint Edmund’s Retreat.

Vermont Youth Conservation Corps members help to clean up the Saint Michael’s College Natural Area.

THANK YOU: BURLINGTON STUDENTS WORK ON SAINT MICHAEL’S NATURAL AREA PATH

In August, Biology Professor Declan McCabe oversaw eight students from Burlington area high schools in the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) as they built steps on a steep part of a trail in the Saint Michael’s College Natural Area across Route 15 from campus, down the trail past Merrill Cemetery and the railroad tracks.

Fr. Ray Doherty was honored with the Saint Edmund’s Medal of Honor at a ceremony at Enders Island.

Subscribe to This Week, the College’s weekly newsletter, at smcvt.edu/magazine

We learn how to listen inside the classroom. Outside the classroom, you have to listen to yourself.”

Go Baby Go

by Mark Tarnacki

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wo of the eight electricpowered kids’ cars that were converted on campus last year to help young local children with special mobility needs were for Saint Michael’s alumni families.

The cars came from Go Baby Go, a national group with a two-year-old campus chapter that has itself been on the go during fall semester, moving to a new dedicated space and expanding output and participation thanks to generous alumni and local business sponsors.

An Open House to show off the new Go Baby Go headquarters in Cashman Hall on October 18 drew a good crowd, which was exciting for Mary Beth Doyle of the Education Department. Doyle and Donna Bozzone from biology have been the chief faculty advisors for Go Baby Go since it first started up in the Dion MakerSpace a few years ago, before outgrowing that widely used, general-purpose venue’s capacity to accommodate a growing demand for the special cars.

“We were almost overwhelmed with the number of people who wanted to participate…”

“We were almost overwhelmed with the number of people who wanted to participate and needed cars for kids— we can’t keep up with the demand,” Doyle said. “We have between 15 and 20 students who are regulars working with us, and at our Open House we brought in a lot of new students, particularly first-year students.

A recipient tries out his new car in the Dion Student Center at Saint Michael’s College.

Go Baby Go’s indispensable volunteer engineering consultants are Bob Dana and Lou Breese, who come in each Friday to teach and help student workers—at no charge.

“Bob checks everything out on electronics since he’s a retired electrical engineer, and Lou, our retired mechanical engineer, helps with things like seating positioning—and I’m there as a special educator,” Doyle said.

“One alumni family brought their boy’s car back for a remodel after he had surgery, and we got it back to his family this past week,” Doyle said.

“It’s powerful when alumni see we’re giving back to them, and we think this might encourage other alumni to support us.”

The group has a grant application in to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation for $8,000, with word on that expected back in December.

“We need two more sets of tools so we can have two fully supplied work stations,” Doyle said. “So far we’ve been funded by some area businesses sponsoring individual cars; it’s $500 per car, covering purchase of the car and all the modifications we do.” Some of those sponsors: Al’s French Frys, Aubuchon Hardware, the Knights of Columbus, and Ameriprise Financial. Another was the Harley-Davidson dealership in Essex Junction, leading to a favorite moment for Doyle last year when a child picked up his new

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Members of the Go Baby Go team in front of the Maker Space with a special car they recently modified. car at the Harley dealership. “The Harley guys were coming around and putting Harley stickers on it,” she said, which thrilled the boy and his parents.

The most significant sponsorship, “to the tune of thousands of dollars,” Doyle said, came from three Saint Michael’s trustees, Chairman Michael Cunniff, the late Barry Roy, and another anonymous donor. “They came to one of our initial meetings a year or two ago and after that they kept sending us tools— a big tool box just showed up, and they outfitted us for all we needed for a work station.”

Go Baby Go leaders decided to move out of the Dion MakerSpace into the new Cashman location since they had been taking over much of the MakerSpace on Fridays, making it mostly unavailable to other students pursuing unrelated but also important projects, which didn’t seem fair, Doyle explained. “Now in Cashman, our students can come and work on cars whenever they need to. My hope is to have people working every day on things,” Doyle said.

She’s been gratified by all the help Go Baby Go is receiving from staff volunteers—notably Jerome Allen, who recently moved from IT to Special Events and was a regular

each Friday last year. The entire Facilities crew has touched her heart with generous gestures and time volunteered. “Mike Estes brought a beautiful piece of burnt wood to make a lap tray for kids,” she said.

“The whole Facilities team was amazing and did things so fast to get our new space ready. They didn’t just come in and paint—they wanted to know more about the project and how they could continue to help.”

Doyle is working on turning Go Baby Go into a course, possibly for credit, as a way to learn about kids with disabilities “and how we can create points of access in our lives.”

“Guest speakers in our Economics class really brought the outside world in.”

— MEGAN AHEARN ’20

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Professor of biology Mark Lubkowitz with students Ryan Agnew ’21 and Marlynn Serwili ’21 in a Biology lab on campus.

“In the classroom the learning is guided. Outside—you have to fend for yourself.”

— ERIN SPENCE ’20

Bringing Out the Best in Our Students

by Susan Salter Reynolds

A

college campus is a humming whir of activity. Doors open, students throng into the open spaces, in groups, in pairs, in solitary contemplation. A visitor walks down hallways lined with windows, peers into classrooms, walks on the edges of athletic facilities, hears the echo of weights and bouncing balls on wooden floors.

Where is the true learning taking place? The kind that sticks through a lifetime; the kind that becomes the foundation we return to when decisions must be made?

Traditionally, this question devolves into fragments: athletics vs. academics; humanities vs. science; extracurricular activities vs. homework. We divvy up the skills learned on the court, in the classroom, or on the service trip and hope they serve the whole person in the real world.

The good news is: They do.

“Live in fragments no longer.”

— E.M. FORSTER

“Inside the classroom, success is internal.”

— MEGAN AHEARN ’20

BRINGING OUT THE BEST 12

Even better, sometimes it’s just semantics. Teamwork on the court is collaboration in the classroom. Training pre-race is preparation pre-exam. Mental toughness on the field is perseverance on the learning curve. Failure is opportunity. Confidence is motivation.

grant was rejected. He felt terrible. “I want my students to understand that failure is part of science, part of learning. And this is what failure can look like. But then, you pick yourself up and you keep going. Part of my job is to be a role model.”

And then there are differences: Winning a game is not the same as getting an A. Relationships in the classroom are different from relationships between team members.

Coaches and professors employ different strategies to bring out the best in their students/players. Solving a problem on a service trip to help disaster victims rebuild their homes differs from what it might be in a laboratory setting. How do professors, given the constraints of the classroom, bring out the best in their students?

Bringing out the best in students often means showing them how to approach challenges. Lubkowitz’s Life Lessons are woven between classes on molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, and biological communications.

“Managing money; taking risks; being able to focus for 45 minutes—these are just a few of the Life Lessons that find their way into lectures on, say, glycolysis, or energy metabolism,” he explains.

“You are

“You are the agent of change,” he tells students, “I am just a catalyst.”

He draws a triangle to describe the approach to problem solving he offers his students.

The words emote, ignore, and solve sit at the three angles. “Two out of three of these cause anxiety,” he says. So why not go straight to solving a problem?

the agent of

“I T E ACH THE P ERSON, N OT THE CL AS S .”

change.”

Mark Lubkowitz, chair of the Biology Department, has several tricks up his sleeve when it comes to bringing out the best in his students. Number one: listening. Number two: mutual vulnerability. “I try to share something from my life with them. Today,” he says, “I stopped in the middle of my cell biology class.

We were talking about technology. ‘Culture belongs to the young,’ I told them. ‘Sometimes I feel like a stranger in a strange land.’ Dead silence.” Lubkowitz laughs. He’s a well-loved professor, in part for his exuberant energy, but also, one suspects, because he is so willing to share his life with his students. Recently, his application for a major

“To do their best, students must have an emotional connection to a topic. I can help them to find that connection, that Velcro that will make the subject stick.” But it has gotten harder, he admits, to cut through the distractions to help students focus.

“Inside the classroom, you are more reserved, a professional version of yourself.”

— JONAH HUNT ’20

MO M A LWAYS SA I D, “DON’ T PANI C , THER E ’ S A WAY TO F IX E V ERY T H I N G.” Allison Luedtke teaches economics. She brings out the best in her students by increasing their confidence in their ability to solve problems and find solutions. “Economists are strategists,” she says cheerfully. “Faced with an optimization problem in macroeconomics, they panic.

‘Assume you can do it!’” she tells students. As a professor, she tries to strike a balance between teaching to the students who are full of confidence and the students who are passionate but intimidated. In her academic career, Luedtke has noticed an increase in the importance of teaching the whole student. “Students bring more of their issues into the classroom, which requires professors to be more aware. I might email someone after class to say, ‘are you OK?’

Like Lubkowitz, she believes that sharing aspects of her life with her students is one way to raise their confidence and create a more collegial atmosphere.

“I want them to know that being an academic economist is like being anything else—human.” Failure is a part of the picture, as are flexibility, balance, determination, and preparation. The liberal arts environment is the best possible ecosystem, she believes, for building a relationship with students that allows them to flourish and learn. “As an economist,” she admits, “I can get wrapped around the axle; deep in the weeds.

Liberal arts force me to come out of the weeds.”

BRINGING OUT THE BEST

What about grades? How does the evaluation affect the relationship? “How I feel about you as a person is not going to change,” he tells his students, “if you get an F.” This is very different from winning or losing a game. It’s an inward journey. That said, much of the work in his classroom is collaborative, including the Life Lessons.

“Generation Z are much more willing to tell you how they are feeling about their lives in a public setting,” he says.

Lubkowitz finds this useful in meeting the larger goals of a liberal arts education. “The goal here,” he says, “is becoming a compassionate human being.”

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There are many ways to approach different kinds of learners— videos, collaborative exercises, essay assignments, math problems, peer reviewing, and team projects. Each offers a different insight into the learning styles of individual students.

Because economics draws on skill sets from many disciplines, problem solving is often collaborative.

Luedtke is proud of her chosen field, and she shares this pride with her students. “Problem solving is the alpha and the omega of economics,” she says. Students must be able to program and use technology to analyze data. “When the zombie apocalypse comes, you will want economists to save you.” She nods happily. “And the low unemployment rate doesn’t hurt either! Ninetynine percent of all economists are employed!”

Above: Professor of economics Allison Luedtke addresses an Economics class.

Left: Professor of Classical and Modern Languages and Literature Peter Vantine speaking to a student.

“When I accomplish things outside the classroom, it makes me feel better than getting an A.” — TESS BEINHAUR ’20

BRINGING OUT THE BEST 14

“AT T EMP TIN G TO M U LT I TAS K W H I L E R E A DIN G BA L Z AC I S N OT L I K ELY TO IN CR E ASE CO M PR EH ENS I O N .”

Peter Vantine is the director of the First-Year Seminar Program; chair and associate professor of classical and modern languages and literature (French). In his experience, the best ways to engage students haven’t changed during his life in academia.

Professors in language and literature use a “communicative approach” to create an environment rich in conversation and student participation, and Vantine strives to do just that.

Reading literature in professor Vantine’s classes is a shared experience. The safer students feel, the more they are willing to share.

classroom,” he says. Both are critical. Engaging in the community outside the classroom is also critical.

Vantine requires that his students attend at least two campus events per term. His biggest challenge?

Distraction. Phones and social media get in the way of real human community connection, he finds. “Ten or 15 years ago, I didn’t need to tell my students not to multitask while reading a novel by Balzac or a memoir by Bechdel.”

To overcome distraction, Vantine assigns projects beyond reading that encourage students to bring their full creativity to bear. He shows me a 19th-century style stereoscope that one student group made collaboratively from wood and leather using the laser cutter in the MakerSpace to illustrate an example of popular and visual culture from the past.

“There’s always

a balance between

meeting individual students’ needs and creating

a community in the

This becomes increasingly important in a First Year Seminar that Vantine teaches on the memoir. In this class, students write their own memoirs. Trust is paramount, in peer reviewing, and in the detailed feedback that Vantine gives his students. It’s clear he loves teaching this class.

classroom.”

“There’s always a balance between meeting individual students’ needs and creating a community in the

“There are so many learning differences,” Vantine says. “Faculty must be more flexible in considering students’ life events than they were in the past.

Notions of perfection have been replaced with greater compassion.”

What better way to bring out the best in anyone?

“Outside the classroom, it’s more about the whole person. You find the things you really believe in.” — LEAH BENOIT ’21

NEVER OFF DUTY: The 50th Anniversary of Fire & Rescue

by Anne Rosello ’94

In the spring of 1969, a Saint Michael’s College student passed away on an athletic field, awaiting a Winooski-based ambulance that was privately run through a funeral home. That tragedy was the catalyst for Don Sutton and other members of the campus community to create Saint Michael’s Fire and Rescue (SMFR) and begin a vital, practical form of on-campus education with real-world application.

NEVER OFF DUTY 16

Alec Guzauckas ’20, Kristin Stainton ’20, and Coline Redeker ’20 evaluating a patient during Rescue training outside Sutton Firehouse. Photo on right: Tucker Curtis ‘22 picking up hose atop fire engine after training in Joyce Hall.

Within eight months, over 20 students had been trained by the Red Cross in emergency medical services. Within a year, the department had raised the funds to purchase an ambulance and fire engine, and students were responding to both fire and rescue calls on campus and within the surrounding communities. And they haven’t stopped providing critical emergency services, free of charge, for nearly 50 years.

Tom Powers ’70 was one of the charter members of SMFR, and today serves as chair of the Board of Directors.

“There were two overarching priorities then that are still in place today,” he says. “Proper training and procedure, and maintaining the student experience.”

Former Public Safety Director and Chief Pete Soons ’82 served the department for 25 years. “Our students are routinely put into situations where their actions and decisions influence outcomes that affect others’ lives,” he says. “I don’t know of any other college-based program that does this on a daily basis.”

Former Chief Don Sutton, known as “Pappy” to his beloved SMFR community, agrees. “We have one of the best departments in the country. The students learn a great deal about themselves and become very accomplished adults through our educational processes and training programs. They’re taught to be efficient,

prompt, and knowledgeable in their field of expertise,” he explains. “A student’s mother once said to me, ‘My daughter is so different.’ And I said, ‘Well, ma’am, you gave us a child. You’re getting back a very well-rounded individual who understands what life is all about.”

For more than 550 Fire and Rescue alumni and approximately 45 current students who staff the department, the skills they have learned and honed outside the classroom are universally positive, and in many cases, life-changing.

SMFR students carry a regular load of credit hours, learning in classrooms on campus alongside their friends.

But it’s what they learn across the street in the station that, many say, makes all the difference. Current Fire Captain Talia Cote ’20 notes, “SMFR has taught me ‘real world’ skills that I use every day.”

Tommy Manning ’14 is a physician’s assistant, and Devin Manning ’14 is a registered nurse. All of the responsibility, they emphasize, rests on the students’ shoulders.

“The programs are entirely student run, and the upperlevel students have to pass that sense of duty along to the new members. They have to keep the rigs cleaned and restocked after every call,” says Tommy. “They have to schedule the trucks, maintain their certifications, and attend regular training to stay up-to-date on devices and protocols.” Adds Devin, “There is a tradition of excellence at SMFR where these student-run rigs have earned the respect of the emergency services community.

It is truly a unique experience, and prepares students for their futures, well past just clinical experience.”

Matt Jordan ’11 is a Navy emergency medicine resident physician at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia. As an incoming student, Jordan knew he wanted a career in health care, but hadn’t yet determined his course. “Fire and Rescue is a big reason why I am where I am now as an emergency medicine physician.”

Jordan credits SMFR with teaching students invaluable skills outside the classroom, including teamwork and communication. “They may not know it now, but SMFR students will touch countless lives forever by being a part of this organization.”

Casey Bonoyer ’13 is a firefighter with the Burlington Fire Department. He is grateful for the on-the-job training that paved the way for his career. “Being able to make good, quick decisions is a very important skill, especially in emergency services, and SMFR excels at helping students develop it,” he says.

The SMFR experience is an immersion into social justice and ministry, core values of the Edmundites, says Ben Granja ’12, a firefighter in Providence, Rhode Island.

“Students have firsthand experience dealing with the most poor and vulnerable members of society. Whether it’s simply helping a woman who has fallen and lives alone get back on her feet, or being on the front line of the [opioid] epidemic administering Narcan, our students have the opportunity to embrace and challenge themselves to live the values that the Edmundites have set before us.”

Marine Corps pilot and officer Zach Eldridge ’10 describes what makes the education of SMFR students unique.

“In the classroom, for the most part, your

“Being able to make good, quick decisions is a very important skill, especially in emergency services, and SMFR excels at helping students develop it.”

“Outside the classroom is where we learn values.”

— EMILIA L AFFIN ’20

NEVER OFF DUTY

This is not your average extracurricular activity, explains Chris Eldridge ’12. “SMFR is an experiential learning opportunity. It is not typical for a group of 18- to 22-yearolds with no prior firefighter or EMT experience to be handed such a large responsibility. However, for almost 50 years, these same 18- to 22-year-old students have been providing fire protection and life-saving care to Chittenden County and beyond 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

successes and failures typically only affect you,” he explains. “Everything you do on Fire and Rescue not only has implications for your unit, but also impacts the many other emergency personnel that surround campus and the public in general.”

