2007 Award Recipients
Edgar Dusty Bredbenner Jr. 50 Distinguished Alumni AwardSusan DiPace 74
Jay L. Linden 72
James J. Whalen Meritorious Service Award
James J. Byrnes
Terry Reimers Byrnes
Professional Achievement Award
Richard H. Jadick 87
Lifetime Achievement Award
Robert W. Christina 62
Laverne Misner Light 42
Outstanding Young Alumni Award
Russell J. Tucker 97
Edgar Dusty Bredbenner Jr. 50 Distinguished Alumni Award
Susan DiPace 74In mid December 2006 the Ithaca College community was stunned and deeply saddened to learn of Susan’s DiPace’s sudden death, following an accident in which she was struck by a car. Susan had been one of Ithaca’s most dedicated alumni, having served on numerous College committees. At the time of her death, she was vice president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. She was first elected to the board in 1979 and served, off and on, for a total 17 years, having been a member of almost every committee.
An Ithaca College graduate in history, she went on to earn a master’s degree in counseling from Fairfield University. While in graduate school, she was a substitute teacher in history, English, science, and music at Rye High School in Westchester County, New York. Following graduate school, she worked as operations manager and client liaison for a temporary placement agency in New York City. She then joined Nortel Networks, where she was employed at the time of her death as senior manager of human resources, responsible for a global team of more than 400 employees and specializing in coaching/problem-solving, employee relations, and employee development.
Even when she was not serving on the alumni board, Susan remained actively involved with Ithaca College, attending Network Nights in New York and Washington, D.C.; traveling to campus for many Alumni Weekend and Homecoming events; participating in the revitalization of the NYC Alumni Club, which she chaired for several years; helping to establish the Westchester/Fairfield Alumni Club; acting as an alumni admission representative; serving as a guest speaker for business classes; mentoring students through the Office of Career Services; and chairing her 20th and 25th class reunion committees. She was also a generous donor to the College and chair of the Ithaca College Westchester/Fairfield Counties Regional Campaign Committee.
It would be difficult to find someone who cared more about Ithaca College and the IC community than Susan DiPace. We honor her posthumously for her dedication and loyalty to Ithaca College with the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Edgar Dusty Bredbenner Jr. 50 Distinguished Alumni Award
Jay L. Linden 72Jay Linden is executive vice president of the NBC Strategic Partnership Group (SPG), which finds creative solutions for business development using the broad assets of NBC Universal. In 2004, he was a driving force behind Bank of America’s sponsorship of “Democracy Plaza,” a two-week event in Rockefeller Plaza that attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors. “Democracy Plaza” served as a unique venue for all of NBC’s news networks to come together to cover the final days of the 2004 Presidential campaign. On election night, thousands gathered in Rockefeller Plaza to watch NBC news coverage in person.
In 2003, Jay was the sixth Skip Landen professional in residence at Ithaca College. In addition to a free public lecture, "Creativity through the Eyes of Business," Linden met with faculty and students and gave a series of master classes.
Before launching SPG in 2002, Jay was NBC’s senior vice president, sales development and marketing, responsible for all sales-related marketing strategies and new business development for the NBC Television Network. He broke new ground at NBC in the area of integrated marketing by developing promotions such as Oldsmobile’s sponsorship of the 25th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live,” which delivered tens of thousands of leads for test drives.
Jay joined NBC in 1981 as an account executive for NBC Spot Sales and has held numerous sales and management positions since then, including vice president, daytime and late night sales; director of Olympic sales for the 1996 Olympic summer games in Atlanta; account executive, NBC prime time sales; sales manager, NBC spot sales; and director of sales, WNBC. Before joining NBC, he was a producer/director at WBZ-TV in Boston and an account executive at WTEN-TV in Albany, New York, and at TeleRep, the station representative in New York.
Jay earned his bachelor’s degree in television-radio from Ithaca College and a master’s degree in communications from Syracuse University. He and his wife, Judi, have two adult children: Jessica and Daniel.
2007 James J. Whalen Meritorious Service Award
James J. ByrnesJim Byrnes is the chairman of Tompkins Financial Corporation, a financial services holding company with more than $2.2 billion in assets. Tompkins Financial Corporation is the parent company of three community banks, including Tompkins Trust Co. (of which Jim is chairman), the Bank of Castile, and Mahopac National Bank, as well as Tompkins Insurance Agencies, Inc. and AM&M Financial Services Inc.
Jim received both his bachelor’s degree and an M.B.A. from Cornell University. He served as a U.S. Army infantry officer from 1964-66 and has worked in banking since that time, including positions at Citibank and the Bank of Montreal.
