Walter F. Drag named Business Person of Year

Judge Walter F. Drag

Send checks payable to the Fredonia College Foundation to the Business Administration Department, E336 Thompson Hall.   OR, drop off checks at the Snack Shack  3rd floor Thompson. Choice of Meals: NY Strip Steak: $16 Grilled Salmon: $17.50 Pasta Primavera: $11.20

The SUNY Fredonia Business Club has named Walter F. Drag of Dunkirk as its 29th annual Businessperson of the Year. The Dunkirk City Judge and practicing private attorney will be honored with a dinner ceremony on Monday, April 24 at 6 p.m. in the Williams Center.

Speakers for the event will will be SUNY Fredonia President Dennis L. Hefner, Distinguished Service Professor Franklin B. Krohn of the School of Business, Business Administration Chairperson Mojtaba Seyedian, Business Club President Valerie Feldbauer and Judge Drag.

The Businessperson of the Year Award is given by the Business Club every spring to an individual in the local community who exhibits outstanding business leadership, public service, integrity and genuine concern for the well-being of his or her employees. Patricia Damico of P&G Foods in Dunkirk received the award in 2005.


Mr. Drag has served on the Dunkirk City Court bench since 1990 and presides over the Dunkirk City Treatment Court (“drug court”). In his private practice, Mr. Drag handles cases related to estates, real property, municipal and corporate matters and other civil law fields. He is also counsel to the Dunkirk Housing Authority, a role he has held since 1979.

”I'm very honored, very flattered that the Business Club selected me for this award,” said Mr. Drag. “As a businessman, I have always tried to have a good relationship with the public and offer quality services. What will make or break you are your community ties, relating to people as people. We have always tried to offer that personal relationship.”

After completing his education, Mr. Drag was an adjunct faculty member at SUNY Fredonia from 1979 to 1981 and again in 1984. He completed his third teaching stint in 2004 after another two years of teaching. Mr. Drag is also an honorary member of the SUNY Fredonia chapter of Golden Key, and welcomes a pair of SUNY Fredonia interns into his courtroom each semester.  “I think it’s important to keep a relationship between the college and the community,” said Mr. Drag. “It is something that really benefits both sides.”

Mr. Drag has enjoyed a relationship with SUNY Fredonia that spans nearly 40 years. As a Dunkirk Senior High School senior in 1967, Mr. Drag was accepted into the university as an early admission student. After graduating as valedictorian of his high school class in 1968, Mr. Drag attended SUNY Fredonia as a freshman during the 1968-1969 academic year before transferring to Colgate University, where he earned his A.B. with honors in International Relations/Political Science. He would later attend Georgetown University and SUNY at Buffalo, where he received his juris doctorate in 1977.

In addition to his longstanding legal practice, Mr. Drag has worked as deputy county attorney for Chautauqua County, Dunkirk city attorney, office general counsel for the Forest Oil Corporation and administrative assistant to former New York State Assemblyman John W. Beckman. He has been recognized as a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International, an organization whose Dunkirk chapter he once served as president. He is a past recipient of Dunkirk Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award, the Dunkirk Rotary Vocational Service Award, and the Dunkirk-Fredonia NAACP Community Service Award. Mr. Drag was the keynote speaker at the Dunkirk Community Challenge and chairman of the Economic Development Committee.

Active both professionally and civically, Mr. Drag is a member of the New York State Association of City Court Judges, the Chautauqua County Magistrates Association, the American Judges Association, the Bar Association of Northern Chautauqua County, the American Bar Association, the New York State bar Association and the Erie County Bar Association.

He is involved with the Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the American Trial lawyers Association, the Dunkirk Historical Society, the Dunkirk Free Library, Northern Chautauqua Catholic School, the Dunkirk Chamber of Commerce, the Dunkirk High Sports Booster Club and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church.

“This community has been supportive of me, and I feel it is my obligation to give back,” Mr. Drag said. “They have supported me by voting for me (as judge) and as my clients. I want to support them in whatever way I can.”

Mr. Drag and his wife, Susan, have two adult children – Elizabeth, a member of the SUNY Fredonia Class of 2002, and Nathan, a graduate of SUNY Potsdam.