Attorney William W. Pulos has a dedicated, successful and diverse professional career of service to others. Beginning with his brother as a Boy Scout with 17 merit badges and as a Church usher while his mom played the organ in his hometown of Alfred, New York, “Bill” graduated from Alfred-Almond Central High School in 1973 as a member of the National Honor Society, being one of five classmates to earn a New York State Regents diploma with honors. In 1977 he graduated from Alfred University, magna cum laude. Bill returned to Alfred following his 1980 graduation from Albany Law School, having won 1st in class in Trial Court Competition, along with the Capital District Trial Lawyers Prize and the Albany Law Board of Trustees Practice Court Prize. As one of 5% of all law school graduates at the time nationwide, he opened his law practice by “hanging his shingle” on Alfred’s Main Street.
Bill grew up on the family farm and has been a legal resident of the Town of Alfred for 69 consecutive years.
Lethal Dominant White in Horses
For four years 1981-1985 Bill and his parents, Dr. William L. Pulos and Mrs. Juanita Whitaker Pulos, simultaneously served as faculty members at Alfred University. Few, if any, families in Alfred University’s history since 1836 share this distinction.
Bill Pulos is the oldest Allegany County native practicing law locally and one of few, if any, Allegany County natives during the last 100 years to start a law practice. Since 2012, Bill has been cited every year by the Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Peer Review Rating Service (the oldest in the nation) by achieving their highest rating of “AV-Preeminent” – the highest in legal ethics and ability; the highest rating accorded to 10% of all lawyers nationwide. He is believed to be the only Allegany County lawyer, not
employed by the Allegany County Court system, to have achieved this recognition.
https://www.martindale.com/marketyourfirm/profiles/peer-ratings/
https://www.martindale.com/William-W-Pulos/425535-lawyer.htm
Bill has a long list of public service accomplishments for which he has been recognized on local, state and national levels. Perhaps the most defining aspect of Bill’s career and ability has been his dedication to volunteerism and public service. Helped by many to whom he is always quick to give credit, Bill has dedicated much of his life to community, college and civic service for the public good.
Beginning in 1982, he served as attorney for local town governments for a combined sixty-eight years. For some Towns, the yearly fee was $500.00. He received no health insurance or government pension benefits from any of them. The Town of Alfred was never sued successfully during Bill’s eighteen years as Town Attorney.
Bill served many years as a professor at all three (3) Alfred colleges. He taught at Alfred University, Alfred State College and Empire State College: AU–1 semester full time, 17 semesters part-time, ASC–4 semesters full-time, ESC-8 semesters part-time.
As of June 30, 2020, Bill had committed portions of a combined 76 semesters to teaching, coaching, advising, officiating and administrating, mostly at the collegiate level, all without pension, insurance or benefits.
Since 1980 Bill Pulos has donated 10,000+ hours of service to others.
✓ Bill served his community with heavy, sustained involvement in the Alfred Lions Club for twelve years (1982-1994). Through this organization, Bill leveraged his skills, energy and expertise for community fundraising programs and tournaments. During his tenure, he introduced and developed four new fundraising events featuring high school athletes held at the college’s sports arenas, raising thousands of new charitable dollars in record numbers for Lions Club recipients.
✓ In 1989, Bill earned the NYS District 20E-1 LIONS 100% Club President Designation. He was also awarded the District Governor’s CAMEL AWARD for his Commitment, Attitude, Motivation, Enthusiasm and Leadership, an award created personally for him that year.
✓ In 1990, Bill was awarded LION OF THE YEAR by the Alfred Lions Club.
✓ In 1991, at age 35, Bill was recognized by the International Association of Lions Clubs and was honored with the most prestigious worldwide award in Lionism, the Melvin Jones International Humanitarian Award, which cited his high ethical standards in the civic, cultural, social and moral welfare of the community.
✓ In 1991, Bill became Alfred’s only recipient of the Statewide Lions Leadership Award presented by New York’s Organization of Past District Governors
✓ In 1982, Bill became an honorary brother at AU’s Delta Sig Phi fraternity. For seven years 1982-1989 he was a fraternity advisor and at the request of AU President Edward Coll, served on the fraternity’s Advisory Control Board.
