Sequel (Summer '12) by Paul Smith's College

Sequel PAUL SMITH’S COLLEGE THE COLLEGE OF THE ADIRONDACKS SUMMER 2012

ARTS & SCIENTISTS Science profs turn to a different muse in their spare time

THE ROAD TO RIO TALL TALE ON EASY STREET

[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] Paul Smith’s College

Summer 2012

ON THE COVER: IMAGE BY ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

[ DEPARTMENTS ] To Our Readers

Faculty & Staff Notes

Shore Lines

Evergreens

Q&A

Spaces

Our Adirondacks

Alumni Life

Class Notes

Parting Shot

WRITE TO SEQUEL: Paul Smith’s College Alumni Office P.O. Box 265 Paul Smiths, NY 12970-0265 Fax: (518) 327-6267 E-mail: alumni@paulsmiths.edu

CONNECT WITH US:

Sequel | Summer 2012

8 6 Shore lines Flying the flag ... say cheese ... our first Fulbright winner ... keep up with the VIC ... and more. 14 Something in the air When Sharon Curtis ’09 heads to the office, it might be in the front seat of a Cessna. 16 One blog, well done John Mitzewich ’83 – aka Chef John – is one of the web’s most-watched celebrity chefs. 20 Going in circles Karen Loffler wanted a carousel in Saranac Lake. A decade and $1 million later, it’s finally here.

14 21 African journey Kevin Mullally ‘68 is helping newly independent South Sudan find its wings.

Sequel PAUL SMITH’S COLLEGE THE COLLEGE OF THE ADIRONDACKS SUMMER 2012

PRESIDENT John W. Mills, Ph.D. MANAGING EDITOR Kenneth Aaron Director of Communications and Marketing kaaron@paulsmiths.edu

WRITER Bob Bennett Communications Coordinator COLLEGE ADVANCEMENT STAFF F. Raymond Agnew Vice President for College Advancement Renee Burslem Sr. Major Gifts and Planned Giving Officer Chantelle Marshall Annual Campaign Manager Mary L. McLean Director of Advancement Services Heather Tuttle Alumni Relations Coordinator Jeffrey S. Walton Major Gifts and Planned Giving Officer

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Andrea Wilcox Assistant to the Vice President CONTRIBUTORS Nancie Battaglia Pat Hendrick David Lassman

Kathleen Keck Mary Thill Steve Yeater

DESIGN Maria M. Stoodley PRINTING Service Press Connecticut / Scott Smith ’77 Wethersfield, Conn. TRUSTEES OF PAUL SMITH’S COLLEGE E. Philip Saunders, Chairman Paul F. Ciminelli, Treasurer Caroline D. Lussi ’60, Secretary Stuart H. Angert Lee Quaintance Paul E. Avery Thomas Rogers Paul M. Cantwell Jr. Thomas Rosol ’74 Robert Chur James L. Sonneborn Thad Collum Nora Sullivan Patricia Keane Dowden Daniel D. Tessoni Anthony L. Johnson Elizabeth Thorndike Pieter V.C. Litchfield Francine D. Walker Edward J. McAree Katharine H. Welling John A. Paganelli

21 24 Ars/scientia For these professors, science and art go together, naturally.

TRUSTEES EMERITI Calista L. Harder John W. Herold ’65 Ralph Blum ’54 Frank M. Hutchins Richard C. Cattani ‘64 Sheila Hutt John T. Dillon ’58 Charles L. Ritchie Jr. William B. Hale Joan H. Weill Donald O. Benjamin ’56

35 We want you The Distinguished Alumni Task Force has given back – and they'd like your support, too.

HONORARY TRUSTEE Stirling Tomkins Jr.

Published by the Office of College Advancement.

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[ TO OUR READERS ]

#comebacksoon T

here’s an app on my computer that keeps track of when people mention the word “Adirondacks” on Twitter. Every week, as Friday rolls around, the feed fills up with messages from people excited about their weekend trips to the country. So amazing. This is what I want in life. #adirondacks I love You. In the summer, Paul Smith’s attracts a lot of these eager visitors. Just last week at the VIC, right down the street from campus, the guest register showed people from upstate, downstate, Canada, California. On campus today, there’s a group of landscape painters. By the time this comes out, hundreds of wooden canoe enthusiasts will have gathered on the Great Lawn. One of Saranac Lake’s newest

attractions, a carousel featuring handcarved creatures, was dreamed up by one of our faculty members (read the story on page 20.) And the logbook at International Paper John Dillon Park, which is managed by the college, is often inspiring: Many of the guests are there because Dillon provides people with disabilities barrier-free access to the wilderness, and the stories they write about their experiences are incredibly moving. We’re lucky. We get to be here year-round. But even if you moved on after your time here, though, this place is still yours. So come back. Whether you stay at the alumni campground (alums stay free!), or reserve one of our beautiful new suites (a little less

free!), you’re always welcome. Explore the VIC. Head to Dillon Park. Have a meal at the St. Regis Café on campus. Take a hike to the state’s tallest tree (read about it on page 12.) I’ll look for your name in the logbooks.

KENNETH AARON DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING

Send yourself to timeout Need to reconnect? Come back to the Adirondacks. Hike, fish, paddle, or just hang out at your favorite haunts. Stay in one of our affordable air-conditioned suites, each with private kitchens and bathrooms. Corporate retreats welcome. (518) 327-6430 • www.paulsmiths.edu/conferences

knockout

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[ FACULTY & STAFF NOTES] COMMERCIAL, APPLIED AND LIBERAL ARTS Chef Alec Abt and Prof. Joe Conto are planning a slow-food

tour of Italy with a group of students in spring 2013. Students will visit Rome, Florence and Parma and learn about traditional sausage and cheese making, wine production, artisanal breads and Italy’s café culture. AmeriCorps Sustainability Coordinator Kate Glenn joined Dean Phillip Taylor, Prof. Patricia Pillis, Conto, Abt,

and 15 students on a 10-day exploration of renewable energy in Germany and Switzerland in May. Glenn and several students presented a poster on the trip at this year’s North Country Clean Energy Conference in Lake Placid. Glenn also gave a talk on students’ influence on the college’s Sustainability Fund at this year’s Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium. Jennifer Perry, adjunct, spoke

at the North Country Clean Energy Conference last month. She presented information summarizing the renewable energy course she taught and highlighted several student projects, including a solar hot water heater, a solar oven and an electric bike. Chef John Roe earned his

certified executive chef accreditation from the American Culinary Federation in April.

NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND ECOLOGY Prof. Celia Evans brought

seniors to the Northeast Natural History Conference in Syracuse, where the students presented their capstone research. Chelsie DiAntonio presented work she did for the Maine Coastal Islands Wildlife Refuge on nesting black guillemots; Joshua Matijas presented his analysis of

GIS and radio telemetry data of white-tailed deer habitat use; and Mike Domagalski presented work on white-tailed deer habitat use. Prof. Jorie Favreau brought five

students to The Wildlife Society’s northeast conclave in Mount Pleasant, Pa., in April, where they participated in workshops and competitions with students from 13 colleges and universities.

NANCIE BATTAGLIA

Prof. Elizabeth Harper joined

the faculty at Paul Smith’s College this year after working two years as a full-time employee. Harper, a population ecologist, has worked with organisms spanning from cottonwoods in California to amphibians in the Adirondacks. She has also authored a field guide to amphibians in Tanzania. The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program awarded Prof. Joseph Orefice a $14,570 grant to conduct a silvopasture experiment at his farm in near Saranac. The experiment will test the environmental and economic impacts of converting a northern hardwoods stand into a silvopasture. Prof. David Patrick and several

students published a paper about mink frogs in the Adirondack Park in the Herpetological Review. The paper will appear in the journal later this year. Patrick also published a paper discussing the role forest harvesting and subsequent plant regrowth plays in amphibian habitats in the journal of Forest Ecology and Management. Additionally, Patrick received two grants: a $227,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to detect climate change in the wetlands in the Adirondack Park and a $500 award from The Joseph and Joan Cullman Conservation Foundation for educational materials that help inventory biodiversity. Patrick brought 11 students

TOP: Virginia McAleese, director of the Academic Success Center.

RIGHT: Jay White (left) and Christiaan King (center) help carry a sediment core ashore from Lake Verlorenvlei in South Africa. BELOW: Jenna Daub works on her telemetry skills at The Wildlife Society’s northeast conclave.

LEFT: Chef Kevin McCarthy inspecting the crop in the college's greenhouse.

to the New York Chapter of the Wildlife Society’s annual meeting, which was held at the Bronx Zoo in March. Prof. Curt Stager served as

invited expert reviewer for the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in December. Stager also served as an invited expert at Colgate University in March with a small gathering of nationally known scientists, philosophers and ethicists to examine the present loss of biodiversity in the context of geological time. In April, Stager and two student coauthors, Jay White and Christiaan D. King, published a paper in the journal Climate of the Past linking climate change to drought in the Southern Hemisphere. As part of the National Science Foundation-supported study, they found that rainfall in South Africa over the last 1,400 years was affected by temperature – with more rain falling during

cool periods and less during warm ones.

OTHER FACULTY AND STAFF Campus Safety Officer Holly Parker was awarded a College

Academic Award from SUNYCanton for achieving the highest sophomore cumulative GPA in the Law Enforcement Leadership curriculum. She also received a $1,000 scholarship.

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For our vets:

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Unflagging support P

Fulbright honor

KENNETH AARON

rof. Celia Evans was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach and conduct a research project in Siberia this fall. Evans, an ecologist, is the first faculty member at Paul Smith’s to ever receive one of the prestigious awards. The international exchange program is sponsored by the U.S. government and allows students and faculty to teach and conduct research around the world. “I saw my grantee letter one evening in mid-March,” Evans recalls. “I opened it, and saw that it started with the word ‘Congratulations.’ I sort of went on autopilot and printed it and started walking around to find someone to show it to, just to help me process it. I feel really lucky.” During her three-month stay in Altai, Russia, Evans will study primary school students’ relationship to their environment and how it influences the way they learn. She’ll also teach two five-week college courses in general ecology and plant biology at Gorno-Altaisk State University. To gain insight into students’ learning habits, they’ll draw pictures, write short stories and create word lists describing their environment, their favorite things about it and the ways in which they learn about it. Evans will then analyze the information to look for ways to improve their education. “We want to find out how students are learning the things they know about the natural environment and how are they relating to it,” Evans says. Ultimately, the data she collects will be compared with data from similar research projects in Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake. Evans will teach the courses in English and her instructions will be related through a translator. So the Russian students will get a chance to learn some English while Evans and her daughters, who are also going on the trip, hope to pick up some Russian. “I’m nervous, excited and a bit overwhelmed, but it will come together and I know I’ll have a great teaching and research experience there,” Evans says. “And my daughters will have an experience they will never forget.”

