The Tyrone Area School District will honor five graduates the weekend of Septermber 27th and 28th.
The first class of the Distinguished Alumni of Tyrone High School consists of Dr. Timothy O’Rourke, Dr. Mark Mooseker, Dr. Joseph Fink, Honorable Judge D. Brooks Smith and Dr. Nick Leasure.
These five men used their education at Tyrone High School as a springboard to great things in life.
“The selection committee did a fantastic job in selecting our first class,” said Dr. William Miller, Superintendent of Tyrone Schools. “All five individuals are successful in their careers and give back to their community. They all bring great honor to the Tyrone School District.
The idea of honoring Distinguished Alumni came from a trip Dr. Miller made to a school near Harrisburg.
“I was at a conference and was walking down the halls and saw how the school honored distinguished alumni,” said Miller. “We sat down, organized a committee and got the ball rolling. I am thankful to the School Board for planting the seed money to honor these individuals.”
There are four doctors and a Federal appeals judge who will be honored at halftime of the Tyrone-Bald Eagle Area football game.
Dr. Joseph L. Fink III
TAHS Class of 1965
Dr. Fink is Vice President for Corporate Relations and Economic Outreach and Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Kentucky. He is also Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, Professor of Health Administration, and Professor of Public Health at the University. In addition, Dr. Fink is a Professor in the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, a unit he served as Acting Director during 1998. Finally, he also holds appointments as a Faculty Associate with the UK Center for Health Services Management and Research as well as a Faculty Associate with the Multidisciplinary Research Center on Drug and Alcohol Abuse. He has served as Special Academic Affairs at UK from 1988 to 1996. He was Assistant Dean of the UK College of Pharmacy from 1981 to 1988.
Dr. Fink has obtained a challenging and diverse formal education with degrees in both law and pharmacy. He received a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy & Science, Philadelphia, PA, in 1970 and a Doctor of Law degree from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. in 1973. He is licensed to practice law in Kentucky and Pennsylvania as well as before the United States Supreme Court. He is trained in both general mediation and health care mediation.
Dr. Fink holds membership in a number of professional organizations in both pharmacy and law, including the American Pharmaceutical Association and the American Bar Association. Dr. Fink has chaired the committee for the latest revision of the APhA Code of Ethics for Pharmacists and currently serves the Association as Parliamentarian for the House of Delegates. He was founder and first president of the Amedcan Society for Pharmacy Law, and while a pharmacy student, he was National President of the Student American Pharmaceutical Association. The Kentucky Pharmacists Association recognized him as “Pharmacist-of-the-Year for 1988 and conferred on him the Distinguished Service Award in 2002.
His scholarly works include over 250 publications in the fields of law pertaining to pharmacy, pharmacists and pharmaceuticals, food and drug law, and health care law. He is an Editor of Pharmacy Law Digest, the most widely used pharmacy law text and reference in the United States.
Dr. Timothy O’Rourke
TAHS Class of 1967
Dr. O’Rourke and his wife Judy (White) ’67 reside in Salisbury, MD, where he recently assumed the position of Dean of the Fulton School of Liberal Arts at Salisbury University. The O’Rourkes have five grown children and one grandchild.
Over the course of an academic career spanning more than 25 years, Dr. O’Rourke has been a teacher, scholar and public servant who has led pioneering efforts designed to bring campus and community together and to promote greater citizen engagement in the political process. From 1995 to 2002, Dr. O’Rourke was the Teresa M. Fisher Professor of Citizenship Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He directed Kids Voting Missouri, a program in which nearly 68,000 Missouri elementary and secondary students went to official polling sites and voted alongside their parents in the 2000 presidential election.
Dr. O’Rourke was a professor and head of Political Science at Clemson University from 1992 to 1995. Prior to that, he was a faculty member in the University of Virginia’s Center for Public Service. From 1985 to 1992 he served as the Executive Director of the Virginia Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution. Commission projects included the national opening of Montpelier, Madison’s home (119987); the “Constitution Train” to Philadelphia (1987); production of Worth Fighting For, an Emmy-Award-winning documentary on the ratification struggle in Virginia (1988); the celebration of the 200’hanniversary of the first federal elections (1989); and production of What No Just Govemment Should Refuse, an Emmy-nominated documentary on the writing of the Bill of Rights (1991). From 1983 to 1986, Dr. O’Rourke coordinated “The Virginia Court Days Forums,” a Virginia public television series featuring town meetings on constitutional issues.
Professor O’Rourke is the co-author of State and Local Government The Third Century of Federalism (1988) and author of The Impact of Reapportionment (11980), named by CHOICE as one of the Outstanding Academic Books of 1980 among a number of other publications. He has testified before both U.S. House and Senate committees on various voting issues and has served as an expert witness in voting rights litigation. A 1970 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. O’Rourke holds a Ph. D. in Political Science from Duke University (1977).
