Welcome the newest Distinguished Alumni Award honorees!

At a festive luncheon, the 2007 Jesse S. Heiges Distinguished Alumni Award recipients were introduced. Once again, one of the trademarks of the group is the commitment to service in addition to excelling in their individual careers. In addition James McCloskey ’51 was recognized for his lifetime achievement. Our congratulations to Bill Barke ’66, David Burinsky ’78, Angela Dohrman ’80, John Rovegno ’80, and Jim McCloskey.

After the Saturday luncheon, Distinguished Alumni Award honorees Bill Barke ’66, John Rovegno ’80 and Angela Dohrman ’80 are joined by President Bill Ruud (back) and Lifetime Achievement honoree Jim McCloskey ’51 (right). David Burinsky ’78 was unable to attend.

Bill Barke ’66

Bill is the president of Allyn & Bacon that is part of the Pearson Group – a textbook publishing conglomerate. Previously he was chairman and CEO of Addison-Wesley Higher Education and chairman of Pearson Canada. He worked in sales and editorial with Prentice Hall and Houghton Mifflin before joining Allyn & Bacon in 1978. At Allyn & Bacon, Bill sponsored the psychology list and managed education, sociology, and communications before his promotion to editor-in-chief in 1986. In 1993 he was named president of Allyn & Bacon, then named chairman at Addison Wesley in 2000. Prior to his publishing career, Bill taught history and coached football and basketball for three years in Bedford. At Allyn & Bacon, Bill has created an internship opportunity for SU students in the College of Education and Human Services and serves on its advisory board. His company also sponsors a tailgating tent at Homecoming.

David Burinsky ’78

David is a principal investigator with GlaxoSmithKline in research and development working with pre-clinical development activities. He joined the company in 1997 as a senior research investigator. His career began with postdoctoral work at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., included a stint with Rohm & Haas as a senior scientist, before spending ten years as senior, then principal research scientist with R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute of Johnson & Johnson. Currently he is an adjunct professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina and maintains associations with Duke and Lehigh universities. A frequent contributor to scholarly publications, David has been recognized for his scientific work. In 2004, he was a member of the National Institutes of Health Shared Instrumentation Review Panel. He volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America, his local symphony orchestra, and is often a judge for local science fairs. He participates in the Alumni Career Speakers program and is a member of the College of Arts & Sciences Advisory Board at Ship.

Angela Dohrman ’80

Angela is regional vice president of operations for Ashbury Communities, a not-for-profit senior living services corporation that maintains four facilities in Pennsylvania. Concurrent with her role as vice president, Angela continued as executive director of Bethany Village, a continuing care retirement community, including oversight for the recent expansion that added 138 residences to the facility. Her career in senior services began at Bethany as director of social services and then assistant administrator. She left Bethany to take on the challenges as executive director for the Alzheimer’s Association of Central Pennsylvania. In 1999, she returned to Bethany as executive director. In 2005 Angela was honored as the Leader of the Year by PANPHA, an association of Pennsylvania Nonprofit Senior Services. Angela is a member of the College of Education and Human Services Advisory Board.

John Rovengno ’80

John retired as a colonel in the U.S. Army but continues in the field as an adjunct professor at the Army War College, director of National Intelligence, and as an independent consultant. As a consultant he is designing the curriculum for the forthcoming National Intelligence University. John’s career in intelligence began at Fort Hood, Texas in 1980 culminating as commander, 101st Military Intelligence Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division before attending the U.S. Army War College in 2002. After graduating he was named director of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) for the Army Future Combat Systems Program. In 2004, he returned to the Army War College as director of strategic intelligence and professor. John has been honored numerous times for his outstanding military service. He has spent 40 years volunteering with the Boy Scouts of America. At Ship, he has been an athletic trainer with women’s athletics and commander, ROTC Corps of Cadets.

Lifetime Achievement, James McCloskey ’51

Jim spent more than 30 years in the insurance industry setting standards and benchmarks along the way. His first position set the norm as he qualified for the President’s Club three years and within that time frame his unit was number one in the company. In 1958, he started with Prudential as a special agent. Five years later his unit was ranked sixth in the entire company and added eleven more agents. In 1964 he assumed managership of the Harrisburg Agency, doubling premium income in nine months. The agency under his leadership was considered one of Prudential’s leading agencies. In 1971, Jim was named director of agencies of the Central Atlantic Home Office where it rose from the bottom in regional office competition to the top in 1973. The next year, Jim was elected vice president, Ordinary Agencies of the Mid-America Home Office. Four years later, it was named the number one regional home office. At Prudential Jim established several awards and programs still in use today. Jim retired as senior vice president of the Mid-America Home Office. He then accepted a position as an agency manager for Metropolitan Insurance Company and within two years was awarded its highest honor, the President’s Citation. While working his magic within the insurance industry, Jim was also hard at work volunteering with the United Fund, YMCA, Habitat for Humanity, and the Salvation Army and coached midget football and little league. Since his retirement he has continued his volunteer activities with a number of organizations including leading the building drive and serving on the board for the Mayfield/Graves County Animal Shelter and has been active in his church. He was elected to the SU Foundation Board of Directors in 1981 and served for several years.

Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Jim McCloskey ’51, shares what the award means to him.