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NEVER OFF DUTY 18

David Weiss ’15 is a nurse at UVM Medical Center’s Level 1 Trauma Center. He still volunteers with SMFR, and teaches the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) class at UVM. “I use the medical and interpersonal skills that I learned at SMFR every single day,” he explains. “I swell with pride every time the crews from Saint Michael’s Rescue bring me patients in the Emergency Department and I hear those patients compliment the ‘care, professionalism, and knowledge that those college kids have.’”

“SMFR made me a lifelong learner, ready to improve, ask questions, work hard, put knowledge into action, and share what I’ve learned with others,” says educator Tracy Bonoyer ’13. “That sharing of knowledge is part of the reason I became a teacher. I am grateful for all that I learned at St. Mike’s, both inside the classroom and outside it.”

Fire Chief Erik Haversang ’11 speaks highly of the SMFR students who dedicate their time to the community and the greater good. “There’s a balance between their work at SMFR and in the classroom—they’re students first, of course, but they’re learning so much in the process: time management, conflict resolution, maturity, critical thinking, adaptability, dedication, and sacrifice.

These are the skills that will take the students far in their careers, communities, and families, and these students will continue to propel this organization into the future.”

The upcoming 50th anniversary of SMFR is a sentimental milestone for many. “Being a part of SMFR was the greatest time of my life,” says Michael Goode ’17, a firefighter and paramedic in his hometown of Belmont, Massachusetts. “All 600 of us are one gigantic family, and I am constantly meeting other alumni who paved the path before us. Pappy and his friends didn’t know what they started when they drove that first engine up from New Jersey and scrounged together all our first equipment. I hope we’ve made them proud of where the department has gone, because we sure are proud of our beginnings.”

For more on Saint Michael’s Fire and Rescue, visit www.smfronline.org.

“Outside the classroom, you have to learn quickly.”

— ZACH BOUCHARD ’20

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Go. Listen. Connect.

by Ariel Wish ’20

“Y

Above: Saint Michael’s College students play with children at vibrant after school program created by Grandmothers Against Poverty and Aids (GAPA) in the community of Kuyasa, South Africa.

ou can read about the system of apartheid and you can even view videos of people talking about the impact, but to hear South Africans talk about their firsthand life experience is something you cannot replicate in the classroom,” says Media Studies, Journalism, and Digital Arts Professor Traci Griffith, who will be leading her second study trip to South Africa come May 2020. The first, which took place in May 2019, involved 13 students, Griffith, and Professor Katherine Kirby of the Philosophy faculty. Kirby and Griffith co-organized the South

Africa experience, each contributing essential elements to it.

Although hands-on, experiential engagement won’t take place until the trip in May, after the school year comes to a close, learning will begin in the spring semester through a course titled Resistance, Revolution, and Representation. Examining the ways in which media was used not only to promote but eventually to dismantle apartheid in South Africa, the course is meant to “inform and educate” the travelers before they get on the ground, but is open to any student who is interested in learning

“Inside the classroom is a good place to take risks.”

— ERIN SPENCE ’20

Jontai Williams ’22 with student at GAPA after school program in Kuyasa.

Professors Traci Griffith and Katherine Kirby pose with students (in alphabetical order): Alyssa Breunig ’20, Bryn Churchill ’20, Nathan Colgrove ’22, Madeline Gemme ’21, Jason Heter ’21, Marlon Hyde ’21, Tiffanie Katsuva ’19, Isabelle Kindle ’20, Hannah McKelvey ’20, Lydia Powell ’22, Tyler Santos ’22, Alaina Shelzi ’19, and Jontai Williams ’22.

more about the apartheid system but may not be able to travel to South Africa. Additionally, students compare and contrast South African apartheid with the United States’ Civil Rights movement, preparing them for crosscultural exchange and involvement when abroad.

Griffith explains that although tours of South African museums and other sites work to complement classroom subject matter, the true substance of the trip lies in human connection.

Spending a day volunteering with Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS (GAPA), an organization that supports women raising their grandchildren on account of their children’s battles with AIDS, students connect with the youngest and most vulnerable sufferers of apartheid— a system of racial segregation which, though no longer legally enforced, remains demonstrably present in South Africa. “There is a language barrier, but play is universal; being able to play games and spend time with these kids is something that really leaves an impression on you,” Griffith says.

Another important part of the journey is a homestay in Soweto, one of South Africa’s largest townships. Residing

Students went on a mural and graffiti tour in Johannesburg to learn about the history of the art form. with a group of older women—most of whom lived through apartheid—students not only hear firsthand accounts of those victimized by the system, but join in community meals, are given African names, and share stories from their own cultures and experiences.

“This study course came out of a bucket list trip for me,” Griffith says, reflecting that the first time she traveled to South Africa, she knew it would make for the perfect Saint Michael’s experience: “The whole time I was there, I kept thinking ‘this is just incredible. This has to be a student

trip. There’s so much that students could benefit from in this experience.’”

Griffith thinks of the trip as an especially wonderful opportunity for students who may not have the time, resources, or desire to go abroad for an entire semester.

“Go abroad,” Griffith says passionately.

“Go abroad—it will change your life.”

To read a blog from the trip, visit smcvt.edu/magazine.

“Outside the classroom, we learn social skills.”

— ANNA WILL ASSEN ’20

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Telling someone else’s story:

RORY DOYLE ’08

by Susan Salter Reynolds

One of the most important skills students learn inside and outside the classroom is the ability to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. To empathize.

To engage. To connect, sometimes with lives and stories totally different from their own. Rory Doyle ’08 does just that. In these photographs, he tells the stories of African-American cowboys in Mississippi.

Doyle is a photographer based in Cleveland, Mississippi, in the rural Mississippi Delta. He is the recipient of a 2018 Mississippi Visual Artist Fellowship through the Mississippi Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts for his ongoing project on African-American cowboys and cowgirls, “Delta Hill Riders.” Doyle won the 16th Annual Smithsonian Photo Contest with the project, which was announced in April 2019. Later that month, Doyle was awarded the Southern Prize from the South Arts organization. The work was featured in the Half King Photo Series in New York and the Print Space Gallery in London before opening at the Delta Arts Alliance in February 2019.

He was also recognized for the project by winning the 2019 Zeiss Photography Award, and the photojournalism category at the 2018 EyeEm Awards in Berlin, Germany.

THIS SPREAD:

Peggy Smith grooms her horse, Big Jake, while others relax in the afternoon light in Bolivar County, Mississippi, October 1, 2018.

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TELLING SOMEONE ELSE’S STORY 24

FROM TOP: Bree Gary pets her friend’s horse during a muddy trail ride in Charleston, Mississippi, April 27, 2019.

Javaris Beamon poses for a portrait with his grandfather, Rogers Beamon, at the annual Christmas parade in Cleveland, Mississippi, December 2, 2017.

“We make connections outside the classroom.”

— ANNA WILL ASSEN ’20

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Gee McGee rears his horse after a rare snowfall in Bolivar County, Mississippi, January 16, 2018.

Newborn Jestin Brown is held by his father, Jesse, at their home in Cleveland, Mississippi July 2, 2018.

Tyrese Evans (left to right), Jeremy Melvin, and Gee McGee dance atop their horses in the McDonald’s parking lot in Cleveland, Mississippi, August 9, 2017.

James McGee poses for a portrait atop his horse in Bolivar County, Mississippi, November 4, 2017.

To see more of Rory Doyle’s photography, and a photo of him, visit smcvt.edu/magazine.

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Outside the Classroom: LIFE SKILLS AT THE HEART OF LIBERAL ARTS

by Susan Salter Reynolds

Higher education, like everything else worthy of human effort, is full of trends: whole student teaching; the great learning styles debate, engaged learning, learning communities, and the latest, human flourishing (now a cross-disciplinary program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Studies). Each of these trends acknowledges that teaching, coaching, and other campus activities such as service trips depend on good relationships that help students learn life skills they can really use.

Something must be working. A 2018 Pew Research analysis of Census Bureau data: “Early Benchmarks Show ‘Post-Millennials’ on Track

to Be Most Diverse, Best-Educated Generation Yet.” And although much of the talk in higher ed has been about career prep and building technical skills, a 2018 survey by the Association of American Colleges & Universities, “Fulfilling the American Dream: Liberal Education and the Future of Work,” found that employers more frequently looked for new hires with oral communication skills, critical thinking skills, and decision-making skills than technical skills.

On our liberal arts campus, what are some of the skills that students learn outside the classroom that will help them find their place in the world post-graduation?

Men’s basketball head coach Eric Eaton, center, watches practice in the Ross Sports Center.

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hen basketball coach Eric Eaton is recruiting, he looks for the “competitive fire” in students. “The third game of the day, they’re tired, how hard do they play?” Eaton hopes to build up this fire in his players, but they have to have it when they cross his path if they want to play on his team. Mental toughness—the ability to respond positively to adversity and failure—is a skill he can build, by putting players in challenging situations, difficult drills. It’s harder, he says, on the court than in the classroom. In the classroom, a student usually has a solid idea of what grade he or she will get. But on the court, anything can happen.

This is where preparation comes in—training or studying. And preparation requires self-discipline. You can’t be late to practice or class. Eaton laughs. “Coaches and professors—it’s like two parents who must be on the same page. It’s important that the message be consistent.”

Teamwork is another critical life skill. Players are responsible for their own energy, but also for sensing the energy levels of their teammates. You have to find a way to pick others up when they are tired or down. This may be even more important on the court than in the classroom.

Confidence is also something coach Eaton builds in his players. “When I show them that I have confidence in them, it boosts their confidence and their belief in the possibility of success. But the truth is, once they are out on the court, I have very little control over the outcome.”

Eaton was an emotional player, he admits, and he is an emotional coach. “I was never the most gifted player, but I played hard, with intensity.

There’s a lot of

emotion that comes out in a game.” As a coach, Eaton believes it is part of his job to know something about the lives of his players. It’s true that most coaches see their students on a much more frequent basis than most professors; it’s a different relationship. This means more moods, more life events, more issues that are brought to practices and games. Eaton understands that for many players (he says he was one), basketball, the hoop in the backyard, was an escape. But as a coach, he needs players to connect, to engage.

Engagement is increasingly a challenge for professors and coaches. “I am constantly fighting their urge to check out, and cell phones aren’t helping.” This is a battle Eaton fights at home with his 12-year-old twin boys as well—no phones when the family is together, and never at the table.

“I know, Dad,” they’ll sigh, “be present.”

The rewards? A sense of accomplishment—same as when a student finishes a paper. When you win a game, Eaton admits, there’s the public glory. An A in the classroom is a more private victory. Both require a broader definition of success.

Field hockey coach Carla Hesler faces similar challenges.

She often begins practice with an exercise that forces players to “be in the moment,” a breathing exercise, or something to bring the body and mind together in the same spot. This preparation, the ability to focus, is as important as physical training. She might further focus attention in drills on a particular word: “go,” “recognize,” or “dynamic.” Hesler also has exercises that help put players in “the learning zone, ready to learn from each other.

“The field is my classroom,” she says. “I am helping them to prepare for high-pressure situations outside the classroom.” Hesler wants her players to be flexible, to “think on the fly,” and to be able to work through adversity. “That’s life,” she smiles. “Failure is a part of it.” Teammates help each other overcome vulnerabilities. “I try to find their individual strengths. When students can commit to their strengths, draw confidence from them, they play better.”

Field hockey is a unique game for learning life skills, says the 21-year veteran. “It’s a little ball, and things Field Hockey head coach Carla Hesler offers instructions to her team during a timeout in their victory against Franklin Pierce in October.

“A lot of learning is problem solving. Inside the classroom, you are given the framework.

Outside the classroom, you have to figure out the framework.” — LEAH BENOIT ’21

Fr. Michael Carter S.S.E ’12 and Kerra Photiades ’18 outside Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel happen fast. It’s a highly transactional sport—the ball changes possession frequently. You have to make decisions on the fly.”

Rev. Michael Carter, SSE ’12 teaches religious studies.

He is also the assistant director of the Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts (MOVE) program, which organizes several service trips and local opportunities for students year-round. Fr. Michael emphasizes the importance of relationships in his service work with students but also in the classroom. Both the service trips and the classes he teaches require attention to the whole student.

“Friendship, mentoring, and teaching are all intertwined,” he explains. “It can be a struggle and a challenge when a student comes to me with something they are going through.” In a classroom, he says, “I am in the driver’s seat. I have expectations. But it is also important to acknowledge that like them I am human, I have vulnerabilities.” Acknowledging this, he finds, builds respect and trust. Together, student and mentor are part of something larger. On service trips, the focus is on the need they are helping to address. In class, it is the willingness to address unknowable things, to explore ideas together. “I never tell students what to think,” he says.

Recent projects have included habitat construction in Florida, Buffalo, and South Dakota, and work on food shelves in Long Island, as well as help in addiction clinics. “It’s a reflective experience,” Fr. Michael says.

“These are not problems that can be solved in a week, and for a generation of problem solvers, this can be hard.”

Students come back with a changed point of view, a heightened awareness of others’ experiences.

Relationships are important, but so is delineation, or boundaries. “I teach, work, and live here,” he laughs.

As mentors, service trip leaders see a lot of pain. In the classroom, it helps to know one’s students, to make a connection that enhances their ability to engage.

Fr. Michael finds that humor is a great way to connect.

Much of St. Peter’s time is spent listening to students’ challenges and anxieties. Like Fr. Michael, Eric Eaton, Carla Hesler, and Mark Lubkowitz, who teach and coach to the whole student/player, she acknowledges that campuses are full of different kinds of relationships. How does she set boundaries? “I’m not a therapist. I’m not trying to fix anybody. I respect their privacy. I respect them as human beings,” she says. Like Lubkowitz and Fr. Michael, she says that acknowledging a mutual vulnerability, a mutual humanness is more important than any power dynamic. “We get caught up in boundaries,” she says, “that are so often set by our own egos.”

Heidi St. Peter ’96, assistant director of academic support services, offers one on one coaching in the areas of study skills and time management for students seeking to improve their academic performance.

There are many opportunities around campus where these ego boundaries dissolve: MOVE, Adventure Sports, retreats, the Campus Ministry, athletics, different clubs in student activities, Fire and Rescue. “When I work with someone, the focus is academics, but everything impacts academics,” says St. Peter. “How we are in the world is how we are in the classroom. I believe it’s so important to get outside yourself, to ask what someone else needs.” Often, St. Peter says, this can happen when you are on a team, because “when it’s not just about you, things can really happen!”

OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Listening is what Heidi St. Peter, director of academic support, does best. Reassuring and confidence-building are close seconds. The skill she hopes students leave her office ready to develop? Self-care (healthy sleeping, eating, time management). Next, motivation—who do you want to be? Do you really want to succumb to distractions?

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by Megan Beatty ’20

D

irector of Career Education Ingrid Peterson, Philosophy Professor Katherine Kirby, and business and French double major Claire Mutty ’20 talked with SMC Magazine about what it means to step outside the campus bubble.

Peterson helps students build professional resumes and cover letters, find internships, and more.

The biggest challenge she sees students face is making the transition from student to employee. “Most people here have been students since they were 5 years old, and they know how to do that,” Peterson says.

“But now they’re graduating and this job is done, and that’s scary.”

To help students overcome this challenge, Peterson and the Career Education and Alumni Engagement Center encourage students to think about and participate in non-academic experiences, to better prepare them for the transition.

“Think about your internship like you’re test-driving your career,” Peterson says. “That experience can help you determine if that’s the path you want to take or not, and

if you discover it’s not, that’s just as valuable as discovering that it is.”

Peterson says that a student can be thrown into situations in a workplace setting, such having to give a presentation to the CEO of a company.

“That’s a kind of learning a student is not exposed to in a classroom setting,” she says.

Saint Michael’s senior Claire Mutty has a breadth of experience with global awareness and nonclassroom learning, having studied abroad in Grenoble, France, in the spring of 2019. “I knew the only way to truly improve my communication

Above: Molly Clarke class of 2021 bowls with residents of St. Joseph’s Residential Care Home in Burlington. Clarke is a member of Prof. Katie Kirby’s Ethics and Community Engagement class and participates in various activities with her partner at St. Joseph’s.

skills was to fully immerse myself in the language,” she says of her experience as a French major. Mutty also completed a two month marketing internship with the Freeman Foundation International internship program in Hong Kong. Aspiring to a career in international business post-graduation, Mutty maintains that her internship in Hong Kong was the perfect learning experience for her to prepare for future endeavors. “The two experiences abroad taught me how to be a better global citizen,” she says. “I learned how to be respectful to people of various cultures and traditions. I also learned the importance of rejecting all stereotypes until you have visited the country and experienced the different lifestyles firsthand.”

community-engaged learning projects, and some have set up partnerships with members of the Vermont Ibutwa Initiative.

Cleophace Mukeba, the founder of the organization, is an alumnus who Kirby began working with while he pursued his Global Studies minor at Saint Michael’s.

Kirby participates in two local community-engaged learning efforts, as a member of the Project Management Committee for the Vermont Ibutwa Initiative and a partner of St. Joseph’s Residential Care Home in Burlington. Kirby is one of multiple professors who are members of the Vermont Ibutwa Initiative, which supports women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who are survivors of sexual assault.