He has been involved with several community organizations, including Finger Lakes Land Trust, the Tompkins County Foundation, Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, and Tompkins County Area Development. He currently serves on various advisory committees at both Cornell University and Ithaca College and is involved with the undergraduate business programs at both institutions.
He lives in Ithaca, New York, with his wife, Terry, and has an adult son, Andrew. His hobbies include playing golf and flying his personal plane.
Jim and Terry are being honored with the James J. Whalen Meritorious Service Award for their outstanding dedication and community volunteer work including Ithaca College.
2007 James J. Whalen Meritorious Service Award
Terry Reimers ByrnesTerry Byrnes is currently the president of the Ithaca Public Education Initiative, a community-based, all-volunteer, non-profit organization that supports the teachers and students of the Ithaca City School District by connecting our schools with the human and financial resources within the community.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College in 1968, Terry lived for a year in Tokyo, Japan, teaching English and working at the Yoseido Gallery in Tokyo. She then became a banker with Citibank in New York, moving from there to a job with Manufacturers Hanover Bank in New York and Toronto, Canada.
Terry moved to Ithaca in 1988 with her husband, Jim Byrnes, and their son, Andrew. In 1992, she was elected to serve on the board of directors of Cayuga Medical Center until 2001. She became treasurer of the Ithaca Public Education Initiative in 1996, and in 2003, she was named president of that organization.
Terry has been an active and enthusiastic member of the Friends of Ithaca College, and has served at its president. She is currently a member of the Friends Advisory Council.
Terry’s numerous other volunteer activities include membership on the Johnson Museum Advisory Board and the Cornell Plantations Advisory Board, as well as the Cayuga Medical Center Gala Committee. She is also a chartering organization representative for three Boy Scout units at the First Congregational Church. She has been a volunteer with the Boy Scouts for 18 years, and is also actively involved with school PTA organizations and her church.
She lives with her husband, Jim, and has one adult son, Andrew.
Jim and Terry are being honored with the James J. Whalen Meritorious Service Award for their outstanding dedication and community volunteer work including Ithaca College.
2007 Professional Achievement Award
Richard H. Jadick 87Richard Jadick ’87 is the first Navy doctor in the Iraq war to be awarded the Bronze star with a Combat V. At age 38, he was one of the senior medical officers at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and too old to be a combat surgeon. But when a medical committee came knocking on his door looking for a junior-grade Navy doctor to go with the First Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment to Iraq, Richard volunteered.
For his work in Iraq, Richard received the Bronze star with a Combat V. His commanding officer, Lt. Col. Mark Winn, estimated that without Richard at the front, the Marines would have lost an additional 30 men.
Richard grew up in Slingerlands, New York, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps upon graduation from Ithaca College in 1987. He was assigned as a communications officer with Marine Wing Communications Squadron-28 and later served with Marine Air Support Squadron-1 as the communications-electronics officer, and as the adjutant for the Baltimore Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS).
Richard received his doctor of osteopathic medicine degree in 1997 from New York College of Osteopathic Medicine and did his surgical internship at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He then served as the battalion surgeon for 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines and as regimental surgeon for 6th Marines from 1998 to 2001. He completed his second year of surgical residency at the National Naval Medical Center and returned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina as the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) surgeon in 2002. He saw combat operations in Mosul, Iraq, as well as stabilization and anti-terrorism operations in Liberia, Djibouti, and Kenya. Upon his return to II Marine Expeditionary Force, he assumed the role of 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade surgeon and returned to Iraq for his second tour with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. He participated in combat operations in Haditha, Rawah, Hit, and Fallujah.
He is currently a fourth-year urology resident at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. He lives in North Augusta with his wife, Melissa, and their daughter, MacKenzie.
His military awards include: the Bronze Star with Combat V, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, and numerous unit citations.
2007 Lifetime Achievement Award
Robert W. Christina 62Bob Christina is internationally recognized as a leading scholar in learning and performance movement skills, such as those found in sport. He has authored over 106 scholarly publications, including 10 books, and has given more than 200 presentations throughout the United States and in Canada, Northern Ireland, Germany, Greece, Scotland, England, Portugal, South Korea, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and France. He served on the editorial boards and as a reviewer of the most prestigious scholarly journals in his field, as well as on a National Research Council committee of the National Academy of Sciences to study techniques for enhancing human performance for the U.S. Army Research Institute.
Bob has been quoted and his research cited in numerous national media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, and Golf World Business, and has appeared on NBC, CNN, and the Golf Channel. He has received the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education’s highly prestigious Hetherington Award, and also was inducted into the National Association for Sport and Physical Education’s Hall of Fame.
