William Austin
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY
Transcribed by
For the Marist College Archives and Special Collections

















Transcript – William Austin
Interviewee: William Austin
Interviewer: Gus Nolan
Interview Date: 10/15/14
Location:
Topic:
See Also:
Subject Headings:
William Austin
Marist College- History
Marist College (Poughkeepsie, NY)
Marist College Staff
Summary: William Austin reflects on hist time at Marist and his childhood in New Jersey.
William Austin talks about his love for sports and what led him to become one of the first
athletic staff workers at Marist.














00:08
Gus Nolan: Today is the December five, we have the opportunity to interview Bill Austin
one of our first athletic staff people here and did a multiple number of jobs in that. And good
morning Bill how you doing.

00:21
William Austin: Great Gus thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share
whatever I can remember.

00:26
GN: Well we're going to probe into that area is kind of four or five different areas we want
to look one before Marist coming to Marist after Marist and some philosophical concepts about
you know your view on sports and lifelong learning as it were things that we can learn in college
that will keep you young forever. Like you have done. So bill from the beginning just where
were you born, brought, up high school, that kind of thing.

00:58
WA: I was born in Brooklyn New York but at a very young age was moved to Atlantic
City New Jersey so grew up in Atlantic City and graduated from Atlantic City high, and there
was a necessity to move there. My grandparents raised me in the early years cause My father
went into the service in nineteen forty four and forty three and my mother was working it worked


out, worked out well and graduated in one nine hundred sixty one.

01:27
GN: OK what year did you graduate from high school is it?

01:30
WA: One nineteen hundred sixty one.

01:32
GN: sixty one OK in high school what you do high school did you play sports.

01:37
WA: Yes I did I played I was, on swimming team and play tennis and played football in
the fall.

01:48
GN: And where did you play on the line or you back.

01:53
WA: I was a quarterback.

01:56
GN: Even though they were the quarterback. OK.

02:00
WA: I wasn't a star but I played.

02:02
GN: OK after high school what happened what went on to Trent State College in New
Jersey? It's now called the College of New Jersey. I played tennis there for four years and we had
a very good tennis team and I played number two singles and it was all state of four years in
tennis there a Trent state.



02:28
GN: OK what did you study besides tennis?

02:31
WA: I was physical education

02:33
GN: Physical Ed, and your goal was to become a coach.

02:37
WA: My goal was to teach in college. That's sort a how I wound up in at Marist that was
my goal to teach and coach in college and I wound up going on to graduate school right after.

02:50
GN: OK let's put the time sequence is sixty one you’re out of high school and then you go
to Trenton State College.

02:57
WA: Sixty five.

02:58
GN: Until sixty five.

02:59
WA: And sixty six in the summer of sixty six I graduate from Indiana University with a
master's degree MS in recreation and physical education.

03:12
GN: And then did you have any job during this time were you working.

03:17
WA: I worked all till I was twelve to fifteen I worked on the beach.



03:24
GN: Don't make me weep know that must have been tough’s.

03:27
WA: As a beach boy delivered umbrellas and pads and then from fifth teen I think over to
twenty five I was a lifeguard in Atlantic City and that was an ideal job as a teacher and you could
always return to Atlantic City summertime and enjoy the beach and the sand the water.

03:49
GN: But that still a requirement that is staying alert and going in when the water is not so
pleasant and a little ruff perhaps

03:57
WA: oh yeah all those cases

03:59
GN: any outstanding stories of Lifeguard did you save anybody.

04:04
WA: Oh yeah nothing, probably over one hundred people.

4:11
GN: Is that so that need help and you pull them out

04:14
WA: But nothing and we didn't will lose anybody that was the moral point during where I
was and I'm going where I was.

09:30
GN: That's what they pay you for not very much but they pay you.



04:20
WA: I was hoping to continue the return to Atlantic City in the summers but once I came
to Marist there was lot of other activities in the summer that.

