On March 3, 46 employees were celebrated at present-day Fordham for 60, 40, or 20 years of service during the annual University Convocation ceremony at the Rose Hill campus.

Forty-six faculty, staff, and administrators were recognized in Keating Hall, with their family, friends, and colleagues in attendance. 

The longest-serving honoree was Constantine “Gus” N. Katsoris, a former Greek olive oil and cheese salesman turned tax law expert. Katsoris earned his bachelor’s degree from the Gabelli School of Business in 1953 and graduated first in his class from Fordham Law School in 1957. For more than three decades, he led the law school’s annual Supreme Court bar induction ceremonies, which have admitted more than 1,000 alumni and faculty. This year, he is celebrating his 60th anniversary as a faculty member at Fordham Law, where he holds the title Wilkinson Professor of Law Emeritus. 

Other honorees include a professor who was a Truman Scholar, a duty supervisor who shepherded the University community through the pandemic, an analyst who previously worked at several Fortune 100 companies, and a department leader who is also an award-winning filmmaker. 

The honorees’ accomplishments at Fordham are wide ranging and diverse, from directing scholarships and financial services for thousands of students to conducting research on marginalized communities and mental health data. They hail from across the world, including Italy, Ireland, and Bulgaria. All of them arrived at Fordham in the 1900s, remaining for decades at the University they now call home. 

Bene Merenti Medal | Sixty Years 

Constantine N. Katsoris

Bene Merenti Medal | Forty Years 

Esther Solomon 

Bene Merenti Medal | Twenty Years

Gregory Acevedo • Ipsita A. Banerjee • Robert Henry Borrero • Melkana A. Brakalova-Trevithick • Elizabeth P. Cosenza • Anne E. Fernald • Paolo Galizzi • David D. Hamlin • Evangelos Katsamakas • Winnie W. Kung • Michael E. Lee • Sara L. Lehman • Christopher R. Maginn • Jennie Park-Taylor • Alessandro Polcri • Rosa Romeo • Nina A. Rowe • Mark F. Street • Kelly Ann Ulto • Alessia Valfredini • Gary M. Weiss • Akane Zusho 

Archbishop Hughes Medal | Forty Years 

John W. Buckley • Frank McLaughlin 

Archbishop Hughes Medal | Twenty Years 

Dennis Cassidy • Rien Chy • Steven M. D’Agustino • Jennifer Giorgio • Jaime Lyn Harkin • Dean K. Mavrovitis • Kevin D. Munnelly • Lynn Parliman • John D. Williams • Tsvetelina T. Zlatareva 

1841 Award | Forty Years 

Linda M. Perri 

1841 Award | Twenty Years

Joseph J. Arenas • Marie Hall • Robert Heihn • Robin R. Joseph • Vinetu Mamudoski • Susan K. Perciasepe • Matthew N. Peters • Maria V. Totino • Michael Woods

Some of them began working at Fordham in 1983, the same year that the internet was born. The smartphone had not yet been invented, and the gigantic Motorola mobile phone was still a “revolutionary new device.” Others arrived at Fordham in 2003. “The most popular song, which shows my age because I’ve never heard of it, was 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club,’” Fordham President Tania Tetlow said, to laughter from the audience.

Over the past few decades, all 65 Fordham honorees played their part in Fordham’s legacy. Faculty taught, mentored, and inspired generations of students, said Tetlow, while staff and administrators cared for the campus—the buildings, grounds, digital infrastructure, finances—and our community. In total, their years of service add up to 1,340. 

“One of you was actually raised on this campus,” Tetlow said, referring to Robert T. Allinger, a mail clerk who is from the Bronx and is the son of longtime Fordham employee Patricia Allinger. “Many of you went to Fordham and sent your children to Fordham. You are part of a longstanding and lifelong commitment—and the work that you do is remarkable.” 

Max Rodriguez, a 40-year employee who was born and raised in the Bronx, started working as a stockroom clerk at the Rose Hill campus when he was 23 years old. He spent most of his time in the biological sciences department, where he became a “jack-of-all trades,” acting as the departmental receptionist, handling packages, stocking the office and labs, supporting the animal care facility, and assisting the departmental administrator and chair, said Kay Turner, vice president for human resources, reading from scripted remarks. Rodriguez said his favorite part about working here is his colleagues—the “best people he’s ever worked with.” 

Rodriguez considered retiring in 2020, but decided to stick around for a little longer. 

“Today is the best opportunity to celebrate 40 years,” said Rodriguez, who is now 63 years old. “This is my second home from home.” 

