In order to get a student’s attention, Albert Mario was known to say “You need to use your head for something more than a hat rack, my friend.”

And now students stopping in to the SUNY Poly Library in Utica will have an extra spot to hang their hat. In January 2018 the SUNY Poly Library opened the doors to the Mario Café, serving up beverages provided by Utica Roasting Company, as well as light food and small meals with a focus on local New York fare, including offerings from throughout the Utica area.

Most significantly, this new café honors a longtime member of the SUNY Poly Faculty who left an indelible mark on the institution from its earliest days – the late Professor Emeritus Albert Mario.

Present at the café ribbon cutting was Mario’s nephew, Rudy D’Amico, who referred to the new campus hotspot as the “Uncle Albert Café.”

“So many conversations I had with him revolved around SUNY and what he loved about this institution,” D’Amico told the crowd at the opening. “What an honor to have him recognized this way.”

A café was a fitting tribute, D’Amico said, for a man who made sure families in East Utica had olive oil for the holidays by buying cases wholesale and having it delivered to their door.

“Food was a high priority for our family,” D’Amico said with a laugh.

His uncle, Albert Mario, joined the institution shortly after its establishment in 1966, known then as Upper Division College. Before coming to SUNY Poly, Mario had been a faculty member at Utica College and an employee at the Rome Air Development Center. Colleagues of Mario’s recall that when Upper Division college was formed in 1966, he saw an opportunity to create a program that would give graduates skills needed to be successful members of the workforce.

“He left a beautiful traditional campus at Utica College to come to Upper Division College in an old, run down mill building on Court Street,” recalled Associate Professor Emeritus Robert Orilio of the Business Management Department. “Upon his arrival to Upper Division College, he energized the business program which, to my knowledge, was the first approved academic program at the school.”

Thanks to his tireless efforts in the classroom, Mario created visibility and credibility for the business program as well as establishing the Small Business Development Center and the Small Business Institute.

“This was a program where the Small Business Administration would fund the School of Business to create a class where the students went out and did projects with small businesses in the community,” recalls Thomas Reynolds, a Business Advisor at the Albany Small Business Development Center (SBDC) who as a graduate student worked with Albert Mario.

When the institution was designated as an SBDC in 1985 thanks to Mario’s work in the Small Business Institute Program, Reynolds was one of the first SBDC employees. His work to connect the college to real-world businesses and experiences led to numerous opportunities and developments, such as the school being designated as part of the New York State Industrial Innovation Extension Service, a program providing manufacturing and technical assistance to small manufacturers in the region and a forerunner to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program.

“Al was my mentor upon my hiring in January 1977 and took me under his wing,” said Orilio. “I noted his tougher than nails approach in the classroom was simply a ruse to get students to understand that the way they comfort themselves, their dress, their speech mannerisms all played a role in their future success.”

Many described him as a superb teacher who brought to the classroom a hands-on, real world scenario that reflected society at the time and paved the way for the experiential learning that has become a trademark throughout SUNY Poly’s 50+ year history.

“Together, he, [Associated Professor of Accounting] Ken Wallis, and myself traveled the state visiting community colleges to inform them of our programs in the department,” said Orilio. “Those contacts with faculty, staff, and students were the beginning of the tremendous growth of the business programs.”

It was thanks to Mario that the institution gained approval from the New York State Education Department and SUNY Central for an Advanced Management certificate program that ran for many years for middle level managers of local and regional companies, with companies including Rome Labs, General Electric, Oneida Limited, and Par Technology taking part.

Local business leaders also got a taste of academia when they came into the classrooms to teach for the “Professors for a Day” program while the “Professionals for a Day” program allowed students to gain the workplace experience by shadowing at local companies. Both programs were created by Mario.

Even when the grades were in and the classroom work complete, Mario continued to take an active role in the institution, the community, and his students, coordinating the yearly graduation ceremony, including making arrangements for its location in the days when the college had no campus, securing a keynote speaker, and granting any honorary degrees.

And though Mario is no longer with us, the memory of his contributions to the school that would become SUNY Poly lives on as an influential force, whether from his teaching, education, mentorship, or community involvement, and through the many lives that he came into contact with.

“I will never forget the influence Al had on me and my teaching style,” recalls Orilio. “I do not think I would have been as effective an educator without him as a mentor and guide.”

Bearing his name, the Mario Café opened Thursday, January 18 in the Cayan Library at SUNY Poly in Utica and will be open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.. It is closed on Saturdays and open Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.