e know that UNH alumni have long had a soft spot for current UNH students — especially when it comes to helping them land a job or develop their careers. They hire students as interns and UNH graduates as employees, secure in the knowledge that hiring a fellow Wildcat is not just a safe bet — it’s the best bet. But what makes UNH students and graduates such a sure thing for employers looking to fill positions? We asked a handful of employers what they see in their fellow Wildcats that makes it so easy for them to extend a job offer.

Right now, we have five Wildcats currently working at Parker House. The company is still recruiting at the college level for sure; we’ve been hiring Wildcats for decades, and they are always great hires, consistently displaying a solid work ethic and passion for the hospitality industry — and there’s always a need for those attributes.

She began as a sales and catering coordinator, then moved up to group sales manager, and was named national sales manager in August.

And while Roche may be exceptional at her job, her journey from UNH to Omni hotels — particularly Boston’s famed Omni Parker House — is more the norm than the something unusual.

John Murtha ’75, longtime general manager at Omni Parker House, is passionate about recruiting UNH talent to work at the historic venue, and nurturing those Wildcats’ careers to advance up the ranks.

Two of those Wildcats—Roches and her colleague Jacqui Driscoll ’23—talked with UNH Magazine recently about this phenomenon.

Driscoll began working as a front desk supervisor at Parker House right after graduating — she had her interview in one of the breakout rooms in Paul College. She was in that role for just over a year when something in sales opened up. “I just fell in love with being able to create relationships with guests over time,” she explains. She is currently the loyalty and guest experience manager.

Both Roche and colleague Driscoll have heard the saying: that Parker House is like UNH satellite campus in downtown Boston.

And they both agree Murtha has been a prominent figure in their career development. “He’s an incredible mentor,” notes Roche. Says Driscoll: “He is the best; Mr. Murtha has been such an advocate for both of us. He really helped us find our way here.” It’s been Murtha that has encouraged them to come back to campus to share what they’ve learned with current Paul College students, which they do roughly once a semester.

“It’s sort of a running joke that so many of us are UNH alumni, that UNH is the most dominant here at Parker House; we’ve got a competition going with UMass,” says Roche. “We just have an underlying connection and sense of community that no one else has. The UNH team has a special bond; we know how special UNH was to each of us, and now we bring that here at Parker House and feel how special it is to be here, too.”

I’m invited to speak to different groups of students or graduates, and they are usually interested in hearing about my journey and my first jobs — I worked at a greeting card store, cleaned houses, took an unpaid job at a newspaper. I also talk to them about networking. My career coaching is centered around assessing what their network is right now; nearly everyone thinks they don’t have one, and that’s not true. And having a UNH connection is part of having that preexisting network.

I hire from UNH because there’s a certain given comfort already built in, knowing what kind of person, what kind of employee, I’m going to get. Even though we start out as strangers, we feel like we know each other already, just because we both have that shared UNH experience.

You can read more about Bouton’s philosophy of creating more “seats at the table” in an excerpt of a speech she delivered in 2023: https://magazine.unh.edu/issue/summer-2023/a-seat-at-the-table/

Something key among Wildcats: They’re great teammates; they don’t come in with an ego.

I’ve been here for nearly 20 years, and because we have so many alumni who start here and work their way up and stay here, sometimes someone will remark on the alumni connection: “What’s in the water up there — what’s going on in Durham?” And I say it’s been pretty consistent over the generations of students: They’re humble and likable, determined, smart and hardworking.

The weather is perfect for a woodland trek, but Gravink is not planning for that. Instead, she’s standing outside the headquarters of Northeast Passage (NEP) on the outskirts of the UNH campus, watching as staff unload a trailer of adaptive hiking equipment. There’s a Trackchair — an all-terrain, track-driven wheelchair that can easily navigate steep inclines — and a TerrainHopper, a four-wheeled mobility device with studded tires that smoothly climb over rocks and rough trails.

Two staff members pilot the equipment out of the trailer — and, because the devices are relatively new to NEP, they take them for a test drive. Gravink watches proudly as the Trackchair and then the TerrainHopper quickly traverse a small hill, drive over some rocky landscaping and loop back around.

“That thing is cool,” someone says, pointing at the TerrainHopper.

“Isn’t it?” Gravink says. She’s smiling like a proud parent. It’s one of the many moments of pride Gravink has had since she founded Northeast Passage 36 years ago to bring therapeutic recreation, adaptive sports programs and adaptive technologies directly to people with disabling conditions.

Now Gravink is retiring and passing on leadership of NEP. It’s the end of a landmark career, in which NEP has grown from 10 volunteers, a slim $2,700 budget and three pieces of adaptive equipment to a thriving program with 21 full-time staff, a $2.7 million budget and more than 700 pieces of equipment. But most notable is the number of people who have participated in NEP programs — 9,521 alone in 2025, and tens of thousands total over the last 36 years.

“I never imagined we’d be as big or as connected to people or as involved in public health as we are,” Gravink says. “I’ve so often been paying attention to the things right in front of me, and I just started giving myself permission to look back and think about where we are now. It’s all surprising to me.”

During the 2024-25 academic year, NEP programs served almost 10,000 people, with more than 523 adaptive sports events, 112 veteran-focused programs and hundreds of school and community-based recreational therapy programs.

Gravink has had dozens, maybe hundreds, of conversations with people who told her that because of their disabling condition, they thought they’d never make it back to the ice rink or go on a bike ride with their family. But when NEP helps them do just those things, it’s like an overgrown, broken trail suddenly becomes a clear straight path. “Being able to do that one thing is the step that leads them to being able to do more,” she says.

Before coming to UNH, there were hints of Gravink’s future. Growing up in western New York, Gravink’s family included two cousins with muscular dystrophy, who visited Gravink’s home once a week. “Wherever we were going and whatever we were doing, Chris and Corey were there,” Gravink says. “If we were climbing trees, Chris and Corey were going to be in a tree with us. We just needed to figure out how to do it. I think that set the framework in my brain — utilizing recreation as the tool and context for other things.”

While physical therapy primarily engages the body, recreational therapy engages the whole person. Programs are designed to help people with disabling conditions remain connected — to their families and friends, to nature and to themselves. The activities can take any form. Spend time with NEP staff and volunteers and you’ll encounter everything from fly-fishing programs to wheelchair rugby leagues.

