And then there were all the people who inspired and challenged him athletically, like track coaches Ed Kilkelly, Arthur O’Connor, and Jack Brown—to say nothing of Fordham track’s most famous alumnus, two-time Olympic gold medalist Tom Courtney, FCRH ’55.

Courtney enjoyed “a certain degree of royalty” at Fordham, said Ostling, who met him during one of his many visits to campus.

These and other recollections come up as Ostling discusses his recent major gift to Fordham’s track and field and cross country programs in honor of coaches O’Connor and Brown.

By giving, he seeks to help today’s student-athletes have the best possible experience—like he did.

“I thought it was time to try to help make a difference” for them, Ostling said.

A Lesson in Giving

Ostling, who retired as chief operating officer at EY, formerly Ernst & Young, earned his bachelor’s degree from Fordham’s former Undergraduate School of Education before enrolling in Fordham Law School. A longtime generous donor to the school, he is quick to praise all the people who made a mark on his personal and professional growth—from coaches to classmates to colleagues in his legal career.

Those who inspired his philanthropy include a past dean of the law school, Joseph M. McLaughlin, FCRH ’54, LAW ’59, who made a lasting impression with a quick act of generosity. It happened when Ostling was being interviewed by McLaughlin after first arriving at the law school as a recently commissioned military officer, wearing his U.S. Marine Corps uniform.

Expressing concern about Ostling’s ability to pay for a more diverse wardrobe, McLaughlin turned around and wrote him a generous check, only asking that Ostling pay it back when he could.

“I can’t tell you what that meant to me,” Ostling said. “I guess he knew a lot about my financial background and that sort of thing from my application. That moment of him without any need to, or request, turning around and doing that just made a huge [difference].”

He noted that his gift to Fordham track followed Courtney’s death last fall, so in a way it helps continue Courtney’s unstinting support for the program.

“My aspiration is that the young men and women at Fordham who participate in track and cross country have the chance to feel the same experience I felt,” Ostling said. “I had a great academic experience, a great social experience, a great athletic experience at Fordham.”

Athletics fundraising is one of the pillars of Fordham’s $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student. Learn more and make a gift. 

She was also a double Fordham graduate who, whenever she could, encouraged people to give back. “She always instilled in her [students] who ‘made it’ that it’s your responsibility, because people helped you,” said her daughter, Susan Smith.

Monta died in 2020, but will be helping Fordham theater students posthumously through a scholarship that Smith recently created out of her mother’s estate. It comes as another Fordham alumna, actress Patricia Clarkson, FCLC ’82, is also creating a scholarship for students in the Fordham Theatre program.

Smith is certain her mother would approve. “She really, really liked contributing to education and providing opportunities for students,” Smith said.

Lessons from an Irish Immigrant

Growing up in New Jersey and Virginia, Monta was “the dramatic one in the family,” an aspiring actress who later set her sights on a career in education. Its importance was brought home to her early, when her live-in grandfather would always “sit there with a book in his hand,” reading voraciously to carry on the education that was cut short during his childhood in Ireland, Smith said.

Monta studied speech, English, and speech education at Fordham, earning a bachelor’s degree from the Undergraduate School of Education in 1952 and a master’s from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1953. She later earned a doctorate in theater arts from Cornell University.

Arriving at what was then Pan American University in 1971, she established the theater area within the communications department and set about building the program, sometime sewing the costumes for productions herself, according to a statement from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, as the university is now known.

‘Pay It Forward’

Over the years, she gave to charities, created a theater scholarship at the university, and helped others in numerous small ways, Smith said. One day, headed out to eat with colleagues, she gave away her brown-bag lunch to a student—and then kept bringing a lunch for him when she learned he was struggling financially.

When one of her former students—Valente Rodriguez—launched his acting career in California and tried to repay the money she had given him for moving there, she declined, telling him to “pay it forward” by funding a scholarship. And when her colleagues wanted to throw her a party upon her retirement in 2007, she declined again, citing the expense—until someone suggested turning the party into a fundraiser.

As a teacher, she was “a character,” known for blunt, colorful comments, Smith said, but she was also “incredibly loving.”

“She came across like a real hard-ass,” Smith said, “because she expected more of you than you expected of yourself.”

Scholarship gifts support the Access and Affordability priority of Fordham’s current $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student. Learn more and make a gift. 

