THELAKER | 23 George Fraley, center, at the 2010 dedication of Fraley Lane on the main campus with his caretaker Rebecca Liu and friend Patrick Dormer ’97, a graduate of the natural resources conservation law enforcement program. George K. Fraley, who donated his home to FLCC as the East Hill Campus, passed away on Sept. 19, 2022, at age 97. In 2010, George made a life estate and estate plan gi that included a 30.5-acre property at 6486 East Hill Road in Naples, featuring a main house, large garage, woodlands, campsite, a pond, and cross country skiing and hiking trails. e property was renamed the East Hill Campus and is used for camping and conservation classes. He also donated an endowed fund for annual scholarships for students studying conservation and a charitable trust to support maintenance, development and expansion of the East Hill Campus. Born Nov. 26, 1924, in Rochester, he attended a prep school in Lake Placid then returned to Rochester to study at the Rochester Institute of Technology, graduating in 1945 with a degree in electrical engineering. George was employed for 50 years at the University of Rochester, where he worked in the Institute of Optics and on a wide range of classi ed projects for the Naval Research Laboratory. His interest in wildland re suppression began in his teens during a summer job maintaining trails in the Adirondacks for the state Department of Environmental Conservation. A wild re broke out, and George was among those recruited to battle the blaze. He became a volunteer re ghter in 1945 and continued to study conservation and wildland re suppression. He was among the many volunteers who took part in battling a massive forest re that scorched more than 17,000 acres in Acadia National Park and the region around Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1947. Unable to buy re trucks suited for wild res, he retro tted and equipped three vehicles, two Ford trucks and a Jeep, for his own use and that of local re departments. He was appointed a volunteer re warden for the state DEC in 1946 and continued to serve until very late in life. His expertise has been invaluable in ghting brush and forest res in the region, including a large re in Ingleside, south of Naples, in 1960. Early in his career, George, his wife, Jane, and daughter, Kimberly, lived in Mendon. George’s 25-acre property, as the second-highest plain in Monroe County, also served as a test site for the Naval Research Laboratory and housed a laboratory and telescope. George was a longtime volunteer at the 6,100-acre High Tor State Wildlife Management Area in Ontario and Yates counties. In 2002, the state DEC dedicated a new sign at the High Tor entrance on Bassett Road in the town of Italy to George, who was known as the “mother hen of High Tor.” George donated more than $50,000 for scholarships in the years leading up to his major gi , and in 2003, the Foundation honored him with the Foundation Benefactor Award. A er the announcement of his 2010 donation, George continued to live on the property, along with his caretaker, Rebecca Liu. Brian Bell, who created a scholarship at FLCC in honor of his high school football coach, passed away Aug. 14, 2022, at age 87. Brian was born in 1935 in Warsaw, Wyoming County, and grew up in Geneva. He played football and basketball at Geneva High School, then headed to Hamilton College in 1953 where, a er a two-year stint in the Army, he graduated in 1960. Brian taught history for 30 years at Pittsford Sutherland High School. In his retirement, Brian continued to teach at FLCC for another 22 years, both in person and online. “Brian was a life-long educator who consistently advocated on behalf of his students. From his time as a high school teacher in Pittsford to his time as an FLCC adjunct instructor, Brian loved both history and his students,” noted Ryan McCabe, associate vice president of academic technology and high impact practices. “A mainstay at the Geneva Campus Center for much of his time at FLCC, in his 70s he embraced online education and the challenge it brought him to deliver meaningful, seminar style education in a new modality.” Brian and his Geneva High School football teammates created the Ed and Gerry Cuony Scholarship in honor of their coach, Dr. Ed “Butch” Cuony in 2004. Brian later gave the eulogy at Ed Cuony’s funeral in 2010. e endowed Cuony scholarship supports students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and FLCC.
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