Our Lasting Legacy of Academic Excellence

Beloved Faculty and Staff

Cook College was a unique community, where faculty, staff, and students all shared a special bond. Did you have a favorite Cook professor who opened your eyes to a new world, or a compassionate Cook staff member who helped you navigate through difficult times? Scroll through the testimonials from your fellow classmates!

Jim Applegate

As an economics major, I did not take many classes taught by Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources faculty. But after I graduated, I had the opportunity to take the Field ID of Birds course taught by G.D. Davis and Jim Applegate. It ignited a lifelong love of birding. Many years later, while working at SEBS, I discovered a group of faculty and staff who got together every week after work to play Irish folk music. I walked in with my (very non-Irish) ukulele, and there was Jim and his banjo. He was welcoming, knowledgeable, and funny, and I was hooked. For 15 years we played in a band together, and I got to see first-hand that even though he was retired, he never stopped teaching.

— Phil Wisneski (CC'91)

Francine Corley

I have fond memories of working for Francine Corley at the Cook Student Center. She treated us like adults while nurturing us. I always remember her listening to our concerns before she made decisions that impacted the student center, which made me feel like she appreciated us.

— Uta Vorbach Steinhauser (CC'99)

Roy DeBoer

A classmate, I can't recall who, recommended that I take EDA (Environmental Design Analysis), taught by the legendary Roy DeBoer. I was an Economics major, so the contents of the course was new and revelatory to me. It was my favorite class and he was definitely amongst my favorite professors. Years later I evolved into an IT Solution Architect and I was definitely advantaged by the principles from EDA. Both of my children took EDA and enjoyed as much as I did.

— Henry Singer (CC'83)

Oh, Roy DeBoer, how you are so missed. Having seen your vacation photos three times (once as a student and twice as your TA) it thrills me every time I'm able to get to one of the places you showed the class, especially Yellowstone: Smart Bears, Stupid People. The only thing better than helping those classes of 'Easy A' were the lunches afterwards at Arthur's...sitting at the bar, waiting for Doc Hamilton or Applegate to show up and complain about how the campus used to be. Nothing makes me smile more.

— Herb Scott August (CC'98)

Doug Eveleigh

Dr. Everleigh was always so animated and enthusiastic in class, and in Microbial Ecology he took us on field trips to breweries, bogs, and a barn on Cook where we met the fistulated cow! Up to our shoulders in rumen gathering facultative anaerobes to take back to class!

— Chris Kerr (CC'95)

Hans Fisher

Dr. Hans Fisher was extremely helpful to me during my personal journey through college. I was part of his research team, and he made me feel like an integral part. He provided me with a voice and an opportunity to work on my own projects during my time in his lab. I was only supposed to work with a professor for one semester, however, I stayed on as part of Dr. Fisher's team for many years. Years later, when Dr. Fisher retired from Rutgers, I was surprised and honored that he invited me to his retirement party.

— Dennis Dagounis (CC'01)

Barbara Goff

I was originally in the George H. Cook honors program and in a freshman composition class taught by the late Dr. Barbara Goff. She saw that I was struggling and didn't make me feel badly that I wasn't fitting in with my cohort in the honor's program, but rather gave she me the encouragement to see there are many different paths to success, not all of them solely related to the classroom. These are lessons I tell my own undergraduate students all the time.

— Kelly Bidle (CC'91)

Bruce Hamilton

Bruce "Doc" Hamilton was a truly wonderful human being and an even better professor. Doc took me into a new program that was created at the Rutgers Gardens where I was an intern which also allowed me to live in the grounds of the gardens. Through this experience I worked with kids from the New Brunswick area at the gardens and discovered my own love of teaching. Twenty six years later, I'm still involved in education, for the last 14 years as a principal. If it wasn't for Doc, I would have never been able to afford to live on campus and I might have gone down a different career path.

— Scott Bortnick (CC'96)

I remember taking a landscape design class with Doc Hamilton. I was a plant science student, not in the landscape architecture program. Needless to say, my drawings were atrocious. Other students actually snickered at my work. During one class, Doc chose my drawing to discuss. The drawing wasn't pretty, mine was black and white, and everyone else used color. It didn't matter though, Doc knew that I understood the concepts that he was teaching. He pointed out my plant choices and my appreciation of small details. At that moment, I started to believe in myself as a gardener and horticulturist. I will forever be grateful to be at Cook in that moment. Doc is a Cook Campus legend.

— Patricia Tyler Dixon (CC'01)

Roger Locandro

As a freshman in the Voorhees Dorm on the farm side of the building we watched one evening a group of students attempt to tip a cow. (Not expectable) The next day the entire dorm got a dressing down from the Dean of Students Roger Locandro. Little did I know at the time that that encounter would forever change my life at Cook and for the rest of my life. His classes including "Interesting and Editable Plants" and "Interesting and Editable Meats" and the alumni trip to Alaska are vibrant memories to this day. Wise RL words: "Always question, always learn and pass it on when possible. Never stop exploring!"

