Alumni Accomplishments
Three
Laurentians have been named to key men's collegiate basketball coaching
positions for the 2003-04 season. (From left) Wayne Morgan
'73 has
been named Iowa State University's 17th head coach; he spent the 2002-03
season as an assistant coach at Iowa State. Morgan is a former head
coach at Long Beach State and was an assistant coach at Syracuse, Xavier,
Dartmouth and St. Lawrence. Western New Mexico University has named Mark
Coleman '83 head coach; he comes to WNMU from Drew University,
where he had been the head coach for eight seasons. At St. Lawrence,
Coleman was a team captain and MVP as a senior. He was also a three-year
all-conference selection and led the Saints to two NCAA III Tournament
appearances. The University of Dayton, a Top 25 team last year, has
appointed Richard M. “Morgan” Cassara '97 an assistant
coach, after four seasons at Worcester (Mass.) Academy, during which
he compiled a record of 89-20. Cassara was captain of the Saints in
his senior year.
U.S. Army Col . Russell Czerw '83 is in Iraq as part
of Operation Iraqi Freedom, in charge of all veterinarian and dental
assets and services in Iraq and Kuwait. He gets the occasional chance
to practice some dentistry, and sent this picture of himself with some
Iraqi children that he treated during a humanitarian mission to Baghdad.
An ROTC student and member of the baseball team in college, Dr. Czerw
also acted in several theatre productions. He earned his dental degree
at SUNY at Buffalo in 1997.
Donna M. Fish '80 is the new associate
provost for enrollment and curriculum management at SUNY Cortland.
She had been associate dean for academic administration at St. Lawrence
since 1989. Her responsibilities are to direct all enrollment functions,
including admissions, student records and registration, financial aid,
advising services and first-year programs and orientation. She will
also lead college-wide, collaborative efforts to have academic departments,
student services, administrative offices and technology services work
in unison to support student recruitment, advising and retention goals.
After graduating from St. Lawrence with highest honors, Fish earned
master's and doctoral degrees at Cornell. In 1998, she was named to
the State University of New York Honor Roll. The recipient of the Jefferson
Community College Distinguished Alumna Award, she is a member of the
Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Alpha Kappa Delta and Phi Theta
Kappa honor societies. She and her husband, Ron Reed, have a daughter,
Lauren, a sophomore in high school.
Dr. Roger E. Kaiser Jr. '75 has been named CEO of
Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo. He had previously been
clinical director at SUNY at Buffalo's Erie County Medical Center.
A member of the wrestling team and of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, Dr.
Kaiser was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a senior. He earned his medical
degree at SUNY at Buffalo in 1979 and has been a career advisor and
Reunion volunteer for St. Lawrence. He and his wife, Dr. Wendy Kaiser,
live in Clarence, N.Y., with their two children.
Michigan State Athletic Director Ron Mason '64 is
the 2003 winner of the MacInnes Award, given annually by the American
Hockey Coaches Association in recognition of his “great concern for
amateur hockey and youth programs.” Prior to being named athletic director
at MSU, Mason was the men's hockey coach there for 23 years, leading
his team to the NCAA national championship in 1986. He also coached
at Lake Superior State and Bowling Green, amassing a career record
of 924-380-83 and being named NCAA Coach of the Year in 1992. A stellar
player at St. Lawrence, captaining the men's team to its first NCAA
championship game in 1962, he was inducted into the University's Athletic
Hall of Fame in 1999, when this picture was taken.
Jeffrey S. Wells '67, senior vice president for
human resources and training at Circuit City Stores, Inc., has been
elected chairman of the Committee on Employment Law of the National
Retail Federation. Wells, who lives in Richmond, Va., is also chairman
of INROADS Virginia, a premier minority talent organization that provides
high-quality minority college talent for large corporate internship
programs, and is involved in several other professional and educational
boards.
In honor of leading Karpus Investment Management to a steady growth
rate of 20% yearly, George W. Karpus '68 , president
and CEO, was honored at a gala awards banquet on June 26, 2003, when
he was introduced as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year from
among 24 finalists in upstate New York. He enjoyed 17 years of success
in the financial industry before founding the company bearing his name
in 1986.