Each student is paired in a one-onone relationship with a St. Joseph’s resident, and for the duration of the semester they visit their partners on their own time to go on outings, or even work on special projects together. In one such special project, Sociology major Kristin Burlew ’21 and her St. Joseph’s partner David Colburn are building an intricate mobile that will hang in the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington. Kirby works closely with Anne Cross, the current activities director at St. Joseph’s, and Margaret Nourse, the resident ambassador, a position created approximately five years

Students in Kirby’s Peace & Justice/ Global Studies course Advanced Integrations have the option of doing

Kirby also works closely with Burlington’s St. Joseph’s Residential Care Home, an assisted living facility for seniors. “I have a very strong partnership with St. Joseph’s, bringing students to engage with residents nearly every semester for the last 11 years,” Kirby says. She does this through three of her courses, Otherness and Marginalization, Ethics, and the new junior seminar, Ethics and Community Engagement.

ago to give residents a voice in the leadership of the program.

Kirby explains how the value of this face-to-face interaction enhances the students’ learning experience: “Class discussion sometimes happens on a level that is predominantly only intellectual. But the face-to-face engagement that happens in community-engaged learning brings to life what students are reading and discussing in class. They live the theories they are learning about.”

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Kirby emphasizes that the work students do in the classroom enriches their engagement with their partners, as well. “Over the years, it’s been clear that the residents at St. Joseph’s enjoy this partnership and engagement a great deal,” Kirby says.

“But there can be no doubt that what they give to our students is valuable beyond measure—their time and attention and humor and wisdom.

It’s a beautiful thing that I get to witness, and I’m incredibly grateful for it.”

Peterson, Mutty, and Kirby all stress that information students learn in a classroom can also be liberating and life-changing. Learning outside the classroom bubble allows them to discover valuable life lessons from new experiences.

“When you are interested in the subject of a class you are more engaged. You share opinions.

You listen to other people’s opinions more carefully.” — COLBY JORDAN ’20

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Maximum Growth

by Ariel Wish ’20

J

ohn Kaufman M’03’s experiences in the Saint Michael’s College’s Graduate Clinical Psychology program motivated and equipped him and his team to found the Middlebridge School in Narragansett, Rhode Island, in 2008.

“When we look to create our core values at Middlebridge, a lot of what we do aims to replicate the sense of organizational community and involvement a student feels at Saint Michael’s College,” he says, explaining that a Saint Michael’s education has been a source of inspiration for both himself and undergraduate alumna Shannon McCarthy Leventhal ’03, who works alongside Kaufman as the Middlebridge director of admissions in a one-of-a kind stone building by the sea that resembles a castle.

“As educators, we know that maximum growth takes place when you push yourself outside your comfort zone.”

With 75 students from all over the country, 74 fulltime faculty members, and average class sizes of five or six, Middlebridge is a residential high school facility dedicated to providing bright, capable, college-bound students with learning differences an environment suited to meet their needs and maximize their potentials.

Having 250 extracurricular activities as well as 1,000 different weekend activities available to them annually, students at Middlebridge have countless opportunities not only to unlock interests, passions, and possible career paths, but to take advantage of their location—another value rooted in the Saint Michael’s experiences of Kaufman and McCarthy Leventhal.

“It’s important to recognize that the college experience— and in this case the high school experience—extends beyond the immediate footprint. You have to stretch yourself, you have to connect with your larger community,” says Kaufman, who warmly remembers his graduate

“Success in the classroom is very individual. In sports, success for your teammates means success for you.” — JONAH HUNT ’20

Middlebridge School founder John Kaufman M’03, and Director of Admissions Shannon McCarthy Leventhal ’03 with students outside school. school days in Vermont, which included being a regular on the mountain and enjoying the vibrant culture of downtown Burlington all at once.

Carrying skills and values from one community to the next is not only what Kaufman teaches, but what he practices. “Helping students understand how they can be an integral part of their environment is closely tied to what Shannon and I found at Saint Michael’s: the sense of being intimately involved in a community was a huge takeaway for both of us.”

For Kaufman, “stretching yourself” takes place inside the classroom just as much as it does outside: “A lot of

students arriving on our campus at 14 or 15 years old have been told they’re not as smart or not as capable, so we must engage in a process of cognitive restructuring,” he says. This often means telling a student, “I know you haven’t had success with this in the past. We’re going to try it again, and we’re going to expect a different outcome,” he notes.

“As educators, we know that maximum growth takes place when you push yourself outside your comfort zone,” Kaufman says.

To learn more about Middlebridge School, visit middlebridgeschool.org

LIAM ELDER-CONNO Reading People

by Susan Salter Reynolds

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Listening responsibly to other people’s stories has earned Vermont Public Radio (VPR) reporter Liam Elder-Connors a reputation as one of Vermont’s finest journalists. “It’s deeply personal work,” he says, over coffee in Dion, “and I’m still learning. How do you sum someone up after you’ve talked with them for a few minutes?” ElderConnors (to sum him up after a brief conversation) is a unique combination of deference and determination. He is thoughtful, and a good listener, but underneath the respectful demeanor is a tell me the truth or I’ll keep asking questions look. You get the sense that he’ll listen to all points of view but he’s not suffering fools.

Untangling stories to find out what really happened proved especially difficult in a story Elder-Connors covered about UVM student Connor Gage, who died in February 2019 of hypothermia and acute alcohol intoxication after attending two frat parties. Interviewing Gage’s mother was one of the hardest things Elder-Connors has ever done. An editor at VPR gave him good advice: It’s OK to feel uncomfortable, but you also have a job to do. This made sense. “My job is to write about situations,” he explains, “but I am very cognizant of being outside those experiences. People put their trust in me and I take that really seriously.”

Elder-Connors believes in the civic value of journalism. A Music and Journalism major at Saint Michaels, he recalls working on an investigative story for the Defender on electoral misconduct. “It was exciting, it made me feel important, and it convinced me of the importance of an adversarial press. I realized how critical it is that people understand how governments make decisions.”

Part of this work involves pushing boundaries, asking questions in ways that get answers, but are still tactful; reading body language; and knowing when people just aren’t going to say anything anymore. Sometimes, he says, you sit in silence. With public officials (and Elder-Connors interviews plenty of public officials), the trick is getting a human response beyond and behind the “talking point.”

“Liberal arts can open you to different points of view and show you the value of being curious. I don’t have to be an expert on the issues I cover, but I do have to be curious. I try to ask questions that my reader might have.” In the end, he says, “the classroom can only take you so far. Empathy is important. You have to learn how to read people.”

ORS ’14

Liam Elder-Connors is VPR’s reporter covering Burlington and Chittenden County. He also serves as an occasional fill-in host for Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Elder-Connors was a 2019 finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, a national award given to the best journalists under 35 around the country. He was also a regional Edward R. Murrow Award winner in 2019.

ANNA STE. MARIE A Certain Tone

by Susan Salter Reynolds

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It looks to an outsider like the threads of Anna Ste. Marie’s life have come together to form a perfect tapestry of interests, intellectual pursuits, and personal preferences. Ste. Marie grew up loving magazines, but it was the radio show This American Life that really inspired her. “I love listening to stories,” she says. “The pauses, the places where someone trips over a word, the way the voice changes, the tone; it’s the listening that really challenges me to hear another viewpoint and helps me to empathize.”

Ste. Marie earned her B.A. in Media Studies, Journalism, and Digital Arts from Saint Michael’s College in 2016. Sophomore year, she studied abroad in Uganda. Ste. Marie recalls hearing stories in Rwanda about the genocide and realizing how much more powerful that experience was than it might have been in the classroom. “Studying abroad, I really learned to listen fully to other viewpoints,” she says.

In her senior year, Ste. Marie was the managing editor of the

Defender. She also interned at Vermont Public Radio (VPR), working on Vermont Edition, and wrote her thesis on restorative justice.

“Vermont is a leader in the nation,” she says proudly. A VPR story on the restorative justice process used in the rehabilitation of sex offenders in Vermont further clarified her career path. All signs pointed to radio. After conducting an interview with a woman whose mother had been murdered but who still did not want the death penalty for the murderer (“I heard the strength in her voice”), Ste. Marie again realized just how powerful hearing stories could be.

In 2017, she joined the staff of VPR as audience services associate, before assuming her current role as marketing and engagement coordinator. Ste. Marie produces several stories, including Vermont Edition on Fridays, and she works at Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA), an organization in Burlington that helps people newly released from prison reenter society.

“We are a society that still has empathy,” she says, “in spite of the fact that a lack of empathy is often projected in social media.”

’16

Anna Ste. Marie ’16 at a Vermont Public Radio event.

“I credit the varied classes I took as a part of the liberal arts curriculum and my time on the softball field with providing me the tools needed to succeed in those areas.”

Balancing KATELYN BILLINGS ’10

by Lauren Read

W

hen Katelyn Billings ’10 was on campus at Saint Michael’s, she was making the news for her talent on the softball field.

Now, the chemist is making news for an entirely different reason.

Billings was recently named one of the “Talented Twelve” by Chemical & Engineering News, marking her as a rising star in the fields of chemistry and DNA-encoded libraries.

At Saint Michael’s, Billings balanced all-conference honors on the softball field, a lab-heavy degree in chemistry, and volunteer work with MOVE. The St. Albans, Vermont, native then went on to earn her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2016. Now, she leads a team of chemists at GlaxoSmithKline in Cambridge, Massachusetts, helping explore the way DNA encoded library technologies (ELT) can accelerate drug discovery.

“At GSK, we use our in-house ELT capabilities as one of our primary screening technologies for identifying novel starting points for drug discovery efforts,” Billings said. “It’s this ability to impact many different therapeutic programs that drew me to the field.”

Act:

Billings was drawn to chemistry in her first year at St. Mike’s, when a general chemistry class led to a research project with Professor Bret Findley. “The small class sizes facilitated more personal interactions not only with other students, but with the professors as well,” Billings said.

“The professors were engaged, cared about their students, and fostered a community environment based on passion for one’s work and intellectual curiosity.”

In addition to learning the ins and outs of chemistry, Billings picked up the leadership skills that she relies on as she leads her team at GlaxoSmithKline.

“My job as a chemist and a team leader requires more creativity and communication skills than I anticipated,”

Billings said. “I credit the varied classes I took as a part of the liberal arts curriculum and my time on the softball field with providing me the tools needed to succeed in those areas.”

Billings joined the softball team as a first-year student in 2006–07 and was a staple on the team until she graduated in 2010. She earned Northeast-10 All-Conference nods in 2007–08 (first team) and 2008–09 (third team) and an ESPN The Magazine Academic AllDistrict second team selection in 2009– 10. In addition, Billings received the Roger F. Keleher Award in her senior year, which named her the top female scholar-athlete for Saint Michael’s.

Billings also found time to participate in three MOVE service trips, traveling to Selma, Alabama, Slidell, Louisiana and the Big Thicket National Park in Texas. “These experiences helped me realize the impact a small group of people can have and the importance of giving back to one’s community,” Billings said. “I’ve tried to live these values as I move forward in my adult life.

“Looking back at my educational path and where I am today, I am thankful I had the opportunity to study a liberal arts curriculum, play softball, and volunteer with MOVE while at Saint Michael’s,” Billings said. “Part of what I loved about St. Mike’s was the tight-knit community that existed on campus.”

To read more about Billings, visit smcvt.edu/magazine

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ROUNDUP 40

Saint Michael’s senior Matt Johnson competes in a golf match during the fall season.

THE

by Josh Kessler ’04, Director of Athletic Communications

JOHNSON ADDS ANOTHER HISTORIC FIRST

Although Matt Johnson ’20’s winning performance at this fall’s Northeast-10 Conference Championship might not have been unforeseen—he did become the first golfer in school history to qualify for an NCAA Championship last spring, after all—it was nonetheless historic.

Johnson captured the NE10 Championship in early October, adding

another first in Saint Michael’s men’s golf history to his impressive résumé, carding an opening-round, 4-under 68 to come within one shot of Saint Michael’s Athletic Hall of Famer Steve Gretkowski ’90’s 30-yearold school record. Johnson was two strokes shy of the NE10 Championship standard on October 6 before the second round was wiped out by rain.

Johnson claimed the NE10’s Gordon McCullough Memorial Award as the College’s first conference golf champ, overshadowing his own teammate’s run at the crown. Brendan Locke ’23 carded a 2-under 70, taking second place all by himself to only Johnson.

That stroke figure tied the lowest by any first-year at any meet in program history, matching a mark that Johnson—among

others—has also hit during his standout career.

Thanks in large part to Johnson and Locke’s 1-2 finishes, the Jason Bedardcoached program tied for fourth among 10 schools at the NE10 Championship, its best placement since taking third—out of six schools—in 1999–2000.

PURPLE KNIGHTS GRADUATE AT 97%

As announced in October, Saint Michael’s remains one of NCAA Division II’s elite in academic success rate, as the College was among the top four nationally for the 12th consecutive year. With 97 percent of its studentathletes graduating this

cycle, Saint Michael’s took third in NCAA Division II while finishing in the NE10’s top two for the 13th straight school year.

Additionally, 17 of the 21 varsity sports offered by the College earned a 100 percent ASR. “There is no greater proof of our student-athletes’ commitment to academic excellence than our long-standing level of prominence in the NCAA ASR,” said Director of Athletics Chris Kenny ’86.

“As an institution, we take great pride in this achievement because we know that it would not be possible without the substantial contributions and support

of our faculty, staff, and administration, from all corners of our campus.”

TARRANT RECREATION CENTER TURNS 25

The Jeremiah J. and Kathleen C. Tarrant Student Recreation Center celebrated the 25th anniversary of its dedication on October 15, marking a quarter century of Rich Tarrant ’65’s gift to the College. A former Saint Michael’s trustee, Saint Michael’s Athletic Hall of Fame basketball player, and 1965 NBA Draft selection, Tarrant made a lead gift on the $5 million facility that continues to positively impact life in athletics and the greater College community alike.

PK CHALLENGE GRATITUDE

The Department of Athletics and Department of Institutional Advancement wish to thank all of the donors who made the third annual Purple Knight Challenge such a success, as nearly 1,200 gifts were made toward a total of more than $76,000 among all 21 varsity programs during the first week of October. Women’s lacrosse and women’s basketball garnered the most gifts, while men’s ice hockey had the top dollar figure, approaching $9,500.

To read more visit smcathletics.com

The Jeremiah J. and Kathleen C. Tarrant Student Recreation Center, shown here in 1994, recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary.

“Relationships with professors are just as important as relationships with coaches.”

— ANNA WILL ASSEN ’20

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Liturgy, Lectures, and Life Lessons JERO ME MO N ACH I N O CO M E S A L I V E AT THAT PR E C A RI O U S I NT ERS E C T IO N O F W HAT IS KN OW N A ND W H AT I S S TILL TO B E F O U ND W I T H I N E ACH P L AY E R .

by Lynn Monty ’07

J

erome Monachino, associate director of Edmundite campus ministry for liturgical music, has had the gig since 1992 and is still jazzed up to write a new “Gloria” to fit this semester’s ensemble. There is a template for the composition, of course, but with new musicians every year, writing music to accommodate unique styles of playing and learning is required. This takes a hefty dose of patience and a whole lot of prayer.

“The everyday praxis of it is fun,” Monachino says. “Everyone has a strategically different slice of the Divine. Together we make up a mosaic, a more complete picture.”

It is a true melody of self-discovery, trust, generosity, discipline, and focus. Marge Riccardelli ’21 plays flute and piccolo and sings tenor in the liturgical ensemble, which has reinforced her sense of self through connecting

with people who want to see her succeed and who encourage her to be the best form of herself, she says.

As for Monachino, she says, “Not only is he an extraordinary musician, leader, and individual, but he also causes those around him to become so themselves.”

Monachino comes alive at that precarious intersection of what is known and what is still to be found within each player. He has always had a deep appreciation of music and even had enough credits to minor in it at Saint Michael’s College, where he graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science in 1991 and a master of arts in Theology in 1997. He was active with liturgy on campus throughout his academic career and subbed for his predecessor John Penoyar after taking a “safe” and profitable job as a chemist after graduation. That lasted

“You risk things when you have a creative idea.

That moment of improvisation, it is exhilarating.”

— JEROME MONACHINO

about a year and he was back on campus full-time, lighting up the Chapel with his jazz and Brazilian flair.

“I took a big pay cut, but I knew it wasn’t just a hobby,” he says. “I knew I couldn’t live without it.”

Learning trust and generosity are paramount to the success of a musician under Monachino’s tutelage. “They have to allow themselves to be vulnerable,” Monachino says. “You risk things when you have a creative idea. That moment of improvisation, it is exhilarating. I get excited when I see students grow like this.”

It is not about “do it right, or don’t do it at all,” Monachino says. “When you hear a student lead others into some-

thing beautiful during Sunday service and they all follow, that is inspiring.”

In the Chapel he teaches mindfully, by being careful and grateful about the responsibility of his leadership role.

“Learning has to do with discipline and focus,” he says.

“My job is trying to give students the tools to break open what is strategically different about themselves so they can focus on that.”

To see more images and hear some of Monachino’s music, visit smcvt.edu/magazine

“There’s more teamwork in discussion-based classes than say, math or stats.”

