Fred Weiss Oral History Transcript
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Part of Fred Weiss Oral History
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Interview with: FRED WEISS
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY
Transcribed by Lily Jandrisevits
For the Marist College Archives and Special Collections
Transcript: Fred Weiss
Interviewee: Fred Weiss
Interviewer: Gus Nolan
Interview Date: 1 July 2014
Location: James A. Cannavino Library
Topic: Marist College History
Subject Headings:
Weiss, Fred
Marist College Alumni
Marist College (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.)
Marist College. Athletics
Marist College (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.)--Social Aspects
Summary: Fred Weiss, an early alumni of Marist College, talks about his experience attending
Marist, including being an early member of the basketball team when it first formed. He reflects
on his time on the team and his career at IBM. He also discusses the changes he has seen the
college go through, and what brought him back as a volunteer at the school.
Fred Weiss (
00:00
):
Thank you.
Gus Nolan (
00:09
):
Today is Tuesday, July 1st, 2014. We have the honor of having Fred Weiss to come for this oral
interview for the Marist Archives. Hi, Fred.
FW (
00:20
):
Good afternoon.
GN (
00:21
):
Yeah. Fred, this is, as I said, an oral interview, and we're using it along with some other sixty to
eighty, I guess, interviews that we've had from a number of candidates from administrators and
students and security guard. And our help here at Marist, trying to get a picture of the early days,
what was Marist like in its formative years. So, we thought it would be good to get somebody
like you who was around in those earlier years and get your impression now of what it was like
then. And then make some comparison to where we are today. But for you first, something about
yourself, just kind of a thumbnail if you would before Marist where were you born? Grade
school, high school, family?
FW (
01:16
):
Well, I was born in Queens, Long Island. And my dad had always had an interest in moving his
family out of the city. So, that took a few years to accomplish. And a couple of attempts, he first
moved us up to Hudson, New York, and-- but he continued to work in New York City. So, it was
a case where for the weekdays he was down there and my youngest mother with a few of the
2
Fred Weiss
children at that point were trying to survive up in Claverack Hudson. That didn't last more than a
year or so. The winters were rough. She didn't have a car, all that kind of stuff. So, we ended up
relocating back to Queens. And then later he brought the family up to Clinton Hollow, know
where that is. And that's where we stayed. And at the time that occurred, I was starting the third
grade here. Prior to that, I was in parochial school down in Queens as a--.
GN (
02:10
):
Move on through grammar school. You stay there through the eighth grade?
FW (
02:14
):
Up here? Yeah. Well, up here, yes. Well, I went all the way through Roseville High School, too.
GN (
02:19
):
Oh, Roseville High School, okay.
FW (
02:19
):
During those days our elementary school was to sixth grade, and then we moved to the singular
school, which was middle school and junior high and high school. So, I graduated actually from
Roseville High School in 1958.
GN (
02:33
):
1958.
FW (
02:34
):
Right.
3
Fred Weiss
GN (
02:34
):
Okay.
FW (
02:35
):
And I didn't go immediately to college or to Marist.
GN (
02:38
):
Okay. We're still in high school. Something about activities. Did you play sports? Did you have--
.
FW (
02:46
):
I did. Yeah. In the younger years, you know, I dabbled in many of them I did a little baseball for
a year or two. I even did football as a ninth grader, I went out for basketball in the ninth grade,
and I got cut. Didn't make the team and--.
GN (
03:02
):
Not big enough [laugh].
FW (
03:04
):
Well, I guess I just wasn't ready, you know, you got to always keep in mind in this kind of early
conversation that we were out in Clinton Hollow, and we were a small farm family.
GN (
03:13
):
I see.
FW (
03:13
):
4
Fred Weiss
And we didn't have a lot of supportive kinds of things, and we certainly didn't have the suburban
community type of basketball facilities. So, our original basketball was either to literally some
kind of--.
GN (
03:24
):
A basket [laugh].
FW (
03:24
):
A self-created basket, or in our case, it was even between a couple of branches of a tree that was
shot through there, you know? So, I didn't make it in the first year, and the second year I didn't
even go out for the team. But fortunately for me, our gym teacher was also the varsity basketball
coach. So, he saw me developing, you know, athletically. And he encouraged me to come out as
a junior. So, I did. And I played, I started right away and played two years at Whistle High
School. And we did very well in our senior year. We were seventeen and one. And, we were
very, very successful. And then I began to play basketball and softball, but mainly basketball in
local town communities.
GN (
04:06
):
I see.
FW (
04:07
):
Leagues, I should say, in those years, it was some very, very good basketball out in the local
community. The Y sponsored them, some of the industrial businesses sponsored teams. So that's
kind of what I was doing, and I didn't know what I wanted to do academically, I guess at that
point. I really didn't have a particular interest in going forward. And I have one older brother
5
Fred Weiss
who was one year ahead of me, and I saw what was happening in his life. He actually went into
the Air Force for, turned out to be a short time. He didn't like flying. So, he left and he went to
Dutchess Community College didn't exist at that time, so he went to Westchester Community
College, so about that time, and some other friends were talking about going on to college. And
then the subject of Marist would come up in those kinds of conversations.
GN (
04:57
):
Give me a year. This is 1950, or there--?
FW (
04:59
):
Well, now it would've been 1960. That's when I started here at Marist.
GN (
05:02
):
Okay.
FW (
05:02
):
In the fall of 1960.
GN (
05:03
):
Okay.
FW (
05:03
):
So I was out from December, I mean, from June of '58 until before when I was working odd jobs
in the area, different things, you know, construction and various other things.
GN (
05:16
):
6
Fred Weiss
Now, the selecting of Marist, it was nearby and the competition wasn't so hard to get in.
FW (
05:24
):
That's correct. Yeah. I know. That'd be a greater challenge for me today [laugh].
GN (
05:27
):
Yeah. For all of us. Yeah. I taught here. I don't know that I could even get in now as a student,
you know? So, things have changed. Alright. Give me a rundown of the campus. In other words,
you did see other colleges I suppose and I'm a little surprised that Manhattan didn't make you an
offer, or did they?
FW (
05:50
):
No, they did not.
GN (
05:51
):
They did not.
FW (
05:52
):
You know, I had interest expressed in me, but from pretty much upstate schools. I didn't know
them well, Alfred was one I remember. And there were a couple of others up there too. No, you
know, I just didn't have, I guess, enough of a--
GN (
06:11
):
Fire for that kind of thing to get into.
FW (
06:13
):
7
Fred Weiss
Right, sort of credentials at that time to be sellable at that level of play.
GN (
06:17
):
Yeah, I see.
FW (
06:17
):
At the time.
GN (
06:18
):
But now coming to Marist, we were still rather primitive, were we not?
FW (
06:23
):
Well, very much so. Yes. Certainly. Just to start with the athletic side of it, there was very little
in the form of any organized athletic programs.
GN (
06:32
):
Okay hold off there for just little bit. Let's go academically.
FW (
06:35
):
Okay. Sure.
GN (
06:35
):
I mean, did we have a classroom building yet? Was Donnelly up yet?
FW (
06:39
):
8
Fred Weiss
You know, I'm trying to resurrect that timeframe in that regard. I think of it as being up. But I
happen to look at the year to year site, what it says for the history. And I think they talk about
1962 is it opening, but I started here in fall, so there might have been a full year where maybe it
wasn't finished yet.
GN (
06:57
):
Yeah. I see.
FW (
06:59
):
But I certainly remember, I do remember it being a dormitory, being attached to the cafeteria.
GN (
07:06
):
Absolutely.
FW (
07:06
):
The library, being teachers rooms, and our classrooms as well.
GN (
07:10
):
Yeah. It was the center of activity here.
FW (
07:13
):
Exactly.
GN (
07:14
):
And do you remember where the library was?
9
Fred Weiss
FW (
07:17
):
Well, it had a couple homes, but I remember it downstairs over behind the chapel.
GN (
07:22
):
In Greystone. Yeah. Oh, later on. Yeah, when that--.
FW (
07:25
):
Before that, it was Greystone?
GN (
07:27
):
That was Greystone. Yeah.
FW (
07:29
):
Whether they ever moved it into Donnelly, I'm not sure. Do you--?
GN (
07:31
):
They did move it into Donnelly.
FW (
07:33
):
I thought so.
GN (
07:34
):
From Greystone to Donnelly. And then after they had finished the, construction of the chapel and
the addition of the chapel, first of all, that was a refectory for the brothers were here, so they ate
in the bottom half of it, and they studied in the upper half of it. And it was a big-- it wasn't filled
10
Fred Weiss
in yet. They put the floor in between the first and second floor only when they decided to move
the library over there. And I lost the track of the year for that.
FW (
08:06
):
Could I ask, I'm curious as to when you did your training here, and then--.
GN (
08:09
):
Okay.
FW (
08:09
):
When did you start?
GN (
08:10
):
I came to this campus in 1948 and I was a Marist brother in training. And I graduated from
Marist College in June of 1952. And then in 1958, I was assigned to teach in Esopus, New York.
The Marist Brothers had a training center there. And then about 1968, I came to campus here.
During that time, I taught the nurses at St. Francis Hospital. There was a nursing school there.
FW (
08:46
):
Oh, I know it well, yeah.
GN (
08:47
):
And they had to have an academic program, and they called on great teachers to come and teach
in it. So, I would-- volunteered [laugh].
FW (
08:56
):
11
Fred Weiss
That was after I left then, in '68 when you came.
GN (
08:59
):
Yes. Alright, let's go back to the classes that you had. Were they big classes? Were they forty or
thirty or sixty? Do you remember?
FW (
09:09
):
There were a couple of, like philosophy classes. I remember in the room and around there. I
forgot what they called it, the tiered seating in Donnelly. And they would be bigger. I think of
them as maybe being sixty or seventy. I was a math major for the first few years, and those
classes were a bit smaller.
GN (
09:31
):
Who taught you math?
FW (
09:33
):
Well, I guess I had a few--.
GN (
09:35
):
Linus Foy, was he involved in teaching at the time?
FW (
09:38
):
Well, a little bit. I don't think I ever had him. I think my brother did for something.
GN (
09:43
):
Ritschdorff? John, Brother John Ritschdorff, that's not a name--.
12
Fred Weiss
FW (
09:48
):
Not sure. A layman, Mr. Thomas.
GN (
09:50
):
Oh, yes.
FW (
09:51
):
First name escapes me. Rich-- no, that escapes me.
GN (
09:55
):
He came up from Manhattan, I think, or came up from New York.
FW (
09:58
):
There was an older brother, slight built man. But I forgot his name at the moment. I think
Richard Anselm taught us--.
GN (
10:10
):
Philosophy.
FW (
10:12
):
He did philosophy and history. But didn't he do a math or--.
GN (
10:14
):
He could have, yeah, he did statistics perhaps. And--.
FW (
10:17
):
13
Fred Weiss
I think he might've, I might've had him for statistics, probability, or something like that. And of
course, I had him for history as well. So, we had a range of class sizes, you know, in some of the
major classes.
