2008 Woodie Awards
An era ends
Drew bids farewell to 'heart and soul'
Mike Degen
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News
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The afternoon was a celebration of the career of retiring Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts Paolo Cucchi, who, clad in a charcoal-gray suit, stood in the midst of the lively crowd, and greeted each guest one by one.
Held in the DoYo Concert Hall, festivities included a faculty panel of four professors, who gave short presentations on recent scholarly endeavors, and personal addresses by former presidents-Paul Hardin and Tom Kean and current President Bob Weisbuch-who had served during Cucchi's 24-year deanship.
But the occasion was more than a way to formally commemorate a dean who has been indispensable to the College and the University over the last quarter century. For those in the CLA faculty who have known and worked so closely with Cucchi, the event was also a way of saying goodbye.
For College faculty members, such as Professor of Physics Robert Fenstermacher, Cucchi has been the only dean they've known.
"I might be the only department chair who's been around the entire time [Cucchi] has," Fenstermacher said. "He's my dean."
Inside the Concert Hall, a quick glance at the people claiming seats was like flipping through past editions of Oak Leaves. Retired Theological School Professor Charles Courtney was in the back.
From 1987 to 1989, Courtney served as the interim Dean of Student Life, during which he and Cucchi established the infamous campus policy to ban kegs. Across the aisle, former Student Government Association President Michael Giacopelli (CLA '04) had set aside his law books for the weekend to celebrate a dean who was instrumental during his incumbency.
Maria Fruci ('08) was one of the CLA students in attendance. She spoke of Cucchi, who was born in Trieste, Italy, as if he were a peer. "[Cucchi] is so welcoming and knows us by name, which is impressive," she said. "We also share that Italian tie."
The event's moderator, Professor of English Robert Ready, commenced the program by introducing the faculty panel-Professor of Anthropology Maria Masucci, Professor of Physics David McGee, Professor of Sociology Kesha Moore and Professor of Religious Studies Christopher Taylor. Each of the four panelists had prepared slideshow presentations highlighting key elements of their most recent research.
"[Cucchi] empowers the faculty to do new things," Taylor said. "The event today tried to highlight the changes since his deanship. Before, the faculty simply taught and not a lot of emphasis was put on that outside research."
At the conclusion of each presentation, the panelists brought their portion of the program into context by recognizing the support they received from Cucchi, from receiving grant money to subsidizing international seminar pilots programs to helping find the necessary funding to turn a professor's academic ideas into reality. Moore seemed to speak for all the panelists-and other faculty members as well-when she concluded her speech by saying how indebted she was to Cucchi for his "support and direction."
The Presidents' Panel was next on the agenda, featuring a video message from ninth president Paul Hardin, and speeches by Kean and Weisbuch.
Hardin, president of Drew from 1975 to 1988, could not be in attendance and sent his address via video.
In a North Carolinian drawl, Hardin began, "Alo Paolo!" Hardin said Drew flies under the radar, but after holding positions at such prestigious universities as University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Alabama-Birmingham, he believes none have had the synergy and sense of togetherness as Drew. This was, of course, a tribute to Cucchi's success at bringing together the faculty and the students like never before in a way that truly embracing the liberal arts, Hardin said.
Perhaps no Drew president would know this better than Kean, who presided over the University with Cucchi as his colleague longer than Hardin and Weisbuch combined. Kean began his speech with an anecdote. To keep a pair of twins occupied while at a meeting, Kean cut up a map of the world that had been printed in the newspaper, handed the makeshift puzzle to the children and told them to put the world back together-for a prize. They came back several minutes later with the map completed, much to Kean's chagrin. Baffled, he asked how they had completed the puzzle so quickly to which they replied that a picture of a man's face was printed on the back of the pieces. Putting the man together was to put together the world as well. In Kean's mind, this was just the analogy to describe Cucchi's influence at Drew.
"The president usually is the one that gets the credit," Kean said. "But Paolo was here before I got here and was here after I left...He is the heart and soul of this institution…[and] one of the most remarkable and wonderful human beings I've ever met," Kean said.
Weisbuch took the podium to offer his unique perspective of working with Cucchi over the past three years.
"Paolonese" was the term Weisbuch coined when illustrating how he learned to decipher the real meaning behind Cucchi's words or actions. For instance, when he would get up in front of a crowd and joke, "He's Cucchi and I'm kooky," Weisbuch would catch the Dean giving him a "generous smile" that said, "that's the hundredth time I've heard that."
Weisbuch stepped down from the podium. At first the crowd's applause was for his address, then Kean rose from his seat and the rest of the Concert Hall followed suit in a standing ovation for the outgoing dean of the College.
At the reception in the lobby, in between the mingling and hand-shaking, Cucchi stood in front of a display of cards where guests could write something to the dean. Asked about how he felt, "I'm still floating around," he said, smiling and waving his hands in the air. "I was looking around. I didn't know who they were talking about!"
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