Class of 1970

Tom Barritt

My Post-Grad Journey:
I graduated from Fairfield university with a degree in sociology and a curiosity about human behavior, My first position after graduation was working with children with behavioral issues in a residential setting. I then went on to working with teens with learning disabilities at the Foundation School in Orange CT. Armed with questions from this work I enrolled in an MSW/MA program at Washington University in St. Louis. Internships at a community mental health center and a college counseling office clarified my desire to be a mental health therapist. Deciding to move back east to be closer to family. I moved to Burlington, VT to work in a mental health center. This led to a position as a therapist at a new HMO coming to Vermont and my role as a therapist evolved into becoming an director of behavioral health at Kaiser Permanente, VT becoming responsible for the delivery of behavioral health and substance abuse services for 130,000 people. After 26 years as a therapist and administrator, I co-founded a private practice where I have continued to see individuals, couples and families and have loved the challenge and fulfillment of this work. Over the years i have also had a strong interest in studying different religions, "deconstructing" Christianity, spirituality and especially Buddhism. Three years ago I pursued a certificate program in spiritual direction. This has led to my additional work in convening and facilitating five meditation/discussion groups. Overall the fields of psychology and spirituality have deepened my life in ways I could not have imagined back in 1970.

What is your favorite Fairfield University memory?
A significant highlight of my years at Fairfield began in the first of freshman year at a mixer in the old gym where I met Mary Beth Williams, a student at Manhattanville. We dated for seven years, have been married for 48 years and have two daughters in Colorado, a son in Burlington and four grandchildren. I have been very blessed in so many ways and am grateful to the many people who have made this so.

Dennis Brancaccio

I wondered then and even now reflections of my years at FU are good and not so good. I was enrolled in the Class of 1969 but took a gap year before it was popular so I came back to FU as a member of the class of 1970. I had some outstanding professors and some that were bidding their time before retiring. I remember fondly my freshman dorm and the guys that I met there. I think about the blackout in the fall of 1969 and orientation into college life. It would have been nice if the University would have treated our class like well educated young men but instead treated like we were freshman in high school. Like mandatory lights out at 11 pm, biweekly Mass that you had to attend but Sunday did not count. I think that the University was stuck in the 1950’s. Almost half of our courses were in theology and philosophy. I wonder how many students were driven away from the Church because of these courses. I will admit that I was not a great student but there was never an effort by the University to have speakers that were interested in providing thoughts that were different from what we were being taught. I remember the underground newspaper When ever possible. I remember the Bleach Boys and dancing and drinking at the Anchorage in New Rochelle. I remember that food at the cafe that ever the Armed Forcers soldiers would not eat. I remember in 1969 that the University sided with the Government to turn in students who may try to avoid the draft. FU provided me with a understand that nothing is perfect in life. I did not find a cure for cancer, become president of a large company or a famous . I have lived my life in a way that has satisfied my beliefs in god, family and friends.

James Honeycutt

My Post-Grad Journey:
After graduating from Fairfield University in 1970, I signed a recording contract in 1972 with Mowest Records, a subsidiary label of Motown and made three LP records along with some F.U. classmates - two records for Motown and one for a German label Kuckuck. After my three years of only moderate success in the music business, I segued into public school teaching. From 1977 to 2016, I was a high school media teacher - computers, video, radio and audio - in Westport, Connecticut. During that time, I got two masters degrees at Fairfield one in American Studies and one in Educational Technology. I married the Spanish teacher who taught in an adjacent classroom. We’ve been married for 35 years and have two daughters and three grandchildren. After retiring from teaching, I got a job working at the local Apple Store which gave me a chance to learn new things and work again with people but this time people of all ages. Now in retirement I am working as a free lace videographer and video editor shooting school plays, concerts, and doing volunteer work at a nearby senior center. Life is good and I consider myself lucky to have graduated from Fairfield University.

