Whether she’s exploring the life and legacy of a feminist sex educator (The Disappearance of Shere Hite) or the right-to-die legal battles surrounding Terri Schiavo (Between Life & Death), a common thread binds together many of the films she’s produced.

“They each unmask underlying power structures in society through deeply personal narratives, and question how we can do better to create a more equal and more just world,” said Ferdinando, a 2004 Fordham graduate and the executive producer of NBC News Studios.

She began working on her latest film—The Sing Sing Chronicles—in 2016. That’s when she visited Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez at the maximum-security Sing Sing Correctional Facility, about 30 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, where he’d been serving 25 years to life for a murder he didn’t commit.

“He was a father desperate to get home to his children, and even though there were many glaring issues in his case, he’d exhausted all of his appeals,” Ferdinando said. “I connected with JJ immediately, and it was clear there was an important story to tell.”

Eight years and more than 1,000 hours of archival footage later, The Sing Sing Chronicles—a four-part docuseries—is bringing that story to light. The series premiered at the DOC NYC film festival on November 16, and it aired on MSNBC the following weekend. (It’s available for streaming on NBC’s website.)

The Sing Sing Chronicles highlights the bond NBC News investigative producer Dan Slepian formed with Velazquez over two decades—an unlikely connection that led to the exoneration of six men who were wrongfully convicted, including Velazquez, who was granted clemency in 2021 and finally exonerated on September 30 of this year. The docuseries is built on more than 20 years of investigative reporting by Slepian, who also recently authored a book recounting the experience.

As showrunner and executive producer of the series, Ferdinando said she’s extremely proud to be a part of a project detailing the complications of the criminal legal system and how a wrongful conviction can impact generations.

Launching a Media Career at WFUV

The award-winning journalist and filmmaker credits her success to the principles of journalism she learned as an undergraduate at Fordham, where she double majored in communication and media studies and Spanish language and literature. While completing her studies, she worked as an anchor, producer, reporter, and eventually news manager at WFUV, Fordham’s public media station.

“That radio station changed my life,” said the Staten Island native who chose Fordham after becoming familiar with the Lincoln Center campus while attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

She did her first news broadcasts on WFUV shows Mixed Bag with 1967 Fordham grad Pete Fornatale and Vin Scelsa’s Idiot’s Delight, where she continued working five years after graduating.

With 20 years under her belt at NBC, Ferdinando recently returned to the University for “Fordham to the Frontlines: Alumni Journeys in News & Media.” The event, sponsored by the Career Center, featured several other successful grads and brought them together with students—an experience she described as “really heartening.”

“Career paths are unpredictable,” Ferdinando said. “If you don’t put yourself out there and say what you want to be doing, it’s hard to bring that to fruition. We really encouraged them to hone in on what they want to be doing and go after it.”

—Erica Scalise, FCRH ’20

“I’ve always been fascinated by small-town America and the different pockets of our country,” said Escobar, who is originally from San Francisco, California. “It’s really exciting to get to see a new place and build out my own beat in a new environment.” 

The diversity beat is brand new for these newsrooms, said Escobar, one of approximately 60 journalists who were awarded the competitive fellowship. He will work on stories that explore how demographics in the Adirondacks have shifted over time, as well as efforts to diversify the area. 

‘There’s This Switch That Goes Off In Me’ 

What draws him to journalism is the interesting people he meets along the way, as well as getting to understand them better, said Escobar. 

“I don’t really see myself as a very extroverted person. But there’s this switch that goes off in me when I get behind a mic or talk to people in the field,” said Escobar, an on-air news reporter and producer at Fordham’s WFUV. “It allows me to be somebody who I never thought I could be … and helps me bring meaning to other people’s lives through the stories that I present.” 

Escobar, who double majored in journalism and digital technology and emerging media as an undergraduate, credited much of his success to his Fordham mentors, especially Beth Knobel, Ph.D., associate professor of communication and media studies, and Robin Shannon, WFUV’s news and public affairs director and morning news anchor.   

“They are the two biggest people in my life here. I owe a lot of my success to them teaching me and helping me find the right people to network with,” said Escobar, who will finish his master’s program this August. “Fordham [also]does a great job through its curriculum and programs like WFUV.” 

Becoming a Compassionate Storyteller

The University emphasizes cura personalis—and sometimes, that’s exactly what journalism is, said Escobar.

“You’re hearing people out. There needs to be more of that, in general. … That’s become a big problem in the industry: whose stories are we really hearing, and a lot of other editorial decisions like that,” said Escobar, who aspires to host a flagship public media show for a local station someday. “But when you just sit down with somebody and hear them out, they’re going to tell you amazing things.” 

“More people can benefit from quality journalism, and Fordham does a great job … training people to become compassionate storytellers.” 

I first met Charlie in 1973, when I was a sophomore at Fordham University. I had heard him many times on CBS Radio and admired his work. So I wrote him a letter and asked if he had any advice for an aspiring broadcast journalist.

