Community Dinner

Returning To Our Roots, Celebrating Our Future

The Utica University Community Dinner

SEPTEMBER 30, 2026
6:00 TO 9:00 P.M.
DOUBLETREE BY HILTON HOTEL UTICA

Please join us for an evening of celebration.

The Community Dinner will commemorate a special moment in Utica University's History at the Historic Doubletree Hotel Utica. September thirtieth marks the day of our first Convocation in 1946. Two weeks prior to that momentous occasion, local dignitaries and founding supporters of this institution gathered at Hotel Utica to celebrate the establishment of the city's first four-year college.

The Community Dinner will pay homage to that first gathering of Pioneers, eight decades ago, when our founders charted a bold course for this institution. Let's gather in celebration of all that we have accomplished and set our sights on the great things that lie ahead for Utica University.

All proceeds from the Community Dinner will help expand funding for student programming and co-curricular experiences, including entertainment, activities, conference attendance, and more.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Time: 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. | Remarks at 7:00 p.m.

Location: Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Utica | 102 Lafayette Street, Utica, NY

Cocktails, Hors d'oeuvres, Dinner Stations, Desserts, Music

Cocktail Attire

Individual Tickets: $250

Sponsorships:
For information about sponsorship opportunities, contact Christine Kisiel, Vice President for Advancement, at cskisiel@utica.edu

Community Dinner Chair and Master of Ceremonies

The Utica University Community Dinner will be chaired and emceed by John Calabrese '90, President and CEO, First Source Federal Credit Union, and former member of Utica University's Board of Trustees.

Community Dinner Committee Members

John Calabrese '90 (Chair), President and CEO, First Source Federal Credit Union
Pascale Calabrese '90, Scientist, Oneida Research Services, Inc.
Nick Mayhew '83, P'12, P'15, President and CEO, GPO Federal Credit Union
Lorraine Mayhew P'12, P'15, Retired
Ross Kraft P'25, P'27, Vice President and Strategic Business Advisor, Gilroy Kernan & Gilroy
Susan Kraft P'25, P'27, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson at Hunt Real Estate ERA and Treasurer, Mohawk Valley Association of Realtors
Bruce Hairston, Executive Director, Rome Chamber of Commerce
Kari Puleo, Executive Director, Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce

This was the big bang that signaled the creation of Utica ... and now that it was a fact of history, nothing was going to stop its progress in service to the community.

The first of two opening ceremonies took place on September 16, 1946. It was a dinner for some five hundred people at the Hotel Utica sponsored by Syracuse University and the local leaders of the movement for a college in Utica.

Seated at the dais were Mayor Boyd Golder; Henry Dorrance, president of the Utica Chamber of Commerce; Francis McGinty, head of the First Bank of Utica; Dean Winton Tolles; Vice Chancellor Finla Crawford; and Chancellor William P. Tolley. The invocation was given by the Rev. Gordon Gilkey, and the benediction was given by Father Joseph L. May.

Each of the dignitaries made brief remarks with the main speech given by Chancellor Tolley. He was a spellbinding speaker who almost always left his audience with some climaxing expression that summed up the theme of his remarks. One the occasion of the kickoff dinner celebrating the opening of UC, after pointing out that the Utica area was below average in the percentage of its high school graduates who attended college - five percent as compared with a state average of more than fifteen percent - he stated:

"A college can get along without a city, but a city cannot get along without a college."

It was a brilliant, unforgettable remark made to the right audience in the right place at the right time. For they all knew that just ten miles away was Hamilton College, a totally independent institution. A virtually self-sufficient little society, it needed nothing from the village or city near which it was located. But the local community profited from its economic impact and, most importantly, from the educational opportunity it provided to some lucky young men, many of whom eventually returned home as lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and in their turn, community builders.

And there the audience was, gathered in a city in trouble and in dire need of, among other things, an institution of higher education as the catalyst that would speed its redevelopment.

This was the big bang that signaled the creation of Utica College, and now that it was a fact of history nothing was going to stop its progress in service to the community. The proud parents slept well that night of September 16, 1946.

On September 30, 1946, the College opened with a convocation in Plymouth Church.