What is your favorite Fairfield University memory?
It was a tumultuous time during my years at Fairfield University. Many of my memories are filled with painful events going on in our country. But I was lucky to find classmates and friends in Peter McCann, Mike Foley and Larry Treadwell and together we formed a band which we simply named Repairs. We began playing together in junior year of college. Each of these guys were hugely talented. Adding several other members to the band by graduation and we were on our way to a recording contract and years of performing concerts together. This is my memory.

Matthew M. Malok

My post-grad journey
Immediately after graduation in 1970, I lived for a year in Cologne, Germany and worked as an orderly in an Ears/Nose/Throat clinic. Returning to the states in 1971, I worked for the American Institute of CPAs in Manhattan for 10 years in various positions ranging from Managing Editor of The Tax Adviser magazine to Marketing Manager for continuing professional education. During that time I also completed my master’s thesis and received an MA in Corporate and Political Communication (a degree that is no longer offered) at Fairfield U. In 1973 at a Yale University reception, I met William Whittaker, a school teacher of the blind and visually impaired, who has been my life partner for the past 46 years. In 2008 following the Connecticut Supreme Court’s ruling on same sex marriage, we got married by the mayor of my hometown of Stratford. Will and I lived for 10 years in NYC (Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens) and then moved to Atlanta, Georgia where we lived for over 30 years. In Atlanta, I worked for the state of Georgia in various departments. Initially I was a Program Manager at Georgia Institute of Technology, coordinating and planning programs for their Continuing Education Department. For a number of years I was the Volunteer Services Administrator for Georgia’s Department of Juvenile Justice, providing volunteer services for incarcerated youth at state run detention centers. Before I retired in 2008, I received the designation of Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), planning and directing projects and meetings for Georgia’s Division of Aging Services. Following my retirement from the state of Georgia, I was appointed the Director of the Georgia Gerontology Society (GGS) where I directed all activities of the membership and their board for 4 years. In 2017 Will and I and our little rescue dog Sofi moved to Sun City Hilton Head, which is a 55+ resident community in Bluffton, SC. We are enjoying all that this community offers, and besides activities like bike riding and walking the nature trails, we are active in our church, All Saint’s Episcopal in Hilton Head. We also volunteer with Second Helpings, a nonprofit food rescue and distribution network, helping to eliminate hunger here in the Low Country. I’m very excited to be returning to Fairfield for our 50th reunion. I was one of the students who elected not to participate in the official commencement exercise in 1970, so it will be sweet to finally get to walk in the 2020 commencement! I’m really looking forward to renewing friendships with Fairfield U classmates and to touring the campus where I spent a lot of my years of study in the 60s and 70s.

Albert Mariani

My Post-Grad Journey:
After Fairfield I taught Biology at the Springfield MA Classical High School. Went on to NY Medical College then Urology Surgical training at the Mayo Clinic. Joined the Hawaii Permanente Medical Group (Kaiser Permanente) in Honolulu. Had a fulfilling clinical, scientific, and administrative career there for almost 30 years. Had 20 scientific papers and 10 abstracts. Was Chief of Surgery during most of that time. Retired from clinical practice in 2015. Married Aurora in 1990 also an MD. Daughter Joy is married with 2 children also living in Honolulu. Aloha to All.

What is your favorite Fairfield University memory?
Good times with Bob Quick, John Harrington, Kevin Cosgriff, Kevin McAuliffe (Deceased) with whom I stayed in touch. Student Government activities and the involvement of the student body during the critical years of 1968-70.

David Melenski

My Post-Grad Journey:
University of Hartford MA Economics Brown University MBA

What is your favorite Fairfield University memory?
Weekends in NYC and Dr Walters Economics Classes

Phil Miller

Resident of Simpsonville/Greenville South Carolina since 1992.

Fairfield Highlights/memories: Co-founder of the hockey program in 1966. Going to the old Garden (in NYC) to buy Stag uniforms. Biggest thrill was getting to play one game in the new Madison Square Garden (we beat Iona 6-4). My interest in theater was stimulated by Mr. Emerich who was head of the theater on campus-you had to attend at least one play to pass his English course. Thanks Mr. Emerich. Doing work-study projects on crisp autumn Saturdays in Xavier Hall for Dr. Carrano-freshman chemistry. Meeting my wife Ginny at a mixer with St. Joe’s (pre-women on campus).