This year, six Pioneering Women in Philanthropy will be honored for the personal and financial support they have given Fordham. Leaders in their fields, each one has invested in bettering their communities and the world in their own way. Here, they share their thoughts on the importance of mentorship, empathy, self-confidence, and more on the path to success—for them and for all women.

In cosmetics, which is where I particularly grew up, we had these wonderful [women]  role models. … If you’ve been given this road map and you see that others have gone before you and achieved, you never have in your mind the notion of failure. You have the notion that you can do it too, if you’re good enough and smart enough and make the right decisions.
—Rose Marie Bravo, CBE, TMC ’71

Bravo grew up in the Bronx, the daughter of an Italian-born barber and a seamstress from Sicily. A Bronx High School of Science graduate, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English cum laude at Fordham’s Thomas More College in 1971 and later held leadership positions in several major fashion businesses—including Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue. She took over Burberry in 1997 and is widely credited with transforming the classic brand and greatly expanding its markets during her nine-year tenure as CEO. In 2006, Queen Elizabeth II recognized Bravo’s achievements in promoting British fashion, naming her a Commander of the British Empire.

Bravo will deliver a keynote address, “From the Bronx to Buckingham Palace,” at this year’s Women’s Philanthropy Summit.

I entered the work world bolstered by an amazing education in liberal arts that made me feel strong and confident. Still, to rise up the corporate ladder meant more than just feeling confident. I soon learned that it meant persistence and resilience, not being afraid to ask for help, and so much more. I quickly realized the importance of communicating, listening, adaptability, and using words like “us” “we” and “with.” I learned that the best leaders hire strong people, set goals, don’t make excuses, are empathetic, and understand their own self-worth.
—Carolyn Dursi Cunniffe, Ph.D., UGE ’62, GSAS ’65, ’71

Dursi Cunniffe grew up in a family of eight, including two brothers who also went to Fordham. Fluent in French and Italian, she studied at the Sorbonne and the University of Perugia as well as Fordham, where she earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in French literature. She had a successful career as an executive in the cosmetics industry and, later, in executive recruiting. She spent 13 years at Revlon, rising to vice president at a time when that title was a rarity for women. She was a senior vice president and the key strategist in recruiting senior talent at Cablevision Systems Corporation before retiring in 2011. Her husband, Maurice “Mo” Cunniffe, FCRH ’54, is a fellow Fordham grad.

From my parents, I was always encouraged to be kind and fair—and to always let people know they are valued and loved. I think women have that capacity to inspire people by their passion, compassion, and empathy. Women stand tall for their beliefs and by nature have the ability to listen and compromise. We know how to bring people together and we are problem solvers.
—Barbara Dane, Ph.D., GSS ’67, ’85

Dane is a retired professor of clinical social work who has maintained a private clinical practice, working with dying and grieving persons and their families, since 1971. She earned both her M.S.W. and Ph.D. in gerontology from Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service. She has taught at Fordham, Columbia University, and NYU, and has a substantial publishing record in social work. Dane was awarded a summer fellowship from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research on aging, and she was among the first recipients of a social work leadership grant from the Soros Foundation’s Project on Death in America. Her research on Thai women coping with HIV/AIDS and the role of meditation was presented at the Seventh International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women in Tromsø, Norway.

What I know is that we each have the opportunity to change a life every day, to share wisdom from experiences that can help one another, even if we don’t get to hear the triumphant follow-up story. What counts is what we give to lift others up around us, no matter how big or small our gift may be.
—Valerie Rainford, FCRH ’86

Rainford is head of advancing black leaders and diversity advancement strategies at JPMorgan Chase. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Fordham. Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase, she served at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for 21 years, where she rose to become the most senior black woman there and the first to rise to senior vice president. The author of an award-winning memoir, Until the Brighter Tomorrow: One Woman’s Courageous Climb from the Projects to the Podium (Eloree Press, 2014), she has dedicated much of her life to uplifting others by sharing her story of perseverance, as she did with local Bronx students on the Rose Hill campus in August.

Rainford will deliver a keynote address, “Paying It Forward: A Journey of Resilience and Giving Back,” at this year’s Women’s Philanthropy Summit.

Being a leader is about continuous learning, hands-on engagement, and the power of giving time and resources. Women do this exceptionally well. The challenge is to understand the exciting opportunities for change, and to still find time for self-care and reflection.
—Susan Conley Salice, FCRH ’82

Conley Salice is the president of the Salice Family Foundation. She also serves on the boards and chairs the development committees of Fordham University, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, and Greenwich Hospital. Before shifting her focus to philanthropy, she worked in the business sector for two decades. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Fordham College at Rose Hill and a master’s degree in fundraising and philanthropy from New York University. She was one of the keynote speakers at the inaugural Women’s Philanthropy Summit in 2017.

