Below are profiles of some of our classmates. Please add yours! Just email some notes and we’ll go from there.
Jim “Yogi” Boucher (A&S)
Burke, Va.
email
My interest in Boston College began in my sophomore year at Central Catholic High School, Lawrence, Mass., in my English class taught by BC graduate Warren Hayes. Mr. Hayes was my teacher for two other English classes. Once, when I turned in a paper describing animal tracks as leading “. . . from who knows where to who knows where . . .,” he suggested I was a poet. More on this below. When it came time to apply to colleges in senior year, BC was my first choice because I wanted to go to the school that crafted Mr. Hayes.
My best friends at BC were Joe Berns, Jack Burke, Gerry Dolan, Jay Bould, Mike Fairley, Marty McDonough, Jimmy Callahan, Dick Armstrong, Tony Mondello, Fred Close, and Dan Connors. I adopted the name “Yogi” related to my yoga tricks (having seen a yogi on the Steve Allen Tonight Show — remember that show?!). I could stand on my head in the lotus position and once climbed to the ceiling of a dormitory hallway with my arms and legs stretched out to the walls.
I was a math major and the most influential class that I took was “Actuarial Science.” It prepared me for my career in the pension benefits field. I worked for three pension consulting firms: The Connell Company; Towers Perrin, Milliman and Robertson; and the Pension Office of the World Bank. In addition to using my math skills at the World Bank, the job required me to be adept at conversing with and writing to pension applicants and retirees. For instance, a staff member upon retirement or prospectively later might live in a country outside the U.S. and then or later had an option to have the pension paid in the currency of the home country. I explained the rules for the currency option which was available one-time only and was irreversible if elected. Cost-of-living increases would be based on the CPI of the country of currency. Given that uncertainty and the fluctuations of currency exchange rates, it might not be a clear decision to make immediately; it could be wise to wait to see what transpired in a few years.
Another job which honed my writing skills was with Milliman and Robertson that had the PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) as a client. PBGC would take over as trustee of a bankrupt pension plan and determine pension amounts, sometimes with limitations. Some retirees contested the amounts paid to them. Over the years, my job entailed reading through well over 100 different plans’ provisions, applying limitations if any, calculating the right amounts to be paid, and drafting letters to the retirees explaining the determination.
For the past 13 years through October of this year, I have worked at Central Community Library in Manassas, Va. I am now working there as a volunteer. A year ago, the Branch Administrator asked me to come up with and post interesting sayings on the Reader Board at the entrance to the library. A few of the sayings are as follows:
Each Halloween, the library invites children to dress up in their costumes and parade in the library. The librarians also dress up, preferably as book characters. I dressed up as Mr. Putter with Tabby on my shoulder (picture) and invited the children to pat Tabby.
The mental stimuli of the Reader Board exercises and working on jig-saw puzzles aided me in pulling together and resolving some poetry and songs that I had written 20-25 years ago and I completed 14 songs in the past year, including one portraying the BC campus titled, “Steadfast.” My description of the musical process is “Music is / a gathering / of varied instruments / and shared tunes.”
I am married and my wife Cil and I have three sons, Jay, Mike, and Daniel, and two granddaughters, Claire and Renee.
In closing, I typify the enduring reward of my BC education as “In the yonder wood / Two lanterns mark our progress / Emerging as one.”
Joanne Calore Turco (Nursing)
Wakefield, Mass.
email
Remember the song lyrics — “Still crazy after all these years” (Paul Simon)? Well, I’m still in Wakefield after all these years. My hometown is still our home, where my husband and I grew up, met, bought a house, and raised our two children, Al and Catherine.
But . . . after graduating, I did travel down Comm Ave to BU, where I earned my MS in Community Health Nursing. Working as a community health nurse brought me into many homes in Lynn, Cambridge, and Salem, Mass., as well as Philadelphia, Penn., where I learned as much from my patients as they did from me.
My final and most fulfilling position, however, has been at Salem State College School of Nursing, where I was hired as the first full-time faculty member and where I was privileged to build a curriculum and a philosophy of nursing education that strives to prepare competent, compassionate nurses — a philosophy reflecting what I had learned at BC.
Today, though retired, I return to Salem to teach an introductory class to freshmen. The enthusiasm and altruism of these beginning nurses renew my conviction that our future health care needs are in good hands.
