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Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation Salutes 2023 Awardees

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Board members of the Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF) and the Advertising Production Club of New York (APC-NYC) saluted five students and three organizations at an awards ceremony in New York City on June 29. (photo credit: Jenna Woo)

Five deserving students and three equally worthy organizations shared nearly $35,000 in education grants at the 2023 scholarship awards ceremony hosted by the Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF) on June 29.

With the 2023 scholarships and the institutional funding, GCSF – an all-volunteer, nonprofit 501(c)(3) entity – has contributed $1.4 million to the cause of print industry education since awarding its first scholarships in 2002.

This year’s awards were made despite the difficulty of fundraising during the long siege of COVID, said Diane Romano, President of the Foundation, as she concluded her three-year term as its leader. She also cited GCSF’s partnership with the Advertising Production Club of New York (APC-NYC), which funded three of the 2023 scholarships.

Both groups work in support of young people from the New York City metropolitan area who are enrolled in graphic communications study programs. Besides raising money for scholarships, GCSF and APC-NYC cooperate in providing technical training, mentorships, and work/study opportunities for students pursuing careers in the industry.

The ceremony took place in the Manhattan offices of TBWA/Chiat/Day/New York, a leading advertising agency and a co-sponsor of the event along with LB Graph-X & Printing. About 50 people attended, including the recipients, their family members, teachers, and friends, as well as board members of GCSF and APC-NYC.

John Aaron, who succeeds Romano as President of GCSF, presented the first of the Foundation’s scholarship awards to Sable Spellman (Kingsborough Community College), whose well-wishers at the event included four of her professors.

Ellen Hurwitch, incoming as Treasurer of GCSF, saluted Sharif Kariem Hill-Dunning (Farmingdale State College) as “an incredible guy” as she handed him the certificate for his scholarship grant.

Eloise Martinez, President and Treasurer of APC-NYC, and Luis Serrano, APC-NYC board member, presented the first of their group’s three scholarships to Daniel Jacob, a recent graduate of Long Island’s East Meadow High School who is now on his way to study UX (user experience) design at Northeastern University. Accepting on his behalf was one of his teachers, Heather Anastasio, district art department chair of the East Meadow school system.

David Garcia, Jr. will study video production at SUNY Purchase with the help of a 2023 scholarship award from APC-NY.

The award to Megan Sorg (Molloy University) was given in memory of Judy Salmon, a past president of APC-NY.

Student recipients, from left: Sharif Kariem Hill-Dunning (Farmingdale State College), 2023 GCSF Scholarship Award; David Garcia Jr. (SUNY Purchase), 2023 APC-NYC Video Production Scholarship Award; Megan Sorg (Molloy University), 2023 APC-NYC Judy Salmon Scholarship Award; Sable Spellman (Kingsborough Community College), 2023 GCSF Scholarship Award. Not in photo: recipient Daniel Jacob (Northeastern University), 2023 GCSF Scholarship Award. (photo credit: Kaye Torres)

Introducing the three institutional donations, Romano noted that contributing to group activities as well as to individuals expands the ways in which GCSF can help students and supporters of graphic communications.

Lisa Daniell, operations manager at Women’s Press Collective, thanked GCSF for repeating the grant it had made to her organization last year. Based in the Bronx, WPC has been teaching people how to write, design, and print in support of grassroots advocacy campaigns in their communities since 1982. Daniell said developing community media is more important than ever now that the mainstream news business has become “incredibly consolidated” and local newspapers are shutting down at the rate of one every three to four days.

Romano praised the Mariano Rivera Foundation for its efforts to open educational and career paths for young people who come from underserved backgrounds.

Its namesake founder, a New York Yankees pitching legend and a Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, has worked with printers in New Jersey to create training programs that enable local students to gain certified credentials in a variety of prepress, press, and project management skills. As part of its Save 653 initiative, Rivera’s organization is preparing to break ground on a 40,000-sq. ft. learning center in New Rochelle, NY that will offer, besides vocational training in print and other job skills, STEM learning opportunities, college preparatory services, and one-on-one mentorships.

“He’s building schools,” said Romano of Rivera’s pursuit of objectives that are also GCSF’s. “He’s raising money. We will work with the Mariano Rivera Foundation to help bring more young adults into this industry.”

GCSF has a similar relationship with the Department of Communication Design (COMD) at New York City College of Technology, which received its first grant from the Foundation last year. Presenting the 2023 donation, Hurwitch noted that because COMD students attend a school in the publicly funded CUNY system, the rules prevent them from accepting individual scholarships. Grants to the department let COMD enhance their learning experiences in other ways, Hurwitch said.

Eli Neugeboren, Professor of Communication Design, said the funding also helps to take some of the pain out of the austerity measures that CUNY schools have had to endure in recent years. Last year, for example, the GCSF money let COMD replace antiquated student cameras and acquire useful items such as hardware for displaying artwork and digital tablets for drawing.

COMD enrolls about 500 students preparing for careers in graphic design, advertising, motion design, illustration, and web design. It offers the CUNY system’s only BFA in communication design. Neugeboren spoke of the “buzz” of excitement felt in the department and across City Tech’s Downtown Brooklyn campus in general now that academic life is returning to pre-pandemic normal.

Summing up, Romano reiterated GCSF’s commitment to workforce development through education, training, and mentoring.

“All we focus on are the students,” she declared. “We award scholarships to students who work hard, care, and want to make a difference.”

Romano noted that employers in all industries are having a hard time recruiting the next generation of talent. Through its programs, GCSF “will train, mentor, and find the workforce that the graphic communications industry depends on,” she said.

Because it works without professional staff or dedicated office space, GCSF has virtually no overhead expenses. All of the money it raises passes through to students as scholarships and to qualifying organizations as cash grants. To donate, and for further information, visit https://gcsfny.org/donate/.

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Spirit of Fellowship Abounds at 69th Annual Franklin Event

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Honorees and well-wishers at the 69th Annual Franklin Event, from left: Diane Romano (Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation), Vince Roma (Ricoh), Dino Pagliarello (Konica Minolta), Mariano Rivera (Mariano Rivera Foundation), Andy Griffin (Premium Color Group), Larry Weiss and Luis Villa (Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office), John Watson and Mark Fitzgerald (Premium Color Group), Paul Reilly (New Direction Partners), Melissa Jones and Tim Freeman (PGCA).