GN (
10:27
):
Did you have Dr. John Schroeder? Do you remember that name?
FW (
10:30
):
I do remember. Oh, yeah. He was big in the night school. He put that program together. And for
English, I had, George Sommers, of course.
GN (
10:37
):
Oh, you did?
FW (
10:38
):
Oh yeah. Interesting man.
GN (
10:41
):
Milton Teichman? Dr. Tiechman.
FW (
10:44
):
Yeah. Well, I know him, but I don't know that I had him in the classroom.
GN (
10:47
):
Bob Lewis?
14
Fred Weiss
FW (
10:49
):
I think I did. Yeah. I had the dreaded Dr. Drennen.
GN (
10:55
):
Oh, D.A. Drennen [laugh].
FW (
10:58
):
And his books [laugh].
GN (
11:00
):
Oh yeah. Did you join some of the book burning after the semester [laugh]?
FW (
11:05
):
Well, I don't recall doing that, literally, but--.
GN (
11:08
):
Yeah. Well, I--.
FW (
11:09
):
Interesting times.
GN (
11:10
):
I used to be laughing at that.
FW (
11:11
):
15
Fred Weiss
And of course, I also had at a point in time and I respected him just so, so, so much. Not only
then, but years later as Andrew Molloy.
GN (
11:19
):
Oh, yes.
FW (
11:20
):
Wonderful science teacher.
GN (
11:21
):
Chemistry teacher, science, yeah. Okay. Larry Menapace. Is that a name that--.
FW (
11:29
):
Well, I know Larry.
GN (
11:30
):
You did.
FW (
11:30
):
I do. I do. I know him through athletics and I know him- well, extended athletics in later years.
Somewhat retirement. He and I played together on local softball leagues.
GN (
11:39
):
I see.
FW (
11:39
):
16
Fred Weiss
I know his interest in coaching and what he's done there.
GN (
11:43
):
Yeah.
FW (
11:43
):
But I don't remember him as an instructor of mine.
GN (
11:45
):
Fine. I guess one of the questions I have here is what was the motivation for you to stay on here
with the primitive status that we were in a campus that was forming and we'll talk about the
athletic in just a minute, but everything was kind of primitive.
FW (
12:06
):
Sure.
GN (
12:07
):
Was there a spirit at the core or what is it that--.
FW (
12:11
):
Well for me, again, I go back to the roots. The roots of a country boy got through high school but
didn't have a vision. We didn't have a family history of college being--.
GN (
12:24
):
Part of it.
17
Fred Weiss
FW (
12:25
):
So, I didn't have a vision of that. It's not something you could say. I was working for year in,
year out, there was some sense that at some point in my later years in high school, that basketball
might draw me there. And yet I didn't pursue it, you know, when there was interest, like a call or
knock on the door. I didn't pursue it. I was just kind of resigning myself to the world as I
understood it and saw it at that point in time as the country boy. And, again, it was really
following my brother's path a little bit in that he might have had more vision. He was a better
student than myself, I would say. And he got into the Air Force, and he was in a pilot training
program, but it was a kind of a program where you had the first six or nine months to kind of feel
your way, fly the planes, and he just didn't go for it once he got that far into the planes. And he
came out and he went right to Westchester Community College. And he did that for two years.
So, he had an associates and he could have went out and got some kind of work at that time. But
he then chose to transfer to Marist. So, we were here together. We overlapped during that, those
two years. Which was '63 and '64. Graduating class of '64 is what I originally was in. I didn't
graduate then. And I'll explain that in a moment. But so I was here from '60 fall, '61, '62. Then he
came in at the end of that year and he did the two years. And then there was a chance we
would've graduated together. In my particular case, I changed majors along the way as a math
major, I mentioned before. And that became increasingly difficult for me as it went on. And I
had a little bit more interest in the practical aspects of business, I think. And I switched to be a
business major.
GN (
14:10
):
I see.
18
Fred Weiss
FW (
14:11
):
And worked closely with Jack Kelly at the time.
GN (
14:14
):
I was going to say Jack Kelly.
FW (
14:15
):
Great instructor as well.
GN (
14:16
):
John Griffin. Do you know that name?
FW (
14:18
):
I do, I might have had him.
GN (
14:21
):
Jim Fay, he was an accountant. F-A-Y. Okay.
FW (
14:26
):
So, and then my brother graduated in '64 June and immediately was hired on by this growing
metropolis down the road IBM.
GN (
14:35
):
Oh yeah.
FW (
14:35
):
19
Fred Weiss
And so, then I come along that 1964 at one point thinking I would be graduating then. But in my
third year or so, I switched the majors. And this is not a complaint per se because I'm well
beyond it. But it was never clear that once I got to finish my major courses in business, the year
and a half later that now I would also have to have had a language. That nobody ever mentioned
that until I got the major courses done. And I said, okay, I'm here for my degree. Oh. But the
registrar says, where's your language? What language? So, I got in a huff a little bit and went off
for six, nine months or so and said, I don't need that. One of those kinds of attitudes.
GN (
15:24
):
I see.
FW (
15:25
):
And during this time, my brother was working for IBM and I went out and got a job too. But he
was making $135 a week, which is pretty good money at that time. He was hired on as a
programmer. And he used to bring me in occasionally to the office, and he would show me
things. And I was always good with puzzles and jumbles and things like that. I had a mind that
could relate these things. And I said, that's what they pay you that for. I said, there's nothing to it.
I can do that stuff. I want one of those. So, I went to IBM still didn't finish up the degree here.
GN (
15:57
):
I see.
FW (
15:57
):
And I said, I think I'd like one of those, and I'd be pretty good at that. What do you think? And
they said we think you don't have a four-year degree and that's required for us to hire you into
20
Fred Weiss
that kind of professional path. But we are hiring computer operators. You operate the machines
with your hands, and it happens to be third shift, and we pay $95 a week for that. Would you like
one of those? So, I did one of those scratchers and finally concluded that was better than the odd
jobs I was doing.
GN (
16:26
):
Yeah, I see.
FW (
16:26
):
So, I took that, and then I'm still smart enough to know this is stupid Fred, because all you need
is six credits of a language.
GN (
16:33
):
Come on back.
FW (
16:33
):
Get in there this summer, get it and get your degree. And that's what happened in '66. I did the
six credits, and in August I had a diploma in my hands. So, the only thing I really missed out on
was the ceremony.
GN (
16:44
):
Oh, right. Oh, well that's not bad. And then you went back to IBM?
FW (
16:48
):
21
Fred Weiss
Then I-- well, I was hired on by IBM was the operator, and I just stayed. And soon as I got the
degree Gus, within a month they had me in programming school. Because they saw also, you
know, I did good on the aptitude test and all that. They just had this requirement. You know, you
have the four year degree. I got it. And I had a wonderful career.
GN (
17:04
):
Wonderful. Okay. Back to the athletic program. And that, which we did not have here. In fact,
I'm not even sure, were we Division III in basketball at that time?
FW (
17:16
):
Well, we were division zero. We didn't have a team in the first year I was here. There was some
interest by the students in putting together a team. So, they had like an intramural program. A
fellow from the community, a man by the name of Gary Mendez. I presume it was voluntary.
Maybe they got a few bucks. I don't know. But he agreed to come in and be an organizer, a coach
for the group. I opted not-- I was asked to, and I opted not to join them because I was already
playing out in the community for those years.
GN (
17:51
):
I see.
FW (
17:51
):
And the competition was good. The, you know, it was just good ball out there. And it wouldn't
have been the same level of competitiveness here. There was no schedule or anything at that
time. Although think they tried to grab a couple of schools. Then, brother Murphy became the
AD, or maybe, or it was the AD. And he had a vision to want to begin to develop this thing. And
22
Fred Weiss
he put together a schedule and hired a coach. First full-time coach was the, JV coach out of
Poughkeepsie High School. A man by the name of George Strba. Okay. S-T-R-B-A.
GN (
18:25
):
I thought Tom White was in there someplace.
FW (
18:27
):
Well, I'll get to him [laugh]
GN (
18:28
):
Okay.
FW (
18:30
):
And he was actually the second year.
GN (
18:32
):
Okay.
FW (
18:33
):
So they had George Strba for one year.
GN (
18:35
):
I see.
FW (
18:36
):
23
Fred Weiss
Then they hired Tom. Dr. Foy did. And Tom was brought in as the admissions director and
men's basketball coach. So, I played for Tom for two years. And then there was opportunity for
Tom to do more in the admissions area. And he had to give up or chose to give up the basketball.
So, they hired a young man out of school of University of Mass, not the University of Mass.
Plymouth, Plymouth College up in Mass.
GN (
19:09
):
Phil Weston? Go ahead.
FW (
19:10
):
No, no. This is going to be, I just had it to give it to you. I forgot, Paul Harold.
Speaker 2 (
19:15
):
Oh, Paul. Okay. Yeah.
FW (
19:18
):
And he did crew also, he did crew and basketball. So, I had those three coaches in those years I
was here. But in my case, it was the second, third, fourth year. And then, because I did stay on
with the major change, I did have another year that I played--.
GN (
19:36
):
Eligibility. Yeah.
FW (
19:37
):
My whole career, I played only seventy-nine games.
24
Fred Weiss
GN (
19:41
):
Oh, okay.
FW (
19:42
):
Yeah. So, you know, we didn't play thirty games a year, like, or more like they do now. And you
asked about were we division III, you know, people have asked me that a number of times, and I
have no recollection of us being associated with a structured--.
GN (
19:59
):
NCAA organization.
FW (
20:00
):
So, I don't know if NCAA existed then, or if it did. Well, maybe we were three and I didn't know
it, you know, I'm not sure about that part of things.
GN (
20:06
):
Well, the parallel would be the football, which was club football, you know, and just without
having--.
FW (
20:12
):
Well, they didn't call us a club team at that point.
GN (
20:13
):
No, no.
FW (
20:14
):
25
Fred Weiss
But so I don't know.
GN (
20:16
):
Did you play in the Marist gym here or did you play in Lourdes High School?
FW (
20:20
):
Well, we practiced at Marian. That's where the basketball court was. And we'd have internal
games against the brothers who were very, very good. You know, they often beat us handily. But
the actual scheduled games, you know, one of my colleagues or friends recently indicated we
had played a game here against one of those teams. I don't recall that, the games were generally
at Lourdes, the old Lourdes High School, or some were at Poughkeepsie High School. And one
or more were at Dutchess Community College. So that's where we played our games. And we
had, during years I was there, I can't tell you exactly which years this was, but we played the
likes of some of the current MAC teams. We played certainly Iona. We played Monmouth.
GN (
21:09
):
Alright.
FW (
21:10
):
We played Siena.
GN (
21:12
):
Oh, wow.
FW (
21:13
):
26
Fred Weiss
Yeah. So they began to fit in, not in my first year, maybe, but before I was done, we were
playing them.
GN (
21:19
):
I see.
FW (
21:20
):
And then we played Bloomfield down below.
GN (
21:23
):
Okay.
FW (
21:23
):
You know, the various schools that--.
