JAMESTOWN, N.Y.

— Richard Thor’s life journey isn’t unlike many who have graduated from SUNY Jamestown Community College over the school’s 75 years.

JCC might not have been in the original plans, or thought to be the best path forward, but ends up being a considerable launching pad to career success.

Thor came back to his hometown of Jamestown in 1973 after serving in the U.S. Navy for four years. He was married and working the third shift at a grocery warehouse, 7 p.m. until 3 in the morning.

‘Wearing a freezer suit, like a snowmobile suit, and feeling that my life was really going nowhere,’ is how Thor explained it.

‘One night, 11 o’clock at night, we’re having lunch, five of us sitting at the table,’ Thor continued. ‘And I said, ‘You know, I really ought to go down to JCC tomorrow and register for the Mechanical Technology program.’ ‘Larry Jackson, our union steward said, ‘You’re dreaming.’ ‘And I said, ‘Am I?’ ‘And I took the freezer suit off right there and left in the middle of the shift. The next day I came down to JCC and I registered.’

And, as they say, the rest is history. The retired Thor earned three associate degrees from JCC and a bachelor’s degree in business from SUNY Fredonia. He went on to become a lieutenant commander in the Navy, before working as a purchasing manager for Mitsubishi and other manufacturers in Virginia.

Thor’s post-JCC prosperity, in part, can be traced back to Dan Courtine, a 30-year Engineering professor at JCC.

‘He was Dr. Courtine, but nobody called him doctor,’ Thor explained.

‘He dressed casual and made engineering learning achievable, challenging and interesting.

‘But what he was teaching us was to set a goal, study hard, do the best you can, check your work, but more than anything, have fun.’

The legacy of Courtine – humble, unassuming, knowledgeable – will carry on for years to come and support the next generation of JCC students.

The launch of the Daniel F. Courtine Engineering and Workforce Development Endowment was announced recently during a reunion of JCC engineering and technology students at the Jamestown Campus Manufacturing Technology Institute.

An anonymous donor contributed $40,000 to start the endowment and pledged another $40,000 to match future donations.

‘This endowment is so important,’ Thor said. ‘So many young people today, either graduating from high school or in a job that is not challenging, need to be challenged and they need to have that opportunity.

‘And that’s what the community college offers.

They offer skills, technical skills, they offer life lessons in challenging yourself, developing self-confidence to know that you can set a goal and you can achieve it and you can have a brighter, better future.’

Courtine died at 82 last May. The number of JCC students he positively influenced over the years will never be known.

Kevin Kochersberger, a longtime mechanical engineering professor at Virginia Tech, is one.

The 1981 JCC graduate laughs when telling the story about how he and a few classmates got a hold of a master key, broke into Courtine’s office, and cleared the space entirely of its contents.

‘The very next day, Dan came into class and we’re all anxious to see his shock and awe at what had happened, but he didn’t show any evidence of anything that was misplaced or out of the normal,’ Kochersberger recalled.

‘And so, he walked into class and just gave a normal lecture for 50 minutes. He had no pens, he had no markers, he had no chalk, he had no book.

It didn’t matter. He just walked in and gave a perfect 50-minute lecture on dynamics and didn’t indicate there was anything wrong. It was just another normal day for Dan.

‘So, we’re all just biting our tongues, like, what is going on? How can he not mention the fact that his entire office is gone? At the end of class we finally came up to him and said, ‘So, Dan, anything different today?’ At that point, he goes, ‘Yeah, so, what did you guys do with my office? And so, that was the kind of rapport we had with him.’

Kochersberger added ‘I owe a lot to Dan’ for his ability to understand students in way that ‘was above and beyond anything I’ve ever seen from any other faculty member I’ve had in my life.’

‘He was just a remarkable professor,’ Kochersberger continued.

‘Brilliant teacher, really engaged with the students, loved to connect with students, and taught me the elements of engineering that got me to the point of being a full professor here at Virginia Tech.’

Many more JCC engineering, technology, and manufacturing success stories have followed.

Arnaldo Espinoza may have never met Courtine, but he is thankful for the guidance provided by math, science, and engineering instructors who have followed in Courtine’s footsteps at JCC, including Sean Nowling, Stephanie Zwyghuizen, and Erin Zeiders-Weber.

After graduating from JCC in 2020, Espinoza transferred to the University at Buffalo and earned a job back home in Jamestown at Mateo Tools as a manufacturing engineer. There, Espinoza designs programs that are used to produce Mateo’s iconic rolling toolboxes.

Much as it was for Thor and Kochersberger, JCC was a vital starting point for Espinoza.

‘I would feel that definitely the math backing that JCC provided really helped with my UB calculus classes,’ he said.

‘I feel that if I didn’t take those math classes, I definitely would have struggled a lot more at UB than I did during my time there.

‘Not only that, but with physics as well, I found that my teacher, Nowling, was a very knowledgeable man. He helped us prepare. He helped prepare us a lot going toward transferring out of JCC, since he was also an advisor as well.’

Espinoza concluded: ‘I would strongly recommend JCC as a good fresh start for anyone who’s seeking an engineering career.’

The JCC Foundation manages the Daniel F.

Courtine Engineering and Workforce Development Endowment. The Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit organization that supports projects and activities deemed to be compatible, complementary, and consistent with the mission of JCC.

Visit secure.qgiv.com/ for/courtineendowment to support the endowment.

Carissa Bentley, JCC Foundation executive director; and Daniel DeMarte, JCC president, hold a large check for $40,000 to support the Daniel F. Courtine Engineering and Workforce Development Endowment during an alumni gathering to announce the endowment.

JCC

Dan Courtine