It is the largest planned gift in the school’s history, and will affect the lives of generations of students who otherwise might not be able to afford a college education. By supporting math and science education for New York state students, the gift will potentially lift the whole area economically.

But, at the donor’s request, his identity will remain anonymous.

“This is a transformative gift that will make individual dreams come true and can help boost the economy of our state,” said President Deborah F. Stanley.

An anonymous donor has announced his intention to bequeath $5 million to benefit the Possibility Scholarship program. The initiative supports students in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.

“With this gift, our generous donor is opening the door to a college education and a better life for many of our future students.”

The Possibility Scholarship provides talented students from New York state who want to study in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, with the financial help they need to attend SUNY Oswego.

The alumnus made clear that his intention is to promote the study of math, which he feels is crucial to success in most fields. “Math is a universal language and supports every other subject,” the donor said. “Regardless of what career path one takes, a strong math background is important to excel.”

As a soldier toward the end of the Vietnam War, he used his math skills to help the Pentagon determine which troops to bring home first. After his service he began a career in real estate, where math again helped him succeed. “I made most of my money from real estate investing,” he said. “Math was very instrumental in helping me to evaluate investments.”

The donor wants to keep America more competitive in the global economy, he said, by reversing a trend toward the acceptance of poor math skills in this country’s students.

The alumnus focused his generosity on the Possibility Scholarship program because it covers all tuition, fees, and room and board, in coordination with any other grants or scholarships awarded, for qualifying students for four full years.

The donor knows how important such aid can be. A Regents Scholar, he worked hard to pay his way through college. Scrubbing pots and pans in the dining hall, serving as resident assistant in a Lakeside residence hall, and bartending at a local establishment helped him pay for his college degree.

The Possibility Scholarship’s tuition benefit “takes away one more fear or impediment to concentrating,” he said. “Most people, when they have problems in life, it is usually financially originated. Remove that element and it makes people’s lives more stress-free.”

The alumnus said he wants to give back to Oswego because of the great experience he had at the college, and he wants to help others — who might not otherwise be able to afford higher education — to have the same great experience.

He made the most of his time at Oswego as a very active student, taking part in varied and enriching experiences, including student media.

A third-generation American, he formed a bond with a foreign language professor, Dr. Joseph Wiecha, who helped him get a scholarship to study one summer in the land of his ancestors. “I considered that the highlight of my life, going over there,” he said. Possibility Scholars travel to one of several Global Laboratory partners that Oswego has on every continent to study and work on science projects with researchers in their fields.

Despite wanting his name kept private for now, the donor said he hopes that his gift will inspire others to support Oswego and its students with an estate gift,

Julibeth Saez ’12 aims for a career as a veterinarian.

especially since state budget support for the college is diminishing.

“You have to give back, especially if Oswego’s been good to you,” he said.

He also pointed out that bequests to a charitable organization given during or after a donor’s lifetime reduce the taxable portion of the estate, thus avoiding the maximum potential 55 percent estate tax. “I would rather give a dollar than pay 55 cents to Uncle Sam,” he said.

The bottom line for this savvy investor and philanthropist is investing in the next generation.

“It all starts with an education. That’s the foundation of any life,” he said. With his generous bequest, he will provide that foundation for countless students who follow in his footsteps at Oswego.

—Michele Reed

Katherine “Ellie” Webster ’12 spends time with students at Charles E. Riley Elementary in Oswego. Master’s-seeking teachers specializing in the key areas of science, math and TESOL will take assignments in Central New York and Downstate as part of a pilot program starting this fall.

The state Education Department will use $1.73 million in federal Race to the Top funding to support a three-year, graduate-level proposal to raise the bar on traditional student teaching.

The Oswego Residency Initiative for Teacher Excellence, or O-RITE, encompasses two school placements totaling an academic year as well as summer residencies with two community organizations and a variety of other degree requirements.

“I think it (the grant) is going to allow Oswego to take a leadership role in these sorts of teacher-residency programs,” said Lorrie Clemo, interim provost and vice president of academic affairs. “One of the reasons this money is so important is that it will enable us to reconstitute the teacher-preparation model for high-need schools.”

Candidates’ undergraduate degrees must be in math, a science or linguistics. Full scholarships and living stipends in exchange for a commitment to stay in the

Steven Vincent ’13 interacts with students at Charles E. Riley Elementary in Oswego. A new pilot program aims to put master’s-seeking teachers in high-needs districts in Central New York as well as New York City starting this fall.

district after the placement ends are aimed at midcareer professionals.

