By Valerie DiRocco-Ruskin MPA '95
A floor hockey game.
A hard check. A sickening crack. A call to Five Quad Volunteer Ambulance Service.
On an early February evening in 1977, an intramural hockey game on the University at Albany campus took a devastating turn.
Robert J. Pape ’76, MBA ’79 was playing alongside fellow students when he was illegally checked into a wall and went down. As players piled on, Pape’s head was forced down onto his chest. He heard a crack and collapsed to the floor. Others immediately realized the seriousness of the injury and called Five Quad Student Ambulance Service.
When Five Quad student volunteer Matt Staccone ’77 (now deceased) and the rest of the crew arrived, they knew there was no time to lose. Recognizing the severity of Pape’s neck injury, they carefully immobilized him first by taping his head to the floor, then using a scoop stretcher, sandbags and towels to keep his head and spine stable before transporting him to Albany Medical Center.
Pape suffered fractures and dislocation of his second through fifth cervical vertebrae, along with short-term paralysis. He spent several months in the hospital, much of that time in traction.
“I had to drop out of the full-time business program at the University because sitting was painful,” he recalled.
As his recovery progressed, Pape gradually returned to UAlbany, enrolling part-time in evening classes while juggling several part-time jobs to pay his way through school. “Five Quad literally saved my life and allowed me to continue on,” he said.
Years later, Pape found that UAlbany “came to bat for me once again.”
While working his way through graduate school and still recovering, Pape was invited by marketing professor Chris Buss to participate in a pitch meeting with Burlington Industries. His contributions impressed, and a scholarship and a graduate assistantship followed, helping make it possible for him to complete grad school.
“The quality of my education from UAlbany has been second to none,” he said. “The lifelong UAlbany friends and valued others who got me through my injury are among my greatest blessings and will never be forgotten.”
Today, retired from successful corporate and entrepreneurial careers, Pape and his wife of 40+ years, Barbara, are giving back to Five Quad — and the student volunteers — who helped make his future possible.
They recently endowed the Pape Family Five Quad Scholarship to support a first-generation student who demonstrates academic excellence, volunteers with Five Quad Student Ambulance Service and plans to attend medical school.
“My hope is that the scholarship recipients will work hard, be successful and someday be able to pay it forward for others,” Pape said. “I want this scholarship to be self-perpetuating.”
Nearly 50 years after a student ambulance crew raced to save his life, the Papes are ensuring that future students have the same chance to make a real difference in other people’s lives.
By Valerie DiRocco-Ruskin MPA '95
A floor hockey game.
A hard check. A sickening crack. A call to Five Quad Volunteer Ambulance Service.
On an early February evening in 1977, an intramural hockey game on the University at Albany campus took a devastating turn.
Robert J. Pape ’76, MBA ’79 was playing alongside fellow students when he was illegally checked into a wall and went down. As players piled on, Pape’s head was forced down onto his chest. He heard a crack and collapsed to the floor. Others immediately realized the seriousness of the injury and called Five Quad Student Ambulance Service.
When Five Quad student volunteer Matt Staccone ’77 (now deceased) and the rest of the crew arrived, they knew there was no time to lose. Recognizing the severity of Pape’s neck injury, they carefully immobilized him first by taping his head to the floor, then using a scoop stretcher, sandbags and towels to keep his head and spine stable before transporting him to Albany Medical Center.
Pape suffered fractures and dislocation of his second through fifth cervical vertebrae, along with short-term paralysis. He spent several months in the hospital, much of that time in traction.
“I had to drop out of the full-time business program at the University because sitting was painful,” he recalled.
As his recovery progressed, Pape gradually returned to UAlbany, enrolling part-time in evening classes while juggling several part-time jobs to pay his way through school. “Five Quad literally saved my life and allowed me to continue on,” he said.
Years later, Pape found that UAlbany “came to bat for me once again.”
While working his way through graduate school and still recovering, Pape was invited by marketing professor Chris Buss to participate in a pitch meeting with Burlington Industries. His contributions impressed, and a scholarship and a graduate assistantship followed, helping make it possible for him to complete grad school.
“The quality of my education from UAlbany has been second to none,” he said. “The lifelong UAlbany friends and valued others who got me through my injury are among my greatest blessings and will never be forgotten.”
Today, retired from successful corporate and entrepreneurial careers, Pape and his wife of 40+ years, Barbara, are giving back to Five Quad — and the student volunteers — who helped make his future possible.
They recently endowed the Pape Family Five Quad Scholarship to support a first-generation student who demonstrates academic excellence, volunteers with Five Quad Student Ambulance Service and plans to attend medical school.
“My hope is that the scholarship recipients will work hard, be successful and someday be able to pay it forward for others,” Pape said. “I want this scholarship to be self-perpetuating.”
Nearly 50 years after a student ambulance crew raced to save his life, the Papes are ensuring that future students have the same chance to make a real difference in other people’s lives.