I also keep busy volunteering at a local food pantry, driving my grandchildren (Ella and Axel) to and from home and activities, and exercising and taking walks with many friends.
Bill “Willy” Dalton (A&S)
Paterson, N.J.
email
Bill Dalton at Middle Earth, February 1967
After I graduated as an English major, I went to BU for grad school for a year and then worked for a year as a newspaper reporter. In the middle ‘70s, I moved to San Francisco and started to work as a professional musician. Around that time, people started calling me “Willy,” which was ironic since my father had started out with the nickname “Willy” and ended up as “Bill.”
I moved to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., toward the end of the ‘70s — lots of gigs down there at that time — and then returned to New Jersey around 1979. At that point, I was more into jazz and I was doing a lot of writing and arranging.
Willy Dalton, right, with members of the Dalton Gang
Among the artists with whom I’ve worked: Daniel Poncé, the Cuban percussionist, who took me on my first gig to Paris in 1989; the Shirelles, from 1980 to around 2010; the r&b singer Cissy Houston, whose daughter, Whitney, sang backup and later became a major star. I was the bandleader and arranger for the 18-piece band at Richie Cecere’s nightclub in Montclair, N.J., from 2001 through 2006.
I released six compact discs starting in 1992 — four from my 10-piece band, The Dalton Gang; one from the 18-piece Real Deal Big Band; and one that featured music for guitar and string quartet. You can see more information about me and those releases at Second Step Music.
I’m still gigging and writing. Hard to believe it all started at Middle Earth!
John Droz, Jr. (A&S)
Morehead City, N.C.
email
After getting my BC degrees with majors in Physics and Mathematics, I earned a master’s degree in Physics from Syracuse University. I then worked for GE (Aerospace Electronics: Utica, N.Y.), Mohawk Data Sciences (Herkimer, N.Y.), and Monolithic Memories (Cupertino, Calif.).
After retiring at the age of 34, I phased into pursing a variety of community interests. This has lead to a 40± year commitment as an environmental advocate. During the initial years, I was a leading individual on three New York state-wide issues (electrical energy, water extraction, and water quality). As a resident of the Adirondacks, I was a participating member of several environmental organizations (e.g. the Adirondack Council, Association for Protection of the Adirondacks, Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, Sierra Club, NYS Federation of Lakes).
Over the last 40± years, two areas of interest and expertise (science and the environment) have merged with a focus on energy matters, especially wind energy. My basic position is that our technical policies (e.g. energy and environmental) should be based on genuine Science. Unfortunately, that is not the case, as these policies are instead written by lobbyists, strictly for the benefits of their clients.
I got married in 1973 to the classic farmer’s daughter: Elaine Anken. In 1984, my wife and I bought a rental property in Emerald Isle, N.C., where we stayed about five months a year in the off seasons. In 2009, we sold our primary residence in New York and moved to Morehead City, N.C. Since we no longer needed the Emerald Isle property to visit the coast, we sold that in 2015. We still have an Adirondack summer cottage.
In 2011, I was selected to be the science advisor and a board member of NC-20, a partnership of people, governments, and businesses in the 20 coastal communities of North Carolina. That same year, I became a Senior Fellow at American Tradition Institute (now E&E [Energy and Environment]).
In the last 40± years, I’ve focused on educating citizens about energy and environmental issues. As part of this effort, I have put on free energy presentations in several states. The online version of this has had over 200,000 views—a very surprising number considering the technical nature of the material.
I have been a guest on dozens of radio and television programs, including nationwide, and have spoken to numerous organizations on energy and environmental issues. You can find many past issues of my Energy and Environmental Newsletters online. I also maintain the WiseEnergy.org website.
Elaine and John Droz
Another passion of mine is Education. as it’s quite apparent that our education system is being steadily corroded—from grade inflation to dilution of Science.
I also obtained a real estate broker license and, with my dad, started a real estate business in Utica, N.Y. Elaine and I have been married for 45 years. While we have no biological children, we have been foster parents to seven teenagers, each at a different time. We have also hosted three French foreign exchange students. I play the piano (and used to play the trombone), golf, and bridge. We’re both into boating and travel. I’m also very interested in computers and have served as a consultant to several hundred clients. I’m very active in the local church and have served on two local Catholic school boards.
