Achievers Hall of Fame Inductees 2013

JON MACKS - Class of 1971

2013 group picture

After graduating from Villanova University and Villanova Law School, Jon became a political consultant in Washington, DC. As an associate and partner in two major consulting firms, he created television ads, did speechwriting, provided debate prep, and gave strategic advice to more than two dozen winning candidates for governor, US Senate, and president. In addition, Jon worked on a presidential campaign in Venezuela, a premier’s campaign in British Columbia, and a prime minister’s election in Israel. In 1992 Jon switched careers to pursue his second career dream, becoming a comedy writer. He has written for the Tonight Show with Jay Leno for 21 years, has been nominated for five Emmys, and co-created the HBO Show K Street and two Betty White birthday tributes. He has written for 17 Academy Awards, 17 Emmy Awards and more than 20 additional television specials. Jon also writes for Billy Crystal, Marty Short, Steve Martin, and Hugh Jackman; he is the writer for Terry Fator’s headline show at the Mirage, Hugh Jackman’s Broadway show, and Terry Bradshaw’s Las Vegas Show. Although no longer Washington based, Jon continues to serve as a political consultant. He has provided debate prep and strategic advice to the John Kerry presidential campaign, both of President Obama’s successful campaigns, as well as speechwriting for President Bill Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, and six current members of the US Senate. In 2004, Newsday named him one of the 20 people in the country most likely to influence coverage of the presidential campaign. Jon and his wife Julie live in California and have three children.


BRUCE MORGAN - Class of 1947

Bruce Morgan is a life-long resident of Springfield. He is truly an achiever. He began his education in Springfield’s Central Elementary School. While attending Springfield Junior/Senior High School Bruce was a co-captain of the basketball team and served as president of the student council. After graduation, he attended West Chester State Teachers’ College (now West Chester University) where he received a B.S. in Mathematics. In 1954 he earned his M.Ed. in Educational Administration from Temple University. He spent a brief time at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland as a track vehicle repair instructor, and in 1951 he began teaching 7-12 grade mathematics here at Springfield. For the next 14 years he served as a teacher, coach, student advisor, athletic director, administrative assistant, and assistant principal. In 1965 he became principal of the Collingdale Junior/Senior High School. In 1976 the Collingdale School District was merged with other school districts and became the Southeast Delco School District. Bruce served as Curriculum Director for the Southeast Delco School District until 1980, when he was named Superintendent of Schools. He served as Superintendent until his retirement in 1987. He is married to a former SHS teacher, Gretta Payonseck Morgan, and they still reside in Springfield. Their five children are all graduates of SHS.


LEWIS HOBBS - Class of 1955

Lewis Hobbs is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.After being named valedictorian of the first graduating class from the then-new SHS building (1955), he earned degrees from Cornell and the University of Wisconsin (Ph.D., physics). He then joined the research staff of the University of California at Berkeley, before moving to Chicago. He has used some of the world’s largest telescopes on the ground and in space, and is the author or co-author of more than 200 research articles in international professional journals. He has served as Director of the Yerkes Observatory at the University of Chicago and has served on three corporate boards of directors -- Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), the Universities’ Research Association (URA), and the Astrophysical Research Corporation – and on the governing body for the Space Telescope Science Institute (ST Scl).AURA and URA manage U.S. national observatories or laboratories, while the ST Scl is the primary organization through which astronomers around the world utilize the Hubble Space Telescope. He has served on numerous advisory committees to NASA or the US National Science Foundation, including being a charter member of the Space Telescope Users’ Committee, which advises NASA and the ST Scl on optimal use of the Hubble Telescope. He has been married for 50 years to his SHS sweetheart, JoAnn Hagele Hobbs, who is also a member of the SHS class of 1955.


