by Linsey | Jul 24, 2019
At Hamburg High School, Grover Ellwood, Jr. was a standout athlete on the football and tennis teams, and also played on the Ham-burg High basketball team. Grover served as Captain of both the football and tennis teams in 1942, lettering in tennis in 1940, 1941 and 1942. Following high school, Ellwood joined the Marines where he was a communications specialist stationed in Santa Barbara, California. He later went to Oberlin College. Ellwood had a lifelong commitment to fitness and sports, remaining an avid running and bicycling enthusiast his whole adult life. He was one of the original organizers and founders of the Hamburg Indoor Tennis Club, and an avid skier with the Red Jacket and Sitzmarker ski clubs. According to his son Grove, “Dad loved being part of a ‘team’ whether it was sports, career or civic involvement.” He founded the Ellwood Insurance Agency in Hamburg in 1951 and continued to give back to his community. He was one of the original volunteers and a director of the Hamburg Counseling Center. He also served as past president of the Hamburg Rotary Club where he was a Paul Harris Fellow. Elwood was named “Man of the Year” by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce in 1989 and given an Outstanding Citizens Citation by President Ronald Reagan in the late 1980’s. He served on various committees for the Hamburg School District and was an exempt member of the Hamburg Volunteer Fire Department.
by Linsey | Jul 24, 2019
Since his graduation in 1977, Dr. Daryl Georger continually realizes the strong foundation he developed in academics, athletics, and sportsmanship learned from his mentors, teachers, and coaches at Hamburg High School While at Hamburg High, Georger earned varsity letters in football and wrestling. After graduating he attended Cornell University where he continued to participate in varsity football and wrestling during his undergraduate years. He holds a BS from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell, an MS from the Isenberg School of Business at the University of Massachusetts, and a doctorate from Duquesne University. He is a quality assurance engineer with much of his coursework from Penn State University Over the past six years, Georger has focused much of his research on the development of adjunct faculty and quality assurance.
For over 33 years, Georger has been a full-time faculty member/Chairman of the Statler Department of Hospitality Management and the Assistant Dean of the Walker School of Business at Mercyhurst University. In addition to his academic career, he is the owner/president of HRI USA Supply in Erie, Pennsylvania. HRI USA Supply is a company comprised of four divisions including HRI Foodservice Engineering and Design, Chef General Online Sales, HRI USA Commercial Equipment Service, and HRI USA Foodservice Small Wares and Equipment Supply Store. Georger has consulted on over 100 hospitality industry projects during the past 33 years. He is/has been a member of many hospitality industry associations as well as community associations and boards, among them the Second Harvest Food Bank and the Mercyhurst Preparatory School Board of Trustees. Georger is a PIAA swimming official and a past level three national USA swimming official. Georger thanks his entire family for their support over his lifetime.
by Linsey | Jul 24, 2019
Bob Brunner was a standout athlete at Hamburg High School, earning a total of 9 varsity letters in basketball, baseball, football and track & field. Following high school and for more than 3 decades, Bob’s professional life has been centered in and around the hospitality industry On June 19, 1990, Bob opened J.P. Fitzgerald’s Restaurant, Irish Pub and Banquet Facility Little did he imagine that 25 years later to the day, June 19, 2015, family, patrons, employees and dignitaries, including the Deputy General Consulate of Ireland, would help him celebrate his long-running success.
J.P. Fitzgerald’s has twice been named a Top Workplace by The Buffalo News, an honor made possible by loyal employees. J.P.’s has participated in 25 annual bus excursions to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Buffalo, as well as annual group trips to Ireland. In 2015, Bob was awarded the “Irish American of the Year” award which was presented at Coca Cola Field where Bob and his family threw out the first pitch.