✓ Bill proudly served his community as a NYS exempt volunteer firefighter with the Alfred Station Volunteer Fire Department for thirteen years (1985-1998). He worked his way up through the ranks, starting on the fire line, was elected as an Assistant Chief of the Department for 4 years (1988-1992) and was elected President of the Department (1994-1998). In this capacity, Bill was very successful intersecting and interacting with a broad cross-section of people from Allegany County. In 1992, after a period of dormancy, Bill re-introduced the concept of parade uniforms and parade dress to his department which eventually led to the Alfred Station Fire Department winning numerous Allegany County and regional competitions, year after year.
✓ In 1985, with the urging and support of many Delta Sig fraternity brothers, Bill co-founded the ALFRED UNIVERSITY RUGBY CLUB, an intercollegiate Division III sports team. During that time, Bill served as college chairman of the NYS governing body. As of June 2020, the rugby club had enjoyed 70 consecutive semesters of good standing, largely due to the impact of Coach Bill Pulos.
✓ In 1989-1990, Bill’s energy, expertise and creativity were called into play during the confrontation between the New York State Radioactive Siting Commission and the citizens of Allegany County. NYS was determined to build a radioactive waste storage facility in Allegany County. Rallying to help his fellow citizens, Bill authored a law he wrote from scratch prohibiting the State of New York (or anyone else) from siting a radioactive waste facility which was adopted in seven (7) Allegany County towns. For months, Bill travelled the countryside helping others understand and deal with this very complex issue, at no charge (pro bono).
✓ In 1992, Bill (assisted by his then-law clerk Timothy Rosell) donated a 300-volume set of leather-bound New York Supplement (1st series) Law Reporters in memory of his mother to the New York State Seventh Judicial District Law Library in Bath, New York, a set of works that remain there to this day. The ceremony was commemorated with court officials Justice Henry Scudder (Presiding Justice of the NYS Supreme Court – 4th Appellate Department), Steuben County Judge Joseph Latham, District Attorney John Tunney, Surrogate Clerk Peggy Lynn Plank and Librarian Kristine Gilbert, shortly before Mr. Rosell left to begin law school.
✓ From 1990-1993, Bill faced one of the biggest challenges of his career. He was called upon to defend the Town of Alfred in (3) separate, hotly contested lawsuits brought by Alfred University against the Town of Alfred. These suits contested the property tax status of the Alfred University Saxon Inn Hotel. These lawsuits impacted the budgets of the Village of Alfred, the Town of Alfred, the Alfred-Almond School District and the Allegany County. Everyone involved in this community-wide dispute had interlaced family, educational and professional connections with these entities, with complex overlaps. Emotions ran high.
✓ For what amounted to an honorarium for his professional service to the entire community during this period, Bill ultimately brokered an amicable resolution to the 3-year dispute resulting in the four government units receiving $ 900,000.00 in revenue for the first 20 years with continuing payments thereafter, while at the same time saving Alfred University a minimum of $500,000.00 in damaging publicity, opportunities lost and higher taxes since 1993.
✓ From 1990 – 1997, Bill and a partner solved a riddle for state and local taxpayers in the City of Hornell, New York. The old elementary school had fallen into disrepair, having been abandoned by the Hornell School district many years earlier. Asbestos fears and the magnitude of the abatement precluded school
district involvement. It was a community challenge no one would undertake. Bill and his partner, with considerable personal exposure, braved the odds, purchased the property and undertook the enormous task of legal demolition and legal removal to create an environmentally clean site. Once the site was declared environmentally clean, the State of New York (with no prior warning) seized most of the property via eminent domain. Safe, modern bridges, used by hundreds of thousands of cars since, were constructed to replace the old rusty bridges which had been built in the WPA days of the Depression Era,
or earlier. The bridges had formerly intersected at a dangerous “switch back” configuration. They had been built over the Erie-Lackawanna railroad tracks, the Kanakadea Creek and Canisteo River that drain the US Army Corps of Engineers Almond Lake into the Susquehanna River Basin, flowing to Chesapeake Bay. In 1997, Bill and his partner donated the rest of the land left behind by the State to the Hornell Presbyterian Church for use by their church parsonage next door. It has been estimated the efforts of Bill and his business partner saved NYS and local taxpayers over two million dollars ($2,000,000.00).
