Wall of Fame

Wall of Fame Class of 2023 Irving George Abrams graduated from MMI in 1930. Four years later, he received a Bachelor of Science in Commerce Degree from NYU. During the 1950s and 60s, Irving was a prominent business and civic leader in Hazleton and Freeland. He along with his brother, Simon ’30, and father operated three garment companies: Freeland Overall, Freeland Manufacturing and Freeland Shirt Company. The former Freeland Manufacturing Company site is now the MMI Tennis Courts. Outside of work, Irving volunteered his time to his community. He served as president of the Rotary Club from 1953-1960, a member...

Wall of Fame Class of 2017 Atty. Donald M. Barnes ’61 is a senior partner in the Washington D.C. office of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP and co-chair of the Antitrust Competition Law Practice Group. His practice is concentrated in antitrust/trade regulation law, agricultural cooperative law, trade association representation and complex antitrust and commercial litigation. He has defended numerous antitrust claims, both criminal and civil, including major, multi-district litigation and class actions. He has represented clients in various industries, including: defense, entertainment, health care, agriculture, transportation, food and beverage, and high technology. Over the past four decades, Atty. Barnes...

Maj. Gen. Bayer is a retired United States Army Major General and former Director of Strategy, Plans, and Policy on the Army staff at the Pentagon. He served as MMI’s Commencement speaker in 2017. His current position is as the Area Vice President, Midwest South at Penske Logistics. He had also previously served as the Area Vice President, Northeast for Penske Logistics, where he led a team of more than 1,900 associates providing world class transportation and warehouse management logistics support to 37 diverse customers nationwide. His career in the United States Army spanned more than 29 years as a...

Wall of Fame Class of 2009 Dr. Brian G. Brazzo ‘84 has led a remarkable career as an Ophthalmologist and Facial Plastic Surgeon. Following his graduation from MMI as Valedictorian, Dr. Brazzo earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Neurobiology and is a graduate of Harvard Medical School. He spent three years of specialty training and attained the highest standing in the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. Dr. Brazzo currently practices as a board-certified ophthalmologist and his practice at the New York Eye Surgery Center involves the most advanced techniques in ophthalmic...

Wall of Fame Class of 2012 Dr. Cory Coll ’60 spent his career in the field of nuclear weapons. He earned a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in physics, then spent three years of post-doctoral study and teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles. Later, Dr. Coll joined the weapons program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as a design physicist and participated in three underground tests at the Nevada Test Site. While employed at LLNL, he took a two-and-a-half year assignment at the Pentagon as a special assistant in the Strategic Defense Systems Office and later at the...

Wall of Fame Class of 2021 Thomas P. Crofcheck ’73 attended Bloomsburg University and graduated with a degree in Accounting. He then began work as an auditor for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, a position he held for 35 years before his retirement. During his time with the Commonwealth, he held roles of increasing responsibility and challenges, being promoted to Audit Director for the Bureau of Financial Operations in 1999. As audit director, Tom was responsible for Internal Audit Decisions for the state of Pennsylvania, managing a staff of over 30 field auditors, with offices in Scranton, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia...

Wall of Fame Class of 2008 Ms. Jeanette Butala DiBella ‘75 is an award-winning educator serving as principal of Providence-St. Mel School, a private college prep school in Chicago. An innovative educator, she is known for her compassionate, creative and tough-love approach to education. Ms. DiBella joined Providence-St. Mel in 1996 as Lower School Director where she developed the consequence continuum for the lower school and aligned the curriculum to national elementary standards. She was named assistant principal in 1997 and principal in 2000. Under her leadership, Providence-St. Mel continually surpasses national standards and has received numerous national and regional...

Wall of Fame Class of 2006 Atty. Richard A. DiLiberto ’79 is a litigation partner at Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor law firm in Wilmington, DE. Before joining the firm in 1987, he was a law clerk to Judge Vincent A. Bifferato of the Delaware Superior Court. Rick is President of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association for 2005-2006 and has served as a Delaware State Representative from 1992 to 2002. He has been appointed to the Supreme Court Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts and the Delaware Healthcare Commission’s Diabetes Task Force. He received the Delaware...