Women who have succeeded in business need to discuss how we navigated the workplace. These experiences are especially relevant today as some business leaders and politicians are seeking to erode the progress that women have made in this world. Women continually face discrimination based on their gender and have an especially tough path to managerial roles in many organizations. A man is considered tough when he makes a strong point while a woman is considered to be too emotional when making a similar point in a similar tone of voice. These stereotypes need to be put to rest. We must lead through a combination of common sense, empathy, and determination.
—Donna Smolens, FCRH ’79, GSAS ’81

Smolens has been a senior advisor at Insight Partners, a leading global private equity and venture capital firm, since 2015. Prior to joining Insight, she worked at Portfolio Advisors LLC, was a voting member on the investment committees of numerous Portfolio Advisors funds, and was on the advisory boards of 13 private equity funds. She previously worked at Crossover Ventures, DLJ Securities Private Fund Group, General Motors Investment Management, and New York Life Insurance Company. She graduated from Fordham University with both a B.A. and an M.A. in economics.

The spirit of the ’60s was very much alive during the festivities, as graduates from the Class of 1968 were welcomed into the ranks of the Golden Rams, and on Friday evening, attendees rocked out to the sounds of the Beatles cover band the Fab Faux.

For the second year in a row, the weekend set the stage for celebrating more than $70 million raised by Jubilee classes since they last came together on campus five years earlier.

Honoring the Past

In his welcome address, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, spoke of the University’s transition from a small Catholic institution founded in 1841 by Irish-born Bishop John Hughes to a nationally-recognized Jesuit university boasting an undergraduate student body of more than 9,000 students from across the world.

He emphasized the University’s commitment to preserving Hughes’ vision for Fordham to be an academic institution that welcomes students of every class, race, and creed.

“When people say, ‘what is Fordham?’ I often say, ‘wrong question.’ It’s not a what, it’s a who,” he said.

“When you pray for Fordham, see in your mind’s eye and in your heart all the women and men whom you knew at Fordham, and whom you cherished at Fordham, and the young women and men who you will meet today.”

A Family Affair

Though there were many couples at Jubilee, not everyone brought a spouse as their date. Don Quinn, FCHR ’58 was there with his daughter, Carolyn Quinn Hickey, FCRH ’88. The pair has attended Jubilee celebrations together ever since Don presented Carolyn with her diploma at her graduation.

“Tonight [at the gala]I’m not sitting with the class of ’58. I’m sitting with the class of ’88,” Don quipped.

“He’s a good dancer,” said Carolyn, a former elementary school teacher who’s now teaching at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. “For all my friends, class of ’88, whose husbands don’t like to dance—he’s the go-to.”

Don was one of several veterans from his class present at the event. He was originally part of the class of 1954, he said, but four years in the Navy interrupted his college career. When he returned to Fordham, he was working, going to school, and raising a family.

Just before the luncheon, members of the class unveiled a plaque that honors two all-time great Fordham basketball players from their year: Jim Cunningham and Bill McCadney. The plaque will hang in the Rose Hill Gym.

A Call to Do More

Michael Wieloszynski, UGE ’68, told a group of about 50 alumni from 302 Broadway—which once housed Fordham’s schools of education, business, and law—that they still have plenty left to offer the world.

“People of my generation were actively trying to do something, but don’t think we succeeded particularly well,” he said.

“I look at our kids, and our kids’ kids, and … it wasn’t until this year, with gun control, that you had young people making any protests. There’s a lot to be done.”

And although it’s easy at their age to say it’s somebody else’s turn, Wieloszynski noted that “that somebody else is our kids. And there’s a lot of knowledge and lot of experience here. I don’t see people walking around with crutches here, or IVs,” he said. “We need to get involved.”

The mini-reunion, as it was called, offered a chance for the 302 Broadway alumni to reflect on their unique shared experience.

“We were sort of isolated so we got the chance to know everyone. We were a small school but we had the Fordham campus for Fordham activities—the football team, the basketball team,” said retired teacher John Ruzicka, UGE ’68. Standing next to him was Donald Czajkowski, also UGE ’68, whom Ruzicka called “my closest friend,” and for whom he served as best man.