» Follow Evans’ journey at her blog,

celiaevanspscprofessor.blogspot.com. – BOB BENNETT 6

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resident John W. Mills, sophomore Eric Sauer and Amy Tuthill, director of veteran and transfer services, (left to right in photo below) in front of the 40-foot-tall flagpole erected near the Joan Weill Adirondack Library in honor of the college’s veterans. The flag, which was put up this spring, went up after senior Jackie Hite (a veteran of the U.S. Air Force) suggested it to Mills. The pole, which is lit, has drawn “an amazing number of comments,” Mills says. “It’s there all the time, so it reminds people all of the time.” Sauer, who served two tours of Iraq in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, said the flag shows how the campus community supports veterans. “I was actually very impressed,” he says. “It was a nice way for the college to recognize the importance of the American flag, but also the contributions of the veterans who are here,” says Tuthill. – KENNETH AARON

KENNETH AARON

Remembering Gould Hoyt

the magazine was going to press, we received word that Gould Hoyt, a longtime professor and friend of Paul Smith’s College, died at the age of 90. Hoyt worked as a professor at Paul Smith’s from 1952 to 1992. But he wore many different hats and touched many lives during his tenure and beyond. “Professor Hoyt was held in the highest esteem by the Paul Smith’s College alumni who had the privilege to be his students,” said President John Mills. “One only needed to be at reunion and see the crowd that surrounded him when he arrived to know he truly had a significant impact on many lives and careers.” Hoyt taught several different courses, advised the Forestry Club and coached the woodsmen’s team. KENNETH AARON He ran the Paul Smith’s College Sugar Bush for several years and was the primary caretaker of Paul Smith’s draft horses for years. Those horses will help give him a fitting tribute: On July 8, they will lead the college’s stagecoach in a funeral procession from campus to St. John’s in the Wilderness Cemetery. He will be missed. – BB

Weill unveils $1M scholarship

At NSF grant lifts science ed

he sciences need new blood. And thanks to a $530,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Paul Smith’s can help even more students choose that path. The grant, awarded this spring, will go toward scholarships for students majoring in fisheries and wildlife science or environmental science. It’s part of an NSF initiative to boost national competitiveness in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Just 90 schools – out of more than 400 that applied – were chosen to receive one of the awards. As many as 14 students at a time will benefit from the initiative, dubbed the Enhancing Ecological Education Scholarship Program (E3SP). “The Adirondacks are one of the best classrooms imaginable to give students the foundation they need to pursue work in ecology and the environment,” says Prof. Jorie Favreau (above), director of E3SP. “Students in the program will work direcly with faculty members on original research and experience firsthand the thrill of discovery, building the basis for lifelong careers in science.”

» For more information: www.paulsmiths.edu/stem.

– KA

Commencement in May, Joan Weill urged KENNETH AARON graduates to “get involved in your community.” And then she backed that up with an exclamation point. Weill’s plans to endow a $1 million scholarship were announced shortly after she finished speaking, drawing the crowd of 1,000 family, friends, graduates and others to their feet. The first gifts under the scholarship will be awarded in fall 2013. “Joan’s generosity has truly transformed this institution,” said Dr. John W. Mills, president of Paul Smith’s College. “A gift like this holds the promise of making higher education accessible to students who would otherwise have trouble achieving their dreams. That mission has always been at the core of Paul Smith’s College, and I’m so thrilled that Joan has once again taken a lead role in helping us do more.” Weill served on the college’s board from 1992 until 2011 and was chairman of the board from 2005 to 2010. She remains an emeritus trustee. The gift is but the most recent contribution Weill has made to Paul Smith’s. Two campus buildings, the Joan Weill Adirondack Library and the Joan Weill Student Center, bear her name; as a member of the college’s board of trustees, she provided key leadership when Paul Smith’s began offering bachelor’s degrees in 2000. Also during her tenure, residence halls were added to campus and labs and classrooms were significantly upgraded. “Everyone focuses on the buildings,” Mills said. “To me, it is what the buildings have made happen that really matters. The transformation of Paul Smith’s College to a four-year bachelor’s degree-granting institution of national renown would not have happened without Joan.” – KA

Eating fresh from the farm, all year long

It’s

no surprise that the local-food movement is on a roll: It’s good for the economy and good for the environment. But providing a steady flow of locally grown food is challenging for an institution such as Paul Smith’s College when winter hits and the growing season is over. Now, though, a Chenango County-based food distributor is helping to serve up local food at Paul Smith’s no matter the season. Purdy & Sons of Sherburne, N.Y., is delivering broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, Boston Bibb lettuce, romaine lettuce, baby bok choy, basil, oregano, onions, meats and dairy products. And it all comes from within New York, all year long. The owner, Dan Purdy, contracts with New York

farmers and guarantees them an additional market for their goods. Purdy introduces farmers to other distributors who cut, freeze and pack the produce, which he then distributes to his customers across the state. Paul Smith’s has worked with local

purveyors and farmers in the past. In the case of locally raised fruits and vegetables, though, it has been difficult to guarantee availability throughout the year. “Our team can call Purdy and access their available items at any time,” says Travis Zedick, the Sodexo campus dining service general manager. Be on the lookout for even more local food at Paul Smith’s College in the future. Zedick plans to invite the public and several Adirondack and North Country farmers to campus in the fall for a farmers market-style event where attendees can learn about Purdy’s business and how they can get involved. “We’re already serving a lot of local food, but this could help us go hyperlocal,” Zedick says. – BB Sequel | Summer 2012

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VIC by email

ant to keep up with the Paul Smith’s College VIC? Sign up for its new newsletter, @theVIC, and you’ll get a complete list of upcoming events in your inbox each week. Just visit www.facebook.com/thepscvic and click the “Join My Mailing List” button, or email bbennett@paulsmiths.edu to sign up. – BB

Cabin fever S

KENNETH AARON

Cheesy tale C

tudents built the Forestry Club Cabin. So it seems about right that they’re keeping it up, too. Over the past two years, seniors Jesse Hrycik (pictured) and Schuyler Van Auken led efforts to put a little TLC into the log structure, which remains home to the forestry club and is where the woodsmen’s team practices. They gutted and renovated the kitchen; rebuilt the bins that hold wood used by the team; and painted the cabin’s upstairs floor, where students once lived but haven’t for years. (The hand-built circular staircase is particularly cool, but also treacherous to go up

and down.) The projects have cost about $2,000, part of which was raised by the Forestry Club. Hrycik says that most of the club – upwards of 20 people – have pitched in to help with the work. “The club uses the cabin the most and is the second home of many of the club members,” Hrycik says. “So we’ve taken it upon ourselves to do these renovations.” The college pitched in some of the costs, he says, and contributed some of the supplies as well. Other projects are still on the to-do list, including renovations of the forestry club office and staining the outside. – KA

heese producers from across New York State showed off their best goudas, cheddars and other varieties at the Pine Room in April. The tasting was hosted by the college’s Culinary Club and Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Small Farms Program. In addition to representatives from several farms, the specialty cheese buyer for Rochester-based grocery chain Wegmans also made a presentation.

Distance learning

ospitality alums – how’d you like to pay a virtual visit to campus this fall? Prof. Joe Conto is seeking guests to participate in his Alumni Skype Interview Series. Past interviews have been held with Norbert Kupinski, director of member events of the Washington University Club; George Donahue, director of training for Zoe’s Kitchen Corp.; Janyce Voledkevich, regional director of People & Culture for Kimpton Hotels; and Neil Smith, general manager of Chicago’s Onwentsia Club. If you’re an alum with an interesting perspective on the industry, email Conto at jconto@paulsmiths.edu. – KA 8

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KENNETH AARON

WINTER SPORTS ROUNDUP BASKETBALL – Chib Belonwu and Kashean Alston were both selected to the U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) All-American honorable mention team, as the Bobcats finished 1017 on the season. Kris Klinkbeil ’12 was recognized for his four seasons on the squad; the reliable Klinkbeil played 90 games over the course of his collegiate career, averaging 7.6 points and 3.5 rebounds a game.

University and the Canton Canoe Weekend on the Grasse River, this spring. Paul Smith’s teams turned in winning performances in several classes.

CANOEING – Paddlers competed in a pair of events, the Little River Ramble at St. Lawrence

SPRING RUGBY – Ruggers went 8-7 this spring under second-year coach Mark Buckley, competing in several tournaments across upstate New York.

Kashean Alston was an honorable mention All-American this year.

NORDIC SKIING – Matt Piper earned All-American honors at the USCAA Nationals in Bethel, Maine, where he finished sixth in the 8.5-km freestyle. He was consistently among the top five skiers in the East throughout the season.

STRIDERS – Paul Smith’s snowshoers opened the season by dominating the International Snowshoe Championships in Gatineau, Quebec. There, 24 runners captured 63 medals, as well as a team title in the men’s 4x100-meter relay. The team competed in several other events, including the Empire State Games, which were hosted by the college at the last minute after the nearly snowless winter shut down several venues. The season culminated at the U.S. Nationals in Frisco, Colo., where nine members of the team competed. Eric Kowalik and Ben Palladino placed first and second

in the men’s 20-24 age category and Alexa Cosgro won the women’s class; Paul Smith’s also won the 4x2.5-km relay. WOODSMEN – The Jack & Jill team made off with the championship trophy at this year’s Spring Meet, held at Dartmouth College in April. More than 30 teams from the eastern U.S. competed at this year’s event, known as the Super Bowl of lumberjack sports. Two Paul Smith’s students, John Tasker and Kathleen Dole, competed in the Stihl Timbersports Northeast Collegiate Challenge. Tasker finished third, and Dole fifth. See their performances on ESPNU on Monday, July 30, at 7:30 p.m. ALL-ACADEMIC HONORS – When it comes to student-athletes, Paul Smith’s is at the head of the

Eric Kowalik (front) sprints ahead of David Kucia.

class. The USCAA named 30 of our students to its All-Academic team, putting Paul Smith’s among the strongest performers in the 86-college organization. To qualify, students must have a GPA of 3.5 or above. (When it comes to our non-traditional sports, we’re at the top of the heap: Of the 43 students nationally recognized for sports such as canoeing, snowshoeing and rock climbing, 18 are from Paul Smith’s.) – JAMES TUCKER PHOTOS BY PAT HENDRICK

Bowling, anyone?

ow’s this for a debut? In its inaugural season, the college’s bowling team won the Yankee Small College Conference championship. (Heck, the championship was actually its inaugural meet – the team’s members didn’t face another team before traveling to Maine to face other colleges.) Philip Dybfest-Muha ’10, the team’s coach, said the idea for a team took root more than a year ago, when he led the cross-country team on some bowling excursions in Saranac Lake. (He’s the assistant coach of that squad.) From there, athletic director James Tucker suggested intercollegiate competition, and the team was born.

“I really didn’t know if there were any bowlers around or if we’d be any good, so during the fall, we had practices every Tuesday,” says Dybfest-Muha. He found plenty of people ready to lace up bowling shoes: About 30 people turned out for practice. By the time the season started, the team had been whittled to 10. The team’s leading keggler, Ryan McGowan, averaged over 200 points a game. He led the way during the eight-team championship meet in April, also, as Paul Smith’s defeated NHTI of New Hampshire for the title. Dybfest-Muha says the entire team is returning next year. And he’s working on arranging

matches with other colleges in the area, so the team doesn’t have to compile scores on its own. Dybfest-Muha, who has a 300 game under his belt, says he’s earned a trove of knowledge about the sport. “I want to pass that on to a new generation,” he says. – KA Sequel | Summer 2012

[ EVERGREENS]

To Rio,

with a bullet BY KENNETH AARON

ANNIE JARDIN AIMS FOR THE 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES ABOVE: Annie Jardin levels her shotgun as she trains to make the 2016 trap shooting team.