“Recreation is a familiar home for people,” Gravink says. It’s no different for people with disabling conditions — except for a gap in accessibility. Someone who loves to hike and has a spinal cord injury may not be able to trek through the woods with a standard wheelchair, but with NEP’s equipment, they can hit the trail. “We try to help people find the things that let them fulfill their definition of self. If you were a cyclist before an injury, you can be a cyclist again; you’ll have the same sensations and ride on the same road, but the equipment will be different.”

She wrote a business plan and had what she thought was a clear vision — to bring recreational therapy directly to clients in the community so that they could learn and practice skills in a real-world setting.

“I went out and tried to start it and failed miserably within four months,” she says.

That initial failure was not so much an obstacle as an inspiration. Gravink returned to UNH and talked with two of her professors, Janet Sable and Lou Powell.

In those early years, NEP had three pieces of adaptive equipment for client use — Gravink stored them in her basement and dragged them up and down the steps. Volunteers made up the staff, and when money ran low, Gravink and her team would host fundraisers to cover the gaps until the next grant came in. NEP’s merger with UNH in 2000 provided additional stability to foster the program’s growth.

“Every time I was stressed about it, I just believed that it was going to happen, that we were doing a good thing,” she says.

“It was an inflection point for disability rights,” she says. “We were coming out of an era where ‘accessibility’ meant someone in a wheelchair might go through a kitchen and ride up a freight elevator to get into a restaurant — and there may or may not be an accessible bathroom.”

Laws may require accessibility, but people and equipment enable it. Adaptive equipment like all-terrain wheelchairs and sled hockey gear might be commonplace now, but when Gravink founded NEP, adaptive equipment was largely the domain of DIY-ers.

In 2000, Gravink and her team had their own inflection point. That year, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) renovated Galehead Hut on Mount Washington. That work required the AMC to make Galehead accessible under the ADA, a first for the organization.

Controversy ensued, and Gravink remembers the criticism well. “‘Why does a hut 4.6 miles back in the woods need to be accessible? Nobody in a wheelchair is ever going to get there,’” she recalls hearing.

Gravink knew she and her team could get everyone to the hut and back, a 9.2-mile round-trip journey. But exactly how that would happen wasn’t clear. The trail to Galehead includes a quarter-mile stretch called Jacob’s Ladder that “is literally straight up,” according to Gravink. She and the NEP team came up with ideas, tested them and then came up with others. “When we were on the trail, we modified on the go. It was an extreme mental and physical challenge.”

Gravink’s group was the last to ascend Jacob’s Ladder. “There was a little bit of silence, and when we made it to the top, the other teams and volunteers ran back down to us. They were cheering, and the whole atmosphere lightened.”

The next day, the group sheltered in the hut. It was raining and the trail was slick. They passed the time singing, telling stories and laughing. “It was one of the greatest team moments I’ve had. It was a shared singular goal, and we did it.”

The story made national headlines, with news outlets covering the grit and determination of the NEP team and documenting the physical challenges of the task in photography that showed hikers in wheelchairs battling the elements to reach their goal.

“Jill’s hallmark as a leader is to anticipate what the community might need and how we as recreational therapists can show up and meet that need,” they say. “Northeast Passage is a place where ideas grow and where everyone shares the same mission and values. A leader who can inspire that is very rare.”

That inspiration extends outside NEP and beyond the clients who receive direct support. NEP has been inspiring philanthropic support among the UNH community practically since it was founded. In the last five years, that inspiration extends outside of NEP and beyond the clients who receive direct support. Since its founding, inspired by Gravink’s passion, NEP has benefited from a remarkable tradition of philanthropy, with supporters providing enduring funding through annual gifts, endowments and long-term investments in the program’s future.

Along with carefully shepherding NEP through its many years of growth, Gravink has ensured that the staff and students who make all of NEP’s programs possible are just as committed as she is to connecting with the community. Matt Frye ’02, ’12G worked with Gravink as a program director for 14 years. Now a clinical associate professor in the Department of Recreation Management and Policy, Frye marvels at how much NEP has grown.

“I’d say that Jill created the mold that she will break when she leaves,” he says.

The most recent survey, of the class of 2025, shows positive news — nearly 95% of the class are either employed or enrolled in further education. More than two-thirds of the class took part in internships while they were students here, and roughly half of those respondents say that those internships had the most impact on their plans after graduation.

That’s good news, especially against the backdrop of a tough job market and an uncertain economy. There’s more good news behind that data: the generous donors who make those internships and other professional experiences possible.

Consider John Turner ’82, whose financial gifts created the John ’82 and Kathleen Turner Internship Opportunity Fund at Paul College.

When Turner reconnected with his alma mater in 2010 and began interacting with Paul College students, “I was so impressed with their drive and talent but also felt like they needed more opportunities to demonstrate themselves and see the world.”

That’s how his Internship Opportunity Fund at Paul College was born. For nearly 10 years, the fund (now supported by many Paul College Advisory Board members and other donors) has provided Paul students with stipends to help cover housing, commuting and living expenses during unpaid or low-paying internships.

Giving to support current students has been a long tradition among UNH alumni and friends, namely in the form of scholarships. But these days — and in the current job market — alumni and other donors are increasingly aware that professional experiences and experiential, on-the-job learning are the keys to Wildcats landing their desired jobs after graduation.

“Studies indicate that students who complete internships receive more job offers after graduation than those who do not. Unfortunately, financial barriers prevent too many students from pursuing these opportunities,” explains Jonathan Constable, acting head of UNH’s CaPS office.

Constable notes, too, that internships offer more beyond a line on a resume.

“Research shows that these experiences help students apply what they’re learning in the classroom, develop workplace skills and build professional networks that can open doors to job opportunities.”

But often, those internships come with little or no pay or are in places where the cost of living is much higher than what students are used to: high-rent, high-commute cost locations like Boston, New York or others.

David Durie ’81 graduated with a degree in history from the College of Liberal Arts. He and wife Farifteh ’83 (political science) both had successful careers post-UNH. But they realized in hindsight that they had missed out on the valuable hands-on skills that students learn through internships and other professional development. “Had we had the work experience gained from a professional internship, our entry into the workforce might have been smoother,” says David.