— Martha Maxwell-Doyle (CC'83)

Professor Roger Locandro! He was the Rutgers Glee Club Administrator on the club's trip through Morocco, Spain, and Portugal in May/June 1979. Always an incredible smile and he challenged all 40 of us to seize the opportunities to try new things, culturally, food, and fellowship.

— Tom Struble (CC'81)

Dawn Brasaemle, Peggy Policastro, and John Worobey

I will always be forever grateful to three great mentors I had while I completed my undergraduate and graduate work with the Nutrition Sciences department. Dr. Brasaemle was my undergraduate advisor and always pushed me to take on challenges and not be deterred by daunting requirements. College was the time to be ambitious and grow as much as you can. One of my best experiences was working for Dr. Peggy Policastro, who was the Director of the RU Health Dining Team. Peggy was a great boss and is still a great leader. Her advice was always thoughtful, supportive and honest. I also remember being incredibly impressed by her sense of style! I can never forget those purple curtains!

In addition, Dr. John Worobey was another amazing professor and mentor. He was my graduate studies advisor and was supportive of all the ideas I had. It was a truly an enriching experience to do research under his guidance and to collaborate with other students. Cook College felt like home and I will always feel like I have family that I can visit.

— Carolina Espinosa (CC'08)

John "Jack" Sacalis, Bruno C. Moser, and Dominic Durkin

There's not one person. I have three faculty and one secretary from the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, who had a tremendous impact on my life. First, Dr. John "Jack" Sacalis, my faculty advisor. When I first met him, he said, "Another Greek in horticulture! Welcome! There aren't many of us." With that start, we had a great working relationship.

Dr. Bruno C. Moser was my Cook Honors Program advisor and mentor. He gave me an announcement for graduate school and said I should apply. I read it and said, "But it specifies they want male applicants. I can't apply." That was the 1974-1975 academic year. He looked me straight in the eye and said, "They can't do that. You need to apply." The institution returned my application and application check. However, Dr. Moser gave me the confidence to continue my education. We also would visit every year at the annual conference of the American Society for Horticultural Science and he never gave up mentoring me.

Then there was Dr. Dominic Durkin. He taught the greenhouse environmental management course I took my senior year. He was the department head at the time. He also encouraged me to apply to graduate school; specifically to the institution where he had earned his doctorate. So I did. I was accepted and received an assistantship—stipend plus tuition and fees. His secretary, who I rarely interacted with and don't recall her name, told me to make sure I thanked Dr. Durkin because he made several phone calls on my behalf and helped convince them to not only be admitted but also to offer the assistantship. Those three faculty and the secretary all set me on my path through graduate school (where I met my future husband) and a 40-year career in higher education as a horticulture professor, department head, associate dean, and associate vice provost. If it weren't for those mentors, I don't know what my life may have been like. I owe my life to them. And, it's been a great life.

— Mary Lewnes Albrecht (CC'75)

Marshall Stalley

I came to Cook as a science student with an side interest in environmental policy and education. One of my first courses was Environmental Issues, taught by Marshall Stalley. He had spent a career in community development and environmental issues in the Pittsburgh region, and then came to Rutgers as a late career faculty member. Our first class started when he introduced himself as "a student". I later served as a teaching assistant for the same class, and then taught it years later after Marshall re-retired. We kept in contact, and, oddly enough, here I am as a late career faculty member and a perpetual student, like Marshall. He influenced my shift to policy work, infused with science. I owe him this memory.

— Daniel Van Abs (CC'77)

Short Takes

The late Professor Barbara Tangel was my mother and introduced me to Cook. When I first applied for my freshman year, I knew Cook College was where I wanted to be.

— Kristin Tangel (CC'09)

Dr. Jim Miller teaching Physical Oceanography classes to the first class of four BS Physical Oceanography majors within Earth and Atmospheric Sciences program. Our field trip to the Shark River inlet to conduct water sampling..from a rowboat, with a home-made "Nansen bottle".

— Richard W. Dixon (CC'77)

Dr. Ben Stout teaching Plant Science in the lecture room of Blake Hall, and fascinating this city kid with the world of plants. Growing spinach for class and bringing it home for Thanksgiving dinner!

— Richard W. Dixon (CC'77)

Dr. Ray Manganelli, Dept. Of Environmental Science. He was instrumental in starting the careers of many, many Cook graduates in the fields of air, water, and noise pollution, industrial hygiene, and safety.

— Marc Levine (CC'85)

Drs. Arthur Edwards and William Smith! They were both ahead of their time in the way they taught and what is now called "multisensory learning"—it had no name in 1987! They were absolutely passionate about their students.

— Maxine (Minoff) Fox (CC'87)

Dr. John Kuser taught me dendrology. I can remember him walking our class through the woods and stopping to say, "Quiz tree." He really loved being in the woods.

— James Nichnadowicz (CC'83)

Dean Lee Schneider, live-in father of us all at Woodbury!

— John Brueck (CC'74)