What a splendid evening, and what a fitting celebration of the graphic communications industry at its best: the 69th Annual Franklin Event.

On March 30, Print & Graphic Communications Association (PGCA) joined 225 guests in paying tribute to individuals and organizations who have made exceptional contributions both to the industry and to society at large. Culminating in the presentation of the Franklin Award for Distinguished Service to baseball great and philanthropist Mariano Rivera, the event was also PGCA’s formal debut as the regional trade group it became through the consolidation of Printing Industries Alliance and the Graphic Arts Association as of January 1, 2023.

The setting was the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, an elegant venue on the Manhattan waterfront in New York City. There, throughout cocktails and dinner, guests did what members of the industry always thrive on doing at social gatherings: renewing old acquaintances, making new ones, and reflecting on how fortunate they are to be part of such a convivial and collegial scene.

The awards portion of the program, overseen by PGCA Co-Presidents Tim Freeman and Melissa Jones, moved briskly through a series of introductions and acceptances that kept the sound of applause continuous at the dinner tables.

Sextet of Supporters

First up were representatives of six companies hailed as Print Industry Champions for their support of the workforce development program for which Rivera has been honored with the Franklin Award. Sponsored by the Mariano Rivera Foundation, the Print – Design – Packaging Development Program prepares high school students to earn professional certifications in print-related job skills that are in high demand among industry employers.

The six Print Industry Champions make the program possible with their contributions of training curricula, instruction and mentoring, learning space, and equipment. Hailed for their generosity were Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office, EFI, Fiery, Konica Minolta, Premium Color Group, and Ricoh.

Few in the audience needed an introduction to Paul Reilly, recipient of PGCA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. As President and CEO of Cenveo, he was one of the industry’s most active and successful consolidators of commercial printing businesses. He later co-founded New Direction Partners, an investment banking firm that specializes in print industry mergers and acquisitions.

His Queens Roots Showed

Like the other recipients, Reilly kept his remarks amiable, succinct, and not focused on himself. He bantered with Diane Romano, another honoree, about what he said was her unbreakable resistance to his salesmanship in the old days. He confessed to Rivera, a New York Yankees icon, that as a Queens native, he is a born fan of the New York Mets. He thanked everyone present for their praise, and the industry for the many opportunities it has given all of its members to succeed.

Like Reilly, Diane Romano is one of the industry’s best-known figures in the Northeast. Like him, she also gained national attention for leading business ventures that changed the way the industry operates – in her case, by advancing its adoption of electronic prepress and digital file exchange.

As the current president of the Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF), she directs a campaign to fund the educations of students preparing for careers in the field. For leading this community-minded effort and many other others like it, she was recognized with the 2023 John Peter Zenger Medal for exceptional service.

Never Stand Down

With bluntness, humor, and fervor, Romano described the value of commitment to the worthy causes she has supported within the printing industry and in other areas of her professional and personal life. Citing struggles of her own, she urged courage in the face of adversity and fidelity to the ideal of always helping others in need.

Lisa Vega, Executive Director of the Mariano Rivera Foundation, outlined the philanthropic organization’s goals and initiatives in her introduction of its founder. Its mission is to educate, mentor, and support young people from underserved backgrounds in their pursuit of fulfilling careers and better lives. The joint effort with PGCA and the Print Industry Champion honorees will accomplish this with training provided at printing companies in the region and at a Foundation-sponsored learning center soon to be under construction in New Rochelle, NY.

Mariano Rivera rose from poverty and obscurity to become one of Major League Baseball’s true modern legends: a unanimously voted Hall of Fame inductee whose pitching record of 652 games saved stands unbroken to this day.

In accepting the Franklin Award for Distinguished Service, he spoke less about how he developed his extraordinary talents than about how he learned to acquire a sense of purpose and self-worth – a source of strength, he said, that too many disadvantaged young people have difficulty finding within themselves.

Pillars of Philanthropy

Faith, integrity, community, commitment, achievement, and stewardship are the core values that the Foundation strives to instill in its young protégés through programs like the one it is now carrying out in partnership with the printing industry. Rivera urged everyone to join with him in making Save 653, the one he regards as the pinnacle of his career: lifting young people out of discouraging circumstances and setting them on paths to brighter futures.

After the evening concluded on that high note, Rivera didn’t disappoint the many guests who flocked to him for autographs and photo opportunities. The success of the event also owed much to the support of Platinum Sponsors Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office, Canon Solutions America, Gilroy Kernan & Gilroy, Konica Minolta, Premium Color Group, Thomas J. Quinlan III, Quad, and Unimac; and Gold Sponsors Blanchard, Case Paper, Dalim Software, Dow Jones, Duggal Visual Solutions, Heidelberg, Kodak, New Direction Partners, Ricoh, and Paylocity.

Be a part of Mariano’s Greatest Save #653! Donate today – your donation will support the Mariano Rivera Foundation’s mission to help underprivileged youth around the country. Visit https://themarianoriverafoundation.org/653/

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2023 Zenger “Community Service” Medal Nominations Open

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Deadline: February 24, 2023, to be presented at 2023 Franklin Event, March 30, 2023

Print & Graphic Communications Association (PGCA), formerly Printing Industries Alliance, is seeking nominations for the 2023 Zenger Community Service Medal, to be presented at the 69th Annual Franklin Event on March 30, 2023, at The Lighthouse, Chelsea Piers, New York City.

The Zenger “Community Service” Medal is awarded to an individual employed in the graphic communications industry who has exhibited exemplary character in the form of charitable service, courage, or activism. A $1,000 contribution will be made to the 2018 Zenger Medal honoree’s charity of choice.

“The Zenger Medal honors those in our industry who inspire us to be more than we are and make not just our industry, but our communities, a better place to live. Past Zenger Medal recipients have come from all walks of life, making this recognition in a sense a true ‘unsung hero’ award,” said Tim Freeman, Co-President, PGCA. Previous recipients include Michael Duggal (Duggal Visual Solutions), Louis Bradfield (Billboard/THR), Mark Darlow (GCSF), Angelina Killane-Sims (Highroad Press), and Dwight Vicks (Vicks).

Zenger Medal nominations may be made with a nomination form.

Deadline for nominations is February 24, 2023. Nominators or honorees are not required to be members of PGCA, but the award recipient must attend the event to receive the Zenger Medal. For more information, contact Kim Tuzzo, PGCA at (716) 691-3211 or kim@printcommunications.org.

