Robert Utter ’93

AS CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER FOR PYRAMID Management Group, one of the largest and most innovative real estate developers in the Northeast, Robert Utter ’93 possesses a precise and comprehensive understanding of the factors that lead to success and fulfillment, whether for an individual, a company, or a country. He sees SUNY Oswego as poised to make a fundamental difference in the future of its graduates, as well as for the nation and the world, and that’s why he has made a leadership gift to Oswego.

“What makes this country great is the opportunity available to all of us,” says Utter, a steadfast supporter of The Fund for Oswego who invites his fellow alumni to follow his example in providing the financial support that will make that opportunity possible. “But now more than ever, in retaining our status in the international market, we have to stay competitive. We have to help motivate and support the entrepreneurial spirit in our talented and highly skilled young people.”

That all starts with a great education, Utter affirms, like the one he gained as an accounting major in Oswego’s School of Business and continued to build on as a young professional. “We all need to ensure that kind of quality education continues to grow and flourish,” says Utter, pointing to the valuable opportunities for practical application along with the diversity and professionalism of the faculty as highlights of his Oswego education. “With today’s economic pressures, and the escalating costs of private education, the value of a public education is more compelling than ever. Let’s do what we can to make it the best that we can.”

—Amy Speach

You might say Miles B. Borden ’50 is on the right track. Some 63 years after setting Oswego State records for speed, Miles is still putting on miles.

As a member of the Laker track team, Miles crossed the finish line in the record-breaking mile-long relay race at Cortland State in May 1949. The invitational track meet brought together college track teams from Hamilton College, Hartwick, Brockport, Rochester, Cortland and Oswego.

Miles Borden ’50 carries the baton across the finish line for Oswego State in the record-breaking mile relay race May 1949 at Cortland State. Borden placed first in the mile race earlier in the meet.

Miles continues to run five days a week with his wife, Leona. Miles and Leona have been cross-country skiing for about 40 years and often head north instead of south for the winter. When he’s not on the road, track or trails, Miles enjoys studying local history with middle school and high school students.

Miles has written five local history books, his latest being The History of Kings Park.

He was president of the Kings Park Fire Department for six years and chaired the committee which established the department’s ambulance squad. Miles has since retired after serving as a volunteer trustee of the Smithsonian Library Board of Trustees for 20 years.

At Oswego, Miles was the student body president for the 1949-50 academic year and a member of Beta Tau Epsilon.

The Trivia Lover’s Guide to the World: Geography for the Lost and Found is derived from an Oswego legacy of geography. In fact, Oswego itself is featured in the last chapter.

Gary ’64 and Barbara Bruton Fuller ’64 live in Hawaii and love traveling the world sharing Gary’s knowledge of geography.

After graduating from Oswego, Gary went on to earn his doctorate in geography from Penn State. He retired after 34 years as professor of geography and population studies at the University of Hawaii, where he taught more than 10,000 undergraduates and supervised 13 doctoral dissertations and 44 master’s theses. (His first doctoral candidate, Larry Travers, became a faculty member at Oswego).

He was senior class president in 1964, and in 1994, Gary was awarded the Anniversary Class Award of Merit from the Oswego Alumni Association.

Gary’s wife, Barbara Bruton Fuller ’64, retired from the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility school, after almost 30 years, where she was a teacher and then the teacher-in-charge. They have lived in Hawaii since 1970.

“The education, history and geography courses I took at Oswego were the impetus for my life as an educator and now as an author,” wrote Gary, who names as his influences Oswego geography legends Judy Johnsrud and the late Professor Emeritus Girgis Ghobrial.

In retirement, Gary lectures on cruise ships all over the world, talking about world affairs, tying in geography, history and the cultures of the places the tours visit, as well as the current events occurring there.

“Oswego certainly formed the basis for the lives in education — writing and disseminating information— that we’ve led and now lead,” Gary wrote.

“Our lives were definitely shaped by our four years at Oswego.  They have been very fruitful and hopefully, have impacted many of the students we’ve taught, as well as our own four children, in positive ways.”

Each week, La Rae M. Martin-Coore ’99 is used to getting a few glances when she cruises the grocery aisles with her husband, son and three carts in tow.

