Honor Roll
Recognizing the accomplishments of Western New Yorkers
Updated: 06/29/08 6:41 AM
David A. Gerber, professor and chairman of the department of history in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo, has received the 2008 Moroney Senior Award from the U. S. Postal Service. The $2,000 award, named for Rita Lloyd Moroney, who was historian of the Postal Service from 1973 to 1991, is designed to encourage scholarship on the history of the American postal system and to raise awareness about the significance of the postal system in American life.
Gerber analyzes the cycle of correspondence between 19th century immigrants and their loved ones thousands of miles away in homelands they had left in his critically acclaimed book “Authors of Their Lives: The Personal Correspondence of British Immigrants to North America in the Nineteenth Century.”
Gerber has served on the board of directors of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County.
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Anne Kohl has received the Mount St. Mary Academy Alumnae Association’s Alumna of the Year award. Kohl, a member of the Class of 1984, has served as the Town of Tonawanda school’s business manager for the past 12 years. She is a member of the academy’s Middle States Re-accreditation Committee, oversees finances and manages buildings and grounds for the five-acre campus.
In addition, Kohl has served for 20 years as a Eucharistic minister at St. Christopher Parish in the Town of Tonawanda and nearly a decade on the parish finance committee. She spent eight years on the St. Christopher’s School Board, serving as its president for four years. Kohl received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Canisius College.
The Alumnae Association’s Student Volunteer of the Year award went to Emily Crainer, Class of 2008. Her parents, Nadine and John Crainer, won the association’s Volunteer of the Year award. During her four years at Mount St. Mary, Crainer was an active member of Student Council, Students for a Just Society, Future Business Leaders of America and the Language, Youth to Youth and Math clubs. She also served as chairwoman of the Respect Life Club. She will attend St. Bonaventure University in the fall.
Setting an example of fellowship and service to their daughter, John and Nadine Crainer have given many hours to the Mount St. Mary athletic program and annual Chrysalis auction. They were instrumental in the 2008 rededication of the Mount St. Mary Academy Sports Hall of Fame, as well.
Mary Ann Fancher was named an honorary alumna of Mount St. Mary’s in recognition of her contributions as a teacher at the school since 1986. Fancher, chairwoman of the English department, has worked with the Ken-Ton Sertoma Club and founded a special Serteens chapter at Mount St. Mary’s. She also has served as coach on several school sports teams and as a mentor.
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The following four community leaders have been appointed to serve on St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute’s board of trustees: Thomas Comer, James Denzak, Dennis Szefel and Martha Lamparelli. They have been elected to serve for a three-year term, starting in September. Also joining the board that month will be John Cambria, as president of the St. Joe’s Alumni Association, and Robert and Karen Rusin as president “couple” of the St. Joe’s Parents Guild.
Comer, of the class of 1981, also serves as board president of the Buffalo Renaissance Foundation.
Denzak, class of 1980, has been chairman of the American Red Cross local blood drive campaigns and a board member of the St. Louis Church capital campaign.
Szefel formed an award-winning, environmental program called GreenPath.
Lamparelli is the general chairwoman for Catholic Charities Appeal 2008 and currently is serves as vice chairwoman of the Sisters Hospital Foundation.
Cambria, class of 1982, has been a member of the St. Joe’s Alumni Association board since 2002, serving as secretary from 2003 to 2007.
Robert Rusin, class of 1976, serves as a member of the advisory council of the School of Business at Niagara University. His wife, Karen, received her nursing degree from Millard Fillmore Hospital School of Nursing.
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Frank Cirincione has won the “Legionnaire of the Year” award from the American Legion of Erie County.