Information on sponsoring the Franklin Event is available here. This year’s Event will honor Mariano Rivera, Yankee great, community leader and philanthropist, as the 2023 Recipient of the Franklin Award for Distinguished Service.

“The Zenger Medal is not based on position or title. It is designed to recognize an employee at any level who meets the criteria listed, but who seldom, if ever, has received recognition for such exceptional public contribution by his or her professional peers,” noted Freeman.

The Zenger Community Service Medal is named after the second most influential printer in American history. John Peter Zenger was a New York City printer whose arrest, imprisonment, trial, and acquittal in 1735 set the foundation for freedom of the press in Colonial America. The prestigious medal is engraved in Latin with the words “Non numinis, virtue parator” (“Not by money, but by virtue gained.”).

About Print & Graphic Communications Association

Print & Graphic Communications Association (PGCA), formerly Printing Industries Alliance, represents graphic communications firms in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. PGCA provides a variety of consultative, informational, advocacy and cost cutting services for member firms across its territory. PGCA is headquartered at 636 North French Road, Suite 1, Amherst, NY, 14228. For more information, visit www.printcommunications.org or call (716) 691-3211.

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Legendary Game-Saver Becomes a Game-Changer for Print Industry Recruitment

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At an open house for the Mariano Rivera Foundation’s print certification training program at Premium Color Group, from left: Mariano Rivera, the foundation’s founder and president; Lisa Vega, executive director; and Luis A. Villa, vice president, Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office.

As the printing industry’s need for new talent intensifies, its most thoroughly conceived partnership for workforce development is making steady progress on multiple fronts.

Mariano Rivera, a legend in Major League Baseball and a philanthropist in private life, is working with printing companies and suppliers in Florida, Texas, and the Northeast to expand a vocational training program aimed at equipping underserved young people with sets of certified and highly employable job skills.

Through his namesake charitable foundation, the New York Yankees Hall-of-Famer is also building a second dedicated training center where students will receive, in addition to career education, the 1:1 mentoring experiences that Rivera and his present-day team see as equally vital to the students’ long-term success.

The first of these centers, located in Gainesville, FL, has produced its first crop of job-ready graduates. It is to be joined by a 40,000-sq.-ft. facility that the Mariano Rivera Foundation plans to break ground for in New Rochelle, NY, this spring.

A third such facility will open in Houston, TX, in June, according to Luis A. Villa (Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office), who is acting as the industry’s principal liaison to the foundation.

Tour for the Teachers

Individual printing companies also are stepping up to the plate on behalf of the effort. Leading off is Premium Color Group, a commercial printer that has provided a hands-on training classroom for new students in its Carlstadt, NJ, plant. Rivera visited the plant on January 17 to review the setup and to meet with about 20 local educators who had been invited to the open house to learn about the program for themselves.

Villa said that on February 13, six to eight students from the guests’ school systems will begin training at Premium Color Group, where they will supplement their classwork with practical exercises on the company’s graphic equipment. Another New Jersey printer, Sandy Alexander, has committed to offering students the same kind of learning experience in its Clifton plant in the first quarter of the year.

The curriculum at all of these sites aims to give students skill sets that will be instantly attractive to employers. The study, provided completely free of charge, consists of up to 360 lecture and lab hours spread over sessions that cover design for wide-format; workflow and print; finishing; products; and business management.

Students can select the areas in which they’d like to concentrate. Those training at Premium Color Group will come to the plant twice weekly after their regular high school hours for classroom lectures, hands-on work in the production areas across the hall, and 1:1 mentoring meetings with their volunteer counselors.

What makes the program unique as a career-building opportunity is the fact that upon completing it, each student will have earned a professional certification that is widely recognized by the industry as a competitive job qualification.

Taught by professional instructors from the vendors that created them, the certifications that students can choose from include EFI’s Fiery Professional and Expert Certifications; Color Management Professional certification from IDEAlliance; product-related and other certified training from Konica Minolta; Ricoh’s Digital Literacy curriculum, designed by CalPoly; and advanced skills in the industry’s most widely used Adobe applications.

Students who complete their full courses of study also will be trained in Lean Six Sigma Project Management by Six Sigma Black Belt instructors.

‘Basically Job Guaranteed’

According to Villa, acquiring this specialized knowledge base is the key to the trainees’ swift entry into a graphic arts workforce that needs them badly. Because most printing companies don’t employ people with certifiable skills, he said, graduates of the program are “basically job guaranteed” when they enter the market with this distinction.

“Jobs are waiting for them upon completion of certification,” agreed Lisa Vega, executive director of the Mariano Rivera Foundation, who also came to Premium Color Group to meet with the educators. The program, she pointed out, can be an important step forward to success for young people who don’t necessarily see a college degree as their way to break into the job market.

Not choosing the college route shouldn’t be seen as a career impediment when an opportunity like the foundation’s program is available, observed Ismael (Izzy) Sanchez, systems support manager, service, Konica Minolta Business Solutions. “In our industry,” he declared, “you can get to the next level by dropping in.”

Some of the school district representatives who met with Vega and Rivera at Premium Color Group glimpsed this kind of value for their students in the program.

Richard Gronda, director of curriculum, instruction, and supervision for Dumont, NJ, public schools, said his district is always on the lookout for “potential, authentic learning experiences for our kids” that can be shared with the school community. The Dumont school system has a work-study program, but it doesn’t include the kind of job training that the foundation’s curriculum provides.

Building skill sets for production management requires good coordination of effort on the part of those doing the training, said Gronda, noting that the program at Premium Color Group “looks like it has that workflow.” He added that the model it follows could be applied to workforce training and development in any industry.

‘College, College, College’

Marc Caprio, supervisor of school counseling services at Henry P. Becton Regional High School in East Rutherford, NJ, said that because the emphasis in career advisement is almost always on “college, college, college,” students usually have no way of knowing that non-academic options like the foundation’s program exist.

“We just want to show our kids what else is out there,” said Caprio, who called his introduction to the program and to Premium Color Group “amazing and eye-opening.”

Nicole De Bonis said she had a list of students whom she could refer to the program from the Saddle Brook, NJ, school district, where she is the director of curriculum and instruction. Students of graphic design in particular should be made aware of the “hidden jobs” they could have with the right kind of practical training, De Bonis commented.