They’re shopping for their extended family, the six New York City teens who live with them in Manlius.

The girls are enrolled in the A Better Chance, or ABC, program at Fayetteville-Manlius High School. The nationwide initiative brings bright inner city youth to high-achieving school districts to give them a different perspective while preparing for college and career.

ABC, one of two in the state, has been a part of the community for nearly 40 years. Martin-Coore took over as resident director last fall and made quite a commitment. As part of the position, she and her family moved into the ABC house in Manlius.

“The way a family operates, that’s very much the way we operate,” Martin-Coore said.

She is a mentor, counselor and, in many respects, mother to these teens. On any given night, the house is buzzing with activity — the stairs creak with frequent commuters running up and down, cell phones vibrate with text message alerts and gatherings in the kitchen or at the dinner table fuel constant conversation.

“I have a passion for working with young people, young women in particular,” says Martin-Coore, who also works as the academic coordinator for Le Moyne College’s Higher Education Preparation/Upward Bound Program. As a high schooler at Nottingham in Syracuse, Martin-Coore was herself a participant at Le Moyne before heading to SUNY Morrisville and eventually to Oswego.

“I like to help students achieve with the same opportunities that I have had in my life,” says Martin-Coore, who at Oswego was very active in ALANA and the Black Student Union — the community service projects, in particular.

Helping Students Succeed

La Rae M. Martin-Coore ’99, left, mentors girls in the A Better Chance, or ABC, program. Current students participating in the program squeeze into a room underneath the stairs. The tiny space includes an easy chair, telephone and — on the walls — the signatures of virtually every ABC participant dating back to the program’s beginning some 40 years ago.

Like Upward Bound, ABC focuses on getting talented students ready for college. The teens must meet high academic standards to qualify.

“This is just another experience for the students to have,” Martin-Coore says. “You get to learn about people from all walks of life and get along with all different people.

“That’s the college experience … and colleges recognize that too,” she says. “It sets you apart.”

Even the youngest in the house, freshman Tanaja Stephenson of Brooklyn, has college plans. “I like that I’m being challenged more than I would at home,” she says over a plate of chicken riggies with her housemates.

Many in this group of six, like junior Sara Elzeini of the Bronx, have aspirations to enter the medical field.

“I think it might be hard for some kids to go away to school,” says Elzeini, vice president of her class at Fayetteville-Manlius and a part-time swim instructor at the YMCA. “I feel like it won’t be a shock to me to go to college.”

The teens split up household chores and handle their own, like laundry, says Martin-Coore, who lives in the home with her husband, Zaire M. Coore ’98, and son, Zaire J. Coore.

Students spend all four years of high school at their ABC destination.

“You get to connect with people you would otherwise never have met,” said sophomore Kesi Rivera of Harlem. “This program opens a lot of doors.”

Martin-Coore hopes to one day open her own leadership academy for young women of color.

“I’m showing them who they can possibly become,” she says. “I know when I do that, I’m going to be blessed.

“It’s about being happy.”

As BrieAnne Wilson ’10, M ’12 trudged upward, wind and cold gnawed at her face. It was only November, but the weather had surprised her and her friends with snow and temperatures that dipped below freezing.

Now they were caught in a snowstorm on the side of a mountain in the Adirondacks. Unlike Wilson, who brought winter gear, half the group forgot hats and gloves. Some even neglected to bring winter coats.

BrieAnne Wilson ’10, M ’12 climbed the first of 46 Adirondack High Peaks in 2009 when she scaled Big Slide. Her quest to join the Forty-Sixer Club ended successfully atop Gothics Oct. 29, 2011.

They pushed on through the snow. When Wilson finally hoisted herself up to the summit of Big Slide Mountain, which stands 4,240 feet above sea level, she was greeted by a panorama of New York state’s highest and most rugged mountains.

“The view was absolutely fantastic,” Wilson said. “The fulfillment of getting to the top … I felt very rewarded once I got to the top.”

Since that climb with the college’s Outdoor Club in 2009, Wilson has conquered all 46 of the Adirondacks High Peaks, those that rise more than 4,000 feet.

She was officially inducted as the 7,328th member in the Adirondack Forty-Sixers Club May 27 in Lake Placid.

