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Dan Mahoney – June 10
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2011




Dan Mahoney
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, New York
Transcribed by Wai Yen Oo
For the Marist College Archives and Special Collections





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Dan Mahoney – June 10
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Transcript: Dan Mahoney
Interviewee:
Dan Mahoney
Interviewer:
Gus Nolan
Interview date:
10

June 2011
Location:
Marist Archives and Special Collections Reading Room
Topic:
Marist College History
Subject Headings:
Mahoney, Dan
Marist College – Alumni
Marist College History
Marist College (Poughkeepsie, New York)
Marist College Social Aspects

Summary:
Dan Mahoney talks about his early years, his time as a student at Marist College, and
his career post-graduation. He talks about the social life on campus and his career in IBM and other
research companies after graduation.









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Dan Mahoney – June 10
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00:05
GN:
Today is June 10
th
, 2011. We're meeting in Cannavino Library at Marist College. The
interview this afternoon is with Dan. Dan Mahoney has come in from California and we’re
happy to have this occasion to talk to him. He's in the class of ‘69. Good afternoon Dan.
00:25
DM:
Good afternoon.
00:27
GN:
Dan, this little interview is going to take three different aspects: one before Marist,
Marist and post Marist. So kind of in an overview sort of way, could you just give us a thumbnail
view of before Marist: where were you born the neighborhood, grade school that kind of thing
for a few seconds?
00:47
DM:
Born in Queens, New York in Jackson Heights. Spent the first five years or six years
of my life there and then moved out to Long Island. Moved out to East Northport, Long Island. I
went to parochial schools, grade schools in East Northport. I was one of six kids. Number two
out of six.
01:16
GN:
How many boys and girls.
01:17
DM:
Five boys and one girl. And in quite a range. From my oldest brother to my
youngest brother was probably seventeen years. So I really didn't grow up with my youngest, my
younger siblings. I grew up with my older brother. And I went to St Anthony's High School out
in the old St Anthony's high school which now’s been closed out in Smithtown, New York and I
graduated from there in 1965, June of 1965.
01:58
GN:
That's a little bit about that high school. Did you play sports and any particular
interest while you were there?
02:04
DM:
I played soccer. It's Franciscan, it was a Franciscan school, very formative. If you
will, I actually spent the first two years in high school at Pius X preparatory seminary in
Uniondale, New York and then transferred in my junior to St Anthony's but so I consider myself
a graduate, you know, a graduate of St Anthony's. Franciscans were very strict instructors.


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02:39
GN:
Many parochial schools have that characteristic.
02:42
DM:
Yeah well. You know it's a … male instructors teaching at an all-boys high school.
You did what you needed to do or you got the crap beat out of you.
03:01
GN:
So you played soccer.
03:02
DM:
I played soccer, varsity soccer.
03:05
GN:
And the academics field? Did you have any particular club? Did you sing? Did you
have any choral groups?
03:11
DM:
No, you know, the unfortunate thing about a school like St Anthony's is that it had
students from quite a distance away and so we were… I probably lived a good twenty-five-
minute drive from the school and we took a bus when we reached a certain point where some
friends of mine had cars. And we drive.
03:41
GN:
This was a transit bus. It wasn't a school bus.
03:42
DM:
It was a school bus that my parents kind of paid for. And so it didn't really afford
itself to a lot of after-school activities. The soccer thing was the difference there.
04:01
GN:
At home any particular… did you … stamps, records, anything?
04:05
DM:
You know I mean everything that a kid could do at that or would do at that age. I was
very much… I was. My older brother and I were into sports and we did just about every sport
you can imagine it from hockey to stickball to basketball the tennis to golf to everything.
04:27
GN:
Did you have any work experiences during the summer and any jobs anything like
that?
04:31
DM:
You know this Carvel ice cream was where I grew up in Carvel ice cream store.
Actually ended up to be kind of the family workplace. You know my older brother worked there.
I worked there. One of my younger brothers worked there and so that was the primary, my
primary activity.