— TESS BEINHAUR ’20

WHO LOVES

by Mark Tarnacki

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S

tudent Life colleagues honoring Lou DiMasi at a September staff assembly called the longtime residence-life dean and veteran former hockey coach an “anchor” of the Saint Michael’s community.

Many likely will feel more than a little adrift come December when DiMasi, the most assuring of campus presences in storms, retires after 37 years. “Lou has responded to students in crisis, we’re guessing, more than anyone else in the history of Saint Michael’s,” said Denise Tougas, a DiMasi Student Life colleague of long standing who relates closely to her boss’s salt-ofthe-earth sensibilities.

Reading an award citation for the first “Edmundite Seed-Planter Award” presented to DiMasi in early September, Tougas reminded the assembled of her boss’s signature catchphrases—“There are no bad kids, just bad choices,” “Who loves ya?” and “What the hell were you thinking?”—supplemented in more recent years with “It’s all good” and “More to come.” Bracing and assuring as the man who speaks them, each phrase “has the power to remind us to be hopeful, committed, and persistent in difficult times. He probably doesn’t know that, but it does,” the team-authored award citation stated.

The ceremony dramatized the love and respect that virtually every Saint Michael’s person has for DiMasi, a man they consider to be a one-of-a-kind “giver” and “doer” who always puts students and others first. His award brought a heartfelt standing ovation from DiMasi’s appreciative colleagues, with several tearing up, including his boss Dawn Ellinwood, VP for Student Life, who called DiMasi a “master relationship-builder and master communicator with parents. He pulls people in and they feel cared for. This is how he does his work.”

To be the first honored with a new Edmundite award this fall was fitting for DiMasi, who is a daily Mass attendee in

“THERE ARE NO BAD KIDS, JUST BAD CHOICES.” the campus Chapel. An archetypal hard-working Boston-neighborhood hockey tough guy with a heart of gold, DiMasi resists talking about himself—he’ll leave that to others—though, if asked, he acknowledges coaching 25 years of hockey from 1982 to 2007, winning the 1999 NCAA Division II National Hockey Championships, and even coaching a year of lacrosse early on. His life growing up in Somerville outside Boston was all about hockey, he said, and he came to Vermont to play for Norwich before a year of minor league pro hockey that led to teaching and coaching around Vermont before landing at St. Mike’s in 1982 as graduate student, resident director, and head hockey coach.

Ellinwood revealed one DiMasi secret: “When in doubt, offer food. Lou is forever feeding people.” Former longtime Student Life Associates Mike Samara, Jennie Cernosia, and Dave Kells ’89 “shared memories of DiMasi being first at every event and last to leave; of him working late and weekend hours; of the whole campus being his office; and of him blending “head and heart” better than anyone they know. “I miss seeing him every day,” said Cernosia.

“Outside the classroom, in the Diversity Coalition, I communicate with my peers. This is different from the kinds of communication we engage in inside the classroom.” — ANNA WILL ASSEN ’20

YA?

Lou DiMasi Left: Lou DiMasi in photos from his early years as the men’s ice hockey coach. Lou also played a big role in the creation of the Student Resource Center in the early 1980s, leading trips of students to New York and Boston to meet and network with alumni.

New Faces IN ENROLLMENT AND STUDENT SERVICES

by Mark Tarnacki 46

ZACK F. GOODWIN, senior director of student financial services Zack Goodwin, who started November 4 as the College’s senior director of student financial services, has a long and varied career in higher education.

Since 2014 he was a training officer with the federal Department of Education for the Boston, New York, and Chicago regions, based in Chicago and focused on financial innovations to serve diverse populations.

KRISTIN MCANDREW, vice president for enrollment and marketing Kristin McAndrew, former director of admission, graduate business programs at University of Notre Dame, has been named vice president for enrollment and marketing at Saint Michael’s College.

“We are so excited to have Kristin McAndrew join Saint Michael’s College. Her excellent record of accomplishments, thoughtful character, and strategic thinking displayed during her on-campus interviews made her the clear choice,” said President Lorraine Sterritt. “We feel confident that her nearly 25 years of experience in enrollment will help the College achieve its goals in a very challenging market.”

“Right now is a time when people in this profession have to think how we can be creative in meeting student needs …. It’s not really always about paying the bill, but as much about treating them as a whole student.”

MARNIE OWEN, registrar and assistant dean for academic affairs Marnie Owen, the College’s new registrar and assistant dean for Academic Affairs, has a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs administration from the University of Vermont, where she studied political science as an undergraduate and later worked (since 2005) in a wide range of positions, including records analyst, adjunct education professor and coursework adviser for international students; and academic adviser and later assistant dean and director of students in student services for the UVM College of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences.

“I performed many functions of a registrar from within an academic college setting at UVM, which allowed me to develop a good sense of how a Registrar’s Office can work collaboratively with faculty and deans to ensure that students are getting the best possible experience we can collectively provide,” she said.

by Phung Pham

C

arl Roof believes that a college education, especially in the liberal arts, is a lifelong gift: “I learned many things at Saint Michael’s, but most importantly I gained an insight into my rather rigid social views of the time and moved both spiritually and intellectually toward a more empathetic and caring view of the world.”

Carl’s time at Saint Michael’s helped shift his interest toward human service work and led to his eventual career in that field in Vermont. Carl became a pioneer in the effort to establish local restorative justice practices, working with other corrections, judicial, and law enforcement officials, to help Vermont move toward a successful and more community-based approach to conflict and criminality. Concurrently, he had a second career with the U.S. Army Reserves training new recruits in basic training, and retired after 29 years of service with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

When asked about the people who made his Saint Michael’s experience memorable, Carl acknowledges the “wonderful lunch ladies who challenged us to behave as adults in the cafeteria,” Father Nelson “Zippy” Ziter who was there to listen and offer advice, and Professor Ed Pfeifer, who whetted his interest in history.

Carl also fondly mentions classmates Tom Ford ’68 and Ed Boutin ’68 and their memorable cross-country hike from campus to the top of Mount Mansfield.

Carl and Joyce Roof

The Legacy of Giving

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Carl and Joyce Roof pose for a photo.

Both Carl and Joyce, a Trinity College graduate, have strong ties to the Saint Michael’s community. Joyce remembers coming to Saint Michael’s with her dad, Ed Lewis, in the late 1950s to watch Y.A. Tittle and the New York Giants when they held their summer training camps at the College. Her love of Saint Michael’s basketball comes directly from her Dad’s part in establishing a booster club for the team in the early 1960s.

“Having benefitted from all that the College has to offer,” Carl says, “and having two sons who went to Saint Michael’s, it is only natural that we want to give back.”

While working on their will and putting together a living trust, Carl ’68 and Joyce Roof discussed the distribution of their estate to family

and deserving nonprofits. “Because of our belief in Saint Michael’s and the educational opportunities it offers, we wanted to do something substantial in addition to our annual gifts. Including the College in our trust was the best way to accomplish this,” says Carl.

To learn more about the different ways you can support a Catholic liberal arts education at Saint Michael’s, contact Ms. Phung Pham at 802.654.2646 or ppham@smcvt. edu. Or visit: www.smcvt.edu/ giftplanning.

WORKS

neighboring | towns

by Pauline Jennings

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Pauline Jennings, lecturer in dance on the Saint Michael’s Fine Arts faculty, recently celebrated the opening of Pau, an immersive four-channel video and sound installation about borders, restriction of movement, and family/community life that is currently being presented by the Hamiltonian Gallery in Washington, DC. She and her collaborator, Heather Theresa Clark, received a Foundation for Contemporary Art grant to support the project. neighboring|towns also features choreography created and performed collaboratively with Saint Michael’s alumnus Joshua Lacourse.

The Irish Play (or The Orphan’s Birthday)

by Tim McGillicuddy ’84 Tim McGillicuddy ’84 had his work, The Irish Play (or The Orphan’s Birthday) performed in Dublin, Ireland, in the Sean O’Casey Festival at the O’Casey Community Center in Dublin, and subsequently at Nun’s Island Theatre in Galway.

As Britain and America melt from political strife, and with the legacy of the Troubles smoldering in the shadow of Brexit, this play is more on point and darkly funny than ever. The earliest version of the script premiered in the McCarthy Arts Center Recital Hall at Saint Michael’s College.

The Oxford Handbook on Cervantes— Essay Contributor

by Carolyn Lukens-Olson The 2020 publication of The Oxford Handbook on Cervantes (Oxford University Press) includes Lukens-Olson’s essay titled “The Ignominies of Persuasion in Cervantes’ Entremeses: An Overview of Cervantine Farce.” This essay is a companion piece to her article “The Heroics of Persuasion in Cervantes’ Persiles,” published in the journal of the Cervantes Society of America.

Image at right is of an earlier work of Lukens-Olson.

One Manchester Family is the fictional story

of Meghan MacNamara’s discovery of her family history. She returns to the state she grew up in and spends time preparing her family camp for resale. Among the many bits of family archives, the story of her own family unravels. It is a story of love, loss, mystery, and survival.

WORKS

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

One Manchester Family

by Monica Joyal ’78

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Nini and Poppie’s Excellent Adventures: Grandkids, Wine Clubs, and Other Ways to Keep Having Fun

by Jerry Zezima ’75 In Nini and Poppie’s Excellent Adventures, the nationally syndicated humorist tells tried and true tales of crazy doings with his wife, their children, and their grandchildren, as well as friends, animals, and even complete strangers.

Burlington Brewing: A History of Craft Beer in the Queen City

by Jeff S. Baker ’06 The Queen City fosters a unique culture around beer and farm-to-table cuisine. Authors Adam Krakowski and Jeff S. Baker II explore Burlington’s sudsy history with early newspaper clippings and tales of modern-day tastemakers, along with some delicious recipes.

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GREEN LIGHT: CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENT ACCELER ATES

by Mark Tarnacki

“Engaging students in the stewardship of their campus in a manner so different from any other liberal arts institution,” is the well-advanced goal of Kristyn Achilich at Saint Michael’s College.

For the busy three months leading up to a November 8 campus ceremony that formally launched the ambitious new Saint Michael’s College Center for the Environment, Achilich, the Center’s director, has resembled her chief partner, Mother Nature, as a force to be reckoned with.

She said the “driving force” of the Center is “the collective energy and resources of our academic departments, our community, and our

facility. When we say academics, we really mean cross-disciplinary, so of course environmental studies & science is an anchor tenant, but we see learning opportunities in each discipline from philosophy to education to the humanities and sciences.

As for the facility,” she said, “we truly mean the campus—not solely the four walls of a classroom we traditionally think of as our learning spaces, but the several hundred acres we inhabit and steward here in a suburban,

northern New England state; and if the Center had a heartbeat, I think it would reside in the community. This is where we see our students, our cocurricular programs like Green Up, the SGA, and adventure sports and our off-campus partners residing.”

Inspiring students and collaborating with faculty with formidable energy and dedication since returning to her alma mater in 2015 to oversee the campus farm and its related academic

Above: Alexis Comeau (left), class of 2021, tends to the new native species tree nursery located in the courtyard between the student center and Alliot. The nursery, created by Prof. Trevien Stanger’s Ecological Restoration course in conjunction with the Center for the Environment was created to raise awareness about the college’s 360 acre natural area across Route 15. The saplings in the nursery will be transplanted along the Winooski River in the natural area and will be used for future plant seeding and propagation.

:

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Community members plant garlic at Saint Michael’s College farm’s end of the season Good Night Farm and Garlic Party in October. programs, and to teach environmental education, food systems, and agriculture in the College’s Environmental Studies & Science Department, Achilich, a 2005 St. Mike’s Biology graduate and M.Ed. candidate, at the launch shared highlights of the Center’s first three quieter but active and purposeful months leading up to the ceremony. They include: Developing “engaged courses” with substantial field components; establishing strong partnership across campus for the new Center with a host of student, faculty, and employee agencies and locations; planting 120 trees in a highly visible space in the campus center to raise awareness of Center work, much of it occurring in less visible locations like the farm and natural area; designing and producing four new signs to highlight existing sustainable campus initiatives: the farm, the natural area, and the College’s resource management.

Fall semester special events under the Center umbrella have included “Story Walk” teaching events; an exhibit with artist Nancy Winship Milliken’s Studio in the McCarthy Arts Gallery coinciding with a sculptural Winship installation in the natural

area; farm tours for visiting community members and prospective students at Admissions events, a screening of an environmentally themed film; and environmental panels during a Career Symposium the day of the dedication ceremony.

Achilich said a monthlong celebration during fall semester focused on the “coordinated narrative for the College’s green/sustainable/environmental efforts” that have had anecdotal results already in such areas as increased awareness of Center work, cost sharing, communication among partners, collaboration across programs and departments, and expressed interest in the community to join Center work. The month of events highlighted so many of the different learning modalities that an interdisciplinary academic center can host, curate, and facilitate, said Achilich, describing the Center’s orientation at the College as “a physical and contemplative space to build partnerships across existing programs in order to challenge and empower our students to become environmentally conscious citizens as leaders, advocates, scientists, and humanitarians.”

Kristyn Achilich, director of the Center for the Environment provides instructions on how to plant garlic during the Saint Michael’s College farm’s end of the season Good Night Farm and Garlic Party in October. Achilich explains how important community engagement is in moving the farm forward and raising awareness about food systems and where food comes from.

To learn more about the center, visit smcvt.edu/magazine

“We learn how to listen outside the classroom. Inside the classroom, you are listening to yourself.” — ERIN SPENCE ’20

Come home for Reunion 2020: May 28-31 Visit smcvt.edu/reunion for more information.

L E T T E R TO T H E EDITOR FOUNDERS HALL 1965 Founders Hall, Room 461, I believe. The year was 1965 and I finally got that “single room,” as a junior.

But, it seemed like a great “frat home” for all of us who lived on that fourth floor, Founders Hall.

Dating the most attractive nursing student at Fanny Allen, Michelle Valley from Swanton, Vermont. Her dad was a Michaelman who went off to war in 1943.

Her aunt was the wonderful “Sister” Rita Valley, administrator at Fanny Allen

Hospital, across the Parkway. 1965 was the greatest basketball year in SMC history! My hero-mentor was Fr. Lorenzo D’Agostino, SSE He introduced me to a career in alcoholism rehabilitation, and then a wonderful Air Force career in the Bio-Medical Science Corps.

Founders Hall in 1965 was a great home to a number of Advanced Corps ROTC friends, on each side of the Hall. So many great memories, and so very sad to know it will be gone in 2019. But, wish

the “Cupola” [could] be saved as an iconic tribute to our history, and relocated to a prominent place on campus—for all generations to come.

Ron Tenaglia ’66 Venice, Florida

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

Email: SMCmagazine@smcvt.edu

Letter from the Alumni Board President

O

ne of the things I like most about being involved with the Alumni Association, besides visiting campus three times a year, is keeping up with all the great things happening at our alma mater. This past year has been especially amazing:

• Dr. Lorraine Sterritt, inaugurated as president in July 2018, has been traveling extensively to meet alumni and understands how important this group is to the wider College community.

Three new majors and one new center have recently launched.

Health Science and Public Health in October 2018, and Criminology in September 2019. The board heard a fabulous presentation by Professor Bob Brenneman about the Criminology major and feels it’s a great addition to our academic offerings.

We are also excited about the new Center for the Environment under the direction of alumna Kristyn Achillich ’05, which will provide wonderful opportunities to expose our students to farms, food systems, and much more!

• This fall, St. Mike’s welcomed undergraduate students from 35 states and 20 countries.

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• Thanks to all of our nominators, we successfully completed the Second Annual Nominate a Knight Challenge.

This year the competition featured students vs. students (congrats seniors!) and alumni vs. alumni (congrats Class of 2011!) with 294 total nominations. You can nominate year-round by visiting https://admission.smcvt.edu/register/ nafk-scholarship.

There are numerous programs designed to bring current students and faculty together with alumni from around the world to mentor, job shadow, and provide internship opportunities.

A huge part of this endeavor has been the successful launch of SMC Connect— our networking and mentoring platform just for the Saint Michael’s community.

We have nearly 2,000 users who are connecting daily for career advice. Register at smcvt.wisr.io.

There are many more things I’d love to share with you, but not enough space in this column.

I’d encourage all alumni to visit the “Get Involved”

page on the College website and give back to the school that made a difference in your life. I did—and it was easy!

I would like to thank our outgoing president of the Alumni Association, Craig Duffy ’06 who is now a member of the Board of Trustees. Craig was a member of the Alumni Board for over seven years and co-chaired the Annual Career Symposium, sponsored each year by the Alumni Board of Directors.

His dedication to St. Mike’s was never more evident than last March when he got up at 5 a.m. and drove to campus from Boston for a board meeting in a

full-on blizzard! And then he turned right around after the meeting and drove home to his wife and young son, Ryan (Class of 2042).

We will miss his ability to keep our meetings on track, and his mild-mannered, commonsense approach to problem solving. We wish him well as he starts his two-year term on the Board of Trustees.