Debating a Decade’s Impact

The significance of the 60’s was front and center in “A Look Back, Hosted by the Class of 1963,” at Loyola Hall. The discussion was organized and moderated by Elmer Brunsman, FCRH ’63. (Sadly, Brunsman died later that evening. The University is planning a memorial service to honor him. His obituary can be found here.)

Paul Saunders, FCRH ’63, argued that theirs was the last class marked by insularity. In many ways, it was a class that was shaped more by its 1959 high school graduation, he said. Social justice, which is a major part of the Fordham experience now, and even later in the 1960’s, was not really discussed.

“We were very insular, smothered, satisfied, unquestioning about the world, and narrow. What is consistent from our day to today is the emphasis on academic excellence, but in my opinion, almost everything is different. And I submit, much better,” he said.

Women at the Forefront

In the McGinley Center, members of the Thomas More College Class of 1968 gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their graduation. It was a groundbreaking achievement, as they were the first members of Fordham’s all-women’s college that operated from 1964 to 1974.

One of those women, Louise Zotttoli Priest, TMC ’68, had an additional celebration to savor: 50 years of marriage to Richard Priest, FCRH ’68, who was also in attendance. They met at a mixer on campus when they were 17, and wed at the University Church in August 1968, shortly after graduation. Zotttoli Priest recalled taking the long bus ride to campus from her home in what would become Co-op City.

“You’d get off at Fordham Road and the Third Avenue El was still here, and everything was dirty and sooty, and you’d walk through the gates onto the campus of Fordham, and it was like stepping through the gates of paradise,” she said.

Throughout the weekend, many women went on record with their memories through the newly launched Thomas More College Oral History Project, which will store their recordings in Fordham’s archives.

Marymount Women Celebrate Their Own

At Duane Library, the women of Marymount College presented Stacey Tisdale, MC ’88, with their Alumnae of Achievement Award.

“My cousin once told me the friends you make in college are the friends you have for life, and it’s been so true. In the past 30 years, I think we’ve been through everything together,” Tisdale said.

“I was often told by news directors that I didn’t look like a financial journalist. I’d say ‘You’re going to have to change what your idea of what a financial journalist looks like.’ I realized it was a battle I wasn’t going to win, but one I would transcend.”

Maura Gaines, Ph.D., MC ’58, received the Gloria Gaines Memorial Award, given in recognition of service to community, church, and college. The award is named after her sister, also a Marymount alumna, who died at age 24. The Golden Dome Award went to Angelica Hinojosa Valentine, MC ’03, GSS ’05, in recognition of her commitment to advance the legacy of Marymount College.

The event also paid special honor to Sister Mary Heyser, R.H.S.M., MC ’62, who has served as the chaplain for Marymount alumnae since 2009, and who will soon move to Immokalee, Florida, where she will work with the Legal Aid Service of Collier County with Sr. Maureen Kelleher, MC ’60.

Rainbow Rams: Old Friends, New Revelations

As Jubilee attendees enjoyed a barbecue on Martyrs Lawn, more than 40 Rainbow Rams, the LGBTQ alumni affinity group, gathered for cocktails and camaraderie on the Walsh Library Terrace. Among them were Jim Gifford, FCRH ’68, and Tom Reilly, FCRH ’68. Gifford and Reilly were roommates, but neither knew the other was gay until a few years after graduation.

Reilly was thrilled to discover there was an LGBTQ gathering at Jubilee, since coming out of the closet wasn’t really an option when he graduated.

“The atmosphere was very different, all men wearing suit jackets to classes—we were very stiff upper lip,” recalled Gifford. “So, coming back here and seeing that there’s a gay alliance, that makes me see Fordham in a new light.”

For outgoing Rainbow Rams President Stephen Erdman, FCRH ’13, seeing LGBTQ Golden and Silver Rams celebrating with his class was a bittersweet culmination of his tenure at the two-year-old group. He said that finding out that friends were gay after leaving campus is still a common occurrence (a pair of Silver Rams roommates at the gathering had the same coming out experience as Reilly and Gifford).

“It’s important that we have these groups, because there are still people who feel that they can’t come out on campus,” said Erdman. “But college is an important time to meet each other and be true to ourselves.”

—Nicole LaRosa, Tanisia Morris, Tom Stoelker, and Gina Vergel contributed to this story.