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04:57
GN:
How much as a time would that be a summer job?
04:59
DM:
No, I’d work all year around. Not a lot of work in the winter. There were some days
where there weren't a lot of people in ice cream store in the winter but then the big job was in the
summer.
05:11
GN:
Okay. Let’s move on. How did you hear about Marist? How does that fit into…?
05:18
DM:
This is an interesting story because there was one guy in the year before me, his
name is Jim Yardley at St Anthony's who went to Marist and as I was trying to figure out where I
was going to go if you're on Long Island, your choices, parochial-wise, were usually St John's,
Fordham, Iona and that was it. So I applied to all of those and I applied to Marist because I had
heard about it from Jim. And I truthfully … I don't remember whether it was before I was
accepted or right after I was accepted. My parents, I had never been up here and my parents
came up with me on a Saturday and we drove up here to Poughkeepsie. I remember that the first
thing that we did was drive down River Road to the river and it was a Saturday afternoon in the
spring and there was a crew race. And so we stopped to watch a lot of people out there watching
the crew race and it just had a really great vibe and the school looked great. It was smaller. It was
yeah, you know … I didn't really want to go … That's one of the reasons why I didn’t want to go
to St John's, for example. It was just a little bit smaller. It was more containable Yeah so, that
was my first visit and my first impression at the school.
06:50
GN:
St John’s was not in Long Island yet. They were still in Brooklyn, were they?
06:54
DM:
I think they were still in Brooklyn. I think they were still in Brooklyn.
06:59
GN:
So you came up when you … Did you ever had a chance to Fordham or Iona?
07:07
DM:
I didn't visit there, believe it or not, I had this coming up and this visit just kind of
sold me on the whole thing. Interestingly, Jim Yardley was here so we talked, spoke to him. Jim
Yardley was here as a sophomore when I started as a freshman but then he left. So my link didn't


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2011
turn into a continuing relationship but it was good to be able to do that and he actually did a
couple of good things that summer before I came. He and his parents invited my parents and I to
his house and we sat, you know, so that the parents got to talk to the parents and so on. And
interestingly, I do that now in California for incoming freshmen. So that you know that was
something that that impressed me enough to say that's important. Yeah. To do when somebody
going away.
08:14
GN:
The interest of the families to move out, to show, and to give a lot of details that
they're looking for.
08:19
DM:
Yeah and parents always have … parents have questions or obviously. Kids have
questions but then you're sending your kid away. And parents have a lot of questions and to be
able to talk to the other parents to some of the other parents who have gone through it is very
helpful. So.
08:34
GN:
When you arrived on the scene here at Marist where did you sleep, what was the
dormitory?
08:40
DM:
Leo, sixth floor Leo and it was a hectic … relatively emotional day normally is,
you’re going away to school. Parents, your parents … it's kind of like going to camp. Your
parents are dropping you off and leaving. But I was put into it I don't know why six-seventeen
rings a bell in my head but I was dropped into a room. I arrived at the room. My roommate was
already there but wasn't physically there. You could see he had moved in.
09:18
GN:
Two in a room.
09:19
DM:
Two in a room and all-male, was all-male. The school was all-male then and I met
Mike later on that day. Mike Cann and we ended up living together for the rest of the four years.
Yeah, we had one semester where we traded rooms right next door with traded roommates, the
second semester of the first of that freshman year but then we moved back in together and lived


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together for the next for the rest of the time that we were there.
09:53
GN:
Mike Cann was here about when the passing of Richard LaPietra.
09:57
DM:
Yes, he was here yesterday as a matter of fact.
10:01
GN:
Well, I don't have to tell you about him but he is still very much in touch with the
college and knows the spirit of the college really.
10:11
DM:
He's a lifelong friend. So even though we live three thousand miles away. He’s a
lifelong friend.
10:18
GN:
Let's talk too about Marist College. What was the academic feeling like? Classes, big
classes? Small classes? And challenging classes? Talk about some of that.
10:32
DM:
I wasn't the best student and so many of the classes were challenging.
10:40
GN:
Did you go?
10:41
DM:
Yeah. You kind of had to go.
10:45
GN:
Some we have, you know. They didn't go regularly.
10:49
DM:
Yeah, I was … You know I was a good enough student that I went. It was just not
real easy for me. Interestingly enough, it was very easy for Mike although I guess he worked a
lot harder at that Mike was a chemistry major. I was a Math major and Rich LaPietra always
used to joke that I was a bad influence on his chemistry student but you know all the classes, all
of the classrooms, all of the classes were in Donnelly and.
11:26
GN:
Do you remember some of the professors like George Summer, would you know that
name in English? Dr Schroeder, was he still here? In speech, maybe?
11:37
DM:
I am trying to… I know. There were a couple of guys non-Brothers who are in the
math department. I know Kevin Carolyn was in the math department. A couple of the other
fellas, I don't. I don't remember their names.
11:54
GN:
Did Foy teach you? Linus Foy?


