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SUMMER
2015
westpointforusall.org
7
We are pleased to announce the following
new staff members and transitions:
Troy Schnack ’96
has joined the Major Giving
Team as a Major Gifts Officer. MAJ (R) Schnack
was commissioned in Field Artillery and taught
in USMA’s Department of Social Sciences
before deploying to Iraq to serve in the 82nd
Airborne Division. For the past three years,
he served here at West Point as the Chief of
Protocol, XO to the DEAN and XO to the SUPT.
Allison Barry
has also joined our Major Giving
Team as a Major Gifts Officer. Prior to this
position, Ms. Barry served as WPAOG’s
Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations,
in which she helped to bring in nearly $15M
from corporate and foundation donors since
2009 and managed relationships with over
500 corporations and foundations.
Elizabeth A. Barrett
is WPAOG’s new Vice
President of Communications & Marketing.
Ms. Barrett was Senior Director of Marketing,
Communications, and Events at Fordham
University Graduate School of Business
Administration, where she worked to transform
institutional branding and increase program
enrollment for the MBA and 13 graduate
MS business programs.
Richard S. Huh ’94
joins WPAOG as Vice
President for Alumni Support. Mr. Huh
brings twenty years of experience in program
management, strategy, sales, and consulting
in the commercial, non-profit and government
sectors. Since 2007, he has served on the
Board of Governors of the West Point Society
of the District of Columbia (WPSDC), and in
his most recent role as Executive Director of
WPSDC, Mr. Huh provided strategic direction
and restructured the Society’s marketing and
public relations efforts.
LTC (R) Jim Johnston ’73
served as WPAOG
VP for Alumni Support since 2007 and will
remain a member of the senior leadership
team at WPAOG, serving as the Association’s
corporate secretary.
WPAOG News
Though the Army provided appropriated dollars for the
ACI’s mission-essential requirements, WPAOG is seeking
$14.7 million to endow the ACI and its Margin of Excellence
programs. These programs include: workshops and events
meant to spur fresh perspectives and exchange information on
cyberspace; public awareness programs focused on informing
the general public of cyber security threats and attracting new
candidates to the field; awards recognizing individuals who
have made significant contributions to U.S. cyber operations;
and educational programs and opportunities for West Point
cadets, recent graduates, and civilian and ROTC students.
For instance, in May the ACI held its first annual Joint
Service Academy Cyber Security Summit at West Point. This
event brought together representatives from each of the service
academies to present their respective programs to approximately
100 graduates, business leaders, and cyber practitioners from
the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. Throughout
the summit, guests spoke about intelligence-driven cyber
defense, law enforcement and military support to private
organizations, and the future of cyber security.
“The goal of this summit was to foster dialogue across all
sectors in an effort to strengthen our nation’s preparedness and
response to cyber threats,” explains Dr. Fernando Maymi,
Deputy Director of the ACI. “This is central to the ACI’s
overall mission, and we look forward to growing this summit
in future years and leveraging the partnerships that result from
it to address our nation’s cyber security challenges.”
Lastly, as part of West Point’s Cyber Initiatives, WPAOG is
also seeking $4.26 million to endow the USMA Cyber Chair,
currently held by LTG (R) Rhett Hernandez ’76, the former
Commanding General of the U.S. Army Cyber Command.
In his role as chair, Hernandez informs the work of both the
ACI and CRC and is therefore instrumental to the success of
West Point’s overall Cyber Initiative. In 2013, WPAOG received
a significant commitment from the Viola Foundation in
support of this chair through 2017, which has been critical to
West Point’s ability to attract and retain a cybersecurity expert
like LTG Hernandez. The Viola Foundation has also pledged
to match all donations to the chair, up to an additional
$3 million to fully endow the chair.
West Point’s Cyber Initiatives are a direct response to the
Army’s and nation’s need for greater cyber preparedness and
are a comprehensive approach to providing our nation’s current
and future leaders with the tools and resources needed to
better understand and respond to our nation’s most pressing
security threats.