GN (
21:25
):
But even in those days with this, weren't the conditions rather primitive, mean the locker room or
the--.
FW (
21:32
):
Oh gosh, yes.
GN (
21:33
):
Yeah. There was none [laugh]. I mean, there was a--.
FW (
21:36
):
27
Fred Weiss
Well, I don't remember what the-- I guess we must have had showers right here. Right? In
Marian, I presume so. Yeah. But we, there was some interesting stories. I can't remember all of
them. But my brother tells me a story, and I had forgotten this totally, but a few years ago, he
brought it up and because he, at his high school reunion, he met somebody and he was talking to
them, and he brought up this story. And apparently while Tom Wade was the coach, although
Tom doesn't have a good recollection of it either, we were set to play somebody. And it was right
after the grades came out and several folks were academically ineligible to play. So, we were
shorthanded and as opposed to canceling the game, Tom, whoever it was, I think it was Tom,
tried to bring on some additional students to play. And my brother was one of the ones he asked.
He wasn't really quite an established basketball player, but he was big. He played intramural
level. And he reminds me that he made the trip. You know, he was given a uniform, made the
trip, and he said, I never got in the game, but I warmed up with you guys, [laugh]. And I was on
the team for that one outing. And another story that Dave Flynn likes to remind me of is one of
our games away. I think it was up in Massachusetts when the equipment was brought out for us
there were no socks and none of us prepared for not being provided with socks by the, the person
that takes care of the equipment. And the coach had to send somebody out to a sporting goods
store [laugh], round up a bunch of socks and things. So that was an indication of the kind of
ragtag team we might have been.
GN (
23:25
):
Yeah. Okay. Alright, moving on. I think part of what you have already told me is in this, I was
going to say, that's the Marist experience now after Marist, and then yeah. Like your first, you
know, what were those experiences like employment, but the employment is going to be IBM I
suppose.
28
Fred Weiss
FW (
23:43
):
Yes, that was my career for thirty-two years.
GN (
23:45
):
Alright. And then, during this time now, after you finished graduating from Marist, how did you
get back to Marist? What was the magnet that brought you back that you would be involved in
the Red Fox Club or, you know, the athletic program here or--.
FW (
24:06
):
Yeah, you know, it took some years because, I guess it was a combination of factors at play.
Certainly, one was a little bit of an uncomfortableness on my part about the change in the major
and--.
GN (
24:21
):
And the requirement for the--.
FW (
24:22
):
And the requirement and the delay. So that certainly was in the mix a little bit. And after I was
married and we began, we had children, I was still involved in lots of sports out in the
community. A lot of basketball leagues then became--.
GN (
24:41
):
Where are you living during this period of time?
FW (
24:44
):
29
Fred Weiss
Well, after the first year of marriage, we lived up in Hyde Park the first year. And then we
bought a home over in LaGrange. And our first daughter was born before we got to the house in
LaGrange. And then the other two daughters later on. So, all three grew up in the Arlington
school district in LaGrange.
GN (
24:59
):
Yeah, alright. I was going to say what kind of brought you back, but eventually you do cross that
stream again and you come back to visiting us.
FW (
25:14
):
And I'll tell you, I have a distinct memory of how that began to occur. And there was a fellow on
staff in the development office by the name of Ron Zerwick (?). You probably know him, right?
GN (
25:27
):
Yeah.
FW (
25:28
):
And Ron reached out to me and began to involve me in some basics with the Phonathons and
stuff.
GN (
25:37
):
Oh, yes. Yeah.
FW (
25:38
):
30
Fred Weiss
Right. Give support to some of that kind of thing. And that just began, you know, making new
connections. The school, I thought from that point on, would always kind of go overboard to
make me feel wanted, to feel comfortable to involve me where they thought I could be, you
know, help to them. I was willing to do that kind of thing. One year I ran a sub part of the annual
fundraiser program. I did a-- the IBM group, we defined it as, you know.
GN (
26:14
):
I see.
FW (
26:14
):
So, I headed that up a little bit. So it was that kind of thing. And around, I guess that time, or
maybe even later thereafter, I was aware of the sporting stuff going on with the school from the
papers and from living in the community, but we weren't here living it. But now our children
were beginning to grow up. And at a very young age, we as a family began to live it. Particularly
in the basketball front. You know, we started to get into the red fox club when that was created
and had season tickets and every home game, that was the thing that the Weiss family did. And
even got to the point where we coordinated a couple of vacation trips to coincide to a Marist
schedule. One time in California, you know.
GN (
26:59
):
Oh, wow.
FW (
26:59
):
31
Fred Weiss
The five of us were out there to go a game there. Another case in Florida, you know. The kids
have such great memories of all of that. So, we were there then before, you know, Rick came on
and all that period of time.
GN (
27:13
):
Yeah. Ron Petro was the coach.
FW (
27:15
):
Well see, Ron was at Manhattan when I was at Marist here. So, we overlapped just a little bit.
But then when he was hired on, I was already disconnected from Marist, so I didn't know him
well in the earliest years. But he actually, and you know, the athletic department did bring me
back and honored me at some basketball game with a plaque and the first thousand point player
and all. So that's how I began to get connected with Ron a little bit. You know, and then--.
GN (
27:45
):
That was a great team effort there, that athletic group, as it were. You had Ron, you had Harry
Goldman, you had Bill Austin, you know, and they kind of really worked together in different
activities. I mean, one had the crew and the thing, and one had soccer and--.
FW (
28:05
):
Yes, I should have brought Dr. Goldman's name in earlier because we were good friends, I
thought after Marist experience. And he did a lot for the school after Bill Murphy, Dr. Murphy.
Yeah. And yeah.
GN (
28:19
):
32
Fred Weiss
Alright. Marist is a different place today.
FW (
28:24
):
Absolutely [laugh]. Who would've thunk?
GN (
28:28
):
Exactly. How do you explain it?
FW (
28:30
):
Well, I don't know. I just, I bubble up with pride when I try to talk about it with people, you
know, and you just don't know, you say to people. You just can't imagine, you know, what it was
like. And then I quickly acknowledge I probably wouldn't be able to be here now, but I was then,
and I feel so much a part of-- I really do feel a part of what's here now--.
GN (
28:52
):
And rightly so.
FW (
28:53
):
It's because of you and me and others that went through that other building process, right. You
guys more literally than us, but.
GN (
28:58
):
Yeah. I tell people, you know, these hands built that chapel, I was up there. I can tell you about
the purlin and that's the things between them and how they had to slip in and it was dangerous.
There was no net. Be careful up there, brother. Thank you [laugh]. You know? But the-- one of
33
Fred Weiss
the things that, you know, that comes to mind is the leadership. Dennis Murray has a place, but
it's not Dennis Murray alone. I mean, one man could not do this.
FW (
29:26
):
Right. Exactly.
GN (
29:28
):
And you say, well, what is it then? Is it the buildings? Is it the campus? Is it the student body? Is
it what-- how, where do you feel?
FW (
29:37
):
I don't know who you give the greatest credit to, but it's all those parts. Like, I often say in
different ways that the whole is greater than some of the parts, you know? Dennis came in after
me, but again, I was back into the community and was aware of the work he's done. He's done a
tremendous job, you know, and he was successful in getting very dedicated board people.
GN (
30:07
):
Yeah. That's, yeah. Right. Yeah.
FW (
30:08
):
That's such a key part, I suppose. I think.
GN (
30:10
):
Absolutely.
FW (
30:11
):
34
Fred Weiss
And the core set of alumni that there always has been that were very committed to it, far more
than me in the earlier days. I know too. You know, and I, and I consider a lot of them now
friends and met a lot of new friends and--. You know, it's rare that you find a block of people
that have a bunch of negative things to say about their experience and what the school has
become.
GN (
30:36
):
Yeah. And I mean, going back to Linus Foy and even Paul Ambrose before him, I mean, I tell
the story of the history of Marist. It's, you know, Paul Ambrose came here in 1946 with a BA, an
MA degree in library science, and we had a two-year college and it says see if you can make this
a four year college, so we don't have to go to Fordham to finish our degrees. You know? And in
five years-- now, he had no secretary, he had no fund, he had no, he typed with two fingers, you
know, and he made out all the applications, sent them off to Albany. He had no legal advice
other than what he would have to get to for signing a document or thing, you know? So, it's an
incredible birth story, you know? And then Foy comes along next to it with more of an academic
vision. And, you know, insisting on certain things academically that, you know.
FW (
31:33
):
My wife will love that story because she was in elementary education, a library, you know,
teacher, a librarian, and nobody referred to themselves formally. But yeah, she'd love that story.
GN (
31:46
):
And then again, you know, the buildings here, that to me, that's one aspect of it. And how did
this happen? I mean, you know, they, Dennis has certainly a vision of putting up a substantial
35
Fred Weiss
structure, you know, incidental note on the side, I can remember Linus Foy was late for a
meeting with his, I don't know what you'd call them. They weren't the trustees yet, but there was
a group of faculty and administrators administrative meeting. He was home cutting the rug,
cutting out a rug for his living room. I mean, he did it physically himself, you know, that's not
the same president that we have now [laugh], in terms of the difference in the way it was.
Another area that could contrast would be sports. I mean, did you know Rik Smits [laugh]?
FW (
32:43
):
Oh, yeah. I got to meet him. He was a wonderful man and he represents--.
GN (
32:47
):
Yeah, I had him as a student, and he was a very gentle guy, you know, and clever enough. I
mean, he was not slow by any means, you know, and language was not a problem. He managed
to get through with it, you know, so that--we've gone to the NCAA twice or three times with him
right there on the men's division, which was quite a leap forward. And now we go annually with
the girls.
FW (
33:13
):
That's right. Yeah.
GN (
33:14
):
You explain that to me.
FW (
33:15
):
36
Fred Weiss
Yeah. Well, there's something there, there's a core there with the women's program that is
somewhat self-sustaining, and they got the great leader, I think, and Brian Giorgis, you know. I
was well aware of his high school coaching experience. And my daughters did go to some camps
that he ran. And so, I've known him for many, many years, and I thought that was a great hire,
and he is doing a wonderful job.
GN (
33:40
):
Yeah. I guess it's a kind of a magnet effect that they managed to draw, like unlike, you know,
that-- you wanted, you know, it's not the biggest school, but if you want to be able to play, we
give you a chance, you know. And you might find your way going into the NCAA, you know, so
that--.
FW (
33:59
):
And doesn't it seem that some of the introduction of some new majors along the way helped
bring in some people that you wouldn't have?
GN (
34:08
):
Right.
FW (
34:08
):
Otherwise, I think of Rachele Fitz, for example with fashion.
GN (
34:13
):
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
FW (
34:14
):
37
Fred Weiss
She was intent on fashion and then basketball. If you didn't have that major, wouldn't have had
her, you know?
GN (
34:20
):
Right.
FW (
34:21
):
There's other examples like that.
GN (
34:22
):
And now fashion is one of the hottest programs to get into. Yeah. You just can't come and apply.