Looking forward to getting re-connected with some friends from BC ’68—where I have a lot of fond memories.
Brian Froelich (CBA)
Spring Lake, N.J.
email
I entered BC after graduating from St. Benedict’s Prep (SBP) in Newark, N.J. Between my junior and senior years at BC, I married Jeannie, my high school sweetheart and a Lasell Junior College (Newton, Mass.) grad. So we recently celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. I quit the BC football and wrestling teams senior year to focus on grades. After graduation, Jeannie and I moved back to New Jersey (Maplewood and Spring Lake) and I went on to get an MBA at Rutgers and a JD from Seton Hall Law School. I worked for the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, at Coopers and Lybrand as a management consultant, and then as an executive at a New York Stock Exchange insurance company (USLIFE) before starting my own travel company in 1980. I sold the company to American Express in 1985 and served as an Executive Vice President there for about a decade. Since then, I have served as the President, CEO, COO or board member of several companies including several senior health companies and travel-related companies. Today I am the COO of an Adult Day Care company called Sarahcare based in Canton, Ohio.
I am in the SBP Athletic Hall of Fame, was given the SBP alumnus award, and was on the SBP Board of Trustees for many years. (SBP was featured recently on CBS’s 60 Minutes.) I am also in the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame. Jeannie and I are in the Bayley-Ellard High School Hall of Fame for our contributions as parents and I am in the American Express Hall of Fame for my business contributions there. I was recognized as one of the travel industry’s top executives and was the subject of a Fortune Magazine business article. I was a candidate for the US Congress in 2012 (and lost!) and currently serve on the board of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Newark.
Screenshot of Brian from Showtime’s 2015 “A Season with Notre Dame Football.”
Jeannie and I still live in Spring Lake. We have five children who are graduates of Randolph Macon College (Va.), Assumption College (Mass.), Bloomsburg U (Penn.), and Scranton U (Penn.). They live in Newark, Del.; Ashburn, Va.; and Randolph, South Orange, and Summit, N.J. We love to visit or host our children and 13 grandchildren. We stay in touch with some BC friends and events and this year I even had season football tickets. (In 2015, I appeared in the Showtime series “A Season with Notre Dame Football” — for a five-second quote suggesting the possibility of an upset — when Notre Dame played BC at Fenway Park.)
Jeannie Froelich
Besides raising a great family and putting up with a difficult husband, Jeannie has been singing and traveling the world from New Zealand and Australia to various countries across Europe (e.g. from Scotland to Hungary). And, if I agree to carry the luggage, I get to tag along. She was twice in a Sweet Adeline International Champion Quartet. And her current championship quartet “The Buzz” is retiring this year after 15 years together. You can see and hear them and see their appearance schedule on their website.
Larry Kenah (A&S)
Acton, Mass.
email
Boston College had many effects on my life, but none more important than my meeting Marcia McPhee (Newton College ’68) on 17 March 1968. Marcy and I were married the following summer. We have four children and six grandchildren. Three of our four children also graduated from BC.
• Molly Kenah Beams ’93 lives in Andover, Mass., with her family.
• Brian, Loyola College of Maryland ’99, lives with his family in Marietta, Ga.
• Tim ’02 lives with his family in Westminster, Colo.
• Dan ’08 lives in Lander, Wyo.
After graduation, I attended Northwestern University to study physics. While in graduate school, I taught physics at Rosary College (now Sacred Heart University) in River Forest, Ill. I also taught physics and mathematics at Trinity High School, also in River Forest.
I performed my thesis experiment, a high-energy neutron-scattering experiment, at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in the early 1970s. I left graduate school in 1975 to take a job with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Over the next two years, while working at DEC, I completed my thesis and was awarded a PhD in August, 1977.
I remained at DEC for 24 years in three organizations: Training (instructor and course developer), VMS Engineering (software developer and VMS technical director), and Systems Engineering (technical consulting). VMS was DEC’s operating system for the VAX and Alpha lines of computer systems.
In addition to software development responsibilities, I was also the primary author of the first edition of VAX/VMS Internals and Data Structures. This book, an important technical resource for a specific technical community, sold tens of thousands of copies over four editions.
