Remembering "The Doctor": Dr. Ernest Notar

Dr. Ernest Notar

The first president of Niagara County Community College was Dr. Ernest Notar.  A civil engineer by trade, Dr. Notar was formerly a Dean at Erie Tech, which is now Erie Community College.  The following episodes in history were told by Dr. Kenneth Raymond on May 2nd, 2013, after the annual math award ceremony held at NCCC.  Some facts were also provided previously by professor emeritus Dave Brown, and later by Dr. John O. Hunter, who was a faculty member from 1963-1969, and then Dean from 1969-1978.

Dr. Notar and Students
Dr. Notar quite often would pull a long-haired student aside, give him some money and tell him to get a haircut.

The Furnace
While there must have been a lot of excitement surrounding the formation of NCCC in downtown Niagara Falls, adequate funding wasn't always easy to secure. As noted by Dr. Hunter, there were plenty of contentious moments between the college and the county, and conditions were sometimes less than optimal. In such a climate, Dr. Notar showed how truly resourceful he could be.

During one of the first winters at Nabisco Tech the furnace broke down in C-Building.  Subsequently secretaries wore gloves while they typed, students shivered while they learned calculus and faculty became increasingly irritated. Out of frustration the C-Building faculty submitted a work order to have electric heaters installed in the rooms. Shortly thereafter Dr. Notar arrived and fixed the furnace himself.

Blackboards
In the early days many of the rooms didn't have blackboards. Some were equipt with  easels and pads of paper to write on, and the blackboards that were there were of poor quality and couldn't easily be erased. In a possibly humorous gesture, the early math faculty suggested holding a beer blast to raise money for blackboards. Word of the pending beer blast reached Dr. Notar fairly soon, and miraculously the blackboards arrived.

Dr. Notar, or "The Doctor" as he was called, would often ask the county for money, and it would sometimes appear.  Nabisco Tech was the pride and joy of the county legislature, and there no doubt were a number of photo-ops during the formative stages. According to Dr. Raymond a lot of the funding for Nabisco Tech was secured in this impromptu fashion.

Why would a gesture such as a beer blast be humorous? Everyone knew that Dr. Notar was a very conservative Baptist. In the early days certain bars in downtown Niagara Falls were off limits to faculty.  There also was no card playing allowed in the cafeteria. And, the early math faculty definitely were not heavy drinkers - but, they most certainly did have a great sense of humor.  They also had an enormous amount of respect for "The Doctor."

Dr. Notar's Legacy

Although I never met Dr. Notar, I have come to believe that his legacy was what everyone else did. The legacy of the Notar era was that Notar created many eras.  There was the era of chemistry with  Dr. Kwitowski, the era of biofeedback with James Abbondanza, and the era of CADD with Don Voisenet, and Bob Baxter, and Graham Millar, and the list goes on.

As my colleague Pascal Zanzano once said, the faculty, if allowed, will create.  That was Dr, Notar's legacy.  That is the measure of his greatness. He recruited talent, and unleashed their creativity.

Philosophy: Father William Warthling, Part II

Ernest R. Baxter III

I would be remiss in not mentioning the prior influence of Bob Baxter in my education.  Ernest R. Baxter III, or "Bob",  was my professor for ENG 101 and 102.  Although I learned some writing skills from him, more importantly, I began to read extensively outside of class.  That I was inspired to do so by any of these great professors was no small feat, as I had graduated from Niagara Wheatfield High School with an 82 average, and that included a fair number of 100's in band, phys. ed. and shop.

Writing class at NCCC was substantially different from anything I had experienced in high school.  In Bob's class, writing and reading had a purpose.  Not that he was didactic.  If anything, Bob Baxter has existentialist leanings. I am not sure if he is an empiricist pig. In any event, Bob Baxter is/was a professional writer, and I sensed that he took what he was doing quite seriously, so I figured I should take him seriously as well.

Professor Baxter was hired in the fall of 1970, along with Father Warthling. The year prior, Edmund Thomas was the chair of the humanities division. No doubt, professor Thomas - himself a very well educated man - had some influence on these hirings, and it was, in many ways, a positive step forward for liberal education at NCCC.  Ed Thomas also occasionally taught philosophy, and I have no doubt that he could have been a great influence in my education.

