Barbara Blackburn, B.S. ’64, M.S. ’67, continues doing the activities that helped her win the Senior Service 2023 Alumni Award: Niagara Frontier Radio Reading and Saints Peter & Paul Church. She is a live reader of USA Today every Tuesday from noon to 2:00 p.m. At church, she is a lector, Eucharistic minister, bereavement minister, and RCIA Committee member. She also still functions as a home/hospital instructor for Williamsville Central Schools and as a community education cooking instructor. She and her husband, Alan, enjoy spending time with their two children and four grand-children when they visit their St. Petersburg home.
Holly Gordon, B.S. ’64, published the book Parallel Perspectives: The Brush/Lens Collaboration with watercolorist Ward Hooper in 2020, which has led to many exhibitions and gallery talks. Their uncanny connection to Arthur Dove and Helen Torr led to Gordon’s invitation to speak at the Dove Block Project Gallery in Geneva, New York, in 2022. She is currently exhibiting at Molloy University. Her book is available on Amazon and other venues. She is pictured with Jim Spates, honorary Dove chair.
Beverly Smith, B.S. ’64, writes, “My husband, Paul, and I have enjoyed traveling to 70 countries and every state in the U.S. as well as most provinces in Canada. We currently live in Florida and Tennessee and previously lived in Rochester, New York. For six years, we full-timed in our RV and loved the experience.”
Donald Miklas, B.S. ’66, M.S. ’68, writes, “Buffalo State was a solid foundation in my career as a director of training, education, and organization development for Rutgers University, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), M&T Bank, NJ Transit, and Occidental Petroleum. My home is in Buffalo and in Central New Jersey. Based on personal experience, my advice to Bengal undergraduates is to focus on acquiring a primary skill, aggressively moving in the job market, and enjoying the process of learning.”
Hank Nuwer, B.S. ’68, moved from managing editor of the Celina Daily Standard to managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska. His scholarship on hazing prevention was the subject of a profile in the September 5, 2023, issue of Athletic Business. For recreation, he and his wife, Gosia, auditioned for Romeo and Juliet that played in July 2023 on the University of Alaska campus. Nuwer was cast as Prince Escalus, and Gosia performed as a dancer.
Matt Gryta, B.A. ’69, editor of the Record during his sophomore and senior years at Buffalo State and a Buffalo News reporter for 48 years, has published his seventh nonfiction book, Life in a Mafia Kingdom, which is available on Amazon and at the Buffalo History Museum. His latest nonfiction book, A Place of Their Own, is also on sale at Amazon.