KENNETH ANDRIEN - Class of 1969

Kenneth Andrien is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Chair in the William P. Clements Department of History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. After graduating from SHS he received his B.A. in history from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He later earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Duke University. Ken joined the History Department at Ohio State in 1978, and in 2006 he was named Humanities Distinguished Professor. He joined the faculty at S.M.U. in 2012 to take the Kahn Chair. Ken specializes in Colonial Latin American history, focusing specifically on the Andean region from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Most recently his focus has broadened to place the history of colonial Latin America within the context of the early modern Atlantic World. He has writtenCrisis and Decline: The Viceroyalty of Peru in the Seventeenth Century; The Kingdom of Quito, 1690-1830: The State and Regional Development; and Andean Worlds: Indigenous History, Culture, and Consciousness Under Spanish Rule, 1532-1825. He has co-edited Transatlantic Encounters: Europeans and Andeans in the Sixteenth Century and The Political Economy of Spanish America in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1850. He is also the editor of The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America. His most recent book, to be released soon, is The Spanish Atlantic World in the Eighteenth Century: War and the Bourbon Reforms, 1714-1796. In addition, he has published articles in journals such as Past and Present, Hispanic American Historical Review, Colonial Latin American Review, and Journal of Latin American Studies, and he has received numerous grants and fellowships to support his research and writing. Ken and his wife of thirty-three years, Anne Bennett Andrien, have two children, Jonathan and Elizabeth.


H. Curwen Schlosser - Class of 1938

Dr. H. Curwen Schlosser served as Superintendent of the Upper Darby School District for 17 years during the 1960’s and ‘70s, when the district experienced rapid growth, the school budget more than tripled, and Millbourne and Clifton Heights schools were added to the district. He began his career teaching at Chester High School in 1946. Dr. Schlosser joined the Upper Darby School District in 1956 as assistant principal of Beverly Hills Junior High School. He later became principal of Drexel Hill Junior High School, now Middle School. He then became assistant district superintendent and, in 1963, superintendent. Dr. Schlosser graduated from West Chester University in 1942. He was a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps during World War II, serving on Guam and Okinawa. After the war, he continued in the Marine Reserve for ten years, reaching the rank of Major. He earned a Master’s degree in education from George Washington University and his doctorate in 1958 from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Schlosser served as a State delegate to the American Association of School Administrators, and was past president of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and the Eastern Pennsylvania Association of Retired School Superintendents. He also served on the executive committee of the Philadelphia Suburban Principals’ Association, was a vice president of the Haverford Township Education Association, and was a member of the Upper Darby Association of School Administrators. Dr. Schlosser served on the boards of Delaware County Memorial Hospital and the Benchmark School in Media, was a past president and board member of the Upper Darby Rotary Club, and was a member of the Chadds Ford Historical Society and the Brandywine Conservancy. In 1977, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from West Chester University. Dr. Schlosser passed away in 1997.


BRADEN MONTGOMERY - SPringfield High School Teacher 1974-2006

Dr. Braden Montgomery is currently an Adjunct Professor of Education at both Villanova University and West Chester University. He teaches content literacy and reading comprehension to undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, he mentors pre-service teachers as they gain their first true classroom teaching experience. Braden had the good fortune to be a member of the Springfield High School English Department from 1974 until his retirement in June of 2006. During a career that spanned more than 32 satisfying years, he taught a variety of subjects and grades, but he is probably best remembered for teaching Advanced Placement Literature and Composition from its inception in 1978 until his retirement. He served as the English department chairperson from 2001-2006. While at Springfield, Braden also served as a class advisor, yearbook sponsor, and he even filled in as an assistant tennis coach one year. In 1987, Braden was recognized with the Springfield High School Student Council and National Honor Society Distinguished Teacher Award. In 1988, he was honored by the College Board with the Advanced Placement Recognition Award for distinguished service to young students through his teaching and professional contributions to the AP program. In 1991, Pennsylvania State University recognized Braden as a “Distinguished Teacher of Honors Students.” Most recently, Braden was recognized in 2011 by Villanova University’s School of Education and Counseling for his service and dedication.He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Reading, Writing, and Literacy in 1994. Of all the wonderful memories of his time at Springfield, Braden values the opportunity he was given to teach so many bright, talented, and creative students. He is the proud parent of Evan Montgomery and Erin Montgomery Hanlon and one beautiful grandchild, Connor Braden Hanlon. His wife Helen was a teacher for more than 35 years at Ridley High School. They are living happily in Wallingford, PA.


