Well-Rounded
Service
PAUL McCURDY ’82 PUTS
HIS PROFESSIONAL EXPERTISE
TO USE FOR LAFAYETTE.
BY BARBARA MULLIGAN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID W. COULTER
As a student a Lafayette, Paul McCurdy ’82 formed a lifelong relationship with the College and his fraternity. Today, he serves as vice president for programs and president-elect of the Alumni Association, a member of Lafayette Leadership Council, class fund manager and agent for the Class
of 1982, and an externship sponsor.
“I’ve only missed two Homecomings since 1978,” he says. “I’m a regular. I love to come back—I love to see friends who are alumni
and I love to see friends who are faculty. I’ve always been very proud
of and very connected with the school.”
A government and law graduate, McCurdy earned a law degree from Albany School of Law at Union University in 1985. His Government 101 class with James Lennertz, now associate professor of government and law, strengthened his interest in law.
“He was the best teacher I ever had,” he says. “I took as many
courses as I could with him.”
By his senior year, McCurdy had become a teaching assistant in the government and law department. He had also become very active in his fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, serving as rush chairman and commissar. There he met four DKE alumni who would become his mentors for years to come—Ned Jesser ’39, Mike Michaels ’31,
Bob Loughlin ’53, and Allan P. Kirby Jr. ’53.
“They led by example and helped us understand how the fraternity could be a place that had a positive impact on our college experience and our experiences afterward,” says McCurdy, who became involved with the DKE alumni association after graduation. Later, with encouragement from Jesser, he became an alumni admissions representative for the College, and then joined Lafayette Leadership Council.
McCurdy’s “day job” as a partner with Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP in Stamford, Conn., includes counseling brokerage and investment advisory firms and their principals on a variety of legal issues involving regulatory, compliance, and corporate matters. He also has represented broker-dealers in internal investigations and enforcement proceedings and serves as an arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers Inc. and the New York Stock Exchange Inc.
He says that he and other alumni volunteers have found ways to combine their own interests with those of the College.
“Many of us are involved in activities in our personal and professional lives that create opportunities to partner with the undergraduates,”
he says. “I have tried to help various students by giving them advice
and guidance about career paths into the law. I’ve also done some work for classmates of mine and other alumni. Many of the people I worked with when I was an alumni admissions officer have gone on to achieve great success on their own, first academically and then professionally.”
As class fund manager, McCurdy has urged his classmates to help members of Lafayette’s Posse Class of ’09 by serving as internship or externship hosts, working as representatives to the students, and donating money.
No matter what the work for Lafayette, McCurdy thoroughly
enjoys nearly every minute.
“I think that those of us who are involved in the College probably
take out more than we put in,” he says. “It’s an energizing process.
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