Alumni Accomplishments
Educators Kathleen Calnon Dodge'81, Carrie LaPoint '93 and Michelle
Rheome Pinard '81, left to right, spent their summer as trainers for
the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in Seoul , South Korea . Pinard was
the director and liaison for the 16 U.S. teachers who worked with Seoul office.
The summer camp program was designed to increase the fluency and confidence of
Korean teachers of English.
George Ashline ’89, associate professor of
mathematics at Saint Michael’s College, has earned the college’s
top teaching award for 2004, as determined by his colleagues. Ashline
received the Joanne Rathgeb Teaching Award at the Centennial Academic
Convocation on October 1, 2004; the college observed its 100 th anniversary
in 2004. A native of Rouses Point, N.Y., Prof. Ashline is renowned
for hosting groups of students in his office at all hours and was also
praised for his extensive work with local elementary school math teachers
through the Vermont Math Initiative and Vermont Math Partnership, and
for his work as an Association of Vermont Independent Colleges Master
Teacher. He earned his graduate degrees at Notre Dame, and has published
several papers on math education.
Leveraging its leadership
in litigation and arbitration, the international law firm Milbank,
Tweed , Hadley & McCloy LLP has announced that James
N. Benedict ’71 and Sean M. Murphy ’91 will
join the firm’s New York office as partner and of counsel, respectively.
Commenting on the appointment, David Gelfand, partner and head of Milbank’s
Litigation Practice, stated, “We are extremely
pleased to have Jim Benedict, one of the most experienced and successful
class action and derivative suits lawyers in the United States, and
Sean Murphy, who specializes in securities and antitrust matters, join
Milbank. The addition of Jim and Sean will allow us to expand our focus
on the litigation needs of investment banks, investment advisers and
other major financial institutions, as well as to address with greater
depth the needs of our clients faced with class and derivative actions.”
Prior to joining Milbank, Benedict was a litigation partner in the
New York office of Clifford Chance LLP. He frequently lectures and
has authored a number of articles on class actions and other litigation
matters. Murphy, formerly a partner in the litigation department of
Clifford Chance, has also written a number of articles, on securities
class action litigation.
Pope John Paul has named Frederick Campbell ’65 the new bishop
for the Columbus, Ohio, diocese. Formerly Twin Cities ( Minnesota)
Auxiliary Bishop, he was installed on January 13, as the leader of
nearly 250,000 Roman Catholics in 23 counties.
Bishop Campbell was also rector of the St. Paul Seminary School of
Divinity of the University of St. Thomas, served on the St. Paul Seminary
Board of Trustees and was a director of St. Thomas Academy and the
St. Bernard School Board. He was ordained a priest in 1980, was a pastor
at three churches over 19 years, and in 1999 was consecrated a bishop.
A native of Elmira, N.Y., Bishop Campbell graduated with a B.A. in
history and modern languages from St. Lawrence, and was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa. He earned advanced degrees from Ohio State University.
From 1976 to 1980, he studied for the priesthood at St. Paul Seminary.
There were no National Hockey League games as what would have been
the normal season was scheduled to get under way, but that doesn’t mean the organizations weren’t
active. In September, the Ottawa Senators announced the hiring of Greg
Carvel ’93 as
an assistant coach. A Phi Beta Kappa scholar with majors in government
and mathematics and the senior captain and an Academic All-American hockey
player at St. Lawrence, Carvel played professionally in Sweden for one
year. He earned his master’s degree in sports management at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1996, and had been on the coaching
staff of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks since 1999. His playing days are not
quite over; he was photographed after playing for the Senators Office
All-Stars during the Senators’ media training camp.
At their December 2004 meeting, State University of New York Board of Trustees
Chair Thomas F. Egan and Chancellor Robert L. King welcomed Christopher
Parker Conners ’83 to the board. The New York State Senate confirmed
Governor Pataki's appointment of Conners on December 6, 2004; his term runs
through 2008. Conners is a principal of British American, a family-owned and
multi-faceted firm in Latham, N.Y., whose enterprises have included real estate
development, producing films and television shows, book publishing, and the
manufacture and sale of soft drinks. He is responsible for directing the day-to-day
operations of all aspects of British American companies. The son of former
SUNY Trustee Bernard Conners ’51 and Catherine Connors Conners ’51,
he was a geology major and member of Sigma Pi fraternity. He and his wife,
Kendall Kraft Conners, live in Schenectady.