Work: Olin Research in New Haven/Cheshire for 22 years. Started as an analytical chemist then to Technical Service eventually specializing in lubricants (industrial not personal). When Olin decided to sell that business I was invited to join Gateway Additive Co as a minority owner in Spartanburg SC in 1992. Culture shock in going from a corporation of 22,000 to being employee number six (not to mention Connecticut to South Carolina) was fairly intense . It was a different feeling a few months later to buy the Olin business I had worked in for many years. Five years later we sold Gateway to Lubrizol and Lubrizol was later bought by Warren Buffet. I also had the privilege to serve on the board of directors and a year as president of STLE (Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers). They are a global technical association. Spent the last 10 years of my career in regulatory chemistry working with US EPA to register new chemicals and antimicrobials and ECHA in Europe to re-register all of Lubrizol’s industrial lubricant chemistry . Retired in May of 2013 and obviously stayed put in SC. I am grateful to the companies I worked for and for the opportunities I had to travel to many countries and cultures.

Legacy Ties: Learning my future wife was the daughter of Dr. Aldo Pulito (who I did not have for any chemistry courses). Aldo initially taught chemistry labs and later organic chemistry to nursing majors. He passed away only a few years ago at age 96. My brother Dennis (‘76) also graduated from Fairfield and was on the hockey team.

Interests: Golf, Bridge, Theater, Sports, Astronomy, WWII Army Air Corps history (my dad was on B-24s hence the interest)

William D. (Bill) Reilly

Where did we find time to work? My wife and I ask ourselves as we enter our sixth year of retirement. These days, we are involved in perhaps too many activities.

For me, the most obvious carryover from Fairfield is a love of learning and of music. The academic highlights of my undergraduate years were Classics with Robert Healey S.J., Walter Petry’s Sophomore Honors Seminar, and English and American literature (my major). More than 50 years later, the learning continues with adult ed classes, book clubs, duplicate bridge, and educational travel.

A non-academic highlight at Fairfield was the Glee Club directed by Simon Harak, Sr. The music continues with my church choir in Arlington and community chorus in McLean, Virginia, where my wife Annette and I sing together. Summer choral tours have taken us to England (Canterbury Cathedral), France (Notre Dame, La Madeleine), Italy (St. Marks, the Duomo, St. Peter’s), and Germany (Gewandhaus), singing mostly music composed for performance in those same venues.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. A classic late bloomer, it took me a while to find my way professionally. After graduation, with the Vietnam War still raging, I took a job working in a charter school in Orange, a few exits up the Merritt Parkway. I hoped for a deferment if my number came up in the Selective Service lottery. (It did not.) We teachers shared a large group house on Milford Beach. After the draft ended in 1973, my moratorium was over, and it was a time for a change – in career and location.

When I moved to Washington, DC, my first job was abstracting and indexing U.S. congressional hearings, reports, and studies. This led to another interesting project compiling federal legislative histories of all materials associated with bills that became Public Laws. Our primary market was law and depository libraries. We began electronic publishing in 1984.

While working, I began a Master’s degree program in American Studies at George Washington University. Initially settled in Bethesda, Maryland, I became eligible for in-state tuition at the University of Maryland-College Park. I transferred my credits and finished concurrent Master’s degrees in American History and Library and Information Science.

In the next stage of my career, I worked on K Street in DC, the preferred address for many of the capital’s largest lobbying firms. First, I became a desktop author of regulatory compliance manuals and newsletters. I was then hired away to focus on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates interstate natural gas pipelines, wholesale electricity, and hydropower. While the focus was regulatory, my beat included Congress, as well as cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Toward the end of my career, I also picked up coverage of the coal industry. The market for all these products was regulators, law firms with large energy practices, and public and investor-owned utilities.

I enjoyed both sides of journalism: the inside job reading, writing, and editing; and the outside job observing, interviewing, and reporting.

