RIT Recognizes Alumni for Outstanding Achievements

Award recipients honored during alumni weekend celebration

Rochester Institute of Technology proudly salutes the accomplishments of some exceptional RIT graduates. The Outstanding and Distinguished Alumni Awards and the Volunteer of the Year Award were presented on Oct. 11 during the annual Brick City Festival/Alumni Weekend celebration.

“We’re proud of all of our graduates, and it is a special pleasure to honor these 10 individuals for their achievements,” says Kelly Redder, director of alumni relations. “We applaud their success, and appreciate the support they provide.”

The Outstanding Alumnus Award is given to a person who has excelled in serving the needs of the RIT community, and the Distinguished Alumni Awards acknowledge the accomplishments of alumni in their career fields. New this year, the Volunteer of the Year Award commemorates outstanding volunteer service to RIT. This year’s recipients are as follow:

Daniel J. Bader, Outstanding Alumnus, is president of the Helen Bader Foundation, where he is responsible for ensuring that the organization continually furthers his late mother’s dreams and aspirations. A Milwaukee native, Bader is active in philanthropic organizations and is a member of the board of RIT. He has varied work experience in high-technology fields and is chairman of Granite Microsystems Inc. and a director of Cedarburg Pharmaceuticals.

Julianne Klie, B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences Distinguished Alumna, is president and CEO of Veritor Executive Advisors, a Rochester company that provides time-shared executives and single-project management consulting services. Prior to founding Veritor in 2002, Klie was vice president at Xelus, an international software company. In 2002, Klie was named Greater Rochester IT Woman of the Year.

Michael T. Dugan, College of Applied Science and Technology Distinguished Alumnus, is president and chief operating officer of Echostar Communications Corp., a public company with more than 15,000 employees. EchoStar and its Dish Network deliver direct broadcast satellite TV equipment and services to customers worldwide. Previously, Dugan was vice president of engineering for Tandon Corp., as well as director of product marketing and director of engineering. He served at Xerox Corp. for 15 years in a variety of positions.

Brian H. Hall, College of Business Distinguished Alumnus, is president and CEO of Thomson Legal & Regulatory, a division of The Thomson Corp. With revenues of $3 billion in 2002 and more than 17,000 employees, Thomson Legal & Regulatory provides integrated information solutions to legal, tax, accounting, intellectual property, compliance and business professionals around the world. He serves on the boards of many civic organizations, including the RIT Board of Trustees.

Bernard N. Boston, College of Imaging Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumnus, worked in the Washington, D.C., area for most of his career as a photojournalist and retired from Washington bureau of The Los Angeles Times in 1993. In 2000, he and his wife, Peggy, purchased the Bryce Mountain Courier in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Last year, they purchased a local radio station. Among many honors, Boston received the National Press Photographers Association Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, the organization’s highest honor, in 1993.

Robert E. Craig Jr., College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumnus, is director of RIT’s campus safety department and a veteran of the Rochester Police Department. While working as a police officer he was also a student in RIT’s criminal justice program and received his bachelor’s degree in 1976. Among many awards, Craig is especially proud of being the first recipient of the RPD’s Community Service Award, presented on his retirement. He left the RPD to pursue graduate studies at RIT and received his M.S. in the career and human resource development program.

Paul W. Melnychuck, College of Science Distinguished Alumnus, has pursued a varied career as a music producer, musician, photographer and entertainment technology veteran. Currently, he is producer and president of Too Far Music in Woodside, Calif. Additionally, he works with his wife, Karen, at Minds On Hold, a music production company, record label and design firm. Melnychuck, who earned a B.S. in chemistry and an M.S. in imaging science, holds seven patents in the area of digital signal processing.

Anthony J. Amorese, Kate Gleason College of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus, worked as an engineer and manager for several companies for more than two decades before acquiring Redie Laundry and Cleaners Inc. in 1978. He expanded the company from 15 employees in a 2,800-square-foot facility to 150 workers in a new, 20,000 square-foot space before selling the company and retiring in 1991. He has served as an officer in many community organizations including the Honeoye Falls-Lima (N.Y.) Board of Education.

Susan J. Wolf-Downes, National Technical Institute for the Deaf Distinguished Alumnus, is the executive director of Northeast Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Inc. in Concord, N.H. While working for New England Telephone, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), she became the outreach manager for New England Telephone Dual Party Relay Service. She is an active member of the board of trustees for New England Homes for the Deaf in Danvers, Mass., and chairs the administrative board of Our Deaf Sister’s Center, a domestic violence/sexual assault advocacy group in Boston.

Kenneth Reed, Volunteer of the Year, is a research associate in the Emulsion Technology Division of the Research Laboratories, Eastman Kodak Company. Reed earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Stanford University in 1975. He serves as Chair for the RIT Alumni Network Board of Directors and is a member of the RIT Board of Trustees.

Nominations are received annually for the RIT Outstanding and Distinguished Alumni Awards. From those candidates, members of the Alumni Network Board of Directors select the outstanding alumnus. Committees at each RIT college select a distinguished alumnus.

Internationally recognized as a leader in computing, imaging technology, fine and applied arts, and education of the deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology enrolls 15,500 full- and part-time students in more than 340 career-oriented and professional programs. Its cooperative education program is one of the oldest and largest in the nation.

For well over a decade, U.S. News and World Report has ranked RIT as one of the nation’s leading comprehensive universities. RIT is also included in Fisk’s Guide to America’s Best Colleges and Barron’s Best Buys in Education.