Wednesday, October 15, 3 p.m.
Wagner College Main Hall auditorium

1.      Hymn — Wagner College Choir, Roger Wesby, director

2.      President’s greeting by Richard Guarasci, President, Wagner College

3.      Invocation by the Rev. Robert Rimbo, bishop, Metropolitan New York Synod, ELCA (invited)

4.      Greetings from:

  • Jay P. Hartig ’67, Chairman, Wagner College Board of Trustees
  • Harry Jackson ’09, President, Wagner College Student Government Association

5.      Proclamation congratulating Wagner College on the celebration of its 125th Anniversary, by Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro

6.      Choral anthem — Wagner College Choir

7.      Greetings from founders’ representatives & descendants:

  • Rev. Wayne S. Pittenger, pastor emeritus, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pittsford — successor to Rochester co-founder George Gomph
  • Rev. Richard Michael, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Staten Island — successor to Staten Island founder Frederic Sutter
  • Margaret-Anne Milne — direct descendant of founding benefactor John George Wagner Jr.

8.      President Richard Guarasci presents a posthumous Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, to John George Wagner III, the young man for whom Wagner College is named, who died before he could fulfill his dream of becoming a minister — to be accepted on George Wagner’s behalf by his great-grandniece, Mrs. Milne

9.      Hymn — “Now Thank We All our God”

10.  Speakers (±10 min. ea.):

  • Wagner through the 1960s — John Daggan, ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod archivist
  • Wagner from the 1970s on — Walter Kaelber, Professor of Religious Studies, Wagner College
  • Wagner’s present and future — Richard Guarasci, President, Wagner College

11.  Alma Mater — “Beautiful Upon the Hill”


Followed by: Planting of the Grymes Hill Founders Tree, an apple tree that is sister to the Rochester Founders Tree being planted in the front yard of Wagner College co-founder George Gomph in Pittsford in November. The Grymes Hill Founders Tree will play a ceremonial role in future Founders Day programs, symbolically linking the Staten Island campus to the college’s roots in the Rochester area. Participants: President Richard Guarasci, Chairman Jay Hartig, President Harry Jackson, Pastor Wayne Pittenger, Pastor Richard Michael, Margaret-Anne Milne