To the Editor:

“The Right Thing”
I wanted to express the appreciation of all the members of Alpha Pi Alpha for the article titled “The Right Thing” (UAlbany, Spring 2002). It was well written and extremely professional. Please forward our congratulations to writer Paul Grondahl, the photographers and other staff who had a part in the production. I have received some very complimentary feedback for both the story and the way it was presented.

John Zongrone, B.A.’54
Voorheesville, N.Y.

Many sincere thanks for conveying and highlighting to our collegiate community this small early skirmish in the fight against discrimination. In this instance, the men of Alpha Pi Alpha were more than equal to the challenge; they led by example, and for this I shall be forever in their debt. We are planning to attend the Alpha Pi Alpha reunion in October, and I look forward to reacquainting myself with the true heroes of the event depicted in your magazine, my fraternity brothers.

Stuart Macnofsky, B.A.’54
Captain, USN (Ret)
San Diego, Calif.

Mary Goggin Remembered

All who knew and studied with the late Professor Emeritus Mary G. Goggin can find a very appropriate quotation in her entry in the 1930 Barnard College yearbook, The Mortarboard: “And here at last great knowledge does not chill the gentle current of the soul.” A modest and gracious person, she imparted the values of Classical learning and the virtues of Classical Thought, especially humanitas and pietas.

Two corrections of the brief notice of Professor Goggin’s passing (UAlbany, Spring 2002) are her 38-year career at UAlbany beginning in 1940, not 1938, and she was a Barnard College, not a Yale graduate. She took her Ph.D. in classics at Yale.

Emil J. Polak, Ph.D., B.A.’57
New York City

Remembering Graduation
48 Years Ago

Thank you ever so much for writing the story about Joan and Bill Floyd and me (“The Poetry of Friendship,” UAlbany, Spring 2002). It’s really a great honor to be the topic of a story in such a widely circulating magazine. I’m also grateful to you for introducing my poems in the on-line version of UAlbany magazine.

In 1954, the year of my graduation, Mrs. Margaret Masai was 43. So many years have passed! The picture of her and me taken on the day of graduation in front of Husted Hall brings back the day vividly. Recently, my wife and I visited our home island, Kikai-jima, between mainland Japan and Okinawa. When the bus passed by the hamlet where (my fellow countryman) Mr. (Kenkichi) Masai was born and spent his boyhood, I fondly thought of him who helped me through college in the U.S.

Naoshi Koriyama, B.A.’54
Kanagawa-ken, Japan

Editor’s note: Margaret Masai, the American widow of Long Island florist Kenkichi Masai, who guided Koriyama to the College for Teachers, recently celebrated her 92nd birthday in Florida.

Alumni Relations

E-mail: msamuels@uamail.albany.edu
Mail: Melissa Samuels, Director
University at Albany
Office of Alumni Relations
Alumni House
University at Albany, SUNY
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
Phone: 518-437-4493; fax: 442-5839

Letters to the Editor:

E-mail: cmcknight@uamail.albany.edu
Mail: Christine Hanson McKnight,
Editor, UAlbany Magazine
Office of Media & Marketing, UAB 209
University at Albany, SUNY
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12222
Phone (518) 437-4987,
Fax (518) 437-4990