Saint Joseph's High School

Morgan Kirby recently completed her freshman volleyball season at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C. Kirby, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter, finished with 85 kills, 26 blocks, 80 digs and 12 service aces.

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Class of 2008

Indiana University sophomore Gabby Agostino won the platform diving title with a score of 296 at the Big Ten Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Championships held recently in West Lafayette, Indiana. She took the lead with a score of 73.60 on her final dive. The Hoosiers, behind seven individual titles and two relay wins, won the Big Ten championship, 758-572 1/2 over Minnesota. For her efforts, Agostino earned 2010 All-Big Ten first-team honors.

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Class of 2007

James Urbany was named Academic All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for the second time after completing his junior season on the University of New Mexico men's soccer team. Urbany started 13 games for the Lobos, who finished 12-7-1 and earned an NCAA tournament berth. The defender/midfielder had two gails and an assist.

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Monica Szumski, a student at Purdue University, will gain experience in the art of advocacy before the United Nations through sessions to be held Feb. 26-March 6, 2010, in conjunction with meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations headquarters in New York City. Szumski is one of 20 women students chosen from across the nation to participate in the practicum, which offers an opportunity to observe how the United Nations works to address issues requiring multilateral engagement and coordinated action. She will gain temporary delegate status, attend official and non-government organization (NGO) sessions, and contribute to the official documentation of both official and NGO meetings.

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Wes Chamblee runs track for Wabash College and helped the school set a meet record at the Little Giant Indoor Invitational. The junior ran a leg of the 1,600-meter relay that had a winning time of 3:26.66. He was also a part of the second-place 800-meter relay squad (1:32.14).

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Daniel Mitchell is a senior at Indiana University and is employed by the University of Notre Dame as the zamboni technician for the Notre Dame Ice Hockey team. He lives in South Bend.

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Class of 2005

Eleni Kanalos performed in the Broadway Theatre League's production of The Wedding Singer in the ensemble. She is a recent graduate of Columbia College, Chicago. Regional credits include Gypsy, West Side Story, The Wedding Singer (The Little Theatre on the Square), Knute Rockne All-American (Theatre at the Center), and Oklahoma! (Light Opera Works). 

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Steven Mitchell graduated Cum Laude from Trine University in Angola, Indiana in 2009. He is a structural engineer at Lawson-Fisher Engineering and is a graduate student at the University of Cincinatti.

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Class of 2004

Cara Grabowski has been named PentaVision Communications Inc. business development manager. She will represent the various media platforms that PentaVision offers to both existing and new clients. She is a 2008 graduate of Saint Mary's College.

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Dante Kobek graduated from Ball State University Miller College of Business with a double-major in Management Information Systems, with an emphasis in Systems Analysis and Design, and Business Operations Management in May of 2009. He is currently working for Perotsystems and living in Costa Mesa, CA. Apria Healthcare is the newly signed account that he serves, working as a Service Manager delivering IT needs in the form of services and resources.

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Joshua Nurkowski graduated from Indiana University in May 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Business and a triple major in Finance, Business Economics and Public Policy. He moved to Louisville, KY to be with his girlfriend of five years and works for Cenveo, Inc. as an accounts payable specialist. He is currently attending Indiana University Southeast to earn accounting credits to become eligible to sit for the CPA exam. Joshua will be taking the exam in January 2011. In other news, he has a trip planned with his girlfriend to watch Notre Dame play against Navy in Ireland September 2012!

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Class of 2001

Paul Appleby, a tenor, was named a winner of the 2009 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions at the Grand Finals Concert. The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is a program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers. Auditions are held annually in fifteen Regions of the United States and Canada.

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Robert Murphy finished medical school at Emory University in Atlanta, GA and is starting his residency in Orthopedic Surgery in Memphis.

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Class of 2000

Erin Lakin Hensley and her husband Jesse, who currently live in Colorado, welcomed son Jonathon Wyatt on October 17, 2009.