You got to bring your profile. What have you created? And, you know, what, how are you with
CAD? I happened to be the chairman of the communications at the time when they wanted to, for
CAD-- computer assistant design, so that the machine itself, you cut the thing four inches long, it
knows it should take off four inches off the bottom. You know, I mean, the whole concept of-- as
I said, a whole new major that we knew. We would not ordinarily have.
FW (
35:01
):
Well, I know CAD, CAD/CAM, I don't know how personally to use it, but I was in computer
services and the lab in Poughkeepsie and within the lab, that was a very major design tool that
they used in hardwood design.
GN (
35:13
):
Yeah. Also in biology, but biology, we went on to med tech and, you know, there's a whole other
area of development of students, different range of students who have different kinds of qualities.
38
Fred Weiss
I can't remember Richard LaPietra talking about a chemistry major who played basketball, which
is a tough thing to do here. I mean, you know, to be majoring in such things.
FW (
35:39
):
I should have mentioned his name earlier as well. In fact, he's the one I had for chemistry. I had
Linus Foy, I mean, Andrew Molloy for physics, I guess it was. But I had Dr. LaPietra.
GN (
35:51
):
How about Brian Desilets?
FW (
35:53
):
Yeah, I know the name. I know I met him, but I don't think I had him in the classroom. I don't
think so.
GN (
35:59
):
You know, he wasn't here--. Well, he was here ten years, which is a lot in some ways, but it's not
like forty years, which, you know, you have an experience of ranging over that period of time.
FW (
36:08
):
Yeah. But even a brother that was in training here at the time that I played basketball against,
always stood out in my mind because he is a big man and he ended up being Brother John. Last
name being what--? He went to Lourdes after here.
GN (
36:26
):
Oh, yeah.
39
Fred Weiss
FW (
36:26
):
And my wife and her family all went through Lourdes. So, she knew him in that context. She's a
few years younger than myself. And I don't remember if he was an instructor or a principal at
some point over there. But he was over there, you know?
GN (
36:41
):
Well, tell me a few things about, well, I might ask of your achievement in your own life. Like, at
IBM where you were what is that, the twenty-five year award. You get one of those.
FW (
36:53
):
Yeah. Everybody that's employed for twenty-five years, you join a quarter century club, they call
it. And you're honored that way. Yeah, you know, I--.
GN (
37:02
):
You recently got an award for sports.
FW (
37:05
):
I did.
GN (
37:06
):
Yeah. And what was that about?
FW (
37:09
):
Well, the MAC conference-- that didn't exist for us way back when I played. But the MAC
conference now does honor one male and one female athlete, basketball athlete at an affair up at
40
Fred Weiss
the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. And for the last several years, the
MAC has held its annual end of the season tournament there. And they decided they'd like to
honor folks in the manner I just said. And they arrange for a space. So, they have a large room
where they have displays of all the teams in the MAC and then they hold this gala dinner affair.
It's a wonderful affair. And in fact, it just began three years ago. Rik Smits received it,
appropriately so, the first year, I was so honored the second year, which was a big, big thrill for
me.
GN (
38:03
):
I bet. Yeah.
FW (
38:04
):
And my family. And this past year, Mike Hart was who was a good friend and was a friend
before this occurred, so I was happy for him as well. So, yeah. So that's a special honor
academically. But as far as the career goes at IBM, I stayed in the community. I did all my thirty-
two years here in Duchess County. There were a couple of occasions where I was either asked to
look at work elsewhere, or I initiated looking elsewhere. So, there were some opportunities to,
you know, job opportunities in Atlanta at one time and Kentucky another time. But it always
came back to the family, you know, I always-- I got a lot of roots in me, and--.
GN (
38:48
):
I bet there are here.
FW (
38:49
):
41
Fred Weiss
Yeah. And my wife grew up here. I grew up here. The family connections were here. Our social
network was here, the children were in school. And I got so far in one case where I accepted a
job, and this was after family conversation. I decided to accept one, and then I didn't sleep on it
well enough to stick with it. And I said, this is just not the right decision for my family in the
long run, you know? So, we didn't do it. It didn't really hurt my career. It wasn't that, and IBM is
often known as I've been moved. But I was so fortunate to be part of a company during its
heyday. It's different now, but it was growing, expanding. I fell under the mentorship of a certain
individual who liked what I could offer. And as his part of the business expanded, I always found
myself being tugged along by him.
GN (
39:41
):
I see.
FW (
39:42
):
And I would have more and more responsibility, you know, so I, you know, I guess you would
say that the highest-level position I had there was a third line management position with several
hundred employees and, you know, $7 million budget, that kind of thing.
GN (
39:56
):
Okay. Alright. I'm just checking our time here, but I have one new series of questions I really
want to ask because I want to get your feed on it now, considering the time in which we live and
where Marist campus is now, et cetera. But it's a basic question, kind of a philosophical one
about, put this way, is college worth the investment today? And you think about it in terms of the
financial that people will have to put forward in money. You think of the time that you have to
42
Fred Weiss
spend going for the four years, you think of the effort that's involved in doing the papers and
doing the readings and tending the classes and so on. So unbalance, you know, take a crack at it.
What would you say about it?
FW (
40:47
):
Well, I think the answer is yes and no because you stated it in a somewhat general generic frame,
which is appropriate. And you put into the context of secondary education but that education
doesn't have to be in every case at a $60,000 per year school. Right? It could be at a school that's
5,000 or less than 10,000 or something like that. Right? In my own experience, I mean, I knew a
lot of families that very specifically opted to have their children go to a two-year community
college for the first two years of education. It tests the child, right, at a reasonable cost. And it
prepares them, in many cases, we thought with Duchess prepared them well, to then step on to
whatever's there for them. And it isn't for everybody, you know? You know, college-- parts of
college is probably useful for everybody. But so it's a mixed bag and it's a tough choice.
GN (
41:51
):
And that's taking the financial aspect of it, specifically investing this amount of money in terms
of those things. But, on the next, again, another point, you're really touching on, maybe we don't
need four years of academic college courses. Maybe two years would be enough. And then two
years of practical engineering. Or how to use a level or, you know, a saw, what's a wrench? You
know, the kind of practical applications you have to be smart in this day and age to handle that
stuff, I believe.
FW (
42:25
):
43
Fred Weiss
Yeah. I mean, like in my own experience, I thought after my two to three years collection of
academics, I was quite a good candidate for work in the IBM environment that I ultimately got
into. But the conditions at the time were for those kind of companies. Our line is four-year
degree. I was no better person or different when I got that thing in my hand. I don't think than I
was before. So maybe it's too arbitrary in some of those kinds of cases. And yeah, maybe we do
need more of those mid-range options for people.
GN (
43:06
):
You hear about the need for more computer skills or development that students aren't prepared to
be able to fill the jobs that are available out there. What kind of jobs are they that the world that
is being offered, you know?
FW (
43:22
):
Well, I mean, information technology world is intertwined in lots of things. Almost everything,
you know? It's not just in building a new computer, a faster computer. Or in operating the
services of computers. It's in the medical field, right. It's in the legal field. It's in all these
different fields. So, math and science and computer engineering insight is invaluable, I guess to
our competitiveness in the world. Certainly, when we look at ourselves against perhaps the
Chinese and other examples like that, we tend to fall behind that it seems, doesn't it? And so, we
need to be investing in those areas. We need to entice people into them.
GN (
44:13
):
Would you say something too about now the-- maybe the social development as a result of your
going to college? You're no longer just a farm boy from upstate New York. I mean, you have a
44
Fred Weiss
much more, or have had the experience of a broadening of many new friends, I would imagine,
from different backgrounds, you know.
FW (
44:33
):
Yes, absolutely. That I wouldn't have otherwise for sure. So, I feel like I'm a more complete
person as a result. So much of me is still, I can see it as I look inside me is still that country boy.
It really is. But around it, I've had so many wonderful experiences that I would not have had
without the college experience and being lucky enough to be in the community where I could
continue to have those relationships with folks that have the very same similar experience of the
same college, if you will. And I find myself reconnecting with alumni that I knew and some I
didn't know, but you find you have other commonalities that you're connecting. So, yeah.
GN (
45:23
):
What are your best joys now?
FW (
45:27
):
Probably still with my children, of course, my grandchildren, now I have grandchildren to joy
over. In fact, we're getting ready to have them come up for a couple of weeks here, after the next
week. And we look forward to that every summer. We do have the opportunity to relax some in
Florida in the winter. And, they have often come there to see us. So, one week a year. So, you
know, it's, it's family in one form or another. I am very fortunate, very, very fortunate to have the
health that I can still do an awful lot physically. So, I'm very active athletically, you know, I play
golf, I do golf. I play other court games. We have a game called pickleball. You may or may not
have heard about.
45
Fred Weiss
GN (
46:11
):
Oh, yes. In the villages. Oh, yes.
FW (
46:14
):
Well, it's not only in the villages. We play it here at my local condominium complex as well. In
fact, I'm playing tonight. I'm going to have a couple of guys that I've never played before come
and because they've shown an interest in wanting to do it, so we're going to work out a little bit
tonight. So, I'm really fortunate to be able to do that. You know, you have some medical bumps
along the way, but minor compared to lots of other examples of what people have to go through.
GN (
46:39
):
Wonderful.
FW (
46:39
):
So, I'm very fortunate in that regard, still.
GN (
46:42
):
Now tell me, is there something here that I didn't ask you that you think, I guess you should
know this. I mean, in terms of-- I think you've had a pretty good ride by and large. Marist was
part of it. But IBM was another bigger part I think. And the Hudson Valley has provided you
with a nice home.
FW (
47:01
):
It has. Yeah. I mean, I can't think of anything specific. I didn't come with a list of make sure Gus
knows these things, kind of things. So, nothing's popping to my head right now in that regard. I
46
Fred Weiss
mean, it's, the campus is such a beautiful place to see. You wonder how much more can be done,
you know, what more would they want to do? Where are they going do it? With the boundaries
of the acreage and stuff.
GN (
47:26
):
What's your favorite drink?
FW (
47:28
):
Oh, I'm usually a red wine man. Yeah. Like that. But then--.
GN (
47:32
):
Yeah, I just say that because brother Joseph Belanger was a subject of a conversation before you
came in. And he was with this brother Sean Sammon who was the permission at the time. And
after an interview, he said, would you like to have a drink? And so, the brother said, yeah, I'm
going to have a seven up. No, I mean a drink [laugh]. You know, so just, you know, for him at
that time, it was the only one way that I look at it. And he was not an alcoholic. But just the
expression that, you know, would you have a drink? That's the way we go. Well, Fred, it's been
very nice talking to you. I've seen you around a lot, but I never had a chance to get this side of
you so completely. And what you've said now will be recorded in our archives and hopefully
more use will be made of it. How and when. I couldn't tell you, but I know it will.
FW (
48:23
):
Well, I've enjoyed talking to you. It's good to get to know you a little bit better too.
GN (
48:26
):
47
Fred Weiss
Thank you very much. Okay.
