Fifty-one employees representing a combined 1,100 years of service to Fordham were honored for their long and distinguished commitment to the University community on Sunday, March 2 at the annual convocation, held on the Rose Hill campus.
Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, presented the employees with medals honoring their years of commitment. Three members of the faculty received the Bene Merenti Medal for 40 years of teaching: they include Sheldon Marcus, Ed.D., professor of education; John M. Phelan, Ph.D., professor of communication and media studies and founding director of the McGannon Center; and Eva M. Stadler, Ph.D., associate professor of English and comparative literature and associate professor of communication and media studies. The sole recipient of the Archbishop Hughes Medal for 40 years of administrative service was Joseph Caputo, supervisor of faculty support services and office manager for the Graduate School of Social Service.
In addition, two employees received the Sursum Corda Award, established in 2005 by Father McShane to recognize members of Fordham’s staff who have made outstanding contributions to the life and mission of the university. They are John W. Buckley, assistant vice president for enrollment and enrollment services, and Noel Nevin, steam and refrigeration engineer in facilities operations.
The remaining Bene Merenti and Archbishop Hughes Medals went to faculty and administrators who have given 20 years of service to Fordham.
“The congregation that you love and call Fordham University rightly proclaims your praise and the debt that it owes to you this afternoon,” Father McShane said, quoting from a scripture of biblical wisdom literature. “Thank you for the great and gracious work you have done. Twenty years from now, I hope that you will still be here so that the University can again toast you and say to you and of you, let us now praise the famous, they were renown . . . they were the glory of their times. God bless you all.”
Awardees were honored before a crowd of 400 friends, family and co-workers in the McGinley Ballroom.