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Dan Mahoney – June 10
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2011
11:57
DM:
Linus in my life… I have taken/ I graduated with a math degree and then went on to
work at IBM afterwards. But the two formative teachers were both math teachers. One of them
was a brother at St Anthony's who used to regularly beat the heck out of everybody but he was a
math teacher who just got you interested in math. And the other one was Linus and it’s funny
because I saw him at the last reunion and we were chatting and I told him that. You know that he
was one of the two most formative teachers. That is because Linus taught applied math. You
know he didn't, you know, he was great at theory and went through that whole thing but
whenever he taught something he used real-life example, real-life examples you know and so on.
Now try to do this and so you have to figure it out. It's not this generic thing you have to do that.
And he was outstanding. Yes, I did. I was lucky enough to take because he only taught every
other year. I think at that point.
13:27
GN:
He was the President.
13:29
DM:
He was the President of the college. He was a president of the college.
13:32
GN:
Do you remember, what was the situation so far as the required courses? Were you in
a sixty -sixty program? Would you remember that detail like that? Did you have to take
philosophy? Did you have take history?
13:42
DM:
We had to take a little bit of everything. It was a broad BA type of a process. I know
the one thing I did not take was language. It’s interesting as a math major that I didn't have to
take language which was okay with me because I was not very good at that. But all of the other
core curriculum of English history. We also had to take a theology class at that point which was
an interesting other story that we can talk about later. And philosophy and all of the sciences,
you know, you have to take to take certain science. You had to take a certain number of sciences.
I didn't take biology. I took chemistry and physics and did all of my science requirements
without taking biology.


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Dan Mahoney – June 10
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14:35
GN:
Was your physics teacher a small guy? Brother Brian Desilets.
14:38
DM:
Brian Desilets was one of my physics teachers. Yes.
14:43
GN:
He went on to IBM and did number of things after his time here. It's a strange
question I have on my paper. Why did you stay here?
14:56
DM:
Why did I stay here?
14:57
GN:
I mean ,what was the attractions because we were not a well-known college? The
accommodation were less than terrific. The library. we didn't have. The gym was more of a small
bam box.
15:13
DM:
Gym was … the gym. There really wasn't a gym you know as much as they say there
was. It was something that was the size of a basketball court. I remember playing basketball in
the gym where you had to put your foot on the wall to say you were out of bounds, you know. So
I mean there wasn't really much. I will. You know the classes were good. I didn't have anything
to compare it to. But you know I was enjoying the classes and so on. I stayed because of my
classmates I stayed because of the camaraderie that existed at this at this place when we were
freshmen, you may have heard this from other people. But when we were freshmen, we were
hazed and there was a hazing thing the sophomores did to the freshmen for the first week.
16:15
GN:
Carrying a rock or something.
16:16
DM:
I still have my rock. It has my name on it, my full name. It's sitting at home in a
bookshelf. You had to wear a beanie. You had to wear a piece of oak tag around your neck with
your name on it. The hazing rules which are in the archives now because I actually found them at
my father's house and sent it in here but the idea of the hazing was. There was no hazing in
Donnelly and there was no hazing in the dorm in Leo. Now Leo Hall was six floors of freshmen.
The entire dorm was freshmen so Leo Hall was a safe place, a safe haven. Now of course you
have to go from Leo to Donnelly and that was not a safe haven. Yeah in-between and but


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whenever you he came back to the dorm you had, everybody else was in the exact same situation
as you are. And I will tell you that first week bonded our class. Yeah it was amazing the way that
worked. And you know everybody does. We still joke about. I mean I played golf yesterday with
guys that still have their nicknames from hazing. You know, they are sixty-three years old. We
all know them by the nickname from hazing but they are. But that process bonded class. We also
had by the way you may not have noted this but we had a study period. Do you remember this?
So I don't remember seven to eight, or seven to nine, eight to nine or something like that where
you had to be at your desk. The first half of the first semester, the door opened in the corridor
and you had to be at your desk. Then if you made a certain grade, you didn't need to do that. I
think it was the first half of the first semester or something like that. But for the first half of the
first semester, the proctor or whatever would be walking down the hall. And it was ties to class
and you know you had to wear a tie when you went to class and all of that is kind of stuff. But it
was … we created the class of ’69, certainly created a tremendously tight group of guys to this
day. And we're still we're still very close. That's really what kind of kept me here because it was
always stuff that was going on. You had your friends.
19:13
GN:
What would you attribute that to? Was that an internal bonding that took place
without leadership? Or were there just certain characters that were always there? Some kind of
atmosphere created that allowed you to do that in other word you know?
19:28
DM:
Well, I think the physical layout of the school helped create it. Certainly for that
entire first year for example we were all living in the same building with the lounge. So the
physical aspect was there. We had a few good leaders in the in the class. Dr. Doherty was the
president of our senior class certainly. And other guys who were very involved in in you know
getting guys together, There was a good mix of sports and academics and whatever so you could
participate in a lot of different things.