04:36
GN: OK let's get the genesis of that now I mean what was the entree. How do you how did
you hear about Marist then. How did you make your application and to whom.

04:45
WA: I was in graduate school at Indiana University and my graduate counsellor
everybody all the students all the grad students were assigned a counselor and he was the
basketball coach at Indiana his name was Branch McCracken and he had won the N.C.A.A.
Championships three or four times and he sort of a legend and he retired from coaching suddenly
and they gave him so many students to be advisors to and I wound up with him and he and one
day and meeting with him my he told me about the small school and Poughkeepsie New York
and I didn't even know where Poughkeepsie New York was

05:34
GN: not to many people did in those days

05:36
AW: and I asked him how he knew about it and he said that he had advised another
student and that was Howard Goldman and So he gave me the information and he must have
been in contact with Howard because he said they had an opening. So I wrote a letter maybe
called I can't remember for sure. And. I spoke with Howard and Howard said yes they did have
an opening when opening was Paul Arold was both the basketball coach and the rowing coach
and oddly he was decided to give up one of the activities and he was give up rowing and keep
basketball and I interviewed with Howard in Chicago Illinois I guess in March of nineteen


hundred sixty six I drove up was about a three hour drive Jane and I drove up and meet him in
Chicago. And he said he would let me know.

06:49
GN: Was he on the hunt for somebody.

06:50
WA: Yes he was he was there for a convention of some sort it might of been a soccer
conventional can’t remember for sure. And a few weeks went by and then he contacted me and
said that he would like me to come for a second interview and see the school. So at Easter time
when we did come home to visit. We drove up from Atlantic City to visit Marist and we love that
a lot. So he said that within a week or so they would be decided on what they were doing.

07:23
GN: Is Jan from Atlantic City area to.

07:25
WA: Very close Millville New Jersey about twenty miles away and then we meet at Trent
states.

07:33
GN: Was there a comity that interview you.

07:37
WA: I can’t remember. I did meet with somebody else besides Howard.

07:41
GN: Linus Foy.

07:42
WA: Probably was Linus. I wasn't quite sure.



07:45
GN: Tony Campilii.

07:49
WA: It was funny. I've remember meeting with somebody else and I was pretty excited.
So little time went by and then he called and said that I didn't get a job. That the fellow who is
going to leave Paul Arold decided to give up basketball and that's when the hired Ron Pietro but
two years went by and Paul Arold decided go back and give up and our contact me again
because I was here in Poughkeepsie cause we thought we were going to come we liked it and
Jane got a job with the City of Poughkeepsie schools and they offered me a position too to coach
swimming and rowing for two years they thought forever maybe but when Howard contacted me
again in the summer of sixty eight I said yes.

08:52
GN: Tell me what was the job description what we're going to do when you came here.

08:55
WA: I was going to teach twelve credits of physical education courses and the Course is
very we didn't we did add some new courses to curriculum that weren't there at first but it was
primarily teaching and then coaching as a second, second type of position. Just rowing and
rowing was a major sport in the spring but there was also a fall program to where you had to
teach and because many schools did not have rowing you had to recruit the people once they
came to the campus. So it was it was really interesting and I had rowed pretty much we didn't
have a rowing team at Atlantic City high school but I rowed in a club in club sports.

09:50
GN: Were you ever involved in the swimming program here.



09:52
WA: No other than helping with the pool them design the pool.

09:59
GN: I want to part about the McCann center I am interested in the job because I can't help
but remember at Howard’s memorial Your description of what you are doing I mean you start
with yes rowing but then you did a few other things. Oh yeah golf came into this.

10:18
WA: Teaching golf and just helping with any aspect and I just remember to the wrestling
team used to wrestle out of the boat house so I would sort of help out with them and every once
in a while there coach wouldn't show up so I would have to help in that respect and then I took
the team a few times down to New York City when it was impossible for he was a local teacher
when he had other conflicts but in the summer I worked round the outdoor swimming pool where
the Lowell Thomas building is it eventually made it a little bit of a swimming pool out of it and
we ran the program there. Got involved with upward Bound program and for many summers
worked in that program with the pool and so forth and then eventually we developed a summer
camp program. Ron Pietro and myself.