PHOTOS BY DAVID LASSMAN | THE POST-STANDARD

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ere’s a story about a Paul Smith’s student who’s good with a shotgun.

What? Heard that one before, you say? In this story, though, the student, Annie Jardin, is a top-notch trap shooter – and she’s got the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio in her sights. Even though she has only a year of international competition under her belt, Jardin is making a strong push. She has enlisted a former Olympian to coach her, and placed among the world’s best in competitions last summer. “I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympics,” says Jardin, a fisheries and wildlife management major heading into her senior year. “I wasn’t sure what sport that was going to be, but once I found this sport, I was like, ‘This is the one.’” That all sounds kind of precious. But ask her coach, Allen Chubb, which upand-coming shooters he works with who have the potential to get to the Olympics, and it’s a very short list. “Only her,” says Chubb, who competed in the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. In

fact, she’s the only student he’s ever taken on full-time (“besides myself,” he says.) “No one has struck my fancy. I made it crystal-clear to her and her parents – you’re either all in, or you’re all out. I’m not going to waste my time just because somebody thinks it’s neat to win an Olympic medal.” Jardin, he says, has “way outside-thebox desire.” And the talent to match. Last summer, her first on the international circuit, Jardin took first place among women at the Munich Grand Prix, and third in an event in France. This summer, she competed in Pennsylvania in June, will head to Colorado in July for the U.S. championships, and back to Europe after that. Jardin has known her way around a gun for years. She’s been a hunter since she was a girl, competed in biathlon, and is proficient in American trap shooting. International trap, though, is different. In that discipline, the clay pigeons are hurled into the air at 66 mph, compared to 45 mph for the American version. Competitors take aim at 75 targets fired from five different positions; at each position, the target may fly left, right or straight

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ahead. The top six competitors move to a final round. (By the way: Don’t call it skeet shooting. Unless you want an expert markswoman to glare at you. The difference is that in skeet shooting, the targets cross in front of the shooter, while in trap, they’re shot into the distance.) Jardin, of Mexico, N.Y., first met Chubb at the Empire State Games in 2010. The first time they spoke, she told him her Olympic dream. The next night, they spoke on the phone, with Jardin’s parents listening in the background. “He told me how dedicated you have to be, and how much hard work this is going to be,” she says. Chubb provided a blunt rundown of what it would take to qualify for the Olympics. Years of practice. Slogging across continents for competitions. Lots of money. Oh, Jardin’s Olympic dream is expensive. Before Chubb would take her on, Jardin’s first assignment was to replace her handme-down shotgun with an Italian-made Perazzi MX2000. That alone cost thousands. And it was just the start. Practicing alone can break the bank. Consider: There are 25 shotgun shells in a box, and 10 boxes in a flat. Those flats go for $77 each. She can go through five flats a week, no problem. $385. Ka-ching. Her time on the range isn’t free, either. She pays $5 for every round of targets she shoots. Just over winter break this year, she

shot 98 rounds. $490. Ka-ching. “And all of these events I’m going to – there are entry fees, plane tickets, rental cars, you name it,” Jardin says. In all, she’s looking at a $200,000 bill. Chubb has set up a fund that can accept tax-deductible donations to help offset her training costs. She’s not paying any coaching fees, though. Chubb is donating his time. And he’s letting her board with him for free, too. During the day, she works at a game park; after work, she trains at Chubb’s range, Keystone Shooting Park. Just finished last year, it’s a fully automated, Olympiccaliber shooting palace that she can access day or night. Despite all the hard work, only one woman will be selected for the 2016 U.S. team. And Jardin isn’t alone in vying for that spot. You may expect somebody with a type-A, super-competitive, goldmedal-or-bust personality to charge forward into that Jardin at home with some of the medals she has won so far.

kind of breach, but that’s not how Jardin comes across. She’s a quiet talker. Had to be chased for months to do this story. “I have a lot of improvement and a lot of learning to go,” Jardin says. “But every day, I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to getting there.” S

» To make a tax-deductible contribution to support Jardin, send a check to:

Chubb International Shooting Sports Inc. 302 Tennessee Ave. Elizabethville, PA 17023 Attn: Designated Athlete Support Fund for Ann Jardin

[ EVERGREENS]

KENNETH AARON

This 160.4-foot-tall eastern white pine, just a mile from the Paul Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campus, is the tallest in New York State.

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SKYSCRAPER

SEE N.Y.’S TALLEST TREE, JUST AROUND THE CORNER BY MARY THILL

bout 335 years ago, an eastern white pine began growing a mile from what wouldn’t become known as Paul Smith’s College for almost another three centuries. When lumberjacks logged the area in the 19th and 20th centuries, the pine and a dozen acres around it were spared the ax; the loggers may have been unsure of property lines and decided to err on the side of caution, leaving some trees uncut. Eventually the grove became part of the Adirondack Forest Preserve, where logging is prohibited. So the pine continued to grow straight and tall – so tall that today it stands at approximately 160 feet, the loftiest known tree in New York State. Professor Emeritus Michael Kudish first saw this tree and 50 other giant white pines that surround it when he began teaching at Paul Smith’s. “Dean William Rutherford, head of the forestry division, had told me about the grove shortly after I arrived in the fall of 1971,” Kudish recalls. “I stumbled around in the woods on my own, following Bill’s directions, and finally found the grove, probably about 1972 or 1973. It wasn’t as easy to get to then as it is now.” For 30 years, Kudish counted growth rings on nearby fallen trees and used the stand as a living laboratory for dendrology classes. The site still serves as an outdoor classroom, says forestry professor Sally Bogdanovitch. One of her students actually climbed the giants a few years ago to check height measurements. Kudish determined that the grove began growing around 1675 – perhaps, he hypothesizes, when a major windstorm swept through the area, felling old trees and creating clearings for new growth. Still, it was news even to Kudish that the place harbored a record-breaker. Like most people, he assumed that the tallest tree in New York is a famous white pine called the Grandmother Tree, at the Pack Forest in Warrensburg.

The professor’s passion is forest history, and as he worked on a project to map first-growth forests in the Catskills and Adirondacks, he determined that the 1675 Grove is a rare patch of virgin timber. But it took a volunteer with a singular interest to figure out the grove’s significance in the wider skyscape of soaring trees. Howard Stoner, a retired math professor from Troy, N.Y., used field trigonometry to calculate in 2006 that the pine, located a half-mile south of Route 86 near the hamlet of Easy Street, is 160.4 feet tall—four feet taller than the runner-up, a tulip tree in western New York’s Zoar Valley. (Turns out the Grandmother Tree is just 150 feet tall.) Stoner tacked a silver tag engraved with the number 103 onto the giant’s furrowed trunk. Stoner is a member of the Eastern Native Tree Society, a group of citizen scientists established in 1996 to locate and measure old and large trees in eastern North America. Members call themselves “Ents,” a nod to both J. R. R. Tolkien’s tree beings and the organization’s acronym. Stoner joined the Ents in the late 1990s. He had climbed the Adirondacks’ 46 highest mountains – in both summer and winter – and was looking for a new challenge. “I had been all over these High Peaks and didn’t really know the forest at all. I couldn’t identify trees,” he says. “I wanted to learn this stuff. It was very fascinating. So then I spent 10 years or so pretty seriously measuring trees, most every other weekend, year-round.” Stoner also worked with the New York Old Growth Association and Doc Kudish, who provided him with four decades of records on the 1675 Grove. As caretaker of a nearby camp in Saranac Inn, Stoner adopted the plot as a special project. In addition to tree 103, four other white pines on the 12-acre site are taller than the Statue of Liberty, copper base to torch. “When you walk up to them they’re rather immense,” he says. “There are very few places you run into in the East where there are trees this big.” S

To visit the 1675 Grove

here are no trail markers, and the trip entails a short bushwhack, so carry a map and compass or GPS (Latitude 44.431979º N; Longitude 74.221880º W). Just east of Easy Street, park by a gated logging road on the south side of Route 86. Walk down the logging road to a large clearing. Orient yourself and follow another logging road south out of the clearing. About a quarter mile from Route 86 you come to a power line. Turn left on the power line and walk up the hill about a thousand feet. Fifty yards before the utility pole at the top of a rise, turn south and bushwhack downhill into the woods another thousand or so feet. You have found the grove when you see large white pines marked on the north side with silver tags above eye level. Tree 101 is the most easterly. The grove is part of the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest. The walk to the power line crosses land owned by Paul Smith’s College on which the state holds public recreation rights.

Sequel | Summer 2012

[ EVERGREENS]

Frequent SHARON CURTIS ’09 TAKES AERIAL VIEW BY BOB BENNETT

flier

boarded the tiny yellow Cessna 172 on a clear, sunny day. The aircraft was only big enough for the three of us. From the back seat, I could touch both sides without fully extending my arms. The plane, outfitted with its aerial telemetry antennas and radio receiver, took off smoothly from the Lake Placid Airport. Then, as we flew over Lake Colden, we heard the first signs of life. Our mission? Tracking a handful of American martens, a fisher and a black bear from the sky. Welcome to Sharon Curtis ’09’s office. Since November 2011, Curtis, a wildlife technician for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, has been tracking animals with aerial telemetry to keep tabs on them for conservation purposes. So far she’s taken two flights to

Sequel | Summer 2012

PORTRAIT BY BOB BENNETT

ABOVE: Curtis stands near the Cessna 172 that helps her keep track of American martens (below).