After DEC, I spent two-and-a-half years at a small Internet company and eight-and-a-half years at a mid-sized software company, Kronos. I retired from Kronos in December, 2010.
Since retirement, Marcy and I have done some traveling and also volunteer work. I volunteer at two local service organizations: Household Goods and Miracle League of Massachusetts. I also serve on two committees in the Town of Acton.
Over the years, Marcy and I have stayed in close touch with my roommates at 12 Sutherland Road in our junior and senior years: Dan Downey, Ken Hamberg, Ed Hattauer, and Tom Sugrue. We also include Bill McDonald in our group festivities: at least one football game each year and a sports weekend in the winter.
Bill McDonald (A&S)
Fallbrook, Calif.
email
My home is in San Diego, for the third time. Actually, I live in North San Diego County, in a community called Fallbrook. Moved here in 2012 from Greater Boston, finishing up a total of 19 years working at BC. I’m active here as a volunteer, serving on the board of trustees of the Anza-Borrego Foundation, which supports Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the largest state park outside of Alaska and about 70 miles to my east, and as a director of the local council of the Navy League. I’m also “chapter leader emeritus” of the local BC alumni chapter, the same group I headed as president in 1983, the second time I lived in San Diego.
I entered BC as a physics major and soon recognized I might have been good at high school physics and math, but not at the collegiate level. After freshman year, I switched to another science — political science. Sometime during freshman year, walking through the Eagles’ Nest with classmate Reid Oslin, past a recruiting table for the Heights, Reid suggested we sign up for the sports staff. I overcame my initial reluctance when he told me reporters could go to games for free. That pretty much set up my later career. In the middle of junior year, I and Tom Sugrue were named co-sports editors of the Heights, succeeding Reid. During summers (1965-68) back in my hometown of Springfield, Mass., I was an intern reporter with the Springfield Daily News, again along with Reid.
At BC, I lived on campus through junior year, starting in Loyola, and then moving to Kostka and Williams. Senior year, I joined Richard Sullivan, Mike Reavey, and John McCarthy in an apartment at 15 Vernon Street, Brookline, a couple of blocks south of Coolidge Corner. That put us back a total of $160 a month, and it was furnished.
The military beckoned as I finished BC, as it did to so many :), and I spent three years on active duty as a Navy intelligence officer, visiting the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam for several months in 1969 and later working (as a staff officer) with Navy SEALs in Coronado, Cal., my first stay in San Diego.
I got my master’s degree at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and then worked for a couple of years as editor of a very small daily newspaper on the North Shore in Massachusetts, rooming with Reid during that time in Winchester. After returning to the Springfield Daily News for a year or so, I joined Reid again (this has been a “thing”!), this time at Boston College, where I began what became a 35+ year career in university communications. At BC, I was founding editor of Boston College Magazine.
Got married in 1978, fathered a daughter and son, and moved to San Diego in 1982 as director of publications at San Diego State University. Took a similar position in 1984 at the University of California, Berkeley, where I spent the next 12 years. There I was on the team that designed Berkeley’s first “home page” on the Internet, and my younger daughter was born. Lived in Berkeley, right in its “gourmet ghetto,” and later in nearby Orinda.
I had connected with the US Naval Reserve in 1979, drilling monthly at Naval Air Station, South Weymouth. In units in San Diego and later Alameda, Calif., I spent two-week active duty sessions in such tough locales as Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Key West, Fla. I was able to complete 20 years service on the dot and retire as a Commander. One of the reasons I live in the San Diego area is the scale of Navy and Marine Corps resources available to me as a retiree. Fallbrook is just east of Camp Pendleton, the huge Marine Corps base.
Wife and I separated in 1992, divorce was final in 1997 (good ol’ California courts), by which time I had become a single custodial dad and moved to Durham, N.H., to work at UNH. My last professional stint was at Boston College again, in communications and advancement work, 2000-11. And now, California and San Diego . . . again! My family has expanded, adding a son-in-law and two granddaughters, and I very much enjoy sharing with them some of the joys of Southern California. (UPDATE: We’ve added another son-in-law. Younger daughter was married in December.)
In addition to working on this blog, I also have my own (doesn’t everybody?) at socalbillmcdonald.com.