Wall of Fame Class of 2011 Dr. Joseph A. Donato ‘66 operated a private practice in general dentistry since the 1970s which had offices in Freeland and Conyngham. After completing dentistry school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Dr. Donato returned to Freeland to remain close to his family and practice dentistry in the community where he was raised. He has been inducted as a fellow of the American College of Dentists, International College of Dentists, Pierre Fauchard Academy, Academy of General Dentistry, and American Endodontic Society. He is active in the Pennsylvania Dental Association on...

Wall of Fame Class of 2007 Distinguished physician, educator, author and community leader, Dr. Murray Feingold ’48 has devoted his life to the care of children with birth defects. He is Physician-In-Chief of the National Birth Defects Center associated with Children’s Hospital Boston and the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. Dr. Feingold is nationally known in the field of clinical genetics and is the author of more than 175 scientific articles and two books. He was one of the first physicians to proactively use the media to educate the public on health issues and has been the medical editor of...

Wall of Fame Class of 2008 Mr. Clinton A. Feissner, Esq. ‘28 enjoyed a remarkable career in service to the United States. Following graduation from MMI, Mr. Feissner earned his Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law School. His sense of duty and responsibility to improve the welfare of others led him to enlist in the United States Air Force during World War II. During the war, he honed his skills as an attorney, earning a reputation for intelligence, industriousness and integrity. Mr. Feissner was assigned by Allied General Headquarters as chief of the Research and Development Division of the...

Wall of Fame Class of 2014 Dr. George Feussner is an accomplished neurosurgeon who continues to practice in northern Florida. During his long medical career, he has distinguished himself as a major figure in the field of neurology, pioneering and becoming board certified in new technologies for diagnosis and treatment. He has treated more than 200,000 patients throughout his medical tenure. He contributed to research supporting the use of intravenous Dilantin in treating epilepsy, which became the standard of care for unrelenting seizures. He was a co-founder of the Southern Clinical Neurological Society, which now includes more than 300 clinical...

Wall of Fame Class of 2013 Dr. James Feussner serves as senior clinical consultant at the Deveroux Foundation’s Acute Crisis Hospital for Children and Adolescents in Philadelphia. He is also the medical director and child and adolescent behavioral health specialist at a major national medical insurance company. He studied Fine Arts at University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, but then earned an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine as well as a J.D. from Temple University School of Law. Dr. Feussner became board certified in child psychiatry in 1982 after studying with Anna Freud, the...

Wall of Fame Class of 2013 Dr. John Feussner ’64 is a distinguished university professor and the executive senior associate dean for clinical affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina. Until recently, he served as the professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine from 2002 to 2011. He also serves as professor in the Department of Biostatics and Epidemiology and the Department of Neurology. From 1996 to 2002, Dr. Feussner served as chief research and development officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and as director of the VA Cooperative Studies Program. He also served on the...

Wall of Fame Class of 2008 Dr. Thomas E. Gillespie ‘57 served as a faculty member in the Department of Orthopedics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, from 1983 until his death in 2005. Dr. Gillespie graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine and was a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. Dr. Gillespie completed his orthopedic and plastic/reconstructive surgery residencies at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a hand surgery fellowship at the University of Iowa. With the exception of a short tenure at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine, Dr. Gillespie’s entire...

Wall of Fame Class of 2011 Mr. Richard Goldman ‘68 went to work at clothing store Men’s Wearhouse after earning a degree from Rutgers University. Starting at one store with annual sales of less than $1 million, Mr. Goldman and his business partner grew Men’s Wearhouse into the largest chain of men’s clothing stores in North America, with more than 500 stores in the United States and more than 120 in Canada. Mr. Goldman is widely considered the marketing mastermind of Men’s Wearhouse. As early as 1975, he urged the company to use television as its main form of advertising....

Wall of Fame Class of 2015 David G. Gundling ’68 had a long and successful career in the food distribution industry, culminating in a position as the chairman of Spartan Management Group. He was a member of the board of directors of St. Joseph’s University Academy of Food Marketing, Payless Cashways and Genuardi’s Family Markets. Mr. Gundling received his bachelor’s degree in history from Allegheny College in 1972. In 1979, he was hired by SuperRite Foods, the food division of Rite Aid Corporation. He worked his way up the ranks over a 17-year span to senior executive and president of...