survey moose and four flights to track American martens. Those creatures – small carnivores in the weasel family – once flourished throughout northern New York until intensive logging and trapping decimated its population in the late 1800s and early 1900s. After the state banned marten trapping in the 1930s, their population eventually rebounded; by 1978, the DEC reopened the season in the High Peaks region, and began studying the range and habitat of the rejuvenated species. That work has led to a four-year project monitoring the presence of marten. “We want to determine their habitat selection and home range at large and fine scales,” Curtis says. “With this information, we can create a model that predicts whether martens may find suitable habitat elsewhere in the state. Maybe one day we will see them reintroduced into the Catskills.” Doing that is a two-step process that first requires Curtis and her colleagues to catch the martens. After badging them with ear tags and a collar-mounted transmitter about half the size of an AA battery, they send it back into the wild. That’s when the real fun begins. Curtis and about eight other technicians take turns flying over Elk Lake in the Eastern High Peaks, the Huntington Wildlife Forest in Newcomb and the West Canada Lakes in the southern Adirondacks. They use a special device to zero in on the radio collars. I joined Curtis on a flight one day in mid-March. As we flew over Lake Colden, we picked up a signal emitted from a collar attached to a black bear named Yellow Yellow. The DEC has been tracking her since 2004, but this was the first time Curtis encountered her since she began working there in November 2011. The bear was in hibernation when we tracked it, but Curtis was looking forward to tracking her again in the summer. For now, it’s on to the martens. Each animal’s collar emits a unique frequency, which Curtis tunes into with a handheld device. When she picks up the signal, the device beeps, and the pilot circles the area until they find the spot where the sound is the strongest. “Aerial telemetry can quickly pinpoint an animal’s loca-

tion in remote and rough terrain,” Curtis explains. “The signal can be picked up from 5 to 10 miles, and you can tell whether the marten is alive or dead by the how often the signal beeps.” We zero in on a live marten at Elk Lake. The pilot tilts the plane at about a 45-degree angle, forming a tight circle to help determine its exact location. We keep circling, as Curtis directs the pilot: “To the left, to the left.” The beeping eventually gets really strong as we circle the location. Curtis decides we’re right over top of the marten. That’s when she “takes point,” entering the animal’s identification number into the handheld device that records its exact location and the geographical information of the area. The device links to a database that the DEC uses to track the animal’s movement over time. By the end of the day, we recorded information on the bear, five martens and one fisher, a closely related but bigger animal. Curtis has been involved with plenty of other projects since she started working at the DEC, too. She’s done deer checking and aging, aerial moose surveys, migratory game bird management and bat cave surveys. “I enjoy working with animals, and I really love this area,” she says. Curtis grew up in the Adirondack Park near Turtle Pond in Saranac Lake and has always loved the outdoors. Her father, who also worked for the DEC, spent a lot of time outdoors with her and her sister. “We missed a lot of our friends’ birthday parties when I was a kid, and I griped about it at the time. But when I look back on it, I’m glad because we were enjoying the outdoors,” she says. “I’ve monitored sea turtles on the hot Florida panhandle and trapped small mammals in the cool temperate rainforest of the Alaskan Inside Passage, but I haven’t found a place I enjoy more than the High Peaks region of the Adirondack Park. I’m thankful that I live here, and I like knowing that the work I do helps preserve the park and its wildlife for future generations.” S

BOB BENNETT

TOP: Aerial view from the Cessna. The radio antenna is visible to the right of the picture. CENTER: DEC wildlife technicians use a handling cone to sedate an American marten. BELOW: A marten in a box trap. PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHARON CURTIS

ELAINA BURNS

Sequel | Summer 2012

Going viral JOHN MITZEWICH ’83 Age: 49 Now living in: San Francisco Hometown: Shortsville, N.Y. Family: Wife, Michele Education: Paul Smith’s College, A.A.S., culinary arts Last book read: “Jitterbug Perfume,” Tom Robbins (“early ‘90s”) Hobbies: Twitter, gardening, golf, drinking What kitchen item wouldn’t you want to live without? You’ve got to have a big, old, nice, heavy Dutch oven. That’s just an absolute must. It doesn’t have to be expensive.

Take a good look at John Mitzewich ’83 – aka Chef John – because you won’t see his mug on his popular website.

Sequel | Summer 2012

[Q & A]

INTERVIEW BY KENNETH AARON | DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING

table for 62 million? No problem, says John Mitzewich ’83, aka Chef John. The easygoing, wisecracking Internet sensation has racked up that many views through his how-to Food Wishes blog (foodwishes.blogspot.com), and a recent deal with top-ranked food site Allrecipes.com promises even more. With his kitchen on blocks as he remodels, Chef John dishes up thoughts on technology, celebrity chefs and never letting ’em see you. Your YouTube channel has more than 200,000 subscribers. What’s your secret? The main thing is a natural ability to deliver a difficult or complex message in a way that’s disarming. I’ve always had an innate ability to teach people intimidating things in a way that is not intimidating at all. I don’t know if it’s the vibration of my voice, or the cadence – there’s something about how the message is delivered that people seem to enjoy and relate to. You’ve done 715 videos – and your face isn’t in any of them. What’s the deal? It’s just my hands and the food. So you’re forced to focus on the message. When people are actually watching the video, they don’t get to picture me. They’re picturing their ideal image of their buddy, Chef John, showing them how to make pasta sauce. Was that by design? Absolutely. Here’s what I’ll admit: when I first started, it wasn’t like I said, “I have a brilliant idea: I’ll be the only chef who doesn’t feature himself.” It was because I didn’t have lights. All I could literally do was point that stupid $50 webcam at the cutting board. After 700 videos, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned? Within reason, the equipment is almost a nonfactor. I still to this day don’t have a video camera. I have an old Canon Rebel I set to the video setting. I have no lights, I have no microphones, I just do a voiceover into the laptop after it’s all edited.

People are generally so paralyzed by the fear of not having the right equipment, or not doing something right, or taking a class on lighting first. People put a lot of roadblocks up when they’re about to do something new, to test their inner conviction. Literally everybody has a video camera in their house somewhere. It might be a cellphone. Set it up, cook, turn it on, see what happens! Are you doing the same thing as those celebrity chefs on TV? Or is it different? I think it’s all exactly the same. I mean, Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Emeril, they’re all really talented people that entertain people and teach them cooking stuff and inspire people to cook. I think that’s awesome. That’s all I do. Now, I’m not going to leave that without explaining why our format is a little superior: You can interact with me where you can’t interact with a Rachael Ray. You can’t just log onto her blog or her YouTube channel and say, “Are you sure 20 minutes was enough? Mine weren’t that brown.” How much time do these 4-minute videos take? It is a 7-day-a-week job. There’s always emails and comments to answer even when I’m not working. Now, when I say “work,” you’ve got to picture me doing air quotes around it. So when I say I work 12 hours a day, compared to a guy putting the sidewalk in across the street, that’s work. I’m cooking gnocchi and showing you how to make a brown butter sauce. I’m basically filming every other

day, and in the days in between I’m either shopping, planning or editing, doing voiceovers. Of course, I have to write the posts, which I think a lot of people take for granted. That’s one of the more time-consuming things. You can’t just put it on your blog. I’m pigeonholed as the video guy, but I’m really proud of the blog and the photography. Is everything first take, or do you rehearse? Never. Never. My screwup videos are some of my favorites. I’ll be like, “I made this. It sucked!” People say, “I can’t believe you posted a recipe that didn’t come out!” I don’t see what the big deal is. I really think people think when chefs cook new stuff it comes out awesome every time. What are the basics my kitchen should have? I never do any of those kind of lists. Whatever Martha Stewart thinks you should have in your kitchen, that’s what you should have. She’s probably spent literally six months coming up with that list, and probably hired and fired nine assistants who researched it. Any recipe I put up, you’re going to be able to do in the least-well equipped kitchen. I’m very conscious of that. If you have at least one or two big fry pans, a couple of stock pots, maybe one smaller 4-quart soup pot or sauce pan, you’re good to go. I’m really more about the food than what brand you’re using. If you want to know what a good brand is, go to Amazon and look at the ratings. S

PORTRAIT: STEVE YEATER

Sequel | Summer 2012

[ SPACES]

THE

GREAT LAWN FOR

a long time, the Great Lawn was neither great nor lawn.

It was a sandy expanse overlooking Lower St. Regis Lake that was notable

mostly for the Canada geese that picked it bare every year. In 2010, though, lead groundskeeper Jesse Sherman had a goal: To turn the Great Lawn into a classic college quad worthy of its name.

Sequel | Summer 2012

1 This thick carpet doesn’t grow overnight. The process started two years ago, when Sherman, coworker Craig Bagnato, and the grounds manager from Skidmore College set to the entire 2-acre lawn at once. They put down lime, added starter fertilizer, aerated and seeded. On top of the seed, they put down a 1-inch layer of compost bark mulch to rejuvenate the soil and hold moisture. Then they watered all the way through the first snow in October. 2 Yep, that’s a brown patch. Happens. They’re filled in every year by repeating the process: fertilize, aerate, seed, mulch. 3 The Great Lawn is kept at 2¾ inches tall. While it started out as a ryegrass seed mix, over the past two years other species have filled in. 4 Those white flowers are clover. “I’d rather have turfgrass,” Sherman says. “My goal is to have it look just as good as the soccer field.” Getting it there will take time, fertilizer and more seeding. 5 The rake’s nice, but the real maintenance is done by a Jacobsen Turfcat with an Envirodeck that mulches the grass and puts it back in the soil. Don’t have one? Here’s Sherman’s rule of thumb: Fertilize on the 4th of July and Halloween. Seed and aerate every year and water when it’s hot. 6 Sherman, who has been at Paul Smith’s since 2004, has become the resident turf specialist. After tackling the Great Lawn, he went on to rehabilitate another lost cause, the lawn in front of the Phelps Smith Administration Building; this year, the grounds crew is overhauling the strip between Upper St. Regis Hall and Alumni Hall, a former parking lot that’s turned into an oasis.

4 6

Sequel | Summer 2012

[ OUR ADIRONDACKS ]

Merrygoround maker

ith an up-and-down and round-and-round motion, Karen Loffler’s dream was finally realized this spring when the Adirondack Carousel opened.

The indoor merry-go-round, which features a zoo’s worth of hand-carved wooden sculptures representing animals indigenous to the Adirondacks, took 10 long years to finish. And Loffler has the people of Saranac Lake to thank: Through a whole lot of donations and volunteer work, the community pulled together and finished the $1.3 million project.

Loffler, an instructor at the college and coordinator of the Academic Writing Center, is also a skilled woodcarver. She conjured the idea for the carousel in 2000, when she saw a small, four-piece carousel in Buffalo where she attended grad school. She knew then and there that she wanted to bring one to Saranac Lake, 20

PHOTOS BY KENNETH AARON

ABOVE: Karen Loffler at the Adirondack Carousel shortly before its completion in May. BELOW LEFT: A rider enjoys the carousel’s opening day. BELOW RIGHT: Donors spent $60,000 on engraved pavers.

Sequel | Summer 2012

near where she grew up. “I love this community,” Loffler says. “But at that time, it was getting really quiet. A lot of younger people were moving away, and I just thought it would bring something fun for people to do, especially the children. I thought it was a great way to help them understand the environment that they live in. It was meant to be a learning tool for children.” She approached the village’s mayor about the project in 2000. “He told me to bring it to the board,” Loffler says. “They gave me the thumbs-up, but I got a whole lot of looks that seemed to say, ‘Oh my God, this girl is crazy.’” Loffler assembled and chaired a board of about nine people who didn’t think it was crazy at all. They gained not-for-profit status, found a spot to build and got a building permit. They put articles in woodcarving magazines, and volunteers from all over the country got to work, carving the different animals. But the board enlisted the help of local people, too, many of them from Paul Smith’s.