In the formative years at NCCC the influence of vocational/technical education must have been great.  Dr. Ernest Notar was a civil engineer, and was recruited from Erie Tech.  The school was also located in downtown Niagara Falls, which was still hustling and bustling with industry. A cursory look at the faculty in the early years also shows very strong math, science, technology and business departments.

I mentioned earlier that Bob Baxter's writing class had a purpose. As anyone who knows Bob Baxter would agree, he is a very outspoken environmentalist. Much to his credit, we were warned 35 years ago about the dangers of nuclear power. Now, after Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukashima Daiichi, it turns out Bob was right.  What was supposed to be an extremely unlikely event, with smaller than infinitesimal probability, in fact happened three times in 35 years.

If nothing else, Bob Baxter and Father Warthling taught us all how to think, a corollary of which is to question authority. As we all know, there is this thing called the "human condition." While the late Father Warthling and Bob Baxter probably never agreed on the cause of this phenomena, we can all agree that it is the Bob Baxters and the Father Warthlings of this world who work to keep the worst excesses of the human condition in check, and in doing so, enable the preservation of our democracy.

More to come....

Electrical Technology and Electrical Engineering Technology: Roger Lehman

Roger Lehman, professor emeritus of engineering technology, grew up in Sanborn, New York.  He attended Public School #8, which was part of the Town of Lewiston School System. The two story school building he attended was located on the south side of the lot of the present West Avenue School at the corner of route 31 and West Avenue in Sanborn.  After 8^th grade, he was bussed to Lasalle High School on Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls, from which he graduated in 1947.

After serving time in the military, Mr. Lehman earned a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from SUNY at Buffalo.  The professor was recruited by Dr. Notar in 1966, and was lured away from a faculty position at SUNY Buffalo, where he shared an office with Wilson Greatbatch. For his Master’s thesis, he researched the application of Heaviside methods to solving differential equations.  Professor Lehman was a first class engineer, and a first class applied mathematician as well. He also knew a fair amount of pure mathematics, physics, and probably something about everything there is to know, or is worth knowing.



According former colleague Charles Fowle, “There are two types of problems in electrical engineering: those that Roger had solved, and those that were too trivial for Roger to solve.”  And, according former colleague Paula Greenwald,  “If you asked Roger for the time, he would tell you how to build a clock.”

Professor Lehman’s brilliance has also been noted by numerous lifelong acquaintances, some dating back to his elementary school days in Sanborn. According to former classmate and childhood friend, Ken Taylor,

“In elementary school, Roger was always showing up the teacher. On one occasion the teacher filled the blackboard with problems, probably in an attempt to keep the children busy so he could grade papers.  By the time the teacher finished writing, Roger had the assignment finished, and fired off all of the answers. When the teacher asked Roger how he came by all the answers so fast, Roger replied ‘You never mind how I got the answers, my answers are correct, aren’t they’.”  Apparently Roger spent a lot of time in the principal’s office.

Professor Lehman was also known for his resourcefulness, specifically in how he kept a wide array of engineering and engineering tech programs running - both during the day and night.  As division chair he was bright enough to know that it was cheaper to run all of the programs, than some of them. The public interest was also well served by having such a robust tech program, complemented by math, physics and chemistry departments second to none.

Throughout this great professor's career, countless students graduated with a 2-year tech degree, became instantly employed, came back to NCCC to study calculus, physics and chemistry at night, and then went to SUNY Buffalo to earn a 4-year engineering degree - much of it paid for by their employers. Such students had a great combination of practical skills as well as a firm theoretical foundation that has continued to serve them well throughout their careers.  Many of them are practicing engineers in Western New York.

More to come.....


Number of technology faculty in the early 1990's: 14
Number of technology faculty in 2016: 1.5
Year in which Tech Prep was cancelled, and federal grant money moved over to the Niagara Falls Culinary Institute: 2008
Year in which the MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement) center was forcibly closed: 2009
Estimated amount funding for tech that was turned away over the past several years: $6,500,000.

Philosophy: Father William Warthling, Part I

Father William Warthling

In the fall of 1970 Father Warthling was hired as the first philosophy professor at NCCC. He had previously taught at a Catholic high school while on leave from his duties as a priest in the Buffalo Diocese.   Father Warthling also taught part time at Attica State Prison while he was teaching full time at NCCC. 