Dr. Mark S. Mooseker
TAHS Class of 1967
A professor of Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology and of Cell Biology and Pathology at Yale University, Dr. Mark S. Mooseker’67, is known around the world for his research on the molecular basis of cellular movements. One of his most important contributions to science has been to discover and characterize a number of molecular motors called myosins. He and his colleagues have shown that defects in some of these myosin motors contribute to hereditary diseases such as blindness and deafness.
Dr. Mooseker graduated cum laude, with distinction in Biology, in 1971 from the University of Pennsylvania, then in 1976 received his Ph.D. from the same university. Professor Mooseker holds joint appointment in the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Cell Biology and the Department of Pathology. In 1997, he was honored with the named, Ross Granville Harrison Professor, endowed chair. Some other distinctions Professor Mooseker has received are the R.R. Bensley Award by American Association of Anatomists (11983), an Elected Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science(1991), and the NIH MERIT award in 1996.
Professor Mooseker serves as an Editorial Board Member for The Joumal of Cell Biology, Ceff Motility and the Cytoskeleton, Joumal of Experimental Zoology, Current Opinion in Cei/ Biology, Cel/Structure and Function, and the Journal of Histochemistry and Cylochernistry. He is a member of the American Society for Cell Biology and has served on advisory boards and panels of government and private funding agencies, providing expertise on science policy. Dr. Mooseker has been an invited symposium speaker at various international meetings in France, Austria, Germany, Canada, and Japan. In addition to speaking, he has authored more than 150 publications.
Throughout his time, as a world-renowned research scientist, Dr. Mooseker has maintained an important commitment to teaching. He has trained twelve Ph.D. students and twenty-one postdoctoral fellows and currently has five students and three postdoctorates in his laboratory. A testimony to his training abilities is that a large number of his Ph.D. and postdoctoral students are now tenured at research universities around the country.
Dr. Mooseker is married and resides in Hamden, CT, with his wife and two children.
The Honorable Judge D. Brooks Smith
TAHS Class of 1969,
Judge Smith was confirmed by the United States Senate to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on July 31, 2002.
Judge Smith received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Franklin and Marshall College in 1973, and he took his Juris Doctor from the Dickinson School of Law in 1976. He began his legal career in Altoona, Pennsylvania, as an associate with the firm of Jubilirer, Carothers, Krier, Halpern & Smith, where he later became managing partner. From 1983 to 1984, he served as Blair County District Attorney. In December 1984, Governor Richard Thombaugh appointed Judge Smith to the Court of Common Pleas of Blair County. Judge Smith was then elected to that position in 1985, and in 1987 he became Administrative Judge of the Court.
In October, 1988, President Ronald Reagan nominated Judge Smith to the United States District Court to the Western District of Pennsylvania. At the time he took office, Judge Smith was one of the youngest judges on the federal bench. In Februart, 2001, he became Chief Judge of the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Judge Smith is a member of the American Law Institute, the Federal Judges Association, and the American Judicature Society. He served on the Criminal Rules Advisory Committee of the United States Judicial Conference from 1993 to 1999. Currently, Judge Smith is assisting in efforts to enhance the rule of law in the judicial systems of Central and Eastern Europe. Towards that end, he has traveled to Russia with the American Bar Association’s Central and Eastern European Legal Initiative. He has also traveled to Bulgaria with the Judicial Development Project of the United States Agency for International Development.
In addition to his judicial activities, Judge Smith has served the Blair County area in a variety of community organizations, including the Salvation Army, the Blari County Legal Services Corporations, and Family and Children’s Service of Blair County.
Judge Smith and his wife, Karen, reside in Altoona, PA.
Dr. Nick C. Leasure
TAHS Class of 1975
Dr. Leasure is known as a dedicated family man, a compassionate physician, a gentleman, and a friend. Dr. Leasure attended Saint Francis University and graduated magna cum laude in 1979 with a degree in Biology. He was nominated by the ECAC as an “Academic All-American” and was also a regional finalist for the coveted Rhodes Scholarship. From 1983-1989, Dr. Leasure attended and graduated with honors, from Hahnemann University Medical School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he received many awards including “Intem of the Year” recognition. He then pursued research study in the field of bone marrow transplantation. Upon completion of his fellowship, Dr. Leasure joined the Berks Oncology/Hematology Associates in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Leasure has served on a number of committees at the Reading Hospital and Medical Center including the credentials committee, the cancer committee, and the quality assurance committee, furthermore he has been a valuable aid to the Chief of the Internal Medicine Department in the selection and training of the interns and residents program. In addition, he is active in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast Project.
Dr. Leasure is an excellent role model to students as he successfully managed an athletic career while achieving his academic pursuits. His athletic accomplishments are well known within the Tyrone community. Dr. Leasure also volunteers his fime to teach and coach youth basketball.
He has returned to Tyrone on numerous occasions to lend his support to community projects, by speaking at various school and civic functions. Dr. Leasure, his wife, Veronica, and their three children currently live in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
