10 Warren alumni to join hall of fame

Staff report

WARREN

Ten people will be inducted into the Warren High Schools’ Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame on May 1, bringing the total to 165.

The 17th annual awards dinner will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Enzo’s Restaurant, 2918 Elm Road, N.E. Tickets are $30 per person and can be obtained by calling (330) 372-4758 or by downloading a reservation form from the Warren City Schools Web site at www.warrenschools.k12.oh.us by today.

For the first time, the Alumni Hall of Fame’s board of directors also will honor distinguished faculty.

The first two recipients of this award are retired Warren Western Reserve chemistry teacher Robert Larmi and Warren G. Harding Spanish teacher Harold Hetzler. The award will be made posthumously to Mr. Hetzler.

The 10 inductees into the 2010 hall of fame are:

Ovid Corsatea, who died in 2009, was a 1927 graduate of Warren G. Harding High School and 1932 graduate of Ohio State University. He was a captain in the U.S. Army’s counterintelligence service during World War II. He was president and chief executive officer of Cleveland Federal Savings and vice chairman and director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati.

Fran H. Walker Cunningham of Warren graduated from Warren G. Harding High School in June 1952. A Realtor since 1971, she is with William Zamarelli Realtors. In 1990, she started Brokers’ Realty as part-owner. During her professional career, she has received many awards: Realtor of the Year; Realtor Salesperson of the Year. In 1966, she helped organize the Warren Junior Women’s League and served as its president. She co-chaired successful levy campaigns for the Warren school district and serves on its financial advisory committee.

Donald W. Emerson Jr. of Warren graduated from Warren G. Harding High School in 1981. He was class president his freshman, sophomore and senior years and vice president of his junior class. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1985 from Miami University and his law degree from the University of Akron in 1992. He has been the executive director of the Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority since 1998. He was founder and director of YouthBuild Trumbull County.

Jim Graham of Warren emigrated from Greece with his parents through Ellis Island at age 4. After graduating from Warren G. Harding in 1965, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University in 1972. He began his career at GM Lordstown in 1968, becoming president of UAW Local 1112 in 1997. His greatest passion is to improve the image of UAW Local 1112 to the outside community.

Peter J. Kontos of Warren graduated from Warren G. Harding High School in 1972. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University in 1976. He received his law degree from Ohio State University College of Law in 1979. He began practicing in the Trumbull County prosecutor’s office in 1979 and became chief of the Criminal Division in 1986. He prosecuted many high- profile cases and argued cases in the Court of Appeals and Ohio Supreme Court. He was chosen the Ohio Prosecutors Association’s “Assistant Prosecutor of the Year” in 1996. Since 1997, he has been a Trumbull County common pleas court judge.

Melinda W. Mettler of San Francisco is a 1975 graduate of Warren G. Harding High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and began her career as an art director at the advertising agency Young and Rubicam in New York. While still in her 20s, she won a prestigious Cannes Lion Award for a Jell-O television commercial featuring Bill Cosby.

Anthony J. Montecalvo of Dayton is a lieutenant colonel who graduated from Warren Western Reserve High School in 1980, where he was a yearbook photographer and member of the National Honor Society and track team. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University in 1984, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and has been a military pilot for the past 26 years. He was the top graduate of his Air Force Pilot Training class in 1985.

The Rev. Dr. Neal E. Pearson of Woburn, Mass., graduated from Warren Western Reserve High School in 1972. He graduated from Kent State University in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree. He moved to Massachusetts to work for Digital Equipment Corporation in January 1983. He is a graduate of the Center for Urban Ministerial Education and of Gordon- Conwell Theological Seminary. He received his master of arts in urban ministry in 1996 and his doctor of ministry in 2005 from Gordon-Conwell. He is pastor of the historic St. John’s Baptist Church in Woburn.

David L. Rogers of Shaker Heights graduated from Warren G. Harding High School in 1952. He attended several universities and was a member of the Third Infantry Division’s baseball and football teams. He served two years in the U.S. Army and was captain of the football team and was selected as a member of the 1956 All-Army Team. He was employed by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections for 32 years, serving as deputy chief. He is retired.

Norton A. Stuart Jr. of Dallas graduated from Warren G. Harding High School in 1953 as class valedictorian. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1957. He did graduate work at the University of Georgia as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and served as supply officer on a destroyer in the Pacific. His business career started with IBM and primarily involved marketing business- information systems to several industrial markets, finally specializing in ATMs, fuel dispensing, and check- and credit-card processing. He is retired and was ex-president and director of BancTec Inc., a supplier of banking-information systems.