“I think it’s very important that Fordham has a window on the water,” said Dennis Ruppel, FCRH ’68, a Fordham trustee fellow who is spearheading efforts to construct a waterfront center on Eastchester Bay in the Bronx, to the east of the Rose Hill campus.

He and his wife, Patricia Ann Ruppel, are leaders among alumni donors who have been moving the project along for years. In addition to covering various costs of the project, they purchased the one-and-a-half-acre plot where the center will be built and donated it to the University.

Now, in a new fundraising push, they’re offering a $1.25 million challenge gift—on top of an earlier $1.25 million gift—to encourage other donations in support of the waterfront center, a project with benefits that will extend beyond Fordham.

In addition to providing a home for Fordham’s waterborne sports, Ruppel said, it will provide year-round opportunities such as summer sailing programs for New York City youth and, possibly, educational programs that shed light on marine biology while fostering a greater appreciation of the natural world generally.

“This waterfront [center]is really about the University having a permanent place to interface with the water,” he said.

Kim Bepler, a Fordham trustee and 2022 recipient of an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University, is also hosting and underwriting a fundraising dinner for the project on October 16 at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan, where both she and the Ruppels are members.

Coming in Fall 2024

Fundraising for the waterfront center advances Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, the University’s $350 million campaign to enhance the entire student experience, including athletics. The new center will include fixed and floating docks, boat storage for the sailing and rowing programs, and, later on, a two-story building offering locker rooms as well as educational and event spaces and wide windows for viewing Eastchester Bay.

Architectural work and construction can begin as soon as a final New York City permit is issued and sufficient funding is secured, said Michael Mullarney, FCRH ’68, Ruppel’s former roommate at Fordham and another donor to the project. The docks are expected to be completed in time for the fall 2024 sailing season; temporary facilities will be put in place for the sailing and crew teams while the waterfront center’s main building is constructed, he said.

The facility aims to serve the varsity women’s rowing team as well as men’s crew, co-ed sailing, and women’s sailing, all of them club sports. The waterfront center will free them from having to rent space at various locations on the Harlem River and Eastchester Bay and help student-athletes take to the water more promptly and easily at practice time, Mullarney said.

“This gift from the Ruppels has the opportunity to be truly transformative,” said Fordham’s athletic director, Ed Kull. “Not only will this endeavor enhance the day-to-day lives of Fordham’s rowers and sailors, but we hope the Ruppels’ generosity sparks further giving to support rowing and sailing and other sports as well.”

“This project is a testament to our shared priorities and purpose at Fordham, beginning with the highest levels of University administration,” he said. “I look forward to seeing how the Ruppels’ continued support benefits our student-athletes for years to come.”

In the new facility, Ruppel and other supporters see an opportunity to elevate the sailing and crew programs—making it possible to host regattas and help the sailing program win a national championship.

The waterfront center will be constructed on a plot now occupied by a long-shuttered Westchester Country Club building that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Ruppel and Mullarney, commodore and vice commodore of the Fordham Sailing Association, respectively, found the property seven years ago while searching the area for a suitable site.

Recalling the national prominence of Fordham basketball in the 1960s and ’70s, Mullarney spoke about the potential for sailing and crew to generate excitement and draw Fordham students to the site on the Eastchester Bay waterfront, where they would view the Fordham teams competing in high-stakes contests out on the water.

He described the project as an investment in hardworking students who study during the long drive to regattas, study during breaks in competitions, and give their all when out on the water, even during races and practices that take place in punishing wintertime conditions.

“The sport itself is just so amazing—watching these students [with their]total positive attitude,” he said.

Ruppel noted that he and his wife have hosted Fordham’s sailing team members at their Florida home when the team visits the state for competitions. It’s a sport that tends to foster teamwork, attention to detail, and discipline—as well as a longer-term commitment to advancing Fordham sailing, he said.

“We’ve just had some wonderful, wonderful sailors in our program, and they are very supportive and very engaged in wanting to carry that forward,” he said. “So that’s great to see.”

To inquire about giving to the waterfront center project, contact Kara Field, director of athletic development and assistant athletic director, at 973-223-2157 or [email protected]. Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, a campaign to reinvest in every aspect of the Fordham student experience, including athletics programs such as sailing and rowing.

More than 1,000 alumni and friends of Fordham attended the black-tie affair at the New York Hilton Midtown—a new venue for the dinner and a hotel that has hosted every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy.

The 2019 celebration lauded six longtime supporters of Fordham—Solon P. Patterson and Marianna R. Patterson; Joel I. Picket and Joan Picket; and Dennis G. Ruppel, FCRH ’68 and Patricia Ann Ruppel—and honored 44 Founder’s Scholars, whose Fordham education was largely made possible by the Founder’s Scholarship.

This year’s gala also celebrated and supported Faith & Hope | The Campaign for Financial Aid. Over the past two years, the campaign has reached more than 90 percent of its $175 million goal.

But at its heart, the dinner was more than a meal among those who love the University. It was a toast to the people—every person connected to Fordham’s 178 years of life.

In addressing the crowd, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, recounted the day he met a few friendly locals in a Florida fishing shop. They complimented the Fordham baseball cap atop his head—but they mistook his gear for a Florida State hat. They had no idea what Fordham was. But the innate issue was their question: “What is Fordham?”  

