President Carbery, VADM and Mrs. Craine, Distinguished Guests, Fellow Alumni, Foundation Trustees, Shipmates and Friends, Good Evening. Thank you for this honor.

It has been 45 years since I met Wally Sansone, a boyhood friend, at a beachfront restaurant in the Rockaways, where, during the summer following graduation from High School, I was, at 17, promoted to "short-order cook" on the main grill, after working at the restaurant for 4 years. I could cook a mean hot dog and I was confident that if ever my yet undefined career did not materialize, I could always return to Hope’s Restaurant or work with my Dad as a roofer. I took a lunch break and Wally introduced me to his friend, Fred Pione who regaled us with stories of travel at sea, and as I now recall, mostly travel in port, as told to him firsthand by a relative who had recently graduated from Fort Schuyler, as we all leafed through the worn College Catalog several times. I was determined to join them in the adventure and I did.

Two (2) weeks after the indoctrination period Fred Pione quit. It was quite a blow, after all Pione was our only link to the sea, and his departure left Wally and me, two landlubbers marching around wondering what would happen to us next. If you start from nowhere, anywhere is somewhere. But Fort Schuyler was to show me the world. My education at school, and the leadership and nautical skills learned in the regiment and on the training ship, allowed me to stand tall among my peers, over the years, in the Navy, in the government and in the maritime industry…and not unlike those before me and those who came after me, there was the extraordinary life-long bond between us of a shared unique experience. To this day, I am always amazed, as I travel around the world, some 45 years later, at the esteem afforded our school and its graduates, and I have tried as best I could, to enhance its reputation, as I know you have too, by proudly saying that "I graduated from the Maritime College at Fort Schuyler." I can say, without hesitation, that every success I have had in my career, I attribute to my up bringing at Fort Schuyler…and, of course, to the support of my wife, Adrienne, and to my daughters who are here to share this night with me.

Fort Schuyler was always an expensive school, especially for lower middle class families, and even the reduced cost of a State education was burdensome to cadets whose summer cruise precluded earning money in the summer. Worse yet, was the expense of the summer cruise itself and the cost of uniforms.

I will always be indebted to Mrs. Filomena Magavero, Assistant Librarian, and, at that time, also Faculty Advisor to the fledgling Italian Club, who allowed Wally Sansone and me to hand letter in indelible ink, all of the books in the library using the Dewey Decimal System. The job paid $.50-$.60 cents an hour and we managed to stretch out the job for four years. To keep our jobs, I once even agreed, at Fil Magavaro’s urging, when Wally, the Italian, wouldn’t take the job, to become the Interim President of the Italian Club, so that the Club could have a legitimate full slate of officers and would be eligible for the College’s annual stipend. It helped earn me the title "King Club" which appears in our class year book. Wally instead made the Dean’s List and recently retired his job as Deputy Commander, Military Sealift Command.

I am also indebted to the Alumni Association for its willingness to loan me $300.00 so that I could pay for uniforms. It was a lot of money then, and I was not able to repay the loan until after my first trip as Third Mate on the States Marine-Isthmian Lines’ STEEL ROVER. I have never considered the loan, as really being paid in full, because it meant so much to me at the time, and no matter how little $300.00 may sound to you now, it was a lot of money then.

I tell you this somewhat embarrassing story because this act of generosity and kindness by the Alumni Association has truly been the reason for my life-long support of the Association, and my motivation to repay my debt to the school by providing scholarships to cadets in similar financial situations, and by raising funds for need-based scholarships, and those scholarships that help the school attract students with higher academic scores or special athletic or other talents. If no more comes of this talk tonight, than to inspire just one of you here, hopefully more, who reaped life-long benefits from their Fort Schuyler experience, or from the largess of the Alumni Association or from the Foundation, to prompt you to step forward and give a hand to someone else, I will consider the time taken to tell you my success story worthwhile.

I can’t tell you the joy I receive from meeting a Fort Schuyler graduate who has achieved success, whether or not, he or she is aware of it, knowing that somehow you have helped him or her along the way.

My involvement in eleemosynary work at Fort Schuyler really started as a first classman in 1959, when VADM Durgin, the then College President asked me to help raise $8,000.00 to build the Chapel in the old magazine in the inner gorge. Using our Porthole advertisers, I was able to raise just over $8,000.00, the chapel was built, and I became a life-long friend of Admiral Durgin. He was to be the first of five successive college presidents who I would work with. I was proud to be the adviser, counselor, and the friend of VADM’s Durgin and Moore, and RADM’s O’Donnell, Kinney, and Miller, and over the years, I chaired or was a member of several regimental and curriculum review committees, helped in recruiting, supported special fundraising activities, lobbied in Washington for everything Washington could ever possibly do for the school, and I was even responsible for the successful lobbying efforts to admit women. I was elected a Trustee of the Maritime College at Fort Schuyler Foundation in 1981 and have served on that Board for over 20 years now. I am proud to be its Chairman.

