Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:59:57 GMT — The 44th Annual Night of Distinction Dinner was help Thursday Night at Syracuse University, and many more celebrities are present this year thanks in part to the Express Weekend. Of course, the World Premier of the movie will be at the Landmark Theater tomorrow night, and many members of the famous 1959 team are in town to take part. And while SU Alumni and the face of Monday Night Football Mike Tirico cannot stay for the premier, he was honored to be master of ceremonies at the Night of Distinction Dinner. This years letterwinners are below along with their Bios. Click of the video link to see John Evenson's one on one interview with Tirico about the Express movie and the current state of SU Football.
Melissa (Emme) Entwistle Aronson, 1985 (Women's Rowing)
Melissa Entwistle Aronson, better known as Emme, was a four-year women's rowing letterwinner for the Orange. She was invited to the U.S. Olympic team trials, as well as several U.S. National team trials, during her career. In 1994 she was inducted into the Syracuse University Orange Plus Hall of Fame for her significant contribution to women's athletics and the sport of rowing.
Upon earning her bachelor's degree in speech communications from Syracuse, Emme spent two years in Flagstaff, AZ reporting and anchoring for the NBC affiliate KNAZ-TV. She later burst onto the scene as the world's first full-figured supermodel and as host of "Fashion Emergency" on E! Entertainment Television. She quickly became a popular icon not only in the United States, but around the globe. People magazine selected her twice as one of their "50 Most Beautiful People." Her television and radio appearances include Oprah, Good Morning America, The Today Show, and Entertainment Tonight, among others. Emme became the first full-figured model to secure a contract with a cosmetics company, Revlon, and to have a high fashion collectable doll sculpted in her likeness. She has authored four highly praised books, her most recent a children's book entitled "What Are You Hungry For?"
In addition to her success in the fashion and television industries and as an author, Emme is a vocal advocate for women on important issues such as lifestyle, the green movement, mothering and body image. She is a notable lecturer at national workshops and seminars, prestigious universities, and middle schools and high schools across the country. Emme is the chair ambassador of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), and serves on the advisory boards of Ophelia's Place, Hearts of Gold, and Ethosquare, and is an ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
In 2006, the Syracuse Alumni Rowing Association (SARA) honored Emme for her significant contributions to the community on women's health and self-esteem issues by creating an award in her name that is given annually to an alumna who demonstrates a similar commitment to serving her community.
S. Jeffery Bastable, 1969 (Football)
A 1968 letterwinner, S. Jeffery Bastable served as a football manager from 1965 to 1969, including as the head manager in '68. He was part of the 1966 squad that competed against Tennessee in the Gator Bowl. He also participated in the University's Goon Squad (1967-69) and the social fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Bastable earned two degrees from Syracuse University, including a bachelor's degree in geography in 1969 and a master's degree in general science/chemistry in 1973. From 1969 to 1972, Bastable was a chemistry teacher and golf coach at Most Holy Rosary High School in Syracuse. After earning his MBA from the Sloan Program in Hospital and Health Services Management of the now Johnson School at Cornell University, he launched his career in health care management at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He held increasingly responsible administrative positions at the Memorial Hospital of Cancer and Allied Diseases Division, a 565-bed specialty teaching hospital affiliated with the then New York Hospital-Cornell Medical College, as well as in the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center service corporation from 1973 to 1982. He worked closely with Laurence S. Rockefeller and was also the first ever to hold positions as manager of insurance, director of personnel, and administrator of the Department of Surgery.
In 1982, Bastable joined the Westerly Hospital in Rhode Island as the executive vice president and chief executive officer. Six years later, he was appointed the first chief executive officer of its parent corporation, Community Health of Westerly, Inc., which he was instrumental in creating.
He returned to Central New York in 1989 and joined Health Services Association of CNY (PHP) as the Chief Operating Officer of its medical group practice, the largest such group in Central New York. During his tenure the group practice sites more than doubled and in 1996 he took over management of the network development and contracting functions for the PHP health insurance company until its merger to create Univera in 1999. When Univera later merged with Excellus BlueCross BlueShield of the Central New York region in 2001, Bastable became the director of network contracting and relationships, a position he held until 2005. In his most recent role he has served as the first major gifts/gift planning officer at St Joseph's Hospital Health Center Foundation and now works as a health care management and fund development consultant.
