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From Economics to the Arts: How One Couple’s Journeys Inspired Their Support of Alfred Students

Posted By Carol Marcy

Sep 09, 2026 | Alumni Business Current Students General Blogs Liberal Arts & Sciences Performing Arts Pre-College

Strapped into the back seat of an IndyCar and hurtling around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 180 miles per hour, Jeff Maess ’71 had one thought:

"I don't even like roller coasters. What am I doing in here?"

The experience was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he received through a charity auction. It was exhilarating, unexpected, and a little outside his comfort zone. Looking back, Jeff laughs that much of his life has followed a similar path.

After graduating from Alfred University with a degree in economics and business administration, he began a career in telecommunications sales, moved into marketing and advertising, and eventually found his professional home in arts administration, serving in leadership roles with organizations including the Indianapolis Opera, Indianapolis Philharmonic Orchestra, and Pike Performing Arts Center.

"My career path was not a straight-line trajectory," Jeff said. "The liberal arts education I got from Alfred gave me the foundation to make those transitions."

That willingness to embrace new opportunities eventually led Jeff to the performing arts. A longtime community theater performer, he developed a deep appreciation for the arts that eventually led him to arts administration. It was through the Indianapolis Opera that he met his future wife, Michelle Jarvis, a professional ballet dancer and choreographer who would go on to build a distinguished career at Butler University.

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A Life in the Arts

For Michelle, dance was never simply an activity. It was a calling.

"I don't remember life without dance," she said.

A lifelong ballet dancer, Michelle performed professionally before beginning a teaching career that spanned more than four decades. Along the way, she rose through the academic ranks at Butler University, serving as professor, department chair, associate dean, and eventually associate provost.

Yet even as her administrative responsibilities grew, she continued teaching and mentoring students.

"I never stopped teaching," she said.

Though their careers followed different paths, both came to appreciate the power of education and the arts to shape lives and open doors to new opportunities.

"We know firsthand how a liberal arts education encourages creativity, adaptability, and lifelong learning," Michelle said.

It's About the People

Ask Jeff what he remembers most about Alfred, and he doesn't immediately talk about classes or coursework.

He talks about people.

After his mother passed away during his senior year of high school, Jeff considered staying closer to home in Rochester for college. Instead, encouraged by his father, he followed his original plan and enrolled at Alfred.

What followed would become one of the most meaningful chapters in both his and his father's lives.

As a member of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, Jeff found a close-knit community that quickly became an important part of his college experience. His father became part of that community, too.

He began driving to Alfred for home football games, cheering from the stands before heading to the fraternity house after the game to visit with students and alumni.

Then something unexpected happened. Even after Jeff graduated, his father kept coming back.

"He was still going down for the football games," Jeff recalled. "He'd go to the fraternity house, have a couple of beers, and talk with the fraternity brothers."

Years later, Jeff met fraternity alumni who knew his father but had never met him.

"It was hysterical," he said.

The story still makes him smile because it captures what made Alfred special.

"It was really about the people."

Investing in the Future

Those experiences continue to shape how Jeff and Michelle support Alfred today.

In 2023, they established the Maess Jarvis Scholarship to help students overcome barriers to attending Alfred, particularly those for whom distance and travel costs may be obstacles. The scholarship recently helped bring a student from California to campus.

More recently, Jeff and Michelle chose to include Alfred University in their estate plans. Their planned gift will support scholarships, performing arts programming, and long-term resources that will benefit students for generations to come. Among its impacts will be support for guest artist opportunities that bring performers, choreographers, directors, designers, and other creative professionals to campus to enrich students' learning experiences.

"I know people use the term 'giving back,'" Jeff said. "But I look at it more as an investment."

An investment in students and in the kind of education that helped two people discover careers, passions, and possibilities they never could have predicted when they first set out on their journeys.

Photos: Jeff Maess '71 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Jeff and Michelle at the Grand Canyon.

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