Weiss, Fred Cover Pages
Weiss, Fred 1 July 2014 (2)
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY
Transcribed by Lily Jandrisevits
For the Marist College Archives and Special Collections
Transcript: Fred Weiss
Interviewee: Fred Weiss
Interviewer: Gus Nolan
Interview Date: 1 July 2014
Location: James A. Cannavino Library
Topic: Marist College History
Subject Headings:
Weiss, Fred
Marist College Alumni
Marist College (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.)
Marist College. Athletics
Marist College (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.)--Social Aspects
Summary: Fred Weiss, an early alumni of Marist College, talks about his experience attending
Marist, including being an early member of the basketball team when it first formed. He reflects
on his time on the team and his career at IBM. He also discusses the changes he has seen the
college go through, and what brought him back as a volunteer at the school.
Fred Weiss (
00:00
):
Thank you.
Gus Nolan (
00:09
):
Today is Tuesday, July 1st, 2014. We have the honor of having Fred Weiss to come for this oral
interview for the Marist Archives. Hi, Fred.
FW (
00:20
):
Good afternoon.
GN (
00:21
):
Yeah. Fred, this is, as I said, an oral interview, and we're using it along with some other sixty to
eighty, I guess, interviews that we've had from a number of candidates from administrators and
students and security guard. And our help here at Marist, trying to get a picture of the early days,
what was Marist like in its formative years. So, we thought it would be good to get somebody
like you who was around in those earlier years and get your impression now of what it was like
then. And then make some comparison to where we are today. But for you first, something about
yourself, just kind of a thumbnail if you would before Marist where were you born? Grade
school, high school, family?
FW (
01:16
):
Well, I was born in Queens, Long Island. And my dad had always had an interest in moving his
family out of the city. So, that took a few years to accomplish. And a couple of attempts, he first
moved us up to Hudson, New York, and-- but he continued to work in New York City. So, it was
a case where for the weekdays he was down there and my youngest mother with a few of the
2
Fred Weiss
children at that point were trying to survive up in Claverack Hudson. That didn't last more than a
year or so. The winters were rough. She didn't have a car, all that kind of stuff. So, we ended up
relocating back to Queens. And then later he brought the family up to Clinton Hollow, know
where that is. And that's where we stayed. And at the time that occurred, I was starting the third
grade here. Prior to that, I was in parochial school down in Queens as a--.
GN (
02:10
):
Move on through grammar school. You stay there through the eighth grade?
FW (
02:14
):
Up here? Yeah. Well, up here, yes. Well, I went all the way through Roseville High School, too.
GN (
02:19
):
Oh, Roseville High School, okay.
FW (
02:19
):
During those days our elementary school was to sixth grade, and then we moved to the singular
school, which was middle school and junior high and high school. So, I graduated actually from
Roseville High School in 1958.
GN (
02:33
):
1958.
FW (
02:34
):
Right.
3
Fred Weiss
GN (
02:34
):
Okay.
FW (
02:35
):
And I didn't go immediately to college or to Marist.
GN (
02:38
):
Okay. We're still in high school. Something about activities. Did you play sports? Did you have--
.
FW (
02:46
):
I did. Yeah. In the younger years, you know, I dabbled in many of them I did a little baseball for
a year or two. I even did football as a ninth grader, I went out for basketball in the ninth grade,
and I got cut. Didn't make the team and--.
GN (
03:02
):
Not big enough [laugh].
FW (
03:04
):
Well, I guess I just wasn't ready, you know, you got to always keep in mind in this kind of early
conversation that we were out in Clinton Hollow, and we were a small farm family.
GN (
03:13
):
I see.
FW (
03:13
):
4
Fred Weiss
And we didn't have a lot of supportive kinds of things, and we certainly didn't have the suburban
community type of basketball facilities. So, our original basketball was either to literally some
kind of--.
GN (
03:24
):
A basket [laugh].
FW (
03:24
):
A self-created basket, or in our case, it was even between a couple of branches of a tree that was
shot through there, you know? So, I didn't make it in the first year, and the second year I didn't
even go out for the team. But fortunately for me, our gym teacher was also the varsity basketball
coach. So, he saw me developing, you know, athletically. And he encouraged me to come out as
a junior. So, I did. And I played, I started right away and played two years at Whistle High
School. And we did very well in our senior year. We were seventeen and one. And, we were
very, very successful. And then I began to play basketball and softball, but mainly basketball in
local town communities.
GN (
04:06
):
I see.
FW (
04:07
):
Leagues, I should say, in those years, it was some very, very good basketball out in the local
community. The Y sponsored them, some of the industrial businesses sponsored teams. So that's
kind of what I was doing, and I didn't know what I wanted to do academically, I guess at that
point. I really didn't have a particular interest in going forward. And I have one older brother
5
Fred Weiss
who was one year ahead of me, and I saw what was happening in his life. He actually went into
the Air Force for, turned out to be a short time. He didn't like flying. So, he left and he went to
Dutchess Community College didn't exist at that time, so he went to Westchester Community
College, so about that time, and some other friends were talking about going on to college. And
then the subject of Marist would come up in those kinds of conversations.
GN (
04:57
):
Give me a year. This is 1950, or there--?
FW (
04:59
):
Well, now it would've been 1960. That's when I started here at Marist.
GN (
05:02
):
Okay.
FW (
05:02
):
In the fall of 1960.
GN (
05:03
):
Okay.
FW (
05:03
):
So I was out from December, I mean, from June of '58 until before when I was working odd jobs
in the area, different things, you know, construction and various other things.
GN (
05:16
):
6
Fred Weiss
Now, the selecting of Marist, it was nearby and the competition wasn't so hard to get in.
FW (
05:24
):
That's correct. Yeah. I know. That'd be a greater challenge for me today [laugh].
GN (
05:27
):
Yeah. For all of us. Yeah. I taught here. I don't know that I could even get in now as a student,
you know? So, things have changed. Alright. Give me a rundown of the campus. In other words,
you did see other colleges I suppose and I'm a little surprised that Manhattan didn't make you an
offer, or did they?
FW (
05:50
):
No, they did not.
GN (
05:51
):
They did not.
FW (
05:52
):
You know, I had interest expressed in me, but from pretty much upstate schools. I didn't know
them well, Alfred was one I remember. And there were a couple of others up there too. No, you
know, I just didn't have, I guess, enough of a--
GN (
06:11
):
Fire for that kind of thing to get into.
FW (
06:13
):
7
Fred Weiss
Right, sort of credentials at that time to be sellable at that level of play.
GN (
06:17
):
Yeah, I see.
FW (
06:17
):
At the time.
GN (
06:18
):
But now coming to Marist, we were still rather primitive, were we not?
FW (
06:23
):
Well, very much so. Yes. Certainly. Just to start with the athletic side of it, there was very little
in the form of any organized athletic programs.
GN (
06:32
):
Okay hold off there for just little bit. Let's go academically.
FW (
06:35
):
Okay. Sure.
GN (
06:35
):
I mean, did we have a classroom building yet? Was Donnelly up yet?
FW (
06:39
):
8
Fred Weiss
You know, I'm trying to resurrect that timeframe in that regard. I think of it as being up. But I
happen to look at the year to year site, what it says for the history. And I think they talk about
1962 is it opening, but I started here in fall, so there might have been a full year where maybe it
wasn't finished yet.
GN (
06:57
):
Yeah. I see.
FW (
06:59
):
But I certainly remember, I do remember it being a dormitory, being attached to the cafeteria.
GN (
07:06
):
Absolutely.
FW (
07:06
):
The library, being teachers rooms, and our classrooms as well.
GN (
07:10
):
Yeah. It was the center of activity here.
FW (
07:13
):
Exactly.
GN (
07:14
):
And do you remember where the library was?
9
Fred Weiss
FW (
07:17
):
Well, it had a couple homes, but I remember it downstairs over behind the chapel.
GN (
07:22
):
In Greystone. Yeah. Oh, later on. Yeah, when that--.
FW (
07:25
):
Before that, it was Greystone?
GN (
07:27
):
That was Greystone. Yeah.
FW (
07:29
):
Whether they ever moved it into Donnelly, I'm not sure. Do you--?
GN (
07:31
):
They did move it into Donnelly.
FW (
07:33
):
I thought so.
GN (
07:34
):
From Greystone to Donnelly. And then after they had finished the, construction of the chapel and
the addition of the chapel, first of all, that was a refectory for the brothers were here, so they ate
in the bottom half of it, and they studied in the upper half of it. And it was a big-- it wasn't filled
10
Fred Weiss
in yet. They put the floor in between the first and second floor only when they decided to move
the library over there. And I lost the track of the year for that.
FW (
08:06
):
Could I ask, I'm curious as to when you did your training here, and then--.
GN (
08:09
):
Okay.
FW (
08:09
):
When did you start?
GN (
08:10
):
I came to this campus in 1948 and I was a Marist brother in training. And I graduated from
Marist College in June of 1952. And then in 1958, I was assigned to teach in Esopus, New York.
The Marist Brothers had a training center there. And then about 1968, I came to campus here.
During that time, I taught the nurses at St. Francis Hospital. There was a nursing school there.
FW (
08:46
):
Oh, I know it well, yeah.
GN (
08:47
):
And they had to have an academic program, and they called on great teachers to come and teach
in it. So, I would-- volunteered [laugh].
FW (
08:56
):
11
Fred Weiss
That was after I left then, in '68 when you came.
GN (
08:59
):
Yes. Alright, let's go back to the classes that you had. Were they big classes? Were they forty or
thirty or sixty? Do you remember?
FW (
09:09
):
There were a couple of, like philosophy classes. I remember in the room and around there. I
forgot what they called it, the tiered seating in Donnelly. And they would be bigger. I think of
them as maybe being sixty or seventy. I was a math major for the first few years, and those
classes were a bit smaller.
GN (
09:31
):
Who taught you math?
FW (
09:33
):
Well, I guess I had a few--.
GN (
09:35
):
Linus Foy, was he involved in teaching at the time?
FW (
09:38
):
Well, a little bit. I don't think I ever had him. I think my brother did for something.
GN (
09:43
):
Ritschdorff? John, Brother John Ritschdorff, that's not a name--.
12
Fred Weiss
FW (
09:48
):
Not sure. A layman, Mr. Thomas.
GN (
09:50
):
Oh, yes.
FW (
09:51
):
First name escapes me. Rich-- no, that escapes me.
GN (
09:55
):
He came up from Manhattan, I think, or came up from New York.
FW (
09:58
):
There was an older brother, slight built man. But I forgot his name at the moment. I think
Richard Anselm taught us--.
GN (
10:10
):
Philosophy.
FW (
10:12
):
He did philosophy and history. But didn't he do a math or--.
GN (
10:14
):
He could have, yeah, he did statistics perhaps. And--.
FW (
10:17
):
13
Fred Weiss
I think he might've, I might've had him for statistics, probability, or something like that. And of
course, I had him for history as well. So, we had a range of class sizes, you know, in some of the
major classes.
GN (
10:27
):
Did you have Dr. John Schroeder? Do you remember that name?