Like all of the Mariano Rivera Foundation’s other initiatives, the certified print training program was developed primarily to benefit young people who hail from backgrounds where career pathways and other positive life experiences can be hard to come by. This is why individual mentor-mentee relationships are provided side by side with the technical training that students in the program will receive, said Esther Omeben, director of the foundation’s mentorship program.

Mentors are qualified, vetted volunteers who offer general moral support as well as career-focused advice. Their guidance helps students to see that there can be “a lot of life, and a lot of opportunity” beyond their present circumstances, Omeben said.

Cooperation vs. Competition

The foundation’s young novices won’t be the only ones studying in the classroom at Premium Color Group, according to Villa. He said that starting in February, other printing companies in the area will be invited to send their personnel to the plant for instruction in digital front end management and other subjects they want to get a better grasp of.

This is a good example of printers “helping each other out” with professional development instead of competing against themselves for talent, Villa said.

Meanwhile, work will go forward on the foundation’s 40,000-sq. ft. learning center in New Rochelle, where vocational training in print and other job descriptions, STEM learning opportunities, and college preparatory services will be provided. Villa said plans for the center include creating a student-run print shop that will produce jobs for schools, colleges, and other institutions in the area.

Everything that the Mariano Rivera Foundation is doing in partnership with the industry will be formally recognized when the Print & Graphic Communications Association (PGCA) presents Rivera with the 2023 Franklin Award for Distinguished Service at its 2023 Franklin Event on March 30 in New York City. For further information, visit https://printcommunications.org/2023-franklin-event/.

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Call Goes Forth for Entries into Neographics 2022, the Industry’s Largest Regional Print Competition

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Print is an industry. Print is a business. Print is a profession. But, print also is a craft that deserves to be showcased as the art form that it often succeeds in becoming.

This year, Neographics offers that opportunity to practitioners of the craft in what has become the industry’s largest regional competition for excellence in print. Two trade groups – the Graphic Arts Association (GAA) and Printing Industries Alliance – have extended the invitation to 4,000 potential entrants who have until July 29 to submit samples of their finest work for judging. The winners will be hailed at a banquet ceremony in Philadelphia on October 6.

The Neographics competition has been staged for more than 50 years by GAA, which represents printing businesses in Pennsylvania, central and southern New Jersey, and Delaware. Melissa Jones, president of GAA, notes that the tradition also salutes printers for being the providers of “one of the most longstanding parts of communication for humanity.”

The theme of this year’s event is “Celebrate Print,” a tribute to the industry’s richness and resilience in difficult times. As Jones says, “We’re here, we’ve made it, we’ve made it through COVID, and now we’re making it through the paper shortage, so we’re celebrating.”

A Good Neighbor Comes on Board

Joining in the celebration is Printing Industries Alliance, an association with a membership base in New York, northern New Jersey, and northwestern Pennsylvania. Both groups are encouraging their members to enter, although the competition also is open to nonmember printing businesses in their respective regions.

A joint effort makes sense because the territories “are so symbiotic” in their interests and outlook, according to Jones. “Even culturally we come together.” The print market “is so ingrained” across the regions that making the competition available to everyone in in it was a natural step forward for Neographics, Jones adds.

“We’re delighted that GAA has opened Neographics to participation by our members, who include some of the finest printers in the Northeast,” says Tim Freeman, president of Printing Industries Alliance. “Their entries are going to make this year’s competition a memorable one.”

Thirty-three judging categories are open to printing and printing-related businesses that submit work produced in the United States (a requirement) between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021.

There are three tiers of recognition: Franklin Awards for Excellence, given to pieces selected on their own merits; Best of Category, in which Franklin Award winners compete against each other for a unanimous vote by the panel of judges; and Power of Print, a best-of-the-best honor that also requires unanimous agreement.

A Bar Set High

These distinctions are not easy to win. The Neographics judges – veteran producers and buyers of print whom Jones describes as “really tough” – rate the pieces before them according to a list of stringent quality criteria. Emphasized, for instance, is color consistency: entrants must submit three copies of each piece in order to demonstrate it.

Entries are identified only by numbers – not their submitters’ names – during judging. Judges can move a piece from the category in which it was entered into a different category if they think it will get a more proper evaluation there. That way, says Jones, “we are being fair, and we give people more of an opportunity to really show off their work.”

“As print has evolved, the competition has also evolved,” she observes. Spanning all production processes, the judging categories include all of the major types of products in commercial and publication printing. The most heavily entered category is Books and Booklets, for hardcover and softcover examples above and below 32 pages. Annual reports, packaging, wide-format graphics, and finishing also are attracting strong shares of entries this year, according to Jones.

The most esoteric part of Neographics takes place in the category aptly named, “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done.” Entries here represent the kinds of jobs that can strike fear into the hearts of printers, involving what Jones describes as “just really unique, very difficult challenging print processes.”

For example, the category winner in a previous competition was a real estate piece with extra-heavy ink coverage and complicated crossovers that the customer wanted the printer to run on lightweight (40-lb.) offset stock in the form of a newspaper with nested signatures. “But they did it, and the agency and the client were absolutely delighted,” Jones says.

Members of the two sponsoring organizations can enter one piece for free and submit additional entries for $65 each; nonmembers pay $75 per entry. High school, tech school, and college students are welcome to compete in Neographics at just $15 per entry. Students as well as professional designers donate their services in creating the Neographics poster, entry form, and marketing materials.

National Competition to Follow

Everything will culminate in the gala Neographics Exhibition Awards Ceremony at Philadelphia’s Cescaphe Ballroom on October 6. From there, the top five winning entries – the Power of Print winner and four runners-up – will seek industrywide recognition in the 2023 Americas Print Awards, a new national competition organized by a coalition of 15 regional trade groups operating as Americas Printing Association Network (APAN). The national winners will be showcased at America’s Print Show 2023. (Dates and location TBD; America’s Print Show 2022 takes place in Columbus, Ohio, August 17-19.)

While everyone enjoys acclaim and accolades, bestowing them isn’t the sole purpose of Neographics. It’s just as important, says Jones, to see honorees “using this win to get the word out, to show what excellence you can display if you’ve done something amazing.” One of the judging categories is Printer’s Self-Promotion, and GAA helps award recipients to do just that with a “winner’s kit” of press releases that can be used to spread the good news.