Wilson dedicated her final mountain, Gothics, to her deceased grandfather, who along with her father got her interested in the outdoors when she was young. On the summit, she placed a memorial and drank a toast to her grandfather with wine she carried up.

Now Wilson has a new goal to climb all 46 High Peaks again, but during winter. That would put her into an even more exclusive club of only 564 who have accomplished that feat.

“You get such a rush from it that you’re like ‘I need to do this again,’” she said.

— Ken Sturtz ’12

Ed. Note: This story originally appeared in the May 23 edition of the Oswego Palladium-Times. This modified version is republished with permission.

Pagano

The director of the Laboratory Science Technology Program at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester was recognized in the “Outstanding Master’s Universities and Colleges Professor” category. The institute is based out of the Rochester Institute of Technology, where Pagano is an associate professor of science and mathematics.

His award was presented Nov. 15 in Washington, D.C. Pagano was selected from more than 300 nominations.

“If you don’t have this burning passion to do anything that you can do to make a student understand a concept then you may not be approaching it with enough vigor,” Pagano told The Chronicle of Higher Education.

He is nationally recognized for his research in florescence spectroscopy that can help predict the formation of dangerous carcinogens in drinking water and map cancer-causing chemicals in cigarette smoke.

The U.S. Professors of the Year Awards Program, created in 1981, is the only national initiative specifically designed to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring. The awards are presented by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

John Lippincott, president of CASE, commended this year’s award winners for their “intentional, innovative and inspirational” approach to the classroom experience.

U. S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York praised Pagano as he entered news of his honor into the Congressional Record.

A chemistry major at Oswego, Pagano earned his degree in three years and earned his advanced degrees at Tufts University. He has dedicated his college teaching career to instructing deaf students.

Mom put the kibosh on that idea, but Dave was able to grab his degree, make his first and only collegiate play-by-play broadcast and launch a career that has made him the television voice of the National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Timberwolves.

David Benz ’92 most recently hosted, anchored and reported for Comcast Sportsnet in San Francisco. Last fall he became the TV play-by-play voice of the National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Timberwolves.

“I’ve always wanted to do full-time play-by-play,” says Dave, who has spent his two-decade career as a sports broadcast journalist in Miami, Dallas, Denver and D.C., among other cities.

Most recently, he was able to enjoy the Giants’ 2010 baseball championship run and last year’s successful 49ers football season as a host, anchor and reporter for Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area in San Francisco.

“I’ve had the chance to go to great places and meet a lot of people … I’ve had an unbelievable career,” Dave says. In addition to his full-time studio work, Dave found his way into some TV and radio play-by-play gigs covering college sports and arena league football while also working the sidelines for the NFL, MLB and NBA broadcasts. The work paid off as he now enters a very small fraternity of NBA commentators.

“I feel like this is the job I’ve been grooming myself for basically my whole professional life,” Dave says.

“There’s just something about doing the game live,” he says. “It’s so much more electric.”

Dave cut his teeth “cutting tape” in the WTOP studios, where he directed and hosted “7 O’Clock News.”

“That was invaluable experience,” says Dave, who worked closely with Professor Mike Ameigh, current School of Communication, Media and the Arts Dean Fritz Messere ’71, M ’76 and Bill Canning of the television lab staff.

As operations coordinator for “Good Morning America,” Cameron processes hires, tracks freelancers and runs the internship program among other tasks. The former WSTM-TV (Syracuse) and WNYW-TV (New York) intern hopes to make his way to the front of the cameras eventually, but loves learning all aspects of the broadcasting business.

Jones

A member of the Future Alumni Network as a student, Cameron stays active with the Graduates Of the Last Decade Leadership Council.

Cameron’s advice: “If you use the tools you are given at Oswego and stay connected, you’re going to be successful.”

1. Key to a good morning:

My key to a good morning is started with my Pandora radio, specifically the Anita Baker station. Listening to the classic oldies puts me
in the perfect zone to make a good morning a great morning!

2. Part of a complete breakfast:

I love pancakes and cream cheese bagels — separately of course, everything bagels to be exact. But I would not be myself without having a banana and at least one cup of coffee.