Bene Merenti Medal | Forty Years 

Nancy Busch Rossnagel • Allan S. Gilbert 

Bene Merenti Medal | Twenty Years

Evelyn Bush • Su-Je Cho • Ayala Fader • Shirley Gatenio Gabel • Jennifer Gordon • Frank Handelman • Harold Daly Horell • James Y. Kim • Kathryn Kueny • Rafael Lamas • Anita Lightburn • Jason Z. Morris • Guy Robinson • Patricia E. Romero • Aaron Jay Saiger • Petr V. Shibayev • Troy L. Tassier 

Archbishop Hughes Medal | Twenty Years 

James S. Cirillo • John D’Angelo • Jenny Dumet • Laura Esposito • Calvin Brian Ghanoo • Carol A. Gibney • Rosario Gil • Anthony M. Grono • Thomas M. Kaczorowski • Joanne C. Kupidlowski • Liz Manigan • John McDonagh • Lek Ndoj • Joseph J. B. Rienti • Nelson J. Roman • Yahaira Elizabeth Toribio • Johnny Torres •  Jennifer N. Trujillo • Stacey R. Vasquez • Frances Zurinaga 

1841 Award | Forty Years 

Max Rodriguez 

1841 Award | Twenty Years

Robert T. Allinger • Peggy Baratta • Susan Brucculeri • Gilberto S. Cascante • Luigi A. D’Arco • Pascual Delvalle • Alexander Dourthe • Melanie Fairfax • Eve A. Foti • Ruben Gomez • Ejl Jankovic • Steve Madigan • Adriana Magnotta • Alejandro Martinez • Christopher ONeill • Deni Pichardo • Silvia Ramirez • Aleksander Rebisz • Jonathan J. Rodriguez • Charles F. Signorile • Tawanna Twine • Jean Walsh • Arthur O. Wanek • Gerard M. Woods

Bene Merenti Medal | Forty Years
Janis Barry • Joseph J. Lawton III  • Hans V. Minnich
Robert K. Moniot • Hrishikesh Vinod

Bene Merenti Medal | Twenty Years
Elaine Black • Andrew H. Clark  • George E. Demacopoulos
Sebastian Douglas • J. Andrew Foster • Caroline M. Gentile
Mary T. Harrington • Debra Wallace Hertz • Amir Idris
Maureen Janeski • Javier Jiménez Belmonte • Gregory Jones
James Russell Kelly • Thomas H. Lee • Damian M. Lyons
Catherine Powell • Monica Rivera Mindt • Casey Ruble
Booi Themeli • Karen E. Williams

Archbishop Hughes Medal | Forty Years 
Anna Maria Conte • Carol Murabito

Archbishop Hughes Medal | Twenty Years 
Renaldo D. Alba • John Bach • Alan Cafferkey
Jessica Collins • Tara Czechowski • Denise Daniel-Mack
Stafford Davis • Ursula J. Duran • Janeira Farrano-Martinez
Francoisline Joy Freeman • Audrey Glassman • Raul Herrera
Patrick Holt • Claudia Mancia Parone  • Abel Ponce Montez
Darin Neely • Francis Petit • Francesca A. Riese
Gerald A. Salvador • Charles-Henri Sanson • Gil Severiano
Michael Szabo

Sursum Corda Award
Robert F. Dineen • Verenika Lasku • Carolyn Velazquez-Atis

The gathering is an annual occasion to honor employees with Bene Merenti and Archbishop Hughes medals for 20 or 40 years of service.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, noted that this year the celebration was taking place in a world gripped by anxiety and worry. Such uncertainties make it even more important honor the professors, lecturers, caretakers, designers, fundraisers, bursars, DJs, secretaries, managers, librarians, public safety officers, and more who help make the University function.

They’re a “paradoxical lot,” he said—wonderfully adaptive and yet unchanging, and remarkably diverse but united.

“In response to the many challenges that an accelerating, evolving world has presented to them, they have displayed a rare combination of wisdom and courage. They have brought to the University a broad array of interests and talents.  In spite of this, they are and have remain united in their devotion to the mission of the University,” he said.

“Therefore, we celebrate unity in diversity, and a constancy grounded in our history that is combined with a zest for new challenges.”

Many of the honorees were joined by children and grandchildren. When Aleksander Rebisz was honored with a Sursum Corda Award for outstanding contributions to the University, his son-in-law Matt Kraeger hoisted aloft Rebisz’ 2-year-old grandson Mason for a better view, to the delight of the audience.