Ordained into the Roman Catholic Church in 1963, by 1968 Father Warthling was actively serving the poor in an urban church in the Buffalo Diocese. He also was active in the civil rights group “Build”, in which the Catholic Church refused to participate.  The Church hierarchy indicated that they had their own ministries, but Father Warthling apparently thought such ministries were inadequate.

Father Warthling challenged the Catholic hierarchy to become more active in such civil rights issues that were ever present right here, front and center in Western New York. There was plenty of blight and extreme poverty in the city of Buffalo, and Father Warthling had been called to serve the least among us. The Buffalo Diocese responded by attempting to transfer Father Warthling to a parish away from the urban setting that he so passionately served.  Twice the hierarchy attempted, and twice Father Warthling refused to comply.  By 1970 Father Warthling had resigned from active ministry, meaning that he could no longer serve communion or hear confession.

Father William Warthling was my philosophy professor in the spring of 1979.  It was my second year at NCCC, I was 20 years old, and I was quite confident that I knew just about everything - or at least just about everything that was important to know.  Having survived a few college-level science courses, having read part of an Isaac Asimov book, and having looked at a lot of pictures in Scientific American, I suppose that I had a certain smug superiority that comes with a bit of scientific education in one’s youth.

My first impression of the Father was that he was somewhat of an anathema. He referred to the resurrection as the “Jesus myth”, while mentioning that this was a philosophical term, and not necessarily what he believed.  Father Warthling also referred to his priestly garb as his “Jesus suit”, which he always wore to Attica State Prison. There was, of course, a certain honesty about him. The Father was certainly not afraid to speak his mind.

Although the historical record has him confronting the Church hierarchy, Father Warthling was far from confrontational with his students. I remember him as being quite amicable.  Class time was usually spent with Father Warthling introducing some topic, followed by some class discussion. He was always quite animated about what we were talking about. The eminent Catholic writer, G.K. Chesterton, once criticized 20^th century thinkers for being interested in everything but everything.  Father Warthling was interested in everything and everything.  His curiosity was infectious. In the world of ideas, Father Warthling was like a kid in a candy shop.  He apparently never lost his youthful curiosity.

Sometime around mid-semester, Father Warthing spent a class or two discussing cosmology.  He was quite perplexed at why some cosmologists could believe that the universe could be forever expanding.  This was a question of theological importance that had sprung up with the dawn of modern physics in the early 20^th century. An ever-expanding universe pointed toward a definite beginning, which is why the big-bang was initially unpalatable among some (but not all) scientists. I took the time to write him a “reaction paper”, showing how this could be physically and mathematically possible.  Several years after in 1983 Father Warthling took a sabbatical to further his study of such things. He is listed as being a senior fellow in the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion, where he studied "Post-Modern Science and Theology." He later related to me that he learned, or attempted to learn a lot of math during his sabbatical.

At the end of the semester we did have a final exam, which seemed quite trivial.  I think we had to write something about Plato and Aristotle. He may have even told us what was on the exam. At the time I figured he gave us an exam just to say he did so, possibly to satisfy some departmental requirement.  In retrospect, I suppose the wise professor knew that something much more important was going on than the mere regurgitation of facts on a written exam.

As a fitting tribute to Father Warthling, below is what I learned in class, and what I learned after his class.

Things I remember learning from Father Warthling:

1) Plato was an idealist, and Aristotle wasn’t.

2) Cosmology and metaphysics are interesting.  Cosmology is an interesting interface between science and everything.

3) David Hume and some of the English faculty at NCCC were “empiricist pigs”.

4) Father Warthling was not a pig.

5) People in Egypt don’t eat peanut butter because it looks like camel dung.

6) Plato wrote an allegory about a man in a cave.

Some (but not all) of the philosophers I read/read about subsequent to Father Warthling’s class:

1) St. Thomas – read G.K. Chesterton’s book instead of wading through the Summa.

2) St. Augustine – Never made it through City of God.  I was more interested in his influence on Martin Luther. An interesting quote: “Nothing is too absurd to have been said by a mathematician.”

3) Blaise Pascal – A devoted Catholic who anonymously wrote The Provincial Letters, which was an attack on abuses in the Church.  I am sure Father Warthling liked Pascal.  An interesting quote: “Nothing is too absurd to have been said by a philosopher.”