11:24
GN: What years is this now.

11:25
WA: This would probably be seventy one to seventy eight yeah we had a lot of activity
going on in the summer that brought a lot of kids to the camp.

11:41
GN: Where is the McCann center in this operation when did that come on play. The


original facilities were quite primitive if I remember.

11:54
WA: Right next to where were sitting now. When I first came in the fall of sixty eight the
gymnasium.

WA: And in the back we had a little printing press little area for a weight room that was there
but mostly the gym was made up of a small basketball court. Yeah and when you're you had to
touch the wall to be out of bounds. And we had a small changing room with three lockers and
that was where Ron Pietro, Howard Golden, and myself worked out of basically.

12:41
GN: Was Ron here when you came.

12:42
WA: Yes he was, he had come two years prior to me.

12:46
GN: OK and how about Larry VanWagner.

12:49
WA: Larry came my last year and when the McCann center opened in that would have
been seventy eight I guess the fall of seventy eight Larry was hired at that summer. I wasn't
really involved with swimming at all but just in the general design of the McCann center.

13:08
GN: Let's go back a little bit about that. We somewhere in the records you built your own
a rowing tank is that.



13:18
WA: You actually did have we did have a row intact actually right in this building where
the library was and everybody forgets about it I'm sure there's a picture somewhere in the winter
it was difficult to grow. And with ice on the Hudson and allot of the school had rowing tanks and
there was plenty of space here in Fontan that we could squeeze a four person rowing tank and
then we build it out of out of concrete we physically basically build it ourselves one student and
myself. Brother Donnelly helped us to you know with some advice and so forth because he was
in charge of all the construction on the campus at that time.

14:02
GN: It was actually a waterproof one.

14:04
WA: Yes we filled it up had about it was about three foot high and had about two and a
half feet of water and you sat along the side of the oars went in the water and you had to special
oars with holes and it was around a large bath tub sitting it a.

14:22
GN: Gave you a chance to exercise.

14:23
WA: Gave us a chance exercise and gave us a chance to teach the new fellas and continue
to them just to get a feel for how what there rowing stroke was in the motion.

14:35
GN: Now the beginning of the construction of McCann were you involved in that in
wanting to put the tank in there.

14:44
WA: Yes I designed the tank for the for there and I went around to visit some other


rowing tanks because the one was very primitive but it worked here in Fontain part and we
changed it a lot for there and for the new McCann center and it worked very well there I
understand it’s not there now. Yeah I think they took it out and use it for something else.

15:20
GN: Well as a health center down here to the doctor somebody else's as a health facility or
it's a whole medical set up you know and kids getting hurt to something that came. What was the
quality of the athletes that you had to deal with were they had they played before in terms of or
done rowing before.

15:43
WA: Most had not. Think that the rowing at the time was a natural because of the Hudson
River and the location of the campus but the effort I think Paul Arold hadn't rowed before and he
learned. And the competition level was not that great and I think and that over the years we
mixed. We did some routine from there we are able to expand horizons of Philadelphia and it
was a lot of high schools that rowed and there were some in northern New Jersey and southern
New Jersey were down in Atlantic city and we were able to recruit from those schools and mix
them with other athletes here at the students who were athletes in high school and some other
sports but I didn't want to play basketball or so forth and rowing was an important you know
aspect here to the campus because of the.

16:51
GN: Did you ever organized the regatta for here where you involved those kind of things.

16:56
WA: We were able to get the fall we were able to bring Colombian and Syracuse back to
here and they were two out of four schools that rode in the old regatta had stopped. So that was a


great race and it was a combination of our fall program they would come and we would race and
just have a nice friendship and so forth we actually had a dinner and in the cafeteria we had some
speakers over the years different speakers and so it was real good. Rowing was divided into
some of the older more elite colleges the Ivy League schools are very big in rowing.

