Where Have they Been, Where are they Now!
Hosted by:
Bob Dreste (VCS ’80) and Tom Turner (VCS ’90)
Episodes
Episode 4: Bill Kelliher (VCS ’89) — download episode or download transcript
Today’s fantastic guest is Bill Kelliher, who graciously offered to conduct the interview backstage at the Syracuse Oncenter during his 2023 tour. Bill is best known as the rhythm guitarist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Mastodon.
The group’s first full-length album, Remission, was released in 2002. In 2004, the band took off with Leviathan, an album based on Herman Melville’s book, Moby Dick. In 2007, Kelliher and bandmate Brett Hinds won the Metal Hammer Golden Gods award for Best Shredders. In 2017, Mastodon won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance for their song, Sultan’s Curse. That year, they were also nominated for Best Rock Album. Mastodon is a five-time Grammy nominee. In the popular television show, Game of Thrones, Kelliher appeared as a “wildling” in an episode. The band’s original song, White Walker is also featured on the GOT mixtape Catch the Throne Vol. 2.
Bill shares great memories of growing up in Victor, including many career-building firsts such as first guitar, first band, and first tour. You’ll learn about Bill’s musical influences and how the music industry has changed from analog to digital distribution, including his effort to meet with the US Congress to help pass the Musical Works Modernization Act (MWMA) that improves how music royalty payments surrounding the rise of streaming media services
Episode 3: Steve Hilfiker (VCS ’84) — download episode or download transcript
Today’s fantastic guest is Steve Hilfiker, Film Producer and a former CEO with 32 years of experience in the business. Steve is a successful environmental and cardiac advocate with extensive relationships in the Florida legislature.
During his environmental career, Steve was the founder and President of Environmental Risk Management, Inc. and serves on the Board of the Florida Ground Water Association (FGWA). He has served in similar environmental association roles since 1991. An extended battle with misdiagnosed cardiac sarcoidosis resulted in a successful heart transplant on August 3, 2020. As a man of faith with a youthful heart and a clean bill of health, Steve is using his skills to raise awareness for organ donation and sarcoidosis, including proposed research appropriations and funding grants for the early detection of cardiomyopathy.
In this episode, Steve shares fond memories of growing up in Victor and contrasts his experiences with raising four children in Florida’s Southwest Gulf Coast. Make sure to set aside the full hour as Steve reflects on his five-year battle with cardiac sarcoidosis and how he has dedicated his life to patient advocacy and creating multiple non-profit organizations. Producer Credits include: “Stoneheart: an
Undying Gift” and “Warriors: The Bernie Mac Disease”. Current film projects include a true-story feature
film and a docuseries about organ donation, sarcoidosis, and cardiomyopathy.
Awards include:
• 2021 – FGWA ‘Member of the Year.’
• 2022 – ‘Leader for Life’ from the American Heart Association.
• 2023 – ‘Dorothy Bland Sarcoidosis Warrior of the Year’, The Bernie Mac Foundation.
• 2023 – Official Selection for the ‘2024 LifeLink Faces of Transplantation Calendar.’
A frequent speaker and writer, Steve is the founder of:
• Hilfiker Life Missions, LLC, a film production and media company,
• Sarcoidosis, Transplant, Organ Procurement & Cardiomyopathy Foundation Inc., a 501c4,
• Foundation for Organ Donation and Sarcoidosis Awareness, Inc. (FODASA), a 501c3, and
• MCG USA, LLC, a medical equipment sales and consulting company.
You can access Steve’s website at: https://www.hilfikermissions.net/
Episode 2: Tom Turner (VCS ’90) — download episode or download transcript
Today’s amazing alumni guest is Tom Turner. Tom is a 1990 graduate of Victor Senior High School and a 1994 graduate of Finger Lakes Community College with an associate degree in broadcast communications. Tom was born with spina bifida, a common, but little known-about birth defect. Never letting it define him, Tom worked for his family’s business, Turner Automotive Corvettes in Victor. Most recently, Tom works as a voice talent and co-creator of viral content for Glickman Digital Media which is based out of California.
In this episode, Tom highlights his life story that offers a positive model for disability advocacy and inclusion. Starting with his parent’s push for life-saving intervention at birth, his family along with others in the school and community helped remove barriers, leading Tom to become a fantastic advocate, volunteering for the Youth Adult Alliance and the Center for Disability Rights.