Companies that have earned Neographics honors appreciate the marketing potential that comes with the prestige of capturing the awards. PDC Graphics of Southampton, PA has been entering the competition since 1997 and is one of its most prolific winners, including the Power of Print it took in 2020. Jim Rosenthal, president, can testify to the impression that success in Neographics makes on clients.

“There are certain types of customers that want to know how good you are,” he says. “It really adds legitimacy when we can say that there are a lot of printing companies out there, but not a lot that are as good as we are. If the requirement is something amazing, that’s why you want to talk to us, because we can do that.”

‘Now Do That for Me’

For customers, the quality of Neographics-caliber work can be a deal-clincher, according to Rosenthal. As he puts it, “when someone sees these pieces, they say, if you can do that for someone else, you can do that for me.”

Jeff Pintof, a senior account executive with The Standard Group in Reading, PA, has taken part in Neographics for nearly 20 years, serving frequently as chairman of the event. Standard is a two-time Power of Print winner, one of which was the “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” job noted above.

Participating in Neographics over the years “gave independent reviews of the quality of our work and enabled me to develop business that I wanted,” Pintof says, noting that the entries his team put together focused on high-end, niche work. “By entering the competition and sharing the awards with those clients, it helped me to bring a lot more business in.”

Pintof promotes Standard’s winning entries through social media and encourages customers to do the same by taking them to lunch and presenting them with copies of the award. Prospects get samples of the winning pieces along with job specs and handwritten notes of introduction. By leveraging Standard’s Neographics track record in this way, Pintof says, “I’ve developed a lot of clients.”

Done Well Can Win

He thinks that every printing company eligible to enter Neographics should take its own best shot at the honors. “Everybody has a chance,” he says, pointing out that submitted pieces don’t necessarily have to be fancy or complicated in order to win. “A lot of the jobs are just done well. You never know what the judges are looking for.”

Pintof also recommends entering as a gesture of solidarity with the sponsoring trade associations, and with other printers – a sentiment that Rosenthal shares.

Supporting Neographics “is very good for our industry,” Rosenthal says. “If other companies are doing well, that probably means we are doing well also. It proves out the kind of work we can all do. It’s bragging rights for all of us, but it’s bragging rights for us as a whole. You get to give everyone an ‘attaboy’ for our hard work.”

Those spurred to action by these words should remember that the entry deadline for Neographics is firm – all entries and fees must be received no later than July 29. Download the entry form here. For additional information, contact Pat Rose at GAA: (215) 396-2300; prose@gaaonline.org.

A Challenging Checklist

Neographics judges use poker chips to tag the entries they believe should move to the next round of the process. Those chips do not fall randomly. To earn one, a piece will have to measure up under any or all of the following criteria:

• Register, clarity, and neatness of impressions
• Sharpness of halftones and line drawings
• Definition in material requiring detail
• Attention to symmetry of margins and columns
• Richness and tonal qualities of color
• Effective contrast or softness as required by design or purpose of piece
• Quality of binding, stitching, punching, die-cutting, inserting, and folding
• Unusual spacing, size, shape
• Construction and format
• Clarity and readability
• Effective execution of color
• Overall visual impact
• Lineups and crossovers
• Consistency of color

The judges examine the finished products as well as how the job was performed. The number of colors, press size and printing process are used in determining the winners.

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Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation Salutes 2022 Awardees

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From left, Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF) board members David Garcia, Amybeth Menendez, John Aaron, and Diane Romano (president); Samantha Farber, recipient, 2022 APC-NYC Judy Salmon Scholarship Award; Kaye Torres, recipient, 2022 Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation Scholarship Award; Daniel Wong, chair, Communication Design Department, New York City College of Technology; Ellen Hurwitch and Natalie Alcide, GCSF; and Lisa Danielle, operations manager, Women’s Press Collective.

The Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF) returned to center stage with the scholarship awards ceremony it hosted in New York City on June 22 – its first such in-person event in three years.

Diane Romano, president of GCSF, acknowledged that COVID-19 had temporarily slowed down the group’s efforts to support young people from the New York City metropolitan area who are enrolled in graphic communications study programs. “But we never stopped working on behalf of the students, and now we are back in full force,” she declared.

GCSF marked its reappearance by awarding cash scholarships to four students and presenting cash stipends to one school and two organizations that train people for careers in graphic communications. The evening’s grants totaled $20,500, bringing to $1.2 million the amount of money that GCSF – an all-volunteer, nonprofit 501(c)(3) entity – has raised and contributed in the cause of print industry education since awarding its first scholarships in 2002.

Joining GCSF for the ceremony was the Advertising Production Club of New York (APC-NYC), which endowed one of the four student scholarships in honor of the late Judy Salmon, an APC-NYC past president and member of the board. The event took place in space provided by Grey Global, a leading advertising agency, at its New York City headquarters in Manhattan’s Flatiron district.

This year’s student scholarships are the latest of the more than 450 individual grants that GCSF has made to date. The 2022 recipients, their schools, and their awards are:

• Kenneth Murillo, St. John’s University, 2022 Dynamic Dynosaur Award, funded by Dino Manuel, creative director of Dynamic Dynosaur, a media studio

• Kaye Torres, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), 2022 Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation Scholarship Award

• Melody Clarke, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), 2022 Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation Scholarship Award

• Samantha Farber, University of Michigan, 2022 APC-NYC Judy Salmon Scholarship Award

The award honoring Judy Salmon is the most recent cooperation on behalf of graphics studies between GCSF and APC-NYC, which has contributed nearly $280,000 in support of scholarships over the years. Co-presenting it were Eloise Martinez, APC-NYC treasurer and board member, and Paul Nicholson, board member. Both spoke of the scholarship’s namesake with affection and respect.

“You never saw her without a smile,” said Martinez, citing Salmon’s long record of dedicated service as a member and an officer of APC-NYC. Nicholson, her manager at Showtime, called her “the most enthusiastic print producer I’ve ever seen on the planet.”

Introducing the three institutional awards, Romano noted that contributing to group activities gives GCSF an additional way of channeling funds to deserving students of graphic communications.

John Aaron, a member of GCSF’s board of directors, presented a grant to the Women’s Press Collective (WPC), a Bronx-based organization that teaches people how to print in support of grassroots advocacy campaigns in their communities. “Gutenberg probably would have been pretty impressed” by WPC’s efforts to make the craft of printing accessible to the public, Aaron observed.

