Alumni/ae Profile
Lee Miringoff '66
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"For Lee, it is 'students first': an element of the Day School ethos he readily admits applying everyday to his life and career."
Lee Miringoff '66: political scientist, nationally-known pollster, die-hard Giants' fan, closet comedian. These are just some of the ways to describe this Poughkeepsie Day School alumnus, who currently serves as a PDS community trustee as well as director of the Marist Institute of Public Opinion at Marist College |
| Born and raised in Poughkeepsie, Lee entered the Day School as a four-year old in 1955, following in the footsteps of his brother, Marc, who began at PDS in 1949. He has fond memories of the "old building," remaining there until seventh grade, when "39" was constructed. The day President Kennedy was shot, Lee recalls being summoned back to the Hooker Avenue site along with other student and faculty volunteer movers to hear Day School director Hillis Howie address the school and to witness, via radio, Lyndon Johnson's remarks to the nation. |  |
Lee remembers making what he jokingly calls "key double plays" on the softball field in his middle school years at PDS and his theatrical debut in third grade as a tree in a Day School production of The Trojan War (although he admits coveting the role of Menelaus). He also was a good student who credits the faculty--and, in particular, social studies teacher Emmy McConnell--with encouraging his interest in history and government. More important than individual people, though, says Lee, was "the feel and flavor" of PDS. It was here he got the sense that "what you enjoy becomes part of your life, as opposed to what you simply do from nine to five; that you don't segment your life, you don't separate vocation from avocation."
It was a lesson Lee carried with him when he left PDS for Arlington High School and, later, through college and graduate school as well. At Clark University, he secured a junior-year internship working in Congress through American University's Semester in Washington program, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude, with a double major in government (in which he also received high honors) and economics. Then it was off to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he completed course work for his Ph.D. in political science in just two years.
Back in Poughkeepsie, Lee landed--at the tender age of twenty-four--an instructor's position at Marist in its political science department. It was in 1978, while teaching a course in voting behavior there, that a student proposed the class design a poll. The rest, as they say, is history. That fall, 100 Marist students were deployed across Dutchess County at specifically selected sites to conduct exit interviews of voters; Lee and a student group also were interviewed on local radio station WKIP to discuss the results.
Four years later, statewide polling was organized by Marist undergraduates under Lee's leadership and over the next 10 years--with former Governor Mario Cuomo providing the public relations "buzz" that helped spotlight the groundbreaking work of his students--Lee was catapulted into national prominence as a polling authority.
Despite his hobnobbing with the likes of such well-known television journalists as Tim Russert of NBC's Meet the Press and veteran New York political correspondent Gabe Pressman, Lee is quick to downplay his own very visible success and to highlight, instead, the work of his students. For Lee, it is "students first," an element of the Day School ethos he readily admits applying everyday to his life and career.
For example, a major strength of the Marist program he oversees is, Lee says, its hands-on, interdisciplinary approach to learning. His students, aided by Marist's cutting-edge technological support, now design and market a sophisticated polling service on a variety of topics, which is sold to television news directors across the country. He also speaks animatedly about Marist's own internship program, which introduces students to all aspects of political life. Energized by their experiences, Lee's students have gone on to work in such diverse fields as computer science, communications, market research and analysis, public relations and survey research.
Lee's next project: a distance learning program which can be used by high school students via the Internet to help them better understand the country's political system through hands-on polling design, data collection and analysis.
When not immersed in work, Lee can be found relaxing at home with his wife, Nancy, the director of a school for developmentally disabled children in Putnam County, and their dog, Cassie.
Clearly, Lee Miringoff is not only a scholar, gifted teacher and very funny man, he is a mentor in the Day School tradition--deeply involved in the lives of his students years after they have left his tutelage. And serving PDS as a trustee (as did his father, Hy, before him), Lee actively furthers that sense of genuine community he first experienced here decades ago.
Sandra M. Moore/4-98
Read a profile of school founder Monica Liang-Aguirre '87.
Read a profile of TV news producer Michael Milhaven '90.
Read a profile of dancer and choreographer Kara Tatelbaum '96.
