This year’s Copeland Award recipient served in the Navy for two years before coming to Williams, where he majored in English, played varsity football for four years, and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. After eighteen years running his family’s furrier business, he entered a career in banking, retiring from Key Bank of New York in 1994. In the years since his graduation, this stalwart Eph has served the College as class associate agent, reunion chair, class treasurer, and most notably, admissions representative. His enthusiasm for the Purple Valley is exceeded only by his love for his hometown of Buffalo, and for the past 40 years he has made it his mission to bring the two together. In the late 1960s and ’70s, the gridiron was much on his mind, and Williams football teams of that era read like a Buffalo phone book: Rutkowski, Lesniowski, Cesarz, Pinakiewicz, D’Arata. These days, he continues to share his zeal with top high school students of all backgrounds and interests. He has a great eye for identifying young people for whom Williams is a good fit, and largely due to his efforts Buffalo continues to be a source of extraordinary candidates. In addition to his recruiting work, he has coordinated the regional book award for the Buffalo area for more than four decades. Somehow he also found time to raise six children, two of whom took his advice: Marcia graduated in 1979 and Stephen followed in 1980. For his devotion to the College and his steadfast support of its admission efforts, the Society of Alumni is proud to honor, from the Class of 1950,Thomas M. Leous.
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