Jonathan M. Crystal, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, associate vice president and associate chief academic officer, said that when he began his career at Fordham in 1997, his oldest son Nathan was just a year old. On Sunday, Nathan was unable to see his dad accept a Bene Merenti award because he was away at college. Crystal, who was lauded in a citation as the “keystone” of the University’s academic enterprise, said it was a little frightening how quickly time had passed.

“To be surrounded by all of my colleagues is an amazing feeling. This is one of the best days of my life,” he said.

“If you ask most people in the world, ‘do you love the place you work,’ maybe they like their job and maybe they like their colleagues,” he said. “But people who work at Fordham love Fordham.”

Georgine Barna Hoar, an adjunct professor of Spanish who was awarded a Bene Merenti medal for her four decades years of service, credited the teaching profession with having kept her young. She and her husband Leo Hoar, Ph.D., professor emeritus who retired in 2015 after teaching Spanish for 53 years, estimated that they have collectively served 12,500 students—the same number of chairs set up for Commencement Day on Edwards Parade.  Each semester on the last day of class, she said she makes a point to thank her students for all that they’ve taught her.

“In practicing a language, it helps to talk about things that interest them,” she said. “I don’t know what programs they watch and what concerts they go to, so they tell me, and it makes them feel good because they have helped me to understand what’s important to them.”

For John Platt, director of communications at WFUV (90.7), the afternoon was slightly bittersweet, as his colleague in 20 years of service and fellow honoree, Rich Conaty, the host of The Big Broadcast, died in December.

He was grateful for the stability that WFUV has provided him. In commercial radio, where he worked previously, he noted that the field is so unpredictable, time can feel as if it should be measured “in dog years.”

“If you look at my resume prior to WFUV, it’s a very checkered career. Ownership changes, management changes, program directors change,” he said. “To be at WFUV [this long]with a team of people who are all doing radio for its own sake . . . is about the most gratifying way you can make a living.”

Dominique R. Jenkins, a friend of Assistant Director of Enrollment Services Melissa L. Scriven, an Archbishop Hughes Medal winner for 20 years of service, marveled at how the awardees— though occasionally humbled to be in the spotlight—showed “pride in everything they do.”

“Why leave if you work in such a great environment, with a great group of people?” she said.

Bene Merenti Medal | Forty Years

Bruce F. Berg | Professor of Political Science
Constance W. Hassett | Professor of English
Georgine Barna Hoar | Adjunct Professor of Spanish
Gail D. Hollister | Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law
Katherin Marton | Professor of Finance and Business Economics
E. Doyle McCarthy | Professor of Sociology and American Studies
Marie A. Sheehan | Adjunct Assistant Professor, College at 60
David P. Stuhr | Associate Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Business, Retired Faculty Advisor
Anthony Tartaglia | Adjunct Instructor of Mathematics
Frank M. Werner | Associate Professor of Finance and Business Economics

Bene Merenti Medal | Twenty Years

Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock | Artist-in-Residence
Cheryl G. Bader | Clinical Associate Professor of Law
Paul M. Bochner | Clinical Assistant Professor of Taxation
Colin M. Cathcart | Associate Professor of Visual Arts
Jeffrey E. Cohen | Professor of Political Science
Carole Beth Cox | Professor of Social Work
Jonathan M. Crystal | Associate Professor of Political Science, Associate Vice President and Associate Chief Academic Officer
Maddy Cunningham | Associate Professor of Social Work
Pearl Fisk | Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social Work
Warren Dana Holman | Clinical Professor of Social Work
Francesca Parmeggiani | Associate Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature
S. Elizabeth Penry | Assistant Professor of History
Aditya N. Saharia | Associate Professor of Information Systems
Kieran Scott | Associate Professor of Religious Education
Yvette Michelle Sealy | Associate Professor of Social Work
Daniel Soyer | Professor of History
Kirsten Swinth | Associate Professor of History and American Studies
David S.L. Wei | Professor of Computer and Information Science
Greg Winczewski | Lecturer of Economics, Director International Political Economy Program 