George Bowen ’92 smcalumnipres@smcvt.edu

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1955

1956

ANTHONY AGOSTONELLI,

GENE KATT, Sarasota, FL

Portsmouth, RI, writes telling of a new book about a well-known figure and fellow older Michaelman from a family well-known for those of Anthony’s era: the late Angelo D’Agostino, SJ. ’45H ’03. The book is titled DAG: Savior of AIDS Orphans by Joseph R. Novello (Author), Available now at Amazon.com. From the website: “DAG is the first-ever biography of Angelo D’Agostino SJ, MD, an American priest-physician who grew bored with his cushy life in Washington, D.C. as ‘the psychiatrist to the stars.’ So, at the age of 61, he volunteered as a missionary to Kenya.”

“Dag” went on to a life helping AIDS orphans.

and Washington, DC, reports that he is happily retired with his wife in Sarasota. After St. Mike’s and serving in the army in Ethiopia, Gene returned to New York City where he got started in the broadcasting business: first at CBS News in New York in various positions, then eventually for Public Broadcasting in Washington, DC. When he retired in 1996 Gene was the Senior Vice President for Radio, Television and International Programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He loved it and was involved in the development of many of PBS’s and NPR’s major network programs and series.

1953 DICK CLIFFORD, Bradenton, FL, says, “about 70 years ago I climbed to the 4th floor of then “Old Hall” and met my first SMC roommate; we had a great bunch of guys there many of whom did not come back for year two; I have great memories of them and great friendships as well... many still today. Sorry to see the place go as it was the first step to becoming a true Christian man.”

Senator Leahy’s over 40 years of service in the U.S. Senate has always focused on improving the lives of Vermonters, the cornerstone of Howard Center’s mission, Center officials said.

activities sponsored by not-for-profit organizations.

He said volunteering on the Saint Michael’s Fire and Rescue Ambulance when it was first established gave him an appreciation for “giving back.”

1961

Minneapolis, MN, has been elected to a threeyear term as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association. With nearly 600 employees and 4500 arbitrators, 27 U.S. offices and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution in Singapore, the AAA is the world’s largest conflict resolution organization. In its 93-year history is has resolved nearly 6,000,000 cases, with 117,000 last year alone.

REV. JOHN J. BRENNAN, Springfield, MA, celebrated 40 years of Priesthood on September 9, 2018. Fr. Brennan is the pastor of two parishes in the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts; St. Patrick in Monson, MA and St. Christopher in Brimfield, MA. After graduating from St. Michael’s College in May of 1973, Fr. Brennan received his Master’s Degree in Theology from the University of Louvain in Louvain, Belgium. He was ordained in St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield, MA, by the late Bishop Joseph F. Maguire, D.D. on September 9, 1978

U.S. SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, Middlesex, VT, on

1973

1975

MICHAEL W. HELECHU, Enfield, CT, was named the town’s Volunteer of the Year for 2019. He is a trustee for the Enfield Elks Lodge, has been a member of Rotary for 35 years, drives veterans to medical appointments at VA hospitals, volunteers at the local Food Shelf and participates in numerous fund-raising

JERRY ZEZIMA , Coram, NY, has been awarded first place for humor, print publications over 50,000 circulation, in the 2019 NSNC Column Writing Contest. He says, “It’s the seventh humor award I have won in the NSNC contest and this year it’s in the largest category. I have been assured that beer was not

October 11 received from the Howard Center in Burlington its 2019 Help is Here Award at its annual Help is Here Award Celebration. The award honors “an individual whose contributions personify Howard Center’s mission and demonstrate a passion for those served by the organization.” As a distinguished statesman,

1968 DENNIS HAUPTLY,

Jerry Zezima ’75 of Coram, NY, has been awarded first place for humor, print publications over 50,000 circulation, in the 2019 NSNC Column Writing Contest.

He shared this image of that award (see full note under Class of 1975 notes).

involved in the judging.

Profuse thanks to Hearst Connecticut Media Group, which includes my hometown paper, the Stamford Advocate, for letting me be silly and irresponsible for a living.” Also, Jerry has written another book: Nini and Poppie’s Excellent Adventures: Grandkids, Wine Clubs, and Other Ways to Keep Having Fun. “It’s my fourth book and, like the first three, is a themed collection of the nationally syndicated humor columns I write for … the Stamford Advocate … By the way, the Nini of the title is my wife, Sue [SUSAN PIKERO ZEZIMA], also a ’75 grad.

Poppie is yours truly. That’s what we are called by our grandchildren, Chloe, Lilly and Xavier. Sue and I have had plenty of excellent adventures, not only with them, but with ourselves.

That’s the theme of the book.

Sue and I were married in 1978 … [and one] column in the book features our 1975

CLASSMATE TIM LOVELETTE,” Jerry writes, adding

55

Chris McMullin ’80 and Mark Madkour ’82 (ski team members) and Robert Gosiewski aka “Ziggy” ’80 reunited for a weekend of skiing at Vail in Colorado in the past season.

“I also am writing on a sitcom based on my work.

If you think TV is bad now, wait until my show gets on the air.” (See photo)

wife. Ed and Donna moved to Durham, NC, last year from Alexandria, VA, and are having fun exploring the Research Triangle area.

1977

1980

DAVE ONDRUSEK,

GERARD STOUDT,

Lancaster, PA, led the Palmyra High School boys lacrosse team to another successful season. The team won the Keystone Division Championship, the MidPenn League Championship and the District 3 Championship. Dave was also named Mid-Penn League Coach of the Year and U.S. Lacrosse Central Pennsylvania Coach of the Year.

1979 ED JOHNSON, Durham, NC, and Donna KingJohnson (Trinity ’80) celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary with a trip to Turks & Caicos, and a trip to Atlanta to spend time with their son and his

Stamford, CT, had some career news. From a recent business brief on website Real Estate Weekly: “Savills, [a major worldwide property agent], announced recently that it has hired dispositions expert and industry veteran Gerard J. Staudt as a senior managing director and head of Dispositions, North America …. Prior to Savills, he served as president of CoreDispo (Corporate Real Estate Dispositions, Inc.) where his team was focused on surplus real estate disposition transactions. Before that, he founded and led global dispositions at Johnson Controls’ GWS/CBRE, served as vice president of Asset Management at Citibank Real Estate,

assistant vice president at Nippon Life Insurance Properties and director of Leasing at First Winthrop Properties where he repositioned, leased and sold real estate. He began his career as a leasing broker at Cross & Brown in Manhattan.”

CHRIS MACMULLEN, Eden, UT, and ROBERT “ZIGGY” GOSIEWSKI, Avon, CO, reunited with Saint Michael’s ski friends for a weekend of skiing at Vail in Colorado during the last season. (See photo and 1982 notes)

1981 ROBERT COCHRANE, Casselberry, FL, and his life partner of 30 years, Felix Rodriguez, Ph.D., were married on February 16, 2019 at St. Richard’s Episcopal Church in Winter Park, FL. They were the first same-sex couple to be allowed to marry in the Central Florida Episcopal

CL ASS NOTES

Diocese. Bob and Felix met on November 4, 1988.

56

1982 MARK MADKOUR, Scottsdale, AZ, reunited with Saint Michael’s ski friends for a weekend of skiing at Vail in Colorado during the last season. (See photo).

1984 MARK JOYCE, Needham,

MA, a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Boston, was recognized as a top financial advisor in 2019 by two of the industry’s leading trade publications: Barron’s and the Financial Times. Mark was named one of Barron’s “Top 1,200 Financial Advisors,” and to the “Top 400 Financial Advisors” list in the Financial Times.

The exclusive rankings are based on criteria such as industry experience, assets under management, client retention and the adoption of best practices. Mark has 34 years of experience working closely with individuals, family offices and small businesses in executing disciplined investment strategies.

1993 LEWIS DELUCA , Branford, CT, shares that he is employed in an office at Southern Connecticut State University ranked as the 9th best financial literacy program in the country.

LINDSAY KURRLE, Montpelier, VT, has been appointed secretary of the Vermont Agency of Commerce & Community Development by Vermont Governor Phil Scott. She will move from the Department of Labor to take on this new position.

1996 CAPT. JAMES WHITCOMB,

Shelburne, VT, has been promoted from Staff Operations Commander to major/Field Force Division Commander at Vermont State Police Headquarters.

He assumed sole command of the division effective at the end of April 2019. Jim has served the people of Vermont for more than 20 years in all three of the Vermont State Police’s divisions: Criminal, Field Force and Support Services.

He began his state police career in 1998 as a trooper at the New Haven Barracks, serving there until his transfer to the Executive Protection Unit in 2004. He later was promoted to detective sergeant as the Vermont State Police liaison to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington. In 2007, he began work at the Williston Barracks as a detective until 2009, when he was promoted to lieutenant as director of Internal Affairs. He transferred to commander of the Williston Barracks in 2012 until his promotion to captain as Troop A Commander in 2015. Prior to his promotion earlier this year to major, he

served as Staff Operations Commander at Headquarters. He also served on the Scuba Team for 15 years beginning in 2002, commanding that unit from 2009-17, and was assigned to the Crime Scene Search Team from 2004-09. Jim grew up in Burlington and is a graduate of Rice Memorial High School, and is married with three children.

2000 KEVIN BEZIO, Vooheesville, NY, has career news, reported in a recent business press release: “Barclay Damon announces the law firm is adding a three-attorney banking and public finance group from Harris Beach PLLC, consisting of Kevin Bezio, partner; Alexis Clement, counsel; and Eric Brenner, associate, effective immediately. The three attorneys, who have been practicing together for a number of years, will be resident in Barclay Damon’s Albany office. While operating from the Capital Region, the group’s practice involves representing commercial banks and other financial institutions throughout New York and New England and state-side issuers and underwriters of tax-exempt bond financings.”

2001 PATRICK WHEELER, Norwich, VT, recently was named executive director of the Glassmeyer/McNamee Center for Digital Strategies

at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. The center plays a critical role educating MBA students on the many ways technology enables and disrupts businesses in today’s complex global economy. A highlight this past year was traveling with students to Shanghai and Hangzhou, China, to meet with executives at technology companies leading the transformation of China’s economy.

2002 MICHAELA COOK, Cranston, RI, was featured in on the website of the Cranston Herald in Rhode Island and on the news website Rhody Beat in a follow-up article for a letter to the editor as well as her trip to Washington, DC, in June to advocate for more suicide- prevention funding in both the U.S. House and Senate. From the Herald article: “She pursued a master’s degree in social work through Boston University’s satellite program in Fall River, completing internships at the Metropolitan Career and Technical High School in Providence and Bradley School in East Providence along the way. After finishing the program and receiving her degree, she found work in 2014 as a clinician at Jammat Housing and Community Development Corp. in Providence, where she remains today. The fit has been a natural one. Cook has extensive experience

working with children, having been a substitute teacher in Vermont and spent several years as a coordinator of before and after school programming at the Joslin Community Center in Providence. Now, her ‘life’s work’ as a clinical social worker is focused on providing comfort, hope and encouragement to adolescent boys in the care of the Department of Children, Youth & Families.”

2003 SHANNON MCCARTHY LEVENTHAL , Narragansett,

RI, recently wrote to tell about the good work of her present colleague and a Saint Michael’s master’s graduate at the Middlebridge School in Rhode Island (see M2003 note about John Kaufman for details). Says Shannon, “16 years ago, John and I sat in the same graduation ceremony at Saint Michael’s John getting his MA, me receiving my BA. Neither of us would have predicted that the opportunity to found a school and a community would arise in the years to follow, but we often talk to our students about how our education at

Saint Mike’s prepared us for the kind of dreaming, thinking, and problem-solving we needed to help found a school.” (See related story in this issue).

MEAGAN FARLEY, Tulsa, OK, had career news on the Oklahoma news website Tulsa World recently about her joining KKT Architects, Inc. as director of business development. The item notes Meagan worked broadcast journalism from Vermont to New York to Kansas to Virginia and finally to Tulsa, “where she plans to stay. Because of her passion for architecture and urban development— rooted in her time in Roanoke and stoked by Tulsa’s Downtown Renaissance—she created the Tulsa Rising news franchise to highlight the energy of Tulsa’s reemergence. She is also a Board Trustee for the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture, which spotlights current projects as well as Tulsa’s rich architectural history. Meagan frequents City of Tulsa meetings, and she’s excited to keep learning about projects and developments across the region. She will use her expertise to represent KKT to the community.”

DREW RUSSO, Lynn,

MA, was hired as the City of Lynn’s new personnel director, effective this past May. He previously had served as the Lynn Museum/LynnArts executive director.

2006 ERIC ALAIMO, Methuen, MA, married Jillian Reno on April 27, 2019 at Saint Mary, Star of the Sea Church in Beverly, MA. JEFF BAKER, Burlington,

VT, announces that his first book will be released on June 3, 2019 via The History Press (Arcadia Publishing). He writes, “I co-authored this book, Burlington Brewing: A History of Craft Beer in the Queen City, with my good friend Adam Krakowski.

We explored the rich history of brewing beer within the city limits of Burlington, VT, starting with its first commercial brewery founded in 1800 and continuing all the way up to today’s 10 craft breweries. This long history of brewing (which of course was interrupted by Prohibition) has fostered a unique and diverse beer and food

culture in Vermont’s largest city. In addition to detailed histories of the breweries themselves, Adam and I dive deep into ‘Pint Street,’ farm-to-table gastropubs and upscale restaurants. A couple recipes are included as well which feature Burlington-brewed beers.”

Updates about the book and about upcoming events can be found on Facebook and Twitter @BTVbrewing.

ISBN: 1625859945.

ELIZABETH GRAY, West-

moreland, NH, received a PhD in Comparative Literature from Brown University in May of 2019.

During the upcoming academic year, she will be a visiting assistant professor of Spanish at Wheaton College and Dartmouth College.

2008 JENNA BLAKE, Quincy, MA, married Charles Busa on October 27, 2018.

(See photo).

CHARLES CARROLL , Providence, RI, completed his PhD in history at Brown University in August 2019.

This academic year, he will be visiting assistant

CL ASS NOTES

Jenna Blake ’08 married Charles Busa on October 27, 2018, in Cohasset, MA. Saint Michael’s “family” in attendance, left to right: Patrick Garrity ’08, Mark Gould ’08, Jessica (St. Clair) Gould ’08, Matt Brown ’08, Lauren (Peterson) Healey ’09, Maddie (Grandgeorge) Sivo ’08, Taylor Healey ’08, Lindsey (Howland) Junkins ’08, Catherine Cook ’08, Frederick Kerwin ’08, Liana (DeMarco) Kerwin ’08, John Wizeman ’08, Kate (Ely) Wizeman ’08, Evan Sivo ’08, Kaitlyn (Blake) Mahoney ’05, Lauren Dibona ’14 (not pictured).

57

CL ASS NOTES 58

Michelle Lynch ’10 married William Ferguson on September 15, 2018, with several alumni in attendance. From left are Kyle and LeeAnn Murphy ’10, Christopher and Lynsey Fahner ’10, bride: Michelle (Lynch) Ferguson ’10, the groom William Ferguson; Deborah Bartos ’10 and Jessica Prencipe (attended Saint Michael’s as a first-year then transferred to Springfield College).

Matt Geary ’11 married Catie Torri at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown, MA, on August 31, 2019. Saint Michael’s alumni in attendance included: Josh Geary ’13, Jack Dowd ’11, Tim Ahern ’11, Brian McWade ’11, PJ Mondani ’11, Abby (Middleton) Mondani ’11, Tom Geary ’78, Ted Geary ’88, Kit Geary ’22, Michael Geary ’83, Nick Anti ’11, Chris Hurley ’11, Blake Schill ’11, Nick Romano ’11, Mary (Diebold) Romano ’11, Molly Dwyer ’11, Emmy Ham ’11, Rob Pierce ’11, Justin DiMatteo ’11, Josh Gessler ’11, Cory McGrath ’11, Maddi (Lena) McGrath ’10, Geno Geary ’92, Meg Guarente ’11, Graham Voigt ’10, James Baghai ’10, Max Harden ’11.

Sean Mannion ’12 and Megan Flanagan ’11 were married on June 30, 2018, at the Chapel of St. Michael the Archangel, with a reception at the Old Lantern in Charlotte. Writes Megan (her dad is Jerry Flanagan ’71, longtime admission and fund-raising leader for the College), “We were surrounded by many Saint Michael’s alumni (not all made the photo) and had such a fun celebration.”

Mission Specialist Jared Peick ’13, who was also an intern at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, works on an experiment from NASA’s Johnson Space Center that investigates methods for repairing and replacing 3D-printed habitat tiles. Image Credit: The Human Spaceflight Lab. (See details in 2013 Class notes).

professor of history at Brown as well as interim program manager at Brown’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning.

2009 COURTNEY LAMDIN, Winooski, VT, an award-winning journalist, this past spring 2019 joined the news team of the Burlington weekly newspaper and website Seven Days as a reporter covering the city of Burlington. The native Vermonter has been working at local newspapers since graduating. She grew a cub reporting gig at the Milton Independent into a six-year stint as editor of the community weekly, then served as executive editor of that publication, plus the Colchester Sun and the Essex Reporter, for three more years and a brief stint as news editor of the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Also this past spring, the national trade publication Editor & Publisher featured Courtney in its “25 Under 35” list of next-generation newspaper leaders.

2010 MICHELLE LYNCH, Braintree, MA, married William Ferguson on September 15, 2018. (See photo).

2011 MATT GEARy, South Boston, MA, married Catie Torri at the Harbor View

Hotel in Edgartown, MA, on August 31, 2019.

