Since the first 25 women graduated in 1972, Union women have succeeded in all fields. And whether juggling MBAs or PTAs, there's one true thing about the women of Union: they remain committed to the College.
Union Women Connect (UWC) strengthens that bond.
Formed in 1998, UWC connects geographically diverse Union women graduates – “women talking to each other about issues,” says Trustee and UWC Executive Committee member Val Hoffman '75.
Hoffman served as moderator of a career panel and reception for 40 students, alumni, parents and friends during Homecoming and Family Weekend. It included alumnae Kathryn (Mitchell) Mullaney '74, CFO, St. Lawrence University; Jennifer Smith Turner '74, President/CEO, Smith Turner Associates, LLC; Karen Huggins '77, Senior Project Manager, Global Exchange Services; and Hoffman, a partner with Seyfarth Shaw Fairweather and Geralds of Chicago.
Inspiring words – Val Hoffman '75 addresses a recent UWC gathering. Below, Union Women Connect
Panelists highlighted their industry experience and offered suggestions on career paths after graduation.
Other UWC events have included a book club, a joint activity developed with Union's Women's Studies and its director, Teresa Meade, and launched with a generous donation by Hoffman.
Last year's UWC SRO NYC breakfast reception for Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief and best-selling author Kate White '72 drew more than 100 Union women from as far away as Boston and Chicago. Marking a rejuvenation of UWC, the event included a signing of White's book, If Looks Could Kill, and a tour of Cosmo's offices.
“Union women are a special breed,” says Hoffman, “engaged in their worlds and the world around them.” She adds, “We have so many interesting graduates – women in publishing, film, government, business, medicine and law. We're offering opportunities for them to stay connected to each other and the College in new and exciting ways.”
Guts and Gusto a Winning Combo for Cosmo Editor Kate White
Kate White '72 majored in English, but she turns to physics to express her professional philosophy.
“Motion begets motion,” says the Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief whose 2002 mystery, If Looks Could Kill, launched her career as a best-selling novelist.
“It's nutty doing both at the same time, but it's been helpful to play one thing off another. Being editor of Cosmo helped me get attention, but that alone isn't enough,” she says, citing praise from the New York Times, People, Publishers Weekly and Entertainment Weekly.
Set in the aggressive world of women's magazines she knows so well, If Looks Could Kill features a crime writer's search for the killer of a high-powered New York City editor's nanny. The paperback version was released in May. The second book in the series, A Body to Die For, debuted recently, and a third is in the works.
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'Glamourous' Beginning
A good sign – Kate White autographs her book, If Looks Could Kill, for Union students and alumnae at a gathering of Union Women Connect
Kate M. White, who grew up in Glens Falls, N.Y., was destined for the writing cosmos. She fell for Nancy Drew at 12, at about the same time her mother (Anne White, also a mystery writer) gave her a typewriter. “Nancy Drew changed my life,” White says. “She showed how strong and successful a female could be.”
Since then, magazines and murder stories have been keys to her star-studded success in publishing.
At Union, White was picked to enter Glamour magazine's Top 10 College Women contest. Winning earned her a trip to Europe, landed her face on the cover of Glamour and jumpstarted her career. She credits then-Dean of Students Edward J. Malloy Jr. and then-Coordinator of Student Activities Lorraine Marra for singling her out for her passion for life and learning.
“They used to call me 'Katydid,'” she says, fondly recounting a sobriquet from those Union days.
White also felt a particular kinship with three faculty members: English professors Frank Gado and the late Hans Freund, and Jan Ludwig, who taught philosophy. “When I think of all the times I sat in Hans Freund's office looking out the window on winter days,” she muses.
THE UNION SPIRIT
“One of the great values of attending a college like Union is that the teachers are there to talk to you. I loved Union passionately. For me, it was a fabulous experience.”
White relishes the opportunity to reminisce about the school's first coed class, where she was the first woman on the All College Senate and played a Mouseketeer in the musical, Disnetia.
She recalls spirited, into-the-wee-hours book discussions with her male classmates, and she remembers annoying her parents her first day on campus when she was followed by a Channel 10 camera crew while wearing – against her mother's advice – a miniskirt made even shorter with a big red belt.
“I was the lead story on the news. If you'd watched Channel 10, you'd have heard, 'Union College goes coed,' and there I was, wearing what my mother warned me not to.”
White also was prose editor of The Idol, where one of her first pieces focused on beautiful, popular and allegedly haunted Jackson's Garden – a fitting early precursor to her mystery writing.
THE REAL WORLD
Latest accolade – Named one of “eight women who changed the world” by New York Women in Communications Inc., Cosmo Editor Kate White was honored at the 2003 Matrix Awards at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York
White began her career as an editorial assistant at Glamour and continued her ascent with editor-in-chief positions at Child, Working Woman,McCall's and Redbook. In 1998, she was named editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, the top-selling newsstand magazine in the United States. The Hearst executive also is the author of two popular career how-to's, including Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead But Gutsy Girls Do (1995).