4) David Hume – I had to find out more about the empiricist pigs. I concluded that empiricism, and my sophomoric version of logical positivism was more of a mood than a tenable philosophy. Empiricism, if followed to its logical conclusion, collapses into solipsism.  One cannot even prove empirically that one's memory is valid.

5) Carl Sagan – Technically not a philosopher, but many look to him for their complete world view.  Notre Dame philosophy professor, Fr. Ernan McMullen, used to point out the numerous historical mistakes Sagan made. Fr. Stanley Jaki also pointed out numerous mistakes Sagan made.  Carl Sagan wrote history the way he thought it should have happened. 

6) Carl Hempel, Carl Popper and Father Stanley Jaki – Father Jaki makes the case that the realist metaphysics of St. Thomas laid the proper foundation for the birth of modern science several hundred years hence. I read six of his books. Father Jaki had a Ph.D. in physics and a Ph.D. in theology. Science does rest upon metaphysics, logically as well as historically.  Popper deconstructs the notion of a proven scientific theory, but heaves us hanging.  Hempel tries to save science as an autonomous enterprise, but fails.

7) G. K. Chesterton, George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells – Ferocious debaters in the early 20^th century, and good friends off the court. Refreshingly honest.  I still read Chesterton, and watch the G. K. Chesterton show on EWTN.

8) Bertrand Russell – a very vocal skeptic and materialist who was as interesting as dirt.  His skepticism at one time collapsed into solipsism. Most of his later thought seems quite arbitrary.

9) Bertrand Russell and Gottlieb Frege – Analytic philosophers I discovered through foundations of math.  I can’t imagine reading Russell and Whitehead’s Principia Mathematica.

10) C. E. M. Joad – British skeptic who converted to Christianity at age 52.   Joad was very good at simplifying philosophical ideas for the man on the street.  He has some very straight forward ideas on ethics and theism.

11) Moritz Schlick, Adolf Carnap, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Albert Einstein and the Vienna Circle – I learned the most about Einstein by spending about one hour reading ‘Cosmic Religion”, which was a collection of Einstein’s short essays.  I purchased this book at a garage sale I stopped at while riding my bike. Although a nominal Jew, Einstein was accused by his positivist friends of being a Catholic.  Einstein considered himself a meta-physicist, more so than a physicist.

12) C. S. Lewis – Lost one debate in his whole life.  Debated weekly at Oxford with the Socratic club he founded.

13) Alvin Plantinga – He rejects St. Thomas’ foundationalism, and developed what he calls “reformed epistemology.” Plantinga is a Calvinist who teaches at Notre Dame.  He tackled the problem of evil, and other objections to theistic belief.  Plantinga claims that theistic believe is “properly basic” in his work God and Other Minds.

14) Richard Dawkins – I didn’t spend very long before I realized this was a new permutation of an old set of ideas.  He is stuck in the sophomoric, positivist rut I was in at age 20.  He really rehashes a lot of old ideas, packaged in a shiny new book with a lot of science mixed in to give an air of respectability.  I’ll bet he became rich off of his books.  Largely the same shtick as Carl Sagan.

It has been twenty some years since Father Warthling's death at an early age.  Fortunately I had the pleasure of being his colleague for a short time.  On more than one occasion students were overheard walking the halls, or in line in the cafeteria, talking about the latest adventure into the world of Father Warthling.

Here is a link to a repository of old newspapers. There is plenty of information about Father Warthling's plight, but you have to search for it: http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

Part II coming soon.......

Mathematics: Dr. Kenneth "Ben" Raymond and Lawrence Law

Dr. Kenneth Raymond and Lawrence Law formed the initial math department at NCCC, and were also founding members of the faculty in 1963. Together these two put together a comprehensive curriculum that serviced two-year technology students, and also students transferring to a four-year institution.   While these two were hired by Dr. Notar, together professors Raymond and Law influenced the next round of notable hires that included Samuel Richbart, Kenneth Burg, David Brown, Walter Echols, Arthur Hadley and Charles Seeley.

According to professors Law and Raymond, math department meetings in the early days were held in the pool at the YMCA in Niagara Falls.   Both had experience in local industry - Dr. Raymond at Bell Aerospace, and Larry Law at Westinghouse. Dr. Raymond had also taught high school math in the city of Buffalo, and at Erie Tech.   He was let go in the city of Buffalo before he received tenure – a practice that, according to Dr. Raymond, was customary in the 1950’s. It was fortunate for Niagara County that the Buffalo school system was so stingy and short-sighted.