Initially formed to hold in trust the college’s share of the proceeds of the America’s Cup races, the Foundation receives and administers funds for educational and charitable purposes in support of the Maritime College. The management of this tax-free not-for-profit New York State Corporation is vested in a 21 men and woman Board of Trustees, 17 of which are elected for up to 3 year terms. Four Trustees are Ex-Officio trusteeships granted to the College President, the Alumni Association President, the College Council President, and the President of the Parent’s Association. All donations are tax deductible, and corporations and most donors favor the Foundation as the preferred vehicle for their support.

Not well known to most, the Foundation’s efforts in support of the school touch every phase of cadet, campus and shipboard life. College scholarships, endowments, work-study, sea term scholarships, minority scholarships, facility renovations or other niceties, simulators, a scoreboard, exercise and band equipment, event support, athletic team support, advertising, the College sailing program, sailboats, racing boats, boat maintenance, boat insurance, and more. This year’s fundraising dinner was the largest in our school’s history.

We coordinate the College’s scholarship commitments with the Alumni Association, through the equally shared Joint Fund. No better example can be found of our efforts than the coordination of the Alumni Association and Foundation to achieve their mutual goal to help others, than our joint-management of the Joint Fund.

Millions of dollars have been raised and generated by these organizations over the years, and regrettably, and with great dismay they have rarely, if ever, been received with gratitude by the previous College administration or even a thank-you.

I would be remiss if I did not tell you of the difficult relationship in which the Foundation found itself during the last 2 years of the embattled former college presidency, which legacy unfortunately continues today. On June 19, 2000, the Foundation’s Board of Trustees decided that it was inappropriate and ineffective to have the same person hold the position of Foundation Chairman, Foundation President and College President. Coined "triple office- holding", this practice proved ill advised, to say the least, especially when coupled with the College President’s supervisory responsibility for the College’s Chief Operating Officer, and the Auxiliary Service Corporation or Faculty-Student Association (FSA) and its officers and employees. Under this arrangement, condoned and approved by SUNY, funds of these fundraising organizations were transferred from one to the other, for purposes other than intended, and all without Board of Trustee approval, and without the knowledge and approval of the officers of the FSA.

Given these abuses, and an inability to launch a Capital Campaign because of college controversy, on June 19, 2000, the Board of Trustees refused to re-elect the College President to those two Foundation offices, and a new slate of Foundation officers was elected, all independent of the college administration. The Trustees had concluded that mismanagement had become a violation of fiduciary responsibility as opposed to simple neglect or incompetence.

The College administration deliberately misinformed SUNY Chancellery who decided to circle-the-wagon, and mask the abuses and violations of state law.

SUNY charged that the Foundation’s motives were political, and not fiduciary. They claimed that the Trustees were part of a cabal made up of the Alumni Association, the Parent’s Association, and even the faculty for the purpose of overthrowing the beleaguered college presidency, by this time, ironically, referred to by a Vice Chancellor, as "dysfunctional". SUNY ordered an audit of the Foundation in an attempt to shift blame to the newly elected officers to obscure their lack of oversight, shrugging off the Foundation’s charges. They have now refused to renew the agreement between the College and the Foundation unless the Foundation agrees to accept the controversial and infamous Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) drafted and executed by the former discredited College President, the present Chief Operating Officer, and the former Acting Academic Dean. The MOU calls for a two-tier system of regimental and non-regimental programs, both on the campus and on the training ship.

Even more egregious is SUNY’s insistence that we return control of the Foundation and its staff to the College President, the same former corrupt system which provides no checks and balances.

The Trustees cannot accede to these two demands and we are continuing to negotiate a sensible solution. The bifurcation of the school’s traditional training mission into two packages, one package of a regimental system, Coast Guard license programs, and shipboard training, with a second package of "civilian" programs and a "European cruise" on our small campus and on the same ship will destroy our maritime college and our long held reputation, increase our costs, lower enrollment in marine oriented programs, and eventually will make our Maritime College, in reality, a maritime department of a college, rather than a college in its own right, as was done at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, under the direction of our former College President when he was President of that institution, prior to coming to ours. This is either the envisaged model or will be the unintended consequences of the MOU.

The second SUNY demand would wrest the fundraising, disbursement of funds, and program control from the duly elected Foundation Trustees, and would encourage and permit the same abuses again. I can assure you that the newly elected leadership and the Trustees of the Foundation are devoted to the Foundation and to the Maritime College for which purpose it exists. The Foundation is now run like a business, and the College should be run like one too. We cannot agree with SUNY and the college administration that the Trustees are not responsible for the Foundation because it is our legal duty and moral obligation to see that the directed purposes of the donor are carried out with the donor’s intended outcome. The fear by SUNY and the College administration, I suggest, is that contributors may, in fact, disagree with the "MOU", and they have; choosing to selectively make "directed" gifts and designate scholarships for the traditional maritime programs to the exclusion of non-maritime programs. This is no different than checking off your UNITED WAY charities of choice.

