SBU Lauds Employees During Ceremony

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — As part of its Spring Awards Ceremony April 12, St. Bonaventure University recognized 61 employees who marked employment anniversaries this year and a number of employees who are retiring.

For the third year, this special program incorporated three previously separate ceremonies — The Fr. Joe Doino, O.F.M., Honors and Awards, the Employee Recognition Ceremony, and Faculty Awards — into one celebration.

During the Employee Recognition Ceremony, individuals with 10 years of service and up were recognized, with those reaching 25 years of service and retirees receiving special recognition.

Those who were recognized for 25 years of service are: Paul Brockel (Athletics); Joe Flanagan (Alumni); Darla Freaney (Admissions); Mary Kohl (Health Services); John Kupinski (Biology); Charles Lute (Facilities/Maintenance); David Matz (Classical Languages); Patsy O’Brien (Arts and Sciences); Joseph Questa (Facilities/Maintenance); Fr. Peter Schneible, O.F.M. (Biology); and Daniel Tate (Philosophy).

Paul Brockel is the athletic services assistant in the Department of Athletics, a position he has held since 2007. He started at St. Bonaventure in September 1986 in the Maintenance Department. Over the years, he has worked in several areas of the University under both the Maintenance and Housekeeping departments.

Brockel has served on a number of University committees, including the Hourly Staff Affairs Committee, the Sound Committee, and the Go-Green Committee.

Brockel is a lifelong resident of the Olean area. After high school, he served in the U.S. Army as a medic during the Vietnam era.

He is an avid sports fan, and stays active playing basketball, golfing and walking his dogs. Over the years, he has enjoyed working with and participating in various sports leagues (softball, basketball and golf) with fellow employees.

Brockel and his wife, Mary Jo, the academic coordinator in the School of Business, live in Allegany. He has three children: Julie, a 2002 St. Bonaventure 5-year MBA graduate and the associate registrar at the University; Joe; and Janette. He also has three grandsons: Jacob, Alex and Andrew.

Joe Flanagan is the director of Alumni Services. He graduated from St. Bonaventure with a BBA in management in 1974, and received a master’s degree in counseling from SUNY Oneonta in 1977. A native of Binghamton, he was a member of the Residence Life staff and Residence Director in Devereux Hall from 1977-1979. From 1979-1983, he served as the director of Alumni Services, then returned to Bona’s in 1992 to assume the position he currently holds.

He is the president of the Western New York Alumni Directors, a member of the Saints Peter and Paul welcome committee in Hamburg, a volunteer for Friends of the Night, and a Eucharist Minister. He also serves on Hamburg’s Villagers Committee — a group of volunteers that helps strengthen and support life in the village. He has served on the board of Mt. Irenaeus and is a retired high school and NCAA women’s basketball official.

He is married to Mary (Rosinski) Flanagan, St. Bonaventure class of 1975. They have two children: Adele, a math and special education teacher in North Collins, and Joe, a sophomore physics major at St. Bonaventure.

Flanagan says the success the alumni program has enjoyed at St. Bonaventure could not have occurred without the help of the University Relations team, friars, faculty and staff. However, he noted, three people need to be singled out: the late Fr. Dan Hurley, O.F.M., Fr. Dan Riley, O.F.M., and the person who helps put it all together, Lucia Scotty.

Darla Freaney started at St. Bonaventure in 1986 in the Office of Financial Aid and in 2001 joined the Admissions team as a data entry clerk. Prior to employment at St. Bonaventure, she worked at the New York Telephone Company for 14 years.

Freaney was a previous member of the Hourly Staff Affairs Committee and St. Bonaventure Picnic Committee and has been a member of the Southern Tier Military Support Group for several years.

Her hobbies include playing golf, camping and traveling with her husband in their RV.

She and her husband, Mark, have been married for 38 years and live in Weston’s Mills. They have two sons, Brian Freaney and Kevin Freaney (a 1999 graduate of St. Bonaventure), and two granddaughters.

Mary Kohl, a registered nurse for 43 years, joined the University’s department of Health Services in 1984 as a staff R.N. She then functioned as director of Health Services from 1993 to 2009.

Kohl is a graduate of Alfred State College and is a member of New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and New York State College Health Association (NYSCHA.)

For 16 years, Kohl was the adviser to the volunteer student organization MERT (Medical Emergency Response Team), accompanying an SBU student delegation to numerous national Emergency Medical Services conferences.

She has served on a number of University committees and task forces, including the Commission for the Responsible Use of Alcohol, Disabilities Awareness Committee, Environmental Health & Safety Committee, and Emergency Preparedness Planning Team, as well as serving as a member of the University Governance Task Force and representative to the Student Life Committee of the Faculty Senate.

Kohl lives in Olean and has two grown daughters: Kathryn, a 1993 graduate, and Rebecca, who both live in the Allegany area.

John Kupinski, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, joined the University faculty in 1985. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from LeMoyne College and a doctorate in immunology from Syracuse University, and has done postdoctoral work in immunogenetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Kupinski teaches courses in microbiology, immunology and molecular cell biology and directs the biochemistry program.

