So many alumni found love on the shores of Lake Ontario - and we are featuring just a few of them here! Did you find love at SUNY Oswego? Please share your story, too!
It was 1958 when Eleanor “Ellie” Kaminski Pucciariello ’62 of Glen Cove, N.Y., met Nick Pucciariello ’62 from Brooklyn, N.Y., while the pair were waiting in line to register for their first Oswego classes. “We engaged in conversation easily and I remember feeling delighted that we had several classes together,” Ellie said. “We didn’t date at first but we spent time together between classes doing crossword and number puzzles and playing cribbage. We established a friendship that became the base of a 52-year marriage.” Ellie and Nick started dating in October of their first year as students. While listening to the romantic strains of “Rhapsody in Blue” in the college library, they realized they were soul mates. As freshmen, Nick shared an apartment with four other students; Ellie lived in D Dorm and Kingsford Hall. It was May - the conclusion of that first year - when they planned their future. They calculated that with Nick’s GI Bill (he was a Navy veteran), plus the money they earned during the summer, they could live together better and cheaper than by living separately, Ellie said. “We were confident that we would achieve academic success better as a couple than as individuals,” Ellie said. And so they eloped on Sept. 8, 1959 - one year after meeting each other in that registration line. Ellie described the wedding day: “Nick met me at Penn Station. We were married by a judge in NYC and we had lunch at Walgreens. Since we had time before our flight to Syracuse, we went to Radio City Music Hall and saw the movie "It Started With A Kiss.” Their parents were dismayed at first, Ellie said, but when they saw that the young couple was managing well, they were supportive of the marriage. The Pucciariellos had an apartment on West Bridge Street, walking distance to the college. “We always felt we had a three-year honeymoon while being students,” Ellie said. For entertainment, the couple took part in activities at the college and socialization with student friends. And on New Year’s Day 1961 - the student couple who were in their junior year of college made local headlines and were the recipients of many gifts from local merchants - because their daughter, Nikki, was the New Year Baby of Oswego County. The couple went on to have a son, Charles; they also have three grandchildren. “Nick was a hands-on Dad so we were both able to meet our academic responsibilities,” Ellie said of her young, new family in 1961. “We were fortunate to have a happy, healthy baby.” The Pucciariellos graduated in May 1962. Nick started his teaching career as a math teacher at Ellie’s alma mater, Glen Cove High School; Ellie was part of Glen Cove’s new team-teaching approach for 6th-grade students. “There were three teams of four teachers and each team had a new graduate on its team,” Ellie said. “I was fortunate to be one of them. It was an advantage to work with three master teachers; the excellent education I received at Oswego prepared me well and gave me confidence.” For many years Nick taught math and Ellie taught English, social studies and science. They also taught the SAT Prep course, the GED classes and classes in the evening in a high school diploma program. Nick earned a master’s degree in education from Adelphi University with a grant from the National Science Foundation and Ellie earned a master’s in social work from Adelphi University with a federal grant. In 2011, Nick died following a courageous battle with cancer. Because of all of the assistance and opportunity the couple had, Ellie said, she was motivated to establish a scholarship at Oswego for students in the School of Education. “Our training to become teachers at SUNY Oswego cost less than $1,000 for both of us,” Ellie said. So in honor of their time in Oswego, the Nick and Ellie Pucciariello ’62 Scholarship was established, which each year benefits a full-time student in the School of Education pursuing a career in teaching. “Since 1962 there have been so many changes in the world which affect the needs of children in school,” Ellie said. “What is true today and was true in 1962 is that if a teacher can instill a love of learning in a child, that child will flourish. Education is a very important profession. A teacher can have an effect on a child that will chart the course of the child’s life.”
It was freshmen orientation 1958, and a large group of us were commandeered in front of the new residence hall on lakeside. The head of orientation made us form a large circle to play a game, and I was pulled out and so was a young lady whom I had never met. She knelt in front of me, said I was the most handsome man she had ever met, she was madly in love with me and would I marry her? Naturally, I said yes! But I did not see her for the rest of the day. Several days later we bumped into each other at the infamous Bucklands! A short romance ensued. Short ... because that night, we took a long walk along the lake in the rain. She came down with pneumonia and mononucleosis and after two weeks in the infirmary was sent home for the semester. Both of us went on to date others but in the spring of 1959, after finals, we once again met by accident. She, Susan Bannister ’62, and I, Thomas Hodge ’62, began dating that summer and by September we knew, but told no one, that someday we would marry. And that we did. We became engaged November 1961 and married 55 years ago on November 17,1962. Not only did we find each other at Oswego, but the wonderful education we got there provided us with rewarding careers in education. Sue was a kindergarten teacher in Freeport, N.Y. and retired in 2000. I spent my entire 37 years in Baldwin, N.Y., as a teacher, director of continuing adult education and principal of a K-6 school. I retired in 199
We have a wonderful family, which includes two daughters and two grandchildren. In our retirement we enjoy volunteering, traveling, and being with our grandchildren (ages 15 and 22) whenever we can. Our lives are rich and full and it all began one afternoon some 60 years ago at Oswego, during freshman orientation.