Since 1975 the math department has given an annual award to the top student.  In the early days the award was funded by Niagara Permanent Savings and Loan, and then by Marine Midland Bank. Each year the bank would send a representative to give the award.  Sometime in the 1980's one  particular bank manager introduced himself emphatically as a good friend of "Ben" Raymond. At that point Dr. Raymond was fittingly nicknamed "Ben".

Upon his retirement, Dr. Raymond generously donated money to the NCCC College Foundation to perpetually fund the award. At that time, the math department voted to officially name the award after Dr. Kenneth "Ben" Raymond.  Plaques are kept in the math lab in C-230 with all of the winners dating back to 1975.

Like Dr. Kwitowski, Dr. Raymond had the rare ability to make even the most confusing concepts crystal clear.  He could definitely hold the attention of a whole class for a whole class period.  Former students have noted that although Dr. Raymond never seemed to be in a hurry, he could convey more ideas in the space of 50 minutes than perhaps any other math or science faculty member at NCCC, all the while working in a whole inventory of subtle and cerebral jokes.

An early creation of the department was a two course sequence in algebra and trigonometry that could be covered in one 15-week semester.  The class met for approximately two hours per day, four days per week, and for many years was taught with a Herculean effort, and masterfully by Larry Law.  It was possible to learn almost two years of high school math in 15 weeks.  The course was highly successful in folding non-traditional students into various math/science/technology curricula in a hurry, thus fulfilling the mission of a community college.

By the late 1960’s, with the hiring of the second round of math faculty, the department had already earned the reputation of having exemplary teachers. On more than one occasion, it was noted by college administrators that there was not one member of the math department that was less than excellent.   Countless students, for whom math had been one long period of confusion, were suddenly enlightened with a very clear and consistent exposition of the often angst-filled subject we call mathematics. 

Although the department was uniformly good, they were far from uniform in style. Student’s from that era remember Sam Richbart’s impeccable teaching style, Dave Brown’s high standards and his messy desk,  Art Hadley’s brilliance and sarcastic wit,  Ken Burg’s always entertaining teaching style, and Chuck Seeley’s entertaining stories from his days as an engineer. 

If this early math department could be cloned, there would be little or no math anxiety in the United Sates, and we could easily beat Singapore and Finland on any international exam – and, our children could have enough leisure time to still play little league and take music lessons. 

The math department also played no small part in servicing chemistry and physics.  As these subjects are highly quantitative, long term success in chemistry , physics and engineering is largely conditional upon math comprehension.   For many students, the math department has been the silent partner, giving countless physicists, physical chemists and engineers access to the upper most regions of their chosen profession. 

Chemistry: Stanley Herowski, Dr. Paul Kwitowski, Theodore Georgian and Donald House

The showcase department in the early years at Niagara County Community College was, in the eyes of many, chemistry.  Early members who had long careers were the late Stanley Herowski, who was the second hire in 1963,  Dr. Paul Kwitowski, the late Theodore Georgian and Donald House. They were later joined by Dr. Angela Parker and Carolyn Schmahl. That NCCC would have a robust chemistry program was no surprise, as the chemical industry in Niagara Falls exploded along with the development of hydroelectric power.  Finding a chemistry job in Niagara Falls was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Central to chemistry was a two-year applied program called “Science Lab Tech”.  Students who completed the program were instantly employable at local companies such as Hooker and Olin, and often commanded wages comparable to engineers with a four-year degree.  Strong ties were also maintained by Ted Georgian with Kodak and Zerox in Rochester, and a steady stream of students migrated to Rochester, New York.  Students were often encouraged to stay at NCCC for a total of three years to take additional coursework in calculus, physics and chemistry.  This additional preparation enabled students to continue their education in chemistry at such institutions as R.I.T., University of Rochester or SUNY at Buffalo - usually at their employer’s expense.

Stanley Herowski

This pipeline produced a multitude of professional chemists, and a fair number of Ph.D.’s. – many of whom graduated with little or no college debt. It was a well established fact that many of these students stood head-and-shoulders above their peers when they transferred to another institution.  NCCC chemistry graduates had more practical lab experience than their peers and, because of the intensely close interaction with their professors, had a very firm theoretical foundation. This rare combination of theory and practice propelled numerous students past such impenetrable barriers as advanced organic and physical chemistry, and well into the upper regions of their chosen profession.