Though the Cosmo sales record is impressive and the book reviews stellar, White says her greatest accomplishment is achieving that delicate and often elusive balance between motherhood and work. She and her husband, TV journalist Brad Holbrook, are raising two teens.
WORKING MOTHER
“The greatest thing for me was discovering that I could work and not feel it was a bad thing for my kids,” she affirms. “In the beginning, there was some angst, but now I see my kids at 15 and 13, and they have thrived with me being a working parent.”
White notes that she's always been ruthless about “not letting anyone else dictate my time.” In her well-balanced world, efficiency – not workaholism – rules.
What did she do when one boss, a top editor, said after the birth of her first child, “I hope you're not planning to leave by five?”
“I got a new job,” White says.
What does it take to get to the top of the masthead?
Passion.
One of the biggest mistakes women make on a job interview is they're afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves,” Kate White says. “They come across as subdued and a little too cool. People on the other end want to feel that you love what this is about.”
Success also comes from “bumping into things in the world, being out there, exposed to newness and freshness and constantly filling the well.” For White, it may be as simple as stopping by a new little Manhattan café or taking a day off to see an art film with her husband. “In the process, I get great ideas,” she says.
You might think that a man who donated $1.5 million to restore the ice rink at Union would be a hockey fan first and foremost, but Frank Messa '73 is an even bigger booster of the college that gave him lifelong friends, memorable mentors, and communications and leadership skills he considers indispensable to his success in the business world.
“Union is my favorite school in the whole world,” Messa says.
He adds, “I want Union to be an even better school than it was when I was there. I feel more than a sense of pride; I genuinely feel I owe the school something for the experience I had.
“I give my time, my energy and my money to Union because it's earned that loyalty.”
FIRST PERIOD: LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
The man who recently got the red carpet treatment at the new Frank L. Messa Rink at Achilles Center – center ice with his wife, Colleen, for the puck drop during the dedication ceremony – graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Union in 1973.
Forward-thinking – Colleen and Frank Messa cut the ribbon at the new Frank L. Messa Rink at Achilles Center. At left is Union Athletic Director Val Belmonte; at right, President Roger Hull
The Hicksville, Long Island, native, the first in his family to attend college, applied Early Decision after one visit. “I fell in love with the school and never looked back,” he says. “I walked on that
beautiful campus and knew, 'This is where I want to go.'”
In his Albany office at The Ayco Co., the 52-year-old tax attorney takes time from his work as CEO of Estate Financial Services to describe his days at Union. “Being a Union student was extraordinary,” he says. “My experience was phenomenal.”
He remains close friends with former roommates Tom Morante of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Chris Cernik of Clifton Park, N.Y., and Frank Gaynor of Norfolk, Mass., all political science majors who became lawyers. And he speaks with unabashed admiration of the close-knit political science faculty of the early '70s: Byron Nichols, Jim Underwood, the late P. Frederick Hartwig and the late Charles Tidmarch.
“Fred was my thesis advisor. I can't tell you how many times I was at his house,” Messa recalls, “sitting on the living room floor working on my thesis paper about voting behavior analysis while he and his wife, Johanna, were flipping burgers in the backyard.
“We still talk about these people to this day. That's the kind of atmosphere you get at Union. It's the environment of being around committed, bright people who help you learn and think.”
SECOND PERIOD: RECONNECTING
Following Union, Messa graduated from Albany Law School in 1976 and joined Ayco, the nation's largest fee-based financial counseling firm. Ayco recently was acquired by Goldman Sachs, one
of the world's oldest and largest investment banking firms.
Messa opened a regional Ayco office in Dallas in 1982 and later was promoted to CEO of Ayco's new wealth management division, Encompass. With the promotion came a transfer back to the Capital Region – just in time for fellow classmate Tim McCabe to tap him as Leadership Gifts Chair for their 15th ReUnion in 1988.
“It was exciting to get reacquainted with my classmates,” Messa remembers. “We set an all-time fund-raising record for the school for a 15th ReUnion.”
THIRD PERIOD: A TRADITION OF GIVING
Sparked by his success, Messa served as chairman of the Upstate New York Region for Terrace Council, then chair of Terrace Council. He chaired the Annual Fund from 1994-97 and received the Alumni Gold Medal from the College's Alumni Council last May.
Currently, he is a Term Trustee of the Board of Trustees and vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the independent Graduate College of Union University.
Reconnected with his alma mater, Messa is full of energy, plans and goals – which brings us back to hockey.
