The 2009 Hall of Fame Class is shown above with school district and alumni association leaders. Left to right are MASD Superintendent, Dr. Michael R. Brinkos; inductees James R. Brewster, James P. Beirne (rear), Phyllis R. Gerber; “Win” Lee MacKewiz, O.D.; Karrie A. Kalich, Ph.D.; and Robert J. Hoffman, Ph.D. Next to the Tiger are, l-r, inductee Lisa M. Burns, Ph.D.; high school administrator, Dr. Karen L. Chapman, and Dr. Linda L. Croushore, alumni association president.

A diverse group of seven high-achieving alumni were inducted into the McKeesport High School Hall of Fame Saturday, Sept. 26, by the McKeesport High School Alumni & Friends Association. They included:

Robert Hofman, Ph.D., Class of 1955, a biologist and researcher whose expertise has helped shape international policy on marine living resources.

Phyllis R. Gerber, Class of 1959, whose passion for the theater helped make learning come alive for students and children across the area.
           
James P. Beirne, Class of 1964, a successful home builder and star football player at the high school, college and pro levels.

James R. Brewster, Class of 1966, longtime civil servant who is currently serving as Mayor of McKeesport.
           
Win Lee MacKewiz, O.D., Class of 1976, who survived a chaotic childhood to become a successful eye doctor.
           
Lisa M. Burns, Ph.D., Class of 1989, accomplished academic and author whose focus on the media ranges from first ladies to sports.
           
Karrie A. Kalich, Ph.D., Class of 1990, a scholar, community leader and researcher with a special interest in childhood obesity.     
                
Robert J. (Bob) Hofman, Ph.D.
Class of 1955
Robert Hofman grew up on Hartman Street in the East End, graduated from “Tech” High, and enlisted in the Navy. He was sent to and graduated near the top of his classes in both the basic and advanced sonar schools in Key West, Fla.

He was stationed in 1957-58 at the Naval Facilities in Bermuda and Grand Turks Island. Near the end of his enlistment, an officer told him it would be a shame if he did not go to college, a conversation that had a profound influence on his later life. No one in his family had gone to college, and he had never considered the possibility before.
           
Within six weeks, he was enrolled at what is now Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in three years with a B.S. in Biology. For the next five and a half years, he taught biology at Warren Harding High School in Warren, Ohio.
           
In 1967, he received a master’s degree in biology education from IUP and a National Science Foundation Academic Year Grant to do advanced studies at the University of Minnesota. While taking classes the following summer at the university’s field station in Itasca State Park, he learned that two Minnesota faculty members had obtained an NSF grant to study seals in the Antarctic. He applied to be a graduate assistant on the project.
           
Between January 1969 and December 1974, Dr. Hofman made 10 trips to the Antarctic as part of a group conducting radio-tagging, census, and genetic studies of Weddell, crabeater, leopard, and Ross seals. In 1975, he was part of a University of Minnesota research group that initiated radio-tagging studies of sea otters in Prince William Sound, Alaska, the site of the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
           
Data from the Antarctic seals’ studies formed the basis of his 1975 Ph.D. dissertation. Given his background and interest in marine mammals, Dr. Hofman was hired in September 1975 to be the Scientific Program Director for the Marine Mammal Commission, a small federal government agency established by the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act to overview federal activities affecting marine mammals.
           
In addition to managing the Commission’s research program, Dr. Hofman was involved in formulating recovery plans for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, Florida manatee, California sea otter, and Northwest Atlantic right whale.
           
Because of his background, he became a special advisor to the Department of State on Antarctic matters. From February 1979 until his retirement from the MMC in June 2000, he was a member of the U.S. delegations to meetings and conventions on marine living resources.
           
Dr. Hofman is twice married, has two daughters, two stepdaughters, two grandsons, and two step-granddaughters.

Phyllis R. Gerber 
Class of 1959
           
Phyllis R. Gerber has worn many hats in her professional life but none more proudly than that of “lifelong learner.”
           
She credits much of her adventurous spirit to lessons learned under the tutelage of her high school speech teacher, Helen Malseed, and the    self-confidence she gained in Forensic League competitions and school theater productions.
           
By the end of her senior year, she was “hooked” on a career in theater. She won a scholarship to The Pittsburgh Playhouse but was able to attend only on a part-time basis. Still, she acquired her theater education and a love of theater that would remain a constant in her life.
           