In form, the chemistry program at NCCC was the epitome of community college education.  Professor Georgian developed a course called “Introduction to Physical Science”, and Dr. Kwitowski developed “Introduction to Scientific Data”.  The materials for these courses were entirely developed by professors Georgian and Kwitowski.  This pair of courses was highly effective in taking students who didn’t know a kilogram from a milliliter, and quickly giving them meaningful access to college level science. Such was the case with the long line of single moms, displaced workers, and first generation college students that made their way through these courses into long and prosperous scientific careers.  For these students, Niagara County Community College became their social capital in a very deep and meaningful way.

Beyond their normal responsibilities, both Donald House and Ted Georgian put a lot of themselves into the Science Lab Tech program. They would often be seen at NCCC on Saturdays bringing in supplies for their ongoing candy sales, whereby they raised funds to support poor college students.  They were known to buy outfits for job interviews for students who could not afford such luxuries, in addition to other forms of support that always went unrecorded.

Ted Georgian also served as an adviser to the Science Professionals Club.  Food was served during college hour, and large crowds turned out to hear distinguished speakers from area colleges and universities, professionals from industry, and alumni who returned to speak about their careers.

One such distinguished speaker was Dr. Irving Shames, who was a world-renowned mechanical engineering professor from SUNY Buffalo. Dr. Shames visited NCCC numerous times, and always spoke highly of our graduates.  On more than one occasion he emphatically commended our science faculty, and maintained that our students were always better prepared than those who transferred from other community colleges. He also took the initiative to write a letter to our trustees, citing the exemplary science program at NCCC. Dr. Shames was one of the rare professors who was a renowned researcher, and also a respected teacher. He maintained close ties with Ted Georgian and also with Lalitha Dorai, who was Meredith Kellogg's replacement in physics.  

Donald House also had an exemplary teaching career, winning the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and then the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. He also maintained ties with local industry, often acquiring free, used chemistry equipment. Such resourcefulness was necessary to run a costly, equipment-intensive program, along side of other programs that consisted largely of loading students into a lecture hall, and with equipment budgets that consisted of chalk, paper and Scantron answer sheets.  Declining support from both SUNY and Niagara County had made such efforts a necessity, and without professor House’s efforts, the program most likely would not have survived for so long.

Donald House

Among graduates, professor Georgian had a reputation as a great organic chemistry teacher.  He was simultaneously feared by freshman, and respected by graduates who had navigated their way through additional chemistry coursework at a university.  Whereas professor Kellogg had developed a rigorous physics curriculum, professor Georgian had much the same reputation in organic chemistry. The highly conceptual nature of organic chemistry demands that it be taught at a high level, and former students attest that professor Georgian did a masterful job.  Former students have also noted that organic labs routinely went way beyond the allotted three hour time, sometimes extending to more than six hours.

The chemistry program at NCCC also had a much broader scope than the development of laboratory skills. Being that organic chemistry is a gateway course for upward mobility in most health professions, the chemistry department at NCCC served as a breeding ground for pharmacists, medical doctors, chiropractors and public health officials.  Some students were admitted to chiropractic and pharmacy schools directly from NCCC.  Graduates from that era generally did very well on the PCAT, MCAT and other competitive professional exams.  The number of chemistry professors, medical doctors, chiropractors and pharmacists that came out of that relatively small program is staggering.  

On the inorganic side of things, Dr. Kwitowski was the master. Whereas professor Kellogg meticulously graded physics problem sets, Dr. Kwitowski was not to be outdone in chemistry. He developed his own series of notes and problem sets for every chapter of every text that he taught out of, and also developed lab workbooks/manuals for every inorganic lab at NCCC.  Students could expect to work hard in any class offered by Dr. Kwitowski, but all of the work paid off.  Professor Kellogg definitely had a protestant work ethic, himself being a lifelong Free Methodist of great conviction, and Dr. Kwitowski often remarked jokingly that he was driven by “Catholic guilt.”   Whatever the motivation of these fine professors, this strong level of interaction and feedback, in addition to old-school pedagogy, was most definitely what propelled a vast number of students from this small college to earn professional degrees and advanced degrees in the hard sciences.

