Unknown Impact
By Albert B. Kelly
Sometimes in life people have an impact far beyond what they
know or even realize. It could be a teacher, long since gone from your life
that had a positive impact on the direction of your life. It could be a long
lost friend who was there in a season of need. It could even be a stranger,
unknown to you, who did or said something that mattered in some way.
Of course the same could be said about negative impacts- the
things that leave scars, shape thoughts, and alter destinies. But I’m not
thinking about the negative here, but strictly the positive. And when I do
think about positive impacts, I can’t help but think of Dean Clement Pappas.
I say that with a heavy heart because Bridgeton, indeed the
entire South Jersey region, lost a good friend and vital supporter this past
April. You might have heard the name “Clement Pappas” and your only frame of
reference might be “Clement Pappas & Company” in Cedarville, Seabrook, or in other states.
If that should be the case, then you missed knowing a good man.
I did not know him as well as I would have liked, but his
legacy is a rich one. In addition to his successes in the food industry, Dean
Pappas had an enormous impact, along with his wife Zoe, through philanthropy.
Education, learning, art, and culture, in all their various forms, were very
important to him and this was evident in the things he focused on.
Dean, in partnership with Zoe, established the Visiting Scholars
Program at Stockton University. As I understand it, this idea for the Visiting
Scholars Program was inspired in part because a stranger had a big impact on
Dean when he spoke at his college in the early 60’s- that stranger was MLK.
Who knew that the seed that had been planted back then would
eventually reveal itself as the Dean C. and Zoe S. Pappas Visiting Scholar
Endowment Fund- a vehicle that would ultimately bring the likes of former
Supreme Justice Sandra Day O’Conner to the lectern at Stockton to inspire yet a
new generation of college students.
Beyond his leadership at Stockton University as Chairman,
Dean Pappas was a force for good at the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia Film Society, and Blair Academy just outside of NYC in Warren County.
These were the more public and visible impacts and as
notable as they are, it’s a safe bet that these don’t fully do justice to the
positive impacts he had among those he loved; family, friends, colleagues,
employees, and the many others that find their way into the life he lived.
Today and for seasons to come, he will continue, along with
the Pappas family, impacting our community for good. It mattered to Dean and
the Pappas family- so much so that they donated critical funding to programs
dedicated to youth in the greater Bridgeton area.
Via the Dean and Zoë Pappas Family Foundation, $15,000 came
to “Friends of the Bridgeton Library” to carry out a range of educational
programs for children and families. Not stopping there, the Foundation gave $9,000
to the Cumberland Empowerment Zone in support of Bridgeton’s new Student
Advisory Committee- a program to instill civic education among select high
school students by making them stakeholders in our local government.
In addition to these, the Foundation gave $10,000 to the
Cumberland Empowerment Zone in support of the Steamworks Student Sponsorship Program
so that low income students who otherwise couldn’t afford it, can now receive
training at Steamworks in the technologies shaping today’s workforce.
Finally, the Foundation gave $7,500 to the Bridgeton Area
Police Athletic League to support that organization and allow PAL to carry out
their programs and activities for our young people. I worked closely with Dean
and the Pappas family and was moved by their commitment to Bridgeton and our
entire county.
Dean Pappas will never know the positive impact his
generosity and passion has- and will have- in the lives of so many young
people. But I think he knew that and my own sense was that he did not require
knowing. Because his commitment was righteous, my guess is that he took it on
faith and would leave it to us to make it real and pay it forward.
Unknown impact, sometimes in life people have an impact far
beyond what they know or even realize. That will always be true of Dean Pappas.