News From Fort Schuyler

October 4, 2002 - Volume 6, No. 29

KEEPING PACE - The Graduate School of International Transportation Management, although based at Fort Schuyler, has always held the bulk of its class sessions at Manhattan venues in order to be convenient to its students, many of whom work in lower Manhattan. In recent years, students and faculty alike, had to put up with poor conditions at the downtown New York State Office building. From now on, however, graduate classes will meet in classrooms at the Manhattan campus of Pace University, located across from City Hall near Park Row. According to information from the Graduate Department: "This facility is a major improvement over our previous space with better access to public transportation from Brooklyn, Staten Island, and New Jersey as well as a vibrant campus community that we are happy to be part of." You can get to the Graduate School by going to: http://www.sunymaritime.edu

PILOTING CLASS - "Your news about the cadets receiving scholarship assistance from the Everglades Pilots Association," writes ROLAND PARENT, Class of 1968, "prompts me to provide a little additional news about pilots and Port Everglades."

"I was a Port Everglades pilot for 25 years, and just retired last year. In addition to me, there are two other classmates from the Class of 1968 who are Port Everglades pilots, BRIAN HANLEY and NED CRAY. In addition, also from the Class of 1968, there are five Maryland State pilots, namely: DICK MORRISON, DUKE ADAMS, MIKE AXELSSON, HOWARD MERKEL, and FRED GUENTHNER. Another classmate, DAVE LEECH, is a pilot in Miami, FL. That makes a total of nine state pilots from our class of 60 deck cadets. I don't know of any other class from Fort Schuyler (or any other maritime school for that matter) that has 15% of its graduates going into the piloting profession. I think we have the record. If there are any other classes that top us, I would like to know. [There are also four other Fort Schuyler graduates from other classes who are pilots in Port Everglades.]

FAMILIAR NAME - According to SUNY News from the SUNY HQ in Albany, the first president of the newly established Neil D. Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations & Commerce is VADM JOHN W. CRAINE, Jr., who just completed his stint as Interim President at Fort Schuyler. For the time being, the Institute will be located in midtown Manhattan. For complete details go to: http://www.suny.edu and click on 'Neil D. Levin Graduate Institute.'

COLOR ME BLUE - Responding to the item about the new look of the Training Ship, ERHARD KOEHLER, Class of 1987, writes (in blue ink no less) that "TSES VI is not, by the way, Holland America Blue. That shade is an Ameron product. TSES has International applied, so the shade and name are slightly different." Erhard should know, since he is the Schoolship Program Manager at MARAD. He also notes that his "...files do not go so far as to record liveries. MARAD has never really appeared to be interested, as the academies have always been required to keep the ship painted above the waterline, hence we haven't cared too much what color was used. Of late we' ve done some special case freeboard coatings jobs, but that's the exception rather than the rule."

Your NFFS editor went to Fort Schuyler this week to look at the TSES paint job for himself, digital camera in hand. It was about 1500 on a bright, cloudless afternoon. This meant that the sun was behind the ship, so from shore side the hull looks black from a distance. [CRAIG T. OLSEN, Class of 1982, visiting campus for his 20th Reunion, saw it as black, too.] Only by walking on the pier alongside the ship did it become apparent that the hull was a dark blue. Best time to take photos would be early in the day or on a cloudy day.

DESTROYING A STEREOTYPE - The latest book by Maritime College Humanities Department professor, JULIE WOSK, is 'Women and the Machine: Representations From the Spinning Wheel to the Mechanical Age.' According to a review in Publishers Weekly magazine, Wosk deconstructs "the image of the flustered woman unable to change a tire or recognize a Phillips screwdriver [which] is so common it's practically archetypal - but then so is her counterpart, Rosie the Riveter." More about Julie's book, which was published by Johns Hopkins University Press, can be found at http://www.womenandthemachine.com [Ed. This is the perfect book for a spouse, either gender.]

DON'T TELL ANYONE, BUT - Long-time Luce Library stalwart, FIL MAGAVERO, will be celebrating her 80th birthday in a few weeks. Fil, who originally came to the library as a catalog librarian in March, 1949, retired in 1995 as the Head of the Readers Services Department. Since then she has continued to provide one day a week of professional expertise, on a volunteer basis, as the Government Documents Librarian, year around. That makes 53 years of uninterrupted service to the Maritime College - so far. Congratulations to a crackerjack librarian, who also happens to also be one of New York's biggest (and most knowledgeable) Yankee fans !