When Tony Perticone visited Clemson University in the spring of 1981, he left snow-covered Michigan and arrived to 70 degrees and sunshine, along with a warmth that had nothing to do with the weather.
“The weather was nice, but what I found most appealing was the genuine warmth of the people I met,” he said.
He was finishing up his undergraduate degree in math at Kalamazoo College and exploring graduate schools when his favorite math professor told him he needed to check out Clemson University. Although Perticone didn’t know much about Clemson when he started his trip (other than positive reviews from two cousins who played football at the University of South Carolina), that campus visit sealed his decision.
Fell in love
“I fell in love with Clemson, the faculty, the campus and the sense of community shared by all the people I met on that visit,” he said. Rich Ringeisen, the assistant department chair at that time, hosted Perticone on the visit and completely sold him on Clemson’s mathematical sciences program. The decision to attend Clemson was an easy one.”
For his master’s thesis, Perticone developed a mathematical ranking system that could be applied to any subject, including college football. The Clemson student newspaper, The Tiger, wrote an article about it that got picked up on the United Press International news wire, prompting a call from WGN radio in Chicago and an interview with the local Greenville TV station. “I had my 15 minutes of fame,” he laughed.
Perticone originally thought he would use his math degree for a career in teaching. He did some student teaching as an undergraduate and served as a graduate teaching assistant while pursuing his master’s degree and thoroughly enjoyed teaching and interacting with his students.
In 1983, Clayton Aucoin, the dean of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, convinced Perticone to pursue his doctorate and was instrumental in Perticone receiving a fellowship to remain at Clemson.
Opening a door
“I thought a doctorate would open a door for me to teach in college,” he said.
He earned his doctorate in May 1986 under the tutelage of Rick Jarvis and Doug Shier. Perticone’s dissertation, titled “The Design and Analysis of Telecommunication Networks,” caught the attention of AT&T Bell Laboratories, the research and development arm of AT&T. Since he was particularly interested in the practical use of mathematics in industry, Perticone decided it would be important for him to work outside of academia for a few years to really appreciate how the subject was used in that sector.
“I truly thought it would make me a better teacher,” he said. But he never returned to the classroom. Instead, Perticone spent 35 years at AT&T, moving from research roles in New Jersey to leadership roles in Atlanta. He retired in 2021 as a vice president leading AT&T’s national network design organization.
Love of teaching never faded
Even as his career in industry advanced, Perticone’s love of teaching and mentoring never faded. Buoyed by a love of the game and influenced by his father — a respected Michigan high school basketball coach — he began volunteering as a youth basketball coach at the Clemson YMCA during graduate school. He continued to coach in rec leagues, church leagues and at various middle schools throughout his career at AT&T.
Upon retiring in 2021, Perticone started mentoring at the Atlanta Youth Academy, a small private Christian school in south Atlanta where most students come from single-parent homes with limited financial means.
“There was no reason for me to retire from AT&T other than the fact that I felt like I wanted to do something a little more impactful for others,” he said.
Starting a basketball program
While mentoring an eighth-grade boy who liked to play basketball, and realizing the school didn’t have an organized athletics program, Perticone asked the dean whether he could start a middle school basketball team. “Coaching is teaching and mentoring. When you’re coaching a group of young boys or girls, you can have more influence on them than if you mentored them once every other week for 30 minutes or so,” said Perticone.
What began as one middle school team has grown into a full-fledged program with multiple teams for boys and girls across several grade levels. This season, Perticone is coaching three teams at the school: the middle school boys’ team, the middle school girls’ team and the “little kids’ team” consisting of second, third and fourth-graders.
Oldest assistant coach
He isn’t doing it alone, however. His 97-year-old father, Justin Perticone, spends his winters in Atlanta and serves as Perticone’s assistant coach. “I can say with a high level of confidence that I have the oldest assistant coach in the country,” Perticone said. “His mind is still sharp. He’ll stop practice and correct the kids’ positions. He’ll second guess my coaching decisions during games. The kids love him, and I feel very blessed to be able to share this experience with him.”
Perticone remains connected with Clemson.
Along with fellow graduate students, Perticone helped found the Drennon/Gabet Endowed Memorial Fund for Mathematical Sciences in the memory of Madeleine Drennon, the landlady of the apartment complex he lived in while a student at Clemson, and Bill Gabet, a close friend and fellow graduate student in the department at the same time as Perticone. The fund recognizes graduate students for outstanding contributions in research, teaching and citizenship.
In 2011, Perticone visited the Kalamazoo College professor who suggested he take a look at Clemson.
“I had to thank him because he changed my life.”
