CU's Tom LiVigne is at home on the United Way board

Tom LiVigne, operations manager of the Cornell Real Estate Department, displays signs from his two major roles -- with Cornell and the United Way of Tompkins County. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

By Susan Lang

Why does a guy who's busy raising a family and managing Cornell's real estate properties devote so much of his time as the president of the board of directors of United Way of Tompkins County?

"Quite frankly, I do it for selfish reasons," admitted Tom LiVigne, manager of real estate operations for Cornell. "It makes me feel good. I believe that we reach a point in our lives when we have to give back and help people as best we can.

"United Way, in my opinion, is the easiest and most efficient way to give back to the community over a broad spectrum," LiVigne said. "It touches almost everyone you know and not just people in dire need. United Way agencies in Tompkins County include services to people in need of child care, to senior citizens, to families with disabled children and to people coping with problems of daily living."

Last year, during the United Way campaign, LiVigne estimated he spends up to 20 percent of his work day and even more of his nonwork day devoted to issues related to the United Way campaign. This year, he devotes time to serving as the president of the board of directors of the United Way and of Better Housing for Tompkins County and a member of the board of Alpha House.

In the recent past, he was also in the Rotary Club and on the board of directors of The Rink in Lansing.

LiVigne first got involved with the United Way four years ago because "somebody asked me to help out," he said. The first year he served on the campaign cabinet's professional division, soliciting donations from local doctors and lawyers, among others. "I guess I did a good job because the next year I was asked to become a member of the board of directors," said LiVigne, who became first vice chair of the United Way Campaign Cabinet that year. The third year he was the general campaign chair for the entire county; this year he's president of the board.

As president, he coordinates the board of directors, which sets the tone in which the United Way policies are developed and how the United Way represents itself to the community. In addition, the board helps the staff with the business activities that the United Way must accomplish to remain a strong fiscally responsible organization.

As manager of Cornell's Real Estate Department, LiVigne is in charge of buying and selling properties for the university, helping set the direction for the university's future.

But LiVigne didn't come to his present position through the usual channels. He literally worked his way up from New York City's sewers where he spliced cables for the telephone company for three years after dropping out of college in the early 1970s. That job served as a wake up call for LiVigne. He was soon attending night school and then a local community college before he was admitted to the State University of New York College at Cortland in physical education, where he met his future wife, Lisa. She's a physical education teacher and mother of LiVigne's two teenage sons.

LiVigne went on to Indiana State University for his master's degree in sports medicine (living down the hall from basketball star Larry Bird). He came to Cornell as an athletic trainer, where he worked with the football, basketball and lacrosse teams for 10 years. In his off hours, he worked part time at Village Real Estate and was part of the original group that developed Courtside Racquet and Fitness Club, which eventually gave him the experience to join Cornell's real estate operations in 1987, where he has been ever since.

"Back in the sixties and seventies, I'd never have thought I'd do something like be this active in United Way, but over the years, you change. And now, it makes me feel really good to play an important role in an organization that I know touches and helps people across the breadth of the community."