Wall of Fame Class of 2015 Atty. Tara E. ’84 Gutterman is the founder of Adoption ARC and served as the organization’s executive director from 1994-2009. After graduating from Bryn Mawr with degrees in English and Spanish and earning a law degree from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, Atty. Gutterman began her career as an attorney with the City of Philadelphia Law Department, where she handled hundreds of child abuse cases, child neglect cases and termination of parental rights hearings. She subsequently worked for a private nonprofit adoption agency in Philadelphia before founding Adoption ARC, which works to find...

Wall of Fame Class of 2021 Jerry Hludzik ’70 was a famed musician, songwriter and producer. He formed his first band, The Odd Powers, in Freeland and later joined Hazleton local bands, Happiness and Moses. He began performing and writing in-earnest while still in his early teens. Following his MMI graduation, Jerry went on to study at Luzerne County Community College where he fatefully met Bill Kelly, co-founder of The Buoys, and brother of current MMI Head of School, Theresa Long. 

Jerry joined The Buoys and the group vaulted to national prominence when their hit song, “Timothy,” peaked at number...

Wall of Fame Class of 2015 Roy W. Johnson ’63 received his Bachelor of Architecture in 1968 and Master of Science in Architectural Engineering in 1971 from Penn State University. He moved to Charlotte and joined Odell Associates, Inc. in 1971. Mr. Johnson was project manager on a new airport terminal at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (then called Douglas Municipal Airport) in 1978 and later became principal in charge for Odell. In 1986, he was named the chief operating officer of Odell and served as president beginning in 1988 until his retirement in 1998. Mr. Johnson continued consulting with Charlotte...

Wall of Fame Class of 2015 Rosalyn V. (Menon) Kennedy ’97 graduated from Brown University in 2001 with a bachelor of arts in English literature and from the Columbia School of Journalism with a master’s degree in broadcast and news media in 2008. She began her career in New York City at CBS News from 2002-2008, where she earned The Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and served as a National News Judge for the Emmy Awards. During her time at CBS, she worked as an associate producer on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and 60 Minutes. Mrs. Kennedy...

Wall of Fame Class of 2018 Dr. Robert G. Kettrick ’60 retired in 2010 after eight years with the Nemours Foundation as the Chairman of the Professional Performance and Quality Committee. From 1996-2002, he was the Medical Director and Chief Executive of the Practice at Nemours Children’s Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. From 1987-1996, he served as the Director of the Division of Critical Care as well as the Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Alfred I. DuPont Institute of the Nemours Foundation. Dr. Kettrick served as a Major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from...

Wall of Fame Class of 2012 Dr. Lawrence Kline ’60 is the director of the Scripps Clinic Sleep Center in La Jolla, California. After completing his association with the U.S. Public Health Service as director of intensive care and assistant chief of medicine in New York, he joined the Scripps Clinic in 1978.  He is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, critical care medicine, and sleep disorders medicine. As a volunteer physician for the Missionaries of Charity, Dr. Kline treated and befriended Mother Teresa, the founder of the order, during her hospital stay for pneumonia and congestive heart failure...

Wall of Fame Class of 2014 Dr. William Koenig is a well-known plastic surgeon currently practicing in Rochester, New York. He has partnered with the Quatela Center for Plastic Surgery since 2003 and previously worked at the Guthrie Clinic in Sayre, Pennsylvania. He has traveled extensively to Central and South America and the Philippines with Operation Hope. As part of the program, he volunteers his services every year to perform surgery on children with cleft lips and cleft palates. During a few of his annual trips, he was the chief surgeon working with the children. Dr. Koenig has given presentations...

Wall of Fame Class of 2007 Mr. William M. Loftus ’62 is an accomplished business leader and a dedicated alumnus. He is retired chairman, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association Insurance Company, one of the oldest property and casualty insurance companies in Pennsylvania. Mr. Loftus is a former member of the Board of Directors of Pennsylvania Manufacturers Corporation and also served on the Board of the American Institute of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters and the Pennsylvania Insurance Federation. He served as a member of the MMI Board from 1997 to 2006 and 2007-2013, and is a member of...

