Four Fordham employees were presented 1841 Award medals for their long service to the University at a ceremony in Duane Library at the Rose Hill campus on Nov. 28.
The award honors employees who have served Fordham for 20 or more years. The honorees in attendance, joined by their families and former 1841 Award recipients, were lauded by their supervisors and presented their awards by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.
“They are generous of heart, they are sticklers in what they do and they are humble,” McShane said. “They’ve truly endowed the University with their great spirit and we’re grateful for their extraordinary work.”
One of the honorees, Ramon Mateo, a sanitation services driver, was honored for his 40 years of service to Fordham. Linda Johnson, a senior enrollment services representative; Frederica “Freddy” Patterson, a secretary at Quinn Library on the Lincoln Center campus; and Antonio “Tony” Sberna, a custodian, received medals for 20 years of service. Mateo and Patterson could not attend the ceremony and their supervisors accepted the medals on their behalf.
The 1841 Award was established in 1982 by former Fordham President James C. Finlay, S.J., in honor of the year the University was founded by Archbishop John Hughes.