The State University of New York at Fredonia
has announced that Professor Dan Berggren '71, an audio-radio production
instructor in its department of communications and a recording
artist for Sleeping Giant Records, was a double winner in the Communicator
Awards 2002 Audio Competition. The awards were established by members
of the communication industry and are given annually to recognize
the achievements of their peers in audio, visual and print communication.
Berggren's feature story “Chuck Berry's Birthday” earned honors in the Radio
Programs/Arts/Cultural category, while his musical interpretation
of the Adirondack poem “Second Wind” took a prize in the Narration
category. St. Lawrence awarded him an Alumni Citation in 2001, when
this picture was taken.
The Buffalo, N.Y., law firm Hodgson Russ has announced that Sally
B. Logan '76 has joined the firm's partnership in its Buffalo
office. She concentrates her practice in estate planning and administration.
She received her J.D. magna cum laude from SUNY at Buffalo School
of Law, and an MBA from SUNY Buffalo.
Susan R. Jones '78 was one of 10 Ohio Sate University
faculty members to receive a 2002 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching.
An assistant professor in the School of Education Policy and Leadership
and the director of the Student Personnel Assistantship Program, this
is the second time she has been honored in her four years at Ohio State;
in 2001 she received her school's Outstanding Teaching Award. After
St. Lawrence she earned a master's degree at UVM (during which time
she was one of the original ice cream makers at the original Ben & Jerry's)
and her doctorate at the University of Maryland.
Hartwick College's most prestigious teaching honor for 2002-03 went
to Douglas A. Hamilton '79 , associate professor and
chair of the biology department. The Margaret A. Bunn Award for Excellence
in Teaching was presented to Hamilton at the college's commencement
on May 24. At that time, he was hailed as a teacher with “an enviable
record of research,” one whose students are “drawn to him and his work.” His
teaching specialty is plant molecular biology, with a particular interest
in plant pollens; he has conducted research on gene expression and
has published more than 15 scientific papers on the topic, some co-authored
by his students who have gone on to graduate careers in biology. A
member of the Hartwick College faculty since 1995, he obtained his
Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is on sabbatical doing molecular
research at SUNY Albany in fall 2003. He and his wife, Lynne
T. Nicolson, and their daughter Caitlin, 15, live in Oneonta.
Frances Maloy '80, leader of access services at Emory
University in Atlanta, has been elected vice president/president-elect
of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division
of the American Library Association (ALA). She has held numerous positions
in both the ACRL and the ALA, and prior to moving to Emory in 1992
was the director of public services at Hamilton College. She earned
her MLS at SUNY Albany. She and her husband, Howard “Chip” Follert
II '81 and their son, Jack, live in Norcross, Ga.; she is the aunt
of two current students, John Loftus '05 and Caleb Loftus '06.
David Poirier '84 commands
the 720th Military Police (combat) Battalion in Iraq. His battalion
is “Task Force Gauntlet,” consisting
of nearly 1,000 combat support military police, two companies of M1Abrams
tanks (armor), one company of Bradley Fighting Vehicles (infantry),
special counterintelligence and psychological operations teams and
a combat camera crew. They travel from one Iraqi enemy hot spot to
another; their job is to identify and eliminate the enemy threat. His
headquarters is in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown. He has been a
spokesperson for his unit and its mission on CNN and other media.
Wade M. Kennedy '86 has
joined the Charlotte, N.C., office of McGuireWoods LLP as a partner
in the financial services department. He focuses his practice on bank
finance and commercial lending. Kennedy earned his law degree in 1989
from the University of Michigan Law School. Prior to joining McGuireWoods,
he was a partner at Helms Mulliss & Wicker,
PLLC, also in Charlotte.
James J. Fitzsimmons '90 has been named chair of
the Corporate Law Committee of the Essex County (N.J.) Bar Association.
A shareholder in the Short Hills firm Budd Larner Rosenbaum Greenberg & Sade,
he earned his law degree from the Dickinson School of Law at Penn Sate
University in 1993. He lives in Mendham, N.J., with his wife, Kathryn
Mullett '90, and their two children.
The Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Northern Vermont has
announced the hiring of Tayt R. Brooks '97 as its new
government affairs director. He is the association's recognized lobbyist
and advances its legislative and regulatory agenda at the state and local
levels. A lifelong resident of St. Albans, Brooks has served on the St.
Albans Town Selectboard since 1998 and is the current chair.
