Posted on Jun 16, 2009

James Hidalgo ’10 entered Union at about the same time Stephen C. Ainlay became College president in 2006. Hidalgo, of New York City, was one of several members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity who recently gave Ainlay the prestigious Sphinx Award for his efforts to improve campus diversity.

“We, as a chapter, feel that President Ainlay deserved it. From the time that he has come to campus, he has made diversity initiatives a priority and has shown multicultural clubs on campus great support,” said Hidalgo, who serves as the fraternity’s secretary. “He has also been receptive to the issues and concerns of multicultural clubs on campus. He is very accessible as president of the College.”

Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity with a 26-year history at Union, also cited Ainlay’s support of the Posse Scholars program, as well as his creation of a senior-staff position that deals solely with campus diversity and affirmative action. The Union fraternity chapter, called Pi Pi, gives two Sphinx awards each year, one to a faculty member and one to a student.

“I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this award,” Ainlay said. “I know the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha and hold them in high regard. They themselves have made so many contributions to Union. Their judgment that I have contributed to building community and advancing diversity at Union means so much to me.”

The Sphinx Award is given to individuals whom the fraternity believes have rendered the greatest service to the College community. Cybil Tribie ’11, an active volunteer and student leader, was given the student award at a ceremony in late May.

The Posse Scholars program is, under Ainlay’s leadership, entering its fourth year at Union. Posse students earn merit-based tuition scholarships through a process run by The Posse Foundation in Boston, which recruits groups of deserving students from ethnically diverse backgrounds to attend selective schools like Union, Hamilton College and Bryn Mawr College.

In February 2008, Ainlay created the senior director for Campus Diversity and Affirmative Action role and named Gretchel Hathaway Tyson to the position. In September 2008, the College named Karen Ferrer-Muñiz as the new director of Multicultural Affairs. Both roles are aimed at improving diversity on campus and supporting community outreach programs.

“We really value community service and the people who are trying to help the community, especially those who are not in a position to help themselves,” Hidalgo said. 

Alpha Phi Alpha focuses on public service, leadership and scholarship. The fraternity claims civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and nearly all presidents of black colleges as members. There is a network of chapters at U.S. schools stemming from the seminal chapter founded at Cornell University in 1906, which was then the first African-American fraternity in the United States.

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Posted on Jun 15, 2009

By Milton Schwebel ’34

The Class of 1934, which will celebrate its 75th ReUnion in late May, lived through the same type of nationally daunting and politically exciting times that Union students are now experiencing. We came on campus in the economically depressing months of the fall of 1930, saw President Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated in March 1933, experienced the exhilarating first hundred days, and witnessed, mostly with pleasure, the creation of programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps, the National Youth Administration, the Works Progress Administration, and many others intended to salvage the economy, create jobs and, in general, reverse the sense of hopelessness in the nation.

The campus was abuzz with excitement. Scheduled lectures, talks in chapel, the topics of our debating society, the choices of our Mountebank plays, articles in The Idol and conversations at fraternity dinner tables all reflected a nationwide struggle, under FDR’s leadership, that sought to free itself from the mire of poverty and despair. There were some dissenting voices, as there always are in a democratic society, but the prevailing mood on campus was supportive of the massive changes. The political views of my professors in philosophy, economics, political science and English were decidedly in keeping with the times; they were unapologetically liberal and supportive of Roosevelt’s leadership. Some of us, individually or jointly in clubs, societies or fraternities tried to make our support public and useful to the national effort, perhaps by campaigning for FDR and other New Deal supporters.

Let me be clear. We of ’34 were not a bunch of nerds. We participated on team sports, played touch football during free periods, debated, acted, wrote for (The Concordiensis), played a musical instrument, and – in our all-male environment – spent much time discussing “girls”, as young women were then called, and planning dates. We went to fraternity and other dances, the junior prom, and, after Prohibition was abolished, even enjoyed a beer at a bar. Our behavior, you may be sure, was different from that of current Union students: We attended Union thirty years before the women’s liberation movement, the pill and Woodstock. Many of us, I say with some regret, were “good boys,” still victimized by Victorian standards of virtuous behavior.

Count how many ways Union has changed since our day. Examining Union Collegemagazine, I am reminded of its many profound advances. We had no women among our classmates, no African-Americans, and Jewish students (perhaps some ethnic groups as well) were admitted on a quota basis. These painful facts should be considered against a background of the national scene: New York state, and later, during World War II, the U.S. Employment Service, filled some employers’ orders for workers based on codes like “WMP” (white, male, Protestants). And the U.S. Army, in which many of us of ’34 served, and other defense forces, ironically fighting for “the free world” were segregated so far as African-Americans were concerned.

