Alumni Encounters
In the last edition of the magazine we asked alumni to share the most unexpected place they ran into another Bona grad. Cheers to making new friends and reconnecting with old ones.
Gerard J. Monaghan, ’67
This encounter actually was with the father of a student. When I was president of the Association of Bridal Consultants (1981-2006), we were negotiating with a company to market our educational program.
After about six months of inconclusive talks, we invited our contact to our home office for lunch.
As he entered our home, he noticed my SBU license plate holder and asked, “Which of your kids?” I replied that I was a grad. At that point, he said, “That’s all I needed to hear,” noting one of his children was a student.
We signed the agreement that day.
Fran Machina, ’82
Jim Panebianco, ’84, (left) and Fran Machina, ’82, played two years together on the Bona tennis team and hadn’t seen each other in 41 years.
They stumbled into each other at the 2023 PGA Championship in Rochester. You never know when it will happen! Many patrons, seeing Fran’s sweatshirt, greeted him with a hearty “Go Bonnies.”
FOR THE NEXT EDITION
Tell us about a campus club or organization that helped you find your people at SBU.
Share your story in 100 words & share a photo if you have one: magazine@sbu.edu. We’ll print a collection of responses in the winter 2025 issue.
Terry Hurley, ’76
I was at the Chatham Fish Pier in Cape Cod last summer when I caught a guy out of the corner of my eye wearing a St. Bonaventure shirt. When I asked him about it, he turned to face me and I recognized him instantly and called him by his name – but he had no idea who I was. It had been about 17 years since we had last seen each other. I reminded him that we lived together for two years (sophomore year in First Dev and senior year off campus) but it still took him some time to recognize me. When he finally did, we caught up on things and agreed to meet in Brooklyn two months later to watch the Bonnies in the Legends Classic.
Christian Gravius, ’19
My family was driving from Denver to Rocky Mountain National Park in the summer of 2017 when we stopped at a gas station. With archaic pumps and just one other customer, it felt completely isolated from the rest of civilization. I had a Bonnies track shirt on and as I left the store to walk back to our rental, the other customer saw what I was wearing and shouted an emphatic “Go Bonnies!”
Caught off guard, I looked back as he entered his vehicle. The last thing he said before driving off was, “I went there, too!”
Jim Van Develde, ’74
A few years ago I was walking on a jetty (pier) at a Cape Cod beach with my young kids when I saw a little kid struggling to get across one of the rocks.
I stopped to help him get across only to look up and there was my friend from the Class 1974 who I had not seen in a long time (Elizabeth Johnston O’Connor). It was her son.
Cisca (Sugiro) Peszynski, Ph.D., ’93
I had seen Megan on campus but it was not until the summer of 1992 that we became close friends in the Francis E. Kelley Oxford program.
At New College, her dorm room was above mine so we hung out together quite often. After I graduated, we went our separate ways.
After I retired from my career, I worked part time at Wegmans. In January 2024, a young man named Ian was hired in my deli department. I had the privilege of training him. One day he asked, “Where did you go to school, Cisca?” I answered, “Have you heard of St. Bonaventure?” He had. His mom – Megan Yannie – had been a student there. Out of all the 110 Wegmans stores, we connected in the smallest Wegmans in the country!
My gratitude to the Oxford program for our unique camaraderie and my appreciation to Wegmans for rekindling our friendship after close to 32 years
Aline Gibbons Newstead, ’97
In 2007, I was living in Okinawa, Japan. I was attending a women’s retreat and one of the priests who was brought in was a friar. I immediately had to tell him of my love of the Franciscans and needed to know his background.
When he replied with a chuckle, “a small school somewhere that you haven’t heard of,” I immediately knew the small school. Living in Japan had been absolutely wonderful, but without the abundance of the internet and cell phones at the time, it could be isolating away from family and friends. For that evening at dinner, I was “at home” again.
Jonathan Falls, ’93
My dad, (Richard Falls, ’55) had a knack for finding a Bonnie, someone from the old neighborhood in Binghamton, or a patient whenever he traveled.
Apparently he passed it down. On a cruise, I spotted what looked like a Bona’s hat 20 people or so ahead of me and my wife Caitlin (Read) ’93, in a line for a catamaran tour at St. Lucia.
Who winds up sitting right across from us? Alums Garrie, ’81, and Pat (Casey) Murphy, ’82.
Mary Ann (Hickey) Glennon and Chris LaPlaca
Not only did classmates Mary Ann (Hickey) Glennon, ’79, and Chris LaPlaca, ’79, “run into” each other at this year’s Reunion Weekend, they were named Alumni of the Year recipients. Their reunion comes 45 years after giving their senior class speech.