Alumni Spotlights
How We Met: Cynthia and Sean Canty
Back on campus for the Golden Jubilee celebration on 7 June, we caught up with alumni Sean Canty (BComm ’74) and Cynthia Bruce Canty (JYA ‘74) who told us about their chance encounter in 1973 at a student house party, and how it unfolded into building a life together in the US.
Cynthia Bruce and Sean Canty met at UCC in October 1973. Michigan native Cynthia was newly arrived in Cork for her Junior Year Abroad (JYA), sponsored by the University of Detroit. Three weeks after landing in Cork, she met Sean, a 4th year commerce student and native of The Lough, at an off-campus party at a house on Magazine Road. They married in Detroit in July, 1976. Since then, they’ve made their home in the greater Detroit area. Sean is newly retired after a long career in the automotive industry. Cynthia spent 40 years as a Detroit-area television and radio anchor, reporter and talk show host before retiring in late 2019. Now that both are retired, they are free to focus on their family: son Brendan and his wife Megan, their children Liam, Brigid, Rory and Maeve, and daughter Siobhan and her husband Samuel Bissell. Sean and Cynthia also will spend more time at their cottage in Glandore, West Cork, now that career demands are in the past.
Courses studied and year of graduation
Sean: BComm ’74, UCC and MBA ’83, University of Detroit
Cynthia: BA (History) ‘75, University of Detroit. JYA Classes taken at UCC included Archaeology, Modern Irish History, Medieval Irish History.
How did you meet?
On October 25, 1973, Sean had been at practice at St Finbarr’s Hurling & Football Club. Afterwards, he met up with his UCC classmate Terry McInerney at Terry’s flat on Magazine Road. The engineering students who lived on the ground floor of the house were throwing a party, and that’s where Sean happened to notice a girl who was heading out the door. For some reason, he spoke to her. To this day, he maintains he was quite surprised to hear an American accent come back to him.
Cynthia remembers she had decided she’d had enough party and was ready to make her way back to her digs on Glasheen Road. As she headed out the door, a voice asked “Where are you going? What’s the matter?”
She turned and saw Sean sitting on a table in the long hallway. For some reason, she answered: told him the party was too loud and she’d had enough. The two began talking. Sean then walked her home to her digs in Riverview Estate and asked her out for the following Sunday night. For that first date, he took her to see a Dustin Hoffman film, “Little Big Man” at the Lee Cinema on Washington Street. They wrapped up the night at Con’s American Bar on Cook Street, chosen because Sean thought the name would make Cynthia feel at home. And that’s how they began. This July, they will celebrate their 48th wedding anniversary.
Above (l-r): Sean and Cynthia at the Tramps Ball at UCC, December 1973; Sean and Cynthia at the Guild Ball at Cork City Hall, December 1973; a photo of Cynthia and Sean at UCC in 1974.
Can you tell us a bit about your career journey?
Sean’s first job after graduating from UCC was as a cost accountant for E.I./General Electric in Shannon. Cynthia still had to finish her final year of university, so she went back to Detroit in September 1974. After many letters and phone calls, the couple decided that Sean would move to Detroit. He arrived on Leap Year Day, 29 February 1976. Within three days, he had secured his first US job as a cost accountant for an industrial products company. Within two years, he had moved to Holley Carburetor, which was the beginning of his automotive career. After several years, he became Vice-President of Finance for Farnam-Meillor, based in suburban Detroit. Sean’s next career stop was at Hutchinson, an automotive supply division of the French-owned Total Energies S.A. He served as Chief Financial Officer before becoming Senior Vice President for North America, focusing on finance, human resources, and information systems. He retired at the end of 2023.
Cynthia had visions of becoming a history professor. But in the mid 1970s, there were not many job prospects in that field. While working as a health educator for the American Cancer Society, she appeared on a Detroit television interview show. That sparked a desire to become a broadcast journalist. She took some courses in reporting and broadcast news writing. Her career began in December 1979, doing the news on an overnight shift at a small Detroit radio station.
40 years later, in December 2019, she retired after an Emmy-winning career as an anchor-reporter on Detroit television and a number of Detroit-area commercial and public radio stations. At one point in her career, Cynthia was on Detroit radio or TV seven days a week.
Now that she’s no longer rising at 4.15am for a radio breakfast show, or doing live shots on the late TV newscast, Cynthia is free to enjoy her new role as a volunteer at a hospital near their home, where she cuddles premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She also enjoys doing free-lance video production and voiceovers.
Professionally, what are you most proud of?
Sean is most proud of the way he took on new duties and growing responsibilities in his long automotive career. His roots in Ireland, as a European now living in the United States, helped him to successfully liaise between personnel in the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Asia.
Cynthia is most proud of having covered many significant news stories in Michigan and interviewing a wide range of fascinating and challenging people, famous and not-so-famous. She was successful in both television and radio. She won an Emmy for her feature reporting as well as awards from United Press International, the Michigan Associated Press, the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, and the Detroit Press Club.
A piece of advice you live by
Sean’s motto has always been: “Treat others as you would want to be treated. And be a good listener.”
For years, Cynthia kept a motto on her desk: “To be average scares the hell out of me.”
Best memories from your time at UCC?
Sean enjoys memories of playing muddy football matches with his BComm classmates in the Quarry. He also played hurling, Gaelic football and soccer for UCC. He grew up at The Lough, an easy walk from the UCC campus, and always wanted to go to UCC. His years there are an important part of his pride in being a Corkman. Sean was also the first Canty grandchild to attend university.
Cynthia loved studying archaeology with the legendary Professor Michael O’Kelly. A special memory is getting a tour from Professor O’Kelly of his then-ongoing excavation of the Newgrange Neolithic passage tomb. She has great memories of studying Modern Irish History with the equally legendary Professor John Murphy. The girl from Ferndale, Michigan loved every inch of the UCC Campus, especially the Honan Chapel, the Old Arts Building and the Main Quad. She also loved living on the North Mall: there was no River Lee with swans back home in Ferndale! Her other special memories include singing in the UCC Choral Society, the Tramp’s Ball and the Guild Ball in late 1973.