A former teacher in the Bronx, O-RITE Field Coordinator Anneke McEvoy is familiar with the lack of science and math courses — and people to teach them — in disadvantaged districts.

“We really are targeting shortage areas,” McEvoy said. “Right now I’m reaching out to schools and finding out what they need from us in terms of plans and goals.”

Project leader Dr. Barbara Garii, associate dean of education, said the new program presents an opportunity to add special education to the secondary education experience.

“If we combined secondary education with the special education, then we saw that students who come through our program could walk into schools — in Syracuse, in Oswego County, in New York City — with really solid grounding that would enable them to support students across boundaries,” Garii said.

“Interest in sustainability education is growing among faculty and certainly among students, so we are hoping to add more choices, and we also are hoping to have students involved in projects so they can get experience while they are here,” said Lisa Glidden, assistant professor of political science and an adviser to students in the minor.

Technology education major Tim Governale ’12, left, holds a photovoltaic cell used to convert light energy to electricity while Steve Badaracco ’13 measures energy output in Professor Tom Kubicki’s class in energy technology. The course is one of 14 that students may apply toward the electives requirement for a new 21-credit-hour minor in sustainability studies.

Two years ago, then-political science major Rachel Rossi ’11 asked Glidden why Oswego did not have a certificate or a minor in environmental studies. Thanks to the efforts of enthusiastic professors and administrators, the minor recently gained final approval through campus governance and five students so far have completed paperwork to enroll.

The minor provides academic support for the vision behind the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, which President Deborah F. Stanley signed in June 2007, and for sustainability efforts that gained new momentum on campus this summer with submission
of the college’s first STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System) report.

Requirements include core courses in geology and in economics/political science; a choice among biology, anthropology and physics classes; and electives in several subjects.

The little girl who so loved science and discovery became the only woman majoring in physics during her time at SUNY Oswego. And she’s still breaking new ground.

In January, Focarino made history when she took office as the first female Commissioner of Patents in the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office’s 222-year history.

The focus and vision the star-gazer exhibited at an early age serves her well as she leads a massive federal agency, with an annual budget of $2.17 billion and a highly educated, diverse workforce numbering more than 10,000.

Directly across from her desk in her 10th floor office overlooking the USPTO’s modern campus in Alexandria, Va. — the very first thing she placed in her new office as commissioner — hangs Patent No. 3,114,204, granted to her grandfather, Joseph La Tulip of Oswego, N.Y. He registered a safe razor blade disposal system in 1963, and she looks often at that family heirloom to remind her of just why she’s there.

“Our mission is to encourage innovation and invention,” she says. “That ultimately creates jobs, contributing to economic recovery.”

She refers to the USPTO as the “Innovation Agency,” calling its role in generating commerce “extremely critical for the country.”

There’s a personal sense of accomplishment, too. “It’s very satisfying when you see something you’ve granted a patent on,” says Focarino, who early in her career examined patents for solar technology, heating and cooling systems and combustion systems. She points out that everything people use in their daily lives — from safety pins to shoes to smart phones — had their origins in some inventor’s dreams.

In fact, walking into the USPTO’s Madison Building, a towering edifice of brick, glass and steel with Focarino’s office at the peak of a dazzling atrium, a visitor can’t miss the message. In January, a massive display of just a selection of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ 323 patents filled the floor, arrayed on 30 giant replicas of the iPhone.

To the right of the entrance is the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame museum, this year focusing on fitness. Exercise guru Jack LaLanne’s leotard and juicer are on display, along with artifacts including John Harvey Kellogg’s original light box and “vibratory chair” from his Battle Creek Sanitarium; designs for the ThighMaster and Nike waffle-sole running shoe, and penny scales that give both weight and fortune.

Talking portraits (a la the Harry Potter movies) of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, medical self-testing pioneer Helen Free, Thomas Edison and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recite a history of the USPTO, founded in Article 1, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution. In his role as Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson was the first Commissioner of Patents, and he carried applications home to study, storing them under his bed, thereby giving rise to the name “shoes,” given to the USPTO’s former cataloguing drawers for patent applications.