In John Turner’s case, his own post-UNH experiences led him to support students with internships.

A longtime general partner at Westview Capital Partners, the Boston-based private equity firm he co-founded in 2004, John Turner remembers his time at UNH as successful. “I learned the importance of preparation, effort, attitude and time management,” he says, as well as the importance of connection. But he wasn’t sure what his future would hold. “I had done really well, but I still had no thought of what I wanted to do.”

After graduation, he went on what he calls “a 10-year walkabout during which I lived and worked in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York City and Boston. That travel gave me a dynamic perspective that I think has been a real boon to me in my work.”

He knows those perspectives can be gained by UNH students who take on internships. “From these experiences you figure out what you’re good at, and sometimes what you’re not good at,” he explains. “Either way, it’s about the importance of connection.”

Alumni Judy and Tim Zappala felt the same way: wanting to make sure UNH students had the best opportunity to be part of the profession they are training for.

Last year, they created two such funds: the Judy and Tim Zappala Medical Laboratory Sciences Internship Fund at the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture and the Tim and Judy Zappala Chemical Engineering Experiential Learning Fund in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. The Zappalas’ intent is that a small number of awards will be made each year, so that the amount awarded to each student can be significant and greatly impact the recipients’ “ability to thrive in their applied learning experience,” according to the fund agreement documents.

For Judy, who studied medical technology at UNH, it’s something that hits close to home: while she interned at Dartmouth Hitchcock, she was “living over in Hanover with my compadres” and she considers that experience an important part of experiential funding. “It was definitely like having a support group,” she recalls.

The Zappalas know the power of professional experiences: after graduating from UNH (Judy in 1980; Tim in 1979 with a degree in chemical engineering), they both had successful careers. Judy worked in a lab until her first child was born, taught at Middlesex Community College and earned an MBA while living in Texas. Tim also earned an MBA in Texas, and has worked at Goodyear, W.R. Grace and Dow Chemical over his career. He’s leading the industrial growth team at Arsenal Capital Partners.

For Tim, part of his motivation for supporting UNH students in this way is to help them learn about all the possibilities that come with a degree in chemical engineering — a profession that’s often misunderstood.

“In the U.S., kids seem less oriented to want to go into industrial related professions,” particularly chemical engineering, says Tim. “But chemical engineering is part of our everyday life: medicines, paints, furniture … people don’t realize how much these industries touch their lives. I want to encourage students to learn about these industries by interning at a company to understand what they do.”

The Zappalas hope students who receive this support will be “pretty well-rounded, focused, hard workers,” and that a potential recipient be “kind and someone who knows that there’s always someone who is less fortunate,” says Judy. Tim agrees: “Someone who shows leadership qualities and has a self-initializing ambition.”

Same goes for John Turner and the Paul College students he has supported. “If this fund can help defray some of the costs for these students, and they have the gumption to seek out these opportunities, I guarantee they’ll shine,” Turner says.

— Michelle Morrissey ’97

She did some research and learned more about municipal commissioners, urban planners and a variety of municipal jobs that contribute to planning a town or city — or even rejuvenating a park from asphalt to green grass.

“I got really interested in that type of work, so I did even more digging and found out more about urban planning, and specifically environmental planning — I knew that’s what I wanted to study in college,” says Woods, who graduated from White Mountains Regional High School in 2024.

When she looked for a program that would fit her newfound passion, she didn’t have to look very far — UNH is one of the few universities to offer an undergraduate degree in community and environmental planning (CEP).

“I felt like I just hit the lottery, to find that program in my home state,” Woods recalls.

Since enrolling at UNH, Woods has put her natural planning skills to work, researching majors, scouting out courses and even creating a four-class schedule that affords her time to write and work at Freedom Café, a favorite hangout.

But there was one thing this planner didn’t plan for: a scholarship that, thanks to generous donors, would cover all of her remaining college costs right through her 2028 graduation.

Woods is the most recent recipient of the Granite State Development Corporation (GSDC) scholarship, now in its seventh year, and the third student in the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture to receive the scholarship.

The scholarship was created with a generous gift from GSDC, a nonprofit lending organization that specializes in the SBA 504 Loan Program, helping small businesses throughout New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts.

And it’s more than just financial support. Many of the past recipients have interned with GSDC, building professional relationships as undergrads that last into their post-grad careers.

Woods received the good news via surprise — she was asked to come to a CEP meeting with her fellow students, but when she walked into the conference room in James Hall, she was greeted instead by Marsha Tonkovich, her academic advisor, as well as department chair Rebecca Rowe and academic program manager Michael Givens.

GSDC has long been generous to UNH and other schools, regularly awarding smaller scholarships of roughly $2,500 to students. It was when one of those previous recipients shared how much that money had helped him that GSDC leadership and staff were moved to act — that relatively small scholarship had a major impact on that student’s life. What could an even larger scholarship do?

Those emotions drove the organization to work with the UNH Foundation to create the scholarship, one of just a handful of “full ride” scholarships awarded each year.

“The partnership with UNH was created to recognize hardworking students whose goals and dedication reflect those same values,” says Steve Aldrich ’88, president and CEO of GSDC. “Lily’s strong work ethic and commitment to her future are qualities we value throughout our organization, and we are honored to support her journey at UNH.”

The professorship, created to address critical climate, water, energy and sustainability issues, supports regional climate science research, sustainable technology and the translation of science into policy actions.

Wollheim, who is also the co-director of the UNH Water Systems Analysis Group, studies how freshwater ecosystems such as streams, rivers, wetlands, lakes and reservoirs process nutrients and influence water quality, with an emphasis on response to storm and drought events. In New Hampshire, Wollheim’s research helps state agencies and communities better understand nutrient pollution, protect drinking water supplies, and manage rivers, lakes and coastal ecosystems, including their restoration. His work supports science-based decision-making that helps maintain water quality and healthy aquatic systems across the state.

He said he was honored to receive the professorship. “With this position, I look forward to increasing our understanding of how people and their environment can thrive together, how our ecosystems are responding to environmental changes like increasing drought frequency and extreme precipitation, and how to restore ecosystems impacted by human activity to make them healthier and more sustainable in a changing climate.”

