Alumni Accomplishments
David Demarest ’70 has been
elected president of the Association of Justices of the Supreme Court
of the State of New York. He is in the 11 th year of a 14-year term
as a Justice of the Supreme Court in the Fourth Judicial District,
which covers Northern New York. He has been a district representative
to the association and its secretary; he also serves on the Pattern
Jury Instructions Committee, which is charged with editing and publishing New
York Pattern Jury Instructions, the pre-eminent source for jury
charges in New York for judges who conduct civil jury trials. He earned
his law degree at Albany Law School in 1973 and lives in Potsdam, N.Y.,
with his wife, Sandy Pike Demarest ’88. [credit] Mark Hall '06
FinancialTimes has announced the appointment
of Stephen Howe ’76 as vice president of advertising
for the Americas. Howe will oversee advertising operations and sales
with a focus on growth in the U.S. Howe was previously vice president
of advertising for The Wall Street Journal, where he directed
the newspaper’s display, financial and classified advertising
sales staff and managed advertising services and support operations.
He also worked closely with counterparts at The Wall Street Journal’s Interactive
and International editions. An economics major, he completed an executive
management program in sales management at Columbia University. He serves
on the board of directors for the American Advertising Federation and
the Advertising Education Foundation, and previously served on the
board of directors of the Advertising Council.
The Council for Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU), an
advocacy organization for institutions in New York State, has named Carlos
Garcia '82 (right, with St. Lawrence President Daniel F. Sullivan)
to its Alumni Hall of Distinction. Garcia, an associate in the New
York State Department of Education's Office of Higher Education, was
among the graduates of independent colleges honored at an event earlier
this year that also marked the 30th anniversary of the state's Tuition
Assistance Program (TAP) and 35th anniversary of its Higher Education
Opportunity Program (HEOP).
Garcia, a recipient of TAP and HEOP assistance as an undergraduate,
earned his degree in sociology. At CICU's event, he stated, "The
very existence of (HEOP) made my future possible. I have a passion
for advocating for the disenfranchised in our society; it is important
to be able to articulate their problems and develop solutions for them."
Garcia has worked in higher education and state education adminstration
since graduating from St. Lawrence. Among the responsibilities of his
current position is oversight of the 42 Collegiate Science and Technology
Entry Programs (C-STEP) in New York State, helping disadvantaged students
enter science, mathematics, technical and licensed professions. He
has had an impact on tens of thousands of students working to enter
challenging careers. St. Lawrence is among the schools participating
in C-STEP.
Members of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA)
have elected Richard F. Herbek ’68, village
manager of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., a Northeast regional vice president,
for a three-year term commencing in October. As one of 17 vice presidents,
three of whom are elected from the Northeast, Herbek will represent
ICMA to state associations of local government management and maintain
relationships among other affiliated organizations. His career in local
government spans more than three decades. In 1971, he was named assistant
to the village manager of Scarsdale, N.Y. where he later served as
assistant village manager; he became village manager of Croton-on-Hudson
in 1981. He earned his MPA at NYU in 1970.
Karen R. Hitchcock ’64 became the 18 th principal
and vice chancellor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.,
on July 1. She was also named professor of anatomy and cell biology.
She had been president of the University at Albany, a State University
of New York unit, since 1996; among her accomplishments there, she
attracted a $403 million technology research center. She received an
honorary doctorate from St. Lawrence at Commencement exercises in May.
Reamy Jansen ’66, professor of English and
humanities at Rockland Community College, a SUNY unit, was the 2003
recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship and
Creativity, becoming the only person on his campus to win both that
honor and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching,
which he garnered in 2000. A 30-year member of the faculty, he is the
faculty advisor to the college’s magazine of literature and art.
As a writer, he is an essayist, reviewer, critic and poet; he is vice
president of the National Book Critics Circle and is a contributing
editor to the Bloomsbury Review of Books, where he publishes
reviews and interviews, and has also published in a variety of literary
magazines as well as newspapers. His chapbook My Drive, which
has received generous praise, was reviewed in the Winter 2004 online
edition of St. Lawrence. He frequently gives readings, most
recently at the Touchstone Galley in Washington, D.C. On campus, he
was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma and a photographer.
Dennis
P. Ryan ’86 was recently named executive
deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor. He is
pictured delivering the keynote address at the Memorial Day 2004 Commemorative
Service at the Veterans Memorials on the Harriman State Office Campus
in Albany. Ryan is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the
department, which is the primary agent for job creation and economic
growth and workforce development in the state. He was previously with
the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, where he was acting
commissioner for eight months. He has also represented Governor George
Pataki in Washington, D.C., and worked for U.S. Rep Rick Lazio. He
and his wife, Robyn, and their three children live in Delmar, N.Y.
Frederick A. Zito ’47 is a recent recipient
of a prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor. A retired NASA aerospace
engineer who lives in Babylon, N.Y., Dr. Zito was honored as “an
outstanding and successful individual (and) someone who has dedicated
his life to helping others. He exemplifies all that is great about
America,” said William Fugazy, chair of the National Ethnic Coalition
of Organizations (NECO) at the award ceremony on May 15.
Established in 1986, the Ellis Island Medals of Honor pay tribute
to the ancestry groups that comprise America’s unique cultural
mosaic. Past recipients include six U.S. presidents, members of Congress,
Nobel Prize-winners, justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, and individuals
prominent in fields ranging from science and business to entertainment
and the military.
At NASA, Dr. Zito was a technical liaison for the guidance, navigation
and control equipment that was used successfully on the Lunar Module
that landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Over the course of his career
he received five commendations from NASA. He is a veteran of World
War II and the Korean War, and is on the boards of the Museum of Italian
Culture in Islip, N.Y., and the Long Island Wireless History Association.
He is a member of the NECO Foundation, working with the National Park
Service to determine the extent of NECO participation in the establishment
of an ethnic museum at Ellis Island.
Dr. Zito also worked for the Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Federal
Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy, along with
several corporations. He has taught courses at five different colleges
and universities. Upon receiving two doctorates during the same week
in May 2002—a Ph.D. from NYU and an Ed.D. from Dowling College--he
remarked, “One must keep using the brain as well as the muscles.” He
also holds three master’s degrees, as well as two U.S. patents
and two U.S. copyrights.
A mathematics major and education minor at St. Lawrence, Dr. Zito
said in 2002 that “my skilled and dedicated teachers (at St.
Lawrence) endure in my memory.” He and his wife of 54 years,
Marie, are the parents of five children, one of whom is deceased, and
the grandparents of eight.
