Marie Braun Feltz, B.S.Ed. ’70, continues to use the broad range of her home economics education. She recently led an interior design roundtable discussion, “Buyer’s Remorse,” at the Decorating Den Interiors (DDI) International Conference in New Orleans. She has been an award-winning DDI franchise owner and regional manager since 1986. Previously, she operated a drapery workroom, was head teacher of a preschool, and taught high school home economics. She is also a past president of three chambers of commerce. Feltz followed in her mother’s footsteps. In fact, the Buffalo Evening News published an article about the two on April 4, 1969, titled “Daughter Joins Mom in Home Ec Field.” Margaret Ullrich Braun was also a Buffalo State graduate. Like her mother, Feltz attended the Merrill Palmer Institute and was selected for membership in the Phi Upsilon Omicron honor sorority. She lives in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where she and her husband enjoy their grandchildren.
Tom Prestopnik, B.S., ’70, M.S. ’71, has had one of his paintings, Letters to Theo, accepted for the permanent collection of the Elliott Museum in Stuart, Florida.
David Lanz, B.S. ’71, M.S. ’74, received the Buffalo State University Elementary Education, Literacy, and Educational Leadership Department’s warmest congratulations on his retirement as a lecturer. Lanz is a longtime (18-year) adjunct faculty member of the department. He began teaching for Buffalo State in 2006 following his 36-year career as a teacher, director of instructional computing, and chief school planning officer for the Buffalo Public Schools. Lanz and his wife, Patricia (Hartnett) Lanz, ’69, continue to enjoy living in Western New York and relishing time with their children and grandchildren.
Kathleen Gaffney Shea, B.A. ’71, M.S. ’13, is the founder and president of Kasey’s Key Inc., a not-for-profit organization that focuses on information, education, and empathy for those who have lost someone they love to suicide.
classnotes
Michael Eichler, ’72, hosted a staged reading of his new play, Sixty Nine Seventy, at Buffalo State’s LoRusso Alumni and Visitor Center on November 18. The public event featured a reading of the script followed by a critical discussion. Buffalo theater veteran Kyle LoConti directed the reading.
Edward Robinson, B.A. ’72, is fully retired and settled in Japan, just south of Tokyo, after a 30-year career in the U.S. Navy, Medical Service Corps, followed by a second career in the Foreign Service, where he served as a political and consular officer in Washington, D.C.; Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar); Mumbai, India; and Manila, Philippines.
Ilene Fleischmann, M.A. ’73, retired in October after serving 38 years as vice dean and executive director of the UB Law Alumni Association (LAA). She is deeply grateful to all the distinguished lawyers and judges who have sup-ported her over the decades, especially the many past presidents who continue to support the LAA. She is now vice dean emerita and will continue to work part time on special projects, including the ongoing LAA Oral History Project.
Gerhard Paluca, B.A. ’73, retired from his supervisory position in the environmental chemistry section of the Erie County Public Health Lab in August 2023.
Rhonda Backinoff, B.A. ’74, notes that an unplanned multi-class Buffalo State reunion took place on the Oceania Insignia cruise ship in April 2023. From left: Mary Jo Mandel Skeet, ’62; Douglas G. Skeet, ’62; Rhonda Backinoff, ’74; Charles Kaplan, ’74; and Linda DeVeronica Smith, ’78, enjoyed reminiscing and comparing recollections of their days at Buffalo State!
Frank Lock, B.S. ’74, has been selected as an eclipse ambassador for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Each eclipse ambassador will work with an undergraduate partner to inform people in the community about the total solar eclipse that will be visible in North America on April 8, 2024. Undergraduate students and eclipse enthusiasts will engage their local communities, providing solar viewing glasses as well as context for underserved communities off the central path. Lock retired in 2009 after 35 years teaching high school chemistry, physics, and astronomy. He taught middle school in the Barker Central School District (New York) for five years after graduating from Buffalo State. He then taught in the Charlotte County School District (Florida) until he retired. He has done extensive science outreach since his retirement. He now resides in North Georgia.
Dr. Catherine Collins, B.S. ’75, received the Black Achievers Legend’s Award at the 51st annual Black Achievers Awards din-ner on September 30, 2023.
Melanie Reim, B.S. ’76, retired after 25 years at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City as a professor of illustration in the under-graduate School of Design, an architect and chair of the illustration M.F.A. program in the School of Graduate Studies, and the last four years as the associate dean for the School of Art and Design. Post-retirement, she has just published her first monograph, Different & the Same: My Drawings and Stories of Women around the World, published by Sketcher Press. Her work appeared as part of the Rockefeller Center Flag Project, and she exhibited in the group show Scribbles at Carter Burden Gallery in Chelsea. She continues to travel to deliver figure-drawing workshops.
Michael Sorenson, B.A. ’76, retired after 43 years as a journalist. He is spending time on his genealogy hobby and following the careers of his daughter and son, a TV show editor and a college ice hockey coach, respectively.
Brian McCarthy, B. Tech ’79, notes that Buffalo State and Alfred ag tech degrees launched him on a great career path and created great memories and friendships. He is now enjoying retirement.
Leo Roth, B.A. ’79, retired in May 2020 after a 41-year career as a sportswriter and columnist in Cleveland and Rochester. His work was honored numerous times by the Pro Football Writers of America and the New York State Associated Press. He covered the Buffalo Bills for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. In retirement, he is the owner-operator of Finger Lakes Pontoon Boat Tours LLC in Watkins Glen, where he gives cruises on Seneca Lake. He is also head coach of the SUNY Geneseo men’s club hockey team and frequently visits his dear hometown of Buffalo (leospontoonboat.com).