In 2011, he signed up for a course in Fordham’s College at 60, where he read Ulysses, James Joyce’s epic novel about a day in the life of Leopold Bloom.

“It’s not something I’d sit at home and read by myself, but Brother Ed Kent, who taught it, made it so fascinating,” said Kiehn, a clinical microbiology professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Fordham’s College at 60, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, offers a wide array of classes for lifelong learners like Kiehn. The program’s name refers to both its location on 60th Street and its student body, most of whom are older adults looking to pursue their interests and passions. This fall’s offerings included courses on topics ranging from the psychology of psychopathology and Dante’s Inferno to social security and the Supreme Court.

For Kiehn, the Ulysses class was an opportunity to leave behind pathogenic microorganisms for a study of Joyce’s epic, and he subsequently attended a “Blooms Day” celebration on June 16 at Symphony Space, where Joyce fans gathered to listen to a reading of excerpts of all 18 chapters of the novel.

“It was just fantastic. We went through the whole thing, and it ended at two o’clock in the morning,” he said.

Like Kiehn, Carolyn Titone, FCLC ’79, returned to Fordham for a College at 60 course in 2021 after successful careers in acting and advertising. She and her husband currently co-own Orchard Hill Cider Mill in Middletown.

Her first course was called Reality Has Always Had Too Many Heads: An Introduction to Literary Theory. Reading the course description, she was intrigued by concepts such as trauma theory, queer theory, and post-colonial criticism.

“I thought, ‘I don’t know what half of this stuff is,” she said.

“Instead of taking something in my wheelhouse, I decided to explore things I had never studied.”

This semester, she’s enrolled in two courses: China, Russia, Ukraine, and the World; and Slavery, the Half Has Never Been Told.

“As you get older, it’s really important to challenge yourself. I could take theater courses and have a great time, but to develop a point of view about race theory or something like that, that’s making your brain work,” she said.

Celebrating 50 Years

Founded in 1973 by former Cambridge University Press editor Robert Adamson, Ph.D., College at 60 was originally geared toward non-traditional students of any age looking to earn an undergraduate degree. It was part of Fordham’s College at Lincoln Center before being moved in 1998 to the College of Liberal Studies (now the School of Professional and Continuing Studies).

The credit-bearing course degree pathway was phased out between 1996 and 1999, and the current model, a non-credit program, replaced it.

George Shea, Ph.D., a dean emeritus of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, taught a class in the program’s first year and came out of retirement in 2011 to teach again. He said the fact that Americans are living longer makes it more necessary than ever.

“We’re getting close to the point where people don’t really start to work until their late 20s, and they often retire in their 50s, and they’re living a long time,” he said. It’s important that Fordham help “keep those people’s minds working.”

Staying Vibrant

Cira Vernazza, a former director of College at 60 who was involved with the program for 39 years, promptly signed up for classes herself upon retirement. She credited Adamson with teaching her how to look at older adults differently.

“He showed me how vibrant retirement can be. In 1981, the image that most people had was you either sat in a rocking chair, played golf, took care of the grandchildren, or visited family,” she said.

Nicole Bryan, an associate dean for academic programs at Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies, who took over the program in 2021, noted that the pandemic took a toll on enrollment, but the curriculum that Vernazza and the late Laura Greeney, who was an assistant director nurtured, set the stage for a rebound.

“Cira and I share a belief that aging is a beautiful experience that should be both celebrated and respected, and that is the culture we want to keep alive in College at 60,” she said.

Anthony Davidson, Ph.D., dean of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS), called the program an integral part of the college.

“PCS is all about providing lifelong learning to anyone and everyone who pursues it,” he said.

“The energy and enthusiasm of these students for courses ranging from Shakespeare to sustainable business practices to the arts is a joy to behold.”

“Devoted to her students, Professor Greeney was known as a caring and challenging teacher and mentor,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “I know you all join me in keeping her loved ones, friends, colleagues, and students in your hearts and prayers.” 

Greeney worked for two decades at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, where she infused her love of literature into the classroom. She taught writing, composition, and American and British literature in the traditional undergraduate program, evening degree program, and College at 60—a nationally recognized program in Fordham’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies for adults age 60 and older. She previously served as assistant director at the Writing Center at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, where she helped students from all backgrounds improve their writing skills and trained tutors and Law School writing instructors.

“She was a dedicated teacher, a lovely member of our department, and a hallway friend,” said Mary Bly, Ph.D., chair of Fordham’s English department. “She was a loyal and passionate Fordham family member, and she just gave it all to her students. She was beloved by PCS students, but also by undergrads. It’s such a loss to the University.” 