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20:20
GN:
Move it off-campus a little? How about social life? Do you know where the Derby
is?
20:27
DM:
Absolutely the Derby was kind of the social weekend hub and it was great because it
was a walk. You could walk to the Derby and it was a relatively long walk. Franks was the other
across the road right. Right here so Franks was a lot easier of course. You've got to remember
also you know when you talk about social life you could drink at eighteen in New York State at
that. So everybody in the school could drink in fact the Rathskeller in the basement of
Champagnat served beer. And so that there were… we had mixers and dances on campus. The
the sister schools of St Mary’s, Mt. St Mary's and Ladycliff, Mt. St Mary's in Newburgh and
Ladycliff down in.
21:27
GN:
Were the nurses involved in this social life?
21:29
DM:
The nurses were very involved in a social life. Well I don't know why you were
particularly asking that but my girlfriend was from St Francis. In fact my first wife was from St
Francis and we were a couple, junior and senior year. And they got married when we got out of
college with everybody else. So yeah, Saint Francis was a small pool to draw from. Yeah
because really there were only about twenty-five girls in each class over there. So it was but it
was very convenient that she was right across the street.
22:18
GN:
Yes indeed. Moving on a little bit now. How do you feel about leaving Marist? Was
the Vietnam War on at that time? What was you take on that?
22:25
DM:
Well you know, there were a lot of things that happened while we were here. This is
one of the other bonding thing so I think that when we did, we went through. We had Vietnam
we had the Richard Nixon election which was a big deal, Nixon-McCarthy I guess it was. We
had Martin Luther King's assassination. We had Bobby Kennedy's assassination. So I mean there
was a lot of political and social turmoil going on and so there was a lot of things to get involved


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2011
in or a lot of discuss you know a lot of reasons to talk, to interact, to do different things like that.
When we graduated, we had kind of looking forward to three different choices: graduate school
because then you could … well let’s say, number one: Vietnam yeah because you didn't go to the
military and not go to Vietnam. Really. I mean some guys were lucky enough not to. But that
was what that was. Graduate school because that would defer that whole process. Or trying to get
a job with a company that would provide you with a deferment. And some of those actually …
some teaching jobs where you could get out of, get a deferment from going into the military.
IBM had some deferment. Some other stuff like that. So it was… everybody's nervous when you
get out of school. You don't have any place to go to the job market was a was significantly
different then. But the big deal […] was if you didn't.
24:22
GN:
I talk to guys who failed rather than leave. So they wouldn't graduate. So they had to
stay on. I mean the idea of jumping out into that world at that time when you add the secure
womb here where everything was nice and pleasant and then to have to leave mommy, you
know.
24:41
DM:
We had a pretty good we had a pretty good group of people who really jumped out in
the world. Then I left and went to I.B.M and luckily did not get drafted. And I don't never
questioned it. Never asked why or anything. I didn’t bring it up because I didn't want anybody to
know. I just kept working and I did fine.
25:06
GN:
And then

you were a math a major when you left here.
25:08
DM:
I graduated with a degree in math. And went to… When I was a senior among other
things that I did, I worked when I was here. I worked in the cafeteria. That was my longest job. I
was the guy who checked everybody's IDs when I came in the door to make sure that they had a
pass to eat there and then when I was … So the second semester of my senior year, I worked as
an intern at IBM down in South Road. Yeah and I would go down there a couple days a week


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and work with some engineers down there just doing clerical stuff for them. I wasn't doing
anything.
25:56
GN:
Did you know Bob Norman?
25:58
DM:
I knew Bob Norman Yeah. As an English teacher.
26:02
GN:
Yeah did he have anything to do with the internship?
26:04
DM:
No.
26:05
GN:
Was there a fella Kelly here at the time? Mike Kelly.
26:09
DM:
Yes, Mike Kelly was here but I don't remember how I got … It directed to that
internship down there but it's kind of a part-time job. And while I was there, the engineers I was
working with convinced me to take the programming aptitude test down there which I did and
then I submitted an application to IBM to work and it was accepted and IBM was hiring hand
over fist.
26:43
GN:
Big expansion program, they have gone from typewriters to sorting cards to
computers.
26:49
DM:
When I was in a programming class of ninety people that they started every six
weeks so in just that they were hiring those were ninety new hires just in that area of I.B.M.
Ninety new hires every six weeks.
27:05
GN:
We had a name, Brother Daniel Kirk. He was in psychology and he was a strong
advocate of doing an internship program. He thought that you’re too used to college, get out and
see what the real world is like. Work with people who have to work to make a living. That was
kind of … we have become I think known in a way for internship programs that we do operate
from here..
27:29
DM:
Yeah I don't even remember whether this was a formal thing or not. Or whether this
was somebody just who made me aware that they were doing that … Different than like an


