Rochester Review :: University of Rochester

Class Notes

TRIBUTEAlan Carmasin ’67: ‘Love and Passion for the University’

CLASS LEADER: After graduation, Carmasin was active as a volun-teer class representative before joining the Alumni Relations staff. (Photo: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

Alan Carmasin ’67 remained dedicated to the University long after he graduated. He served as a volunteer representative of his class, worked in Advancement for 17 years, and was cochair of his class’s 50th reunion committee.

“Alan Carmasin was absolutely one of a kind in his love and passion for the University,” said Tom Farrell ’88, ’90W (MS), senior vice president for University Advancement. “He knew the place, promoted it with everyone he met, and was one of the greatest advocates for the institution I have ever met.”

Carmasin, who died last August, was well-known for his efforts to stay in touch with alumni, asking them to join him at Meliora Weekend, get together in New York City, or meet with classmates elsewhere to stay connected with each other and the institution. He regularly sent old Campus Times articles to classmates who had written them. In 1987, he hosted a 20-year reunion for Phi Epsilon Pi members at the inn he owned in Killington, Vermont, when he was disappointed at the turnout for other events.

“That personal touch was typical of him,” Ronald Nurnberg ’67 wrote in a letter to the University. “He worked diligently to make sure all of us in the class stayed connected.”

“Alan personified the best of Meliora,” said Jane Zimelis Cohen ’67, a vice chair of the National Alumni Board. “He was always the first to contact a classmate who had lost touch with UR.”

The Yonkers native received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Rochester, where he broadcast basketball games on WRUR. He earned a master’s degree in counseling at the University of Buffalo, and worked for six years as a special education teacher and administrator in New York City. He later bought an inn and restaurant in Vermont, then became a property manager in New Hampshire.

He returned to the University in 1999—“an opportunity I couldn’t resist,” he once said—and served as a reunion coordinator and senior associate director in Alumni Relations before retiring in 2016. His passions included hiking, skiing, tennis, swimming, biking, and the performing arts.

“Alan was a special person,” Farrell said. “We miss him very much.”

Editor’s note: several classmates have worked with Carmasin’s family to commission a work of art in his memory that will be installed in the Sloan Performing Arts Center, when it opens in 2020. Those interested in making gifts in his memory may do so at Rochester.edu/giving/alancarmasin.