Former Siena basketball players Chris Madden, left, and Frank Dyer pose for a photo at the Teresian House 50th Anniversary Gala at the Albany Capital Center on Oct. 3, 2024.
Joe Putrock/Photo by Joe Putrock/Special to the Times Union
Siena men’s basketball coach Bill Kirsch, left, and team captain Chris Madden in 1976.
Provided by Siena Athletics
The best word to describe Chris Madden, in Gary Holle’s opinion, is “genuine.”
Madden’s earnest, down-to-earth, no-nonsense nature was exactly what made him the perfect choice to be the Siena men’s basketball team’s captain when the program made the leap to NCAA Division I competition 50 years ago.
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“He’s like the glue that held our whole team together,” said Holle, a former teammate of Madden’s at Siena and a two-sport star who went on to play professional baseball.
Madden, who captained Siena’s 1976-77 basketball team and went on to a distinguished Capital Region business career as the president of Callanan Industries and Oldcastle Materials, died June 11 following a battle with leukemia. He was 70 years old.
Frank Dyer, a teammate and roommate of Madden’s at Siena, remembered his friend of more than 50 years as “Humble. Amazingly humble.”
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“He wrote his own obituary, knowing that he was sick,” Dyer said. “It wasn’t about any accomplishments or anything that he had done, although he could’ve taken up a couple pages if he really wanted to enumerate all the things that he had done. It wasn’t about him, it was about his family and his friends.
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“He was just that humble.”
Born Aug. 26, 1955 in New Hartford, Madden was a three-sport athlete at New Hartford High School, playing football, basketball and baseball. After graduating from New Hartford, he enrolled at Siena and helped usher in the school’s Division I era of men’s basketball.
Initially named a co-captain alongside Holle for the 1976-77 season by Siena coach Bill Kirsch, Madden ended up taking on the responsibilities on his own when Holle departed to start a pro baseball career after being drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers.
Madden, who averaged 8.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game during that first Division I season in which Siena went 9-15, was the ideal player to lead his teammates on and off the floor, Dyer said.
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“He was the perfect person to be the captain of that team,” said Dyer, who started at small forward with Madden next to him at power forward. “He was stern. He had conviction. He made decisions.”
Holle said those qualities were evident in Madden — a 1977 Siena graduate — even before he was officially a captain.
“If there were any kind of issues, he could usually calm those things down, get everybody back on track,” he said.
After graduating from Siena, Madden and Dyer worked together at the state Department of Health before Madden embarked on a new path in business. He joined Callanan Industries, eventually becoming company president. When Oldcastle Materials Group purchased Callanan, Madden became president of Oldcastle’s Northeast Division.
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Through it all, he remained steadfastly dedicated to a wide circle of friends.
“We have all used the phrase from time to time, ‘larger than life,’ (and) Chris Madden truly was the epitome of that phrase,” said Dave Smith, Siena’s former vice president for development and external affairs. “In every aspect of his life he excelled and was a beacon of light for us all. His love of family, his business relationships and dealings, his friendships, his faith, his philanthropic leadership.
“Chris was a ‘count me in’ person. Always available to be counted on, always ready to assist, and he always did it with anonymity and dignity.”
In the years after his retirement, Dyer said that Madden “filled his life with all the things he wanted to do with his family and friends,” including deep sea fishing, skiing, riding catamarans in the Caribbean and golfing all over the world.
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“He loved to have fun,” Dyer said. “He realized when he retired that we don’t have a whole (long) amount of time, and we don’t know when we’re going to reach the top of the mountain.”
Madden is survived by his wife of 41 years, Carleen, as well as daughters Katharine, Elizabeth and Sarah, and four siblings.
His funeral will be held Friday on the Siena campus, starting at the Grotto at 10 a.m. and following with a procession to the Maloney Great Room in the Sarazen Student Union. A celebration of life will be held at Schuyler Meadows Club, where Dyer said that Madden became “the lightning rod of activity and fun at the club.”
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“He was tough. He was kind. He had a soft heart,” Dyer said. “He was special. Everybody loved him.”