The House That by Mark Tarnacki
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W
hen President-Designate Lorraine Sterritt and her husband Bert Lain move this summer into Reiss House — the president’s official residence on the Saint Michael’s College campus — they will be the fourth presidential family occupants of the handsome red-brick colonial-style two-story home and grounds that back up against the steep banks of the Winooski River, just an easy stroll across Route 15 from the main campus buildings and the President’s Office.
The quarters that Saint Michael’s presidents have called home changed and evolved over 104 years to reflect times, circumstances, and resources available to the presidents. The first ten presidents in a row were Edmundite priests; laymen took the reins starting in 1969 with Bernard Boutin (except for Rev. Francis Moriarty, SSE’s interim stint in 1974–76 after his initial presidency ran 1952–58). Sterritt will be the first woman to lead the College. The past 30 years or so have afforded more continuity in presidential quarters than in the College’s earlier years, thanks to the 1985 construction of Reiss House — so-named because funding for its construction was a gift from the College’s 14th president, Paul Reiss (who had the job 1985– 1996), when he moved to Vermont from Fordham University and decided that for him, it was important the president live either directly on, or right beside, campus.
“I tell people I’m the only person who moved to northern Vermont to warm up, because I grew up in Lake Placid,” says Reiss. He desired proximity “just so that I could stay in touch with life on campus and the life that students and faculty were experiencing.” He worked with a Saint Michael’s vice president, John Gutman, who handled many of the design and logistics elements of the building project. Reiss says he had no interest in building “a mansion,” but wanted to be sure the house was large enough to host visitors overnight, such as the occasional campus speaker — it has a first-floor suite for that purpose — or to accommodate gatherings of some size, as with the large first-floor College Room off the back. The current resident of the Reiss House, Saint Michael’s President Jack Neuhauser, speaks with appreciation for the Reiss influence on the home’s location and character. “Reiss House for me was a comfortable, bright place to return to each evening, a place where a family of three deer would visit almost every day and often send their turkey cousins each early morning,” Neuhauser says. “My children and their children would often stay and came to think of the house as a second home. Reiss House is an extremely inviting, unpretentious place for members of the community to gather on occasion and always a quiet place to read and think. I am very grateful to Paul and Rosemary Reiss for providing me with this wonderful college residence.”