Memorial to a caretaker

02/06/2024 

More than a caretaker.

That’s how alumni, faculty, staff and friends recall the late Michael F. Stoll, Jr., whose dedicated work on the Lynne Parks ’68 SUNY Cortland Alumni House helped place the spectacular mansion at the center of alumni and university life.

“For those of us lucky enough to have met and worked with Mike, we know his love for the house was only surpassed by his love for the alumni, colleagues, guests and students he interacted with,” said Erin Boylan, executive director of the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association.

Stoll passed away Aug. 17, 2021, at age 56 following a long illness. He had retired in 2016 as the Parks Alumni House caretaker, having served the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association for almost 12 years and the previous owner, Charles Gibson, for more than seven years. A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Stoll had also volunteered with the Cortland Fire Department.

Recently, Boylan spearheaded a fund drive among the board’s Parks Alumni House Committee, the alumni association’s Cortland chapter and other admirers of the late caretaker to place an engraved granite bench in the garden as a tribute to Stoll.

Today the bench sits beside the Roberta Drake Rist ’46, M ’47 Fountain to honor Stoll’s working friendship with the late Arnold Rist ’47, another long-time alumni board member and volunteer.

Additionally, a plaque, titled “More Than a Caretaker” and detailing Stoll’s contributions, will be placed in the Board of Director’s Solarium.

A formal unveiling ceremony for the bench and plaque will be held during Alumni Reunion 2024, which will run July 11 to 14.

That’s fitting, as the longtime alumni association employee never once missed working Reunion, although his birthday, July 16, usually fell during this four-day, nearly non-stop event.

As the focal point for SUNY Cortland’s alumni program, the Parks Alumni House at 29 Tompkins Street has hosted countless alumni and university gatherings, served as a venue for student programs, housed dignitaries from around the world and provided an elegant setting for weddings, special family recognitions, retirement parties and anniversary celebrations. The mansion currently houses the Alumni Engagement office.

“He took such pride in all that he did,” Boylan said. “He always found a way to weave alumni stories into his work, whether it was selecting sorority-colored flowers for their respective garden sections or placing out memorabilia of a visiting group. You would often find him gardening at sunrise or breaking down tables at 9 p.m., with faithful dog, Midnight, always at his side.”

“He devoted his life to the preservation of the Parks Alumni House,” recalled Rich Coyne ’07, M.S., vice president for institutional advancement and executive director of the Cortland College Foundation, Inc., who served as the Parks Alumni House general manager from early 2010 to mid-2014. “In addition, Mike cared for people, and what brought him the most joy was seeing guests bask in the beauty of the historic home.”

Like an artist, Mike took great pride in how the mansion was presented, Coyne said.

“From his delicate care of the alumni gardens and its manicured lawns to his oversight of the restoration that occurred inside the century-old facility, Mike was a ‘doer,’” Coyne said. “You knew that when Mike was involved in a project, it would get done with a high standard.”

“He loved his work, and he loved the many alumni and friends served by this beautiful facility,” said Douglas DeRancy ’75, M.S.Ed. ’86, director of alumni affairs and assistant to the vice president for institutional advancement emeritus.

DeRancy acquired the stately mansion for the association in 2004, hiring Stoll soon after learning that the previous owner would vacate the property far sooner than planned.

“We did panic a little but soon the panic subsided. And Mike was key to that,” DeRancy said of the time when the association was forced to quickly occupy the space as an alumni event center and lodging service. “His years of working there, part time, for the previous owner and residing in the carriage house served him and our staff and volunteers well.”

Stoll, who had studied at Tompkins Cortland Community College, ably managed the many volunteers.

“He had the institutional memory but, more important, he deeply cared about the house, gardens and folks using the Parks Alumni House,” DeRancy said.

Stoll formed a valuable partnership with the late Harry Bellardini ’56, M ’64, a former account executive for the Great New York State Fair and association board member. They helped convert the private home into a fully furnished and operational events center within three years, which in early days involved many trips to Larchmont, N.Y., to accept gifts of furniture from Julia Wright Levine ’64 and Max Levine.

“In retrospect Mike and Harry were the team that made it all work,” DeRancy said.

A $1 million naming gift from Lynne Parks Hoffman ’68 was the icing on the cake for this duo.

“Lynne’s visit to the house in 2007 was instrumental in her decision to be the first donor at this level in the history of the college,” DeRancy said. The day she visited, the house and grounds looked spectacular.

“This was a major source of pride for Mike. He knew he was part of something special ... .”

During the fall, Boylan showed the new bench to Stoll’s parents, Michael and Jane Landis Stoll, Sr. of Cortland.

“We shared memories, and I told them it was important to (the memorial donors) that Mike be forever remembered at the house he so meticulously cared for,” Boylan said.

Every night, Jane Stoll had brought her son dinner at the property’s Carriage House, where he lived.

“He just didn’t stop working,” Stoll said. “And if he was working with other people, sometimes I’d make enough food for them, too.”

Mike was one of four sons and one sister, all living in Cortland and remaining a tightknit family.

“Mike since boyhood had always been kind and helpful to other people,” she said. “He was so happy to do things like that to make other people happy.”