Prof. Lee Ann Sporn painted three wildflower medallions that make up part of the panoramic rounding boards on top of the carousel; Carol Vossler ’81 carved the trout; and a group of Cathy Fuller’s students sponsored the bobcat. Even with all the help, the project faced plenty of obstacles along the way. The recession delayed construction. The staff members, who were all paid at the beginning, were laid off. Some board members left amidst the financial turmoil. “Plenty of people in the community pulled together, volunteering their time and resources after that,” Loffler says. “We also started collecting donations. Marge (Glowa, the carousel’s fundraising chairwoman) turned a lot of elbows.” Local businesses and individuals bought $60,000 worth of engraved pavers that lead up to the pavilion entrance. Volunteers completed all of the work inside the pavilion. “It boggles the mind,” says Glowa.“It’s truly a project built with community hands. And we did it debt free.” The state kicked some money in, too: The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic

Preservation gave $235,000 for the start-up, and Sen. Betty Little supplied $25,000 for playground equipment.

And, at long last, the Carousel opened for business on May 26. Hundreds of people flooded the pavilion for their first ride on the wooden Adirondack animals, which were named by local children. There’s Justin Beaver, John Deer, Oliver the Otter, Thunder the Draft Horse and Beethoven the Moose. In all, there are 24 different animals, of which 18 are mounted on the carousel at any given time. On each is a hidden ladybug for kids to find. Rides are $2. “It’s really weird to finally see the animals on the carousel,” Loffler says. “It took a long time, but we pulled it off.” Glowa called it a “truly joyful piece of equipment. I always thought this was a fabulous idea. But it turned out better than I thought.” – BOB BENNETT

[ FEATURE]

There for the

start

Kevin Mullally ’68 helps South Sudan, the world’s newest country, through a rocky start

BY KENNETH AARON | DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING

evin Mullally ’68 has not spent his career in the world’s garden spots. Two years in Rwanda. Five years in Mali. Another five in Ethiopia. Three in Bangladesh and three in Haiti. Stints in Niger, Chad and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso).

So when the forestry alum tells you that his current post in South Sudan is a challenge, well, that’s saying something.

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

An aerial view of Juba, the capital of South Sudan, where Kevin Mullally ’68 is stationed. The Nile River is on the right.

“It’s a very difficult place to work,” says Mullally, mission director for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in South Sudan. “I’ve been overseas for a long time, and this is the most difficult physical environment you can imagine.” South Sudan is a new nation – it just gained its independence from Sudan last year, and the two countries are still fighting over borders and oil. It is bedeviled by issues as tragic as sky-high infant mortality and as basic as lousy roads that make much of the country inaccessible once the rainy season arrives. USAID, a federal agency that distributes aid to foreign

‘‘

You can see some real changes, and that’s… what keeps us involved.

‘‘

– KEVIN MULLALLY ’68

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

civilians and promotes economic development, agriculture and other institutions that bolster democracy in developing nations, has committed more than $1 billion to South Sudan so far in an effort to help the fledgling nation find its wings. And Mullally, who is stationed in the nation’s capital, Juba, is helping lead the effort. The transition to statehood means having to deal with many rudimentary issues. Among USAID’s earliest tasks were helping the new government establish a central bank and its own currency. But unexpected turmoil has made the process more difficult than expected. While South Sudan and Sudan entered a tenuous peace in 2005 after decades of civil war, border conflicts have flared up again. And while South Sudan’s economy is bolstered by its rich oil reserves, the pipeline that gets the oil to international markets is controlled by Sudan. With both sides digging in their heels about payments to use the pipeline, South Sudan’s oil production has tailed off. If it seems like a daunting task, it is. “It’s going to take time,” Mullally says.

COURTESY OF USAID

RIGHT: Kevin Mullally, in blazer and white shirt, at the opening of a USAID-funded project in South Sudan. ABOVE, OPPOSITE: Images from South Sudan.

Sequel | Summer 2012

“It’s going to take a lot of time.” Progress in Africa often comes slowly. But after 30 years on the ground there, Mullally knows that it does come. And it’s these victories that have led him to build a career thousands of miles from home. “You can see some real changes, and that’s probably what keeps us involved,” Mullally says. Mullally’s stint in South Sudan is not, perhaps, the half-speed victory lap that some with retirement in their sights might sign up for. But the Catskills native has been tacking in unexpected directions since he graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a bachelor’s degree in forestry in 1971 and joined the Peace Corps. He was sent to Africa, where he was among a group of 30-odd foresters whose job was to try stopping the Sahara Desert from swallowing arable land. He was posted in Chad with one other person. “I lived on a sand dune,” he says. The forester had no forest to tend to. In his first year there, it rained only three times. His work involved soil conservation,

dune stabilization and planting shade trees around schools. Mullally grew attached to Africa after working closely with the deputy head of the forest service in Niger, who trained the Peace Corps’ foresters. He imbued in Mullally a sense that working in Africa was important. “He saw us as valuable resources,” says Mullally. To this day, he says, about a half-dozen of those 30 Peace Corps foresters are still doing work in Africa. Mullally returned to the U.S. after serving in the Peace Corps to work in Nevada – a job he landed partly because of his dry-weather experience – but soon headed overseas again, to Haiti. He joined USAID in 1982, with an eye toward returning to Africa. Africa is a powerful lure, says Dave Eckerson, a longtime friend and colleague of Mullally’s. They met in Haiti and worked for years together in USAID; he recently left his post as mission director in Uganda. “The Sahel is a pretty amazing place,” says Eckerson, referring to the 3,400-mile-long belt stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. “It gives you some skills that eventually, when you come back to America, it’s something you gravitate toward.” Eckerson is also a Peace Corps

veteran; at least 50 percent of USAID workers, he estimates, come from that background. “They want adventure, they want ‘the toughest job I ever loved,’ they want that kind of challenge. And they want to see other parts of the world.” Eckerson offered a simple secret to Mullally’s success: “He’s just a nice guy,” Eckerson says. “He gets along with people. To get ahead, you really have to have that ability. It epitomizes what AID is all about. If you’re a loner or a (jerk), you tend not to rise up in the ranks.” Mullally also has an appetite for adventure – which, Eckerson noted, is kind of required to spend a year in Juba. (Ask Mullally about hitchhiking across the Sahara, spending most of the 2,000mile trip from Niger to Algiers on top of a Libyan truck loaded with mattresses. Or even his short rafting trip on the Nile this spring. “Didn’t see any crocs or hippos (luckily) but did see elephants,” he emailed.) That said, South Sudan is not necessarily a typical post for Mullally. In many of the other places he has worked, Mullally was able to help more stable nations build out their capabilities, rather

than starting from scratch. In Senegal, for example, he helped implement regulations that allowed communities to manage their forests and to reap profits, rather than watch charcoal producers strip the land bare. In Rwanda, USAID helped farmers establish a lucrative market for their coffee crops that helped promote economic independence. Mullally worked in Rwanda after genocide tore the country apart. But the people who remained came up with a concrete vision to attract expatriates back and to rebuild their nation. “They have a very directed government,” Mullally says. “They think they want to do something, and they put it together. It’s almost like a company. I really enjoyed working there.” There’s still a long road to travel in South Sudan before it finds a similar vision. In fact, they still have to build roads. Even though the southern portion of the country is fertile, the roads are too poor to get food to market. Half of South Sudan’s food is imported as a result. To help, USAID financed the first real paved road in the country, Mullally says, a 150-mile-long stretch from the capital, Juba, to the Ugandan border. “It’s

changing the economy. It’s changing the accessibility. It’s changing so many different things.” His wife and daughter remained in Paris for his most recent post, but they’ll reunite in August, when he leaves Sudan for a two-year position as a development advisor with the U.S. Army in Germany. After that, he’s planning on retiring to Pennsylvania. “The States is a great country,” Mullally says. “I’m looking forward to a temperate climate and grocery stores that you can walk down and make a choice.” But he’ll leave behind things he can’t get at Target. “There are so many different people and so many incredible experiences that you have, looking at the world through different people’s eyes,” he says of his 30 years in dusty towns where supermarkets may be made from shipping containers. “It gives you a whole different perception of the world.” So, yes, South Sudan is hard. But the South Sudanese are proud, and they’re eager to make their new nation work. “It’s kind of a scary time right now, to work together with them and figure out where to go,” Mullally says. “But there’s all kinds of potential in this country.” S

The Paul Smith's College Fund Our annual fund has a new name, but its mission is the same: To provide the scholarships, faculty support and equipment that make an education here so special. The Paul Smith’s College Fund affects all of us, every day. Please donate today at www.paulsmiths.edu/give.

knockout

Sequel | Summer 2012

[ COVER STORY ]

Ars/Scie

Paul Smith’s faculty bridge gap between art, science

Sequel | Summer 2012

BY BOB BENNETT

many people’s eyes, scientists and artists might seem like totally opposite types of people: Scientists do everything by the book, and artists work off-the-cuff. Or, at least, that’s the perception. But several science professors at Paul Smith’s say science and art are just two different ways of looking at the world. And they look through both lenses. In the coming pages, we’ll take a look at five Paul Smith’s College science professors who write poetry, paint and play music.

entia MARK KURTZ

Celia Evans entertains the crowd at the Left Bank Café in Saranac Lake.

Celia Evans: Local connection

hether she’s working or playing music, Prof. Celia Evans is busy telling stories. As an ecology professor, Evans tells stories about the way organisms interact with one another and their environment. As a singer-songwriter, she writes heartfelt, lyrical tales about the Adirondacks and its people. “The same stuff that inspires me to practice and teach ecology inspires the songs. They’re both my passions. They’re two different ways to express the same amazement about the area,” she says. Sometimes, the inspirations mix: In one of her songs, “Eva,” Evans writes about the life of a 31-year-old girl of the same name who died in the 1920s. Evans was at a local cemetery with her General Ecology class when she hatched the idea

for the song. While the students were busy collecting data on birth rates, death rates and gender for one of their class projects, Evans discovered Eva’s grave, apart from the others in the cemetery. So she began to wonder about her life and what she was doing in the Adirondacks, seemingly alone. “Eva, what are you doing on this hill here by yourself,” the song begins. “No mother and no father here, no children, no one else. The space here by your stone called me over for a look, and finding you alone made me wonder ….” [Listen to “Eva” on Spotify here: http:// spoti.fi/LJaz1G] “It’s nice way to put together someone’s history,” Evans says. “It relates very much to what I do as an ecology professor.”

Evans has been singing since high school and started playing guitar shortly after she graduated. She began her music career playing in coffee houses during grad school at Dartmouth and started recording CDs and playing regular live shows after she came to Paul Smith’s. “The people that the Adirondacks attract have a depth of feeling about ecology and nature,” she says. “The people who like my songs love the images they evoke because they are generally people that relate to them.” Evans is releasing her fourth CD, “The Road,” on Aug. 17 at the Paul Smith’s College VIC.

» Check out www.celiaevansfolk.com for more information.

