Family and Friends in honor of Dr. Peter H. Alberghini

The Peter Alberghini Scholarship was established by the family and friends of the late Dr. Peter H. Alberghini (November 3, 1943-April 11, 2002), the former Director of Community Service and Extension Centers at SUNY Orange. The students who have benefited through this scholarship have demonstrated an interest in pursuing a career in community service as well as serving the community while attending SUNY Orange.

Dr. Alberghini was a man who dedicated his life to public service. He was the former head of Mid-Hudson Legal Services and Regional Economic Community Action Program, better known as RECAP and, the Mental Health Association of Orange County.

His family, friends and colleagues remembered him as a man passionate about his family, his work and the world around him. “He was a gentleman,” said Alex Smith, a lawyer who met him at Mid-Hudson Valley Legal Services, a government-funded agency set up in the 1960s to provide legal services to and advocate for the poor. “He was always a soft-spoken, intelligent guy,” Smith said.

Friend and neighbor Bob Augello said Alberghini, a lawyer who became a professor, was not a man of any pretense. “Peter, of the old sweatshirts and frayed collars, was not about appearances,” Augello said. “He was about substance. And the substance he cared about was people.”

Billy Mogulescu, a friend of his from his days at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., noted that Alberghini’s introduction to Orange County back in the early 1970s might have frightened off a lesser man. Black dirt farm owners were not pleased with his work advocating for the rights of migrant workers. One time, a farm owner chased the young Massachusetts lawyer with a machete. But Alberghini was never run out of Orange County. He raised his three children here. He became a professor and administrator at SUNY Orange, where he taught a course on social problems and raised funds for renovations and new programs. “Peter was splendid,” Mogulescu said. “He brought a sense of wonder and joy to everything he touched.”

The holidays are also a time to remember Dr. Peter Alberghini. He started the Holiday Open House for everyone to enjoy the beauty of Morrison Hall and become familiar with our Community College and he is honored at this event each year.