Bob received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Maryland. He taught health and physical education and coached at the high school and college levels from 1962-72. While a coach at SUNY-Brockport in 1972, he was named Baseball Coach of the Year by the SUNY Athletic Conference. After 17 years as a professor of Exercise and Sport Science at Penn State University, he became chair of the Department of Physical Therapy and Exercise Science at SUNY-Buffalo. In 1992 he became dean of the School of Health and Human Performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a position he held until his retirement in 2001.
A 1962 graduate of Ithaca College, and a native of Auburn, New York, Bob now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Barbara. They have three children: Bob, Lynn and Lori, and five grandsons: Dawson, Parker, Daniel, Michael, and Braden.
2007 Lifetime Achievement Award
Laverne Misner Light 42Laverne Light ’42 has appeared in more than 100 theatre productions; raised four sons; taught acting, voice, and speech classes; written prize-winning poetry; spent months at a time in Africa visiting her sons and their families; and at the age of 90, does the New York Times crossword puzzle in ink.
Laverne was born in 1917 in Niagara Falls, New York. At age 13, she saw a production of “Hedda Gabler” and fell in love with the theatre. Teachers urged her to consider acting as a profession, and she enrolled at Ithaca College as a speech and drama student in fall 1937.
At a freshman dance, she met her husband, Ben Light, who was then a senior. As a sophomore, she played the role of Queen Elizabeth in a production of “Elizabeth the Queen” by Maxwell Anderson. She also sang regularly with a jazz band that featured Craig McHenry, future dean of the School of Music, on trumpet and the IC band conductor, Walter Beeler, on trombone. At the beginning of her junior year, she married Ben, and their first of her four sons, Gordon, was born three years later.
The Lights stayed in Ithaca. Ben was employed at Ithaca College until his death in 1974, and Laverne taught English in the local school system, directed the Ithaca Children’s Theatre Workshop, and taught speech at the College. In 1968, she accepted as position teaching acting, graduate voice, and speech for performance at Cornell University. She also acted with the Ithaca Community Players, the Green Room Circle, and the White Museum Art Players. She performed eight seasons with the Ithaca Repertory Theatre and three seasons with the Finger Lakes Lyric Circus in Skaneateles.
She has also performed with the California Actors Theatre in Los Gatos, California and the Theatre at Monmouth in Monmouth, Maine, as well as regional and local theatres in New York, Massachusetts, and Kentucky. She has appeared off-Broadway in both musicals and dramatic plays. Her most notable roles include Joan of Arc, Jenny Diver in “The Three Penny Opera,” the title role in the “Madwoman of Chaillot,” Dolly Levi in “The Matchmaker,” the nurse in “Romeo and Juliet,” Amanda in “The Glass Menagerie,” and Charlotta Ivanovna in “The Cherry Orchard.”
She has also worked in television, radio, and film, including the role of Dr. Mansfield in a film that is now a cult classic: “UFO Target Earth,” which was released nationwide in 1974.
Ithacans have seen her perform at the Hangar Theatre, Central Casting, Cortland Repertory, Cornell University, Ithaca College, and the Kitchen Theatre. At age 85, she appeared in Ithaca College’s “A Little Night Music,” and in 2005, she performed in the State Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol.”
2007 Outstanding Young Alumni Award
Russell J. Tucker 97Since graduating from Ithaca College 10 years ago, Russell Tucker has performed alongside Frank McCourt on stage and Meryl Streep on screen. He has built props, puppets, and costumes for the 1997-8 season of “Saturday Night Live”; worked as a media copywriter for a New York-based Internet start-up company; toured the nation as Grover in the “Play with Me, Sesame” mall tour; and performed with large-scale puppets for “The Firebird” at Carnegie Hall.
Since 2003, he owns and operates a small business in Brooklyn, New York, called Highly Flammable Toys, which creates personalized six-inch action figure likenesses for clients around the world. Russell makes original sculptures in wax and clay from photos provide by the client, then creates packaging for the figure, first in Photoshop and then in cardboard and plastic. The end result is what appears to be a mass-produced action figure, complete with accessories and photos of friends and family on the back of the box. Highly Flammable Toys has been written up in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the New York Post, and Time Out New York. The company has also been featured on National Public Radio’s “Studio 360” program.
Russell’s latest endeavor is the creation of a new company called Monkey Boys Productions, LLC, which he co-founded with three friends, including Marc Petrosino ’98. Within its first six months, Monkey Boys has created 10 stage puppets for the “Go Diego Go! Live” show, three puppets for a new children’s TV pilot, and seven Bunraku-style puppets for a Sony TV commercial recently shot in Mexico City. The company is also shopping around a self-produced pilot for a children’s TV show titled “Tiki Island.”
Russell lives with his wife of eight months in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and their two dogs: Toby and Leo, named after characters on “The West Wing.” He is being honored for his achievements with the Outstanding Young Alumni Award.
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