The College now has 63,111 alumni living and working in all 50 U.S. states and in several countries, according the office of Development and Alumni Affairs.
It will be the job of John Marcy, the College's new vice president for the office of Development and Alumni Affairs, to keep as many as he can in touch with life at the College. In his new role, Marcy will help to spearhead efforts to solicit gifts from alumni, friends, corporations and foundations.
According to College President R. Barbara Gitenstein, the office of Development and Alumni Affairs is responsible for keeping the College's supporters and alumni "informed and actively engaged in the campus and its current life."
While Marcy is charged with keeping alumni up-to-date on new programs, faculty activities, lectures and reunions, he sees his larger mission as bolstering emotional ties that former students have with the College, and turning that into support.
"The term 'alma mater' literally translated means fostering mother,' Marcy said. "There should be some sense of obligation, depending on the individual experience, that alumni accept for the well-being of their school in acknowledgment of that."
Marcy will work on creating effective teams in the offices under his direct supervision and encouraging greater involvement and more contributions from the College's supporters.
"I intend to work closely with the president, her staff, the deans and the faculty," Marcy said. "This will continue to be a collaborative effort."
Serving as a member of the president's cabinet will give Marcy the opportunity to be involved in determining how additional funds raised would best benefit the school.
With more than 30 years of experience in the development field, Marcy comes to the College from the University of Maryland Medical System, where he served as vice president for development.
Marcy directed several major fund-raising campaigns there, one which netted $24 million. But he's proudest of a much smaller amount raised for Chestnut Hill Academy over 20 years ago. Marcy says his efforts helped set the formerly troubled school "on a tremendously successful course that still reverberates today."
Marcy holds a master's of business administration degree from Temple University and is a certified fund-raising executive of the Association of Fund Raising.
