Al Fatale \u201904 still remembers his first class at Montclair State, because, he says, it had an enormous impact on his college years and his choice of career. The course was in Classics and the professor, Dr. Mary English, immediately sparked Al\u2019s imagination. Al would take many classes with Dr. English during his four years at Montclair State \u2015 so much so that he jokes that he \u201cmajored in History and minored in Dr. English.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al remembers arriving on campus filled with excitement and trepidation. \u201cIt was my first time living away from my home and family,\u201d says the Runnemede, N.J., native, \u201cbut I moved into Freeman Hall and almost immediately found a new family of friends, almost all of whom I am still friends with today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al excelled academically although his path to graduation had some bends in it. \u201cI went to Montclair thinking that I was going to be a science major. But I looked at the University\u2019s course catalog \u2013 in those days it was an actual book \u2013 and saw so many courses that I wanted to take, that I quickly decided not to be a science major.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al took full advantage of Montclair State\u2019s broad array of offerings and set about fashioning a liberal arts education for himself, eventually graduating summa cum laude. He also immersed himself in extracurricular activities, becoming an integral part of campus life. He was the student representative to the University\u2019s Board of Trustees, vice president of the yearbook and was the student speaker at his Commencement and at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Convocation.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been back to campus a number of times since he graduated and says that beyond the obvious transformation \u2013 there are many new or renovated buildings \u2013 he sees a change in the students. \u201cThere seems to be a stronger student presence. There is now a community on campus. Everywhere you look you see students wearing Montclair State tee shirts. There is real school pride.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Montclair State, Al headed to Ithaca, N.Y., to attend law school at Cornell. He says that he had some trepidation about being a kid from a state school surrounded by graduates of Harvard and Yale but those fears were quickly allayed. \u201cNobody is prepared for law school,\u201d he laughs. He credits the mentorship of Dr. English for helping him to succeed. \u201cI wrote my way onto Law Review,\u201d he says. Now an associate with the law firm Labaton Sucharow in Manhattan, Al focuses on prosecuting complex securities fraud cases on behalf of institutional investors.<\/p>\n
While at Montclair State, Al received financial support as an Edward J. Bloustein Distinguished Scholar. It\u2019s one of the reasons that he began making gifts to the University before he had even graduated. \u201cI like to give back. I got a great education at Montclair State and I want that opportunity to continue to be available to students.\u201d He notes that there is also a little \u201cenlightened self interest\u201d in his philanthropy. \u201cAs Montclair State grows and increases in prestige, the value of my degree increases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al recently returned to campus to celebrate the Honors Program 30th Reunion and made a leadership gift. In addition, he is a proud member of the Attorney Alumni Network and supports this affinity group as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Al Fatale \u201904 still remembers his first class at Montclair State, because, he says, it had an enormous impact on his college years and his choice of career. The course was in Classics and the professor, Dr. Mary English, immediately sparked Al\u2019s imagination. Al would take many classes with Dr. English during his four years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":206082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-77_alumni-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206083,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206081\/revisions\/206083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}