For the last 21 years, the Annual Citywide Graphic Arts Competition has invited New York City high school students to showcase their best work in graphic design, packaging design, digital illustration, photography, and other creative categories. Presenting its award, GCSF board member Ellen Hurwitch noted that the 2022 competition hosted more than 100 students and distributed prizes worth over $4,500.

This year’s competition took place at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), where the Department of Communication Design has become the recipient of a 2022 grant from GCSF. Located in Downtown Brooklyn, City Tech is a unit of City University of New York (CUNY) and has a long history of offering degree programs in graphic communications.

Accepting the grant award from Hurwitch, department chair Daniel Wong said that the funding would be “an immense help” in creating a new research design center, covering students’ contest entry fees, and otherwise assisting them in pursuing their studies. He noted that CUNY is consistently challenged for financial aid and that little of what it does receive trickles down to a level where it can be used to help students directly.

Wong’s department presently serves 500 students preparing for careers in graphic design, advertising, motion design, illustration, and web design. He pointed out that those in their third year of study are only now starting to find out what in-person college learning and campus life are like because of restrictions imposed by COVID-19. The challenge, Wong said, is to give them the kinds of experiences that college students ordinarily would expect at this stage of their educations.

Providing that kind of help is what GCSF exists to do, according to Romano. Through scholarships, mentoring, and training, “our goal is to assist students in accomplishing their goals, and build the graphic communications workforce.”

“The future is in the students,” Romano declared, calling upon the industry and corporations that rely on graphic communications to support GCSF with their donations. This year, the business benefactors include Candid Worldwide, brilliant:, Mohawk Fine Papers, Neenah Paper, and LB Graph-X & Printing Inc.

Because it works without professional staff or dedicated office space, GCSF has virtually no overhead expenses. All of the money it raises passes through to students as scholarships and to qualifying organizations as cash grants. To donate, and for further information, visit https://gcsfny.org/donate/.

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A Time-Honored Tradition Is Restored with the Return of the Franklin Event

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Tim Freeman (left), president of Printing Industries Alliance, with Franklin Award recipients Michael Duggal and Thomas J. Quinlan III.Tim Freeman (left), president of Printing Industries Alliance, with Franklin Award recipients Michael Duggal and Thomas J. Quinlan III.

Picture the scene: a crowded but convivial cocktail reception. An elegant, jazz-accompanied sit-down dinner in a posh private club. Honors proudly paid and sincerely accepted. Networking in an intimate after-party at the bar to top it all off.

Affairs mixing business and pleasure like this used to be something to look forward to in the printing industry until COVID-19 cut them short. But, the tradition came back to life on November 17 with the return of the Print Drives America Foundation Franklin Event, a live, in-person celebration of industry service, leadership, solidarity, and the enduring power of the medium that continues to inspire them.

Hosted by the Print Drives America Foundation and Printing Industries Alliance, the 68th edition of the Franklin Event drew 180 people – all showing proof of vaccination – to the 101 Club in midtown Manhattan. The centerpiece of the evening was the presentation of the Franklin Award for Distinguished Service to Thomas J. Quinlan III, the 2020 honoree; and Michael Duggal, selected to receive it in 2021.

Quinlan, the retired Chairman and CEO of LSC Communications, held some of the industry’s highest-level executive posts throughout his 26-year career in printing. Duggal, CEO of Duggal Visual Solutions, is renowned for turning an analog prepress business into one of the nation’s most fully equipped providers of visual imaging services.

Roll Call of Distinction

Their Franklin Awards are the latest in a series of tributes that began in 1952 as the printing industry’s salute to iconic personalities on the national stage. In keeping with that idea, recipients have included former U.S. presidents, military leaders, industrialists, and other celebrities.

In recent years, however, the honor has refocused on leadership and service within the industry itself, hailing members who have compiled exceptional track records in business as well as in support of worthy causes. The 2020 and 2021 recipients are exemplars of both.

Introducing Quinlan, Steve Drew of LSC Communications praised the modesty and kindness that have keynoted the honoree’s long list of professional and personal achievements. “Tom is humble, Tom is private,” Drew observed. Whenever need arose, “Tom didn’t tell stories – he just acted quietly.”

Among Quinlan’s many good deeds on behalf of others was paying full tuition for students in Staten Island, his home borough, who had lost parents in the 9/11 attacks. Quinlan also raised $100,000 for the graphic communications scholarship program at New York University, which recognized him with its Prism Award in 2011.

In his acceptance remarks, Quinlan admitted that he barely knew what a printing press was on the day that the legendary Robert G. Burton, Sr., hired him away from the financial industry to become the assistant treasurer of World Color Press. From there, the arc of his career took him to the pinnacle of leadership in the commercial printing segment, culminating in his 2007 appointment to president and CEO of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, then the industry’s largest commercial printing firm.

‘Some Kid from Staten Island’

“Whoever thought that some kid from Staten Island would be in charge of R.R. Donnelley?” Quinlan mused. Looking at the bigger picture, he said that the continuing strength of the print medium lies in the fact that “this industry has to innovate every day” as it has done since Gutenberg’s time. Quinlan also predicted a rebound for print as digital and social media, mired in controversy and facing regulatory pressure, start to lose some of their hold on audiences.

“You can’t talk about grit without talking about Michael Duggal,” declared Glen Rabbach of Duggal Visual Solutions. “Mike believes in vision, and he believes in process.”

The honoree displayed both virtues when he made an extraordinary change to the company’s production operations early in 2020, during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. Rabbach related how, on just a few days’ notice, Duggal pivoted the business almost entirely to manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-line responders. Duggal Visual Solutions eventually would deliver more than 3 million pieces of PPE, saving lives and helping to preserve its own existence as a business as well.

“Mike has led us back to the light at great sacrifice,” Rabbach told the audience.

Today the honoree presides over a technology-rich operation that has expanded beyond its base in New York City to additional sites in Portland, Ore., and Burbank, Calif. Under his stewardship, the company has come a very long way from the film processing business that his father, Baldev Duggal, started in 1961 and that he took over as CEO in 2002.

Accepting his Franklin Award, Duggal identified quality and creativity as the main motivations for him and his staff, whom he thanked for helping him to make the company what it is. “I’ve been blessed by the loyalty of amazing people,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to see what people can do when they work together.”