MORE: This is your day … on patents

Eye on the Future

For all its history, the Patent Office is a forward-looking institution, and no one recognizes that more than Commissioner Focarino.

“We are part of something that has a long history, but also a tremendous future,” she says.

“Although we are steeped in history … we are pushing the envelope, always trying to do better. We are not content to keep things running, we must continue to make things better.”

Making things run better comes naturally for Focarino, who rose through the ranks at the agency, garnering respect both for her knowledge and her personal style.

MORE: View Peggy’s career highlights

When Focarino began as a patent examiner in 1977, straight out of SUNY Oswego, women examiners were few in number and she met with her share of opposition. Not as much as famed battlefield nurse Clara Barton, who as a confidential clerk to the commissioner of patents in 1854 was the first woman to be paid the same as male employees, causing them to blow smoke in her face and spit tobacco juice in her direction.

Focarino met with more subtle resistance. An avid bowler since the time she was big enough to hold a bowling ball, she wanted to join the agency league in the late ’70s to meet people and make new friends. Some of the men quit the league, one citing the fact that “his wife wouldn’t approve” of him bowling with a woman.

The workforce Focarino leads now is much more diverse. More than 7,000 examiners represent virtually every segment of the population. A Community Day

Peggy La Tulip Focarino ’77 poses with an exhibit recognizing the patents of the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

celebration each year recognizes their vibrant diversity.

A young and highly educated employee base — most have science, math or engineering degrees — they face modern challenges like isolation as they work remotely or spend long stretches in front of computers instead of physically tracking down paperwork and sketches.

“Our collaboration tools are robust,” Focarino said, with many ways for examiners to stay connected, including instant messaging, video conferencing and computer chatting.

‘Culture of Collaboration’

Another area in which she broke ground is that of labor-management relations. When Focarino was deputy commissioner, the USPTO’s director, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, David Kappos, gave her the authority to work directly with the Patent Office Professional Association on several major issues with a decades-long adversarial history.

“Peggy created an entirely different environment,” says Robert D. Budens, POPA president. “She took what we had for many years — a culture of conflict — and turned it into a culture of collaboration.”

He attributes this success in part to Focarino’s personality and in part to her willingness to listen and work together to achieve a win-win outcome. “She is very intelligent and an excellent manager and has a great command of the big picture and the things that need to be done,” says Budens. “She is also willing to listen to us and the issues that we bring to the table when negotiating.

“Peggy came in with a desire to work with us and listen to us — and we came in with the same desire. It has grown into a good healthy relationship for the agency,” he says.

The collaborators achieved major success on two fronts: the Count System Initiatives, which set out how examiners get credit for the work they do, and the Examiner Performance Appraisal system, the latter just put into place in October.

Labor and management had struggled over the appraisal system since it was mandated by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, back in the Carter administration. Their lack of agreement saw them arguing before the Federal Services Impasses Panel, the Federal Labor-Relations Authority, and eventually all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit.

When Focarino and her management team sat down with Budens and his labor team, they ironed out an agreement, ending three decades of disagreement in a matter of months.

Their success attracted the attention of researchers from the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. Dr. Brooks Holton and his MBA students are working on a case study of the USPTO labor/management achievements.

Focarino’s management goal is to make herself accessible to everyone, holding “town hall” meetings where examiners can share their ideas and the roadblocks they see to agency goals, like reducing the backlog of patent applications.

It’s an area where the agency has faced major criticism. There are more than 1.2 million pending patents, with about 660,000 applications still awaiting first examination. Currently it takes an average of 33 months for a patent application to reach approval, and in some particularly busy areas, even longer. It takes 24 months on average for an inventor to receive a first response to an application. Focarino’s goal is to get that down to 10 months within three years. To that end, the agency is hiring more examiners and attempting to keep attrition levels low.

Focarino is also trying another approach: fun. On the door of her office hangs a poster for the Tour de Copa, a race-like competition to encourage employees to cut down the backlog.

Focarino uses modern technology to increase efficiency and transparency at the agency. Training programs for examiners can be accessed online as can a dashboard of agency statistics, all information available instantly to the user community — inventors, patent attorneys and the like.

She spends her days in face-to-face meetings with her own senior staff members. She also meets with staffers from Capitol Hill, heads of other agencies and her counterparts in other countries as they seek to codify intellectual property laws around the world.

“She goes beyond managing, she is a leader,” Budens says of Focarino. Morale is higher and employees are working in a less stressful environment than in times past.