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A total of more than $72 million was raised in this five-year Jubilee cycle in time for the University’s Dondransbicentennial year, and alumni spanned multiple generations of Rams—including the Class of 1942, represented by 97-year-old Lionel Weinstein, PHA ’42.

The event also celebrated the close of the 175th year—in which several events have honored Fordham’s efforts to “break the circle of poverty” for 19th-century Irish immigrants, said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.

In a welcoming speech in Duane Library’s Tognino Hall, Father McShane said Fordham continues to be a “factory of hope” for the nation and the world. He spoke with pride of a diverse array of alumni that has included several pro athletes, broadcasters, writers, scientists, Fulbright scholars, and five Medal of Honor recipients, all of whom were “called on by God to be great.”
“Lou Gehrig wasn’t the luckiest man in the world; I am,” he said of his 14-year tenure as University president.

He quoted his father, a first-generation college graduate, as having said that when he graduated from Fordham “his whole family graduated” with him.

“It’s our duty to make sure that others have the same opportunity that he had, that you had, and I had,” said Father McShane.

At events across campus, alumni recalled hardscrabble journeys echoing those of their 19th-century peers.

A Step Up

At a CSTEP reunion, Renee Hernandez, M.D., FCRH ’94, celebrated with his wife Madeline Hernandez, FCRH ’94. The two met and married on campus, and continue to bring their children back. Born and raised in the borough, Dr. Hernandez said that as a student he thought of Fordham as a “paradise in the Bronx.” Today, he invites high school and college students to intern at this private practice.

“A lot of it is about exposure, so for the high school students it’s an eye opener that anything is possible,” he said, “and for college then its opening their eyes to other things that are possible, like going to med school, getting a Ph.D., or going into law.”

Jason Atano, FCRH ’01, LAW ’04, said it was clear that Fordham has invested in the program, creating a growing community that comes back to campus each year.

“We come from communities that don’t have a high level of human capital, and this type of program provides us with access to mentorship. Now we’re able to pass along the lessons that we learn while navigating the professional world,” said Atano. “I always try to come back. You know who the students are because you were them 10 years ago.”

The two were recognized by CSTEP for professional achievement and for continued contributions to the program. Also honored were: Ada Aponte, M.D., FRCH ’99; Rev. Ransford S. Clarke, FCRH ’99; Edwardo J. Rodriguez, Ph.D., FCRH ’99; and Joy B. Tolliver, FCRH ’04.

The Sanctum Sanctorum

As Pierre Lehmuller, UGE ’57, GSE ’59, joined other alumni at Loyola Hall for “Mix and Mingle with the Jesuits,” he recalled a time when lay people were rarely granted admittance to the former Jesuit residence.

“When I had to meet a Jesuit on campus, we had to meet out on the (Loyola) porch—even if it was cold,” he said.

He said that he was finally granted admittance after he joined what was once known as the Alumni Federation.

“It is an impressive building, so being admitted into the building was a fulfillment of a dream, like I’d been admitted into the Sanctum Sanctorum. I expected St. Peter to be lurking about, saying, ‘Come in young man.’”

From Broadway to the Bronx

Mary Guardiani, UGE ’62, GSE ’92, reveled in memories at the reception for students who attended Fordham at 302 Broadway. Guardiani recalled taking a class on research methods once at Rose Hill, in which she was one of only two women; it contrasted starkly with the co-ed atmosphere of her base campus in downtown Manhattan.

“It was a very interesting experience because I learned the Jesuits weren’t interested in anything but developing your abilities,” she said. “[But] the [male]students had more problems with women in the class.

“The Jesuits’ . . . message was picked up quickly, that you had to focus on this very difficult course and that was it.”

She recalled that 302 Broadway had a large contingent of commuters from her home borough of Staten Island. “You had a community of people on the ferry boat, where you’d meet and talk for a few minutes, and then study,” she said.

Marymount Memories

At the Marymount Awards Ceremony, alumnae celebrated the announcement that the Marymount Legacy Fund broke the $1 million mark. The fund supports scholarships for young women attending Fordham.

Alumnae from the women’s college, which closed 10 years ago, gathered in Butler Commons to share a few tearful moments and memories from the Tarrytown campus.

Mary Randolph Carter, MC ‘67, an executive at Ralph Lauren, received the Alumna of Achievement award and gave a moving speech in which she quoted appreciations of the college from fellow alumni. But it was her story that most moved the crowd.