(See photo).

2012 MEGAN DUROCHER, Waterford, VT, celebrated her one-year anniversary working for the Council on Aging in St. Johnsbury, VT, on October 1, 2019. She serves the agency as the director of care and support services, supervising three departments. Those staff members work directly with older Vermonters in the community. Megan participates in local and state meetings, works with community partners to provide the best collaborative supports, and advocates for and with older Vermonters. She also works jointly with her staff to continue to learn what’s important to the people they serve, and help to uphold their decisions to live life the way they want, and where they want.

Having earned her master’s degree in psychology at age 23, Megan is proud to say that before age 30 she has obtained a supervisory position contributing to such an important mission.

(See photo).

MICHAEL DECRISTOFARO,

Merrimack, NH, was featured by the Concord Insider (N.H) news website as a “Young Professional of the Month” selected by the Concord Young Professionals Network for September 2019. Fr. Brian Cummings of Edmundite

Campus ministry knows Michael and shared that he at one time worked in development at St. Rose High School in Belmar, NJ, when the St. Mike’s Liturgical Choir visited after hurricane Sandy.

2013 JARED PEICK, Grand Forks, ND/Philadelphia, PA, is a graduate student in the Space Studies program at the University of North Dakota. He writes, “This program gives students a highly diverse view of the space industry by addressing topics such as human factors of spaceflight, space law, economics, and planetary science. This past Spring I was fortunate enough to be selected to participate as a crew member for a two-week simulated Lunar/Mars habitat mission at UND. During these two weeks, I was involved in testing various operational aspects of living and working on another planetary surface which included biological, physiological, psychological, and operational studies.

This past summer I was also fortunate enough to work at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as part of a 10-week internship. I studied water remediation techniques, specifically looking for ways to generate animal protein sources on future planetary surface habitats. This project relied heavily on my biology and chemistry background, all of which began at Saint

Megan Durocher (BA ’12, MA ’14) celebrated her one-year anniversary working for the Council on Aging in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

Former St Mike’s Cross Country teammates ran the Burlington City Marathon Relay over Memorial Day weekend 2019. L to R: Elena Bilodeau ’14, Andrea Park ’12, Allie Gratton ’15, Leanna Hammond ’14, & Julie Mullowney ’14.

Dana Bourne ’14 received her master’s in public health from the University of Vermont.

CL ASS NOTES 60

Michael’s. The education and experience that I was provided at SMC set me up for these really incredible opportunities. Declan McCabe and Peter Hope from the Biology department, in particular, were instrumental in my development as a scientist and as a professional. I often reference the incredibly valuable lessons I learned from their passion for science, teaching, and commitment to students.

The overall liberal arts education at Saint Michael’s has given me a strong foundation to communicate and understand the challenges within the space industry, as challenges are often multi-faceted and extend across many disciplines. While at Saint Michael’s I was always looking to be involved in the space industry, so I wanted to reach out and offer any assistance to current students or alumni that may have similar passions.”

2014 DANA BOURNE, Cambridge, VT, received her master’s degree in public health from the University of Vermont in December, 2018. (See photo).

LEA GIPSON, Vergennes, VT married Sam Stannard.

(See photo).

THOMAS MANNING and DEVIN LATREMORE,

Pawcatuck, CT, were married on June 29, 2019 at the Chapel of Saint

Michael the Archangel on the Saint Michael’s campus.

(See photo)

2017

2018

CATHERINE “CATIE” CORRIGAN, Canajoharie,

MARIA RANIA LIU GONCALVES, Moretown,

NY, encountered Saint Michael’s Computer Science Department John KELLY AINSWORTH, Trono at a professional Bayonne, NJ, married conference in Dublin, James DeVournsey ’16 at Ireland where they met up Saint Michael’s College. for a dinner. John shares: She writes, “My husband “After graduating from and I met at St. Mike’s Saint Michael’s with a B. S. in September of 2012. After in Mathematics, Catie six years of dating and completed a master’s in countless special memories, Risk Management and we were married on Insurance in Limerick, campus last week on May Ireland. She is now an 25. We had the most Associate Consultant at magical ceremony conduct- Version 1 in Dublin where ed by Fr. Michael Carter at she works as part of the the school we love. We Business Systems team. celebrated with friends and While all of her previous family, including several education helps her in the Saint Michael’s alumni workplace, the bulk of alongside us!” the technical skills required in her current role can be MARINA PETROVIC, attributed to the CS minor Louisville, KY, married Sam she completed at St. Mike’s Trigg in Split, Croatia.

Catie originally visited Marina and Sam met while Ireland by taking part in she studied abroad for a one of the many study year at Oxford University. abroad options at Saint Their rainy but special day Michael’s and spending her was celebrated with many entire junior year in friends and family, includLimerick.” (See photo). ing Class of ’15 Saint DELIGHT BUCKO, Tiverton, Michael’s alums: Shawna RI, is the new face of the McGowan, Lauren KilmisVeterans Association of ter, Brianne Conlon, Elaine Bristol County (Fall River, Ezerins, Misha D’Andrea, MA), and the youngest Emily Goodwin, Tarryn Bartkus, and Chloe Boutelle. leader ever to head the organization, according to a feature story this spring appearing on the website of the Herald News daily JOHN (JACK) LOOMIS and paper in that region. Bucko, Victoria Barnum, Melrose, 25, was named executive MA, were married in Saint director of the association Michael’s Chapel by Father in early April.

Marcel Rainville on June 15, 2019. (See photo).

2015

2016

VT, married Andrew James McClymon on August 1, 2018 in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel on the Saint Michael’s Campus.

M AS T E R ’S D EGR E E GR ADUAT E S

M1990 JOSEPH WOODIN, most

recently of Homer, AL, has been selected to serve as president and chief executive officer of Copley Hospital in Morrisville, VT. Before he served as president and CEO at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph from 1999 to 2016, he held leadership positions at Central Vermont Medical Center and the University of Vermont Medical Center.

He most recently led hospitals in Alaska and, before that briefly, in Martha’s Vineyard, MA. Joe was to take the helm at the Morrisville hospital in mid-October.

Before he served as president and CEO at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph from 1999 to 2016, he held leadership positions at Central Vermont Medical Center and the University of Vermont Medical Center.

Lea Gipson ’19 married Sam Stannard.

Pictured: Jack Mullen ’13, Bethany Reinecke ’14, Courtney Burnett ’14, Sarah Murray ’15, Samantha Foulsham ’14, Brooke Connor ’14, Stephanie Begnoche ’13, Jacob Begnoche ’13, Lindsay Mullen ’13, Greer Lemnah ’14, Meg McNulty ’13, Tara Martin ’05, Chantal Gipson ’12, Michaela Rivers ’14, Mackenzie Dolbeare ’14, Brittany Regis ’14, Katie Weithman ’15, Jessie Phillips ’14, Max Reinecke ’14, Brandon Bowen ’13, and Chris Allen ’14.

Thomas Manning and Devin Latremore, Pawcatuck, CT, were married on June 29, 2019, at the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel on the Saint Michael’s campus, with many Saint Michael’s friends present.

Kelly Ainsworth ’15 and James DeVoursney were married on May 25, 2019, at Saint Michael’s College. Kelly writes: “My husband and I met at St. Mike’s in September of 2012. After six years of dating and countless special memories, we were married on campus ….

We had the most magical ceremony conducted by Fr. Michael Carter at the school we love. We celebrated with friends and family, including several Saint Michael’s alumni alongside us … we are so grateful for the role that SMC has played in our story.”

John (Jack) Loomis ’16 and Victoria Barnum ’16 were married in Chapel of St. Michael the Archangel, the Chapel on June 15, 2019. Back row left to right: Tim Barnum ’76, Kevin Barnum ’19, Emily Wright ’19, Sam Talamini ’16, Emily Carolin ’16, Julia Crisman ’16, Sarah Phelps ’16, Jordan DeKett ’16, Hillary Miller ’15, Celsey Lumbra ’16, Ty Prince-Williams ’16, Natalie Ledue ’16, Jess Jablonski ’16, Andie Gemme ’16, Conor Floyd ’16, Alex Boucher ’16, Kenny Giangregorio ’16, Anthony Lopez ’16, Jackson Morgan ’16, Brendan Davitt ’16, Tino Tomasi ’16 M’19, Richie Bernache ’16, President Lorraine Sterritt. Front row left to right: Shannon McQueen ’16, Erin (Irons) Southworth ’16, Cece Horbat ’16, Tyler Rossmann ’16, Mackenzie Breen ’16, Mary Gannon ’16, Karin Parodi ’16, Jess Sweeney ’16.

Catherine “Catie” Corrigan, Canajoharie, NY, encountered Saint Michael’s Computer Science Department’s John Trono at a professional conference in Dublin, Ireland, where they met up for a dinner.

CL ASS NOTES 62

M2 0 0 3

M2004

JOHN KAUFMAN, Narragansett, RI, is the founding Head of School for Middlebridge School, a coeducational residential high school in Narragansett, RI, for students with learning differences. After more than a dozen years working with youth and in education, John jumped at the opportunity to create a unique and much-needed program in southern Rhode Island. He moved from Vermont to Rhode Island with a small group of committed educators in 2008, leaving behind a home and a community, to start Middlebridge School.

Now in its twelfth year, Middlebridge School serves 78 students aged 13-19 from all over the country and the world and is one of the largest nonprofit employers in Narragansett, RI. (See related story in this issue).

ROBERT “MIKE” DOWDY, Rutland, VT, was named by Marshfield Clinic Health System in Wisconsin (between Minneapolis and Green Bay) as chief administrative officer for the new Marshfield Medical CenterMinocqua Hospital. The hospital is currently under construction and is on schedule to open in April 2020. Mike has worked in health care administration for more than 20 years. He holds a master’s of science degree in administration from Saint Michael’s. He was recently chief executive officer for Central Montana Medical Center in Lewistown, Montana. Mike has his bachelor of business administration through the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma.

C A L L IN G ALL CO M P U T E R S CI E N C E A LU M N I! We are planning on gathering to celebrate the first 40 years of the CS department at Saint Michael’s College. We will be considering holding this on a Saturday afternoon/early evening, perhaps in late June, or sometime in July (of 2022). This event would be open to all graduates of the SMC CS department (and their spouses, and children). To be kept informed of specific details, once they’ve been established, please senda current email address to Prof. John A. Trono (JTrono@smcvt.edu) for further updates (via email). Also, would you please share this message with any other SMC CS alumni you know?

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing all of you at this event.

Known and respected throughout the region, a St. Mike’s graduate degree will open doors for you – and, with flexible, personalized pathways, you can balance work and life.

Advance Your Career with Saint Michael’s College Graduate Programs

Education | Clinical Psychology | TESOL

Contact us today to find the pathway that is right for you.

Saint Michael’s College graduate studies, because reputation matters. smcvt.edu/graduate graduate@smcvt.edu 802.654.2100

In Memoriam 1947 JOHN W. W. CRONIN, Palm Bay, FL, died September 20, 2015, the College learned recently. He stated in a 1991 alumni survey that he was employed at that time by Brevard County School Board in Melbourne, FL, as a counselor and instructor, as well as liaison between schools and the area hospital psychiatric unit, having attended graduate school at College of Saint Rose in Albany in 1955, and later completing post-graduate work in adolescent psychology at the University of Central Florida in 1988. He was Teacher of the Year for 1986 for Special Education in Brevard and served on several education-related boards in his community.

Though no obituary was available with survivor information, John listed his children in 1991 as Mary, John Cronin ’80, Steven and Ann. His grandchildren include Caitlin Cronin ’09 and Christopher Cronin ’06.

1948 ROBERT P. ROUNDS, West

Brattleboro/Vernon, VT, died August 28, 2019. After Saint Michael’s he went on to earn his education master’s from the University of Massachusetts

Amherst in 1958. He served in the Navy before receiving a medical honorable discharge. His first teaching position was at Mount Saint Joseph Academy (19481953) and from 1953 until retirement he was a guidance counselor at Brattleboro Union High School. He dedicated 42 years to teaching, coaching and counseling public school students. He asked that students and players always give their best effort, and his teams were known for teamwork, execution and discipline. His favorite quote from Frost was, “Education is the ability to listen to anyone say almost anything without losing one’s temper or self-confidence.” He was a member of education professional groups and a devout practicing Catholic. He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Ellen, five sons and extended family.

1949 REV. FRANCIS X. MCMAHON, S.S.E., Townshend,

VT, died September 15, 2019. After service in the Army Air Forces from 1943 to 1945, he graduated from Saint Michael’s before professing his first vows in the Society of Saint Edmund in 1950, and was ordained to the priesthood

on June 5, 1954. His assignments with the Edmundites were as secretary to the superior general (1954-1955); vocations director (19541958), including two years in Selma, AL (1956-1958); master of novices in Mystic, CT (1958-1965); regional superior and pastor, Saint Edmund of Canterbury Parish, Whitton, Twickenham, England (1965-1973); superior (1974-1975), and director of novices (19741976) at Saint Edmund’s Novitiate, Mystic, CT; service at two Connecticut parishes; in residence at Saint Michael’s Parish, Brattleboro, VT (20012006), where he was active in the Knights of Columbus; at Our Lady of Mercy Parish and West River Missions, Putney, VT, (2006-2014); and at Valley Cares Assisted Living Facility in Townshend since 2014. Fr. McMahon earned his master’s in theology from Woodstock Jesuit School of Theology in 1974.

He is survived by extended family.

1950 JAMES P. BOWLER, St. Albans, VT, died May 29, 2019. Jim served in the Navy during World War II and worked for 38 years after college as an inspector

for U.S. Customs. He enjoyed gardening, watching game shows, winter vacations in the South and telling jokes. He was active in his parish and the American Legion. His wife, Janet, died in 2008 after 58 years of marriage. He is survived by two sons, three daughters and extended family, including granddaughters Shelley Smith ’98 and Selena Senesac ’95.

JOSEPH J. BRIGANTI, Kensington, CT, died June 22, 2019. Joe was an elementary teacher in the Farmington, CT, school system, retiring in 1983. He enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and served aboard the USS Makin Island aircraft carrier CVE 93, seeing duty in the South Pacific, and earned five battle stars before his 1946 honorable discharge. After Saint Michael’s he studied at College of Connecticut and earned a master’s and a sixth-year certificate from the University of Hartford.

He was active in his parish (parish council, usher for 35 years), and was an avid Yankees and UConn basketball fan. He long supported the College in various ways, including contributions to scholarship funds and alumni activities. He is survived by his son and extended family.

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IN MEMORIAM

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EDWARD P. MARKEY, South Burlington, VT/ Beachwood, OH, one of the most significant figures in the history of Saint Michael’s College athletics, died November 5, 2019. The longestserving athletic administrator ever at the College, Ed was a director of athletics and baseball and basketball coach for more than four decades as well as a standout two-sport student-athlete. His November 11 funeral Mass was in the campus chapel. He excelled in both baseball and basketball, captaining and leading both sports to state championships. After graduation, he was drafted into the Army and spent his tour of duty during the Korean War at Fort Dix, NJ, coaching baseball, leading his team to the 1954 Army base championship. He returned in 1954 to Saint Michael’s and earned his master’s in history and coached baseball and basketball under the mentorship of his coach George “Doc” Jacobs. He settled in South Burlington, marrying Carol in 1958 and raising his children on and around the campus. In his illustrious coaching career, he led the Purple Knights to two New England Division II Championships, and in 1965, to the National Final Four. He was named Vermont Coach of the Year in 1964, 1965, and 1967, and was UPI’s Division II Coach of the Year in 1965 and 1967, and is enshrined in multiple halls of fame. After retiring in 1997, he and Carol spent more than 20 years in Florida.

The Markeys were loyal parishioners at their local Catholic churches in Vermont, Florida, and Ohio where they moved to the Cleveland suburbs to be near their son. Memorial contributions may be made to the Ed Markey ’51 Athletics Fund at Saint Michael’s College, One Winooski Park, Box 256, Colchester, VT 05439 or online at www.smcvt.edu/markeyfund. Ed was predeceased by his wife of 60 years, Carol, and is survived by a son, Edward W. Markey ’81, a daughter, Kathryn L. Markey ’84, a sister, two brothers and extended family.

1951 RALPH K. KISTNER, Rego Park, NY, died February 19, 2019. After Saint Michael’s he went to Notre Dame for his master’s, then to Brooklyn Law School for his law degree, graduating in 1961. In between, he served in the Army in the Korean War. He was admitted to practice in the New York State Courts, but his first love was probation and parole – wherein he became the chief parole officer in the Eastern District of New York. He was active in his church, where he became trustee, and in his community, including with the Boy Scouts. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Helen, a son and extended family.