FW (
10:30
):
I do remember. Oh, yeah. He was big in the night school. He put that program together. And for
English, I had, George Sommers, of course.
GN (
10:37
):
Oh, you did?
FW (
10:38
):
Oh yeah. Interesting man.
GN (
10:41
):
Milton Teichman? Dr. Tiechman.
FW (
10:44
):
Yeah. Well, I know him, but I don't know that I had him in the classroom.
GN (
10:47
):
Bob Lewis?
14
Fred Weiss
FW (
10:49
):
I think I did. Yeah. I had the dreaded Dr. Drennen.
GN (
10:55
):
Oh, D.A. Drennen [laugh].
FW (
10:58
):
And his books [laugh].
GN (
11:00
):
Oh yeah. Did you join some of the book burning after the semester [laugh]?
FW (
11:05
):
Well, I don't recall doing that, literally, but--.
GN (
11:08
):
Yeah. Well, I--.
FW (
11:09
):
Interesting times.
GN (
11:10
):
I used to be laughing at that.
FW (
11:11
):
15
Fred Weiss
And of course, I also had at a point in time and I respected him just so, so, so much. Not only
then, but years later as Andrew Molloy.
GN (
11:19
):
Oh, yes.
FW (
11:20
):
Wonderful science teacher.
GN (
11:21
):
Chemistry teacher, science, yeah. Okay. Larry Menapace. Is that a name that--.
FW (
11:29
):
Well, I know Larry.
GN (
11:30
):
You did.
FW (
11:30
):
I do. I do. I know him through athletics and I know him- well, extended athletics in later years.
Somewhat retirement. He and I played together on local softball leagues.
GN (
11:39
):
I see.
FW (
11:39
):
16
Fred Weiss
I know his interest in coaching and what he's done there.
GN (
11:43
):
Yeah.
FW (
11:43
):
But I don't remember him as an instructor of mine.
GN (
11:45
):
Fine. I guess one of the questions I have here is what was the motivation for you to stay on here
with the primitive status that we were in a campus that was forming and we'll talk about the
athletic in just a minute, but everything was kind of primitive.
FW (
12:06
):
Sure.
GN (
12:07
):
Was there a spirit at the core or what is it that--.
FW (
12:11
):
Well for me, again, I go back to the roots. The roots of a country boy got through high school but
didn't have a vision. We didn't have a family history of college being--.
GN (
12:24
):
Part of it.
17
Fred Weiss
FW (
12:25
):
So, I didn't have a vision of that. It's not something you could say. I was working for year in,
year out, there was some sense that at some point in my later years in high school, that basketball
might draw me there. And yet I didn't pursue it, you know, when there was interest, like a call or
knock on the door. I didn't pursue it. I was just kind of resigning myself to the world as I
understood it and saw it at that point in time as the country boy. And, again, it was really
following my brother's path a little bit in that he might have had more vision. He was a better
student than myself, I would say. And he got into the Air Force, and he was in a pilot training
program, but it was a kind of a program where you had the first six or nine months to kind of feel
your way, fly the planes, and he just didn't go for it once he got that far into the planes. And he
came out and he went right to Westchester Community College. And he did that for two years.
So, he had an associates and he could have went out and got some kind of work at that time. But
he then chose to transfer to Marist. So, we were here together. We overlapped during that, those
two years. Which was '63 and '64. Graduating class of '64 is what I originally was in. I didn't
graduate then. And I'll explain that in a moment. But so I was here from '60 fall, '61, '62. Then he
came in at the end of that year and he did the two years. And then there was a chance we
would've graduated together. In my particular case, I changed majors along the way as a math
major, I mentioned before. And that became increasingly difficult for me as it went on. And I
had a little bit more interest in the practical aspects of business, I think. And I switched to be a
business major.
GN (
14:10
):
I see.
18
Fred Weiss
FW (
14:11
):
And worked closely with Jack Kelly at the time.
GN (
14:14
):
I was going to say Jack Kelly.
FW (
14:15
):
Great instructor as well.
GN (
14:16
):
John Griffin. Do you know that name?
FW (
14:18
):
I do, I might have had him.
GN (
14:21
):
Jim Fay, he was an accountant. F-A-Y. Okay.
FW (
14:26
):
So, and then my brother graduated in '64 June and immediately was hired on by this growing
metropolis down the road IBM.
GN (
14:35
):
Oh yeah.
FW (
14:35
):
19
Fred Weiss
And so, then I come along that 1964 at one point thinking I would be graduating then. But in my
third year or so, I switched the majors. And this is not a complaint per se because I'm well
beyond it. But it was never clear that once I got to finish my major courses in business, the year
and a half later that now I would also have to have had a language. That nobody ever mentioned
that until I got the major courses done. And I said, okay, I'm here for my degree. Oh. But the
registrar says, where's your language? What language? So, I got in a huff a little bit and went off
for six, nine months or so and said, I don't need that. One of those kinds of attitudes.
GN (
15:24
):
I see.
FW (
15:25
):
And during this time, my brother was working for IBM and I went out and got a job too. But he
was making $135 a week, which is pretty good money at that time. He was hired on as a
programmer. And he used to bring me in occasionally to the office, and he would show me
things. And I was always good with puzzles and jumbles and things like that. I had a mind that
could relate these things. And I said, that's what they pay you that for. I said, there's nothing to it.
I can do that stuff. I want one of those. So, I went to IBM still didn't finish up the degree here.
GN (
15:57
):
I see.
FW (
15:57
):
And I said, I think I'd like one of those, and I'd be pretty good at that. What do you think? And
they said we think you don't have a four-year degree and that's required for us to hire you into
20
Fred Weiss
that kind of professional path. But we are hiring computer operators. You operate the machines
with your hands, and it happens to be third shift, and we pay $95 a week for that. Would you like
one of those? So, I did one of those scratchers and finally concluded that was better than the odd
jobs I was doing.
GN (
16:26
):
Yeah, I see.
FW (
16:26
):
So, I took that, and then I'm still smart enough to know this is stupid Fred, because all you need
is six credits of a language.
GN (
16:33
):
Come on back.
FW (
16:33
):
Get in there this summer, get it and get your degree. And that's what happened in '66. I did the
six credits, and in August I had a diploma in my hands. So, the only thing I really missed out on
was the ceremony.
GN (
16:44
):
Oh, right. Oh, well that's not bad. And then you went back to IBM?
FW (
16:48
):
21
Fred Weiss
Then I-- well, I was hired on by IBM was the operator, and I just stayed. And soon as I got the
degree Gus, within a month they had me in programming school. Because they saw also, you
know, I did good on the aptitude test and all that. They just had this requirement. You know, you
have the four year degree. I got it. And I had a wonderful career.
GN (
17:04
):
Wonderful. Okay. Back to the athletic program. And that, which we did not have here. In fact,
I'm not even sure, were we Division III in basketball at that time?
FW (
17:16
):
Well, we were division zero. We didn't have a team in the first year I was here. There was some
interest by the students in putting together a team. So, they had like an intramural program. A
fellow from the community, a man by the name of Gary Mendez. I presume it was voluntary.
Maybe they got a few bucks. I don't know. But he agreed to come in and be an organizer, a coach
for the group. I opted not-- I was asked to, and I opted not to join them because I was already
playing out in the community for those years.
GN (
17:51
):
I see.
FW (
17:51
):
And the competition was good. The, you know, it was just good ball out there. And it wouldn't
have been the same level of competitiveness here. There was no schedule or anything at that
time. Although think they tried to grab a couple of schools. Then, brother Murphy became the
AD, or maybe, or it was the AD. And he had a vision to want to begin to develop this thing. And
22
Fred Weiss
he put together a schedule and hired a coach. First full-time coach was the, JV coach out of
Poughkeepsie High School. A man by the name of George Strba. Okay. S-T-R-B-A.
GN (
18:25
):
I thought Tom White was in there someplace.
FW (
18:27
):
Well, I'll get to him [laugh]
GN (
18:28
):
Okay.
FW (
18:30
):
And he was actually the second year.
GN (
18:32
):
Okay.
FW (
18:33
):
So they had George Strba for one year.
GN (
18:35
):
I see.
FW (
18:36
):
23
Fred Weiss
Then they hired Tom. Dr. Foy did. And Tom was brought in as the admissions director and
men's basketball coach. So, I played for Tom for two years. And then there was opportunity for
Tom to do more in the admissions area. And he had to give up or chose to give up the basketball.
So, they hired a young man out of school of University of Mass, not the University of Mass.
Plymouth, Plymouth College up in Mass.
GN (
19:09
):
Phil Weston? Go ahead.
FW (
19:10
):
No, no. This is going to be, I just had it to give it to you. I forgot, Paul Harold.
Speaker 2 (
19:15
):
Oh, Paul. Okay. Yeah.
FW (
19:18
):
And he did crew also, he did crew and basketball. So, I had those three coaches in those years I
was here. But in my case, it was the second, third, fourth year. And then, because I did stay on
with the major change, I did have another year that I played--.
GN (
19:36
):
Eligibility. Yeah.
FW (
19:37
):
My whole career, I played only seventy-nine games.
24
Fred Weiss
GN (
19:41
):
Oh, okay.
FW (
19:42
):
Yeah. So, you know, we didn't play thirty games a year, like, or more like they do now. And you
asked about were we division III, you know, people have asked me that a number of times, and I
have no recollection of us being associated with a structured--.
GN (
19:59
):
NCAA organization.
FW (
20:00
):
So, I don't know if NCAA existed then, or if it did. Well, maybe we were three and I didn't know
it, you know, I'm not sure about that part of things.
GN (
20:06
):
Well, the parallel would be the football, which was club football, you know, and just without
having--.
FW (
20:12
):
Well, they didn't call us a club team at that point.
GN (
20:13
):
No, no.
FW (
20:14
):
25
Fred Weiss
But so I don't know.
GN (
20:16
):
Did you play in the Marist gym here or did you play in Lourdes High School?
FW (
20:20
):
Well, we practiced at Marian. That's where the basketball court was. And we'd have internal
games against the brothers who were very, very good. You know, they often beat us handily. But
the actual scheduled games, you know, one of my colleagues or friends recently indicated we
had played a game here against one of those teams. I don't recall that, the games were generally
at Lourdes, the old Lourdes High School, or some were at Poughkeepsie High School. And one
or more were at Dutchess Community College. So that's where we played our games. And we
had, during years I was there, I can't tell you exactly which years this was, but we played the
likes of some of the current MAC teams. We played certainly Iona. We played Monmouth.
GN (
21:09
):
Alright.
FW (
21:10
):
We played Siena.
GN (
21:12
):
Oh, wow.
FW (
21:13
):
26
Fred Weiss
Yeah. So they began to fit in, not in my first year, maybe, but before I was done, we were
playing them.
GN (
21:19
):
I see.
FW (
21:20
):
And then we played Bloomfield down below.
GN (
21:23
):
Okay.
FW (
21:23
):
You know, the various schools that--.