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Lee Ann Sporn:

Cells to canvas

hen she was younger, Prof. Lee Ann Sporn never dreamed she would become an artist. “I always wanted to try it, but I never thought I could,” Sporn says. “When I went to school, I was in the science curriculum, and I was taught that they were very different things. Scientists didn’t do art.” She’s gotten over that. “Somehow as you get older, you just sort of say, ‘Well, the heck with that,’” Sporn says now. Recently, she helped

open a gallery in Saranac Lake where she displays her paintings, drawing and jewelry. She says taking up art has changed the way she looks at the world by making her more innovative and a little less analytical. “I now have a different way of perceiving that’s probably just as valuable,” she says. Sporn’s motivation as an artist is twofold. As a cellular biologist, she spends a lot of time learning about things she can’t see, so she likes to put down on canvas what she can see. “I’m intrigued by trying to interpret and put down on canvas the beauty of the natural world,” she says. She wants to make sure other people notice that beauty, as well. She recalls the time she followed another professor around the Paul Smith’s College campus while he taught a Biology 101 lab. “He would describe whole ecosystems with monarchs landing on the milkweed and how they lay their eggs, and I had an intense need to put that on paper. I had to illustrate that,” she says. “Having all those disparate ideas in one place is such a beautiful thing. But people didn’t notice the beauty in the things he was talking about, and it bugged me.” So Sporn set out to make people notice with her artwork. Her subjects are almost always from the natural world, rather than manmade or contrived scenes, she says. This summer, she’s creating a set of drawings of local aquatic plants, showcasing all of their life stages in their natural setting. As she reflects on her own development as an artist, she’s surprised that it took her so long to recognize the connection between art and science. Especially since the two have been closely linked throughout history, Sporn says. She points to the early anatomists, who observed, described and recorded what they found. They were basically artists, she says. They captured the essence of things and made models and illustrations. “If you wrote a description of science and a description of art, you could almost interchange them. Both have in common a need or a want to interpret the natural world. “Science aims to be objective, but I don’t think it really is. Science is very creative; I’ve always said that, and I’ve always known that. It’s not just logic and deduction. You have to have these creative leaps.” Prof. Lee Ann Sporn holding one of her pieces at her gallery, NorthWind Fine Arts, in Saranac Lake.

Sequel | Summer 2012

Curt Stager:

String theorist

hile digging through some old files recently, Prof. Curt Stager found a long-lost note from his grad school advisor at Duke University’s zoology department. “Stager is doing very well,” the advisor wrote, “But I sometimes wonder if the muse will take him away from science.” It did – at least for a time. Unlike most college science professors, Stager had set out on a career in music before he began teaching. In fact, it was music that landed him at Paul Smith’s College in the first place. Stager started playing the guitar and banjo when he was 13, and he’s been a semiprofessional musician for about four decades now. He has performed and recorded in North Carolina, Maine, New York and Scandinavia. ABC television covered his music-making with Chinese athletes during the 1980 Olympics. He’s also played with a variety of noted musicians, including Pete Seeger, before settling down to teach science for a living 25 years ago. When Stager came to campus in August 1987 to attend a music festival, he heard there was an unexpected opening for a biology professor that needed to be filled within the following two weeks. “The festival took place over the weekend, and I went in and talked to the president that Monday,” Stager says. “I’ve been here ever since, and gladly so.” But he was so entrenched in the world of music back then that his fans couldn’t believe their ears. “I can’t imagine you being a college professor,” they would tell him. “You’re supposed to be one of the local musicians.” Enough time has now passed, and Stager has published his research results in enough academic journals, that these days most people are probably surprised to hear he almost spent his life as a musician. Stager contends that it’s actually not uncommon for scientists to practice the arts. “There are just not that many outlets for them to show their artistic sides among their peers,” he explains. “Plus there’s this perception that scientists are so emotionally isolated from their work that they don’t have any feelings or aesthetic sensitivities, even in their personal lives.” But some of the best scientists out there have been gifted artists, Stager says. Einstein played chamber music. A noted biologist at Union College also taught nature illustration. Stager knew a pioneering professor of biomechanics in grad school who made chainsaw sculptures in his spare time, and his advisor at Duke University knew hundreds of traditional Scottish songs. They once traveled though West Africa together in the bed of a pickup truck while the advisor sang song after song, without missing a beat, for the entire trip. He later confided in Stager that he thought the best scientists were “not too tightly tied to reality.”

Prof. Curt Stager (center) performs at an open mic night on campus. PORTRAITS BY KENNETH AARON

“If you don’t let your imagination go, you’re less likely to make those creative leaps of intuition that lead you in new research directions,” Stager says. “Scientists are professionally inquisitive. They try to make connections between seemingly unrelated things, which is what artists do with sounds and images.” Yet for all his knowledge about the connections that link art and science, Stager says he’s still pleasantly surprised from time to time by his own students’ abilities during the open mic nights on campus. “Every now and then, there will be a student whom I know only from biology class,” he says. “She’ll step up to the microphone and open her mouth and out comes opera or some wonderful original poetry. I’ll never get tired of that – it’s just amazing to see the creativity our students can display when they’re given a chance to show it.”

» Stager and his wife, Kary, currently run the Mountain Arts Gathering, a week-long music camp for adults here on campus every July.

Sequel | Summer 2012

Prof. Daun Reuter with her mandolin on campus.

PORTRAITS BY KENNETH AARON

Daun Reuter: Flowers, folk, photos

aun Reuter the professor teaches botany and environmental science. Daun Reuter the musician plays mandolin in a local band, the Dust Bunnies. Daun Reuter the photographer captures images of Adirondack wildflowers. She says she keeps the threads separate. But at the same time, they’re inseparable. “You generally use a different part of your brain as a scientist, but science can also be very creative,” she says. “And music is not always free-form. It can be very structured.” Reuter has been playing the mandolin for about five years. She started on guitar when she was younger and picked up the mandolin only when her husband suggested it. (He’s an avid bluegrass musician who gave her a hand-carved Collings mandolin as a wedding present.) She’s been with her band, the Dust Bunnies, for about two years. “We’re a performance-based band,” Reuter says of the folksy, singer-songwriter act. “We’re really not a bar band. Our music is all about the poetry of the songs and the stories we tell, so people really need to listen to the music to appreciate it.”

Sequel | Summer 2012

Reuter’s photography focuses on plants, a subject that dovetails nicely with her work as a botanist. Her photos have been on display at the Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls and have also been published in Adirondack Life. For the past several years, she has been working on a field guide detailing wildflowers found in the Adirondacks, and has sold several hundred copies of an educational poster featuring 10 different types of wildflowers she photographed as well. She also uses the photographs as instructional material for her classes – and herself. The photos help her look at plants differently, she says. “I have to focus on them more than I ever did before,” Reuter says. “I know how many petals they have; I can see all of the individual hairs inside, what kind of pollinator they have and the different glands they’re producing. I take hundreds of photos of these different plants, and I feel more comfortable with their anatomy.” Although music and photography give her a creative outlet, they serve different purposes, she says. “Music is definitely an escape for me.

It’s my time. When I retire, I’ll continue to do it. Photography is work-based, but music is very social. It’s a great way to meet people.” Reuter is not a solo artist, and she doesn’t want to be. “Working with a group to make a song the best that it can be is such a good feeling,” she says. “Everyone knows their role. You bring the song somewhere from the first notes. You might not know where it’s going, but you take it somewhere and end it together. Then it’s gone; it’s for the moment.”

Craig Milewski: ‘The heart and emotion aspect of science’

rof. Craig Milewski teaches natural resource management and ecology, but he’s been interested in writing poetry and creative nonfiction since he was a teenager. Milewski loves observing nature, but, for him, the scientific process is simply one way of making sense of those observations. Writing is another. “When I was a child, I would look at the world around me and try to understand it,” he says. “One natural way was to become a scientist. But science alone isn’t enough for me. I need something more. There are ways of perceiving and understanding the world around us that do not require a measuring stick.” Milewski loved being out in the woods when he was a kid: His favorite things were hunting, fishing, trapping, camping and backpacking. He admits that when he was an 18-year-old college freshman, he would skip class and go to the woods or to the library to read books and essays. “I preferred that to sitting in an economics class,” he says. That’s when he discovered the power of words. While he was searching for a poem for one of his English classes, he found the author Sigurd Olson. “He wrote with a strong, almost spiritual, connection to land,” Milewski says. He also found Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There.” Both authors wrote about the human connection to land and, they argued, our moral obligation to it. At first, Milewski had just a basic understanding of their work. But as he returned to their writings for inspiration again and again, Milewski says Olson and Leopold showed him how powerful words were and made him feel less alone in the world. Now, Milewski is working on his master’s of fine arts in writing and trying to teach his students how writing and art can meld with conservation. “I’m shocked at how they almost seem starved for it,” he says. This spring, Milewski challenged 16 students in his Integrated Natural Resource Management class to come up with artwork that reflects on a long-term research project at the Smitty Creek watershed. The students wrote poems, painted scenes, shot panoramic photos and presented the artwork at the VIC near the

Prof. Craig Milewski relaxes in a lean-to on campus with some seminal literature.

end of the spring semester. Some of them got involved outside the classroom, too. One student pulled Milewski aside and asked, “Do you think you might be interested in reading a couple of my poems?” Surprised the student was doing this on his own time, Milewski asked him how many poems he had written. “About 70 since I’ve been here,” the student responded. “Mostly when I was sitting on my stand, deer hunting.” Poetry had become the student’s way of exploring his time away from his family, and it served as a way of exploring his transformation, Milewski says. The exchange meant a lot to Milewski. “Passing along knowledge is one thing,” he says, “but there’s an emotional, expressive, spiritual connection to our surroundings that cannot be ignored in the conservation and management of our lands and waters. Seeds of wisdom are born by integrating the head and heart.” S

Sequel | Summer 2012

[ ALUMNI LIFE]

[

Alumni Events

]

CALENDAR

. Sunset on Lower St. Regis Lake during Reunion.

KATHLEEN KECK

Homecoming Brian W. Smith Basketball Game, Alumni Soccer and Rugby Games Saturday, Oct. 27 Paul Smith’s College campus NOVEMBER

NYC Reception AUGUST

Alumni Clambake Sunday, Aug. 26 Bob’s Trees, Hagaman, N.Y. SEPTEMBER

Scholarship Brunch Saturday, Sept. 22 Paul Smith’s College campus OCTOBER

Fall Career Fair Thursday, Oct. 25 Paul Smith’s College campus

Sunday, Nov. 11 (during the International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show) At the Copacabana JANUARY

Saratoga Springs Reception January 2013 (during the NYS Association of Professional Land Surveyors conference)

. Reunion

KATHLEEN KECK

APRIL

Sugar Bush Breakfast Saturday, April 20, 2013 Paul Smith’s College Sugarbush MAY

68th Commencement Saturday, May 11, 2013 Paul Smith’s College campus

Location TBA

JULY

FEBRUARY

Reunion 2013

Winter Carnival Reception Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013

Friday-Sunday, July 26 -28, 2013

Saranac Lake

Paul Smith’s College campus

MARCH

CONTACT US » For additional information, please contact: Office of Alumni Relations Phone: (518) 327-6253 Email: alumni@paulsmiths.edu

Bob’s Tree Farm Pancake Breakfast Saturday, March 23, 2013 Hagaman, N.Y.

