Q. Why did you join Phi Sigma Kappa?
A. For fellowship and the whole concept of brotherhood and doing things with people of like mind. I got to know people in the fraternity through summer work and was therefore closer friends with them than with any of the other groups.
Q. Tell us about your favorite memory of the fraternity.
A. I don't know if I can pick out one thing. I really can't. There were too many.
Dedication to Community Marks Life of Phi Sigma Kappa Foundation President
Anthony Fusaro has spent his life since retirement helping others in his community and helping Phi Sigma Kappa as well. In this brief Q&A interview, Tony remembers the values he learned and strengthened at Phi Sigma Kappa and beyond!
Q. Why did you join Phi Sigma Kappa?
A. For fellowship and the whole concept of brotherhood and doing things with people of like mind. I got to know people in the fraternity through summer work and was therefore closer friends with them than with any of the other groups.
Q. Tell us about your favorite memory of the fraternity.
A. I don't know if I can pick out one thing. I really can't. There were too many.
Q. What kind of influence has the fraternity had on your life since graduation?
A. I think it taught me a lot about getting along with other people, caring about other people, leadership, management, setting priorities and adhering to principles.
Q. With whom do you still stay in contact? Who would you most like to find?
A. Most of my closest friends through the years are fraternity friends.
Q. Tell us about your family. Have you married? Do you have children?
A. I married a widow by the name of Maria with two children, a boy and a girl, back in 1976. We subsequently had a daughter together who just graduated from college last spring. My son is a high school science teacher here in Lakeland [Florida]; my daughter graduated from the University of Illinois as an architect, but is currently raising two small children with her husband in Chatham, N.J.; and the youngest daughter majored in psychology and is currently working in a program that shelters battered women in Pontiac, Mich.
Q. What other activities or organizations were you involved with during college days?
A. The fraternity was the most time-consuming one, also the Newman Center, the Roman Catholic group. I was commuting for two years and so that took a lot of my time. I also spent one semester in University Chorus.
Q. What is your nickname, and how did you get it?
A. I had a lot [laughing]. Aside from Tony, which is the normal one for Anthony, I was called a number of things while I was president: Czar, Little Caesar, but all in good fun.
Q. Did you live in the house? If so, who were your roommates? Tell us about a memorable time with them.
A. After the first year that I joined, I moved into the house for two years. We had a sleeping deck, like army barracks-style. Everybody was up in bunk beds in one level of the house. You really didn't have one roommate; everybody was your roommate. We shared desks in several rooms in the house, so there might be several people that studied in the room, but it wasn't quite the same as having a roommate.
Actually, I lived in two houses. I was at the University of Rhode Island as an undergraduate; I was chapter president there for three semesters. I also took my master's degree there one year after my bachelor's degree. During that time I was a founding member and president of the Providence Alumni Club.
Then I moved to Penn State University with an assistantship. After living in a rooming house for one year, I affiliated with the local chapter on that campus and moved into that house, and then I had a number of roommates; different people at different times. The sleeping arrangements were more of what you'd think of in a dormitory. I also became chapter president there for one semester. After I graduated with my doctorate in political science, I served for a time as the president of the Penn State chapter's alumni association.
Q. What do you do for a living?
A. After I got my doctorate I had to go into the Army because I was an ROTC student as an undergrad, and had to fulfill an active duty obligation. When I finished in 1963, I was hired by Penn State to teach political science at their Abington, Pa., branch campus. I did that for two years. Then I moved to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., and stayed 24 years, during which time I became the chapter adviser for the new group that formed there the year that I went. I moved out of teaching into administration, and I left there as assistant provost in 1990. I went back to be the head of the Abington Branch Campus where I had originally started. I was there for four years, retired in '94, and moved to Lakeland, Fla.
Q. What affiliations do you currently have and/or public service do you participate in?
A. I am the church choir director. I'm on the board of directors of a homeless shelter in Lakeland. I am the recorder, which is like a secretary, of the local order of the Knights of Columbus.
I'm the past grand president and current president of the Phi Sigma Kappa Foundation. Besides being president of the Phi Sigma Kappa Foundation, I'm also a volunteer officer in the fraternity itself. We have two corporations. The day-to-day operational fraternity is called the grand chapter, and the educational arm of the fraternity, which raises money from tax-deductible contributions, is called the foundation. So I am president of the foundation, but I am also a volunteer officer in the grand chapter, monitoring several chapters in the state of Florida.
Q. What hobbies do you enjoy?
A. The volunteer work keeps me busy. After three years of retirement I went back and took a position as director of what they call the Renewal Program at this homeless shelter where I'm on the board. It's a rehab program for people who have addictions, who want to get off the street. I did that until January of this year. Then I retired and went back on the board.
I also do projects around the house that have had to wait until I had extra time.
Q. What are your goals for the next few years?
A. We do travel now a lot. We like traveling. My wife and I like taking cruises and guided tours of different places. One of our favorites was the Canadian Rockies; another was a cruise of the Mediterranean. I studied piano until I graduated from high school. I worked my way through college partially by playing piano in a restaurant/bar.