To my delight, Charlie wrote back. “I’m afraid I’m not much on advice,” he said. “But as you may know, I’m an old Ram myself. If you’d like to visit the Broadcast Center sometime, give a call and I’ll lay on the fifty cents tour for free.”

I called right away, before he could forget who I was, and one winter morning, I hopped on the D train in the Bronx and headed down to CBS News headquarters on West 57th Street in Manhattan.

Charlie had one of the most distinctive voices in radio. And over the years, I had formed a mental picture of him to match it. I thought. When Charlie greeted me, the voice was familiar but the image was not. I could not believe that amazing voice was coming out of this stranger. As he showed me around, it took a while before the voice and the speaker synced up in my mind.

Charlie bought me breakfast at the CBS cafeteria. He told me he had spent a lot of time in his Fordham days at the student-run radio station, WFUV. I took that as a suggestion, and when I returned to campus, I headed to the station and went to work in the news department.

A decade later, after working as an AP broadcast writer and editor, I was offered a job at CBS News, at the radio network, where Charlie was the star. By then, he had long since forgotten me, but we soon reconnected when I was assigned to write radio newscasts for him.

Charlie always ended with a kicker. One he wrote that I’ll never forget was about a truck flipping over and spilling its cargo of cookies all over the roadway. Charlie ended by saying:

“That’s the way the (pause) ball bounces. Fooled you!”

Brilliant.

My job when I wrote for Charlie was to find a kicker worthy of him and write it well. It was a challenge I enjoyed.

One Sunday night, I wrote a kicker for his 8 p.m. radio newscast about a study that found watching too much TV could make you fat. The punchline: “Someone once called television a vast wasteland. Looks like too much of it could lead to a vast waistline.”

Charlie looked at the copy and said, “This is good enough to steal.” And steal it he did. He used the line again on his 11 p.m. television broadcast.

That broadcast was called the CBS Sunday Night News. It was 15 minutes long and, in 1986, I became Charlie’s writing partner on it. We split up the stories and challenged each other each week to come up with the best line. I never had so much fun in my life.

I will always be grateful to Charlie for the kindness he showed me as a young college student and for the privilege of working with him as a colleague. May he rest in peace.

—Jerry Cipriano, FCRH ’75, retired in 2018 as senior news editor of the CBS Evening News. He began his journalism career at the Associated Press while still attending Fordham. He joined CBS News in 1984 as a writer for network radio and moved over to television news in 1986.

A version of this essay originally appeared in Connecting, a newsletter for retirees and former employees of the Associated Press. It is republished here with the kind permission of the newsletter’s editor, Paul Stevens.

Watch this on-air tribute to Jerry Cipriano during the last of his many CBS Evening News broadcasts. Anchor Jeff Glor describes him as “a mentor, a friend, and master craftsman who has written the first draft of history for more than three decades.”

Related Story: Charles Osgood, Beloved CBS Broadcaster, Fordham Graduate, and ‘Patron Saint’ of WFUV News, Dies at 91

The ceremonies took place on Sept. 27 and 28 at the Palladium Theater in Manhattan. Two students assisted the production on stage during the broadcast, while six others helped backstage.

The group, a mix of undergraduate and graduate students, was invited to attend a pre-ceremony reception, where they rubbed elbows with some of the biggest names in broadcast journalism.

CBS and CNN Intern Meets News Anchor

Skylar D. Harris, a senior journalism major at Fordham College at Rose Hill, was one of the two envoys who ferried Emmy statuettes from backstage to presenters and escorted participants off stage after their speeches. Harris had worked backstage at last year’s ceremony and was excited to step out into the limelight.

“It was really an amazing opportunity to be on the stage for those few seconds, just chatting with people like [CBS Evening News Anchor] Norah O’Donnell,” she said.

“I interned for CBS Philadelphia last year, so I was already familiar with her. It was great to see her in person and chat with her.”

In addition to meeting people who work at CNN, where she’ll begin interning next week, Harris said she also met people who work behind the scenes to keep the industry functioning. One was a representative from a company that uses technology to detect whether a photo has been digitally manipulated.

“It’s a big problem now, especially with AI-generated images,” she said. “It was new to me, and it was good that we’re finding these solutions to try to improve the public trust in news.”

Master’s Student Makes Connections

Harris was joined by Alexander Hom, who graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill last year with a journalism degree and who is pursuing a master’s degree in public media at the Graduate School of Arts and Science this year.

“It was definitely life-changing, and I don’t use that phrase lightly,” he said.

Hom opted not to submit an application to attend the ceremony last year because it conflicted with a class. This year, he was determined to go. Like Harris, he hopes to work in broadcast journalism full-time and is hopeful that the connections he made at the reception will result in a position at a network. He grew up watching CBS Sunday Morning, so meeting CBS National Security Correspondent David Martin was a treat, he said.

Meeting Jane Pauley

Meeting CBS Sunday Morning anchor Jane Pauley during the ceremony was the biggest highlight, though.

