James C. Mancuso
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
University at Albany
Albany, New York 12222
| Dr. James Mancuso '45 |
James C. Mancuso, HIS, class of 1945 passed away on June 10, 2005. Born in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, on January 17, 1928, Jim, as he was known to his friends, entered the Hershey Industrial School on June 19, 1939 along with his brother, Anthony (Gus). Both were sent to live at Brookside. Jim elected to follow a career in the baking curriculum, and spend all of his summers at the Hershey Bakeshop. He graduated in 1945.
After graduation, Jim began his career in the culinary arts as assistant pastry chef at the Penn Harris hotel in Harrisburg. After a two-year tour of duty in the U.S. Navy, he entered Dickinson College in Carlisle. Following his graduation from Dickinson, he entered the graduate program in clinical psychology at the University of Rochester on a Veterans Administration fellowship
While working as a school psychologist, Jim completed his dissertation and was awarded a Ph.D. in Psychology in 1958. From there, he went to work at the counseling service at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1961, he joined the faculty of the State University of New York at Albany and remained there until his retirement in 1997.
Jim authored several textbooks in Psychology during his tenure at Albany.
In 1953, Jim was assigned to do practical work in psychology at the Veterans Administration hospital in Buffalo, New York. Here he met his future wife, Susan Kuca, who was a nurse at the hospital. They were married in 1954. Last year, Susan and Jim, came to Hershey to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary with their three children, Renee, Michele and Martin and their four grandchildren and his sister, Carole, who lives in Hershey.
In 1986, Jim was honored by the Milton Hershey School when he was given the Alumnus of the Year award for his achievements in the field of psychology.
Jim was proud of his ethnic heritage and became very active in writing and commenting on issues in the Italian-American culture. He built a website on Italian-American Connections which can be found at http://www.sersale.org/mancuso . He also developed a website on Personal Construct Psychology www.mancusopecp.net.
Jim will be sadly missed by his family, friends and fellow alumnus.
by Millie Landis-Coyle
Use the back button to
return to your previous
location.