University presents five awards at Alumni Days

Four individuals are recipients of the 2011 Jesse S. Heiges Distinguished Alumnus Award, one of five awards presented during the recent Alumni Days at Shippensburg University.

Recipients of the Heiges Award were Suzanne Boyer McLaren ’73-’78M, Dr. James Garner Ptaszynski ’83M, Richard Rovegno ’79 and Ronald Young ’69-’86M.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Paul Dlugolecki ’73; the Exceptional Service Award was presented to Edward Sheaffer ’73 and Carol King Henicle ’66; the Humanitarian Award was presented to Dr. Angelo Constanzo and the Alumni Chapter Leadership Award was presented to Robin Kubinak Driskill ’88-’89M.

The Heiges Award was established in 1959 through gifts from Ralph and Jesse G. Heiges to honor their father, Shippensburg’s first dean of instruction from 1901 to 1934. The university’s highest award, supplemented by a gift from the Class of 1911 on its 50th reunion, recognizes each recipient’s distinguished and outstanding achievements in his or her field to the benefit of the community and society.  

McLaren, of Pittsburgh, is the collection manager in the section of mammals at The Carnegie Museum of Natural History and only the third woman in the 80-year history of the American Society of Mammalogists to become its president of the Society, and the first non-Ph.D. elected since 1948. She has received the Hartley H.T. Jackson Award from the American Society of Mammalogists for long and outstanding service and the President’s Award from the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections for dedicated service. She has been with the section of mammals since 1977 and is responsible for the care of more than 120,000 research specimens. She has authored and co-authored a number of articles and book chapters, and served as the expert reviewer for a series of children’s books about mammals.  

Ptaszynski, of Woodinville, Wash., is senior director of world-wide higher education strategy at Microsoft Corporation, which he joined in 1995. He designs and implements programs which assist in improving the capabilities and utilization of technology in education. He was recently appointed to lead Microsoft's Partners in Learning for Higher Education Initiative. Before joining Microsoft, he worked in higher education, most recently as the associate dean at the Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. He also consulted for numerous businesses and not-for-profit organizations in strategic planning, environment scanning, market research, and technology planning and implementation. He served on the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, the Middle East Institute for Higher Education and many other taskforces and as a trusted adviser to numerous educational organizations. 

Rovegno, of Carlisle, is a Cumberland County commissioner and local entrepreneur. He has served as commissioner since 2000 and is in his third term. He was instrumental in securing the I-81 Coalition and serves on many boards, including the Cumberland County Aging Advisory Board, the Agriculture Extension Board, Agriculture Land Preservation Board and the Conservation District Board.

Young, of Harrisburg, is provost and interim president at Harrisburg Area Community College where, during his 30 year tenure, he has served as a faculty member, dean, and vice president of academic affairs. He received his associate’s degree in mathematics from HACC, followed by his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and master’s degree in computer science, both from Shippensburg. He also has a master’s degree from the Pennsylvania State University. He began his career in education at the William Penn Campus of the Harrisburg School District and joined HACC in 1971. He has also has twice received the HACC President’s Merit Recognition Award.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to a recipient in recognition of life-long career achievement and personal commitment in his/her field of endeavor for the benefit of the community and society. Dlugolecki, of Mechanicsburg, is the former senior vice president at S.R. Wojdak Associates and is the retired executive director of the Pennsylvania Senate Appropriations Committee where he was involved in negotiations on 22 state budgets under three governors. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and chair of its information technology and audit committees. He is also a member of the College of Arts & Sciences Advisory Board and was president of his SU Class in 1971 and 1972.

The Exceptional Service Award is given to recognize and thank outstanding persons who have given unselfishly of their time and efforts for the betterment of Shippensburg University.

Henicle, of Waynesboro, is a member of the College of Education & Human Services Advisory Board, served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors from 2006 to 2010, and has served as co-chair of the Homecoming Weekend committee for six years. She is an active member of the Alumni Weekend Planning Committee and serves on the local alumni chapter for the Shippensburg/Chambersburg area. She also volunteers with the student outreach committee and is on campus during freshman move-in day to help new students get settled in.

Sheaffer, of Shippensburg, has also been a member of the Alumni Weekend Planning Committee for many years and an active volunteer at both Alumni Weekend and Homecoming for more than 30 years. He is a member of the local Shippensburg/Chambersburg alumni chapter planning committee and is as treasurer for the Shippensburg College Club, an organization that raises funds through membership dues and an annual dinner auction to support four scholarships for Shippensburg area students to attend the university.

The Alumni Humanitarian Award is presented to honor an alumnus and/or a member of the campus community in recognition of his/her direct impact on diversity and cultural experiences of students on campus. Costanzo, of Shippensburg, is a faculty emeritus of the English Department who was a catalyst and instrumental in several humanitarian and minority student and staff-focused activities on campus. He served as chairman to design and establish a minority studies minor, he worked to start the Gifted Minority Scholarship Program and he helped establish the Martin Luther King Gifted Minority Dinner Benefit. After teaching 31 years at Shippensburg, he retired in 1997.

The Alumni Chapter Leadership Award honors an alumnus in recognition of his/her direct impact on the success of an Alumni Chapter as a whole. Driskill, of Raleigh, N.C., provides leadership for the Raleigh, N.C., Alumni Chapter and continuously works to connect Shippensburg alumni in North Carolina to each other, creating their own Shippensburg family unit more than 350 miles from campus. She also hosts at her home a picnic for alumni and their families. She also makes frequent visits to campus to attend Alumni and Homecoming weekends and promotes alumni activities with her sorority Delta Zeta.