By Amelia Kibbe
Editor-in-Chief
The June 5, 1989 edition of USA Today featured stories about the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the infamous Supreme Leader of Iran, the retirement of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer—and a feature on 9-year-old Edward Bysiek, then a student at Southern Tier Catholic School in Olean.
Bysiek had written, directed and produced a series of short films titled “Be a Winner, Drugs are for Losers!” His most recent film at the time went on to win honors from former Gov. Mario Cuomo’s Youth Drug Prevention Campaign later that year.
The video contest wouldn’t be the last time Bysiek, now a lecturer of accounting at St. Bonaventure, made the headlines.
In 1997, he graduated valedictorian of his high school class, and in the fall of that year, he began his career as a Bonnie.
“I had been coming to basketball games here since I was three years old with my parents,” said Bysiek, who majored in accounting and finance. “In high school, I’d ride my bike to campus to shoot hoops in the Reilly Center, so I had a certain comfort level being on campus. On top of that, the business program here had a good reputation.”
But it wasn’t all business that made Bysiek’s time at Bonaventure great, he said.
As an undergraduate student, Bysiek said he was a hardcore basketball fan. He joined the Bonaventure Accounting Association, Economics and Finance club and Campus Activities Board.
“I also did a lot of DJ events on campus, so everything from junior prom to 50 Days, weekly dance parties in the Skellar…that was a lot of fun,” he said.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 2001, Bysiek returned to Bonaventure to obtain his master’s degree as part of the school’s five-year program.
After graduation, the same competitive spirit that motivated him to create films and graduate at the top of his high school class challenged him to begin teaching and start his own accounting firm, he said.
“Teaching came about as a result of being in the right place at the right time,” said Bysiek, who began teaching a master’s class in accounting in the fall of 2006. “When I accepted the invitation, I did it less because I was interested in a teaching career and more because I like to challenge myself personally and professionally. It turned out that not only did I meet that challenge, but I really enjoyed it.”
Bysiek CPA, PLLC, the firm he opened in 2007, specializes in financial statement assurance services with a focus on the non-profit sector, he said.
“Five years out of college, I made a decision to branch off on my own, which at the time was kind of a risky move,” he said. “It’s something that I think I have always had in the back of my mind.”
According to Bysiek, the firm has grown every year.
Today, Bysiek continues to add to his teaching course load, with many of his classes made up mostly of younger students.
“I enjoy teaching freshmen a lot,” he said. “I think coming in fresh out of high school, most of my students don’t have a clear vision about what their career paths are going to be. And that’s ok. I definitely had no idea what I wanted to be at that age. I think I am in a unique position, being not that far removed from their side of the desk, to offer a lot of ideas that they can relate to.”
But he still enjoys his college-aged interests of disc jockeying and basketball, he said.
He currently entertains as a disc jockey on the weekends, and has played at over 800 events to date, including opening at a concert for Sean Kingston in 2010.
Bysiek said he can often be found at the Sandra A. and William L. Richter Center, playing a sport he has loved for as long as he can remember.
“I’m a competitive person by nature, and basketball is an outlet for that in addition to being my preferred way of staying in shape,” he said. “I like participating in pick-up games with students and faculty. Over the summer, I play a lot of tournaments.”
Bysiek generally competes in—and often wins—a series of Gus Macker tournaments, a national 3-on-3 tournament that travels to over 50 U.S. cities.
According to a 2012 Olean Times Herald article, Bysiek has become a local tournament veteran.
And, of course, there’s his family, too. Bysiek, who now lives in Allegany, with his wife of seven years, Evelyn, have a son, Eddy, 4, and twin daughters, Sylvia and Juliana, almost 2.
“I am becoming continually more conscious of modeling a type of behavior for them that will serve as a good example,” he said.
He added Evelyn, who received her master’s degree from Bonaventure, began teaching in the math department this fall.
Another lesser-known fact about him is his passion for writing novels, he said.
“I don’t tell many people about that part of my life,” he said. “I’ve written four novels, as yet unpublished. That process is ongoing now, and I have found that to be one of the biggest challenges of my professional career.”
But for Bysiek, every day is just a new adventure, he said.
“How do I juggle it all?” he said. “I am not really sure. It’s a great question. No two days are the same.”
kibbeaa13@bonaventure.edu