17:48
GN: Harvard and Yale.

17:49
WA: Yes and Columbia, pen and then there was a smaller schools that started rowing
because that where they were located or their heritage.

18:00
GN: Where the woman ever involved in rowing.

18:02
WA: They I got them started in my next to last year when we first came when I first came
a couple crews of varsity and junior varsity and then we added a freshman men all these where
men and then we had a couple freshman teams then a few about six years later women started
then when I left we had all the men's teams and three women's teams rowing.

18:36
GN: Now was there how about the funding for boats I don’t know what you call them.

18:43
WA: Shells now that was always a struggle but when I look back it was a struggle but the
price then compared to what they are today is astronomically different than it was four thousand
dollars for eight and I think today it's twenty five thousand twenty six thousand. But the school
basically the schools funded the equipment and it was always a struggle but we did have some


giving. But it was there really wasn't alumni giving program then.

19:16
GN: What about the construction of the boat house.

19:19
WA: The boathouses house was built already I think that was it had been built I think with
Linus and Bill Murphy and a few other people who saw all the vision of Marist should be tied
into the waterway. And if we look back now thirty years has gone by Marist is so active with the
water. That the whole water front developing has accrued.

19:51
GN: There's a picture in Sports Illustrated of a number of years ago about a boat.

19:56
WA: That was our, we won the national Championship that year and so you got invited to
go to the to the larger level. And what happened that day was very, very rough.

20:14
GN: Was this Philadelphia where was it.

20:16
WA: This up is Syracuse lake owngada and it was very, very rough that day and a lot of
boat sank and we were on of them Sports Illustrated the picture. But it was great.

20:29
GN: Well we got publicity for a well it was over there in the McCann center. I didn't know
other boats went down that that it was the other part of it.

20:40
WA: Yeah they fill up with water and you just said it and then you got towed in to shore


and you had to slowly empty the boat out because it was sixty one feet long.

20:56
GN: Are you tied into it?

20:58
WA: No you’re sitting on the seat and you have your feet in sneakers. Yeah and there's
shoelaces but you're not you don't tie the laces you can get your feet out quickly.

21:14
GN: What amazes me why did you stay here so long you here form about what?

21:21
WA: Almost eleven years. I love Marist.

21:26
GN: How is that not know you know to come and you had big experiences with other
universities.

21:31
WA: I enjoyed it here and I would prole would have stayed forever. We did stay the
Poughkeepsie area forever but I just had an opportunity to get business and the business was it
was almost the same as what I was doing I was just so lucky. And Marist had given me so much
experience so much of an opportunity to learn a lot of things that it really was very. Beneficial
my whole life now as I look back even for those eleven years.

22:05
GN: What was the cement that kept you guy together I was this survival or Howard,
yourself, Ron.



22:13
WA: Well I think Linus provided us and with the opportunity I probably sort of look at it
as a lazy fair management where as long as you did your job well you're allowed to experiment
and keep going there and you know I don't know if that works for everybody everywhere but I
think in those early years of Marist that there were some good people both Howard, Ron were
great people and they developed you know lay the forefront the foundation for what you know is
this happening today I think I mean the academic programs that are here today there was some
really good people you know a the brothers really defying the education. I think that was.

23:10
GN: And they were serious I mean you had to go to class we had the sheriff.

23:19
WA: Quinley.

23:20
GN: Yeah that was sheriff in town but on campus we had Paul Stokes he was terror in
making the kids get to class and you had to wear a shirt and ties and socks and shoes.

23:32
WA: I came with nine hundred men wearing a jacket and ties.

23:40
GN: That was a unique now.