His research interests are molecular biology and immunology. His recent work has focused on the application of DNA fingerprinting to fungal identification and classification. The genus Aspergillus, which includes a number of plant and animal pathogens, has been the focus of his research over the last several years. He has identified a number of polymorphic nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers that are useful in making species identifications in the aspergillus group.

A number of undergraduate students have participated in this work during the school year and during the summer through a Dr. Arnold T. Borer Summer Fellowship, a 10-week program that allows undergraduates to perform research in the areas of cellular or molecular biology under the supervision of a faculty member.

Kupinski also has an interest in how parasitic microbes interact with their hosts.

In addition to celebrating his 25th year at St. Bonaventure, Kupinski is retiring at the end of the academic year.

Spring weather cannot come soon enough for Charles Lute. The University groundskeeper is eager to get his hands in the dirt.

Lute takes care of what he calls the cosmetics of Bona’s — the planting and trimming of flowers, shrubbery and trees on campus, as well as care of its acreage of lawns. He is proud that the University was recognized for creating a more environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing campus with its Tree Campus USA designation.

He assists with maintenance of equipment for the athletics fields, such as the batting tunnels, as well as maintenance of the turf on the all-weather baseball field.

Lute also helps maintain the roads on campus and on the Bonaventure Golf Course and cemetery property.

Lute is a member of the New York State Turfgrass Association and holds a Department of Environmental Conservation pesticide applicators license.

Lute lives in Allegany with his wife, Gloria. He has a daughter, Lori (Lute) Funden, a 1996 St. Bonaventure alumna, as well as six stepchildren, 19 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

David S. Matz, Ph.D., professor of classical languages, joined the University in 1981 and taught through 1994, then returned to the University in 1998. He teaches Clare 101 (Intellectual Journey) and Clare 103 (Foundations of the Western World) in the Clare College curriculum and is also an expert in sport in antiquity.

Matz hold a doctorate and master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, and a bachelor’s degree from Lawrence University.

The author of a number of books in his academic field, Matz’s publications include “Greek and Roman Sport: A Dictionary of Athletes and Events,” “Ancient World Lists and Numbers,” “An Ancient Rome Chronology 264-27 B.C. Famous Firsts in the Greek and Roman World,” and “Daily Life of the Ancient Romans.”

He has also contributed articles to professional journals and articles for popular magazines, as well as dictionaries of sports, on sports and the history of sport.

In 2003, he was the recipient of the Faculty Recognition Award for Excellence in Research and Publishing.

A former college baseball player, Matz has an interest in American baseball history, and has contributed about a dozen biographies of noted baseball players to Greenwood Press’ “Biographical Dictionary of American Sports.”

He also coaches baseball, plays baseball and blogs about baseball. He has been an assistant women’s softball coach at SBU since the fall of 2002; works as a coach and instructor at Bona baseball coach Larry Sudbrook’s two-week summer baseball camps; and is a second baseman/third baseman for an over-50 baseball team in Jamestown.

Matz lives in Olean with his wife, Lauren, associate professor of English at St. Bonaventure. His son Mike, daughter-in-law Chrissy, and grandson, Colt, reside in Portville.

Patsy O’Brien is the administration assistant for the science faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences. She assists all faculty members with various tasks, being the only staff member in De La Roche Hall.

O’Brien is a member of St. Bonaventure’s Facilities Group, and was previously a member of the Hourly Staff Affairs Committee.

Outside the office she has taken computer, Clare College and political science classes.

On nice days, she enjoys riding with her husband on their motorcycle around Cattaraugus County.

She and her husband, Jim, have been married for 35 years and live in Allegany. They have three children, Katie Buzzard, Kevin O’Brien and Maureen O’Brien (a 2007 ROTC graduate of St. Bonaventure), and have a grandchild on the way.

Joe Questa is the foreman of the Carpenter Shop in the Maintenance Department.

He joined St. Bonaventure in 1986 as a carpenter and moved into his current position in 1998.

He is a graduate of Jamestown Community College and has completed courses in blueprint reading as well as attending seminars on locking hardware.

Questa lives in Allegany with his wife, Barbara, who is the senior associate athletic director in the Department of Athletics. He has two children: daughter Santana, who is a junior journalism and mass communication major at St. Bonaventure, and son Michael, who lives at home with his parents.

Fr. Peter Schneible, O.F.M., is an assistant professor and the chair of the Department of Biology.

He graduated from St. Bonaventure with a bachelor’s degree in physics, received a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Vermont, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Michigan State University and the University of Alabama. He holds a master’s degree in theology from Washington (D.C.) Theological Union.

Fr. Peter professed his first vows as a Franciscan in 1984 and joined the University faculty in 1986.

Fr. Peter teaches courses in human anatomy, physiology, research participation and occasionally a biology seminar and Intellectual Journey.

In addition to his role as a classroom instructor, Fr. Peter has enjoyed being a minister-in-residence. He has lived in Doyle and Devereux halls and at present lives in Shay Hall. From the good times with celebrations, to the occasional 3 a.m. fire drill, Fr. Peter enjoys being present with the student body outside the academic setting.