✓ In 1998 and 1999, in collaboration with the Alfred United Methodist Church, Bill honored his mother’s tireless devotion to music, church and children by creating the Juanita Whitaker Pulos Alfred Methodist Church Music Scholarship. He donated $10,000.00 as seed money to fund the program which awarded yearly scholarships to high school graduates intending to become college music majors. In 2011, Bill arranged for the re-purposing of those same funds to the alumni association of Bill’s alma mater, the Alfred-Almond Central School, specifically earmarked for the Juanita Whitaker Pulos Fine Arts scholarship.
✓ In 2004, a once-in-a-life time philanthropic opportunity arose requiring Bill’s particular traits of desire, determination and discipline to accomplish. A local clothing, sports and Army-Navy store announced it was closing its doors after decades of business dating to the late 1940’s. Bill and his now-law partner Timothy Rosell purchased the store’s entire contents. Over many months, they and their staff sorted, catalogued and transported all the usable items in a tractor-trailer to Buffalo and gave them to the VIVE refugee center, the largest international refugee center in the United States. Over 7800 items of clothing were donated.
https://www.jrchc.org/vive/the-vive-legacy/
✓ In 2004, Bill also began his collaboration with the Alfred-Almond Alumni Association. Working closely with community and church leaders Mr. and Mrs. Lee Ryan of Almond (NY), Bill created the Juanita Whitaker Pulos Fine Arts Scholarship, awarded annually by the AAAA, beginning in 2006. The 2-year process culminated with Bill re-creating his mother’s life of church, community and children by writing and publishing her biography to support the scholarship program and her induction in the AAAA Humanities Hall of Fame.
The biography of Juanita Whitaker Pulos
Acceptance Speech to Alfred Almond Alumni Association July 22, 2006
Although the Alumni Association had other scholarship awards, this was the first memorial program of its kind. To date, over $87,000.00 has been awarded from the JWP program to Alfred-Almond graduates.
This program became the model for other A-A alumni. In 2010, 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2021, new benefactors came forward and utilized the Pulos model to begin new memorial scholarships with the AAAA. Bill negotiated with each program donor and drafted all the agreements between the parties, pro bono.
✓ Since being engaged by the Alfred-Almond Alumni Association in 2004, Bill has served as its legal counsel, pro bono. As the AAAA progressed, Bill was recruited to join its Board of Directors and create a Finance Committee in 2013. From there, it was natural for Bill to ascend to the presidency, a role held by only five (5) people over the previous sixty-three years. During his two years as president, both membership and scholarship awards increased by 33% as the AAAA gave away a record setting $130,000.00 to Alfred-Almond graduates. His career of service to the AAAA can be summarized:
Donor, Author, Counsel, Chair and President.
✓ During 2006, Bill and Mr. Rosell again donated another set of law books to a local library; this time it was a thirteen hundred (1300) volume set of Federal Court Law Reporters to the David A. Howe Memorial Library in Wellsville, NY. A dedication ceremony was held to commemorate the occasion at the library in November 2006 at which time Bill’s parents were recognized for their service to Wellsville and
Allegany County:
Donation to the David A. Howe Library
✓ In 2007, Mr. Pulos and Mr. Rosell’s efforts enabled the Allegany Bar Association to help the Allegany County Youth Court, commemorated with a public ceremony in the Allegany County Courthouse in Belmont.
✓ In 2008, Mr. Pulos and Mr. Rosell’s efforts enabled the Allegany County Bar to assist the Literacy Volunteers of America, again commemorated with a public ceremony at the Allegany County LVA.
✓ 2008 – 2009 – When one of their fellow Allegany County Bar members nearly died after being stricken with a life-threatening illness, requiring multiple surgeries and months of recuperation, Bill and Mr. Rosell took the initiative by organizing a hugely successful, broad based fund-raising campaign for the member’s family.
✓ During 2008, the combined congregations of the 1st Alfred Seventh Day Baptist Church and the Union University Church joined forces in a $30,000.00 fundraising campaign to rebuild the Church’s historic pipe organ. Again, Bill and his family came forward to assist the project culminating in a memorial ceremony held in the Church sanctuary on March 4, 2009 to honor his mother’s 25 years of service to
both churches. Bill delivered a message from the pulpit that day, 23 years to the day from Mrs. Pulos’s passing:
✓ Later that year in 2009, Bill was called back as Head Coach of Alfred University Rugby. After 19 years, he returned to coaching following the death of his friend, former club captain, club charter member, Angelica, NY native and NYRC Academic All-Star Jeffrey Hollier, a PhD in neuroscience at Penn State.
