John Stevens: Class of '74

“It’s easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission.”

John Stevens

Class of ’74

John Stevens is the type of person who goes after what he wants. This quality has served him well in his life and career. St. Bonaventure University was an important stepping stone on John’s path to a long and fulfilling career and life.  John grew up in Olean and was always aware of the existence of the university. But it wasn’t until it came time to make a college choice several years later that he realized what a great fit St. Bonaventure was for him. John started at St. Bonaventure University as a freshman in the fall of 1970. Some of his favorite memories from his undergraduate years had to do with the people he met during his four-year good journey:  

            “As a journalism student, I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Jandoli as my professor for a feature writing course. He taught me a lot about the art of writing and what it takes to be a good writer. I also had Professor Jim Martini for American Literature.  Dr. Martini was another professor that I admired a great deal.  He was a tremendous classroom teacher. I was always excited for his class to start, because he always created such a great learning environment for the all the students. Jim was actually a great influence on me as I developed my own teaching style and technique.”

            John not only enjoyed St. Bonaventure because of his classroom experience, but because of the extracurricular activities he was involved in as well.

            “Since I was a commuter student, I met most of my new friends through campus clubs that I belonged to.  I was part of the college radio station for all four years and wrote for the St. Bonaventure newspaper. I remember during my freshman year I came in second place for a national college newspaper contest for a feature piece that I had written.  It was a very exciting and rewarding time for me in my college career.”

            John graduated from St. Bonaventure in 1974 with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. During his senior year, John worked at WHDL radio station in Olean and then, after graduation, moved to a full-time position at the station.

            “The radio station was a really cool first out of college job for me because I was able to interview interesting people like Miss. New York State, who ended up receiving the title of Miss. America and I covered interesting stories like the 1974 sniper shooting at the Olean high school.”

            After spending about a year at the radio station John decided to pursue a job with the city of Olean. He worked in the Urban Renewal Agency for 2 years. Then in 1977, John decided to move back into radio for about 3-4 months, working for WESB Bradford radio station.  John then decided to pursue a job with BOCES where he took on the role of educational TV production coordinator.

            “With this job, I wrote, produced, and broadcasted different educational TV programs that were used by teachers for their students to watch in class. That job doesn’t even exist anymore, but it was a wonderful learning experience. However, I knew at that point that I didn’t want to do on-air work forever.”

            While still working at the BOCES job, John received a call from a friend saying that there was a Human Resources job open in Friendship, New York with a company called Macler Industries. Since John knew he didn’t want to do TV forever and it was a higher paying job, he decided to give the job a try.

During this time, John also started to work on his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree at St. Bonaventure University. John worked at Macler Industries until 1982 when he was offered a position in the Human Resources department at Dresser Rand as an administrator for training and development. John worked at Dresser Rand for 2 years.

            “I really enjoyed my job at Dresser Rand, but the company was going through some tough times with lots of layoffs.”

            In 1984, John took a job with AVX Corporations in the Human Resources department with the same job title that he had at Dresser Rand.

            “I did a lot of traveling and training during my time at AVX. The job was a great experience for me, especially because I got to learn more about how human resources really worked. During this time I also taught evening classes about training and development at Jamestown Community College (JCC). It was neat because it was onetime open enrollment classes and anyone around the area could pay a small fee to come in and learn. ”

            After John left AVX Corporation in 1989 he started working at Alcas Corporation (now Cutco) as the Director of Training and Organizational Development, where he worked until 1999. 

            “Working at Alcas was a great learning experience for me because I was there for a long period of time and it allowed me to learn about the human resources world.”

            In 1992, while working at Alcas, John received his Masters from SUNY Empire State College.

            “I was originally working towards a Masters at St. Bonaventure, but I started my degree at a very busy time in my life. I saw that Empire State College’s Masters Program would work better with my schedule. I also found that Empire State’s Masters Program had more of the specific coursework I wanted for my degree, coursework that St. Bonaventure just didn’t offer at that time.” 

            While at Alcas, he received a call from St. Bonaventure regarding the school’s plan to open an Achievement Center and they wanted to know if he would like to be a part of it. So, in 1999, John came back to St. Bonaventure and was certified to teach training and development courses, which he did from 1999-2004. He also gained more experience teaching at St. Bonaventure beginning in 1992 as an adjunct.

            While at the Achievement Center, he accepted the job of Vice President of Human Resources at the Rehabilitation Center in Olean, where he worked from 2004-2007. During this time, John also started his own consulting firm that he still does to this day.

            “While I was at the rehabilitation center, I received a call from Dr. John Watson, the Dean of the business school.  Dr. Watson asked me if I would like to return to St. Bonaventure as a full-time teacher in the school of business.  I instantly accepted. I have always loved teaching and have been doing it ever since.”

            One of John’s favorite memories as a professor is working with his friend and mentor, Dr. John Watson.

            “John had asked me to come back to teach.  Without him, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing now. He was so kind to me and such a great support system throughout my teaching career. But most importantly, he was also a great friend.”

Now that John is back teaching at the school where it all started for him he feels truly blessed and honored to be a bonnie forever.

            “To be honest, I never really left the school. I have done statistics for the men’s, and later on ladies, basketball games since 1977 and am still doing it. It’s nice because the community here at St.  Bonaventure hasn’t really changed all that much to me. The Franciscan spirit is still here and I believe that I, as teacher, need to show my students the true Franciscan spirit, the spirit that I have grown to know so well throughout my relationship with this university.”