“We were handing out the trophies, and we got to the category of Outstanding Recorded News Program. One of the nominees was CBS Sunday Morning, so I had a very restrained showing of delight when they won. One of their producers gave the address, and as they were leaving, Pauley took the time to say hi. I shook her hand, and I said, ‘I grew up watching CBS Sunday Morning, so I’ve been listening to you half my life.’”

“She said, ‘Oh, that’s really touching, it’s a pleasure to have you here.’

Allie Kosterich, an assistant professor of communications and media management at the Gabelli School of Business, studied this new type of journalist for her new book News Nerds: Institutional Change in Journalism (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Kosterich was working on her dissertation in 2016 when, she said, she was “just starting to see a lot of technological skills being brought into the newsroom.”

“It evolved into this general question of what does it mean to be a journalist today?” she said. “And how does this idea of a professional journalist change over time, especially within the last decade or so.”

After speaking with dozens of journalists and news executives, Kosterich said she found that the skill sets of journalists have really changed and evolved over the past decade.

“Skill sets have really changed, from the traditional definition of a journalist being someone who writes, who edits, who asks questions, things like that, to somebody who can do a lot more technologically,” she said.

“They’re taking these tech-infused skills, and still pursuing that principle of journalism, that guiding energy of journalism, but doing it with programming skills, with coding skills, maybe they’re building products, maybe they’re building apps,” she said. “Those aren’t necessarily done by a tech service team anymore, they’re done by the journalists themselves.”

Part of the reason for the growth of this field, Kosterich said, is due to external factors, such as emerging social media platforms and struggles in the industry.

“We’re facing economic difficulties, technological capabilities, social changes with audiences wanting news on demand in every device—those were probably the initial instigators, the big shocks to the profession that started this and destabilized the established practices of the profession,” she said.

In addition, Kosterich said she found that this tumultuous time created opportunities for “external actors” to come into the industry and leave their mark.

“Some of the earliest news nerds were actually people that came in from the tech space or the software space and decided they wanted to do something a little bit more mission driven,” she said.

And they left a lasting mark, according to her research. While there was initial resistance to the news nerds at first, they’ve become an essential part of newsrooms in the digital era, Kosterich said.

“These people are becoming more and more central to revenue-related goals, as well as the principles and mission of journalism-related goals,” she said. “So I conclude with what I call institutional augmentation, which is this idea that there can be both. There can be the traditional journalist, but just as important, just as prominent, just as institutionalized are these news nerds, are these tech-driven journalists.”

Kosterich said she sees this next decade as a chance for news nerds to become “truly legitimized and institutionalized throughout the profession” as they begin to “reach and succeed in leadership management positions.”

“This collision of the older teams of journalism with new ways of understanding or doing news work really helps us think about organizational change, organizational processes that are necessary, specifically to sustain journalism,” she said. “In the case of news nerds, this really means more than just emphasizing the technology and the skills that come with the technology. It means really strategic change throughout the whole of the industry.”

Kosterich said this lesson also applies to the classes she teaches at the Gabelli School.

“The Business of New Media is one of my courses and we talk a lot about innovation and exploration and evolving skill sets—what does it mean to be a current, modern day, media professional?” she said.

Because, we’d say, he was a fulcrum in the lives of those who formed themselves around him. Because he paid us the compliment of driving us hard as students and then, in the decades to come, sustaining us individually and collectively with the shared bread of his friendship—like one of the righteous souls that the Talmud is always mysteriously crediting with holding this world together.

At least that’s how it seemed to those who knew him.

So we gathered on a cloudy day during the lingering pandemic in a stone church with its vault of azure blue. We warbled out upbeat songs, singing of alabaster cities gleaming, undimmed by human tears; of a tender Lord who extracts us when we’re snared like a bird in a fowler’s trap; and of the biggest promise ever made: resurrection after death.

Most of us had begun as Ray’s students at one Jesuit university or another, Fordham included. He was blatantly magnetic, a man-about-campus with a playful smile and form-fitting Izod shirt. But his main devotions were interior: to intellectual pursuits and his vocation as a priest. He celebrated Mass with a marked sincerity and taught his classes with a passion. He published his writing—rigorous journalism with a disarming dash of memoir—in national publications. And in his music-filled apartment, next to the armchair, was an elbow-high stack of magazines and books. He would read them all, sometimes late into the night after a steak-and-martini dinner with friends at an Arthur Avenue restaurant, rebuilding the stack as he went.

Somehow, Ray made his life of the mind seem glamorous—like if you yourself couldn’t get in on it, you’d keel over from an acute lack of fulfillment. Then one day he’d tap you on the shoulder, so to speak, and allow that he saw something in you. This was both thrilling and nerve-racking for the way it made you want to measure up. It embarked you on what felt like an adventure of spiritual striving and cold ocean swimming, high literary endeavor and incessant bonhomie. The bonus was membership in a community not of his followers but his brethren.

Years later, at the memorial at Fordham, a few of us sang his praises. “Ray was not a Catholic apologist but he was also not an apologetic Catholic,” said Kevin Doyle, FCRH ’78, a lawyer who has applied himself to defending men on death row. “He ached to be generative,” added Anne Gearity, TMC ’70, GSS ’74, about Ray’s zeal for teaching. She herself is a therapist who teaches children to cope with trauma.