Josephine A. Lamprey, who established the professorship in 2012, was a businesswoman, environmental pioneer and longtime benefactor of sustainability programs at UNH. Along with the professorship, she made gifts to support climate fellows in the UNH Sustainability Institute, the green grid at the Shoals Marine Laboratory and the social innovation programs at the Carsey School of Public Policy. In 2014, she joined the UNH Foundation Board and served as director for eight years. In 2022, she was awarded an honorary degree for her contributions to climate research and education, philanthropy and volunteer service, which have had an enduring impact on the university and the state.

Lamprey, who often compared present-day sustainability practices to the farming way of life she grew up with, died in 2023.

The twice annual event, hosted by UNH Career and Professional Success (CaPS), typically hosts more than 200 employers — and about 40% of them are UNH graduates.

That includes grads Casey Byrne ’23 and Gracie Hoadley ’24, who encouraged their company, JPMorgan Chase, to be part of the fair. Byrne and Hoadley both attended the fair as students and felt their company was missing out on a golden opportunity by not recruiting at the fair.

“It’s so helpful for us to be able to meet these students face-to-face, so when they do apply, we can say, ‘I remember meeting that person and I liked them.’ It’s so beneficial for us as we try to pull in talent that we want to hire,” says Byrne.

That strong UNH pipeline is a significant focus of the event, as is another key focus: strengthening New Hampshire’s workforce. More than 70% of participating employers have a Granite State presence. This aligns with a strategic objective of CaPS and the broader goals of the One UNH: Roadmap to 2030 strategic plan.

Ryan McCarthy ’05, founder of Tidewater Engineering & Surveying in Eliot, Maine, and employee Nicole Sanborn ’20. The ideal, McCarthy says, is to land an intern who will then transition into a full-time employee. “This is the primary job fair that we go to, because we’re so local. We look at it as a long-term investment.”

Matthew Dowling ’22 and Patrick Close ’22, ’24G of Amphenol, a global tech company. “If I can help at all with trying to get this next generation of engineers, this next generation of businesspeople, into the workforce, that’s important to me,” says Dowling, who graduated when lingering COVID challenges made job hunting tricky. “If I can help ease someone’s pain on that front, help get them in the door, that’s huge.”

Gabrielle Masseur ’21 of Alku, a specialized staffing firm with a training center in Durham. “We don’t hire based on major, so we’re talking to all students — all walks of life, all different degrees,” she says. “It’s super rewarding [to recruit students]. It’s the best part of my job. Just knowing that I was able to help a UNH student as an alumna is just so special.”

Equally as vivid, though, is the fact that the reaction of the recipients has largely remained unchanged – authentic emotion and true gratitude for being mentioned alongside Todd.

Those first recipients of the annual UNH football award, established to recognize a player who exhibits “selflessness and dedication as a teammate,” were Todd’s teammates and close friends, people the Walkers had shared experiences – and grief – with. Now, when Todd’s parents, Mark and Pam, return each spring for the ceremony to announce the new honoree, they are connecting with athletes who hadn’t started kindergarten when Todd was killed.

That those players still grasp the gravity of the award tells them everything they need to know about their son’s legacy.

“It’s sort of surreal when you stand there because the first couple of years, we knew all the players. Now, we’re looking at guys that were about 4 years old when Todd died,” Mark Walker says. “To make it the teammate award really sums up what Todd was all about – bringing people together, not being judgmental, being a great teammate – and it’s so great to watch these kids get the award. We get to give them a hug and shake their hand, and a lot of them will get a little emotional, and they never even knew Todd.”

Mark and Pam Walker were on hand again this year for the ceremony during UNH’s annual spring football game, as senior tight end Drew Danson was named the 2026 recipient.

The award was established by then-UNH football coach Sean McDonnell shortly after Todd’s death in 2011. Walker was a sophomore at UNH at the time, and was home in Colorado for spring break when, while walking friend Ellie Roach home from a party, an attempted robbery turned violent and Walker was shot while protecting Roach.

Roach has accompanied Mark and Pam Walker to many of the ceremonies for the award at UNH, and though it can feel bittersweet that the current players didn’t get to know Todd, it’s clear that the honor embodies some of the characteristics she remembers most fondly about him.

“Todd was such a great person, a great friend and teammate, and the fact that the university wanted to do this as an honor in his memory is really incredible,” Roach says. “Todd had this energy about him that was so magnetic. He made you feel like you were the only person that mattered.”

The Todd Walker Teammate Award played a role in healing for his family, as well, along with several other ventures the Walkers undertook to carry Todd’s legacy forward. The Walker family also raised several hundred thousand dollars for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and they established a scholarship in Todd’s honor at his high school, Battle Mountain High School in Colorado, that provides funds for students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to participate in athletics.

“My wife and I, from the day this happened, we wanted to celebrate Todd’s life with a living memorial, things that celebrated the life he led and things that can impact other people’s lives,” Mark Walker says.

The teammate award continues to have that effect within the UNH football program. And even though the students they are greeting now never had the chance to interact with Todd, the award ensures that they’ll always be able to appreciate who he was.

“We’re four years away from a group of freshmen standing there that weren’t born when this happened. A lot of the current players don’t even know who Todd Walker is until the award makes it important for them,” Mark Walker says. “That’s the kind of stuff we didn’t really dream would happen. So, for as long as we are going to be standing on this Earth, we’ll be going to UNH and watching another kid win the award.”

Those are key things these three alumni say were pivotal in their creation of successful businesses.

Brown is the founder of Brown & Company Design, which burnishes clients’ brands with strategic design for the web and print. Bostick co-founded Kikori, an app-based tool for K-12 educators to build student confidence and well-being through experiential learning. Collins founded EBSCO Information Services, which provides libraries and institutions with search platforms across academic, medical and professional databases.

All three are entrepreneurs and innovators — and all three say they’ve used what they learned from various challenges and successes to make their dreams come true. And they’re happy to share those lessons.

“It’s all about learning and adapting and not being insular,” says Collins, “and listening to your customers and not being too bullheaded about your idea.”

Forty years ago, he was an 18-year-old student with the wide-ranging idea of using then-nascent computer technology to index magazine content. It was as an undergrad in 1983 that he co-founded Popular Magazine Review, a company specializing in indexing and abstracting information from some 300 periodicals.

