The topic is “Ramapo College and Mahwah: 50 Years Together.”

Join William F. Dator, Chair of the Ramapo College Board of Trustees, Thomas W. Dunn, member of Ramapo College Foundation Board of Governors, and Edward Saiff, Dean of the School of Theoretical and Applied Science and 50^th Anniversary Task Force Co-Chair, for this conversational program, “Ramapo College and Mahwah: 50 Years Together.”  In March 1970, Mahwah was selected as the site for Ramapo College.  Hear our panelists share their stories about this special fifty-year relationship between the community and the College. Audience participation is highly encouraged in this program.

William F. Dator, although born in India while his parents were assigned there, is a sixth generation member of a family whose patriarch was born in 1755 and married in Suffern in 1787.  A graduate of the then-new Mahwah High School in 1961, he soon married Linda O’Lear, also a lifetime resident of Mahwah.  Both Bill and Linda have been active members of the Mahwah community.  Bill has been a member and Battalion Chief of Company #1 of the Mahwah Fire Department and Ambulance Corps, chair of the Mahwah Charter Study Commission, chair of the Bicentennial Committee, president of the Chamber of Commerce, a founder of the Mahwah Museum, and a member and chair of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority.  A realtor by profession, Bill and his father represented the Birch Estate in the sale of the land to Ramapo.  Bill was a founding member of the Friends of Ramapo and is currently the Chair of the Ramapo College Board of Trustees.  He is currently associated with Christie’s International Real Estate’s Mahwah Office.

Thomas W. Dunn is an attorney and retired counsel with Beattie Padovano, LLC.  He is a lifelong resident of Bergen County and has lived in Mahwah since 1968.  He was one of a group of Mahwah residents that encouraged Ramapo to come to Mahwah in 1970.  In 1992, the Board of Higher Education appointed him to the Board of Trustees of Ramapo College.  By the end of his second term in 2004, he had served three years as Chair of the Board.  Although holding a civil engineering degree from Princeton University and a law degree from Columbia, he is an amateur historian.  At Columbia, he was an associate editor of Volume 3 of the “Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton.”  He was the attorney for the Mahwah Planning Board when the College was first under development.  He has served as a member and president of the Mahwah Board of Education, the Mahwah Chamber of Commerce, the Mahwah Historical Society and the Mahwah Museum.  He is also a member of the Bergen Highlands/Ramsey Rotary Club and is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the Ramapo College Foundation.

Edward Saiff came to Mahwah to live when he became assistant professor of biology in the second year of the College.  He is currently dean of the School of Theoretical and Applied Science, and has taught and mentored students, providing leadership in the College community throughout his career.  He served four terms as president of the Faculty Assembly.  He has been a member and president of the Mahwah Board of Education, the Mahwah Environmental Commission, and the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference.  He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Linnean Society of London, and the American Society of Ornithologists.  He is the author of 48 academic papers and has presented his research at conferences in the United States, Europe and Russia.  He is the recipient of awards from Ramapo College for Outstanding Contributions to the Extracurriculum and for Contributions to the College Judicial System.  He served three terms as president of Temple Beth Haverim Shir Shalom in Mahwah.  He is an Eagle Scout and served as Scoutmaster of Troop 50 in Mahwah.