Students drive Wilkes President Patrick Leahy’s passion for higher education

By Vicki Mayk

Freshman Emily Absalom decided that Wilkes’ new president, Patrick Leahy, would be the perfect subject for her First Year Foundations class paper about leadership. What she didn’t expect was that her interview with him would become a two-way conversation about student life at Wilkes.

“He was very genuine,” recalls Absalom, a resident of Bangor, Pa., majoring in political science and psychology. “I noticed how many times he used my name in our conversation and how often he laughed. It’s very indicative of his personality. He really relates to people. At the end of the interview, he asked me how I felt at Wilkes, how the semester was going for me. I said Wilkes has a very homey feel and it’s a tight-knit community. He was very pleased about that.”

Such conversations are a priority for Leahy since becoming Wilkes’ sixth president in July 2012.  Noting that the Henry Student Center, where students congregate, is his favorite place on campus – “I love the energy there” – Leahy calls students his number-one constituency.

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Alumni Recall Life-Changing Influence of Professor Bradford Kinney

By Bill Thomas

It was a familiar sight for students and faculty driving to Wilkes University. Crossing the Market Street Bridge, they’d pass Bradford Kinney walking along, a leather briefcase clutched in one hand, making the one-mile trip from home in Kingston, Pa. Though Kinney gave up the walks following open-heart surgery in 2010, the image of him crossing the bridge, briefcase in tow, is a fond memory. It’s not the only thing alumni remember. With Kinney’s retirement in December 2012, graduates from the communication studies professor’s almost 40 years at Wilkes reminisced about how the man with the briefcase influenced their lives.

“Think about the scene in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer where Tom Sawyer gets the people to paint the fence and gets them to really love painting it. Kinney was a little like that,” Donna (O’Toole) Sedor ’85 says with a laugh. “He had a way of encouraging us to do things that went beyond our comfort zones and stretched our capabilities.”

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Wilkes alumnus Larry Cohen helped mold family firm into success

By Helen Kaiser

From its modest beginnings in a traveling salesman’s suitcase during the Great Depression, Benco Dental Supply Co., headquartered in Pittston, Pa., has developed into the nation’s fastest-growing dental supplies distributor, with more than 50 regional showrooms and five distribution centers.

Wilkes alumnus Lawrence Cohen ’57 has been along for much of the ride.

Now nearing 77, Cohen speaks with pride about the grit and ambition of his father Benjamin who, with a sixth-grade education, founded the company when it was simply about selling “picks, scrapers and forceps.” He recalls his own involvement beginning in 1959 and the growth and challenges that occurred when he was at the helm. And he conveys confidence in the future of the firm now managed by his two sons — the largest privately owned distributor of dental supplies, equipment and consulting services in the U.S.

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The new science building scheduled to open next year at Wilkes University will be known as the Lawrence and Sally Cohen Science Center, in recognition of the couple’s $2.5 million gift in support of the project.

The donation is the largest cash gift from an individual in Wilkes’ history and caps decades of strong support from the Cohen family. The $35 million, 72,500-square-foot facility is being built as the most advanced educational facility in the region. It will house Wilkes’ award-winning biology and health sciences, chemistry and biochemistry, and environmental engineering and earth science programs.

“The Cohen gift will allow Wilkes to continue its tradition as a national leader in the sciences, preparing the researchers, health-care providers and scientific innovators of tomorrow,” says Wilkes President Patrick F. Leahy.

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Bill Lewis Tells The Stories of Pennsylvania’s Past

By Mary Ellen Alu ’77

It’s no surprise that Bill Lewis the storyteller has a good story of his own.

At age 4, when other boys his age wanted toy soldiers or trucks, the main thing on Lewis’s Santa list was a book on the French and Indian War. His family still teases him about it.

But that request would come to define Bill Lewis ’80, MBA ’86. More than a storyteller, Lewis is a history buff whose passion has led to a gubernatorial appointment to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and leadership roles with the Luzerne County Historical Society.

“If history’s to be interesting,” Lewis will tell you, “there has to be a story.”

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Wilkes Honors Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees

Six alumni athletes were honored with induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame. A ceremony was held on Jan. 26, 2013 following a Freedom Conference basketball doubleheader at the Marts Center. This year’s inductees, representing five different men’s and women’s sports, are among the best players to ever suit up for the Colonels.

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