Tom also shares the incredible story of Turner Automotive that was in the Corvette sales and service business for over 38 years. Tom joined out of college using his talents for marketing and public relations that included voiceover work for their commercials. Tom also innovated their business after the rise of eBay, leading their eCommerce efforts, and selling Corvettes selling cars to customers through-out the United States, Europe, and a customer in Kuwait.
Tom shares his hobbies that include fond memories of his family’s involvement in the local auto racing scene at the 1/2-mile dirt track in Canandaigua, NY including the start for local short track legend, Alan Johnson. Finally, Tom outlines his eclectic musical taste, including the band moe., that dates to recollections of their family camp on Limekiln Lake in the Adirondacks, where he became friends with guitarist Chuck Garvey.
Tom closes with advice for current students. “Just be tenacious in whatever you do. Find something you like or love, whether it’s athletics or academics or both, and just be tenacious about it.” You can trust this advice because tenacious provides a great description of Tom’s pursuit of his amazing skills and experiences.
Episode 1: Norma Weissend (VCS ’74) — download episode or download transcript
Today’s amazing guest is Norma Weissend. The foundation for Norma’s incredible life journey from her VCS early roots was set in 1963, when she and the first 4 of her seven siblings moved into their new home on Tareyton Drive, as one of the first families in the Victorwood subdivision. Norma thrived at VCS as both a student and athlete in our community. She teamed with VCS players and coaches to successfully pioneer a set of firsts alongside the enactment of Title IX in 1972 for the thousands of student-athletes that followed including fifty-nine female inductees in the VCS Athletic Hall of Fame.
Unable to play youth sports due to program unavailability, she polished her basketball skills in a neighbor’s driveway until finally, VCS offered a girls basketball team during her eighth-grade year in 1969/1970. Her VCS athletic run started with an under-funded uniform combination of gym suit and pinnies and ended with the first official uniform her senior year in blue shorts and white t-shirts with gold numbers. Her team finished that memorable season with 17-1 record, their only loss coming in Victor’s first-ever Section Five finals game against Alexander Central. Norma, along with Sharon Duffy (VCS ’75) were named to the first-ever Section Five Class B girls’ All-Star team. Norma’s leadership skills were off and running when she graduated in 1974 with 146 classmates. She received a degree in mathematics from Potsdam State, starting as a first-year student on the woman’s basketball team, until the demands to financially work her way through school ended her dynamic school athletic career.
After college, Norma entered officer training school and served four years of active duty in the United States Air Force. She added a meteorology major from Texas A&M to her studies and moved into a remarkably interesting role as a weather officer. We are thankful for Norma’s service that also included a twenty-year career as an intelligence officer in the United States Air National Guard, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Norma’s civilian career is full of skills and experiences in education and technology. She taught at VCS for two years, worked for the BOCES Educational Technology Center to automate the school libraries in our area, and retired from Williamson Law Book Company in a role where she trained and installed their payroll application for municipal government customers.
Norma is now super busy in retirement. When she is not on the golf course, she supports two veteran service organizations including the American Legion and the Military Officers Association of America. She also sponsors an annual memorial golf tournament in memory of her son Mike who passed away in 2013.
More About Bob Dreste:
Bob Dreste played three sports at VCS – football, basketball and baseball. As a football player from 1976 to 1979, Dreste played quarterback and safety. During his senior year in 1979 he was team captain and threw for ten touchdowns in eight games. In basketball, Dreste was a member of the 1978 Sectional Championship Team. Other basketball milestones included scoring 20 points in one half and being the team captain in 1979-1980. As a Blue Devils baseball player, Dreste batted .328 his senior year. He was also the team captain and was named All-League Player and First Finger Lakes East All Star Team player for all three sports.
Dreste graduated from Westminster College in 1984 with a degree in Computer Science. He became a consultant for General Electric and worked with Kodak where he was awarded a software patent. Dreste founded his own company, Bytronics, Inc. in 1990. His software dispatching application is utilized by more than 250 utility companies, pipelines and municipalities throughout the United States and Canada. Dreste coached the Victor Saints Football team after college until 1987. He also coached the Penfield Youth Football team and was very involved in coaching girls youth lacrosse at the Penfield School District.
Bob is also currently a member of BarnSalt. You can like the band’s page on FaceBook to track their upcoming local engagements which typically have many VCS alumni in the crowd.