Author Eileen Markey, FCRH ’98, noted the absence of Ray’s prize student, Jim Dwyer, FCRH ’79, who’d been one of his closest friends. A Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of impeccably chiseled prose, Jim had been lined up long ago to deliver the eulogy. But before a memorial could be held, he died of cancer, a loss so devastating that it bordered on the absurd. All the more reason, Eileen observed, to gather at liturgy and find shelter with each other.

Afterward at a reception, there were mini muffins and comforting conversation, which is how I imagine the anteroom of heaven. Still, life haunts you. I kept dwelling on what Kevin Schroth, a professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health, had said at the Mass about the last two years of his uncle’s life: “Ray told me he was at peace with his condition, that he understood why he had to go through it.”

On a summer day in 2018, Ray was taking a walk on Webster Avenue when a stroke knocked him to the pavement. Remember those righteous men and women of the Talmud? This is how they quietly move among us, keeping chaos at bay through the practice of some discipline, until the chaos comes for them. Ray lost his ability to walk and write and gained a problem with swallowing that put him on a feeding tube. He entered a season of suffering. And yet, he clung to delight. He’d still beam at the sight of friends at his door, lifting his head as if lit from within. As if no loss in the world could keep him from loving you.

—Jim O’Grady, FCRH ’82, recently joined NPR’s Planet Money as a host and reporter after more than a decade at WNYC, where he earned numerous honors, including two Edward R. Murrow Awards. He is also the host of the podcast Blindspot: The Road to 9/11, a co-production of HISTORY and WNYC Studios.

Read more about Father Schroth’s life and legacy in our full obituary, published on July 7, 2020: “Raymond Schroth, S.J., Who Taught Generations of Journalists, Dies at 86.”  

Scenes from the memorial Mass and reception held at Fordham on October 23, 2021. Photos by Bruce Gilbert

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“The Observer has played a tremendously important role throughout the pandemic by keeping all of our students connected to campus, no matter where they’ve been living,” said Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center. “I’m hugely grateful for their commitment and proud of the character they have demonstrated at every turn.”

This year marked a historical milestone for The Observer, which celebrated its 40th anniversary by creating a special online edition about its history, current members, and alumni who are now working as full-time journalists across the country. But much of the focus of their news coverage from this past year was on the pandemic, said newspaper staff adviser Anthony Hazell. 

“There were so many different angles to cover: how students in different time zones were attending remote classes, how hybrid learning was going, how student clubs tried to maintain student life on campus, how health precautions and protocols affected the mental health of students and their families,” said Hazell, a full-time director of communications at Bay Ridge Prep who advises Fordham students with Molly Bedford, a design editor at The New York Times. “They were very personal stories to both the people being interviewed and the students themselves.” 

The student news team was “thrown off the digital cliff” during the pandemic, said Grace Getman, FCLC ’22, The Observer’s managing editor. They were forced to adjust to new working conditions and time zones, from Oregon to Louisiana to Russia. But this year was also a period of opportunity, she said. 

“It gave us a real chance to examine why we have the rules that we do and why we do the things the way that we do them,” said Getman, who highlighted her team’s reporting on how the Fordham community was impacted by COVID-19 vaccines. “It broke the chain on a lot of things and gave us a huge opportunity to connect and collaborate in ways that we never even thought of before.” 

In addition to the American Scholastic Press Association award, two members of The Observer—Arts and Culture Editor Madeline Katz and Assistant Features Editor Aidan Lane—were recognized by School Newspapers Online (SNO), a website platform that collaborates with collegiate news publications across the country, for their stories “Hell’s Kitchen Free Store is Priceless” and “Labor Organizers Shine During May Day Protests.” Their stories were featured in the online Best of SNO showcase that highlights top student work. 

“It’s intimidating, but inspiring to know that people are going to be reading what we did, what we said, and what we recorded,” Getman said. “It sounds a bit cheesy, but history has its eyes on us. This time, this moment, is one that people are going to want to know about. Not only do we have an obligation to our readers right now, but we also have an obligation to the future.”

To celebrate the student newspaper’s 40th anniversary, the current editors of The Observer have published an 88-page commemorative magazine featuring updates on Observer alumni, archival material, and several articles that contextualize the newspaper’s history as part of both a changing campus and a changing world.

“We wanted to make sure that our current editors as well as other editors in the past could kind of [showcase]  that lineage,” said editor-in-chief Sophie Partridge-Hicks, a Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior who oversaw the production of the magazine and related anniversary coverage online.

Partridge-Hicks said she and managing editor Marielle Sarmiento first discussed the project in April 2020, soon after the paper’s editorial board elected them to their current positions and they met with Anthony Hazell, FCLC ’07, and Molly Bedford, the paper’s editorial and visual adviser, respectively.

“This was a month and a half or two months into the start of the pandemic, so we didn’t really know what the world was going to look like in a year,” Partridge-Hicks recalls. “Marielle and I had these grand ideas of a huge gala with alumni from the past 40 years and big speeches and a whole event.”

