By Stefan Yablonski
SUNY Oswego has received a gift of $2 million from Frank L. Maraviglia, an alumnus from the class of 1958. Maraviglia’s gift is in recognition of the education he earned at the university that helped him lead a fulfilling life as an educator.
The gift advances the university’s Vision 4040, a bold initiative launched this year by President Peter O. Nwosu to increase upward mobility and strengthen regional economic development in Central New York by doubling the number of graduates from the university to 40,000 per decade by the year 2040.
The gift establishes the Maraviglia Education Enrichment Fund in the university’s School of Education, which will support scholarship and engagement opportunities for students as well as innovative academic programming from the faculty.
In recognition of the gift, the School of Education’s main entrance between Wilber and Park halls will be named the Maraviglia Atrium. The SUNY Board of Trustees approved the naming at its full board meeting on Dec. 5.
Maraviglia of Jamesville is a 1984 recipient of the Oswego Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. An industrial arts graduate from 1958, he began his career as a high school teacher on Long Island, earning accolades and recognitions early on, including the Graphic Arts Teacher Summer Scholarship Award, one of only 13 teachers in the U.S. selected by the International Graphic Arts Education Association to receive the award in the early 1960s. He was selected in 1963 to attend the first International Congress on Printing Education in Montreal, Canada. He also earned a master’s degree from Hofstra University in 1963 and additional degrees from Syracuse University and SUNY Buffalo.
From 1964 to 1999, Maraviglia served as a professor of landscape architecture at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. A co-founder of the consulting firm Creativity Unlimited, he advised numerous global companies, such as IBM, AT&T, General Electric and Carrier Corp., on employing creative problem-solving to advance their businesses. He was honored by being named a Colleague of the Creative Education Foundation in Buffalo. He received the New York State United University Professionals Excellence Award in 1991. He retired from his teaching career as a professor emeritus from SUNY ESF in 1999.
He and his wife, the late Gloria Jean (Procopio), were married for 62 years. His brother, Raymond, is a 1961 graduate of SUNY Oswego, as are several members of his wife’s family.