In the mid-1960s, Ms. Gerber became involved with the McKeesport Little Theater, filling positions ranging from actress to set crew to director, board member and eventually president. She remained with MLT for 15 years and was part of nearly every production staged during that period.
           
In 1980, she became an independent theater owner. She opened the Center Stage Dinner Theater in Clairton as a venue for others like her who had a passion for theater but could pursue it only in their spare time. Center Stage continued for a number of years, presenting over 35 full productions and establishing a children’s theater and touring musical ensemble that performed in the Pittsburgh area.
           
Ms. Gerber’s “other” life involved work as a secretary in McKeesport and a technical typist for U.S. Steel. But adventure soon called and she embarked on a sales career that took her throughout the U.S. In 1984, she joined Pace School as an instructional aide working with children with autism and learning disabilities. She discovered that her theater skills were perfect tools to reach out to those youngsters, who soon found themselves writing plays, acting out fairy tales and staging puppet shows.
           
In 1988, she enrolled at Westmoreland County Community College and earned an AA in liberal arts, then went on to Seton Hill College to complete work for a BA in history and a secondary teaching degree. Upon graduation, she received the R. Dwight Troutman Memorial Award for Excellence in Secondary Education.
           
Ms. Gerber returned to Pace School as the library co-coordinator and discovered that the library was a “perfect stage” to connect with Pace students.
           
In 2003, in collaboration with Musikana Productions, she helped establish children’s theater classes in a small theater in Elizabeth. More recently, she merged her love of theater and her fascination with history to create a two-act bio-drama of the lives of three of the nation’s first ladies. She hopes to take “Tea With the First Ladies” to colleges and historical centers.
           
Ms. Gerber resides in North Huntingdon Twp., not far, she says, from her McKeesport roots and always happy to “Share the Pride.”

James P. Beirne
Class of 1964
           
Jim Beirne is used to success – on the athletic field and in the business world.
           
Football fans remember his exploits as a McKeesport Tiger (he was first team All-State in 1963) and then as a wide receiver for the former Houston Oilers and the San Diego Chargers during the late 1960s to mid-1970s.
           
Before making the jump to the pros as a fourth-round draft pick of the Oilers in 1968, he worked toward a degree in industrial management at Purdue University, which he attended on a full athletic scholarship. He was named an Academic All-American (1967) and a second team All-American while at Purdue. His Purdue team won the Rose Bowl in 1967, defeating USC 14-13.
           
Mr. Beirne was inducted into the Purdue Hall of Fame in 2004.
           
He played nine years in the AFL-NFL, eight of them with the Houston Oilers, and was tapped to play in the 1970 AFL All-Star Game.
           
He made the Houston area his home in 1968, and during the off-season completed his degree and worked in commercial real estate. He also was superintendent for a major building company for six years.
           
Using the insights he gained about homeowner preferences, he started his own custom home-building business in 1978.
           
Jim Beirne Custom Homes builds houses in The Woodlands, a 28,000-acre, forested community located 27 miles north of downtown Houston. His homes range in price from the $400,000s to $1.5 million, include traditional and transitional styles, and are sized from 3,600 to 7,000 square feet. With a mix of homes, shops, dining and recreation, The Woodlands has been the best-selling master-planned community in Texas since 1990 and currently ranks No. 3 in the nation.
           
Mr. Beirne met his wife Jodie in Houston, and they recently celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary. They are the parents of two sons, Kevin and Mike, who carried on the family football tradition at Texas A&M and the University of Kentucky.
           
Mr. Beirne coached both of his sons and many other youngsters in the Pop Warner League, where he was on the sidelines for 15 years.
           
Mr. and Mrs. Beirne share their home with their German Shepherd “Nolan” and are happy to “baby-sit” their four “grand-dogs.”

James R. Brewster
Class of 1966
           
As Mayor of McKeesport, James R. Brewster has worked tirelessly to bring the city back to a semblance of the prosperity it enjoyed when the steel mills were booming and downtown was a destination.
           
It’s been a difficult task, even for someone who’s been described as “the heart and soul” of the city.     But Mr. Brewster has persevered and can point to new housing, repaired and expanded recreation areas, development of the Palisades and Marina and improvements to the McKeesport Trail.
           