23:43
WA: No I don't think find it anywhere. But Marist gave you such those years all those
people on the list were successful in life good educations and they could have taught anywhere.
For some reason they all stay here because I think the students to I am in contact with probably
twenty five or thirty you know going back to the old years and there is some just great students


one called me the other day. Before day before the weekend before Thanksgiving. He ran into
my son and he had just noticed my son. But you know he just called he said I meet Billy here in
New York City in a restaurant to eat lunch together but he rowed at Marist he was from Atlantic
city but it was just so lucky to be able to come to an area like Poughkeepsie and get the job that
you wanted at Marist college I thought I would be here for the rest of my life but I just happened
that an opportunity came up.

25:01
GN: Let’s talk about that leaving Marist is that All Sport and what was the genesis of that.

25:10
WA: I think the Genesis was in my travels from Marist I was able to see the fitness
movement especially in California because I went and in Chicago. I spoke to some of the Marist
brothers in Chicago a couple times and then went to California to meet with alumni because
there was a big group of alumni in the San Francisco area during those trips in the mid seventy's.
I just was you know anxious. I saw things going on one of my students who was the captain he
worked out in California and came back here and got into fitness too and we remain very close.
He and I became partners and opened a real giant athletic complex right across the street from
Marist called All Sport.

26:12
GN: Now Mike Arteaga has been talked about it and it seems that it's not only a financial
kind of happiness or success you do something worthwhile.

26:25
WA: Yeah it's a business where everybody comes and there smiling and happy to be there.



26:30
GN: The atmosphere is a much more pleasant one. Yeah and you're doing that I mean you
know you keep people healthier your involved in that kind of activity.

26:39
WA: Actually it was besides Mike who was one captain of the team for two years and then
he graduated and then we hooked up together and came up with the idea but there was another a
less Bob Johnson he was an older Marist graduated at the time and he was a banker and helped
us get you know get so really Marist tied into the community very close and I think it was early
years when you look back. Marist and Poughkeepsie can see there was a big tie in of a lot of
people loved it. The Students stayed they came from Long Island, and northern New Jersey and a
good portion stayed in Dutchess county area taken jobs and it was nice you can always.

27:31
GN: My wife Liz you know had the teacher graduate education program and she couldn't
get over the number of schools you go to and the teachers are Marist teacher you know that
stayed in the area and went on and I've got jobs and were successful at it.

27:47
WA: I think you know we just met so many people and even today. In the gym business
that I'm in now I see a lot of I don't remember them all. But they all come you to me and they
talk to me especially in Newburg it's a different community. But then we had a lot of people
from Rockland County and orange county come to Marist in those early years and there's at least
ten people alumni that I see regularly over I know them now I remember them know I looked up
their names on our membership list.

28:28
GN: Fast forward now when you come back here Marist has changed dramatically. What


strengths maybe the biggest changed here where would you put your emphasis.

28:41
WA: It's funny I being staying in the community staying close to Marist I think that there's
surely unbelievable physical changes but I think the reputation of Marist in the not only in the
community because my business was spread out into Connecticut I own some gyms Connecticut
and Newburg and Poughkeepsie but in Connecticut as far as way as Hartford and Stafford. I
would see stickers on cars and I would see people and I would speak to them and they will tell
me their son or daughter they went to Marist I think that what I'm so proud of is the direction of
the educational opportunities I mean the physical premises has changed and it just took a
gigantic step. It seemed like this this September when they opened up to the tunnel. I was here
for the Hancock too, but what amazed was I came in the spring and that it come up till
September on the campus. I wanted to see the tunnel and I just the way it all was approached
with closing off the gates. The tunnel, the lighting, the steps to the tunnel on the other side of the
road on rout nine. I think those are great physical changes all the buildings given but I think that
over time over the thirty years or so I think I'm most proud of the educational steps that people
talk about that the programs that that that allowed the educate educators in the early years that
your talking to had so much to do with you setting the ground. The science the business. Just the
internship programs where all those thirty year old alumni are working now just retiring.

31:03
GN: Bob Norman his radio and the television all that stuff.