MERLE F. TETRAULT,

Burlington, VT, died July 5, 2019. Merle enlisted in the Navy at 17 years old in 1944 and began basic training at the Navy Recruitment Training Center in San Diego, CA. He was then deployed as a hospital apprentice first class on multiple Navy ships stationed in Japan following World War II. He was honorably discharged in 1946 and returned to Swanton, VT, to complete high school before enrolling at Saint Michael’s on the GI Bill. Two days before his death, Merle received military service medals from the State of Vermont Veterans Affairs: the Vermont Veterans Medal honoring Vermonters who served honorably in the U.S.

military, and the Vermont Distinguished Service Medal for Vermonters who served honorably in the military in a combat theater. After Saint Michael’s, Merle was a manufacturing inspector at GE in Burlington from 1951 to 1955. For several years he was a salesman covering the Vermont territory of Remington Rand Products before starting his own business, Merle’s Office Products, which he owned and operated from 1962 to 1989 in Burlington. He also was a sales associate for Service Merchandise, South Burlington, and in sales at USA Office Furniture in Willison. He devoted time as a volunteer driver for the Vermont Association of the Blind. Merle was a voracious reader of military novels, historical nonfiction, mysteries and biographies.

He enjoyed bird-watching/ feeding, taking a chance on weekly lottery tickets and watching his grandchildren’s activities. He was a lifelong Yankees, Notre Dame football and Patriots fan and a steadfast alumni supporter of Saint Michael’s.

He is survived by his wife, Carolyn, a son, three daughters and extended family.

1952 JAMES MCKOWN, Missoula, MT, died April 20, 2019. “Cal” was in the Army before going to Saint Michael’s from his home in California. After graduating cum laude in history, he went on to graduate studies

DONALD H. SLAVEN, Mashpee, MA, died September 2, 2019. He served in the Army during the Korean conflict before graduating from Saint Michael’s and ultimately receiving his master’s from St. John’s University on Long Island.

He worked as an English teacher and enjoyed his time as a basketball coach at Brookline High School for over 40 years. He was a former trustee of the Leukemia Society and was active with Special Olympics of Cape Cod and the National Autistic Society.

He belonged to the K of C and was former president of the Massachusetts Basketball Association. He was an avid sports fan, particularly basketball and

baseball, and was inducted into Halls of Fame for coaches, both for Massachusetts state basketball and Brookline High. Don is survived by his wife of 62 years, Clare, a son, three daughters and extended family.

1954 JOHN F. NUTILE JR., Rangeley, ME, died March 29, 2019. John long had a law practice in North Haven, CT, where he lived many years until his retirement in 2002, when he moved to Rangeley. After Saint Michael’s he graduated from Boston University School of Law. He served on the jury committee of North Haven and once chaired its Board of Ethics. He also served the town’s conservation commission and library building committee. He was a life member of the National Rifle Association and other associations relating to his passions for motorcycles, skiing, hunting, fishing and skeet shooting.

He is survived by his wife, Genevieve (Jean), son John Nutile II who attended Saint Michael’s for a time, a daughter Rhonda Nutile ’78, two daughters, a stepdaughter and extended family.

BERNARD A. ROQUE SR., Winooski, VT, died June 12, 2019. After growing up on a family farm in Grand Isle, he joined the Marines in 1947, returning to Vermont after discharge to graduate from Milton High School and then Saint Michael’s

before he entered the Air Force in 1955, retiring in 1976. After graduating from pilot training, he was assigned to Strategic Air Command, piloting the RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft. Upon completion of the B-47 program, he went to SAC’s B-52 Global Airborne Alert Force, earning his Command Pilots Wings, flying over 8,000 hours. Bernie served in Vietnam from 1971 to 1972 as the B-52 and Support Aircraft Mission Planner and pilot, and was awarded the Bronze Star. On returning from Vietnam, he was assigned as SAC’s NORAD Command Post Commander at Hancock Air Force Base, NY. He returned to Vermont to serve as the Commandant for Saint Michael’s College ROTC Program until his retirement from the Air Force. In his military service, Bernie and his family were stationed both domestically and internationally. He received his master’s from the American University of Puerto Rico in 1970. In 1978, Bernie and his family opened the Commander’s Table restaurant in South Hero and in 1983 the Saxon Inn in Jericho, and he was a realtor and tax preparer.

Bernie was a devout Catholic and active in the community and church from a young age, including Eucharistic Minister for 25 years and teaching CCD. He also served on the school board in Essex Junction, and was a member of the K of C, American Legion and Rotary. A son predeceased him in 1978. He is survived

his wife, Anna Marie, five sons, two daughters and extended family.

MICHAEL B. RYAN, Beavercreek, OH, died August 12, 2019. After Saint Michael’s he attended the University of Oklahoma while working on his master’s degree, later completing that degree at Central Michigan. He served in the Air Force as an officer, achieving the rank of first lieutenant. He worked for GE before joining the Federal Civil Service starting at Griffiss Air Force Base (AFB) in central New York, then Tinker AFB in Oklahoma, and retired from Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. He was an avid golfer and tennis player. His wife of 47 years, Barbara, predeceased him in 2005.

He loved Mets baseball, Oklahoma Sooners football and talking sports. He also love Dixieland jazz and music in general. He is survived by three daughters and extended family.

ALFRED J. SETTE, Stamford,

CT, died July 31, 2019. After Saint Michael’s he returned to his hometown of Stamford and worked at the YMCA while studying at Columbia University, where he received a master’s in sociology. He was drafted into the Army in 1956 and stationed in Georgia. He was drafted into the Army in 1956 and stationed in Georgia, where he met and married his wife. After marrying, they returned to Stamford to start a family as Al resumed work with the

IN MEMORIAM

at Fordham University and eventually acquired another degree at the University of Montana. He spent years as park ranger in Wyoming and Utah. For many summers he manned remote fire towers on several peaks in Yellowstone National Park. He was an observer of nature and people and had a talent for writing. One long narrative poem came out of his hitchhiking across the country in his younger years, shares Jim’s friend Art Kirwin, who recalls, “Three Michaelmen of the Class of 1957 went out to work in Yellowstone in the summer of 1955 and met Jim while hiking up Mount Washburn in the Park.” No information was available about Jim’s later work career and life or survivors.

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YMCA and served on the school board. A job offer with YMCA of Rochester, NY, led him to relocate as he worked with youth before starting his career in the city government of Rochester, from which he retired as budget director in 1994. He was active in his community, serving as president of the 19th Ward Community Association, coaching Little League and advocating for youth and social justice issues, particularly integration of public schools. Upon retirement, he and his wife moved to Eastham, MA, where community service, family, friends, travel, enjoying classical music and gardening became his primary pursuits. He also served there as a volunteer with the Council on Aging, Board of Assessors (chairman) and the library friends board, and was active in the Cape Cod Senior Softball League. He had a lifetime love of baseball, the Yankees and sports trivia and statistics. He also loved dogs, particularly his Belgian sheepdogs. Al is survived by his wife of 61 years, Kathryn, a son, two daughters, a sister and extended family.

1956 DAVID M. HOLMES, South

Burlington, VT, died October 8, 2019 after living years with Lewy Body Dementia. After receiving his Saint Michael’s chemistry degree, he served in the Army in Germany for 3 years. After more than 30 years with Champlain Cable,

where he was an engineer designing wiring for space rockets used by NASA, David retired from that work, but continued in a number of jobs including various delivery and courier services. A devout Catholic, he was an usher at his parish for many years.

David passionately followed the stock market, and enjoyed watching sports on TV including golf, baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. He was a lifelong Red Sox and Giants football fan and loved watching Tiger Woods play golf.

When he wasn’t watching sports, he was playing them, spending many hours golfing and bowling with friends. David’s wife, Rita, and a daughter predeceased him. He is survived by two sons, a daughter and extended family.

1958 ROBERT G. DREVERMAN SR., Hobe Sound, FL, died

May 18, 2019. After Saint Michael’s, Bob served in the National Guard for six years.

He worked in the automobile industry for more than 30 years, including as general manager at McAllister Motors on Long Island.

He also was an avid golfer and loved gardening. He owned Minuteman Press Printing of Jupiter, FL, from 1989 to 2000. He was a College Fellows Club supporter of Saint Michael’s.

Survivors include his wife, Carol, a daughter, a son, two stepdaughters, a brother and extended family.

1959 JIM CANAVAN, The Villages, FL, died May 11, 2019. Jim was a mainframe operator when computers were in their infancy. He retired from Mohawk Industries of Amsterdam, NY, and Calhoun, GA, after 40 years with the firm. After Saint Michael’s he served in the Air Force. He loved Notre Dame football, dancing, skiing and camping. He was active in his parish. His wife, Jeanette, died in 2015, and a son also predeceased him.

He is survived by two daughters, a brother, a sister and extended family.

EDWARD P. FISHER, Treasure Island, FL, died March 25, 2019. After earning his Saint Michael’s English degree, he took a job with the Evening Independent newspaper in Florida as the religion editor. He later enrolled at the University of Florida, where he earned his education master’s and was associated with the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. In summer of 1968, Edward moved his family to Treasure Island to join the family business. He managed Fishers Variety 5&10 until its closing in 2001. He and his wife traveled extensively and enjoyed their North Carolina cabin in retirement. Edward, a devout Catholic, was a College Fellows Club contributor to Saint Michael’s. He served in the Air Force Reserves.

He is survived by his wife of

57 years, Suzanne, two sons, three daughters and extended family.

RICHARD J. PINARD, Williston, VT, died May 17, 2019, of cancer. A Barre, VT, native, he attended Saint Michael’s and seminary and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1964 and spent several years in the priesthood until he felt God leading him in a different direction. He was married in 1985 and settled in Winooski, working various jobs over the years, the last 22 as the custodian at North Avenue Alliance Church in Burlington. He attended Ignite Church in Williston and served there faithfully for the past 27 years.

Considering himself to be “born-again Christian,” he enjoyed humor and loved to dance. He was predeceased by a brother, Paul Pinard ’55, in 2017. He is survived by his wife, Paula, a daughter, a sister and two brothers, including Francis Pinard ’60 and Raymond Pinard ’62, and extended family, including nephew Dr. Francis L. Pinard ’84 and great-niece Shayna Guild ’10.

1960 MICHAEL F. GELINAS,

Longmeadow, MA, died July 12, 2019. He began a long teaching career at Cathedral High School in Springfield, MA, where he taught history and directed plays and musicals. He then taught for 34 years at Longmeadow High School

DAVID W. BARRY, Wilbraham, MA, died June 19, 2019. After Saint Michael’s he earned a master’s from St. John’s University and his teaching certificate from Westfield University. He started teaching at Tantasqua Regional High School for two years before going to Minnechaug Regional High School, where he was History Department chair until retiring in 1999. He also chaired Minnechaug’s first negotiations for collective bargaining and was active in Wilbraham community and youth programs. He was part of the Town’s 250th Anniversary Committee and was a

selectman for nine years.

He belonged to Wilbraham Country Club, Springfield Elks (past Exalted Ruler) and was a 20-year member of the John Boyle O’Reilly Club. He is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Virginia, two sons, a daughter and extended family.

GEORGE C. CRONIN III, Fairport, NY, died December 20, 2014, the College learned recently. His brief published death notice stated he was “a father of love, strength and great adventure.” As George had lost touch with the College for many years, no further information was available.

1961 PETER W. CLEMENT,

Chicopee, MA, died July 3, 2019. Peter was a professor of English for 42 years, two years at Berkshire Community College and 40 years at the Elms College in Chicopee. After Saint Michael’s he earned a master’s from St. John’s University and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. He taught English and American literature. He became a runner in the 1970s and completed marathons in Boston, New York and Holyoke, including a sub-three-hour New York Marathon in 1975. In retirement he read widely and studied science and cosmology. He enjoyed the Red Sox, Patriots, tennis and Frank Sinatra. Pete is survived by his wife of 36

years, Miriam, a daughter, a son, Mark Clement ’90, two stepsons, two stepdaughters and extended family.

RICHARD D. GUILMETTE, Concord, NH, died August 28, 2019. After Saint Michael’s he worked in the insurance business, including, early on, with American Mutual Liability according to a 1965 alumni survey in which he also shared being active in the K of C, Little League and Rotary basketball. In retirement he enjoyed golf, swimming and attending his grandchildren’s activities. A daughter predeceased him. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Judy, two sons, two daughters, a sister, a brother and extended family.

JOSEPH V. MASTROMATTEO, Ambler, PA, died June

18, 2019. Born in Italy, he grew up in Conshohocken, PA, and was great debater and orator in high school, winning many tournaments and honors. He attended Saint Michael’s on full scholarship until his father’s death, whereupon he continued his education and received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Villanova University (he was a chemistry major at Saint Michael’s) before working for IBM as a communications specialist.

He was an Army veteran who used his talents to express concerns and communicate with government leaders throughout the 20th century. A passionate Roman Catholic, he served as Grand Knight in

the K of C and continued to support pro-life initiatives throughout his life. After his retirement from IBM, Joe became a world traveler, connecting with family as the youngest of 10 children, proud of his Italian heritage.

He was a skilled storyteller to younger generations about his upbringing.

Joseph is survived by a brother and extended family.

1962 HORACE “JOSH” W. JOSSELYN, Burlington, VT,

died July 24, 2019. He had lived at a Middlebury retirement center since 2018. After Saint Michael’s he graduated from the Dental School of Temple University and practiced dentistry for 40 years, first in the Navy and later opening his own private practice in Burlington. He served in the Vermont National Guard for many years. He frequently donated dentistry for international students from UVM, family and friends.

Josh retired in 2006. He enjoyed building and remodeling, including work on his dental office, his camp in Maine and helping his children with home projects. After moving to a new house on family property on Lake Champlain in South Hero, he spent much time landscaping and finishing furniture.

He enjoyed boating and was active in dental professional groups. He is survived by his wife of 26 years,

IN MEMORIAM

(U.S. history and mass media, a course he created).

He was a class and newspaper adviser and managed the school bookstore. He retired from teaching in 2000 but managed athletic ticket sales at Longmeadow for years. He was very active with Longmeadow Historical Society in retirement, including president (2010-2015), acting as chair of the Longmeadow Days committee. He researched and published many articles on local history and led walking tours and field trips.

In 2015 he was honored as primary Longmeadow Town Historian. He loved travel, reading, especially history, and cooking and gardening. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Mary (“Georgie”), three daughters, two sisters, a brother, Ulric “Joe” Gelinas Jr. ’68 and extended family.

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Michelle, two daughters, a son and extended family.

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PHILLIP J. LAGOY, North

Kingstown, RI, died July 22, 2019. His work history included sales and marketing in the electronics manufacturing industry in New England, and, early on, with Bausch & Lomb Optical in Boston. A resident of North Kingstown for more than 50 years, Phil enjoyed coaching youth hockey in the East Greenwich Youth Hockey Association and Babe Ruth baseball in North Kingstown. An antique car enthusiast for many years, in college he drove a Ford Model A and in recent years attended local car shows to show off his 1976 Mercedes convertible. He was a passionate Patriots fan from the very beginning when the team formed in the AFL. Phil was predeceased by two sons; he is survived by his wife, Suzanne, two daughters, a brother and two sisters.

JOHN J. LYONS, Pittsburg,

NH, died August 7, 2019.

He was a top high school athlete and captain in baseball and basketball in Brattleboro, VT, where he grew up. After Saint Michael’s College and a business degree, he was drafted into the Army, serving from 1962 to 1964.

John had a long and successful career at Sanders Associates in Nashua, NH, working in the defense industry, in utility company relations and as a manager in the electronics industry.

He retired from BAE. John was an avid outdoorsman and loved to fish and hunt.

He and his wife raised their family in Amherst, NH, for 30 years and began to visit Pittsburg in 1968. They bought the family camp there in 1970. In retirement he drove cross-country with his wife on a two-month adventure. They also took two trips for eight weeks of adventure throughout Ireland. They moved to Pittsburg in 2000 and founded Bear Tree Cabins, Murphy’s Steakhouse and The Glen at Bear Tree in 2001. John is survived by his wife of 54 years, Georgie, two sons, two daughters and extended family.

1964

1963

DR. JOSEPH B. GUERRERA MD, Andover, MA, died

MAURICE “MOE” FACQUES, Milford, NH,

died August 12, 2019. He was born in France and emigrated to the U.S. at a young age. After years of running a motel business on Lake Winnipesaukee, he and his wife sold the business and settled into a lakefront condo in Gilford, NH, after 56-plus years as Milford residents. Moe was an American history teacher at Milford Area Senior High School and Milford Middle School for 30 years. He coached boys’ basketball for years, winning two state championships (1972 and 1975). In younger days he enjoyed hiking, running and canoeing, and he traveled extensively with his wife, often to France to see

family while also seeing most of Europe and Machu Picchu in Peru. He was an active community volunteer, including with SHARE, and helped tend various cemetery grounds and coached in many capacities.

He was a gifted storyteller and took a family cruise to Alaska to celebrate 55 years of marriage. He was a devout Catholic and attended daily Mass, with breakfast after with friends, 365 days a year, for decades.

Moe is survived by his wife of 57 years, Mariette, two sons, a daughter and extended family.

May 30, 2019. After Saint Michael’s he graduated from Georgetown Medical School in Washington, D.C., in 1968 and served in the Army as a flight surgeon with the 165th Aviation Group in Vietnam and at Davison Airfield in Alexandria, VA, attaining the rank of major. Returning to his Boston-area home after the service, he completed training as chief medical resident at Boston City Hospital. He practiced internal medicine in Andover and North Andover for 30 years. He enjoyed the Red Sox, golf, travel and poker nights with the boys.

A son predeceased him. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Ann, three daughters and extended family.