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engineering internship or whatever we would go and earn while you’re doing that and then come
back to come back to the school. But I agree it's a whole lot different than working at a gas
station or Carvel.
27:59
GN:
Alright. Moving on, I've noticed you in your work life played a bigger role it seems
to me in administrative functions. Would that be right?
28:11
DM:
In my work? Yeah.
28:13
GN:
And what's the connection? How? You would think that math would keep you down
to doing number and figures and then the administrative is more of a interpersonal leadership
recognizing problems. How did that happen? Where did it happen?
28:30
DM:
Well, I’d say probably math is a skill. Leadership is a drive, you know so I mean this
is different you know. Driven toward one thing have skills in other things. I started as a
programmer when I got out of here and I will tell you I don't think I used any of my mathematics
training as far… I never integrated, differentiated, calculated, did any of that stuff but the logic
part. My math training was what I got out of my math degree was the logic process and the step
by step process that led me into technical, the technical side of I.B.M. And did me very well
there but then I became a manager at IBM. I started IBM in 1969. I became a manager at I.B.M
in 1979 and then managed people for the rest of my career. So I don't think I needed any, you
know, and at that point my knowledge and my technical knowledge was something that I had in
my hip pocket but it was not the primary thing that I was doing. It was more leading people to try
to get meet objectives and do different things like that.
30:00
GN:
In your management role. I have taught a course here in organization communication
perhaps doing with things such as downward communication, upward communication, horizontal
communication. As a manager, did you… Were you attentive to that? Were you working on
hearing what the people were saying?


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30:21
DM:
Absolutely. You know I got to give a lot of credit to IBM for that because I.B.M.’s
management training was focused on “you are as good as your team is.” And kind of
downplaying the success of the manager and uplifting the success of the team and so. And that's
something that was drawn to - interesting that you bring that up - because there are … I had a
conversation two weeks ago with guy that I used to work with, a good friend of mine who was
also an IBMer, and went on to be an executive at a bunch of other companies and so on. And he's
now writing a book and the two of were sitting around boring the heck out of our spouses. But
the two of us were sitting around talking about how IBM’s management training focused on the
care and feeding of your employees and how you should get them to jell to meet your objectives.
Communication’s a whole very interesting different aspect because I actually do consulting right
now. Management consulting on effective communications in a business environment so we can
have the conversation about that offline here but it's absolutely critical. And it's something that I
focused on a lot. I was much more became much more of a manager that was focused on the
development of my employees and that meant a lot of listening as opposed to a lot of talking and
so you know, an effective, an effective leader listens in and leads and guides as opposed to tells.
Yeah and so that's…
32:26
GN:
Well, you have to know where you’re leading?
32:28
DM:
Absolutely. I mean you have to have goals and objectives and be able to reach those
and achieve, you know and know what. And you have to set goals and you have to set objectives
and you have to… And then you know my point is you set the goals, you set the objectives, we
get rid of all of the hurdles and the obstacles in the way and let them go do it and then measure
them against that. Yeah, I don't know whether I could say than anything at Marist kind of gave
me that.
33:02
GN:
We weren’t teaching that course but were doing it now, you see. At least when I was


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Dan Mahoney – June 10
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2011
here in my last years, that was one of the things and I had a great opportunity. Part of that is the
culture of an organization and by that, I mean I had a chance to have a sabbatical at IBM. A
chance to have a sabbatical at Texaco and they are two worlds apart. Both of them within the
first ten of the Fortune 500 companies. But two different worlds. In terms of security and in
terms of just how people responded to things you know.
33:38
DM:
I have found and I work at a number of different companies but IBM for twenty-five
years and I can honestly say that I did not see any infighting and backbiting and that type of
thing at IBM in the entire twenty-five years now I'm sure it happens. I'm sure it's somewhere I
was probably lucky enough because I probably had twelve, thirteen different jobs at I.B.M. Yeah
and went from division to division and stuff like that and did all sorts of different things but
never found anything like that. And yet then I would go … I went off to household bank as an
example in their IT organization after I left I.B.M. And boy you know these guys wouldn't talk to
the guys in Chicago and those guys wouldn't talk to these guys, you know. It was, you know, …
They're trying to get my budget and they're trying to get this and trying to get that. You know it's
just a really difficult thing.
34:49
GN:
I had a great thought then I lost it.
34:55
DM:
Then I had an opportunity after that to get into the market research business, the
technology market research business for a couple of a few different companies. Dataquest,
Gartner and Giga and Forrester, these research companies and leading those as the chief research
officer to run all of the research for these company.
35:21
GN:
Wouldn’t math play a big part in that though? Aren’t you dealing with quantitative
samples or you know trying to get proportional surveys?
35:33
DM:
You know, yes and so I hired people who could do that and who really got off on
that that was and it's not you know you can find people who … that's their life. And that's fine.