‘Let’s Value What We Do’

Duggal also offered encouragement to the industry as a whole. Instead of obsessing about the numbers, he urged, “let’s value what we do. We’ve been dominated by larger suppliers and larger customers, and we’ve fallen victim to price.” He reminded the audience that print is a force for good in every community across the country. When he asked those in the room to stand up if they had ever donated printing to schools, churches, or other local organizations, many rose to their feet with him.

Spreading the word about print’s pervasive influence is the mission of the Print Drives America Foundation, a 501(c)(3) initiative aimed at burnishing the medium’s reputation and increasing its market share. Under the direction of Martin J. Maloney, the foundation operates a multi-pronged national marketing and public relations campaign to raise awareness of print among media-buying decision makers.

The success of the effort, said Maloney, is reflected in the fact that more than half of the 10 print segments promoted by the foundation “have gone through the roof” in terms of growth. He added that together, the segments dwarf all other media in volume by half, including internet and broadcast.

“Print is colossal, print is high-tech, print is green, and print is cool,” Maloney declared. “Print is firmly back in the driver’s seat.”

By the same token, the Franklin Event is firmly back on the industry’s social calendar. The date for 2022 will be announced by Printing Industries Alliance, the trade association representing the graphic communications industry throughout all of New York State, the northern half of New Jersey, and northwestern Pennsylvania.

“The level of buzz we heard during this year’s event tells us that we made the right decision,” said Tim Freeman, president of Printing Industries Alliance.

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Anticipation Builds for 68th Print Drives America Franklin Event on Nov. 17

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Just as Broadway theatre has finally returned to New York City, it’s almost showtime for the printing industry’s most prestigious social gathering in the metro area: the 68th Print Drives America Franklin Event.

Printing Industries Alliance has again announced that the confirmed date for the 68th Print Drives America Franklin Event is Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The evening’s stars will be Thomas J. Quinlan, the former CEO of LSC Communications and RR Donnelley, who remains the 2020 Franklin Honoree; and 2021 Franklin Honoree Michael Duggal, CEO of Duggal Visual Solutions.

The event, a festive salute to the industry and its leading lights, had to be postponed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, with theatres, restaurants, and sports stadiums reopening their doors, the program is once again ready to provide the kind of socializing that the industry in the metro area has been obliged to put on hold for far too long.

The event will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with cocktails at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., and the Franklin Awards ceremony at 8 p.m. followed by an after party. The venue is Club 101, a private club located in the iconic Kalikow Building on Park Avenue at the corner of 40th Street.

The pent-up demand to resume the industry’s premier social event in the metro area is seen in the fact that 16 table sponsorships have been confirmed to date. Because a full-capacity audience is expected, attendees are urged to reserve their tables and seats now.

Proceeds will go to the Print Drives America Foundation, the national champion and cheerleader for the America’s print industry. “The Franklin Event is an opportunity to support and celebrate the entire print industry,” states Marty Maloney, Executive Vice President of the Printing Industries Alliance and Executive Director of Print Drives America.

Sponsorships are available at the same cost as in the past: $6,500 for tables of eight, and half tables of four for $3,500. Individual seats are $350. To sponsor a table or reserve a seat, e-mail Marty Maloney at mmaloney@pialliance.org or call him at 203-912-0804.

Sponsored tables are considered donations and are tax deductible. As a reminder to attendees, all New York City venues like the 101 Club now require proof of vaccination to be shown at entry.

About the Franklin Event

Printing Industries Alliance has presented the Annual Franklin Event since 1952. During that time, a wide variety of impressive national and industry dignitaries have received well-earned recognition at the event. Franklin Event proceeds are earmarked solely to support the Print Drives America Foundation, a national initiative developed to give Print a stronger voice, increase Print’s dominant market share, highlight its effectiveness and ROI, and enhance its positive perception. The Print Drives America Foundation is registered as a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization.

About Printing Industries Alliance

Printing Industries Alliance, an independent association, represents the graphic communications industry in all of New York State, the northern half of New Jersey and northwestern Pennsylvania. This geographic footprint is the most important printing market in the U.S., with more Fortune 500 companies than any other state or region. The area is also the global center for several critical worldwide industries including finance, marketing, media, real estate, and culture; as well as being one of the world’s largest population centers.

In addition to print advocacy and education, the PIA provides its members with a variety of consultative, informational and cost-saving services. The association also provide governmental representation at the federal, state and local level. The PIA is headquartered in Amherst, NY with a metro New York office in Manhattan at 400 Chambers Street.

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Festive Franklin Event Returns to NYC on November 17

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The industry’s social calendar will mark a long-overdue return to normal on November 17 with the celebration of the 68th Annual Franklin Event.

The event, a festive salute to the industry and its leading lights, had to be postponed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, with indoor gatherings now possible to conduct safely, the program is ready to satisfy the pent-up demand for in-person socializing that the industry in the metro area has been obliged to put on hold for far too long.

The venue is the 101 Club, an elegant space located at 101 Park Avenue (at 40th Street) in Manhattan. The host is Printing Industries Alliance, the trade association for New York State, Northern New Jersey and Northwestern Pennsylvania. Proceeds will benefit the Print Drives America Foundation, an advocacy campaign that promotes the use of print.

For a good deal of its 69-year history, the Franklin Event spotlighted prominent honorees on the national stage who weren’t necessarily tied to the printing industry (although industry leaders also were recognized). In recent years, however, the emphasis has shifted entirely to print and graphic communications, with tributes reserved for those who have done the most to advance print both as a communications medium and as a business enterprise.

To be hailed for their singular achievements this year with the Print Drives America Franklin Award for Distinguished Service are Michael Duggal, CEO of Duggal Visual Solutions; and Thomas J. Quinlan, former CEO of LSC Communications and RR Donnelley & Sons. 

Duggal heads one of the industry’s most fully capable providers of visual imaging solutions. As an early adopter of advanced printing technologies, the New York City-based company has produced high-end work for museums, galleries, retail environments, and many other customers around the world. Last year, Duggal and his team made headlines by turning the company into a major manufacturer of personal protective equipment (PPE) for first responders and others in the metro area.

Thomas Quinlan has a long and distinguished record of executive leadership with some of the industry’s best-known firms. Besides his stints with LSC Communications and RR Donnelley, he has held senior management positions with Moore Wallace and World Color Press.