DAVID LABOSKY - Class of 1965

David Labosky, M.D. is an orthopaedic hand surgeon in Colorado Springs, CO. Following his graduation from SHS in 1965, he attended the University of Pennsylvania for both his Bachelor's degree as well as for Medical school, graduating in 1974. He proceeded to do his residency and fellowship at Penn in Orthopaedic Hand and Microsurgery. His research interests during this time were in bone morphology. Following his fellowship, he taught at West Virginia University Medical School from 1980 to 1990, instructing orthopaedic residents in hand surgery. One of his most memorable cases involved reattaching a six-year-old's arm which had been ripped off at the shoulder by the bumper of a car. His team successfully reattached his arm, and when Dave left WVU in 1990, the boy was a high school junior playing the trumpet. Dave has been working as an orthopaedic hand surgeon in Colorado Springs since 1990. When he first moved to Colorado Springs, he was one of four hand surgeons in the area. During his early years there, he volunteered his surgical services to the U.S. Air Force Academy Hospital to help take care of hand problems for enlisted airmen and Academy cadets. Dave also taught orthopaedic surgery at the University of Colorado Medical School, and worked as an Assistant Clinical Professor training orthopaedic residents at Denver General Hospital. Dave has also been active in the local Down Syndrome Association and the Home Front Cares, a military non-profit which provides financial support to family members of deployed soldiers from Fort Carson. After a long career, he is still devoted to his community practice and helping his younger partners get started with their careers in hand surgery.


ROBERT SPENNATO - Class of 1981

Robert J. Spennato graduated from Springfield High School in 1981. Bob then earned his Bachelor’s degree from Ursinus College in 1985, and went on to enter the Temple University School of Dentistry to pursue a dream of his since the sixth grade, to become a dentist. While a student at Ursinus College, Bob served as the varsity basketball team manager for our very own Skip Werley, who was the head basketball coach. Bob graduated with honors in the top ten percent of his class at Temple University, and he was one of a distinguished group of only ten students across the country to be accepted to the Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) residency at the prestigious Emory University School of Postgraduate Dentistry in Atlanta. Bob completed this residency in July 1990, and returned home to Delaware County, where he has enjoyed successfully practicing dentistry for the past 22 years. Bob is the founding partner of Williamsburg Dental in Broomall, and is an active member of the Delaware/Chester County Dental Society, The American Dental Association, and the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. Bob’s cosmetic training at the world renowned Las Vegas Institute for Dental Studies puts him in the top five percent of cosmetic dentists in the world. He has conducted seminars at his office training dentists from across the country in the latest techniques in cosmetic dentistry. Bob’s father, Nick Spennato, is the current coach of our freshman baseball team, and has coached baseball in Springfield Township for over 39 years. Bob lives with his wife Debbie and their two daughters in Concord Township.


GREGORY COE - Class of 1977

After leaving Springfield High School, Greg Coe graduated from Swarthmore College, where he won numerous awards as a four-year varsity wrestler. He earned his law degree at the Dickinson School of Law, and later obtained a LL.M from the Judge Advocate General’s School, US Army. Colonel Coe is a senior officer in the US Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAGC). He is the Special Counsel and Executive Officer to the General Counsel, Department of the Army, a four-star Presidentially-selected/Senate-approved principal legal advisor to the Department of the Army and the Secretary of the Army. He is currently deployed to the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan as the Senior Legal Advisor to the Afghan National Army Judge Advocate General and supervises the mission to implement the Rule of Law within all Afghan Ministry of Defense legal operations. He has served two successive tours as Staff Judge Advocate, U.S. Army Basic Combat Training Center in Fort Jackson and the U.S. Army Japan and I Corps; Judge Advocate, Northern Law Center, Allied Powers Europe, Belgium; Executive Officer, US Army Legal Services Agency, the Judge Advocate General’s Corps’ largest and worldwide field operating agency; and Chief Commissioner, US Army Court of Criminal Appeals. As a trial lawyer he has represented the Government in federal litigation while assigned to the US Army Litigation Division and represented soldiers in all levels in serious criminal cases while assigned to the Army Trial Defense Service. As a teacher he led international Rule of Law missions to the Ukraine and Uganda and served as Professor and Vice Chair of the Criminal Law Department (JAG school). He has received three Legion of Merit awards, seven Meritorious Service Medals, and the American Bar Association Award for Outstanding Young Lawyer, US Army. He is also a candidate for the Bronze Star. Greg and his wife, Robin, have three children.