-Thomas Hodge ’62
PHOTO CAPTIONS: Photo 1 - Susan Bannister '62 and Thomas Hodge '62 at the Pi Delta spring formal dance, 1961. Photo 2 - The couple were married just months after graduation from Oswego in 1962. Photo 3 - Susan Bannister Hodge '62 and Thomas Hodge '62 have been married for more than 55 years!
A College Dance in 1949 Leads to Love
I met the love of my life at Oswego in January of 1949, at a dance at a hotel in town. We were an unusual match for the time. Joe Lomonico ’53 came from a poor Italian Catholic family and I (Inge Adler ’53) was a German Jewish refugee. We had a teacher at Oswego who took us to Syracuse to the Unitarian church. We realized that these were our beliefs, and we were married on Feb. 3, 1953, a few days after graduating. Joe got a job at Fort Monmouth, N.J., teaching radar repair. I taught first grade in Long Branch, N.J. Soon after, Joe was drafted. He served in Long Branch and later in Greenland. When he was discharged, he got a job at Fair Lawn (N.J.) High School and we moved there. I taught pre-school in a private school. We raised two daughters and a son in Fair Lawn. We opened the Fair Lawn Driving School, which is still in operation with my son and daughter-in-law running it. Joe worked 30 more years beyond obtaining his master’s degree from Columbia University, and he had his principal certification. We came back every five years to see Oswego, for reunion and to show our children our college. I made many lifelong friends at Oswego. Lila Salzman Leslie ’52, who died a few years ago; Mary Engelhardt ’52, who I am still in contact with; Arlene Meckler Rochkin ’53, who moved last year to be near her daughter; and Doris Feldman Bodin ’52 who I see every so often since she lives near me. Joe and I had a great time in Oswego and got a good education. It was a small college in those days and everyone knew each other. Most of our classes were in Sheldon Hall. There were no dorms. I lived at Fort Ontario Headquarters House and Joe lived in the Fort Ontario Barracks. Later, Joe worked for Mr. Waterbury [editor’s note: Edwin Waterbury was the editor and publisher of The Oswego Palladium-Times and also served as the chairman of the Oswego Board of Visitors; he is the namesake for Waterbury Hall which opened in 1960]. I lived at the Walsh House. I have great memories of those days. The reason we were able to go there was because it was free. This was great and it should always be like that. Joe passed away on June 2, 2010 and is very much missed. We have three children, seven grandchildren and three grandchildren-in-law.
-Inge Adler Lomonico ’53
Driving from Long Island to Oswego for my very first time in 1960, I was in unfamiliar territory. Along the New York thruway, I took notice of the many names of places that I never heard of before or could pronounce accurately, Amsterdam, Little Falls, Utica, and Canastota. It was a long seven-hour drive until we arrived to my dorm room at Riggs Hall. I met my roommate Val, who later become my maid of honor at my wedding. To this day, we still see each other a few times a year. I was pledging Alpha Sigma Chi sorority in January 1961. There was a party at the Psi Phi house for sisters and pledges with the brothers of Psi Phi. This is the day that I met my future husband, Dennis Smith '61 (Smitty) from Canastota. We were having a great time dancing when a brother made a remark toward me. Smitty came to my rescue and stood up for me - that was the moment when I fell in love. After Smitty graduated, he was offered a teaching position in Rome, N.Y. and we continued our long distance relationship. In December 1962, we got married while I continued to go to school and hold a student teaching position in Rome, graduating in 1963. March 1964 is when we had the first of our two children. It was a wonderful time raising a family together. Smitty and I were married for 39 years; sadly he passed away suddenly in 2001. I am thankful for attending Oswego and finding my Prince.
-Rosemary (Reggie) Giordano Smith '63
Did you miss the love story of Danielle Hinckley '14 and Mike Smith '13? They got engaged in 2017, right on campus, during a visit to Oswego to attend the graduation of Danielle's brother, Scott Hinckley '17. Danielle's friend Talia Berk '13 told us their story in January's Lake E-ffect; read it here.
Ann Greenburg '54 - I met my future husband at the Freshman Dance and we dated for the four years at Oswego, we were married in 1954 and were married six months shy of sixty years. Mal and I had three children two of them are Oswego graduates also there are seven grandchildren and two great grand children.