West Point’s Cyber Initiatives
[ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ]Above:
Cadets present their theses during theAcademy’s annual
Projects Day;
Below:
Cadets celebrate their seventhwin at the 2014
Cyber Defense Exercise.
“Probably, the most lasting lesson I learned early-on was the
value of friendships and loyalty to those with whom you serve,
as well as to the Army and to our country,” says Creighton.
“WorldWar II had a profound effect on those of us who lived
in that period. Duty, Honor, Country made sense to the youth
of America as they did during the early years of the ColdWar.”
Though Creighton was the first, but not the last, member of
his family to attendWest Point, he was no stranger to the Army.
His father was a World War I veteran, deployed to England
with the 8th Air Force from 1942 to 1944. Creighton grew up
on Army bases for much of his early childhood and attended
the Sullivan Preparatory School in Washington, D.C. before
enteringWest Point in 1949. His cadet experience was defined
by his athletic pursuits on both the baseball and gymnastics
teams, though he stopped baseball after his second year to
devote his time to perfecting his event in gymnastics, which
was tumbling. “Gymnastics coach TomMaloney came to me
and said that I would never be a winner in gymnastics unless
I spent more time learning my event. Thus, I stopped baseball
and spent my remaining two years mostly in the old gym
trying to develop a decent routine in our gym meets.”
His time spent in the gympaid off, as he qualified for NCAA
Nationals and placed third in the Eastern Championships.
The entire Army Gymnastics Team did well during this time
as well, winning the Eastern Intercollegiate Championship for
two years and beating Navy for three years. “Coach Maloney
was very influential in my cadet life and, following that, for
the three years when I came back on the USMA faculty and
became the Gymnastics Team Officer Representative,” says
Creighton. “Coach Maloney’s influence can be seen by the
more than 20 former gymnasts who became general officers
in the Army or Air Force and by the fact that, overall, his team
members stayed in the military until retirement at a higher
percentage than any other West Point intercollegiate team.”
Creighton’s devotion to the team never diminished
after graduation but rather grew, and for the last 55 years
he has been involved with the gymnastics program. He has
volunteered at competitions, along with many other former
members of the team, and was a leading force behind
establishing and growing the team’s now close to $2 million
dollar endowment, to which anyone can contribute. “The
Gymnastics Team Endowment
has already started to have
a positive effect by supporting such things as the hiring of a
second assistant coach and in purchasing new equipment.”
Most recently, he and his wife Joan established the
MGNeal and Joan Creighton Family Endowment,
which
is meant to benefit the gymnastics program as well as the
West Point Cyber Research Center, a program of particular
interest to his son, Neal Creighton Jr. ’89. “Our hope for this
endowment is that we will be able to build it to a seven-figure
amount and then let Neal Jr. take over the task of increasing
it even more,” explains Creighton. “That way, the Creighton
family could still provide support to the Military Academy
and its cadets for an indefinite period in the future. With the
very good record that theWPAOGhas consistentlymaintained
over the years in investing its money, the Creighton
Endowment could eventually grow large enough to have a
visible positive effect onWest Point and be our family legacy.”
This family legacy is defined by an earnest desire to give
back to an institution and program that has influenced his
personal and professional life in myriad ways, from the lifelong
friendship with USMA roommate the late MGGuy “Sandy”
Meloy ’53, to his commitment to hiring veterans throughout
his career in the private sector, to his own son’s career path.
And of course all of this is underscored by the ideas of
friendships and loyalty—the value of which was instilled
within Creighton during his earliest days at West Point and
has remained a source of pride and inspiration ever since.
A Family
legacy
AFamilyLegacy:
MGNealCreighton ’53asaGeneral
Officerandasacadetgymnast,whoperfectedhis
event intumbling.
Loyalty and friendship. When reflecting on his time
at West Point and his military career, these are the
words that MGNeal Creighton ’53 thinks of, and they
are the words that define his now 66-year relationship
with West Point and the Long Gray Line.