Alumni Class Notes, March 2019

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Brian J. Benedetti ’78, Wilkes-Barre, was elected chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Everhart Museum in Scranton.

Patricia Savage, Ph.D. G’89, Hollidaysburg, was named one of Pennsylvania Business Central’s 2019 Top Pennsylvania Women in Business CEOs.  Savage is President/CEO of Allegheny Lutheran Social Ministries.

Kathleen Zelno ’99, G’04, Los Angeles, California, received the 2019 Program Assessment and Evaluation Corporate Excellence Award from Lockheed Martin Corp., Washington, D.C.

Jonathan Poplawsky, Ph.D. ’07, Knoxville, Tennessee, a materials scientist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, developed and linked advanced characterization techniques that improve our ability to see and understand atomic-scale features of diverse materials for energy and information technologies. Poplawsky’s article, “Probing Materials To Improve Energy And Information Technologies,” was published by the U.S. Department of Energy Science News, January 2019 edition. 

Alexander Zygmunt, M.D. ’12, Cincinnati, Ohio, was named to the ten-member Residents and Fellow Board of the Journal of Child Neurology. Zygmunt earned his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine in 2019 and is currently a resident in child neurology at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital.

Stephen Gadomski ’15, Charleston, South Carolina, was awarded a 2019 Gates-Cambridge Scholarship. The Gates-Cambridge Scholarship is awarded to the most academically outstanding and socially committed United States citizens. There are thirty-four scholars selected to be part of the 2019 class of Gates-Cambridge Scholars at the University of Cambridge.

Deaths

Manuel Finkelstein, Ph.D. ’50, North Adams, Massachusetts
John Tully, D.D.S. ’55, Gettysburg
Charles E. Rome ’56, West Pittston
Basil M. Castner ’58, Sewickley
Joseph M. Lombardo Sr., M.D. ’60, Pittston
John G. Voytko ’65, Spring Brook Township
James W. Summers ’67, Issaquah, Washington
Alexander J. Marker III ’69, Spring Brook Township
Hugh K. Murray ’69, Honesdale
Frank G. Ryczak Sr. ’71, Scott Township
James W. Powers ’72, Arlington, Texas
Lenore Schimes ’78, G’81, Scranton
Joseph Heitman III ’79, Spring Brook Township
Edward N. Sledziewski ’09, Flourtown

Births    

A son, Connor Matthew, to Matthew and Victoria Swift Mound ’02, Morris Plains, New Jersey

Marriages

Sean Gibney ’09 to Jessica Moore G’13
Ariel Ruggiero ’12 to Timothy McKeever ’12

Friends’ Deaths

Blaise Davis, son of Annie and Andrew Davis '06, nephew of Bobby Davis '03, Claire Davis '08, Bobby '13, G'14 and Christine Della Polla '13, G'16, and David Miller '18
Thomas Kelly, father of Stephen C. Kelly ’91