{"id":50994,"date":"2025-12-03T12:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/50994\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T12:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:21:19","slug":"alumni-class-notes-december-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/50994\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Class Notes, December 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s new with you? To submit a Class Note, visit the\u00a0Class Notes Submission Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Lyons \u201964\u00a0and Connie Ruscik Lyons, Marywood \u201962, recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a party at their home in Jenkintown. The couple was married on October 16,1965, at Sacred Heart Church, Scranton, by Rev. John Albosta. They have two children: John Scott, retired from the FDNY, and Kimberly Ann, of Boise, Idaho, as well as one granddaughter, Kaia, of New York City.<\/p>\n

A group of Scranton alumni continued their annual tradition of gathering for a mini reunion in Cape May, New Jersey, enjoying several days of dinner, drinks and music. The special friends who reunited in October 2025 were Gary Beilman \u201976, Andrea (Rygiel) Beilman \u201976, Roe (Bunting) Murphy \u201976, Jim Helhowski \u201976, Rose (Lally) Doyle \u201976, Donna (Lange) Helhowski \u201976, John O\u2019Boyle \u201974, Lucy (Burke) O\u2019Boyle \u201976 and Wayne Wilhelm \u201976.<\/p>\n

Ed Burnetta, M.D. ’84, Villanova, is delighted that his son, Chris Burnetta, has committed to the admissions process at Harvard as a member of the 2027 Men’s Lacrosse recruit group. He will graduate from Haverford School in 2027. Chris will be joining his three older sisters as an Ivy attendee. His oldest sister Isabelle graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013, Kristin graduated from Harvard in 2020, and the youngest sister Sabrina is a junior at Cornell.<\/p>\n

Christopher J. Kane ’86, Jupiter, Florida, startup co-founder of 3PL-RX, announced a merger with the American Chain of Warehouses, a nonprofit organization founded in 1911. American Chain provides sales and marketing strategies and services for Warehouse Logistics members across the U.S. and Canada. Christopher J. Kane will become president; his son, Zach Kane, will be vice president of Administration and Technology. American Chain is one of the oldest Warehouse organizations whose members are long-established family businesses.<\/p>\n

Richard W. Peuser ’86, G’87, Brookfield, Maryland, retired on October 31, 2025, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) after 37.5 years in public service. His final position was director of the Processing and Release Division, National Declassification Center. As branch chief of the Textual Reference Unit, he assisted thousands of researchers, both at the Washington, D.C., building and at the College Park, Maryland, facility. One of the highlights of his career was assisting the late David McCullough on his book, “1776.” \u201cIt was truly an honor and privilege working at this incredible institution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Margot Royer-Johnson \u201995, East Providence, Rhode Island, celebrated her 25th year as head coach of the NCAA Division I Providence College volleyball program in August.<\/p>\n

Christine Royce, Ed.D. G\u201995, Newburg, is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to teach and study in Cairo, Egypt, for the spring 2026 semester while on sabbatical from Shippensburg University. As part of this Fulbright, Royce will be teaching at Ain Shams University in Cairo, where her focus will be on the preparation of teachers, specifically in the STEM areas.<\/p>\n

Joseph D. Ward ’95, Coral Gables, Florida, has been named president and chief operating officer at Quirch Foods.<\/p>\n

Glynnis Jones, OTD, OTR\/L ’02, G’03, Albrightsville, recently authored a peer-reviewed publication in\u00a0The American Journal of Occupational Therapy:\u00a0Jones, G., Helsley, S., Fox, R., Tumminello, A., Grasso, A., Potter, A., Wynarczuk, K., Reinson, C. (2025) titled “Parent Perspectives: Menstruation and Menstrual Hygiene Management for Autistic Daughters.”<\/p>\n

John P. Gray ’00, Ewing, New Jersey, has joined the firm Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP as a partner in the Environmental and Energy and Renewable Resources practice areas.<\/p>\n