Out of 260 federal agencies, the Patent Office ranked as the 19th best place to work. “My goal is to make us No. 1,” Focarino says.

Fascination with physics

Focarino credits her high school physics teacher, Mike Goldych, with sparking her love of the subject. He was a brand new teacher when she entered Oswego High School. “He really knew how to connect with the students and I fell in love with the subject because of his ability to explain it,” she recalls.

At SUNY Oswego, Dr. John O’Dwyer became a big influence on Focarino with his “wonderful, fatherly way” of leading the tiny physics department and its eight majors. Physics Professor Dale Zych and Professors Emeriti Ram Chaudari and Paul Liebenauer were new to the faculty and made a positive impression on the department’s only female student.

Now she hopes to instill a love of science and technology in the next generation, lest America find itself “woefully behind the rest of the world.”

“Kids idolize sports figures. We need to get them to idolize people who invent things and entrepreneurs,” she says. “The history of our country is built on invention, innovation — we have to keep that going.”

She points to a photo of President Barack Obama signing the America Invents Act in September at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The bill will give the USPTO the funding it needs to hire more examiners to trim the backlog of patent applications and is the biggest legislation to affect invention and innovation since the Patent Act of 1952.

Where the new law and the new commissioner’s vision will take the agency and the U. S. economy remains to be seen. There’s no telescope that can bring the future into clear focus. At least, one hasn’t been invented … yet.

Jasmyn Belcher ’06 believes that everyone anywhere has a story to tell. It’s just a matter of finding them.

Each quarter, former WRVO staffer Jasmyn Belcher ’06 produces a month’s worth of weekly segments for broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” The job requires hours of listening to StoryCorps archives and traveling to find new stories in communities across America.

“It’s really about listening. A lot of people just want to be heard,” she says.

As one of three producers for StoryCorps — a nationwide nonprofit oral history project — Belcher combs through some of the 40,000 archived interviews and also seeks out undiscovered stories hiding in hamlets, villages, towns and cities coast to coast.

Since 2003, some 60,000 Americans of all ages and walks of life have shared their stories in StoryCorps’ two traveling booths or at studios in Manhattan, Atlanta and San Francisco. Some recordings become two-minute segments featured Fridays on National Public Radio. All of them reside in the Library of Congress’ national archives.

Many volunteer to share their stories at the stationary sites or traveling booths that stop in communities across the country, but others start with Belcher and her colleagues.

She might start with a theme inspired by the calendar — Christmas or Black History Month, for instance — or a current event/hot topic and begin scouring the archives. Stories also surface in daily newspapers or suggestions of participants.

Belcher contacts these potential storytellers in advance to gauge their proclivity to participate.

MORE: Record your own history

A former reporter and producer for WRVO-FM, the NPR affiliate on campus where she earned upward of 40 awards over her three and a half years on staff, Belcher says she has made a satisfying transition from facts to feelings.

“As a reporter, I was always seeking the truth, and now I feel like I’m helping everyday people find their own truth,” she says. “Participants come into our booth knowing this is a safe space where they can share their most intimate feelings and memories.

“It’s really an opportunity to leave a legacy,” she says.

MORE: Hear some of Jasmyn’s interviews

Growing up outside of Rochester, Belcher was an inquisitive kid “always asking questions.” Interviewing came naturally to her, and the discovery of journalism in college and the “intense” instruction of mentor Ron Graeff made broadcast her professional pursuit.

“I learned so much about the world and my community just by thinking like a journalist,” says Belcher, who enrolled at Oswego looking to study zoology. “I always had an interest in sitting down with people and recording their stories.”

She co-produced the “Stories to Tell” series with fellow alumna Kate DeForest Percival ’96 and Mark Lavonier while at WRVO. Her true inspiration for the StoryCorps career, though, was grandma.

Shortly after Belcher’s grandfather passed away, she joined her grandmother on a personal pilgrimage to Rensselaer Falls in New York’s North Country. Belcher asked questions as her grandmother pointed out landmarks like the place she met her husband and the roller skating rink the couple once frequented.

Then she listened.

“I was used to talking to congress-men and pressing them to get the story,” Belcher recalls. “That was my first experience interviewing someone I was very close to. It was so honest and raw — I wanted to take extra care of her words.”