31:08
WA: And I think that all that was what I see as a tremendous growth college and of being
in the community all this time to just I mean it's great to see what the athletic program is doing


today but that's a natural growth as an institution. It's a byproduct of the students and the
education that without the education without the students you’re going to have anything else you
know. It's great that we were able to have some great benefactors who helped us along. And
some great leadership with Dennis Murray.

31:50
GN: Yes he had made a big step forward of course the foundation is there a Linus had
establish the whole attitude about an opening and experimental and not being stuck in the old
ways.

32:07
WA: Linus was tremendously I mean for our group I think we remember him as just a
great leader I just think he's he was I never work for Dennis but I do know him and all. But Linus
brought the college to a certain point and that was a tremendous sound education a group of
educators that were here. He was part of that with LaPietra help.

32:38
GN: Well and the other thing as you say the image this morning on television the Marist
MBC poll It's all over the place. You just keep hearing it and of course you know also the
requirement to get in I probably couldn’t get in here now much less teach here now much less
teach here now. All right change a little bit now to this idea of kind of a philosophical question
here what would you say to a parent or two who were considering sending their children either a
boy or girl to college is it worth the investment. You spent a lot of money a lot of time and effort
and at the end of it I mean the job situation now is one thing but I mean do you need it.

33:34
WA: Yeah I think I strongly think you do. I have about three hundred people who work


for me full time with part time but I would say to all that maybe five or six are probably college
graduates. My two children you know what went off to school and I think the do you need it is I
think education is one part of it. But I don't know if it's the most critical part I think that the most
critical part is that four years of learning how to learn whatever it is and I think that that's the
most important part and if you can match the right school up to the right person an education
they get a double benefit from it and they get a great education and so forth I think that later on
in life they will be able to apply those four years of experience that's so critical so I would
answer infaticly yes to everything parents should get their child an opportunity to get to school
they don't have to go away that they get off the school and get that four years. They have to work
on their own and they have to you know show up and do things on a timely matter and those are
things that start them off in life that lessons that they will need to be successful in life whatever
that however you defined successful is.

35:11
GN: You have come from an area sports requires a discipline you mean you can row
unless you can run you mean you got to run in the morning you get up there it's not too pleasant.
I mean that's part of the background for that whole thrust.

35:25
WA: And then you have to usually in collegiate rowing it's really eight so besides you
rowing you have to row along with eight other people and one person can do their own thing
they have to work together as a team.

35:39
GN: And is bonding.



35:40
AW: Is a bonding is a lot of work and a lot of discipline.

35:44
GN: Yeah what would you recommend for one of the problems we hear now is you know
the use of the kids having their own phones. There's so much still contact you know with the
home that they came from and the friends they have and they the need to create this bonding.

36:05
WA: I have meeting and there's eight people that have their laptops open. And they're
taking notes and you all think they're listening and I think it's the society now that we that we're
headed into and Marist has done so well with keeping the whole campus in touch and one of the
leading institutions with the use of the computer and the Internet and all of newest technologies
that are that have come out we just experimenting now with I Pads with are personal trainers. So
when you come in for a workout they work with you know carried a little I Pad with you and
record your information it's coming to the point now where I think Gus yourself and myself and
our people we think that their not paying attention and so forth but with their working with their
peers or the generations below us there in the same group of want to be in touch all the time and
just having at their fingertips that information they need I don't know what will happen in
another twenty five years just say that is something we're used to it now and we get.

37:26
GN: You seem to have keep up to brush this development the technology.

37:30
WA: We have in our in our in our business we have machines now that can record when
you were there last time an tell you how you were doing and things like that it just it's just part of
everyday life in a lot of businesses.



37:46
GN: The whole technology has kind of been absorbed into you things if you had a chance
to go to the board here what would be one thing you think you would recommend for a change,
is there something that strikes you that?

30:08
WA: I am no that close but just from the outside. I see a wonderful facility.

38:12
GN: OK and turn around. What should they maintain what do you think is going to keep
Marist going. You're pretty good at looking into crystal ball you can see things happening.