Spring Career Fair Thursday, March 28, 2013 Paul Smith’s College campus

Sequel | Summer 2012

. Sugarbush Breakfast

KENNETH AARON

[ ALUMNI LIFE / CLASS NOTES ] LETTER FROM THE ALUMNI RELATIONS COORDINATOR

hen asked what I have learned since beginning my work in the Alumni Office, without hesitation, the first thing that comes to mind is teamwork. Last summer, I witnessed the most amazing display of teamwork when current students, faculty, staff and alumni council members came together with a common goal: fixing the Alumni Campground. Though the campground is always pretty active with guests, not much on the side of maintenance had been happening. This group of dedicated folks put their heads together and did what needed to be done. Dangerous trees were removed, the road repaired, a new gate and a few new grills installed. Repairs to the roofs and outhouses are next on the

to-do list. The maintenance work will continue but only with your donations – of supplies, time and, of course, money. (Wait…you didn’t know about the Alumni Campground? If a rustic camping experience is what you crave, this may be your dream come true. There’s no running water or electricity at the campground, just off Keese Mills Road. Seven lean-tos as well as a couple of tent sites offer glimpses of Lower St. Regis Lake and the surrounding mountains. Alumni can host as many as five guests for up to one full week. There’s no charge, but your contributions help us keep the campground open. Please consider what you’d pay elsewhere when you come.) So, get your sleeping bag and fishing gear. Load your

canoe on your car. It’s time to get off the grid and reconnect with Paul Smith’s. Reservations are required. Be sure to contact us in advance (518) 327-6315 or camping @paulsmiths.edu. We would love to see you!

Sincerely,

Heather Tuttle Alumni Relations Coordinator

Accomplish ? Barry Tindall ’63 wrote and

published his first book, “Letters From My Uncle,” a biography of Cpl. Allan Josiah Croshaw and the making of the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion. It chronicles his uncle’s World War II experiences, travels, and the memories they gave rise to. To purchase a book, email Barry at barrytindall@verizon.net or call (703) 533-9855.

Shane F.M. Daley, a municipal arborist for the Olmsted Parks

Conservancy in Buffalo, talked trees with the Buffalo News in time for Arbor Day this spring. Daley attended Paul Smith’s from 2000-2002; the article is here: http://bit.ly/IhQjox Mike Kulick ’93 and his wife were featured on a recent

episode of Guy Fieri’s Food Network show, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” Fieri visited the Kulicks’ Charleston, S.C., joint, the Tattooed Moose, and sampled their duck club with homemade garlic mayo.

We want to hear from you! Email class notes to alumni@paulsmiths.edu, send to the Alumni Office, P.O. Box 265, Paul Smiths, NY 12970, or fax to (518) 327-6267. (Pics welcome!)

Sequel | Summer 2012

[ CLASS NOTES ]

50s

Ron N. Fear ’54 took a late-summer trip out west with his wife, where he visited William “Bill” C. Fischer ’54, Archer W. Wirth ’54 and Jim F. O'Donnell ’54, all residents of the

Snake Pit dorm. He is looking forward to the 60th reunion.

George T. Burke ’55 is retired and traveling

with his wife, Sherri.

C. Paul Glenn ’57 writes that of all the

colleges he has attended, his fondest memories come from Paul Smith's. James P. Eisenberg ’57 is the owner of

Confidential Investigations Limited, a personal protective and investigative services company. Richard O. Gilbert ’57 sends best wishes,

good health, good spirits and good times to his classmates.

Donald H. Robbins ’57 says that like everyone

else who is struggling with the economy, has a fixed income and serious health issues, he is doing the best he can. Even though he is fully retired, Donald still continues to push forestry in North Carolina and pushes against bad forestry laws that will hurt forest landowners in North Carolina.

60s

Arthur R. “Artie” Hanig ’60 graduated

from Morehead State University in 1963 with a B.A. in physical education and business. He taught at John Jay High School in Brooklyn for 35 years, was a swimming coach for 30 years and a driver’s education teacher for 35 years. Arthur retired in 1996 from the Board of Education in New York City. He lives in a senior community in Jackson, N.J. He has been married for 46 loving years to his lovely wife, Dena, and they have four grandchildren. Arthur sends his best to the guys from the Snake Pit from 195860. He still plays the tenor saxophone and clarinet. You can reach him at (732) 928-1637. Theodore D. Mack ’60 is still recording

natural sounds, some of which are used by Audubon Guides and the BirdTunes iPhone app. Tom G. Obrig ’60 retired last year after 47

years with a career in biological research. He is interested in hearing from Snake Pit grads.

doing research after 30 years with no plans to retire. He says teaching forestry is too much fun!

Alan J. Aitken ’61 had a great time at

David L. Hubbard ’64 is enjoying retirement

the 50th class reunion last year. He says the arrangements and weather were great, and it was a good reminder of what a special place Paul Smith's College is. Salvatore A. Cozzolino ’61 apologizes for

not making it to the 50th class reunion, but he visited a former Paul Smith's College basketball player this past summer at Lake George. Donald A. Dellow ’62 is an associate

professor of higher education leadership at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Carlton R. Johnson ’62 is planning to attend

the 50th class reunion in 2012 and is hoping to see many classmates. He says he had a lot of fun at the 45th reunion. Craig T. Locey ’62 and his wife, Sharon,

for four years and has a great-grandchild named Katara. Robert says "hello" to John H. Eisenhard ’65. Arthur R. Birkmeyer ’65 continues to take

his summer bicycling adventures. You can view his online cycling journal at www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/artbike12. Edward H. “Windy” Coon ’66 is a retired

professor at the University of South Carolina and still teaching 200 hotel, restaurant and tourism management students. Stephen S. Shannon ’66 retired from his

Bill Burrell ’63 is working at the Seneca

Douglas C. Gillespie ’66 has moved into a

Wayne Hein ’63 is retired and would like to

William “Bill” C. Achcet ’67 and his team

Allegany Casino and Hotel in Salamanca, N.Y., with the Environmental Services Department. He also is starting his 27th winter as a national ski patroller at the HoliMont Ski Resort in Ellicottville, N.Y. During the summer, Bill enjoys walking, riding his bicycle and driving his MG Midget through the curves on the back roads of Cattaraugus County, N.Y. hear from any class members.

William J. Bambina ’64 retired from

Brookhaven National Lab as mechanical support engineer. He worked at National Light Source aligning experiments to photon light beams. Bill is currently spending time competitively shooting rifle, pistol and cowboy action shooting. David R. Carver ’64 has retired from

Schneider Electric and moved to North Carolina. He volunteers with the local fire and rescue department. David B. Knapp ’64 became a tree tender

Jay Dunbar ’61 retired after 40 years with

Doug J. Frederick ’64 is currently a forestry

Sequel | Summer 2012

Robert W. Burnett ’65 has been retired

own business of over 30 years in January, and celebrated his 46th anniversary with his wife, Claire, on February 24. He says he will always remember his years at PSC and DAP at Baker House. Steve wishes the best for everyone, and notes that he is still looking for Jon Luther ’67 at his Dunkin' Donuts store.

and has since retired. He spends his winters in Fort Myers, Fla., and his summers in Mayfield, N.Y. the U.S. Forest Service in January 2010. He is living in the mountains of western Wyoming and

and keeping busy with many local committees and organizations.

are in their 20th year of running Thimbleberry Inn Bed & Breakfast. It's a three-room inn on the shores of Lake Superior in Bayfield, Wis. Craig designed the home and acted as general contractor. Check out their website at www. thimbleberryinn.com.

several years ago, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. He has helped several organizations plant trees in urban areas and Riparian Buffer Zones throughout Lancaster County.

Bruce E. Miller ’61 sold his business in 2007

enjoying retirement immensely. You can contact Jay at jaydunbar@silverstar.com.

professor at North Carolina State University College of Natural Resources, still teaching and

residential home after the passing of his wife and experiencing health problems. He says all his needs are met, giving him more time to be in the outdoors enjoying nature and taking photographs. He has also devoted a lot of time supporting veterans and other charitable causes, appreciating the freedoms and good life he enjoys as an American. outfished and outhunted the Perchmaster Team which is headed by Reed G. Adams ’68. He wishes the team better luck next year. Sarah “Sally” (Ritter ’68) Reinschmidt

writes that after Paul Smith's she attended Central City Business Institute in Syracuse. Graduating as a medical secretary, she found employment with a Syracuse hospital until 1980. She then moved to Andover, N.Y., near Alfred University and SUNY-Alfred, where she worked as a medical secretary/scheduler in Surgical Services at Jones Memorial Hospital (Wellsville, N.Y.) for 31 years. Sarah is a member of the Lions Club, the Methodist Church and local garden and camera clubs. She loves birdwatching, photography and traveling, mostly to national parks. Gustave A. Bundt ’69 is now retired after

35 years at the Ocean Reef Club. He is still enjoying Florida. Gustave has fond memories of Paul Smith's College and his times at the Lake Placid Club.

> Ed Kimball ’51 of

Gene Goundrey ’69 is helping to restore

Redmond, Ore., submitted

Whitesbog Village, the abandoned New Jersey home of domesticated blueberries.

this photo of forestry

Duane A. Lincourt ’69 would still like to hear

looking out the Dorm I

students. “It is a crowd of ’49-’50 forestry students

from the Class of 1969 survey option program. His address is 388 Yates Hill Road, Day, NY 12835. You can reach him by phone at (518) 863-1016 or by email at Lincourtda@gmail.com.

window in spring 1950 –

Robert “Bob” C. Consroe ’69 is

like “Armpit” and “Snake

I’m the one in the bird sweater, second from right.” (Other dorms of the era, he noted, had exotic names, Pit.” This one just got a

recently retired.

70s

Ken F. Nephew ’70 is anticipating his

daughter's wedding in September and is now the Exalted Ruler of the 1303 Malone Lodge of Elks. He is looking for news from anyone in the 1970 hotel class, and can be reached at knephew1@twcny.rr.com or by telephone at (518) 481-6213. Paul W. Ellis ’71 wrote in saying he finally

retired from the New York State Department of Corrections after 25 years, with 23 years at Collins Correctional. Raymond D. Filbey ’71 is happily retired

with grandchildren and is enjoying life without pressure.

Clarence “Chuck” Trudeau ’71 says all

is going well with the Christmas Tree Farm. He planned to start a sugar bush this year and states that “life's great.” Rolland Simons ’72 retired in April from the

City of Vacaville, Calif., where he had been park and recreation manager. Rollie’s 23-year tenure with the city was marked by an article in The Reporter, Vacaville’s daily newspaper. Ralph Walsh ’72 is retired and keeping busy

with his wife, Jodi; their horses; and volunteer work for Friends of NRA, Habitat for Humanity and a local law enforcement firing range. He is interested in getting in contact with old Livermore residents and can be reached at budzmail11@ msn.com. After 34 years working in forest management with the federal government, William “Bill” Cook ’72 recently accepted a new position as a safety and occupational health manager for the Bureau of Land Management. Alec J. Pitel ’72 retired after 25 years as

the City of Oneonta’s forester and engineering technician. He resides in Otego, N.Y., with his wife, Judy. His son, Nicholas, graduated from Paul Smith's College in 2007 with a bachelor of science in biology.

Roman numeral.)