The mayor is a hands-on administrator, spearheading campaigns to tear down abandoned and dilapidated housing and beef up police patrols. His administration has worked with state, county and federal agencies to bring much-needed new money to the city.
           
When he graduated from the auto shop program at the former Vocational High School, it seemed unlikely that he would end up in college. He immediately began working in the family business (Bailey Excavating), but his brother-in-law-to-be encouraged him to enroll at Point Park College, where he was accepted into the freshmen class.
           
He subsequently transferred to the Community College of Allegheny County, South Campus, and graduated with an associate degree. While at CCAC, he lettered in track and cross country and designed a four-mile cross country course in McKeesport’s Renziehausen Park that became the home course for the campus.
           
Mr. Brewster went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in secondary education from California University of Pennsylvania in 1972. With teaching jobs scarce, he took advantage of an offer to join Mellon Bank in the credit card division and rose to the position of Vice President of Operations for the retail bank. During his years at Mellon, he managed operations in Delaware, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. He is proud of his role in establishing a chapter of the International Association of Credit Card Investigators and of representing Mellon as an expert on credit card fraud.
           
While at Mellon, he was appointed to the McKeesport Recreation Board and later to the McKeesport Housing Authority, which he has served as chairman for more than two decades.
           
Mr. Brewster ran for McKeesport City Council and served 10 years there  before winning the election for mayor in 2004. Long active in Democrat politics, he also has served on the board of Penn State Greater Allegheny, was District President of the Pennsylvania League of Cities, was inducted into the McKeesport Area Sports Hall of Fame and founded the McKeesport Optimist Toy Distribution.
           
He and his wife Linda are the parents of three daughters, all of whom are teachers – Jamie, Jodi and Jill.

‘Win’ Lee MacKewiz, O.D.
Class of 1976
           
“Win” MacKewiz is aptly named – he certainly beat the odds. He emerged from a chaotic home life, bounced from one foster home to another, lived in a rented room in a boardinghouse as a high school student, and worked full time to support himself. He acknowledges that he was not always a model student and often found himself on the wrong side of authority.
           
Yet, with the help of his high school counselor, David Sivak, he made his way to The Ohio State University, where he began to turn his life around. Today he is a successful optometrist with a thriving practice – Bear Eye Associates – in Bear, Delaware.
           
Dr. MacKewiz attended Ohio State on a scholarship that required him to maintain a high grade point average and work a minimum number of hours per week. Necessity and his work ethic drove him to work far more.
           
He earned a Bachelor’s Degree as part of the pre-med curriculum, then was accepted into the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. There he received the E.F. Wildermuth Scholarship and Award given to the Pennsylvania student with the highest grade point average. He continued to work full time while earning a second Bachelor’s Degree, this one in Visual Science, and a Doctor of Optometry Degree.
           
After internships at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Pediatric Department of the Eye Institute in Philadelphia, Pa., he worked at the HMO of Delaware, owned by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. In addition to treating patients for a variety of ocular trauma, glaucoma, and infectious eye disease, he assisted in the writing and review of the Quality Assurance Protocol, which was instrumental in helping the HMO obtain JCAHO accreditation.
           
Dr. MacKewiz founded Bear Eye Associates in 1992 and in 1999 built the Bear Eye Center, a modern medical office that has grown to be one of the largest eye care practices in Delaware with 25,000 active patients.
           
He treats a large number of patients with glaucoma and ocular disease and provides charitable care for impoverished and underprivileged patients referred to him by the Lions Club and for the LensCrafters “Gift of Sight” program. He received the Lions Club “Presidents Appreciation Award” in recognition of outstanding service and support of the “Lions Childrens Sight” program and was recognized by former President Clinton and the American Optometric Association for his participation in the “Vision USA” program, which provides free eye examinations for financially disadvantaged citizens of Delaware. He also sees hundreds of mentally or physically challenged patients each year for the state of Delaware and has acquired special equipment designed to meet their needs.
           
Dr. MacKewiz is an accomplished skier and scuba diver, and plays two-man beach volleyball at a professional level. He and his wife Irene reside in Newark, Del.

Lisa M. Burns, Ph.D.
Class of 1989
           
Dr. Lisa M. Burns is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. She holds a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Maryland at College Park, as well as an M.A. in rhetoric and B.A. in broadcast journalism from Duquesne University.
           