Carter shared an anecdote of having to miss the Marymount graduation for an honor at Mademoiselle Magazine, but that her mother had shown up at Marymount to “clap loudly” when her name was read anyway. The Marymount alumni surprised a tearful Carter by presenting her with her her diploma. She said she planned to share the diploma with her 95-year-old mother.

“’Mom,’ I’ll say, ‘I think I finally made it to my Marymount graduation!’”

A GSAS Centennial

At the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) reunion, Dean Eva Badowska, Ph.D., encouraged alumni to explore the 100-year-old history of the school. She said GSAS prides itself on having been “open to a diverse group of students and faculty” over the years, including those fleeing from Nazi persecution, such as Nobel-prize-winning physicist Victor Hess.

Sharon Dietz-Dubois and Ellen Clark, both 1986 graduates, recalled the efforts of Gerald Quinn, the late dean, to make their education at Fordham possible. Clark said Dean Quinn let her postpone, rather than forfeit, her scholarship for a year for personal reasons. Dietz-Dubois said a conversation with Dean Quinn, in which she told him she’d run out of tuition money, changed her trajectory for good.

“I came to Fordham on a wing and a prayer,” said Dietz-Dubois. “He told me ‘I’m giving you a graduate assistantship. You are going to work in my office.’ I felt like I was saved. Because of that conversation, I was able to continue my Fordham education.”

Tumultuous Times

Members of the Class of 1972 viewed a documentary about tumultuous times on campus, including a student takeover of the President’s office led by the Students for a Democratic Society. The film featured 16mm black-and white-footage of student protests, demonstrations, and arguments about the war. Contemporary interviews balanced the narrative with the perspective and wisdom that comes with age.

This was not the peace and love portrayal often associated with movies and documentaries about campus life from the period, but rather “the gritty struggles against capitalism and the Vietnam War waged by blue-collar kids in commuter schools,” said the film’s producers.

Together with Michael Bryce, FCRH ’72, and Mary Colonna, TMC’72, Robert J. Reilly, FCRH ’72, LAW ‘75, assistant dean of the Feerick Center for Social Justice, moderated a discussion that revealed how their participation in the confrontations altered the course of the alumni’s lives.

Participants recalled the very real life and death consequences that the war brought to campus. More than one alumnus recalled the screams emanating from dorm rooms when draft numbers were called. And yet not all students were against the war or having ROTC on campus, alumni said.

Gabelli Students on Investing

At the Gabelli School, a team of students talked about its strategy and choice of asset allocations used to invest a $1 million portion of the University’s endowment, through a two-semester course titled Student Managed Investment Fund. The team produced a 5.44 percent return for the semester, outperforming their benchmark.

Clarissa Cartledge, rising senior, said that part of the students’ success rested on the choice of a pharmaceutical company, Acorn, that had a merger and rose 52 percent.

“That was a really nice investment,” she said.

The course was also invaluable for its real-world aspect, said Cartledge.

“Because it’s real money you feel it is a real job, even though it’s a four-credit class. Everyone is motivated to improve the fund’s performance. We watch the news, we follow the companies and challenge each other to make correct decisions.

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to invest the endowment, and to have the confidence of Fordham behind us as well as the learning experience they are giving us.”

Bensalem’s Back

In the Walsh Library, a small contingent of alumni from Fordham’s Bensalem, an experimental college which opened in 1967 at a residence on East 191st street, gathered to reminisce. Rita Charon, M.D., a 1970 graduate, said it was a time when “the world was exploding” with the Vietnam war and a thriving counterculture.
“I was a Catholic girl from Providence, Rhode Island, and my parents let me come to New York only if I studied with the Jesuits,” she said.

Bensalem’s theme was how best to learn outside of a rigid classroom structure and an enforced ideology, and to cultivate an open mind, she said.

“Those of us who were there from the beginning . . . we’ve never given it up. We’ve been against the grain,” said Dr. Charon, founder and director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. “That’s why we were attracted to it.”

Janet Sassi contributed to this article.

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Thomas G. Vinci, Ed.D., UGE ’49, professor emeritus and associate dean emeritus at the Graduate School of Education (GSE), died on Nov. 24 at the age of 93.

“My dad considered Fordham his second home and counted many of his colleagues there among his best friends,” said his son Tom Vinci, FCRH ’73, LAW ’77.

“He cherished his decades-long association with such a wonderful institution.”