Dr. Kwitowski also had an exceptional ability, rarely found in science professors. When he was at the top of his game, it was possible to listen to Dr. Kwitowski for 50 minutes, and to remember all 50 minutes of his lecture.   Dr. Kwitowski had, no doubt,  spent many thousands of hours, and many years contemplating how best to teach chemistry.  He could always be found working on yet another project – which could be anything from spherical coordinates and quantum mechanics, to some application of Newtonian mechanics to basic chemistry  -  and the project was always something of significance for his curriculum. Dr. Kwitowski did research, of sorts, but it was always directed toward improving his delivery.  He was, through and through, a community college professor.

Here are a few of our notable graduates that come to mind:.

Dr. Darrell Clinton is a Chemistry Professor at Oakland City University
Dr. Julie Rehm. Assiciate Vice President of Strategic Relations, Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Peter Maziarz, is Senior Research Scientist at Bausch & Lomb
Dr. Christopher Bene is a pediatrician
Dr. Jeffery Cianchetti is a chiropractor
Dr. David Pacana is a chiropractor

Dr. Gerard Makin is an administrator at Clarence High School

Dr. Arthur Downie is a chiropractor

Dr. Al Muto is a pharmacist and owner of Pine Pharmacy

Dr. Mark Delmonte is a chiropractor

Dr. Keith Lellick is a chiropractor

Dr. Kefin Farrel is a dentist

Dr. Lisa Forgione is a medical doctor

Dr. Doug Monteleone is a chiropractor

Dr. Jason Woods is a doctor of chemistry

Dr. Andrew House is a pharmacist

Dr. Sal Passanese was the division chair if life sciences at NCCC (deceased)

Dr. Paul Churder is a dentist

Dr. Dale Thress is a pharmacist

Dr. Delores Metro is a pharmacist

Dr. Neil Canterbury is a doctor of chemistry

Some favorite sayings of chemistry faculty from that era:

Dr. Kwitowski: "That went over like an iridium balloon."
                          "Yet another example of Administrators-Gone-Wild."
                           "Management Sucks" (from one of his t-shirts).

Don House: "That went over over like a fart in church."

Ted Georgian: When asked "What's new?", Ted would always reply, "E over h."

Stan Herowski: "Everyone is born with a fixed amount of energy.  When you use it up, you die."

Student: "Where will I ever use this?"
Herowski: "Don't worry, you won't need this.  You aren't bright enough to use it."

Number of full-time chemistry faculty in the 1990's: 5
Number of full-time chemistry faculty now: 1
Estimated number of weekends Dr. Kwitowski spent grading problem sets: 1200
Number of chemistry faculty who received emeritus status: 0

Last time the chemistry labs were renovated: when built in 1973

Number of times a STEM building proposal was turned down: 2

Physics: Meredith W. Kellogg

Meredith W. Kellogg (1921-2012) was the first physics professor at Niagara County Community College, and also a founding member of the faculty in 1963.   He was recruited by Dr. Ernest Notar, the first president of NCCC, to create the physics department in downtown Niagara Falls.  He was later joined by Richard Panek, who served a supporting role in teaching a physics sequence for life science and non-science majors.

Professor Kellogg remained as the main-stay in physics until his retirement in the spring of 1985.  He was a quiet, introverted man, but his actions had a profound impact on a steady parade of young technical minds who studied physics at NCCC.

Diminutive in stature, professor Kellogg played the part of an eccentric professor very well.  He frequently rode his bicycle to school, even in the harshest weather.  He would often be seen in the dead of winter pushing his bicycle down the hall, frantically brushing snow off of his coat on the way to his lab in C-121 – most likely hurrying to attend to some tremendous trifle. The professor had been seen wearing several different helmets, all hand-made.  One was made of plywood and plexiglass, and another was fashioned out of a paper bag.  We were all convinced that this was part of some grand experiment that only he knew and cared about.

As any of his students would attest, the store room adjacent to the physics lab was kept very well organized. During a typical three hour plus physics lab, professor Kellogg would alternately circulate in the lab to help students, and through the store room to straighten things out, label, sort, take inventory, and so on.  As any perfectionist would know, professor Kellogg’s work was never done.

History has looked favorably upon Professor Kellogg’s labor, as numerous students of his have been very successful.  NCCC alumni in the hard sciences from that era always point to Professor Kellogg’s calculus based physics course as a seminal event in their life. Now, decades later, we still reminisce about that year-long struggle.  Whenever a chance meeting occurs, the conversation almost immediately turns to physics class with professor Kellogg. At times it was a love-hate relationship, but the work was productive.  Sunday afternoon and evening was always reserved for physics, and sometimes Monday through Saturday were as well.