Thomas Pacynski (A&S)
Bay City, Mich.
email
After BC, I returned to my hometown of Bay City, Mich., right off Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay. I worked for the Bangor Township Schools for 33 years, serving during that time as
- high school teacher
- varsity basketball coach
- assistant football coach
- assistant principal
- middle school principal
- high school principal
I had a long, rewarding career, retiring in 2002.
Beverly and Thomas Pacynski flank grandson, Alexx
I’ve also been happily married to my wife, Beverly, for a long time. We have two children, Mike and Laurie. Laurie and her husband have given us three wonderful grandkids. Alexx is the oldest grandchild and he plays football at Miami of Ohio. We are very busy chasing those grandkids around.
I have been back to BC several times, the most recent of which was to attend the funeral of my teammate and friend (and classmate) Ed Rooney. I will not be able to attend the 50th reunion, but send my very best wishes to all former teammates and classmates.
John Riordan (CBA)
Southport, N.C.
email
I worked as an auditor in the Department of Defense for 44 years. I was in the Army for two years after graduation and was in Vietnam as the company clerk in the 1st Air Cavalry. I was a CPA in Massachusetts and used my veterans’ benefits to take courses at Bentley to prepare for the CPA exam. I worked mostly in New England for DOD, but also had a three-year run in Hawaii, and in Northern Virginia for the last three years before retiring.
I now live in Southport, North Carolina. My wife, Charlotte, and I fell in love with Southport as it reminded us of a Cape Cod fishing village and is surrounded by more than 100 golf courses in a one-hour travel radius. Pinehurst is also just up the street, two hours away. I play weekly tournaments with the Myrtle Beach seniors and many tournaments with the Carolina Golf Association in North and South Carolina. I’m not good, but I’m active.
I also love to swim, and have been in the North Carolina Senior State Championships in both swimming and golf. My love of swimming started as a child in Milton, where I swam every day at Cunningham Park. As an adult, I swam quite a bit at Walden Pond. In Hawaii, I swam almost every day in the ocean.
I have a couple of nephews who have attended BC. One is now on the men’s golf team.
Being in Tobacco Road, I have found how much respect Southerners and ACC alums and fans have for BC. I golf with many and they have the highest praise for BC athletes and how they are true student/athletes.
I am thrilled to soon be a Golden Eagle. Being a Double Eagle (BC High and BC) makes it especially thrilling.
I don’t have many connections with BC classmates, as I was a commuter and had to work my way through school. I caddied and worked in Jordan Marsh. I also worked part time at the Boston Globe’s Sports Department reporting on the weekend golf scores at the clubs in the Boston area.
Michael Rogus (A&S)
Wilmington, N.C.
email
Formal portrait
As Academics Editor, 1968 Sub Turri
I received a doctoral fellowship to start English grad school at University of Virginia in the fall of ’68, but decided to volunteer for the draft, postponing more school. I was duly drafted that August (the scene at the Portland, ME, customs house for that day’s draft class was hilarious), did basic training at Ft. Dix, advanced radio school at Ft. Sill, volunteered for Vietnam, and shipped out through Ft. Lewis in Seattle.
Wound up assigned to B Company, 7th Infantry Battalion, 199th Light Infantry Brigade, as an RTO (radio-telephone operator) and later communications chief. “The dollar ninety-nine” did their thing in III Corps area of operations and fought everywhere from the outskirts of Saigon to the Iron Triangle and the Delta.
I picked up at UVA 1970-72, grew dissatisfied with academic life, and left for an adventure in New Mexico. Chuckle . . . wound up back at BC Law in 1972, graduated in 1975, worked in private practice in Lewiston, ME, for a year, and joined the Army JAGC (Judge Advocate General Corps), which ironically sent me back to their school at UVA.
Got married before being assigned as a JAGC Captain to Germany in 1976, got out three years later and, in 1980, became a civilian attorney working for the Army in Germany again. I remained in Germany until I retired in 2006, mainly in Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, and, finally, Heidelberg. Got divorced along the way, no kids, but lots of nephews and nieces.
Threw a dart at a map and moved to Wilmington, NC, where I am now. I took three courses at BC with Allison Macomber over the years. I had interest not talent in art, but I knew then I wanted to have an art collection. I have one, and it has been my passion for many years. Allison Macomber would be proud.