Artist, writer/editor and craftsperson Kam Ghaffari ’77, of
Westerly, R.I., has recently installed a 3 ½-ton, 10-foot-high sculpture
on the grounds of the recently remodeled Westerly train station, which is served
by Amtrak. “Misquamicut” (a reference to the original Native name
for the Westerly area, maning “place where the fish are”) is made
primarily of cast bronze and Westerly granite, which is renowned as the world’s
premier-quality architectural and sculptural granite. It was commissioned as
part of the Westerly-Pawcatuck Joint Development Task Force’s ongoing
beautification and revitalization efforts, and funded by the Rhode Island Department
of Transportation and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. “At
least one fish is visible from whatever direction you approach the sculpture,” said
Ghaffari in a statement. “Let your imagination swim with them.”
Jon H. Kingsepp ’62, of the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.,
office of Howard & Howard Attorneys, P.C., was recently appointed
vice chair of two committees for the American Bar Association-Senior Lawyers
Division: the State and Local Bars Committee and the Legal Education and Mentoring
Committee. A member of the American Bar Association’s Torts & Insurance
Practice Section (vice chair of the Business Torts Committee and former editor
of its newsletter), he concentrates his practice in business and insurance
litigation, public sector law and white-collar crime. He was recently appointed
chair of the State Bar of Michigan’s Senior Lawyers Section and is a
former chair of the organization’s ADR Section and the General Practice
Section. He also served as a clerk and vice chair of the State Bar of Michigan
Representative Assembly, and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees
of the Michigan State Bar Foundation. A fellow of the American College of Civil
Trial Mediators and a member of the Michigan Municipal League, he graduated cum
laude with a juris doctor degree from Wayne State University in 1968.
Heidi Fortier Murphy ’98 has been hired as one of four
conservation officer trainees by the state of New Hampshire. A former eighth-grade
science teacher, she becomes the first full-time woman conservation officer
in the state’s history. According to an October 24, 2004, story in the
ManchesterUnion Leader, Murphy “grew up as one of five girls
in a family that did some fishing (and) snowmobiling and enjoyed the out-of-doors.
But she has never trapped a 400-pound bear using doughnuts or carried a dead
body out of the mountains in sub-zero conditions -- or for that matter, changed
the oil on an ATV or conducted field sobriety tests of snowmobilers in the
woods. She is willing and eager to learn, though.”
Murphy is undergoing a year-long period of rigorous on-the-job training, touring
the state and working in each region, and she will attend the police academy.
Upon successful completion of the training, she will become a full-time conservation
officer with a designated district.
Murphy has been an outdoor educator at the YMCA of the Rockies in Winter Park,
Colo.; a conservation educator at E.F. Kehoe Camp in Hydeville, Vt., where
she taught hunter education, hunting ethics, canoeing/camping and survival;
and a professional ski instructor. A biology major at St.
Lawrence, she was a member of the women's soccer and indoor track and field
teams. She is married to classmate Ryan Murphy ’98; they live in Wolfeboro,
N.H.
Trustee Derrick H. Pitts '78, chief astronomer and director
of the Fels Planetarium in Philadelphia, has been named one of the "50
Most Important Blacks in Research Science" for 2004, as selected by Science
Spectrum magazine and Career Communications Group, Inc. Pitts was chosen
based on his lifelong work and accomplishments in making science part of
global society. He and his fellow honorees were cited as role models for
young people whose accomplishments are examples of the significant daily
contributions made by the small cadre of African Americans in the field.
A press release from the Fels Planetarium states, "Pitts, the region's
foremost astronomy authority, has been a vital component of the Franklin Institute
for over two decades. In 2002, he oversaw the renovation of the Fels Planetarium
and was integrally involved in the design of 'Space Command,' the Institute's
new astronomy exhibit. Pitts twice modernized and redesigned the Institute's
observatory.