Outside work, I have been an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Virginia, since 1988. Raised a Catholic, I explored the Quakers and Ethical Culture before choosing a different religious path. At my church, I have taught religious education, performed in musicals, served on committees, and chaired the Board of Trustees.

My wife and I raised two wonderful children: my step-daughters Margaret and Edie, who live and work in New York City and Oakland, California, respectively. We now live in that historic county in heavily Democratic northern Virginia that some refer to as “the People’s Republic of Arlington.” We are blessed.

Kurt Schlichting

A Long Day’s Journey to Fairfield - Kurt Schlichting

Lenox Avenue
In the west end of Bridgeport is Lenox Avenue where I was born. My great-uncle Jimmy Donovan, a carpenter-builder, built 77 Lenox, a two-family, modest but gracious Dutch colonial home. He lived on the 2nd floor and my grandmother Dorothy O’Connell and my grandfather Harold lived on the first floor. My grandmother’s father Kevin Tobin had emigrated to Bridgeport from the Wicklow mountains in Ireland in the 1880s, joining thousands of Irish immigrants who came to Bridgeport to work in the factories to begin their American dream.

My grandmother, born on the East Side of Bridgeport in St. Charles parish, proudly displayed her framed 8th grade graduation certificate from St. Charles School over the breakfast table. Ambitious, the O’Connells were proud when they moved from the East Side to Lenox Avenue and St. Peter’s parish that, in their world, represented upward mobility. My grandmother once said to me, “I crossed the river and never went back” referring to the Pequannock– an imagined boundary separating the Irish American communities in Bridgeport.

Ralph Mooney, a member of the 1st graduating class from Fairfield, the Class of 1951, lived on Lenox Avenue. I can image my grandmother pushing me in a carriage and passing the Mooney house. Over my years as a faculty member at Fairfield I taught a number of students who lived on Lenox Avenue, their parents not from Ireland but from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Fairfield’s origin is tied to the history of immigration and the hard work that followed in Bridgeport’s factories. This history continues generations after Ralph Mooney’s parents sent him to Fairfield.

Every Sunday our extended family went to mass at St. Peter’s. To support the new Prep and then start the University, the Jesuits at Fairfield would say mass and hear confessions in the local parishes. These parish honorariums supported their community. To raise money for Xavier Hall the Jesuits sold paper “bricks.” One Sunday my grandparents bought a “brick.” On the back of the paper brick is the brick’s number 11,806 and the cost: “Contribution – One Dollar”. Xavier and other early construction on campus was funded by thousands of “bricks” donated by parishioners from Bridgeport contributing their hard earned dollars to create the opportunity for a Jesuit education.

High Ridge Road
My father, George Schlichting, served in WWII as did the fathers of many in my Class of ’70. When the war ended he returned home and took advantage of a remarkable federal program to support the returning veterans – the G.I. Bill. He enrolled in the school of engineering at the University of Connecticut, his tuition and dormitory fees paid by the Veterans Administration- the V.A. An estimated 50% of Fairfield’s first Class ’51 were veterans and the G.I. Bill provided them with a golden opportunity. When my father graduated he was the first in his extended family to compete a college degree. Almost all of the Fairfield’s first classes were also the first in their families to graduate from college, a dream of their parents and grandparents, an American Dream.

My father began his engineering career at the Singer Sewing Machine company, which had a large factory on the East Side of Bridgeport. At that time Singer was the largest sewing machine manufacturer in the world. In 1953 we moved to Fairfield. My father and mother bought a half-acre on an old farm on High Ridge Road in Fairfield and had my uncle Jimmy build them their dream house in the suburbs.

With plenty of other children my age on High Ridge and adjoining streets we spent endless hours outside in the woods and on the ballfields at Fairfield Woods School up the street. For two or three summers I went to a day camp on the university campus. I can remember well those warm days on a campus with far fewer buildings than today. One vivid memory involves the N.Y. Giants’ summer camp at Fairfield. We watched their practice and walked the players back to the gym. I carried the helmet of Roosevelt Greer, one of the Giant’s all-time legendary lineman. He must have been 6’ 5” and almost 300 lbs. and I was all of 4’ and 100 lbs. He signed his player picture that I kept on my bedroom wall for years.