The presentation of Franklin Awards to Duggal and Quinlan will be the ceremonial high point of a party that begins at 6 p.m. and concludes with an on-site after-party to which all attendees will be invited. The cover charge – $6,500 for a sponsored table of eight, $3,500 for a table of four, and individual seats for $350 – includes cocktails, a sit-down dinner, and music provided by Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Besides its convivial aspect, the annual Franklin Event has always been associated with industry advancement, which it has supported by contributing its profits to scholarship funds, foundations, and other causes that benefit printers and their employees. This year, proceeds will be earmarked solely for Print Drives America, an initiative that aims at giving print a higher profile among the media by highlighting its effectiveness and ROI.

Companies and individuals wishing to help the cause can do so by purchasing sponsorships, which aren’t limited to tables. Details about sponsorship opportunities are available from Kim Tuzzo, Printing Industries Alliance, 716-691-3211, or ktuzzo@PIAlliance.org. Marty Maloney, executive vice president of Printing Industries Alliance and executive director of the Print Drives America Foundation, also has information. Contact him at 203-912-0804, m.maloney@bmcorp.com, or mmaloney@pialliance.org. 

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TANY, Trieste, the Museum of Printing, and a Fond Look Back at the Metro Area’s Typographic Trade

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john_trieste-1Once upon a time, the printing industry was full of small, craft-specific trade associations and fraternal groups that gave it a soulful center of gravity it doesn’t have today.

Operating on shoestrings, these grass-roots guilds lacked the extended organizational structures and the revenue-focused business objectives that give national trade associations their heft. What they had going for them, mostly, were the warm feelings of good fellowship they inspired and the genuine pleasure their members always took in one another’s company.

When these groups and clubs thrived, it was for two reasons: the engagement of the members and the quality of the professional leadership. The former wasn’t possible without the latter. The key to everything was the guidance of executive directors who could rally the troops, plan the activities, sweat the small details, and keep all their members mindful of why they enjoyed being with one another as much as they did.

No circle of friends or person-in-charge ever made the small-group model work more winningly than the Typographers Association of New York (TANY) and John Trieste, the association executive who shepherded it for more than 30 years. TANY is no longer active as an association, but there are still plenty of former members who remember the good times they had when it was. Something else they can’t forget is how much of the joy of their shared experience they owe to Trieste.

And so came more than 50 people to the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA, on September 17 to celebrate what they said was but probably wasn’t their “last reunion.” They joined the Museum in dedicating a library to Trieste in recognition of his exceptional record of service to TANY and the other New York metro area trade associations he oversaw. The guests, numbering more than 50, included 22 members of the honoree’s extended family. Everyone shared in the pride of seeing him receive the permanent tribute that the designation of the space in his name represents.

john_trieste-2Friends of TANY and fans and family of Trieste at the Museum of Printing

Fittingly, the John Trieste Library will serve as the Museum’s learning center for the study of the art and the science of typography. The Museum’s chief curator and principal organizer, Frank J. Romano, is a leading expert on typography and a former member of TANY himself. A guest lecturer at many TANY functions, Romano officiated at the library dedication ceremony and hosted a banquet in Trieste’s honor in another part of the Museum.

The event also was an occasion for Trieste to talk about his years with TANY and the trajectory that industry groups followed during and after that time.

He wasn’t always a trade association executive, having worked as a letterpress pressman and a mapmaker for 10 years before being hired by the New York Employing Printers Association (NYEPA) in 1960.Within five years, NYEPA, a network of groups representing the owners of 1,500 printing firms and trade shops, had asked him to take over the management of a number of the groups including the Brooklyn Printers Association, the Printing Estimators and Production Men’s Club, and the typographers’ section that became TANY.

Later, on behalf of other umbrella organizations for the metro area, Trieste would also run the Sales Association of the Graphic Arts, the Long Island Graphic Arts Association, and the Binders and Finishers Association. Mavis Da Costa, a career administrator who is as revered by TANY for her contributions as Trieste is for his, assisted him in many of these assignments.

The keynote of his management style for all of these groups, and particularly for TANY, was camaraderie. “Our mission was to change the owners’ perception of each other from rivals to colleagues,” he says. “If we were colleagues instead of competitors, we would be stronger as an industry.”

Trieste knit TANY together with regular meetings in which expert speakers briefed the group on best business practices, technological developments, and other essential topics for providers of typographic services. A regular presenter at these gatherings was Jack Powers, a consulting technologist who was one of the first industry observers to perceive the impact that desktop publishing and digitization would have on graphics firms of all kinds in the metro area.

john_trieste-3Titans of TANY, from left: Mavis Da Costa, Frank Romano, Bob Wislocky, and Mark Darlow

TANY members bonded personally through social gatherings and excursions to resort areas like Atlantic City and the Poconos—all courtesy of Trieste, who also photographed every event he emceed. Many of these images took attendees at the tribute on a stroll down memory lane in a pair of nostalgic slide shows that were among the high points of the program.

At its peak, TANY had an office on Eighth Avenue at 34th Street and 180 companies, union and non-union, on its member roster. However, times and technologies were changing, and the group’s fortunes changed along with them.

Trieste recalls membership dropping sharply in 1991 and 1992 as in-house typesetting and composition chipped steadily away at customers’ need to obtain these services from trade shops. Many typographic firms closed, merged, or morphed into other kinds of businesses. By 1997, there weren’t enough dues-paying members left to cover TANY’s expenses, and Trieste reluctantly suspended operations the following year.

He then retired to Florida—but “retired,” in the case of someone with Trieste’s full-time organizational instincts, is a highly relative term. He engaged with causes related to Alzheimer’s Disease and was active with his local chapter of AARP. Ever the event planner, he inaugurated a reunion of other industry members who had retired to the Sunshine State and kept the annual snowbird get-together going for 12 years.

He currently is a contributing writer for Senior Life of Florida, which publishes his monthly column on affordable, educational, and family-friendly tourist destinations in the central part of the state.

Frank Romano said that because of Trieste’s affectionate stewardship of the group, “TANY was my family” during the 10 years in which he commuted between his home in New Hampshire and the meetings he attended in New York City. Trieste hinted that although the gathering in his honor had been billed as the “last” assembly of the metro typographers, the term perhaps shouldn’t be taken too literally.

The group may not exist any longer in the formal sense, but the camaraderie of its members lives on. As long as this continues to be true, there’s no reason to dispute his claim that the event in Haverhill was “the first of the last reunions” that TANY can look forward to celebrating.

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