It was purchased by EBSCO Industries in 1987 (just two years after Collins graduated) as EBSCO Information Services, and Collins became its CEO — a role he would hold until his retirement in 2024. The hard part, says Collins, was finding the product that had competitive differentiation that people really wanted.

“I don’t think I really appreciated competitive differentiation early on. I understood competition — you work hard, and you do your best. Competitive differentiation is its own unique thing: how to make your product unique and in ways that your competition can’t match.”

As a lecturer in the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics Business in Practice program, he’s described that differentiation to students via a simple object: a maple syrup bottle.

Collins now owns and operates Meredith Farm in Topsfield, Massachusetts, which includes management of some 700 taps in the creation of Meredith Farm Maple Syrup. His differentiation there isn’t so much the syrup — it’s the bottle in which it’s sold.

“Most people would buy a 50-cent bottle, 10-cent label, 10-cent cap, and they’re in for 70 cents. I spend $4.75 to have an etched glass bottle,” says Collins.

Another key for Collins is humility. CEOs are often regarded as the smartest people in the room. Collins never staked that claim. “I think humility is key,” he says. “I listened to a lot of people, and I hired really good people. I always tried to hire people who were better than me at whatever I was hiring for.”

For Kendra Bostick, one hindsight revelation was the value of meetings, often bemoaned by today’s modern workers. Bostick urges would-be entrepreneurs not to devalue the usefulness of meetings as a way to communicate, evaluate and motivate. It was a book by Gino Wickman — “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business”— that showed her the way.

“It was the single best thing for our business, 100%,” Bostick says of the book, recommended by her business mentors. She says Kikori committed to putting the book’s suggested framework into practice for one year, with much success.

With Kikori co-founder Bryn Lottig — experiential learning advocate and author of “No Child Left Inside” — today the app has 3,000 activities in use by educators in some 97 countries, this as Bostick continues her work at UNH toward a Ph.D. in adventure programming and experiential education.

“Experiential learning is a massive umbrella,” says Bostick. “What I found was team-building activities that could be done anywhere, by anyone. I worked in inpatient behavioral health hospitals for two years and then in schools, and I saw these activities as just being so impactful, so transformative.”

For a small startup, where all the work is remote from home, Bostick advises that tasking can be hard. “I had a two-week maternity leave. I drink espresso at 10 p.m. two or three nights a week because that’s the only time I can work after my daughter goes to bed. And this has been my life for years.”

So, she says, be prepared to continue to work hard beyond the vision phase. Work-life balance will become something you’re paying much more attention to as you launch your business.

Brown, a 1989 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, created Brown & Company and eventually its imprint sister company, Big Brown Books, soon after graduation, with no business background and no straight-line trajectory from business idea to business formation and implementation.

“Out of my bedroom in a top-floor apartment in Newmarket, I sort of set up shop and grew very organically through word of mouth and client interest,” she says.

When speaking with UNH students, she often senses a laser-focused, eyes-front approach to their ambitions, which she considers a good thing generally. But Brown also advises them to keep their minds open.

“They have this very specific trajectory that they’ve decided they’re on — I’m going to do A, it leads to B, it leads to C,” says Brown. “My greatest hope for them is that they can continue to explore various paths that may interest them, so they can really make sure they find their own passion.”

In other words, wander, she says.

“What I’m very grateful for, and I see this happening less, was my ability to wander,” says Brown, who was the 2023 Holloway Entrepreneur of the Year. “I went through UNH in five years, and thankfully, my family and I could afford to do that. It’s a real gift to have had that time to wander and take more classes and learn more about different things. That time to wander, which led me to art, was invaluable.”

Her art fed her passion. Her innate business sense gave her the outlet to share that passion with clients.

“I really work hard to push up against that stereotype that artists are not businesspeople,” says Brown. “Personally, I love both. I love the creativity, the strategy, the vision, the management.”

That’s how it was for Callie (Ierardi) Bacho ’17, ’18G and Peter Bacho ’15, ’21G, who, thanks to the pandemic, found themselves at a combined UNH Reunion weekend in 2022.

When Callie first arrived back on campus that weekend, she recognized a friend who was attending with Peter. Over the course of the weekend, she and her friend joined in the festivities with Peter and the rest of his group. Callie quickly got curious: “I noticed that he wasn’t there with a partner, so I asked one of the other girls if he was single. She said yes, but that he wasn’t likely to make a move.”

Eventually the Reunion revelry ended up at Libby’s, and Callie asked Peter if he wanted to take a shot with her — “and we were inseparable as a pair for the rest of the night. We stayed up until 4 a.m. together, talking the whole time,” Callie recalls.

On her way home, she called her mom to let her know she had met her future husband. “Three years and 10 days later I proved I was right when we said ‘I do’ on June 14, 2025, at the Thompson Inn in Durham,” she says.

“One of the first things I noticed was that it was so easy to be around her,” says Peter. “There was a sense of familiarity, as if we had already known each other for years.”

Perhaps they crossed paths as undergrads without even realizing it — as students, they were both pretty busy. Peter, a history major who later earned his master’s in cybersecurity, was a frequent Wildcat fan at hockey games and a member of the Nu Beta chapter of Phi Mu Delta (PMD) — some of his favorite college memories are the PMD philanthropic events, like the Phi Mudder, an endurance challenge for students to raise money for the military. Callie, an English teaching major who earned her M.Ed. the following year, was a member of the orchestra, a member of the Campus Activities Board, a founding member of the Cat Pack Captains and the co-founder of CATS — a group of future educators who led community-building activities at local schools. As a member of the university’s social media team during her senior year, she got to cover President Obama’s election-eve visit to campus in 2016 as a member of the press.

These days, Peter is privacy manager on the information security team at Southern New Hampshire University, and Callie works at State Farm Insurance.

Their major takeaway from UNH (besides each other)? “One of the biggest things we both carry with us from our time at UNH is the power of community and getting involved,” says Callie. “Life is boring when you don’t put yourself out there, have shared experiences and care about other people.”

Leitzel, who served as UNH’s 17th president from 1996 to 2002, maintained strong connections to UNH in the decades after her retirement. She remained an active member of the UNH Foundation Board of Directors by serving on two committees: the Hubbard Family Award for Service to Philanthropy Selection Committee and the International Changemaker Grant Committee. She also helped create the Joan and James Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education at UNH, which, during the last two decades, has excelled in blurring the boundaries between research and teaching and has worked to sustain and strengthen partnerships with local K-12 schools and research communities.

