Posted on May 1, 1996

Charles William Huntley '34, whose association with Union spanned more than one-quarter of the College's existence, died April 17 at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady after a short illness. He was eighty-two.

Bill Huntley's official titles included dean of the College, professor of psychology, chairman of the Psychology Department, secretary of the College, provost, and Gilbert R. Livingston Professor of Psychology.

Unofficially, he was for many years the College's head groundskeeper, contributing countless hours to planting trees and creating a beautiful campus. He had many other interests, ranging from
bird-watching to antique refinishing, but it was his concern for the campus's appearance that established his campus legend.

Born in Schenectady, he came to Union from Schenectady High School. His father, Charles H. Huntley, was considered an authority on Mohawk Valley history and for several years appeared on local radio as “Old Mr. Citizen” in a series of programs that examined local history.

At Union, Huntley was managing editor of the Concordiensis, where he showed no hesitation in campaigning for improvements. The Alumni Association of New York, in giving him a certificate for devoted service, said he “effectively harnessed the little realized but immensely powerful influence which undergraduates can exert in shaping the college offering. Thus, you helped launch the divisional system of education pioneered by an imaginative faculty group on the campus….”

He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, serving as an instructor of psychology there and at Radcliffe College during his graduate years. In 1938, he married Lee Hoffman, his sister's classmate at Emerson College (Mrs. Huntley died in 1987).

In the fall of 1938, Mr. Huntley became an instructor of psychology at Western Reserve University, now Case Western Reserve, in Cleveland. Three years later, he was named dean of Adelbert College, the men's college of Western Reserve, at the age of twenty-eight. He returned to Union in 1947 when he was appointed professor of psychology and dean of the College.

Mr. Huntley continued to teach at least one course a semester during his years as dean. In 1964, when it became apparent that the job as dean was becoming too administratively demanding and
could no longer involve regular teaching, he resigned to return to full-time teaching. He also was named chairman of the Psychology Department.

He rejoined the administration briefly in 1968 to serve as acting dean of the College. Ten years later, he was again tapped for administrative service when he became provost of the College, a post he held for two years. He was named to the Livingston chair in psychology in 1982 and retired from teaching in 1986.

For many years, Mr. Huntley was a leading force in campus beautification projects. The campus lost hundreds of trees when Dutch elm disease struck Schenectady in the 1950s, but a systematic landscaping effort conceived and supervised by Huntley and Professor of Civil Engineering H. Gilbert Harlow led to the planting of replacement trees and shrubs.

Mr. Huntley was a popular figure on the alumni club circuit, and in recognition of his service to the College the Alumni Council presented him with its two highest awards-the Faculty Meritorious Service Award and the Alumni Gold Medal.

Survivors include two daughters, Deborah Carpenter, of Somers, N.Y., and Elizabeth Huntley, of Greenfield Center, N.Y.; a sister, Elizabeth Fitch, of Lakeville, Conn.; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the C. William Huntley Endowed Scholarship Fund at the College.

Posted on May 1, 1996

“I blame my sister for this,” says Bret Goldin '92, who at the age of twenty-five owns four coffee houses in the Capital District. “She bought me one of those home cappuccino and espresso makers and all this gourmet coffee.”

After graduating with a degree in political science and economics, Goldin was working at the Open Door Bookstore on Jay Street and applying for graduate school and jobs. One day, he noticed a vacant space near the Open Door and thought that it
would make a nice cafe (he had just returned from a trip to New Mexico, where he had fallen in love with a newsstand cafe in Santa Fe).

“I knew I loved cafes, I always wanted to own my own business, so I just started asking a lot of questions,” he says. “I
had no clue what I was getting into. The only retail experience I had was at the Open Door, and the only restaurant experience I had was eating in them.”

But Goldin kept asking questions and started reading tradejournals. He would stay up nights with his friends, coming up with ideas and thinking up names for his cafe. On one of those late nights, the name of Goldin's future business was born-Caffe Dolce.

Dolce-the Italian word for sweet-just seemed to work. “La Dolce Vita is one of my favorite films,” he says.

The Schenectady Economic Development Corp. helped him draw up business plans, his father helped him financially, and a family friend who is a lawyer provided advice. Before he knew it, Goldin owned and operated his own business.

Caffe Dolce opened on Oct. 2, 1993, and since then Goldin has opened Caffe Dolce Coffee House and the newly-opened Caffe Dolce Express, a small take-out stablishmentboth in Albany-and Caffe Dolce in Troy.

Goldin says that being young and being a Union graduate have both helped. He's one of the few Union grads, he says, “that didn't write off Schenectady immediately.” He also says Caffe Dolce opened right as the “coffee craze” was hitting the Northeast, and it's the only shop on Jay Street open past six p.m.

The original shop on Jay Street was put together by Goldin and his friends and fam
ily. The larger Albany and Troy establishments have both been professionally designed.

