Class Notes

Name: Benjamin Fishman

Class Year(s): 2014

Note: Benjamin Fishman BS ’14 is the winner of the first ever Newton Wellesley Hospital Lily Award, a peer-nominated award given to one member of the Med-Surg RN Float Pool.

Submitted on: July 8, 2025

Name: Josh Kierpiec

Class Year(s): 2008, 2011

Note: Josh Kierpiec BS ’08, MS ’11 recently moved back to Western, NY. He is currently the principal site reliability engineering lead at Blizzard Entertainment, managing Diablo and Hearthstone live services.

Submitted on: July 8, 2025

Name: Jeff Sugarman

Class Year(s): 1990

Note: Jeff Sugarman BFA ’90 has been running his design studio for 10 years.

Submitted on: July 8, 2025

Name: Forest McMullin

Class Year(s): 1977

Note: Forest McMullin BFA ’77 has had his debut novel published. It’s title is, Shooting at Shadows, and it is a thriller about a photojournalist who gets mixed up with a crew of neo-Nazi bank robbers. It’s based on McMullin’s experiences in 1993 photographing radical racists and neo-Nazi skinheads, some of whom went on to rob 22 banks in the Midwest. It’s currently available on Amazon.

Submitted on: July 8, 2025

Name: Bob Pittsley

Class Year(s): 2005

Note: Bob Pittsley BS ’05 was recently promoted from supplier development engineer to senior design engineer at an exciting startup called AirJoule LLC in Newark, Delaware. https://airjouletech.com/. Their technology captures potable water from air, even in arid climates. AirJoule® provides independent and reliable access to water, further reducing dependency on existing infrastructure and addressing water scarcity. Water is produced at scale using superior energetics compared to conventional technologies.

Submitted on: July 8, 2025

Name: Steve Stansbury

Class Year(s): 1980,1984

Note: Steve Stansbury BT ’84 worked for Google, Microsoft, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Boeing, Orbimage, Data IO, and McAfee. He published the world’s first Windows 3.0 Zortech 2.02 C++ app, versions 1 and 2. He has been the owner of Buryware for 38 years. Steve retired in March 2025.

Submitted on: July 8, 2025

Name: Jerome Fraillon

Class Year(s): 2021

Note: RIT was a great place for education and to meet like-minded engineers. After many years as a packaging developer in the beauty industry, Jerome Fraillon BS ’01 co-founded a packaging company called, Alder Packaging, specializing in sustainable packaging solutions in the personal care space. The company just celebrated its 4th year in business. They are growing very quickly and currently employ 15 people on the East, West Coast, and Taiwan.

Submitted on: July 8, 2025

Name: Todd Eichas

Class Year(s): 1987

Note: Todd Eichas AAS ’87 and his wife Dani own and operate the smallest Estate Farm Winery in the Finger Lakes region of New York State.

Submitted on: July 8, 2025

Name: Lance Johnson

Class Year(s): 1985

Note: Lance Johnson BT ’85, ITEM mechanical engineering technology, retired from General Dynamics, Electric Boat after a 40 year career contributing to the design, construction and quality assurance of US Navy Los Angeles, Ohio, Virginia and Columbia Class nuclear submarines. He started his career at EB during his 2nd RIT Co-op and never looked back!

Submitted on: July 8, 2025

Name: Francis Labate

Class Year(s): 1980

Note: Fran Labate BS ’80 recently retired after 45 years providing contract support to various agencies of the US Government. Most recently, his work involved data science related to security issues and a large portion of his work specifically focused on security as it relates to immigration. He ends his career as Vice President for Advanced Analytics at Fuel Consulting, LLC. Prior to this role he spent 21 years as a senior analyst at Scitor Corporation and 17 years as a senior systems engineer with Geodynamics Corporation. Originally from Granville, NY, he relocated to Northern Virginia upon graduation from RIT, where he met his wife, Espe, and together they raised 3 children, Katherine, Paul, and Phillip. They are traveling more now and enjoying retirement. Fran and his son, Paul, recently spent two weeks in Italy, and in September, Fran and Espe will be spending 3 weeks in eastern Canada.

Submitted on: July 8, 2025