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2011
Go hire this. So I had a whole division of Statistical Analyses and they were the people who
would analyze shipments, how many iPads Apple shipped, and how many computers these guys
shipped and so on and then come up with a trend in try to forecast and do all of that type of stuff
and then I had another group of people who worked with the technology companies to try to
understand their what was going on with their products and what kind of recommendations to
make to clients as to what to use and so on. And that's kind of the direction that I kind of leaned
was that area. Yeah, I had the skills to actually sit down to do that but it was and wasn't really my
love so. It's good from a managerial point of view to have the skills so you don't get duped and
so on and to understand things but you don't necessarily have to be and in fact, you probably
shouldn't.
37:02
GN:
Woodrow Wilson’s “I always use my brain the best I could but I got more brains to
help me.” The idea. That change the paces a little bit. Come back tomorrow to Marist you must
scratch you head when you come on campus here now and say, “Is this it?” You know how the
heck did this happen?
37:22
DM:
It's pretty phenomenal. I think that you know as I look at the campus and I've been
relatively involved over there over the years and you know certainly every five years, our normal
cycle is to come back every five years for a reunion or sometimes more often.
37:48
GN:
You have friends here too as well.
37:50
DM:
And there's a couple things that are the … The physical plant here is phenomenal.
And as I look back at think well, probably Linus and the brothers and so on laid the groundwork
for the physical … for the physical plant and the idea is just a simple thing of building
Champagnat and the theatre. And all of that kind of stuff was, you know, it was a big deal. You
know when I was here that was and that was as far as it had gone. But then Denis Murray I think
really had a vision and continues to have a vision. Yeah and I think it's fantastic you know the


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2011
I'm not like in New York and Long Island in Manhattan and all of the local guys here, you know.
Being three thousand miles away in northern California for the past thirty-five years and
watching all of this stuff happen from afar is really amazing and watching the school's reputation
build even in California is very gratifying, you know. I remember going to the first the first time
that I went to Marist baseball game at Stanford University when Marist went out to play Stanford
in a tournament and I walked in there with the Marist cap on and Marist t-shirt and all of my
buddies who are all Stanford grads because I live in Palo Alto sitting there going “Where the hell
is Marist? What’s Marist?” You know this was fifteen years ago or so but now you know they
kind of know the name. Yeah I mean the name is known. The women's Basketball Team. So
sports are one thing and you know now with them more and more graduates, you know the word
gets out and so on about the school and so when I come back here yesterday we had sixteen and
seventeen.
40:25
GN:
How was your golf game yesterday?
40:27
DM:
The golf game was probably ninety-eight degrees and dying out there. I did not play
as well as I wanted to but I played OK. I still didn't beat Jack Brighton back but that’s ok I
couldn't beat him when we were kids when we're at school but it was we were standing in the
Hancock Center. Yeah, I know and a couple of the guys and I were looking out the window and
has a great view of the Hancock center, the library, the rotunda and stuff like that and everybody
kind of just kind of said wow yeah what a change this is and I'm sure you know the kids who
come here now. Yeah the young kids who come here now obviously they don't appreciate the
change and the growth which is okay because you know when I came when I got here
Champagnat Hall was built and so you know if you were here the year before two years before
that in sixty seven there was no Champagnet.
41:41
GN:
There used to be a dormitory over in Donnelly.


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Dan Mahoney – June 10
th
2011
41:44
DM:
That's right and so they wouldn't you know they probably said the same thing about
us, you know. They really didn't appreciate the change, the amount of change but the
administration here now has done a phenomenal job with the school.
42:02
GN:
Yeah let me pick up one point that you might be able to do. We had a survey came
out. Dennis sent out a survey to faculty and Marist community about our interests and what we
thought were the priorities of things, a new library, new classroom building somewhere down
there was a stadium. And I said to myself, what would we do with a stadium? I mean we have all
these other kinds of things you know and then lo and behold you know one of the first things
Dennis does is put up a stadium and I'm saying to myself, why? You know the money going into
this you know now in reflection their saying you know I see mean I've been there a Saturday
afternoon for one of those football games, you know and it's just you know we're not Notre
Dame right.
42:53
DM:
But it buzzes.
43:54
GN:
But it really buzzes. Not only that, I mean other kinds of things the soccer thing that
take place there and all the activity. You were particularly inspirational in some way in
contributing to it. What did you see there? What was it that draw you to it?
43:17
DM:
Remember. I played a lot of intramural sports here. I didn't play varsity sports here. I
didn't play varsity soccer here for example. Even though I played in high school and I didn't play
here.
43:35
GN:
Was Howie Goldman here.
43:36
DM:
Yes.
43:37
GN:
And he had his Doc Doherty.
43:41
DM:
No. Well Dr Goldman so he was the taskmaster for certainly for the soccer team and
he was the head of the athletic department and I guess when I was here. But you know I see