Carmine Sarno (CBA)
Topsfield, Mass.
email
As I may have indicated at the last reunion talk (2008), I was a “day hop” for only one day. I had a car, a sleeping bag, and barber tools, which my father used to cut my hair. More about that in bit.
I was lucky to have been a big fish in a tiny pond at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School. I was also fortunate to have an uncle who was a super achiever, as well as an older sister and many cousins who attended BC. I had a great cousin — Moody Sarno, a Fordham Hall-of-Famer, who was BC’s head football coach in the Forties. Having attended many games and events at the Heights, I was going to go to BC. It was my first choice.
I had no money and could not afford dorm life legally. I “roomed” on the floor of the shower room on Xavier 2. I set up a barber shop in that men’s room. I would give a free haircut for a night on the floor of anyone’s room. I would rent my car for a day in exchange for a week in a room. Dining required a forged meal ticket. Rick Albani and Mike Cunningham were the most generous of all in Xavier.
Needless to say, I met lots of fellow classmates. I was blessed to find pals from everywhere across the nation and the world who were incredibly generous and willing to help.
Before I left home, my father did not have to caution me about drinking. As long as I can remember, from age 13 on, there was a jelly glass of wine or a beer on the table for me. But Dad did ask me one favor. I had to promise not to go to the “combat zone.”
Day 1 at BC . . . Orientation meeting at Bapst Library with Black Mac … Fr. McManus. You know — look to your left and look to your right. If you do not hit the books, you will be gone. We listened to locations for readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmatic. Immediately aprés this event, I asked for directions to the combat zone, by way of the used book stores in Harvard square. I escaped the “Zone” without injury, but I was lucky and never, ever returned.
Day 2 … I went to Bill Flynn’s office and asked to see the soccer and lacrosse fields. To my amazement, there were none on campus. Bill pointed out that there were two tennis courts, one gym and one hockey rink and one field each for baseball and football. Here I was at a major university with no minor sports. I was amazed. With this news, I asked Mr. Flynn, ”What is it that you do all day?” He threw me out of the office.
Day 3 . . . I returned to Mr. Flynn’s office and he was not happy. I asked if it was about money. He said, “Yes. I am taking every nickel and dime and putting it into football and TV. With that revenue I will start a minor sports program.” I assured him that I had nets and soccer balls and he pointed me to the Cleveland Circle municipal field. After a few weeks I gathered a group of international students and we played soccer every day. We were loaded. Richie Quinn and Skip Gostyla were in the mix and we were off and running.
I lobbied the new student governments at each school for $500 per year for minor sports. I gave our Athletic Director a check for $2,000 and the next day goal posts were erected at the site of the current Mods. Phone calls were made for a schedule and I asked Flynn to hire a coach — Hubert Vogelsinger, who had played pro soccer in Europe and in the USA. Hubert later coached at Yale and runs international soccer clinics to this day.
I was fortunate to make the BC freshman baseball team and then converted to the new Lacrosse Team with Kenny Hackett and Paul Leonardson. As you may know, Ken became the first lay president of Catholic Relief Services and then went on to become the US Ambassador to the Vatican. Again, this gave me an opportunity to meet new fellows of each class and from each school. All became great friends. Later the Alpha Kappa Psi fraternity. I had never cut a class till that moment. Oh God what an experience!
Speaking of God . . . I remember going to daily Mass and praying for four things:
1 that I would hit a home run or score a goal. Zero in four years
2 that I would score with the girls. Again, zero in four years
3 that I would pass the French final. You guessed it — Zero
4 That I would never get in the Insurance or financial services. That sadly came true and everyone I know in those industries made millions without heavy lifting.
At the end of year 1 at BC, Fr. Hanrahan asked if I wished to become “legal.” I asked him when he knew I was “illegal” and he said from day one. Sophomore year, I got the best room on Cheverus 2. Hanrahan was a peach.
I wish I could name all the fellows and women that made the experiences at BC so wonderful for me, but there are far too many. Acton Boxborough was a great foundation for me and BC became a perfect fit for me. I was involved in everything extracurricular and nothing has changed. My life is still an adventure in chaos. Some things never change.
I ask you if there is not a day that goes by that you are not proud of the progress made by BC as an institution. BC and the Jesuits were there for us. In 1863 they said bring on the Irish and Italians and I for one am glad that they did.