Wall of Fame Class of 2014 Dr. Robert Lutz retired as a biomedical engineer in the Laboratory of Bioengineering and Physical Science at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he was chief of the Drug Delivery and Kinetic Section. He spent the entirety of his 38-year career in that profession, providing important contributions that led to the development of bioengineering programs at NIH. Dr. Lutz authored more than 60 scientific publications in addition to several book chapters. He mentored more than 150 bioengineering students and served as the director of the Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship Program...

Wall of Fame Class of 2008 Mr. Joshua Madden ‘47 enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a metallurgist, materials engineer and executive engineer at General Motors and Volkswagen. Mr. Madden began working for General Motors in 1954 at the Pontiac Motor Division in product engineering where he served as senior experimental metallurgist, rubber and plastics engineer and staff materials engineer. After 23 years at GM, he joined Volkswagen of America and was chief engineer in charge of setting materials engineering specifications and overseeing production engineering. He is responsible for numerous firsts in the field of automotive plastics including the...

Wall of Fame Class of 2007 Mr. Carl D. Marotta ’49 has been described by his peers as a pioneer in the health care packaging industry. An innovative business leader, he is retired president and CEO of Tolas Health Care Packaging Company, where he served from 1987 to 2006. Mr. Marotta was named Exporter of the Year for Eastern Pennsylvania in 2003 by the Philadelphia Office of the United States Small Business Administration. He has served on many industry and technical associations including the Institute of Packaging Professionals. He has also led packaging seminars at Rutgers University and the Institute...

Wall of Fame Class of 2012 Dr. Nicholas A. Martyak ’59 dedicated his life to children as a well-respected pediatrician in Hazleton until he passed away in 1998. He completed his pediatric internship, pediatric residency, and pediatric hematology fellowship at the Medical College of Virginia. For 27 years, Martyak was a staff member at Hazleton-St. Joseph Medical Center. He served as chief of pediatrics there and at Coaldale State Hospital. He was elected president and chief of staff at St. Joseph’s for 1983. Martyak was a clinical assistant professor of family and community medicine at Penn State University’s College of...

Wall of Fame Class of 2006 Dr. Thomas P.J. McGraw, D.O. ’52 is a longtime and well-respected family practice physician, anesthesiologist and quality assurance director. Tom’s life has been an example of courage and determination. He contracted polio at an early age and underwent long and painful treatments to regain the use of his limbs. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he was told that he would not be physically able to handle the rigors of medicine. After graduation, Tom taught chemistry and physics in the Philadelphia area but kept alive his dream to become a physician. In...

Wall of Fame Class of 2008 Dr. Philip A. McHale ‘58 is an Associate Professor of Physiology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, College of Medicine since 1986 and Director of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Program since 2001. Dr. McHale has also served the University of Oklahoma in various capacities in the Deans’ offices, both in curriculum and student affairs. In addition, he is director of a program at the university that assists Native Americans in preparing for admission to medical school. From 1972 to 1985, he held several teaching positions at the Duke University Medical...

Wall of Fame Class of 2009 Mr. Harry Carl Schaub, J.D. ’46, has enjoyed a successful pair of careers filled with accomplishments. For over fifty years, Mr. Schaub has practiced law with the Philadelphia firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker and Rhoades with a concentration in international business as well as corporate and securities law. Mr. Schaub also serves as Austrian Consul General, representing the Republic of Austria on public and private matters with the City of Philadelphia. In this position, he was awarded the Austrian Knight’s Cross, First Class, for his outstanding service to the Republic of Austria. Mr. Schaub’s...

Wall of Fame Class of 2012 Dr. Fredrick T. Sherman ’63 has devoted himself to the practice of geriatrics for more than 30 years. He has distinguished himself as a teacher, administrator, private practitioner, and medical columnist through his work in academic, acute, fee-for-service, long-term, and managed-care settings. Dr. Sherman was the recipient of the first American Geriatrics Society’s Clinician of the Year Award in 1990 and was selected three times as Teacher of the Year by the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he is a clinical professor. In 2001,...

