Posted on Jun 23, 2006

Some professors impress students inside the classroom, and others make their mark by giving to students after classes have ended. Professor Emeritus Twitty J. Styles, who taught biology at Union from 1965 to 1997, did both.

To pay tribute to their beloved teacher and mentor, Trustees Fred Pressley Jr. '75 and Estelle Cooke-Sampson '74 helped establish the Twitty J. Styles Scholarship in 2003.

“He was not only a fabulous professor,” said Pressley, “but he was instrumental in encouraging students to pursue the sciences. People respected him and looked up to him.”

It was well-known that Styles' commitment to students continued long after each of his classes was dismissed. At biology club meetings, on field trips and during the countless meals he and his wife, Constance, shared with students at his home, he repeated this message.

“I always told them, ‘Stay with it, you can do the work, put your studies first, and do what you're capable of doing,' says Styles. “They needed to know that someone cared about them and somebody wanted them to succeed. That's what I've tried to convey all these years.”

Pressley, an attorney, and Cooke-Sampson, a physician, are just two of many Union undergraduates who have treasured and valued Styles' guidance over the years.

Styles, who received the Faculty Meritorious Service Award from the Alumni Council for his many years of teaching and guiding pre-med and biology students, has been invited to some 20 graduate school commencements and about half as many weddings. He also continues to receive a steady stream of family photos and friendly phone calls from those whose lives he's touched.

Some former students have contributed to the Styles scholarship, given annually to students, especially biology majors, with financial need.

He adds this plug for giving: More former students and other alumni should kick in funds “so that my spirit and what I want for my students will live on even after I'm gone.

“The best measure of a professor's success is how a student feels about you,” he says. ‘Your student is your final product. They and their success are the final judges of who you are and what you did for them.”

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

Since Eliphalet Nott created the first endowed scholarship in 1801, Union has welcomed all students who demonstrate superior academic ability. Endowed scholarships provide a permanent source of income for Union undergraduates and help ensure the College's ability to attract and retain the best qualified students. Those alumni, parents and friends who establish an endowed scholarship make their mark on untold generations to come, linking them to Union for all time.

A few facts on scholarships:

• Union has approx 390 endowed scholarships; the College stewards about 230 of them.
  
• The College financial aid budget for fiscal year 2005-06 is $25 million.
  
• 57% of the 581 freshman in the Class of 2009 received some form of financial aid.
  
• The average total financial aid package this year was nearly $24,000.
  
• As part of the You are Union campaign, the College is committed to raising $39.14 million in endowed merit and need-based scholarships.

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

Class of 1956 ReUnion Chair Robert Hodges retired in January, but that doesn't mean he'll retire to the living room. “When a retiree plunks his body on a couch and watches TV for 14 hours a day,” Hodges has observed, “he's often dead within a year.”

Hodges plans to ski, swim and kayak, and he'll play tennis and a little golf. He'll teach a Revolutionary War history course at Ocean County College, not far from his home in Forked River, N.J., and turn the family genealogy he's been compiling for more than a decade into three books. He's busy because he knows that time is not unlimited.

“I'll be 72 in April,” he says. “I'm almost halfway through my life.”

Hodges and other members of his graduating class are also devoting boundless energy to establishing a Class of 1956 scholarship to commemorate their 50th ReUnion in May.

“The scholarship is really an endowment that funds an annual scholarship,” Hodges says. “It continues giving into perpetuity. In this way, the Class of '56 will be remembered forever.”

Hodges and others on the ReUnion Committee are soliciting donations from classmates, and they hope to raise far more than the $25,000 minimum necessary to establish a single scholarship. “We expect to shoot past that.” he says. “We're anticipating the largest class gift to the College we have ever made.”

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

Richard Killeen '51 applied to Union from Yokohama, Japan, during World War II, writing “School is first choice – will travel 6,000 miles to attend” on his admissions form.

“That must have impressed someone,” he remembers with a laugh.

These days, Union is still top choice for the man who's a master at marshalling his fellow classmates in volunteering time, money and energy for Union people and projects.

And, considerably closer to campus from his home in Saratoga Springs, he revels in being a mentor to young scholarship students.

“I let them know that if they ever have problems, our house is only a half hour away, and they can always send me a letter or call,” he says.