There are too few of us of ’34 left to celebrate the changes in our nation and our College. They would, I like to believe, see the election of President Barack Obama as part of the trajectory of progress initiated in our times. They would see his efforts at reconciliation and reaching out even to unfriendly nations as an extension of the New Deal; and they would also see Union’s extensive programs abroad, described in issues of this magazine and lauded by President Stephen C. Ainlay, as an historic effort to include evermore diverse peoples and cultures in our knowledge base and personal experience.

As I sit at my computer and write this piece, I hear whispers of approval traveling over the decades from classmates and professors (with names like Larrabee, Stanley, Herrick, Cummins and Godshall), now long dead, who helped me transform myself.

Milton Schwebel holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is an emeritus dean and professor at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. He is also an emeritus professor at the university’s Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. He lives in Tucson, Ariz.

Editor’s note: Harold A. Larrabee was a professor of philosophy; Philip Stanley was a professor of philosophy; Raymond M. Herrick was a professor of English; Earl E. Cummins was a professor of economics; and Wilson L. Godshall was professor of political science.

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Posted on Jun 15, 2009

Rear Adm. Albert H. Stevenson ’36 

Rear Adm. Albert H. Stevenson ’36, of Baltimore, a Bailey Prize winner who became a distinguished environmental and sanitation engineer with the U.S. government and who enjoyed rugged travel adventures, Dec. 28, 2008. He was 94.

Stevenson, born in Brooklyn in 1914, served as an environmental and sanitation engineer for native Alaskan and American Indian communities, as well as, on several international assignments. In addition to his public sector efforts, he worked in private sector engineering and, later, as an engineering consultant. His volunteer efforts in professional societies and local civic agencies spanned 70 years.

Stevenson earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Union and a master’s degree in sanitary engineering from Harvard University in 1937. At Union, he was a catcher and co-captain for the baseball team and two-year member of the football team. He was sports editor at the Concordiensis and a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. In 2006, the College gave him a Gold Alumni Engineering Award.     

Stevenson began his career as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in 1941 and served there for 30 years, retiring as a rear admiral.

Also in 1941, he married Alexandra Korsmeyer. The couple went on to have three children, Albert Frederick, Merril and Alexandra.

In 1954, he was promoted to the rank of captain and transferred to the headquarters of President Harry S. Truman’s Federal Civil Defense Administration in Battle Creek, Mich. There, he served as the agency’s chief sanitary engineer and was involved in the Yucca Flats study to determine the effects on utilities from detonation of atomic weapons.

In 1956, Stevenson began his assignment with the Indian Health Service in what would be the period of growth of engineering and environmental health programs for the Native American and Alaskan native people. Among his accomplishments in his service during a 10-year period, was his work in facilitating the implementation of the Indian Water Supply and Sanitation Facilities Act of 1959. The resulting “self-help” program was largely responsible for the rapid reduction of the infant death rate and enteric disease burden among both groups.

In 1963, as chief of the environmental sanitation branch of the Division of Indian Health for the U.S. Public Health Service, he won the Meritorious Service Medal for leading an environmental sanitation program.

Stevenson was promoted to assistant surgeon general, with the rank of Rear Admiral, in 1966 and served as the chief engineer of the Public Health Service Corps., a post he held until 1971. As chief engineer, he carried out a variety leadership tasks including global assignments in Vietnam, India, Mexico, France and Japan.

In the early 1970s, Stevenson joined Malcolm Pirnie Engineers as vice president for international operations, which involved him in major environmental engineering projects in Egypt, Iran, Jordan and Kuwait. He retired once more in 1984 to work as an independent consulting engineer.

In 1992, he spent two weeks in Antarctica to visiting atmospheric research stations. In the late 1980s, he made a three-week trip to Nepal and Kashmir, which included hiking, rafting and a safari. He avidly pursued interests in current domestic and foreign affairs, duplicate bridge, competitive croquet and dancing.

 

Edwin “Ted” W. Scantlebury ’41

Edwin W. Scantlebury ’41, of Pompano Beach, Fla., a Delta Phi fraternity member and World War II and Korean War veteran who flew 640 aircraft carrier missions as a U.S. Navy pilot, Dec. 5, 2008. He was 89.

Scantlebury was born April 23, 1919, in Utica N.Y. He was the son of Paul and Dorothy Scantlebury and lived in Albany and Schenectady. His father died in 1937 after a car he was riding in fell through ice at Fish Creek in nearby Saratoga Springs. The father and a friend were ice fishing prior to accident.

