24 | theLAKER In Memoriam John E. Hume Jr. ’77, a past recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award, passed away on Jan. 23, 2025, at age 79. He graduated with an associate degree in liberal arts and social science from Community College of the Finger Lakes, as FLCC was known at the time. John lived in Florida and is survived by his wife, Anne, and a stepdaughter, Kimberly. He earned a bachelor's degree in education from Buffalo State University and two master’s degrees from Nova University. John taught in public schools and at Flagler College in Florida. The 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award recognized his work as an elementary school teacher in St. Augustine, Fla. He was twice named teacher of the year at Crookshank Elementary School, and he illustrated a book, “My Florida Alphabet,” which was adopted by public schools statewide. His work was featured in the 2017 Biennial Alumni Exhibit at the Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 at the main campus. After retirement, he continued to work as a freelance artist, illustrating educational and employment materials and children’s publications. This included a series of 10 children’s ebooks called “Sweetheart Tales.” The star of the series is a cat named Sweetheart, modeled after his own real-life pet by the same name. The themes of the books included sportsmanship, inclusion, and bullying. Also greatly missed Mary Burris ’75 on Dec. 25, 2024 Dawn E. Gillotti ’95 on Dec. 21, 2024 Daniel B. Ganoung Sr. on Nov. 1, 2024 Nancy A. Smith ’99 on Oct. 26, 2024 Nicholas Peter Radford ’14 on Oct. 23, 2024 Jacob Daniel Hainey ’06 on Sept. 2, 2024 Kathleen S. “Kathy” Schwartz ’03 on Sept. 23, 2024 Randall Edward Overhiser ’91 on Aug. 9, 2024 The late John Hume ’77 exhibited drawings from his “Sweetheart Tales”children’s series in the Williams-Insalaco Gallery 34 in 2017. Jacob Skinkle ’20 (Music Recording Technology) has been gaining recognition for his music since 2020 with more than 850 million streams and video views online across all platforms. He reached 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify with one of his songs, “Two Face,” which has also reached No. 1 on alternative charts in a few countries. He has been signed by Cloudkid, an independent German record label, and one of his songs was used in a Hulu show called “The Cleaning Lady.” This year, he plans a debut album and his first fantasy novel. He and his wife, Loraleah, have two dogs, Marley and Drago. Elizabeth Lipker ’20 (Human Services) recently graduated with her master's degree in social work. She has ambitions to be a mental health counselor with a specialization in childhood trauma. Matthew Brooks ’21 (Biotechnology) joined two current students and Professor James Hewlett to present research on the cultivation of mushroom fibers in February at the Lockheed Martin Global Vision Center in Arlington, Va. Halle Burgess ’22 (Psychology) graduated from Merrimack College in May with a degree in social work. Sahar “Sarah” Brooks ’23 (Nursing) received the UR Medicine Thompson Health DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses in October. She was nominated by a patient’s family member who wrote: “She made my family comfortable, interacted with us, and spoke to us like regular people and not in medical words we can’t understand.” Shena Bright ’24 (Business Administration), the director of the Sonnenberg Mansion Mysteries production, enlisted help from student musicians to support the shows, which are fundraisers for restoration work at Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park. Martin Lustick performed on banjo and Elder Dimpfl on piano. Alexander Grillo ’24 (Fish and Wildlife) is now a forestry instructor for the Geneva 2030 Students Outside all Summer program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Carlos Javier Mattei Ramos ’24 (Business Administration) works as a financial literacy educator with individuals, small business, and non-profit organizations. Carlos also has five children to keep him busy.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTcyNDA=