Beyond the Hill
Brothers
1 FPL WAS JUST THE BEGINNING
We have all walked these halls, then gone our separate ways. People scatter, careers take their own turns, and decades pass almost without notice. But across all that time, a good number of them have been building something worth knowing about.
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Brothers
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Brothers
In the
In the
Some brothers don’t just succeed in their field. They’ve become the face of it.
Some brothers don’t just succeed in their field. They’ve become the face of it.
JAY WALKER ‘77
He is an American entrepreneur and inventor best known as co-founder of Priceline.com, where his “Name-Your-Own-Price” model reshaped e-commerce and online travel. Chairman of Walker Digital, he holds 950+ patents, among the most prolific living inventors. Curator TEDMED, the TED conference on health and medicine. He founded the Library of the History of Human Imagination, a private collection on the evolution of ideas.
At fifteen, Brother Jay Walker tried to patent a fake seatbelt so he could skip wearing a real one. The patent went nowhere. The habit did not. Decades later, that same instinct built Priceline, reshaped how the world buys travel, and earned him a place among the most patented inventors alive.
10 MIN READ
LARRY TANENBAUM ‘68
He is a Canadian businessman and chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL), Toronto Raptors (NBA), and Toronto FC (MLS). He is Chairman and CEO of the Kilmer Group and chair of the NBA Board of Governors.
Through Kilmer Van Nostrand Co. Limited, he leads infrastructure and private equity investments and serves on NHL and MLS executive committees.
He is involved in philanthropy in medical research and neuroscience through the Tanenbaum Family Foundation, including the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute and the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute at the Montreal Neurological Institute.
He was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 2007 and has honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from the University of Toronto and St. Francis Xavier University.
In 2002, Brother Larry Tanenbaum looked at bringing a WNBA team to Toronto and decided the city wasn't ready. He was right. He never let it go. More than twenty years later, he landed the Toronto Tempo, the league's first franchise outside the United States, and added it to a sports empire that already held the Raptors, the Maple Leafs, and Toronto FC.
2.5 MIN READ
Ken Dryden won six Stanley Cups in eight seasons with Montreal, then retired at twenty-six, in the middle of it all, to go work at a law firm. He came back, won four more, and walked away again at the top of his game. He was never going to do just one thing. He wrote what many still call the best book ever written about hockey. He sat in the booth beside Al Michaels for the Miracle on Ice. He ran the Toronto Maple Leafs, then won a seat in Canada's Parliament in a landslide. The goalie on this cover spent the rest of his life proving he was never only a goalie.
5 MIN READ
KEN DRYDEN ‘68 | (1947–2025)
He was a Canadian ice hockey goaltender, author, lawyer, and politician. He anchored the Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the 1970s, winning six Stanley Cups in eight seasons along with five Vezina Trophies, the Calder Trophy, and the Conn Smythe Trophy.
He represented Canada in the 1972 Summit Series and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983 after retiring at age 32.
After hockey, he authored The Game, earned a law degree from McGill University, and later served as president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
He entered public life in 2004 as a Member of Parliament and served as Canada’s Minister of Social Development before leaving politics in 2011.
authors
Brother
Books authored by Sigma Phi alumni (suggest missing titles, please). The numbers grew swiftly and this collection resides at One Forest Park Lane. These include professors, executives, poets, and illustrators. We will include composers and their compositions. We hope you enjoy this proud legacy of so many thoughtful, knowledgeable, and creative Cornellians.
Brother
speakers
Interviews, videos, and events about Sigma Phi alumni who shape their lives, their industries, and their communities in remarkable ways. Enjoy.
JAY WALKER ‘77
Jay Walker '77 gave the keynote address at eLab Demo Day April 16, 2015, as part of Entrepreneurship at Cornell's two-day Celebration conference. He outlined what he called 10 "superforces" that will shape the future - forces he said entrepreneurs would be wise to include in their business planning. Walker has founded 40 to 50 companies, including priceline.com, Synapse and Walker Digital. He also is an owner of TEDMED, an annual healthcare innovation summit.
TED MED 2010
Experience The Walker Library Of Human 2010
LARRY TANENBAUM ‘68
CEO Maple Leaf Sports & entertainment
Canadian Business Hall of Fame | May 2025
Kilmer Sports Ventures chairman Larry Tanenbaum spoke about his journey to help bring the NBA and now the WNBA to Toronto.