For eight years he was an instructor in Medical Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University, College of Medicine and on faculty at the Institute of Ethics in Health Care. For years he has been a lecturer and instructor at the Cornell Sloan Program, where for the past three years he has served as an Executive-in-Residence. He also was on the faculty of the Ethics Institute.
Bastable has always been very engaged in his community, serving on boards and committees for many organizations. His United Way service spans 31 years, most recently as board member in CNY for 13 years. He chaired the Nominating and Individual Giving committees as well as the Leadership Giving Campaign an unprecedented four years. From 2002 to 2007 he served the American Heart Association and chaired the Annual Heart Ball with a net increase of $100,000. In addition he has served on the Boards of the Loretto Foundation as an officer, on the Organizing Committee for a new YMCA in Fayetteville, and represented CNY at the 1997 President's Summit on America's Future in Philadelphia. He currently serves on the U.S. Selective Service Board, an appointment by the Governor.
He has been a Varsity Club member since 1969, served on the Board since 1991, has been an officer since 1998, chaired the Letterwinner of Distinction dinner since 2000 and served as the Club's president from 2004 to 2007. During his tenure as president he led the Club through its first ever strategic planning process redefining its future.
Bastable has made significant contributions to Syracuse University, including annual giving to the College of Arts and Sciences, being a capital contributor to the football locker room, a member of the SU Alumni Association and since 1998 has served on the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors.
Frank Rockwell Comfort, 1967 (Swimming)
The three-time swimming letterwinner Frank Comfort participated on the varsity team from 1965 to 1967 after competing on the freshman squad in 1964. After graduating from Syracuse with a bachelor's degree in history, he began his coaching career at the University of North Carolina as the head freshman coach and varsity assistant. In 1968 he earned a master's degree in physical education from UNC.
In 1968 he was named the head men's swimming and diving coach at Johns Hopkins University. During his nine-year tenure at JHU, the Bluejays won eight Middle Atlantic Conference Championships and four Mason Dixon Conference Championships. They recorded seven Top 10 NCAA Division III finishes, winning the title in 1977 and finishing second in 1975 and 1976. Comfort also started the women's swimming program and was the coach for two seasons. He accrued an overall .769 winning percentage for both the men's and women's teams.
He returned to UNC in 1977 as the head coach and led the program for 30 years. The winningest coach in Atlantic Coast Conference history, Comfort led the Tar Heels to 26 league championships (16 women, 10 men). His 576 dual meet victories are the most of any swimming and diving coach in NCAA history.
Comfort coached numerous U.S. and foreign Olympians and NCAA, AIAW and U.S. swimming national champions. He served eight times as head coach or an assistant on international trips for the U.S. National Team and 10 times for U.S. teams on domestic trips. In 1996, he was inducted to the Johns Hopkins University Athletics Hall of Fame and the Maryland Swimming Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was named as a Carolina Priceless Gem, UNC's highest athletics award, and was honored with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Award of Distinction.
An active member of his community, Comfort volunteer as an assistant boys basketball coach and directs a year-round strength training program for the boys and girls basketball teams at Sullivan County High School, has served as an officer with the Sullivan County Scholarship Association since 1997, and as member and board member of Eagles Mere Community Church dating back to 1998.
Comfort is a long-term Varsity Club member and in 1999 endowed a scholarship in the School of Education in honor of his mother, Frances Meck Comfort, who graduated from Syracuse in 1940. In all, 16 members of his family have graduated from Syracuse University.
Carl Eilenberg, 1953 (Honorary)
Carl Eilenberg experienced a number of careers in his lifetime, including in both the sports and political arenas. He is also known as a voice of Syracuse athletics, having worked as a broadcaster and the public address announcer at the Carrier Dome, and as a public servant, having served as the mayor of Rome, N.Y. for 12 years.
A graduate of Syracuse University, Eilenberg served as the sports director of WAER-FM for two years and then became the sports director of WAGE radio under the name 'Carl Davis,' in 1951, covering the spectrum of sports, including football, basketball, bowling, ski racing, lacrosse and golf.