“Fordham is not a ‘what,’” Father McShane said. “Fordham is a ‘who.’”

“Now, I know that sounds like a bad new Dr. Seuss book,” Father McShane said, to the audience’s laughter. “But I truly believe it’s the truth.”

“Fordham is a world-class faculty, a hardworking staff, talented and devoted administrators, students, trustees, donors, alumni—all of whom are men and women for others.”

A Bittersweet Thank-You

Beneath the dimmed lights of the Grand Ballroom, Amie Ko, GABELLI ’19, spoke on behalf of the Founder’s Scholars.

“On this night, standing before you, I can’t help but think that in 54 days I will no longer be an undergraduate student at Fordham,” said Ko, an aspiring tax accountant who will intern at PricewaterhouseCoopers this summer. “From the start of the semester, I have been asked countless times: ‘How does that make you feel?’ And to be very honest, I am scared. I am nervous. I am sad,” she said.

“But most of all, I am incredibly thankful.”

Ko, a Division I athlete for Fordham’s swimming and diving team who recently led her team to its first undefeated season in almost a decade, spoke about her gratitude for her teammates, her four years of Fordham memories, and the donors who made her current reality possible.

She also took a moment to remember one Founder’s scholar who couldn’t make it: Rachel Ragone, GABELLI ’18, who died last January after a long battle with bone cancer. As Ko recounted Ragone’s four years at Fordham—her studies in applied accounting and finance, her semester spent at Fordham’s London Centre, her passion for raising funds and awareness for children’s cancer—a photo collage of Ragone appeared in the background.

“As Rachel’s mom Kim Ragone has shared with us,” said Ko, “‘Fordham gave Rachel the best time of her life.’”

Honoring Three Couples

During the festivities, Father McShane presented the Fordham Founder’s Award to each of the three couples honored this year.

The Pattersons, natives of Atlanta, have been married for nearly 60 years. Solon Patterson worked for 48 years in investment management; he retired in 2007 as CEO of the investment firm Montag and Caldwell. Marianna Patterson worked in the banking industry before becoming a full-time mother.

The couple has been instrumental in helping Fordham’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center to prosper over the past decade. In the early 2000s, they created an endowment to establish the Patterson Triennial Conference on Orthodox/Catholic Relations.

“In the process, they have enabled Fordham to become the only Catholic university in the world that offers degree programs in Eastern Orthodox studies,” said Father McShane.

They also established the Father John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies, now held by Professor George Demacopoulos. 

“Solon is Greek Orthodox, and I am Roman Catholic, and we have long prayed for the end of the separation of these oldest and largest Christian bodies. Their reunion would be a positive event for all Christians the world over,” Marianna Patterson said.

The Pickets are longtime New York philanthropists. Joel Picket, a Manhattan native, is the chairman and CEO of Gotham Organization—the real estate development firm that was key to constructing several buildings on campus, including the Law School/McKeon Hall complex at Lincoln Center and the William D. Walsh Family Library at Rose Hill. He is a two-term member of the Board of Trustees and a current trustee fellow who helped make the master plan for the Lincoln Center campus redevelopment a reality. Joan Picket, who has worked as an advertising copywriter and real estate broker, has served in multiple service organizations.

Together, the couple’s generosity spans several initiatives at Fordham, from scholarship support for Jewish studies to the funding of new campus facilities.

“Neither of us have a Fordham education,” Joel Picket said. “[But] from my first introduction to Father O’Hare to what we consider a special relationship with Father McShane, I have seen what strong and dedicated leadership means and grasped the greatness of the Jesuit education.”

The last couple includes a Fordham alumnus—Dennis Ruppel. Today, Ruppel is chairman of Freedom Bank, chairman of AmCap Insurance, and co-owner of the Press Hotel in Portland, Maine. He is a current trustee fellow who has served multiple terms on Fordham’s board of trustees. Dennis and his wife, Patricia Ann, champion multiple organizations, particularly those devoted to early childhood education.

“In her own words, Pat has ‘adopted Fordham,’ and carries the University in her heart,” said Robert D. Daleo, GABELLI ’72, chair of Fordham’s board of trustees and a Founder’s 2019 co-chair.  

At Fordham, the couple created the Dennis and Patricia Ruppel Endowed Scholarship. They have also supported athletics, WFUV, career services and experiential education, the sailing program, and other University endeavors.

“Fordham had few students from Florida when I arrived in 1964, never having been in New York City. I was the virtual stranger in a strange land,” Dennis Ruppel said.

“Within weeks, I realized how special Fordham is: classmates who were bright, questioning, and welcoming; professors whose love and mastery of their subject was infectious; an atmosphere filled with the Ignatian care for the whole person; and, in the Jesuit tradition, the expectation that we live our lives in the service of others.”

The 2019 awardees join 47 other Founder’s Award recipients, the first of whom were honored in 2002.

Examples of a Life Well Lived

“I praise God for what you have become and who you have become and how you have become, first of all, examples of a life well-lived with a strong moral compass,” Father McShane said, gazing at the hundreds of faces across the ballroom. “Tonight, it is my great honor to look at all of you and say to you, ‘You, my friends, are our treasure.’”

To make a gift to the Fordham Founder’s Undergraduate Scholarship Fund, please visit fordham.edu/foundersgiving.