Board Member Detail

Frank Hutchings

Founding President

In Memorium

Frank was the founding President of API. He was a marketing executive from Rochester and brought his considerable talent to establishing the API. Frank had a summer home in Paul Smiths and was very involved with the Paul Smith’s College Board.

Frank Pine

President

Frank is a retired ecologist from a Maryland consulting firm. Frank is involved in several Adirondack organizations and is an avid photographer. Frank and his wife Lorraine have a summer home in Long Lake and live in Baltimore. He has been on the API Board for over 15 years.

Bill Farber

Vice President

Robert Cummings

Treasurer

Robert Cummings (Treasurer) is a former international banker and retired educational consultant. He and his wife Poppy are fourth generation and life-long members of the Tahawus Club in Newcomb where they have lived since 2019 when he joined the API board.

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Col. Robert "Bob"
C. Lilly

Secretary

Colonel Robert C Lilly, USAF (retired) is a graduate of St Michael's College, Air Force Squadron Officers School, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Following 27 years of active service in the USAF, he retired as the Deputy Director, Communications Computer Systems, Command and Control and Air Traffic Control Systems for the Strategic Air Command (SAC), Offutt AFB, Omaha, NE. He then became Director of Data Processing/Information Systems for the County of Essex in Elizabethtown, NY. In the API he has served as Executive Director, Treasurer, vice President, and President. In the Town of Newcomb, he has served as Chairman of the Planning Board and was chairman of the Committee to rewrite the Town'sComprehensive Plan and has been the Chairman of the School Board for three years.

Stuart Angert

Trustee

Mr. Angert is the founder, and served as Chief Executive Officer of Remarketing Services of America, Inc.. He serves on several boards of trustee and director, focused primarily on healthcare and academia, and as Chairman of the Independent Health Foundation. He was appointed as a Commissioner for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Niagara District. Angert earned his BA from Colgate University and MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.

Robert Calihan

Trustee

Rob owns Callihan Law in Rochester, a specialized firm.

Mike German

Trustee

Mike has served on the API Board for over 20 years. He loves the Adirondacks and hiking. Mike is retired from NYSEG and in retirement started his own energy business, Corning Gas. Mike is past president of the Board. He and his wife Susan live in Connecticut.

Paul Hai

Trustee

Paul is a co-director of the SUNY ESF’s Newcomb campus.

Mark Leta

Trustee

Mark is a retiree from NYSEG and is now working for Northline Utilities, an energy utility related business successful in the Adirondacks. He and his wife Debbie live in Peru. Mark is also a Trustee for Clinton CC, and is a Clinton County IDA Board Member

Chuck Monzeglio

Trustee

Chuck owns a construction business in Connecticut. He was a longtime friend of our founding President Frank Hutchins.

Melany Putman

Trustee

Melany lives in Clifton Park has worked for NYSEG for the past 31 years. She has been a board member at API for 8 years.

She also serves on a board of the Mechanicville-Stillwater Chamber for 10 years and is currently a board member of the Saratoga, Columbia, Washington, and Rensselaer Counties LEPCs (Local Emergency Planning Committee) representing NYSEG.

Melany truly enjoys the outdoors. She

loves long walks, traveling, camping, hiking, outdoorsy activities, beach vacations, and reading books!

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Elizabeth "Liz" Thorndike

Trustee

Elizabeth “Liz” Thorndike has been a practitioner in the public policy/land use planning fields and the nonprofit sector from 1973 to the present.
She served as founder and executive director of Rochester’s Center for Environmental Information (now renamed Genesee River Watch) from 1973-2007; adjunct faculty at Cornell University for 17 years and member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
She has served in public service appointments for 44 years from 1973-2017, nominated under six New York State governors, confirmed by
NYS Senate: Adirondack Park Agency where she chaired the Park Policy and Planning committee; New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) where she chaired the committee with oversight of the West Valley nuclear waste facility; also a member of Gov. Mario Cuomo’s Environmental Advisory Board.

Having served on numerous nonprofit boards and advisories, including Cayuga Lake Watershed Network, Finger Lakes Land Trust, Monroe County Environmental Management Council, Girl Scouts, she is currently a board member of Adirondack Park Institute, Adirondack Research Consortium (past president) and Paul Smiths College.

She holds degrees from Stanford, Harvard and Cornell in history, education and natural resource policy.

She and her late husband,Edward, are parents of three, grand parents of five and great grandparents of four.

Related Thorndike publications:
1997-98. “The Adirondack Park in the 21st Century: Part I. Proposals for a Research and Policy Agenda; Part II. “Strategies for Implementing a ‘Research-to-Inform Policy’ Agenda”. Adirondack Journal of Environmental
Studies, Vol.4, No. 2 and Vol. 5, No. 1.

1999. “New York State’s ‘Forever Wild’ Adirondack Park: Where Wilderness Preservation Began”, International Journal of Wilderness, Vol. 5, April.

2009. “Envisioning the Future of Wilderness: Public Demands and Private Lands”.
Porter, Erickson and Whaley, The Great Experiment in Conservation, Syracuse University Press.

Troy Trombley

Trustee

A North Country native who graduated from Beekmantown High School and received Bachelors Degree in Business Management from SUNY Plattsburgh, Troy has been working at NYSEG for 5 years. Originally hired as a Natural Gas Marketing professional, he now works with the Government and Community Relations group. Troy covers the North Country Territory. Troy and his wife Taylor have a 4 year old daughter Charlotte. In his free time he loves to golf, go on long trail walks, and enjoy activities on beautiful Lake Champlain.