Taking an active role in supporting Hamburg and the Western New York community Bob was instrumental in establishing J.P.’s Foundation. The not-for-profit corporation’s mission is to better the community by promoting charitable, educational and cultural organizations and activities that assist and enhance the lives of people in Western New York. As President of the Board of Directors, Bob leads the organization in which the primary focus is raising much-needed funds for those in the community who face the daily challenges of autism. To date, the Foundation has distributed in excess of $350,000. These monies have helped establish the Autism Resource Center on Main Street in Hamburg which promotes autism awareness and provides support and service to adults and children, and their families, affected by autism. Brunner also serves on the Board of Directors of the Erie County Agricultural Society.
by Linsey | Jul 24, 2019
Though he could be a candidate for Sports Legend, Wayne Rose was nominated not for his own personal, athletic accomplishments (though we will recognize those), but also for what he has given back to education and to the sport that he found so much success with. At HHS, Wayne was Hamburg’s first varsity letter winner in Cross Country on the 1959 ECIC and Section AA Championship teams. He was also captain of the ’62 Cross Country Team that captured the ECIC and Section AAA Championships. At Buffalo State, Rose became a top cross country runner and captain of the ’65 and ’66 STJNYAC Championship Teams. He earned All-SUNYAC honors in ’64, ’65, and ’66 and also co-captained the ’65 Track and Field Teams. Wayne set records in the long jump, triple jump, mile and distance medley relays, receiving Buffalo State’s Presidents Award in 1967. Wayne began a teaching career with the Lake Shore schools that lasted 33 years, coaching cross country teams for an astounding 41 years! He originated girls cross country competition in Western New York in 1974 and ’75 and the first ECIC girls’ team competition began in 1978. He went on to coach 16 ECIC teams and 14 individual champions, 4 Sectional teams and 8 individual champions. Rose sent 65 runners to State and Federation meets over the years. Wayne coached boys track for eight years, setting 24 records during that time. He was coach of the undefeated mile relay teams of ’71, ’72, ’73 and ’74. Rose also coached the girls track team that set 28 records in three years, winning Lake Shore’s first ECIC Championships in 1992 and ’93. Twenty former runners are now coaching cross country or track. Wayne also guided Lake Shore’s Art Dena, anent, teaching advanced art courses, developing handbooks, major sequences, Regents portfolios, art careers and descriptions. Over 200 of his former student have entered the creative careers in art.
by Linsey | Jul 24, 2019
Betty W. Johnson – HHS ‘ 38 – Served for twenty-eight years as School Lunch Director, designing and opening the cafeterias at Boston, Armor, the Middle School and the High School, while renovating the facilitates at Union Pleasant. She served as President of the Erie County School Food Service Association; Southwest Regional Director for the State School Food Service Association; State President; Northeast (nine states) Regional Director for the American School Food Service Association with a four year term on the National Board; president of the Hamburg Business and Professional Women, president of the Hamburg Quota Club, and Lt. Governor and Governor of the 17th District of Quota International. She was president of the Hamburg Teacher’s Credit Union for eighteen years.
Harold S. Johnson – HHS ‘47 – Holds a doctorate with twenty-two years as a university professor of both political science and racial and ethnic studies, author of a benchmark study of international plebiscites relating to national-self-determination; retiring from ten years as a U.S. government economist and strategic planner with the Bureau of Labor Statistics receiving the Commissioner’s Distinguished Service Award. He volunteered with the Route 62 Reconstruction Committee, Imagine Hamburg, the Village Economic Development Committee, which he later chaired, and the Main Street Grant Committee. He holds a Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award. In June, 2009 he received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Board of Education. He has established a scholarship at St. Lawrence University to be awarded every four years to a resident of Erie County for which he received the G. Atwood Manley Society Achievement Award. His resume includes ten years’ service in the U.S. Army Reserves.
Helen L. Johnson – HHS ’48 – Harold’s Twin. An elementary school teacher with service in the Kenmore, Orchard Park, and Hamburg School Systems, totaling 35 years. In retirement, she worked with the Fredonia College Foundation, assisting students who were primary-grade teaching interns in the Hamburg schools, endowing the Helen L. Johnson Legacy Scholarship, to be awarded to an elementary education student in the Hamburg Program. She was a past Co-President of the Hamburg Central PTA, NEA representative for the Hamburg teachers, president of the Hamburg Teachers Association and vice-president of the Hamburg Alumni Association. She received a Friend of Education Award from the Hamburg Teachers Association and a New York State Distinguished Service Award. She was a former president of the Hamburg Women’s Club and a member of the Hamburg Support Center, Hamburg Learning Center, Hamburg Branch of the Red Cross, Supervisory Committee of the Hamburg Central Credit Union, and the Hamburg Counseling Center.