Manila, Philippines – Back to Fairfield & Fairfield University
My father had great career success at Singer. Transferred to Karlsruhe, Germany, for one year in 1960 he returned to announce that we would be moving to Manila in the Philippines. He would oversee a sewing machine assembly line in a new factory. Off we went in 1961 half way around the world to a country far, far different from Fairfield. Tragedy struck in November of 1962 when my father died; we returned to Bridgeport. My mother thankfully had a profession; she was a dental hygienist. She purchased a modest two-bedroom home in Fairfield just off North Benson Road less than a mile from the Fairfield campus.

I attended Notre Dame H.S. in Bridgeport along with a number of friends who also went to Fairfield including my best friend, Peter McCann. In the spring of 1966 my acceptance arrived in the mail and included an academic scholarship - $ 600! Today $ 600 at Fairfield would probably not cover the cost of a semester’s textbooks. Fairfield’s tuition in 1966 was $ 1,200! Living at home spared my mother the cost of a dormitory and food plan. When classes started in September my classmates and I approached the beginning of our college education with trepidation. A striking difference between Fairfield in 1966 and today is the number of Jesuit faculty. In my first year at Fairfield I had Fr. Burns for theology, Fr. Lynch for English, Fr. Murphy for history, and Leo Fay, a Jesuit in training, for sociology. The Jesuits devoted their lives to Fairfield and we owe them a debt of gratitude. What remains in my memory is how many of the faculty, both Jesuit and laypersons were dedicated teachers. Leo Fay and Art Anderson encouraged me to think about going to graduate school

In addition to the classroom I found another calling on the rugby field. I met Quin Murphy, Steve Ryan, Bruce Klastow, Al Salamone, Tom Krenn and others and we found our way down the hill to the Corbett Field rugby pitch where the old Dolan School of Business now stands. We played hard on the field and won many a match. Rugby has a tradition of a beer party after the game with the visiting team and, best of all, the parties were down at the “Beach”. Another lure - young women from New Rochelle and Marymount joined the parties.

Turmoil & Transition
This story sounds like an idyllic college remembrance of “glory days,” but as the 60s continued the wheels came off. The war in Vietnam escalated and drugs arrived on campus as they did on every campus in the country. Tensions at Fairfield flared over the war, race, and inequality. Senior year began with great tension given the draft lottery in September of 1969, Kent State followed in the spring of 1970, closing down of the University - ending our senior year in May. Graduation included protests, an alternative graduation, disappointed parents and relatives, and a smoldering sense of unease. We left campus and entered the real world, with the draft and war continuing and the economy in a free fall with few jobs available.

My draft number was 164 and the draft board in Bridgeport did not reach that high. In the fall of 1970 I began graduate school with a fellowship to attend the NYU graduate sociology program. I packed up and moved to the East Village on E 12th St between 2nd and 3rd, sharing a loft with Bob Maher. Washington Square served as the epicenter of the counterculture world in New York and the NYU classroom buildings surrounded the Square. Pursuing a concentration in urban studies, I lived in an urban setting where crime, drugs and New York’s decline seemed to be inevitable.

Back to Fairfield
I kept in touch with Art Anderson and Leo Fay as I worked to complete my Ph.D. Out of the blue Art called in the summer of 1974 and said that unexpectedly there would be a one year visiting faculty opening. I had been teaching nights as an adjunct professor (part-time) at Queens College in Flushing NY. Full-time academic positions were few. Life as an adjunct seemed to be ahead of me. I went to campus for an interview with Fr. Coughlin, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, which went well.

As I left Fr. Coughlin’s office he had a last question. “Weren’t you on the Rugby team when ten or twelve players were suspended for two weeks for having a keg of beer on the sideline?” I just smiled and figured that was the end; I would be back at Queens teaching evenings. Days later a letter followed from Fr. Coughlin with a one sentence paragraph in bold:
THIS IS A ONE YEAR CONTRACT AND WILL NOT BE RENEWED
I signed the contract.