Dr. Hollier’s death prompted Bill to return with a renewed sense of purpose. It readily became apparent to the public as he imbued the club members with a new appreciation of public service. As a certified USA RUGBY and POSITIVE COACHING ALLIANCE – Double Goal Coach, Bill continued shaping the lives of hundreds of college students.
https://devzone.positivecoach.org/resource/article/double-goal-coach-job-description
In perhaps the most revealing aspect of his character, upon his return, Bill instituted a program of public service for the rugby club. Before the concept of team sport/community service for sports teams became a local cause celebre, in 3 years during 2009–2012, the club delivered 600 man-hours of credentialed community service. The rugby club was the 1st club on either Alfred campus to respond to a call for help and was the 1st to participate in the Alfred State College inaugural Civic Engagement Community Action Day, with wide media coverage and a commendation from Alfred University’s Director of Student Activities:
Alfred Rugby Club Walks the Line
Bill turned the rugby program’s fortunes around and transformed the club into a New York Rugby Conference playoff contender in 3 semesters, without a varsity sports budget, equipment or resource support.
Alfred Rugby Takes the Field Again – MARCH 25, 2010
Alfred Rugby Club Back in the Game – By Tyler Parke, Alfred University Class of 2010
Since the club’s inception in 1985, Bill was never paid to coach. He was never covered by the University’s insurance program. He assumed considerable financial and personal risk on the field while coaching and administrating this tough team of athletes that played 5-8 weekends each semester (fall and spring) by traveling in their own cars, somewhat akin to the barnstorming days of professional baseball.
In 2012, after winding up 16 coaching seasons, and after serving as Secretary of the Board for the NYS Rugby Conference, Bill thought he had finally finished his college rugby-coaching career with 100 wins.
Alfred University Coach Bill Pulos Retires after 100 Wins
✓ In early 2014, Bill compiled a book entitled THE HISTORY OF ALFRED UNIVERSITY RUGBY, tracing the recorded history of the club from its inception through 2013.
The History of Alfred Rugby 1985-2013
✓ Shortly after in 2015, Bill tried his hand at photojournalism by compiling an e-book entitled “The History of Albany Law Rugby.” The e-book honors Bill’s law school professor, who started the law school club, with the club’s pictorial history.
✓ Bill’s dedicatory of the Albany Law School rugby heritage followed his leadership with fellow alumni decades earlier who created the Professor William M. Watkins Memorial Scholarship at Albany Law School named for the club’s professor-founder.
✓ In 2011, extending his contribution to local history and pursuing his interest in sports and his high school alma mater, Bill wrote and published a book entitled The Coaching History of Alfred-Almond Swimming. In hardcover, this book traces the 53-year story of one of the area’s most successful sports programs at Alfred-Almond Central School 1958-2011. Catalogued in the U.S. Library of Congress, this book was written, published and distributed at Bill’s expense: The book’s publication followed a formal program at Alfred-Almond sponsored by Bill and his brother Robert honoring the 5-time consecutive swim team champions (January 20, 2011). Bill created, designed and purchased a team spirit banner for permanent display, team t-shirts and a brochure summarizing the team’s history, all of which were donated to the school by the Pulos brothers.
✓ The lure of competition, camaraderie and the player’s courage on the rugby field led to Bill’s third term on the Alfred University Rugby Field in the fall of 2017. The third time was the charm. The club’s years of forging the necessary dedication, desire, determination and discipline, living with the mantra of strength, pride, attitude, nerve and courage, all having begun 32 years earlier, came to fruition that fall. Bill served as the club’s consultant coach, advocate and motivator during the team’s 1st ever march to the New York State Small College Rugby Championship, ending with the club’s 1st ever national ranking at # 18 out of 400. To commemorate this special occasion, NYS State Senator Catherine Young
sponsored a NYS Senate resolution congratulating the club on their achievements. According to Alfred University President Mark Zupan, this was the 1st time an Alfred University sports team had received this honor and encouraged Bill to stay on in his capacity for two more seasons with the club during 2018 and 2019.