He has also been a faculty adviser for several student organizations, including Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity. The group actively volunteers with various local organizations, including the Warming House, the SPCA, and BonaResponds. He has also been the faculty adviser of SBU for Life, an advocacy, prayer and educational student club that attends the March for Life in Washington, D.C., annually.

For 12 years, he sat on the Faculty Senate, and was chair for two years.

He also was a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Elizabeth Mission Society and for nine years served on the Board of Trustees of Siena College.

For 10 years at St. Bonaventure, Fr. Peter was the director of the Franciscan Formation Program. He guided and provided assistance to young men attending the University who were answering their vocation and beginning the process to become a Franciscan friar.

Daniel Tate, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy, graduated from Denison University with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and religion, received a master’s degree from Duquesne University and a Ph.D. from SUNY at Stony Brook. He joined the faculty of St. Bonaventure University in 1986 as a member of the Department of Philosophy.

Tate has taught a broad array of courses in philosophy, including seminars in existentialism, Nietzsche, aesthetics, and modern philosophy. He has also taught classes for art history, Clare College and the Honors Program.

Tate served for 16 years on the Honors Council and was director of the Honors Program for 14 of those years. Under his direction, honors course offerings expanded and moved in an interdisciplinary direction. In addition, student participation in the program increased as did the number of honors degree recipients. During his last two years as director, Tate extended the Honors Program into the Clare College core curriculum.

More recently, Tate was one of the principal faculty members involved in developing a new art history major at the University. He also, in coordination with The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, helped prepare a grant proposal to the Oishei Foundation, which not only brought the University $600,000 but included seed money for the art history major. He serves on the Art History Program Committee.

In addition, Tate has served on a number of faculty committees and organizations, including the Women’s Studies Program that he helped found and for which he served as the first director.

His formal training consists principally in modern European philosophy, focusing on contemporary strands of Continental philosophy — existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and deconstruction. His principal area of research lies in aesthetic theory and the philosophy of art. In the last decade, he has pursued a special interest in the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer on whose work he published a series of essays. He is working on a book addressing Gadamer’s philosophy of art.

Also recognized for their years of service were the following:

45 years of service: John Mulryan (English), who is also retiring.

40 years of service: Thomas Delaney (Education), who is also retiring.

35 years of service: Diana Calhoun (Safety and Security); Arthur Clemons (Facilities/Maintenance) Anthony Murphy (Philosophy); Noel Riggs (Franciscan Institute); Fr. Daniel Riley, O.F.M., (University Ministries); K.R. Sundararajan (Theology); Jeffrey White (Classical Languages)

30 years of service: Douglas Cashing (Mathematics); Jerry Kiefer (Physics); Steven Nuttall (Philosophy); Harry Sedinger (Mathematics); Donald Swanz (Accounting)

20 years of service: Leslie Sabina (Visual and Performing Arts)

15 years of service: Joel Benington (Biology); Donna Brestensky (Chemistry); Craig Clark (Facilities/Maintenance); Lee Coppola (Journalism/Mass Communication), who is also retiring; Maureen Cox (Mathematics); James Crowley (Women’s Basketball); Tina Dewe (Enrollment); Karen Heitzinger (Annual Fund); Timothy Hill (Technology Services); Carl Hunter (Cemetery); Catherine Leary (Mathematics); Richard Murphy (Safety and Security); Nancy Taylor (Business Office); Patty Thibodeau (University Relations); Dennis Wilkins (Journalism/Mass Communication)

10 years of service: Rayola Appleby (Library); Judy Barton (Facilities/Housekeeping);

Janet Burroughs (Career Center); Beth Eberth (University Relations); Anne Foerst (Computer Science); Dennis Frank (Library); Janet Glogouski (University Advancement); Jerry Godbout (Chemistry); Mary Rose Kubal (Political Science); Gail Marasco (Financial Aid); Kathleen Mason (Journalism/Mass Communication); Tom Missel (University Relations); Barbara O’Keefe (Academic Affairs); Todd Palmer (Management Science); Kristin Paul (Finance); Rodney Paul (Finance); Craig Sinesiou (Education); Barbara Trolley (Education); Patrick Vecchio (Journalism/Mass Communication); Kathy Zawicki (Sociology)

Retirees: In addition to Lee Coppola, Thomas Delaney, John Kupinski and John Mulryan, other employees who will be retiring are John Apczynski (Theology); Leslie Chambers (Education); and John Neeson (Physics). John G. Watson (School of Business), who passed away unexpectedly April 17, was also recognized.


Pictured, employees who were recognized for 25 years of service, pictured here with University President Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F. (standing, center) were: (seated from left) Paul Brockel (Athletics); Darla Freaney (Admissions); Patsy O’Brien (Arts and Sciences); Mary Kohl (Health Services); Daniel Tate (Philosophy); and (standing, from left) Fr. Peter Schneible, O.F.M. (Biology); Joe Flanagan (Alumni); Joseph Questa (Facilities/Maintenance); Charles Lute (Facilities/Maintenance); and David Matz (Classical Languages). Missing from the photo was John Kupinski (Biology).