"Pitts is the Franklin Institute's spokesperson in earth and space sciences
to countless media outlets. He co-hosts the award-winning astronomy programs
'Sky Talk' and 'Sky Tour,' which he developed together with WHYY-FM, Philadelphia's
PBS affiliate. In addition, he appears twice monthly on WXPN's 'Kids Corner,'
a local children's radio program.
"He has been called upon by the 'Today Show,' 'Good Morning America,'
the 'CBS Morning News' and ' Newton's Apple' to appear as a science advisor,
and appears frequently on MSNBC. Pitts has also written astronomy columns for
the Philadelphia Inquirer and for South Jersey's largest
daily newspaper, the Courier-Post; and has been featured in articles
in the Inquirer's Sunday magazine, Mid-Atlantic magazine, Time magazine, Home & Garden and
the Philadelphia Tribune, the nation's oldest continuously published
African American newspaper.”
Kevin Szott ’86 not only competed in the 2004 Paralympic
Games in Athens, Greece; he was also elected as the U.S. team's flag-bearer.
Here, he leads the U.S. squad into the arena at the opening ceremonies last
September 17. Szott, a 2000 judo gold medalist from Clifton, N.J., said, "I’ve
been competing in disabled sports for 20 years and have decided this is my
last Games. If I were writing my own script, it couldn’t have worked
out any better. Carrying the flag adds to the excitement and means I have to
win now." The visually impaired athlete captured the bronze medal in judo
a few days later.
Szott is a versatile athlete who holds 31 national titles in wrestling, powerlifting,
shot put, discus, javelin and judo for the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes
(USABA) and is only the second athlete ever to medal in four different sports
at the Paralympic Games. His most recent focus has been judo; he is the first
visually impaired athlete to be nationally ranked by USA Judo. During the Sydney
Paralympic Games in 2000, he became the second American to win a gold medal
in either Olympic or Paralympic judo competition.
Szott became visually impaired at the age of 10 from retinitis pigmentosa
and macular disease. In 1983, he earned First Team All-East Honors and was
an NCAA Division III All-American in football at St. Lawrence. Szott earned
two gold (wrestling and goalball) and one silver (shot put) medals, in addition
to finishing fifth in the discus and javelin, at the 1984 Long Island Paralympic
Games. Since then, he has medaled at numerous national and international competitions,
including a silver in judo at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games.
"The fact that others chose me means a lot," said Szott, who also
serves as a member of the USABA Board of Directors. "It’s like a
pat on the back for all my athletic achievements, my work in disabled sports,
and my contribution to the Paralympic movement in the United States. I didn’t
think I’d be chosen because from archery to wheelchair rugby everyone
at this level of competition has an unbelievable resume. There are so many
great athletes in U.S. Paralympics." Overall, the U.S. Paralympic team
won 88 medals in Athens.
Szott, who earned his St. Lawrence degree in biology, is a group sales representative
for The Hartford. He holds a master's degree in exercise physiology from Penn
State, where he worked for a time as a strength coach.
National Hockey League Hall of Famer and Florida Panthers Alternate Governor William
A. Torrey ’57 was inducted into the Broward County Sports
Hall of Fame on November 16, 2004. Torrey has spent 36 years in the NHL and
was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995. Under Torrey’s guidance,
the Panthers broke expansion records for wins (33), points (83), and winning
percentage (.494). The team also made it to the Stanley Cup Finals faster
than any other post-1967 expansion team in NHL history. His hard work brought
the 2001 NHL Entry Draft and 2003 NHL All-Star game to South Florida for
the first time, and he was also responsible for the club’s move into
the state-of-the-art Office Depot Center.
Torrey began his NHL career in 1967 as executive vice president of the Oakland
Seals. Prior to joining the Panthers, he spent 21 years with the New York Islanders,
the first 20 as general manager. Under his direction, the team won four consecutive
Stanley Cup titles.
This is a well-deserved honor for Bill,” Panthers owner and Chief
Executive Officer Alan Cohen said. “He was one of the pioneers behind the
development of the Panthers and is one of the most respected men in hockey.”