GN (
21:25
):
But even in those days with this, weren't the conditions rather primitive, mean the locker room or
the--.
FW (
21:32
):
Oh gosh, yes.
GN (
21:33
):
Yeah. There was none [laugh]. I mean, there was a--.
FW (
21:36
):
27
Fred Weiss
Well, I don't remember what the-- I guess we must have had showers right here. Right? In
Marian, I presume so. Yeah. But we, there was some interesting stories. I can't remember all of
them. But my brother tells me a story, and I had forgotten this totally, but a few years ago, he
brought it up and because he, at his high school reunion, he met somebody and he was talking to
them, and he brought up this story. And apparently while Tom Wade was the coach, although
Tom doesn't have a good recollection of it either, we were set to play somebody. And it was right
after the grades came out and several folks were academically ineligible to play. So, we were
shorthanded and as opposed to canceling the game, Tom, whoever it was, I think it was Tom,
tried to bring on some additional students to play. And my brother was one of the ones he asked.
He wasn't really quite an established basketball player, but he was big. He played intramural
level. And he reminds me that he made the trip. You know, he was given a uniform, made the
trip, and he said, I never got in the game, but I warmed up with you guys, [laugh]. And I was on
the team for that one outing. And another story that Dave Flynn likes to remind me of is one of
our games away. I think it was up in Massachusetts when the equipment was brought out for us
there were no socks and none of us prepared for not being provided with socks by the, the person
that takes care of the equipment. And the coach had to send somebody out to a sporting goods
store [laugh], round up a bunch of socks and things. So that was an indication of the kind of
ragtag team we might have been.
GN (
23:25
):
Yeah. Okay. Alright, moving on. I think part of what you have already told me is in this, I was
going to say, that's the Marist experience now after Marist, and then yeah. Like your first, you
know, what were those experiences like employment, but the employment is going to be IBM I
suppose.
28
Fred Weiss
FW (
23:43
):
Yes, that was my career for thirty-two years.
GN (
23:45
):
Alright. And then, during this time now, after you finished graduating from Marist, how did you
get back to Marist? What was the magnet that brought you back that you would be involved in
the Red Fox Club or, you know, the athletic program here or--.
FW (
24:06
):
Yeah, you know, it took some years because, I guess it was a combination of factors at play.
Certainly, one was a little bit of an uncomfortableness on my part about the change in the major
and--.
GN (
24:21
):
And the requirement for the--.
FW (
24:22
):
And the requirement and the delay. So that certainly was in the mix a little bit. And after I was
married and we began, we had children, I was still involved in lots of sports out in the
community. A lot of basketball leagues then became--.
GN (
24:41
):
Where are you living during this period of time?
FW (
24:44
):
29
Fred Weiss
Well, after the first year of marriage, we lived up in Hyde Park the first year. And then we
bought a home over in LaGrange. And our first daughter was born before we got to the house in
LaGrange. And then the other two daughters later on. So, all three grew up in the Arlington
school district in LaGrange.
GN (
24:59
):
Yeah, alright. I was going to say what kind of brought you back, but eventually you do cross that
stream again and you come back to visiting us.
FW (
25:14
):
And I'll tell you, I have a distinct memory of how that began to occur. And there was a fellow on
staff in the development office by the name of Ron Zerwick (?). You probably know him, right?
GN (
25:27
):
Yeah.
FW (
25:28
):
And Ron reached out to me and began to involve me in some basics with the Phonathons and
stuff.
GN (
25:37
):
Oh, yes. Yeah.
FW (
25:38
):
30
Fred Weiss
Right. Give support to some of that kind of thing. And that just began, you know, making new
connections. The school, I thought from that point on, would always kind of go overboard to
make me feel wanted, to feel comfortable to involve me where they thought I could be, you
know, help to them. I was willing to do that kind of thing. One year I ran a sub part of the annual
fundraiser program. I did a-- the IBM group, we defined it as, you know.
GN (
26:14
):
I see.
FW (
26:14
):
So, I headed that up a little bit. So it was that kind of thing. And around, I guess that time, or
maybe even later thereafter, I was aware of the sporting stuff going on with the school from the
papers and from living in the community, but we weren't here living it. But now our children
were beginning to grow up. And at a very young age, we as a family began to live it. Particularly
in the basketball front. You know, we started to get into the red fox club when that was created
and had season tickets and every home game, that was the thing that the Weiss family did. And
even got to the point where we coordinated a couple of vacation trips to coincide to a Marist
schedule. One time in California, you know.
GN (
26:59
):
Oh, wow.
FW (
26:59
):
31
Fred Weiss
The five of us were out there to go a game there. Another case in Florida, you know. The kids
have such great memories of all of that. So, we were there then before, you know, Rick came on
and all that period of time.
GN (
27:13
):
Yeah. Ron Petro was the coach.
FW (
27:15
):
Well see, Ron was at Manhattan when I was at Marist here. So, we overlapped just a little bit.
But then when he was hired on, I was already disconnected from Marist, so I didn't know him
well in the earliest years. But he actually, and you know, the athletic department did bring me
back and honored me at some basketball game with a plaque and the first thousand point player
and all. So that's how I began to get connected with Ron a little bit. You know, and then--.
GN (
27:45
):
That was a great team effort there, that athletic group, as it were. You had Ron, you had Harry
Goldman, you had Bill Austin, you know, and they kind of really worked together in different
activities. I mean, one had the crew and the thing, and one had soccer and--.
FW (
28:05
):
Yes, I should have brought Dr. Goldman's name in earlier because we were good friends, I
thought after Marist experience. And he did a lot for the school after Bill Murphy, Dr. Murphy.
Yeah. And yeah.
GN (
28:19
):
32
Fred Weiss
Alright. Marist is a different place today.
FW (
28:24
):
Absolutely [laugh]. Who would've thunk?
GN (
28:28
):
Exactly. How do you explain it?
FW (
28:30
):
Well, I don't know. I just, I bubble up with pride when I try to talk about it with people, you
know, and you just don't know, you say to people. You just can't imagine, you know, what it was
like. And then I quickly acknowledge I probably wouldn't be able to be here now, but I was then,
and I feel so much a part of-- I really do feel a part of what's here now--.
GN (
28:52
):
And rightly so.
FW (
28:53
):
It's because of you and me and others that went through that other building process, right. You
guys more literally than us, but.
GN (
28:58
):
Yeah. I tell people, you know, these hands built that chapel, I was up there. I can tell you about
the purlin and that's the things between them and how they had to slip in and it was dangerous.
There was no net. Be careful up there, brother. Thank you [laugh]. You know? But the-- one of
33
Fred Weiss
the things that, you know, that comes to mind is the leadership. Dennis Murray has a place, but
it's not Dennis Murray alone. I mean, one man could not do this.
FW (
29:26
):
Right. Exactly.
GN (
29:28
):
And you say, well, what is it then? Is it the buildings? Is it the campus? Is it the student body? Is
it what-- how, where do you feel?
FW (
29:37
):
I don't know who you give the greatest credit to, but it's all those parts. Like, I often say in
different ways that the whole is greater than some of the parts, you know? Dennis came in after
me, but again, I was back into the community and was aware of the work he's done. He's done a
tremendous job, you know, and he was successful in getting very dedicated board people.
GN (
30:07
):
Yeah. That's, yeah. Right. Yeah.
FW (
30:08
):
That's such a key part, I suppose. I think.
GN (
30:10
):
Absolutely.
FW (
30:11
):
34
Fred Weiss
And the core set of alumni that there always has been that were very committed to it, far more
than me in the earlier days. I know too. You know, and I, and I consider a lot of them now
friends and met a lot of new friends and--. You know, it's rare that you find a block of people
that have a bunch of negative things to say about their experience and what the school has
become.
GN (
30:36
):
Yeah. And I mean, going back to Linus Foy and even Paul Ambrose before him, I mean, I tell
the story of the history of Marist. It's, you know, Paul Ambrose came here in 1946 with a BA, an
MA degree in library science, and we had a two-year college and it says see if you can make this
a four year college, so we don't have to go to Fordham to finish our degrees. You know? And in
five years-- now, he had no secretary, he had no fund, he had no, he typed with two fingers, you
know, and he made out all the applications, sent them off to Albany. He had no legal advice
other than what he would have to get to for signing a document or thing, you know? So, it's an
incredible birth story, you know? And then Foy comes along next to it with more of an academic
vision. And, you know, insisting on certain things academically that, you know.
FW (
31:33
):
My wife will love that story because she was in elementary education, a library, you know,
teacher, a librarian, and nobody referred to themselves formally. But yeah, she'd love that story.
GN (
31:46
):
And then again, you know, the buildings here, that to me, that's one aspect of it. And how did
this happen? I mean, you know, they, Dennis has certainly a vision of putting up a substantial
35
Fred Weiss
structure, you know, incidental note on the side, I can remember Linus Foy was late for a
meeting with his, I don't know what you'd call them. They weren't the trustees yet, but there was
a group of faculty and administrators administrative meeting. He was home cutting the rug,
cutting out a rug for his living room. I mean, he did it physically himself, you know, that's not
the same president that we have now [laugh], in terms of the difference in the way it was.
Another area that could contrast would be sports. I mean, did you know Rik Smits [laugh]?
FW (
32:43
):
Oh, yeah. I got to meet him. He was a wonderful man and he represents--.
GN (
32:47
):
Yeah, I had him as a student, and he was a very gentle guy, you know, and clever enough. I
mean, he was not slow by any means, you know, and language was not a problem. He managed
to get through with it, you know, so that--we've gone to the NCAA twice or three times with him
right there on the men's division, which was quite a leap forward. And now we go annually with
the girls.
FW (
33:13
):
That's right. Yeah.
GN (
33:14
):
You explain that to me.
FW (
33:15
):
36
Fred Weiss
Yeah. Well, there's something there, there's a core there with the women's program that is
somewhat self-sustaining, and they got the great leader, I think, and Brian Giorgis, you know. I
was well aware of his high school coaching experience. And my daughters did go to some camps
that he ran. And so, I've known him for many, many years, and I thought that was a great hire,
and he is doing a wonderful job.
GN (
33:40
):
Yeah. I guess it's a kind of a magnet effect that they managed to draw, like unlike, you know,
that-- you wanted, you know, it's not the biggest school, but if you want to be able to play, we
give you a chance, you know. And you might find your way going into the NCAA, you know, so
that--.
FW (
33:59
):
And doesn't it seem that some of the introduction of some new majors along the way helped
bring in some people that you wouldn't have?
GN (
34:08
):
Right.
FW (
34:08
):
Otherwise, I think of Rachele Fitz, for example with fashion.
GN (
34:13
):
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
FW (
34:14
):
37
Fred Weiss
She was intent on fashion and then basketball. If you didn't have that major, wouldn't have had
her, you know?
GN (
34:20
):
Right.
FW (
34:21
):
There's other examples like that.
GN (
34:22
):
And now fashion is one of the hottest programs to get into. Yeah. You just can't come and apply.