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Jacob Mitchell is a 2004 Purdue graduate (Aeronautical engineering) and is a Design Engineer at ACCClimate Control in Elkhart, Indiana. He is married to the former Nicole Forsberg (Texas A&M). They live in Mishawaka, Indiana with their three-year-old daughter and are expecting a son in July 2010.

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Class of 1999

Ross Harmon and his wife Lilly, who currently live in Denver, Colorado, welcomed son Brooks O'Neal on March 11, 2010.

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Class of 1998

Alum Kristen Montague obtained a Masters Degree in Child, Couple, and Family Therapy from Antioch University in Seattle. She is currently in Seattle undertaking Doctoral studies at Antioch University in Clinical Psychology and plans to graduate in 2010 with her doctorate.

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Thomas (T.J.) Kanczuzewski has been named executive vice president of Inovateus Solar. He will oversee the company's operations and worldwide distribution and integrations of solar panels. He is a graduate of Columbia College. 

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Class of 1995

Erin Schmidt would like to announce the publication of her first book under her own name titled The Magical Girl's Guide to Womanhood, published by FIDO publishing. She had previously published two novels under her pen name Erin O'Riordan.

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Class of 1994

Cordell Milton Ray Jr. went to Hawaii Pacific University on a basketball scholarship and received a degree in Criminal Justice. After college he joined the Army to work as a Counterintelligence Agent and was deployed to Iraq twice. He was recently selected and hired to work for the Department of the Army as a Special Agent in Augusta, Georgia.

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Marianne Prue is employed by the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Cinncinnati, Ohio as an Urban Forestry Specialist. She recently completed a several year assignment with the Department of Natural Resources of the State of Ohio.

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Class of 1993

Matthew Kovatch lives in the San Francisco Bay area and owns a top ranked VoIP company Taridium. Taridium is the leader in open standard enterprise and provider of VoIP solutions. To learn more about Matthew's company visit the website at http://www.taridium.com

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Class of 1988

Marianne Giolitto resides in Boulder, Colorado with her husband Jason Schroeder. She is an ecologist with the City of Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks department, where she primarily designs various types of research projects. A recipient of both the Notre Dame Monogram Club Team MVP and Notre Dame of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student Athlete Award as a members of the women's soccer team, she still takes to the soccer field as a member of the coaching staff at Boulder High School. Marianne and her husband enjoy hiking, biking, and camping in the nearby moutains as well as visiting with their nieces and nephews as often as possible.

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Tracy Hartzler-Toon left her position as counsel to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nevada) and moved from northern Virginia, accepting a position as senior attorney with the State of New Mexico’s Interstate Stream Commission. The Commission administers and enforces the 8 interstate water contracts to which it is a party, among completing other responsibilities.

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Class of 1985

Doug Pittman has found great success in landscaping and opened Douglas Landscape Inc. in 1992. He started landscaping while a sophomore in high school and studied horticulture at Vincennes University.

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Class of 1982

Matt Rowe published a novel called "White Passage: Red Sun" which is a fictionalized account of his experience as a US Army Green Beret operating in Latin America in the 1980-90's. According to Rowe "the story is not a hagiography, but tells the situation from the perspectives of all the key stakeholders, and I hope it is a testament to the importance of protecting the human rights of the weak as a means of ultimately protecting ourselves." To learn more click here

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Tim Polega has been named director of engineering at Inovateus Solar. He will be responsible for the design of photovaltaic systems for residential and commercial installations. He received his bachelor's degree from Michigan State University. 

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Class of 1981

Janice Zdankus, who works at Hewlett-Packard, was promoted to Vice President at HP in the Enterprise Systems Group. She has two children, Katie and John, ages 17 and 16.

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As a dog lover and Greyhound rescuer, Sheryl Matthys has just released her first book titled: Leashes and Lovers-What Your Dog Can Teach You About Love, Life and Happiness. It is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and her website LeashesandLovers.com/thebook. Sheryl is "The Dog Expert" and founder of the community, LeashesandLovers.com to connect dog lovers for friendship, a date and/or love as well as a marketplace where businesses showcase their products and services. The site and Sheryl have been featured on Bravo, E!, FOX, SiriusXM, The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine and other media.