3. Go-to Oswego dining hall dinner item:

Anything off the grill at Pathfinder dining hall from paninis, cheese steaks, chicken phillies, burgers, waffle fries — Oh my!

4. Favorite campus activity/organization:

There are just too many! Big shout out to FANs (Future Alumni Network), Department of Campus Life, Residence Life, Phi Beta Sigma Rho Xi chapter, Student Association and ALANA!

5. Greatest Oswego experience:

My favorite Oswego experience by far was being a building manager working in Hewitt Union and the Campus Center at Campus Life. I learned many valuable skills that I use to this very day, built great relationships, and it offered an enormous professional trajectory.

6. Worst thing about leaving Oswego:

I miss the carefree, casual life where there appeared to be a sense of security — a safe haven.

7. Best thing about coming back:

I love to see the new developments at the college, whether it be new structures, academic progress, reconnecting or meeting students.

8. Coolest internship:

Coolest internship was when I did news reporting at WSTM-TV Channel 3 in Syracuse. I learned the craft of reporting and working at a television station. Most of all, I got a front-row seat journeying throughout Central New York to places I would have otherwise not known.

9. Dream job:

I think I am at my dream job. I’ve dreamed big all my life and I seized a golden opportunity to work at ABC News and to be a part of the Good Morning America family! I intend to keep growing, learning and seeing what can come of this experience.

10. Words of wisdom:

To always strive to set a good example in work ethic and relationship building. You never know who may be watching or looking, but just know that someone always is.

Raymond is the founding chief of the city’s Building Inspector and Plan Examiner Training Academy, which has more than 300 inspectors studying 17 different categories at any given time.

Raymond Dennis Harquail ’71 is the founding chief of the city’s Building Inspector and Plan Examiner Training Academy.

It’s the most recent of a number of careers Raymond has taken on, going all the way back to his days as a student and young shop teacher when he would do electrical, carpentry and plumbing work in the summers.

“I started with my hands and I’m still working with my hands,” says Raymond, who took a lot of cues from his grandfather, one of the first union plumbers in New York City.

The training academy is designed to keep building inspectors current and knowledgeable. His role developing the curriculum is actually his encore as a city government employee.

From 1987 to 2003, Raymond was training director for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where he oversaw development of some of the first bus simulators in the country.

“From my 20s to my mid-60s there was always room to learn,” says Raymond, whose careers have been notably varied.

After graduating with a master’s in instructional technology from Indiana University, he headed to the SUNY College of Optometry, where he put together a learning resource center serving doctors, medical students and more than 100,000 clinic patients a year. Earlier in his career he worked as an engineer for EBASCO, travelling the world to train more than 20,000 nuclear power plant managers, supervisors and construction trade workers. He went to the Rochester Institute of Technology to become a biomedical photographer performing diagnostic imagery of patients prior to eye surgery.

The common ground? His instructional designs follow principles he learned at Oswego, Raymond says.

“I couldn’t do it without Oswego.”

A backpack journalist takes photos or videos for stories, and then produces them in addition to reporting and editing.

Nominated for a total of three, the KUSA-TV reporter won the Emmy award for “best live reporter” in the Heartland Region, which covers markets in five states including Colorado.

While working on his degree in broadcasting and mass communication, Kevin was very active in WTOP-TV from the moment he got accepted.

“I wanted to be a TV reporter since I was 4 years old,” Kevin says. “Oswego allowed students to get involved with WTOP as soon as you were a student. At SU, you had to be a junior. It was the best decision I made when it came to my academics.”

Fueled by a love for hiking and traveling, Kevin began dreaming of working for KUSA-TV back in high school. The NBC affiliate located in Denver ranks as one of the best in the country. In 2009, after working three years with WSYR-TV NewsChannel 9 in Syracuse, his dream became a reality, and he moved to Colorado.

“While at Oswego, I had three professors who really influenced me,” Kevin remembers. “One was Jerry Condra. The next was Ron Graeff — his broadcasting reporting class was excellent and taught me all the fundamentals. [Now dean] Fritz Messere ’71, M ’76 was [another]. He was just an excellent professor who helped and really inspired me.” l

— Emily Longeretta ’12