Leitzel and her family also have a scholarship fund at UNH — the James Leitzel Scholarship Fund — named in memory of James R.C. Leitzel, Joan’s husband and a professor of mathematics. The scholarship was established in 1998, shortly after his passing.

“Joan was a distinguished leader — brilliant, kind, focused, clever, energetic and passionate about the tripartite teaching, research and public service mission of UNH,” says Candace Corvey, who served as UNH’s vice president for finance and administration during Leitzel’s tenure.

Leitzel’s leadership was lauded by many former colleagues, several of whom recalled her mentorship, kind nature and sense of humor fondly, noting that the combination fostered an enduring camaraderie throughout the leadership team.

“One of Joan’s extraordinary talents was the ability to create a team,” says David Hiley, who served as provost beginning in 1999. “She had this strong sense that we should focus our efforts in a collaborative way. When I was interviewing for positions, UNH was not initially on my radar. But after I spent 10 minutes interviewing with her, I knew this was a president I needed to work for.”

Leitzel was also a big sports fan, Corvey notes, though coming from Ohio State and Nebraska — two previous stops in her professional career — it was football she followed most closely. Hockey, meanwhile, remained something of a mystery.

“She had no grasp of ice hockey but knew it was the premier sport at UNH, so she enlisted Charlie Holt, retired UNH hockey coach, to teach her the game,” Corvey says. “She was a quick study and became an avid and sophisticated fan.”

Leitzel began a lengthy career in public education when she joined the faculty of mathematics at The Ohio State University in 1965. She later moved into administration, serving as the associate provost for curriculum and instruction.

In 1990, she began a two-year stint at the National Science Foundation as a division director in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources before returning to higher education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she served as provost and interim chancellor before becoming the president of UNH in 1996.

Among the notable accomplishments during her tenure at UNH were the establishment of the UNH-Manchester campus — where she encouraged leadership to develop programs to meet the specific needs of the Manchester community, including those in communication arts, engineering technology and business — a “dramatic increase” in research funding and a significant expansion of graduate programs, according to a biography published on the Leitzel Center website.

After her retirement from UNH, Leitzel returned to Columbus, Ohio, where she remained actively involved with higher education issues and institutions. In 2001, she received the Charles Holmes Pettee Medal from UNH, which is “awarded to a resident or former resident of the state in recognition of outstanding accomplishment or distinguished service in any form to the state, the nation or the world.”

“Joan Leitzel leaves a strong legacy as a revered and committed leader and beloved member of the UNH community,” says UNH President Elizabeth Chilton. “Her support of the university — both while serving as president and long after — has truly made a lasting difference for generations of Wildcats. We are so grateful for everything she’s done for UNH.”

A client hired him to renovate her home, but she rejected his recommendation to use high-quality siding. She wanted a cheaper alternative.

Krempels knew the project would not meet his standards if they went with the lower-end product. So he paid for better siding out of his own pocket.

Krempels, who died at the age of 76 on April 17, 2026, from bone cancer, placed a higher value on his reputation than on maximizing profit.

More than two decades after starting his business — following a devastating motor vehicle accident that left him with a severe traumatic brain injury — he launched another venture: a nonprofit organization now known as the Krempels Brain Injury Center.

Today, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based center has gained national prominence for its innovative programs to help people living with acquired brain injury.

The accident occurred on June 8, 1992. Krempels, then 42, and his new bride, Ettamae, were on their honeymoon, driving north on the Maine Turnpike near Portland, when a 16-wheel tractor-trailer hit their car.

Ettamae was killed in the collision.

Krempels braved three crushing blows: suffering the loss of his new wife, undergoing nearly two months of acute care (after a 15-day coma) and persevering through a harrowing odyssey as he and his legal team sought to hold to account the parties responsible for the accident. The fight lasted 2½ years.

He called those years the hardest, loneliest, most desperate years of his life. He walked with a cane, lived on food stamps and had no idea if he’d ever work again.

Reflecting on this difficult period, Krempels waved off self-pity and credited his faith and resilience for guiding him through.

The son of the Rev. Robert A. Krempels and Mary Catherine Krempels, David Michael Krempels was born on November 18, 1949, in Pennsylvania. His father, who died in 2022 at age 102, was a Pentecostal pastor who led several congregations over his long career.

Steeped in religion from a young age, Krempels embraced a passage from the Gospel of Luke: “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required.”

His second wife, Mary Krempels, knew how much this passage meant to David. For his 50th birthday, she framed the quote as a gift, which he mounted on his office wall for the rest of his life.

Krempels graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1973 with a political science degree. Living in Newmarket, he played sports while laying the groundwork for a career as a building contractor.

“After UNH, I had two career choices,” he recalled. “Law school or carpenter.”

Unsure about a white-collar career, he worked for home builders. A quick learner, he discovered he loved the grueling labor.

“When I was throwing cement around and mixing mortar, I found I really liked it,” he said.

After a few years of working for others, he set out on his own. While he lacked startup capital and experience running a business, his attention to detail and commitment to customer satisfaction drove his success.

Over the next decade, he earned widespread recognition for his projects. For his work as general contractor on the Wharton House in Nottingham, Krempels won the 1985 Wood Design Award from the American Wood Council. That same year, Architectural Record magazine featured a four-page spread of the Wharton House.

The accident abruptly ended his work as a contractor. Even as he slowly regained his ability to walk, swallow and take care of himself, he was despondent: He knew he’d never be the same person again.

His life remained in limbo as John Ahlgren, his friend and attorney, filed a lawsuit against the parties responsible for the accident. Without money, Krempels survived on a near-empty fridge until January 1995, when the jury reached a verdict.

The result was among the largest personal injury awards in Maine history.

Right up to the moment he heard the verdict, Krempels had no idea what the outcome would be.

“I went there every day,” he recalled of the two-week trial. “I owned two sports jackets and two ties, and I alternated wearing them.”

The opposing legal team made hurtful comments about Krempels. For example, they claimed that the jury should not award him a lot of money because he wouldn’t know what to do with it.

The jury didn’t buy it.

