Panther Profiles are Q&A interviews that highlight Panthers of all stripes -- students, faculty, staff, alum, board members and anyone else in the campus community.
Packy McGraw is ACPHS’ vice president of administrative operations. He started at the College 33 years ago as basketball coach and athletic director. In this Panther Profile, he talked about his roots on this campus, his route to becoming a vice president, his favorite campus holiday tradition and why he’s the wrong person to go to for advice on nutrition.
Question: We have to start with your name. Where does “Packy” come from?
Packy McGraw: Packy is an Irish nickname for Patrick. I have been called Packy since birth. Only two people call me Patrick – my wife and my mother – and I am in trouble if they are calling me Patrick.
The first day of kindergarten, while taking attendance, the teacher called, “Patrick.” No answer. “Patrick.” No answer. She taught my two older brothers and knew who I was, so she said, “Packy, that’s you!”
When did you arrive on campus and what was your role here?
When I started working here at the Albany College of Pharmacy, we didn't have “Health Sciences” in our name. It was August of 1989, and I was hired as the men's basketball coach and the first full-time athletic director. That was 33 years ago. I was eight years old when they hired me.
Seriously, I think I was 27 years old.
I grew up less than a mile from here, just off Hackett Boulevard. My father was a vice principal, athletic director, basketball coach and teacher at CBA (Christian Brothers Academy). Whenever we had free time, my dad would bring my five brothers, sister and I to the school and let us run around in the gym.
People here now might not know where CBA was.
Our current library and gymnasium was once CBA. My brothers and I all played basketball in that gym. CBA’s gym on their new campus (in Colonie) is named after my father.
For many years when I was our athletic director and we took over that property, my office was in the same office that my father's office was in – and my brother’s office. My brother became the athletic director after my father passed away.
What was that like? Did you feel like, I don't know, they were around you?
Yes, definitely. When I walk into that building, I look at it completely differently than everyone else. My father's wake was in the high school – their chapel was in what’s now our library. My father was 57 years old when he passed away and still working at CBA.
Wow. You've seen a lot of changes and experienced a lot of life on this campus. Are there one or two things you would say represent the biggest change for the college in the time you've been working here?
Everything has changed since I started here. We were two buildings. We had the O'Brien Building and we had a residence hall that was down Holland Ave. next to McDonald's. We had, I believe, 38 faculty members and 22 staff members – 60 employees. We had no student parking. I don't even know if we had enough parking for our employees.
How did you make the transition from basketball coach to being a vice president?
There were a lot of steps along the way. I probably shouldn't say this, but my wife would call me on it if I didn't: I could barely change a light bulb. The fact that I'm in charge of some of the things that I’m doing now is kind of ironic.
I was basketball coach and athletic director. Then I was doing what they called special assignments in admissions during busy season to cover some college fairs. Then I became the director of residence life, then the director of Student Affairs. I ran the day-to-day operations of athletics and residence life and supervised student activities, advising, tutoring and counseling before becoming assistant dean of Student Affairs. I gave up athletics and coaching basketball at that point to take on other duties. Then I moved from associate dean of students to the associate vice president for administrative operations to finally the vice president for administrative operations.
Tell us what a vice president of administrative operations does.
My areas of responsibilities include our physical plant – our campus and our locations off campus. A management company oversees our new Life Sciences Innovation Building, but I'm the liaison. I handle all of our facilities here: laboratories, athletic fields, classrooms, offices. University Heights Association Public Safety reports to me, as well as our bookstore and our food service, student health insurance, emergency management, and employee and student parking.
And when I say I do all these things, I also have a fantastic colleague, Kristen Ruby.
It sounds like the right position for somebody who can work with people and get things done. And it almost doesn't matter what the things are. Yes?
Yeah. I'd go back to that change piece. Once in a while it drives me a little bit crazy, but there's a change every day, I rarely end up doing what's on my calendar. Other stuff comes up. Which is good and bad.
On a different topic, I heard you are a health nut who sticks to a very strict diet. What does it consist of?
I just had lunch. That was chicken tenders with hot sauce and waffle fries. I am not a healthy eater.
When I started here, we had a cafeteria where you sat with whoever was at the table. We had a Professor Najarian who is a legend here and taught from the early ‘50s until he passed away. He used to comment occasionally on my lunch, which was always, you know, a sandwich with cheese, a stack of Pringles, a candy bar, some licorice and a regular soda. He started a scoring system for healthy foods. And I would never even make the chart because my lunch was so far off the chart.
We’re heading into the holidays. What has been your favorite holiday tradition at ACPHS?
You're aware of Mrs. Kirkpatrick (a former ACPHS caretaker). She would call three or four of us on certain days before the holidays and say, “I'd like you to come down for your drink,” and we'd have a couple of drinks with Mrs. Kirkpatrick in her apartment on the ground floor of the O’Brien Building. And that would be our holiday celebration. You know, at the time we kind of thought we were special. This probably was more like the 12 days of Christmas – she was inviting four or five people each day.
Nowadays, the thing I like most about the holidays actually is the week that we get off between Christmas and New Year’s Day. It's a true vacation because nobody else at the college is working.
Many people like you have stayed at ACPHS a long time. What has kept you here?
The people and the opportunity for growth are really what kept me here. I loved being athletic director, but I don't know if that would have made me happy for 30-plus years. My wife says, you were lucky you even graduated from college and now you're almost running one. I don't know how that worked out.
But it did.
Yeah, it did.