Clarion University Alumni association to present awards

Staff report

CLARION, PA.

The Clarion University Alumni Association will honor five alumni and one faculty member at its Distinguished Awards Banquet on Oct. 5.

The event will take place in the Gemmell Multipurpose Room at the campus.

The association established the awards in 1966 to recognize exceptional alumni and friends of Clarion University in the categories of Distinguished Alumni, Distinguished Venango Alumni, Distinguished Faculty and Distinguished Service.

The honorees are Mark S. Andrekovich (’84), Charles F. Klingensmith (’61) and Ronald J. Sylvester (’85), Distinguished Alumni; Thomas N. Cole (’86, ’88), Distinguished Venango Alumni; Dr. Susan C. Prezzano, Distinguished Faculty; and Terri “Tiki” Kahle (’87), Distinguished Service.

Andrekovich, chief of human capital and president of employer services for MIXIMUS Inc. in Reston, Va., was a four-year letterman on two championship football teams (1980 and 1983), president of Sigma Tau fraternity and an active participant in student government. He has held various leadership positions with companies such as Owens-Illinois, General Electric, Nordson Corp. and Cytec-Solvay and is recognized as one of the nation’s top human-resource professionals. He has served on the university’s College of Business Administration and Information Sciences Advisory Council for the past three decades. He and his wife, Mari (Pietila, ’87) live in northern Virinia.

A retired faculty member of Penn State – New Kensington, Klingensmith was an alumni office student assistant, Press Club president, editor of The Clarion Call, staff member of the Sequelle (yearbook), vice president of his senior class and a member of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity. He taught for 30 years at Miami-Dade Community College where he was associate dean of extended education services and of academic support services. In 1996, Klingensmith moved to Bangkok, Thailand, where he directed bilingual education and developed bilingual curriculum for Sarasas Pithaya School. At Clarion, he has been involved with the Class of 1961 endowment. He lives in Verona, Pa.

Sylvester is president and owner of RS/tv Inc. He began his career in New York City and worked in public relations for seven years before moving to Los Angeles, where he has held various senior-level positions with production companies and public-relations firms. He started RS/tv Inc. in 2004 and services his client base with broadcast publicity campaigns, corporate video, commercials and online content. He lives in Long Beach, Calif., where he was president and chairman of the board of the LGBTQ Center of Long Beach from 2009-16.

Cole has worked for 20 years for Nike Inc. where he is program director. Upon graduating from Clarion, he worked for Quaker State Corp.’s internal audit department, then in the internal audit departments for Whirlpool and Anheuser-Busch. He conducted business abroad, living and working in 15 countries. He is active with the CU Mentor program, and he and his wife, Donna, live in Oregon.

Prezzano has taught anthropology at Clarion since 1995. In 1997, she began a partnership with the Heritage Program at the Allegheny National Forest, overseeing many field schools that train undergraduates in excavation and data-recording techniques. She is co-director of Clarion’s undergraduate and graduate research and is an avid gardener and amateur astronomer. She and her husband, John Miller, live in Clarion.

Kahle’s 30-plus years of volunteering began at the university when she joined Alpha Sigma Tau sorority and became involved with its volunteer initiatives. She served on the Keytone Area School District board of directors for 16 years and led Clarion County Career Center’s School to Work initiative. She has been on the board of Keystone Smiles since 1994 and founded the Mrs. Claus Club, a nonprofit that provides outreach to cancer patients in the county. Kahle served on the alumni association’s board of directors from 2009-17 and continues to volunteer at alumni events. She has worked for her family tractor sales business since graduating and lives in Knox, Pa.