The demands by SUNY and the College administration as well as the proposed solutions developed by a discredited College administration, are, in my opinion, misdirected and misguided. The need to increase enrollment by down grading the quality of prerequisite course requirements, compromising the maritime education and regimental programs in which we have, in the past, excelled, admitting students in non-traditional programs, or anything that it takes to fill the unrealistic enrollment quotas, in an effort to increase tuition revenues to pay for excessive and unnecessary overhead, administrative and staff positions, is not good business practice. These unnecessary positions were not required to administer and educate the entering class of 198 cadets in my class of 1960. Why would it require more people to administer and teach 198 cadets today? I would suggest, as a start, that we match the number of staff and composition listed in the 1960 Year Book. It worked then, and it could work now. You would think with "distance learning" and other technological advances and better use of resources, you could reduce the staff count by up to 50%. I would volunteer to help in the effort, if the true intent is to balance a budget. I would suggest that a committee of constituents, including the industry, be established to recommend a new budget plan and a new MOU developed by knowledgeable people who care about our school.

Once considered the "Harvard of Maritime Education" – "First and Foremost" to later graduates, our school was the envy of every state maritime academy, the Federal maritime academy, and foreign maritime academies, as well, and we were emulated by all. Today, we have been reduced to sending delegations of our staff to other state maritime and federal academies and to colleges like Norwich University in Vermont, to see if we might be able to emulate them. Our professional marine and engineering faculty once considered authorities in the global maritime industry has had their programs decimated and they have become demoralized, and even treated abusively by the College administration. Many have fled to the other maritime academies and now many of our professional marine teaching and shipboard personnel have been reduced to adjunct status while, at the same time, the full-time administrative staff and salaries burgeon. Why do we need the new position of Chief Operating Officer, at a salary that is reported to exceed that of the former College President, when for most of the College’s history, the College President was both the CEO and the COO, for a college with the same size incoming class as the Class of 1960? In the past he was just called "Admiral", and everyone knew what that meant - he was responsible, accountable, and in charge. His Chief of Staff was the Commandant.

My hope is that somehow, you the alumni, faculty, Foundation trustees, parents, members of the College Council, and friends of the College will unify in a thoughtful and respectful way, rise to the occasion and make your voices known, write the Governor, your state legislature, the College Council, support the Alumni Association by taking an active part in the campaign to "Save our School," and, of course, remember to make a donation to the Foundation to enable it to pursue its great purposes. We cannot let our College down and we must stand up for what we believe. SUNY has said that my thoughts are not representative of yours or for that matter the majority of the several campus constituencies, in an attempt to isolate the leadership of our various organizations, who, I’m told, also share my views. I believe these thoughts are representative of yours and are overwhelmingly "mainstream" thoughts.

I want to thank the Trustees of the Foundation and the Alumni Association for their financial and moral support in the continuing ordeal to resolve our differences with SUNY and the College Administration.

I welcome VADM Craine and his wife, Wendy to our beloved campus, with the hope that during Admiral Craine’s interim presidency, he will see that our position is just and can be justified in SUNY budget terms, and that he will do his utmost to enlighten SUNY as to his findings, a tall order. I pledge our respect for, and recognition of his rank, prestige, and integrity for the Office of the College President, and to our willingness to welcome Admiral Craine as a "Fort Schuyler man" and one of us.

We must get our house in order, rededicate ourselves to maritime education, and prepare for a major Capital Campaign sufficient to endow our College for the future.

In closing:

• I want to send our very best wishes to our Foundation’s Executive Director, Stan Melasky, who is seriously ill, with recognition for his devotion to the Foundation and, most of all, to the cadets.
• I want to thank the Foundation staff that has worked under very arduous and difficult conditions at the College.
• I want to acknowledge the Fort Schuyler men who I work with at The Great Lakes Group of Towing Companies - Captain Jim DeSimone, Joe Starck, and Chris Schifferli, who are the role models of our Group.
• And a special thank you to my Fort Schuyler mentors and teachers Capt Al Chester, CDR Guy DeSimone, Hap Parnham, Bill Sembler, John Foody, Drs. Meir Degani, Fred Hess, Sanford Limouze, Thomas Hidalgo, and Roger Reinhart, and, of course, Fil Magavero.
• To Wally Sansone, Mike Infante, and my life long friends, classmates, and industry shipmates and associates who either called, sent messages or traveled here tonight.
• To Alumni Association President Steve Carbery, and soon-to-be President Ted Mason, the Trustees, particularly, Foundation President Jack Ferrara, First Vice President Gil Katz, Vice President & Counsel William Bennett III, Treasurer Bernie Kovitz , Rich Angerame, Gene Goldberg, Larry Bell, Larry Futterman, and Trustee and philanthropist-emeritus Dr. Joe Gerson, and our loyal "contributors" – you, the alumni, their families and friends, and industry employers.

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. It is a privilege to be honored and to be included with such distinguished people as Mr. Richard Corson, former Director of the Stephen B. Luce Library, and Joe Tartaglia, Class of 1976, of Dome Net, for their dedicated service to our alma mater.

I am proud that my name will forever appear on the same page of tonight’s program with them.

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