Three generations. Carmine, his dad, and three daughters at his 2007 induction as a member of the 1964 baseball team to the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
(Carmine is president of Bothhand USA in Topsfield, which designs, manufactures, and globally sources quality electronic components for the networking and data/telecommunication and computer industries.)
Lenny Sienko (A&S)
Hancock, N.Y.
email
After graduating from BC with a double major in Philosophy and Theology, I attended the Andover Newton Theological School and received my Master of Divinity degree in 1971. A few years later, I decided to pursue a law degree at BC. Getting my JD in 1977, I returned to my home town of Hancock, N.Y., along the Delaware River on the Pennsylvania border, and soon hung out my shingle for “The Sienko Law Office.”
Forty-plus years later, I continue to practice law, support progressive politics, read and watch science fiction, and root for the Eagles. Over the course of my career, I’ve been an adjunct faculty member at SUNY Delhi’s College of Technology, court attorney for the Delaware County Court and Family Court, Delaware County State Tax Attorney, and president of the Delaware County Bar Association.
I was the first recipient of the New York State Bar Association’s General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Sector’s Charlie Shorter Award for outstanding service to the section. The State Bar Association’s General Practice Section also recognized me as the “outstanding and innovative lawyer” of the year.
Reflective of my interest in technology, I built the first law firm website in the county for my firm and maintain the county bar association website. I’ve also written numerous articles and book chapters advising attorneys on how to use the Internet for research and to conduct their practices. I like Macs.
Tom Sugrue (A&S)
Alexandria, Va.
email
I graduated from Fordham Prep in the Bronx, N.Y., in 1964. BC wasn’t originally on my radar screen as a place to go to college, but they had started doing some active recruiting at Jesuit high schools throughout the country and especially in the Northeast. I liked what I saw and heard about the place and decided it was right for me; and that turned out to be the case.
I majored in Physics at BC, but along about the second half of junior year, the first part of senior year, I decided I didn’t really want to make a career in that field. Unfortunately, at least at that time, I didn’t have an alternative career in mind. So, following BC, I taught high school for a year in New York City and then served for a year in VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America, which, at the time, was sort of a domestic Peace Corps), pursuits, which, in addition to being interesting and challenging in their own right, had the added advantage of coming with a draft deferment. While I was in VISTA, they held the first draft lottery and I was fortunate enough to get a very high number. So, following the completion of my VISTA year and another year working for the City of New York, I did what a lot of young people did back then who were uncertain about what they wanted to do with their lives – I went to law school. In 1971, I started a Joint Program in Law and Public Policy at Harvard. This program allowed you to get two degrees – a JD and a MPP (Masters in Public Policy) — in four years, which I did in 1975.
While at Harvard in 1972, I married Pat Mannion, a “Newton girl,” Class of ’68. She worked full-time while I went to school (bless her!). After I completed a clerkship on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court following graduation, we decided to move to the Washington, D.C., area for a “two-year experiment.” The experiment is now at 41 years and counting. We had two daughters who are now grown and married and have given us four grandchildren, with a fifth on the way. (By the way, having grandchildren is one of those rare life events that is as much fun as everyone says it is.)
My career has been about equally divided between public service (mostly in the federal government) and the private sector (mostly law firm and corporate work). I am a believer, and have been a participant, in the much maligned “revolving door,” moving from government to private practice and back on a number of occasions. I have found such movement helps the effectiveness of your work on each side. I ended up specializing in communications regulation and policy and was Chief of the Wireless Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission in my last government job and the Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at T-Mobile US in my last corporate job. I retired from full-time work in 2014, but have been working on a part-time basis in the communications group of the law firm Hogan Lovells in their D.C. office.
I keep up with a number of my BC friends, especially the four guys I lived with off-campus at 12 Sutherland Road (near Cleveland Circle) for junior and senior years – Dan Downey, Ken Hamberg, Ed Hattauer, and Larry Kenah – as well as with Bill McDonald, who over the years has become an honorary member of the 12 Sutherland Road group and with whom I was co-sports editor of The Heights for 1967. In fact, we were all BC sports fans during our time as students, and we have continued in that interest, often planning our get-togethers around BC football games in the fall and basketball and hockey games in the winter. I am looking forward to seeing many more of my classmates this spring at the 50th Reunion.