You got to bring your profile. What have you created? And, you know, what, how are you with
CAD? I happened to be the chairman of the communications at the time when they wanted to, for
CAD-- computer assistant design, so that the machine itself, you cut the thing four inches long, it
knows it should take off four inches off the bottom. You know, I mean, the whole concept of-- as
I said, a whole new major that we knew. We would not ordinarily have.
FW (
35:01
):
Well, I know CAD, CAD/CAM, I don't know how personally to use it, but I was in computer
services and the lab in Poughkeepsie and within the lab, that was a very major design tool that
they used in hardwood design.
GN (
35:13
):
Yeah. Also in biology, but biology, we went on to med tech and, you know, there's a whole other
area of development of students, different range of students who have different kinds of qualities.
38
Fred Weiss
I can't remember Richard LaPietra talking about a chemistry major who played basketball, which
is a tough thing to do here. I mean, you know, to be majoring in such things.
FW (
35:39
):
I should have mentioned his name earlier as well. In fact, he's the one I had for chemistry. I had
Linus Foy, I mean, Andrew Molloy for physics, I guess it was. But I had Dr. LaPietra.
GN (
35:51
):
How about Brian Desilets?
FW (
35:53
):
Yeah, I know the name. I know I met him, but I don't think I had him in the classroom. I don't
think so.
GN (
35:59
):
You know, he wasn't here--. Well, he was here ten years, which is a lot in some ways, but it's not
like forty years, which, you know, you have an experience of ranging over that period of time.
FW (
36:08
):
Yeah. But even a brother that was in training here at the time that I played basketball against,
always stood out in my mind because he is a big man and he ended up being Brother John. Last
name being what--? He went to Lourdes after here.
GN (
36:26
):
Oh, yeah.
39
Fred Weiss
FW (
36:26
):
And my wife and her family all went through Lourdes. So, she knew him in that context. She's a
few years younger than myself. And I don't remember if he was an instructor or a principal at
some point over there. But he was over there, you know?
GN (
36:41
):
Well, tell me a few things about, well, I might ask of your achievement in your own life. Like, at
IBM where you were what is that, the twenty-five year award. You get one of those.
FW (
36:53
):
Yeah. Everybody that's employed for twenty-five years, you join a quarter century club, they call
it. And you're honored that way. Yeah, you know, I--.
GN (
37:02
):
You recently got an award for sports.
FW (
37:05
):
I did.
GN (
37:06
):
Yeah. And what was that about?
FW (
37:09
):
Well, the MAC conference-- that didn't exist for us way back when I played. But the MAC
conference now does honor one male and one female athlete, basketball athlete at an affair up at
40
Fred Weiss
the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. And for the last several years, the
MAC has held its annual end of the season tournament there. And they decided they'd like to
honor folks in the manner I just said. And they arrange for a space. So, they have a large room
where they have displays of all the teams in the MAC and then they hold this gala dinner affair.
It's a wonderful affair. And in fact, it just began three years ago. Rik Smits received it,
appropriately so, the first year, I was so honored the second year, which was a big, big thrill for
me.
GN (
38:03
):
I bet. Yeah.
FW (
38:04
):
And my family. And this past year, Mike Hart was who was a good friend and was a friend
before this occurred, so I was happy for him as well. So, yeah. So that's a special honor
academically. But as far as the career goes at IBM, I stayed in the community. I did all my thirty-
two years here in Duchess County. There were a couple of occasions where I was either asked to
look at work elsewhere, or I initiated looking elsewhere. So, there were some opportunities to,
you know, job opportunities in Atlanta at one time and Kentucky another time. But it always
came back to the family, you know, I always-- I got a lot of roots in me, and--.
GN (
38:48
):
I bet there are here.
FW (
38:49
):
41
Fred Weiss
Yeah. And my wife grew up here. I grew up here. The family connections were here. Our social
network was here, the children were in school. And I got so far in one case where I accepted a
job, and this was after family conversation. I decided to accept one, and then I didn't sleep on it
well enough to stick with it. And I said, this is just not the right decision for my family in the
long run, you know? So, we didn't do it. It didn't really hurt my career. It wasn't that, and IBM is
often known as I've been moved. But I was so fortunate to be part of a company during its
heyday. It's different now, but it was growing, expanding. I fell under the mentorship of a certain
individual who liked what I could offer. And as his part of the business expanded, I always found
myself being tugged along by him.
GN (
39:41
):
I see.
FW (
39:42
):
And I would have more and more responsibility, you know, so I, you know, I guess you would
say that the highest-level position I had there was a third line management position with several
hundred employees and, you know, $7 million budget, that kind of thing.
GN (
39:56
):
Okay. Alright. I'm just checking our time here, but I have one new series of questions I really
want to ask because I want to get your feed on it now, considering the time in which we live and
where Marist campus is now, et cetera. But it's a basic question, kind of a philosophical one
about, put this way, is college worth the investment today? And you think about it in terms of the
financial that people will have to put forward in money. You think of the time that you have to
42
Fred Weiss
spend going for the four years, you think of the effort that's involved in doing the papers and
doing the readings and tending the classes and so on. So unbalance, you know, take a crack at it.
What would you say about it?
FW (
40:47
):
Well, I think the answer is yes and no because you stated it in a somewhat general generic frame,
which is appropriate. And you put into the context of secondary education but that education
doesn't have to be in every case at a $60,000 per year school. Right? It could be at a school that's
5,000 or less than 10,000 or something like that. Right? In my own experience, I mean, I knew a
lot of families that very specifically opted to have their children go to a two-year community
college for the first two years of education. It tests the child, right, at a reasonable cost. And it
prepares them, in many cases, we thought with Duchess prepared them well, to then step on to
whatever's there for them. And it isn't for everybody, you know? You know, college-- parts of
college is probably useful for everybody. But so it's a mixed bag and it's a tough choice.
GN (
41:51
):
And that's taking the financial aspect of it, specifically investing this amount of money in terms
of those things. But, on the next, again, another point, you're really touching on, maybe we don't
need four years of academic college courses. Maybe two years would be enough. And then two
years of practical engineering. Or how to use a level or, you know, a saw, what's a wrench? You
know, the kind of practical applications you have to be smart in this day and age to handle that
stuff, I believe.
FW (
42:25
):
43
Fred Weiss
Yeah. I mean, like in my own experience, I thought after my two to three years collection of
academics, I was quite a good candidate for work in the IBM environment that I ultimately got
into. But the conditions at the time were for those kind of companies. Our line is four-year
degree. I was no better person or different when I got that thing in my hand. I don't think than I
was before. So maybe it's too arbitrary in some of those kinds of cases. And yeah, maybe we do
need more of those mid-range options for people.
GN (
43:06
):
You hear about the need for more computer skills or development that students aren't prepared to
be able to fill the jobs that are available out there. What kind of jobs are they that the world that
is being offered, you know?
FW (
43:22
):
Well, I mean, information technology world is intertwined in lots of things. Almost everything,
you know? It's not just in building a new computer, a faster computer. Or in operating the
services of computers. It's in the medical field, right. It's in the legal field. It's in all these
different fields. So, math and science and computer engineering insight is invaluable, I guess to
our competitiveness in the world. Certainly, when we look at ourselves against perhaps the
Chinese and other examples like that, we tend to fall behind that it seems, doesn't it? And so, we
need to be investing in those areas. We need to entice people into them.
GN (
44:13
):
Would you say something too about now the-- maybe the social development as a result of your
going to college? You're no longer just a farm boy from upstate New York. I mean, you have a
44
Fred Weiss
much more, or have had the experience of a broadening of many new friends, I would imagine,
from different backgrounds, you know.
FW (
44:33
):
Yes, absolutely. That I wouldn't have otherwise for sure. So, I feel like I'm a more complete
person as a result. So much of me is still, I can see it as I look inside me is still that country boy.
It really is. But around it, I've had so many wonderful experiences that I would not have had
without the college experience and being lucky enough to be in the community where I could
continue to have those relationships with folks that have the very same similar experience of the
same college, if you will. And I find myself reconnecting with alumni that I knew and some I
didn't know, but you find you have other commonalities that you're connecting. So, yeah.
GN (
45:23
):
What are your best joys now?
FW (
45:27
):
Probably still with my children, of course, my grandchildren, now I have grandchildren to joy
over. In fact, we're getting ready to have them come up for a couple of weeks here, after the next
week. And we look forward to that every summer. We do have the opportunity to relax some in
Florida in the winter. And, they have often come there to see us. So, one week a year. So, you
know, it's, it's family in one form or another. I am very fortunate, very, very fortunate to have the
health that I can still do an awful lot physically. So, I'm very active athletically, you know, I play
golf, I do golf. I play other court games. We have a game called pickleball. You may or may not
have heard about.
45
Fred Weiss
GN (
46:11
):
Oh, yes. In the villages. Oh, yes.
FW (
46:14
):
Well, it's not only in the villages. We play it here at my local condominium complex as well. In
fact, I'm playing tonight. I'm going to have a couple of guys that I've never played before come
and because they've shown an interest in wanting to do it, so we're going to work out a little bit
tonight. So, I'm really fortunate to be able to do that. You know, you have some medical bumps
along the way, but minor compared to lots of other examples of what people have to go through.
GN (
46:39
):
Wonderful.
FW (
46:39
):
So, I'm very fortunate in that regard, still.
GN (
46:42
):
Now tell me, is there something here that I didn't ask you that you think, I guess you should
know this. I mean, in terms of-- I think you've had a pretty good ride by and large. Marist was
part of it. But IBM was another bigger part I think. And the Hudson Valley has provided you
with a nice home.
FW (
47:01
):
It has. Yeah. I mean, I can't think of anything specific. I didn't come with a list of make sure Gus
knows these things, kind of things. So, nothing's popping to my head right now in that regard. I
46
Fred Weiss
mean, it's, the campus is such a beautiful place to see. You wonder how much more can be done,
you know, what more would they want to do? Where are they going do it? With the boundaries
of the acreage and stuff.
GN (
47:26
):
What's your favorite drink?
FW (
47:28
):
Oh, I'm usually a red wine man. Yeah. Like that. But then--.
GN (
47:32
):
Yeah, I just say that because brother Joseph Belanger was a subject of a conversation before you
came in. And he was with this brother Sean Sammon who was the permission at the time. And
after an interview, he said, would you like to have a drink? And so, the brother said, yeah, I'm
going to have a seven up. No, I mean a drink [laugh]. You know, so just, you know, for him at
that time, it was the only one way that I look at it. And he was not an alcoholic. But just the
expression that, you know, would you have a drink? That's the way we go. Well, Fred, it's been
very nice talking to you. I've seen you around a lot, but I never had a chance to get this side of
you so completely. And what you've said now will be recorded in our archives and hopefully
more use will be made of it. How and when. I couldn't tell you, but I know it will.
FW (
48:23
):
Well, I've enjoyed talking to you. It's good to get to know you a little bit better too.
GN (
48:26
):
47
Fred Weiss
Thank you very much. Okay.
Weiss, Fred Cover Pages
Weiss, Fred 1 July 2014 (2)