38:22
WA: I think to continue expanding the recruiting of students and getting better students.
Trying to keep upgrading that that application pool so they can get better students and at the
same time spending money on getting better professor and educators because you can build a
beautiful building but you need teachers. I mean I think teachers and students are probably the
two main areas that they have to keep maintain build the endowment so they can get better paid
for best instructors.

39:02
GN: Yeah do you have any words of wisdom about dangers in terms of sports and
athletics and winning we have not done particularly well in men's basketball and but we've done
very well. Woman's basketball is there how do you feel about scholarships make sure they go to
school at the same time.

39:28
WA: Yeah that's a tough one were in a pretty competitive area for a college basketball


student and especially on the men’s side. And I don't know that much about this men’s coach but
I know he came from a good program and I don't understand why we're not doing better. I don't
think it's a direct comparison to the women, the women's coach it was just a great a great
educator, and a great coach and do a little bit more about him but I think the matter where he
wound up. That was a very smart move by Marist to grab him but I don't know how they ever
did. I don't think he ever thought about leaving where he was right.

40:28
GN: He had state championships in about four different sports.

40:31
WA: Four different sports so he was a real educator a real coach. It was something that I
want to say about the level I think I think I've mentioned before but the establishment of what the
Marist brothers brought to the education and has lifted Marist to that level. And your group of
instructors who stay for thirty years really laid the foundation and I think it that's the hard part.
To keep that quality educators I said you could build a building, and build a lot of buildings and
it's not easy to get someone to donate five thousand five million to build an eighteen million but
you need those instructors.

41:19
GN: Once it’s up you got have people in there that are going to use it well and so on.

41:26
WA: I think we would be great but I think that the sports program is doing well for I think
it takes a while to build it I mean look at it look at the women's basketball I mean they made
incremental jumps ever year one of their next jump is make that finally eight or make that final
four so I mean it's going to happen. I think it's going to happen and you know sometimes it's a


little road. It's tough in basketball men’s basketball I think because I use to look at it there’s only
five people you need really few years to really build it I almost think you need one year per
person. Not necessarily because there’s eight guy rowing you would need eight years to build
rowing program but I think you would need four or so really solid years to build the men’s
basketball cause it’s so competitive with all of the tradition in this north east in New York long
island.

42:44
GN: And the tendency the glory hound the guy who's going to try and get the name
himself to go on to the pros versus.

42:49
AW: Especially now with the student staying one year like you said or two years and they
get drafted and so you think you got a good person and he does play very well and then he
decides to leave to go play in Europe or something like that. Yeah but education I think being in
the community theirs stuff that I hear I see so many people every day in the gyms some of them
know me from Marist they all was talk from the education side they do mention sport it but
education. I think Marist has just grown up as the building has grown so has the community
grown with it.

43:32
GN: You know if we won yesterday in Rider.

43:35
WA: I don't know I didn't look at the paper toady I hope they bet rider cause I don't like
rider, because there from New Jersey



43:44
GN: Twenty one twenty three I think you know for the. You know they sent out a survey
many years not too many years ago about our needs should we put up a new classroom building,
should we put this, one of the things on it was a stadium and I said to myself what in the world
are we doing with the stadium you know lo and behold the new class building didn't go up but
we were eventually going he Hank center but that’s not really a class room that another techno
logical and a lot of office space in there which we didn't have and need but they built the stadium
and I was saying I not know if this is worth it. Do you think it was worth it?

44:29
WA: Well you know sometimes you match up Gus with a person who has the money who
doesn't want to give it to a classroom cause his name is going to be on the door but who would
prefer to give the money to something more visible he's not to be able to give the five billion but
he could give two million whatever. And I think that's the one part but I think the second part is
defined that part of the campus. And now everybody who rides by what is it twenty five thirty
thousand cars a day go by rote nine they see that I go back to when I arrives it was a chicken
coop over that where hunting house and that were they changed. Now there's a turf field and a
nice stadium and so forth and I think that it's just another part of a well-rounded campuses and
my son went to a private school. It was an older, small private school it really added a lot of
facilities but just added maybe five years ago or six years ago a twenty six million dollars field
house with an auditorium separate little auditorium and it's only four hundred students but I said
to myself do they really need that. But they did because the competition for the students is so
critical. I think sometimes in education when the parents are talking to their children. Most of the
time I would say seventy five percent. There selected group of schools from name recognition or
area recognition not necessarily of program or education driven reasons. Or the match up of the