Besides the name, there is one other thing that all of the cafes share-they all serve as an outlet for local artists and musicians. There are “open mike nights” for musicians, poetry readings, and live music on Friday, Saturday, and some Sunday evenings. And the walls are ever-changing with the work of area artists, including Union students and professors.

As Goldin has expanded the number of cafes, he has also expanded the menu and made other changes. Caffe Dolce will begin roasting its own coffee beans, and the menu has expanded from just sweets and snacks to sandwiches, salads, and other lunch items. Smoking, once permitted in the Jay Street cafe, has been eliminated, helping to attract the older business crowd during the days. Goldin has also recently hired a general manager, who will work at all stores, as well as a personal secretary/administrative assistant.

“I sometimes feel like I'm in way over my head,” he says. “I never thought I would need a secretary.”

Goldin's success has come with its share of problems and challenges, of course, such as cash flow and management difficulties, but he says, “I love it. It's really helped me with things like interpersonal communication. In just about every aspect this has been a good thing.”

Sometime in the future, Goldin would like to begin a business design consulting firm, where he would help entrepreneurs design every aspect of a business-from the concept to how the place of business would be designed. For now, though, the success of his business and the attention it has gotten in the Capital District is sometimes a little overwhelming.

“It still freaks me out,” he says. “I'm just some guy selling coffee.”

Posted on May 1, 1996

It is mid-1991 in Togo, and Nicole Menage '77 realizes that she has a problem on her hands. For four and a half years, she has worked for the United Nations World Food Program, trying to feed the hungry, develop the infrastructure, and protect the forest in the West African nation.

Suddenly she can't do her job anymore.

“It's hard to implement your projects when there are riots going on and tires burning everywhere,” Menage says,
recalling the political upheaval that forced her to abandon her efforts and move to her next posting on the African continent.

Such is the life of a career United Nations development worker, who has dedicated most of the last two decades to making life a little easier in some of the harshest places in the world. If there isn't a drought-induced famine on the horizon, then there is the ever-present threat of civil war. Still, people need to be fed, roads need to be built, forests need to be protected, and Menage does her part to see that these things get done.

Menage lives in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she has directed the World Food Program for Southern Africa for the past three and a half years. She collects and distributes about eleven million tons of food every year, and the work takes her from South Africa to Mozambique, Malawi, Burundi, Rwanda, and Angola, among other nations.

In 1992 and 1993, she helped feed hundreds of thousands of Africans suffering under a seemingly interminable drought. In 1994, she helped get food to the Rwandan refugees fleeing a brutal civil war. And in 1995, food had to be distributed to the newly repatriated Mozambique refugees.

Menage says she has a special appreciation for the experience of dealing with the'92'93 famine because she could help without having to be in the middle of the emergency.

“Zimbabwe and South Africa really are quite developed,” she explained from her home in Harare this March. “So that makes things a lot easier. There is a lot of energy and dynamics here, especially in Zimbabwe, where there really is a great potential for growth.”

Unfortunately, Menage says, the same cannot be said for several other countries on the African continent, where poverty is rampant.

“It's sad because much of the poverty you see here is mainly caused by civil wars,” she said. “The wars in some cases have been going on for so long that it's impossible for these places to get out of an emergency situation. So the agriculture stays at a subsistence level.” Still, Menage is quick to point out that the poverty she sees is less harsh than the urban poverty
that millions endure in America's cities.

Menage, a native of Kew Gardens in Queens, N.Y., always dreamed of working in the international community, so a posting with the United Nations was a natural fit. She remembers being captivated by Morocco as a teenager travelling with her family, and she scouring university libraries in the Capital District for books on Africa when she was a Union student. She earned a master's degree in international affairs from George Washington University.

Menage became a volunteer in the U.N.'s Capital Development Fund and headed to Burundi to work on improving roads. When that volunteer program ended, Menage took a posting with the World Food Program in Malawi. Except for a stint at the program's Rome headquarters in 1986, she has been in Africa ever since.

Menage misses her friends back home and regrets never having had what she calls “a regular sort of life in the States,” where she might not have to worry about procuring another 50,000 tons of grain from South Africa. “I'm fearful I won't get the chance for something like that until early retirement,” she adds with a laugh.

For now, Menage, her husband, and her two young children, Luca, four, and Chiara, six, expect to remain in Zimbabwe until at least 1997. Then, there might be a temporary transfer to Rome, and then they likely will return to Africa for yet another posting.

After all, she points out, there are always more hungry mouths to feed.

Posted on May 1, 1996

During the past three decades, Dr. Daniel Weiner '54 has led a life of contrasts.

One week he works as a “Park Avenue plastic surgeon,” performing nose jobs, face lifts, breast implants, and other procedures.

The next week he is in the former Yugoslavia, negotiating with the leaders of Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia to get medical services to the citizens of the Balkans.

The contrasts have been Weiner's life since the Vietnam War. In 1968, he made his first trip to Southeast Asia as part of a team of physicians evaluating the war's civilian casualties.

