LL Spring05.indd - Lehman College

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • DEVELOPMENT • • • • • • • • • • • NEWS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Generosity of Candido Maldonado ‘79 Honors Professor Dauben
And Supports Lehman History Students
Candido Maldonado ‘79 was a first-generation
American, whose parents were newly
arrived from Puerto Rico. First he learned to
speak English through television and then he
learned about responsibility, when he would
come home after school to care for his mother,
who was ill.
Enlisting in the Marine Corps, where he
played saxophone in its military band, he later
enrolled in Lehman College. At Lehman, he
met a member of the history faculty—Professor
Joseph Dauben, who encouraged his studies
and inspired his lifelong love of learning.
As Maldonado spent his career in the New
York City Transit System, guiding commuters
on their way, he spent much of his free time in
libraries, reading and learning about other cultures
and their history, and also accumulating
his own extensive personal collection of books.
When he died in 1999, Candido Maldonado—a
generous man with an enormous heart,
even though his income was modest—left
major gifts in his will to the Eastern Paralyzed
Veterans Association and to Lehman College.
At Lehman, as he intended, the gift will
fund a “scholarship for a student majoring in
history...in honor of Distinguished Professor
Joseph Dauben, without whose encouragement
I would not have graduated.” It is the largest
alumni gift the College has ever received.
Speaking at a luncheon honoring this legacy,
Lehman President Ricardo R. Fernández noted
that “Candido must have been a hard-working
student because otherwise he would not have
made it through Professor Dauben’s class.” He
told Mrs. Maldonado that he hopes she “will
find great joy in knowing that your husband’s
bequest will help students for as long as
Lehman exists.”
In recalling her husband’s impact both
on herself and on others around him, Mrs.
Maldonado compared his life to a pebble that
is thrown into a perfectly still lake and causes
many ripples.
“He had such a big heart and an inquisitive
mind that he was like a teacher to me, encouraging
me to pursue my interest in yoga to the
point where I, too, became a teacher.
“Bless you for seeing in Candido what I saw
in him.”
Representing the History Department,
Professor Duane Tananbaum, the department
chair, said that Maldonado was typical of the
Lehman student in that he “had very realistic
Ervin Goodson ‘03 (standing) with Professor Dauben
and Mrs. Candido Maldonado at a luncheon honoring
her husband’s memory and his gift to Lehman College,
the largest contribution from an alumnus in the
College’s history.
dreams and achieved many of them.” Introducing
Ervin Goodson, a recent student of Professor
Dauben’s, Professor Tananbaum noted that
Goodson had played saxophone at various
subway stops to earn the money he needed for
tuition.
“With this scholarship,” Professor Tananbaum
said, “a student will be able to work ten
hours a week perhaps, rather than 20, 30 or 40
hours, and that will enable them to get A’s so
they can go on to graduate school.”
He noted also that Professor Dauben had
chosen to become involved as a teacher of
“writing-intensive” courses, even though he
was not required, as a senior professor, to take
on this additional commitment to the students.
Thinking back to one of those courses—one
of his last history courses before graduation—
Goodson recalled that Professor Dauben’s criticism
was always constructive and helpful.
“Candido Maldonado’s gift is going to
honor a wonderful person,” he said, “who is
always very cordial and kind, as well as an eminent
and formidable scholar. I thank Professor
Dauben for being such a great teacher of such
high academic integrity and for sharing his
knowledge with us.”
Remembering Maldonado’s days as a student,
Professor Dauben praised him for “not
being afraid to come and ask questions. That
set him apart.
“Teaching at Lehman is a privilege for me,”
he said, explaining that at other colleges where
he has taught, “There’s no question what will
happen to the students. Their paths are set.”
At Lehman, though, he noted, the students
are not aware of these opportunities so teachers
can make more of an impact. ◆
Scholarship Benefit May 10 to Honor Professor Corigliano
Distinguished members of the academic and music communities are planning
a gala benefit to honor Distinguished Professor of Music John Corigliano and
establish the Corigliano Music Scholarships at Lehman College. The event
will be held on Tuesday, May 10, from 6 to 9 pm in the Stanley H. Kaplan
Penthouse at Lincoln Center.
Professor Corigliano is renowned as one of the world’s leading composers. In
orchestral, chamber, opera and film work, he has won critical acclaim for his
highly expressive and compelling works. In 2000, he received an Academy
Award for his original score of “The Red Violin” and in 2001, he was awarded
a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 2. He received the coveted Grawemeyer
Award for Music Composition for his Symphony No. 1 in 1991.
His latest work, “Circus Maximus” (Symphony No. 3 for large wind ensemble), made its New York
premiere—to thunderous applause—at Carnegie Hall this February. Performed by the University of Texas
Wind Ensemble, the work is the first that Professor Corigliano has specifically written for concert band.
Commissioned by the Ensemble’s director, it is scored for large wind ensemble onstage, along with an
ensemble that surrounds the audience. The title stems from the visual image of musicians encircling the
audience, placing spectators in the center of an ancient Rome-like arena. Indeed, Circus Maximus was a real
place in ancient Rome—the largest arena in the world. For his theme, the composer drew parallels between
the high decadence of those Roman days and certain forms of today’s entertainment. ◆
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