When the pandemic nixed those plans, the editorial board’s anniversary committee focused on producing a special issue, and they were quickly drawn to the idea of a magazine for its relative durability and the opportunity to give layout editors something new to design. The committee met every week starting in December and developed an outline for the kind of content they wanted to include. What was initially going to be a 30-page magazine swelled to 55 pages and, finally, to 88.

“None of us had ever done something on this scale beforehand,” Partridge-Hicks said.

Lifelong Relationships and a Growing Newspaper

The staff split up duties and began poring over the newspaper’s archives, finding notable stories and photos to include in the magazine, from crisis coverage and Black History Month articles to sports writing. Meanwhile, Partridge-Hicks tracked down former editors and spoke to former longtime Observer adviser Elizabeth Stone, Ph.D., a professor of English at Fordham, who tipped her off to more ideas for alumni stories, including a handful of couples who met on the paper’s staff and went on to get married. One of those couples, Natalie Rodriguez DeLessio, FCLC ’06, and Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06, are the subjects of a feature in the magazine.

“We were always a team back then,” Rodriguez DeLessio said of their time on The Observer. “We’re still a team now, and I don’t think that’s going to change.”

When Rodriguez DeLessio, DeLessio, and Hazell were on the editorial board, The Observer published a special 25th anniversary issue. Hazell said that his undergraduate experience gave him an even greater appreciation for the work the current staff put into the magazine.

“The team of student-editors that worked on the 40th anniversary magazine did an incredible job capturing The Observer’s growth over four decades, its history of award-winning student journalism, and its importance to the Fordham community,” said Hazell, who is director of communications at Bay Ridge Prep in Brooklyn.

The newspaper’s growth has been aided by technological changes, but it also reflects changing approaches to news coverage over time.

“I think the biggest change is the scope of The Observer, because if you think back to the ’80s, it was really a newspaper that was covering the [Lincoln Center]  campus and kind of getting students’ opinions and serving it back into the community,” Partridge-Hicks said. “Then there was a period in the ’90s and early 2000s when they had a global column [with]  updates about what was happening in the world. And I think that you kind of see that push and pull. … How do we report for our student body? But then also how do we report for other people who could be reading us?”

An Alumni Community Finds Success in Journalism and Beyond

In her 35 years as an adviser, Stone witnessed many of the changes the paper underwent.

“The wonderful thing about advising for so long was that I got to advise 35 [cohorts]  of students,” she said. “I saw The Observer morph and solidify itself as a viable culture with an identity, albeit a flexible one. I saw innovations, traditions, and experimentation. Each new editorial board got to try out its own new ideas, at the same time contending with the larger world out there, whatever it was. Happily, The Observer became a community and has affirmed its durability.”

In addition to producing the anniversary issue, the current editors created a contact list of former editors, making it easier for Observer alumni and students to get in touch with each other and see what their peers have been up to since their time on the paper—from becoming a staff editor at The New York Times to a photo producer at Apple. Current editors also hope that the contact list can serve as a form of professional network, providing connections for internships and jobs.

And while the idea for an anniversary gala had to be put on hold, Fordham juniors Katrina Lambert and Grace Getman—the incoming editor-in-chief and managing editor—are hoping to host an in-person alumni event in the fall. In the meantime, the current editorial board members were able to gather for a magazine launch on April 16, with many editors seeing each other for the first time in over a year, and administrators like Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and Keith Eldredge, assistant vice president and dean of student services, joining the festivities.

“We still felt that it was really important for the students who had spent nearly five months or so working on this magazine to have an opportunity to celebrate it,” Partridge-Hicks says. “We had everyone dress up, probably for the first time in a year. A lot of people were laughing that they had forgotten how to put on makeup, or no one had worn a suit in a year.

“I think, personally, being involved in The Observer has been the most influential experience of my undergraduate career. And being able to see people in person instead of on a Zoom screen just reaffirms how important those personal connections are.”

Celebrating Camaraderie and Honoring Those Lost

For Hazell, that kind of camaraderie is one he too experienced in his time on staff.

“The Observer provided me with the most memorable experiences I had during my time as a Fordham student,” he says. “The lessons I learned in writing, communication, and leadership are still applicable today in my professional life, and I still rely on the friendships I made.”

Partridge-Hicks said that some of the tougher archival material to go through were the obituaries of students The Observer has published over the years, noting that that one can sense in all of them how much the Fordham community was affected.

When Fordham junior and member of the editorial board Nicole Perkins had the idea to write a story about editors-in-chief 40 years apart, she discovered that Mitch Berger, FCLC ’83, one of the paper’s founding editors-in-chief, had died in 2019. Sarmiento wrote a tribute to him, and Berger’s wife shared with Sarmiento a framed photograph of him holding up a copy of The Observer, a photograph that was displayed in their house for his entire life.

“[It is]  so sad that he’s not still here with us,” Partridge-Hicks said. “But it speaks to how influential this is.”

