Old Saybrook native David LaMay, CFP®, CPWA®, wasn’t looking to go to college right after high school back in the late 1970s. He decided to take a year off before attending college, which turned into five years.

In 1980, he received a catalog from Middlesex Community College and found some interesting courses, so he enrolled as a part-time student. He commuted to Middletown for classes while working in an auto parts store and at a local nightclub.

David took business classes, which lead to cable telecommunications courses. During this time, Aldo Sicuso, then media services director at Middlesex (retired 2003), acquired grants to update the broadcast studio at the college and became David’s inspiration in the broadcast cable field, as well as his mentor and friend, even years later.

By 1985, David graduated with an AS in cable telecommunications. At first he worked full-time producing and editing commercials for cable companies in Middletown and Branford. But he really wanted to work for broadcast TV and finally landed a studio technician job at ESPN in Bristol.

While working in technical operations, he became interested in the area that oversees the financing of the ESPN’s programming. To work in that department he needed a degree in finance. So he enrolled at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire, taking courses at night, while working full-time selling broadcast equipment. Franklin Pierce accepted many of the Middlesex credits, allowing him to earn his bachelor’s in financial management in two years.

When David returned to Connecticut, he went to work for Merrill Lynch as a financial consultant and returned part-time to ESPN, where he learned that working in the network’s finance department would require an MBA degree.

Again, David returned to school at night while he continued working full-time as a financial advisor and part-time with ESPN. He received his MBA from the University of Connecticut in 1999. David is employed by Essex Financial Services and celebrated a 25-year career as a financial advisor in 2017.

It’s important for David to give back to the community, so he volunteers as a member of the Middlesex Hospital Philanthropy Advisory Council, is chairman of the Old Saybrook Board of Finance, a member of the Old Saybrook Fire Department, and previously served six years on the Xavier High School Alumni Board of Directors.

For the past several years, David has taught Introduction to Finance course at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven. He also teaches part-time at Central Connecticut State University. The teaching bug finds him looking back to Middlesex, even stopping by on occasion.

“Middlesex is a great place to start college. It provided me with an excellent educational foundation, which I’ve continued to build upon. I enjoyed all my time there and would like to come back and teach at some point,” David said.

David said the Center for New Media is light years ahead of the studio he studied in, and he is glad to know Middlesex students intern at ESPN. David keeps up with the technology even though it has changed so much and regularly meets up with a fellow MxCC classmate/friend.

Written by Thea Moritz in 2017