Hall of Fame
MacVittie, according to local accounts, was a sports legend in these parts during the early 1940's as a basketball player. Many say that people would come out just to watch MacVittie play this game that he made look so easy. Unfortunately, that would end with the start of WWII because the College had no team.
MacVittie received his bachelor's of education degree from Oneonta in 1944 and a master's degree from New York University in 1946. During the first couple of years after graduation he was employed as a teacher and coach for Pine Plains, N.Y. as well as his boyhood hometown of Middletown, N.Y. From 1948-53 he was the Principal of Ridge Road Elementary in North Haven, Conn. and in 1954 he earned his doctorate in education from New York University. From 1953-63 he was employed at State University College at Buffalo where he was a Professor of School Administration while also spending time as the Director of the College's Elementary and Secondary Education Division, Principal of their Campus Laboratory School and Dean of the College.
In 1963 MacVittie became the President of State University College of Arts and Science in Geneseo, N.Y. and served in that capacity until 1979. During his tenure at Geneseo he also was the President for a three month period at State University College of Technology at Utica-Rome in 1971-72. In 1979 he returned to Oneonta to serve the College as the Director of Alumni Affairs until 1985. In 1985 he was the Interim President for six months at State University College at Fredonia before serving that Institution as Chairman for the Campus Environment Advisory Board until 1988. He spent the remaining years up to retirement as a consultant to Slippery Rock University and Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania before completing his professional cycle at Geneseo as their Interim President in 1988-89.