Vinci joined the Fordham family as an undergraduate at the School of Education, where he earned a B.S. in 1949. He earned an Ed.D. at Columbia University and began teaching at Fordham’s Graduate School of Education in 1967, first as an assistant professor and then as a full professor. He became associate dean of the school in 1974, serving in that position until his retirement in 1988.

In 1983, the Doctorate Association of New York honored him with an “Outstanding Educator of the Year” award. A member of Kappa Delta Pi, an international honor society for educators, Vinci authored 27 chapters and monographs in textbooks and national publications.

James J. Hennessey, Ph.D., former dean of the Graduate School of Education, said Vinci’s tenure at Fordham, including a stint as chair of the school’s Division of Curriculum and Teaching, was one marked by outstanding service.

Vinci’s service to Fordham did not end with his retirement. He was the director of the  Graduate School of Education’s alumni association, and along with his wife, Elin, headed Fordham’s South Florida Alumni Chapter. For his service, the association in 1994 created the Thomas G Vinci Award to honor devoted GSE alumni.

Vinci is survived by his wife Elin, FCLC ’75, GSAS ’78; his sons, Tom and Peter; a daughter-in-law, Ann, LAW ’77; and four grandchildren.

A funeral mass will be held at St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Deerfield Beach, Florida, on Saturday, Dec. 3rd at 9:30 a.m.

A special mass of intention will be held at 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at the Lincoln Center campus’ Blessed Rupert Mayer Chapel, Room 221, Lowenstein Center.

In 1963, Joyce Onorato was a sophomore history major at Marymount College, when she agreed to join one of her suitemates on a double date. She met Brian Abamont, a science major at St. John’s University. Weeks later, he invited Joyce to a movie. She recalls thinking he was not her type, but she went anyway and had a strange flash that she would marry him.

“I thought, what? I don’t even like this guy!” she says.

They didn’t see each other again until the first night of summer classes at 302 Broadway, Fordham’s Manhattan home for undergraduates at the time. Joyce had enrolled in an economics course there, and Brian had transferred to Fordham from St. John’s to major in education. He walked out of an elevator one evening and bumped into Joyce. They began dating, and soon she was wearing his Fordham pin.

“I would ask her every night if she wanted a ride home from class,” says Brian, who, like Joyce, grew up in Queens. “I kept asking, and she said no. One night, she said yes. I took her home that night—and every night since!”

In 1966, Joyce graduated from Marymount and began taking summer classes at NYU for a master’s degree in European history while Brian completed his education degree at Fordham.

“I was following my mother’s instructions not to get engaged until I graduated,” he says. “The night I finished my last course, I was anxious.”

So anxious that he proposed to Joyce in his car in front of 302 Broadway. A year later, they were married.

Brian began his career in education as a high school social studies teacher and retired as an assistant principal in guidance in 2002. Joyce also worked as a teacher but dreamed of law school. Following the birth of their fourth child, with the support of her mother and Brian, she earned a law degree from St. John’s in 1988. She eventually joined MetLife as managing attorney in the company’s Long Island office, a position she’s held for 18 years.

The couple has kept their Fordham-Marymount connection alive. Joyce has served on the board of the Marymount Alumnae Association of Fordham University (she was president of the alumnae board at the time of the consolidation with Fordham). And she and Brian continue to support the Marymount Legacy Fund, an endowed scholarship fund that helps young women follow their educational dreams at Fordham.

Earlier this month, the Abamonts returned to Fordham to celebrate their 50th reunion—their first as Golden Rams—during Jubilee weekend. Joyce was presented with the Marymount Golden Dome Award, which is given each year to an alumna whose efforts of service and achievement have benefited Marymount.

With a 50th wedding anniversary coming up next July, Joyce recalls that it was those days at 302 Broadway that really brought the couple together.

“After that year at Fordham, we both knew,” she says. “And that hasn’t changed.”

—Maja Tarateta

When Dora Melina, UGE ’47, was going through a cabinet in her Brooklyn home some years ago, she found a glass-plate negative of a family photo taken when she was 5. But it was no ordinary portrait. 

Clad in a white bonnet and a colonial-style dress, Melina is pictured with a female relative posing as Betsy Ross, stitching an American flag draped across her lap. Her dark-haired Italian mother, father, uncle, and an artist friend of theirs complete the scene.

Though she doesn’t remember sitting for it, Melina said the photo was likely taken to help promote Old Glory, a large-scale illuminated manuscript created by her father and uncle nearly a century ago to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Melina donated the piece to Fordham in 1987, and today it hangs on the top floor of Duane Library on the Rose Hill campus.

