Morrisville College Foundation elects three new directors

MORRISVILLE — The Morrisville College Foundation announced it has elected three new directors to its 25-member board. 

The new members — Shirley Crawford of Canastota, Nancy Roberts of Saratoga Springs, and Rita Scharman of Sherrill — took office on July 1. Each will serve a three-year term.

Crawford has served as a member of the biology faculty at SUNY Morrisville since 1973. As the longest-serving faculty member in Morrisville’s history, she has taught thousands of students during her tenure and is the faculty member most frequently credited by alumni as having impacted their education and future career, the college said. Crawford and her husband, Jack, have an extensive philanthropic history with the college through the Crawford Endowed Scholarship and Crawford Hall named in their honor. Crawford holds doctoral degrees from SUNY ESF and Syracuse University, a master’s degree from Rollins College in Florida, and a bachelor’s degree from Penn State University.

Roberts has been a professor at the University at Albany, teaching journalism and communication since 2004. An expert on the history of journalism and communication and on literary journalism, she has a special interest in the history of advocacy journalism. Roberts is the daughter of the late Art Roberts, “a beloved” SUNY Morrisville faculty member, and his wife, Doris, the college said. Roberts has been a long-time supporter of the Art & Doris Roberts Scholarship, named in her parents’ honor. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Swarthmore College, a master’s degree in American studies from Brown University, and a master’s and Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. 

Scharman is president of Scharman Propane Gas, Inc. After completing her accounting degree at Morrisville, she earned her bachelor’s degree at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. She worked as an auditor before taking over the family business, Scharman Propane Gas Inc., in 1988. A longtime lover of horses, Scharman has demonstrated her support for Morrisville’s equine program, setting up two scholarships and sponsoring critical equipment for the program. Recently, she funded the Division of Nursing Endowment, the first divisional endowed fund at Morrisville. The Rita L. Scharman ‘81 Equine Rehabilitation Center Swimming Pool and Scharman Arena at the college’s rehabilitation center are named in her honor. 

The Morrisville College Foundation was founded in 1976 to serve as the fundraising arm for SUNY Morrisville. The foundation seeks and distributes charitable gifts from private sources to provide opportunities for students and the college that are not funded by state resources. All gifts to the foundation support SUNY Morrisville students through scholarships, academic enrichment, and co-curricular programming like intercollegiate athletics.