A lot of people in Western New York have benefited from Tom Golisano's success with Paychex, and he's earned the public respect and attention he gets.
But there's another Tom Golisano, one known to a smaller group of people. And this Tom Golisano really is Alfred's own. There he was an Irondequoit teenager, class of '59, fresh out of school with no particular direction in mind.
He had filled out the usual Kodak and Xerox applications following graduation and waited. He'd never seriously considered college, partly for financial reasons. When nothing happened with the job applications, his father got help from a banker friend. Soon Tom was spending his days in the cellar of Rochester's old Lincoln Bank counting money into stacks. The excitement wore off fast. Three months into the job, Tom was asking himself serious questions about his career options.
About the same time, Tom heard about Alfred Ag and Tech College from some friends who were already there. He visited, liked what he saw, and tried to enroll in the middle of the semester, despite having no money. Someone in admissions sent him back to Irondequoit, telling him, "Save your money and come back next fall." After almost a year of counting and saving, Tom became a freshman in Alfred's business administration program in fall 1960. Tom still recalls wondering about his chances of success.
"Here I was, a ‘C' student and out of school for a year." He also remembers Prof. E.J. Brown addressing the new business students, warning that only one of every four freshmen would make it to graduation. Tom took Brown's statement seriously and made the Dean's List his first year.
Generations of students and faculty from both sides of Main Street have shared tables at The Collegiate, Alfred's popular college hangout. For a time Tom lived above the restaurant, and it was his good fortune that his accounting professor, Tom Dunn, liked to correct his student papers there over a cup of coffee. The two began what would become a lifelong friendship as they met there to discuss the fine points of accounting. Eventually Dunn hired the young accounting student in his nearby Bolivar accounting office to help with checking figures.
Dunn was known for meticulous accuracy, so Tom smiles broadly when telling of the time he finally caught his professor in an error. Listening to him recount his student days spent with Dunn, there can be no question that the accounting professor taught Tom some life lessons the Rochester businessman continues to live by today.
Following graduation in 1962, Tom returned to Rochester and held several jobs. While working as a payroll manager at Electronic Accounting Systems (EAS), he made the powerful discovery that would change his life almost immediately. Although most payroll management firms, including EAS, serviced only large companies, Tom did some research and found "that 98 percent of all companies had fewer than 100 employees." Unable to convince his supervisors to service smaller customers, he started his own payroll managing business to prove that small accounts could be profitable.
In 1971, with $3,000 in his pocket, Tom formed Paymaster and opened a small office on Alexander Street in Rochester.
"I didn't have a lot of money," he says. "I begged and borrowed and took advantage of a lot of friendships I had built over the years."
The early days at Paymaster were very difficult. Tom's wife supported the family, while he and his one employee often put in 100 hours a week. Tom went for five years without a paycheck himself and often used his credit card to pay his employee.
By 1974, the company, now called Paychex, had 250 clients and was just barely breaking even. To raise capital Tom sold franchises and formed partnerships with acquaintances who then set up shop around the country. In 1979 Paychex was consolidated into one private company with 5,700 clients and 200 employees, but only four sales representatives.
In "the boldest step I've ever taken," Tom hired and trained 65 sales representatives. It was also a brilliant step, because when Paychex went public and sold stock in 1983, all the original partners became millionaires. The company has been profitable every year since 1983. Today, Paychex boasts more than 100 locations around the country and hundreds of thousands of clients nationwide. Golisano sees no end to growth for Paychex.
In the ‘90s, New Yorkers saw a different side of the Rochester businessman. Tom ran for governor on the Independence Party ticket in 1994 and 1998. His platform of campaign-finance reform and reducing New York State's debt won him 8 percent of the vote and made him a player in New York politics.
Closer to home, Tom has staked out positions on other thorny issues. He helped fund the creation of a "drug court" in Rochester to divert non-violent offenders into treatment instead of prison. And a media campaign he initiated helped bring about a 20 percent reduction in the teen pregnancy rate in Monroe County.
Golisano's record of support for charitable organizations is long and broad. He was the recipient of the "Humanitarian of the Year Award" from Boys Town of Italy in 1993; the "Shumway Distinguished Service Award" from Family Services of Rochester, in 1995; and the "Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award" from the Boy Scouts of America in 1997. Tom can also count among his honors two of the most prestigious alumni awards available: The State University of New York (SUNY) Alumni Honor Roll, 1997, and the 2001 Outstanding Alumni Award from the Association of Community Colleges. Golisano is a trustee of the Rochester Institute of Technology and has served on the boards of Rochester General Hospital, Norstar Bank and St. John Fisher College. He is a member of the Alfred State College Development Fund Board of Directors.
Based on Golisano's own standards, it's clear Alfred State College delivered exactly what it promised that Irondequoit high school graduate over 40 years ago.