Duane Felczak
In the spring of 1974, Duane Felczak was a senior physical education major about to graduate from Seton Hall University.
Looking for a job, he saw an ad for “evening recreation supervisor” at Newark College of Engineering. Thinking it was a part-time job, he applied. Now, as he prepares to retire from NJIT later this year, he jokes, “It was a part-time job that lasted for 36 years.”
Of course, it wasn’t a part-time job. It was full-time and it evolved with different responsibilities that at various times included physical education instructor, intramural director and, for two years, coaching women’s intercollegiate tennis.
He was intramural director for 10 years and for the last 20 has served as Assistant Director, coordinating the school’s physical education program, as well as teaching many of the courses.
Appropriately, he is the last remaining staff member hired by Bob Swanson, the Director of Athletics for whom this award is named. In all, he has worked under four ADs, also including Mal Simon and Lenny Kaplan.
When he was hired by Bob Swanson, his co-workers in Physical Education were Bob Swanson, Mal Simon, and Paul Hausser. As a group, they were the core of a department that oversaw recreation, intramurals, and intercollegiate athletics, with everyone performing multiple duties at various times.
“Physical education was always our first responsibility,” Felczak recalled recently. “It’s always been important to develop a lifetime physical education and sports ethic for the students, because at a school like NJIT they have a tendency to go on to jobs that are sedentary.
“There’s also a great socialization aspect, where they interact with each other in a physical activity. Even for a varsity athlete, say a basketball player, they play a sport in class with other students, where the varsity athlete is challenged to compete in a sport they don’t know anything about coming in.”
Arriving at NCE just before it was renamed NJIT, Felczak moved into a new building, working in the recently-opened facility that is now known as the Fleisher Athletic Center.
“I thought I was in heaven with three full courts in the gym and sliding doors that could close off sections, the pool, and all the other features of the building, plus the soccer field right outside,” he said. “They had a real well-run program for intramurals and recreation, with a lot of students participating. We had a lot of the regular things, plus we had kayaks in the pool and we had a sunfish regatta (sunfishes are small sail boats). I think we had something like six sunfishes. It was a great thing to be part of.”
Over the years, he’s witnessed the school’s physical changes, including additions to the gym, as well as the addition of on-campus student housing and numerous other buildings.
Along the way he earned an MS from Kean University in organizational development.
He and his wife of 34 years, Patti, reside in Readington, NJ. They are the parents of a daughter, Susan, who is a nurse, and a son, Eric, who graduated from NJIT in 2008 with a degree in architecture.