Dr. Burns teaches courses including Media History; Media Influence; Sports, Media & Society; Political Communication; and Introduction to Media Communications. Her first book, “First Ladies and the Fourth Estate: Press Framing of Presidential Wives” was published by Northern Illinois University Press in August of 2008.
           
She has also published scholarly articles on first lady media coverage in various journals and has been widely quoted in the local and national media regarding coverage of first ladies and female political candidates. Her other research interests include media history, political communication, sports and media, and media criticism.
           
Dr. Burns has always loved school, so much so that she has found a career that allows her to be a lifelong learner. When she was a sophomore in high school, Dr. Burns took a speech class. She had no idea at the time that one class would have such a profound impact on her life. She joined the forensics team, specializing in Student Congress and Extemporaneous Speaking, and led the team in points her senior year.
            This experience aroused an interest in politics, and a love of talking, which have served her well as both a journalist and a professor. Dr. Burns coached speech and debate at Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School in the 1990s. Now she teaches public speaking to retired hockey players through the National Hockey League’s "Life After Hockey" program.
           
A week after graduating from high school, Dr. Burns started work at WDUQ FM 90.5, Pittsburgh’s National Public Radio affiliate station. Within a few months, at the age of 18, she was promoted to news anchor and reporter. She covered news and sports at WDUQ for four years before moving to KQV 1410 AM, an all-news station. She won several awards for her work as a news and sports reporter and producer over the years.
           
She also traveled to Europe as part of a journalist exchange program. On that trip, she met a professor who encouraged her to consider teaching at the college level. A few weeks later, she returned to her undergraduate alma mater, Duquesne University, to pursue a graduate degree. The first class she taught was public speaking – she was hooked.
           
At Quinnipiac University, Dr. Burns is co-director of the Sports Studies interdisciplinary minor and a case advisor for the Academic Integrity Board. Captain of McKeesport High’s volleyball team at both the varsity and JV levels, she is now faculty liaison for Quinnipiac women’s volleyball.        
           
Dr. Burns is a self-professed “media junkie,” an 80s music buff, avid reader, and a die-hard Penguins hockey fan. She resides in East Haven, Conn.    

Karrie A. Kalich, Ph.D.
Class of 1990
           
Karrie A. Kalich has distinguished herself as a scholar, community leader, researcher and author in work related to teenage and childhood obesity. Today she is recognized as an authority in this field, which has become the fastest-growing public health concern in the U.S.
           
She earned her Ph.D. in Nutrition, Science and Policy at Tufts University, which she attended on scholarship, with a dissertation on aspects of the obesity problem. As a tenured Associate Professor at Keene State College (Keene, N.H.), she developed a model pre-school curriculum that focuses on establishing good eating habits at an early age.
           
The “Early Sprouts Garden Project” is a 24-week research-based nutrition and gardening program that provides a “seed-to-table” exposure to fruits and vegetables for pre-schoolers. It includes raised organic garden beds, sensory experiences, cooking activities, take-home kits with recipes and ingredients, and support and training for teachers and families.
           
Her research to date shows positive results: children in the program display a greater willingness to taste and prefer fruits and vegetables. Dr. Kalich has won several significant grants to expand the program to nine Head Start classrooms and three private pre-schools. She also helps  interested school districts across the U.S. to implement it.
           
She’s captured her work in a book, “Early Sprouts: Cultivating Healthy Food Choices in Young Children,” and continues to speak about the curriculum at professional conferences and meetings. She has a second book in the works on helping pre-schools adopt better nutrition practices and create a more nutritionally purposeful school environment.
           
In 2008 she received a Champion Award from the Acting U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Steven K. Galson, for her work with the Early Sprouts program. In 2009, she won the Mary Abbott Hess Award for an Innovative Food and Culinary Effort from the American Dietetic Association.
           
Dr. Kalich graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management and was recognized as a University Scholar. After spending a year in the Walt Disney Management Program, she enrolled in Keene State College as a nutrition major and graduated summa cum laude with a second Bachelor of Science degree. She completed a dietetic internship at the Mayo Clinic to earn certification as a registered dietician, then went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Nutrition at Boston University before heading to Tufts for her Ph.D. work.
           
Dr. Kalich is a sought-after speaker, nutrition consultant and seminar facilitator. In addition to her role as teacher and mentor for nutrition majors at Keene, she devotes time to the community outreach initiative to build bridges between the college and the local community.