Essex Junction resident, Dennis Voigt, associate professor of accounting at Saint Michael's College, was named the first appointment to the David LaMarche Chair in Business Administration and Accounting at the college in ceremonies on campus Oct. 25. Officiating at the event were Saint Michael's President John Neuahuser, Ph.D.; Business Department Chair Robert Letovsky, Ph.D.; Vice President for Academic Affairs Karen Talentino, Ph.D., and Dean of the College Jeffrey Trumbower, Ph.D.
The ceremony also included the induction of 26 Saint Michael's seniors and four master's students into Sigma Beta Delta, the international honor society in business, management and administration. Honoree David LaMarche, Emeritus Professor of Business Administration and Accounting, former resident of Essex Junction, was the featured speaker at the induction ceremony.
Professor LaMarche urged the inductees to consider all those they will be able to influence when they are in positions of authority and leadership. Speaking with passion and eloquence, he reminded them to treat others as they would themselves want to be treated, and he spoke of several recent instances when that simple rule had not been followed with dire consequences resulting.
Professor David LaMarche taught at Saint Michael's from 1974 to 2001, and served as vice president of finance, vice president for academic affairs, and assistant to the president, at various times in his career. Professor LaMarche travelled to the ceremonies from his home in South Carolina, with his wife Jane LaMarche, former trustee of Saint Michael's. He was praised at the ceremonies by his colleagues for his rare commitment to the college and for his profound enhancement of teaching in the Department of Business Administration and Accounting.
Professor LaMarche spoke of the generosity and leadership of the late Edmund Cashman and of his wife Susan, benefactors of the endowed chair. Mr. Cashman was a graduate of the Saint Michael's class of 1958 and a former Saint Michael's trustee.
Professor Voigt helping revise business department curriculum
Professor Voigt, named to the three-year appointment to the LaMarche professorship, was commended as "an excellent choice" by Dr. Trumbower. He was extensively praised by his colleagues for his leadership in shaping and revising the curriculum for the Saint Michael's Department of Business Administration and Accounting. Professor Voigt was an adjunct professor for 13 years at Saint Michael's from 1977 to 1990, while also creating his own firm and working as senior manager at KPMG Peat Marwick. He joined the Saint Michael's faculty full-time in 1990, teaching Financial Managerial Fundamentals, Intermediate Accounting, and Management Information Systems.
The David LaMarche Chair is only the second chair to be endowed at the college. An endowed chair must be funded to a level sufficient to supply, through the return on investment, the salary and benefits for the chaired professor every year.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Photo Caption: Saint Michael's Business Department Honorees Dennis Voigt, left, and David LaMarche