Krempels used a significant part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to start a nonprofit organization called SteppingStones. Now the Krempels Brain Injury Center, it has provided in-person community-based programs to help individuals navigate life after brain injury.

During the past 26 years, it has grown steadily and become a national model for supporting people with brain injury.

Years after the trial, a juror read about the Krempels center’s immeasurable impact on the lives of thousands of brain injury survivors. She wrote Krempels to tell him that she knew he’d do something special with the settlement money.

As the Krempels center grew, acclaim for its founder followed. In 2000, he received Paul Harris Fellow recognition for work in the Portsmouth community. In 2005, he received the Granite State Award for contributions to New Hampshire. And in 2014, he was presented with the Mayor’s Award of Portsmouth for individuals who have made significant contributions to the community.

When Krempels met Mary Roddy Coulson in March 1999, she already knew his story. Years before, she had heard about his accident on a radio newscast and her heart sank.

After they met, he won her heart. By the time they married in December 2001, Krempels knew he had found “the greatest wife in the history of the universe,” as he liked to say.

He was predeceased by both parents; his first wife, Ettamae Ferguson; and his brother, Robert Douglas Krempels of Kankakee, Illinois.

He is survived by his second wife, Mary Krempels, of Kittery Point, Maine; his sister, Deborah McAfee (Kevin), of Greenville, Maine; his father’s second wife, Virginia (Ambrose) Perna Krempels, of Hagerstown, Maryland; Ettamae’s two children: Max Ferguson (Lili), of Hampton, New Hampshire, and Bobbi Mae Lariviere (Philip), of Dover; his brother’s wife, Wendy; many nieces, nephews and cousins — and his beloved dog, Finnley.

Most of her childhood was spent on her family’s farms, first in Massachusetts and then in Stratham, New Hampshire, where she became a passionate animal lover and was active in 4-H.

Ginny graduated from UNH in 1975 with a degree in botany and plant science, but after working as a traveling plant saleswoman and then a greenhouse employee in Seattle, she decided to follow her fascination with the written word instead and earned her master’s in creative writing at UNH in 1980. She became a full-time writing lecturer and discovered her love for teaching. With Professor Donald Graves, she co-authored “Write from the Start,” a guide for parents looking to help their children tap into the joy of writing.

At a UNH event, Ginny met the man who would become the love of her life, John Hill, and the two got to know each other while working for Trillium Press in New York City. With her gift for storytelling, Ginny had a rich career in communications, writing for Yankee magazine, New Hampshire Profiles and eventually UNH Magazine, where she held the position of associate writer and editor for more than a decade. Often following her curiosity about animals, she crafted many feature stories that won awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), including stories celebrating a quirky spider expert, the sex lives of lobsters and the wonders of New England’s iconic moose.

She volunteered for 15 years as the publicist for the Oyster River Players theatre company (her two daughters were members) and sang as a member of Voices from the Heart, a chorus made up of 200 women. In 2007, she traveled with the group to Croatia and Slovenia, where she sang with local choirs and helped raise $73,000 to clear minefields in Perušic. In 2015, Ginny began a new career as a teacher of English for Speakers of Other Languages at Manchester Community College and later Dover Adult Learning Center, where she had been volunteering for several years.

When she wasn’t working, Ginny could often be found meditating or communing with the natural world. She loved walking on local trails with friends and family, identifying birds and sharing new plant and creature sightings. A self-described “bleeding-heart environmentalist,” Ginny joined her neighbors in urging the Nature Conservancy to purchase nearby land that was at risk of being turned into a golf course in the 1990s.

With consummate research skills sparked by her innate curiosity and honed through her journalistic experience, Ginny learned everything she could about her cancer and often jokingly referred to herself as “a professional patient.” She worked hard to blend a deeper understanding of the reality of her illness with a genuinely positive outlook that focused on living her life as fully and happily as she could.

She is survived by husband John Hill, daughters Lindsay Hill and Eliza Hill and their partners, four sisters and their husbands, and extended family. You can read Ginny’s full obituary online here: legacy.com/person/Virginia-E.-Stuart-60794640.

Ed spent his childhood summers at his family’s Hobby Horse Stables in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, where he taught local campers to ride. He later made New Hampshire his permanent home and graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. A gifted athlete, Mullen played Division I hockey, football and lacrosse at UNH. His enduring friendships with teammates remained one of the great joys of his life, and he was a generous donor to many UNH athletic programs.

Ed was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, Infantry Branch. In 1964, he completed aviation school in Dothan, Alabama, followed by fixed-wing pilot training. He served in Germany before transitioning to helicopters and being deployed to Vietnam. There, Major Mullen flew numerous missions, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross (with an oak-leaf cluster), the Bronze Star and the Air Medal (with 21 oak-leaf clusters). He later became a flight instructor and flight commander, shaping the next generation of Army pilots. In 2014, he was inducted into the UNH ROTC Hall of Fame.

Following his military service, Mullen began a successful career in financial services with MassMutual Financial Group. One of his lasting legacies was his role in founding the UNH Center for Family Business, a program designed to support generational transitions in family-owned companies. Now part of the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, it continues to benefit New Hampshire’s business community.

Mullen remained deeply involved with UNH, serving on the board of the 100 Club, which supports athletic scholarships, and later becoming its president. He was instrumental in developing the club’s endowment and was a driving force behind the creation of the UNH Athletics Hall of Fame and the Wildcat Athletic Council. His unwavering support for UNH athletics was visible at countless games and events over the years.

He was predeceased by wife Gail Mullen in November 2022. He is survived by a brother, a sister, two children and four grandchildren. You can read his full obituary here: https://www.watersfuneralhomeconcord.com/obituary/edward-mullen-jr.

While working toward his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at UNH, he earned much of his college tuition playing lead guitar for the Checkmates, a rock band that played gigs at fraternity parties and dances at UNH as well as at colleges and universities throughout northern New England.

Jim formed the band during his freshman year (1961-62) with Gardner Spencer ’65, ’73G. The other original members were Gardner Greene (class year unknown) on bass guitar, Spencer Michlin ’65 on keyboards and Dave Seavey ’63 on drums.

UNH English professor emeritus Andrew Merton ’67 joined the band two years later, replacing Gardner Greene, who had enlisted in the Army. Dave Seavey would also exit the band, and Steve Oaks ’66, ’69G would take his place.