But don't expect to see him edging the ice in a pair of Bauer blades anytime soon. Messa says he's never been on skates in his life, and none of his children has ever played hockey, either.
So what motivated the Messas to finance the Union arena's overhaul?
“It's something the school very much needs, and it also enhances the College's prestige,” Messa says, recalling the time Union almost had to call off a game against Cornell because the ice was meltingdue to the rink's aging infrastructure.
Home to Union's NCAA Division I / ECAC men's and women's ice hockey teams, the rink now has a new ice refrigeration system, expanded ice surface, better seating, new boards and glass, and refurbished lobby.
“These improvements especially will help promote women's sports by jump-starting our move to Division I in women's hockey,” Messa proudly notes.
“Hockey is the one sport in which we compete in Division I, against teams like Harvard,” he says. “Being in a very prestigious league among other prestigious schools enhances our ability to compete and recruit.”
Rink renovations also mean it can now operate year-round, making it available for local hockey and figure skating programs as well as various non-athletic events – a plus, Messa notes, for Union's relationship with the community.
He believes the best gifts further the College's broadest goals. So while the rink provides more than a level (ice) playing field, the Frank Messa '73 Endowed Scholarship also went beyond the immediate benefits of an endowment with its focus on bringing more students to Union from Texas and the Southwest.
“One of the incentives was to become a national college and attract students from other parts of the country,” he said of the scholarship, now in its fourth year.
“Our College has been around for more than 200 years. For the next 200 years, people like me have to start thinking about our obligation to the College. That's our challenge, and I take it very seriously,” Messa says.
“We're all, to a certain extent, subsidized by the people who came before us and who contributed money to the endowment,” he muses. “Because of the generosity of others, of people like Bob Abbe (Class of 1949), for instance, I feel an obligation to future students.
“Winston Churchill, one of my heroes, said, 'The price of greatness is responsibility.' I feel the same way about Union College. If we want the school to remain great, it won't happen by accident. You have to build it into your daily life.”
Frank Messa
WORK: Senior vice president and a senior partner, The Ayco Co; CEO of Ayco's Estate Financial Services, a new survivor counseling division (Ayco recently was acquired by Goldman Sachs.)
FAMILY: Married to Colleen Ann Koetzner; two sons, 23 and 21, and a daughter, 18
HOME: Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
DEGREES: B.A., political science, Union, 1973; J.D., Albany Law School, 1976
ALUMNI ACTIVITIES: Term Trustee and General Counsel of the Board of Trustees; class president and Alumni Council Rep since 1993; former chairman, the Upstate New York Region for Terrace Council; Terrace Council chairman (1993-94) and national chairman of the Annual Fund (1994-96); ReUnion co-chairman (1988). Currently vice chairman, the Graduate College of Union University Board of Trustees
UNION HONORS: Phi Beta Kappa; magna cum laude; finalist, Albert Ingham Prize; Alumni Gold Medal, 2003
Annual Fund Chairman John Moses '53 stresses that creating college opportunities for young people today will help hundreds of others tomorrow. “Higher education is a powerful way to affect our nation and the world,” he says.
The $3.7 million in contributions to the last Fund by Union alumni and supporters will enhance every aspect of College life, he notes, from financial aid to faculty recruitment to the College's unparalleled foreign exchange program.
“The 9/11 attacks made us poignantly aware that there are people in the world who don't see us the way we are and who act based on that false perception,” says Moses, a management trainer and consultant in Stamford, Conn.
“I'm proud that Union is helping to challenge negative perceptions by providing opportunities for three-fourths of our students to spend a term abroad, studying, living and working in a range of nations.”
With an A.B. from Union and a M.A. from NYU in 1967, Moses knows firsthand how donors make a difference. “When I was writing a check for my Union tuition in the '50s,” he reflects, “there were alumni writing checks to the Annual Fund, and that kept my tuition costs down.
“I feel a responsibility to repay the help I got. The way to do that is to not break the chain – and 'pay it forward' to the next generation of students.”
MAKING A CASE FOR GIVING: Fred Pressley Jr. '75
Pressley
When Fred Pressley Jr. '75 walked across the Union campus for the first time, he felt a world away from his native New York City and 4,000-student high school. But he quickly acclimated to the small, dynamic, scholastically rigorous environment.
“Union's academic competitiveness was exhilarating,” says Pressley, Trustee, Terrace Council chairman and a partner in the internationally recognized law firm of Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur in Columbus, Ohio.
“Combined with faculty who genuinely cared about each student and provided guidance every step of the way to help us achieve our goals, it was an invaluable experience. These qualities are unique to this day, even compared to other small colleges.”
A Powell, Ohio, resident, Pressley earned a B.A. in political science from Union and also holds a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, Class of 1978. He considers the close friendships he forged at Union among his significant achievements.