A Blessed Life
In the fall of 1975 I traveled to the University of North Carolina in Ashville (not UNC in Chapel Hill!) to interview for a tenure track, faculty position. The interviews went very well. The Chair called me about a week later to tell me the search committee had recommended me to the Provost. I politely thanked him and declined the offer. Too far away, too different a part of the country and most important of all I was dating my future wife. Two more one year contracts at Fairfield followed all with the one terrifying paragraph in the middle. When a full-time, tenure track position came open in the Sociology department I was hired.

At times my first years were awkward because many of my new professional colleagues were faculty that I studied with as an undergraduate. In the Sociology Department, however, it was great to work with Art Anderson, Harry Fishman and Leo Fay. Leo O’Connor, Hugh Humphrey, Jane Sutherland, Fr. Vinnie Burns, Fr. Joe McDonald and John McCarthy welcomed me back and, as long as we were together, I could always count on their friendship and support.

In the mid-70s, Fairfield encountered strained finances under Fr. Thomas Fitzgerald, President from 1972 until 1979. A no nonsense President, his first faculty address focused on the University’s budget deficit. He reminded us that the University’s endowment at that time totaled less than $ 2 million dollars. If needed, the endowment would finance expenses for about two months. Any thought of a substantial salary increase was out of the question! At the time of Fitzgerald’s budget address, it would have been impossible to imagine the changes that lay ahead. Fairfield has prospered and it has been rewarding to be part of the dramatic growth of the University, however, it was not without challenges.

I have especially enjoyed the students I taught and mentored. Almost without exception I looked forward to coming to work each day. With great colleagues in the Sociology Department and across the University we could work-out any problems that arose, usually without rancor. Even in the most difficult times most of us at Fairfield, faculty, staff, and administration remained committed to the mission of the University – and we succeeded.

A high-point of time at Fairfield came in the spring of 1984 when President Fr. Kelley asked me to come to his office. The current Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences had resigned. A search committee had been formed but the search would take an academic year. He looked at me and said: “I would like you to be the Acting Dean.” I went home that night, took counsel with my wife Mary and a few colleagues. The next day I went back to the President’s office and accepted the position.

My term as Acting Dean proved to be one of highlights and deep challenges. Anyone who has served in a senior position at a university or business knows some days will be really tough. Faculty can be forceful; I know I have been at times. I reported to Fr. Christopher Mooney, the Academic Vice President, a noted constitution scholar, past Associate Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and one of the finest persons I have ever known. I could always count 5 on Chris for sage advice and will always remember his kind smile. To cap off my year as Acting Dean, in March of1985, my wife Mary and I celebrated the birth of our twin daughters.

Over the next decades Fairfield’s success continued and my academic career flourished. In 2007, President Fr. Jeffery Von Ax and my colleague Orin Grossman, then Academic Vice President appointed me to be the first E. Gerald Corrigan ’63 Chair in Humanities & Social Sciences. Gerry Corrigan ’63, one of Fairfield’s outstanding graduates, has been incredibly generous to Fairfield. After Fairfield he headed to Fordham for a Ph.D. in Economics and had a meteoric career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, culminating as president, one of the most prestigious positions in the financial world. After leaving the Fed he became a Senior Partner at Goldman Sachs.

Dr. Corrigan attributed his great success to the faculty at Fairfield who encouraged him to use his talents, go to graduate school, and never doubt himself. When he established the Corrigan Chair, Gerry wanted the Chair to set up a program to support Fairfield students, who like him, came to Fairfield from a modest background, excelled academically, and often were the first in their family to go to college. He wanted each of them to have a two-year faculty mentor to work with and encourage them to flourish. The Corrigan Scholar faculty mentors serve without compensation. I am proud to say that for eleven years I never asked a colleague to mentor a Corrigan Scholar who declined.