In the past few years, Greeney coordinated a College at 60 lecture series that was open to the general public every semester. She moderated lectures and booked guests, including three-time Emmy-winning filmmaker Sara Lukinson.

“She had a thorough knowledge of the students and the program and could really provide things that they were interested in, but would also challenge them,” said Cira T. Vernazza, a retired associate dean at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies who directed the College at 60 program for many years. 

Sometimes Greeney delivered lectures herself. A few years ago in one well-attended talk, she spoke about one of her favorite books, The Great Gatsby, analyzing main characters Gatsby and Daisy and comparing the book to its movie adaptations.

“It was chock full of insightful analysis,” Vernazza said. “We had a full house for that lecture, about 120 people, who all mobbed her at the end. They were asking her questions about the lecture and telling her how wonderful they thought it was. I think it took another 45 minutes for everyone to talk to her about it, but she gave that time. She was delighted.” 

Greeney was also an accomplished editorial and writing consultant and a development editor for several notable publishing houses. She worked with a large clientele, including the Bureau of National Affairs and the Educational Testing Service, the world’s largest nonprofit educational assessment organization. She was also a writer who published articles on student development and campus life, including a 2015 Civic Research Institute article on the rise of interpersonal teaching styles in universities. She also wrote book reviews for the feminist bookstore Bookwoman and published literary interviews and reviews for The River Reporter newspaper in Narrowsburg, New York. 

Greeney was a literature buff who admired the novelists Henry James and Edith Wharton. She often attended the Shaw Festival, a contemporary summer theater festival named in honor of Irish playwright Bernard Shaw. When the pandemic arrived in New York, she missed seeing performances and shows in person, said her niece, Andria Greeney. 

“Some people are outdoorsy; some people miss traveling. She really missed Broadway and the arts,” Andria said. She fondly remembers Greeney showing her how to navigate New York City when she was a teenager.

Vernazza said Greeney was a kind, gentle person with a dry sense of humor, sometimes in a self-deprecating way, who loved to sing lyric opera. She also remembered her as a reliable coworker who followed through on her responsibilities.

But the hallmark of her personality, Vernazza said, was her kindness. 

“I don’t think I ever heard her say a bad thing about anybody. She could be critical, but in a constructive way. But she was never mean, snipey, satirical, or sardonic. She was never like that,” Vernazza said. “She was cherished.” 

Greeney was born on July 18, 1961, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to John Greeney and Florence Greeney, née Taylor. She graduated summa cum laude with her bachelor’s degree in English from Fordham College at Lincoln Center and received her master’s degree in English from New York University. She became a biographee of Marquis Who’s Who of American Women in 1997 and won an award for excellence in part-time teaching from the Adult Student Honor Society at Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 1999. 

She is survived by three siblings, Evelyn Dowd, Joanne Cresci and her husband Tom, and Richard Greeney and his wife Carm; three nieces and one nephew; and four great-nieces and one great-nephew. There is no information yet on the burial and memorial services, but this page will be updated with details as they are confirmed. 

Margot Nadien, Ph.D., a psychologist, author, and professor at Fordham for more than four decades, died of cancer on July 3 in Manhattan. She was 90.

Nadien taught psychology classes at the Lincoln Center campus for more than 45 years, including a new course she developed called Aging and Society, which is still being taught today. On December 9, 1983, she and psychology professor Harold Takooshian, Ph.D., co-founded the Fordham Lincoln Center chapter of the Psi Chi Honor Society with George J. McMahon, S.J., vice president for the Lincoln Center campus. The chapter won the Cousins Award in 1993 as the No. 1 Psi Chi chapter out of 1,100 U.S. campuses.

“Among her psychology colleagues of the past half-century, both inside and outside of Fordham, Margot was widely known for her extraordinary grace, helpful attitude, and ready smile,” said Takooshian.

Margot Ballon Nadien was born on May 25, 1930, the second daughter of Lillian G. and David H. Ballon, a professor of surgery at McGill University’s Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. She was a pianist, performing at the national level in Canada. She moved to the U.S. as a teenager to study music in New York.

On June 11, 1950, she married violinist David W. Nadien, who was concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic for several years under Leonard Bernstein. He died in 2014. The couple lived for nearly 50 years at 55 Central Park West, a historic building near Lincoln Center.