Susan G. Cunnup ’72 has returned home

from combat. A medical condition prevents her from traveling, but she hopes that will change in a year. Christopher C. Kennick ’73 says hello to all

of his classmates from Paul Smith's College from the Class of 1973. He is still logging in Massachusetts and has been doing so for 36 years now. He hopes that everyone is doing great. Robert A. Priestley ’73 retired from the FAA

as a supervisor at the Pittsburgh Air Traffic Control Tower after 28 years. Since that time, he has spent two summers in Utah; worked at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City; taught aviation at the University of Oklahoma; and enrolled in Southeastern Oklahoma State University Graduate School, where he obtained a M.S. in aerospace logistics and aviation management. He resides in Oklahoma City with his wife, Debbie, whom he met in forestry school in 1975. Robert is currently working with Interim Solutions for Government as an air traffic subject expert. William “Bill” B. Reagor ’73 writes that he is

a cook at a restaurant in New Jersey. “A pre-pro forester can be a professional chef,” he says. Reagor gives a shout-out to Gabe's and friends. Jonah Cohen ’73 is chief of the West

Hamilton Beach Volunteer Fire Department and president of the Ozone Park Kiwanis Club. Martin A. Roddy ’74 wrote in to say he is still

living the dream in South Vermontville, N.Y. Mike Musetti ’74 retired from the Idaho

Transportation Department in June 2011 and is now hunting, trapping, fishing and golfing in the Northwest. He also is the baseball umpire at a Boise high school. Emanuel “Manny” Mulle ’75 will be cel-

ebrating his 30-year anniversary with Continental Airlines in June and is looking forward to attending the alumni reunion and revisiting the Adirondacks this year.

Stephan Hogarbone ’75 retired in August

2010 after 35 years of public service with the Onondaga County Department of Transportation. David A. Meyer ’76 will retire from the U.S.

Marshals Service after 29 years of government service and 34 years of law enforcement. David and his wife, Becky, look forward to many years of retirement and being able to visit with friends and family. Sue A. Stetson ’76 says “hello” to Natalie,

Fran, Patty, MaryPat Melissa, and Melissa.

John G. Samms ’76 wants to reconnect with

some of the people he shared experiences with during his PSC years. He says he can be found easily on LinkedIn. James E. Murray ’77 retired after 30 years

working for the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance’s Program Development Bureau. His daughters, Lisa and Lauren, completed their college degrees, and he recently celebrated his 30th anniversary with his wife, Maureen. Now that he has time, James is planning a 10-day trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons this summer. Robert B. Rafferty ’77 invites everyone to join

the Rafferty family at the Adirondack Rafting Company, found at www.lakeplacidrafting.com.

80s

Richard P. Riani ’81 just celebrated 30 years

of employment with Sodexo Campus Services and will celebrate 30 years of marriage to his wife, Judy, this July. His oldest son, Matt, is working for Marriott in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and his second son, Christopher, is employed with Best Buy in Burlington, Vt. Margaret R. “Meg” Kenny ’81 is raising

her children on the Cape. She has not visited the Adirondacks in a while, but invites classmates to keep in touch at mkenny@cape.com.

Sequel | Summer 2012

[ CLASS NOTES ] Neil P. Smith ’85 is enjoying his eighth

season as general manager of The Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, Ill. Any Smitties visiting Chicago should drop him an email at club_man@ msn.com. Francis Winters ’85 is starting his 31st

season at The Clipper Inn, located in Clayton, N.Y., heart of the Thousand Islands. William “Bill” Wolff ’87 is proud to

announce that his daughter, Emily, was accepted into the fall 2012 baking and pastry program at Paul Smith's College. Sherry L. Green ’88 has been with the Cath-

olic Health System for nearly 15 years and is still living in North Tonawanda. She would like to hear from fellow classmates. You can write to her at 270 Robinson Street, North Tonawanda, NY 14120. Eric S. Potter ’88 says business was good

90s

00s

married and has a 4-year-old daughter and twin 1-year-old boys. She is living in the Hudson Valley and would love to hear from old friends.

ed working at Joseph's Gourmet Pizza / Nestle USA in Haverhill, Mass. She is happily married to her husband, Chris, of five years and has two beautiful baby girls, Erin, 3, and Kyleigh, 1.

Michele (Larmon ’91) DuBois is happily

John A. Gregg ’92 was recently named gen-

eral manager of the Harrisburg City Islanders professional soccer team, a member of the USL PRO league. He had been director of coaching and player development for the Central Penn Youth Soccer League. John continues coaching high-level players for the Olympic Development Program from all over the country and coaching premier-level youth teams in the Central Pennsylvania area. He can be reached at john@ cityislanders.com and invites everyone to stop by for a game! Charlotte M. Marsh ’92 is looking to get in

touch with friends from Paul Smith’s.

Jennifer L. (Kondry ’02) Nutt recently start-

Elizabeth (Squiers ’03) Cranker has been

employed as a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in New York since 2004. She lives in the Tug Hill area with her husband and 1-year-old son.

Katy (Widman ’05) and TJ Matthews ’05 are proud to announce the birth of their son

(see Births). Katy says they are moving to the Rochester area and hope to make it to the next Sugar Bush Breakfast – her favorite part of being an alum. Nicholas E. Pitel ’07 would like to announce

battalion have returned to Afganistan for another tour of duty.

his recent engagement to Angela M. Sirois. Nicholas and Angela met while studying for their M.S. degrees at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse. A wedding is planned for fall 2012.

Ben Tabor ’97 says “hello” to all his Paul

Justin T. Lozier ’08 is working for MJ

BIRTHS

in Saranac Lake.

Alan J. Glass ’67 on July 29, 2011, in

To Patrick W. Cotter ’98 and Adia, son, Zay Hudson, on Dec. 1, 2011.

Edward D. Pakenham ’50 on April 17,

Lake Placid, N.Y.

2011, in Pueblo, Colo.

Keith R. Stockford ’67 on Feb. 21 in

Arthur J. Howe ’51 on April 24 in

New Smyrna Beach, Fla.

this past year. He went on two hunting trips with Ken J. Bombaci ’88 and says he always had good times at deer camp, much like Paul Smith’s College. Laura (Johnson ’89) Eldred is teaching fam-

ily and computer science (FACS) and business classes at Keene (N.Y.) Central School.

Master Sgt. Kieran F. Dollar ’93 and his

Smith’s classmates and invites them to stop and visit at 158 Lake Street in Saranac Lake or email bptabor@gmail.com.

Engineering and Land Surveying in Clifton Park, N.Y., and misses his great days at Paul Smith's College.

Trail markers To Jen (Hill ’05) and Will Root ’04, son, Grayson Gardner, on April 6. To Katy (Widman ’05) and TJ Matthews ’05, son, Zeke Michael, on March 16.

DEATHS Justin G. Casey ’48 on Feb. 11 in

Pleasantville, N.Y.

Melford C. "Curt" Hopkins ’48 on

Dec. 26, 2011, in Wilmington, N.C.

Fred Aversa ’50 on April 19 in Center

Barnstead, N.H.

John W. Heller ’50 on Aug. 16, 2011,

in Altamont, N.Y.

Donald Joseph Forth ’50 on Jan. 2, 2011,

Sequel | Summer 2012

Branford, Conn.

Leslie J. Haas ’68 on Feb. 24 in

Dora M. (Boyer ’53) Dwyer on

Ridgway, Pa.

Dec. 21, 2011, in Massena, N.Y.

Ronald N. Fear ’54 on April 19 in

Lebanon, Pa.

David F. Atwell ’56 on Jan. 7 in Ballston

Spa, N.Y.

Malcolm Jack ’57 on Jan. 2 in

Menlo Park, N.J.

Raymond J. McDonald ’59 on Jan. 1

James T. Michel ’73 on Aug. 5, 2011,

in Cropseyville, N.Y. Thomas W. Hurtle ’75 on April 1 in

Helena, Mont. James M. Pronko ’87 on Dec. 7, 2011,

in North Carolina. Jamel Tarver ’92 on March 4 in

in Kellogg, Idaho.

Columbia, Md.

Kenneth W. Knapp ’62 on Dec. 19, 2011,

Kaileen M. Anderson ’94 on Aug. 29,

in Portland, Ore.

2011, in Bradenton, N.Y.

David A. McDougal ’64 on Jan. 15

Mary E. (Wright ’02) Patanella on

in Bridgeport, N.Y.

Feb. 29 in Mattydale, N.Y.

p. (518) 327-6315 f. (518) 327-626 7

Dear Friends, As Paul Smith’s College alumni, we are all privileged to be part of a com munity that began with the class of 1948 and continues to grow at ever y graduation ceremony. And thanks to your support over the years, Paul Smith’s students are acq uiring the education and experience that will last a lifetime. In the 2011-2012 academic year, our collective annual donations to the Paul Smith’s College Fund have benefitted all of our students by prov iding resources that impact every aspe ct of the campus community. For example, last year alone your gifts have helped to: • Supply current students with the customized academic assistance they need to remain in college. • Sponsor career fairs that produce employment opportunities and inte rnship experiences even in today’s tough job market. • Open a new LEED Silver certified

residence hall to accommodate grow

ing college enrollment. • Maintain and augment campus facil ities to ensure students have the best possible tools, resources and learning environments. • Welcome the Class of 2012 – mor e than 200 graduates beginning new chapters in their lives – into our alumni family. We’ve also reconnected many fello w alumni by hosting gatherings and events across the country. Successes like these help our campus community grow, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for helping make that happen. We’ve made great strides forward, but we have much more work to do. If you’ve never made a gift to Paul Smith’s, please give to the Pau l Smith’s College Fund today. No amo unt is too small. Together, we can help ensure that Paul Smith’s stud ents continue to receive the educatio n and experience they need. For more information on how you can give or become involved, please call (518) 327-6253 or visit www.paulsmiths.edu/give. With our sincere gratitude, Ralph Blum ’54 Joseph Brislin ’61 Richard Cattani ’64 John Dillon ’58

Walter Ganzi ’63 Jon Luther ’67 John Rebstock ’58 Larry Slocum ’67

OFFICE OF COLLEGE ADVANCEME

NT | P.O. Box 265 | Paul Smiths, New York | 12970-0265 | paulsmit hs.edu

Sequel | Summer 2012

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Reference

check A

good word can go a long way when it comes to landing a job, and a good word from Lydia Martin Smith probably went farther than most in the Adirondacks back in the day. In this 1890 letter, Paul Smith’s wife offered a reference for someone she trusted. “Miss Ella McKee has lived with me the past summer – and I found her to be a very nice girl and a good pastry cook … Trusting you will have a pleasant winter Ella, and come back to me in the spring I am yours with love Mrs. A.P. Smith” McKee, who was about 23 when this letter was written, was born in Peasleeville, outside of Plattsburgh. A bit of research shows that soon after this letter was written, she got married and had two children. She died in 1941 and was buried at St. John’s in the Wilderness Cemetery – just a stone’s throw from Paul Smith’s Hotel. »D o you have a Paul Smith’s-related photo, artifact or other item with a story behind it? Share! Drop a line to kaaron@paulsmiths.edu.

Lydia Martin Smith