1965 ROGER W. HAYES, Vergennes, VT, died August 10, 2019. After Saint Michel’s he managed a Sears Store in Newport, VT, and joined the Vermont Army National Guard 186th Aviation Co. He then started 44 years in the insurance business working for MetLife and New York Life, which took him from Burlington to Maine and Vergennes, where he was very active in the community, including Rotary; he and his family erected the annual Vergennes Nativity Scene for many years; he also was a city councilman for nine years and undertook a tree-planting project.

He was active in his parish as a greeter and in finance.

He was a 49-year member of the American Legion and K of C and joined the Lion’s Club after retirement. His hobbies included furniture reproduction/woodworking, gardening, boating, swimming and tree planting. He loved camping and being on the water, and built a cottage and started a barn on his lake property. He is survived by his wife, Susan, three daughters, including Carrie Johnson ’88, a brother, five sisters and extended family.

IGNATIUS CHARLES RINALDI, Darien, CT, died

May 14, 2019. After Saint Michael’s Charles received his MBA from Babson College before working at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, Glickenhaus and Company, Mutual of

1968 TIMOTHY F. SHAY, Madison,

CT, died September 23, 2019.

At Saint Michael’s he was captain of the soccer team and chosen for Who’s Who in America’s Colleges & Universities in 1968. Later in life, he earned his MBA from Suffolk University. His work career included account executive for Xerox Learning Systems in Lexington, MA, in the 1980s, with Zenger Miller (Times Mirror Corp) in Framingham, MA, as management consulting in the 1990s, and time as a regional manager with DRI McGraw-Hill in Lexington doing economic forecasting and consulting. Tim was a veteran of the Vietnam War, serving in the 101st Airborne Division of the Army, and

was awarded the Bronze Star. He was happiest on the beach in Misquamicut, RI, where he spent every summer of his childhood and through his adulthood.

He also enjoyed racing sports cars at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut and various tracks in Rhode Island. Tim enjoyed playing soccer and skiing into his adulthood. He was a devout practicing Catholic. In 2001 he met Mandy Farricker, marrying her in 2003 and growing very close to her son, Jack. Tim was predeceased by a son and is survived by his wife of 16 years, Mandy,

by Jack, and by two brothers and extended family.

1971 WILLIAM F. CORMIER,

St. Augustine, FL, died September 1, 2019. He had lived since 2005 with a cardiac myopathy diagnosis but still found strength to volunteer, doing Meals on Wheels and working at the Senior Center. He was raised in Iowa and later returned to Vermont. A talented high school and college athlete, he attended North Shore Community College in Beverly, MA, before coming to Saint Michael’s on a basketball scholarship to study human development and psychology. He began a long banking career in Burlington, VT, continuing in Massachusetts and Florida, and he assisted with local politics in Massachusetts (legislative aide to Rep. William Lantigua). In 2001 he retired to St. Augustine,

1967

BARRY ROY, Chilmark, MA, died August 9, 2019. He was a trustee of Saint Michael’s College since 2011 and chair of the Investment Committee.

Barry loved his alma mater and was a dedicated alumnus through both his philanthropy and volunteer work. Growing up in Connecticut, he grew to love the Scouting experience and became an Eagle Scout. During summers of his college years, he worked on Cape Cod in Falmouth. He treasured the many lifelong friendships he made during his time at Saint Michael’s, his friends becoming his “Band of Brothers” for the next 50 years. After St. Mike’s he graduated from Albany Law School in 1971 followed by a master’s in taxation (LLM) from Boston University School of Law. From 1974 to 1980, Barry worked in the Office of Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service.

He joined Deloitte as a tax partner in 1981, serving many multinational clients, and was named National Director of Tax Quality Assurance in 1996. He retired in 2009. Barry was an avid supporter of many charities, including The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Compassionate Care ALS and the Aquinnah Lighthouse project of the Wampanoag Nation on Martha’s Vineyard. Barry was fondly called “The Bear” by those who knew and loved him. He filled the room with love and laughter. As an only child, he is survived by numerous cousins, their children, godchildren and dear friends who all became his chosen family. A celebration of his life was held in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel on the Saint Michael’s campus on October 12, 2019.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Barry Roy Memorial Fund at Saint Michael’s College, One Winooski Park, Colchester, VT 05439 or online at www.smcvt.edu/roymemorial.

where he enjoyed ocean swims. He was active in his parish and AA. He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Nancy, a son, three daughters and extended family. He was the son of the late Raymond Cormier ’52.

1974 THOMAS F. O’CONNOR JR., Southport, CT, died

October 11, 2018, from complications of Parkinson’s disease. After studying political science at Saint Michael’s, he earned a

IN MEMORIAM

America Capital Management Corporation, Strong Capital Management, Wells Capital Management and other investment firms. He was a member of the CFA Institute and the New York Society of Security Analysts.

In younger years, Charles enjoyed playing squash, jogging, gardening and attending Broadway shows.

He also traveled widely domestically and internationally, including to California, Florida, Colorado, Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada. In later years, he enjoyed swimming and movies. He attended Mass regularly. Charles was a President’s Medallion supporter of the College. He is survived by his wife, Lois, a son and a daughter.

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master’s from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in New York City in 1976. His work career included time in the long-term care insurance industry, including with MetLife as a senior contract analyst, and earlier with The Hartford in the same capacity. He had been a College Fellows Club supporter of Saint Michael’s. He is survived by his wife, attorney Althea S. Dinan, and extended family.

1976 BRIAN FAGAN, Shelburne, VT, died July 6, 2019, after living with younger-onset Alzheimer’s for many years.

Despite this diagnosis, he proclaimed that he loved his life and was content with simple pleasures: daily crossword puzzles, talk radio, books, movies, lunch and reading the New York Post. After Saint Michael’s he managed several businesses, including the Hot Tin Roof on Martha’s Vineyard and Racquet’s Edge in Essex Junction, before owning his own business, Sunshine Laundromat of Burlington and Milton. He was happiest riding his bike along the Burlington bike path or causeway and in the Champlain Islands and Charlotte. He loved music from the Beatles to Broadway. He was a fan of the Celtics, Red Sox and UVM men’s basketball.

Brian had been a camp

counselor, baseball umpire and hockey coach in his younger life. He is survived by his wife of 26 years, Annmarie Deitrich, a brother and extended family.

G. THOMAS O’DONNELL III, Cape Cod, MA, died

August 5, 2019. Before retiring to Cape Cod, he worked for the Boeing Company for 20 years. He loved history, watches, travel, good food and fine wine. He is survived by his wife of 32 years, Sophie, a brother, three sisters and extended family.

1977 STEPHEN FITZPATRICK, Trumbull, CT, died August 19, 2019. After Saint Michael’s he worked as a social worker in Fairfield and taught at the University School in Bridgeport, including in special education. He worked for People’s United Bank for many years in the fraud protection division, and worked for a time in insurance sales. He was a member of the Gaelic-American Club in Fairfield. He loved to sing and was a member of his church choir and the GAC Glee Club. He also was Degree in the K of C, and in younger days enjoyed photography and skiing and did landscaping and chemical etching manufacturing jobs. He is survived by his father, stepmother, two sisters, his 20-year

caregiver, Judith, and extended family.

MICHAEL P. SMITH,

Lake George/Granville, NY, died May 26, 2019. Mike was proud to have worked his way through college by pulling double shifts through summers at Norton Sealant and serving as a resident assistant at Saint Michael’s. Mike served in various positions in the construction and sales industries in both New York and New Jersey.

He was the self-appointed CEO of Munchkin Construction, where he taught his nephews the basics of tool usage and building things. He also did substitute teaching. He belonged to the Sons of the American Legion. Mike was an avid reader and volunteered at the Pember Library in Granville. He also excelled in sports and was on the 1972 Northern Conference co-champion football team at Granville High, sustaining bonds with his teammates through his life. He also was an accomplished golfer, but his greatest passion was skiing, whether conquering fresh powder at Killington or doing a helicopter-drop into virgin snow in Colorado at Telluride. He is survived by four brothers, three sisters and extended family.

1980 SHARON MASTRANGELO, Boston, MA, died July 18, 2019, of cancer. She grew up in New Jersey and lived

in Boston for 30 years after Saint Michael’s. An accomplished gardener who loved to entertain, Sharon was a financial services executive, most recently at UBS Financial Services in Boston. She previously worked at Merrill Lynch, Kidder Peabody, EF Hutton and the Calvert Group.

Sharon participated in Boston-area alumni activities in support of the College. She is survived by her son, Joshua Martineau, two sisters, two brothers and extended family.

1981 STEVEN (BOJ) WILLIAM KEOUGH, Richmond, VT,

died May 25, 2019, of cancer. After earning his Saint Michael’s business degree, he attended graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University to study recreational sports management; though he went on to a career of painting, sports remained a passion through his life, particularly Boston professional teams. He coached his children in multiple sports and was an ardent Grateful Dead and Phish fan. He also liked to travel.

His close circle of Saint Michael’s friends provided considerable support as his health declined. He is survived by his wife, Julie, a son, a daughter, a sister and extended family.

1991

DONALD F. HERBERT JR., Elkridge, MD, died August 24, 2019, of complications from an aortic aneurysm. A talented high school athlete in football and basketball (1993 state champions in Maine), he returned to his alma mater, Dirigo High School in Dixfield, ME, as a teacher and varsity boys’ basketball coach. After Saint Michael’s he earned his education master’s from Rivier College in Nashua, NH. He was a career educator who taught secondary special education in New Hampshire, Maine, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. At his death, he was a teacher at Francis Scott Key Middle School in Maryland’s Montgomery County. He was an avid sports enthusiast, coaching Little League baseball and middle and high school football. In 2009 he received the North Carolina High School Coach of the Year award for his work with the Orange High School girls’ basketball team. He spent years as a college baseball umpire in the All Division 1 ACC, A-10, CAA and Big East Conferences. He collected sports memorabilia and enjoyed talking stats and sports trivia with his son, as well as loving music and humor.

He is survived his wife of 25 years, Colleen, two sons, a daughter, two brothers, four sisters and extended family.

LOUISE WORTH HAKEY, Fairfax, VT, died September 5, 2019. Louise worked for many years as faculty secretary in the Business Department at Saint Michael’s while raising her family. She also completed her master’s degree in Educational Administration in those years. A longtime resident of Milton, Louise was active with the planning commission, school board, Project Graduation and fundraising. She established a private kindergarten in Milton, and with her husband built several homes there. In 1996, the family moved to Fairfax and built another home. She stayed active there in school activities and fundraisers. She was patriotic and loved July Fourth parades and fireworks. She also loved New England, Cape Cod, an annual family lobster fest tradition, cooking, socializing at ballgames, Sunday family dinners, landscaping and flowers. She is survived by her husband of 48-plus years, Mark Hakey ’72, a son, Michael Hakey ’95, a daughter, Holly Magoon ’95 and extended family.

M AS T ER ’ S D EGR EE GR ADUAT E S

M1973 SISTER CLARA MAE LILL, RC, Chicago, IL, died July

23, 2008, the College

learned recently. She was a Cenacle sister for 55 years, serving in the WheelingCharleston, WV, diocese over many years as pastoral associate of Good Shepherd Mission in Coalburg. She had a history bachelor’s from St. Mary-of-the-Woods in Indiana and her Saint Michael’s master’s in religious education. She taught and led a religious education program in Tewksbury, MA, for a time before feeling called to West Virginia, and she served at the Good Shepherd Mission starting in 1980 until 2004, providing food and clothing to the area’s poor. She was presented the Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin Medallion from St. Mary’s College for her work. No survivor information was available.

M1980 SISTER MARY ELLEN RAHILL, OP, Atlanta, GA,

died October 11, 2016, the College learned recently.

She served more than 50 years of ministry with the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. She made her profession when she was 43 in 1963. Of her later-life vocation pursuit, given that she had felt the call since earlier youth, she said, “I was afraid to ask.” Her jobs before entering the convent included bicycle repair. She worked with impoverished cancer patients in Atlanta from 1989 to 1998 and again from 2002 until her death. She is survived by extended family.

M1981 SISTER MARGARET MAHONEY, RSM, Merion

Station, PA, died November 14, 2016, the College learned recently. She entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1964 and professed vows in 1967. Her ministries included teaching elementary school and directing religious education in Philadelphia and Raleigh, NC. In 1987, after a year internship in fundraising, she established the first development office of the Sisters of Mercy at Merion, serving nine years. She continued in fundraising for the Philadelphia and Wilmington, DE, dioceses, including heading development for the Dominicans of Elkins Park and for her alma mater, Gwynedd Mercy Academy, and for St. Francis Hospital Foundation, a position she held until her death. She is survived by a sister and extended family.

M1982 GAEL GATES BOARDMAN,

Underhill, VT, died June 26, 2019. After early undergraduate studies at Michigan Tech in Houghton, MI, he returned home to Vermont to complete his degree at Goddard College and his master’s at Saint Michael’s.

He had been an adjunct professor at Saint Michael’s and Champlain colleges.

His love for anything old started early, and he collected things: tools,

IN MEMORIAM

1989

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IN MEMORIAM 72

automobiles, tractors. His collections filled two barns.

His pride and joy was a 1918 Locomobile. Gael was active in his community: planning commission, Board of Civil Authority, Historical Society, Boy Scouts (a founder of the Underhill/Jericho Troop).

He was active with Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts.

Gael is survived by his wife of 59 years, Judith, two daughters, a son and extended family.

M1 9 9 2 REV. JOSEPH E. ROMANO, Rutland, VT/Brooksville, FL, died July 2, 2019. After Saint Michael’s he graduated from the Pontifical University of Montreal and the University of Hawaii, earning degrees in philosophy and theology, and master’s in both education and clinical psychology. He was ordained a priest in 1963 by Burlington Bishop Joyce, and for the past 48 years served Vermont parishes in Burlington, Chittenden, Essex Junction, Montpelier, Northfield, Orwell, Pittsford, Proctor, Richford and Springfield.

He served as Navy chaplain from 1969 to 1973 and when ashore worked in drug rehabilitation. He served two tours in the Vietnam War, earning medals from both the U.S. and Vietnam governments.

From 1979 to 1983, he supervised four chaplains with the Third Marine Division, Okinawa, Japan, and was appointed to the

Naval Training Command in Orlando, FL, where he supervised religious education programs for some 800 students. After several heart attacks, he was discharged from the Navy for medical reasons, retiring with the rank of Commander. In his recovery he pursued his clinical psychology degree, working part-time to help adolescents and adults. He also was a retreat master and presented workshops on psychology and religion.

He returned to pastoral ministry in Pittsford, VT, as his health improved, and he retired from active ministry with senior priest status in 2011. He continued helping parishes in the Berkshires near the family he retired to be around. He is survived by a sister and two brothers.

M1997 SUSAN A. FAGAN BARRY, Williston, VT, died May 9, 2019, after a sudden illness.

She graduated from the University of Vermont School of Nursing, a pediatric nurse practitioner program at Northeastern University in Boston, and had her Saint Michael’s master’s in administration.

Nationally certified in 1973, she was one of the first pediatric nurse practitioners in Vermont. After working for a time at Timber Lane Pediatrics, she moved on to Saint Michael’s College’s Student Health Services, where she continued to work part-

time until her death. Her diverse interests brought to her to UVM’s Pediatric Primary Care, the Vermont Department of Health, Pine Ridge School and South Burlington’s Orchard Elementary. She also was camp nurse at Brown Ledge, Cape Cod Sea Camps and Camp Holy Cross. A seasoned traveler, she had adventures across much of Europe, the Caribbean and the U.S. She loved spending time on Cape Cod. She had completed her 23rd cruise in April 2019. She enjoyed gardening and earned a master gardener certificate.

She co-led the TC Community Gardens in Williston.

She is survived by a daughter, a son, a brother and extended family.

FACULT Y, S TAFF AND FR IE N DS ROSALYN S. YALOW, Bronx, NY, died May 30, 2019. She was a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who was honored by Saint Michael’s with an Honorary Doctorate in 1979 during her visit to campus as part of the College’s International Women & Society Symposium that year. “By conferring this degree … this liberal arts college wishes to publicly acknowledge your lifelong dedication to medical research and human development,” wrote President Edward Henry in 1979 to Yalow. She graduated from Hunter College in New York at age 19 with honors and was that

college’s first physics major.

She carved a renowned career in medical research, largely at a Bronx veterans hospital, and in the 1950s became a co-discoverer of the radioimmunoassay, an extremely sensitive way to measure insulin and other hormones in the blood.

The technique invigorated the field of endocrinology, making possible major advances in diabetes research and in diagnosing and treating hormonal problems related to growth, thyroid function and fertility. It marked a “revolution in biological and medical research,” according to Nobel Prize officials who honored her. She was a pioneer as a teacher of engineering and science at a time when all her colleagues were men.

Yalow earned her doctorate in nuclear physics in 1945 and went on to teach at Hunter, then volunteered at a Columbia University medical lab and was introduced to the field of radiotherapy, which led her to the Bronx VA Hospital and her award-winning research collaborations there. She was honored by many of the top prizes in sciences and her field besides her Nobel Prize. Her husband, Aaron Yalow, died in 1992.

Two children survive her.

“More to come…”

— LOU DIMASI

No n-Pro f i t O rg.

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