Each spring I would take the Corrigan Scholars to meet with Gerry at Goldman Sachs. When asked by the students what was the key to his achievements he always talked about his faculty mentors at Fairfield. Once a student asked about competing with colleagues at the Fed who had graduated from Wharton, Yale & Harvard. With a wry smile. he answered: “They underestimated me.” Perhaps we have all had something to prove – a key to the remarkable success of Fairfield grads in all walks of life.

When leaving Fairfield in the spring of 2018, I departed with a great sense of accomplishment, not just for myself but for the collective accomplishments of the University’s students, alumni, friends, faculty and staff. Truly a blessed life.

John Tinker

My Post-Grad Journey:
After graduating from Fairfield, I went to Penn State University and obtained my master’s degree in journalism. I settled in Stamford, CT and worked eight years in editing/public relations for two fortune 500 companies and a national trade association. I decided to change occupations and went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and obtained a master’s degree in counseling. I worked eight years at Michigan in the Career Services Office as a pre-professional advisor. I, another person, and two graduate assistants were responsible for advising 4,000 pre-law students, 2000 pre-med students, and 1,000 pre-business students! I couldn’t go anywhere in Ann Arbor without someone coming up to me and asking me questions. I was vacationing in Clearwater Beach, Florida, when a student came up to me and said, “Aren’t you the prelaw advisor at Michigan? Can I ask you some questions?” And sat down on my blanket. Had we not been out in public, I would have strangled him! I spent 11 years in Ann Arbor and met and married Liz Schuette. Liz came from a small town in Michigan, obtained her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, and settled in Ann Arbor. During our time in Ann Arbor, we had three daughters: Alison, Valerie and Becky. In 1989, I obtained a position at Yale University as Associate Director of their Career Services Office. I worked at Yale for two years, after which I was named Director of Career Services at Connecticut College in New London. I stayed at Connecticut College for 20 years, retiring in 2011. Liz and I have been married for 39 years and live in Middletown, CT. We have one grandson, Oakley, and another grandchild on the way. Our daughters and son-in-laws are enjoying successful careers. I spend a lot of time on the golf course when weather permits, play Fantasy Football online, enjoy trying different wines, and am an avid movie watcher.

What is your favorite Fairfield University memory?
Met my closest, 54-year friend Steve Bucaria and another great guy, Bob Scaffardi when we formed a study group for the remarkable Western Civilization course taught by the charismatic Walter Petry. From that course, I learned to take huge amounts of information, synthesize it and arrive at the essence. That is a skill I have used throughout my entire career.

William Traester

My Post-Grad Journey:
In 1973 I married Carol, the love of my life. We have two children and one daughter-inlaw. After acquiring an MS degree in Organic Chemistry from Providence College, I accepted a position in an insurance company focusing on chemical and petrochemical business. I moved thru various management and executive positions with several leading insurance and reinsurance companies, acquiring several professional designations along the way. I have worked in Philadelphia, New York City, Hartford and Stamford CT. I am a former president of the Connecticut Chapter of CPCU ( a professional insurance organization). I also served on the national level as a member of the board of directors and as a member of the executive committee. Since "retiring" in 2014 I have been employed as a consultant primarily working for Lloyd's of London.

We split our time between our homes in Simsbury and East Haven CT. We have vacationed in over 30 countries. When our children were younger, I was very involved with youth swimming, serving as a US swim official. Currently I am a master swimmer competing at the national level. We enjoy biking, hiking and kayaking.

My Favorite Fairfield Memory:
While at Fairfield I met many inspirational professors and students. I treasure the friendships I made. Intramural football and basketball were great fun. Majoring in Chemistry required me to become a disciplined student. That discipline drove me to obtain a graduate degree. It also enabled me to advance in my chosen field to an extent not otherwise possible.

Bill Warnken

When I arrived at Fairfield in 1966, I was just six years younger than the university, so we spent our formative years together. I always had that "there at the creation" feeling and felt a special impetus to help grow our school. Now, fifty-four years later, I feel a great sense of pride in the status of Fairfield, its tremendous advances, and its ongoing commitment to a Jesuit education, one which has served me well.