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Dan Mahoney – June 10
th
2011
being in California, one of the biggest exposures of the school is athletics you know I mean that's
it so as much as you know as much as your field… that you know the academic portion of the
school is critical which it is and a lot of the training a lot of the other things that they're doing
with Florence and all of these other kind of stuff. The continuing development of the athletic
program is an important draw as well as ambassadorship for the school. When I host this
reception for incoming freshmen from Northern California at my house in the summer each year
for the last year as an example, there were probably seven kids who came with their parents that
we hosted and I think six of them were athletes. So, draws from a distance are sometimes
determined by athletics as opposed to just academics, you know. Academics cares if you live in
Newburgh and say you grow so I think I'll go to Marist cause I know it you know or whatever or
Albany or Long Island, everybody you know and whatever. Nut from a distance like where I am
in California it's a little bit more... It’s a little bit more of a draw.
45:43
GN:
That foot has raised the level of the enrollment trying to trying the application for
enrolments is that kids who they know the not going to make UCLA or not going to make Penn
State or not going to make Notre Dame but here is a chance and these people compete you know
so it’s like a one hundred students out there that pay thirty thousand dollars a year to put the
helmet on and say you know because athletes, I mean the academi, is not the only part of life this
is a thing called sports and social life and a whole lot of into.
46:20
DM:
My recommendation, I know I had… we were just today at a graduation for my
wife's cousin’s daughter this past weekend in Sacramento. And she was going off to school and
my recommendation to any kid going to school is to get involved. Your academics, your
education for the next four years is about thirty percent academic and about seventy percent life.
And so it's what you get involved in. It’s your friends. It's the social life. It's the sports life. it's
the club. What you doing on the weekend. Its classes. It's getting involved with you know other


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Dan Mahoney – June 10
th
2011
academic pursuits in other areas. It’s meeting other people from around the world, from around
the country. It’s interacting with them. It's going … You know, my roommate was from Ballston
Lake in Schenectady outside of Schenectady and going home for the weekend to Schenectady. I
didn't know the area at all but you know so use the time that the protected time that you're in
college and or university which is a nice sheltered environment as you know you've got to bed to
go back to and there's food around. Used that to do everything that you can do to try to find out
what your life is going to be like and stuff. Marist was a great small environment to be able to do
that.
48:07
GN:
I had an interview with Debbie. She used to be Debbie Bell, DiCaprio. She's in
charge of the students. She’s dean of students. And in the interviews, you know do the students
get the chance to use the pool, the basketball court, the athletic field. Oh yes, Gus you know to
two o’clock in the morning, they are playing intermural out there. Yeah, I mean I'm not around
two o’clock in the morning to see this you know I mean student life is so involved, so vibrant
you know just now. You provided a facility you know for it to take place I mean they like the
place like it's a regular big game you know. That part of it is certainly you know given the
attraction in my view at least that that we would never have had you know you've got to know
about Marist to come here and there will be you know about is by getting us out there to play and
participate on the national scene.
49:06
DM:
There's a lot of different ways that you know you can hear about Marist with the
Marist poll. You can hear about Marist with this things. You know if you know a lot of different
a lot of different ways that you can hear about the school and I think it's a well-rounded thing to
have all of … To have all of that because when you leave the school one of the things that the
school looks for is to develop methods that alums can be proud of about the school. You know
and you know one of them is athletics. There's academics. There's also it's a different way too


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Dan Mahoney – June 10
th
2011
but the athletics is one of the things that make a big difference.
49:56
GN:
What you had said before when you first came here holds true today. I think kids to
come on this campus from high school and see it, you know, “I can live here?” This is certainly a
strong attraction for them. Tell me this if you had a chance to talk to the Board of Trustees. What
would be something that you would tell them they should continue to do or maybe a change in
direction? Any of those things that you see that for the vitality of the college… there's a danger
now? Is college worth it? You know how do you combat that media thing that's out there that say
why bother going to college cause you can’t get a job?
50:49
DM:
Yeah, I actually think that's a temporary thing. There's a lot of stuff that the board is
doing. You know and certainly the school is doing that I agree with and I'm fine with which they
keep doing. If I were to say anything, I would say continue to, continue with, and develop
programs that are going to make people successful in their careers. And maybe that's a focus
more on developing or identifying career tracks in academia as well as non-academic areas but
and let people try things and get them exposed to stuff. I’ll tell you people get out of college and
they go into some area of endeavor that's not going to be what they're going to do the rest of their
life, you know. It's hard yeah. I know fifty-year olds who still don't know what they want what
they want to be when they grow up in trying to figure out where their twenty-one-year-old know
exactly what they want to do for the rest of their life. So they're going to come out and they are
going to try stuff and they're going to try different things. I encourage them to do them. That's
not a problem they may be like technology and maybe they like education and maybe medical
industry or whatever. But wouldn't be great to have them be able to get exposed to careers in
college, in the college. Maybe it's not a very formal process. Maybe it's informal process of
having you know John Noonan who's a surgeon in my class, my graduating class come back and
talk about being a doctor you know. Or come back to you know somebody come back and talk


