Summer 2004
NEWS
SUNY
Geneseo Dedicates Alumni Center to Pioneer Businesswoman, Exemplary Alumna
The State University of New York at Geneseo officially named its Alumni
Center after Irma Hamer Collins of Pittsford during a ceremony May 27.
The Irma Hamer Collins ’42 Alumni Center at McClellan House honors
Collins, a prominent businesswoman, alumni leader and generous college
benefactor. Collins recently established a significant endowment fund
with the Geneseo Foundation to support alumni programming and Alumni Center
facility operations.
More than 70 people attended a luncheon in Collins’ honor at The
Big Tree Inn in Geneseo, which preceded the dedication ceremony at the
McClellan House at 26 Main Street in Geneseo.
Collins was a pioneer in the banking industry, serving as assistant vice
president and director of women’s financial management at the Security
Trust Company in Rochester until she retired in 1976. In 1965, she became
the first woman elected to the board of directors of the Rochester Chamber
of Commerce.
"You have been a wonderful role model for women like me in terms
of having the strength and self-confidence for making a career an important
thing in our lives," Debbie Hill, executive director of alumni and
parent relations for the College, told Collins and the crowd during the
ceremony.
"It comes as a total surprise – total in any way – that
anyone would use my name to name a building on a college campus today,"
Collins told the audience, which included Collins’ friends and family,
as well as representatives from various college organizations and departments.
Collins said it was a "perfect, wonderful, marvelous day" and
reminded the audience to help SUNY Geneseo and other colleges and universities.
"Let us be there when our colleges and universities need us,"
she said. "It’s almost beyond people’s resources to educate
two or three young people today. We must help the young people. We must
be there when they need us."
The Alumni Center, which houses the alumni and parent relations staff,
is located on the second floor of the restored McClellan House, which
opened as a college facility in 2001 following a major fund-raising effort.
The first floor houses the Lockhart Gallery, which exhibits art by area
artists and from the College’s growing art collection.
Collins, who served as president of the Class of 1942, has provided the
College with outstanding volunteer service, including serving as a member
of the Geneseo Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1984 to 1996.
She is one of a select number of alumni to have been inducted into the
association’s Society of Old Main, in recognition of her lifelong
service. She was named to the SUNY Alumni Honor Roll in 1999 and received
the Geneseo Foundation’s Meritorious Service Award in 2002. In addition,
through her generosity to the College, she achieved membership in both
the MacVittie Society and the Geneseo Circle, a select group of the College’s
most generous donors.
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Debbie
Hill, executive director of alumni and parent relations for SUNY
Geneseo, left, Irma Hamer Collins, center, and Patricia Malet Fennell,
president of the Geneseo Alumni Association, right, at the dedication
ceremony of the Irma Hamer Collins ’42 Alumni Center at McClellan
House.
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Dick
Rosati, senior associate for college advancement for SUNY Geneseo,
tells how Irma Hamer Collins always rises to the occasion to help
the College, as SUNY Geneseo President Christopher C. Dahl, left,
and Patricia Malet Fennell, president of the Geneseo Alumni Association,
look on.
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Art
Hatton, SUNY Geneseo’s vice president for college advancement
and president of the Geneseo Foundation, tells the audience how
proud the College is to have the support of alumna Irma Hamer Collins,
center. SUNY Geneseo President Christopher C. Dahl is to Collins’
right.
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Irma
Hamer Collins talks to the crowd, as Patricia Malet Fennell, president
of the Geneseo Alumni Association, and Art Hatton, SUNY Geneseo’s
vice president for college advancement and president of the Geneseo
Foundation, intently listen.
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Left
to right: Debbie Hill, executive director of alumni and parent relations
for SUNY Geneseo, Irma Hamer Collins, Dick Rosati, senior associate
for college advancement, and Patricia Malet Fennell, president of
the Geneseo Alumni Association, at the dedication ceremony of the
Irma Hamer Collins ’42 Alumni Center at McClellan House.
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Photos
by Ron Pretzer
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