His most rewarding Union experiences? “Regular student forums where individuals from all backgrounds spoke openly about national and international issues,” he notes. “These kinds of lively debates help people work out their differences and encourage an understanding of others' cultural values.”
In all, he says, “Union stays with you a lifetime.”
Michele DeSimone-Shellard '83 has worked in communications, public service and government. In all of her professional positions, she muses, “I've been connected to Union people, and it's been very valuable.”
The connections began early on, at a student internship at the Schenectady Gazette, where her mentor was Managing Editor Orazio “Buddy” Ottaviano – Union Class of 1948.
Along the way, there were many more key encounters with alumni, including Assemblyman Jim Tedisco '72, who gave her a big assist, after graduation, to the communications office of the Republican minority at the New York State Assembly.
In 1989, DeSimone-Shellard became a lobbyist for the Association of Towns of the State of New York; the association's attorney was a Union grad whom she contacted via the Career Center.
And when she launched her own business as a special events coordinator and spearheaded a high-profile health conference for Empire State Report, she worked with Editor and Publisher Floyd Weintraub – Union Class of 1970.
For the last several years, DeSimone-Shellard has taken on numerous College volunteer activities, including serving as 20th ReUnion coordinator for her class, and being active with UCAN and Concordienses. When she begins her next job search, no doubt she'll be looking forward to some key Union connections.
Investment strategist William Curtin '82 wants others to reap the returns from Union College that he himself has enjoyed.
“I want to leverage this superior learning environment to motivate students,” he says, “to help them grow in ways they didn't realize they could and to prepare the leaders of tomorrow.
“Union is a real community,” he stresses. “The smallness of the school gives people unique opportunities to develop personally, establish strong bonds and lifetime friendships, be involved in sports and other activities and participate in the larger college community.”
At a time when business ethics are at an ebb, this community of mentors and learners is especially important in molding well-rounded individuals with integrity, he adds.
The CEO and founder of Curtin Financial Management Inc. in Wellesley, Mass., Curtin earned his B.A. in economics at Union, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.S. in financial management from Bentley College in Waltham, Mass.
Before establishing his own firm in 1998, he worked in various senior management positions at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Shearson Lehman Hutton and Putnam Management.
In 1996, Institutional Investor honored him as the top fixed-income strategist, capping seven consecutive years on its prestigious All-American Research Team.
Like many Union graduates, Curtin finds that the College continues to engage and inspire him. He has been active in a number of alumni activities over the years, including serving as an Alumni Trustee from 1994 to 2000. His current trustee term runs through 2004.
In 1995, he established the William J. Curtin '82 Endowed Scholarship, which provides financial assistance to those most in need. He is dedicated to making Union's offerings – such as its technology program, which he calls unparalleled among other liberal arts colleges of similar size – more accessible to students.
“It's important to keep costs affordable so we don't lose the student diversity that helps to create a rounded community,” he says.
Jennifer C. Smith Turner '74: Paving the way
Turner
Poet, novelist, business executive, government leader, consultant and community volunteer – Jennifer C. Smith Turner '74 can lay claim to them all, plus one title that may be most meaningful: trailblazer.
Smith Turner was in the first class of women at Union, one of only seven African-American women on campus.
“When you're a trailblazer, you're bound to run into some weeds,” she says. “The upperclassmen were not used to having coeds on campus, and that made for interesting times.”
Smith Turner continued her pioneering ways in the insurance industry, where she built an impressive career working at the highest levels for giants like Aetna and Travelers Insurance. She also served for a time as assistant city manager of Hartford, Conn., before starting her own successful management consulting company, Smith & Associates, in West Hartford, Conn.
Smith Turner holds a B.A. in English with a minor in theater and a master's degree from Fairfield University.
“What my liberal arts education gave me that helped so much in my business career was the intellectual flexibility to move through concepts and get to the core issues, even if I didn't know the technicalities,” she says.
She has been a member of the board of the University of Connecticut, Connecticut Public Television and Radio and Hartford Stage Company and has served Union College on the Trustee Board of Advisors and as an alumni admissions representative.
The former Drama Club and Black Student Alliance member notes that Union gives young people with different backgrounds and interests a safe place to explore and grow. She was drawn to the College 30 years ago by its small size, strong liberal arts curriculum and financial aid. As Trustee, serving through 2007, she hopes to help maintain that commitment to providing scholarships.
“We don't want to end up with only the affluent being able to come to Union,” she says.
The erstwhile thespian has returned to her creative roots. She recently published Perennial Secrets, her first book of poems, and will have a book signing on campus as part of ReUnion. She is also working on a novel, No Visiting Rights, and a memoir.
“I'm coming full circle in terms of my interest in liberal arts,” she says, “so it's a good time to be involved again at Union, the place where those interests were nurtured.”