After serving in the U.S. Air Forces, where he continued his love for sports as a boxing coach, Eilenberg juggled working in public relations for Syracuse Savings Bank while hosting radio shows on WFBL from 1958 through 1962, under the name of 'Peter Scott,' two of his sons. His next venture was to start his own advertising agency with Ed Herr, while he also began calling Syracuse Chiefs baseball games with Marv Albert. Eilenberg then added Syracuse Nationals basketball games to his portfolio.
Eilenberg continued his broadcasting career with the newly formed television station WNYS-TV (Channel 9), where he worked as the news and sports director before becoming the station's operations manager. Eilenberg, who worked at WNYS for seven years, hosted the station's first live television talk show with Marty Ross.
With the support of others, Eilenberg helped Syracuse University form a radio football network across the state. In 1980, he became the public address announcer for the Carrier Dome, calling football, basketball and lacrosse games, which he did for 27 years.
Eilenberg has been an active member of his community. He volunteered at WCNY-TV, hosting talk, discussion, sports and new shows, as well as broadcasting live events, including hockey, Pop Warner football, box lacrosse, high school sports, college football, bocce and polo. He has spent more than 30 years of close volunteer association with the Special Olympics. In his adopted community of Rome, he founded the Rome Sports Hall of Fame and the Roman Runners running club. He and his wife, Susan, are the creators of two weekly newspapers, the Rome Observer and the Lives and Times of Oneida County, plus a magazine, Mohawk Valley Women. Eilenberg is also an accomplished marathon runner, having completed 16 races, including the challenging Boston Marathon on five occasions.
John Lobon, 1973 (Football)
A 1971 football letterwinner, John Lobon is one of the 'Syracuse 8,' a group of nine Syracuse University football team members who showed extraordinary courage and commitment by calling for the equal treatment of student-athletes and a diverse coaching staff. When their calls for action were not honored, the group boycotted the 1970 football season. Lobon and Greg Allen '73 are the only two members of the group who returned to the Syracuse team.
A 1973 graduate with a bachelor's degree in history, Lobon worked at Mechanic Savings bank as an assistant branch manager from 1972-76. He then moved to Connecticut National Bank, where he moved through the ranks, working as a branch manager, area manager and assistant vice president until 1982.
In 1982, Lobon returned to the gridiron, securing his first coaching position as the assistant at Weaver High School. In 1987, he was named assistant coach at Bloomfield High School, where he coached until 1991.
Lobon joined the Connecticut Department of Economic Development as a development agent in 1984 before becoming the senior vice president of the Connecticut Development Authority in 1992. Today he manages the $5 million Urbank Program, which is designed to promote the creation and retention of small business jobs in Connecticut. The Urbank Program has leverage the fund to assist more than 500 small businesses to access more than $50 million in loans from their Lending Partners. Lobon conducts workshops and seminars around the state discussing the program and has made special appearances on multiple radio and television programs, such as the Black Perspective Show WVIT-TV, WCUM-AM radio, WMRD radio and CPTV Documentary on Cities.
Lobon has served many roles on a long list of organizations and committees throughout his career, including the NAACP, Bloomfield Building Committee, Spanish American Center, Bloomfield Inland-Wetland & Water Courses, Outstanding Young Americans, The Knox Foundation and CT Commission on Children. He currently sits on the board of the Special Olympics of Connecticut, Doc Hurley Scholarship Foundation, Inc, Community Partners in Action and Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, and is a member of the Metro Hartford Economic Development Council.
Since 1992, Lobon has been an active alumni. In 1998, he was a panelist on "The Eggers Years" and was awarded the Chancellor's Medal for Extraordinary Courage in 2006, along with the rest of the 'Syracuse 8.' Lobon became a member of the Varsity Club in 1995.
Wally Mahle, 1965 (Football)
Three-time football letterwinner Wally Mahle was the starting quarterback from 1962-64. As a senior he led the 1964 squad that included Syracuse greats Floyd Little and Patrick Killorin to the Sugar Bowl. A 1965 graduate, Mahle was a member of Phi Kappa Alpha and was honored as the 1962 and 1965 Student-Athlete of the Year. He earned a master's degree in 1972. He passed for 1,053 yards and 12 touchdowns, and rushed for 1,150 yards, during his Orange career. Mahle was selected in the fourth round of the 1965 National Football League draft by the Green Bay Packers and a 13th round selection by the AFL's Oakland Raiders.