Wall of Fame Class of 2009 Dr. Martin Sokoloski ‘55 is a well-respected research physicist who has consulted with the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) on the Mars Initiative as well as the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ames Research Center. Dr. Sokoloski was also chosen to serve as an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) Society’s Congressional Fellow for 2004. The program, coordinated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, places scientists in Congressional offices, allowing them the opportunity to work with staff on issues in areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Dr. Sokoloski...

Dr. Alfred H. Stiller ’63 is an Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering at West Virginia University’s Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, where he has been on the faculty since 1980. During his time at West Viriginia University, Dr. Stiller served as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Full Professor of Chemical Engineering, Adjunct Professor for the Animal Sciences Department, and Adjunct Professor of the Chemistry Department. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Cincinnati in 1973 and with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Eastern College in 1967. His research is primarily...

Wall of Fame Class of 2010 Mr. Joseph Turri ‘45 is the founder and chief executive officer of Advanced Coating Technologies (ACT), a company specializing in coating techniques for a multitude of commercial and military applications. After graduating from MMI, Mr. Turri completed his bachelor degree at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1976, after a trip to Europe where he was introduced to early powder coating technology, Mr. Turri returned to the states and started his own company. Under Mr. Turri’s guidance, ACT became a pioneer in the application of powdered plastic coating and has grown into a multi-national business....

Wall of Fame Class of 2006 Dr. Walter W. Tunnessen ’57, a general pediatrician with a specialty in pediatric dermatology, was on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the State University of New York Health Sciences Center and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As Vice President of the American Board of Pediatrics, Dr. Tunnessen greatly influenced the direction of pediatric training in the United States and Canada. He served on numerous national committees whose primary goal is to improve the health care for America’s children. Dr. Tunnessen lectured at numerous educational conferences and authored several...

Wall of Fame Class of 2013 Dr. Joseph Urenovitch ’55 has attained significant accomplishments in the field of industrial chemistry throughout his career. He worked as vice president of research, development and licensing at Atlas Powder Company, where he directed the development, commercialization and licensing of bulk and packaged emulsion explosives, the first commercialization of emulsion explosives in the world. These products advanced and revolutionized the commercial explosives industry. The president and CEO of Atlas cited Dr. Urenovitch’s leadership and efforts as a primary reason that Atlas became the largest and most profitable explosives company in the United States. He...

Wall of Fame Class of 2006 Mr. Joseph A. Varilla was the salutatorian of the Class of 1955 and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Lehigh University. Mr. Varilla began his stellar career in the communications field as a member of United Press International and as a reporter for the Hazleton Standard-Sentinel. In 1963, he joined Xerox Corporation where he continued working in various capacities for more than 40 years. Mr. Varilla was head of Corporate Communications and director of Global Communications for Xerox and excelled as a writer and editor despite suffering from multiple sclerosis. He was recognized...

The Valedictorian of the Class of 1962, Dr. Williams earned a degree in geology from Lehigh University after which he received a Ph.D. in geochemistry from Johns Hopkins. After his Ph.D. work, he joined NASA in Houston and earned a technical degree (Masters level) in Public Administration from the University of Houston. At NASA, Dr. Williams served as a Research Scientist at the Johnson Space Craft Center. He was involved extensively with the Space Station programs and was in charge of the many experiments conducted on the Space Station. He was also the Manager of Planetary Geology and Physics at...

Wall of Fame Class of 2011 Mr. Neal Wood ‘44 spent nearly 40 years as an engineer for the Turnpike Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation before retiring as the turnpike commission’s chief bridge engineer in 1991.   He worked on several high-profile projects during his career, from the Interstate Highway System to the completion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, playing an instrumental role in building highway systems in Pennsylvania. Mr. Wood is responsible for developing one of the most effective highway safety devices, the SNAP system. SNAP (Sonic Nap Alert Pattern) is the pattern of rumble strips grooved into the...

Wall of Fame Class of 2009 Mr. John Zoltak ‘56 is the founder and chief executive officer of the Support Systems Associates, Inc. (SSAI), a company that has been providing advanced management, engineering, logistics and technical support services to the Department of Defense and industry customers for 40 years. After graduating from MMI and completing his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, he began his career as an engineer for the Autonetics division of North American Aviation and then for the Harris Corporation where he participated in the development of the first completely computerized avionic test system used on...