NYS Senate Resolutions May 17, 2018
During Bill’s time with the club, he enjoyed the vocal, in-person support of both Dr. Zupan and former president Dr. Edward Coll. In all, Bill donated over 4000 hours of his time to coaching, managing and administrating the Alfred University rugby club over 19 seasons.
✓ To this day, Bill continues his community connection as a life member of the Allegany County Volunteer Firemen’s Association, as a life member of Alfred’s Baker’s Bridge Historical Society, as a life member of the Almond Historical Society and as a charter member of the Allegany County Historical Society.
✓ Bill is a charter member of the 1851 Society at his alma mater, Albany Law School in Albany, New York:
https://alumni.albanylaw.edu/s/977/18/interior.aspx?sid=977&gid=1&pgid=2191
✓ Bill’s membership in the Albany Law 1851 Society led him to create and become a charter member of the Alfred-Almond Alumni Association 1940 Society in 2019, encouraging estate planning donations to the AAAA.
✓ Beginning in 2015, Bill and Mr. Rosell started the Hornell branch of the Steuben County Bar Association holiday giving program. In the years since, they collected toys, clothes and coats for a variety of agencies including Catholic Charities, Hillside Homes and Arbor Housing Net, Shelter and Abuse program.
✓ In December of 2021, Bill began a scholarship program at Albany Law School in memory of John P. DeMatteo. Mr. DeMatteo was the long-time maintenance supervisor at the school for whom Bill worked on the maintenance crew during his entire time while a student at Albany Law School. Bill conducted a ceremony at Albany Law School to commemorate the scholarship commencement in September
of 2022.
✓ In July of 2023, Bill was honored by the Alfred-Almond Alumni Association with the presentation of its Outstanding Service Award.
✓ In September of 2023, Bill was honored by the Albany Law School National Alumni
Association with the presentation of its Excellence in Alumni Service Award.
✓ On April 19, 2024, Bill was recognized with the highest honor ever bestowed upon an Albany Law School Rugby Club alumnus in the last sixty years. Bill was one of fourteen Charter Class inductees to the group known as the Albany Law Rugby Club Alumni Blue Jackets. This group is comprised of those Albany Law school graduates who have given above and beyond to their club, their alumni and to the
sport of rugby.
Bill Pulos is the only attorney in the United States with this curriculum vitae:
❖ Started and owned his private law practice for 42 consecutive years.
❖ Admitted to Practice in the United States Supreme Court, and
❖ Filed a case for review at the United States Supreme Court
❖ Martindale-Hubbell’s AV rating – highest in ethics and ability
❖ Teaching professor at three colleges
❖ Author of a book catalogued in the U.S. Library of Congress
❖ Co-Founder and Head coach of a Division III college level sports team
Following the example set by his parents, with the support of his family, neighbors and friends over 44 years, attorney Bill Pulos has exhibited extraordinary dedication to bettering his community, by donating his personal resources, talents and time to legal, civic, community, business, academic and sporting endeavors. He continues looking for opportunities to serve his community and honor his parents while striving to maintain the highest professional standards.
Alfred, New York June 2024
Publications by Bill Pulos
Starting a Rugby Club at a Small College – 1990
The Biography of Juanita Whitaker Pulos – 2006
Acceptance Speech to the Alfred-Almond Alumni Association – 2006
The Biography of Dr. William L. Pulos – 2007
Memorial to the Seventh Day Baptist and Union University Church – 2009
My Time with Don Heers – 2010
Eulogy for John P. DeMatteo – 2011
The Coaching History of Alfred-Almond Swimming – 2012
My Time with Jersey – 2013
Testimonial for A.U. Track Coach Cliff DuBreuil – 2013
The History of Kali Muhleisen – Alfred State’s only 3-Time 1st Team All-American – 2013
Tribute to Thomas O’Connell – Federal Prosecutor and Patriot – 2013
The History of Alfred Rugby – 2014
The History of Albany Law Rugby – 2015
Retirement Speech for U.S. Navy Captain Evan Love – 2017
My Time with the Shorthorns – 2021
My Time in Rural Private Practice – 2021
My Time on Jericho Hill – 2024