“In those days, Jim was shy; the music was definitely his outlet, his means of relaxation. He let his inner self show when he was playing, whether it was during a gig or in rehearsals,” says Merton. “His knowledge of the blues and rock ’n’ roll ran deep; he’d happily talk about, for instance, the differences between Big Mama Thornton’s raunchy original recording of ‘Hound Dog’ and Elvis’s cleaned-up version. He was a wonderful friend, always eager to help out.”

After college, Jim supervised maintenance of the equipment at the historic water-powered woolen mills in Harrisville, New Hampshire.

His love of guitar playing continued well beyond UNH. In 1991, Jim lost his right thumb in an industrial accident. In a pioneering surgical procedure, doctors at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover amputated the big toe from his right foot and grafted it onto his right hand. The resulting “thoe,” as they called it, enabled him to hold a guitar pick. He continued to play for the rest of his life.

An avid outdoorsman, Jim loved hunting, fishing, hiking and gardening. He spent countless days exploring the woods and fields near his home.

Jim’s wife, Judy (Jarvis) Wood, died in 2019. He was also predeceased by his brothers Maurice and David.

The former Checkmate members stayed in touch sporadically after their time at UNH, Merton says, even reuniting in 1992 to play for the Class of 1967’s 25th Reunion.

“The last time I saw Jim was about a month before he died. He was in a nursing home then, but he still had an acoustic guitar, which he played daily.”

Most of her childhood was spent on her family’s farms, first in Massachusetts and then in Stratham, New Hampshire, where she became a passionate animal lover and was active in 4-H.

Ginny graduated from UNH in 1975 with a degree in botany and plant science, but after working as a traveling plant saleswoman and then a greenhouse employee in Seattle, she decided to follow her fascination with the written word instead and earned her master’s in creative writing at UNH in 1980. She became a full-time writing lecturer and discovered her love for teaching. With Professor Donald Graves, she co-authored “Write from the Start,” a guide for parents looking to help their children tap into the joy of writing.

At a UNH event, Ginny met the man who would become the love of her life, John Hill, and the two got to know each other while working for Trillium Press in New York City. With her gift for storytelling, Ginny had a rich career in communications, writing for Yankee magazine, New Hampshire Profiles and eventually UNH Magazine, where she held the position of associate writer and editor for more than a decade. Often following her curiosity about animals, she crafted many feature stories that won awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), including stories celebrating a quirky spider expert, the sex lives of lobsters and the wonders of New England’s iconic moose.

She volunteered for 15 years as the publicist for the Oyster River Players theatre company (her two daughters were members) and sang as a member of Voices from the Heart, a chorus made up of 200 women. In 2007, she traveled with the group to Croatia and Slovenia, where she sang with local choirs and helped raise $73,000 to clear minefields in Perušic. In 2015, Ginny began a new career as a teacher of English for Speakers of Other Languages at Manchester Community College and later Dover Adult Learning Center, where she had been volunteering for several years.

When she wasn’t working, Ginny could often be found meditating or communing with the natural world. She loved walking on local trails with friends and family, identifying birds and sharing new plant and creature sightings. A self-described “bleeding-heart environmentalist,” Ginny joined her neighbors in urging the Nature Conservancy to purchase nearby land that was at risk of being turned into a golf course in the 1990s.

With consummate research skills sparked by her innate curiosity and honed through her journalistic experience, Ginny learned everything she could about her cancer and often jokingly referred to herself as “a professional patient.” She worked hard to blend a deeper understanding of the reality of her illness with a genuinely positive outlook that focused on living her life as fully and happily as she could.

She is survived by husband John Hill, daughters Lindsay Hill and Eliza Hill and their partners, four sisters and their husbands, and extended family. You can read Ginny’s full obituary online here: legacy.com/person/Virginia-E.-Stuart-60794640.

He was the third-generation owner of the Chateau restaurant in Waltham — one of a chain of nine restaurants in Massachusetts — where he was dedicated to the customer experience for every guest. He hosted UNH football alumni gatherings at the restaurant annually — an event, a family member recalls, “as lively, loyal and loud as he was.”

At UNH, he was a member of the class of 1982 and was a running back for the UNH Wildcats. His family says that his UNH teammates weren’t just his friends — they were his brothers. In addition to the reunions he held at the Chateau, he supported the current UNH football team with generous donations. After his passing, teammates posted on social media that he was a true Wildcat who “bled blue.”

He is survived by his wife, Susan; his son and daughter, Nick and Julina, and their spouses; two grandchildren; his nieces and nephews; and other family and friends.

His family describes him as larger than life: A quick errand turned into a full-blown adventure. A meal became an event. A conversation became a memory. “If you were with him, you were laughing,” they shared in his obituary, which you can read in full here: https://thebedfordcitizen.org/2026/03/an-obituary-john-h-nocera/.

She was a grad student at UNH, earning her master’s in psychology (after earning her bachelor’s in the same subject at Bucknell). It was at UNH where she met John Forssen, an undergraduate studying English who dreamed of writing the great American novel. The two married in January 1965 and celebrated 61 years of marriage just two months before her passing.

The couple’s early years together were marked by both adventure and uncertainty. They settled briefly at Fort Riley, Kansas, before John’s service in the Vietnam War called him away and Paulette returned to New Jersey to be near her parents. Upon his safe return, life carried them forward together — to New Jersey, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Virginia and finally Maine, where Paulette would spend the rest of her days.

In her role as guidance counselor at Waterville High School, she was known for the warmth and craft of the college recommendation letters she wrote — glowing testaments to students she believed in with her whole heart. And when an acceptance letter arrived, Paulette had a signature way of delivering the news: finding the student in whatever class they were in at that moment and announcing it in front of everyone (she repeated this with daughter Erica as well, complete with a dozen red roses). She also devoted herself to building the Street Survivors, an extracurricular organization that created space for students from more challenging backgrounds to shine before their peers — a quiet, enduring testament to her belief in every young person’s potential.

She is survived by husband John, daughter Erica and her husband, and by the many friends and students whose lives she touched. You can read her full obituary here: dcpate.com/obituaries/Paulette-Dutkus-Forssen?obId=47933672.