Scantlebury graduated from Union in May 1941. He joined the Navy V-5 Aviation Cadet Program in June 1941. He soon got his wings and was part of many carrier battles in the Pacific, making 640 flights off their decks. In one battle, he was shot down and endured four days in a one-man life raft before being rescued by an American submarine.

He retired as a Navy commander in 1962 after serving as a fighter pilot for 20 years on several aircraft carriers.

Scantlebury was a member of the Navy flight demonstration team that became the Blue Angels. In a September 1996 Schenectady Gazette story about a Blue Angels air show, Scantlebury discussed his time flying prop-engine F8F Bearcat airplanes with the group that became the Blue Angels.

In the story, he said: “We didn’t even have a name then [1945]. We were just flying exhibition when they added the name Blue Angles. It was because one of the guys went to the Blue Angel nightclub in New York, came back and said he had a great name.”

The Navy sent Scantlebury to graduate school in Monterey, Calif. in 1948 and to George Washington University in 1956 and 1957 for an MBA.

He then served as comptroller at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida. After retirement, he joined Southland Corporation, owner of 7-11 stores, as real estate manager, selecting hundreds of sites for new stores in four states. He retired in 1980.

Scantlebury was active in boating and served as commodore of The Quansett Point Yacht Club in Rhode Island, Jacksonville Sailing Club and several others.

He established a scholarship fund at Union and Bethune-Cookman University, in Daytona Beach, Fla. He received an Alumni Gold Medal for exceptional service to the College in 1991.

 In a ReUnion questionnaire completed in the early 1960s, he wrote: “I believe the four years at Union were responsible for maturing me at an earlier age and were greatly responsible for an orderly transition into the responsibilities of mature life. Union’s well-rounded curriculum has a lasting effect on its student body.”

Scantlebury is survived by his wife, Phyllis Beekman Scantlebury and his two sons, Edwin “Ted” Scantlebury, of Santa Cruz, Calif., and Edwin “Ned” Scantlebury, of, Cape Coral, Fla. and two daughters, Judy Schultz, of Longwood, Fla. and Heather Harris, of Merritt Island, Fla.

 

Alfred A. “Pat” Knopf Jr. ’42

A brash yet skilled Bailey Prize winner who, as a student, became editor of The Idol magazine and who, after service in World War II, followed in his father’s footsteps by forming Atheneum Publishers. He died Feb. 14, 2009. He was 90.

As editor of the Idol, Knopf was not content to preside over a provincial undergraduate magazine, according to the Encyclopedia of Union College History. During his two-year tenure he streamlined the layout, used connections with his father, Alfred A. Knopf Sr., to get subscriptions from literary luminaries like Willa Cather, H.L. Mencken and Bennett Cerf, and tried to produce a magazine that would not embarrass him in their eyes. That included analysis of national politics analysis and some campus reporting, which was largely critical of then-President Dixon Ryan Fox.

He left Union for the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. There, he trained pilots before taking up lead pilot duties on a B-24 bomber unit based in England. He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for his work in the 446th Bomb Group in the Eighth Air Force and rose to the rank of captain before returning from the war in 1945.

As the only child of the publishing giants, he joined the family’s publishing firm and worked there until 1958, when he formed Atheneum. He formed the publishing house with editors Simon Michael Bessie and Hiram Haydn and $250,000 from investors.  

According to a New York Times obituary, the newly formed publishing house enjoyed early success with three bestselling books. The Last of the Just (1960), a novel about the Holocaust by André Schwarz-Bart; The Making of the President, 1960 (1961), the first in Theodore H. White’s series on presidential campaigns; and The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait (1962) by Frederic Morton.

After several years of success, Atheneum merged with Scribner in 1978 and was by 1984 acquired by Macmillan Inc. Knopf led the adult books divisions of Scribner’s houses as a senior vice president before retiring in 1988.

He is survived by his wife, Alice Laine, and their three children, Alison Insinger and Susan Knopf, of New York City, and David A. Knopf, of San Francisco.

 

Dr. William A. Knight III ’68

Dr. William A. Knight III ’68, of St. Louis, world-renowned breast cancer scholar and educator, March 16, 2009. He was 62.

Knight earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Union and received his medical degree from St. Louis University School of Medicine in 1973 and completed a three-year internal medicine residency with St. Louis University Hospitals in 1975.

He dedicated his medical career to understanding the causes of and caring for those afflicted with breast cancer, starting with medical oncology fellowship training at, respectively, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston and, later, the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

During his years on faculty in the Oncology Division at the University of Texas, he became a world-renowned breast cancer scholar and educator, conducting and publishing landmark research on, among other topics, the estrogen receptor as an independent prognostic factor for early recurrence of breast cancer.