The Toronto Raptors celebrate after defeating the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals in Game 6. Adam Silver presents Raptors owner Larry Tanenbaum and president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri hoist the trophy with their team and Kawhi Leonard speaks after being named 2019 Finals MVP.
PETER KAESTNER ‘75
Top world ornithologist (9,290) - American retired diplomat and who mostrecently served as the chief of the Consular Section at the U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt, Germany.
2018
For Semana Rural, we accompanied Peter Kaestner, ranked by eBird as the world's top birder, as he traveled a route through northern Colombia in search of the region's endemic species. The Serranía del Perijá, La Guajira, and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta were the three locations where Kaestner and a team of birders spent more than three days looking for new species.
May 25, 2023
What happens when a birder stumbles onto a species no one has ever recorded? In 1989, Peter Kaestner, eBird's top-ranked birder, was deep in the forests of Cundinamarca, Colombia when he heard an antpitta call he didn't recognize. The bird turned out to be entirely new to science, and it now carries his name: Grallaria kaestneri. This video follows a return visit to a new feeding station for that same species, 34 years after he first found it.
What does it take to become the first person ever to see 10,000 bird species? Peter Kaestner, a career diplomat turned world-class birder, has chased wild wings across every corner of the planet, even discovering a species that now bears his name. He joins host Scott Harris to reflect on the adventure, humility, and joy of a life lived in flight, and on how a lifelong list became a legacy.
TED JULIAN ‘89
Co-Founder, VP Product Management, IBM Resilient | Ansiblefest 2019
AnsibleFest 2019
What's the real key to making cybersecurity automation work? What's the real key to making cybersecurity automation work? Ted Julian, argues that buying software alone won't fix understaffed, overstretched security teams. The bigger win comes from orchestration: intelligently fusing people, processes, and technology, with automation handling the grunt work like sorting phishing reports so analysts can focus on the threats that matter.
DR. WILLIAM STEERS ‘74
In Memoriam. The late Paul Mellon Professor and Chair of the Department of Urology at University of Virginia School of Medicine
What does a life at the top of a medical field actually look like? William D. Steers was the Paul Mellon professor and chair of urology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, president of the American Board of Urology, and editor of The Journal of Urology. Beyond the clinic he had range: he founded the Charlottesville Men's Four Miler to raise money for men's health, co-owned a local vineyard, and built an iPhone app for tracking urological symptoms. He died in 2015 at 59.
STU FLACK ‘82
Artist/Consultant/Citizen Scientist, shares how to incorporate complex information into live performance
Feb 11, 2019
The University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of the Arts, the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the Wisconsin School of Business, the Design Studies Department, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and the Wisconsin Union Theater welcome artist/consultant/citizen scientist Stuart Flack as the Fall 2018 Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence. Flack brought together ideas from social science, design, computer science, theater, dance, and writing to examine the theoretical background, history, and most importantly, the practical issues around incorporating complex information into live performance.
FRED KELLER ‘66
Founder of Cascade Engineering - Retired Chairman and CEO- Cornell visiting lecturer
June 26 2013
What can a business be beyond a profit engine? Fred Keller founded Cascade Engineering, a plastic injection molding company that grew into one of the largest Certified B Corporations in the world, with 1,100 employees across seven locations. A leading voice for sustainable business, he champions the idea that companies can build social and ecological value alongside financial returns. He has chaired the U.S. Department of Commerce Manufacturing Council and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation board, founded two organizations focused on community learning and workforce development, and teaches entrepreneurship at Cornell's Johnson School.
SIGMA PHI REUNION 2009
Sigma Phi alumni and families from around the world returned to campus to celebrate 75 years at One Forest Park Lane. Thanks to the photography of Jay Walker, we've compiled this mashup to remind us of great times and lifelong friends.
ROY GREENBERG MD
Sones Innovation Award Recipient
March 2013
In memoriam: An outstanding clinician and innovator, Roy Greenberg, MD, of the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute, has developed a broad range of endovascular instrumentation and techniques to treat complex aortic disease. Dr. Greenberg holds more than 50 patents based on his research. He helped create a 3-D navigation technology that lowers exposure to radiation; he also developed modeling technology for 3-D printing to create custom endovascular grafts. His work has contributed to a dramatic reduction in mortality for endovascular aortic repair patients over the past decade.
Sigs
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If not contact please send it to:
Geoff Perry, Director of Alumni Engagement and Philanthropy
goperry2@comcast.net