Nicole E. Negowetti \u201902, Melrose, Massachusetts, published a new book, “Feeding the Future,” which offers a radical reframing of the global food system to address injustices and existential threats.<\/p>\n

Five Scranton graduates proudly serve as board or committee members at Lincroft Elementary School in Lincroft, New Jersey: Alexandra (Parlamas) Russomanno \u201911, G\u201912; Lauren (Zumbo) Netksa \u201902; Lindsey (Pachuta) Miceli \u201908; Danielle (Attanasio) Lemish \u201905; and Annemarie (Craft) Champagne \u201906, G\u201907.<\/p>\n

Katelyn Mertz ’12, Harrisburg,\u00a0graduated with her MSN in May 2022 and her MBA in December 2024 from Pennsylvania Western University and will start her DNP in the summer of 2026. Mertz recently presented nationally at the International Magnet and Magnet Pathway Conference in October 2025 and will present at the Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN) Global Surgical Conference and Expo in April 2026 on her work \u201cSafety Coach Simulation Training: Empowering Nurses to Speak Up in the Operating Room.\u201d Mertz has been the manager of Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center\u2019s 39 Level 1 operating rooms since 2022.<\/p>\n

Will Craven ’19, Scranton, has joined Moses Taylor Foundation, a private foundation with a mission to improve the health of people in Northeastern Pennsylvania, as its operations and grants officer. In this role, he will support the Foundation\u2019s grant management system, lead internal operations, and coordinate organizational initiatives and events.<\/p>\n

MARRIAGES<\/p>\n

Jaclyn Potapchuk ’05 to James D. Vaughan ’09<\/p>\n

William D. Orasin \u201909 to Brittany Strausser<\/p>\n

Brenna Anderson \u201915 to Francis Degnan \u201916 <\/p>\n

Allison Smith ’16, G’18\u00a0to Evan DeGraw<\/p>\n

Jessica Nickel ’16, G’17 to Mitchell Prescott<\/p>\n

BIRTHS<\/p>\n

A daughter, Maisy Lane, to Matt and Erin Fetsko Johnson ’16, Syracuse, New York, and a granddaughter of\u00a0Frank Fetsko \u201886<\/p>\n

DEATHS<\/p>\n

James P. McDonnell Jr. ’52, Scranton<\/p>\n

Vincent J. Mondelli ’61, Endicott, New York<\/p>\n

Richard J. Flynn, M.D. ’63 Bradenton, Florida<\/p>\n

Michael J. Mitchko ’63, Bluffton, South Carolina<\/p>\n

Roman S. Misorek ’67, Duryea\u2002<\/p>\n

Joseph V. Grega ’69, Opelika, Alabama<\/p>\n

Hon. David J. Wenzel ’69, Scranton<\/p>\n

Yamini C. Desai ’72, Bloomfield, Connecticut<\/p>\n

Gardner W. Smith ’74, Mechanicsburg<\/p>\n

Arnold L. Ligi, Jr. ’78, Dayton Beach, Florida<\/p>\n

Linda S. Mainwaring G’79, Mountaintop<\/p>\n

Susan Brown Otto ’79, Bethel, New York<\/p>\n

Nadia C. Burns ’81, Norfolk, Virginia<\/p>\n

Martin J. Barrett G’85, Hollisterville<\/p>\n

William H. McDonald ’90, Springville, New York\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lauren R. Propst ’05, Honesdale<\/p>\n

Jennifer L. Murphy ’09, Floral Park, New York<\/p>\n

FRIENDS\/FAMILY DEATHS <\/p>\n

Harrison O. Bush Jr., father of Peter Bush ’79<\/p>\n

Jennifer Quattrocchi, wife of Joseph Quattrocchi \u201902<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What’s new with you? To submit a Class Note, visit the\u00a0Class Notes Submission Page. John Lyons \u201964\u00a0and Connie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179,274],"class_list":["post-50994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-the-university-of-scranton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}