Elsa Au-Yeung

School: Fordham College at Rose Hill

Major: Biological Sciences

Minor: Bioethics

Current Job: Research Associate, Inflammation and Immunology, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

“One of the things I am the most grateful for from my experience at Fordham was actually learning about things not related to my major. Since we are required to take the core curriculum, I was exposed to so many different classes I never would have taken otherwise. These courses refined the way I think about virtually everything. Buddhism in America helped me discover my interest in Buddhism, and Intro to Bioethics challenged many preconceived beliefs I had about the health care industry and controversial ethicists.”

Read more of Elsa Au-Yeung’s story.

Reed Bihary

School: Gabelli School of Business

Major: Business Administration

Concentrations: Finance, Global Business

Minor: Economics

Current Job: Corporate and Institutional Banking Development Program Associate, PNC Financial Services

“Through the Gabelli School of Business, I was immediately taught the importance of networking, which helped me land multiple internships and gain a better understanding of which profession I wanted to pursue after graduation. The Fordham Mentoring Program helped to prepare me for interviews and expand my professional network. Connections I made with alumni through this program were pivotal in aligning me with the job I have today.”

Read more of Reed Bihary’s story.

Natalie Migliore

School: Fordham College at Rose Hill

Major: Journalism

Minor: Communication and Media Studies

Current Job: News Anchor/Writer, iHeartMedia

“Working at WFUV was hands down the best decision I ever made. It changed the trajectory of my life. I was going to be a business major, and walking into WFUV, I just fell in love with journalism. I wouldn’t have known about the position at iHeartMedia if it weren’t for having a connection from Fordham and WFUV. That reinforced [the importance of the]alumni network. Another thing I wouldn’t have gotten almost anywhere else was the small class sizes at Fordham. I built great relationships with my professors, and they’ve become great mentors to me.”

Read more of Natalie Migliore’s story.

John Morin

School: Fordham College at Rose Hill

Major: Political Science

Minors: American Studies, Mathematics

Current Job and Studies: Communications Associate, Regis High School; M.A. Candidate, Elections and Campaign Management, Fordham

“I was always surrounded by diverse experiences and perspectives, and the ability to have constructive conversations on complicated issues with my peers was amazing. The intro course for my American studies minor was one of the most important experiences I had. The professor, Diane Detournay, wanted us to challenge conventional thinking and advocate for needed change. The ideas she presented in class, I will always carry with me.”

Read more of John Morin’s story.

Finley Peay

School: Fordham College at Lincoln Center

Majors: Political Science, American Studies

Concentration: American Catholic Studies

Minor: Theology

Current Studies and Job: M.A. Candidate, Higher Education and Student Affairs, NYU; Graduate Assistant, Columbia University’s Office of University Life

“The biggest thing that I got out of Fordham was the breadth of the mentorship network. I got the best of both worlds participating in academics and student involvement at both Lincoln Center and Rose Hill. I’m still in touch with a lot of the administrators I worked with in the Office for Student Involvement. That’s one of the things I cherish the most: the number of people I met who genuinely care about students.”

Read more of Finley Peay’s story.

Julie Tin

School: Fordham College at Lincoln Center

Major: Psychology

Minor: Mandarin Chinese

Current Job: Human Resources Administrative Assistant, University Settlement, The Door, Broome Street Academy Charter High School

“Right now I work for a family of New York City organizations that give back to immigrant and low-income communities and provide services to disconnected youth. I had interned there during college, but I had little to no experience in the office setting before I was placed in Fordham’s Office of Alumni Relations for work-study. Through the staff’s guidance and instruction, I was able to develop data management, communication, and organizational skills that serve as the core of my professional abilities.”

Read more of Julie Tin’s story.

—Reporting by Chris Gosier, Adam Kaufman, Kelly Kultys, and Sierra McCleary-Harris

“Father Schroth—Ray, as many of us knew him—was a towering figure at Fordham: he was a beloved professor, a treasured colleague, a lucid journalist and writer, and an insightful historian of the University and the Jesuits,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “He was wise, compassionate, and rigorous, and held his colleagues and students to his own very high standards. We will miss him greatly, and we will keep him and his loved ones in our prayers.”

Father Schroth received a bachelor’s degree from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1955. In 1969, he returned to his alma mater as an associate professor who taught journalism in the communications department. During that time, he became the first person in University history to be granted tenure by the Faculty Senate, after initially being denied tenure by his department. The tense battle was covered by The New York Times, which referred to him as “probably the most popular teacher on campus.” He did earn tenure, thanks to a majority vote, student support, and the intervention of James C. Finlay, S.J., president of Fordham at the time. 

“Many of us on the Faculty Senate at the time, including myself, felt that a rejection by his tenured faculty in his department was not an appropriate decision. He was known by us to be a good teacher and a popular teacher,” recalled Robert Himmelberg, Ph.D., professor emeritus of history. 

For decades, Father Schroth taught American literature and journalism and/or served as academic dean at at least six universities. In 1979, Father Schroth left Fordham to become academic dean at Rockhurst University (formerly known as Rockhurst College) in Kansas City, Missouri. But almost two decades later, he returned to Fordham, where he served as assistant dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill from 1996 to 1999. 