He returned to Syracuse as an assistant football coach in 1969. After five years on the Orange staff, he moved on to coach at the high school level, where he coached at Fort LeBeouf High School and other private schools in Pennsylvania for 30 years. Mahle is a certified physical education and football coach in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Mahle, who was a clinician for the America Fitness Foundation and appointed to the Maryland Governor Council on Physical Fitness, pioneered adult fitness programs in corporate environments for 13 years. He was a charter member of the Fitness Directors in Business and Industry. Mahle is currently in his fifth year as assistant coach at Northeast High School in Pennsylvania. He is honored in the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame - Metro Chapter and in his high school Hall of Fame.
Throughout his professional career, Mahle has been an active participant in his community, including as a coach of youth baseball and basketball teams. He currently serves as the vice president of the Lion's Club International, where he has been a member of for the past 10 years. In 2008 he received the Melvin Jones Service to Community award. Mahle is one of three Syracuse alumni to create the S.U. Alumni Club of Northwest Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the Varsity Club and Football Letterman's Club.
Mark Richard Roadarmel, 1961 (Men's Lacrosse)
A three-time men's lacrosse letterwinner, Mark Roadarmel also was a member of the Syracuse University club hockey team, served as president of the ski club and participated in intramural skiing and swimming during his undergraduate career. A 1961 graduate, Roadarmel was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy where he served as an officer until 1965. He went on to earn his master's of business degree from Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College in 1967.
In 1974, he formed his own company, Mark Roadarmel Sales, Inc. In 1980 he became the director of the executive board of the New York State Sporting Goods Representative Association, where he served until 1998. Roadarmel has received numerous professional awards, including the 1984 Klein's All Sports Top Sales Representative of the Year, 1995 Chairman's Club award from Rollerblade, 1996 President's Club award for Top Agency from Rollerblade and 1997 Dick's Sporting Goods Outstanding Sales Training Award.
Maintaining an ongoing relationship with his alma mater, Roadarmel is a permanent member of the 1961 reunion committee, and, since 1975, he has been a chapter advisor board member for his fraternity.
Roadarmel has been a Stickmen's Club member since 1982 and co-president of the group since 2000 and served as co-president from 2000 through 2007. He has arranged lacrosse team award dinners and attended every final four lacrosse game since 1982. Since the mid 1980's, Roadarmel has been a member of the Varsity Club board of directors, currently serving as vice president.
His contributions to Syracuse athletics include gifts to the women's lacrosse fund, Orange Plus, Orange Club, Stickmen's Fund, and Roy D. Simmons, Jr. lacrosse scholarship fund. Roadarmel has been a preferred seating ticket holder for football and basketball since 1980 and season ticket holder in football, men's basketball and men's lacrosse since 1975.
Team of Distinction: 1978 Men's Crew Team
The 1978 men's crew was the best in the nation. The Varsity Eight and Freshman Eight won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) titles, the most highly regarded contest in the sport. Following the national championship victory, the team went to the prestigious Royal Henley Regatta on the Thames River in England.
After a fierce race against Harvard in the season-opener, in which Harvard defeated the Orange, Syracuse bounced back to sweep its next four races, including victories against the Coast Guard Academy, a three-way race against Rutgers and St. Joseph's, the Goes Cup race against Cornell and Navy, and the Holding Cup against Brown. After a third-place finish in the Eastern Sprints, the Orange rallied and secured the Packard Cup for the third-straight year. The team closed the season winning the IRA national championship, which was held on Onondaga Lake in Syracuse.
The 1978 Varsity Eight boat included Tom Evancie, Gerald Henwood, Andy Mogish, Bill Purdy, Bill Reid, John Shamlian, Art "Skip" Sibley, Ozzie Street and David Townsley. They were the first Syracuse team to capture the national championship since 1920.
Many of the student-athletes continued to achieve tremendous success on the water.. Henwood participated in the 1975 Junior Championship. Purdy rowed in the 1975 Junior Championship, the 1977, '79 and '83 World Championships, and the 1980 Olympic Games. He was not able to compete in the 1980 Olympics, however, due to the US Boycott. Townsley competed in the 1979 Pan Am Games and the 1981 World Championship.
**Courtesy SU Athletics**