 Among many significant professional accomplishments, he is an emeritus member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and holds a patent for oncology treatment methods. In 1989, Good Housekeeping magazine honored him as one of the best breast cancer physicians in the United States, according to an obituary published in the Suburban Journals newspaper near St. Louis.  

After 11 years at Texas University, he returned to St. Louis University in 1986 as the director of the Division of Medical Oncology and professor of medicine.

Four years later he joined his father, Dr. William Knight Jr., in private practice in St. Louis. He returned again to San Antonio in 2000, where he practiced until his retirement in 2005.

Throughout his life, he loved music and was skilled in playing piano and guitar. His family considered him an expert chef and considered his prowess on the grill unmatched.

He will be missed by his wife, Dr. Gerlyn Friesenhahn and his children, Dr. William A. Knight IV, Dr. Ryan M. Knight, Andrew P. Knight, Andrea Megan Knight, Nathan R. Reisdorph and Jeremy C. Reisdorph.  

 

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Posted on Jun 15, 2009

 

A year after winning Union’s business plan competition, Votto Vines has come to life.

The plan for a company that imports and sells fine wines from small Italian vineyards was in February 2008 named the winner of an annual business plan competition sponsored by the College’s Entrepreneurship Club. Stephen Votto ’08 drafted much of that plan with help from his cousin Michael Votto ’00. And last January, the pair, along with other family members, began importing and selling wine from small Italian vineyards.

“Building a customer base and generating revenue at home in Connecticut is our focus right now but is really just the beginning of what we hope is a master plan,” Michael said. “We are trying to broker deals in China. We are talking about bringing our wines to the United Kingdom. And in Westchester County, there is a travel firm that wants to partner with us to establish a wine heritage tour visiting several of our vineyards.”

After both spending a trimester in Florence, Italy during their junior year at Union, the idea for Votto Vines was hatched during a 2006 vacation that Michael and his wife, Amanda (Famolare) Votto ’00, took in Tuscany, Italy. The pair were sipping a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and sangiovese grapes when Michael wondered if the wine was available in the United States, according to a recent story about Votto Vines in the Hartford Courant. He learned that wine, and others produced by mostly family-owned Italian vineyards, were not sold in the States.

After returning from vacation, Michael’s large Italian-American family entered the picture. Stephen drafted the plan, which called for importation and marketing of rare Italian table wine sold for $20 to $50 per bottle. Others invested a total of $50,000 to get the operation off the ground.  

“The initial idea for this business came in the fall of 2006 and by the time we were done with the licensing and permitting process it was the end of 2008. Simply put, in that time, the economy went into the tank. So, we had to evolve our plan,” Michael said.

The team will remain focused on international markets and meanwhile, in Connecticut, they decreased their first shipment from 7,800 to 5,000 bottles and expanded their offerings of wines priced as low as $12 per bottle. Today, the company has a dozen active accounts, a mix of restaurants and retail shops in Connecticut, is negotiating distribution contracts with wholesalers around the country and has been invited to a number of wine tasting and other events.

While originally a side show to Michael’s career as a commercial real estate and corporate attorney, he is now pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors full-time. Amanda is a physician assistant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston specializing in internal medicine. The couple have a 1-year old son and reside in Newton, Mass.

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Posted on Jun 15, 2009

Stephen J. Ciesinski ’70 was in January appointed vice president of strategic business development for SRI International, an independent, nonprofit research and development organization.

In the new role, Ciesinski will oversee SRI's innovation partnership programs, commercial research and development business development, international offices, corporate energy initiatives, strategic marketing and other corporate programs. Ciesinski, the former chairman of Union’s Board of Trustees, will report directly to Curt Carlson, president and CEO of SRI.

“Steve Ciesinski brings with him the right skills and experience to help SRI grow strategically as the premier independent source of high-value innovations to clients worldwide,” Carlson said.

Ciesinski has held executive positions in a variety of industries and businesses. His past executive experience includes senior positions in such industries as semiconductor equipment, telecommunications and wireless, IT infrastructure, applications software, Web 2.0 technology and medical devices.

Most recently, he was chairman and CEO of Laszlo Systems, a software company specializing in cutting-edge Web development applications. In that role, he was responsible for raising funds and shaping the company’s business model. He grew the company from virtually no sales to multi-million dollar annual bookings, successfully managed a growth strategy, and established a strong customer base.

Ciesinski joined Union’s Board of Trutees in 1993 as a term trustee. He has served as an alumni admissions representative, is a member of Friends of Union Athletics, and has hosted alumni events. He received a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and a bachelor of arts in modern languages and a master’s degree from Stanford University. A Dean’s List student and member of Chi Psi, he played varsity lacrosse and football, receiving Little All America mention in the latter.

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