After teaching music for many years, Margot earned a B.A. in psychology at Hunter College in 1967, graduating summa cum laude, first in her class, and Phi Beta Kappa, according to the family obituary. She earned a Ph.D. in 1974 at the City University of New York Graduate School, where she studied under Florence L. Denmark, Ph.D., a pioneering psychologist and feminist scholar.

In the early 1970s, Nadien began as an adjunct professor in the Excel Division of Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, then taught full-time in 1974 in the college’s interdisciplinary social sciences division. In 1981, she became the first psychologist in the division to achieve tenure. In 2013, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, saluted Nadien with the Bene Merenti Award for 40 years of service to the University.

Nadien was an officer in the NYS Psychological Association and the United Nations NGO Committee on Aging. Her work received many accolades during her long career, including the NYSPA Kurt Lewin Award (1995), and Wilhelm Wundt Award (2003). In the American Psychological Association, Margot was elected to APA Fellow status, based on her contributions to psychology as the author/editor of several books on diverse topics in the field, including gender, development, autonomy, and aging. She was featured in Who’s Who in America and was a lifetime member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Sigma Lambda, and Psi Chi, according to former colleagues.

At Fordham, Nadien’s many colleagues and students remember her as an extraordinarily gracious, kind, and supportive person, also known for her highly structured approach to classroom teaching. Even after her retirement, Nadien continued at Fordham as an active student in its College at 60.

“Margot was an incredible woman and her foremost concern was always people—students, colleagues, and staff,” said Cira Vernazza, associate dean and director of College at 60. “Even after retirement, she continued to learn and grow, ever mindful of keeping young.”

Nadien is survived by her brother Basil Ballon (Ruth) and sister Judy Levy (Norman), her brother-in-law Perry Meyer, and her sister-in-law Heather Ballon. She was predeceased by her husband, her sister Joy Meyer, and brothers Jonathan and Edward Ballon. She was cherished by her many nieces and nephews and their children.

Obit by Margot Nadien’s colleagues and Fordham News

The College at 60 program, a Fordham College of Liberal Studies (FCLS) initiative for older students, has nearly tripled its enrollment over the last nine years, growing from 90 registrants in the spring of 1998 to a high of 260 last fall.

The program, which has been in place at Fordham University for more than 30 years, offers noncredit courses to people over the age of 50 in areas ranging from creative writing to art history.

For Cira T. Vernazza, M.A., associate dean and director of the noncredit program, the growing popularity of the College at 60 is no surprise.

“Why shouldn’t it be growing?” she asked. “The [older]population of Baby Boomers is growing, and they are redefining what retirement is. It used to be resting or playing golf, but today it is not a ceasing of activities but a whole new stage of life. Retirees are creating a mosaic of things they want to do.”

The program is known as the College at 60 because of the program’s location at the Lincoln Center campus, which is on 60th Street in Manhattan. The average age of students in the program is between ages 65 and 75, and more than 90 percent of them have college degrees. Fordham alumni typically make up about 35 percent of the students, Vernazza said.

Vernazza, who has headed the program since 1998, attributed the growth in the program to word of mouth, coupled with effective marketing in the surrounding community. She said that the program draws students from the entire tri-state area, but a “significant core group” comes from midtown Manhattan.

The program has targeted its advertising toward grassroots publications such as the Chelsea-Clinton News and the West Side Spirit and has maintained a regular mailing list of former students and people who have expressed interest in the classes. Word of mouth, however, has played a major role in the program’s growth, she said.

“Most of our people are here for the enjoyment of lifelong learning and intellectual curiosity,” she said. “These are people who all their lives have gone to lectures, subscribed to book clubs, volunteered at museums and read the newspapers. They want to find comfortable places to connect to those that are like-minded.”

The program was started in 1973 by Robert W. Adamson, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of philosophy at Fordham, who wanted to provide educational opportunities for people who had retired. Adamson would teach and take courses in the program into his eighties.

This semester, the program is offering 14 courses. The classes are taught by retired Fordham professors and those from other colleges, as well as various experts in their respective fields.

In addition to the course offerings, the program also sponsors a lecture series, which is open to everyone.

With many adult education options available in New York City at institutions such as the YMCA and the Learning Annex, the program has maintained its distinction by remaining true to Fordham’s mission of providing rigorous academics with a liberal arts emphasis, Vernazza said.

“We won’t teach a course here on humor and how it cures cancer, even though some might find it interesting,” she said. “What we do teach is a course on [the German philosopher W.B.F.]Hegel. That pretty much sums it up.”

– Janet Sassi