The same sentiment applies to her current work preserving the American experience one interview at a time.

“They trust us … I want to do right by these people. These are their memories,” Belcher says. “It’s extremely fulfilling and very meaningful.”

On Craigslist and eBay, with items from prop shops and pickers, they are setting the scene.

On a laptop, at the fabric store, in discussions that float around this corner of the cavernous floor, they are building a character.

Meet the award-winning set decorator Debra Schutt ’77 and her team. This is the behind-the-scenes cast of the aspiring HBO series “The Corrections.” It’s a cast that won’t be talked about in the Hollywood rags or blogs, but their work is just as important to the success of the show.

Panning a rectangle of folding tables with laptops and coffee cups: Val is on the phone haggling over test tubes, Sammy is researching science projects as if they are on display in 1968 and Fanny is scouring the Internet for samples of erotic art.

Tina is managing the cash for the operation, Karen is mulling over set specs; and the production designer, David, is voting finds, samples and ideas up or down between conversations and emails with the show’s directors and producers.

And then there’s Debra, whose desk is nearly eclipsed by stacks of carpet, fabric, wallpaper and linoleum samples.

A poster board full of old family photos rests on the edge of her wobbly Ikea table. It’s a collection provided by Jonathan Franzen, the author of the book that inspired the show.

A rectangle of black foam core board on the wall behind Debra is labeled “Chip’s apartment” and has a sketch of a bright red chaise belonging to one of the main characters.

That bright red chaise is currently orange and sitting in a nearby room with a collection of other furnishings found on the Web or from middleman “pickers” who comb estate sales, storage lockers and the like for various objects.

“Lipstick red,” Debra says to herself while thumbing through some samples of upholstery fabric. She calls over to David for a second opinion.

Debra Schutt ’77 won an Emmy in 2011 for her work on the “Boardwalk Empire” pilot episode. Here, she recalls what went into the set decoration for these three scenes. “The first and last photos are scenes from the Lolly’s Casino. When I took the job I was very worried about where I was going to find the period tables. Luckily, I walked into an antiques shop in southern New Jersey called the Red Barn and there was the roulette table and it was from Atlantic City. “The middle photo is of Chalky White is on a set built at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn. The floor is painted marble and the fireplace, etc. is scenery.”

Later, Schutt will visit the fabric store in search of the specific color as well as a pattern that would fit with a couch in a suburban living room in the late 1990s, when the book takes place.

To create “The Corrections,” the set will need the right red, the most accurate fabric, the top props. Every conceivable detail down to how shiny the basement floor will be is mulled at this stage.

But, wait. Even in the age of high definition, who’s looking at this stuff?

“If you don’t notice, it means we did our job,” chimes Fanny.

Schutt slaps down a slab of 1960s basement-looking linoleum to gauge its authenticity.

“You don’t want people to notice,” she says in agreement without looking up. “You just want it to be right.”

For more than 30 years, Schutt has been doing it right as a set decorator, with a résumé that includes an Oscar nomination for “Revolutionary Road,” an Emmy win for the pilot of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” and memorable sets from films like “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “A Bronx Tale.”

MORE: See Debra’s resume

Schutt sees herself in the role of building a character.

All the furniture, flooring, drapery, wall coverings and appliances you see on the screen come from the minds, phone calls and clicks of the set decorator and her team. It takes months of long days to make a movie — or in this case, a pilot episode for a television show.

This pilot will determine whether HBO adds “The Corrections” to its stable of award-winning cinematic series.

At the heart of the plot for “The Corrections,” three 30-something siblings gather with their parents for one last Christmas in their childhood home. Reminiscing ensues.

That’s why Sammy needs to perfect a set of 1960s science projects and Schutt is inspecting a piece of wood to determine whether it will match the grain and thickness of the folding table a project like that would sit on in 1968.

Val needs those test tubes to finish off an amateur laboratory in the basement of the “Corrections” house and Fanny needs the racy artwork to cover the main character’s wall for a scene.

Debra Schutt ’77 was nominated for an Oscar in 2009 for her work on “Revolutionary Road” starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Here, she recalls what went into the set decoration in these scenes. “The director, Sam Mendes, wanted a pair of matching 5-foot sofas for the living room. We finally had them made new but when they arrived they were over-stuffed, so we had to have an upholsterer unstuff the pair the day before we shot the scene. “In the kitchen scene, there were five chairs in the set. At one point in the film, Leonardo breaks a chair and we had only one extra. The construction department made several extras out of balsa wood but luckily Leonardo did it in one take using the one extra real chair.”