In August 2016, he moved to Murray-Weigel Hall for health reasons. After experiencing a bad fall in 2017, he was confined to a wheelchair and “accepted reluctantly, but with faith, his disabilities,” read his obituary from the Jesuits USA Northeast Province. 

“I think of the different seasons of Ray’s life on that campus, from a young man in the ’50s to a young priest just beginning his work in the late ’60s, to this robust and storied presence in the ’90s. And now, in his last couple of years, a man who really suffered under the weight of age and infirmity,” said journalist Eileen Markey, FCRH ’98, past student and friend of Father Schroth’s who has served as an adjunct professor at Fordham. “All of those seasons on this campus really defined his life.”

‘At Heart Ray Is a Reporter’

Raymond Augustine Schroth was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on November 8, 1933, to Raymond Schroth, a journalist and U.S. Army veteran who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in World War I, and Mildred (née Murphy) Schroth, a teacher in the Trenton public and Catholic schools.

“Somehow I had made the basic decision inspired by both my parents’ lives: I wanted to write and teach, and that’s what Jesuits do,” he wrote in a 2007 story for the NJVoices column that reflected on his life. 

Father Schroth served for two years as an officer in the U.S. Army with an anti-aircraft battalion in West Germany, where he found his two vocations: the priesthood and journalism. In 1957, he joined the Society of Jesus and was ordained as a priest a decade later. He went on to earn two degrees in addition to his Fordham degree: a bachelor of sacred theology degree from Woodstock College, Maryland, in 1968, and a Ph.D. in American thought and culture from George Washington University in 1971. 

Journalism ran in his blood. His father served as an editorial writer for the Trenton Times, Brooklyn Eagle, and Philadelphia Record. His uncle, Frank D. Schroth, was the last publisher of The Brooklyn Eagle, according to a 1977 obit from The New York Times. 

For most of his life, Father Schroth followed in his family’s footsteps. He reported from 14 countries, including Syria and Russia, according to America magazine. In the U.S., he covered the aftermath of the Detroit riots and the 1968 Democratic National Convention, among other historic events.

Throughout his lifetime, Father Schroth authored eight books, including Fordham: A History and Memoir (Fordham University Press, 2008), a 300-page document that chronicles 137 years of the institution’s history. Other titles include The American Jesuits: A History (NYU Press, 2007) and Bob Drinan: The Controversial Life of the First Catholic Priest Elected to Congress (Fordham University Press, 2010). He published more than 300 articles and reviews that have appeared in multiple publications, including the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, the National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, and Newsday. In 2010, he joined the editorial staff of America, where he served as literary and books editor until he retired in 2017 and received the title editor emeritus. 

“At heart Ray is a reporter. … [H]e has never forgotten that an important part of a reporter’s job—especially for a Catholic journalist—is to tell the stories of ordinary people, the folks in the pews or on the streets,” Matt Malone, S.J., editor in chief of America: The Jesuit Review and president of America Media, wrote in a 2017 story. 

In that piece, Father Malone quoted something Father Schroth wrote on teaching: “The first step in teaching moral values to young journalists is to get them to feel pain—not their pain, the pain of others. From that, other virtues—compassion, skepticism, courage and the like—might follow.”

Mentor to Students ‘From All Eras’

Father Schroth loved to tell stories. That was clear in the ’70s, if you entered his room and studied the walls, and even two years ago, in his room at Murray-Weigel Hall. 

“You could come into his living room and see posters about strikes or political events that were going on, or you could see these very of-the-moment nonfiction books,” recalled Jim Dwyer, FCRH ’79, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who writes for The New York Times. “For an 18- or 19-year-old, it was a portal from the protected world of the campus to the wider world beyond.” He shared that passion with his students, too. 

“There’s this fraternity of Ray’s students from all eras, people ranging from their mid-sixties down to those of us in our forties or thirties, and people at all kinds of publications all over the country,” said Markey.

Father Schroth urged students to fact-check official statements from powerful figures, past students recalled. He was a writer who despised the phrase “the fact that” and emphasized the importance of writing concisely. He taught young journalists to set high standards for themselves and their work, and he stressed the importance of using their stories as “a force for change,” said another alumna. 

“In the early ’70s, the thinking in journalism was that a reporter had to report both sides of the story and be this impartial person … He understood that view, but he also presented the view that journalism was a force for change and a voice for the underdog and the underprivileged,” said Loretta Tofani, FCRH ’75, a retired investigative journalist. 

Father Schroth introduced Tofani to the work of several investigative journalists who played a role in her Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé of prison rape for The Washington Post, she said. 

Exposing students to important works and history was a priority for Father Schroth. He convinced his colleagues to come up with an annotated list of the most significant 10 books they had read, which he shared with his students as a guide to life, said Roger Wines, Ph.D., professor emeritus of history. He spearheaded the “Great Walk,” an annual student trek between the Battery in Manhattan and the Rose Hill campus—a way to explore the city and show students parts of New York that they might not otherwise see, said past students. Father Schroth also refused to become a “stale” professor.