Although we worked hard, professor Kellogg worked even harder – so much so that early on in his career, he lost a lung due to an infection brought on by being over-worked.  Professor Kellogg’s tireless effort, of course, paid huge dividends to us students.  He meticulously graded weekly problem sets, always offering exhaustive commentary, and thus paving the way for each of us to dig deeply into the unforgiving subject of the most mature science called Newtonian physics.  In retrospect, this back-and-forth dialogue in a small class setting was, hands down, far superior to any freshman education offered at any large university.  In the world of higher education, greatness can often be found in small packages.

Beyond the classroom professor Kellogg served as a local mentor to a whole generation of scientists and engineers.  Former students often stopped in to say hello, and were quite proud to keep the great professor aware of their accomplishments. Perhaps unknowingly, professor Kellogg had created a continuous pipeline of students at various stages of their careers, who in turn formed a loosely-knit learning community. The physics education earned in the tiny town of Sanborn, New York was arguably second to none.   Professor Kellogg was a one man show, and he had, almost single handedly, put together an exemplary program.

Among my small number of close acquaintances from the mid to late 1970’s, we had a physicist who became a real rocket scientist, a high school science teacher who was recognized for his work by the National Science Foundation, a medical doctor, a multitude of engineers who have designed everything from hydraulic equipment to power tools, and myself, who returned to my roots to become a math professor at NCCC.

In the few short months between high school and college, many of us traded in our dirt bikes for a set of textbooks, and discovered this portal to the amazing worlds of both Newton and Wittgenstein that sat on the outskirts of our town. We were quite average in high school, but somehow found our way as part of this great social experiment called the community college.  For us this portal was the great Meredith Kellogg and his colleagues, and nothing more. 

Introduction

In 1809 a man named Jairus Rose purchased three square miles of property from the Holland Land company.  Jairus' land included the present NCCC property, as well as the village of Sanborn and some surrounding areas. A surveyor by trade, Jairus accumulated today's equivalent of a quarter of a million dollars by surveying much of the Genesee Valley.  Mr. Rose parlayed his wealth by starting the apple industry in Niagara County.  He sold saplings for 12 cents each, and a century later Niagara County was the leading apple producer in the country.

By 1900 the Rose property passed into the hands of the Wendt family, who continued farming and improved the property by drilling natural gas wells.  For half a century the NCCC property provided light and heat to the village of Sanborn and surrounding areas. Once a month Mr. Wendt would knock on the door, and a small fee was paid for monthly use of their gas.  In the 1950's the fee was $1.50 per month, so I have been told.

In the late 60's Niagara County purchased, through eminent domain, the present property from the Wendt family. Gas wells were capped, and the property that had served as a source of wealth for 150 years was repurposed. Mr. Wendt moved to Lockport, relocating his farm to the Comstock Road. What was to come would overshadow all that had come before.

By current estimates, thousands of STEM professionals produced by NCCC populated the fabric of the economic landscape of WNY. Doctor, pharmacist, chiropractor, engineer, professor, dentist, mechanical designer, actuary, systems analyst, data scientist and research scientist are but a few of the titles that our STEM grads go by.  By many measures NCCC had the top 2-year chemistry program in New York, and various tech programs distinguished themselves among area industrialists as top shelf, and far and away the best in the region.  We were judged by the best to be the best, over and over again.

This was no accident, as various STEM programs were all set in motion intentionally by the great Ernest Notar. The individuals he hired have had a profound impact that continues today, some 55 years later.

This blog is a repository of oral history about some of those great individuals. Along the way we may have had some difficulty, and perhaps were even left for dead, but like Jairus' daughter in the Gospels we will rise again, stronger than ever.

It is fitting that I write this ongoing blog, since Jairus was my great great great great grandfather. He was a hardy soul, as he was taken prisoner during the war of 1812 and forced to run naked from Sanborn to Lewiston, where he was ferried across the Niagara River. Some of his Native American friends aided the removal of his family to Canandaigua. No doubt he lost much during the war, but he did rebuild, and prospered once again. So shall we. We are no less durable. We are the faculty of Niagara County Community College.