Inductees with diverse backgrounds join Hall
Leaders in education, religion, law honored by SWMHS committee
BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer

The 2008 inductees into the Sayreville War Memorial High School Hall of Fame are (from left) Kevin Ciak, Kenneth Kelly, Lori Albanese, Homer Dill and Eugene Harkins.

SAYREVILLE - The walls of Sayreville War Memorial High School are adorned with new plaques honoring the five new inductees into the school's Hall of Fame.

The accomplishments that those plaques represent, according to Hall of Fame committee member Elaine Kubacz, should inspire students to strive for similar success in their adult lives.

The five alumni welcomed into the Hall on April 26 are Lori Brower Albanese, a chancellor with the Diocese of Metuchen; Kevin E. Ciak, a longtime Board of Education member and leader with the state school boards association; Homer Dill, a former principal of the high school and war veteran; Eugene Harkins, a multilingual international attorney; and Kenneth P. Kelly, a veteran and retiring detective with the Sayreville Police Department.

Barbara Anderson of the Hall committee said this year's inductees have gone on to achieve admirable goals.

"The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to recognize people who have made outstanding contributions after high school graduation," Anderson added. "Sayreville high school helped them on the road to success later on."

Some 230 people attended the induction banquet at VFW hall on Jernee Mill Road.

"This year we had our largest crowd," Kubacz said.

The committee, she noted, tried something new this year, awarding scholarships to two high school seniors selected by faculty members and the guidance department. The committee also decided to give a special award to an individual who did not graduate from the high school, but made an outstanding contribution to the district. That honor went to Dr. Marie Parnell.

"She did so many wonderful things in the high school and for the school district, the committee itself gave her a special award," Kubacz said.

Parnell worked in the district for over 30 years, starting out as an English teacher, and going on to become a high school principal and eventually superintendent of schools.

"We felt she was most deserving of the first award," Kubacz said.

Parnell worked to have the high school complete its first addition, including the library and media center that now bears her name.

Ciak also commended Parnell for her service to the district, saying she participated in the American Legion Jersey Boys State program in his junior year, when Parnell wrote him a letter. She wrote that the program inspired many young people to find direction, Ciak said, adding that the program inspired his own interest in government service.

"I found a new direction," Ciak said. "That was what happened to me as a result of my attendance in the program."

Ciak is a lifelong borough resident who graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and he now works for General Electric. He was elected to the school board at the age of 19, while he was in college, and has served as board president for six of his 14 years on the board.

Ciak was elected president of the New Jersey School Boards Association in 2006 and will remain a member of the executive committee when his term expires this year. He told Greater Media Newspapers that being recognized by his alma mater was an honor, and said the other honorees made great contributions to the community.

"The event was great," Ciak said. "I am really thankful to the committee for selecting me and to [Board President] Mike Macagnone, who is the person who nominated me to the Hall of Fame."

Albanese, who now lives in Raritan, expressed appreciation to the committee, and thanked her teachers, many of whom attended the banquet.

"I was so honored by their presence," Albanese said. "Even my elementary school teachers came."

A chancellor employed by the Diocese of Metuchen, Albanese works in the Saint John Neumann Pastoral Center in Piscataway, where she assists the bishop with matters regarding canonical law, which is the internal law of the Roman Catholic Church.

"What I do covers a lot of territory," she said.

Albanese said she has felt strongly about faith since her youth, but she chose this work as an occupation when she changed her area of study from physics to religion at Boston University. She went on to study at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., and she is now the first woman appointed as a lay judge to the tribunal court, which handles marriage annulments. She is also one of only two female lay chancellors in the state.

"I'm in the minority," she said.

Albanese said that reflecting on her time in the Sayreville school district was a pleasure, and that her education went beyond the curriculum taught in the classroom.

"It really was a beautiful night," she said. "It was well attended and really touching, because it was a nice time to reflect back on my time at Sayreville high, but also to reconnect with some of my teachers."

"The teachers I had in the Sayreville school system gave me an excellent education," Albanese added. "I don't want to downplay that. They shaped my character, but they also taught a lot more beyond text book learning."

Fellow honoree Homer Dill echoed those sentiments, saying he was grateful for the recognition.

"It was really a very nice social evening," Dill said. "… It was also nice to see these people who had been friends of mine and the other recipients."

Dill served in a Navy PT squadron for two years during World War II, when he saw combat in the Philippines. He would later become the first full-time physical education teacher in the school district, working for 34 years as a teacher, coach and later a principal at the high school. He also organized and supervised wrestling and gymnastics clubs.

Dill noted that he taught at elementary schools that have since been demolished. He would go on to work at the former high school on Dane Street before the current one was built on Washington Road. He coached three high school sports program, and became head football coach in 1957.

"It's been a good school district to me," Dill said.

Harkins, who graduated from Rutgers University and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. He edited the Rutgers Law Review and in 1970 wrote an article on the right to an interpreter. He is also the author of "Where Witch Birds Fly," a novel about the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Now a resident of New York City, Harkins joined the Air Force and was sent to Morocco after he graduated from Sayreville War Memorial High School.

"For a young kid right out of high school, that seriously puts you in the mood for anything multicultural."

Harkins said that when he returned to the U.S. from his service in the Air Force, he fully committed himself to study in order to gain admittance to Rutgers. He later earned a scholarship for the Rutgers School of Law in Newark. His interest in culture inspired him to go to 65 countries, including every Latin American country except Cuba. He also studied Latin American civilization at Rutgers.

Harkins said he was surprised to be selected as one of the inductees since his academic performance in high school was lacking. He added that the banquet went well.

"I thought it was fabulous," Harkins said. "It was a big surprise for me, because I was never expecting to be nominated and inducted. I was a very mediocre student back then."

Harkins was not the only inductee who was surprised to be chosen.

Kenneth Kelly told Greater Media Newspapers that he was not anticipating the honor.

Kelly served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and went on to become an All American Post Commander with the VFW Post 4699 in Sayreville. He also worked as a volunteer towards the completion of several projects in the borough, including the Sept. 11 memorial on Washington Road.

Kelly, now retiring from the police force and running for Borough Council, expressed gratitude to the committee.

"I was surprised to have been nominated and I am truly honored," Kelly said. "I received many honors and awards in my lifetime and this is right near the top."