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Dan Mahoney – June 10
th
2011
about being a teacher, high school teacher you know. We have quite a number of high school
teachers or you know a city councilman or whatever. I mean just talking about you know what
it's like to be these different things. My complaint as a … it’s not really a complaint as an
employer is that. There aren't a lot of kids who come out of college with that directions. They
have book smart but some of them have some social smarts although a lot of them not a lot, like
what it's like to work in a company, you know it's not it's really hard to teach that number one
without actually an internship like and we were talking about before. But you know trying to
help people get into an environment that they're going to get into. Like education. I'm sure I have
a niece who is a high school teacher out in California. And in California being at such a
ridiculous state from a financial point of view, they lay teachers off every Sunday every summer
you know she has no job security until she gets tenure but you know so she can make it through
like five years of all of this stuff and then she'll be fine. But so how do you explain that to a
student of what to expect? If you're in education or what to expect when you get into a business
environment then and whatever yeah I know that's something that yeah maybe you know try to
get some more …
55:24
GN:
The variety and the experience, try things.
55:28
DM:
Expose them to a lot of experience.
55:31
GN:
Right that would be. I'm struck by your reflecting on your math in terms of it being
applicable and you know understanding the principles and then applying them it kind of is a
liberal arts. Mathematics one of the major pieces you know. And I would say it means so much
depends I mean music depends on it that there are so many. And I would say Do you see Marist
on the verge of becoming too technical?
56:12
DM:
No I'd probably can't say. I think I think the world has a technical bent these days
When you look at the job market, when you look at it …


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Dan Mahoney – June 10
th
2011
56:32
GN:
Mr. jobs and putting his whole

array stuff out there

56:35
DM:
You know we’re not training is enough engineers you know we're not training
enough this and were not training enough that but I'll will tell you that I make a distinction
between arithmetic and mathematics. And I think people need to know the basics of arithmetic
adding subtracting, multiplying, and figuring something out you know as far as the numbers are
concerned, but they need the logic of mathematics and I got the logic of my arithmetic. I can do
that ok that doesn't really particularly turn me on but in these days, you can do with a calculator
do it with a computer. You can do with the whole thing but it's the logic of mathematics that I
think a B.A. in Mathematics. A liberal arts Mathematics graduate applies mathematics to the
worlds. a BS in mathematics truthfully, I think will teach you know what else you need a B.S. In
mathematics for you get a B.S in engineering you get a B.S. in IT, you get a B.S. Is in something
else to apply to those ranges but a B.S. In mathematics is going to teach math. Yeah, a B.A in
mathematics applies logic to the world. So the way I'd look at it I know it, makes most sense
58:17
GN:
Yeah, I can understand that I have spoken to Dennis about distance learning. And I
never … I mean he admitted to me is this: he is for it for the graduate level but he wants
undergraduates to come to campuses. Yeah you have to live with your pears. You have to
interact you have to grow up on your home away from home you know. And this is the home
that he built for four thousand kids you know.
58:55
DM:
Good for Dennis because I managed at Forrester Research and Giga Information
Group before that. I managed distributed organizations of analysts of technology analysts and
these aren't like programmers. These are people who watch the technology industry and can sit
down with Steve Jobs and tell him what the what he's doing wrong and Steve Jobs listens to
them and stuff like that so but there it was a distributed network people all over the world and
they worked out of their homes and they did or they worked out of a remote office where they



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Dan Mahoney – June 10
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2011
were. It's a common business environment now to be to be remote but my feeling is that nobody
can work in that environment unless they previously have worked in an environment where they
were interacting with human beings with other human beings in the office and to go back to the
thing that I said before that your education is thirty percent classroom. That's all you get in a
remote in a remote learning you know in a distributed learning thing is that thirty percent you
don't get the other seventy percent which is learning how to live with people. How to interact
with others? How to participate with groups? How to get something done as a team? How to do
something like that you missed that? I have a nephew who is going to the San Jose State
University all on the computer. And he lives in San Jose and always taking his computer online
computer classes and I'm saying that poor kid is not going to first of all it what he's doing is he's
doing it for the chit and no I mean you got it you know a college degree is the you know the
minimum entry level. Yeah, these days he gotta get it. That's what he's doing. I am saying you’re
missing so much missing so much to do that now at the graduate level I think it could work OK
in fact I'm working with Elmore Alexander who I had lunch with right before I came here on
helping his graduate program over there.
01:01:42
GN:
Dan we've got about an hour a lot I want to thank you it's been a wonderful run.
It's just a follow through of your own life of being here and gone out and putting it to work in
your own way.
01:01:55
DM:
Yeah oh it's been great. I continue to be amazed at what's going on here.