Killeen left the Pacific and landed on Union's campus in 1947, a time when the College was rife with opportunities for veterans. Students ranged in age from 17 to 47, many of them, like himself, benefiting from the G.I. Bill. He's been actively involved in campus life and scholarship programs ever since.

As Class of 1951 head agent, a position he accepted in 1993 after serving as an associate agent for nine years, Killeen expanded the existing Class of 1951 Endowed Scholarship. The former New York Telephone/NYNEX executive likes nothing more than to keep in touch, and he regularly sends photos, news, quips and other tidbits of information to his classmates.

He also connects with students regularly and attends every scholarship luncheon.

The current class scholarship recipient is Jonathon Miller '08, a mechanical engineer and lacrosse player from Yarmouth, Maine, who is, Killeen says, “a pleasure to spend time with. My wife, Patricia, and I have enjoyed watching him develop into a mature young man.”

Killeen is proud, too, that his class includes 13 graduates who have given private scholarships. He'll make sure to let them know that, next time they're all together. That'll be in May, when the Class of 1951 celebrates a milestone of more than half a century.

“It's going to be spectacular. Our 55th ReUnion will set another standard of excellence for Union,” Killeen says with his usual zest for all things Union. “We're sure to have many old stories to repeat and new tales to tell.”

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

During their junior year abroad, Jeffrey A. Leerink and Delta Phi fraternity brothers Thomas Baltay '87 and James Olney '87 met in Florence and traveled throughout Italy together during a semester break. Leerink and Baltay so enjoyed their travels that they vowed that after graduation, they'd labor for a few years, make enough money to buy a boat and then sail around the world.

The dream ended, tragically, when Baltay died in a car crash after he returned home. But nearly 20 years later, Leerink is keeping his old friend's spirit alive by issuing a new challenge to the scholarship that bears his name.

Leerink has offered to match up to $25,000 in donations that alumni and others give to the Thomas A. Baltay '87 Memorial Scholarship, established in 1989 by the Baltay family and Baltay's friends at Delta Phi and Union.

“Nothing would make me happier than to match the whole amount,” says Leerink, now chairman of Leerink, Swann and Company, a Boston healthcare investment banking firm.

Leerink remembers his old friend for his easy-going personality, free spirit and ability to “bring the important things in life front and center.” In addition, he had a passion for engineering and the outdoors. “Tom would come out of engineering classes with ideas for how to redesign surfboards and skis,” Leerink recalls.

This winter, Leerink was planning a sailing trip from Florida to the Caribbean through the Panama Canal, with stops in Costa Rica, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. He invited along Delta Phi brothers Olney, Matthew Schambers '86 and Patrick DiCerbo '88, all old friends of Baltay's. “We'll be thinking of Tom,” Leerink said before setting off in mid-January, “and I'm sure we'll make a toast to him.”

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

Ariel Weiner loves stories and poetry, comic books and movies, fantasy and fairy tales.

“When you're having a bad day, I always think it's best to go to fairy tales; there's a happy ending,” says Weiner. “I try to stay away from books that are best sellers.”

This 18-year-old bibliophile from Montville, N.J., the daughter of a radiologist and a CPA, is a self-described eclectic who grew up dreaming of the scribe's life.

“I usually write short stories and poetry. I don't like rhyming poems; I always liked haiku. I write realistic fiction or fantasy,” she says. “I love correcting people's grammar. And punctuation matters.”

Weiner worked on her high school literary magazine and in a small New Jersey comic shop, Funny Books. “I was the Wednesday girl. Wednesday's new comic book day, the busiest day of the week. I'd get to meet the comic book and animation artists. It was so much fun.”

Her first term at Union, Weiner took anthropology, British lit and, her favorite, freshman preceptorial with Suzanne Benack, where she discussed everything from themes of justice in Plato's Republic to the origins of human violence. It was “the kind of class where you can go in and talk about anything, where you are not treated like a child, where your opinion matters,” Weiner says. “I like being able to be heard and to hear what others believe.”

This term, she's studying Spanish, European history and freshman precept. She sings second soprano in the Union choir.

Her initial visit to Union was love at first sight, her own happy ending. And the dream come true continues.

“Union's the kind of place where we are free to do pretty much anything,” she says. “Even when it's raining I like it. I like the Nott; I have a direct view of it from my room in West.”