Archbishop Hughes Medal | Forty Years 

John M. Algieri | Director of Budget Development

Archbishop Hughes Medal | ​Twenty​ ​Years​

Bob Ahrens | Executive Sports Producer, WFUV 
Hopeton Campbell | Director of the Edward A. Walsh Digital Media Lab
Marcos Antonio Carrasco | Information Technology Analyst/Manager
Joan P. Cavanagh | Director of Interfaith Programs, Director of Campus Ministry at Westchester 
Rich Conaty | WFUV Host, The Big Broadcast
Frank A. DeOrio | Director of University Procurement
Aldo Di Vitto | Facilities Architect
Melissa D. Forston | Senior IT Business Analyst/Manager
Gloria L. Guzman | Assistant Director of Budget Operations
John C. Hurley Jr. | Technical Support Manager, University Libraries
Daniel Thomas Kiely | Director of Public Safety at Rose Hill
Michael Lambros | Caretaker, The Louis Calder Center
Yael Mandelstam | Head of Cataloging, T.J. & Nancy Maloney Law School Library
Kimberly M. McKeon | Senior Director of Development Research and Prospect Management
Jan Miner | Assistant Dean and Director of Field Instruction, Graduate School of Social Service and Adjunct Instructor of Social Work
Maureen Murray | Nurse Practitioner, University Health Services
Norma L. Pérez | Office Manager, Information Technology Department, School of Law
John Platt | Director of Communications, WFUV
Marguerite Power | Financial Aid Supervisor, Graduate School of Social Service
Eric J. Sanders | Senior Associate Academic Advisor for Student-Athletes
Michael J.K. Schiumo | Assistant Dean of Alumni Relations and Development, School of Law
Melissa L. Scriven | Assistant Director of Enrollment Services
Gilbert M. Stack | Director of Assessment and Accreditation, Gabelli School of Business
Melanie Teagle | Senior Designer, Office of Marketing and Communications
Wendy Viggiano | Enrollment Service Administrator – Technical Support
Richard A. Waite | Director of University Conference Services

Sursum Corda Award

Marc Christopher Canton | Director of University Transportation
Susan Bair Egan | Associate Dean and Director of the M.S.W. Program, Graduate School of Social Service
Aleksander Rebisz | Refrigeration Engineer

Yesterday’s Fordham University Convocation recognized the service of 20 and 40-year employees at the university. Below is a complete list of those honored:

Archbishop Hughes Medal | (40-Year Award)
Melba F. Chamberlain | Associate Director for the Masters of Law Program | School of Law
Estelle Fabian | Assistant Dean of the Masters of Law Program | School of Law
Joan Mastrangelo | Director of University Collections
Michael Wares | Assistant Director for Technical Services | University Libraries

Archbishop Hughes Medal | (20-Year Award)
Robert Allen | Deputy Director | Quinn Library
Garrett Barker | Assistant Director of Custodial Services at Rose Hill
Biswa P. Bhowmick | Assistant Dean/Associate Director Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP)
Michele C. Burris | Associate Vice President | Student Affairs
Margaret “Peggy” Cuskley | Administrative Assistant | Department of English
Gene Fein | Director of Academic Services | Enrollment Group
Kenneth J. Lau | Program Director for the Children and Families Institute for Research, Support and Training (Children FIRST) | Graduate School of Social Service
Edward Peter Mix | Science Reference Librarian
Cornelius “Corny” O’Connell | WFUV Radio Host
Joseph Scaltro | Senior Project Manager | Office of Facilities Management
Maria G. Terzulli | Administrator | The Francis and Ann Curran Center for
American Catholic Studies

The Bene Merenti Medal | (40-Year Award)
Susan Fahrenholtz | Adjunct Professor | Department of Natural Sciences
Fordham College at Lincoln Center
Rowland Hughes | Professor of Education
Mary Bradley McElligott | Lecturer | Department of English
Robert J. Penella | Professor of Classics and Chair | Department of Classics

The Bene Merenti Medal | (20-Year Award)
Christopher R. Blake | Joseph Keating, S.J., Distinguished Professor of Business
Fordham Schools of Business
Janet DiLorenzo | Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing | Fordham Schools of Business
Kevin T. Jackson | Professor of Law and Ethics | Fordham Schools of Business
Deborah W. Denno | Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law
Marlene Cooper | Associate Professor | Graduate School of Social Service
Thomas S. DeLuca Jr. | Professor of Political Science | Director of International Studies Program
Kenneth E. Dupuy | Adjunct Instructor of Philosophy | Fordham College of Liberal Studies
Susan Celia Greenfield | Associate Professor of English
Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J. | Distinguished Professor of Theology
Judith Jones | Associate Professor of Philosophy
Héctor Lindo-Fuentes | Professor of History
Edward John Van Buren | Professor of Philosophy | Director of Environmental Policy
Sursum Corda Award
Georgina Calia Arendacs | Director of Equity and Equal Opportunity
Steven Madigan | Electrician

Congratulations to the employees and their families.