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Class of 1979

Linda Urbanski Geer received her license to practice as a Certified Public Accountant in Indiana in April 2009. She works for Ondrovich & Associates, PC Certified Public Accountants in Portage, IN.

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Class of 1978

Dr. Paul Gullifor was appointed as the first Henry Means Pinnell Endowed Chair in Communications at the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts at Bradley University, Peoria, Ill. The chair is for an accomplished and outstanding professor in the communications department who is recognized as an authority in communications and communications history. Paul has won a number of awards for his teaching abilities, including the Stephen H. Coltrin National Professor of the Year presented by the International Radio and Television Society. His special interests are broadcast history and sports programming. And because of these interests, he has written “The Fighting Irish on the Air: The History of Notre Dame Football Broadcasting” and “Courting Success with Notre Dame Women's Basketball Coach Muffet McGraw.”

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Class of 1977

Hoshizaki America Inc. announces Christopher R. Leader as its chief operating officer. Leader, a 1977 graduate of Saint Joseph's High School, earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and master's degree from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

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Class of 1965

Patricia Seago Mess has retired after 40 years of international banking. Her career began in January 1967 with the St. Joe Bank (now Key Bank), and she retired as VP of International Operations with M&I Marshall & ILSLEY Bank, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She and her husband, Scott Mess, will spend their time visiting family, children, grandchildren and her parents all in South Bend as well as wintering in Arizona.

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Peter J. Welling has illustrated and written six children's picture books. He has ghost written two novels as Steve Garcia (Homicide in the Hills - August 2008) and Black Star Crime (Valley of Vice - Spring 2009). Peter was the recent recipient of IUSB's College of Liberal Arts and Science's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2003 and the Award for Teaching Excellence from IUPUI/Continuing studies in 2005. To learn more click on www.peterjwelling.com

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Class of 1962

Robert Lee Mejer, Quincy University distinguished professor of art, had two of his artworks juried into the Drawing/Watercolor: Illinois 17th Biennial Exhibition at the Tarble Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University. The watercolor "Teeter-Totter" and "Papier Colle #18" was selected for exhibition which opened December 14 and will continue till February 22. Mejer received the Table Arts Center Merit Award for his sabbatical piece "Papier Colle #18."

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Chuck Harrell recently retired after a long career in IT that included St. Joseph Bank and 1st Source Bank in South Bend. He was able to travel all over the US installing various software packages in community banks. While in South Bend, he was frequently recognized for working as a volunteer for Junior Achievement and United Health Services. He moved to Minneapolis with another IT firm that quickly moved him to Charlotte, NC where he lived and worked for several years before moving to his current location just south of Charlotte in Indian Land, SC. At the age of 62, with the support of his wife Gerri, he left for Utila, Honduras and became a scuba dive master and instructor. He then managed dive operations at resorts in Roatan, Honduras and Chuuk, Micronesia before finally retiring for good. He still scuba dives and lists Indonesia as his favorite location. He now spends much of his time fly fishing in the mountains of both NC and SC and is constantly looking for new adventures. He visits his family (also Saint Joe grads) and friends back in South Bend. As soon as his wife retires, they plan on traveling even more.

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Class of 1956

Rev. Msgr. John Kuzmich celebrated his investiture ceremony in Fort Wayne on December 10, 2009. Congratulations on this wonderful achievement!

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Central Catholic High School 1938

Gregory McEneny has had a full life since being a member of the first graduating class of Central Catholic High School in 1938. After graduation, he worked for Ball Band Rubber Co. and for Studebaker then attended Purdue University from March 1945 to January 1948 receiving a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He joined General Electric from school and had training assignments in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Gregory married Marilyn Eix in November 1948 and they have three daughters and four grandchildren. He went on a permanent job status in Evendale, OH in 1949 for 24 years and then 12 more years in Lynn, MA as a Senior Design Engineer in the Jet Engine Division. After retirement, he returned to Cincinnati in 2005 where he currently resides.