BOB SWIFT - Class of 1964

Robert A. Swift, Esq. pioneered human rights jurisprudence. His groundbreaking case was a class action against deposed Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos on behalf of victims of torture, summary execution, and disappearance. This was the first time a court certified a human rights class action, and it resulted in an appellate court affirming a jury verdict of nearly $2 billion. This landmark decision developed human rights jurisprudence throughout the world. In 1996 he filed class action on behalf of Holocaust victims whose Swiss bank deposits had never been returned. This and subsequent litigation against German and Austrian companies produced settlements over $7 billion. After graduating Springfield High School, Mr. Swift received degrees from Haverford College and New York University Law School. Prior to starting his legal career, he was a tennis professional and served in the Army infantry in Vietnam. Shortly after graduating law school, he authored a legal treatise on labor law published by the University of Pennsylvania. In later years, he authored articles and book chapters on human rights. He has twice argued cases in the US Supreme Court. In 1995, the National Law Journal named him one of the ten best trial attorneys in the United States. He was a finalist for the National Trial Lawyer of the Year Award in 2000. Recently he received the prestigious Cox Price Human Rights Award from the University of Denver. He served as Chairman for eight years of Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education Foundation, and was instrumental in the construction of that group’s $13 million seven acre youth tennis facility in Fairmount Park. The Intercollegiate Tennis Association presented him with its lifetime achievement award at the 2010 U.S. Open in New York, calling him “one of the leading trial lawyers of his generation.”


ROBERTA GARTSIDE - Class of 1972

Dr. Roberta Gartside holds a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude from Elizabethtown College. She earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from Temple University and has completed residencies in general surgery at the Medical Center of Vermont and plastic surgery at George Washington University. In between college and medical school, Dr. Gartside worked as a laboratory research technician at the Skin Cancer Hospital in Philadelphia. There she did work with investigators on melanoma and other disorders of the skin. She is co-author of several articles, including The Biology of Human Malignant Melanoma, contributed to a textbook of surgery, and is author of the article, Breast Reconstruction Following Abdominal Liposuction. At the completion of her residency, Dr. Gartside went into solo private practice in Northern Virginia. She is a fellow in the American College of Surgeons and also a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ASAPS). As a member of ASPS, she served on numerous committees and rose to the position of Vice President for Membership and Communications. During that same time, she was also the ASPS representative to the board of National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers of the American College of Surgeons and served as a survey physician for the Program, visiting and evaluating potential breast centers for inclusion. She also serves as a trustee for Elizabethtown College. Most recently, she has been named to the Board of the Society for Women’s Health Research in Washington, DC. In addition to running her own practice, Dr. Gartside has volunteered her time overseas with Operation Smile, correcting deformities of cleft lip and palate in China, the Philippines, and Kenya. Roberta and her husband have two children, Leah and Stephen.


DAN REGER - Class of 1963

Dr. Dan Reger is Carolina Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of South Carolina, where he has been on the faculty for 41 years. He is one of the leading researchers in synthetic inorganic chemistry in the world, having more than 200 refereed publications in the best journals in his field. He has mentored 31 Ph.D. students and many undergraduate students in his research program. This research has been funded by many private and federal granting agencies and the results from this research appear in inorganic chemistry texts. In recognition of this research, he has been awarded the South Carolina Governor's Award for Excellence in Scientific Research and the Charles H. Stone Award, Charlotte/Piedmont Section of the American Chemical Society, given to the most outstanding chemist in the southeastern United States. His exceptional teaching of Introductory Chemistry to 5,000 students over the years has been recognized by his winning all of the teaching awards given at the University. He is the lead author of the textbook used for this course and at many universities around North America. He was Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry for seven years and Associate Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics for two years. He graduated with honors from Dickinson College in 1967, where he was a four-year letterman in track and field, He received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1972. He has been a visiting scholar at Sussex and Bristol Universities in England, Australian National University, University of Arizona, University of Camerino in Italy and UC San Diego. Dan and his wife Cheryl have raised two children and are now grandparents to five.


ELAINE GARZARELLI - Class of 1965

Elaine is president of Garzarelli Capital, Inc. She was a partner and managing director at Lehman Brothers prior to starting her own company in 1995.She has been studying the stock market for more than 25 years and was ranked first-team in Quantitative Research in Institutional Investor magazine’s All-Star poll for eleven years: she was also top ranked in Portfolio Strategy and Market Timing. She initially developed her Sector Analysis methodology for predicting industry earnings and her twelve stock market indicator model while working as a corporate profit economist at a major brokerage firm. This methodology allowed her to predict the major trends in stock prices and the earnings of 80 S&P 500 industry groups over the past 30 years. Elaine currently uses this mathematical approach for stock market timing and industry selection in running her Sector Analysis Fund and in producing her Sector Analysis monthly report. She issues this report to institutions, primarily portfolio managers and security analysts. Her clients include domestic and international mutual and pension funds, and hedge funds. She was featured as a top businessperson in Fortune magazine and was listed in Business Week’s “What’s In” list. She appears on television, including Fox Business News, CNBC, and The Nightly Business Report on PBS.Elaine spends each morning doing research by working with economists in the industries she covers and analyzing the economy and managing the Fund. Her education is in Economics and statistics at New York University, and she holds a doctorate from Drexel University.


