Manhattan College Fêtes One of Its Own
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The chairmen of Manhattan College’s De La Salle Medal Dinner distinguished themselves in the speech department at Wednesday’s event.
The retired chairman and chief executive of ConEdison, Eugene McGrath, said he’d considered altering his remarks after the event’s honoree, Frederic Salerno, ran him over with a golf cart on Sunday. But then he recalled a phrase he’d learned in his Catholic school days; “I had to write this out a few times once: ‘I will not let my animal instincts predominate over my spiritual faculties.'”
And so the 525 guests gathered in the Waldorf Astoria’s ballroom heard some nice things about the medal winner, the retired vice chairman and chief financial officer of Verizon, Mr. Salerno.
“No one could want a better friend,” Mr. McGrath said. “Just don’t play golf with him.”
The other dinner chairman, Mario Gabelli, had fun with the fact that he did not attend Manhattan College, a Lasallian Catholic private college in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, whose graduates include Mayor Giuliani and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
“I’ve suffered great angst in my life, but no more so than tonight, because I am a Fordham graduate,” Mr. Gabelli, the chairman and chief executive of GAMCO Investors, Inc., said. “So why am I here? I’ve always wanted to know what the hell a Jasper is.”
Jasper, the nickname for the college’s sports teams, was the name of an athletic director at the college credited for inventing the seventh-inning stretch.
The initial humor gave the honoree leeway to be serious. Mr. Salerno, who graduated from Manhattan College in 1965 after attending Xavier High School, and later became a force in the telecommunications industry, talked about the value of his undergraduate experience.
“Manhattan College provides an education of both the mind and the spirit,” Mr. Salerno said. “Our alumni are prepared to make a difference in this world.”
The chairman of the board of trustees of the college, Thomas O’Malley, also got straight to the point. “I make every effort to hire Manhattan College graduates, because they’re street-smart, well-educated, and ethical,” Mr. O’Malley, an industrialist in the oil business, said.
There was one matter everyone at the dinner was serious about, and that was the record amount raised: $1,465,000.
agordon@nysun.com