“I love the picture that develops,” Debra says. “I love that I get the opportunity to create these visuals.

“There’s never a ‘no.’ You can do anything,” she says.

Her career in set curating has firm roots in Oswego, where she was a member of Pi Delta Chi and earned a degree in education. As an upperclassman, she was drawn to the technical side of theatre and found mentors in department staff like Ken Stone ’68 and Jon Vermilye ’66.

“Debra was one of our exceptional students,” Vermilye remembers. “A very dependable and resourceful prop master, if she was doing the show, you were assured that the job would get done and the quality would be excellent.”

Her experience in Waterman Theatre, and her friend Alice Maguire ’76, helped Schutt get her first professional gigs in theater. She made the transition to film in the mid-1980s as a set decorator, a title she’s maintained her entire career.

Like many jobs in the film industry, it’s a tough gig. There are the long hours and logistical challenges that come with each project — Debra routinely works 12-hour days and once had to scramble for office desk tchotchkes at 7 a.m. … 30 minutes before shooting.

Job security is determined by skill. The work comes project to project, typically through networking.

Even if “The Corrections” is picked up and becomes a series, Debra may not be its set decorator for the duration. The “Boardwalk Empire” pilot was a one-off job as well.

She continues to do movies — the much-buzzed-about Sacha Baron Cohen film “The Dictator” is one recent project.

Perhaps the greatest influence on her career, though, is her apple farm upbringing outside of Rochester. The long days at her family-owned and -operated Schutt’s Apple Mill gave her the frame of mind to make it on a film crew.

“I am a worker,” she says. “I will just sink my teeth in and work until I drop … I’m obsessed.”

Most of that work goes unnoticed, but that’s the point. If the fixtures, fabrics and furnishings are spot on, you’re watching the movie.

A 2008 Oswego Athletic Hall of Fame inductee and recipient of the 1970 Oswego Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award, Luongo passed away Oct. 4 at the age of 88.

“He inspired a lot of young guys to do well in soccer and at the same time to do well in school,” said Nash, who assisted Luongo as a volunteer coach in the 1960s and became a lifelong friend. “He was a good motivator and … a kind, strict disciplinarian.”

Professor Emeritus Harry Nash, at left, and Dan Scaia ’68 stand with late Coach Emeritus Ernest B. Luongo, far right, at his Oswego Athletic Hall of Fame induction in 2008. Nash and Scaia spearheaded the creation of the Ernest B. Luongo Memorial Scholarship in the coach’s honor.

Scaia, who with Nash and the Luongo family is helping endow the scholarship, was one of those athletes. “Coach Ernie” believed in Scaia’s academic promise as strongly as his soccer skills and worked to get him admitted at Oswego despite a lackluster high school transcript.

“I don’t know where I’d be today if he hadn’t done what he did,” said Scaia, who graduated with a 3.2 grade point average and went on to a career in education and business. “He gave me the chance to focus my energy.”

The scholarship will be awarded annually to a student majoring in health and wellness or education who also has an interest in coaching or drug abuse education.

After leading the soccer program to what remains its only SUNY Athletic Conference championship in 1966, Luongo was appointed by then-New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller to be chief of the Bureau of Professional Education for the Narcotic Addiction Control Commission in 1967.

A professor of health and physical education at Oswego until he retired in 1985, Luongo worked on drug abuse issues with parents and school administrators in local districts, Nash said.

“It’s time we begin to honor Ernie by contributing whatever we can to his scholarship,” Nash said. “If this scholarship can help a student to the point where he or she doesn’t have to worry every moment about finances, that student can spend at least a bit more time on studies that are interesting to him or her.”

Helen Luongo notes that her late husband was “very dedicated to the college and its programs” and that SUNY Oswego played an important role in the life of the entire family. Their children attended the Campus School in Sheldon Hall, just down the street from their home.

“Ernie would have been very proud and happy to know that students will benefit from the scholarship that has been set up in his name,” she said. “He was a very dedicated teacher.”

Nash, Scaia and Luongo are hoping to raise $10,000 to endow the scholarship, which is expected to provide for one award each year. For more information or to make a donation to the Ernest B. Luongo Memorial Scholarship, call 315-312-3003 or visit oswego.edu/givenow.

