UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Five longtime Penn State champions and benefactors will be recognized by the Penn State Alumni Association and named honorary alumni today at The Nittany Lion Inn.
The ceremony also will feature the presentation of the 2015 Distinguished Alumni and Philanthropist of the Year awards.The Penn State Alumni Association has given the Honorary Alumni Award since 1973 to recognize individuals who, while not graduates of Penn State, have significantly worked toward bettering the University. Since the award was established, more than 100 individuals have been given Honorary Alumni status. Honorary Alumni receive a life membership in the Penn State Alumni Association, as well as a commemorative award.For more information about the Honorary Alumni Award and to read a full biography of each recipient, visit alumni.psu.edu/awards/individual/honorary.
This year's honorees are:
Albert L. Evans Jr. Evans has worked in the transportation industry for more than 50 years. Today, Evans is chairman of the board of Evans Network of Companies. Still headquartered in Schuylkill Haven, it’s a prominent employer in the area. Under Evans’ leadership, the company has become the largest privately owned intermodal drayage (short-distance) carrier in the country. Its fleet of vehicles has grown considerable since “Truck One” and “Truck Two” rumbled over Schuylkill County roads. It now operates with 3,000 trucks in 165 nationwide locations, concentrated in port cities and major rail hubs. Evans and the company are big supporters of Penn State Schuylkill. Evans serves on the advisory board and he and his wife, Josette, have endowed two scholarships for adult learners -- the Josette and Bert Evans Scholarship at Penn State Schuylkill and the Josette and Bert Evans Trustee Scholarship at Penn State Schuylkill.
John P. Kazmaier. Kazmaier is one of the longest-tenured members of Penn State Altoona’s Advisory Board with more than 30 years of volunteer leadership. Throughout the years, Kazmaier and his wife, Deedra “Dede,” have provided philanthropic support to many areas of Penn State Altoona. The campus’ Kazmaier Building, home to the Office of Development and Alumni Relations in downtown Altoona, is a testament to the couple’s philanthropic spirit. In 2007, Penn State Altoona received a leadership gift from the Kazmaiers and Kazmaier’s mother, Jane Patterson Kazmaier Lower, that was designated for the campus’ use in the purchase and renovation of the WRTA building on 12th Ave. The Kazmaier family is a longtime supporter of Penn State Altoona’s development efforts including participation in several fundraising campaigns. In 1997, Kazmaier’s mother created the Jane Patterson Kazmaier Lower Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship benefits outstanding full-time, female students from a Blair County high school.
Rodrigue “Rod” Mortel. Mortel joined Penn State’s College of Medicine as an assistant professor in 1972, and rose to full professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology five years later; he became the first black foreign-educated chair of one of the 126 medical schools that have such a department. Finally, in 1995, he was promoted to associate dean and became the founding director of the Penn State University Cancer Center, the forerunner to the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute. Although Mortel retired from practice in 2002, he remains active in the University. Mortel endowed two separate visiting scholar lectureships and is a member of Penn State’s Emeritus Faculty Organization. He also is a permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, having been ordained in 2001, incardinated in the Diocese of Gonaives, Haiti. Both in 1993 and 1997, Mortel was named one of the Best 401 Doctors for Women in the U.S.
Pasco L. Schiavo. For more than five decades, Schiavo has generously contributed his legal and business acumen, leadership, time, and money to Penn State Hazleton and the Greater Hazleton, Pa., community. Schiavo taught both law and Spanish at Penn State Hazleton on a part-time basis for seven years and spent many years and countless hours working to obtain a key piece of property for the campus. As a member of the Penn State Hazleton Council, he held leadership positions, including president. While serving as the campus’ chair of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, the group successfully raised more than $7.6 million, 127 percent of Penn State Hazleton’s goal. Schiavo established and later endowed scholarships -- which are granted to local students who attend Penn State Hazleton -- to honor his father and his mother, Josephine “Shayna” Schiavo.
David N. Wormley. Wormley joined the Penn State College of Engineering as dean in 1992 after spending the previous 34 years at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a student, faculty member, department head, and associate dean of engineering. Two Penn State endeavors that flourished under Wormley’s leadership are the nationally recognized Learning Factory and the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education. The Learning Factory, a hands-on laboratory for undergraduate engineering students, helps to bring the real world into the classroom by providing practical experience through industry-sponsored and client-based design projects. The Leonhard Center has supported engineering education through unique and cutting-edge programs for instructors and students alike. Also of note during Wormley’s watch over the College of Engineering was the increase of diversity within its ranks, as more women filled leadership positions. During his tenure as dean, research expenditures for the college grew from $32 million to $131 million, and the college’s endowment increased from $14 million to $173 million.