 

THOMAS HALL - Class of 1973

 

 

After Thomas Hall graduated from SHS he attended The Peddie School for one post-graduate year. Tom then entered the University of Delaware and graduated in 1978, majoring in Cardiopulmonary Physiology with a minor in Biology. On October 1, 1979, at the age of 24, Tom introduced CardioKinetics, Inc. as the first cardiac rehabilitation facility in the state of Delaware. By early 1980, The Preventive Medicine Center was opened to the public. Tom began Cardio-Kinetics in memory of his late brother Chuck Hall, SHS ’67. Chuck, a promising professional football player, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease following a routine physical with the Baltimore Colts. He died a year later at the age of 24. Tom drew uncommon inspiration from this tragedy. Rather than be overcome by loss, Tom pledged to make a difference in health care. CardioKinetics is the fulfillment of his vision to improve the lives of those who suffer from chronic illness through the development and implementation of preventive health care services. As a University of Delaware student, Tom attended a lecture by Dr. Ken Cooper, “The Father of Aerobics,” where he was further inspired to develop a clinic patterned after the Aerobics Center in Dallas. As an entrepreneur, Tom’s desire was to create something that had not yet been offered to the public. His passion was and still is to impact the public, one person at a time. Today the concept of prevention has impacted all of society, particularly at the federal level, in relationship to controlling health care costs. Tom and his wife, Patti, SHS’67, have three children and three grandchildren. His children, his wife, and his daughter-in-law all work for CardioKinetics.


JIM SQUADRITO - Class of 1973

Dr. Jim Squadrito graduated from Springfield High School in 1973. He had completed enough credits except for physical education and English to graduate in 1972. Most of his senior year was spent at Hahnemann Medical College in a special program for academically successful pre-med students to complete high school requirements and be exposed to medicine and surgery. After graduating from both Springfield and Hahnemann’s program, he entered Villanova University, completed his pre-med program in three years, and graduated magna cum laude. He attended Jefferson Medical College where he graduated in 1980 and received the Zimskind Urology Award. He trained in general surgery for two years at Bryn Mawr Hospital before going on to complete his urology residency at Thomas Jefferson University. In 1985 he entered private practice at Bryn Mawr Hospital. He was Chief of Urology for Main Line Health System from 1999 to 2003 and at Bryn Mawr Hospital from 2000 to the present. Currently on their Board of Directors, Jim was President of the Philadelphia Urological Society from 2003 to 2005. He has been a member of the medical review board for Positive Insurance since 2004. Jim has been involved in clinical research and has been published in multiple medical journals. He was the first published urologist to perform minimally invasive kidney surgery with laparoscopy. He has received many awards including America’s Top Docs, America’s Top Physicians, America’s Top Urologists and Surgeons, Top Docs of the Main Line, Leading Physicians in the World and Patient’s Choice Awards.

 


 

 

NICHOLAS GIUFFRE - Class of 1974

Nick Giuffre is President and CEO of Bradford White Corporation and its subsidiaries, one of the most technologically advanced manufacturers of water heating, space heating, combination heating and water storage products in the world. He joined the company in 1978 following his graduation from Bloomsburg University, where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in business management. Nick’s impressive career exemplifies a true “from the bottom up” success story as he worked his way up from an entry-level telephone representative to his current role as the leader of Bradford White. Throughout his tenure at the company, Nick brought fresh new ideas and energy to every department he touched while climbing through the ranks, and his impact on the industry as a whole has been equally as impressive. In 2011, Nick was honored by the American Supply Association as recipient of the Fred Keenan Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of his contributions and achievements in the plumbing, heating, and cooling contracting industry. Nick is currently chairman of the Karl Neupert Education Foundation Endowment Committee of ASA. As a business leader, Nick extends his innovative spirit into the community. Over the last three years, Nick and his wife Kathy have raised more than $400,000 for the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Nick currently serves on Bloomsburg’s Business College Advisory Board where he helped expand their business curriculum, serving also on the Bloomsburg University Foundation board of trustees.