“We found that a lot of families were using jet fuel as cooking fuel, and there were a tremendous number of explosions,” Weiner recalls. This problem, combined with the common use of napalm to burn Vietnamese jungles, produced a dire need for reconstructive surgery for burn injuries. Weiner began with dozens of Vietnamese children, and before he was finished he had helped set up a hospital for plastic and reconstructive surgery for children in Saigon. He says it was one of the few apolitical establishments during the war, providing care for children from both North and South Vietnam-and it is still in use.

Ever since then, Weiner has been returning to the world's developing and war-torn nations to help set up hospitals and medical relief programs for children and the neediest.

“I'm always back and forth between luxury and the third world,” Weiner explains. “It brings a personal balance to my life.”

That balance is possible because in New York Weiner performs only elective surgery, clearing long blocks of time for his work abroad. In 1972, for example, he was able to visit Bangladesh and Calcutta as director of medical programs for the International Rescue Committee, serving more than 10 million refugees by setting up health care programs in emergency medical situations.

A few years later, his work took him to Cambodia and Thailand, and
in the early 1980s he went to southern Lebanon during the Israeli-Lebanese war. It was a strange mission, he says, because he was speaking to the leaders of many nations, none of whom were speaking to each other. “They would talk to us because we were on a humanitarian mission.”

More recent missions have taken Weiner to Somalia, Sudan, Poland, Moscow (where he set up medical services for survivors of the Gulag), and the Balkans, where he helped establish a hospital for children.

Weiner says he learned about serving his community as a young boy in Hollis, Queens. The child of European immigrants, he watched as a modest but tightly knit community always found a way to help its neighbors.

Some people, however, believe that there must have been some sort of ghost of public service influencing the air in Weiner's childhood home. When his family sold the house in 1956, it was bought by the Powell family, whose son, Colin, was a decade shy of beginning a distinguished military career.

When the general's book came out last fall, Weiner contacted Powell. The response, written in Powell's purple felt tip pen, asked Weiner, “Do you remember
the 'Juke Box' your family left behind? I had tons of fun keeping it working.”

Weiner takes special pride in a program he set up between the Albany Medical College and the Marie Sklowdoska-Curie
Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology in Warsaw, Poland. Weiner helped found the cancer center, Poland's first, in 1990. When he learned that the U.S. government was creating a grant program that would establish partnerships between hospitals in America and those in Eastern Europe, he recommended the program to his old college friend, Anthony Tartaglia '54, the dean of the Albany Medical College.

“The government told me that this kind of funding usually goes to places like Harvard and Stanford,” Weiner says. “But I said it was time to give some other places a chance.” As a result, Albany received a $2.5 million grant as well as a partner in Warsaw.

Currently professor and chairman of the Department of Plastic Surgery
at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Weiner now owns a farm in Vermont.

“I went back to work in Poland because that's where my parents came from. And now I have this farm that overlooks the hill where I used to sit during the weekends in college when we used to go to Bennington. I see the same hill from the other side. It's funny, that hill now looks smaller than how I remember it.”

Posted on May 1, 1996

Cliff Brown's discussions about money and politics combine the disinterest of the academic and the passion of the insider.

That's because this associate professor of political science has also been a strategist in campaigns for the U.S. Senate and the presidency.

Brown's newest book, Serious Money: Fundraising and Contributing in Presidential Nomination Campaigns (cowritten with Lynda Powell and Clyde Wilcox), illustrates that combination. David Warsh, of The Boston Globe, in a column discussing Brown's ideas, wrote, “A somewhat less wild and woolly primary season
would be the result-and perhaps a somewhat steadier course for the Republic as a whole.”

A native of Rhode Island, Brown worked on his first campaign-George Cabot Lodge's unsuccessful bid for a seat in the Senate-while he was a sophomore at Harvard University. A couple of years later, he worked for Henry Cabot Lodge and William Scranton in their unsuccessful attempt to keep Barry Goldwater from the 1964 Republican nomination. In 1968 he worked for George Romney's campaign, which was eventually thwarted by Richard Nixon, and in 1988 he supported Michael Dukakis.

Perhaps his most intense involvement came in 1980,
when he was the national issues director for independent presidential candidate John Anderson. Brown, who came to Union in 1978, would teach an early morning class, catch an 11:30 a.m. flight to Washington, D.C., and spend the afternoons working on the campaign.

Brown says that he greatly admires most of the politicians he's supported and has enjoyed working on the campaigns. He jokes that not being involved in this year's election means he won't be able to build on his “world record” of serving in eight election campaigns without ever working on the winning side.

His work in politics-from participating to analyzing has led to several publications,
including a book on the Anderson campaign, A Campaign of Ideas: The Anderson/Lucey Platform (1984), several articles, and chapters and introductions to several books. Most recently he has been analyzing survey results for Michael Dukakis in 1988 and Paul Tsongas in 1992 for a polling firm in Boston.

This year, Brown is stepping back, watching and taking notes for his book-in-progress, which will propose a complete overhaul in election law. And he brings a special expertise to two of his classes this term, “Introduction to American Politics” and “Presidential Politics.”