Laurel Highlands to induct six into hall of fame
The sixth class of the Laurel Highlands Life Achievement Hall of Fame will be inducted in a ceremony to recognize six distinguished graduates of Laurel Highlands School District.
The hall of fame program, sponsored by the Laurel Highlands Academic Foundation, was established in 2012 to honor outstanding achievers from the Laurel Highlands School District and the former North Union and South Union school districts.
The induction ceremony for the new hall of fame class will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Uniontown Park Inn by Radisson.
The following individuals will be inducted:
n Dr. William Bolosky (Laurel Highlands, 1983) was instrumental in several technological breakthroughs in the computer science and medical fields. Bolosky was a founding member of the seminal Mach operating system project, which became the basis for Apple’s MacOS and iOS. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Rochester before joining the Microsoft Research Lab in Redmond, Washington, in 1992, where he worked on the Tiger Video Fileserver and led the development of the Windows Single-Instance Store. In recent years, he has switched his focus to bioinformatics and cancer research, working on the BeatAML project in an effort to use combinations of non-chemo drugs to successfully treat Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
n Debra K. Brede (Laurel Highlands, 1973) delivers investment management services to corporations, municipalities, retirement plan and charitable trusts, and high-net-worth individuals through her firm, the D.K. Brede Investment Management Company, which she founded in the Boston area in 1989. Brede is a frequent media commentator on investment-related topics and is recognizable to CNBC and Fox Business news viewers. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Businessweek, Financial Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. Last year, Brede was named one of Forbes magazine’s Top Wealth Advisors for 2016, and she is consistently listed on Barron’s Top 100 Women Financial Advisors in the U.S.
n Dr. Holly Filcheck (Laurel Highlands, 1993) is the director of psychology at Capstone Behavioral Health, a mental health agency she founded in Omaha, Nebraska in 2006 that employs 80 psychologists, mental health therapists and community service workers in three cities in Nebraska to provide mental health services to families throughout the state. Filcheck has extensive experience in the assessment and treatment of disruptive behavioral disorders, autism spectrum disorders and juvenile delinquency in a variety of settings including correctional facilities, schools, medical centers and community mental health agencies. She holds a Ph.D. in child clinical psychology from West Virginia University.
n Daniel “Gus” Gerard (Laurel Highlands, 1971) dominated the basketball court en route to scoring 1,168 points for the Mustangs before playing his collegiate career at the University of Virginia. Gerard turned professional following his junior year, joining the Spirits of St. Louis in the American Basketball Association and being named to the ABA all-rookie team. He went on to play a total of 446 games for six different professional teams in the ABA and NBA over seven seasons, scoring 3,765 points. After retiring from basketball, Gerard became a licensed chemical dependency counselor to help people whose lives are disrupted by drugs. He returned to Uniontown in 2013 to help establish Genesis House to treat substance abuse.
n Richard Puskar (Laurel Highlands, 1983) began his career in sales and marketing at IBM in 1987 before joining the sales department at Siemens in 1994. In his 20-year career at Siemens, Puskar held international executive positions in a senior vice president capacity. Over a five-year period, he led teams in 120 countries while taking Siemens into new markets, assisting with mergers and acquisitions, and setting the long-term strategy for their products. He currently serves as senior vice president for global solutions at multinational corporation Schneider Electric, where he is responsible for leading the $4.9-billion division in all aspects of marketing.
n Harold “Horse” Taylor (North Union, 1936) coached the Mustangs boys’ basketball team to seven section titles, one WPIAL title and a 1968 state Class A championship during a 16-year career at Laurel Highlands, compiling a record of 320-129 in the process. Taylor began his career at his alma mater in 1961 as an assistant coach before being named to the head coach position in 1963. After the merger of North Union and South Union, he was named the first head coach at Laurel Highlands in 1966. He was named Dapper Dan High School Coach of the Year 1968.
The public is invited to attend the banquet. For ticket information, call Maria Manages at 724-562-7399.