— Shane M. Liebler and Michele Reed

A member of the Sheldon Legacy Society — a group of loyal Oswego supporters who have remembered the college in their estate plans — James has bequeathed 70 percent of his estate to Oswego.

His gift will help to expand and grow The Jack C. James ’62 Endowment Fund, which supports three initiatives dear to James’ heart. It will augment The Jack C. James ’62 Scholarship Fund and establish two new funds, The Jack C. James ’62 Equipment and Facilities Improvement Fund and The Jack C. James ’62 School of Education Student Program Fund.

Jack James ’62, right, met the latest recipient of his endowed scholarship, Joe Murdoch ’12, left, at King Alumni Hall last fall. Meeting the winners of his scholarship, who balance work and family life along with their studies, is “humbling,” James says.

His impetus for making Oswego such an important part of his estate plans, James says, stems from his confidence in the institution.

“Not a lot of organizations have been around for 150 years and give you confidence based on a track record of excellence and service,” he says.

His personal confidence is rooted in his long involvement with the college as a member of the Oswego College Foundation Board of Directors, Reunion volunteer and former chair of The Fund for Oswego, all of which afforded him the opportunity to work with President Deborah F. Stanley and key members of her administration.

He appreciated the “prudent, fiduciary” application of gifts by the college. “To endow a gift means it will be here in the future, forever,” he says. For him, the college inspires confidence that future leaders of the institution will use the gifts wisely.

The Jack C. James ’62 Scholarship, now in its fifth year, was his first initiative. It provides scholarship help for non-traditional students, a demographic James taught at National Louis University as an adjunct professor in the College of Management and Business.

“When I meet my scholarship winners, I come away humbled,” he says, “They make enormous sacrifices, working full time and raising families, while they earn their degrees.” Knowing he provides financial help to them is meaningful to James, especially in the current tight economy.

Likewise, supporting the School of Education through a student-programming fund speaks to his heart. Education is a family tradition, with both his mother and sister serving as teachers. “When I returned from the military, I realized my real love was education,” says the Vietnam-era veteran, who retired from the U.S. Marine Corps with the rank of colonel.

“When you invest in education, you are investing in the future,” he says.

He helped build 26 bases while serving in the USMC. Knowing the work that goes into bringing facilities on line, he says he was “wowed” by what the college has done to upgrade its infrastructure in recent years. So he has endowed a fund to help with future campus improvements.

“When I return to campus now I see the phoenix rising,” he says. “I think back to the [Quonset] huts” that were on campus when he was a student in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

“I have no idea what the needs will be on campus years from now, but I know there will be needs,” he says. “And I have the confidence in the people who put all this brick and mortar into place to use my gift wisely.”

Following his heart and choosing to invest his philanthropy in an institution where he is confident it will be wisely managed is key to Jack James’ legacy.

Ken Sherman ’54

Last year for their 60th anniversary, those friends and family did them one better and got them a legacy: A SUNY Oswego scholarship to call their own.

“I can’t tell you how surprised we were about the scholarship,” Anne said. “It never occurred to us that we could do something like this.”

Everyone from their closest family members to neighborhood “kids” they’ve known for decades chipped in to endow the fund. The annual award will go to an education major.

Both Anne and Ken spent their careers as teachers, retiring in the 1980s.

“Our whole lives changed because we were fortunate enough to get a college education,” Anne said. Both she and Ken were the first in their families to go to college.

“I think [our family] knew how much Oswego meant to us,” Anne said. “We had very happy years there.”

The Shermans were married while they were students and took up their first residence in Splinter Village. When they graduated, demand for teachers was high and both Anne and Ken made a satisfying career and earned a comfortable retirement from it.

They will continue to contribute to the endowment, said Anne. The first Sherman Scholarship will be awarded for the 2012-13 academic year and the endowed

Anne MacDonald Sherman ’53

fund will continue in perpetuity.

“The scholarship is something that will go on when we’re gone and hopefully give someone else the chance to have the experience we had,” she said.

For information on establishing a scholarship, visit oswego.edu/giving/scholarships or write to scholar@oswego.edu.

New York State Assemblyman William Barclay presents President Deborah F. Stanley with a State Assembly legislative proclamation recognizing SUNY Oswego’s Sesquicentennial anniversary.