IN MEMORIAM
Carol A. Blazina
Retired SUNY Oneonta Vice President, Community Leader
Editor's Note: This is a profile of Carol Blazina, prepared when she received the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce's Eugene A. Bettiiol Jr. Citizen of the Year Award in March of this year.
By JIM KEVLIN • allotsego.com
ONEONTA
When his youngest daughter was just 3-months-old, Enrico Blazina, a longshoreman in New York City, was struck in the head while on the job. Work rules then in place forced him back to work before was ready. “Within a day, he passed,” that daughter, Carol, said simply.
Her mother, Mary, now 96, was left with three daughters, the baby, plus Barbara, 4, and Janet, 2. “My work ethic is from my mom: She made it possible for us to stay together,” said her youngest.
That work ethic has been changing Otsego County for the better for a half century now, as the transplant from the city’s “Hell’s Kitchen” became the lightning rod for Title IX at SUNY Oneonta, learned the ways of Albany to obtained funding for Alumni Field House and its Dewar Arena and, retired from a college vice presidency, took Mayor Dick Miller’s vision for Foothills Performing Art Center and, as board president, made tough choices to achieve financial stability.