Dwyer recalled one summer when he returned to campus and found Father Schroth in his room in Martyrs’ Court, shredding sheets of handwritten looseleaf notes. 

“I’m tearing up my notes for the books I’m teaching this semester,” Father Schroth explained. 

“Why on Earth would you do that if you’re going to be teaching them in a couple weeks?” Dwyer asked. 

“To force myself to read the books anew, so I don’t become stale,” Father Schroth replied. 

Connecting Students ‘to a Wider World’

In phone interviews, past students and colleagues described “Ray” as a stellar journalist and stalwart friend. He occasionally clashed with students, faculty, and his more conservative Jesuit brethren, but stood up for what he thought was right and inspired scores of students to do the same, they said. 

“One of the things that was really singular about Ray is his combination of intense rigor, high expectations, and personal standards, mixed with a tremendous sweetness and warmth,” said Markey. “Sometimes we think of those as two different things … But Ray did both.” 

Father Schroth was a tall, lean man who stood so straight that it made you want to stand up straighter, said Markey. He was also an avid runner, bicyclist, and swimmer. At age 83, he walked for miles along the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage trail in Spain, as he recounted three years ago. He loved show tunes, especially songs sung by Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, and persuaded his fellow pilgrims to sing with him as they trekked the Spanish countryside, said Dwyer. He also took his friendships very seriously. 

“On Holy Thursday every year, he would send an email to many of us, saying, ‘This is when Jesus gathered his friends together and said, do this in memory of me, and this is a ritual of friendship and community, and that’s what we are to each other.’” said Markey. 

Over the years, he created a box filled with index cards that listed the names of hundreds of friends and family members. Every time there was a birth, move, divorce, job change, or marriage, Father Schroth updated the cards. 

“He married students. He buried their parents and baptized their children. And he did all that for me,” said Dwyer. “But he did that for hundreds of people.” 

“He connected me to the world of journalism, which has been my life for the last 40 years,” Dwyer continued. “But the bigger thing that Ray did for me and thousands of others is connect us to a wider world. He taught us that friendship has to be looked after—that it has to be cultivated and nurtured.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the wake and funeral Mass for Father Schroth at Murray-Weigel Hall will be private. He will also have a private burial at the Jesuit Cemetery in Auriesville, New York. His family will have a public memorial Mass when it is possible. Notes of condolence may be sent to his nephew, Kevin Schroth, at 79 Bingham Avenue, Rumson, NJ  07760.

He also earned the homage any reflective opinion writer should pursue: Fair.

I met Father O’Hare while I was The Ram’s editor in 1984 and he was transitioning into a new career. We were both outsiders. I was billed as the first commuter to become editor. He came to academia from a stint as editor of America, an opinion magazine for which he wrote the column “Of Many Things.”

“I was engaged in telling the world how to behave,” he liked to say.

I wasn’t big on opinion back then, and through much of my journalism career I stood firmly on the facts side of the newsroom wall. These days I facilitate public opinion and write editorials and a column named “Look at it this Way,” a nod to the importance of alternate perspectives.

A few days after his inauguration that fall, Father O’Hare sat for a lengthy interview we published in a special section of The Ram. Executive Editor Dan Vincelette and I weren’t sure what to expect, but Father O’Hare played host like we were members of a secret journalism club. He even shared gossip about legendary advice columnist Ann Landers pursuing him as a possible consultant to help her answer letters.

He put us so at ease that we showed a little hubris in opening the Q-and-A by asking, “Why does Joe O’Hare deserve an inauguration when no other president in the last 50 years has had one?”

While researching his background, we learned he was tagged at America with the nickname “Joe Cool.” We learned why during the interview. No query caused him to flinch, even when we challenged him about divesting holdings from South Africa or about the university declining to recognize the student group Fordham Lesbians and Gays. (He pledged to combat discrimination, but hedged at official approval. Today, Fordham hosts two student groups, the Pride Alliance and the Rainbow Alliance, as well as the Rainbow Rams alumni chapter).

He invited us to gaze into his crystal ball, citing a need to invest in the Rose Hill library (“We really have to do something about it”). It was a promise fulfilled with the debut of the William D. Walsh Family Library 13 years later, a fitting legacy for this man of words.

The conversation continued after the notebooks closed, but Father O’Hare took over asking the questions. An outdoor modern art installation on campus faced hostility from students, and he invited our opinion. He expressed appreciation for our insights. I appreciated being heard.

Lessons that day—and in ones to follow—linger as a master class in the art of rhetoric, of candor, of transparency.

Father O’Hare told us he hoped to be at the helm for at least seven years. He stayed for 19, the longest tenure in the university’s 179 years.

“The trick is to make Fordham [be] perceived as a national institution but keep the character that is distinctly New York,” he said in framing his vision.

He pulled off the trick. That’s not just an opinion.

—John Breunig, FCRH ’85, is the editorial page editor and a columnist for The Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time.