A Lost Art Form

“I’m really happy; they did a beautiful job setting it up,” said Melina, 96, who keeps a copy of the piece hanging in her den. “I wanted it to be somewhere where it’s safe,” she said, adding that the piece offers young people a glimpse of a lost art form. “They really don’t know anything about it unless we talk about it.”

Noted artists from Italy who had recently immigrated to New York City, Antonio and Giuseppe Mungo—Melina’s uncle and father—created the work on several sheets of parchment. The music and lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner” are elaborately embossed in 24-carat gold in the center panels, which feature early and current (at the time) American flags. Framing the national anthem is a wide gold border, into which the brothers set several painted, miniature scenes of America’s founding, including one of Betsy Ross stitching a flag with a bonneted little girl at her side. At 43 by 63 inches, it is thought to be the largest illuminated manuscript in the world.

Completed in 1926 after 10 years of work, the Mungo brothers’ masterpiece was displayed at Philadelphia’s sesquicentennial celebration but it was never sold. The pair had created similar illuminated manuscripts—a dying craft in which text and miniature illustrations or paintings are decorated with gold or silver—for Tiffany Studios. They also did work for Ames & Rollinson, a Manhattan engrossing studio, where Melina apprenticed with her uncle after her father’s eyesight started to fail.

A Family Committed to Arts Education

An artist herself, Melina had been taking art classes at Pratt Institute, but found it “difficult to be at a drawing board all day and night.” Her husband, Fortuny Robert Melina, FCRH ’41, GSAS ’49, suggested she attend Fordham.

“I was so in love with some of the things he was learning [there],” she said. She began taking night classes at the former Undergraduate School of Education’s home on lower Broadway, near City Hall, during the 1940s and completed her degree at Rose Hill when the school moved there. She taught elementary school in Bedford-Stuyvesant and later became a guidance counselor.

“What I loved about Fordham was the scholastic philosophy,” Melina said. She enjoyed studying literature and the philosophers, especially St. Thomas Aquinas.

Her family was very devoted to the study of art. Together with other artists from Italy, the Mungo brothers founded and taught at the Leonardo da Vinci Art School, known simply as “the Leonardo.” The low-cost school opened in 1923 in the East Village, and counts among its students famed sculptor Isamu Noguchi. It later moved to 34th Street, and closed in 1942.

In 1995, Melina honored her late husband, who died in 1992, by establishing the Fortuny Robert Melina Memorial Endowed Scholarship Fund for students of high financial need majoring in the arts.

This report sets out the academic achievements in 2012-2013 along with the priorities for 2013-2014, which emphasize excellence in engaged teaching and research, mission integration, the development of new interdisciplinary programs, international education, innovative partnerships, and academic financial planning, among other areas.

Over the past year, the Office of the Provost advanced the integration of academic and financial planning, focusing on the alignment of resources with the University’s mission, strategic goals, and assessment. The deans and faculty, in collaboration with the Office of the Provost, made important strides on a broad range of initiatives supporting the University’s strategic vision articulated in Toward 2016.

Fordham College at Rose Hill

Gabelli School of Business

Fordham College at Lincoln Center

Professional and Continuing Studies

Edward Bristow, Ph.D., professor of history, dubbed her the mother of the honors program and a “throwback” in the best sense of the word. Grace Vernon, Ph.D., professor of biology, fondly recalled her love of baseball, her family and friends, and her fellow faculty. 

Robert M. Grimes, S.J., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, sang the Gregorian chant “In Paradisum,” to pay homage to her chosen field of medievalism.

And Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, called Anne Mannion, Ph.D., professor emerita of history, a liberating and affirming force in students’ lives.

“She was a woman of great faith in God, who gave her a vocation in the University that was her home, in her students who made her heart sing, and in her colleagues who were for her the family that really anchored her in New York,” he said at the Sept. 19 service.

Faculty, friends, and students packed the 12th-floor Lounge/Corrigan Center to celebrate the life of Mannion, a member of the faculty for 52 years and a 1958 alumna of the Undergraduate School of Education, who died in July.

“She now knows all the answers that were raised by Thomas Aquinas, and I would imagine she’s lecturing him on all the mistakes he made,” Father McShane said.

“But doing so with affection as well as with conviction. Anne was for us, citizen, colleague, and—let’s be honest—a patron saint.”

Photos by Bruce Gilbert and Bill Denison