student of their student with that with that school. That they’re just saying well that's a nice
school its located over here they have all these programs so maybe my daughter will like that or
something but I think that that happens a lot more then than they really have a great
communication program, do they have a great chemistry and biology and they think that close
you know right away and I think that's what Marist has developed this great program.

47:15
GN: Well I think too. I go to one or two of the football game up stairs. I get invited to the
press box and I see them line up we have about ninety kids playing football on you know all of
them pay forty thousand dollars a year to come out of the tunnel and you know into this field as
you describe. You know there not gunna go to Notre Dame, and there not gunna go to north west
or Indiana both they come here they got there that's one thing they can do you know and.

47:50
WA: And if their parents match up there student with the right spot. Cause lots of children
are playing all these sports from young ages up and they're going to be played in the N.F.L. The
N.H.L. The N.B.A. They're not and then they pick a college that's the wrong college and they
picked a college because they want their students to play and he doesn’t make the team. Then
necessary then he get discouraged and he’s unhappy stay a year and quits. They should be
picking it where the education is the program that he's really going to get and then if you can
play that's a second but they don't l I can give you stories of some of our alumni here at Marist
that had sent their children to the wrong place.

48:46
GN: And some of them have sent them back here which is part of it. One of the other
things about they've done this One of the big finds lately here is the whole music program. A


good number of kids took violin lessons, beluga lessons, piano lessons, coral you know and now
we have like eight hundred kids you know participated in the music the marching band is one of
them is this in this have all of that kind of thing its changed face of what we were when we were
here in are hour early years you know trying to get are name on the map you know.

49:28
WA: It's tough get are name on the map because there were so many I remember that I can
remember what year Linus yeah he left in seventy eight after I guess because that's when I left
that when Dennis came I remember that just that was going to be a tough transition because we
the board of trustees must have hire a study or something They came back with that there were
going to be a lot of colleges that we're going to be closing. Yeah and so you know the schools
had to really look at themselves to really we define and make sure the mission was correct and
that everything because this competition was going to get it was very going to be keener and we
were in a very tough spot Marist.

50:21
GN: I never thought I mean we thought wester printing would be there much longer then
we were here and it turns out that they were the one that when down and we're here now actually
we occupied the a place for a number of years and class rooms over there.

50:40
WA: I was I ask a couple board of trustees why didn't Marist by that and they said it was a
very tough decision but now you look and look it's probably better because now you have shops
and stores over there and you got office supply whatever it is and it forced Marist to go north on
this side. And got the other stuff on the other side so I think it worked out it was probably the
right decision. I am sure they could have made that work but.



51:15
GN: It would have been a heck of a job cleaning it up.

51:17
WA: That was a big I think that was the unknown that the pollution that was there.

51:24
GN: The print, the oils, the inks that were in the ground and so on. Well bill it's been
wonderful anything we didn't touch that you know comes to mind you'd like to add to this. This
goes into what we call the oral archives and you see there's about seventy people now I've had a
chance. I'm just sorry to you too late not but Ron Pietro and Larry VanWagner said you know
you go to get bill in here and that was on my mind and I am glad you did come.

51:55
WA: I really appreciate you call me Gus. For me it was a crowning point in my life come
into Marist and I enjoyed it and I learned all the lessons that applied so many times in just the
early years with the Marist brothers and then the other aquinses that people that I work with there
were guiding lights for me and I thank Marist for everything really.

52:29
GN: It's been a good run.

52:30
WA: Yeah oh it’s running for good.

52:33
GN: Ok Bill thank you.